text:
By Tim Reid
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Amid the mudslinging that has marked Los Angeles' mayoral race, the two candidates vying to lead America's second-largest city agree on this: its finances are terrible, and runaway wages and pensions paid to workers need to be reined in to avoid fiscal meltdown.
The problem, critics say, is both candidates in Tuesday's election are liberal Democratic City Hall veterans who voted for the very public sector wage increases now crippling the city's finances - and who are unable, and perhaps unwilling, to break organized labor's grip on Los Angeles and fix a budget crisis that could ultimately drive the city of 4 million to bankruptcy.
Los Angeles voters will choose between Eric Garcetti, a fixture of the city council since 2001 and former council leader, and Wendy Greuel, who used to sit on the council before becoming city controller in 2009. Recent polls have them in a statistical tie.
The victor inherits a city that has shifted from anti-union to heavily pro-union in 40 years, particularly in the last decade when unions have become more organized in getting their candidates voted onto the city council.
"New York and Chicago are big union towns but in those cities union power is waning," said Jaime Regalado, emeritus professor of political science at California State University in Los Angeles.
"Los Angeles is becoming a city where unions have an unrivalled power that others no longer enjoy."
The budget is creaking under the weight of that influence. The city's chief accountant projects a $1.1 billion cumulative deficit for the four years to 2017. Over 70 percent of the city's $3.4 billion general use funds are spent on salaries and benefits for police and firefighters, compared with 50 percent in San Jose, another struggling California city. Los Angeles' total annual budget is $7.2 billion.
Los Angeles' pension obligations, like those of many other cities in California and around the country, are also increasing at an alarming rate. A recent report by an independent watchdog, California Common Sense, said city pension costs have increased at a 25 percent average annual rate over the last decade.
In fiscal year 2002-03, pensions consumed 3 percent of the city's budget. That is projected to jump to 18 percent, or $1.3 billion, this year, the report stated.
Unfunded liabilities - the amount of extra money the city has to pay to meet its long-term obligations - have increased from $87 million to $9.4 billion in the past 10 years. The report states that using a more realistic investment return rate, the figure is probably nearer $26 billion.
"If things keep going as they are, all signs point to bankruptcy," said report author Adam Tatum. "I don't think enough people realize that this unfunded pension liability is not something abstract. The city really will have to pay this."
Garcetti and Greuel are vying to replace Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democratic powerbroker who steps down after eight years due to term limits.
He leaves a city thriving with the resurgence of downtown and a healthy Hollywood industry, but also struggling to recover from the housing collapse and recession. The city jobless rate hovers near 11 percent, over the national average of 7.6 percent, undermining the ability to raise more tax revenue.
Austin Beutner, once Villaraigosa's deputy mayor and a former investment banker, sees an "impending financial crisis."
Beutner cites billions of dollars of deferred maintenance on infrastructure, especially potholed roads and broken sidewalks, as Los Angeles has sought to cut costs. He is frustrated with the candidates' failure to address the growing deficit.
"They are going to have to work with labor to come up with a construct to deal with the structural deficit," Beutner said. "But neither has formed a specific plan to balance the budget. Neither has said anything specific about contracted wages."
In 2007, Villaraigosa, Garcetti and Greuel all helped negotiate a 25 percent pay increase over five years for most of the city's 30,000 workers. That has been deferred twice - but a 5.5 percent raise, part of that deal, is due in January.
In recent days Villaraigosa has said the deal was a mistake. Greuel told Reuters the city cannot afford to pay the upcoming raise, and she would seek to renegotiate it. Yusef Robb, a Garcetti senior advisor, said his candidate would do the same.
But both have received clear warning that any attempt to change the deal will be fiercely opposed.
"We're not interested in renegotiating our contract again," Bob Schoonover, president of the city's largest civilian union, the SEIU with 10,000 workers, said via email.
"A deal's a deal. The mayor signed a contract and we expect the city to honor it."
Garcetti, and other critics of Greuel, question her ability to wring concessions from the city's major unions after they have bankrolled her campaign with millions of dollars.
To date, the police officers union has given over $1.4 million to groups supporting Greuel's candidacy, according to campaign records published by the city. The firefighters have spent nearly $500,000.
The union representing the powerful Department of Water and Power - the nation's largest municipal utility - has bankrolled Greuel to the tune of $2 million.
Civilian workers in Los Angeles can retire at 55 and public safety workers at 50, and in both cases those with long service receive pensions totaling 90 percent of their final salary. A civilian worker earns an average of $50,000 a year, while Department of Water and Power workers average $101,000 and firefighters $132,000.
Greuel said she wants to make changes through collective bargaining, with the unions. "The fact is, the city has to look to the long term and make tough decisions," she told Reuters.
Her main proposal on pension reform is to raise the retirement age for civilian workers and she told Reuters she would explore lifting it to between 62 and 65.
Yet Greuel's top proposal on her website also contains a footnote: "This will require a state law change" - a reference to rulings holding that already promised contractual benefits are inviolate.
"That gives her the luxury of calling for a change she knows is unlikely to occur," said Dan Schnur, a political analyst at the University of Southern California.
Garcetti, 42, touts his role in a reform passed by the city council in 2012 that curbed wages and benefits for new hires, and increased existing pension and health care contributions.
Yet he not only backed wage hikes in 2007, but voted for big salary and benefit increases for Department of Water and Power workers in 2005 and 2009.
While Greuel enjoys strong blue-collar support, Garcetti has received financial backing from some smaller unions, along with white-collar sources such as real estate developers, businesses and Hollywood.
Schnur, who describes the city's finances as "teetering on catastrophe," said: "If Greuel or Garcetti actually said honestly, and specifically, what is needed to fix the city's finances, they would be unelectable."
(Editing by Jonathan Weber, Mary Milliken and Lisa Shumaker)


text:
Garden Paving Twickenham
We undertake garden paving construction for clients in and around Twickenham. Whether you have an old garden path that needs restoring or need a new garden path we can construct your garden path in a variety of materials.
Garden Paving Ideas
Choosing the right garden paving material is crucial, like plants, paving materials will add colour, texture, and pattern to your garden. Unlike plants, which grow, bloom, and often go dormant as the seasons change, paved surfaces contribute in equal measure throughout the year.
The most widely available paving materials fall into two broad categories: quarried stone and composite material. Quarried stone, such as granite and slate are shaped by splitting, cutting, or crushing. Composite materials like brick and precast concrete paving are processed soft, then fired or allowed to dry.
You may already have some garden paving ideas and we will visit you and discuss these with you and provide further ideas for you to consider.
Garden Paving Slabs
Garden paving slabs allow us to create beautiful and permanent arrangement of pathways and patios.
The finish and colour of paving slabs must be carefully selected to match your garden design and also the traffic and use they will be put too. We can provide your with ideas and undertake the construction.
To find out more about garden paving and construction in Twickenham click here to learn more about the range of paving services we provide.
Also see Garden Design Twickenham & Garden Landscaping Twickenham.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The Rarest Feat in Sports: A Two-Play Title Turnabout
There's a scenario in sports that's wilder than a buzzer-beating shot, more crushing than a walk-off home run and so downright preposterous it seldom happens—let alone when there's a major championship on the line. But this week has been different. This week, it's happened twice.
This extraordinary thing we're talking about is a series of unlikely events that only lasts about as long as it takes to pop a champagne cork, but that produces a dramatic 180-degree swing in the outcome. Lots of dramatic finishes come down to one final play. This exotic species requires a combination of two incredible plays—or more.
Monday night in the Stanley Cup Finals, the Chicago Blackhawks trailed the Boston Bruins 2-1 in Game 6 with just 1:16 remaining. Then came the two-play turnaround: Bryan Bickell scored to tie it and 17 seconds later, Dave Bolland scored the winner. The Blackhawks were skating around with the Cup not a minute later.
A week earlier, a similar chain reaction cost the San Antonio Spurs the NBA title. Leading by five with 20 seconds to play in Game 6 of the Finals, the Spurs saw Miami's LeBron James nail a three-pointer to cut the deficit to two, and 15 seconds later, watched Ray Allen kill their celebration with another three. The Heat won the game in overtime and the series two days later.
Here's a collection of memorable two-play title turnabouts.
—Ben Cohen
17 seconds
It took all of 17 seconds for an entire season to end. The Boston Bruins were up 2-1 in Game 6 on Monday night, at home, just 76 seconds of killed clock away from Game 7 on Wednesday. Their probability of winning at that point was about 98%, according to sports statistician Brian Burke, whose model is based on a Poisson scoring distribution and the average number of goals per minute in NHL games. But that was exactly the problem: It also left a 2% chance for the Blackhawks.
15.3 seconds
Michael Jordan's last shot in a Chicago Bulls uniform, his game-winner in Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals, might be the most famous in NBA history. But it wouldn't have been had Jordan not done something equally magical just 15.3 seconds earlier in stealing the ball from Karl Malone with the Utah Jazz up one. That set the stage for Jordan to dribble down the floor, isolate himself with Byron Russell and drill the dagger, earning himself a sixth NBA title.
36 seconds
The game-winning touchdown of Super Bowl XLII is almost an afterthought—all because of "The Helmet Catch." Trailing 14-10 with 1:15 left, New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning somehow eluded a sack, before launching a ball that was hauled in by David Tyree. Four plays and 36 seconds later, Manning connected with Plaxico Burress in the end zone, putting New York in front and spoiling New England's perfect season.
126 seconds
The final day of the 2011-12 English Premier League season made the rest of the year look about as action-packed as afternoon tea. Manchester City and Manchester United sat atop the table, with City owning the potential tiebreaker on goal differential. United won to put the pressure on City, which needed a win but found itself losing to Queens Park Rangers in stoppage time. In other words, City was cooked. But then, Edin Dzeko tied the match for City in the 92nd minute and 126 seconds later, Sergio Aguero gave City the lead and its first Premier League championship in more than 40 years.
24 seconds
The 2001 World Series is still remembered for George W. Bush's first pitch before Game 3 and Derek Jeter's walk-off homer to end Game 4. But the most stunning developments were saved for Game 7. That's when Yankees closer Mariano Rivera coughed up a lead by allowing a one-out double to Arizona infielder Tony Womack, which a 2006 study in the Journal found to be the most clutch hit in baseball history. Two batters later Luis Gonzalez muscled a game-winning bloop single to the outfield. The whole thing happened in just under 24 seconds of game time.


