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Best Of :: Arts & Entertainment
This was the breakout year for the 42-year-old Dallas actress. After a decade as one of the area's leading musical theater stars—most recently starring in the title role in Theatre Three's Caroline, or Change—Mikel made the leap to TV and film with a year's worth of work. On NBC's critically acclaimed series Friday Night Lights, she plays Corinna Williams, tough-but-warm mom to "Smash," one of the show's star high school football players (played by Gaius Charles). Cast for what she thought was a one-episode shot, Mikel ended up appearing on nearly every episode of the drama's freshman season and will be back again this fall. She'll also be seen in the new film comedy The Better Man, starring with James Earl Jones, Martin Lawrence, Mo'Nique and Cedric the Entertainer. Always a joy to watch in musical comedies, Mikel shows real fire as a dramatic actress. Friday Night Lights may shine on the show's younger stars, but playing Corinna has finally put Mikel in the national spotlight.
Call us lame, but we've gotten to the point where we sometimes enjoy a Good Records in-store a lot more than a club show. No smoke, no late nights, no cover charge, no drive to Denton, no drunken sound guys with a bass fetish. It's all of the fun without the majority of the hassles. And guess what? When you watch a show with a bunch of record nerds and bloggers, people actually seem to listen, which is really what it's all about. So grab a six-pack and stop in the next time there's a band playing. They'll probably be good. And if they're not, just remember, it was free and there's always the parking lot.
Soon the formerly conservative Rod Dreher will find himself to the left of our very own Jim Schutze. Dreher's leftward lurch began when he came out of the closet as an environmentalist. Then he penned a column admitting that his support for the invasion of Iraq was a total mistake. He would later announce his opposition to capital punishment. Finally, he wrote that he has problems with, well, capitalism and big business. At this rate, in a year or so, Dreher will write in favor of unionizing welfare recipients. For sure, there have been times when Dreher's evolution (our word) has been hard to watch, like seeing a college freshman change his stripes midway through his first political science class. But Dreher's honesty and insight always manage to shine through the awkwardness of his revelations. Here's the sound of our left hand clapping.
Public Trust owner/director Brian Gibb moved from Denton to a space on Commerce Street in 2006 and people crammed the joint, spilling out of the door and onto the asphalt. The Public Trust makes art a party and everyone's invited. Over the course of the last year, and through a transition from Art Prostitute into the Public Trust, the gallery has showcased impressively diverse exhibitions featuring local and national artists. We've seen skateboard art, simple drawings, tiny art, giant art, group shows, mad paintings, stuffed objects, photographs and more. And we're willing to bet those gallery peeps had fun through every show, which is part of what makes TPT a place you truly want to be. Their receptions are as friendly as house parties, often with crazy-good DJs and a little hooch to boot. The price of the work is friendly to the budget-minded and the well-heeled, just like the gallery itself.
There's no shame in diggin' on a little Starland Vocal Band or some Supertramp. Don't feel bad if you truly love Judy Collins. There's a place for you where people understand. That place is in Mesquite and it's a radio station with high school kids for DJs who probably have no idea whom they're playing. We'll give them the benefit of the doubt because they crank out the '70s Top 40 as if wool dickeys and macramé owls were back in style. With Robert Bass in the music director's chair, the station offers all the best from the age of super-sappy love songs. Jim Croce and Ambrosia never had it so good, even back before they had songs on albums that weren't Time/Life collections.
On September 13, former Dallas Morning News TV critic Ed Bark posted to his Web site, which he calls a blog, a handful of wonderful photos of Mark Cuban sweating his ass off and making his "O" face whilst rehearsing for ABC's Dancing With the Stars. Man looked like he was going to have a heart attack; we're not sure he'd make it through a single episode of Crawling With the Stars. Ed got the snaps and the interviews with the Mavs owner because Ed's got clout and chops from two-plus decades at Dallas' Only Daily, where he accrued the rep as "the dean of American TV critics," as Kansas City Star's Aaron Barnhart wrote of Bark when he took Belo's buyout one year ago. We'll admit we're not as enamored of Uncle Barky's obsession with local TV news ratings as we should be, but Ed's coverage of local TV news goings on has been invaluable: He's the one who kept us informed of the doings at KTVT-Channel 11 during the Regent Ducas era; he watched Anchorwoman when no one else wanted to; and he still goes to Los Angeles on his own dime to cover the fall and spring season previews, since The Dallas Morning News is still too cheap and short-sighted to employ a freaking TV critic. He's providing content about content. At least Ed's still bringing something to the table, which is more than most of us can say in the crowded but somehow always lonely blogosphere.
