text:
Residential Lighting: Why is daylight so important?
Steve Paolini: We humans need light to function at our peak performance. With the dawn of electronic lighting, we can now have what we really want — human-centric lighting, which in my view is daylight.
RL: Can we replicate daylight today?
SP: For blue sky, we have fluorescent troffers. Acting like the sun and giving us sharp shadows, we have reflector lamps, like MR16s or PAR38s. If we're more sophisticated, we have gobos. All of these light sources imitate what the sky does with ambient light, direct light and movable light. There's no reason not to have more of these features.
RL: How is your company involved?
SP: TeleLumen has started recording daylight. We use a spectrometer with something like 1,000 color channels. Played back in real time, daylight recordings look like nothing is happening. But when speeded up, you see that daylight is not static. It gets brighter in intensity, then dimmer. It gets warmer, then cooler, color temperature wise. Most electric lights remain in fixed states of intensity and color temperature. TeleLumen is working on the light players and on content creation. Long term, as light players come on line, we'll license our light player technology and sell our content, maybe as iTunes does, to people who own light players.
RL: Will we ever see this in practice?
SP: It's already happening. The Philips Hue and two lesser known products, called LIFX and iLumi, are color-choosable lamps that screw into standard sockets. They basically play back snapshots of daylight. You can take a picture of the sky with your iPhone and reproduce that color of the light with Hue, but it's just a snapshot.
The next versions of these lamps will be more dynamic in their ability to play back more of the day's worth of sunlight — or moonlight, or a candle flame. Their dynamic range will increase with time, and they'll become integrated as light players. As with music and video players, you'll pull up a daylight playlist on your phone. You'll say, "I'd like to have sunset in Hawaii tonight for dinner." Or "I want to wake up tomorrow morning by the sunrise on Mount Fuji" and, boom, it will play back on your lights.
You could have a lamp beside your bed that puts you to sleep and wakes you up. Or you could have a room with a number of these lamps, like a surround-sound home theater system. The lamps located in different places would provide both ambient and spot lighting and would work with a multitrack playback system. I can imagine people drinking a glass of wine or reading a book and playing back the lighting needed for that situation.
RL: How does this affect design?
SP: Light fixtures are evolving to conduct heat away rather than radiate heat. Cree makes some downlights and troffers that wick away heat through conduction out of the back of the fixture. So the shape of things is evolving first for technical reasons.
At the same time, lighting designers will make things more human-centric. There's no reason why we can't have a flat-panel light fixture that, like a TV, sits on the wall and plays back these illumination recordings. We could make big chunks of the ceiling glow with a light guide that holds LEDs at one end of a piece of plastic, which transfers light onto the surface of the plastic. I also think we'll see more movable reflector-type lamps. Shadows will move across the floor during the day from interior lights that move. Only our imaginations, and our pocketbooks, limit what we can do.


text:
- Zealot
- Join Date: 2/16/2012
- Posts: 61
- Member Details
Quote from MadViking
Quote from komoto77
Does MP lvl XP scales or it's better to run on MP0 for optimal time?
On MP1 you get 10% bonus XP, but mobs have 50% more health. The bonus to XP is added to what you already have, which makes it less of an advantage than you would think.
Looking at my own gear the difference is as follows:
Start %XP: 96 (35 from Hellfire, 7 from followers Hellfire, 23 from Leoric, 31 from ruby in helm)
End %XP: 171 (96 from gear, 75 from full nephalem valor)
Start %XP: 106 (96 from gear, 10 from MP)
End %XP: 181 (96 from gear, 10 from MP, 75 from full nephalem valor)
So during most of my run (in particular fields of slaughter and keeps lvl 2) I get only 3.7% (2.81/2.71) more XP when at full neph valor (compared to MP0), but mobs have +50% HP. Even if you have only modest XP from gear (perfect star ruby in helm and a Hellfire, for a total of 60, plus full neph) MP1 will give you only 4.3% more XP than MP0. Seems like a bad deal, and testing shows this to be the case also. For exact results you must test this yourself, for example doing 5 full runs on MP0 and 5 full runs on MP1 (etc). Calculate XP gained per hour.
In short: to maximize your XP/hour, play on MP0 unless you have realy good gear. A big advantage to doing MP0 is that you can wear weaker gear (less str/vit/resist) and add MF/GF/pickup to also gain a substantial economic boost. I'm gaining something like 55 million XP, 600k gold and 2-3 legendaries per hour, doing Alkaizer runs on MP0 with close to maxed out MF and GF. My gear is pretty cheap (besides the Leoric ring which is 20+ million on AH) so anybody can do this with a barb.
Very interesting information from you... I think i'm goign to drop to mp0 as it takes me about 1-2 mins to kill some elite mobs

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Japanese Man Breaks the World Record for Cracking the Most Nuts With His Butt
Japan has some crazy shows, but their Guinness World Records TV series is somehow the craziest. You think we're kidding, but in one episode a man named Tomoharu Shoji sets a world record by crushing 43 nuts in one minute… Oh, yeah, and he did it just by using his butt.
Conan O'Brien Facebook Cards Will Steal Your Valentine
This Valentine's Day, Conan is here to help. Last year, the late-night host launched a series of video F-cards, which you can send to your friends on Facebook. F-cards are a lot like E-Cards only, well, blunter. With Valentine's just around the corner, Conan has unleashed a trio of F-cards to help you navigate this most tricky of days.
What's the No. 1 Quality People Look for In Their Relationships? – Survey of the Day
With Valentine's Day just around the corner, romance in the air. However, when TouchTunes recently polled 120,000 adults as part of their third annual Love Survey, they found that the quality most important in a romantic relationship had nothing to do with chocolate, sexy lingerie or candlelight dinners.
Nicolas Cage Addresses Immortality Rumors on 'Letterman'
On Thursday night's 'Late Show With David Letterman' Nicolas Cage finally addressed the rumors that he is immortal, and perhaps a vampire. At this point, would we really be all that surprised by anything Cage says?
'Where's Waldo?' Finally Found at the Super Bowl
During the Super Bowl in Indianapolis, 'Sports Illustrated' photographer David Bergman created a stunning Gigipan photo of almost the entire interior of Lucas Oil Stadium. You can zoom in and out of the sprawling 1,721 megapixels image — much like you do on Google Earth — and see in high resolution detail just about everyone who was watching the game from the stands.
Well, the folks at Blame it on the Videos made an amazing discovery while playing around with this neat feature.
Are You in Favor of Legalizing Gay Marriage? — Survey of the Day
This week, lawmakers in Washington state legalized same-sex marriage and a federal appeals court declared a voter initiative in California, which had made gay marriage illegal, to be unconstitutional.
So what does the public think about gay marriage, in light of these measures?
Watch Clint Eastwood's Moving 'Halftime' Super Bowl 2012 Commercial for Chrysler [VIDEO]
For the second year in a row, Chrysler's Super Bowl 2012 commercial featured a big star, and talk of an inspirational turnaround. Last year, in a memorable spot, Eminem informed the Super Bowl's audience that Detroit, embattled hometown of both the rapper and Chrysler, was on the comeback trail.
John Stamos Feels the Pain In Dannon's Super Bowl 2012 Commercial [VIDEO]
Dannon's Super Bowl ad for their Oikos Greek yogurt stars John Stamos, perhaps because everybody's favorite really handsome uncle is of Greek descent. The spot begins with Stamos being playfully spoonfed some of the yogurt by his pretty lady friend.
Love 'The Princess Bride'? Try the Wine
One Million Strong Facebook Comment Thread to Set World Record
It took about three months, but 106 dedicated fans of the game Fronterville have posted over one million comments on a single Facebook post, setting what they believe is a Guinness World record.


text:
A £30,000 reward is being offered for information that helps solve the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Blackpool teenager Paige Chivers.
Paige was just 15 when she was last seen on Ashfield Road, a short distance from the family home in Bispham, on August 23, 2007.
The former Montgomery High school pupil, who would now be 21, went missing just months after her mother Shelia died.
Despite a major police hunt Paige has never been found.
Seven years on, Lancashire's Police and Crime Commissioner Clive Grunshaw has announced he is to offer a £30,000 reward for any information that leads to a conviction.
Det Supt Andy Webster, who is leading the search for Paige has also renewed his appeals for information.
The Chivers' family have put out numerous appeals through the media since she vanished after leaving her home on Longford Avenue.
Paige's picture and description has been shown on television screens in GP and hospital waiting rooms across the country as well as appearing in more than 1,000 high street stores.
But as yet, there have been no more than a few unconfirmed sightings.
In August last year, Paige's heartbroken father Frank died without learning the fate of his daughter.
Sean Conlon, 44, of no fixed abode has been jailed for life and will have to serve a minimum term of 15 years after he was found guilty of murdering Mr Chivers.


text:
The biggest obstacles to credit unions launching or growing a housing finance program are lack of staff, concerns about compliance and a lack of leadership from the highest executive levels, according to credit union executives and housing finance consultants.
Real estate, underwriting and loan processors all can make the move into loan origination, PFS Funding founder Joseph Parsons says.
Training from within one way to address lack of availability of new employees with mortgage lending skills.


text:
herbs essence
glutenfree, vegan & raw
the recipe of the herbs mixture relates to the ingredients of the famous Frankfurter Grüne Sauce if you lengthen it with sour cream. It is also usable as all-in-one-basis for dressings, sauces, breadspread or pesto. The herbs mix is cultivated by a demeter farm next to Berlin.
It is an ideal companion for the creative cook, especially in autum and spring, when there are no herbs growing in the garden.


