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Nouvelles UBS
UBS to launch European version of U.S. Index of Investor Optimism
UBS is launching a European version of its monthly U.S. Index of Investor Optimism. The index, called "Index of Investor Optimism - EU 5", will poll the sentiment of individual investors in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. Developed as a joint venture with the Gallup Organisation, it will be the first survey of European investor sentiment.
Although the index will officially launch on January 28, 2002, results from a pilot survey conducted last October show that individual investors in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK are more optimistic about their personal finances than about the European economic climate.
On the whole, European investors are divided about whether now is a good time to invest in the financial markets. Respondents who were positive about investing totalled 46 percent, compared to 49 percent who were negative. In the U.S., investors were more optimistic, as 73 percent of them believed that October was a good time to invest in the markets.
European investors were also optimistic about the introduction of the Euro this coming January, with 54 percent positive about its potential effects on the European economy, compared with 25 percent who expressed pessimism and 20 percent who were neutral.
The U.S. 'Index of Investor Optimism', which tracks the investor outlook on a monthly basis across personal and economic dimensions, is now in its sixth year.
Index of Investor Optimism
London, 5 December 2001


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At this writing, the Kansas City Board of Trade July wheat contract price is $4.90. Wheat may be contracted for harvest delivery in much of Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle for between 34 and 44 cents less than the KCBT July contract price. Using a minus 40-cent basis, wheat may be forward contracted for $4.50 per bushel.
On the day of this writing, the KCBT July wheat contract was down eight cents. Since mid-December, the July contract price has been in a sideways price channel between $4.90 and $5.10. If the July contract price closes two consecutive days below $4.90, the next support price is $4.70.
Wheat and corn stocks are tight. United States wheat ending stocks are projected to be 472 million bushels compared to a five-year average of 590 million bushels. United States wheat ending stocks have not been below 472 million bushels since the 1996/97 wheat marketing year.
World wheat ending stocks are projected to be 4.4 billion bushels and have not been this low since the 1981/82 wheat marketing year. The five-year average of world wheat ending stocks is 5.9 billion bushels.
Both U.S. and world wheat planted acres are projected to be higher than last year. Reports also indicate that the wheat crops are in better condition than last year. 2007/08 marketing year production is expected to be sufficient to increase stocks.
Price keys
Between now and June, keys to wheat prices will be the conditions of the U.S. winter wheat crop, the number of acres planted to corn and the corn planting conditions.
The production benchmark for U.S. winter wheat is 1.4 billion bushels. The benchmark for hard red winter wheat is 850 million bushels. Above-average production will imply lower prices and below average production higher prices.
Wheat will start coming out of dormancy in early March. At that time analysts will estimate the amount of freeze damage and will evaluate growing conditions. In Oklahoma and Texas, the critical growing time period is between mid-April and mid-May.
After about April 1, temperatures need to stay above freezing. Between April 15 and May 15, the optimum weather conditions would include timely rain and temperatures below 80 degrees. At the worst, temperatures need to stay below 90 degrees. Deviations from the optimum conditions will result in lower yields and production.
On March 30, the USDA will release the prospective plantings report, which will provide the first estimate of corn planted acres. Some analysts estimate that to meet demand, 2007 corn production must be over 12 billion bushels. The record corn crop was 11.8 billion bushels in 2004, up from 73.6 million harvested acres. In 2004, 80.9 million acres were planted to corn.
The five-year average corn yield is 146 bushels per acre from an average of 79.7 million planted acres. The five-year average, percent harvested acres, is 90.2 percent.
Using an average yield of 146 bushels and a percent harvested acres of 90.2, it will take 91.1 million planted acres and about 82.2 million harvested acres of corn to produce 12 billion bushels. In 2006, 78.3 million acres of corn were planted. Planting 91.1 million acres of corn will require nearly perfect planting conditions.
There are a lot of assumptions in the above analysis. The major point is that wheat and corn prices are expected to remain relatively high. There is about 50 cents downside price risk in wheat and about a $1.50 upside potential.
If you cannot afford to take that risk of $4.10 per bushel for your wheat, forward contract some of it. If you can afford the risk, wait until harvest.

subset: commoncrawl


text: locomotive repair shed, was largely destroyed in late 1999 when the diorama of which it was a part flipped over and fell on the floor. Ten years later, I took the salvaged walls, part of one end and part of the roof from another structure and created a narrower mess hall 15-feet wide (and therefore capable of moving on a large flatcar). Since one cannot see into the interior. I did not recreate the interior with detailed kitchen and dining hall. The chimney on the right end is a Model Tech product purchased at the Great Train Show in Hartford, Connecticut in August 2009.. This scratch-built mess hall for the loggers and trainmen of the Glanville Lumber Co., which uses the board-by-board construction learned from building the Fine Scale Miniatures sawmill and


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This print is from my original watercolor.
Please select a size in the options above.
I use a heavy weight archival and acid free high quality matte Epson fine art paper.. It has a beautiful velvety soft feel to it and a warm richness..
Its 100% cotton base.
I am always happy to answer your questions.
Find more of my art designs at https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/claudiatremblay?ref=pr_shop_more
my website is Claudiatremblay.com
All images are copyrighted and all right reserved.
I happily accept payments via all major credit cards (through Etsy and Paypal) as well as Paypal payments and Etsy gift cards. I also offer express checkout.
Your order will be processed & shipped within 1-2 business days from the date of purchase/payment. Its 2 to 3 business day to Canada and the USA with tracking number and 10 days to a month for International.
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Customs are the responsibility of the purchaser, and are, unfortunately, very often a part of purchasing internationally.
But please contact me if you have any problems with your order.
Once you make the purchase, i will not refund your payment unless there is a problem with the item.
If there is a problem with the product once its delivered to you, let me know and i will be more than happy to make it right, via refund or replacement.
If you are interested in wholesale, or have any other questions, please contact me.
You can do so at clodiatremblay@gmail-dot-com
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Grease Disposal Program
- Food Establishment Wastewater Discharge (FEWD)
- How to Keep Cooking Grease Out of the Drain
- Learn more about "The Grease Equation."
Did you know that cooking grease is one of the major causes of residential sewer main clogs resulting in sewer spills? Cooking grease coats pipelines much like fatty foods clog human arteries. The grease clings to the insides of the pipe, eventually causing blockage and potential sewer spills. By following a few simple steps, you can help prevent costly sewer spills in the future.
- Pour small amounts of cooking oil (this includes salad dressing, frying oil and bacon fat) into an old milk carton, frozen juice container, or other non-recyclable package, and dispose of in the garbage
- Wipe dishes and pots that are coated with greasy leftovers with a disposable towel prior to washing or placing in the dishwasher
- Place fat trimmings from meat into the trash, not the garbage disposal
Cooking Oil Recycling
City of San Diego residents can now recycle their cooking oil and grease at the Miramar Landfill Recycling Center. A cooking oil recycling bin is available to City residents for disposal of up to 30 gallons of cooking oil and cooking grease. There is no charge for the service. The recycling service is not open to commercial food preparation businesses.
Cooking oil recycling is being provided by the City's Environmental Services Department, the Public Utilities Department, the Allan Co., and Darling Restaurant Services which is donating the grease bin and recycling. The Recycling Center at the Miramar Landfill is located at 5165 Convoy St., just before the toll booth into Landfill. Hours are Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.; and Saturday and Sunday, 7:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.