Sam Merten's coverage of Dallas City Council meetings on DallasBlog is a must-read for political junkies, capturing the drama, intrigue and the contentiousness that the daily paper often overlooks. We were particularly impressed with his dispatch on the debate over allowing Trammell Crow to raze a safe, modest apartment complex for a strip mall. Add Merten's no-fuss journalism to his well-sourced reporting on the Trinity River debate and you have all the evidence you need that local blogging doesn't have to be all about opinion, conjecture and frivolity. Instead, it can give you a bigger bite of what's going on in your fair city than the big-dog news outlets.
Come on, admit it. For sheer guts alone, you have to hand it to freshman city council member Angela Hunt, who stood up to the entire bunch on the Trinity River toll road issue. What makes Hunt the best council member is not so much the position she took on that river thing, but that she had the courage to do it and not be a nut case about it. When we read about her or see her on the tube, she's always calm, cool and collected. And except for the Trinity deal, she seems to play well with others. It's something about being smart, thinking for herself and doing what she thinks is right. Is that not a plan?
This DJ shit sometimes gets on our nerves, what with the boy culture and the wheelspinners' propensity to try to out-obscure each other at the expense of alienating the dance floor. Oh, and then there's that whole club mindset, in which anything that's not house music with a beat that sounds like a cat barfing isn't considered danceable. That's where DJ Wild in the Streets comes in; she's adept at digging some gems out of her crate that will please the purist and the casual booty-shaker alike, all without succumbing to remix fever. This is a woman who knows that if you provide the international pop, the Stax classic and the classic backbeat, they will come.
For stand-up comedians, stage time trumps all, including spouses, children, international incidents and most major sporting events. There's nothing more important than the opportunity to make drunk people laugh. It's about gaining experience, about learning what makes the masses guffaw. Nobody knows this better than Linda Stogner and Jan Norton, who, for the past 15 years, have hosted comedy shows in the backs of bowling alleys, delis, pizza parlors and other unlikely venues. Calling their operation the "Backdoor Comedy Showcase," Stogner and Norton have championed both up-and-coming and veteran comics. They were booted from their first official comedy-only space on Ross Avenue this year to make room for another soulless corporate headquarters, but that hasn't stopped the pair, who continue to host shows anywhere they can draw a crowd. For that, we give them our most sincere rubber chicken salute.
Couple problems here. "Metro Politics" really isn't a column. It's a little explanatory title that the News puts over stories by Gromer Jeffers, local political reporter. And Jeffers isn't supposed to be considered a columnist. But the larger truth is that Jeffers is a better columnist than any of the typists at the News who are supposed to be columnists. He takes you inside local government. (If you happened to read his take on why the proposed University of North Texas law school at Dallas died in the Legislature, for example, you saw that it got doused in a pissing match between state Senator Royce West and state Representative Yvonne Davis, both Democrats of Dallas.) Jeffers also gives you some flavor for where and when politics gets done in the real world. Seems like half his stories include references to stuff said at tables or just outside the front door of Brooklyn Jazz Café. That's cool. If the News was smart, they'd stick his picture on top of his stories and call him an official DMN columnist. No, wait. Better to leave him where he is: as the best columnist who isn't one.
The Kettle Art Gallery really shouldn't exist. In a missive on the official Kettle Art Web site, co-owners Frank Campagna and Kirk Hopper admit that they rarely represent artists who sell work for bucketloads of cash. They have no major benefactor and don't live in the space or hold fund-raisers—all elements that keep most galleries afloat. To top it off, they're in Deep Ellum, the neighborhood everyone's been told to run far, far away from. But anyone who's been to Kettle knows better. Their strip of Elm Street is thriving. Campagna's and Hopper's marathon exhibition schedule, featuring everything from tattoo artists' works to horror-themed shows, keeps the gallery walls full of fresh new work from both underground and prominent local artists. It's all a mighty fine affront to conventional attitudes about how to make and sell art.


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May 16, 2002 - Kiev Post: Peace Corps marks 10 years in Ukraine
Peace Corps Online
Peace Corps Ukraine
The Peace Corps in the Ukraine
: May 16, 2002 - Kiev Post: Peace Corps marks 10 years in Ukraine
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Peace Corps marks 10 years in Ukraine
Read and comment on this story from the Kiev Post on the tenth anniversary of the Peace Corps in the Ukraine and how things have changed. Especially interesting are the new techniques used in training which has the volunteer drop-out rates down to an all time low. at:
Peace Corps marks 10 years
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Peace Corps marks 10 years
By Dana Liss, Kyiv Post Staff Writer
Ten years ago this month the U.S. Peace Corps agreed to send business educators to newly independent Ukraine. It was a historical event, marking the first time that the renowned volunteer troupe would venture into the former Soviet Union.