text:
- Your selections:
Database Results for Your Selections
Results 1 - 3 of 3
Black Drama
Black Drama contains the full text of plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 100 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries.Expand
Many of the works are rare, hard-to-find, or out of print. Nearly a quarter of the collection will consist of previously unpublished plays by writers such as Langston Hughes, Ed Bullins, Willis Richardson, Femi Euba, Amiri Baraka, Randolph Edmonds, Zora Neale Hurston, and many others. When completed, the database will have over 1,200 plays.
Subjects: African American Studies, African Studies Sub-Saharan, English and American Literature, Ethnic Studies
British Online Archives
This archive of digitized microfilm has a wide range of items to interest those researching territories colonized by Britain including: America, India, Africa, the West Indies, New Zealand, Australia and Melanesia.Expand
Documents include records made by the East India Company and the records of missionaries from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. The collection contains a range of sources that relate to both politics and history, these range from the Parliamentary Labour Party papers and the Anti-fascist newsletters of the International Transport Workers' Federation to the records of the Communist Party of Great Britain, and on to The British Union of Fascists' newspapers and secret files.
Subjects: African American Studies, African Studies Sub-Saharan, Area Studies, English and American Literature, History Early Modern 1450-1800, History Modern 1800-, History US, History World, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Political Science, Religion, Archives and Primary Sources
British Records on the Atlantic World, 1700-1900
This database provides online access to collections on the history of the Atlantic world from the British Archives. It includes materials such as journals, correspondence, official records and personal papers spanning two centuries of Britain's colonial, commercial, missionary and literary relations with Africa and the Americas.Expand
Subjects: African American Studies, African Studies Sub-Saharan, History US, History World, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Archives and Primary Sources


text:
TROY, Ill. (AP) _ Illinois State Police are searching for a tractor-trailer driver who they say drove off after being involved in an accident that left another motorist dead.
Police did not immediately identify the motorist killed in the wreck shortly before 2 a.m. Wednesday on westbound Interstate 70 near Troy in Madison County.
Police say the car's driver apparently lost control of his Chevrolet Impala and ended up stopping sideways on the interstate. Investigators say that's when a tractor-trailer clipped the car's front, spinning it several times before a second semi rig hit the car's passenger side.
Police say the driver of the first tractor-trailer fled the scene and they are searching for the driver. The second semi rig came to rest on its side in a ditch.
Previous story: One dead following hit and run crash involving two semi's


text:
GPSOLO June 2009
Blog Security
Do bloggers need security measures different from other types of Internet users? Of course you're circumspect about virus and spyware protection, and you always back up critical hardware and software. But what if your blog is hacked? Your blog content could be altered, you could be made to look bad, or you could be held responsible for communications you did not intend and of which you may not have known.
Besides, your blog's archive will grow over time. It will gain value as it does because the size of your blog archive is directly proportional to the likelihood that your blog will appear in the results of people's Internet searches. So the longer you blog, the more you'll have to protect.
How, then, do you avoid being hoist on your own petard by a blog? (Learning that Shakespearian idiom derives from the French "pétard," meaning "a loud discharge of intestinal gas," made it a lot funnier to me.)
Like your anti-virus and anti-spyware programs, you've got to keep your blog software current. Lots of different software is used for blog platforms, and you may not have a choice as to which to use. But blog platforms periodically update their software for a variety of reasons, often just for security purposes. Your blog and its server are more easily hacked if you don't keep your own blog platform up to date.
And like all digitally important things, keep your blog backed up. To paraphrase, hack happens. Blogs get taken over, have their passwords changed, and sometimes have their contents deleted. If something like that happens to the site hosting your blog, and you don't have a backup of it, you will have to start from scratch whether or not the rest of the blog site gets up and running again.
Just as elemental as backing up your blog is the need to be judicious in selecting and protecting your passwords. The best passwords consist of random letters (mixed upper- and lowercase), numbers, and symbols; don't use real words, and certainly not pet names or birthdays just because they're easy for you to remember.
Also, choose a reputable blog host. It's important that your blog host provides some protection from mischief makers. Consider what you'll have to do to get customer service and whom you'll have to speak with if something goes wrong with your blog. And what if the company goes out of business in this struggling economy?
Blogs can be a great way to raise your profile and enhance your reputation, but all that new attention can cut both ways. Don't let some hacker destroy your law practice's most important asset: your good name.
James Ellis Arden practices law in the Los Angeles, California, metropolitan area and specializes in litigation, attorney ethics, and client relations. He may be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
Stockton, CA
Morena M. Caubat
Feb. 17, 1949 - Mar. 14, 2014
Morena M. Caubat born in Kananga, Leyte, Philippines on February 17, 1949, passed away on March 14, 2014. She was 65 years old. She is survived by her husband of 41 years, Otillo Angub. Her
children Orlando and Jenny, Oswaldo and Louella, Odillo and Sharon, Owen, Melissa and Joel. Her grandchildren Barry Jay, Dunstan and Simeon.
There will be a viewing on Sunday March 23rd at Chapel of the Palms from 11 am-5 pm, with a Rosary at 3 pm. Funeral service will be on Monday March 24th at St. Mary's Catholic Church at 10 am.


text:
Minnesota Confirms 4 More Flu Deaths
ST. PAUL (AP) — Minnesota is inching closer to 200 flu deaths this season.
The state Department of Health says four more influenza-related deaths were confirmed last week. That brings Minnesota's influenza death toll to 194 since the season started in October.
The number of people hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed influenza was down to four last week. Since the start of the season, 3,067 people have been hospitalized, but the weekly rate has sharply dropped off since peaking in January.
No nursing homes and only one school reported confirmed outbreaks of the flu last week.