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Apple recently announced features that will be in the new version of its mobile platform operating system – iOS 6 – which is due to come out this fall. Of course, in the spirit of its long-standing rivalry with Google, many of the features (such as integrated Facebook) will not be doing Google any favors.
One feature, Maps, is the result of Apple diving head-first into a whole new arena seemingly to spite Google. It uses a different vector-based engine that is supposed to seamlessly present clear information no matter the zoom level, has enhanced 3-D views and the aerial Flyover feature.
And, to boot, it's supposed to work with Siri, which would provide turn-by-turn directions and other services.
This level of integration, along with the fact that Apple has banished Google Maps from iPhones, really throws down the gauntlet to Google Maps, which for years has been the go-to mapping source for government agencies visualizing their data.
Google was not one to be caught out so easily, though. During the week of June 4, it arranged a hastily put-together event, in advance of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, about the direction of Google Maps. Apple's move has definitely got Google jumping.
What impact the map wars will have on agencies using maps to build traffic, weather or emergency services apps remains to be seen, but there appears to be one sure victim here, and that is the dedicated Global Positioning System device.
In the era where your smart phone can do more and more, dedicated appliances are no longer necessary. There will still be a segment of the population that does not have a smart phone, but as we all can guess, that will be an increasingly small niche. Also, there is the question of what car makers will do with GPS devices that are built in to their higher-end models.
In any case, I think TomTom, the maker of dedicated GPS devices for everything from cars to wristwatches, might need to find a new job. Maybe it can use itself to do that.
About the Author
Greg Crowe is a former GCN staff writer who covered mobile technology.
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I used to be a big fan of Apple and its products. Apple products used to stand for innovation and creativity. Now although they still have an elegant design and build, they simply can not compete with the open architecture offered by Android or Linux based platforms. Apples attempt to restrict creativity coupled with their agressive litigation strategies is despicable. I for one am through buying Apple products.
Have you ever had a phone call come in while you were navigating? Sometimes a dedicated device can be a good thing.
Apple.....the new Microsoft....
Competition is usually good for development but Apple in particular has been about directing the market to a monopoly of inferior products. They create systems that are more appealing to the average user but are more limited and technologically backward in the process. Technology should grow and educate people in the process rather than degrade to level of any monkey can use it and teach nothing. Apple is a great example of where market economics can fail to produce useful technology.
I don't think Apple needs your money. Besides, there is room for two dominant players in the marketplace and without competition you have DOJ monopoly investigation problems on your hands.
As an American citizen I praise Google and Apple...our economy begs for more successful, innovative, job producing global companies.
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Department of Physics and Astronomy research to shine at open houseUniversity of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Associate Researcher, Physics and Astronomy
Talia Ogliore, (808) 956-4531
Public Information Officer, Vice Chancellor for Research
The annual Department of Physics and Astronomy Open House will be held on Saturday, November 23, 2013, from 8:30 a.m. to noon on the UH Manoa campus. The event is free and open to the public. Local high school teachers and students have also been invited to attend.
Ten sites in Watanabe Hall and one in Krauss Annex will feature physics and astronomy research and applications of physics described by University faculty and students.
The open house includes a variety of live demonstrations that illustrate physics principles in mechanics, optics, and electricity and magnetism (E&M). The hands-on demos will allow attendees to experiment with angular momentum and center of gravity; operate a hover craft; check out polarized light effects; and experience the power of electromagnets, among other fun activities.
Classroom topics will include:
- Large Hadron Collider and the Higgs Bozon. The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics honored the theory that predicted the Higgs boson. Learn about the experiment at CERN that confirmed this fundamental particle.
- Nanophysics: Examine the world through ultra-high resolution microscopes, including a state-of-the-art Atomic Force Microscope and a scanning-tunneling electron microscope, both of which produce stunning images of atomic surface structures.
- Free Electron Laser: See the laser invented by UH Mānoa's John Madey, which has a wide variety of fundamental and applied research uses, from ultra-sensitive LIDAR and remote sensing, to medical research applications for hard- and soft-tissue studies.
- Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer Experiment – in Space: Learn how scientists are using the unique environment of space to advance knowledge of the universe by searching for antimatter and dark matter, and by measuring cosmic rays.
Other sessions focus on a variety of physics topics, including particle detection, neutrinos and dark matter. A full agenda is available in the News & Events section of the Physics and Astronomy website (www.phys.hawaii.edu).
Activities begin at 8:30 a.m., with an overview of the events in the HIG Auditorium; groups will then follow a schedule until 11:00 a.m. The public is welcome to join one of the groups before 11:00 a.m. and/or to visit sites informally from 11:00 a.m. until noon.
For more information, visit: http://www.phys.hawaii.edu/