Six months after the agreement was signed, the first batch of volunteers touched down in Ukraine to start 27 months of service in the new frontier. They were business educators who came to teach capitalism to former communists and learn how to live in a foreign land. "A good deal of my time was devoted to finding items like food, shampoo, shaving cream, aspirin and decent-tasting beer - instead of doing my job," said Mick Mullay, who served in the first group. Because the American Peace Corps staff was also inexperienced, volunteers were essentially on their own. "It was really up to the volunteers to create their own opportunities at their sites," Mullay said, who is now the country director at the Enhancement of Ukrainian Management Education in Kyiv, an educational program sponsored by the University of Minnesota.
New goals
But times have changed for Peace Corps volunteers since 1992. Unlike earlier groups, volunteers are able to find more food and personal products. They also have access to computers and the Internet. The goals of the agency have changed, too. "Our initial aim in Ukraine was to expose free-market capitalism and break the stereotypes of Americans in general," said Donna Fiebelkorn, deputy director of Peace Corps in Ukraine. Today the goal of the agency is to support Ukraine's integration into the European Union, Fiebelkorn said. "We stand behind the integration, as long as that is what Ukraine wants," she added. Currently 170 volunteers are serving in 150 sites from Ternopil to Sevastopol. Their areas of expertise have expanded, too. In 1994, the agency began recruiting English teachers to work at schools, institutes and universities, and in 1997, the first group of environmental educators arrived. Fiebelkorn said that Peace Corps-Ukraine recognized that creating economic changes requires empowering civic organizations as well. "Our English volunteers not only teach in general-education curriculum schools, but conduct lessons on sexual health and HIV/AIDS."
Still a need
The Peace Corps was established in 1961 by U.S. President John F. Kennedy to allow American volunteers to help other nations become self-reliant. It is funded through appropriations from the U.S. Congress, and is non-political and non-sectarian. There are 7,000 Peace Corps volunteers currently serving in 70 countries around the world. Since the Peace Corps was founded, more than 165,000 volunteers have served in 135 countries. Peace Corps signs five-year contracts with the nations where volunteers are placed. At the end of the term, programs are re-evaluated and officials from both governments determine if Peace Corps should stay on for another five-year term. In Ukraine, Peace Corps has plans to stay at least until 2007. Volunteers served in Poland for 11 years before pulling out in June 2001. They were working in the Czech Republic and Hungary until 1997 before it was determined that the program was no longer needed. Russia has continued to host Peace Corps for the past 10 years. Fiebelkorn says that although Ukraine has come a long way in 10 years, there is still a need for volunteers, especially those working in the education and non-governmental sector. "Information about AIDS and problems concerning the environment still need to be taught," she said.
Bridging the gap
Peace Corps Ukraine is not the same program it was a decade ago. It has been refined and retuned. In addition to new programs, Peace Corps has changed the way it trains volunteers. It has switched from training volunteers together in a central training center, to sending new recruits to villages for language and technical training. Volunteers are more isolated and, therefore, they must learn fast how to communicate and survive. "In this way, language, cultural, technical and other training are integrated through daily practice in an environment in which volunteers can discover and perfect their own opportunities for learning," Fiebelkorn said. Previously, Peace Corps sent groups of 30 to 60 volunteers to one city where they were all trained together. Peace Corps found that volunteers sent to villages and towns scored higher on Ukrainian and Russian language tests than those trained in large groups. And, so far, the dropout rate is at an all-time low. Only one of the 83 volunteers in the past two groups has quit. The average dropout rate had been between 10 percent and 15 percent. Volunteers seem to like the system, too. "Because we were in a small group, we had the opportunity to spend a good deal of time in the community and with our host families," said Charles Forbus, 66, a volunteer serving in Kyiv. Peace Corps is also changing the focus of service. In the past the organization put volunteers in all types of communities. Now they are going to small towns and villages, where there is greater need for assistance, Fiebelkorn said. "Smaller communities don't have as the same access to the technology and human capacity found in the West," she said. "We want to bridge the gap between the small towns who have and the large towns who do not."
