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While I was checking out Xcel Energy's new natural gas-fired plant outside of Lubbock yesterday, the Natural Resources Defense Council was drawing attention to the company's older plants in the region.
Harrington Station, a coal plant up in the Amarillo area, was ranked as the eighth-biggest contributor of toxic air pollutant's in the state's electric sector. Tolk Station, the coal plant outside Muleshoe, ranked tenth. These plants are part of Lubbock's electric supply, through wholesale contracts with Xcel.
Both plants combined produced less than 16 percent of the pounds of toxants attributed to Energy Future Holding's Monticello unit, the state's top polluter, according to the report. Texas as a whole was 13th for air pollution, according to the report.
Xcel Energy is still studying whether new federal regulations will dethrone coal as the cheapest portion of their energy mix. As Alan Davidson explained to me yesterday, the big advantages for the coal plants are the cheap fuel and the comparitively low maintenance costs.
He likened the old coal plants to a car a family had paid off; sure, you're putting money into keeping it going and it's not the best on the block, but you're not making payments on it anymore, either.
"The question becomes, 'When do you trade in the car?'" he said.
Of course, that calculus doesn't include the issues that the NRDC was highlighting; problems we find even in West Texas. There are the mercury emissions, as well as the higher incidences of asthma and other respiratory problems critics attribute at least in part to coal exhaust.
Xcel isn't in "coal for the sake of coal," Davidson said, and the company continues to study how much of their portfolio can stay in coal, and how those plants are used. The answer isn't to fill the region with plants like the generator they toasted yesterday. Lubbock knows pretty well the consequence of putting all your generation in one fuel.


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Georgia Settles Lawsuit To Offer Voter Registration to Public Assistance Recipients
The state of Georgia has settled a lawsuit with a coalition of voting rights groups to enforce a requirement in the federal National Voter Registration Act to offer the opportunity to register to vote to anyone applying for state public assistance or disability support.
The settlement is the latest in a string of victories for voting rights advocates who have sued state after state for essentially abandoning the NVRA's public assistance agency requirements. Instead, these states have argued that the opportunity to register to vote at motor vehicle agencies is enough to satisfy the law--which has been resoundingly rejected by federal courts, prompting the settlements.
Georgia's NVRA compliance record was particularly bad, according to the latest report to Congress on NVRA implementation by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. The report says that between 2009-2010, Georgia had an estimated 6.7 million eligible voters, of which 5.7 million, or 86 percent, were registered. Of those registrations, 279 were done at state public assistance agencies, 19 at disability service agencies, and 569 at other state agencies.
"In the past several years, lawsuits filed by voting rights groups have forced other states that had been violating the NVRA to comply, with dramatic results," said Sarah Massey, a spokesperson for Project Vote, one of the groups that sued. "For example, voter registration applications from Missouri public assistance agencies skyrocketed, from fewer than 8,000 a year to an average of 115,000 per year, following settlement of a suit in that state in 2008. More than 380,000 low-income Ohioans have applied to register since a similar case was settled there at the end of 2009. Settlements were also reached in New Mexico and Indiana."
"This settlement is a major step in modernizing our registration system for public assistance applicants, who increasingly interact with agencies through internet-based and telephone transactions," says Neil Steiner, a partner with the law firm of Dechert LLP. "Voting is a fundamental right in the United States and we are pleased to assist in ensuring that it is available to all those who are eligible."
The other litigation partners included the Georgia State Conference for the NAACP, The Coalition for the People's Agenda, The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Demos, The American Civil Liberties Union, and pro bono counsel.

subset: commoncrawl


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I've recently lost my job and am struggling to pay the bills. I live with my elderly mother so don't want to cut back on heating because it could be bad for her health. Is there any help?
There are lots of things you can do to cut your heating bill including checking you are getting all of the help you and your mother are entitled to. Under the Warm Home Discount scheme energy suppliers offer extra help for people on low incomes. If you are eligible you could get a £130 rebate on your electricity bill for winter 2012/13. Plus pensioners can get a Winter Fuel Payment of £100-£300. And if your mother gets pension credit or other eligible benefits you could get a £25 payment if the temperature where you live drops to an average of 0deg C or lower for seven days.
You might be able to get a better deal with a new supplier, particularly if you have never switched before – saving you as much as £200 or more by shopping around, visit an accredited switching website to compare prices.
Insulating the loft and cavity walls of your home is a great way to save money on your heating bills. You could save up to £160 per year if you do both. Most major energy suppliers are also offering this free or at a reduced price.
There are also lots of small things you can do for free or at low cost around the home to save money on your energy bills. You can find out more by calling the Energy Saving Trust on 0300 123 1234 or fill out an online home energy check http://hec.est.org.uk/
Find out more about getting extra help on your energy bills from you local Citizens Advice Bureau during Big Energy Saving Week or visit www.bigenergysavingweek.org.uk
For more information see the CAB website www.adviceguide.org.uk. You can find your local branch of the Central and South Sussex Citizens Advice Bureau on the web at www.centralandsouthsussexcab.org.uk and our phone number is 0844 4771171. The CAB has an advice centre in Horsham.


text:
Customer Reviews
What You'll Get
Seeing music live is a great way to really feel the music, especially when you position yourself directly between the cymbals. Be at the center of it all with this Groupon.
Choose from Three Options
- $29 for admission for one (a $79 value)
- $55 for admission for two (a $158 value)
- $99 for admission for four (a $316 value)
Each Vezér-Stock admission includes a complimentary glass of white wine (red wine may be substituted for an additional charge). Five bands play back-to-back over the course of the day, with glasses of Vezér Family Vineyard's wines and food by Chef Peter's Grill available for purchase. The festival runs on Saturday, July 13, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
The Fine Print
Promotional value expires Jul 14, 2013. Amount paid never expires. Limit 1 per person, may buy 3 additional as gifts. Valid only for option purchased. Limit 1 per visit. Must be 21+ to consume alcohol. Must use promotional value in 1 visit. Merchant is solely responsible to purchasers for the care and quality of the advertised goods and services.
About Vezér Family Vineyard
Wind tousles the broad leaves of vines above clusters of grapes the off-black blue of the dusk sky. Frank and Liz Vezér, owners of Vezér Family Vineyard, originally began growing the fruit to help fill the needs of wine producers including Ravenswood and Sin Zin. More than a decade ago, they also began producing their own wines. "One could call it beginner's luck," says Touring and Tasting Magazine, "but their award-winning streak has yet to be broken. Every single wine Vezér has produced has won a top award or superior rating. Of most recent note, the 2007 Vezér Cabernet Sauvignon won double gold at the Finger Lakes International Wine Competition and a whopping 97 points at a blind tasting at Napa's Bay Leaf Restaurant."
The winery adjoins the original Pony Express offices, and one can still almost hear the sound of plodding hooves and hooves frustratedly trying to apply stamps. On a copper-roofed cupola, an equine weathervane twists to face the winds above a sweeping swath of grass that fills with chatter during weddings and other events.


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LONDON, May 4 (IFR) - HSBC expects to issue less loss-absorbing debt than it forecast this year and sees overall issuance at the low end of previous guidance, helped by new guidance from the UK regulator on what is required.
That could help save HSBC more than US$300m in annual interest payments, good news for Europe's biggest bank after it reported adjusted pretax profits of US$5.9bn for the first quarter, up 12% on the year. Profits in its investment bank jumped 35% to US$1.7bn.
HSBC had previously said it expected to issue US$60bn-$80bn of total loss-absorbing capacity (TLAC), which meet new rules requiring banks to hold debt that can absorb losses if they hit trouble. HSBC issued $31bn of the debt last year, and expected to issue about US$30bn this year and any remaining requirement in 2018.
The bank said in its results on Thursday that the Bank of England had provided further guidelines on the requirement, which is dubbed MREL in Europe.
"There's no question the guidance is helpful and it would indicate we're going to be at the lower end of the range we have indicated," Iain Mackay, finance director, told reporters on a conference call.
"We will be doing less this year, that's certainly what this guidance would indicate to us."
HSBC said it already met its 2019 MREL requirement, and would have longer to meet a 2022 target set by regulators.
The bank issued US$5.7bn of TLAC-eligible debt in the first quarter, so had US$37bn in issue at the end of March.
HSBC had previously said the interest costs for TLAC issuance could rise to US$900m this year from US$400m in 2016. Mackay said that was now likely to be US$500m-$600m.
HSBC's global banking and markets business reported revenues of US$3.89bn for the first quarter, up 14% on an underlying basis from a weak first quarter of 2016.
Rates revenues jumped 53% to US$648m and credit revenues more than doubled to US$327m. Equities revenues jumped 44% to US$334m. HSBC outpaced most rivals in those areas.
Its foreign exchange revenues dipped 10% to US$625m, however, and banking and advisory revenue rose 2% to US$894m, less than the growth reported by rivals.
HSBC said rates and credit captured "increased client flows" and FX revenues were hurt by reduced market volatility.
Chief executive Stuart Gulliver said GBM "had a great quarter".
HSBC's group adjusted profits also beat expectations, although statutory profits, including one-off items and adverse movements in the value of its own debt, fell 19% from a year ago to US$4.96bn.
The bank's common equity Tier 1 capital ratio strengthened to 14.3% at the end of March, up from 13.6% at the end of 2016, even after buying back US$1bn of shares in the quarter.
Analysts said that raises the prospect it will buy back more shares later this year due to its strong capital generation. It has bought back US$3.5bn in the last six months and Mackay said the bank would take a pause before deciding whether to restart.
"Capital strength suggests further buybacks could follow, although we understand management is prioritising investing in the business," said Gary Greenwood, analyst at Shore Capital.
Much could depend on HSBC's ability to repatriate about US$10bn of capital estimated to be stuck in its US subsidiary. The US Federal Reserve last year gave approval for its US arm to pay a dividend to the group.
Mackay said the process of repatriating US capital will take 3-5 years.
HSBC's London-listed shares were up 3.4% at 667p.
Gulliver said 2017 marks the final year of strategic actions set out in 2015 to cut costs, improve returns and simplify the business. He has tried to unwind many of the acquisitions of previous years, which created a costly and inefficient global empire.
But return on equity has been slow to turn, and came in at 8% in the first quarter, short of Gulliver's target of 10% or above. The bank does not expect to hit its 10% target this year, weighed down by heavy compliance costs and low interest rates. (Reporting by Steve Slater)