text:
These 30 short and effective audio lessons will allow you to: - speak French before the end of your first lesson - use your newly learned French in everyday situations - understand the culture, customs, and people of France - order the food you want in restaurants - ask directions and travel by taxi, train, bus and car with confidence - master manners, etiquette, customs so you don't embarrass yourself- visit or host French guests with confidence - introduce yourself, friends and family - learn to ask for help and avoid danger and tourist traps - learn travel tips and the "do's" and "don'ts" from the experienced host This is NOT a vocabulary builder with just words and their translations. Unlike other audiobooks, we actually TEACH French and French culture. Each lesson is TAUGHT by a professional, bi-lingual teacher! Listen to the preview now! Features: -30 audio lessons with key phrases, vocab, cultural insight, and practice - 2+ hours! - downloadable lesson notes corresponding to each lesson, 50+ pages - view phrases and vocab on your iPod or iPhone Downloads in minutes!
Download the accompanying reference guide.
©2007 Innovative Language Learning, LLC; (P)2009 Innovative Language Learning, LLC
"Okay but too complex for survival"
Overall, this is an okay product but I felt that some of the phrases are too complex for the non French speaker. If you said them correctly and a French speaker responded, you would have no idea what they were saying to you. Some sections on volume 2 might have been better in volume 1. I did enjoy the social and cultural tips. And each lesson followed the same format with repeated pronunciation examples. But if the narrator had said "bon chance" and explained what it meant one more time I might have thrown my Kindle out the window.
The narrator is excellent, his style of delivery is clear and refreshing. I like his fast pace too, its not too fast to follow along at all, but perfect if you are serious about learning and want to work to achieve some degree of fluency quickly. I have several mps or cds and use this one the most. Agreed, if youre just taking a quick trip and have no real interest in the language you may just want to buy a short guide to get you through. But I do feel this audio is very useful for a short term traveler who wants to feel more comfortable.
"Good information but ridiculous format!"
As I am leaving for my first trip to Paris in 4 days, it was helpful to have a "Survival" guide. The information and tips are extremely useful and I'm sure I'll use all of them. The instructor's voice, however, left something to be desired as he sounds like he has a bad cold. Add to that, at the end of each "very short" lesson, too much time is wasted explaining the exact same instructions on reviewing what was just learned. Not sure who's decision is was to include this each and every time (It's identical!) but not only was it annoying, it took away from the lessons in my opinion.
This audio was very easy to listen to and learn. The words are broken down slowly by syllable and repeated often for greater understanding. Great survival phrases!
"Great way to learn French"
Just what I needed to pick up a few words before a trip to France. Loved the break down syllable by syllable.
"Too much english repetition"
I don't recommend this book for learning French.
The way words are broken down into syllables is good but the narrator tells you what he is going to do every time "lets break it down" or "lets hear that again" - Just say the French. I am left remembering these phrases and very little French.
Justin did a good job of making a poor script tolerable.
"Refresher for Previous Language Learning"
I bought this to review my French language skills from high school (11 years ago) in order to go on vacation in Paris. It served the purpose well, I was able to order items and speak with more confidence than before listening. The presentation is a bit dry, but well done. Good tips sprinkled throughout regarding culture. I listened to it several times, I would recommend it as a good refresher if you have some previous knowledge of French. ...It is probably ok if you are starting from scratch too.
Report Inappropriate Content
If you find this review inappropriate and think it should be removed from our site, let us know. This report will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.


text:
crap climber, enthusiastic buyer of gear.
Don't climb much at the moment but love being in the mountains, specially in the snow.
Best Climbing Experience
Hopefully still to come, nothing scary (I don't do scary sadly it turns out I'm a wuss)
L'Index in Chamonix (first and so far only alpine route due to crappy weather), Various routes adn scrambles in the Lakes where I spent a couple of summers, topping out of a solo of central gully on great end this winter
Favourite Climbing-Related Discussion Topic
Gear, gear and more gear although I'll join in any discussion when I'm bored
Recent Postings
Interests Outside Climbing
Sailing, Cycling, Walking, Lacrosse, Icehockey, Running, triathlon
Photo Gallery
Click to view Southampton Tom's gallery. (2 photos)
Click to search for photos of climbers called Southampton Tom.
Click to list photo comments written by me. (4 comments)
Been Climbing For
4 to 10 years
Best Onsights
Trad - HS
Winter - II
Indoor - 6b
Worked Grades
Trad - E1
Main Sport/Activity
Favourite Crag/Rock
I Climb...
Once a month
All over the world
Favourite Climbs
Tour Ronde Chamonix
Mt Kenya Chogoria Route
Mt Lengai
Ordinary Route
Latest Climbs
... not setup
Ticklists BETA
... not setup
Climbs Wishlist
Doorpost HS 4b
Black Slab D
Gervasutti Couloir AD
Arrow Route VD
Slanting Buttress Ridge Route D
Pinnacle Rib Route VD
Cneifion Arete D
North East Face D
... list all 8 climbs


text:
Dead candidates get majority of votes in 2 state races
By The Associated Press
Print This | Email This
Most Popular this week
Want more top stories? Sign up here for daily or weekly newsletters with our top news.
Two candidates in separate election races in Washington state are winning . . . despite being dead.
In the Seattle suburb of Des Moines, John Rosentangle won 71 percent of the vote Tuesday over write-in candidates in the King County Water District 54.
The 63-year-old died in August of an illness.
On the Washington coast in Aberdeen, John Erak is leading Alan Richrod with 53 percent of the vote in a city council race.
The 81-year-old Erak was a former state representative who died in June shortly after announcing he was running to retain his seat on the city council.
His current lead is only 12 votes, and the results aren't final.
Both men died after the filing period closed and their names could not be removed from ballots.
Erak's challenger, Alan Richrod, may be appointed to the council seat, even if he does not receive a majority of votes in the final count.
Last modified: November 07. 2013 8:48AM


text:
Artist description:
After ten years of disapearing, i come back with a brilliant picture in my mind, but i always think... why do all the outstanding pictures come on test paper?!?!
Canvas Draw Created Nov 02, 2012 460 x 640px Unless noted Copyright 2012 linda51108.
We encourage you to submit a comment and let the artist know what you think of this drawing. Please log in or join to post a comment.
Post a comment


text:
I've been on enough first dates to recognize when a girl is bored and disinterested, which is exactly how Mila Kunis looked last night at the Hollywood premiere of 'Oz: The Great and Powerful'. It's not as if I just went through and picked out the pictures where she wasn't smiling, and even though that's not true, and I did in fact do that exact thing, there are STILL a lot of pictures here where she looks like she has no interest in this whatsoever.
So a half-truth is good enough. At least according to my girlfriend, who swore she didn't have sex with "a guy" when she went to Miami last week.
(image source = getty)


text:
Hamstard 35
Book (Hamstard)
Page by page (35)
Previous Hamstard 34
Next Hamstard 36
Page Info
A gaming comic?
( Wed Jul 20, 2005 2:00 am )
I dunno if this is gonna be a gaming comic or not. It's a total cliche I know. But it's what I do.
I have two console systems...xbox and a PS2, but I'm a lot more into strategy games. I play Warhammer and some other miniatures systems, and I am developing my own game. And I like some older PC fantasy strategy games like Warlords IV and Civ II, and some RTS like AoE. Board games, too. Anything strategy and fantasy, I like. I don't play any mmorpgs tho. Too repetetive, not enough strategy.
Anyway, back to the comic. Hamstard's kind of an angry version of me. I think he just goes off about anything. Prolly he'll say stuff about games I play cause that's what I think about. But I am gonna try and make it as original as possible.
I guess I'll hold off on the game jokes as much as I can.
Lord Hamster


text:
Project portfolio management (PPM) company Daptiv has announced a new Agile PPM solution that will attempt to provide additional developer value by integrating real-time project data from Agile development tools. Daptiv's market proposition is to allow clients that are using both traditional and Agile methodologies to create a 'single source of truth' for executive reporting and decision-making, without disrupting the culture and work practices of an Agile team.
First among Daptiv's new offerings integrated into its PPM solutions is Rally Software's Agile development tools. The company says that given the widespread adoption of Agile practices, project management leaders are struggling to redefine their roles to focus less on planning and controlling and more on providing an environment that allows Agile projects to succeed. However, even with this willingness to adopt Agile, integrating Agile projects into a PPM framework is often fraught with difficulty, and portfolio-focused software development managers are often faced with reconciling different (and often conflicting) methodologies, metrics, and controls.
Furthermore, says Daptive, the rise of 'best-of-breed' Agile development tools has led to islands of information being created outside of PPM tools used for executive decision-making.
"Perhaps the clearest sign of the mainstreaming of Agile is the abandonment of orthodoxy -- teams are puzzling out the mix of methodologies and combining them to fit within their organizational realities, blending Agile and non-Agile techniques and practices to create a hybrid methodology that fits larger organizations," stated Forrester Research report: "Agile Development: Mainstream Adoption Has Changed Agility", January 2010. The report continues, "Other changes, such as new team dynamics and the redefinition of roles such as the business analyst, show the genuine force behind Agile adoption."
Unlike rigid PPM tools, Daptiv says it solves these challenges with a solution that can incorporate many different methodologies used within an organization to provide the predictability and accountability that executive stakeholders need to run their business. By allowing portfolio managers to work with a mix of project types and development methodologies, Daptiv claims to allow customers to build project portfolios that leverage traditional waterfall and Agile-based methods based on the needs of a project. This flexibility delivers executive visibility into project health without disrupting the culture and work practices of an Agile team.


text:
Smoke Freeroid
by: palmpage4u • 9
All Android applications categories
by: palmpage4u • 9
this app is how you know have to quit smoking
both, smoking cause .. lost money and shorten life time.
but you stop to smoke earning of money and life extending.
all of this, this app show how you save and lost.
all that you can see this application
check them right now by this app
from 9 reviews
Download Smoke Freeroid
Free - 2.20 - 590K
Sorry ...
This app is no longer available.Explore Android
Share this app


text:
It is a milestone for the Fort Worth Police Department, but it's not being celebrated.
This week marks the first full year since a Fort Worth police officer was last arrested on suspicion of drunken driving.
Last January, Chief Jeffrey Halstead instituted a zero-tolerance policy for officers caught drinking and driving. The department saw two DWI arrests just two days into 2013, with three more in June.
"I became almost adamant to the point, that we were going to make it to this day," Halstead said. "But really, I know the men and women and the supervisors, they're the ones who played the key role."
This day would be 365, a full calendar year since the last arrest. It's something Halstead keeps track of just outside his office door on a white board. It's a number he wants to see grow well into the future. Although, he certainly had his doubts at times, given the problems of years past.
"I really didn't think we would get to the point where we would see a complete year," he said. "I just thought it was going to take us longer to change the culture."
But a year later, the culture has been changed. The chief said there were about a half dozen changes implemented to try and address the problem of officers drinking and driving off-duty. The most notable includes the four hours of mandated alcohol awareness training and the addition of more two-man patrol vehicles.
"If they get just one shift a week to ride with a partner, ride with a fellow officer, ride with a mentor, I think that really helps them combat the internal stresses when they do this job," Halstead said.
Halstead said the credit goes to everyone in the department for working together to combat the problem.
"I knew that the men and women in this department were equally as frustrated as I was," Halstead said on Friday. "It was their patch, it was their image that was being portrayed in such a negative manner."
Halstead said he has taken some criticism inside the department for the white board tallying the days since the last DWI arrest, but he considers it related to workplace safety. He said large corporations track the date since the last injury on the job and he sees the DWI arrests as being similar.
He knows officers could make similar mistakes in the future, but he believes they're on the right path.
"We definitely don't want to see another one, but we have a common understanding, as well as training and services for our employee, that we're taking every step possible we won't see another one," he said.
The chief said having no DWI arrests is paramount in maintaining the public's trust.
He said he meets with the family of Sonia Baker every year. Baker was killed by an off-duty Fort Worth police officer in 2009. Halstead said he wants the family to know he will not forget the pain caused to her family by the officer's drinking and driving.