text:
From Bacon Potato Bites To Baked Potato Dip: 10 Great Potato Recipes
This is the time of year when you'll find potatoes all over the farmers' markets. You could go classic and bake them or make a chunky soup, but if you're looking for other inspiring recipes, look no further. How about salmon potato cakes? Or bacon-wrapped potato bites? Microwaveable potato chips, perhaps? We've got it.
• 1 Loaded Baked Potato Dip with Homemade Chips
• 2 How To Make Potato Chips in the Microwave
• 3 Bacon-Cheddar Twice-Baked Potatoes
• 4 Potato, Squash, and Goat Cheese Gratin
• 5 Smashed Potatoes with Crème Fraîche
• 6 Roasted Potatoes with Brussels Sprouts and Bacon
• 7 Kale and Potato Soup
• 8 Bacon-Wrapped Potato Bites with Spicy Sour Cream Dipping Sauce
• 9 Potato, Red Pepper, and Feta Frittata
• 10 Smoked Salmon Potato Cakes with Herb Crème Fraîche
Related: 16 Kinds of Potatoes
(Images: see linked posts for full image credits)


text:
I think of the birth of my two sons as hurricanes -- gale-force winds and lashing rain that buffeted the "house" of my marriage. Three years into parenting, I can now say that our home was built strong enough to withstand our two little whirling dervishes, Hurricane Daniel and Hurricane James.
I have the best kind of husband -- faithful, funny, sensitive, a natural father, kind to a fault, and totally even-tempered. He makes me laugh, and he never makes me cry. I never worry about our relationship. Which is good, because I have a list as long as my arm of other things to worry about.
And yet shouldn't my marriage be better than good? While it's not bothersome right now that we routinely forgo sex in favor of sleep, or a babysitter and a movie in favor of saving money, might these wait-for-later routines trip us up down the line? Could all the times my husband graciously takes the boys to help me out, or I take them to help him out, also render us relative strangers in the one-on-one department? Are we spending enough time together? Are we really, really talking?
Surely, I'm not alone in wondering whether my hurricane-proof marriage might have a couple of shutters in danger of falling off, or a leak I've been steadfastly ignoring. But when I start to go down this path in my head, a couple of other thoughts leap in. First, my husband is just as child-focused as I am right now -- no one's complaining or sitting in petulant judgment. And, for heaven's sake, our boys are just helpless babies we are totally in love with. If we're neglecting our marriage a bit for their sakes, isn't that exactly what we're supposed to do?
"Of course," says Aline Zoldbrod, Ph.D., a psychologist and sex therapist in Lexington, Massachusetts. "Babies require an intense physical and emotional connection in order to survive and thrive. It's hardwired into us to give them that attention." But the trap many parents fall into, she and other experts say, is that they devote so much love to -- and get so much love from -- their children that they detach themselves from each other.
The back burner
At times, the problem lies in loving your partner from afar -- across the chasm of children and their needs, a home and its needs, and work, work, work. "Lately, my and my husband's job schedules have been insane, and Jim's been out of the house a lot. I joke that he'd better come home for dinner or the boys will forget what he looks like," says Lisa Latham, mom of Ian, 7, and Jamie, 4, in Pacific Palisades, California. "I understand it, yet there are moments when I start to feel hostile and alone. My mind starts telling me lies like 'It'll always be this way' or 'It would be easier to do this alone,' which I know, of course, it wouldn't be."
Marital love isn't any more logical than baby love. It can be as needy as a newborn, yet marriages don't "cry" for attention the way a baby does -- not until something's seriously amiss. Good-enough marriages kind of... float. When you're in one, it's easy to believe that the love you shared with your partner prebaby is enough to coast on.
The reality: It is and it isn't. While many marriages can muddle through the rush and tumble of early parenthood without lasting damage, they can't be totally abandoned for long -- any more than your baby can.
The back-burner syndrome, says Susan Shapiro Barash, author of The New Wife: The Evolving Role of the American Wife, may be more common these days, with children's needs at the center of most families' focus. "We pay excruciating attention to every little change and aspect of development," she says. As a result, kids are catered to at the expense of marriages. Do you recall your parents "shushing" you and your siblings at the dinner table so they could talk? In many cases, yes. Can you imagine yourself doing the same thing? No, huh?
Reigniting the fire
Most nights in our house go like this:
- Baby bathed, nursed, and in the crib at 8 p.m.
- Toddler bathed, pj'd, and wrestled into bed by 9 p.m.
- Mom and Dad in bed by 10 p.m., to read for a scant few minutes before lights-out.
It sounds pathetic, but it's not. There are times, as I look at the man drifting to sleep beside me, that I think we have all the time in the world. We at least have tomorrow, and maybe tomorrow will be the day we make a conscious effort to inject an already loving marriage with romance.
Then again, I'm wary of putting that kind of pressure on things. "Putting the spark back in your marriage" leaves me cold. I don't want a "sparky" marriage, and I don't want to follow someone else's checklist -- chocolate-dipped strawberries? a drop of perfume on the lightbulb? -- to create it. Plus, who the heck really wants to recapture, in a marriage seasoned by kids, that fresh-from-the-altar feeling?
Rather than pining for hot honeymoon nights, I prefer to savor occasional, rejuvenating glimpses of the couple we used to be. So does Debra Witt of Center Valley, Pennsylvania, mom of Leo, 2, and Lucy, 8 months. "I make less-obvious gestures -- for example, I'll clear the magazines off the dinner table. Otherwise, we'd both sit there and read in silence while we eat," she says.
There's another, albeit ironic, way to feel like a couple: Arrange for each of you to have some alone time. When my husband can read a week's worth of neglected newspapers or I can chat with my sister on the phone, we find something essential in that space. We find that we need -- surprise! -- each other.
So there it is, the secret to staying married -- reasonably happily married, that is -- after kids turn your lives upside down. Let go every so often, and at other times, recognize that a little hand-holding can go a long way for now.
Couples in good-enough marriages know all about hurricane season, including that it does eventually blow out to sea. Says Lori Seto of New York City: "We didn't know what would happen after we had kids, but we knew we'd become these different people. We have the kind of track record that tells me we'll be okay in the end."
Last year, when our older son was not quite 2, my birthday went by without much fanfare. It took us three more months to call my sister to come babysit, and go out to dinner. This year, we cut the lag time down to just two months: We booked theater tickets, dropped the boys at my in-laws', and headed into the city for lunch and a matinee. Not bad. And for me -- for us -- good enough.
Denise Schipani and her husband just took their first mini-trip without their kids. Everyone did fine.