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Scott McKenzie's Review of 2006
Scott McKenzie takes a look back at the big news in the world of DVD in 2006...
The DVD Market
The home entertainment market is bigger than ever, with the DVD format reaching a level of maturity and accessibility similar to that of VHS in the late 1990s. However, the internet provides so many more retail opportunities that the policy of stack 'em high and sell 'em cheap has never been so widespread. The time between a title's DVD release and its appearance in the bargain bin can now be counted in weeks rather than months, which means that the lifetime of a major release is now significantly shorter.
With many more major Hollywood productions appearing in cinemas and the opening weekend's take counting for a major percentage of its total theatrical haul, the studios have reduced the time between theatrical release and DVD release to about four months. This policy is also supposed to cut down on piracy but I'm not sure I agree with that theory. People who want to watch pirated copies of movies will always find a way not to pay for their entertainment, irrespective of whether it will get an official DVD release next week or next year. For me, all the early DVD release does is provide the pirates with a DVD-quality version to find via BitTorrent sooner than ever before. This is also frustrating for the legitimate consumer because the first DVD release is frequently a bare-bones or extras-light version to buy the studios time to put the 'real' release together. Superman Returns is a prime example: the recent two-disc edition (admittedly containing an essential comprehensive documentary) has sold by the bucket-load but everyone who follows the DVD market knows that a special extended edition is certain to be released some time in the future.
High Definition has arrived and while the usual bunch of early-adopters have picked up their HD-DVD and Blu-ray players, the general public have shrugged their shoulders in unison. From a hardware perspective, it has been a bad year for Sony, and not just in the home entertainment market thanks to their apparent inability to produce batteries that aren't packed with TNT. Production delays have held up the release of the Playstation 3, the games machine that Sony are hoping will create a market for Blu-ray and with the software of HD-DVD still in the early stages, the jury is still out on whether the HD disc formats will be a success before we're all downloading high definition content and completely by-passing this pointless format war.
Ever since the re-appearance of Spider-Man on the big screen, every year has seen major releases of comic book adaptations and 2006 was no exception. With Bryan Singer defecting from Marvel to DC, the X-Men franchise was left in the hands of hack director Brett Ratner who did his job and turned in the third instalment in time for its release date. Never mind that it didn't receive the same critical praise as its predecessors, the money still rolled in. Marvel productions head honcho Avi Arad has said that he learned a lesson following the box office bomb that was Elektra, but has he learned any lessons from X-Men: The Last Stand? The production line way of making movies will only work for so long before the audience tires of men in suits standing in front of explosions and longs for movies that have excitement and a heart.
That's why my pick of the blockbusters of 2006 is Superman Returns. OK, so it felt like a bit of a re-hash of Richard Donner's original and there's not as much action as you'd expect from the Most Expensive Movie of All Time, but as an exercise in restarting the franchise of one of the world's favourite characters in a way that will ensure future outings for the Man of Steel, it is a successful production. Newcomer Brandon Routh performs admirably in a role that will always belong to Christopher Reeve, no matter how many more sequels are made, but no matter how much we all love Gene Hackman, Kevin Spacey may be the Lex Luthor that everyone remembers in years to come. What must also be applauded is the use of the original titles and music to re-familiarise the audience with the characters when it must have been tempting to do a complete reboot in the style of Batman Begins.
The Da Vinci Code came and went without controversy and quietly made enough money to make sure we'll see the prequel Angels and Demons remade as a sequel in 2008. Sony Pictures came up with an odd release policy for the DVD, making the extended edition available in some markets but providing the UK and USA with the features-light two-disc edition. King Kong arrived on DVD twice in 2006, initially as the theatrical cut then followed by the three-and-a-half hour extended cut. Peter Jackson's DVD packages for the Lord Of The Rings movies were some of the best ever produced and it made sound business sense to follow the same path with his latest movie, but with the remake already doubling the running time of the original, did we really need another thirty minutes of monkey action?
Guilty Pleasures
Released on DVD in the UK just in time to qualify for inclusion in this article, two movies hit cinema screens at the end of the summer that could only be described as guilty pleasures. This double bill of movies low on intelligence and high on action is Snakes on a Plane and Crank. The former arrived with a buzz of anticipation that meant it could only be met with disappointment from critics and fans, while the latter appeared from nowhere and reminded us what a proper action film for adults should be. Both movies are fast-paced high-concept popcorn-munchers and Crank just edges it for me, with a great performance from Jason Statham as the wonderfully-named Chev Chelios, a hitman that is injected with a drug that will kill him if he stops producing adrenaline. Unfortunately the UK region two version of Crank is a vanilla release, but the up-coming region one disc looks like an essential purchase, with commentaries and plenty of other extras.
Horror Porn
The closest thing we have to a modern-day equivalent of video nasties from the 1980s, the 'horror porn' sub-genre continued its rise in popularity in 2006. If Hollywood is to be believed, the movie-going public like their horror graphic and extreme and movies like Hostel, The Hills Have Eyes and the continuing Saw saga were some of the most profitable films of the year both at the cinema and on DVD, exceeding many of the mega-budget blockbusters of 2006. The producers of these movies also know how to treat the people who buy their DVDs, offering up unrated versions loaded with special features, in particular the Hostel DVD which contains four commentaries including one with producer Quentin Tarantino and director Eli Roth.
Foreign Language
With Hollywood apparently running out of ideas and producing more and more sequels and remakes, it's no surprise that many of the best films I've seen this year were foreign language productions. It's also an indication of the popularity of world cinema in English-speaking markets that these films receive special edition treatment on DVD. 2006 saw the UK release of a three-disc tin set of La Haine, a comprehensive six-disc set from Tartan containing high quality versions of Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance and the official release of Nightwatch that makes inspired artistic use of subtitles. All of these are highly recommended purchases for both the quality of the DVD sets and the movies themselves.
Honourable Mentions
Other DVDs that found a regular home in my player this year included the UK release of Event Horizon Special Edition, which is a significant improvement over the dodgy video and audio quality of the original disc and the spaceship pod packaging certainly looks good on the shelf. The release of M:I:III was a surprising occurrence: a major blockbuster appearing on DVD without a hint of a future double-dip. While I don't agree with the consensus that it's the best in the series (in my opinion it peaked too early with the bridge attack), the two-disc package comes loaded with features and a banter-filled commentary with J. J. Abrams and Tom Cruise that actually makes the Cruiser sound like a normal human being for two hours rather than the sofa-bouncing Xenu-hating loudmouth whose personal antics were blamed for the film's under-performance at the box office.
For the British stand-up fans, Ross Noble's four-disc Randomist set should be top of the wish-list as it's not only one of the best comedy packages of 2006, it's one of the best pre-Christmas comedy releases of all time and received the only award I've given to any of my reviews this year. Speaking of reviews, the best film I reviewed for DVDActive in 2006 was Michael Haneke's Hidden, a low key thriller that warms up the grey matter and if you're watching it with friends, will really get you talking.
Looking Towards 2007…
Like every other year since the dawn of DVD, we're still waiting for the final cut of Blade Runner and 2007 is supposedly going to be the year it finally arrives. In the first few months of the year we can look forward to the UK release of British horror-comedy Severance (highly recommended and not in US cinemas until March), intelligent thriller Children of Men and the re-appearance of a certain Mr Bond in Casino Royale, another successful restart to a popular franchise. Harry Potter will return to our screens in the summer and the DVDs of Order of the Phoenix are guaranteed to find their way into millions of Christmas stockings next December. However, the film I'm most looking forward to is Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's joint production Grind House, which at nearly four hours in length, should allow them to put together a DVD set overflowing with deleted scenes, behind the scenes footage and commentaries on a par with the track they did for the special edition of From Dusk Till Dawn. As ever, the quality of DVD releases in 2007 will generally depend on the standard of movies produced but with the studios possibly shifting their focus to the HD formats, will we see a lack of attention to detail for the standard DVD format? Only time will tell...
Editorial by Scott McKenzie
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Why You Can't Travel Back in Time and Kill Hitler
You've gotten your hands on a shiny new time machine, and you decide that your first order of business is to travel back in time and kill Hitler. But killing Hitler and preventing the Holocaust isn't quite as simple as it sounds. Here's why.


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Recent News
A full review of the forthcoming John Barleycorn Deluxe edition by Sam Holloway of get to the front
Steve Winwood Facebook store launched today.
John Barleycorn Must Die is the Traffic album that almost never was but which is now commonly regarded as their definitive work. By 1970, still only 22, Steve Winwood had already served time at the heart of The Spencer Davis Group, as a founder member of Traffic, and with the supergroup Blind Faith. What started out as Steve Winwood's solo debut, originally to be called Mad Shadows (a title later filched by Mott The Hoople), John Barleycorn Must Die became Traffic's third and most fully realised studio album.