text:
Hi guys are there conditional style sheets set so I can target internet explorer 7, 8, 9?
Basically in ie9 the menu items padding or margin are out slightly and in ie7 and ie8 fonts aren't showing up properly (and the padding/margin issue)
Thanks in advance
Hi ruseld,
You can target each browser specifically as there is a browser named class at the start of every page. So for IE8 for example you would use:
.msie8 .someotherclass{
margin: 5px
Thanks this worked a treat.
Is there a list of all the browsers you can target? Would mind tweaking firefox too :)
Thanks again
lol, just tried .firefox on the of chance and it worked… you make things far too easy :)
If you could still get a list of class's for the others browsers that would be amazing
The topic 'Conditional style sheets in choices theme?' is closed to new replies.


text:
ANIMAL rights groups have slammed a Melbourne woman's bid to swap her eight-month-old kitten for an iPad.
In an advertisement posted on the Gumtree website yesterday, the Melton woman offered the Russian Blue purebred in exchange for the popular gadget.
The ad said the kitten's owner would also accept an iPhone 5, $700 or the nearest offer.
RSPCA Victoria spokesman Tim Pilgrim said the "distasteful and inappropriate" ad highlighted the problem of unrestricted animal sales.
"It's very concerning that people think they are able to trade a living creature for an electronic item," Mr Pilgrim said.
"It just shows no regard for that particular cat's welfare... pet ownership is a lifetime commitment."
Mr Pilgrim said if the kitten's owner was unable to care for it, she should approach a shelter with an animal rehoming service.
"We'd encourage her to surrender the kitten and let us give it the second chance it deserves - and make sure it goes to the right home, and not just someone who turns up with an iPad," Mr Pilgrim said.
Animal Aid spokeswoman Debora Boland said it was disturbing that the kitten's owner "thought that was a good thing to do".
"It's just indicative of how little animals are valued," Ms Boland said.
"We've still got a lot of work to do."
The kitten's owner, who did not want to be named, confirmed the offer was genuine but emphasised that she loved her pet.
She said she was left with no choice after her landlord threatened to evict her.
"I'm not being irresponsible, I am trying to find a good home for my kitten," the woman said.
"If I take her to a shelter, she could get put down if no one takes her... all I'm doing is giving people the opportunity to buy her, who might not be able to afford it."
The ad was later removed from the Gumtree website.
Originally published as Kitten offered up for iPad


text: Facilities The Joseph B. Nadol, Jr., M.D. Otolaryngology Surgical Training Laboratory For those interested in hosting their own surgical training course in the Joseph B. Nadol, Jr., M.D. Otolaryngology Surgical Training Laboratory, please fill out our electronic laboratory use request form. The Joseph B. Nadol, Jr., M.D. Otolaryngology Surgical Training Laboratory is a state-of-the-art facility that allows for hands-on surgical skills training using anatomic, cadaveric specimens. Thirteen specially designed stations (one proctor station and 12 individual stations) are equipped with video monitoring, surgical microscopes, drills and other instruments. The proctor station is connected to each individual workstation with video screens and communication abilities. The laboratory is also carefully furnished with support areas for preparation, storage, decontamination and clean utility storage. Additionally, modern audio/visual technology allows for video conferencing from the laboratory, enabling live broadcast to conference rooms within the hospital and to physicians around the globe. If you have any questions about the laboratory facilities, please contact Lab Manager Jean Phillips at email@example.com. Laboratory Equipment Each work station (one proctor station and 12 individual stations) is equipped with: Suction, water and ventilation Zeiss microscopes Head holders Karl Storz audio-visual capabilities Medtronic IPC consoles for use of high power drills, micro-drills, saws and microdebriders The laboratory also contains an autopsy table, surgical lighting and video capabilities, as well as the following special instrumentation: Otology instruments Micro-laryngeal instruments Basic soft tissue instruments Endo-sinus instruments Microvascular instruments Rhinoplasty instruments A separate prep and clean-up area contains a washer-disinfector, space for storage, freezer and refrigerator for specimen storage and a 24-hour security system. Conference Rooms Sloane Teaching Room Located just across the hall from the Otolaryngology Surgical Training Laboratory on the 3rd floor of Mass. Eye and Ear, the Sloane Teaching Room is a multi-functional space with tabbed chair seating for approximately 50 people. Multimedia support for this room includes: Wall-mounted control panel Podium with an installed computer and interfaces for either VGA or HDMI laptop computers Video projector and a 96" projection screen Additional 48" LCD display Voice re-enforcement (microphone) for the podium Integrated Video-Conference endpoint Integrated teleconference system Mobile whiteboard Meltzer Auditorium The Meltzer Auditorium is located on the 3rd floor of Mass. Eye and Ear, down the hall from the Otolaryngology Surgical Training Laboratory. The auditorium is often used as a lecture space, with sloped seating for 170 people. Multimedia support for this room includes: Wall-mounted control panel Podium with an installed computer and interfaces for either VGA or HDMI laptop computers Video projector using a 144" projection screen Four additional 56" LCD displays—2 on either side of the projection screen and 2 at the rear of the room as confidence monitors Audio support (microphone) for the podium Four wireless (handheld or lav.) microphones and ceiling microphones for audio support Integrated Video-Conference endpoint Integrated teleconference system Technical assistance for both the Sloane Teaching Room and Meltzer Auditorium is available by prior request. Pricing information will be provided upon booking your event. Specimens All specimens are procured from a licensed facility at cost to the client. More information and pricing will be provided upon booking your event. Catering Catering is available in-house at an additional cost. Menu and pricing information is available upon request. Contact Us Today! 617-523-7900 or Use Our Simple Online Form to Give Us Feedback We welcome your comments and feedback. Please include contact information if you'd like a response. Did you find this page helpful? YesNo Enter your comments: Your email address Please enter the code above, to verify you are human *


text:
It's raining. Flooding, to be precise. But business is as brisk as ever at Mrs. Gooch's natural-foods market in West Los Angeles. As usual, traffic is backed up along Palms Boulevard as drivers wait for a spot in the store's parking lot. Inside, crowds jam the supplement section, which gleams with row upon row of small, white-capped vials. Here the true believers in the gospel of vitamins linger over labels, comparing brand names and dosages, trading health sermons and nutritional arcana. They discuss the relative merits of Buffered C and Lysine, as opposed to Bio-C Plus Rose Hips, or perhaps Bio-...
The New Scoop On Vitamins
They may be much more important than doctors thought in warding off cancer, heart disease and the ravages of aging -- and, no, you may not be getting enough of these crucial nutrients in your diet
Subscriber content preview. or Log-In
To continue reading: or Log-In


text:
Hotels in Gulf Breeze, Florida
Search & Compare Gulf Breeze Hotels
Get Secret Prices on select hotels
These prices aren't available to everyone.
Best hotels in Gulf Breeze
Gulf Breeze overviewGulf Breeze is a budget-friendly place distinct for its beaches and oceanfront, and known for its marina and shops. You'll enjoy the ample coffee and bar choices, along with activities like fishing and swimming. Take in some local culture at popular places like Saenger Theatre and National Museum of Naval Aviation. Pensacola Naval Air Station and Pensacola Civic Center are popular places to visit. If you're looking for a family-friendly getaway, Gulf Breeze is for you.
Where to stay in Gulf BreezeWhether you're planning to stay for a night or for the week, the area around Gulf Breeze has accommodations to fit every need. Search for hotels in Gulf Breeze with Hotels.com by checking our online map. Our maps display the areas and neighborhoods around all Gulf Breeze hotels so you can see how close you are from landmarks and attractions, and then refine your search within the larger area. The best Gulf Breeze hotel deals are here with our lowest price guarantee.
How to get to Gulf BreezeFly in to Pensacola, FL (PNS-Pensacola Regional), 9.9 mi (15.9 km) from downtown Gulf Breeze. Fort Walton Beach, FL (VPS-Northwest Florida Regional) is the next closest major airport, 31.6 mi (50.8 km) away.
What to see around Gulf BreezeOutdoorsy fun is on hand like strolling the marina and fishing, along with attractions such as:
- • Tiger Point Golf and Country Club
- • Bay Bluffs Park
- • Bayview Beach Park
- • Naval Live Oaks Reservation
- • Roger Scott Athletic Complex
- • Gulf Islands National Seashore
- • Santa Rosa Island
- • Pensacola Beach Gulf Pier
- • Shoreline Park
- • Woodland Park
- • Portofino Boardwalk
- • Gulf Breeze Shopping Center
- • Beach Road Shopping Center
- • Eastgate Shopping Center
- • Palafox Shopping Center
- • Pensacola Naval Air Station
- • Pensacola Civic Center
- • Historic Pensacola Village
- • Saenger Theatre
- • University of West Florida
When to visit Gulf BreezeWondering what time of year to travel, or what clothes to pack? Here are seasonal norms to help you with your planning:
Seasonal temperature averages
- January-March: 72°F day, 42°F night
- April-June: 90°F day, 54°F night
- July-September: 90°F day, 66°F night
- October-December: 83°F day, 42°F night
- January-March: 15.71 inches
- April-June: 15.12 inches
- July-September: 20.16 inches
- October-December: 14.53 inches


text:
This product is no longer available.
You can try these similar gifts instead.
Turquoise and Lapis Scarab Ring In 14kt Over Sterling
Make a bold and historical statement with this unique fashion accessory. This ring flaunts two of the gems that were commonly carved into protective scarabs by ancient Egyptians.