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A Letter to the Editor in the Feb. 26 Tomahawk Leader:
Dear Editor:
Imagine no snowmobilers to buy snowmobiles, parts, accessories, gas and extras at gas stations, or groceries for cottages, food at restaurants and supper clubs or lodging at motels and resorts, purchasing real estate, or maybe vehicles, hardware to maintain and repair equipment and/or cottages or shopping at downtown stores. Snowmobilers spend money … a lot of money!
Many can remember what Tomahawk was like before snowmobiling. Resorts, bars, supper clubs, stores closed for the winter. Employment dropped to nothing, many locals left for the season. Businesses just tried to survive, some taking out loans to sustain their businesses through the winter months.
All the benefits snowmobiling provides to this community are free of charge by the non profit snowmobile clubs and their members. They establish and maintain trails, linking together with other communities, forming endless trails throughout the state, Midwest and the snow areas of the country and Canada.
This is not done without a lot of hard work and costs. Countless hours are spent removing brush, cutting and removing downed trees, cutting in rerouted trails, building and maintaining bridges, patching washouts and repairing driveways. To make sure the trails can function safely, thousands of signs are posted on stakes for good visibility. Arrows, stop signs, caution signs and directional signs provide help to travel from community to community and mark the trails to many businesses for refreshments and food, gas and scenic sights.
The state of Wisconsin relieves land owners from liability for allowing their land to be used to complete the trail systems, however, snowmobile club's members deal directly with landowners for the permission to use their property during the snowmobile season and provide security of that land in off season by installing and maintaining gates. Trails, such as the Hiawatha and Bearskin, are also used by hikers, joggers and cyclists the rest of the year.
Funding to provide these trails come from annual snowmobile club member's dues, donations and fund raisers, such as raffles for cash, snowmobiles, ATVs and various other items. The Northwoods Passage Snowmobile Club holds an early spring fund raising banquet. Income also includes money from the state of Wisconsin for maintaining and grooming these trails. These funds come from the snowmobile registration program.
On an average, Northwoods Passage Snowmobile Club (for example) spends about $150,000 a year and has nearly half a million dollars worth of equipment and property. They groom about 300 miles of trails in the greater Tomahawk area, employ a full time mechanic and maintain their shop and grounds year round. It is difficult to raise these funds year after year. Support from many in the community is great and much appreciated, however it can't be said for all organizations in our town. The winter season seems to have very little importance, as it was not even included on the new Tomahawk Logo. Much more money is given to private, for profit businesses than to non profit snowmobile clubs.
Should the volunteers who run these snowmobile clubs decide to quit and the trail system in this area fail, just one year would show the loss to the community. The weeds, brush and trees would take over. The snowmobiling public would stop coming to this area or pass it by enroute to participating communities. Should the Tomahawk community be more supportive? You bet!
Northwoods Passage Snowmobile Club officers and Board of Directors, Bob McGinnis, president; Paul Werner, vice president; Bunny Kluka, secretary; Joan Kloss, treasurer; Ken Kurtzweil, Don Linnean, Bill Kluka, Tim DeBels, Kim DeBels, Scott Meland, Sherry Schehr, directors
Winters without snowmobilers
Letters to the Editor from the Tomahawk Leader.
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Re: Winters without snowmobilers
Imagine no noise, no exhaust fumes, no snowmobiles shooting across in front of you on the roads. Imagine 25 people not senselessly killed each winter. Imagine gas prices lower because of more of it being available. Imagine quiet winter nights in the natural world again. Imagine people not **** and moaning about having so much unnecessary debt because they bought a non essential snowmobile that they put 100 miles on. Yep, it's hard to imagine.
If all the atheists left the United States it would lose 93% of the National Academy of Sciences but less than 1% of the prison population.
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- How can I pay for college?
- What is financial aid?
- Is there a difference between federal and state financial aid programs?
- Will financial aid pay for all of my expenses?
- What is the difference between a grant and a loan?
- Can I receive financial aid at more than one college?
- What does SAP stand for?
- What is Cost of Attendance?
- Can the college give out my personal information to my parents or friends?
- A Minute to Learn It - Grants Review: Six Important Things to Know About Grant Money for College
- What is a Pell Grant?
- What is the Lifetime Eligibility Used (LEU) for Pell Grants?
- Can I receive a Pell Grant if I go to school year-round?
- What is an FSEOG?
- What is a Federal Work-Study job?
- VA Education programs for Veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces
- What is the Children of Fallen Heroes Scholarship?