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Zoe Kravitz & Penn Badgley: East Village Lovers!
Zoe Kravitz and her boyfriend Penn Badgley keep close as they go for a stroll on Saturday (July 14) in the East Village neighborhood of New York City.
The 23-year-old actress and her 25-year-old beau held hands as they walked around on the sunny afternoon.
PHOTOS: Check out the latest pics of Zoe Kravitz
Earlier in the week, Zoe and Penn attended the opening night of the Broadway limited engagement of Fela! at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre.
10+ inside of Zoe Kravitz and Penn Badgley out and about in the East Village…


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State Rep. Clovis Watson Jr. says he has disliked Florida's controversial "stand your ground" law since its enactment in 2005, but 17-year-old Trayvon Martin's death in February 2012 and George Zimmerman's recent acquittal have engendered mass calls for its repeal.
State Rep. Clovis Watson Jr. says he has disliked Florida's controversial "stand your ground" law since its enactment in 2005, but 17-year-old Trayvon Martin's death in February 2012 and George Zimmerman's recent acquittal have engendered mass calls for its repeal.
Watson, D-Alachua, said he plans to try to honor those requests. He and his staff already are doing preliminary work on a repealment measure that would be introduced in the Florida Legislature's spring 2014 session.
He said he expects to be involved in the legislation as either a sponsor or prime co-sponsor, knowing he isn't the only legislator interested in taking the law off the books.
"I believe in self-defense," he said. "I will defend myself and my family in clear, imminent danger, but the 'stand your ground' law just takes it a step further."
Watson, who worked in law enforcement for more than 20 years, said the law creates an opportunity for violence for people who aren't trained in handling volatile situations.
A citizen might perceive someone who is in distress or suffers from mental illness as threatening when the person actually means no harm, Watson said. The legal protection afforded by the "stand your ground" law could lead someone to take a violent course of action when he or she might otherwise retreat, he said.
"If you didn't have this protection of the law, it would give you more reason to pause," he said.
Watson emphasized that this is not, as some have suggested, a gun rights issue.
"I do not think this law is about gun ownership and gun rights, which I've heard people speak of. You can stand your ground and take a life with a hatchet, with an ax, with a machete," he said.
Katheryn Russell-Brown, director of the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, said the Zimmerman case has evoked fear in the community, particularly among blacks.
High-profile criminal cases like Zimmerman's are often used to give the public a temperature reading about race relations in the U.S.
"It's not just about the facts of the Zimmerman case. It's like, what is the message? We look to the laws (and) we look to these cases to give us a sign," she said. "So if the message is 'That's OK,' that's a scary message for a lot of people."
Repealing, or at least amending, the "stand your ground" law would partially allay those fears, but she cautioned that concerns about racial profiling and related issues would still need to be addressed.
"If that can happen to him (Martin), then it can happen to other people as well, across race, so this fear isn't just limited to the African-American community," she said.
Watson agrees that repealing the "stand your ground" law will not address all of the fears evoked by the Zimmerman case, but he thinks it will help.
"I certainly think it will make a large segment of the population comfortable knowing that there are laws in place to protect them from someone being trigger-happy, if you will, or from someone who may act in haste with knowing they have the protection of the 'stand your ground' law," he said.
While he said he would prefer to repeal the law altogether, he is open to collaborating with other legislators on amending it if necessary.
Watson knows his desire to repeal the measure will not be supported by all of his colleagues or constituents. He has received mixed responses from citizens who have called his office, although they have been more positive than negative so far.
"But when I was elected by the people, I was elected to do what I believe is right," he said. "And I believe this is right."
Contact Morgan Watkins at 338-3104 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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We often think about how important it is to have excellent Karate skills. Being able to punch, kick, and block effectively is important. It is something we work on for most of our lives.
However, Karate skill can be easily abused. We are taught that Karate should be used for self-defense and as a last resort only. Karate is not for fighting.
Before you even get into the application of Karate techniques, there is the issue of the student's ability to handle conflict, bullying, taunts, etc. I could see two problems. Some students might immediately react violently. Others might be so intimidated that they are unable to defend themselves properly. Both problems are serious and should be addressed during training.
A student should have thick skin. Little things should not bother him and he should not allow little things to escalate to violence. Even if a student is called terrible names, the objective should be to get out of that situation -- not to make a point.
Let's say that someone says that my Karate stinks. Is that something for me to fight about? Hey, I also think that I have to keep working to improve myself. I am not content with my level. There have been many time when I have thought that my Karate ability "stinks."
I should let it go. It is not something to get upset about or fight about.
Basically, to me, there is nothing worth fighting about except my safety and life, and the safety and life of loved ones (possibly innocent people too). I'm not going to fight because someone calls me names or says terrible/ridiculous things.
Let's say that my wife and I are walking in town late at night. Some guy starts insulting my wife. My objective at that point is to get my wife out of there and to safety. My objective is not to teach this nut a lesson. And who knows, there may be others lurking that I do not see. Getting away is the proper action -- not arguing.
Like I've written before, when the time comes to use Karate techniques for self-defense, then the can is open and everything goes. Karate, at that point, become a truly terrible thing. Until then, I would hope that I could have a "thick skin" and a calm demeanor so that I could avoid most conflicts.
Charles C. Goodin
Thick Skin
We often think about how important it is to have excellent Karate skills. Being able to punch, kick, and block effectively is important. It is something we work on for most of our lives.
Posted by Charles C. Goodin on Thursday, November 18, 2010


text: In this 10th Anniversary Journal for the SCLC, there are several topics covered to highlight the ten years of activity of the organization. Beginning with a story of the Civil Rights Movement's beginning, featuring Rosa Parks, to an article entitled "Where Do We Go From Here?"; this booklet summarizes many of the efforts made during the ten year existence of the SCLC.


text:
July 18, 1983
To: All Faculty and Administrative Staff
From: President Gail Fullerton
Re: Fall 1983 General Meeting
There will be a general meeting of all faculty and administrative staff on Wednesday, August 24, at 9:00 a.m. in Morris Dailey Auditorium. Please make every effort to attend. I will try to bring you up to date on the state of the University in an hour or less.
It is essential that as many faculty members as possible be available in their offices during the latter part of the morning and the afternoon of Wednesday, August 24th, to advise students. Many students will be wanting to have drop and add forms signed, and those students who can be accommodated on Wednesday will not need to take class time for this purpose on the first days of instruction.
With this advising in mind, Deans and Department Chairs are being asked to schedule their initial meetings with faculty on Monday, August 22nd, which is the first faculty duty day for the Fall 1983 Semester.
I look forward to seeing you on August 24th.
Academic Vice President Burns, Executive Vice President Evans, Dean Martin


text:
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Both teams that reach next year's Super Bowl at MetLife Stadium will stay at hotels in New Jersey and train at the New York Giants' and New York Jets' practice facilities, Gov. Chris Christie and the NFL announced Thursday.
Other venues announced Thursday included Newark's Prudential Center, which will host Super Bowl media day, and the Meadowlands Racetrack, which will host the NFL's pre-game tailgate party.
The Super Bowl will be held next Feb. 2, the first time the NFL's championship game will be played outdoors at a cold-weather site.
Media day, scheduled for Jan. 28, will be held away from the game site for the first time in the Super Bowl's history, the league said. The Prudential Center, home to the NHL's New Jersey Devils, is about 12 miles from MetLife Stadium.
The NFC team will train at the Timex Performance Center, the Giants' training facility on the MetLife Stadium grounds. The AFC team will train at the Jets' practice facility in Florham Park, about 15 miles away.
"Hosting the big game on February 2 and its many celebratory lead-up events during Super Bowl Week is a major win for the state, its tourism and economic developments," Christie said in a statement.
The NFL's pregame party will be held adjacent to MetLife Stadium inside the grandstand at the Meadowlands Racetrack, where the state hopes to offer legal gambling on the game. Christie signed a sports betting bill into law last year, but the four major pro leagues and the NCAA sued to stop it. The issue is scheduled to be argued in front of a federal judge next month in Trenton.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has joined the heads of the other pro leagues and the NCAA in strenuously opposing allowing New Jersey to legalize sports gambling.
On Feb. 3, Baltimore will take on San Francisco in this year's Super Bowl, played in New Orleans.