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LOGAN — Over 1,000 fans braved the rain showers on Youth Soccer Day to watch Utah State soccer fall in an overtime battle against No. 25 Arkansas Friday, 3-2, on a rain-soaked Bell Soccer Field.
Just 41 seconds into overtime, Rachel Riggs gave Arkansas the golden goal off. Senior forward Mari Miyashiro and senior defender Taryn Rose scored goals for USU.
WEBER STATE 3, WYOMING 2: At Laramie, Wyo., sophomore forward Mackenzie Harrison scored with less than three minutes for the come-from-behind victory.
MARTIN METHODIST 2, WESTMINSTER 0: At Columbia, Ky., the Griffins were shut out in the Lindsey Wilson Stanno Classic on Friday evening at Walter S. Reuling Stadium.
Cross country
UVU RUNNERS TAKE THIRD: At Orem, Utah Valley's Trac Norris and Brooke Hodson-Davies both finished third in their respective races and Utah Valley finished second, just behind Wyoming, at the UVU Invitational on Friday at Lakeside Park in Orem. USU sophomore Kelsey Girardelli crossed the finish line sixth to lead the third-place Aggie harriers
USU LOSES 2 IN CAROLINA: At Durham, N.C., USU won the first set but then lost the next three in a 3-1 (25-16, 22-25, 20-25, 19-25) loss to South Carolina Friday morning in the opening match of the Duke Invitational. The Aggies were also swept 21-25, 14-25, 10-25 by Duke.Comment on this story
SLCC WINS 2: The No. 11-ranked SLCC Volleyball team (10-4) picked up a pair of wins on Friday at the Pizza Hut Invitational hosted by Northeastern Junior College. SLCC defeated No. 4 Iowa Western Community College 25-20, 22-25, 25-17, 21-25 and 16-14. SLCC later swept Barton County Community College 3-0 25-15, 25-15 and 25-15.
UTES OFF TO 8-0 START: At Orem, junior outside hitter Chelsey Schofield turned in her third double-double on the year and the 24th of her career as the University of Utah volleyball team picked up its eighth consecutive victory over UC Irvine (25-22, 25-19, 12-25, 25-15) during the first match of the Wolverine Classic at the UVU Activities Center.


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The Law Is an Ass? Blame the Lawyers
When did the government take the decision, in complete disregard of the rights of those people who had made their homes on territory they mistakenly believed had been legally acquired?
"The law is an ass - an idiot", exclaimed Mr. Bumble, the character in Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist, about a law which seemed to him to be...
Want to enjoy 'Zen' reading - with no ads and just the article? Subscribe todaySubscribe now


text: [JURIST] Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle [official website] on Thursday vetoed a ban on human cloning [PDF bill text]. Doyle promised a veto [JURIST report] in September after the bill passed in the state assembly [JURIST report] and senate. In a statement [text] Thursday, Doyle said "The real purpose of this bill is to restrict stem cell research, which holds enormous potential for our state as well as the promise of curing juvenile diabetes, spinal cord injuries, and Parkinsons disease." He pointed out that the US Food and Drug Administration has already prohibited human cloning. The University of Wisconsin-Madison [biotech research homepage] is a world leader in stem cell research, and Doyle promised that "Wisconsin will remain at the forefront of stem cell research." The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has more; UW-Madison's Daily Cardinal has additional coverage.


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Ulster will 'bring it' to final, warns Boss
ISAAC BOSS expects his old Ulster team-mates to "bring it" when they square off against Leinster in the Heineken Cup final in Twickenham next week.
The scrum-half spent five years in Ravenhill before moving south to Leinster in 2010 and has been impressed with their progress under Brian McLaughlin.
"I'm good mates with a few of them," said Boss. "They have come a long way, they had a tough pool and to make it all the way to the final is a good effort. We'll keep in touch over the next week and I'm sure there'll be a bit of banter.
"I saw the emotion on the faces of the Ulster boys after the (semi-final) match against Edinburgh, so we know they are definitely going to bring it to us."
Meanwhile, Mike McCarthy's prospects of making the Ireland squad for the summer tour to New Zealand next month suffered a blow when the Connacht second-row was cited for allegedly 'making contact with the eye or eye area' of a Glasgow opponent last Saturday.
With Paul O'Connell likely to be ruled out of the tour with a knee injury, McCarthy was pushing hard for a place on the plane to New Zealand -- he was in Carton House for the Ireland squad meeting last week.
Irish Independent


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SALT LAKE CITY — Rep. Rob Bishop's much-awaited legislation promoted as the panacea to the divisive public land conflicts on 18 million acres in Utah remains under construction, months after he promised maps and language to thousands of interested parties.
Not to worry, the Utah Republican assures.
"My sooner has turned into later. My first effort is to do it the right way, and if that takes longer, I am sorry," said Bishop, who is chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources.
But in the midst of delays and promises, anxiety over a large swath of public lands in Utah continues to grow, especially in light of a renewed push for President Barack Obama to declare a new monument and questions raised by skeptics wondering if Bishop can pull it off.
With fear that this administration — or the next — will make use of the Antiquities Act and tie up millions of acres of Utah land in a state already dominated by federal land ownership, people are checking the calendar, holding their breath and urging Bishop to quite simply, get it done.
"We've been wanting to see something since March, but we've not seen it yet," said Emery County Public Lands coordinator Ray Petersen."Through all of this, we will participate as long as it appears to be viable and appears it is going to work."
Bishop, in a recent telephone interview from Washington, D.C., promises the wait will be worth it, even it stretches several more weeks or longer.
"The bill is going to be exciting. People will win and people will lose. They have to be willing to accept that fact," he said.
The plan
Bishop's so-called "Grand Bargain," has been in the development stages for nearly three years. Its aim is to carve out land use designations in places where there has been inherent conflict over logging, oil and gas development, grazing and other industry activity and includes provisions for the establishment of new wilderness areas. It also includes protections for high-value recreation destinations.
The bill promises victory and some defeat to all the parties at the negotiating table in the eight impacted counties. It also includes a prohibition against any future presidential monument designation via use of the Antiquities Act — a component Bishop insists on being in the bill.
Some critics say prohibiting the presidential use of the Antiquities Act in eastern Utah under the Bishop bill could be a deal killer.
"Any legislation with an Antiquities Act exemption will fail, as a president won't sign legislation that relinquishes this long-standing executive branch authority," said Scott Groene, executive director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
Bishop said the whole point of his Public Lands Initiative process is to provide certainty — guarantees about acceptable land uses that county leaders, recreationists, industry and conservationists can count on in the years to come. That certainty can be annihilated with the swipe of a presidential pen via monument creation, so Bishop questioned the point of eking out such hard-fought compromises, only to have them effortlessly undone.
Ashley Korenblat, owner of Moab-based Western Spirit Cycling and heavily steeped in promoting the region's recreation economy, has been a key player in Bishop's land initiative.
She said she is optimistic that the public lands initiative can be successful, if it does not get derailed by ideology.
"The reality is there is a deal and all the pieces of the deal are on the table," she said. "The question is whether ideology will blow up the deal."
Korenblat added that if the bill is everything she think it will be, the need for the Antiquities Act in this area of the state goes away.
"That is why if we get a bill that makes sense that covers enough acreage it is super unlikely there would be a monument designation anyway."
Korenblat said she believes the beauty of the deal is that everyone will get something they need.
The impacts
The School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, with much of its land tied up in checkerboard parcels not readily accessible, will be able to consolidate some of its holdings in exchange for trading land to the Bureau of Land Management that has recreation or scenic values.
"It makes sense to get them out of some places where they can't make money for the schoolchildren and into some places that could," she said.
John Andrews, associate director and chief legal counsel for the trust lands administration, said that as an example, the organization would give up lands to the Bureau of Land Management in the Cedar Mesa area and in close proximity to Arches and Canyonlands national parks. In exchange, SITLA would receive parcels with revenue potential near the city of Green River and in Lisbon Valley in San Juan County.
"I think as we look at it, it is good to provide some finality about what should be in a conservation designation and what would not," he said. "We have devoted a significant portion of our time to try to come up with something that will work for the conservation community as well as our trust beneficiaries."
Korenblat said the recreation community stands to achieve significant progress via the bill as well, which is critical for both outdoor enthusiasts and state and local coffers.
"Recreation stands a lot to gain as well because the Mighty Five is not enough," she said. "Nobody spends their entire vacation within the boundaries of a park."
Petersen said he and his colleagues are anxious to see what Bishop is able to deliver.
"We, along with others, are anxious to see the language," he said. "With that being said, the folks in Washington are the experts on this, and so we are relying on them to do their job."
Bishop said he's tweaking some of the language in the bill because it was too vague. The ambiguities would give too much discretion to regulatory agencies and create room for conflict, he said.
"I want to tighten it up as much as possible," he said. "I want to write it so that five years from now we are not engaged in a lot of lawsuits because we don't know what the words mean. There is a lot of latitude in it for personal interpretation, and if I let that stand, all of I have done is postpone lawsuits in the short-term and guarantee them in the long run."
Bishop specifically mentioned recent resource management plans released by the BLM in the wake of the Washington County Lands Bill signed into law in 2009. The plans are the next step in carrying forward land management for the southern Utah region.
However, the Washington County Commission has objected strongly to the BLM's interpretation of the law and says the agency is ignoring compromises negotiated in good faith on a number of issues, including a northern transportation route and land that is now being proposed to be managed for its wilderness characteristics.
For that reason, Bishop says he wants to shore up the imprecise language in his legislation.
"Especially with what is happening in Washington County I think we need to have that kind of security for local leaders."
Korenblat, even as time has drawn on over the Bishop bill, is not frustrated by the wait.27 comments on this story
Over the years, she has worked on 30 lands bills around the country — and this one is complicated because it covers such a big area, she said.
"What the Bishop bill does is move to a 21st century plan for Utah's public lands," she said, "But it comes back to the pieces. A lot of different groups would get a lot out of this bill; I really think it is a grand bargain. The real question is if we are going to let the extremists run the show. By definition, the extremists don't want to cut a deal. They want the extreme."
Email: email@example.com
Twitter: amyjoi16


