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Discovering Castelmagno: One of My Most Memorable Trips
One of the most memorable trips my wife, Valerie, and I have taken in pursuit of new cheeses was in 1993. We traveled to Castelmagno, home to the famous Italian cheese of the same name. Located on the very northwest fringes of Italy, Castelmagno is a small commune or municipality, consisting of several hamlets. We were invited to visit the region by our friend and mentor, Matteo Ascheri. The hamlet we visited had only one albergo (inn) and a total population of 56. Eleven of those inhabitants made Castelmagno.
Matteo, a Piedmontese food and wine authority, is a winemaker and knew everyone in town. On our first day, he organized a lunch for us with several local food producers, including a fellow who crafted hard candies and exotic elixirs. We all ended up having the most amazing lunch in the local albergo's lunch room. For our first course, we were served lake trout cured in vinegar with mountain bread. The bread was made with flour from our friends at Mulino Marino and ice cold water from a nearby brook. In that one course, we enjoyed flavors and textures we had never experienced before – and it wasn't even the highlight of the meal.
The trout and bread was followed by the dish of my dreams: Gnocchi al Castelmagno. The air light gnocchi was served with shavings of Castelmagno on top that melted as the dish was brought to the table. This was paired with Matteo's Pelaverga wine and was truly a one-of-a-kind introduction to Piedmont cuisine. I have since tried to recreate the dish at home with acceptable success – unfortunately, it's a little more challenging to simulate the stunning mountain top setting and the table surrounded by our Italian friends.
After this most memorable lunch, we visited the cheese cellar (or cave) of the albergo. Five of the town's Castelmagno-makers use the inn's cave, aging their cheeses on shelves made of fir or spruce. The owner of the albergo, also a friend of Matteo's, plugged several wheels of Castelmagno for us to taste – wheels of varying ages made by different cheesemakers. We were surprised to find such nuances of flavor, starting with very delicate notes in the younger cheeses and ranging to sharper and slightly blue-like notes in the more aged wheels. On top of this, Castelmagno has the most unusual texture that I have ever encountered in a cheese – slightly granular and almost sandy.
In this rustic setting, Matteo shared several colorful stories about the townspeople. One story dealt with the extreme competitiveness that surrounds their cheesemaking, something that is further aggravated by a shortage of stagionaturas (cheese agers) in town. Another story was told of a priest who had been run out of town – images of him with devil's horns were graffitied on the church walls. The only churchman for miles, he left behind an empty but picturesque church – Santuario di San Magno – that is still perched high in the mountains, overlooking stunning valleys that lead into France. It has since been scrubbed clean of the graffiti.
Needless to say, after all we had tasted and heard, we began importing limited quantities of Castelmagno immediately upon our return to the States. We have been buying it ever since.
Ihsan Gurdal is the owner of Formaggio Kitchen Cambridge.


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Pictured: Nicholas Maury with Carmen Maura
French farce can sometimes be too much for American audiences. But in Mikael Buch's debut film, Let My People Go, we see how it can also work wonders. Buch's satire quotes familiar elements of other directors—think John Waters and Pedro Almodovar—to create a feel-good movie with a camp twist. Basically we see Reuben (Nicholas Maury), a gay Jewish Frenchman living in idyllic suburban Finland as a mailman (although he majored in "comparitive sauna studies" in college) with his gorgeous Nordic boyfriend. That is until a series of events cause him to flee back to his overbearing family in Paris, including his mother played by the iconic Carmen Maura (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, All About My Mother) and Truffaut regular Jean-François Stévenin as his father.
The hijinks continue to mount in a series of hilarious scenes until it reaches ludicrous proportions. Buch was also lucky enough to work with Christophe Honoré on the screenplay (read out interview with the writer-director about his last film, Beloved). Let My People Go opened last weekend at the Quad Cinema in New York City (and opens January 18 in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Royal and Town Center) but we caught up with Buch to discuss why he decided to make such a funny film with a feel-good message.
Why a French Jewish gay mailman living in Finland: where did that come from?
Well, the starting point of the film was the idea of this gay Jewish farcical character after some years in another country. We really wanted to talk about a character who has created an ideal life far from his family and be really integrated in an ideal world. The fact that he was a mailman was a way of showing that he was integrated in a perfect landscape. The starting point was this opposition of this guy who feels a stranger in his own country and is completely integrated in a foreign country.
So is Finland considered so ideal to Frenchmen?
When we started writing the film, neither Christophe nor I had ever been to Finland. At first I was worried about that but he said to me: It's not about talking about the real Finland, but about an ideal place that would be an ideal world for Reuben. We invented an ideal Finland and then went to film there. But it was really funny for the Finnish people because we were inventing our own Finland.
In some ways it looks like an ideal suburban American setting with its candy-colored perfect.
Yeah, that was what I wanted. I had the idea of the image of the suburbs in Edward Scissorhands. I really wanted that neighborhood. so I sent the images to the location scout in Finland and the poor woman went mad searching for this neighborhood for six months until she found it.
Wow, so it does exist. Is it in Helsinki or somewhere near it?
Yeah it's in the suburbs of Helsinki.
You mentioned Edward Scissorhands, but other than Tim Burton, is John Waters also a reference in this film?
This kind of filmmaking, Almodovar of course, filmmakers that redefine what good and bad taste mean and normality is supposed to be. I'm always interested by this kind of filmmakers.
It's difficult sometimes for American audiences to understand this. We want our French films to be very French, dramatic and serious. When the comedies come, like Le Placard (The Closet) or Dinner of Fools (Le Dîner de Cons) these are sometimes confusing because they're not what they expect a French film should be. Yours gets beyond that in some way, and I wondered if you think that's because it has a gay or camp sensibility?
Yes, I think that's part of it. It has a sort of humor that is not only a French humor but a gay humor, a Jewish humor. So I think that these are things that can be understood in France and in the USA. I've grown up in Spain, my father's from Argentina, my mother's from Morocco. So I don't feel so especially French. I think the film is obviously French because we made it in France with French actors and I'm influenced by French cinema, but I think it has more of an international feel.
So what is the relationship between you and Christophe Honore? Had you worked on anything before this film?
Yes, well, I went to the National Film School in France and when you do your final study project, you have to choose a kind of mentor, so I asked him and we met that way. Ever since we had a very strong connection, and I worked on his films. So when it came time to write my first feature, it made sense to ask him because he knew me the best and the kind of the cinema I was going for.
It was a film I had in mind for a long time, so I sat down and wrote for 10 days non-stop and he knows me really well, so he knew—maybe better than myself—the way of making the film I wanted to make. I think that's what a good screenwriter is supposed to do.
You're pretty young, you're 29, when do you turn 30?
In July.
So you're a young guy, how do you get Carmen Maura to act in your first film?
It's pretty simple: You send the screenplay to the agent, and you just pray that they call back. And one day the phone rings when you're having dinner, and they say, "Hello, it's Carmen Maura," and you're ready to collapse. You know, I've been really lucky, the reaction to the script was really good, and I was able to have all the actors I wanted, my first choice. It's the kind of dynamic you don't really know what it creates. All the actors are important to me, so it was a kind of way of constructing my universe with actors that would bring with them a universe I love.
So much of the film hinges on your lead actor, Nicholas Maury, how was it working with him and getting him to go to these farcical levels?
Well, meeting Nicholas has been really important to me. I met him while I was still in film school. I wanted to do comedy for a long time. But the school I went to is a very prestigious film school, very serious all the New Wave directors went through it. And when I arrived in France, I wanted to do very dramatic films, so when I met Nicholas, it was really important to me because he has a very particular way of acting: farcical, modern. To me he was a modern gay Buster Keaton.
I felt like I could do a very ambitious and creative comedy with him. I did two short films with him and then he was a real inspiration when I was writing the proposal for this film.
I do feel like you're trying to have a message at the same time. You have a contemporary gay man who wants to have a perfect provincial life. And then you have an older man who comes out after his wife dies and wants to have a crazy, sexy, party life. So, have there many negative reactions to those ideas?
No I think people understand what I'm trying to do. It's all about freedom and people who are trying to find what they really want and what their desires are about. What's funny to me is to show a character like Goldberg, who can feel so liberated. He can be the president of the Jewish community and go then to a gay bar. Nothing is a problem for him; he does whatever he wants. Reuben is such a clumsy, tortured character. Everything is a problem for him.
I want to show how you reconcile the person you are supposed to be and the person you want to be.
But at the same time Reuben is very critical of his own father and his affair. So you have the son, who would typically be rejected, is now critical of the father's indiscretions.
Because everyone has an image of what they're supposed to be, the part they are supposed to play. There's a gap between those. The drama comes from the gap between these two things. They know they are not the perfect stereotype of what a Jewish mother or good Jewish father should be. A good brother, sister, or son.
The brother ends up crying because he's trying to be how people expect him to be.
Why are the Jewish stereotypes so important to you, the yenta mother for example?
I think they are an important part of life, it's how we construct our life. The Jewish ones are important because it's about family. Judaism is a lot about transmission and family connection. It's also about belonging to a community and what it means to an outer world. Reuben wants to run away from all this to be by himself. But he can't fully do that until he fully reconciles with his past and his childhood. I think it's about a person trying to put all the elements of his life together. The part of him he's chosen and the part he hasn't chosen.
You said, he feels like a foreigner in his own country. Where were you born?
I was actually born in France but I didn't live there until I was 18. I lived in Taiwan first and then in Barcelona in Spain.
So this idea of the foreigner, the immigrant, in one's own country is something I feel is often how gay people feel in their own country. They feel like an outsider looking in. What do you feel about that idea, that experience? Since you can't technically ever be a second generation or third generation gay "immigrant," who becomes acclimated to the culture, do you think that experience will ever change?
I think we might be going through a process where that is changing with all the questions of gay marriage and those kinds of things. I think of having this sense of not belong isn't always a bad thing. I think it gives you a perspective on things. Why we have had so many great gay artists in history is that: it gives you another position to look at the world. I don't see that as always a problem.
Do you think the film's message is very traditional? It's about family and relationships?
I don't think it's about go back to your family and live with them. I think it's about being whoever you want to be. nothing is impossible when you're talking about identity. You can invent a new way of being Jewish, French, gay, American or whatever. Those things don't have to be contradictory. Reuben doesn't have to choose between these identities. He can have it all.
It's very optimistic then.
Yeah, but I feel films can be, I don't want films to say how people have to live, but I want to do feel-good movies. That they can be liberating, braver, more daring to make their own choices.