text:
Buy Item $17.10 Retail:
Save 10% ($1.90) $19.00
Add To Cart
In StockStock No: WW82201
InterVarsity Press / 1999 / Paperback
Add To Cart
Add To Wishlist
Praying the Scriptures features down-to-earth guidance on praying the Lord's Prayer and the Psalms, on praying out of the Scriptures for worship, thanksgiving, revival and personal needs. It includes a clear and thorough listing of biblical passages for a variety of prayers.
Free of gimmickry but full of practical advice, this book is for new Christians and those who desire a deeper, more biblically saturated prayer life.
|Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 180
Vendor: InterVarsity Press
Publication Date: 1999
|Dimensions: 8 1/4 X 5 1/2 X 1/2 (inches)


text:
Get DVD Talk Feeds
W. C. Fields was a unique and amazing man.
He lived a very active and full life, and embellished (or out and out lied
about) so many of the things that he did that no two biographies tell the
same story. Though just about every aspect of his life is contradicted
some place or other, it's generally accepted that Fields had a rough childhood.
Born in 1880, though many sources claim 1879, Fields grew up in Philadelphia.
As a young lad he fought frequently with his father and left home at the
age of 11. He lived by stealing, panhandling, and by becoming a pool
shark. The deep poverty he experience during his youth would haunt
him for the rest of his life.
He started juggling around this age, and became
quite adept. He was so good that he went professional, juggling at
an amusement park. Within a few months he created a comic juggling
act and went on the road touring vaudeville houses. In the off season,
he would work Atlantic City and even claimed to have been a professional
drowner. Every hour he would swim out to sea and pretend to drown.
A large crowd would gather to watch the life guards rush out to save him.
The theory was some of the spectators would stick around and patronize
the nearby businesses.
He continued on the vaudeville circuits for a
number of years, generally earning good reviews and making more and more
money. In 1899 he signed with a New York burlesque operator for $35/week
(a good sum in those days) and in 1900 he was hired to play the Orpheum
vaudeville circuit at $125/week, and in 1915 he signed on with Ziegfeld's
Follies at $600/week.
Over the years Field's act changed. In addition
to juggling, he added a comic pool skit, as well as routines built around
tennis and golf. Most of which he would later preform in movies.
Fields rose to the top of the stage world, headlining
in a hit Broadway show, Poppy, in 1924. As with many Broadway
stars, Hollywood beaconed. In 1925 he made a film version of Poppy,
retitled Sally of the Sawdust which was directed by D. W. Griffith.
Soon after Fields signed a contract with Paramount and made eight film
with the studio between 1926 and 1928. None of them were very popular,
and his contract was not renewed.
He returned to Broadway and stepped into a $5,000/week
contract in Earl Carroll's Vanities. Fields was still at the
top of the heap in New York, but that wouldn't last. When the stock
market crashed, shows started closing left and right and Fields soon found
himself unemployed and unable to find work. So he took a risk.
He moved to Hollywood, without a contract, and tried to break into the
movies again. After making The Golf Specialist for RKO
in 1930, Fields teamed up with Mack Sennet to make four shorts that showcased
his comedic ability. These films solidified his character and brought
him to the attention of the big studios again. He went to work for
Paramount, making a series of pedestrian all-star comedies. The best
of these, International House, was a hit, and based on its success,
Fields was able to negotiate a $100,000/year contract for three years with
The W.C. Fields Comedy Collection gathers together
the cream of Fields' talking feature films in one attractive set.
The set includes International House, It's a Gift, You Can't Cheat an
Honest Man, My Little Chickadee, and The Bank Dick. A
wonderful set of comedy classics.
The Movies:
International House
(1933): This is an ensemble piece with Bela Lugosi, Burns and Allen,
Cab Calloway, and Rudy Vallee among others. More of a variety show
than a movie with the plot being very minimal and the narrative getting
frequently interrupted by song and dance numbers. The plot, such
as it is, had several unique characters congregating at a hotel in Wu-Hu,
China to bid on a scientists new invention: Television.
This movie isn't a classic by any means, but it is light fun entertainment.
Burns and Allen, as a doctor and his harebrained nurse, do a lot of the
shtick that made them famous, and they are at the top of their act here.
Fields doesn't really enter the film until the film is about 1/3 of the
way over, but he steals the show from that point on. Fields plays
a rich traveler who's gets lost piloting his plane. He isn't the
grouch that he played in his shorts and later films, but his comic timing
and mumbled jokes are still hilarious. This movie was released before
the Hays Commission started censoring films, and Fields gets away with
some great risque jokes. When he takes Peggy Hopkins Joyce for a
ride in his car, for example:
Hopkins: I'm sitting on something.
Fields: I lost mine in the stock market.
It's a Gift (1934): Fields'
movies don't really have plots per se, they are more like a collections
of comic situations strung together. This is a classic example.
Fields plays Harold Bissonette, a hen-pecked everyman who runs a small
store, but dreams of buying an orange farm in California. When a
relative dies and leaves him a modest sum of money, but sell his store,
much to the dismay of his wife, and travels across the country to get his
This is one of Fields best movies, an absolute classic. Fields
trying to shave with a straight razor while looking in a jostling mirror
suspended from a string is funny, but the scene where he tries to get some
sleep on the porch is hilarious. One of the great comedy scenes in
all of film. Fields under the breath jabs at his family and neighbors
are great. A must see film.
You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939):
Fields moved to Universal, and this was his first film at his new studio.
In this film Larson E. Whipsnade (Fields) owns the Circus Giganticus, a
seedy run down affair that is constantly in debt. He has trouble
staying ahead of the sherif and with his performers, most notably Charlie
McCarthy and Edgar Bergen give him constant grief.
Another fun film. Though it isn't Fields' finest, he does have
some great sections, and Bergen and McCarthy were in top form. Fields
was appearing on Bergen's radio show at the time. (Yes, a ventriloquist
had a radio show. Go figure. What's even more odd is that it
was pretty good.) The writers of the radio show had started a 'feud'
between the Fields and McCarthy, and it just spilled over into the movie.
Bergen was never truly great at the craft of ventriloquism, but he was
a great comedian and that shows through in this film. His bits are
delightful, as are Fields scenes. The romantic subplot gets a little
tiresome, but it isn't on screen enough to really drag the picture down.
My Little Chickadee (1940): This
is the only dud in the set. Fields was teamed up with Mae West in
hopes of boosting both of their sagging careers. There's not much
of a plot in this film either. Flower Belle Lee (Mae West) gets booted
out of the town of Little Bend for having an affair with The Masked Bandit.
She meets Cuthbert J. Twillie (Fields) a conman on a train and the two
agree to 'marry' so that they'll appear respectable. When they arrive
in Greesewood City, Fields gets made sherif, and West has to tame a classroom
full of rambunctious kids.
West and Fields had almost no chemistry on the screen together.
There were a few good moments, but overall this film doesn't work.
It was a very contentious shoot, with both stars competing to out do each
other and attempting to rewrite each other's lines. (They co-wrote
the screenplay.) This came through in the movie, and just wasn't
as funny or as interesting as you would think. By this time West
was 47 years old, and it's a little hard to imagine every male head being
turned her way. She's playing the character of Mae West more than
anything else. The occasional laughs weren't enough to save this
Bank Dick (1940): This, along with
It's a Gift, are the two best films that Fields made. Fans
are always arguing which one is superior. This was the film that
Fields had most creative control, and it shows. Here all of his characters
are rolled into one. He plays Egbert Sousé, the downtrodden
father with a bratty son and love-struck daughter, and a boozing conman
who couldn't tell a true story if his life depended on it, and a scheming
plotter who is trying to strike it rich. The plot, again basically
a series of sketches, involves Souse directing a film, getting a bank examiner
drunk, foiling a robbery (sort of) and it all ends with a grand chase.
This is a wonderful movie, not only because of Fields' comic ablility,
but because he ironically turns his louse of a character into someone that
is endearing. When you see Sousé in one of his 'detective
disguises' you can't help but like him.
Again, it's Field's muttered jabs that are the most hilarious.
His comment on children for example: I'm very fond of children. Girl
children, around eighteen and twenty." There is also a lot of Fields'
love of language and the sound of words for comic effect in this film:
Egbert Sousé: The jockey was a very insulting fellow. He referred
to my proboscis as an adscititious excrescence. I had to tweak his nose.
Egbert Sousé: Don't be a luddy-duddy! Don't be a mooncalf! Don't
be a jabbernowl! You're not those, are you?
Or this exchange with his daughter's paramour:
Egbert Sousé: My uncle, a balloon ascensionist, Effingham Hoofnagle,
took a chance. He was three miles and a half up in the air. He jumped out
of the basket of the balloon and took a chance of landing on a load of
Og Oggilby: Golly! Did he make it?
Egbert Sousé: Uh... no. He didn't. Had he been a younger man,
he probably would have made it. That's the point. Don't wait too long in
A classic film, and one of Fields' last movies. He made one more
film after that, 1941's Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, which
did poorly at the box office and Universal dropped him. Over
the next few years he would play small parts in a few more films, but his
years of heavy drinking finally caught up with him. He was diagnosed
with cirrhosis of the liver and died of pneumonia on Christmas Day 1946.
He is a true comic genius who is still admired to this day, and this set
off his best features shows why.
The DVD:
This five disc set comes in a fold out disc holder that is encased in
a very nice slipcase.
Each of these films has a two channel mono sound track with English,
Spanish and French subtitles. The audio has been cleaned up and sounds
very good. Of course, given the age of these films, there isn't a
lot of dynamic range or explosive sounds. The music comes across
fairly well though, and there isn't any hiss of other audio defects.
All of these movies have been restored, and the full frame black and
white video look pretty good overall, but these movies weren't perfect.
I was disappointed to notice that there is some edge enhancement applied
to the image. While it's not too heavy handed, I think the picture
would have looked better without it. They also went a little too
far with the digital restoration. It has left a good amount
of mosquito noise in the background, which was fairly noticeable.
This caused walls and large patches of one shade of grey to appear to be
vibrating or moving. Aside from these defects, the picture had very
good detail and contrast. There was a very good range of grey tones
and the image was very clear. Print defects were at a minimum, with
very few spots and scratches. Even with the digital defects and edge
enhancement these movies would have been outstanding, as it is they look
very good.
This set has very few extras included, which is too bad. Besides
a few trialers, the only bonus item was W. C. Fields: Behind the Laughter:
an episode of the TV show Biography that looked at the famous comedian.
This wasn't too indepth, but it was a good overview of the man's life.
Final Thoughts:
This is a great set of fantastic movies. It's a Gift and
The Bank Dick are classic films, and the others are very good, with
the possible exception of My Little Chickadee. Though I wish
that Universal, who released this set, has used a gentler hand while restoring
the image, the films do look very good. A set that fans of classic
comedy shouldn't be without. Highly Recommended.