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The Supreme Court Judges who ensconced George W. Bush into the Whitehouse are turning in their graves tonight after one of the greatest insults ever to have been perpetrated against the American people by a sitting president.
In a nationally televised broadcast seen by around 150,000,000 Americans, George W. Bush was asked by Larry King, "Mr President, you clearly stated some time ago that anyone in your administration, if they were found guilty of leaking information which put national security at risk, they would face the full force of the law. Mr President, now that it has been established that it was you who authorised the leaking of details on Valerie Plame and all along you were willing to see Lewis Libby take the rap for it, what do you say to that?
He replied, "Look Larry, what I say to that is where have you and the American people been for the last five years? Don't you realize that compared to all my administration's other misdemeanours since I've been in office this is a very minor infraction".
"Furthermore, I'm the Commander-in-Chief around here and I interpret the law as I see fit. If I think it is necessary to lie to the American people or the international community for the sake of perpetuating my presidency, then you'd better get used to it".
"And when this is all over, I intend to see that Lewis Libby is given a cushy job for taking the rap on my behalf. I think the American people will see that I am a generous man".
"But Mr President, your approval rating has plummeted and the public is sick and tired of the sleaze emanating from the Whitehouse, aren't you worried about that?"
"Hell no, you've seen nothing yet, I've got another two and a bit more years in this job, that's plenty of time for the public to become even more disgusted with my administration". As Condoleeza and Dick said the other day, "OK we screwed it up so far and if there were an election tomorrow we'd be thrown out quick smart".
"But as I always say, I was voted president in 2000 by the vast majority of the American people and I'm here to stay".


text:
Thank you to all who tuned in live! If you missed it, the replay of the hangout is available below. Happy planning, bees!
Happy Tuesday Hive!
If you and your girlfriends are navigating your way through wedding planning and all the logistics that go into involving your best girlfriends in the most fun and stress-free way possible, join us TODAY for a live Google Hangout on Air on the topic of
How to Be the Best Bride-Bridesmaid Duo Ever!
A panel of gals that have been in the business of bridesmaid-ing as we answer some of the most frequently asked questions revolving around weddings and bridesmaids.
We'll cover:
- Creative ways to invite your bridesmaids to be in your wedding
- The latest trends and styles for bridesmaids
- Bridal Shower 101
- Destination bachelorette party situations
- Sticky situations
- Bridesmaid basics for both brides and bridesmaids
We'll be LIVE STREAMING it right here on this blog post, or you can head directly to the Google+ Event Page to watch it live there, and join in with your own thoughts and questions. (Don't worry – you won't be on camera!)
Share this event with your bridesmaids, too! And if you can't make it, the full stream will be available here after the live broadcast is over.
The panelists:
Clockwise from top left:
- Editor-in-Chief of +Weddingbee, +Cathleya Schroeckenstein (That's me!)
- +Joanne Barken, founder of bachelorette planning site +The Bach.
- +Ilana Stern, owner of bridesmaid e-retailer +Weddington Way
- +Xochitl Gonzalez of event design and planning firm +AABCreates
Our hostess for the chat will be the fabulous +Anne Chertoff.
Learn more and RSVP here, or stay tuned here as we release more ways to join the event today right here!


text:
Relay for Life kickoff meeting set for Mexia
Business Directory
By Roxanne McKnight
Staff Writer
The first meeting for Limestone County's next Relay for Life is this Saturday, Sept. 14, at 10 a.m. at Mexia's Coffee Cabaret.
The highly successful American Cancer Society fundraiser called Relay for Life is set for Friday, Oct. 26, at Fort Parker State Park, but it involves weeks of planning and a lot of fun pre-event activities,
The theme of this year's Relay is "A Ray of Hope… Wishing on a Cure."
For those who have no idea what Relay for Life is, it's a 12-hour fundraiser filled with fun competitions between teams whose proceeds benefit the American Cancer Society. The society provides direct service to cancer victims as well as funds for research to find a cure for the disease.
To read more, pick up a copy of Tuesday's Mexia News, or subscribe to our e-edition.


