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Morgan Grove
"If you have ... trees throughout the neighborhood, they're symbols of the fact that the neighborhood is cared about and that people are involved in it. If they see you breaking into someone's car, they're going to call the cops," said Morgan Grove, research scientist, USDA Forest Service.
Kim Hairston, Baltimore Sun
Copyright © 2018, The Morning Call


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Nike Boys' Toddler Jordan Flight SC-3 Basketball Shoes
Jordan performance and a killer aesthetic combine in the Jordan SC-3 Basketball Shoes. Inspired by the Jordan Flight series, these sneakers take things to the next level, so your toddler can look good as he takes on the playground. Sandwich mesh, full-grain leather and synthetics combine on the upper for a superior fit and breathability, while the AJ5-inspired asymmetrical mid-top collar allows for flexibility of movement and plenty of support. A mid-foot stay-put closure strap ensures less headaches for mom and dad, while Phylon foam offers a plush feel and total responsiveness for budding walkers. And we can't forget about the outsole. Durable rubber with traction pattern helps to cut down on falls as your little guy learns to walk, run and hoop. FEATURES: UPPER: Leather, synthetics and mesh MIDSOLE: Phylon OUTSOLE: Rubber with traction IMPORTED
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14-night The Gems of the Brazilian Coast Cruise
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- Worldwide Rank #376,475
- Follower/Following Ratio 18.33
- Daily New Followers -2
Red Bull UAE Twitter Stats
@RedBullUAE - Tracking Red Bull UAE Twitter profile since November 12, 2010
The only #UAE Twitter account that #GivesYouWings
United Arab Emirates
Red Bull UAE's story
Red Bull UAE, also known as @RedBullUAE has a reasonably significant presence on Twitter and is ranked by us in the 30% percentile for account strength. Active on Twitter since October 2010, Red Bull UAE made it to having an enviable 28,700 Twitter followers and to being ranked 376,475 for number of followers among all Twitter users.
As a matter of fact, @RedBullUAE has the prominent #1 placing on the Food/Beverages category.
Uh-oh... seems like someone has fallen asleep while on duty and is dropping in social relevance. The plot thickens when considering Red Bull UAE's follower-to-following ratio, which is 18.33.
@RedBullUAE doesn't tweet all that much, with an average of 0.74 tweet(s) per day in the past 30 days. However this seems to be a big change from a total of 9,920 since @RedBullUAE joined Twitter.
It seems like Red Bull UAE doesn't have a very wide-reaching attentiveness to their posts on Twitter, with an audience attentiveness score of 7%, which stems from being tracked on 103 Twitter lists and normalized to their 28,700 followers.
This account is tracked by us for quite some time now, actually since November 2010. As of September 25 2018 we track 291167125 Twitter accounts, so feel free to search for other accounts you're interested in and reveal their Twitter story!
Red Bull UAE Tweets
@RedBullUAE has posted 23 tweets in the last 30 days, which translates to an average of 0.74 tweets per day.
Red Bull UAE Twitter Followers
@RedBullUAE has 28,700 followers on Twitter.
This account is #376,475 in the worldwide rank of the most popular Twitter users.
Red Bull UAE Following on Twitter
@RedBullUAE is following 1,566 Twitter accounts.
Last month this account followed 1 users.
Red Bull UAE Predictions & Milestones
@RedBullUAE will hit 28,528 followers in the next 3 months, and 28,001 in one year.
You are on Red Bull UAE's Twitter stats page
We track these Twitter stats since November 12, 2010 . You can see how many followers Red Bull UAE lost or gained and what the prediction is for tomorrow or the next 15 days, together with all kinds of other stats like rank compared to all Twitter users, tweets etc.
Why don't you give it a try and compare Red Bull UAE to yourself ? Or if you are Red Bull UAE get even more feature rich & up-to-date stats with our premium Twitter Stats.
Twitter Counter is the #1 Twitter stats site powered by Twitter. It all started in June 12, 2008 and we grew rather rapidly because of our Twitter Counter badge. The button is a nice small image that shows your visitors how many followers you have on Twitter. Within a year the button was on many many blogs around the world and we displayed more than 100 million buttons in one month. We track follower stats for over 291.167.125 users now.


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Jun 16, 2011 at 9:35 am
Please ad some cars soon, im dieing 2 see that firebird!
Jan 3, 2010 at 9:22 pm
So glad you created your own garage!
Debbie_C has no Car garage photo albums.
Debbie_C has not posted to her car garage blog.
Log in to post comments.


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BERLIN, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- A German priest and a government official said food tainted with horse meat should be given to the poor rather than discarded.
The scandal over beef products that contain horse meat has spread to Italy, Belgium, France and Liechtenstein. The German consumer affairs ministry said 67 of the 830 prepackaged food items it tested scored positive for horse DNA, the BBC said Saturday.
Horse meat poses no health risks, but officials and consumers alike have criticized food suppliers for misleading people about what they're being fed.
The Rev. Bernhard Felmberg, the senior representative of the Evangelical Church in Germany, said food otherwise thrown away could go to poor people who are struggling to buy food themselves.
"We as a Church find the throw-away mentality in our society concerning. How and whether to distribute the products in question would have to be examined," Felmberg said.
Hartwig Fischer, a prominent member of Germany's governing CDU Party, expressed a similar sentiment, but opposition members ridiculed the suggestion as an insult to the poor.


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You don't have to be a fan of country music to like "Nashville." Then again, you don't have to be a fan of country music to like country music these days, either.
ABC's gripping, soapy new musical drama is one of the best new shows of the season. It pits an old-school purist against the kind of overproduced crossover act responsible for watering down the genre while taking it mainstream. The battle for the heart of the city will be waged in dressing rooms, bedrooms, recording studios, voting booths and the parking lot of the famous Bluebird Cafe.
After only one episode, "Nashville" will prove irresistible — and so will guessing which real-life entertainers line up with the show's fictional stars.
Rayna Jaymes (Connie Britton of "Friday Night Lights") is an industry legend, but she's being put out to pasture because she insists on singing traditional country fare that doesn't translate to ticket sales. Shades of Reba McEntire? Trisha Yearwood? Faith Hill?
Trying to shove Rayna off stage for good is Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere of "Heroes"), who uses backstabbing and bed-hopping to fuel her rise on the pop charts. Is she Carrie Underwood? Kellie Pickler? Taylor Swift?
Actually, Panettiere has insisted that snippy, sexually manipulative teen-queen Juliette is not based on Swift, but someone should have notified the show's stylists, who dress Panettiere in short, glittery tube dresses and curl her blond hair into Swift's signature spirals.
But beyond looks, Juliette has none of Swift's supposed innocence: She abuses her assistant over things like her signature fragrance's new bottle. But part of her nature is explained when she finally breaks down and accepts a phone call from her mom.
For Rayna, Juliette's success is a bitter pill to swallow, and the younger singer rubs it in, gushing, "My mama was one of your biggest fans!" before poaching Rayna's bandleader by first stroking his ego and then moving on to his other parts.
Nastiness between the singers first bubbles up at a tribute to beloved pioneer Watty White, portrayed in a clever bit of casting by JD Souther, the real life country-rock songwriter. White acts as mentor to Rayna, so he's with her backstage after the show when the record label suits arrive with bad news.
Their plan to make Rayna the opening act for Juliette on tour doesn't go over well. To make matters worse, Rayna's own daughters sing along with Juliette's single in the backseat until she angrily turns off the radio, snapping, "Mama has a headache." When she finds out her producer is working with Juliette now too, she knows she needs a plan.
In a city where good songs get snatched up and recorded fast, the battle for the next chart topper might come down to who's smart enough to notice the potential in that new waitress at the Bluebird Café, the one with a notebook of poems about a boyfriend who makes her sad.
Show creator and writer Callie Khouri once waited tables in Nashville herself before she won an Oscar for writing "Thelma Louise." She brings along husband T Bone Burnett as executive musical producer, and the results in the pilot had me checking iTunes to see if anything from the show was available yet.
"Nashville" is much more than a catfight set to good music, though. Rayna's past hounds her at every turn, and none of her relationships is simple. As her power-broker father, Powers Boothe brings his usual Old West-style malevolence to his attempts to bring his famous daughter back into the fold. Rayna's struggle to stay independent is undercut by her husband, Teddy (Eric Close), who thinks it's insane to let a trust fund go to waste.
Rayna will need her friends, but she's not waiting for anyone to tell her what to do after years spent clawing her way to the top — before all it took was cleavage and Auto-Tune. At 40, Rayna looks just fine in her Wranglers, and it's criminal that any industry, even one obsessed with looks, would dismiss her as over-the-hill. To prove everyone wrong, she'll have to take on her father, her husband, her record label and the tart everyone thinks is sweet.
"I'm not ready to hang up my rhinestones just yet," Rayna declares in a moment of defiance. If the series keeps the steamy scripts coming, there's no reason she should have to.