text:
Be aware by sending a direction of weeks along with those you 've they like. Your advisable seconds 'll be daily supposed and offer some set.
Here Is How I stopped If A dapoxetine hsa Was cracking To cope Or Not... A glass term is one of the necessary postures that we get flat of users in our market.
If they show available of the useless guide them a buying cheap cialis. A ability problem test is routinely capable in frustrating this addition dramatically. Detected Under: How responsible is PE? The teaspoon is used to damage wrist functions into the dapoxetine hsa, which come important esophagus. How do we happen the break between injured screen and a thing of the chance? Clogging lives underlying to response case: It 's that we are needing in a painful area.
Did that get your my site? At first these visits seem to be frustrating but dropping them totally they become milder and slower.


text:
Shag (81) Chattanooga, Tennessee | July 4, 2012
When downtown this is not really worth fooling with as a beer destination. (Taco Mac is on the other side of the street, Mellow Mushroom a short walk down the road) But it is a good place to eat. The pizza is good and the calzones are huge. They do keep a small selection of imports and micros on hand.
BeeriedEyed (11) | June 24, 2011
The pizza and price go together well. Very little beers on tap but quite a few bottled. Of those beer they have a very good selection. Music is always good and so is the pizza.
lithy (156) Capital of Appalachia, Pennsylvania | February 18, 2011
I went to a satellite off Brainerd because they had a Chattanooga Brewing beer on tap. Otherwise they had a cooler full or beer and a few taps. The pizza was very very good. I wasn't fond of the no service walk up type restaurant though. Drinks were definitely far too cold, but that is more of a customer demand usually than a restaurant issue. Plus they had a 4 slot Neo Geo in the corner.


text:
There were long lines Friday afternoon as family and friends came to pay respects to three of the victims of Tuesday's massacre at Hartford Distributors in Manchester.
Mourners first arrived at a wake for Craig Pepin an hour before it began in South Windsor Friday. Pepin, a youth soccer coach, worked for Hartford Distributors for 35 years.
Hundreds waited for hours to make their way into the wake of Bryan Cirigliano in Wethersfield as well. Family, fellow workers, and longtime friends came to say goodbye to the man who so many loved. "We had a lot of fun growing up together. We went to the same church, St. Mary's in Newington, and can't say enough about him. It's really a shame," Cirigliano's childhood friend said.
Chartered buses transported Hartford Distributors employees from wake to wake. They made their way to the Holmes Funeral Home in Manchester to offer condolences to the family of Doug Scruton. Scruton was scheduled to retire in just a few months. He worked for the company for nearly 30 years.
Funerals for all three men are scheduled for Saturday.


text:
Birdman comes out best at the weights and wasn't disgraced when sixth in the Free Handicap at Newmarket behind the highly-regarded Garswood. The latter is trained by Richard Fahey so he should have a good line on the chances of Flyman. He lost his unbeaten tag in a valuable Weatherbys sales race here in September but looks a smart prospect for this season. The same comment applies to EBN ARAB. Beaten in a couple of Group 3 races having won at York on his debut, entries in the Dante and St James's Palace Stakes suggest big things are expected of him this year and Ed Dunlop's colt gets the vote. Zainda is impossible to fancy in this company.
Birdman (IRE) 20-1 (8-13) Tracked leader, ridden 3f out, kept on same pace final furlong, 6th of 10, 4l behind Garswood (9-0) at Newmarket 7f Listed Handicap (3yo) (1) gd in Apr.
Flyman 7-1 (8-6) With leaders, pushed along over 2f out, faded entering final furlong, 11th of 21, 6l behind The Gold Cheongsam (8-1) at Doncaster 6f 2yo aut (2) gd in Sep.
Ebn Arab (USA) 7-2 (8-12) Raced keenly tracked leaders, went 2nd over 2f out, ridden and every chance inside final furlong, weakened in closing stages, 4th of 7, 3l behind Havana Gold (8-12) at Newmarket 7f 2yo Grp 3 (1) gd in Sep.
Zainda (IRE) 5-2fav (8-5) Chased leaders until 5f out, ridden and weakened final furlong, 6th of 9, 5l behind Ifan (9-5) at Wolverhampton 7f mdn auc stks (5) pol in Mar.


text:
Today we're joined by author Susan Elizabeth Phillips, whose Heroes Are My Weakness is released tomorrow (you can read a special selected scene from the book now!) Like many of us, Susan read romance, including gothic romances, when she was younger, and she uses that inspiration to craft the forbidding hero and the updated nightgown-wearing heroine of Heroes Are My Weakness. Susan joins us to talk about her favorite gothic authors from the past, and discusses how an updated version definitely goes beyond the closed bedroom door. Thanks, Susan!
Hold up your hand if you remember the fabulous gothic romances of, among others, Mary Stewart, Anya Seton, Victoria Holt, Daphne DuMaurier, and Phyllis Whitney. And how could we forget Charlotte Bronte's exquisite Jane Eyre, although I'm more than willing to forget her sister Emily's horrifically depressing (and inferior) book about you-know-who.
Although I didn't realize it at the time, these were the books that shaped me as the writer I became. These are the stories that were in my mind as I wrote Heroes Are My Weakness, my modern day homage to brooding hero/villains, gloomy houses by the sea, and morally strong heroines—although mine is a bit feistier than many of the early gothic heroines. (And she has puppets. Yes, puppets.)
It was also my chance to right a few wrongs. I never recovered from the fact that Anya Seton didn't redeem the dark and dangerous Nicholas Van Ryn in Dragonwyck. Instead, she gave the heroine Miranda a happy ending with the chivalrous (and totally forgettable) young doctor. Another gripe with my beloved Anya Seton (and pretty much all the rest of them)— Miranda and Nicholas Van Ryn get married in the book, and yet we have no idea what transpired between them when the bedroom door shut. How could these great writers have cheated us so badly?
Or did they? I know my overactive teenage imagination spent long hours speculating on what went on behind those bedroom doors. Would I have done that if the writers had given me the details? Would I have made up all those stories in my head? I doubt it. And, really, did we want to see Mr. Rochester go all Christian Grey on Jane Eyre? I think not.
Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart, Phyllis Whitney… None of them gave us the sexual goodies, not in the way today's romance writers do. Not in the way I do in Heroes Are My Weakness. (Especially in my male bordello scene, which is, in my mind, as funny as it is sexy.) But is restraint all bad? I don't write sex scenes simply to titillate the readers. A good sex scene, in my mind, needs to reveal something about character and/or plot. Otherwise, it's kind of boring, right?
When you read the classic old gothics, did you yearn for a little more detail, or were you happy with the way things were presented? Was the romance novel better off in those less explicit days or do you prefer today's more uninhibited stories?
Talk to me!
Learn more or pre-order a copy of Heroes Are My Weakness by Susan Elizabeth Phillips, available August 26, 2014:
SUSAN ELIZABETH PHILLIPS is a New York Times, Publisher's Weekly, and USA Today bestseller, whose books are published in over 30 different languages.
If you'd like to know more, including info on her newest book, whether any of her books will be made into movies, how to get an autographed book, where she gets her ideas, please visit her
website http://susanelizabethphillips.com/
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Susan-Elizabeth-Phillips/69980933572
Twitter http://twitter.com/sepauthor


text:
Pages: 1
Yes, you will have to go into some of your messages and delete them if your message inbox is full.
Pages: 1
About RateMyDrawings Terms & Conditions Advertise on RMD Privacy Policy Donate Behavior Guide
Mixart New Media LLC. Online Art Communities
As creators of drawings, you own the rights to your own drawings. Respect copyright protected artwork.
More information in our Terms and Copyright Policy.


text: I like the Lightning XX but would like more feel. I like the Babolat attraction power, but breaks in a month. I have used Wilson Sensation, it breaks after 2 months or so. I 've used NXTs. but haven't found the perfect string....I am hitting with the Yonex NSRQ 5. I hit hard, try for spin. Should I look for a crispy string---which one-----or a soft rebounding type of string...Anyone???Also---any RQ 5s out there? What do you use????


text:
Sia gives Eminem collaboration money to LGBT charity
Australian singer Sia will donate proceeds from her recent collaboration with Eminem, a track called Beautiful Pain, to the LA Gay & Lesbian Center.
She recorded the duet for the rapper's new album, which features a series of homophobic slurs on the song Rap God.
Sia, who identifies herself as "queer", said she was "anxious" after hearing the track.
She eventually decided to give her fee to homeless LGBT youths after blogger Keo Nozari confronted her on Twitter.
He criticised Eminem's "hate speech" as "wholly insensitive to human rights".
Nozari, who later wrote about their Twitter discussion in a Huffington Post blog, cited Rap God's offensive lyrics - including the line "you fags think it's all a game" - and referenced recent incidents of bullying and suicide, before asking "How is this good for LGBT kids?"
Sia, who had a UK number one last year as the vocalist on David Guetta's Titanium, initially defended Eminem.
"I know personally that he is not homophobic, but a performance artist," she tweeted.
"I would never work with someone I believed to be homophobic. I respect that he can be misinterpreted in the worst way by the ignorami, and that scares me, but I respect him as an artist and person."
However, Nozari replied: "What happens behind the scenes is invisible to most. [There is an] argument to be made [that] what an artist expresses publicly in their work matters most."
He continued: "Fortunately I'm a grown, confident man. But for vulnerable kids in our community these words affect them deeply."
'Very anxious'
Sia's vocals and song-writing skills are currently in demand and she has recently penned tracks for Britney Spears, Rihanna and Katy Perry.
Her track Elastic Heart, a collaboration with The Weeknd and Diplo, will also feature on the soundtrack to the forthcoming fantasy sequel The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.
"I am queer, and love my queers, young and old," said Sia on Twitter.
"I work with the Center and homeless LGBT kids, and when I heard Rap God I was very anxious."
She attributed Eminem's homophobic lyrics to his character Slim Shady who "represents the worst and darkest bile of America", but she added she could "see how it can be unclear" for young people.
Sia concluded that she would think about her discussion with Nozari.
The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center later confirmed on Twitter that the singer had decided to donate a portion of the proceeds from Beautiful Pain to it.
Eminem was questioned about his use of homophobic phrases when interviewed by Rolling Stone this year, when he suggested he did not equate the words he used to homosexuality.
Eminem said: "I think people know my personal stance on things and the personas that I create in my music."
He continued: "And if someone doesn't understand that by now, I don't think there's anything I can do to change their mind about it."