text:
Horoscopes for week of May 6, 2004
What greater adventure is there than exploring the enigmas of your unique destiny, Aries? For more hints about the week ahead, listen to your Expanded Audio Horoscope. The reading costs $6.
Welcome to the first horoscope in history that relies entirely on the colors of Crayola crayons for its metaphors. To what do you owe such an honor? Simple, Taurus: After a dicey cruise through the midnight blue and burnt umber parts of the spectrum, you're now awash with a kaleidoscope of flashier hues, ranging from pink flamingo to electric lime to neon carrot. Even wild blue yonder and mango tango are injecting themselves into the mix. Congrats on this vivid redirection. Where you're headed is more interesting than the yellow brick road. In Crayola-speak, it's more like the banana mania brick road.
How much do you want to know about your destiny in the coming week, Taurus? How far do you dare to go? For more insight into your shimmering, undulating fate, tune in to your Expanded Audio Horoscope for the coming week. The reading costs $6.
Turn your attention, please, to the predicament of Mohabbatsinh Gohil, a diamond trader in India. A cow swallowed 1,722 diamonds that he had accidentally dropped in the street. By combing through the beast's dung for many days, Gohil was eventually able to recover many of his jewels. I suspect that in the coming weeks, Gemini, you'll encounter a challenge comparable to his. Let's hope you've got the patience, humility, and sense of humor to sift through the mounds of drek in search of small but weighty treasure.
No one knows you better than you do, Gemini. But maybe you'll be inspired to dig up even more self-knowledge in the coming week if you tune in to your Expanded Audio Horoscope. The reading costs $6.
There's only one bad thing about mountain biking in the windy rain: I have to keep my eyelids half-closed and blink constantly to avoid being blinded. But as long as I'm wearing my waterproof parka, the ride is great fun. Today I swear I heard the wild irises sing with ecstatic gratitude as they soaked up the downpour. The moist blooming humus smell of the earth was intoxicating. The raindrops seemed jubilant as they gathered together into gushing streams and cascaded down the trails. Because no other humans were crazy enough to be out, I got to exult in some precious alone time with the woods. What's the equivalent of mountain biking in the windy rain for you, Cancerian? What tiny annoyances are outweighed by gleeful benefits? You should pursue those experiences passionately this week.
Hungry for more inspiration, Cancerian? Curious about the unfolding mysteries? For more juicy details about your destiny in the coming week, check out your Expanded Audio Horoscope. The reading costs $6.
"God is a comedian playing to an audience that is too afraid to laugh," mused eighteenth-century French philosopher Voltaire. What's ironic, I would add, is that the moment you summon the courage to laugh, God's jokes become tonic rather than cruel. They have a cleansing effect, and often tend to break down the obstacles to your dreams. Are you ready to make the transition, Leo? The planetary omens suggest that you have ripened sufficiently to find the next divine punch line hysterically funny.
Your destiny is a gorgeous mystery, Leo. Your soul is awakening more every day. The secrets of life are ripening right in front of your eyes. For more clues, consider checking out your Expanded Audio Horoscope. The reading costs $6.
According to Wordspy.com, the term pareidolia (pronounced "payr-eye-DOH-lee-uh") refers to "the erroneous or fanciful perception of a pattern or meaning in something that is actually ambiguous or random." Mainstream astronomers say this is the perfect word to describe what rogue researchers have called the "Face on Mars," an evocative plateau in the Cydonia region of the red planet. It's important to note, however, that not all wonders and marvels are the result of pareidolia. For instance, the personal message you think you discern in a billboard or tortilla this week may really be a communication directly from an angel of mercy to you. To distinguish authentic breakthroughs from mere pareidolias, strike a balance between skepticism and open-mindedness. Just because some apparent miracles are frauds doesn't mean they all are.
What greater adventure is there than exploring the enigmas of your unique destiny, Virgo? For more hints about the week ahead, listen to your Expanded Audio Horoscope. The reading costs $6.
Your role model in the coming weeks is Latin pop star Julio Iglesias, born on the Virgo-Libra cusp. Though he has sold over 150 million records, he admits that there are thousands of people who are more polished vocalists. "I know I can't really sing properly," he told the German magazine Bunte. But he believes it is precisely his lack of perfect technique that makes him so appealing. "My voice has emotion, a style. The best singers can't touch people like I can." If I understand the astrological portents correctly, Libra, you're most likely to succeed in the coming days if you use Iglesias' approach in your own field of endeavor. Don't let an obsession with flawless execution get in the way of expressing genuine feeling. Emphasize magic over cleverness.
Where do you want to go in the coming week, Libra? Who do you want to be? For more clues, tune in to your Expanded Audio Horoscope. The reading costs $6.
Imagine it's 30 years from today. You're looking back at the history of your relationship with desire. You realize that the period of April through August of 2004 stands out as a watershed. That was when you clearly saw that some of your desires were mediocre, inferior, and wasteful, while others were beautiful, sacred, and invigorating. Beginning then, you made it one of your life goals to purge the former and cultivate the latter. Thereafter, you occasionally wandered down dead ends pursuing goals that weren't worthy of you, but usually you wielded your passions with discrimination and integrity, dedicating them to serve the highest and most interesting good. Right?
Life will bring you entertaining revelations in the coming week, Scorpio. To explore even deeper, dive into your Expanded Audio Horoscope. The reading costs $6.
Don't camp next to a forest fire or go on a picnic where mad bulls roam. OK, Sagittarius? Don't play with matches next to a gasoline pump, either, or fly a kite in a lightning storm, or feed steroids to the monsters under your bed. In fact, I suggest that you take fewer risks than you normally might. Whenever you feel a surge of daredevil energy, turn it inward and direct it at the mental blocks that have been messing with your creativity.
Want more clues, Sagittarius? Need further insight? I discuss your coming week in greater depth in your Expanded Audio Horoscope. The reading costs $6.
It's an astrologically favorable time to expand your repertoire of pleasurable activities. The hidden forces of fate will bring you luck and synchronicity when you set aside your familiar old amusements and experiment with fresh ones. For example, whatever your favorite sexual positions or techniques are, you should consider retiring them for a couple of weeks while you branch out. Same with desserts, intoxicants, games, and getaways: Try anything different at least once. Drink some of that new chocolate beer. Get stroked by two massage therapists simultaneously. Schedule a singing lesson on a mountaintop or a flying lesson in your dreams.
Need a few more whacks applied to your mental blocks in the coming week, Capricorn? A few more caresses administered to your growing edge? Cruise on over to your Expanded Audio Horoscope. The reading costs $6.
Is there anything more dangerous than getting up in the morning and having nothing to worry about, no problems to solve, no friction to heat you up? That state can be a threat to your health, because if untreated it incites an unconscious yearning for any old dumb trouble that might generate some excitement. I'm concerned that you might fall into this trap in the coming week, Aquarius. To ensure that you don't, go hunt down some useful and fascinating trouble as soon as possible.
Got enough clues to chew on for a while, Aquarius? If you need more, give yourself the luxury of your Expanded Audio Horoscope for the coming week. The reading costs $6.
Late last year, the dj Danger Mouse made a record that blended vocals from rap star Jay-Z's "Black Album" with instrumental tracks lifted from the Beatles "White Album." The result, which he called the "Grey Album," was praised by Rolling Stone as "the ultimate remix record" and "an ingenious hip-hop record that sounds oddly ahead of its time." Your assignment in the coming weeks, Pisces, is to join together seemingly unrelated elements to create a combination that's as interesting and innovative as Danger Mouse's. There's one way I hope your effort will be different from his, however. Because he didn't have authorization to use the Beatles' material, the "Grey Album" can never be commercially released. Your work, on the other hand, should be legal, kosher, and karmically impeccable.
Want to explore the coming week even further, Pisces? Dig deeper? Feel stronger? Consider tuning in to your Expanded Audio Horoscope. The reading costs $6.
|Missed a week? Check the horoscope archives.
© 1995-2013 -- Rob Brezsny. All rights reserved


text:
Assistant Manager - Clock Tower - Brewers Fayre - Telford
- Recruiter
- Whitbread
- Location
- Shropshire
- Salary
- Competitive
- Posted
- 05 Sep 2017
- Closes
- 03 Oct 2017
- Sector
- Hair & Beauty
- Job Type
- Manager
- Contract Type
- Permanent
If you've got passion, potential and pots of initiative, we've got the career opportunity that'll let you show them off to wow-tastic effect! After all, when your GM and DGM have left the building, you're in charge. Yes, you! Taking full responsibility for the restaurant, motivating the team, making great decisions and, above all, making sure that every guest is simply blown away by our fabulous food and service standards.
We call it Serving Up Great Memories. You'll call it what you were born to do. We put the customer at the heart of everything we do, making our food the hero and ensuring our people are trained and motivated to be the Main Ingredient. So whilst you'll strive to run a spot on shift every time, you'll also spot any chances to help your team grow their skills.
You'll grow yours too. First up, by taking ownership of specific business areas, like stock control or staff rotas. Then by taking part in management pow-wows, where you'll be brimming with ideas to help make the best business decisions. You've got the commercial nous to help drive sales and profit. And you'll definitely make the most of all the incredible training and development opportunities Whitbread has to offer. After all, you'll be working with the largest hospitality group in the UK - and winner of the Publican award for the best 51+ site employer - so our career development opportunities are as amazing as you are.
So where are you now? Well, we know that our future talent can come from any number of backgrounds. You might already be an Assistant Manager but with nothing like the autonomy we'll give you. Or you're a Team Leader/Supervisor in the pub/restaurant, casual dining, retail or even high street coffee arena, ready to take your skills to the next level. Whichever, if you think you've got what it takes, we're the business that can take you where you want to be.
With a salary up to 24k offering excellent benefits and a great bonus scheme! We'd love to know how you'll make an immediate impact on our people, our profits and, most importantly our guests.


text:
University of Missouri
Home | People | Locations | Program index | Calendar | News | Publications
Continuing education Seminars Courses
MU Extension > calendar
Professional development events
Stay Strong, Stay Healthy (Session 2 of 13)
Friday, Sept. 13, 2013, 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Laclede County MU Extension Office186-D N. Adams Ave, Lebanon MO map...
Please call the Laclede Co Extension Office at 417-532-7126 to register.
Add event to your compatible iCalendar such as Microsoft Outlook or Apple iCal.
About | Jobs | Extension councils |
For faculty and staff | For researchers | Giving | Ask an expert | Contact
© 1993
to 2015 Curators of the University
of Missouri, all rights reserved, DMCA
and other copyright information
University of Missouri Extension is an equal opportunity/ADA institution.
University of Missouri Extension
© 1993
to 2015 Curators of the University of Missouri, all rights reserved


text:
FINRA ordered firms to pay $34 million in restitution in 2012—a significant jump over the $19.4 million the regulator ordered firms to repay in 2011, according to FINRA's 2012 Annual Review.
The review, released in early January, also found that the regulator took 1,541 disciplinary actions last year, a small boost over the 1,488 actions FINRA took in 2011. Fines FINRA levied against firms and individuals decreased to $68 million in 2012 from the $71.9 million levied in 2011.
In 2012, FINRA expelled 30 firms from the securities industry, barred 294 individuals and suspended 549 brokers from association with FINRA-regulated firms. In 2011, FINRA barred 329 individuals and suspended 475.
Disciplinary highlights in 2012 involved complex products, including exchange-traded funds (ETFs), structured products and nontraded REITs, as well as research analyst conflicts, inadequate disclosure and mispricing, FINRA said.
In 2012, FINRA also says that it initiated 1,846 routine examinations, more than 800 branch office examinations and 5,100 cause examinations in response to events such as customer complaints, terminations for cause and regulatory tips.
As part of a redesign of the platform used to conduct exams, FINRA says that it "developed new technology to support and streamline the process with new technology, tools, data and new exam content that, along with the underlying risk hierarchy, make up the new, modernized framework for the risk-based examination process." This framework, FINRA says, "is critical to identifying and prioritizing areas of risk exposure at firms, and subsequently, helping FINRA determine the appropriate regulatory response to those risks and improve our ability to quickly make decisions regarding pursuing 'red flags' and other areas of heightened focus."