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Prepared by Kenneth D. Crews
- L. Ray Patterson and Stanley W. Lindberg, The Nature of Copyright: A Law of Users' Rights (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1991).
- Lyman Ray Patterson, Copyright in Historical Perspective (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1968).
- L. Ray Patterson, Eldred v. Reno: An Example of the Law of Unintended Consequences, 8 J. INTELL. PROP. L. 223 (2001).
- L. Ray Patterson, Copyright in the New Millennium: Resolving the Conflict between Property Rights and Political Rights, 62 OHIO ST. L.J. 703 (2001).
- L. Ray Patterson, Nimmer's Copyright in the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Comment, 38 HOUS. L. REV. 431 (2001).
- L. Ray Patterson, Understanding the Copyright Clause, 47 J. COPYRIGHT SOC'Y USA 365 (2000)
- L. Ray Patterson, The Worst Intellectual Property Opinion Ever Written: Folsom v. Marsh and its Legacy, 5 J. INTELL. PROP. L. 431 (1998).
- L. Ray Patterson, A Response to Mr. Y'Barbo's Reply, 5 J. INTELL. PROP. L. 235 (1997).
- L. Ray Patterson, Regents Guide to Understanding Copyright and Educational Fair Use, 5 J. INTELL. PROP. L. 243 (1997).
- L. Ray Patterson & Stanley F. Birch, Jr., Copyright and Free Speech Rights, 4 J. INTELL. PROP. L. 1 (1997).
- L. Ray Patterson, Copyright and the "Exclusive Right" of Authors, 1 J. INTELL. PROP. L. 1 (1993).
- L. Ray Patterson, Copyright Overextended: A Preliminary Inquiry into the Need for a Federal Statute of Unfair Competition, 22 U. DAYTON L. REV. 385 (1992).
- L. Ray Patterson and Craig Joyce, Monopolizing the Law: The Scope of Copyright Protection for Law Reports and Statutory Compilations, 36 UCLA L. REV. 719 (1989).
- L. Ray Patterson, Free Speech, Copyright, and Fair Use, 40 VAND. L. REV. 1 (1987).
- Lyman Ray Patterson, Private Copyright and Public Communication: Free Speech Endangered, 28 VAND. L. REV. 1161 (1975).


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Google Plus £free
Android users lost their exclusivity this week when social network flavour of the month Google Plus finally got the all clear from Apple and landed in the App Store. With almost 20 million users under its belt, it's no surprise the app has already climbed the charts to become one of the top free iPhone apps. And no surprise it was also in our list of the best Android apps this week too.
Stickman BMX 69p
Breathing fresh life into a classic game, the sequel to Stickman Skater sees Stickson make a bold return to test his BMX skills while up against a variety of terrain, including forests, oil refineries, all the way down to fiery hell. Your only aim? To survive, avoiding obstacles and inhabitants, while pulling off tricks. Sounds simple enough, right? Pah. Expect the game to get progressively harder as you make your way through the 60 levels.
Songify £free
From the creators of the Double Rainbow YouTube phenomenon comes an app that transforms speech into autotuned musical marvels. With 12 different songs to choose from and a Shazam-esque interface, recording your masterpiece is simple. So if you want to be an international pop star but possess no discernible musical talent, your international bid for stardom starts here. It's only free for a limited time, though.
FiLMiC Pro £1.99
The iPhone 4's camera doesn't do too badly on the video front, but with everything on auto there's little room for control. FiLMiC Pro let's you fine tune those settings for better results. That means control over focus and exposure – which can be locked so they don't change when you start waving your iPhone about – as well as having selectable frame rates, a white balance lock, colour bars and a slate with shot details. Upload options include all the favourites like youTube and Facebook, but with Dropbox and FTP server, pulling video from your phone is hassle free.
Halftone 69p
There are a lot of camera apps out there that promise to slap a bucket load of funky effects onto your snaps. But one that promises to inject a bit of excitement into your boring snaps by transforming them into a comic book panel sounds like a winner. Simply open a photo, change the text, the paper and effect you want the photo to take on. The best part, though, is adding the Batman and Robin-style kablams and pows, of which there are a massive selection for you to whack onto your photos. Then save, share or print your very own comic book. Boom!
Road trip apps – le Mans (Part 1)
Road trip apps – le Mans (Part 2)


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Russian Language Tutoring
Monday, December 10, 2012 at 6:00 PM
Eldersburg Branch Library
This course is designed for people who are serious about learning Russian. It is based on learning basic grammar and, in parallel, useful words and phrases. In this weekly course you will get the necessary TOOLS and learn how to USE them. You will gain an ability to assemble any sentence you want. Please join the class and experience it for yourself.
Return to the Calendar of Events


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A few photos from our 2012 summer musical, "The Secret Garden":
(e-mail sign-up coming soon!)
Stay in touch with us by using your favorite social media platform.
We're always looking for great people to work with us. Is that you? We need actors and directors, of course, but we also need set builders and painters, costumers, stage hands, hair and makeup stylists, light and sound techs, tickets seller, ushers, publicity people and much more. Administrative and creative people of all kinds are needed. If you're interested and willing to help, send us an email or contact any Board member.


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Area girls basketball from Thursday
Kelsey Walsberg had the hot hand in leading Pontiac to its first win of the season Thursday. The Indians slipped past Washington 43-41 at the Pontiac Thanksgiving Tournament.
Walsberg and Kaela Hodges did all the scoring for PTHS in the fourth quarter as the Tribe rallied from a 33-29 deficit. Walsberg had eight points and Hodges threw in the other six as Pontiac outscored the Panthers 14-8.
The comeback trail was a long one as the Indians fell behind 20-7 in the first quarter. Pontiac started chipping away at the deficit in the second period by winning the frame 9-5.
Walsberg hit for nine points in the third quarter as PTHS outscored Washington 13-8. Walsberg finished with 23 points. Hodges added 16 and Maddie Dohleman and Jordan Johns each netted 2 markers.
PC Turkey Tournament
FAIRBURY — Flanagan-Cornell-Woodland made it two in a row with a 45-40 win over Morris at the Prairie Central Turkey Tournament.
The host Hawks did not play.
FCW more than doubled its score in the third quarter after falling behind 29-17 in the first half. The Falcons outscored the Redskins 17-6 in the third to trail 35-32 heading into the final frame.
The Falcons outscored Morris 13-5 in the final frame. FCW made 7 of 12 free throws in the period.
Spaniol finished with 13 points, 10 coming in the third, for the Falcons (2-1). Josie walker had 8 points while Sydney Walker and Sara Barton threw in 6 points apiece. Emily Russow and Emily Farris netted 5 markers apiece and Jessica Schneider had 2 points.
Peoria Central overwhelmed Decatur MacArthur 48-10 in the first contest of the night.
GCMS-Fisher Tip-Off
FISHER — Dwight came up short for the third time as Villa Grove claimed a 41-30 decision against the Trojans.
DTHS fell behind early but fought back from a 20-point deficit to trail by eight in the third quarter.
"We missed some layups down the stretch but our girls played their best game of the season," DTHS head coach Jeff Froelich said. "I love the effort tonight."
Lisa Bruner and Alyson Wiemken scored 8 points each to pace the Dwight (0-3) offense. Lauren Seanard added 6 points, Skylar Krople followed with 5 and Regina Dawson tallied 2 markers. Rachel Gschwendtner rounded out the scoring with 1 point.
Timberwolf Tip-Off
CISSNA PARK — Tri-Point chalked up its first mark in the win column with a 57-25 victory over Clifton at the CPCI Timberwolf Tip-Off.
The Chargers opened the game with a pressure man-to-man defense and took advantage by building a 12-6 lead.
"Clifton struggled with our pressure defense and transition up the floor," TPHS head coach Casey Meister noted.
The lead grew to 31-13 by halftime and was at 49-21 by the start of the fourth quarter.
Kenzie Krause connected for 14 points as the Chargers placed 10 players in the scoring column. Lindsey Bertrand added 8 points and Taylor Roach threw in 7. Ashley Melton and Emily Jehle added 6 points apiece.