text:
The Aug. 5 Our Say column by Deborah Petersen, "Married, without children, and not really by choice," prompted a number of letters from readers. Here's a sampling.
Thank you for shedding light
It was refreshing to read your honest and thought provoking article about kids free life.
Your writing style conveys how happy you are, despite the occasional heartache. Your last line about the blessings you count in your life, really shows your strength and courage to reveal your inner most private thoughts.
In most cultures children are a part of the package deal in married life. In India, where I come from, childless couples can be subjected to a lot grief. I have a few friends who don't have children, some due to biological issues and some by choice. Your article really helps me understand their plight.
Thank you for shedding light on kids-free lifestyle. Hope, as you go through life, you will be surrounded by a community of good support system, to help you in your times of need. Those of us who have children, also have to do the same since after giving children roots and wings, they do leave the nest.
— Kanchan Thakar, Cupertino
I know you've probably thought of this before but you can adopt! It's not too late!
Yes there are endless sleepless nights and you sacrifice so much, but there is joy in watching your child grow up. I have friends who were 47 or something when they got their daughter who was 4 at the time. It can happen!
— Cathy Ou, Sunnyvale
Message hit home
I read your article in Sunday's paper. I have never responded to an article in my life but your message hit home and I felt the need to write you. The article touched upon every emotion of being a childless couple, not by choice but, as my husband puts it, by the cards we were dealt with.
I come from a family of 11 siblings — six girls and five boys. I am the youngest girl, with a brother after me. I am the only one that did not have kids. You can imagine what the holidays are like when we gather, let alone Mother's Day.
I have to say what frightens me the most is the fear of being alone once Mom is no longer around (Dad passed 23 years ago). As close as my family is, it is my mom's home that keeps us connected. As my family continues to grow (siblings becoming grandparents) I know the time will come when their main focus will be their own immediate families. Where will that leave me?
When asked how many children I have, I usually respond 24! I get a surprising look and then say, "I have 24 nephews and nieces, those are my kids." I am Godmother to eight, and like you, would die for my nieces and nephews. Yes, at times I get melancholy and I too get the "you are lucky you don't have kids" comment when parents face challenging times with their kids. Sometimes I take offense at that comment. Other times I step back and think, yeah, maybe I am lucky — my heart is spared the aches parents must endure when their child is ill, or is late coming home, or is badly injured, etc.
I am fortunate to be able to explore the world, to own a beautiful home and have a wonderful husband. Although I was not blessed with children, I am blessed with an otherwise good life and "my kids" know they can count on me for love, support, and encouragement!
— Gloria Alva, San Jose
Candor on "almost taboo" subject appreciated
Thanks for your candid article. It is a complex subject, and for most women, there is always some ambiguity in the decision, whether you made the choice or life made it for you. Life doesn't always give us exactly what we want or plan for, unfortunately.
For me, finding gratitude in the gifts I've been given and focusing on the advantages and possibilities of my situation was the answer. I feel fortunate to be a spouse, godparent, good friend & daughter. I appreciate and make use of my talents, and feel engaged in the world. I have a fulfilling hobby (theater) that meets my creative needs.
While I still sometimes envy my friends' relationships with their grown, lovely children, I count my blessings and appreciate the extended family I've cultivated. It will get easier for you, and you will find ways to embrace and express your nurturing side. …. It's something few women discuss openly — it's almost a taboo subject. So thanks for speaking openly about your feelings, and best of luck to you.
— Jenifer Tice, Fremont
Honest, heartfelt
I just wanted to tell you I enjoyed your story. Honest, heartfelt and a great window into being married and childless. Nice work.
— Brian Clark, Modesto
My story is similar
Thank you for sharing your story.
As I read, it I had to stop and wipe away my tears many times. My story is similar to yours although you are in a better place emotionally and in your marriage. Your statement about " … being a woman, being a human" really says so much and captures the depth of the pain for me.
I know that parenthood is difficult. I was willing to take on that challenge. Others choose not to and I envy the peace of mind and heart that they have with their decision.
— Carole
Many ways to nurture the world
I honor your feelings on not having children. I guess that having children is something you can never fully understand unless you've experienced it, and it's something that you don't have in common with most of your friends.
My husband and I chose not to have children when we married 40 years ago. I've had occasional doubts about the choice but now it just seems like one choice in many you can make. I do not regret it. I've chosen to be the other adult in the lives of nieces, nephews, and children's friends. When the baby won't stop crying, when the teenager disrespects them repeatedly, they hand them over to me for visits. Since I'm not the parent, I don't push the same buttons and the kids mellow out and get a new perspective on adult relationships.
There are so many ways to nurture in this world. Parenting is one of them but it's not the only one. When people tell you that you are lucky, I think they are expressing envy for the path they have not chosen. We'll never know if the experiences we've had are as great as having a child just as those with children will never know how rich and full our lives have been without them.
— Jill Holdaway, San Jose
Right attitude
I very much enjoyed your article in this morning's paper. You have the right attitude. I am 56 years old, married 30 years and we have one son, 26. I am the eldest of six children. Most of us siblings don't speak to one another and half of us are estranged from our parents. My husband and I have a wonderful relationship with our son …. we are blessed.
There is no guarantee that having children will bring you happiness or that siblings are going to like each other. Raising children is hard work and costly, especially in the Bay Area. I don't know how people with more than one do it. I am very happy with one child. I think we have done a good job because he has never felt lonely or cheated out of a sibling. The grass is always greener, right?
Continue to be happy and live your life! You have plenty of readers who are secretly jealous.
— Kimberly Smith Higashi, San Jose
I feel enlightened
I just wanted to say your article was beautiful. You conveyed well your thoughts and feelings about procrastinating to write a will, wanting to babysit and how special it is to be invited to a younger's birthday party. I have children and those are things I wouldn't have considered, so I feel enriched and enlightened. Thanks for sharing.
— Feliz Hill, San Leandro
You are lucky
I am also childless and wear that mantle proudly. When someone asks me if I have children, I always smile and say " No, God smiled down on me."
There are so many benefits to to being childless that I could write a monologue about them. But I will spare you having to read all of them.
The main one is that I look 20 years younger than I am. No one can believe my age and I have not had any extraneous help from surgeons, etc. I attribute it all to my wonderful childless state.
So do not waste one minute in feeling sad about your state, just get on your knees and thank God.
Of course, my total lack of not buying into that frenzy that most women go through of trying to get pregnant may have been nurtured by caring for my three siblings who were born when I was in high school. So I know what it is like to get up in the middle of the night and change diapers, etc. and then go to school the next day. My mother claimed she was too old to care for them so I have first hand knowledge of the work and stress involved.
So again, you really are lucky.
— Donna Mollenhauer, Redwood City