text:
This kit makes stock removal easy, even without removing the recoil pad. Requires cutting a small access hole in the recoil pad for the stock wrench. Each kit comes with stock bolt assembly, stock wrench and wrench guide.
- Replacement stock bolt including clips and/or washers that attach to bolt.
- Bolt can be installed with socket rather than screwdriver blade.


text:
10 Essential Recipes for Fall Cooking
We're definitely all thinking it: How is it September already? Is summer really over? But don't be glum — we're heading into one of our favorite times of year for cooking! These are the days when chilly evenings make it a pleasure to be in the kitchen, especially when the result is something that fills the house with tantalizing aromas.
We've gathered here some of the recipes that we think are essential for this time of year, like our favorite homemade sandwich bread, stovetop mac n' cheese for a cozy weeknight meal, snack bars to help you through your longest days, and maple blondies for a quick and well-deserved treat.
How to Make Basic White Sandwich Bread
It was so hard to whittle this group of recipes down to just our top ten! As soon as the calendar flips over to September, just about everything even vaguely comfort food-y starts sounding "essential" in that must-make-now craving kind of way.
What we've ended up with is a grab bag of great recipes, all of which allow for a bit of kitchen puttering and happy homesteading. There are the recipes that are due for their annual debut, like chili and creamy mac n' cheese, as well as those that indulge our sudden need for anything involving cinnamon, apple, or maple. I've also included some core recipes for meal building blocks, like beans and roast chicken. These will round out hearty meals all fall and into winter.
What are you cooking right now? What "essential" recipes should we all add to this list?
- 1 How to Make Creamy Macaroni and Cheese on the Stovetop
- 2 White Chicken Chili
- 3 How to Cook Beans on the Stovetop (or in the pressure cooker!)
- 4 How to Make Basic White Sandwich Bread
- 5 Apple-Cinnamon Toaster Strudels
Maple Pecan Blondies with Maple Butter Glaze
- 6 How to Roast a Chicken
- 7 Walnut-Cranberry-Ginger Power Bars
- 8 How to Make Really Good Pizza at Home
- 9 Chicken Pot Pie with Biscuit Topping
- 10 Maple Pecan Blondies with Maple Butter Glaze
(Images: See linked recipes for full image credits)


text:
Stay ahead of the game with Aruba technology and product knowledge
The community discussion forums are waiting for you.
Catch up on the latest support articles or videos and expand your knowledge with Airheads breakout sessions.
Stay current with the latest executive insight, community announcements and technology blogs.
Focus on ArubaOS 8 Clustering!
© Copyright 2018 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP All Rights Reserved.


text:
1. Re: Fireworks CS5 ignores my preferences on start upgroove25 Jun 19, 2012 8:11 PM (in response to Interactionhero)
I can't quite picture this: What specific preferences are being ignored?
What's perplexing is that you say the application launches properly when you delete the preferences. Deleting the preferences should result in the default preferences being restored.
To double check, perhaps I should also ask for the location of the preference files you deleted.
2. Re: Fireworks CS5 ignores my preferences on start upInteractionhero Jun 20, 2012 8:21 AM (in response to groove25)
Groove, it's all of them. Palette placement, keyboard shortcuts, and system prefs.
The prefs I nuked were here: /Users/hugh.griffith/Library/Preferences/Adobe Fireworks CS5.1/en/
Thanks for your help.
3. Re: Fireworks CS5 ignores my preferences on start upgroove25 Jun 20, 2012 11:56 AM (in response to Interactionhero)
So, to summarize what's been happening: You open up Fireworks, move panels around the way you like them, select a keyboard shortcut set, and so on... then you quit the application. When you open Fireworks again, all those changes are gone, replaced by the default settings.
Then, if you trash your user preferences, what happens exactly? Does Fireworks open in its default panel configuration, or are you saying that it opens up with the custom panel settings, etc. that you'd previously created? 'Cause that would be really bizarre.
And what about other Adobe applications?
4. Re: Fireworks CS5 ignores my preferences on start upInteractionhero Jun 20, 2012 3:41 PM (in response to groove25)
1st part is correct.
Second part is correct, kinda. That happened once for sure a couple days ago (and I was equally perplexed), but after your question I figured I'd double check to see if I could replicate it and couldn't. So let's ignore the deleting prefs thing.
5. Re: Fireworks CS5 ignores my preferences on start upgroove25 Jun 20, 2012 4:41 PM (in response to Interactionhero)
Unfortunately, I'm no expert in this. But I'm curious whether other Adobe apps show the same problem or not, as it might help with diagnosis.
You could actually look at those Fireworks Preference files to see if your specific preferences are in fact being recorded. They're XML so they're fairly readable as code (like HTML). For instance, pick a property like "Fill Current Color" (about 8 down in the main Preferences file) and see if it matches the last fill color used in the application.
There's also the Fireworks CS5.1 Cache... I have no idea what that does.
Do you have any other versions of Fireworks installed? It shouldn't matter, but... it seems worth asking.
6. Re: Fireworks CS5 ignores my preferences on start upgroove25 Jun 20, 2012 5:38 PM (in response to Interactionhero)
Incidentally, I'm not used to seeing a period (.) as part of a username. I don't have enough of a tech background to know whether that could represent an actual problem in some circumstances or not, but my brain immediately says, "Hey, I wonder if that could be an issue here?" Take that observation for what it's worth.
7. Re: Fireworks CS5 ignores my preferences on start upInteractionhero Jun 26, 2012 2:27 PM (in response to groove25)
OK, I have a better grasp on what's happening, I think.
I opened the preferences file in Coda, then closed and relaunched FW a couple of times to see if the prefs were being overwritten. They weren't. And, FW launched properly each time.
I had a hunch FW would screw up again though, so I waited a few days and continued working without closing it. Finally, FW started bogging down and I was getting the beach ball for longer stretches (but, it didn't crash). I saved my work, closed out, relaunched, and it was messed up. I checked the prefs file again in Coda and it hadn't changed. All of my settings were still there.
So, it is completely ignoring the prefs some how.
Oh, and to answer your earlier questions, I don't have any other versions installed. And, I use PS5 sometimes, but no problems there.
8. Re: Fireworks CS5 ignores my preferences on start upgroove25 Jun 26, 2012 3:43 PM (in response to Interactionhero)1 person found this helpful
So your Preferences were being recorded properly, initially, and they remain intact even now that this problem is occuring—they're just being ignored somehow?
Also, if I understand correctly, you were able to trigger the problem by leaving Fireworks open for a long period of time. My most basic advice would be NOT to do that. Other than for the purpose of diagnosis, I don't see any advantage to leaving the application open for long stretches. The app opens pretty quickly, particularly if it's not a cold start, so I'd suggested quitting when you're done with a session of work.
But other than that... I'm thinking about that cache file again and wondering if it might play a role in this. (Like I said, I don't really know what's stored there.) I'd try closing Fireworks, remove the cache (perhaps saving it somewhere else temporarily), and then restarting. Then observe what happens. If there's no effect or it makes things worse, you could restore the cache afterwards.
I'd also try restarting the computer after something like this. Particularly if the cache thing has no effect.
9. Re: Fireworks CS5 ignores my preferences on start upVIPStephan Aug 17, 2012 3:55 PM (in response to groove25)
I kinda have the same problem: Every once in a while all my preferences appear to be reset to default. I usually notice that when I see the start window after starting Fireworks, because I have it disabled. All the preferences and the keyboard shortcuts are reset but the workspace layout is correct. I can't exactly say when this happens because it's happening irregularly but only after starting afresh, like in the morning when I start the computer, not when I close it an restart it the same day.
I thought it would help to lock the preference file but at the end, when closing Fireworks it would give an alert window saying that the file is read-only and can't be overwritten, and it hangs itself up there completely. So, why is it resetting itself and how can we prevent that? This has been a pain for a long time and I've searched many times for a solution to this issue but without success so far. Any info is greatly appreciated.
10. Re: Fireworks CS5 ignores my preferences on start upInteractionhero Sep 11, 2012 3:16 PM (in response to VIPStephan)
I've yet to solve this problem, but I did download the Fireworks CS6 trial to see if it would do the same thing.
And...it did. (Dammit!)
Which leads me to believe that it might be an OS problem. (Mostly because I've never seen the same bug replicated in two different versions.)
I'll try upgrade to Mountain Lion next. I pray it works.
11. Re: Fireworks CS5 ignores my preferences on start upSnapper Cridge Feb 12, 2013 5:38 AM (in response to Interactionhero)
Was this issue ever resolved? I have had the same issue for quite awhile now. Here are the steps:
- Open Fireworks
- Set preferences
- Grid color
- Grid height/width
- Default font
- Plugins, patterns, textures folders
- Select Application Frame
- Set Workspace Layout
- Shut down after complete
When I open it back up, every single preference listed above has been reset to default. This is a real pain in the ***! Today I just got tired of resetting everything so I'm hoping to find a fix.
I'm running OS X Mountain Lion, but this issue happened in Lion and Snow Leopard as well.
12. Re: Fireworks CS5 ignores my preferences on start upInteractionhero Feb 12, 2013 8:48 AM (in response to Snapper Cridge)
Not that I've seen. I upgraded to CS6 recently and have the same problem. Ridiculous!
13. Re: Fireworks CS5 ignores my preferences on start upSnapper Cridge Feb 12, 2013 11:48 AM (in response to Interactionhero)
I am in the same place and have all of the most current software for both
OS X and Fireworks CS6.
On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 11:48 AM, Interactionhero