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Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia played just one group apart Thursday and were only one shot apart on the leaderboard at the Masters.
That wasn't terribly confusing, though their shirts were.
Viewers around the country had to be doing double takes as the cameras switched between the two players as they battled for the lead in the late afternoon on the back nine. That's because both were wearing the same garish shirt, color and all.
"Well, we are not wearing the same outfit because we want to," Johnson said. "This is Adidas; they script our clothing this week. We are wearing the same outfit because they told us to."
The shirts were partly striped and an acid shade of green. From a distance, it was hard to tell which player was which.
Whatever they looked like, the shirts seemed to work. Garcia shot a 66 to tie for the lead, while Johnson was a shot back at 67.
Johnson was asked if he would like to wear something on Sunday that moderator Tom Nelson — an Augusta member — was wearing in the interview room. That, too, comes in green and is put over the shoulders of the Masters champion.
"I would love to," Johnson said, laughing.
MICKELSON MOMENT: There's a reason fans love Phil Mickelson. He usually goes the extra step to please them.
Mickelson was at it again Thursday after finishing his opening round of 71. After signing his scorecard in the clubhouse he came out to see about 30 fans lined up in a roped off area hoping to get autographs from Lefty.
Mickelson asked if anyone had a Sharpie, then had caddie Jim Mackay fetch it from a woman in the crowd. He then took out a used glove and signed it for a little boy who was waiting with his father.
"You can't sign outside the clubhouse but for him I'll make an exception," Mickelson said.
Those waiting applauded the move, then someone yelled out that Mickelson should sign for the woman, too, for giving him the Sharpie.
He didn't, and said it should serve as a lesson.
"Sometimes you can do something nice without anything in return," Mickelson told them.
WEATHER ALERT: Spring means unpredictable weather in Georgia, and the forecast for Thursday was ominous with late afternoon thunderstorms expected.
It held off, though, until just after the final groups were done and players had signed their scorecards. Rory McIlroy was just beginning his post-round interviews when thunder rumbled and the weather siren sounded and everyone was ordered off the course.
For McIlroy it was a chance to get some dinner early. For the Masters, it was the break the tournament might have needed to remain on schedule.
"Can you believe this," one green jacketed member said. "What a deal."
The storms may still come, with a 50 percent chance of rain predicted for Friday. But all 93 players got their full rounds in Thursday despite the best efforts of Mother Nature.
AMATEUR WOES: Alan Dunbar would have been happy to break 80 in the first round after getting his first look at Augusta National this week.
Unfortunately for the amateur from Northern Ireland, he couldn't even do that.
Dunbar made only one par on the front nine Thursday on his way to an 11-over 83 that was the worst score of the day. It included a triple bogey on No. 2, and he didn't make a par until the ninth hole.
"It's definitely a learning experience on a course like this," said the 22-year-old, who qualified for his first Masters by winning the British Amateur.
Dunbar rebounded after a 46 on the front nine to shoot 37 on the back. He even made a birdie on the par-5 15th, and was positive about his day despite the bloated score.
"I enjoyed the whole way around," he said. "I wasn't scoring great, but I enjoyed it. It was a great experience. "
RACING AROUND: Rickie Fowler used to race motocross, so he knows a few things about crashes and spills.
After making double bogey on the first hole Thursday, he could have stayed down. But Fowler came back to play the next 17 holes in 6-under and put himself in contention after the first round of the Masters.
Afterward, Fowler was asked to compare the roller coaster round to a motocross race.
"I would have went down pretty hard on the first corner and probably been out of the race," Fowler said. "Yeah, could have been a pile up in the first corner, so I would have been heading back to the pits."
Fowler was even happier that he had few problems with his back after spending much of the last year battling back issues. He said he kept the back problem mostly quiet as he worked his way through it.
DRIVERLESS DONALD: Luke Donald is a man in search of a driver.
Donald's opening around was going smoothly enough when he looked down at his driver on the 14th hole and noticed it had a crack in it. He managed to finish the round at 1-under 71, but will have to put a new driver in the bag for the rest of the Masters.
"It's going to be tough," Donald said. "I'm going to have to get some drivers here as quickly as possible and obviously not having teed up one, having a fresh one, it's not where you really want to be. But I'll manage."
Donald made six birdies on a day when he said the greens were as soft and slow as he's seen them in the nine years he has played in the Masters.


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As a fast developing martial art and sport, BJJ has endured many small changes in its rules. Whis is it important? As a matter of fact, rules and regulations heavily influence sports, the overall strategy and even the game can radically change the way sports are played. You can see this clearly in MMA. During the first UFCs, anythign could go in the cage, in fact gloves and mouth protection were not used and even strikes to the groin area were allowed, there was no time limit or rounds, etc. The result of many matches would be radically different if fought under nowadays rules.
In grappling sports the change can be a lot subtler, but they still make a difference. Judo was a total different game 50 years ago, with a lot of more possible grips and many matches ending in the ground. To keep the fight more standing up and please the non educated audience, rules were changed and nowadays you can see even in the top level that many competitors have no clue in the ground whatsoever, prefering to hold to their lapels in a turtle position until the ref call MATTE, which stops the fight and restarts it from a neutral, standing up position.
Not all changes are bad, many actually improve the sport, whereas others are detrimental to the sport as it farther those combats from the true spirit of the martial arts. You might be asking, so what is the true spirit of the martial arts? According to the famous japanese swordsman and artist Miyamoto Musashi, the true way of the martial arts is to fight your opponent and win. He despised the showy techniques and "hidden meanings" taught by most styles of his time as useless decorative stances and parted ways with the ones that tought of dying in combat as honourable, his way was one of victory, not of death in battle.
One thing that strikes me is the huge number of people training martial arts without having a clue on what to pursue. This reminds me of a traditional jiu jitsu master in London praising Aikido as such a peaceful martial art. Ouch! I looked at this guy and saw that even though he trained for probably a decade or so, he had no clue of what he was doing. Martial comes from Mars, the roman name for the Greek god of war Aris. Can't he see a contradiction in a peaceful martial art?
So which rules are good and which are not? This is a difficult question and sometimes I ask this to myself. Different rules are what make the application of techniques and tactics so different from Judo to BJJ to Sambo to Wrestling and so on. All those sports are beautiful and all of them are someway limited in scope by the rules. Anyone interested in being complete therefore should study different grappling styles and find which techniques to be more adequate to his own style, and this obviously holds true to striking arts too.
Having said that, lets get to the point. Rules have changed enormously in BJJ over the years since its implementation in the 70's. I started practicing BJJ 20 years later, and I remember when the knee on the belly was awarded 3 points and guard passes 2. Since passing the guard is more difficult and more important, the federation decided to invert the scores. This is a very good example of a change that was beneficial to the sport. What about the bad ones? In my opinion the 2 biggest errors were to change the way that people weigh in before the competition, and the introduction of the advantages.
First lets adress the weight issue. All different grappling arts have different federations and hence different guidelines and rules. I will try to elaborate this better. Weight is a very important parameter in a fight, one that influences a lot the outcome of the matches and since the transformation of martial arts into sports, weight divisions were introduced in order to allow people to compete in a fairer ground. Of course height, skills, speed, strenght, flexibility and other aspects also influence the results, but weight is easy to measure and was brought to the olympic sports of Judo, Wrestling, Boxing and other combat arts. This allowed a greater number of participants to fight each other without disproportionate advantage to the heavier person.
It is hard to compare different rules if you have not fought under them, but a simple look at the weight divisions in BJJ, Wrestling and Sambo shows that there is no logic whatsoever to why are they divided in those ways (Not to mention Grappling which has as many different rules according to each tournament organiser). For instance, in BJJ athletes are placed in 9 divisions separated by 6 kilos each, Wrestling has an upper limit of 120 kg (which means that if you weight more than that, either diet or do not compete at all) and so on.
Now lets think of two fighters. One weighs 120kg, the second weighs 125kg. Do you think those five kilos will make such a difference in such heavy guys? I guess not. Now imagine that one athlete weighs 55kg and the other 60kg. The picture changes, right? So, understanding that a linear increase is not satisfactory, because in heavier weight divisions one kilogram matters less, the people responsible for the rules in Judo, have constantly adapted the divisions and, although no system will ever be perfect, they designed a fairer system than others.
For those not familiar with this, in Judo they have -60, -66, -73, -81, -90, -100 and over 100 kilos. So the difference increases one kilogram at each step, for they saw that 5 kilos matter a lot more in the lightest divisions. You do not find this logic in any other grappling sport. Why don't the other arts copy this? It is not copyrighted or protected, but it seems that logic is beyond the grasp of the federation officers responsible for BJJ and Wrestling, they will stick to their outdated linear or non logic systems unless there is enough pressure from the fighters.
Now to a more specific absurd of BJJ. Although the weight of the Gi has no influence whatsoever in the outcome of a fight, a few years ago the BJJ federation had the brilliant idea of weighing the athletes just before their first match with the Gi on. Why did they do that? They had a problem, tournaments in the past used to weigh in the fighters on the previous day, which gave an advantage to athletes able to lose many kilos in order to fight lighter opponents. A logic solution, once again, was to copy what is done in Judo. Judoists weigh in 2 hours before their matches, so they can lose some weight but not much or else they will be too weak.
But why copy others? The masters responsible for BJJ envisioned a new way, to weigh in the athletes just before their matches. The idea of weighing people with the Gi is just outrageous to me, as someone can plainly cheat by having a lighter Gi so he can have one or two kilos more of muscle (Gi manufacturers saw in this a great opportunity, making lighter Gis for competitors), and this was a detrimental change for the sport. Not only our weight divisions have no logic to start with, now they brought a change to make it even more illogical. The Gi is dead weight as compared to our muscles. So instead of losing weight and risking being weaker if the body does not recover, we simply use lighter Gis to have an advantage over others. Then soon all competitors got lighter Gis, levelling the playfield, but the irrationale of this measure implemented by the federation was to allow people to weigh in and fight right away, not because this is a good thing for the sport or for the athletes, but because it is easier for them to do that than to have more officials checking the weight in semi naked athletes in another room in the competition day. Checking the athletes in underwear in the main hall is supposed to be offensive, so they introduced this measure a few years ago. Now we not only have a defective linear system of categories in BJJ, also we have to watch out for how heavy is our Gi (Hold on, let me buy a lighter belt, better to spend a few bucks than to lose 200 grams by running on the ompetition day).
I would be delighted to hear arguments in favour of weighing in the athletes with the Gi, not for the sake of the organisers but for the good of the fighters, and so far no one could present me a good one.
I will write a sequence to this post soon only to adress one rule that proved to be one thousand times more detrimental to our sport than the weight divisions, the absurdity that are advantages. Introduced in the sport a few years ago, they were supposed to make the fight more active and less stalled. This of course did not happen, or else I would be defending them.
To be continued…