subset: commoncrawl


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Amelia Luciano, the first recipient of the Don Morrison Referee Scholarship, has been in Christchurch New Zealand since early May working with the Canterbury Referee Society. You can follow her journey through her blog here. She has quite a few matches under her belt now, appears to be learning a lot, and is taking advantage of all New Zealand has to offer. To learn more about Amelia and the Don Morrison Referee Fund click here.
It is only through the support and generosity of the rugby community that programs like this can flourish. To support this program, please visit us at USA Rugby Trust.
Congratulations to Amelia Luciano, the first ever Don Morrison Referee Scholarship recipient. Amelia will spend the entire 2013 season in Christchurch, New Zealand, as a full-time member of the Canterbury Referee Association. Luciano's move to New Zealand will allow her to be completely immersed into New Zealand's culture. She will not only become a fulltime member of the Canterbury Referee Association there, but will also seek employment under the New Zealand Working Holiday Visa Program.
It is only through the support and generosity of the rugby community that programs like this can flourish. To support this program, please visit us at USA Rugby Foundation.
About Amelia:
Luciano's love of rugby began during her undergraduate college years. She served as player-coach of her Cornell team after her head coach moved on in 2008. Her achievements as a player are numerous, including two New York State Conference titles and an appearance in the Division I Northeast Rugby Union Final Four. After graduating from Cornell in 2011, she began refereeing and immediately developed a passion for officiating.
"I thought it would be challenging," she said, "but I didn't imagine that I would enjoy it as much as I did. My favorite thing about refereeing is that the referee must see the game on multiple levels in order to give both teams a fair chance and in order the ensure law application as it was intended to allow the game to flow."
Although she has to put her PhD studies at Yale on hold while she is abroad, Luciano is excited about the opportunities that await her in a new country. "New Zealand is the one country in the world that cares about rugby more than any other sport," she said. "Immersing myself in that culture and being around so many people who have a deeper understanding and love for the game than most Americans do will allow me to improve my skill set and to gain new perspective."
In order to share her experiences with the Don Morrison Scholarship, Luciano will be reporting back to American rugby audiences through weekly blog entries. To view her blog, please click here. When Luciano returns to the United States, she will participate in promotional and educational activities that will further encourage referee development and pass along the new knowledge that she will learn during her stay in New Zealand.
About the Don Morrison Referee Fund:
The Don Morrison Referee Fund (named after one of USA Rugby's most accomplished referees) was created to encourage more young people to become referees and is completely donor funded through USA Rugby Foundation. The Fund covers all costs, including travel and lodging and living expenses, for the recipient to travel to and spend an entire season refereeing in a major rugby country.
The Scholarship was created to directly reflect the primary objective of USA Rugby's Referee Department: "…to effect sustainable growth in match officials including lowering the age at which Americans are introduced to refereeing. Achieving this objective should lead to increased competition, improved match official development pathways and ultimately improve overall performance."
Twenty applicants were considered for this award. Luciano was chosen after three phases of review.
"Amelia's obvious passion for the game, coupled with a strong self-motivating nature, leapt from the pages of her application," USA Rugby Referee Department Director Ed Todd said. "We also liked her commitment to developing as a referee, and her references were very positive."
Todd believes that immersion programs like this one play a huge role in referee development and success. "Three referees have spent parts of rugby seasons with the Canterbury Referee Association in the past. Brian Zapp is now one of our top five referees, George O'Neil is a National 3 referee, and Brei Gussack is president of the Potomac Society. It requires a level of commitment to climb the ladder. Amelia will get that in New Zealand at this early stage of her career."
The Don Morrison Referee Fund is able to raise the bar and create international learning opportunities for up and coming referees like Amelia through generous contributions to USA Rugby Foundation. If you would like to support this worthwhile program, please visit USA Rugby Foundation to make a gift.


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Addressing the current strategy debate, the research questions whether strategies are sufficiently far-sighted and robust enough to cope with a fast changing operating context, whilst the report presents a clear insight into how global businesses are adopting strategies with a greater awareness of societal issues and trends.
The research reveals how resilient strategy is created through a combination of organisational processes, the corporate culture and the external engagement the company undertakes. These three factors are strongly influenced by the judgement of the senior management team. And all four elements need to take account of, and are shaped by, the context in which the business operates.
Karin Laljani, Managing Director at Corporate Citizenship thanked the companies who contributed to the research report: "We are grateful to the contributing companies for allowing us to learn from their own personal strategic challenges around disruption versus linear thinking, demands from society versus those of the shareholders, and their own experiences of what makes for success or failure."
To launch the Creating Resilient Strategies research report, Corporate Citizenship hosted a breakfast seminar in London. Representatives from 35 companies, including Tesco; Aviva, Camelot, Experian, STA Travel and Lloyds Banking Group attended the research launch, which was led by Corporate Citizenship and guest speaker Jonathan Garrett, CSR Director, Jaguar Land Rover.
The full research report is now available for download on the Corporate Citizenship website. There are three versions of the report, each one tailored to an area covered by the research – North America, South East Asia and Europe. Corporate Citizenship also hosted a webinar last week to discuss the findings of the research report; the recording of the webinar is available to watch here.
For more information please contact email@example.com


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Two experienced detectives on Friday were named "officers of the year" by Lake County, Indiana law enforcement for their tireless work in the hours after a brutal home invasion and robbery left two senior citizens dead.
Hammond police Sgt. David Carter and Capt. Ezekiel Hinojosa were assigned to the high-profile investigation last October when the bodies of Ruby and Milton McClendon -- the parents of CLTV host Gerard McClendon -- were found in a Cook County Forest Preserve.
Hammond police chief Brian Miller said he knew the kinds of pressure a "heater case" could bring.
"It's more taxing. You get more calls just on the basis of that, either from media or people trying to give tips," said Miller. "They know there is more pressure on them because of that."
The detectives are currently under a court's gag order and are unable to speak directly about the case, but they were able to talk about what it's like to bring alleged killers to justice.
"Its an exceptional feeling," said Hinojosa, a 31-year veteran of the Hammond Police Force. "After all the hard work you put into a case. We always try to find resolution for the families and the victims."
Within days of the deaths, two people were in custody. The McClendons' stolen Cadillac was abandoned on the Dan Ryan expressway, and witness descriptions of the two men walking away from the car led Hinojosa and Carter to 18-year-old Gregory Brooks and 17-year-old Rio Thompson.
"These guys worked for 33 straight hours, Miller said. "They worked leads, were able to follow up on those leads and within three days we had the suspects in custody. You can't ask for better than that."
Speaking in Hobart, Ind., on Friday, Carter chose his words carefully but said he is proud of the work his team did.
"Anytime you get recognized for you hard work, it feels rewarding," he said.
Jury selection for Brooks will begin April 19 . If convicted on all counts of burglary and murder, Brooks and Thompson face up to 130 years in prison.