text:
Creator of Clemson's tiger paw logo dies
Creator of Clemson's tiger paw logo dies
The man who designed Clemson's tiger paw logo has died.
The man who designed Clemson's tiger paw logo has died.
The university said 83-year-old John Antonio died Thursday in Greenville after a long battle with cancer.
Antonio was with an advertising firm in 1970 when he was asked to design a new logo for the Clemson Tigers. He noticed that most other Tigers logos across the country were of the entire animal.
Antonio asked a Chicago museum for a plaster cast of a Bengal tiger's paw. He used the cast to make the logo.
The school says athletic director Frank Howard was not impressed when he first saw the tiger paw logo on stationery. But when Antonio pulled out an orange helmet with the logo on it, Howard loved it.
A memorial service will be June 15 in Greenville.


text:
Older News » Back-to-school supportLast updated 1:37 PM on 31 January 2012
A suite of resources, including the School A to Z website and the annual back-to-school hotline, is available to help parents prepare for the new school year.
School A to Z website
The School A to Z website provides you with practical help to get involved and support your children's learning and includes a webcast on the theme of 'Getting off to a great start at school'.
The School A to Z webcast answers commonly asked questions that range from how to motivate children for learning, to tips on how to manage technology use at home, bullying, and the importance of strong home-school partnerships.
The webcast features expert advice from:
- Sydney GP Martine Walker
- psychologist Beverley Thirkell
- experienced NSW public school principal Sue Brown
- the education department's deputy director-general (schools) Greg Prior.
Back-to-school hotline
The annual back-to-school hotline – 1300 738 338 – is also open to provide information and advice on how best to prepare for the new school year.
The hotline is open between 8.30am and 4.30pm weekdays until Wednesday 16 February.
Further parent information is also available on the NSW Public Schools website, including:
answers to frequently asked questions about uniforms, school fees and homework
school term and holiday dates.


text:
UNIONDALE, N.Y. – Michael Grabner scored the go-ahead goal late in the second period and Evgeni Nabokov made 26 saves as the New York Islanders took another step toward the playoffs with a 4-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night.
The Islanders won for the seventh time in nine games and moved two points ahead of the idle Rangers into seventh place in the Eastern Conference. Philadelphia (17-19-3) is 12th in the East, five points behind the Rangers and the post-season cutoff.
The Islanders, who won just two of their first 11 home games this season, have four consecutive wins at Nassau Coliseum.
John Tavares and Casey Cizikas—into an empty net—scored 28 seconds apart in the final two minutes to put New York ahead 4-1.
Jakub Voracek gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead in the first period.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)—Beau Bennett and Evgeni Malkin scored 13 seconds apart in the third period, and Pittsburgh clinched the Atlantic Division title by beating free-falling Carolina.
Brenden Morrow scored his first goal with the Penguins, Robert Bortuzzo added a goal, and Pascal Dupuis had an empty-netter and two assists.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 25 saves for Penguins, who were without a handful of regulars—including captain Sidney Crosby, James Neal and Kris Letang—but still handed the Hurricanes their club-record eighth straight home loss.
Joe Corvo and Bobby Sanguinetti scored early goals for the Hurricanes, and Riley Nash put them ahead 3-2 at 2:00 of the third.
Justin Peters made 28 saves for Carolina, which lost its sixth straight and for the 13th time in 14 games.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)—Sergei Bobrovsky earned his fourth NHL shutout—all in his last 15 games—and newcomer Marian Gaborik had a goal and an assist, leading Columbus over San Jose.
Matt Calvert, James Wisniewski and Ryan Johansen also scored for the Blue Jackets, who had lost their previous two games.
Bobrovsky, who didn't have a shutout in his first 98 NHL appearances, made 30 saves, including stopping Patrick Marleau's point-blank wrister in the third period and Dan Boyle's hard, power-play slap shot in the second.
The Blue Jackets have gotten points in 17 of their last 21 games (12-4-5). They had a four-game home winning streak ended Sunday night by Minnesota, 3-0. That defeat also snapped a club-record 12-game points streak at home (9-0-3).
MONTREAL (AP)—Alex Ovechkin scored his 26th goal and Jack Hillen netted his first as Washington stretched its winning run to five games by beating Montreal.
Eric Fehr also scored for the Southeast Division-leading Capitals, who are 6-0-1 in their last seven. They are 5-0 in April, during which Ovechkin has eight goals, and Nicklas Backstrom, who had two assists, has 11 points—all assists.
Lars Eller scored both goals for Montreal, which lost for the second time in seven games. It was Montreal's first loss to a Southeast team (11-1-0) in 2013. The Capitals improved to 6-0-1 in their last seven visits to Montreal.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP)—Steven Stamkos scored his 26th goal of the season in the third period, and Tampa Bay beat Ottawa.
Stamkos snapped a 2-2 tie with a power-play goal off a pass through the slot by Vincent Lecavalier with 5:04 to play.
Tampa Bay also got goals from Pierre-Cedric Labrie and Lecavalier. Martin St. Louis assisted on Lecavalier's goal for his 900th point. The right wing, the 98th NHL player to reach the milestone, also assisted on Stamkos' goal.
Daniel Alfredsson and Guillaume Latendresse scored for the Senators, who have lost five in a row. Kyle Turris had two assists. Latendresse tied it at 2 from near the crease on a power play 21 seconds into the third.
Alfredsson has 425 goals, tying him for 70th place on the NHL career list with Brian Propp. The right wing also tied Frank Mahovlich for 56th place with 1,103 points.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP)—Aaron Gagnon scored his first NHL goal to help Winnipeg top Buffalo. Gagnon was playing in just his third game since he was called up from the AHL.
Kyle Wellwood, Andrew Ladd and Blake Wheeler had Winnipeg's other goals.
Kevin Porter had the only goal for the Sabres in the third period, spoiling what could have been Ondrej Pavelec's first shutout of the season. Pavelec finished with 29 saves.
It was the second consecutive win for the Jets during a six-game homestand. Winnipeg trails Washington by two points in the Southeast Division.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)—Brian Elliott made 15 saves, and Alex Steen snapped a six-game goal drought to lead St. Louis over Nashville.
The Blues extended their winning streak to a season-high five games. The fading Predators have dropped four straight and seven of eight.
Elliott was relatively untested en route to his second consecutive shutout. He made four saves in the first, six in the second and five in the third. Elliott has 20 career shutouts.
St. Louis strengthened its chances of making the playoffs in the West, while Nashville fell deeper into last place in the Central Division.
After a scoreless first period, Steen got the game's first goal at 16:37 of the second.
Pekka Rinne made 25 saves in the loss.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)—Marian Hossa's unassisted goal late in the second period lifted NHL-leading Chicago to its fifth win in six games.
Ray Emery started for the Blackhawks for the third straight game and made 20 saves for his second shutout in that stretch and third of the season. He helped hand Minnesota its fifth loss in seven games.
Hossa darted in front of Clayton Stoner's seemingly harmless breakout pass toward Mikko Koivu in the Wild zone. Hossa intercepted the bouncing pass in front of the blue line, skated up the middle and snapped a shot past goalie Niklas Backstrom's stick with 4:46 left in the period.
It was Hossa's first goal since March 16 at Dallas. He missed six games in that scoreless stretch because of an upper body injury, but Hossa is still second on the team with 14 goals.
DALLAS (AP)—Ray Whitney and Vernon Fiddler both scored twice during Dallas' four-goal third period, and the Stars broke open a tie game and routed Los Angeles.
Whitney snapped a 1-1 tie just 52 seconds into the third, and the Stars poured on the offence en route to their third straight win. The Stars moved into ninth place in the Western Conference, two points behind Detroit and the post-season cutoff.
Alex Goligoski also scored, and Trevor Daley added two assists for the Stars, who entered the night with the worst home record in the West. They improved to 9-9-2 at home.
Richard Bachman stopped all 22 shots he faced after replacing starter Kari Lehtonen 14:18 in. Lehtonen started his 19th straight game, but left because of a lower body injury after making seven saves and allowing one goal.
Drew Doughty scored for the Kings, who are 5-2-2 in their last nine games. Jonathan Quick made 26 saves.