text:
Bunraku (US - BD RA)
Gabe sees another pretty and empty Eastern/Western mash-up movie...
The recent semi-proliferation of the bizarre spaghetti western/martial arts mash-up genre is a cinematic mixed blessing. There's a unique quality in the strange and colourful universes of Takashi Miike's Sukiyaki Western Django, Kim Ji-woon's The Good, the Bad, and the Weird and Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill films, Sngmoo Lee's good looking, but dull The Warriors Way represents a possible decline for the subgenre. Now I have watched Bunraku for further comparison, and it isn't improving my outlook. The story follows two very different warriors who enter a pseudo-post WWI Shanghai-like town in search of Nicola the Woodcutter (Ron Perlman), the most powerful crime boss east of the Atlantic. 'Drifter' (Josh Hartnett), an obvious analogue for The Man with No Name, is a no nonsense cowboy. In this world (which may or may not be post-apocalyptic) guns have been destroyed in hopes of ending violence, so Drifter only uses his neigh-invincible fists as a weapon. Yoshi (Gackt), a not so obvious amalgamation of several different Jidaigeki characters, is a young samurai seeking vengeance for father's death. These warriors meet, fight, and eventually join forces against Woodcutter, and his evil band of nine assassins, headed by the seemingly invincible Killer No.2 (Kevin McKidd). They are guided into battle by a mysterious bartender (Woody Harrelson), who somewhat oddly fills the tradition 'guru' role in the story.
Writer/director Guy Moshe's enthusiastically embellished graphic design is at times engaging enough to overlook the film's more obvious shortcomings, and occasionally he even brushes with something akin to inspiration. The title refers to a kind of Japanese puppetry, and the film opens with a brilliantly CG augmented paper puppet/animated credit sequence that sets the visual and thematic tone and basic story concept. The best way to describe this visual and thematic tone is The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari meets Sin City meets Dick Tracy, and thus includes all of the influences found in those films. Of all the recent martial arts mash-ups it has the most in common with Sukiyaki Western Django due to this staged, hyper-colourful look, and more outstandingly silly flavour. There are golden era musical elements, kung-fu elements, comic book elements (all subtitles are presented in comic panel frames), Noh theater elements, Dogme 95 elements, video game elements, and a strange mix of anachronistic styles that create something almost original in its non-originality (if that makes any sense). Despite the occasionally obvious use of digital enhancements, Moshe and his technicians do their best to do things in-camera, in keeping with the concept of the characters being paper puppets on a paper stage. I really want to get lost in these stylistic extremes, but find myself more prone to be impressed with the technicality rather than the achievement.
Moshe's direction is pretty impressive, though; especially during a single take fight sequence that pulls back to reveal the scope of the two-story stage. The action isn't exactly breathtaking, but is captured more competently than many major Hollywood productions. His indulgence does get the best of him, and it's often at the detriment of the performances. Bunraku's pre-sight warning signs aren't only ascribed to my issues with similar films– it also features a A/high B list cast, and didn't get a real release. Sure, Josh Hartnett and Demi Moore haven't really been 'on fire' lately, and Woody Harrelson and Ron Perlman aren't known for saying 'no' to a paycheck, but that's an awful lot of recognizable talent for such a limited, no fanfare theatrical release. Unfortunately, my suspicions proved mostly correct here, and few of the actors give more than a half-assed effort, save perhaps Kevin McKidd, who appears to be having real fun reveling in the two-dimensional aspects of his role. Hartnett, and musician-turned-actor Gackt's stoicisms eventually started to grow on me about two thirds of the way through the film, but only enough to recognize that they and Moshe were capable of better. In her defense, Demi Moore is just barely in the movie at all.
It's quite difficult to develop an interest in the story, which feels like an afterthought of meaningless plot twists and trope fulfillment, but it's even harder to develop an interest in the characters, which is much more detrimental to an experience so dependant on the audience's visceral reactions. This vague sense of narrative (honestly, I can't recall any specific plot point), and the set-pieces it connects blend into an amorphous blob of 'stuff happening', and is then stretched into an unwieldy, nearly two hour runtime. I was all Bunrakued-out after about an hour twenty, which is especially sad, because the last 15-20 minutes are actually pretty good. The humour is the weakest element, and the one that tore me out of the experience more often than any structural or narrative problem. The more cartoony gags are especially tiresome, which is strange coming from someone who likes Stephen Chow and Jackie Chan movies so much. The narration, which does adhere to the style as far as I'm concerned, is also generally goofy rather than amusing, or even necessary. It's just too obvious a reference to the kind of Noir tradition Moshe is hoping we'll recall. A waste of the talented Mike Patton.
Bunraku is a particularly pretty motion picture, and its visual excesses are only held in check by the fact that it was shot on standard 35mm film. The film qualities give way to nice texture and fine grain, but keep details and blends from being as needle sharp as similar films shot on digital HD. The overall detail levels are still quite sharp, however, and despite the garish look 'real' elements, such as skin and hair textures, are quite natural. The simplicity of the backgrounds, and the relatively consistent use of shallower set focus (I imagine in SD it's not as apparent that background elements are so commonly slightly out of focus) both make for some relatively quiet deep set details, but there's still quite a bit of complexity in the colour choices to make 1080p enhancement a valuable resource. The vibrant Colour is the transfer's biggest deal, though, and there really isn't a crayon in the box not utilized at one time or another, though red, yellow-green, cyan and orange are among the most used. The palette is set like a comic book, meaning it often appears that characters, costumes, props and backgrounds have been printed. Theses colours are overwhelming at times, especially the almost ungodly reds of some backgrounds, which lead to some minor blooming, some heavy hot-spots, and occasional black-level wash-outs, but overall I'm very impressed with the purity of hues, and the brilliant separation of even vaguely similar hues. Outside the grain, I see very little in the way of artefacts, except maybe some minor noise on the brightest colour blends.
Bunraku's visual excess are met at almost every turn with matching audio excesses, which makes for a nice, aggressive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack. Generally speaking no sequence in the entire film is left bereft of multi-channel enhancement, and very little is lost in the rush of effects, music and dialogue. Even the most basic, plain, dialogue heavy sequence features a lot of not-so-subtle ambience, and this ambience is rarely set distinctly in one spot for too long. Audio is used to broaden the scope of the stagy, simplistic sets, and extends to some incredible scope on the background sound effects. Directional effects wrap over almost the entire film. Some of these come out of on-screen elements, but even more are abstract, representing a camera move, or a cut. The fight scenes are crafted using a mix hyper-realistic impact noises, and cartoon-like effects, which always play strongly into the stereo and surround channels. Composer Terence Blanchard's score is kind of hit and miss, but can be brilliantly on point, and tends to grow with the film. Despite his jazz-based pedigree (he's written the music for I believe every Spike Lee films since Jungle Fever, including the absolutely perfect Malcolm X score) Blanchard delves into several different genres here, and the big band jazz themes are actually the weakest, due in part to a very artificial, keyboard-based sound (found mostly in the horns, which is weird). When not sounding artificial, the score is incredibly rich and warm, featuring a wide stereo spread, and heavy, punch LFE support.
The disc's only extras are a commentary track with director Guy Moshe and actor Kevin McKidd, a trailer, and trailers for other Arc Entertainment releases. The commentary is a relatively fact-filled, but ultimately stoic experience that slows considerably as the film progresses. At points Moshe and McKidd sound like they're having fun, but they mostly stick to the facts, explaining the film's background, style, and inspiration. The production design and technical planning are, unsurprisingly, the basis for a lot of the discussion, though it sounds more like Moshe is more defensive than proud of his work. He keeps comparing his super-simplified characters and story to those of other, better films, but not in terms of quality, in terms of excuse. His story is thin because the story in Once Upon a Time in the West is thin, apparently, which misses the point of the richness of subtext and unforgettable characterizations found in Leone's film. McKidd mostly acts as emotional support whenever his character isn't on screen, but does ask a few pertinent questions throughout. The track is at its best when Moshe is pointing out minor stylistic bits I'd missed on the first viewing, suck as the paper-like sound quality to some of the sets, and a background sign that tells the Japanese audience that some bad translations were done on purpose.
It's incredibly difficult to put your finger on what it is precisely that makes one nonsensical, highly stylized, form over function movie better than another. I'm the guy who counts Dario Argento's Suspiria among my all-time favourite films, and I've long defended generally disliked films like Revenge of the Sith and Hannibal with huge emphasis on their visual merits, why wouldn't I fall head-over-heels for something as visually rich as Bunraku? I guess it's the lack of anything interesting outside the imagery, the boring characterizations, or weak sense of humour, but I'm suspecting it has more to do with the excessive 118 minute runtime than anything else. Had this been a brief, more tightly constructed hunk of nonsense I might've found myself too enthralled to notice anything wrong. I'm still going to recommend that interested viewers give the film a look, because there is enough going on to sate some of the right brain appetites out there. Potential viewers just need to prepare themselves for something empty. This brashly colourful Blu-ray release looks mostly gorgeous, and features a continuously aggressive DTS-HD MA soundtrack, but has only an average commentary track for extra material.
* Note: The images on this page are not representative of the Blu-ray image quality.
Review by Gabriel Powers
Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian
Disc Details
Release Date: 1st November 2011
Discs: 1
Disc Type: Blu-ray Disc
RCE: No
Video: 1080p
Aspect: 2.35:1
Anamorphic: No
Colour: Yes
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English
Subtitles: English SDH
Extras: Director and Actor Commentary, Trailers
Easter Egg: No
Feature Details
Director: Guy Moshe
Cast: Josh Harnett, Woody Harrelson, Gackt, Kevin McKidd, Ron Perlman, Demi Moore
Genre: Action, Comedy and Film-Noir
Length: 125 minutes
5Review Guide
Follow our updates
New Editorials
Joe Lynch DVD | HD | BD David Hayter US - DVD R1 | BD RA SXSW Film 2013 - Part 1 US - DVD | HD | BD Will streaming kill physical media? DVD | HD | BD Gabe's 2012 Wrap-Up DVD | BD
Hot Interviews
Tim Lucas DVD Simon Heller DVD Ricky Gervais Part One DVD Craig Smith DVD Ricky Gervais Part Two DVD
Latest Reviews
Pyjama Girl Case, The US - BD RA Exorcist II: The Heretic Collector's Edition US - BD RA Horrors of Malformed Men US - BD RA Deep Red US - BD RA Hereditary US - BD RA
Most Talked About
Bound: Olive Signature Collection US - BD RA Arrow November Releases US - BD RA Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot US - DVD R1 | BD RA Minute to Pray, A Minute to Die, A US - BD RA Shout Factory Updates US - BD RA