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He made us love Batman even more with "The Dark Knight" series, and he's about to do the same thing with Superman as executive producer of "Man of Steel," and now, Christopher Nolan may put his magic touch to James Bond.
According to The Daily Mail, the director has been approached to helm the next 007 movie and he's been in talks with the powers-that-be, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson.
It's fine and dandy but Nolan is getting ready to start his next big film, "Interstellar," starring Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain, so Bond may have to wait.
Sure, Nolan is a Bond fan, but if talks moved forward and he became the director, will his 007 movie be better than the last Sam Mendes-directed flick? The fantastic "Skyfall?"
Having Nolan as director of anything is wonderufl! I worship his filmmaking abilities. But let's wait and see if Bond 24 will fall under his guidance.
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I loved the first Star Trek from director J.J. Abrams. And now, the director and his cast are back for Star Trek Into Darkness. Like its title, the sequel is darker and yes, bigger. But is it better?
Chris Pine (Captain James T. Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), John Cho (Sulu), Simon Pegg (Scotty), Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Karl Urban (Bones McCoy), and Anton Yelchin (Checkov) return for the sequel. Joining them are Alice Eve as the mysterious Dr. Carol Marcus and Benedict Cumberbatch as the villain Commander John Harrison.
Is Star Trek Into Darkness worth the wait? Watch my review:
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Last Monday, we told you about the brouhaha going on about Disney's sexy makeover of Merida, our heroine in "Brave." The studio has announced that Merida would be Disney's 11th princess. That was nice and all, but they had to give her more vivacious curves as well. The film's director (who was replaced in the middle of the making of "Brave" but was awarded an Oscar anyway), Brenda Chapman, wrote a passionate letter to her newspaper denouncing Disney's makeover decision.
Many folks are indeed passionate about this sexified Merida look that A Mighty Girl, a blog dedicated to empowering girls, created a Change.org petition and posted, yup, another impassioned letter to Bob Iger, Disney CEO. Right now, the petition has garnered more than 200,000 votes! Wow! You can sign if you want by clicking here.
So Disney's response to the controversy? Merida's sexified self disappeared from Disney's princess website! Vanished! Gone! Poof! Just like the will-o'-the-wisps in "Brave."
I went and checked the Disney Princess site and now, it's the old Merida with the words "strong, fearless, adventurous" accompanying the picture. Yeah!
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No other than Chris Pine and Jake Gyllenhaal! The actors are in early talks to join Meryl Streep and Johnny Depp in Rob Marshall's adaptation of the musical "Into the Woods" according to HuffPost. The two will be playing a pair of self-involved princes in the film. I'm guessing one will be playing Rapunzel's prince and the other, Cinderella's prince. There will be singing involved! Not quite sure about Gyllenhaal but we've seen Pine belt it out in the 2010 drama "Small Town Saturday Night" where the actor played a country singer. He even sang in the film's theme song "Someday Came Today."
But before "Into the Woods," Pine will be seen as Captain Kirk in the new flick "Star Trek Into Darkness."
For a little history of "Into the Woods" and what it's about, here's an excerpt from Wikipedia:
Into the Woods is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. It debuted in San Diego at the Old Globe Theatre in 1986, and premiered on Broadway in 1987. Bernadette Peters' performance as the Witch and Joanna Gleason's portrayal of the Baker's Wife brought acclaim to the production during its original Broadway run. Into the Woods won several Tony Awards, including Best Score, Best Book, and Best Actress in a Musical (Joanna Gleason), in a year dominated by The Phantom of the Opera.
The musical has been produced many times, with a 1988 US national tour, a 1990 West End production, a 1991 television production, a 1997 tenth anniversary concert, a 2002 Broadway revival, a 2010 London revival[1] and in 2012 as part of New York City's outdoor Shakespeare in the Park series. The musical intertwines the plots of several Brothers Grimm fairy tales and follows them to explore the consequences of the characters' wishes and quests. The main characters are taken from "Little Red Riding Hood", "Jack and the Beanstalk", "Rapunzel", and "Cinderella", as well as several others. The musical is tied together by an original story involving a baker and his wife and their quest to begin a family, and their interaction with a Witch and her curse on them.
And here's what we wrote last month about Johnny Depp joining "Into the Woods"
Say what you will about Johnny Depp's singing prowess in Tim Burton's "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," but the actor may be back on the big screen with another musical role! This time it's the sexy and very hungry Wolf in the movie version of "Into the Woods."
THR is reporting that the actor is in talks to star in Disney's film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical for his "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" director, Rob Marshall, who also helmed the Oscar-winning "Chicago" and "Nine" and the 1999 TV movie, "Annie."
Depp will be joining the fantastic Meryl Streep who is set to play the vain but very charismatic Witch. "Into the Woods" is a dark "Shrek" if you may, a hodge podge of classic fairy tales that feature a childless couple, Baker and his wife, who must go into the woods to lift a family curse. Along the way, they encounter Rapunzel, Cinderella, and Little Red Riding Hood.
The screenplay is written by James Lapine based on his book for the 1986 musical. Stephen Sondheim composed the Tony-winning original score with David Krane working on the music arrangement for the movie.
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There's a new Riddick movie simply titled, what else, "Riddick!" Unviersal has shared the new trailer for the third film in the "Pitch Black" franchise starring Vin Diesel. This is the first film in the series since "Chronicles of Riddick" opened and sorta flopped in 2004 (the film only made $115 worldwide!). "Pitch Black" debuted in 2000. Wow, it's been that long?
Of course, Diesel, the current Universal baby, is starring in the mega-hit franchise, "Fast and Furious," and the sixth film is opening next weekend just in time for your Memorial Day celebration.
"Riddick" opens nationwide on Sept. 6 and has Diesel back in the titular role as an outlaw who must help his bounty hunters captors fight a really mean alien species. Take a look at the trailer for "Riddick" below:
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This detail of a vase painting by the Achilles Painter features a delicate rendering of one of the Muses. It was done using the white ground technique, and the shape of the vase is what is known as a lekythos. This type of vase was used as an oil flask by the ancient Greeks. Scholars have suggested that these lekythoi (the plural of lekythos) may have been intended to serve as funerary offerings. And judging from some of the scenes that adorn various Greek lekythoi this theory seems quite plausible.
On one side of this charming lekythos the artist has taken great care in depicting a wonderfully detailed image of a Muse. This lovely goddess is seated and is in the process of playing a musical instrument. She is shown in profile, and her features are typical of the Classical Greek tendency to represent idealized beauty. The word "Helikon" - which was the traditional home of the Muses - helps us to identify this female figure.
In Greek mythology, the Muses were nine goddesses who inspired the arts and humanities. Each Muse presided over a particular area. And while this Muse is not precisely identified by the artist, there are several Muses who were associated with music and poetry in ancient myth. Incidentally, the Greek lettering near the top of the vase is what is referred to as a kalos inscription. In this example, the handsome appearance of a youth called Axiopeithes is here celebrated by the painter.
Learn more about the role the Muses played in Greek mythology at Mythography.
Art and Experience in Classical Greece
Professor J.J. Pollitt puts the Classical period in perspective, using dynamic descriptions of some of the most memorable works from this time of artistic brilliance. There are insightful discussions of various Classical Greek vase paintings in this book, with many black and white images to complement the engaging text.
Greek Art
This beautifully illustrated book (from the Phaidon Art and Ideas series and written by Nigel Spivey) covers the subject of ancient Greek art brilliantly.
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It's no secret that business is one of today's most popular fields. However, what is the best way to get a degree in business that's actually affordable, and can put you on the right track to a great career?
New England College of Business and Finance was recently named by the U.S. Department of Education as the most affordable private college in New England. They have recently announced the addition of four new programs in high-demand, high-growth fields: Master of Healthcare Management, Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study in Human Resource Management, Bachelor of Science in Digital Marketing, and Bachelor of Science in International Business.
"NECB is always adapting to meet the evolving needs of professionals in the business and finance fields, in particular, by developing new programs in areas with strong employment growth prospects," said Howard Horton, NECB president. "At NECB, students will receive a high-quality education taught by leading industry experts and business executives to position them for career success within these high-demand fields."
These programs were carefully selected to offer the maximum value to working adults who are looking to expand their skills in a new field. The programs focus on strategic topics, technology, and evolving fields to position all graduates as competitive in their field. Each program will be offered fully online.
You can learn more about NECB and their programs at http://www.necb.edu/.
About New England College of Business and Finance
Founded in 1909, New England College of Business and Finance (NECB) is a leading Boston institution offering quality education and online degrees at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Serving students across the United States, NECB is an online college accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), and is licensed by the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education. For information on NECB, visit www.necb.edu, follow NECB on Twitter or connect with the school on Facebook.