text:
Where did all the money go?
We are all aware that the economy is on shaky ground. The apparent solution to this seemingly unsolvable problem appears to be to talk it to death.
If enough people in high places pontificate on the matter, and the media writes, televises, and broadcasts nothing other than bad economic news, the matter will become so nauseatingly boring that nobody will pay attention any more. Bad economic news will be as much of a non-issue as Paris Hilton's TV show.
I think they should try it. That's what happens to all the other hot topics. A few months ago, the high cost of fuel was the subject of every newscast and headline. Eventually, people got so tired of hearing about it that they stopped paying attention. As soon as the viewer ratings and newspaper sales went down, so did the gas prices. It was an amazing thing to watch.
As I understand it, the economic downturn is not indigenous to the United States. No sir, it is a global problem. According to the so-called experts, self-proclaimed and otherwise, the entire world is broke. Nobody has any money. The flow of revenue has literally stopped. Hmmm . . . That is certainly enough to cause concern.
When I stop to think about it, if that is true, it is one of the more phenomenal magic tricks in recorded history. If nobody claims to have any money, then where did it all go? I do not believe the astronauts are carting it off into space. Aliens aren't swooping down in flying saucers and picking it up by the space ship load.
I strongly suspect that the money is still here on earth. Where else could it be? I also do not believe it is very well hidden. Take a look around you. What do you see?
Businesses everywhere are having "Gigantic" sales to generate enough cash to pay their bills and employees. Car dealers are advertising ads that say, "Below factory invoices. Buy now! Unprecedented discounts! Do not miss out!" The same sales pitches are coming from furniture stores, appliance dealers, department stores and supermarkets.
Even big manufacturers are feeling the pinch. Boeing Aircraft has laid people off. So has Cessna and some of the other small airplane manufacturers. Businesses everywhere appear to be doing all they can just to keep their doors open.
However, that is not entirely true, not when you look closely at all of the business community. A number of retailers are sitting quietly in the background not advertising or making their presence too obvious. You might say they are doing all they can to be invisible.
I'm talking about automobile dealers like Bentley, Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, Ferrari and even Mercedes Benz. You don't see prices slashed on any cars costing more than, let's say, $60,000. Those dealers seem to be doing just fine.
You also don't hear of Lockheed Martin, McDonnell-Douglas, or any of the other manufacturers of military aircraft and equipment crying poor. And you certainly don't see Lear Jet or Gulfstream offering deep discounts. Their sales are up. How else could bank executives get to Washington to pick up their bailout checks?
Could it be that the haves are enjoying affluence while the rest of us are stuck with the effluence? Say it isn't so. Is the gap between the As and the Es widening? Could be, don'tcha think? This is disturbing.
Even the affluent have noticed that the failing economy has influenced their lives. A man who built a McMansion was heard saying that the economy has really affected the contractors and the way they do business. "They actually finished my house on time, and came in on budget. I was amazed," he said.
When the only work is at the high end of the socio-economic scale, the competition gets stiff. Even builders will bend their rules and honor their contracts. And again, the As get the advantage.
In a failing economy, those who can "show me the money" become a lot more obvious, especially to those who live in a system they can't understand.


text:
The little engine that could finally threw a gear.
The Chicago Bulls might have been the most heartwarming tale going this postseason, but it's over. Unlike the bedtime story, fumes and spare parts get you only so far in the NBA. It was always a matter of when — not if — they'd fall apart.
Go back and take a look at what happened in the third quarter of their Eastern Conference semifinal Monday night against the Miami Heat, or better yet, don't. It was about as ugly as you'd imagine. The Bulls scored exactly nine points in the period, an all-time franchise low.
At various times in the final quarter, Chicago had Nazr Mohammed, Daequan Cook, Malcolm Thomas, Marquis Teague and 35-year-old Rip Hamilton on the floor. What's scary isn't that some NBA fans had no idea that any or all of that group was in the league; rather, it's that many of those same fans wouldn't recognize the guys they were supposed to be spelling.
The Bulls wound up shooting 26 percent and totaled just 65 points by the end of Game 4, another team record for futility. Yet they probably had no business getting that many, let alone this far in the playoffs.
"We're kind of putting screws and bandages everywhere," said forward Taj Gibson, another backup pressed into regular service. "It's frustrating. Every night and every day.
"It's rough. It's really rough," he added a moment later. "I wish I could explain how I'm feeling right now. How everybody in this locker room is feeling now."
Actually, there's no need for a lengthy explanation when a glance will do. Gibson had icepacks covering both knees as he talked. Across the room, Joakim Noah had his right foot (plantar fasciitis) submerged in a bucket of ice. Next to him, Nate Robinson had an icepack covering his left shoulder. The players who hadn't left in a hurry to lick their wounds at home were still lined up in the trainer's room, awaiting their turns.
Every team has to cope with injuries, but what happened to the Bulls and coach Tom Thibodeau this season gives the phrase new meaning. His best player, Derrick Rose, the league's MVP in 2011, was a scratch at the start because of knee surgery, and despite a doctor's note clearing him to return in March, he never did. Somehow, the Bulls won 45 regular-season games, then even more surprising, beat back Brooklyn in the first round.
Naturally, things only got worse. Chicago's second-best offensive player, Luol Deng, who played all season with a variety of hurts, has missed the last six playoff games; the Bulls' best perimeter defender, Kirk Heinrich, similarly battling injuries for months, has been out for the last seven.
Now the Bulls head to Miami down 3-1, where this series will end — officially, but mercifully, too.
"They're in a tough situation," LeBron James said — not that it stopped him from dropping 27 points on Chicago's wearied defenders. "They've had some injuries and illnesses and whatever's going on. They don't have their full roster, but that's not for us to worry about."
That was Thibodeau's worry all season, and the jury could be out for a while deciding whether he treated the players available at any given moment like a chess master or a meat grinder. The team's unofficial motto became "Next Man Up!" — the Bulls left a placard with the slogan on every seat in the arena Monday night — but "Next Man Down!' might turn out to be more accurate in the long run.
Thibodeau possesses one of the league's best defensive minds, and the effort he coaxed, mostly from a bench long on second-stringers, was something to behold. In what might have been his final motivational ploy for this season, Thibodeau put out a revised lineup just moments before Game 4 with Deng listed as "active," even though he wasn't long out of a hospital bed. The coach also reached deep into his doghouse and finally tossed a few minutes to Hamilton, who like Robinson, shoots the ball without conscience and is a defensive liability.
Neither is Thibodeau's kind of player. Whether the pair returns remains to be seen, though you could say the same about a few more of the youngsters and castoffs the coach used to great effect. The more important question is whether the front-liners — Rose, Deng, Heinrich and Noah, who's played relentlessly despite the foot injury — will continue to entrust their careers to a coach who won't, or can't, ever take his foot off the throttle.
Afterward, Thibodeau was asked whether the Bulls' performance was proof they'd simply "run out of steam."
"No," he replied. "I think the thing is they're (Heat) a great team. We have to come out with great intensity — but we also have to make shots."
The Bulls never really had enough guys who could do that — shoot — to seriously contend. They came back down 3-1 against the Nets and stole the first game of this series with toughness and intensity, but they're short on those qualities now, and exhausted to boot.
"There's a lot left in the tank," Robinson said bravely. "Down 3-1, you never know. Take it to Game 7 and we end up winning, it's going to be a beautiful story to tell my kids one day."
Or not.
Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke(at)ap.org