- Navigating the StudentLoans.gov Website: Overview
- Navigating the StudentLoans.gov Website: Undergraduate Students
- Navigating the Studentloans.gov Website: Graduate/Professional Students
- Navigating the StudentLoans.gov Website: Parent Borrowers
- Navigating the StudentLoans.gov Website: Repayment and Consolidation
- A Minute to Learn it - Student Loan Repayment
- When do I begin repayment on my Federal Direct Student loan?
- Loan Prepayment During School
- Loan Prepayment During Repayment
- What happens to my Federal Direct loan if I do not attend school at least half-time?
- What are my repayment options?
- What is an Income-Based Repayment Plan?
- What is the repayment period under an Income-Based Repayment Plan?
- What percentage of my post-college income should I plan to pay toward my loans?
- Do you have any suggestions for what I should be doing now to prepare myself for repaying my loans?
- When should I consolidate my federal loans?
- What are my Stafford or Federal Direct Subsidized and/or Unsubsidized Loan cancellation options?
- What is Loan Forgiveness?
- What is Public Service Loan Forgiveness?
- A Minute to Learn It - Trouble with Repayment
- What happens if I default on a loan?
- If I default on a student loan, how can I fix it?
- Are my parents responsible for paying back my student loans?
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- Accessing Your Loan Borrower Information
- What happens to my loans if I change schools or move?
- What are the conditions under which I may apply for a deferment or forbearance?


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In memory of my father, Major Arthur P. Yarborough, Sr. (Army, Ret.)
June 21, 1924 - October 4, 1997
My father began his service as one of the first black Marines at Montford Point, NC. From there, he enlisted in the Army, and went on to serve for over 20 years, retiring in 1964 with the rank of Major. You can read more about my dad and his military service here.
Thanks, Daddy, and thanks to all veterans!!!


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How 6 Real Women Kept Their Resolutions
Go to bed, already!
On the rare occasions when I wake up of my own biological free will, my first sensation is one of panic. I always think I've slept through my alarm and I'm going to be late. Paranoid, you say? I invite you to ask Metro-North Railroad, Virgin Atlantic and every restaurant on the island of Manhattan that serves brunch. They'll tell you: I cannot get out of bed in the morning. I am the very caricature of a person attempting to get out of bed, flinging a couple of limbs off the mattress, hoping the rest of my body will take the hint.
I've tried everything (I set two alarms; I leave the shades open) except for the most obvious strategy: going to bed earlier so I can get more sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation, logging seven to nine hours of shut-eye per night does all kinds of good things for you. It keeps your appetite in check, makes you happier and increases your attention span. The best way to embark on this blissful path? Establish a consistent sleep and rise schedule and stick to it, even on weekends. Sounds easy enough—and definitely worthwhile if it means waking up feeling peaceful instead of dreadful.
So I vowed to give early-to-bed a try. I forced myself to turn in by 11 every night. For the first few nights, I lay there, thinking of email requiring my reply or, on a weekend, the party I had left in the name of slumber. Slowly, I started to get better at ending my day earlier—to look forward to it, even. Reports from friends the next day confirmed that I'd missed out on a conversation or two, but part of being past your 20s is having the confidence to go home, knowing friendships can withstand a few truncated evenings. As one week rolled by and then another, I became accustomed to my curfew: I got into bed and fell asleep quickly, already craving the new calm I'd feel in the morning. Waking up early without the high-pitched beep of the alarm gave me more energy in the morning, and it was psychologically as well as physically restful. I began eating better, thinking more sharply and feeling calmer. These days, I even manage to get my entire body out of bed at once. —Sloane Crosley
Slow down—you drive too fast.
The first week I had my driver's license at age 17, I got three speeding tickets. By the time I graduated from college, I'd been jettisoned from my parents' car insurance and forced to attend state-mandated driving school. I've never been in an accident, but when I heard on the news that speeding is a contributing factor in 31 percent of all fatal car crashes, I realized I was pushing my luck. With the back seat now full of kids—mine and others'—I needed to hit the brakes.
During my first week of taking the pedal off the metal, I was late for everything, arrived at all my destinations in a bad mood and felt as if life were (literally) passing me by. Then, in week 2, my commitment to safe driving flew out the window when my 7-year-old son's pediatrician sent us to the hospital to rule out appendicitis. The speedometer inched up on the way there. I leaned on the horn, blew through stop signs and burned rubber as we careened into the parking lot. As I hustled him toward the emergency room, Simon said, "Mommy, you're being really scary."