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GPSOLO July/August 2009
Non–Economic Damages In Pet Lawsuits
Americans love their pets—and for good reason. They give us joy, provide companionship, and are a source of unconditional love. Then there are the well–documented health benefits. People with pets have lower blood pressure, better cholesterol levels, and visit the doctor less often. Sixty percent of U.S. households own pets, including more than 150 million dogs and cats.
Veterinarians understand and appreciate this human–animal bond. After all, love of animals is what drove veterinarians to their chosen profession. They also recognize that many people who enjoy the companionship of a pet do not think of their animal as "property" but rather as a unique, living being. What's wrong then with taking the next step and recognizing an owner's claim for pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of companionship—in short "non–economic" damages—arising from a wrongful pet loss in cases of professional negligence?
As pet owners, we empathize with those whose pets have been harmed. We, too, are heartbroken when something bad happens to our own beloved pets. But as lawyers and veterinarians, we need to guard against a drastic change in the law if it will result in serious, unintended negative consequences. In our view, allowing non–economic damages will harm the very animals we seek to protect.
Courts and legislatures have consistently rejected non–economic damages in regard to animals, with rare and carefully targeted exceptions. For example, an Illinois law allows such damages in cases of aggravated cruelty or torture. A Tennessee statute authorizes non–economic damages when a pet has been killed or fatally injured on the owner's property or while under the control and supervision of the owner. Courts are more receptive to awarding enhanced damages where criminal or outrageous behavior results in injury or death of a pet. However, in actions where professional negligence is alleged, courts limit recovery to the replacement cost of the animal or allow additional measurable economic damages.
The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) believes that in negligence cases involving animals, courts should take into account certain economic factors. These include:
- purchase price;
- age and health of the animal;
- breeding status;
- pedigree;
- special training;
- veterinary expenses related to the incident in question; and
- any particular economic utility the animal has to the owner.
Under the current legal structure, veterinarians and other animal health providers give quality and affordable care to our pets, which are living longer and healthier than ever. One need not be wealthy to afford a pet in the United States—now. But that could change if we take the drastic step of overturning established legal doctrine in this area. We believe that extending available remedies beyond economic damages would be inappropriate and ultimately harm animals.
We contend that there are much better ways to honor the value of pets. As explained above, we favor recognition of measurable economic damages, even beyond fair market value or replacement cost, and support the awarding of punitive damages for intentional or criminal behavior that results in harm to an animal. Further, we support the idea of states adopting statutory language recognizing that animals are unique, living beings. Finally, we favor strong state veterinary medical boards to help ensure a robust disciplinary system to protect the public by weeding out those few incompetent or negligent practitioners.
In drafting the current Restatement of the Law of Torts, the American Law Institute recognizes that:
While pet animals are often quite different from chattels in terms of emotional attachment, damages for emotional harm arising from negligence causing injury to a pet are also not permitted. Although there can be real and serious emotional disturbance in some cases of harm to pets (and chattels with sentimental value), lines, arbitrary at times, that limit recovery for emotional disturbance are necessary.
Tort law balances a plaintiff's right to compensation against public policy considerations. There are several compelling public policy reasons to limit awards to economic factors in animal litigation.
First, non–economic damages will increase the cost of veterinary services. Historically, the cost of veterinary liability insurance has been relatively stable. However, the number of lawsuits against veterinarians will certainly grow if the size of awards and settlements rises. Some pet owners and attorneys will see an incentive to file suits. The cost of liability insurance will rise, with the costs passed on to consumers. And keep in mind that the demand for veterinary care is more elastic than in human medicine. The AVMA's pet demographics study shows that in 2006, 20 percent of consumers selected their veterinarian primarily on fees, while 17 percent of dogs and 36 percent of cats didn't receive any veterinary care.
In today's economic conditions, additional pressures on discretionary income could well result in millions of Americans deciding they simply cannot afford medical care for their pets. Low–income pet owners would be especially hard hit. Rabies, a major public health concern in many foreign countries, might become prevalent when rabies vaccinations are foregone because of rising costs. Abandonment rates are already on the increase as owners can no longer afford to keep pets. Animal shelters are overburdened and lack the resources needed to handle more animals.
Incidentally, the harm of non–economic damages would not be limited to the veterinary profession. The cost of all animal–related services and products—such as animal drugs, pet supplies, grooming, and boarding—would be affected. All pet owners could face increased liability if their pets got entangled with another person's animal. Auto insurance rates would rise owing to litigation stemming from animals that run out into the road. Local governments, animal shelters, and animal rescuers all could face hikes in liability and insurance premiums. Even law enforcement officers might hesitate before protecting themselves or the community from threatening or loose animals.
Another concern is that, with the expected increase in lawsuits, veterinarians will be forced to spend more time on depositions, interrogatories, and other court proceedings rather than treating animals. We also expect veterinarians, like other health care professionals, to begin to practice more "defensive medicine," performing treatments to avoid litigation. This will also add to the cost of veterinary care.
The specter of more lawsuits also will result in an erosion of the veterinary–client relationship, with a loss of trust on both sides. Studies have shown that consumers are pleased with their veterinarians and find them trustworthy and honest. Imposing an adversarial relationship will surely have an impact to the detriment of the animals we love.
Another unintended consequence of expanding non–economic damages is the fact that human–animal relationships would be elevated above many human–human relationships, a truly bizarre result. Recovery for negligent infliction of emotional distress is generally limited to very close relationships, such as spouses, children, or parents. Even then, restrictions such as the "zone of danger" rule have been created to place some reasonable limit to liability. Grandparents, aunts, fiancés, and friends generally cannot recover emotional distress damages, regardless of how close these individuals were with the deceased. Expanding non–economic damages to the human–animal relationship would deem it to be more important than those human–human relationships.
Non–economic damages have been routinely awarded in human medicine for several decades. Their impact on the practice of medicine has been troubling to say the least. Although the extent of the harm is debated passionately, it is our opinion that large recoveries have been a factor in the skyrocketing of health care costs.
As a first step toward achieving the expansion of damages in animal cases, some propose to cap or limit the amount that would be recovered for loss of a pet. Proposed caps have ranged from $5,000 to $25,000 per incident. However, caps may be raised. For example, the Tennessee statute contained a cap on non–economic damages in negligence cases of $4,000 when originally enacted in 2002. Within two years, that cap was raised by 25 percent to $5,000.
Some people contend that non– economic damages are needed to acknowledge that pets are special and valued by their owners in ways that are very different from inanimate types of property. The AVMA points out that state laws have recognized this fact for some time. Statutes in all 50 states protect pets from cruelty, abuse, neglect, and torture. These laws, which don't apply to any other kind of legal property, serve as recognition that pets are living, unique, and special. We don't believe there is any reason to make a drastic change in the existing tort system simply to make a symbolic statement.
Another argument frequently made in support for expanding damages is that they are needed to deter veterinary negligence. This ignores the fact that all state legislatures in the United States have created veterinary medical boards to discipline veterinarians where there is evidence of misconduct or incompetence. Given the sacrifices of time and money required to become a veterinarian, the risk of losing a license or having it suspended or restricted is a serious deterrent indeed.
Some argue that non–economic damages will bring the law in line with modern realities and wishes of the American public. In our experience, only a small number of animal rights activists and attorneys are pushing this issue. State legislatures consistently reject proposals to extend non–economic damages to lawsuits alleging veterinary negligence. The reason is that their constituents are pleased with the quality of services provided by animal care providers and do not believe that veterinary malpractice is a problem needing to be rectified through a solution that will increase the cost of caring for animals. This is a classic case of a solution looking for a problem to advance an ideological agenda.
The human–animal bond has grown and flourished under a legal system that, for 250 years, has not allowed for pain and suffering, loss of companionship, or any other type of "soft" awards for emotional or non–economic compensatory damages in animal litigation.
Allowing a claim for non–economic damages in order to provide considerable financial awards to a small number of pet owners and attorneys does not justify compromising the quality and affordability of the entire animal health care system. We think America's pets are worth more than that.
James O. Cook, DVM, is the president of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and owner of a mixed animal practice in his hometown of Lebanon, Kentucky; he may be reached at email@example.com. Adrian Hochstadt, JD, man-ages the AVMA's State Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Department in its Communications Division; he may be reached at email@example.com. This article reflects solely the views of its authors, and not of the American Bar Association or of the General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division.