text:
WinPatrol with Scotty the Windows Watch Dog will sniff out Worms, Adware, Spyware, Cookies, Trojan horses and other virus type, malicious, nasty programs that may attack your computer. WinPatrol puts you back in control of your computer with no need for constant updates.
WinPatrol's goal is to help you better understand what programs are running on your computer, and alert you to any new programs added without your permission. Scotty lets you confirm any new programs or add-ons set up to run on your computer.
WinPatrol Features:
Startup Program Alerts
Shorten your initial boot up time.
Approve any programs set to AutoRun.
Temporarily disable startup programs.
Display any additional information about Startup Programs.
Learn more about internal programs used by Windows.
Disable or Stop running Services.
Display any additional details about running Services.
IE Helpers or Browser Helper Objects
Display Information on any Browser Helper Objects which exist.
Monitor if new Browser Helper Objects have been added without your permission
Display additional information on Browser Helper Objects.
Remove malicious Adware and Spyware Browser Helper Objects.
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Display Information on any Tasks scheduled to run on your system.
Monitor new tasks added without your permission
Display additional information on scheduled tasks.
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Display Information on currently active Programs and Services.
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Be Alerted when new Cookies are added to you system. (optional)
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Manage required and unwanted Cookies.
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Easily Customize for Maximum Performance.
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Have Scotty passively monitor your computer everyday.
Assign unique Sounds to WinPatrol Alerts.
Download it here: http://www.winpatrol.com


text:
No, we'd see each other hopefully pretty frequently on weekends. Plane tickets are pretty cheap. I just meant that after last summer, we wanted to be together as much as possible this summer, not that we would go through something as dramatic as that again.But the difference between being possibly being able to stay with friends for free versus getting an apartment adequate for two people and two dogs could be a big deal in terms of saving up for a house down payment, since we'd like to get one immediately upon my graduation.
yeah, the pets'll be the issue... otherwise, you can find a decent/good place for about $1000-1500 per month off craigslist. fwiw, i paid $700 per month last summer for a sweet place in a group house in the district.


text:
Chris Hayes, an editor at large of The Nation and host of the talk show bearing his name on MSNBC, was raised in a working-class neighborhood but attended some of the most exclusive schools on the planet.
"I grew up in the Bronx," says the affable, 33-year-old anchor of "Up With Chris Hayes." "My mother was the daughter of an Italian deli owner. But I'm also hugely a product of the meritocracy, and for that reason I have my own affection for it."
Both experiences provided fodder for his much-discussed first book, "Twilight of the Elites: America after Meritocracy."
The third chapter deals with the author's background as a student at New York's prestigious Hunter College High School, which has a 6.6 percent admission rate.
Hayes argues that institutions such as his alma mater, which strive to reward the best and brightest, end up enshrining the very class privilege they're designed to defeat. And he further maintains that society's misguided devotion to the meritocratic ideal has resulted in the failure of the nation's flagship institutions, from banks to baseball.
"In reality, our meritocracy has failed not because it's too meritocratic," Hayes writes, "but because in practice, it isn't very meritocratic at all."
The author, who is scheduled to appear Jan. 16 for a reading at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, recently chatted about his theories.
First things first: In light of your observations, what do you think about the deal that averted the fiscal cliff?
Not surprisingly, I think it fits perfectly with my thesis about the distance between the elites and ordinary folk. It's amazing that the greatest areas of concern for the broad mass of people weren't reflected by the political discourse.
A small set of elites in Washington is much more obsessed with the deficit than is the rest of the country. All that Congress talked about was the deficit. And yet the decision to let the payroll tax cut expire wasn't even debated.
Don't get me wrong — I think there are reasons to let the tax cut expire. But what struck me was how uncontroversial that decision was when the result will be smaller paychecks for 77 percent of the population.
One of your central arguments is that meritocracies inevitably become rigged to protect the interests of the ruling class. For instance, you argue that admission to elite academies such as Hunter is granted disproportionately to students who can afford expensive test preparation courses.
In our society, we have an almost religious belief in this idea of a level playing field, and it's become toxic.
There are two kinds of equality: the equality of opportunity and the equality of outcomes. In this country, we concentrate on equalizing opportunities and don't do much to redistribute wealth and make sure that outcomes also are equal. They do that much more in other countries.
But, during this long period of time in which we've had a meritocratic society, we've seen huge declines in social mobility. For instance, the best way to predict kids' SAT scores is to look at their parents' incomes. The hydraulics of power guarantee that those on top of society will find ways to pull up the ladder behind them.
You raise the specter that if the gap between the haves and have-nots gets much wider, the U.S. could turn away from democracy and toward totalitarianism. Do you think that's a realistic possibility?
Is it likely in the near term? No.
But in the past, societies in decline have had a tendency to produce authoritarian systems, and it's something to be absolutely, vigilantly guarded against. You don't want to have a society where the military, by a wide margin, is our most trusted institution, and Congress is the least trusted — as recent surveys have shown.
That would leave the founders, as a man, absolutely chilled.
Another of your premises is that the elites who are running things are incompetent. But isn't the larger issue that the problems they are tasked with addressing — such as fixing the economy or the educational system — are incredibly complex and difficult to repair?
I think that's true, and it's one of the tensions of modern progress. They are two impulses that happen simultaneously, and they're opposed to one another. There were the democratizing trends that resulted in us getting rid of slavery and adopting the 19th Amendment [guaranteeing women the right to vote]. But as systems get more democratic, they also get more complex, and we put in place a small group of elites and experts to manage them.
That's one of the lessons of the book: We go through periods of increased power and consolidation, and then a democratic backlash of accountability. Maybe we're about due for the latter.
You implicitly endorse "leaderless" movements and hold the Occupy Wall Street movement up as an example. But is there any such thing? Don't all ships end up with captains, whether they want them or not?
Yeah, my ambiguity on this question is something that most reviews have zeroed in on. There is a natural consolidation of power. Attempts to produce non-hierarchical organizations very often produce entrenched hierarchies.
But I have been radicalized by this decade, and I don't think we should automatically throw all radical solutions out of the conversation. There's also something to be said for having the goal of genuine egalitarian progress even if it can never be achieved.
Human government is never fixed. It's a constant Sisyphean process. You roll the rock up the hill, and the hydraulics of power drag it back down. One of the flaws in Marx's philosophy is that he thought you really did get to this final static equilibrium in which the problem is solved.
But, there is no final state. There is no equilibrium. There's just a process of critique and mobilization and activism that dynamically inches you toward something better.
If you go
Author Chris Hayes will read from his new book at 7 p.m. Jan. 16 at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, 400 Cathedral St. Free. Call 410-396-5430 or go to prattlibrary.org.
About the book
"Twilight of the Elites: America after Meritocracy," Crown Publishing Group, June 12, 2012. $26, 304 pages.