text:
The event marked the newly formed GCHS mountain biking team's final competition of the season.
Sami Hansen, another GCHS freshman, rode with the team for the first time this season, placing sixth in the Freshman Division I race.
In the Sophomore Division II race, Grand's only sophomore, Jamie Marshall, turned in one of his best races of the season, placing ninth overall.
Riders were also ranked based on a cumulative tally of their performances at every race of the 2012 season. Hansen had not ridden in enough races to make the tally, but Marshall ranked eighth in the sophomore division and Bagley, as a result of four consecutive first-place wins, ranked first in the freshman division.
Head coach Christa Green said she is thrilled about the team's performance.
"I think we did much better than expected," she said, "especially since we only fielded three riders at any of the races. I think we did really well for such a small team. We gave a really good showing, especially considering that this was only our first year."
Green said she hopes to build on that success to make the team even better in the next season.
"We're hoping the team will grow. We have riders coming up from the middle school, but we're always looking for riders already at the high school, too."
Green added that the team will be putting on a number of events to help expand awareness that the high school now has a mountain biking team and to train new riders. She said she is optimistic for the next season.
"We're putting on some bike clinics to help train new riders, and we're going to be hosting series races next year," Green said. "We're looking forward to a great upcoming season, and we'll just go out and ride and keep having fun like we did this year."


text:
University Marketing is responsible for university-wide brand management and communications and marketing strategy development and implementation. The organization provides creative direction, messaging strategy, and tactical planning that allows the university as a whole to advance and elevate the Will To Do brand across all platforms including web, media relations, digital media (video/photography), print and more.
We strive to ensure that our message and look is clear, concise and compelling, whether the external communication comes from University Marketing or any department on campus.
Our regular work revolves around Admissions, Athletics, the River Campus, the President's Office and the Southeast Missouri University Foundation. We would like to assist you in developing a solution that meets both your goals as well as the university's goals. For some projects, we may need to refer you to one of our several approved, external vendors for design or print projects. However, we will help ensure the vendor is following our brand guidelines and quality standards.
Our first discussion with you will be to understand your goal. We will make sure you use the best tactics and strategy to reach your goal. You may think you need a brochure, when the best solution could be a Facebook post linking to a landing page on your website. We are your in-house strategy experts and consultants, and that is where it all starts.
Once we agree on a strategy we will assign you a point of contact – either within University Marketing or with an approved vendor. From this point forward you will have regular communication until the project is complete. If there is a way to measure success, University Marketing will help you evaluate the success and be prepared to make adjustments for you in the future to improve results.