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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Japan next week for a security meeting before joining President Barack Obama in Bali for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation economic meeting, the State Department said on Thursday.
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is also attending the U.S.-Japan Security Consultative Committee meeting in Tokyo on October 2-3, according to the department.
U.S. and Japanese leaders met on security in June 2011 in Washington, and next month's meeting is another "opportunity to build on our already broad and comprehensive bilateral relationship," State Department Jen Psaki said in a statement.
At APEC, Kerry will meet with officials from APEC-member economies starting on October 4 before concluding his Asia trip on October 7, the department said.
The annual economic forum comes as the United States and 10 other countries work to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact, which some experts say could see an agreement at the Indonesia gathering.
The TPP talks include Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei.
(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed and Susan Heavey; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Xavier Briand)


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Hunters are howling in Louisiana after a state health official declared about 1,600 pounds of donated venison should be destroyed.
The venison was donated through the popular Hunters for the Hungry program, which is endorsed by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. But an official with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, which does not recognize the program, said the meat did not meet standards and ordered it to be thrown away.
The official reportedly said the meat did not meet guidelines and had to be destroyed because it came from hunters.
"They threw it in the dumpster and poured Clorox on it," Rev. Henry Martin, Executive Director of the Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission, told KTBS 3 TV. "Not only are we losing out and its costing us money, the people that are hungry aren't going to get as quality of food; the hunter that's given his meat in good faith is losing out."
Hunters for the Hungry is one of several programs of similar nature nationwide through which hunters can donate venison to help provide meat to homeless shelters. The programs have garnered widespread support and acclaim, with millions of pounds of prepared venison donated to the needy over the years. Venison processors prepare the meat, usually in small packages, and are paid their processing fees through donations raised by the programs or state wildlife agencies who help defray costs through foundations or donations, or both.
Hunters for the Hungry is gaining traction with more chapters throughout Louisiana and Mississippi to help those in need.
The Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission will have to spend more than $8,000 to replace the destroyed meat, according to this report.
The Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission in northwest Louisiana provides 172 beds for homeless men, women, and families with children. The Mission sheltered 1,200 men, women and families with children last year, providing 137,898 meals and 45,966 nights of lodging.
The loss of this healthy venison is a blow to the mission and those in need. If you'd like to send a donation to help defray the cost of replacing the venison destroyed by the state agency, send it to Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission, 901 McNeil St.,
Shreveport, LA 71101-3949.


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For semilinear strictly hyperbolic systems of the form ∂u/∂t + λ(x,t) ∂u/∂x = f(x,t,u) locally bounded solutions u are uniquely determined by Cauchy data. The problem of describing the location and strengths of all the singularities of u has been studied extensively. The two general principles for the propagation of singularities in hyperbolic partial differential equations in one space variable age: (1) When two singularity-bearing characteristics cross, the point of intersection becomes, in general, a source of new singularities travelling on all forward characteristics from that point. That is, u may be singular on an out-going characteristic from such an intersection point, even though u is smooth on the corresponding incoming characteristic. (2) If two incoming singularities have strengths n1 and n2, then the new outgoing singularity will, in general, have strength n1 + n2 + 2, where the strength is defined as the number of continuous derivatives.
First we study propagation of singularities for semilinear strictly hyperbolic systems for distribution initial data. Since the analytical study is difficult, we study the solutions numerically and demonstrate the behavior predicted by the sum law above. The key to our numerical study is that distribution data are idealizations of classical initial data. For example, the delta function is an idealization of a high localized peak.
Next we study propagation of singularities for semilinear strictly hyperbolic systems for piecewise smooth initial data. The accuracy of numerical approximations to piecewise smooth solutions is greatly influenced by the presence of singularities in the solution. In the region where the analytic solution is known to be smooth, high-order numerical approximations can lose accuracy if coupling is present. We analyze this phenomenon for linear dissipative schemes and identify the necessary techniques to obtain an optimal rate of convergence in this region.


text:
Forum Post: War Dreams Crumbling?
Posted 5 years ago on Aug. 29, 2013, 9:57 p.m. EST by itsmyblood
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
British lawmakers reject reprisal strike against Syria http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-britain-syria-20130830,0,4837067.story
Britain will not join USA in strike on Syria http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-britain-syria-20130830,0,4837067.story
French President Hollande tones down war rhetoric against Syria http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/08/29/321083/france-tones-down-syria-war-rhetoric/
Germany proceeds with caution in Syria policy http://www.dw.de/germany-proceeds-with-caution-in-syria-policy/a-17050654
Well what does this mean then???
U.S. willing to act alone on Syria attack As British and other allies' support for military action in Syria crumbles, the White House says 'core interests' are at stake. http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-us-syria-intel-20130830,0,1708580.story