text:
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Running Time: 198 minutes
Released: 08/2017
Studio Name: Reality Kings
Series: Moms Lick Teens
Description: MILFs love pussy and teen pussy is the best! They're gunna lick all they can get!
6 Scenes from Moms Lick Teens 9
Moms Lick Teens 9: Scene 1
Starring: Lezley Zen Raylin Ann ... More Details
Stars: Lezley Zen, Raylin Ann
Sex Acts: Oral Sex, Girl on Girl action, Masturbation, Breast Play, Rim Job
Moms Lick Teens 9: Scene 2
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Positions: Crouching/Squatting, Kneeling, Sitting, Standing
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New group aims to bring new blood to city's elections, political sceneBy TED SIEFER
December 01. 2012 10:59PM
With the dust barely settled on the November elections, a new political action committee is being formed to inject fresh blood into Manchester politics for next year's municipal races.
Voters for Manchester's Future is the brainchild of Queen City residents Tyler Deaton, a lobbyist and board member of the New Hampshire Young Republicans, Sarah Crawford Stewart, a political consultant, and Mike Skelton, a familiar voice for those of us in the media as spokesman for Public Service of New Hampshire. Skelton, who will serve as the group's chairman, is also on the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce and was a past chairman of the Manchester Young Professionals Network.
Deaton said the group is nonpartisan.
"We'll be focusing on bringing fresh voices to city government, whether Democrat or Republican. We want to find those community leaders that, maybe, wouldn't at first want to run and getting them involved in city government," Deaton said.
In coming months, the group will recruit and support candidates for both the aldermanic and school board races, Deaton said.
What about the mayor's race? "We're open to that, too," said Deaton.
So look out, Mayor Ted Gatsas, you could have some young whippersnappers coming after you.
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For the past few months, school reform has been moving on two different tracks. One involves the school board's strategic planning committee, which is embarking on a months-long process of fact finding, community engagement and consensus building. The other, spearheaded by Mayor Gatsas, is, well, not about those things. In short order, he's proposed a dramatic expansion of technology in the classrooms, redistricting and other changes to be implemented not in months or years, but a matter of weeks.
Those two paths appeared to collide at Wednesday's Board of School Committee meeting.
The mayor was upset about comments made by Mark McQuillan, the dean of the Southern New Hampshire University's School of Education, when he was facilitating a community meeting of the strategic planning committee. Gatsas recalled the dean saying, according to an article in this paper, that the district is "woefully underfunded."
McQuillan is quoted in the article telling a group of people that there is "good evidence" the district is underfunded.
"I would ask that he would come before us and explain where he got those ideas in his head before he facilitates a program going forward," Gatsas said.
McQuillan is not inclined to do so. On Thursday, he told school board member Kathy Staub, who has been leading the strategic planning initiative, that he's bowing out.
"The city of Manchester lost, and the mayor won," she said. "We have lost this resource, who could be so helpful to us in improving our schools."
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Gatsas probably won't be much help with another project near and dear to Staub and other school board members. Last week, members of the Curriculum and Instruction Committee interviewed two companies to conduct a performance audit of the district, school by school, and went so far as negotiating a price, $40,000, for a contract with an Iowa-based company.
Hopefully, they haven't cut the check yet.
"I have no idea where the money for that is going to come from," Gatsas said.
Of course, the mayor didn't take too kindly to the last audit of city schools, performed last spring by state Department of Education officials who described a long list of "deficiencies," including kids sleeping in class. The education commissioner later acknowledged the report was full of subjective observations outside the scope of state standards and retracted it.
Gatsas insisted that his concerns about the audit contract were strictly financial.
And these days, it seems the mayor is the only one who can rustle up extra funds for the cash-strapped district.
Gatsas told the school board Wednesday that he was able to raise $25,000 to pay the search firm hired to find a new superintendent, a job he calls "the most important in the city."
Donors include AutoFair, People's United Bank and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.
Now Gatsas hopes to firm up a financial commitment of $60,000 to build "virtual" computer-assisted classrooms. The assistance could come in the form of cash or hardware, he said.
All of this prompted board member Art Beaudry to ask at Wednesday's meeting how exactly these donations would "come in."
The checks would be made out to the Manchester School District, and would be designated for the purpose they were intended, the mayor said.
Not that Beaudry was complaining. "Good job," he offered, in a rare bit of praise for the mayor.
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Last week in this space, it was reported that an exasperated Alderman Joe Kelly Levasseur couldn't even get someone to second a motion to have the Welfare Department to stay open during lunch.
It turns out, the motion did not fall on deaf ears. Welfare Commissioner Paul Martineau has announced that starting Monday, the office will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.
By several accounts, Martineau has tried to be more accommodating in the wake of allegations that his office is tightfisted in paying out assistance, while he makes a salary of $113,000, higher than that of any elected official in the city.
Changes may be coming on this score as well. On Tuesday, the Committee on Human Resources will take up a proposed ordinance that would remove the welfare commissioner from the Yarger Decker system of annual raises. Instead, aldermen will consider establishing a set salary for the job, as is the case for other elected offices. Based on a comparison to other cities in the state, the human resources director recommends a range of $80,000 to $90,000.
Martineau, however, won't likely be getting a haircut anytime soon. The consensus on the committee at its last meeting was that changes would not go into effect until after the 2013 election. We'll see how inclined Martineau is run for reelection next year.
Ted Siefer may be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @tbsreporter.