text:
Keranique Shampoo Reviews and Free Trials
The actual repertoire involving tresses items accessible to keep up with the locks from your contemporary lady is very gorgeous. You will discover things for each hairdressing require possible and then for many tresses - greasy, dried out, broken, hued, direct, or ugly whatever.
So, this is a nearer evaluate the important teams of hair loss items:
• Hair conditioners: Various kinds of hair will need utilizing various shampoos and conditioners. Regarding ugly, make use of hair shampoos that can help maintain your waves since it is. Should your locks are dried up, go with a deep moisturizing wash. In case your tresses are colored ensure that the particular hair shampoo you make use of is protected to get used on shade dealt with locks. For more info about Keranique free trial
• Curly hair conditioners : Immediately after shampooing, you must situation to help melt the cuticles along with moisturize. You need to opt for pH healthy along with sulfate-free locks conditioners. You will find different hair hair conditioners for wavy, curly as well as straight and for chemical addressed.
• Teeth whitening gel : They can be mild doing you hair agencies manufactured to become place on damp and also dry out curly hair helping maintain the hairstyle you need.
• Self care products : These products too, are employed fashion. They can be obtainable since ointments or perhaps dense essential liquids and are also great for practical experience lengthy too.
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text:
|Numéro de publication
|Type de publication
|Numéro de demande
|Date de publication
|24 juin 2008
|Date de dépôt
|7 juil. 2003
|Date de priorité
|7 avr. 2003
|État de paiement des frais
|Autre référence de publication
|Numéro de publication
|Vincent Dupaquis, Laurent Paris
|Cessionnaire d'origine
|Atmel Corporation
|Exporter la citation
|BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
|Citations de brevets (25), Citations hors brevets (1), Référencé par (6), Classifications (18), Événements juridiques (4)
|Liens externes: USPTO, Cession USPTO, Espacenet
The present invention relates to arithmetic processing circuitry, specifically multiplier hardware, and methods of operating the same to carry out multiply or multiply-accumulate operations (and related squaring operations) involving at least one multi-word operand that is wider than the multiplier hardware.
The invention relates in particular to hardware control of the multiplication sequence for executing such multi-word operations in an efficient manner, where the method is characterized by the particular order in which the words of the operands are handled.
Multiplication hardware necessarily has a finite size, typically defined as having a pair of single-word operand inputs and a two-word result output. In order to also carry out multiply-accumulate operations, the multiplier output is normally connected to an accumulator circuit, which is at least two-words plus one-bit wide. (The supplemental bit can be part of the result or simply be present as CARRY information indicating either an overflow in the case of addition or an underflow in the case of subtraction in the accumulate part of the operation.) The basic operation is thus R=Z±XY. For simple multiplication, R=XY, the accumulator input Z=0. For squaring operations, X=Y. The basic operation is usually designed to perform standard integer arithmetic, but multiplication hardware that performs polynomial arithmetic also exists, especially for use in cryptographic applications.
In cryptography and a number of other applications, there is need to multiply very big integers comprising a large number of words. In order to perform these operations using operands that are much wider than the multiplication hardware, the operands must be sliced into a plurality of single-word segments and fed into the hardware in some specified sequence. These segments are operated upon and the intermediate results are accumulated such that the final product is computed as a sum of cross-products of various weights. The word-wide operand segments as well as the partial results, are stored in a memory that is addressed by the multiplier hardware's operations sequencer.
A typical sequence keeps a first operand's segment constant while the other operand's segments are scanned one word at a time into the multiplier; then the first operand increments to the next word-wide segment and the scan of the second operand is repeated. If X=Σixiwi, Y=Σjyjwj, and Z=Σkzkwk, with w=2n, then R=Σkrkwk=Z±XY=Σk zkwk±ΣiΣj (xiyj)wi+j, where i+j=k, and where n is the word size in bits. Thus, in a typical operations sequence, the words yj are cycled over all j for a fixed word xi, then i is incremented by one and the cycle of words yj is repeated for the new xi.
While the above described sequence is straightforward, easy to program, and obtains the correct result, each step or cycle requires an average of three accesses of the random-access memory. In particular, each step requires that yj and zk be read from memory, and a partial result rk be written back to memory.
An object of the invention is to provide a more efficient multi-word multiplication sequence for large integer operations, that requires an average of only one memory access per multiplication.
The object is achieved by a method that processes the multiply sequence in groups of two adjacent result word-weights (referred to as columns). Within a group of column pairs, the sequence proceeds by alternating columns with steadily increasing (or steadily decreasing) operand segment weights (referred to as a zigzag pattern), so that one of the segments from a preceding multiply cycle is also used in the present multiply cycle, and, except possibly for the first multiply cycle in a given group, only one of the operand segments needs to be read from memory in any multiply cycle for that group. Additions of partial products of the same results weight are performed in an accumulate operation that is pipelined with the multiply operation. Two-word segments of a separate accumulate parameter may also be added at the beginning or end of a sequence of accumulate operations of the corresponding group.
A multiply-accumulate (MAC) unit performs the multiply and accumulate cycles as directed by a firmware-preprogrammed operations sequencer in the multiplication hardware, with reads of operand segments from random-access memory (RAM) being transferred to the MAC unit through registers internal to the multiplication hardware. Likewise, writes of intermediate and final results are conducted back into the internal register for accumulate parameter segment and ultimately back into the RAM.
A further improvement adds internal cache registers for holding frequently used parameter segments that recur at the beginning or end of each group of multiply cycles.
The invention has an advantage over prior multiply sequences in largely matching the multiplier's requirements for parameter segments to the memory access bandwidth of one read and one write per multiply cycle, so that an overall multiplication of large multi-word integers is performed efficiently in a minimum of cycles. The multiplication operation can also be spread over several cycles (using pipelining), in which case it is still considered that, on average, one multiplication is performed per cycle, since one multiplication result is available per cycle and since one new multiplication operation can be started per cycle.
With reference to
Memory management/memory protection units (MMU/MPU) 14 and 19 interface the RAM 15 and cache 17 with the processor 11 and multiplier engine 13. In our preferred implementation, there is an MMU/MPU for the processor core 11 concerning both RAM and peripheral accesses (in order to control/limit the accesses to certain zones/peripherals). Here, the multiplier engine 13 is considered a peripheral. Because the multiplier engine 13 has direct access to RAM 15, it could be a way for a user to overcome access limitations specified in the core-side MMU/MPU 19. Therefore, we provide another MMU/MPU 14 to control memory accesses by multiplier engine 13. The two MMU/MPU units 14 and 19 should be configured in a consistent way, but there is no link between them and their operation is independent.
The multiplier engine 13 typically does not have any dedicated ROM, but is configured and parameterized by the processor core 11. The control registers 25 are connected to the control registers cache 17 from which it receives commands from the processor core 11. The control registers 25 transmit command parameters and status information to the operations sequencer 23, and also interact with the MAC unit 21, e.g. to select the MAC mode (standard arithmetic or polynomial arithmetic) for those MAC units that may be capable of both types of arithmetic, to select single-word or multi-word MAC operation, and to communicate any carry values from a current or previous MAC operation.
The internal data and address registers 27 are connected to the shared RAM 15 to receive and transmit operand parameters of a MAC operation. The operations sequencer 23 is preferably pre-programmed with firmware according to the invention described herein. The operations sequencer 23 sends commands and addresses to the internal registers 27 and thence to the shared RAM 15 to direct the loading of selected word-wide operand segments in a specified order according to the present invention. The architecture is typically constructed so that, when the multiplier engine 13 is running, it has privileged access to a specific part of the shared RAM 15. This permits the core 11 to still access other parts of the RAM 15 during a computation. Alternatively, access to the shared RAM 15 could be entirely dedicated to the multiplier engine 13 during a computation and accessible to the processor core 11 only when the multiplier 13 is not using it.
The MAC unit 21 may be based on a 32-bit word size. In this case, operand lengths are always a multiples of 4 bytes and operands are aligned on 32-bit word boundaries with leading zeros when necessary. This choice facilitates address computations for the shared RAM 15 since the processor 11 typically works on byte addresses. The MAC unit 21 would have a pair of 32-bit (word-wide) operand inputs X and Y for the multiplier array, a two-word wide accumulator input Z, a two-word wide multiplier results output that forms a second accumulator input, and a two-word wide accumulator output R.
Although the MAC unit 21 only operates on single-word operand inputs X and Y, the overall multiplier engine 13, including the programmed operations sequencer 23, can be considered as a large (multi-word) integer multiplier. It supports efficient multiply operations such as multiply-accumulate of N-word numbers, square-accumulate of N-word numbers (multiplier input Y=X), multiply or square of N-word numbers without accumulate (accumulator input Z=0), and multiply-accumulate of an N-word number by a 1-word (or even 1-byte) constant A.
With reference to
Registers 25 typically include one or more operations registers for specifying a desired operation to be performed (multiply, multiply-accumulate, multiply-subtract, multiply by one-word constant, squaring, etc.), one or more control registers specifying various options (natural or polynomial mode, full or truncated operation, carry or carry input, etc.) as well as indicating operand lengths, and one or more status registers indicating various conditions (busy/idle, an overflow/underflow/zero result, error conditions, etc.)
With reference to
Letting A represent a single-word operand or a segment of multi-word operand X that is loaded into the multiplier array 31 from the data register RX, and letting B represent a single-word segment of multi-word operand Y that is loaded into the multiplier array 31 from the data register RY, then A=Σiai2i, B=Σjbj2j, where ai and bj are the individual bits of the operand or segment, and where i and j range from 0 to 31.
For multiplication over the integer field Zp,
AB=Σ iΣj a i b j2i+j.
For multiplication over the Galois field GF(2n), addition of two bits is reduced modulo 2 so that
AB=Σ k=0 2n−2(2k·Σi+j=k(a i ·b jmod 2))
There may also be a carry-in term W which is added. The handling of the carry depends on the options indicated by the registers 25 mentioned above. Note also that the carry-in term W need not have a direct relationship to the outgoing carry term from an immediately prior computation. Finally, Galois field operation has an influence over carry processing in that the adding of the carry-in term W to the least significant bit is also conducted modulo 2.
Full-scaled multiplication of multi-word operands X and Y involves a sequence of the single-word multiplications just described. X and Y are respectively N-word and M-word numbers. The general operation is R=[Z]±((X·Y)+W). This can be written in sum-of-products form as:
R=[Σ k=0 N+M−1 Z k b k]±(Σi=0 N−1(Σj=0 M−1(X i Y j b i+j))+W).
This formula is valid for both Zp and GF(2n) operations, and b=232. The three-word-plus-carries accumulator is able to compute Acc:=Acc±(Xi·Yj) or Acc:=Acc±(Xi·Yi·232), as needed. The invention resides in the particular order in which the single-word multiplies occur.
The Operation Sequence
With reference to
If successive groups of column pairs always progress in the same direction, then a number of cache registers can be provided to store certain frequently used operand segments needed to avoid two reads before the first several multiplies at the beginning of each group. In this case, five caches will store A0, A1, B0, B1 and B2 during the ascending half of the multiplication sequence (the right half of
The word size of each operand can be either even or odd, and need not be the same for both operands. The latter case is often referred to as a "rectangular multiply" operation. An example of a rectangular multiply and accumulate operation where one of the multiply operands X has an odd number of words (5) and the other multiply operands Y has an even number of words (14), and where the accumulate operand Z and the result R have an odd number of words (19) is shown in
This example also shows that the multiply sequence need not be strictly zigzag descending from top to bottom or zigzag ascending from bottom to top over an entire group of column pairs. Rather, the beginnings and/or ends of such a zigzag sequence can be displaced and even proceed in an opposite direction from the first part of a group sequence, because the needed parameters are available in the caches. Thus, in the first group R0-R1, the order can be Y0X0, Y0X1, Y1X0, instead of Y0X0, Y1X0, Y0X1 for a strictly descending sequence, or instead of Y0X1, Y0X0, Y1X0 for a strictly ascending sequence. In the second, third and fourth groups the sequence begins in the middle at Y1X1, Y3X1, and Y5X1 respectively, descends in zigzag fashion to the bottom, then jumps back up to Y2X1, Y4X1, and Y6X1 respectively and finishes in ascending zigzag fashion to the top. This can be done because operand segment X1 is stored in an internal cache, so still only one read is needed despite the jump from Y0X3 to Y2X1, from Y0X4 to Y4X1, and from Y2X4 to Y6X1 respectively in the middle of the sequence. The same goes for any of the groups omitted in
Squaring operations and square-accumulate operations proceed in the same manner as any of the preceding examples, except that the X and Y operands are identical. However, because the specific segments of X and Y are not usually the same in any particular multiply cycle, the square operations can be treated just like any other multiply operation in which the operands X and Y differ.
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|Accumulating multiplication circuit executing a double-precision multiplication at a high speed
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|Performance of an operation on whole word operands and on operations in parallel on sub-word operands in a single processor
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Owner name: ATMEL CORPORATION, CALIFORNIA
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text:
What Has the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation Accomplished?
The following items highlight the ongoing work of the WPEF, and some of the major projects that the WPEF has completed during the last 15 years of providing leadership in conserving and restoring whitebark pine throughout its range.
Ongoing Efforts:
- Nutcracker Notes has been published since 2001, and has evolved from a simple newsletter into an outlet for published research that has been cited in mainstream journals <http://whitebarkfound.org/?page_id=408>.
- Since 2004, the WPEF has hosted an annual one-day whitebark pine Science and Management Workshop on current research and restoration techniques with additional field trips to local restoration sites or nurseries. These workshops are attended by land managers, academic and government researchers, educators, and interested public, and has attracted as many as 130 participants at each workshop <http://whitebarkfound.org/?page_id=18>.
- Funded whitebark pine restoration projects in partnership with National Arbor Day Foundation, Nichols Foundation and USFS Forest Health Protection.
- Since 2012, the WPEF has awarded an annual $1000 grant for undergraduate or graduate student research in whitebark pine.
- The Ski Area Partnerships committee engages resorts in educating users about whitebark pine, and conserving and restoring the species within their management areas.
Completed projects:
- Published Methods for Surveying and Monitoring Whitebark Pine for Blister Rust Infection and Damage. The methods were taught at a landmark two-day workshop in West Yellowstone in 2004, which resulted in a number of regional survey efforts <http://whitebarkfound.org/?page_id=634>.
- Funded three whitebark pine restoration projects involving cone collecting and seedling production on the Clearwater and Flathead national forests.
- Co-sponsored the major conference "Whitebark Pine: a Pacific Coast perspective" in 2006, which resulted in a published proceedings in 2007<http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fsbdev2_026092.pdf>.
- The WPEF engaged in dialogue with the Senate Interior Appropriations Committee, which resulted in a productive dialogue with the US Forest Service on the need for funding whitebark pine restoration, and led to the establishment of the Forest Health Protection Whitebark Pine Restoration Fund.
- Organized the "The High Five Symposium: the future of high-elevation, five-needle white pines in western North America" in 2010, which was attended by over 200 people and resulted in a widely-cited proceedings published in 2011 <http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_p063.html>.
- Under a memorandum of understanding, partnered with the US Forest Service Forest Health Protection to feature projects funded by the USFS Whitebark Pine Restoration Fund. "Restoring Whitebark Pine: one project at a time" is accessible through the WPEF website. http://database.whitebarkfound.org/
- Established a Canadian chapter of the foundation, Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation Canada, to ensure range-wide cooperation on education, research and restoration of these ecosystems. Check them out at whitebarkpine.ca.
Photo courtesy of Cliff Schwab. Taken of Hinkhouse Peak Ridge, Washington Pass in the Northern Cascades.