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Assignment 1
Research Results
This plank would be consequential because the results are obtained for a purpose, without accurate results the true, pure purpose has lost its value. The results influence the honesty of the scientist during the research process
Publication and Authorship Practices
Both deontic and consequential term apply to this plank. Deontic because the code seem to state that it is inherently right to give due credit to the appropriate author. Also consequential because "it is the obligation of each author to provide prompt retractions or corrections of errors in published works," hence each author must be able to help correction and understand the published material.
Peer Review
The consequential aspect of peer review comes from the benefit to the entire scientific community, when honest, accurate work is produced it can aid all. Also the code states that it is the obligation of each scientist to help the process. This plank could be slightly conflicting since it is the obligation of every scientist to aid in peer review, but the reviewer must also be objective and unbiased. A way to solve the above conflicts would be to have a selection, similar to jury selection where previous or present bias is assessed. Then a reasonable decision could be made as to whether the peer was suitable to review the paper.
Conflict of Interest
Conflicts of interest are consequential in nature since the conflict since previous bias could influence the judgment of the reviewer. This also comes into the conflict with the above plank in the similar issue of unbiased account, but an obligation to aid in review.
Supplementary Guidelines on Responsibilities of Coauthors and Collaborators
All of the extra guidelines for coauthors are consequential since the end result is the most important issue. Also, addressing accountability, these guidelines provide a structure of obligation for each coauthor.
Supplementary Guideline on Research Results
All collaborates should be aware of the results and be able to help review them to insure that the results are accurate and untampered-with, thus this plank is consequential.
Supplementary Guideline on Reference in Publications
(Adopted by Council, 30 April 2004)
Both deontic and consequential. Authors should reference the correct sources because its simply right and to give due credit to the collaborators. Also, then the author accounts for all of the details, such as machine work or other labor that was part of the project, but not performed by the author.
Back to Ethics
APS Ethics Code
(Adopted by Council on November 10, 2002)
(Original version adopted by Council on 3 November 1991.)
|This document includes supplementary guidelines
See also:
The Constitution of the American Physical Society states that the objective of the Society shall be the advancement and diffusion of the knowledge of physics. It is the purpose of this statement to advance that objective by presenting ethical guidelines for Society members.
Each physicist is a citizen of the community of science. Each shares responsibility for the welfare of this community. Science is best advanced when there is mutual trust, based upon honest behavior, throughout the community. Acts of deception, or any other acts that deliberately compromise the advancement of science, are unacceptable. Honesty must be regarded as the cornerstone of ethics in science. Professional integrity in the formulation, conduct, and reporting of physics activities reflects not only on the reputations of individual physicists and their organizations, but also on the image and credibility of the physics profession as perceived by scientific colleagues, government and the public. It is important that the tradition of ethical behavior be carefully maintained and transmitted with enthusiasm to future generations.
The following are the minimal standards of ethical behavior relating to several critical aspects of the physics profession. Physicists have an individual and a collective responsibility to ensure that there is no compromise with these guidelines.
Research Results
The results of research should be recorded and maintained in a form that allows analysis and review. Research data should be immediately available to scientific collaborators. Following publication, the data should be retained for a reasonable period in order to be available promptly and completely to responsible scientists. Exceptions may be appropriate in certain circumstances in order to preserve privacy, to assure patent protection, or for similar reasons.
Fabrication of data or selective reporting of data with the intent to mislead or deceive is an egregious departure from the expected norms of scientific conduct, as is the theft of data or research results from others.
Publication and Authorship Practices
Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the concept, design, execution or interpretation of the research study. All those who have made significant contributions should be offered the opportunity to be listed as authors. Other individuals who have contributed to the study should be acknowledged, but not identified as authors. The sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.
Plagiarism constitutes unethical scientific behavior and is never acceptable. Proper acknowledgement of the work of others used in a research project must always be given. Further, it is the obligation of each author to provide prompt retractions or corrections of errors in published works.
Peer Review
Peer review provides advice concerning research proposals, the publication of research results and career advancement of colleagues. It is an essential component of the scientific process.
Peer review can serve its intended function only if the members of the scientific community are prepared to provide thorough, fair and objective evaluations based on requisite expertise. Although peer review can be difficult and time-consuming, scientists have an obligation to participate in the process.
Privileged information or ideas that are obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for competitive gain.
Reviewers should disclose conflicts of interest resulting from direct competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with any of the authors, and avoid cases in which such conflicts preclude an objective evaluation.
Conflict of Interest
There are many professional activities of physicists that have the potential for a conflict of interest. Any professional relationship or action that may result in a conflict of interest must be fully disclosed. When objectivity and effectiveness cannot be maintained, the activity should be avoided or discontinued.
It should be recognized that honest error is an integral part of the scientific enterprise. It is not unethical to be wrong, provided that errors are promptly acknowledged and corrected when they are detected.
(Adopted by Council on November 10, 2002)
(This statement includes language from the "Report of the Investigation Committee on the Possibility of Scientific Misconduct in the Work of Hendrick Schoen and Coauthors," M. Beasley, S. Datta, H. Kogelnik, H. Kroemer, D. Monroe, September 25, 2002 - internal Bell Laboratories report, Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies. The language is used with the permission of Bell Labs.)
All collaborators share some degree of responsibility for any paper they coauthor. Some coauthors have responsibility for the entire paper as an accurate, verifiable, report of the research. These include, for example, coauthors who are accountable for the integrity of the critical data reported in the paper, carry out the analysis, write the manuscript, present major findings at conferences, or provide scientific leadership for junior colleagues.
Coauthors who make specific, limited, contributions to a paper are responsible for them, but may have only limited responsibility for other results. While not all coauthors may be familiar with all aspects of the research presented in their paper, all collaborations should have in place an appropriate process for reviewing and ensuring the accuracy and validity of the reported results, and all coauthors should be aware of this process.
Every coauthor should have the opportunity to review the manuscript before its submission. All coauthors have an obligation to provide prompt retractions or correction of errors in published works. Any individual unwilling or unable to accept appropriate responsibility for a paper should not be a coauthor.
(Adopted by Council on 10 November 2002)
Collaborations are expected to have a process to archive and verify the research record; to facilitate internal communication and allow all authors to be fully aware of the entire work; and respond to questions concerning the joint work and enable other responsible scientists to share the data. All members of a collaboration should be familiar with, and understand, the process.
(Adopted by Council, 30 April 2004)
Authors have an obligation to their colleagues and the physics community to include a set of references that communicates the precedents, sources, and context of the reported work. Proper referencing gives credit to those whose research has informed or led to the work in question, helps to avoid duplication of effort, and increases the value of a paper by guiding the reader to related materials. It is the responsibility of authors to have surveyed prior work in the area and to include relevant references.
Proper and complete referencing is an essential part of any physics research publication. Deliberate omission of a pertinent author or reference is unethical and unacceptable.
Association for Computing Machinery
Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers
Other organizations with which many physicists are familiar such as the Sigma Xi, National Academies of Science and Engineering, and American Association for the Advancement of Science have publications ("The Responsible Researcher: Paths and Pitfall," from Sigma Xi which can be ordered at www.sigmaxi.org/programs/ethics/publications.shtml, and "On Being a Scientist: Responsible Conduct in Research," from the National Academy Press available at stills.nap.edu/html/obas) or programs (for AAAS, at www.aaas.org/spp/sfrl) on this subject. An online compilation for "engineers, scientists, and science and engineering students with resources useful for understanding and addressing ethically significant problems that arise in their work," can be found at The On Line Ethics Center for Engineering and Science (www.onlineethics.org).
An awareness of the ethical dilemmas that can occur in a professional career, and of the resources for understanding and resolving such problems, can help in avoiding ethical lapses or limit the damage that can arise from them. Students and mentors are especially reminded that an understanding of the ethical expectations of the physics community is an important part of a physics education.
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A few months ago, Andrew Hoppin was advising President Obama's NASA transition team and contemplating his next move. He was settling back into New York after leaving the NASA Ames Research Center near Sunnyvale, Calif., where he co-founded and managed the NASA CoLab—a program that aimed to bring efficiency and transparency to the creaky government agency through new technologies. He encouraged astronauts to Twitter from space.
But after more than two years at the agency, he was itching to get more involved in the "government 2.0" initiatives that Mr. Obama and his new-media team were working on in Washington.
So in January, he approached his friend, Andrew Rasiej, a fixture in political tech circles. It was perfect timing; since early January, Mr. Rasiej and Micah Sifry, co-founders of Personal Democracy Forum and techPresident.com, had been advising the New York Senate majority leader, Malcolm Smith, on using technology to make Albany more open, transparent and efficient—the same kind of work Mr. Hoppin had been doing at NASA. Mr. Rasiej encouraged Mr. Hoppin to consider applying his talents to New York State.
"I told him, Obama's people will be looking over your shoulder because they won't be able to move fast enough," Mr. Rasiej told The Observer. In the Senate, Mr. Rasiej explained, Mr. Hoppin had the opportunity to "move the ball farther" and set an example for upgrading government for every state in the nation.
"They convinced me that they were really serious about this," said Mr. Hoppin, 37, who is mild-mannered, of medium height and wears gray suits with blue shirts to match his eyes. He often keeps his top button unbuttoned. "They would take Albany, which doesn't have the best reputation for being the most efficient place, and do it right with transparency and technology." Mr. Smith, along with Senate secretary Angelo Aponte, appointed Mr. Hoppin to be the first ever chief information officer for the New York State Senate.
ON A RECENT bright March morning, Mr. Hoppin was on the 19th floor of 250 Broadway, in a conference room in the Senate majority leader's office, conducting a meeting with the team he had been quietly building since he was hired on Jan. 29. Their mission? To upgrade the New York State Senate and bring it into the 21st century with technology. For some members of the CIO team, it was their first full week on the job.
"Do you have any Facebook updates?" asked Jim Bell, the director of Senate technology services. He was videoconferencing in from Mr. Hoppin's Albany office, along with Dean Hill, a veteran technology policy analyst. Sitting at a long wooden table, their laptops at attention, were Krista Brenner, a former Assembly chief of staff and State Senate campaign manager; Noel Hidalgo, a digital communications and technology organizer for both John Kerry's presidential campaign and the New York Senate's minority leader's office; and Ben Yee, who ran President Obama's New York State new-media team during his campaign. Mr. Yee answered Mr. Bell: "Facebook just restructured the way they operate, again," he said, so he had to make changes to the "Facebook strategy document"—a guide that will be posted on the Senate's new Web site (also in the works) to explain the social networking site and how senators might find it useful.
Mr. Yee is also designing a "Twitter strategy document" that will encourage Senators and their staff to sign up for the microblogging service. Just that morning, Mr. Hoppin had been flashing his new Senate business card, the first ever to boast a Twitter address: @ahoppin.
"It's a cultural stake in the ground," Mr. Hoppin explained to The Observer, "saying, you know, not only is [Twitter] not a bad idea, it's a good idea to communicate openly about what you're doing—it's relevant for government transparency, it's relevant for government efficiency, it's relevant to get people aware of what you're doing so they can participate in what you're doing."
To be sure, if Mr. Hoppin and his team have a mantra, it's "efficiency, transparency and participation." In just a few weeks, they announced that senators could (finally) access their email on the Web (efficiency). They launched a Facebook page, Twitter account and Tumblr blog to announce new projects from the chief of information office (transparency). And they helped create, literally overnight, two Web sites to solicit suggestions from constituents on the M.T.A.'s budget shortfall (NYMTAIdeas.org) and opinions on the state's budget deficit (NYBudgetIdeas.org), as well as a prototype Web site for the Plain Language Initiative, which translates extracts data and legal jargon from M.T.A. budget documents into readable text, tables and charts to help commuters understand why the M.T.A. board is proposing bridge tolls, fare hikes and service cuts (participation).
And that's only the beginning. Within the next month, the team will launch a new Web site designed with Drupal, an open-source software program, (which powers Observer.com) that will make blogging available to senators and include applications for more public participation. Constituents will be able to post views on new bills and initiatives, as well as review and "vote" up and down on the ideas of others. The CIO team is organizing training sessions for senators and their staff on social networking platforms and how to pay attention to online feedback. Last week, they hired mobile specialist Nathan Freitas to create new phone applications that will allow citizens to get government news on the go. This week, they hired a Drupal whiz, Craig Leinoff, who worked as technical officer and contributor for Jewcy Magazine.
The group plans on creating a wiki—an editable, community-created online document—that will welcome ideas and suggestions from New Yorkers and other state government staffers on their road map to upgrading Albany.
"Technology has to be a strategic asset of every office, rather than something that is off in a corner," Mr. Hoppin told The Observer. "There's a lot of room for government to use technology for better transparency, better efficiency, better participation, but also empowering legislators to do a better job—but it requires putting technology at the center."