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craigconnects is a…
- vision of getting everyone in the world together for the common good via the Internet.
- plan to support sustainable efforts; ones that are socially responsible, self-perpetuating and replicable.
- service to connect and protect organizations and individuals that can help make that vision come true.
- program that, for its first year of operation, is focused solely on the areas of support defined on this website, even though I know there are many other worthy efforts that might be worth support in the future, as craigconnects grows.
- way to make this all happen, and I know some things will work, some not, but along the way maybe others will be inspired to join in.
- channel through which my support — as a speaker, board member, social media champion, traditional media source, etc. – can be solicited. I tend to be overwhelmed with requests and craigconnects will help me manage this so I can do a lot more.
craigconnects is not…
craigslist OR a grant-giving organization, although I will, personally, continue to consider making modest personal donations to some worthy causes and, when appropriate, might ask others I know for their support as well.


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JULIAN Assange is banking on being elected to the Australian Senate as his ticket to political freedom, saying he is sure his new WikiLeaks Party will "easily" attract the numbers to launch ahead of the federal election.
In an in-depth interview published on website The Conversation this morning, Assange said he was counting on public support from Australians to help catapult him into the Senate and out of Ecuador's embassy in London, where he has been holed up since June to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations of sex crimes.
According to the article Assange, who last week applied to be on Victoria's electoral roll in order to qualify for political office, will field WikiLeaks Party candidates for the Senate in several states, most likely including himself as a candidate in Victoria.
If he were elected, Assange said, the US Department of Justice would back down from its espionage investigation in order to avoid sparking an international incident, with the British government following suit.
Swedish authorities' case against him is "falling apart'', he says.
Under Australian federal law he would then have to take up his Senate seat within two months, which would require his freedom.
"In that case, the Senate could vote to evict me, but that would trigger a big political row,'' he is quoted as saying.
"Australians probably wouldn't swallow it. They've learned a lesson from the controversial dismissal of Gough Whitlam.''
Assange said if not immediately freed after his election, he could take his oath before the Governor-General "for the first time ever, by video link''.
He said he was "sure'' his WikiLeaks Party would "easily" attract the minimum 500 paid-up members required by federal law to launch, and says any technical objections to him standing for office "aren't real''.
"I've had to deal with the FBI, the British press and more than a few rank functionaries,'' he is quoted as saying.
"The Australian press are decent by comparison. No doubt the Australian Tax Office will show an interest in our campaign. Old enemies may make an appearance.''
Describing Assange as "calm, witty, clear headed'', the article reveals the former hacker's fondness for Rachmaninov, Tim Tams, Violet Crumbles and South Australian shiraz, and says he is taking boxing lessons several times a week with "an ex SAS whistleblower'' to help relieve the "visual monotony'' of life in prison.
When asked how allegations of his misogyny might affect his political campaign, Assange said his new party would be popular with women.
"I'm not interested in softening my image by planting attractive women around me,'' he said.
"I like women. They're on balance braver than men. ... Our WikiLeaks Party will attract the support of many women.''


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00 10th, Chetek WI 54728 $97,500
Features of 00 10th Chetek WI 54728
- Lots for Sale
- Status: Active
- Estimated Age: Not Available
- Est. Acreage: < 1/2
- Est. Lot Size: 183 x 150
- Body of Water: Pokegama
- County: Barron
- Property Taxes: $943
- Property Tax Year: 2016
- Listing Company: Six Lakes/Chetek
Property Description for 00 10th Chetek WI 54728
00 10th Chetek WI 54728 - Fantastic Waterfront Building Sites Situated On Pokegama Lake With Access To Chetek Chain Of Lakes. This Stretch Of Lake Is No Wake Zone. Fees Are Very Affordable At $425 Annually Which Gives You Access To Associations Shared Septic Drain Field. Sunset View Golf Course Is Located Across The Street With 2 Pubs Within Walking Distance. There Are Plenty Of Lots In All Shapes, Sizes & Price Ranges. See Attached Price Sheet. Lending Thru Sterling Bank Available To Qualified Buyers. Call Today.
Interior Features
- Water Waste: Other
Building and Construction
- Construction Type: E
Land Features
- Topography: Rolling/Hilly
- Zoning: Residential
- Waterfront/Access: Y
- Lot Size: 183 x 150
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CMS Keeps Original Payment Policy for Multi-Campus Hospitals
Multi-campus hospitals should not anticipate additional incentive payments beyond what would be paid for one hospital under the "meaningful use" provisions unveiled earlier this month. That was the testimony of a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services executive before a House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee during a hearing on the HITECH Act Tuesday.
Tony Trenkle, director of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Office of eHealth Standards and Services, told the House panel that CMS had received many comments and requests to recognize each campus of a multi-campus hospital in regard to the incentive payments made for electronic health record adoption. These are hospitals that use the same CMS certification number.
"We understand that this issue is of importance to members of Congress, the hospitals, and the public. However, from the agency's perspective, we believe it's important to treat hospitals consistently," Trenkle said.
"The decision to deviate from long-standing hospital policy in this particular instance—without clear statutory direction to do so—would have made CMS vulnerable to legal challenges."
He said that when CMS looked at the legislative language of the stimulus legislation which authorized the EHR incentive initiative. "We came to the conclusion in our final rule that we should define hospitals consistently for all policy purposes, including the Medicaid & Medicare EHR incentive payments."


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Samuel Beckett thought it all through for us--what it means to live in a world where God is absent. In such a world, life is absurd because it has no ultimate meaning. If there is no God, we are all fools and clowns scrambling for bits of comfort and amusement as we while away the time before death ends it all. Beckett's Waiting for Godot is the quintessential absurdist tragicomedy, a cornerstone of the theater of the absurd, which lambasted the meaninglessness of human existence. The Roundfish Theatre Company's sturdy production may not suffer enough existential angst to satisfy some viewers, but it still manages to embody the sly wit and bleak vision for which Beckett was so justly famous.
As the play begins, Estragon (aka Gogo) is struggling to get his boots off when Vladimir (aka Didi) enters, and both are instantly and un-self-consciously plunged into a metaphysical quandary. "Nothing to be done," says Gogo, to which Didi replies that he is beginning to come around to the same opinion, though all his life he has told himself that he hasn't tried everything yet and so can't give up the struggle. All through the play the two friends will struggle--to remember what happened only the day before, to put up with beatings, boredom, hunger, pain and each other's poor personal hygiene.
Didi and Gogo wait all day long for a mysterious stranger neither has ever seen. During the course of their long wait, they discuss theology--especially repentance and salvation--their friendship, and the prospect of suicide (including the autoerotic stimulation they hope would occur). But they do nothing.
When the rich Pozzo arrives with his slave, Didi and Gogo at first are outraged at Pozzo's cruel treatment of the exhausted Lucky, but compassion turns to disgust when Lucky kicks Gogo, whose compassion is self-interested rather than disinterested. There's a lesson in there somewhere about the wages of enslavement; Pozzo and Lucky are inextricably linked by a length of rope that chokes Lucky and keeps Pozzo forever tied to and dependent on him.
On Pozzo's command, Lucky expounds on theology in rapid-fire non sequiturs meant to ridicule a variety of religions and demonstrate their superstitions and inconsistencies. After Pozzo and Lucky depart for the fair, where Pozzo hopes to sell Lucky, a boy arrives (Nolan Patterson is a glowing bright spot of sweet-tempered enthusiasm) and tells Didi and Gogo that Godot will not come today, but he will surely come tomorrow--an assurance that will be repeated in the second act.
Michael Rahhal is highly focused and convincing as the thoughtful fool, Didi. Some critics have described the role as the Ego, while the fleshy Gogo stands in for the Id, and Christopher Petersen makes a mighty oaf--very funny in his childish, sensual self-absorption. Brian Alan Hill as Lucky projects a tragic animal exhaustion that's perfect for the role of a baby-faced brute, and director Richard Cowden gives Pozzo just the right air of superiority and cool friendliness. Pozzo convinces Didi and Gogo that he, not Lucky, is the victim, and Cowden makes the most of upper-class self-pity without exaggerating too much.
The four characters are meant to represent all the classes of mankind--and it's no accident that Beckett makes only one of them well-fed. Pozzo and Lucky are too involved in their class symbiosis to wait for Godot. But Didi and Gogo, who continually say "Let's go" to each other and then never move, speak volumes about the apathy, dependence and inertia that afflicts those who wait for help but don't seek it.
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Beckett may have been an atheist, but in this play at least, he is an oddly hopeful one. Though Godot fails to come, he does send messengers. He is not dead, he is merely removed. Unfortunately, the tragic result is the same: humankind left adrift in an absurd universe, never knowing what life means or when it will end.
Director Cowden keeps the physical comedy stimulating and professional. Yet there is something missing--a fierceness, perhaps, since Beckett's universe without God should be a cold and empty abyss. This is a rather warmer production than it actually should be--engaging and intelligent but, finally, a little too humane.
Waiting for Godot, through September 7 at The Shop, 416 East 20th Avenue, 451-0182.