text:
My Nonprofit Reviews
Mzwakithi S.
Review for African Library Project, Berkeley, CA, USA
I have had a wonderful and exceptional experience working with ALP. They have a unique, streamlined process that is distinct and powerful in the aid world. With ALP, you are put in touch with the needs of a unique school, rather than a Westerner's idea about what a rural school in far away 'Africa' might need. In my case, a couple of friends and I collected books tailored to the needs of Good Shepherd High School in Siteki, Swaziland. The school had asked specifically for books that would cater to its community library, which had mostly young readers. They also asked for schools that would open up the minds of young Swazis to technology. That is exactly what we tried to fulfill.
On the tail end of the process, it is the receiver that has to pay for bringing the books from the port to the schools. This idea is embedded in the philosophy that the receivers have to take ownership of the books. Furthermore, the ALP board makes an effort to use their own personal funds to go to different countries on the African continent and see if the books are taken care of. All this is pretty much unheard in the development industry, where expensive 'experts' fly first class on aid money and live lavishly in the developing world (see William Easterly's White Man's Burder and Deborah Brautigam's The Dragon's Gift).
So to ALP, here is a well-deserved and overdue 5-star ranking from a kid who grew up reading your books back in Swaziland.
Review for Mariposa DR Foundation, Ithaca, NY, USA
I was a volunteer for early February 2013 for 8 days. The Mariposa Foundatio. Took great care of us (the volunteers from Middlebury College) and exposed us to the work they were in the works of setting up, currently doing, and well as how they had grown from the work doen in the previous year. It was an authentic experience in that it was a beautiful mixture of Dominicans and non-Dominicans workin together to improve the lives (yes, quite literally all the factes of life) for young Dominican girls/teens.
I would recommend one to try out the Mariposa Foundation experience to get a taste of the beauty Nd great potential of the Dominican Republic
More Feedback
Would you volunteer for this group again?
For the time you spent, how much of an impact did you feel your work or activity had?
A lot
Did the organization use your time wisely?
Very Well
Would you recommend this group to a friend?
When was your last experience with this nonprofit?


text:
While Salem City Council is charged with developing "the policies that will direct the operation of the city," some feel this body has a responsibility to express its position on matters of wider consequence.
Residents opposed to open-topped coal trains passing through Salem on the way south to the Port of Coos Bay, for example, hope Salem City Council will make a statement on the matter, despite the fact the gesture will carry no legal weight.
The ultimate decision on coal exports will not even be made by state governors, yet Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber has requested that a regional analysis, an environmental impact statement (EIS) be done before important decisions are made. City councils in Eugene, Milwaukie and Portland have publically stated opposition about coal train exports through Oregon communities.
For example, the Milwaukie City Council passed a resolution in October (to a standing ovation) that coal trains running through the city were incompatible with city efforts to improve air quality and public health. Like Salem, Milwaukie is an Oregon town through which coal trains would pass on the way to Coos Bay.
In contrast, when Ward 5 City Councilor Diana Dickey presented a letter to Salem City Council in January, to simply "affirm [its] support of the Governor's call for federal agencies to examine the impacts of coal exports to Asia," the matter was stopped in its tracks.
Dickey's letter, drafted with Salem's Deputy City Manager, Kacey Duncan, did not ask the Council to take a position for or against coal trains, but only to support asking for more information by standing behind Kitzhaber's EIS request.
The letter, returned for redrafting, is now being re-written by Mayor Anna Peterson and Duncan, and will be re-presented at a future Council meeting by Peterson herself.
CityWatch, a Salem group which advocates to put citizen interests ahead of special interests, recently decided to contact the City Council and Mayor to recommend the City endorse the governor's request for an EIS.
According to CityWatch member and former City Councilperson Kasia Quillinan, the group has concerns with potential coal issues including, "health, environment, safety," and welcomes a regional study that might provide "unbiased facts upon which a reasoned decision concerning the coal trains could be made."
On March 1, Duncan said he has been working closely with Peterson on the revised letter, though he added, "because the letter has not been finalized, it would be premature to comment on the nature of changes."
The presentation of the new document has not been docketed for a specific City Council meeting.
According to Duncan, the Mayor will be representing Salem out of town on March 11, so the next opportunity for her to present a revised letter at a City Council meeting will be March 25.


text:
EUR/USD (a 4-hour chart)
General overview
Examining the Daily EUR/USD chart we can see that the pair has worked out the second resistance level 1.3615 and consolidated above it. So, we think that an upward movement shall continue.
The current buy signal is confirmed and strong as the Chinkou Span entrenched above the price chart and the price is above Ichimoku cloud.
The pair continues to go higher to 1.3751. Should the price overcome this level it should go for the next one which is 1.3915.
The upward movement will be strong as long as the price is above the Kijun-sen (1.3633).
If the price consolidates over that line that shall weaken the current signal to buy and shall question the further upward trend. As the result the price shall move back to the Ichimoku cloud.
The Chinkou Span is above the price chart that only confirms the bearish signal.
Bollinger Bands shows continued an upward movement, the bands continue to expand and fo upwards that suggests that the trend will continue going up.
MACD is going up as well, indicating that the current uptrend. Should MACD turn down that will be a signal for a possible correction. If the price pullbacks from 1.3615 level that could also trigger the downward correction.
Trading recommendations
We think that the price will continue going up, the bearish trend will be on for a while. If the pair goes up we suggest buying with the first target as 1.3751. Should the price overcome this resistance level successfully it should continue going to the next level which is 1.3913.
If you go long we advise you to place Stop Loss below the Kijun-Sen (1.3323). As the price goes up you can move and Stop Loss after it. When gaining profits of 50 - 60 points stop loss can be moved to breakeven zone.
You can also close your orders manually if MACD goes up or the price pullbacks from the support level 1.3615. Our recommendation is to place Take Profit slightly below the target levels – 1.3751 and 1.3915.
When opening orders please be advised to consider fundamental news.


text:
Release Notes: A new filterdiff option for removing timestamps. New grepdiff options -E and -f. Minor bugfixes.
Release Notes: This version features minor bugfixes.
Release Notes: Several small bugs were fixed. A new option was added to splitdiff to split out every file-level patch, and a new option was added to grepdiff to display matching hunks.
Release Notes: Several bugs were fixed in flipdiff and dehtmldiff.
Release Notes: A new tool was added for exchanging the order of two patches.
Release Notes: Several bugfixes were made. A new program was added for extracting a diff from an HTML page.
Release Notes: Support for ISO 8601 timezones.
Release Notes: Support for conversion between unified and context formats was added.
Release Notes: A new option --annotate was added to filterdiff, and interdiff can now strip context lines from patches.
Release Notes: The recountdiff and unwrapdiff tools were added for fixing broken diffs.