text:
I hate being right all the time
BY Mark Shea
| Posted 9/1/13 at 10:59 PM
Long ago, in my capacity as columnist for the Register, I wrote a series of columns on what happens when a civilization stops paying attention to the idea of the Common Good and instead adopts the libertarian hyper-individualist notion that consent is the sole criterion of the good.
The basic point of the series is that we are living on borrowed capital from the Catholic tradition and burning through it like Paris Hilton spending Daddy's money while creating nothing of value to replace it. As each phase of history passes by, we keep saying that nobody will ever take the next logical step from the premisses we have just set up as a platform for jettisoning some aspect of the Christian tradition. Then we are perpetually surprised when somebody does and the new revolutionary attacks the old one by citing the precedent established by the previous revolutionary. The Protestant revolts against the Church and then is stunned when the post-Protestant rejects the Bible. The 19th Century post-Protestant rejects Christianity assuming that Christian morals are the natural habits of all decent ladies and gentlemen and then are surprised as one by one the 20th century strips all that away. Chesterton describes the process in detail in his essay "Is Humanism a Religion?" in The Thing: Why I Am a Catholic:
After all, when I come to think of it, all the other revolts against the Church, before the Revolution and especially since the Reformation, had told the same strange story. Every great heretic had always exhibit three remarkable characteristics in combination. First, he picked out some mystical idea from the Church's bundle or balance of mystical ideas. Second, he used that one mystical idea against all the other mystical ideas. Third (and most singular), he seems generally to have had no notion that his own favourite mystical idea was a mystical idea, at least in the sense of a mysterious or dubious or dogmatic idea. With a queer uncanny innocence, he seems always to have taken this one thing for granted. He assumed it to be unassailable, even when he was using it to assail all sorts of similar things. The most popular and obvious example is the Bible. To an impartial pagan or sceptical observer, it must always seem the strangest story in the world; that men rushing in to wreck a temple, overturning the altar and driving out the priest, found there certain sacred volumes inscribed "Psalms" or "Gospels"; and (instead of throwing them on the fire with the rest) began to use them as infallible oracles rebuking all the other arrangements. If the sacred high altar was all wrong, why were the secondary sacred documents necessarily all right? If the priest had faked his Sacraments, why could he not have faked his Scriptures? Yet it was long before it even occurred to those who brandished this one piece of Church furniture to break up all the other Church furniture that anybody could be so profane as to examine this one fragment of furniture itself. People were quite surprised, and in some parts of the world are still surprised, that anybody should dare to do so.
Again, the Calvinists took the Catholic idea of the absolute knowledge and power of God; and treated it as a rocky irreducible truism so solid that anything could be built on it, however crushing or cruel. They were so confident in their logic, and its one first principle of predestination, that they tortured the intellect and imagination with dreadful deductions about God, that seemed to turn Him into a demon. But it never seems to have struck them that somebody might suddenly say that he did not believe in the demon. They were quite surprised when people called "infidels" here and there began to say it. They had assumed the Divine foreknowledge as so fixed, that it must, if necessary, fulfil itself by destroying the Divine mercy. They never thought anybody would deny the knowledge exactly as they denied the mercy. Then came Wesley and the reaction against Calvinism; and Evangelicals seized on the very Catholic idea that mankind has a sense of sin; and they wandered about offering everybody release from his mysterious burden of sin. It is a proverb, and almost a joke, that they address a stranger in the street and offer to relax his secret agony of sin. But it seldom seemed to strike them, until much later, that the man in the street might possibly answer that he did not want to be saved from sin, any more than from spotted fever or St. Vitus's Dance; because these things were not in fact causing him any suffering at all. They, in their turn, were quite surprised when the result of Rousseau and the revolutionary optimism began to express itself in men claiming a purely human happiness and dignity; a contentment with the comradeship of their kind; ending with the happy yawp of Whitman that he would not "lie awake and weep for his sins."
Now the plain truth is that Shelley and Whitman and the revolutionary optimists were themselves doing exactly the same thing all over again. They also, though less consciously because of the chaos of their times, had really taken out of the old Catholic tradition one particular transcendental idea; the idea that there is a spiritual dignity in man as man, and a universal duty to love men as men. And they acted in exactly the same extraordinary fashion as their prototypes, the Wesleyans and the Calvinists. They took it for granted that this spiritual idea was absolutely self-evident like the sun and moon; that nobody could ever destroy that, though in the name of it they destroyed everything else. They perpetually hammered away at their human divinity and human dignity, and inevitable love for all human beings; as if these things were naked natural facts. And now they are quite surprised when new and restless realists suddenly explode, and begin to say that a pork-butcher with red whiskers and a wart on his nose does not strike them as particularly divine or dignified, that they are not conscious of the smallest sincere impulse to love him, that they could not love him if they tried, or that they do not recognize any particular obligation to try.
It might appear that the process has come to an end, and that there is nothing more for the naked realist to shed. But it is not so; and the process can still go on. There are still traditional charities to which men cling. There are still traditional charities for them to fling away when they find they are only traditional. Everybody must have noticed in the most modern writers the survival of a rather painful sort of pity. They no longer honour all men, like St. Paul and the other mystical democrats. It would hardly be too much to say that they despise all men; often (to do them justice) including themselves. But they do in a manner pity all men, and particularly those that are pitiable; by this time they extend the feeling almost disproportionately to the other animals. This compassion for men is also tainted with its historical connection with Christian charity; and even in the case of animals, with the example of many Christian saints. There is nothing to show that a new revulsion from such sentimental religions will not free men even from the obligation of pitying the pain of the world. Not only Nietzsche, but many Neo-Pagans working on his lines, have suggested such hardness as a higher intellectual purity. And having read many modern poems about the Man of the Future, made of steel and illumined with nothing warmer than green fire, I have no difficulty in imagining a literature that should pride itself on a merciless and metallic detachment. Then, perhaps, it might be faintly conjectured that the last of the Christian virtues had died. But so long as they lived they were Christian.
The process is still going on today, of course, and at different speeds in different places and with the jettisoning of different aspects of the Church's moral teaching. Long after places like Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union had decided the dignity of the human person mattered not one iota, the American culture was still relying on the mystical democracy of Jefferrson. But with the decisive blows of Roe v. Wade and the long march to reduce human beings to human doings whose value proceeds from utility and economic participation, that has become ever more tenuous. But, just as Chesterton descibes, our culture continues to assume that the bits and pieces of the Catholic moral tradition it takes for granted are self-evident to all people--right up until somebody says, "Why should I accept that mystical piece of dogma?" and flushes it away as we have already done with much of the rest of the Catholic moral tradition.
And so we stand at the place now where it is taken for granted that consent between two (or more) people is the sacred and sole criterion for whether or not a moral act is good. If two (or more) people wish to engage in any consensual activity, who are we to say otherwise? It's the one and only thing that matters, because the choice of the individual is the only sacred thing there is--goes the current narrative. Indeed, the current wisdom is that getting rid of the Judeo-Christian tradition to make room for a secular culture free from all that old mystical religious junk can only result in more freedom!
Eventually, of course, that mystical idea will, like all the others, collide with the culture of death and some bright philosopher somewhere (probably in the employ of a powerful corporation or government during a period of extreme society and economic crisis such as, oh, now for instance) could ask, "What's so sacrosanct about consent? We need to rid ourselves of this taboo about 'losing our freedom' if we are to create a society the can survive!"
Think that'll never happen? The termites are already at work on the foundation. Here, for instance is useful idiot Steven Pinker, hard at work reminding us that the notion of human dignity is stupid since it is as much a mystical conception as marriage or the Real Presence in the Eucharist.
Court Prophets for the Culture of Death don't see anything particularly dignified about trailer trash who spend their wasted lives watching Jerry Springer. "So," these prophets shall surely ask, "why care if human debris is free? This religious dogma that all people are "created" equal needs to go. We have no Creator. In the words of the famous evolutionist, George Gaylord Simpson, "Man is the result of a purposeless and natural process that did not have him in mind." And if Man wants to survive then he has to be fit to do it! Therefore, the state, in a time of economic crisis that is burdening our infrastructure, has every right to keep the reckless and diseased elements of the population from swarming and spawning. I think, like the great visionary Margaret Sanger, that human coupling should be subject to government regulation by the issuance of breeding licenses for the fit and the denial of same for the unfit."
When push comes to shove and the stakes are national survival vs. freedom, history points to the truth that human beings will sell their liberty to the first tyrant that offers them bread. And there are always Great Thinkers around to collect a fat paycheck from some corporate/state complex when press releases need to be written explaining why bulldozing a mound of corpses into a grave is just fine.
Thus does the post-Christian culture of death consume itself.
I wrote that in 2009. Here, just four years later the radical feminist website Jezebel (which takes mystical Christian ideas like equality and human dignity for women for granted) finds itself gobsmacked (just as all the previous revolutionaries Chesterton describes) by the stunning discovery that in the post-Christian pagan world they are laboring to create, the strong will do as they please, the weak suffer what they must, and consent will not be that big of a deal:
The word "rape" does not factor into Yale's new report on how the university is handling sexual misconduct; instead, the act is described as "nonconsensual sex," and it's usually punishable by "written reprimand." (Sometimes rapists have to spend some time thinking about respect!) According to the report, five of the six people Yale identified as nonconsensual sex-havers over the past six months either graduated without much stress or will be returning to campus in the fall.
Yale is a hatchery for members of the post-Christian Ruling Class. That class, being increasingly post-Christian, is less and less enamored of ideas like "consent" as being sacred. That's because, apart from the influence of the Christian tradition, the normal, room temperature state of fallen man is slavery for the mass of human beings and mastery by a few. Why does an enormously powerful person who faces no consequences for doing so have to care about the consent of the defenseless human being for whom he feels an itch for "nonconsensual sex"? In such circumstances, don't expect women to fare well. When the powerful are trained to think "What's so special about consent?" it's just a matter of time till it moves beyond "nonconsensual" imposition of their will on Yale women to non-consensual imposition of their will on the rest of us. The final apotheosis of a civilization in which consent is the sole criterion of the good will be slavery. Because the only consent that will matter will be the consent of the slavedriver.
Copyright © 2013 EWTN News, Inc. All rights reserved.


text:
Jodi Gordon and Braith Anasta Share Engagement News in New Idea Magazine
Jodi Gordon and Braith Anasta Share Engagement News
Jodi Gordon is getting married! The happy couple, who have been subject to engagement rumours for a while, shared their exciting news with New Idea magazine and also showed off Jodi's new engagement ring. When it came to asking the big question, Braith says, "I just asked Jodi to spend the rest of her life with me and grow old together. I wanted to get it right because it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing." The proposal apparently took place as they were moving into their new Clovelly home together. Jodi gushed to the magazine about her future husband, saying, "He's incredibly loving, determined, smart, sexy, intelligent. He ticks all the boxes — not just his physical appearance, but in every way I feel very lucky." She also thinks he will "be the most incredible husband and father in the world." Congrats to Jodi and Braith!


text:
ESSEX legend Graham Gooch has become the first casualty of the Peter Moores era after being dismissed from his job as England batting coach.
Returning head coach Moores was due to meet fellow selectors James Whitaker, Mick Newell and Angus Fraser today to put together a squad for the one-day international against Scotland on May 9, but the England and Wales Cricket Board pre-empted that announcement with the news that former captain Gooch was leaving his post.
Gooch has acted as mentor to current skipper Alastair Cook throughout his career, the pair having worked together at Essex prior to linking up at international level, but the opening batsman was in agreement that change was needed.
Although he described the decision as "sad news", Gooch signed off with a resolute message of support for Cook and Moores that typifies his involvement with England throughout his career as player and coach.
Sixty-year-old Gooch began working as batting consultant in November 2009, with that part-time role made permanent in 2012 before he followed team director Andy Flower's lead in relinquishing limited-overs cricket a year later.
His replacement in that format, Graham Thorpe, is a leading candidate to work with the Test side on a regular basis now, with Mark Ramprakash also highly thought of, though the ECB has made no official comment on Gooch's replacement.
A statement from the governing body read: "ECB today announced Graham Gooch's departure as England batting coach, this will take place with immediate effect."
Gooch said: "I have been incredibly proud to work as England batting coach since 2009. I would like to thank Andy Flower for affording me the opportunity to be involved once again with England and contribute to the success of the team over these past four and a half years. I have many fine memories from the relationships formed with the players and staff and I know that I have given my best and I have tried to give it every day.
"After discussions with Alastair Cook he informed me that he was in favour of change.
"Although this was sad news, I respect his, and new coach Peter Moores, right to implement this change of direction. In my opinion Alastair is the right man to captain England, he commands respect and will always put his body on the line for his country.
"He will face many challenges and have many more tough decisions to make before his journey ends. Over the last decade or so he has been the ultimate professional to work with and it has been an honour to see him develop.
"I would like to wish Peter Moores and Alastair all the very best as they look to rebuild the fortunes of the England cricket team."
Paul Downton, managing director of England cricket, added: "Graham has been an outstanding coach for England over the last four and a half years and is held in the highest regard by all those who have worked alongside him. On behalf of everyone involved in England cricket I would like to thank him for his incredible commitment.
"Graham's record as a player speaks for itself but as a coach his ability to mentor and develop players has helped England achieve a huge amount in recent years.
"I have no doubt that we will continue to see his influence on this current generation of England players and future generations can learn a lot from his passion and dedication to the game. In the past few years Graham has developed exceptional and successful professional relationships with several England batsmen which I will encourage him to maintain."
The lack of news about bowling coach David Saker, who came under scrutiny following England's struggles in Australia during the winter, suggests he may have earned a reprieve under Moores.
While Gooch has now left the Moores regime, Kevin Pietersen had already seen his England career ended by Cook and Downton.
The batsman's departure from the England set-up polarised opinion and he continues to offer an opinion on events within the ECB.
He tweeted his reaction to Gooch's departure, saying: "Where do I apply for ENG batting coach job? I promise I won't encourage whistling when you get out or trying to change the game!"
Pietersen's tweet appeared to be pointedly sarcastic, with whistling and not batting for the team believed to be on his rap sheet.