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This is getting silly!
Why not just take the output of any legacy source you like and run it into your PC's line in? Admittedly, a phono amp is required for turntables, but anything that already kicks out line level signals via RCA/phonos or whatever can be hooked up to a PC without the need to spend a ton on a dedicated deck with a universal USB audio interface sellotaped to the side!
How about a mindisc which converts the binary on the disc to analogue via the DAC that feeds a USB audio interface that sends it to the PC? Just so we can get all those old Minidiscs on our PCs?
Wax cylinder phonograph USB recorder anyone? Cup and String USB interface?


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A cross between True Lies and Spy Kids for the Hong Kong market, House of Fury is a family-friendly action comedy from Jackie Chan's production company and director Stephen Fung (Gen-X Cops). The enormously likeable Anthony Wong (scene-stealing supporting actor from just about every movie made in Hong Kong for the past decade) stars, with Daniel Wu (young co-star in half those movies), Gillian Chung (Twins Effect), and a handful of other faces that should be recognizable to anyone who's watched an HK film in recent years. Stunts and action are choreographed by the master Yuen Wo-Ping. Quite an assemblage of talent has been compiled here, and you'd hope the result would be something special. It isn't, really, but the picture is an entertaining and agreeable enough way to pass 102 minutes.
Wong plays middle-aged father Teddy Yu, mild-mannered chiropractor by day and super kung-fu secret agent by night, or at least that's the way he tells it to anyone who'll listen. His teenage kids consider dad an embarrassment, always bothering their friends with outlandish "big fish" tales about his exploits against supernatural ninjas and diabolical madmen, and Teddy accepts his status as a good-natured fool. The twist, as you can see coming, is that Teddy really is a super kung-fu secret agent. His cover is in being so open about his identity that no one could possibly believe him, least of all his own children.
Soon enough a shadowy figure from Teddy's past appears and trouble starts brewing. Teddy is kidnapped by a Blofeld/Dr. Evil wannabe, leaving his kids to discover the truth of his identity and race into action to rescue their old man. It's a good thing that Pop taught them kung-fu, just in case something like this should ever happen. Much martial arts mayhem ensues.
House of Fury has a cute concept and in execution attempts to provide a little something for every demographic. There's goofy humor for the youngsters, a set of heartthrob leads for teens (though, disturbingly, the closest the film offers for romance is some flirtation between one character and his own cousin; maybe something hasn't been translated correctly), and quite a bit of kung-fu and excitement for action fans. The problem is that the movie just doesn't break any new ground. Not that every movie needs to be an innovative masterpiece, but everything here feels so familiar and warmed over. The picture is highly derivative of many other films, both Chinese and American. Unlike better pastiche projects (such as Tarantino's Kill Bill opuses), this one never comes together to develop its own identity. Everything feels recycled. Even the fight scenes, well choreographed by the redoubtable Yuen Wo-Ping, feel repetitive and fail to innovate. We've seen all these moves before.
Worse, the movie can't quite decide what type of action film it wants to be. The majority of the kung-fu is staged in a "realistic" manner (I hesitate to use that word, given how ridiculously difficult it would be for a real person to attempt this sort of thing), but then every once in a while director Fung will throw in a Wuxia element where characters can suddenly fly through the air with superhuman grace. The movie tries to be Jackie Chan with random bursts of Jet Li mixed in for no discernable reason. A novice viewer probably wouldn't notice, but it's quite distracting for anyone who watches a lot of this stuff and can tell the difference.
Nonetheless, House of Fury has its charms. It's worth a viewing if for no other reason than to watch Anthony Wong, a star usually associated with gangster and police thrillers, bust into some kung-fu moves and kick ass. The opening scene in which he nonchalantly takes on hordes of ghostly assassins is a total blast. I wish the rest of the movie had lived up to that promise, but even if not it's still a reasonably fun adventure that won't waste too much of your time.
The DVD:
Don't be misled by the cover art, which shows all of the characters dressed up in costumes they never wear in the film. It even has one character standing in a kung-fu pose even though in the movie itself he's wheelchair-bound for the entire feature.
Also annoying is the fact that the dialogue is poorly recorded in a number of scenes, with echoes or hollow ambience. Under normal circumstances, ADR looping should be used in post-production to re-record the lines, but apparently that wasn't done.
Alternate Mandarin and English dub tracks are provided in Dolby Digital 5.1. The English dub is hilariously awful, especially the nasally voice given to Anthony Wong. As a matter of fact, all of the characters have nasally voices. Optional English and Chinese subtitles are available. The English translation is quite good for the most part, but some of the verbal jokes in the dialogue just don't translate well. The subtitles appear entirely within the 2.35:1 image in anamorphic mode.
Disc 1 contains only 3 non-anamorphic letterbox trailers for the film. The rest of the supplements are on Disc 2, starting with the 45-minute Behind the Scenes featurette. The piece consists entirely of raw production footage of the actors and crew doing their thing on set. Subtitles appear sporadically when people talk. Despite its length, I would hesitate to call this a "documentary" since there is no narrator to explain what is happening and no sense of deliberate editing structure at all. It's really as if a couple of cameras were plopped down on set waiting for people to walk in front of them, and now we get to see everything they shot. I watched a few minutes of it and then skipped around to see more of the same. I can hardly imagine anything more tedious.
Following this are 55 minutes of Cast and Crew Interviews from stars Daniel Wu, Gillian Chung, Josie Ho, Michael Wong, and director Stephen Fung. Wong's interview is conducted in English, while the rest are Cantonese with English subtitles. Daniel Wu seems like an intelligent young man and struggles to find interesting things to say. The rest mostly just recap the movie's plot or their character's role in it.
A 10-minute Making Of featurette comes straight from the EPK packet. The disc finishes with 8 TV Spots.
No ROM supplements have been included.
Final Thoughts:
Related Articles:


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Has Antarctica been getting warmer? To the frustration of many environmentalists, it's not an easy question. Manned weather stations have existed there for over 50 years, unmanned stations from 1980 onwards. Coverage is patchy both in space and time, with weather stations clustered in a few spots and records full of gaps from when sensors got buried in snow, breakdowns occurred or stations were closed. From 1982, satellites have measured the temperature over the continent but inaccurately, because of clouds and instrument inconsistencies.
So taking Antarctica's temperature involves considerable mathematical skill and leaves much room for statistical disagreement. The disagreement has just became a lot less polite, as several scientists exchanged the blogosphere equivalents of declarations of war. What started out as a difference over methods and results has descended into character assassination and accusations of duplicity. Underlying all this, one side claims that Antarctica — a continent which holds 90 per cent of the world's ice — is warming significantly. The other side claims this is not so. The battle has implications far beyond Antarctica. It has exposed a real problem of bias in scientific journals.
The story starts in 2009 when the prestigious journal Nature carried a cover story with an image of Antarctica glowing a warm pink. The paper inside used a relatively novel statistical reconstruction method to combine the detailed satellite data with the more accurate, but sparse, weather station data. It concluded that most of Antarctica — and particularly West Antarctica — had warmed significantly since 1957. This was worthy of a cover story because it contradicted the previous understanding: that only the most northerly part of this ice continent, the slender Antarctic peninsula, was warming.
The paper's senior author was Eric Steig of the University of Washington. His work duly captured world headlines. Four days later, the editor of the famously pugnacious RealClimate blog, Gavin Schmidt, boasted that the sceptics were surprisingly silent. Mission, it seemed, accomplished: Antarctica was no longer an embarrassment to the global warming narrative.
He spoke too soon. The indefatigable Canadian climate analyst Steve McIntyre had already started to post analyses of the Nature paper at his blog, Climate Audit. He was joined by the engineer Jeff Condon, whose blog the Air Vent had, along with Climate Audit, played a crucial role in the release of the Climategate emails in 2009. Within a few weeks, McIntyre and Condon, together with engineer Ryan O'Donnell, statistician Roman Mureika, economist Huston McCulloch and others, deconstructed Steig's results.
McCulloch soon discovered that an important factor — serial correlation — had been overlooked, which had the effect of making the warming trend look more statistically significant than it was. After this appeared at Climate Audit, Steig sent a correction to Nature, claiming he had found the error independently.
Mureika found that Steig's reconstructions were, mathematically, derived from only three underlying temperature sequences — too few properly to represent an entire continent. McIntyre then showed that these sequences, claimed by Steig to be meaningfully related to important physical climate processes, resembled instead off-the-shelf mathematical patterns known as Chladni vibration patterns, and could be expected to arise irrespective of the claimed causes.
The blog workers were by now convinced that Steig's significant warming trend was an artefact of a mathematical method employed inappropriately. It smeared a trend from an area containing many recording stations over an area with few stations, specifically from the strongly warming Antarctic peninsula to the much larger West Antarctica — a region containing only two short-record manned stations.
At this point O'Donnell began to go through the paper's maths in detail with the help of one of us (Nicholas Lewis, who has a background in maths), Condon and McIntyre, and worked out how to correct Steig's method. Together with these three, O'Donnell drafted a paper, which argued that Steig had implemented his reconstruction method in an inappropriate way (with misleading results), and proposed a corrected method that fitted the data better. The new method also indicated much lower continental temperature trends.
Pause here to note that Nature's original peer-review process had let through an obviously flawed paper, and no professional climate scientist then disputed it, perhaps because of fear that doing so might harm their careers. As the title of Richard Bean's new play — The Heretic — at the Royal Court hints, young scientists going into climate studies these days are a bit like young theologians in Elizabethan England: they quickly learn that funding and promotion dries up if you express heterodox views, or doubt the scripture. (The scripture, in this case, being the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.) That is why in the Antarctic case, it took a group of amateurs, independent from conformist institutions and funding, to spot and correct the flaws. None of them deny that man is warming the globe to some extent; but they have grown increasingly frustrated by the distortion, exaggeration and sloppy methods being used to support a preconceived conclusion.
O'Donnell's team submitted its paper to the Journal of Climate, which sent it to three reviewers. They duly came back with various criticisms and comments, the normal give and take of peer review. Two reviewers had minor points and recommended publication subject to these being resolved. But one, known as Reviewer A — all reviewers are anonymous — demanded major changes before publication. O'Donnell responded and made minor changes, but disputed Reviewer A's major points and questioned his objectivity.
The journal editor then appointed a fourth reviewer of the revised draft, who recommended publication with minor changes. But Reviewer A demanded further major changes — insisting the 'most likely' West Antarctic trends be shown in the main results and suggesting that these could use a mathematical procedure called 'iridge' to fill in missing data. (The algorithm employed by both Steig and O'Donnell offers a choice of 'iridge' or 'TTLS' methods to fill in missing data.) Although the vote was now 3-1 against Reviewer A, the journal editor accepted his demand. Now, O'Donnell's revised draft had not used iridge for its main results, but mentioned a West Antarctica trend using iridge as a way of checking, indicating that the 'most likely' regional trend was in line with the (warmer) iridge results. The O'Donnell team therefore concluded that in order to forestall further criticisms from Reviewer A and achieve publication, switching method for all their main results was the only sensible option.
The third submission appears to have been reviewed only by Reviewer A. Through the use of iridge, it sidestepped his main previous criticisms, and showed a higher temperature trend in West Antarctica. But after saying that 'The use of the "iridge" procedure makes sense to me, and I suspect it really does give the best results', he went on to criticise one aspect of the method and demand further changes, including another round of review. By this time, even the journal editor appears to have become exasperated with Reviewer A and asked O'Donnell's team to respond to the review to his satisfaction, which they did. The paper duly appeared in December 2010.
By the end, Reviewer A's criticisms — and the responses to it — had generated 88 pages of corre
spondence. Climate change sceptics are often accused of sniping from the sidelines but failing to submit alternative conclusions to the peer-reviewed literature. The obvious response is that the burden of proof should be on those wishing to prove their case, not on the challengers for failing to prove it wrong. Sceptics tend not to have the taxpayer-funded time to do studies. They also suspect that the scientific publishing process is biased against them. The war of attrition that O'Donnell's paper had been through reinforced this impression.
Hard evidence of such obstruction first came to light in the now infamous 'Climategate' emails from the University of East Anglia, which included this gem from climatologist Phil Jones: `The other paper by [Ross] M[cKitrick] and [Pat] M[ichaels] is just garbage… I can't see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report. Kevin [Trenberth] and I will keep them out somehow — even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!' The paper in question pointed out that regional temperature rises correlated with economic development, implying they were contaminated by local urban warming unrelated to greenhouse gases.
Of course, O'Donnell and his co-authors had long suspected that Reviewer A was associated with Steig's team. When O'Donnell put this to Steig in early December, Steig admitted that it was him. For an up-and-coming scientist like Steig to get a major paper published in a journal like Nature was a career-enhancing moment. He therefore had every interest in opposing a paper that refuted its main conclusions — which hardly made him an impartial choice of reviewer.
At Steig's request, O'Donnell kept the secret and did not reveal his identity as Reviewer A. But he changed his mind following a spat which broke out earlier this month. On 1 February, Steig published an essay disparaging the O'Donnell paper at the RealClimate blog. What really stuck in O'Donnell's craw was criticism for using the 'iridge' method. Steig was now criticising the methodology which he himself had put forward a few months before. The blog battle — still ongoing — stemmed from this.
So has Antarctica been warming? Mostly not — at least measurably. The peninsula (2 per cent of the continent) shows substantial warming. The rest is patchy: some parts are warming slightly, others cooling slightly. Over the continent as a whole, since 1957, O'Donnell et al. found no statistically significant warming trend. The retreat of floating Antarctic ice shelves is a favourite story for the media. But, except in a very few peripheral parts, Antarctica is far too cold to lose ice by surface melting — even if gets much warmer. Primarily, ice loss is believed instead to be caused by currents of deep ocean water, itself warmed naturally a long time ago. A new study concludes that the melting process has been going on for too long to be blamed on industrial increases in greenhouse gases. (This study, of course, attracted far less coverage than alarming first reports.) Antarctic sea ice, unlike Arctic, has shown no signs of retreating: it recorded a maximum in 2007.
All this fits a disturbing new trend in the scientific literature on climate. Papers that come to lukewarm or sceptical conclusions are published, if at all, only after the insertion of catechistic sentences to assert their adherence to orthodoxy. Last year, a paper in Nature Geosciences concluded heretically that 'it is at present impossible to accurately determine climate sensitivity to carbon dioxide' (high sensitivity underpins the entire IPCC argument), yet presaged this with the absurd remark: 'Earth's climate can only be stabilised by bringing carbon dioxide emissions under control in the 21st century.'
Likewise, a paper in Science this month linking periods of migration in European history with cooler weather stated: 'Such historical data may provide a basis for counteracting the recent political and fiscal reluctance to mitigate projected climate change.' Sceptical climatologist Pat Michaels pointed out that the sentence would make more sense with 'counteracting' removed.
Science as a philosophy is a powerful but fragile thing. Science as a philosophy is a powerful but fragile thing; in the case of climate it is now in conflict with science as an institution.
For details of The Spectator's forthcoming debate on climate change, see p. 38 or go to new.spectator.co.uk/events.
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Cute dual-stage illustrations book that stimulates vision and encourages tummy-time
The Double-Sided Book includes two sides, one that offers intense visual stimulation and another that offers subtle stimulation. The book is appropriate for babies from day one, when their eyesight is still limited. Make sure you place the book at the appropriate distance from baby (8-12in/20-25cm in the first 2 months).
Reducing Stimulation
If your baby seems restless or uncomfortable (crying, averting her gaze, etc), adjust the level of stimulation. Move the illustrations to find an image he finds pleasing or cover some of the images with a soft bib or blanket, leaving only one within his field of vision. Alternatively, simply turn the book to the other side.
Increasing Stimulation
Immediately after birth, baby seeks visual stimulation beyond his blurry surroundings. Place the Double-Sided First Book to the side where baby's head is turned, to offer enriching visual stimulation
Baby's visual field is still limited. When baby lies on his stomach, raising his head to look at the book, he is strengthening his neck and shoulder muscles.