text:
BEIJING (AP) — As a bank officer from a poor region in rural China, Gong Ai'ai is an unlikely property baron. In a country where middle class workers can struggle to afford a single apartment in major cities, Gong is accused of amassing a real estate empire worth at least $160 million. Her alleged secret: corruption, kick-backs and multiple fake identities.
The stunning wealth she is accused of amassing — 45 properties in three cities — and the audacity with which she is accused of doing it has touched a nerve with a Chinese public long numb to tales of rampant corruption among the nation's official bureaucracy.
Gong — who was arrested Monday on suspicion of forging official documents — is accused of misusing her power while working for the county-backed Shenmu Rural Commercial Bank to give loans to mine operators in the area in return for cash or shares in the mines. Gong is accused of using that money and at least three fake national identity cards obtained with help of corrupt police to fund her real estate purchases.
Of the properties she purchased, 41 are in Beijing, where skyrocketing real estate prices have priced many Chinese families out of homeownership.
Gong's case has captivated Chinese in a way other reports of corruption haven't. The public and state media have registered shock with each twist since her alleged misdeeds began trickling out in mid-January, as the number of properties she allegedly bought swelled from several, to more than 20, to 45, and the number of fake IDs went from one to three. In the days prior to her detention, speculation centered on the whereabouts of Gong — dubbed "Sister House" by the media — and why she had yet to be arrested.
"I think 'Sister House' Gong Ai'ai is now an entertainment celebrity," Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the state-run Global Times, said in an online posting Tuesday. "Entertainment in China is not very developed, so all these corruption thrillers are compensating for it. They are more twisted than some half-baked movie plots."
Gong's ability to get the fake identity cards is central to the popular interest, suggesting corruption among the police who issue the cards. Authorities have already detained four police officers on suspicion of helping Gong obtain the fake IDs, the Ministry of Public Security said.
Fake IDs can help hide income and business activities and circumvent rules in Beijing and other cities that limit the number of houses and apartments someone can buy to prevent speculation and tamp down prices.
Multiple IDs give a person access to benefits others are deprived of, said Yang Xuedong, a researcher at the Central Bureau of Compilation and Translation, a Communist Party think-tank.
"It allows some people to become privileged citizens, enjoying double benefits in property purchase, loans, education, child birthing and social welfare. It also provides convenience for some officials to hide assets and even abscond overseas," Yang wrote in a recent commentary in the Global Times.
Gong's case coincides with others that have emerged in recent months of government officials buying up large numbers of properties beyond what their civil servant incomes should be able to afford. A senior urban management official in the southern city of Guangzhou and his family had 21 properties. In the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, a political commissar of an anti-corruption bureau and his ex-wife had 19. In central Henan province, a housing director and his children bought 25 properties.
Although Gong is not a government employee, she serves on local legislatures and is seen as part of China's sprawling bureaucracy. As a bank official, she had access to public resources.
The Chinese public also is concerned that loopholes in supervision, as alleged in Gong's case, also have helped government officials accumulate wealth and evade accountability.
"The contrast is too huge when government officials should have dozens of houses while ordinary people cannot afford a single unit from a lifetime of work," said Liu Shanying, a political scientist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
These cases have fueled public anger about cozy trades of power for money and have ignited calls for asset disclosure by officials. How these cases are handled are seen as a test for the newly installed Communist Party leadership, which has warned that corruption threatens the party's legitimacy and has vowed to stamp it out.
This "goes to show how state resources and public trust and authority have been excessively abused by those people," said Yang Fengchun, a professor of government and management at Peking University. "They behave as if the country were at their beck and call. Whatever they want, they get it."
Officials have yet to give a complete tally of the worth of Gong's properties, but 21 are estimated to be worth nearly 1 billion yuan, or $160 million.
Her scandal first hit the Internet with an article sourced to a trade news site. Though the original article soon disappeared, state media and China's very active blogosphere wouldn't let go — a familiar pattern in recent months that has seen activists posts sex tapes of officials and identify officials wearing expensive wristwatches. As in those cases, authorities followed up on the lead about Gong.
The Ministry of Public Safety moved in, setting up a task force to investigate how Gong had obtained the fake identities, including a highly-coveted Beijing one.
Gong is also accused of using the identity cards to register companies and to invest in real estate development.
While her case has fascinated the public, it has also exacerbated skepticism among many Chinese and commentators that authorities will get serious about asset disclosure or other measures to fight the corruption they have benefited from.
"First and foremost, it's unacceptable to the officials, who will be done for once their assets are revealed," said Liu of the Social Sciences Academy. "No way can any government official afford so many properties on a government salary."


text:
On MLSSoccer.com, Kyle McCarthy discusses A.J. Soares' ankle surgery and looks at the pairing of Milton Caraglio and Diego Fagundez, calling it "a fresh take on the tried-and-trusted forward partnership model."
Given his recent offensive output, Fagundez is also listed among Mike Woitalla's MLS Youngsters to Watch for Soccer America.
New England Soccer Today's Brian O'Connell offers his thoughts on which players he expects to see back in blue next year, while Revs Press' Julian Cardillo states that other teams have experienced similar ups and downs, suggesting one in particular that the Revs should model their next steps after.
The Bent Musket collaborates with San Jose Earthquakes blog Quake, Rattle and Goal to provide a preview of Saturday's match.
Find out how Kyle McCarthy thinks the Revs will fare against San Jose in his Friday MLS Forecast on Goal.com.
Finally, Steve Davis looks at "good" and "bad" soccer markets around the country on Daily Soccer Fix, and identifies contributing factors for a more nuanced discussion.


text:
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Declaring his nation "is not Iraq," one of two contestants in Afghanistan's deadlocked presidential election told The Associated Press on Monday that both he and his rival are committed to lead their war-ravaged nation inclusively in cooperation with international partners.
Former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai credited a U.S.-brokered deal for a full ballot audit with pulling his country back from the brink, putting the rule of law and government legitimacy back on track.
"What happened in the last days should show you our commitment to inclusiveness," Ahmadzai said of the deal for a national unity government, reached late Saturday with his opponent, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.
He said there can be no comparison to Iraq, where politicians from the two main Muslim sects and ethnic Kurds have failed to reach a political accord to either keep or replace Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. In the meantime, Sunni militants have routed the Iraqi army and seized control of much of the country, even threatening to attack the capital, just 30 months after U.S. forces pulled out.
"I am not Maliki and Afghanistan is not Iraq," Ahmadzai added sharply.
It was the only time in the interview that he obliquely suggested he would emerge after the ballot audit as president, instead referring respectfully to Abdullah and the need to let the process take its course.
Ahmadzai revealed that he and Abdullah would meet face to face at his home Tuesday to begin fleshing out the framework for a government, with participation from both camps and all communities in Afghanistan. He said he later expects to be hosted by Abdullah.
The former finance minister said his fears of a return to Afghanistan's darkest days helped motivate the two politicians' agreement. The negotiations, mediated by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, were tense he said, but not dramatic, for him at least.
"It is the calmest I have been in my life," Ahmadzai recounted. "I have a characteristic that might be good or bad-- that when there are large stakes, I am like cold ice. There is no emotion."
Saturday's election deal has been hailed by Afghans of all stripes. Before Kerry stepped in, some feared a failure to agree on the election result would have splintered power and left the Western-backed government even more vulnerable to a Taliban insurgency.
Abdullah's political roots are in the Northern Alliance movement that opposed the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and joined forces with the United States after 9/11. Ahmadzai is a Pashtu technocrat who spent decades outside of the country after the Soviet invasion of 1978, eventually working on development issues for the World Bank. He served as finance minister from 2002-2004.
Unofficial and disputed results have shown Ahmadzai well in the lead, but supporters of Abdullah charge that's only because of widespread vote fraud. Since fraud was alleged on both sides, the deal provides that every one of the 8 million ballots will be audited under national and international supervision over the next three or four weeks. Ahmadzai said it was his side's suggestion to do a full audit.
Erudite and an expert on financial governance and development, Ahmadzai has a slight, gentle appearance and speaks fluent English. The interview was conducted in a reception room at his home on the edge of Kabul.
He showed his wonky side, discussing what he sees as the path to prosperity for the country, taking advantage of its water resources, channeling remittances from Afghans working abroad and exploiting mineral deposits and rare earth ores wisely and not to the benefit of only a chosen few.
But all that will take security, accountability and rule of law to create a virtuous circle, he said.
He would in principle serve under Abdullah in some capacity if the election results go against him, Ahmadzai said. But he would not go into any detail and shrugged off any hint that Afghanistan might have a prime minister eventually in addition to a president.
"Let's wait for the results of the audit," he chuckled. "We've refrained from a declaration of victory. We are also going to refrain from a declaration of other eventualities."
Ahmadzai noted that both he and Abdullah are on record with their willingness to sign a bilateral security agreement with the United States in their first days in office. He said the agreement would allow U.S. forces to remain in the country, while leaving Afghanistan with a tight timeline to get its own security sector in order.
At the same time, he says he is ready to negotiate with any Taliban who puts Afghanistan first.
"We must negotiate," he said. "What conflict do you know that is not ended through negotiation?"
But that does not go for the looming "violent networks" that are not confined to national boundaries and "want to disrupt order in any known form" -- including groups seeking an Islamic state, or caliphate, as Sunni militants have declared in Iraq.
One of the under-heralded achievements of the election, he said, was widespread participation by Afghans in the democratic process, even in areas where Taliban attacks and threats of reprisal were rife.
"When people choose ballots over bullets, it is an incredible step toward peace and I hope that this fact is appreciated," he said.
Ahmadzai attributed it to hard-won lessons for a people who have known war and destruction for two or three generations.
"The larger Middle East is imploding. But because we experienced the first wave, our people are incredibly wise," he said. "And even if at times we reach a brink, we will make sure that during these (next) five years, we are able to stop the very sense of brink and brinkmanship from developing."