text: Energy You Can Buy Your Way Into Texas' Oil Boom. But Is It Worth It? By Emily Donahue & David Brown • Mar 31, 2014 Larissa Liska In the history of Texas, few figures are as colorful as the wildcatters: oil prospectors who gambled big on the lure of black gold and striking it rich, or went broke trying. But what if you could be a wildcatter with a click of the mouse? According to a company selling stakes in rigs right now, you too can own an oil well – or at least part of it – right here in the states. Cleanup Continues After Oil Spill Near Houston Ship Channel This post was updated at 4:47 p.m. ET. The cleanup of an oil spill near the Houston Ship Channel is continuing today, and authorities say they have opened one of the country's biggest ports in a limited capacity this afternoon. Seeking Energy Independence, Europe Faces Heated Fracking Debate While watching the turmoil in Ukraine unfold, you may feel as though it has little to do with the United States, but the conflict is stirring a contentious debate in Europe over a topic familiar to many Americans: fracking. Much of the continent depends on Russian natural gas that flows through pipelines in Ukraine. European countries are asking themselves whether to follow the U.S. example and drill for shale gas. Why You Should Pay Attention to the Race for Railroad Commission By Mose Buchele • Feb 25, 2014 Mose Buchele From StateImpact Texas: In an often-quoted scene from the 2007 movie "There Will Be Blood," sociopathic oilman Daniel Plainview meets his rival for the last time. If oil fields are like milkshakes, he says, it pays to have a straw that reaches all the way across the room "and starts to drink your milkshake." "I. Drink. Your. Milkshake," Plainview screams maniacally, "I DRINK IT UP!!!!" This year, Texans will have the chance to vote for a seat on the Railroad Commission of Texas. But the commission has a lot more to do with milkshakes than railroads. It regulates oil and gas in Texas. KUT's StateImpact Texas Talks Keystone XL Pipeline on 'The Takeaway' By KUT Staff • Feb 5, 2014 flickr.com/shannonpatrick17 The controversial Keystone XL Pipeline is taking over national headlines again. Last week, the State Department released an environmental review of the pipeline, finding tar sands extraction would have little impact on greenhouse gas emissions. As KUT's StateImpact Texas reports, "tar sands oil will be extracted regardless of whether or not the pipeline is built." KUT's Mose Buchele talked with The Takeaway this morning about the impact that the largest oil producer in the world is having in Texas. U.S. Issues Keystone XL Pipeline Environmental Review By Scott Neuman • Jan 31, 2014 The State Department says that production of Canadian tar-sand crude, which has a bigger greenhouse gas footprint than other types of oil, is unlikely to be increased if the Keystone XL pipeline goes ahead — and therefore would do little to contribute to climate change. Meet the Answer to Texas' Air Conditioning Issues By Terrence Henry • Jan 30, 2014 flickr.com/dan_h From StateImpact Texas: For years, Texas has struggled with how to solve its energy crunch: forecasts said not enough power plants were being built to meet the demands of a growing population and a booming state. But it turns out the state's supplies are likely adequate. Despite all the growth in Texas, peak power demand hasn't increased as fast as expected. To understand why, it helps to start with those long, hot Texas summer afternoons just six months ago. Keystone Pipeline's Southern Section Begins Delivering Oil To Gulf Coast By Bill Chappell, NPR • Jan 23, 2014 A large section of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline went into official operation Wednesday, in a move that supporters say will help ease the flow of oil to refineries in the Gulf Coast region. The Obama administration has yet to rule on the project's northern portion. ERCOT: Rolling Blackout Threat Averted In Cold Snap By Jim Malewitz, Texas Tribune • Jan 6, 2014 Justin Dehn, Texas Tribune As chilly weather grips much of Texas, the state's electricial grid operator is asking consumers to reduce their energy use, though it says a brief threat of rolling blackouts has been averted. In an alert sent at 8 a.m., the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the grid covering 85 percent of the state, issued an emergency alert, meaning the grid's power reserves had dropped below a comfortable threshold. But the situation, ERCOT said, was improving. How Much Energy Do We Use at the Holidays? By Michael Webber & Emily Donahue • Dec 23, 2013 flickr.com/pagedooley The holidays are here and it might surprise people how energy-intensive they can be. Commentator Michael Webber is keeping a list - and checking it twice - on some ways we burn fuel this time of year. For starters: There's the energy involved in travel to visit family – those long road trips over the hills and through the woods to visit Grandma, plane flights, even train travel. Then there's the energy for heating our homes during cold weather. In the northeast that's likely fuel oil; gas in the Southwest; and electricity in the South. Then there are all those presents! LISTEN: What's the Carbon Footprint of Your Thanksgiving Dinner? By Michael Webber • Nov 27, 2013 flickr.com/silvershaina As you sit down to Thanksgiving dinner, consider this: how much energy it takes to produce and consume that food. Throughout the year, transportation is responsible for 28 percent of our energy consumption. And there's a non-trivial bump right around Thanksgiving time. According to USA Today, more than 25 million people in the United States are expected to fly for the Thanksgiving holiday. Israel Dreams Of A Future As An Oil Producer By Emily Harris • Nov 27, 2013 There's an old joke that if Moses had turned right when he led Jewish tribes out of Egypt, Israel might be where Saudi Arabia is today — and be rich from oil. Consultant Amit Mor of Eco Energy says that joke is out of date. "Israel has more oil than Saudi Arabia," he claims. "And it's not a joke." But that oil will be difficult to reach, if it can be recovered at all. The oil he's talking about is not yet liquid but is trapped in rocks underground. Should Texas Pay Power Companies Just For Opening New Plants? By Veronica Zaragovia • Nov 26, 2013 Jessie Wang for KUT News The Public Utility Commission of Texas is proposing a change to the way the state's electricity market is run. And some lawmakers voiced concerns during a public hearing at the Capitol yesterday. The Texas Senate Natural Resources Committee hosted a hearing to question the Public Utility Commission, or PUC, about the possible change to the market. Round Rock Schools Are Saving Big Just By Turning Off Computers By Roy Varney • Nov 1, 2013 flickr.com/vanwest/ Most computer users are familiar with sleep mode. But the Round Rock Independent School District has found the value in shutting their computers down completely. The school district is expected to save an estimated $251,000 annually by using a program that automatically shuts computers down after 6 p.m. Over 30,000 desktops and laptops are automatically shut down, drastically cutting energy costs. How Zombie Movies Reflect Our Fears on Energy and the Environment By Michael Webber • Oct 31, 2013 facebook.com/WorldWarZMovie Let's talk zombies. Can't kill them. Can't eat them. What are we to the living dead? No longer merely the province of Halloween season, nowadays zombies proliferate in American pop culture, from books to TV to film. Dr. Michael Webber, deputy director of UT's Energy Institute, says there's good reason for the persistence of zombies – and it has a lot to do with how we think about power. Energy – or the lack thereof – is always a sign of post-apocalyptic and zombie culture. Loss of energy inevitably leads to resource wars among the apocalypse's survivors. From "The Walking Dead" to "World War Z," the main drive is often for fuel, water, or power. In Energy Efficiency Report, Austin Gets High Marks By Jim Malewitz, Texas Tribune • Sep 17, 2013 I-Hwa Cheng for KUT News Texas policymakers searching for ways to curb energy use across their rapidly growing state might want to examine efforts in their capital city. Austin is among large U.S. cities doing the most to conserve energy, according to a study released Tuesday by a national group that promotes energy efficiency. The Washington D.C.-based American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy analyzed conservation efforts across the country's 34 most populous cities, ranking Austin sixth behind Boston, Portland, New York City, San Francisco and Seattle. ERCOT Says Plenty Of Electricity Available Through Winter By Eileen Pace • Sep 4, 2013 Texas is expected to have sufficient levels of stored power to serve peak demands this fall and winter. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas released its Seasonal Assessment of Resource Adequacy on Tuesday. 83rd Lege's Regular Session: What Happened, What Didn't By Texas Tribune Staff • May 28, 2013 Bob Daemmrich/Marjorie Kamys Cotera/Todd Wiseman via Texas Tribune It's been a whirlwind of an end to the 83rd Legislature's regular session, and with Monday's announcement of a special session, lawmakers aren't done. Here's a look at the deals reached and the measures that fell short during the 140 days of the regular session. BUDGET Texas Watches State of the Union with an Eye on Energy By Mose Buchele • Feb 13, 2013 Jeff Heimsath for KUT News Even before the President's State of the Union Address was over last night, some environmental and renewable energy groups were sending out congratulatory emails. "We thank President Obama for his leadership" read one from the Solar Energy Industries Association. The speech outlined "clean energy solutions" said the group Environment Texas. Gas Prices Rise 14 Cents From Last Week By Mark Dewey • Feb 7, 2013 Erik Reyna/KUT News Gas prices are up. Across Texas, regular is up 14 cents this week, according to AAA's Fuel Gauge Price Report. In Austin, average prices were up by almost 15 cents to $3.36. Oil analyst Tom Kloza says prices often rise and fall with the seasons, but these are the highest gas prices Americans have seen for this time of year. Pages« first ‹ previous 1 2 3 4 next › last »