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By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
The Federal Emergency Management Agency's director of external communications was denied a post as senior spokesman for Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell yesterday, becoming the highest-ranking casualty of a fake news conference staged by FEMA last week to publicize its response to California's devastating wildfires.
The flap is not the first time FEMA or its parent Department of Homeland Security has been on the wrong end of a public relations move that backfired. Rather, it fits a pattern in which domestic security officials have mismanaged the public presentation of their efforts, whether those efforts are going well or poorly.
Public relations is an obsession of senior department leaders, who say that public safety and counterterrorism efforts depend on their credibility. But DHS has repeatedly stumbled, most devastatingly when its leaders' reassuring words clashed with chaotic television images of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.
In the past year, congressional investigators have accused FEMA officials of suppressing warnings about health problems from high levels of formaldehyde gas in as many as 120,000 trailers provided to Katrina victims. A federal judge accused them of creating "Kafkaesque" bureaucratic hurdles for more than 100,000 evacuees who received disaster aid. Lawmakers have expressed frustration over shifting FEMA statements about the $70 million in food aid stockpiled last year in the Gulf Coast that was lost because of spoilage.
FEMA has also stumbled in smaller ways. It was forced to retract counts of the number of Katrina evacuees in hotel rooms. A federal judge directed it to lift a gag rule on legal-aid lawyers seeking to help storm victims at federal disaster relief centers. Another judge accused FEMA of hiding behind "double-talk, obscure regulations, outdated computer programs, and politically loaded platitudes" in curbing disaster aid.
"It's systemic," said Robert W. Doggett, staff attorney at the Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid office, who has fought FEMA in court over Katrina aid policies. "It's just a symptom of the underlying problem, which is FEMA thinking, 'We're going to do whatever it is we want to do, and we'll tell the public what they need to know, whether they be a victim, another government agency or Congress, and you're lucky to get it.' "
The agency's PR approach has carried a recurrent cost. Since Friday, the fake news conference has been criticized by the White House, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and R. David Paulison, FEMA's administrator. Paulison called reporters yesterday and apologized again "for the inexcusable actions and remarkably bad judgment exhibited" last week.
McConnell's office issued a statement saying that FEMA's director of external communications at the time, John "Pat" Philbin, is no longer scheduled to serve as the DNI's director of public affairs. DNI spokesman Vanee Vines said Philbin will not serve in any other capacity.
FEMA has said it staged the event at its Southwest Washington headquarters when no reporters showed up after being notified 15 minutes before it began. Those invited could listen on the phone but could not ask questions. They were not told that those asking questions were FEMA employees.
Paulison pledged yesterday that FEMA will give at least one hour's notice of news conferences, will not prevent reporters listening in on a telephone conference line from asking questions and will allow only reporters to do the questioning. He also said Russ Knocke, the press secretary at the DHS, will serve as acting head of FEMA's public affairs.
Paulison said that he will impose other disciplinary actions but did not say what they will be. "I need to see who made the decision to do this. I'm not sure it was Pat," he said.
"It's stunning to me that Director Paulison is using his time apologizing to reporters personally," said Sheila Crowley, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, an advocacy group that worked on housing Katrina evacuees. "There are a lot of people whose lives have been turned upside down by FEMA's improvisations that should be getting calls from FEMA apologizing to them."
Scott Needle, a Bay St. Louis, Miss., pediatrician who raised early alarms about formaldehyde in trailers, said: "There seems to be a disconnect in its leadership that's kind of lost sight of its mission. . . . It seems that they've been caught up in the bureaucracy and just protecting their own agency."
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Blowing Smoke: Obama Climate Speech Riddled With Lies
Blowing Smoke: Obama Climate Speech Riddled With Lies
A dangerous, arrogant, fact-free tirade.
June 26, 2013 - 12:00 pm
King Canute, attempting to teach his people a lesson regarding his abilities, supposedly went to the sea and commanded the tide to stop. Twelfth-century English historian Henry of Huntington wrote that Canute took his throne to the seashore, but the tide, continuing to rise as usual dashed over his feet and legs without respect to his royal person.
President Barack Obamas naïve and error-riddled speech at Georgetown University on Tuesday clearly demonstrated that he is serious about trying to stop global climate change. However, like the tide, climate change is a natural event of such proportions that it is largely unaffected by human activities. Obama ignores that the official climate science on which he bases Americas climate and energy policies has been washed away by 17 years without global warming, despite atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) the gas Obama blames for rising temperatures continuing to increase primarily due to the emissions of China and India.
Unlike Americas hopelessly misguided president, the reasons behind Canutes action were sensible. He wanted to reduceunrealistically elevated expectations of him. Canutes goal was to show fawning courtiers that there were things over which he had no control. He knew the facts about tides. Sadly for our American friends, and indeed for the whole free world which depends on a strong America Obama lacks Canutes humility and knowledge about nature. The presidents misunderstanding and his apparent disinterest in real climate science is leading the United States into an economic black hole from which it may take generations to recover.
Obama also seems oblivious to real-world economic evidence that the policy path on which he is setting the U.S. has already been tried and has failed in other countries. It is not surprising that when he launched his most recent climate change initiative last week in Berlin, the German public response was less than enthusiastic they are already suffering the economic and energy consequences of going green in a hopeless attempt to stop climate change. Many Germans are also aware of the implications of the Climategate scandal, through which the corrupted science of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Climatic Research Unit (CRU) was exposed through leaked emails.
In foisting many of the same policies on America that have already failed in Europe, the president appears to be counting on U.S. media to continue to hide the significance of Climategate and the recent halt in planetary warming.
In telling Georgetown students on Tuesday that he doesnt have much patience for anyone who denies that this challenge is real,Obama reveals his ignorance. Nobody is denying that climate change is real and that coping with such changes can be challenging. What skeptical scientists do question, however, is the degree to which human activity causes those changes. Saying that ninety-seven percent of scientists acknowledged the planet is warming and human activity is contributing to it, as Obama did in his speech, is both wrong and meaningless.
As ICSC policy advisor Lord Christopher Monckton just showed, the study that backs this claim is fatally flawed. First, science is never determined by a show of hands. If it were, the Earth would still be considered flat and the center of the universe and space travel impossible. Second, the only statistic that could be interesting would be the fraction of scientists who study the causes of climate change and support the idea that our CO2 emissions are causing serious climate problems. There has never been a reputable survey that asked experts this question.
As we have come to expect from this president on global warming and energy, yesterdays presentation included many basic science mistakes and inappropriate cherry picking of data. For example, Obamas assertions about abnormally high temperatures and the extent of Arctic sea ice melt are either meaningless or simply wrong.
Last July, new average U.S. temperature records were set by one-fifth of a degree Fahrenheit. This is meaningless since the measurement uncertainty in most of the record is one-half degree Fahrenheit. Similarly, last Julys record temperature was not based on the highs of the day. A record was set merely because the nights were slightly less cool in July 2012 than those experienced in the 1930s. So, when the high and lows of the day were averaged, a record average was established. Nevertheless, the highs of the day in the 1930s still exceeded anything experienced in July 2012.
Obama also neglected to mention that Arctic sea ice coverage records began only three decades ago, when we first started to monitor the Arctic by satellite. Land-based measurements indicate that it was warmer in the Arctic in the 1930s and so ice melt was likely greater then as well, although no one knows for sure.
Obama used the erroneous phrase carbon pollution a total of twenty times in his Georgetown speech.
He is, of course, really speaking of CO2, an odorless, invisble gas essential to plant life and in no way a pollutant. Yet the Obama Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) still designates CO2 a harmful substance so as to allow greater bureaucratic control of industry under the Clean Air Act. In Tuesdays address, the president promised to expand the EPAs CO2 regulations to cover existing power stations, an action sure to cost billions of dollars and millions of jobs for no environmental benefit. EPAs claim is based on three lines of evidence that a recent amicus brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court shows are invalid. Regardless, calling CO2 carbon helps Obama politically since it encourages people to think of CO2 as associated with soot, something that is pure carbon and is clearly dirty and undesirable.
Of course, we can and should reduce the amount of soot going in to the atmosphere, and apart from China, significant advances have occurred. Scrubber technology for coal-fired power plants has been available for a long time. If Obama really wants to help peoples health and the environment, he should encourage all possible use of scrubbers.
The carbon pollution mistake is often used by activists to focus negative attention specifically on coal-fired electricity generation, since carbon comes from the Latin carbo, meaning coal. Over 40 percent of U.S. energy comes from coal, and so killing this energy source is fundamental to the presidents apparent goals of expanding government control and redistributing wealth. Obama wants to end coal use entirely in the U.S., no matter how clean it can be made.Obama even told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2008: What I have said is that for us to take coal off the table as an ideological matter as opposed to saying if technology allows us to use coal in a clean way, we should pursue it.
Aside from his support for climate change adaptation measures, actions that make sense if carried out properly, Obamas Georgetown speech appears to be mostly oriented towards accomplishing political objectives unrelated to environmental protection. This is very much in line with former Colorado Democratic Senator Timothy Wirth, who in 1993 summed up the strategy well: Weve got to ride to global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing.
It is ironic that Obama would equate his unscientific campaign to fight against climate change with NASAs trips to the Moon. Unlike Obamas dogmatic approach, always focused on reducing greenhouse gases no matter what science demonstrates about the real causes of climate change, NASA learned from their mistakes and made necessary changes.
For example, when Apollo 1 went up in flames, killing all three astronauts in 1967, engineers ended the use of high oxygen atmospheres in manned space vehicles. But, when climate models on which the global warming scare is based fail to forecast what actually happens in the real world, when cyclones and strong tornadoes diminish, when ice cover in Antarctica increases, Obama and his fellow alarmists simply raise the rhetoric.
Trying to scare us away, he labels scientists who want to base policy on real-world observations as members of the Flat Earth Society. Such name-calling merely strengthens our resolve to expose the most serious climate threat we face the exploitation of public ignorance by alarmists such as Obama.
The president was, however, right to say: This is not just a job for politicians. So Im going to need all of you to educate your classmates, your colleagues, your parents, your friends. Tell them whats at stake. Speak up at town halls, church groups, PTA meetings. Push back on misinformation. Speak up for the facts. Broaden the circle of those who are willing to stand up for our future.
Yes, that is exactly what we will continue to do. Because you are wrong, Mr. President, dangerously wrong. America is too important for anyone, even those of us who are not U.S. citizens, to let it die because of a lie. And much of what you told Georgetown students on Tuesday was indeed a lie.
President Obama's Dangerous Climate Speech
Tom Harris of http://www.climatescienceinternationa... and Brian Lilley of SunMedia TV discuss President Obama's June 25, 2013 climate change speech at Georgetown University. The President's address was politically brilliant but riddled with science misrepresentations. The article by Dr. Tim Ball and Tom Harris that Mr. Lilley references in the interview may be viewed at http://pjmedia.com/blog/blowing-smoke... .