text:
Sorry, Montreal, but the UFC is leaving you for Toronto.
The worlds largest MMA organization was planning a Dec. 10 fight card in your city UFC 140 to be exact but simply cant resist Torontos charm.
Its nothing personal, though.
The UFC really appreciates your Bell Centre drawing over 20,000 fans on three separate occasions. But its also ashamed to admit that while it brought you big shows over the years, it was still flirting with Toronto on the side.
Then the Ontario city swept the UFC off its feet in April when more than 55,000 people crammed the Rogers Centre for the biggest show in company history. And now, the UFC is looking for a more intimate evening at the 20,000-plus Air Canada Centre.
But you understand, dont you? An MMA organization has to look out for itself.
(Largest live audiences in UFC history:)
UFC 129 (Toronto April 30, 2011): 55,724
UFC 124 (Montreal Dec. 11, 2010): 23,152
UFC 97 (Montreal April 18, 2009): 21,451
UFC 83 (Montreal April 19, 2008): 21,390
UFC 68 (Columbus, Ohio Mar. 3, 2007): 19,049 (17,358 paid)
The relationship between UFC and Strikeforce parent company Zuffa, LLC and Golden Glory has gone from bad to worse.
It all started when Strikeforce heavyweight champion and Golden Glory fighter Alistair Overeem refused to compete on a planned Sept. 10 card due to injury. The event would have seen him fight Antonio Silva in the semifinals of the heavyweight grand prix tournament. Overeem then signed on to compete this October in Moscow for MMA and kickboxing promotion United Glory, which is owned and operated by Golden Glory.
Zuffa responded by cutting Overeem and has now released Golden Glory fighters Marloes Coenen, Jon Olav Einemo and Valentijn Overeem.
Golden Glory coach Martijn de Jong broke the news over Twitter.
I am very disappointed to let you know that @MarloesCoenen @JohnEinemo and ValentijnOvereem have been cut from @Strikeforce @ufc, de Jong wrote.
The only question remaining is how this will affect grand prix participant Sergei Kharitonov, who not only trains with Golden Glory, but is also scheduled for the same United Glory card as Alistair Overeem.
Theres nothing wrong with being patient and polite.
But in the fight game, sometimes its worth demanding whats rightfully yours.
Take UFC lightweight Jim Miller as an example of how not to promote yourself. Hes on a seven fight win streak and is set to meet former WEC champion Benson Henderson on Aug. 14. But even if he wins, he refuses to ask for a shot at the UFC titleholder.
I try not to focus on any of that, and focus at the task at hand, Miller said on a recent conference call. Im a person that wants a challenge. I want the tough road. I want to fight all the best guys. If I feel like I can be the UFC champ, then whoever theyre going to stick in my way on my way up to that point I should be able to beat. Ill just keep fighting. If they throw me in there against somebody else, then so be it.
Mike Thomas Brown knows its do or die when he faces Nam Phan at UFC 133 Saturday.
After joining the UFC roster in January, the former WEC featherweight champion lost consecutive decisions to Diego Nunes and Rani Yahya in the span of only 21 days.
On a recent episode of the MMA Hour, Brown admitted he shot himself in the foot by fighting twice in the same month.
I thought it would have eased my mind and cut some of my problems down, Brown said. But I doubled my problems with that one.
Since hes only won two of his last five fights since dropping the title to Jose Aldo, Brown knows his UFC career is on the line.
Im going crazy; I cant wait to go in there and get the job done, Brown said. I need this one bad. And Im amped.


text:
Mushroom Gravy
Simple Mushroom Gravy
Hosting any vegetarians at this year's Thanksgiving? Serve mushroom gravy from Food Orleans in addition to the traditional turkey fixings, so they're not left out of the best part of the day.
Mushroom gravy is one of my favorite things to make, because even though it's gravy, it's so full of mushrooms that it almost counts as another vegetable. I make this sauce often, when we're eating mashed potatoes, steaks, or pork chops, or sometimes even for burgers or baked potatoes. It's highly adaptable and suitable for all of your gravying needs — as long as you like mushrooms.
Keep reading for the umami-packed gravy recipe.
Use any combination of mushrooms you like. I used baby portobello and button, but cremini and shiitake are also especially nice in this.
Sauté those babies, then whisk in some flour and let it cook a minute . . .
Then whisk in some stock and let it cook until it thickens . . .
Then whisk in some half-and-half. Milk is OK, but only if you're into not being awesome. Heavy cream equals bonus awesome points. Season to taste with salt, pepper, worcestershire, and/or Tabasco, and put it on something good.
This gravy is so highly adaptable that you can easily turn it vegan (by using all oil instead of butter, vegetable stock, and no worcestershire) or amp up the smokiness by adding bacon grease to the oil in the pan. You can add wine to the stock (either red or white) or use milk instead of cream. Change the herbs to suit your taste, add some sautéed onions or shallots, spice it up with a little Tabasco . . . There are too many variations to count. This gravy has potential! It's going places. It's got opinions. It wants to nestle into your dinner plans.
Don't turn it down.
Simple Mushroom Gravy
- 1 pound mushrooms (any variety or combination), cleaned and sliced
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme (or 1/2 tablespoon fresh)
- 1 1/2 tablespoons flour
- 2 cups stock (I use chicken. Use beef for a richer sauce or vegetable for a lighter version.)
- 1/3 cup half-and-half
- Optional: worcestershire, to taste, and/or Tabasco, to taste
- Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add two tablespoons of butter and the olive oil, letting the butter melt. Add the mushrooms (the pan will be full, but they'll shrink in a minutes) and carefully stir. Sauté over medium-high heat for about three minutes, until the mushrooms start to shrink down a bit. Season with salt and pepper and add the thyme.
- Add the garlic and the remaining tablespoon of butter. Keep cooking for six to eight more minutes; the mushrooms will get very juicy for a little bit, giving up all their liquid. Keep cooking them until that watery liquid evaporates and you just have a little buttery juice left.
- Sprinkle in the flour and stir well with a whisk. Cook for one minute, stirring. Whisk in the stock until smooth, then reduce heat, and simmer for three to five minutes, until the gravy has thickened a little. Whisk in the half-and-half and simmer for another minute.
- Taste to adjust seasoning. I like it with about a tablespoon of worcestershire and a dash of Tabasco.
Serves three to six, depending on use.
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Prioritizing and Discarding Information
Do you think like a chemist? Do you sometimes discard information without even knowing it?
Associate professor of psychology John Coley recently published an article in the journal PLOSOne that indicates a disconnect between our conscious and subconscious decision-making.
In the study chemists were asked to scan data and determine which would be best for future drug-discovery efforts.
Coley and his colleagues write that the chemists made subconscious decisions regarding the data and the information available to them.
You can find a full article on Coley's study, here.
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Photographer's Note
CHANSHAL: Like the resplendent crown for a noble face, the snow clad Chanshal range rises above the Pabbar Valley. At 4520 m the Chanshal Pass remains open from May to October. The Chanshal area also has some excellent ski slopes.
Himachal, Himalayan Beauty,to explore more : visit Himalayan Photo Art Gallery on Environmental & Cultural Heritage Of Himalayan State of INDIA Himachal Pardesh. www.5whimachal.com
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Photo Information
- Copyright: Inder Paul (himachal5w) (10)
- Genre: Places
- Medium: Color
- Date Taken: 2004-00-00
- Categories: Daily Life, Nature, Decisive Moment
- Photo Version: Original Version
- Date Submitted: 2009-07-14 13:12
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text: Just a reminder: Debian doesn't work on Dell laptops. bzimage kernels do not boot on them (the loader reboots the machine as soon as the kernel is loaded). This also precludes using "kernel-package", since it generates bzimage kernels. Is there any reason to use bzimage kernels? Are our kernels large enough to require it? (This problem bit me again today because I was trying to replace a working Red Hat 4.8 installation on my laptop with Debian.) Steve firstname.lastname@example.com -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to firstname.lastname@example.com . Trouble? e-mail to email@example.com .