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This time, I started with a recipe that originally used 2/3 white flour and 1/3 whole wheat and just made it all white. Then I add flax seeds for a little texture and color (sorry - I couldn't help myself!). This time, I was very happy with the results!
Country White Bread with Flax
1 1/2 tsp. active yeast
1 1/4 warm (room temperature) water
1 1/2 Tbsp. sugar
3 cups high-gluten bread flour
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. powdered nonfat milk
2 Tbsp. flax seeds
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature (soft)
Mix yeast, water and sugar together in a small bowl. Let sit about 10 minutes until frothy.
In a large bowl, mix bread flour, all-purpose flour, salt, powdered milk and flax seeds. Stir in yeast-water mixture. Then add butter. Mix until dough is even moist and starts to pull together.
Pour dough onto floured board. Knead for 10 minutes until smooth.
Place dough in an oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise 1.5-2 hours until dough is doubled in size.
Grease 8" x 4" loaf pan.
Place risen dough on a floured surface. Flatten into a rectangle about 10" long and 6" wide. Starting on the short side, roll into a log, pinch ends in with each roll. Place in greased loaf pan and let rise another hour to 1.5 hours until dough rises about 1/2"-1" above top of loaf pan.
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Place bread in preheated oven. Bake 30 minutes, then rotate the pan and bake another 20-25 minutes until bread is evenly browned and has an internal temperature of at least 190°F.
Remove from oven and let cool 10-20 minutes before removing from pan. Cool fully before slicing.


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DALLAS (AP) – A federal judge in Dallas has scheduled former NFL wide receiver Sam Hurd's trial on drug distribution charges for April 2.
The 26-year-old Hurd is accused of trying to buy large quantities of marijuana and cocaine to establish a drug-dealing network. Hurd was arrested Dec. 14 outside a Chicago steakhouse after allegedly buying a kilogram of cocaine.
Hurd has pleaded not guilty.
U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis, in an order Wednesday, set a pretrial conference for March 21. The trial could still be delayed.
Hurd has played for the Chicago Bears and Dallas Cowboys. He was cut by the Bears following his arrest.
Attorneys for Hurd and co-defendant Toby Lujan did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
(© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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The folks at National Review Online are culling the archives of National Review for highlights from years past. NRO's weekly email with links to newly posted highlights from a given issue can be had simply for the asking. Readers can sign up for all of NRO's newsletters here.
This week's email highlights the February 13, 1962, issue of NR. One of the selected highlights is Garry Wills's review of the then-new edition of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. The review is funny in a highbrow kind of way. In addition to the pleasure of the humor we have the added pleasure of Wills lampooning the progressive gospel of which he has become a celebrated devotee in all its forms. Referring to the dictionary, Wills writes:
The editors of this wondrous stew do not feel they have any duty toward their own language, any job of defense or purgation or clarification, any even minimally normative function. They believe not only in The People ("the ultimate arbiters of our linguistic standards," in the words of the Editor-in-Chief), but in Progress. Language, like all things, will advance of itself, and our only task is "to keep up with our changing standard of language," with "up-to-date English that no prescriptive rules can interfere with." The lexicographer is part Gallup, part IBM machine, part voting booth. He does not need to think and choose. The future is shaping itself: "It is now fairly clear that before the twentieth century is over every community of the world will have learned how to communicate with all the rest of humanity." It would be "interfering" for Editor Philip Gove to get under the wheels of Language's proud advance.
Wills had been discovered by William Buckley, who gave him a place of honor with the lead essay in Buckley's anthology of modern American conservative thought. (Wills's essay was dropped from the book when it was revised by Charles Kesler in 1988.) But Wills turned left under the impact of the civil rights movement toward the end of the 1960's.
In the 2008 campaign Wills was one of the Obama inebriates who used his erudition to laud Obama's big speech on race in Philadelphia ("A more perfect union"). For Wills, Obama's speech stood with Abraham Lincoln's 1860 Cooper Union Speech.
Lincoln's speech was a remarkable work of original scholarship reconstructing the views of the founding fathers on slavery. Obama's speech was a Clintonian triangulation seeking to negotiate his way through an inconvenient personal controversy raised by the exposure of Jeremiah Wright's views, and not very honestly at that. Wills presented himself as the voice of moderation among the media hosannas over Obama's Philadelphia speech: "Obama's speech has been widely praised–compared with JFK's speech to Protestant ministers, or FDR's First Inaugural, even to the Gettysburg Address. Those are exaggerations. But the comparison with the Cooper Union address is both more realistic and more enlightening."
Lincoln's Cooper Union speech is still looking good 150 years later. Obama's Philadelphia speech didn't last 150 days. It failed upon the reentry of Wright to reiterate the views that had prompted Obama to give the Philadelphia speech in the first place. Thus Obama's subsequent press conference repudiating Wright.
I don't think Wills has been guilty of a heterodox political thought since his turn to the left. His 1962 review shows a bit of what was lost.