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Name That President
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Our Story
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An historic doll and her clothes to print out on heavy paper and enjoy as girls did in times past. From the US Historical Society.
If you just want to play on your own, click here to create an account and choose the STUDENT tab. Are you better as the mill's manager, or as a mill worker? Try your skill at our two minigames.
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A History of US
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What did Lincoln have in his pockets the night he died? When was break dancing first done? Answers to these questions and more from the Library of Congress.
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An archive of original documents and even music, from the media of the era.
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A Library of Congress exhibition marking 350 years of Jewish life in America. Visit online or in person through December 18, 2004.
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A complete hypertext course suitable for students at the Junior High level or older.
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History Detectives continues on Monday nights on PBS with three more investigations for you. (Check local listings here). Find out more about what's happening in the next episode of your favorite show.
History Matters
Designed for high school and college teachers and students, History Matters serves as a gateway to web resources and offers other useful materials for teaching U.S. history.
New Perspectives on The West
The PBS program, the people, places, and events of The West, resources, lesson plans, and a quiz when you are done.
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Unit studies for each period of American history.
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A good overview of American History, original sources, pictures and a planned community to discuss politics. High school level civics.
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If you want to interview an older person about their recollections of an historical era or event, here are some suggestions on how best to do it.
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Hi, my name is Mike, and I like good food. Not just good, but good food. My wife likes it better when I cook because instead of just cracking open a jar and putting it in a pan, I am out in the garden harvesting fresh herbs and veggies, or down at the farmers market getting grass fed beef and open range chicken.
When I go out to dinner, I love to try new foods. Grilled chicken with a shredded apple coleslaw, apple pie with caramel drizzled covering and brown sugar sprinkles, or a thick deep dish pizza with sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, roasted garlic, and green olives.
If it is something as simple as a sandwich, I always try to make sure that whatever is between the two slices of bread is thicker than the combined with of the two slices. We dont each sandwiches for the bread we eat them for the meats, cheeses, veggies, eggs, or similar ingredients. One exception is Peanut Butter and Honey. I dont do the jelly, but I love PB&H. It is so packed with flavor you forget the bread is even there.
Are you a foodie? Do you go out of your way to get good food or is it McD and BK? Do you shop in freezer section or at the farmers market?


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Battling drug addiction on and off since she was 18, Grovetown resident Tracy Renew has been involved in many rehab programs over the past two decades.
The 35-year-old mother of three was searching for a program that would teach her why she did the things she did, not just how to remove herself from temptations.
"Even if you avoid the people, places and things, you still have confusion about why," she said.
Through a new recovery program called Recovery, Education, Support and Training, Renew said, she finally understands what the addiction stems from.
Started by 25-year veteran rehabilitation counselor Rick Sholette, the program is built out of what he thought was missing from other programs: a deeper understanding of why people turn to addiction.
"None of us are raised in perfect families," he said. "We all have relationship issues. Sometimes those issues cause a downward spiral into addiction."
According to the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, more than 20 percent of people ages 18-25 use illicit drugs. Those ages 12-17 were at 10.1 percent, and people 26 or older were at 6.6 percent.
Among young adults, the rates were 18.5 percent for marijuana, 5.9 percent for nonmedical use of psychotherapeutic drugs, 2 percent for hallucinogens and 1.5 percent for cocaine.
For years, Sholette watched as many people he counseled relapsed. He decided part of the problem was a lack of education and skill building.
"My thought was, if they knew where all this comes from, how much better would they do?" he said
For Chris Newman, the program offered a piece he felt was missing from other programs: a focus on faith.
Although the program is only in the sixth of 20 weeks, Renew and Newman said they have learned skills they believe will help them permanently recover.
"I feel a lot stronger," Renew said. "It feels really good to finally understand why I do the things I do. Relief. It really feels like relief."
Newman said one homework assignment in particular stood out. To build self-esteem, Sholette had his students write down 25 reasons why they like themselves over the course of a day.
"I found myself searching for good things to do for people," Newman said. "It really makes you feel good and understand why we're here."
A large part of the program that stuck with Renew was the idea of addiction as something you pass on. She said that by learning to recognize her core issues she will be better at spotting them in her kids and will learn how to not pass them on.
"I am here to help fix me because I love my children," she said. "I like me so much better today than last month."


text: Sir Rab of Everest Posted April 26, 2012 (edited) Item: Lenehan Audio PDX DAC with S/PDIF & USB (Hiface) inputs & opto volume control - Level 2+ Location: Melbourne Price: Price drop - and priced to sell at only $2,800!!! Item Condition: Mint Reason for selling: complete system re-think, selling everything Payment Method: Pickup - Cash, Paypal, COD Only Extra Info: I am the original owner of this DAC. It has the full house upgrades and more. It also has both S/PDIF and USB inputs, selected by a relay actuated by a front panel switch. The USB input is to an internal M2Tech Hiface USB to I2S converter, with I2S going straight to the PCM1704UK DAC chips. The "more" includes three separate LiFePO4 batteries (and NO voltage regulators) powering the Hiface, whereas other PDX DACs (and to my knowledge the Jkenny M2Tech interface) include only two batteries and use at least one regultaor. The batteries are internally recharged by (switchable) smart recharge circuitry. When I had the HiFace module installed last year, I was told that my DAC sounded better than Mike Lenehan's own reference PDX DAC. Since then, the B+ and heater power supplies for the tube output stage have been upgraded with Jensen and Soren caps and an Audio Note resistor. The current price for the above is > $5k (see http://www.lenehanau...ac-level-2.html). Prefer local pickup, but can post if necessary, at the buyer's expense. Pictures: can upload more pics if required, but it looks like all other PDXs... Edited May 21, 2012 by rab 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


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Paul Bettany seems determined to piss off the Pope. He's currently getting buzz for his performance in Creation where he plays the father of evolution and blind believer public enemy number one, Charles Darwin. Later next year you'll see him in Legion, playing a heroic Angel rebelling against god. And while that makes its way towards a theater near you, he's out and about, busy filming his next movie, Priest, in which he'll paint a crucifix on his face and disobey the church to run off vampire hunting.
If I were the almighty, I'd have thrown a few dozen lightning bolts into the general vicinity of Jennifer Connelly's albino husband by now. Instead Paul is allowed to walk freely among us, presumably drawing strength by destroying the souls of the just and dining on the blood of newborn babies. In fact, here's proof of his continued existence. Brand new photos from the set of Priest, showing Bettany in full on Priest mode, battered, bloodied, and tattered with religiously offensive symbolism. Check out his crucifix tattoo below and see even more candid shots from the set of Priest over at Just Jared.
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Sidoti & Co. is quickly becoming a dominant force in micro cap, and THE FORCE is needed and welcomed. Peter Sidoti started the firm 12 years ago to focus on small cap stocks (<$2.5 billion mkt cap), but in recent years they are getting more active in micro cap (<$500 million mkt cap).
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A 62-year-old Clifton, Va., man is behind bars following allegations he sexually assaulted a 9-year-old boy during a church-sanctioned trip over three years ago.
Police arrested Thomas H. Clement Thursday and charged him with two counts of felony aggravated sexual battery of a minor, Virginia State Police Spokeswoman Corrine Geller said.
The victim, who is now 13, told police the alleged sexual assault took place during a youth group overnight camping trip at Burke Lake Park in Fairfax County in October 2009. Geller said the youth group was from a church in Fairfax County.
"I'm stunned," Clement's neighbor told News4. "He is good-natured, mild-mannered... a good neighbor."
Prior to his retirement from Fairfax Couny Public Schools, Clement served as principal of Bull Run Elementary School from 1999 until 2006. He was also a teacher within the system.
"Right now there are no allegations of any sexual or any other misconduct at all, in any other context," Clement's lawyer Michael Sprano said.
Clement was released on $10,000 bond.
The investigation is ongoing, according to Virginia State Police.