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The Last Days of Disco
As far as I can tell, there's not much about their little corner of the room that screams "disco". Mostly it just screams: "white upper-east-side establishment money".
The Last Days of DiscoDirector: Whit Stillman
Cast: Chloe Sevigny, Kate Beckinsale, Chris Eigeman
Distributor: Criterion
Rated: R
Year: 1998
US Release Date: 2009-08-25
"Disco will never be over. It will always live in our minds and hearts. Something like this, that was this big, and this important, and this great, will never die. Oh, for a few years -- maybe many years -- it'll be considered passé and ridiculous. It will be misrepresented and caricatured and sneered at, or -- worse -- completely ignored. People will laugh about John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, white polyester suits and platform shoes… but we had nothing to do with those things and still loved disco. Those who didn't understand will never understand: disco was much more, and much better, than all that. Disco was too great, and too much fun, to be gone forever! It's got to come back someday. I just hope it will be in our own lifetimes." -- The Last Days of Disco
This film – like all of Whit Stillman's work – is effectively a Noel Coward comedy of manners flashed into a weird, futuristic time and place. Although ostensibly about "the last days of disco", a scene that had been, in every meaningful way, born of the mingling of black pop music (STAX, especially) with gay camp, this film spends all of its time with wealthy, absurdly loquacious, relentlessly hetero-, lily white, recent graduates of Ivy League schools.
While gay men appear in the film (as dancers, but without speaking parts) and while there are some people of colour here and there, this film is never about them. If anything, Stillman's much-loved (and now Criterion-canonized) movie is about their absence. Though a highly reductionist thing to say – for we can all agree that "whiteness" is a highly mutable and contradictory and ultimately performative category – this is pretty much the whitest film I have ever seen.
It is 'white' not just because the characters are all white-skinned – this is hardly exceptional since, in most films, all the main characters are white – but because it refuses to engage with any aspect of its subject matter that does not reflect a "whiteness", a certain performance of haute bourgeois civility that feels like it has snuck in from a time before "mixing" had confused the issue. Throughout the film, the characters talk and talk, pointing to "white" cultural signposts – Disney films, Shakespeare, Austin, Salinger, Yuppies, Woodstock – but never seem interested in the actual music or scene in which they've found themselves.
Even when, in the final scene, one of them makes the apparently impassioned speech quoted above, he sheepishly concludes by admitting that although he was practicing for a job interview later that day, he "probably" meant some of it. Disco then, is a device in this film, like a feature-length establishing shot, that is meant to convey "the very early 1980s", but which is, ultimately, never the subject of the movie.
Moreover, people just don't emote the same way his characters emote – in all three of his films, Chris Eigeman plays a character wound so tight he spits out his lines like a snake, which makes everything he says funny, but totally unlikely – and they certainly don't do it when they are pissed drunk or full of blow after a night of partying at the disco. But in Stillman's odd little world, they do. They sit there, hanging around a fabulous, Studio 54-style disco, sipping vodka, the music presumably booming like a thunderhead above them, yet they remain capable of fascinatingly witty and complex banter. As far as I can tell, there's not much about their little corner of the room that screams "disco". Mostly it just screams: "white upper-east-side establishment money".
Ultimately, what Stillman was after here was never really an examination of the "last days of disco", but rather a study of a group of yuppies (back when the word was freshly coined) as they emerged from university and looked uncomfortably at the world that they'd inherited. They are all flawed in serious ways – Chloe Sevigny's Alice is a drippy bore, while Kate Beckinsale's Charlotte is a hateful ingrate – and we struggle to identify with (or even to like) anyone. (As one commentator has concluded, this is more a comedy of mannerlessness than of manners.)
Indeed, Stillman never tries to sweep his viewers up into any romantic narrative; we just watch his characters as they talk, and talk, and talk. A credit to his pen (and, of course, his fine young actors), then that what they say, at such interminable length, is so engaging. In his brief run of three films, Stillman made a deep impression; it is a shame he never made any more.


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Dined at Lutèce on Thursday, Bonnie's Grill last night. Guess which was better. (For an overly-long description of my Lutèce dinner, see the Manhattan board.)
Well, hard to say "better" exactly, but we certainly enjoyed Bonnie's more. It was our first time, though we live in the neighborhood. We sat at the counter, the only place available, and that was half the fun. Anthony (Bonnie) is marvellous to watch. Never have I seen someone cooking fries with more intense concentration. Then he wrapped his arms around a huge stainless bowl of chicken wings in a Buffalo-wing embrace, sauced it, grimaced, and gave it a huge sauté-style toss--wings came jumping up. Watching someone who enjoyed his work so much and took it so seriously was a revelation--it all seemed to be a matter of the deepest gravity, and beads of sweat flew off Anthony's face.
It shows in the food. We kept it simple, small order of Buffalo wings to start (mild, which were perfectly spicy, though blisteringly hot). The best I've ever had, no contest. I had beef on weck, Thierry had pulled pork. Both were very very compelling. So flavorful. Delicious. And those fries--absolutely the best I've had in New York. Big glasses of Brooklyn lager and weisse beer. If I had one teeny tiny criticism, it would be that I missed the horseradish element in the beef on weck. Maybe it was there, but the beef is so flavorful that it must have gotten lost.
But altogether, a really great place, and fun to boot. After we ate, we revealed ourselves as chowhounds, and Anthony was thrilled to talk about chowhound.com. I'm glad for the Buffalo-wing blister I still have on the roof of my mouth, since it brings me back to the experience. Thanks, Anthony! And thank you Eberhard Müller, for providing well-timed contrast...


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Triad Geology
From a geologic perspective, we don't usually think about the North Carolina Piedmont as being very exciting. There are no tall mountains or volcanoes right nearby. But what if I told you that much of the area was once dominated by towering mountains and active volcanoes? In fact most of the piedmont was made up of a series of volcanic islands, or "island Arcs" much like Japan or Indonesia today. These separated themselves from the early continents, eventually collided and were squeezed together as the supercontinent "Pangea" was being formed. This same thing happened up and down most of the East Coast of the United States. Any time you find actual granite exposed at the surface, it was once part of a magma chamber located deep within the earth, likely feeding the region's volcanos that were formed in these collisions. The Greensboro area has a lot this.
Winston-Salem is a bit different. There is a great deal of black or black and white rock that looks like was layered together (though it wasn't) and squished up. This kind of rock, called gneiss w as formed under tremendous pressure in the core of an enormous mountain range that may have rivaled the Himalayas in size. Over hundreds of millions of years the overlying rock has eroded away exposing the core - the rocks you see today. If you set your time machine back and land anywhere in the North Carolina Piedmont, you would materialize deep inside this mountain range.
There's more amazing geology right in our back yard! Have a look at Pilot Mountain. It's not a volcano as some people believe. In fact, the white quartzite cap at the top was once beach sand along the shores of an ancient ocean! If you climb to the top you can find sand piles where the material has eroded and dropped to the ground. Eventually some of this sand will make its way into the rivers and to the ocean where it will become beach sand once again. This is true at Hanging Rock, as well.
Here's something to think about: When you're standing in the The Dan River Valley, you're in a break in the continent, called a "rift valley". It was formed when the supercontinent Pangea was separating into North America and Africa. There are bunch of these along the East Coast. But the most successful one formed further East and became the Atlantic Ocean. Just think, if it worked out a little differently, everything east of the Dan River valley might have become part of Africa!
After the rift valleys formed, they began to fill up with debris from the eroding Appellations, which may have once stood taller than Mt Everest. Meanwhile, the separating continents continued to stretch, thinning out the crust which cracked in places like an eggshell. Dark colored Magma, rich in Iron, began to squeeze up through the cracks which can be seen all up and down the North American and African coasts. The magma cooled into a rock we call diabase and remained in place as a formation called a dike. As you're floating down the Dan River these dikes cross in front of you, looking like short black walls. This is a great place to see them, because softer sediments of the rift valley have been washed away by the river, leaving the harder diabase exposed. SciWorks Radio will continue weekly at this time, exploring the science happening in North Carolina. In the coming weeks we'll talk with experts about fracking, 3D printing human organs, and moths who talk to bats. We'll talk to a local astronaut and we'll learn how the future safety of football may evolve. We'll also learn why the diversity of species in our state is unique.
This Time Round, the theme music for SciWorks Radio, appears as a generous contribution by the band Storyman and courtesy of UFOmusic.com .