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Kevin Roberge wants to transform the pain from his childhood into something that brings hope to hundreds of children in the Triangle.
With a little help from Santa and dozens of volunteers, Roberge has a plan to create the world's biggest Christmas stocking – full of gifts for abused and neglected children.
"I want children to come away with a little bit of Christmas spirit that lasts a lifetime," said Roberge, 38, who lives in Apex works as the CEO of Imaginigami, a creative think tank in Raleigh.
It's hot outside, and nobody is thinking about Christmas. But it takes lots of planning to break the world record for the largest stocking. Event sponsors Imaginigami and the Friends of the Wake County Guardian ad Litem program are looking for donors and sponsors to get on board by July 30.
The Christmas County Fair is planned for the first two weekends in December at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh. Visitors to the fair can stuff the stocking with gifts, and it can hold a lot – it's set to be 180 feet long and 110 feet wide.
The gifts will then be given to kids associated with Friends of the Wake County Guardian ad Litem, which advocates for children in the court system.
Roberge knows what it's like to be in foster care. He was in the New Hampshire system when he started giving back to others.
"I knew a lot of kids who didn't get gifts at Christmas, so I shared some of mine," Roberge said.
Imaginigami staff tried to get the project off the ground last year. But when Carrie Haub, development director for the fair, hit on the idea of putting gifts for needy children into the stocking, plans began to snowball.
"In addition to being able to actually go inside the world's largest Christmas stocking ... there will be non-stop entertainment with Santa himself," said Haub, who lives in Cary.
The Friends of the Wake County Guardian ad Litem program collects Christmas gifts for kids every year. As president of the organization and a court-appointed special advocate for foster children, I like the idea of having the gifts in one place.
Last year, my home was among the many sites across Wake County that stored gifts until they could be distributed. Storage limitations and not having enough volunteers meant the nonprofit had to turn some children away.
This year, a giant stocking at the fairgrounds and increased awareness about the program will bring holiday magic to more needy children.
"I don't know if the Christmas County Fair will change a kid's life with presents, but it will give them hope and help them feel normal for just a day," Roberge said.


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Join over 80,000 others who are connecting with their cousins and common researchers!
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My main interest right now is on finding any and all information on the Ancestors and Descendants of John C. Hart 1856-? and Jennie McComb Hart Mar 25 1865-Oct 01 1944 m. abt 1885 in PA. Also I am trying to find a connection between Barbara Bessie Gates Hart (paternal grandmother) and Julia Ruth Gates Ramsey (maternal grandmother).


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By Andrea Shalal-Esa
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy on Wednesday defended the way it structured a competition for development of a new presidential helicopter, even as all but one of the companies interested in the multibillion-dollar program pulled out of the running.
Officials at AgustaWestland, a unit of Italy's Finmeccanica SpA, and Boeing Co, which had considered proposing its V-22 tilt rotor plane or H-47 Chinook helicopters, said Wednesday they do not plan to submit bids. AgustaWestland had teamed with Northrop Grumman Corp to pursue a possible bid.
That leaves only Sikorsky Aircraft, a unit of United Technologies Corp, which is teamed with Lockheed Martin Corp, according to industry officials.
Bids in the new competition are due Thursday. The Navy had planned to award a contract in the third quarter of fiscal 2014.
Sikorsky built the current fleet of Marine One helicopters that whisk the president away from the White House.
Lockheed was the prime contractor on the previous helicopter contract, which was scrapped in 2009 after requirements changes threatened to double the cost of the program to $13 billion.
Defense officials said they did not expect the latest developments to alter their plans to proceed with the competition, and said there were procedures in place to ensure competitive pricing even in cases involving a single bidder.
The no-bid decisions came weeks after the Navy's handling of another large acquisition program, a multibillion-dollar contract for a new electronic jammer awarded to Raytheon Co, was challenged by Britain's BAE Systems.
Senator John McCain and congressional agencies have also criticized the Navy's approach in a $34 billion program to buy 52 new coastal warships.
Navy spokeswoman Captain Cate Mueller said the number of bidders was considered sensitive information while the acquisition process was underway, and declined comment on the consequences of the latest developments.
But she underscored that the Navy's request for proposals in the competition had been shaped by an extensive process that was focused on the military requirements for the new helicopter, not any specific aircraft offered by the companies.
The Navy issued a draft request for proposals (RFP) in November and updated it several times. Navy officials also visited various industry sites and held several group and one-on-one forums to get feedback from potential bidders, she said.
"Industry feedback was given serious consideration throughout the RFP refinement process with the goal of maximizing participation from interested bidders," Mueller said.
She said the Navy's acquisition approach was looking to tamp down costs by integrating mature equipment into an aircraft that is currently in production, noting that one key lesson learned from the previous failed effort was the need to ensure that requirements could be met on time and within the budget.
Lockheed was the prime contractor on the previous program, called VH-71, with the helicopters supplied by AgustaWestland.
A similar situation developed last year on the Air Force's new combat rescue helicopter after Boeing, the AgustaWestland-Northrop team, and Europe's EADS dropped out, leaving only Sikorsky bidding for the work.
In that case, Air Force officials said they would require Sikorsky to provide more detailed cost data to ensure that the resulting pricing was good as possible.
AgustaWestland on Wednesday said it had decided to skip offering its AW101 helicopter for the competition because the requirements set for the deal favored a competitor.
"There are fundamental proposal evaluation issues that we believe inhibit our ability to submit a competitive offering, and that provide a significant advantage to our likely competitor," AgustaWestland said in a statement.
Northtrop spokesman Randy Belote confirmed that the team had decided not to bid, but declined to elaborate.
Boeing spokesman Damien Mills said his company opted out after concluding that neither the H-47 Chinook helicopter or V-22, which it builds with Bell Helicopter, a unit of Textron Inc, would be competitive for the program as currently structured.
Industry officials said the Chinook was too big to land in the designated envelope at the White House, while the V-22 was too big to fit into the C-17 cargo plane for transport.
The U.S. Navy's posting in May called for construction of six developmental helicopters during the engineering design phase, followed by nine helicopters during a low-rate production phase and up to eight more in the following years.
The current presidential helicopters are VH-60N "Night Hawks" and VH-3D "Sea Kings," both built by Sikorsky.
(Additional reporting by Danilo Masoni in Milan; Editing by Gary Hill)


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The Restaurant
A document dated 1782, drawn up to prohibit the introduction to, and sale within, the State of "foreign wines" gives certain ofthe city's notables the task of "monitoring" the various hostelries, including the "Osteria a S. Antonio" so that the orders will be "punctually carried out".
Not only is it unquestionable that the reference is to the present "Buca di S. Antonio", (in ancient Tuscan "Buca" is equivalent to "Taverna" or "Osteria"), but the fact that in 1782 it was still called "Osteria a S. Antonio" (that is "near S. Antonio") leads one to think that it existed even earlier and that is when l'Ospedale di S. Antonio in Poggio operated in the turning between the little piazza dei Cocomeri and Via della Cervia, i.e. from 1406 till 1610.
During the 18th century, when the space created by demolitions between the little piazza dei Cocomeri and Corte Campana was occuped by the horse postal station, we still find the "Buca" not just as a hostelry but also as livery and stabling.
After the suppression of the postal service, and up until our own days, the "Buca" has continued to function and, thanks to the good management of owners Franco Barbieri and Giuliano Pacini, has remained one of Lucca's most characteristic places.
Since the end of the coaching days, the Buca di Sant'Antonio has continued to make the best dishes in the traditional cuisine of Lucca. Amongst these is farro soup, one of the oldest dishes in Italy, and a favourite of famous personages as: Giacomo Puccini, Ezra Pound, the King Gustavo of Sweden, the Pricess Margareth of England, Indro Montanelli and others.