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Islamic News
Muslim Magazine
Islamic Academy
Muslim Community in UK
Islamic Quarterly
PRO files
Empowerment of Muslim
Muslims in Britain
The Secret State
Islamic Finance
Aids in Africa
Primordial Religion
Muslims in the West
Muslim men and women
who have left a mark on
Without going into the question of the legitimacy of their title
to the caliphate the last Ottoman sovereigns to combine the office
of sultan and caliph were Muhammad Rashad and Muhammad Wahid ud-Din.
The latter succeeded the former on 3 July 1918 at a dark moment
in Ottoman history, only four months before the Ottoman Empire finally
lost the war with Britain and sued for peace terms.
Meanwhile one of the Empire's most colourful generals, 'Umar Fakhr
ud-Din Pasha, had been besieged in Medina since the outbreak of
the Arab revolt in June 1916. The story of his tenacious defence
of the city for seventy days after the signing of the armistice
at the end of October 1918 merits a shining page in the annals of
Ottoman, and indeed Islamic, history. The demise of the Ottoman
Empire and the rise of a secular Turkish republic in Anatolia overshadowed-even
for professional historians-the Fakhri Pasha episode. This short
article is a record of the main facts, a contribution to history
as well as a tribute to him who deserves to be called the last knight-defender
of the caliphate, worthy of the meaning of his name-'the glory of
This is not the place to give even a summary of the antecedents
of the Arab revolt which was proclaimed by Husain ibn 'Ali, the
Sharif of Mecca, in June 1916 against the Ottoman Empire which was
then allied to Germany and at war with Britain and her allies. The
Sultan asserted his claim to be the caliph of all Muslims and declared
a holy war (jihd) against Britain and her allies. Husayn was reluctant
to publish the proclamation in Mecca on the not implausible plea
that it would provoke a blockade, which would starve the people
of Hejaz, dependent as they were on pilgrims and donations and provisions
from Egypt. He had, in addition, the secret intention of revolt
in return for a British promise of recognizing Arab independence.
The Turkish high command were not entirely ignorant of the Sharif's
designs. Partly to thwart them and partly to send reinforcement
to Yemen, a few weeks before the outbreak of the Arab revolt, the
garrison of Hejaz was reinforced with the Twelfth Army Corps under
Fakhri Pasha, and a company of German machine gunners was dispatched
to Medina, the terminal of the Hejaz Railway from Damascus, on the
way to Yemen. Generalissimo Enver Pasha himself, together with Jamal
Pasha, com-mander of the Fourth Army in Syria with jurisdiction
over Sinai and Hejaz, visited Medina soon after the arrival of these
reinforcements. They were accompanied by Faisal, the third son of
the Sharif, who was more or less a hostage.
Faisal's dramatic escape, followed by the proclamation of the revolt
in Mecca by his father, is briefly described by T. E. Lawrence."1"
It was Faisal's lot with his elder brother 'Alt to face these formidable
forces of regular troops in Medina. The Arab assault with no more
than muzzle-loading guns was easily beaten off by Fakhri Pasha who
terrified Beduin irregulars with salvos from his artillery. It was
immediately plain that tribesmen, with no military training and
poor weapons, could not capture a fortified city from a modern army
under an able general.
After six months of skirmishing Fakhri Pasha held an entrenched
line well outside the city, and made sure that the railway to the
north was garrisoned and patrolled. Despite stories to the contrary,
the line was never permanently cut off till the final phase of the
war in Palestine. The dynamiting of sections of it by Lawrence and
his men simply led to its being repaired.
Having lost Mecca to the Arabs in 1916 and Jerusalem to their British
allies in 1917, even 'godless' men like Enver and Jamal were loath
to abandon Medina as was repeatedly urged on them by their German
allies. Jamal did actually censure the Sharif, and held his revolt
respon-sible for the fall of Jerusalem. Perhaps the sentiment was
more political than religious, for the loss of Medina would have
deprived the Sultan-Caliph of the prestige of being the guardian
of the three holy mosques in Islam.
The Turks remained hopeful of a reconciliation with the Arabs as
brother Muslims. Overtures with favourable terms continued to be
made until within two months of the armistice."2"
In September 1918 the British War Office sent a report to the Foreign
Office that the Sharif (by then King Husain) was ready to settle
with Turkey on the basis of recognizing his 'temporal' authority
while he recognized the Sultan's 'spiritual' authority, and asked
what Britain's attitude would be. The Foreign Office rejected the
idea of a separate peace between the Sharif and Turkey but suggested
another approach be made to Fakhri Pasha to induce him to surrender.
A Turkish author asserts that Fakhri Pasha did actually refuse
to obey an order from his superior, Jamal Pasha, to evacuate Medina
and withdraw to Trans-Jordan. We are told that Jamal then turned
to a younger general, Mustafa Kamal Pasha (later Ataturk), who also
refused to undertake the task on the ground that he did not wish
to go down in history as the soldier who gave up Medina.
There is little doubt that Fakhri Pasha had such a sentiment i
n mind when he clung to his position even when the Turks were driven
out from southern Palestine east and west of the River Jordan, thus
completely cutting off the railway link with Medina. He managed
to get supplies from Najd and elsewhere, for to the east of Medina
he was virtually free.
Some of his officers saw the futility, from a military point of
view, of continued resistance. But his steadfastness remained unshaken.
The available evidence shows very conclusively that he was animated
by religious motives with little or no regard to military strategy
or political expediency. According to the same Turkish author, who
quotes an eye-witness account, one Friday in the spring of 1918,
after prayers in the Prophet's Mosque, Fakhri Pasha ascended the
steps of the pulpit, stopped halfway and turned his face to the
Prophet's tomb and said loud and clear:
'Prophet of God! I will never abandon you!' He then addressed the
men: 'Soldiers! I appeal to you in the name of the Prophet, my witness.
I command you to defend him and his city to the last cartridge and
the last breath, irrespective of the strength of the enemy. May
Allah help us, and may the spirit of Muhammad be with us.
'Officers of the heroic Turkish army! O little Mubammads"4"
Come forward and promise me, before our Lord the Prophet, to honour
your faith with the supreme sacrifice of your lives'."5"
Such was Fakhri's resolve when in August 1918 he received another
call to surrender. The call ought to have been made by the Amir
Abdul-lah, the second son of the Sharif, who then commanded the
Arab forces round the city, but it seems to have come from his father.
King Husain. Only Fakhri Pasha's reply survives in a poor English
translation. It is apparently addressed to Husain himself from 'Fakhr-ud-Din,
General, Defender of the Most Sacred City of Medina. Servant of
the Prophet'. The text as preserved in the British Public Record
Office "6" it given below, slightly amended:
'In the name of Allah, the Omnipotent. To him who broke the power
of Islam, caused bloodshed among Muslims, jeopardized the caliphate
of the Commander of the Faithful, and exposed it to the domination
of the British.
'On Thursday night the fourteenth of Dhu'l-Hijja, I was walking,
Tired and worn out, thinking of the protection and defence of Medina,
when I found myself among unknown men working in a small square.
Then I saw standing before me a man with a sublime countenance.
He was the Prophet, may Allah's blessing be upon him! His left arm
rested on his hip under his robe, and he said to me in a protective
manner, 'Follow me " I followed him two or three paces and
woke up. I imme-diately proceeded to his sacred mosque and prostrated
myself in prayer and thanks [near his tomb].
'I am now under the protection of the Prophet, my Supreme Com-mander.
I am busying myself with strengthening the defences, building roads
and squares in Medina. Trouble me not with useless offers.'
It is difficult to imagine Husain, himself a descendant of the
Prophet, not to have been moved by Fakhri Pasha's vision. To the
Pasha the legitimate caliph was the Sultan of Turkey, and Husain
(even after his assumption of kingship) was no more than a rebel.
His rebellion was the more reprehensible because it disrupted Islamic
unity and aided the enemies of the Sultan-Caliph.
Fakhri Pasha's vision must have been the culmination of prolonged
meditation. After this experience his actions conformed to no military
or political rules. They were clearly inspired by his religious
The crisis was soon upon him. In accordance with the terms of the
armistice of October 1918, a British High Commissioner was installed
in Istanbul and all Turkish forces were required to surrender to
the nearest British or allied commanders. Fakhri Pasha received
his government's order to surrender, 'wirelessed en clair'. He refused
to obey. The seventy days' drama until his final surrender is worthy
of more detailed study.
At one time King Husain and his British allies suspected that Fakhri
might surrender the city with his arms and supplies to Ibn Sa'ud.
At another, it was rumoured that he intended to blow himself up
in the Prophet's Mosque, which would have resulted in incalculable
harm to British interests in the Muslim world. After a month of
futile exchanges between Istanbul and Cairo the British High Commissioner
became impatient even with a subservient Turkish government. He
threatened to demolish the forts at the Dardanelles if Medina were
not surrendered. He demanded the issue of clear and peremptory orders
to ensure Fakhri's surrender by 15 December, six weeks after the
signing of the armistice. The orders were sent with a senior Turkish
officer from the Ministry of War who was carried on a British destroyer
to Port Said and from there by aeroplane to Yanbu', the port of
Meanwhile FakhrI Pasha had, according to a British intelligence
report, sent three cipher messages, two to the Minister of War and
one to the Grand Vizier. To the former he said he doubted the authenticity
of orders conveyed to him through enemy agencies in Cairo and Hejaz.
The Minister of War must report to the Sultan that Fakhri would
continue to hold Medina under the Sultan's flag until he received
an order from him as Caliph to surrender it. To the Grand Vizier
the message was simply confirmation of those to the Minister of
The emissary could not leave Yanbu' before the morning of 15 December,
the date of the expiry of the ultimatum. However, Fakhri Pasha found
a new excuse. He pointed out to the emissary that the order was
addressed to 'the officer commanding the Hejaz force' and that did
not relieve him of the duty as 'the officer responsible for the
Prophet's tomb to the Sultan'.
The British High Commissioner had already extended the period of
the ultimatum by seventy-two hours. Since Fakhri's reply was still
negative the Turkish government was informed that a state of war
again existed. On 29 December 1918, two months after the signing
of the armistice, the High Commissioner demanded that a more senior
army officer be sent to Medina who might supersede Fakhri if he
refused to obey the new orders. These were to be 'final' orders
from the Minister of War signed by the minister himself and a letter
from the Sultan's chief secretary confirming that the minister's
orders were in accordance with the Sultan's wish. The emissary was
also to carry, in reserve, an imperial irade from the Sultan dismissing
Fakhri if he failed to obey.
The last precaution proved unnecessary. The comprehensive orders
satisfied all of Fakhri's scruples. Before the fateful day he prayed
near the tomb of the Prophet and laid his sword by it"7".
On 10 January 1919 the lion came out of his den and at Bir Darwish
surrendered to the enemy with 456 officers and 9,364 men.
According to The Times correspondent in Cairo, Arab troops took
over the city on 11 January and the Amir 'Abdullah made his formal
entry two days later.
1 Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1955 ed.), pp. 52ff. 1969), pp. 259-62;
2 On Jamal Pasha's overtures to the Arabs see A.L. Tibawi, A Modern
History of Syria (London, (Turkey), under date.
3 Publlic Record Office, London. F. O./371
4The Turkish diminutive 'Mehmetcik' is name of the Turkish private
soldier, like 'tommy' for the British private soldier
5 Emel Esin, Mecca The Blessed, Medinah The Radiant (London, 1963),
p. 190
6 From which the details given below are culled. F.O./ 371 (Turkey)
7On the other hand it is reported by a Turkish eyewitness still
living in Medina that a sword was handed over to the representative
of the Sharif but there is now no trace of it in Medina or elsewhere.
The Islamic Quarterly, London
October- December 1971