Four hours later, he received a clean bill of health (it was only a virus) and felt well enough to request a ham sandwich from his favorite deli. I took my time getting there, mindful of my freckly cargo and remorseful that I'd put us in danger on the drive over.
These days, I no longer assume that in the absence of a sign, the speed limit is however fast I feel like going, and I try to resist the urge to accelerate when I see a yellow light up ahead. I'm making an effort to reconcile how I behave behind the wheel with how I am on solid ground: careful, rational and deeply appreciative of my good fortune. Driving home from a party with my husband recently, I cruised at a geriatric 25 mph through frosty streets in our unsexy minivan. I'll admit, I did take one hand off the wheel, to hold his. —Elisabeth Egan
Give floss a chance.
Of course I felt guilty about not flossing. Not doing so is viewed as gross and irresponsible. Eschew this habit and you might be increasing your risk for gum disease, which in turn is associated with heart disease, diabetes, and head and neck cancer, doctors tell us. But, eager as I am to stave off this parade of horribles, I have to ask, Isn't flossing itself kind of gross? Jabbing thread between your teeth, drawing blood and torpedoing stale food morsels onto the bathroom mirror?
I have plenty of excuses for flossing on only a semiregular basis. For one thing, I have more tooth than room in my mouth, something I'm reminded of every six months by my dental hygienist, who says, tsking, "Still have those wisdom teeth?" as if holding on to body parts is a stubborn affectation. My crowded mouth makes flossing difficult. I have to painstakingly saw the thread in, then yank back before it slices into my sensitive gums.
But enough excuses. I promised myself I would upgrade from sporadic to daily sessions. First, ouch. Week 1 was bloody painful, but truthfully, after that, the greatest challenge was the time commitment required for a new five-minute-a-day ritual. Equally difficult was remembering, so I perched my floss container near my toothbrush, where it was impossible to ignore. This basic yet brilliant strategy tipped me into the camp of habitual flossing. Instead of flossing only after eating popcorn, I cheerfully (or at least without cringing) braced myself for the stretch required to maneuver the string into those far molar reaches. Extra-thin floss helped.
Three weeks later, my teeth and gums felt cleaner. There was less bloodshed. Flossing definitely gets a lot less gross the more frequently you do it; the fact is, there isn't as much to floss out. And knowing I could be reducing my risk for heart disease is a good enough reason to step it up—and occasionally even smile about it. —Pamela Paul
Stop gossiping, start listening.
I don't think of myself as a gossip, just an inquisitive friend. But recently I've noticed that even the most benign discussion of a person behind her back leaves me with a guilt hangover, not a sign of stellar mental health. So when I decided to swear off gossip, I thought I'd feel content, balanced, focused on the higher planes. I imagined it would be easy to keep conversations on the up-and-up.
I was wrong. The first days were a snarl of dilemmas: I had never noticed how much sniping people did! "What's the latest with so-and-so?" friends would ask. I'd pause self-consciously, trying to figure out how to respond. I had decided that it was gossiping anytime I felt a shudder of relish at sharing someone else's personal details. That included hearing news as well as spreading it. At one convivial party, my friend Melinda grabbed my arm and said, "I have an amazing piece of news about Elliot—come into the hall with me." I took three steps, then stopped. "I can't," I said. "I'm trying not to gossip." She gave me a funny look. "You're kidding. Call me when you're done."
Not gossiping can be isolating, but it's also illuminating. I was surprised by how often I got "the gossip tingle" even when I was talking about friends whose well-being I cared about. And noticing this helped me pause and focus again on the person at hand. I found I got a mood boost from listening: It forced me to slow down and be in the present, as all health and happiness advice tells you to be. Now when I start to get the voyeuristic tingle, I stop, take a deep breath and bite my tongue. —Meghan O'Rourke
Take the extremes out of exercise.
For three years in a row, I spent my summer mornings training for marathons. I pounded out every run in the pink glow of dawn. Each fall, when I crossed the 26.2-mile finish line, I was totally burned out. In the weeks that followed, I was like a bear prepping for hibernation, skipping the gym and loading up on enough eggs Benedict to insulate me through the winter months. By spring, another marathon was a necessity. A bear cannot rock a sundress.
This approach was a little extreme. The American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association recommend 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days a week or vigorous 20-minute workouts three times, plus two short strength training sessions. Nervously, I set this as my new routine. I had no goal beyond lowering my risk for heart disease and getting a normal person's amount of exercise.
I realized I could do the moderate exercise (breaking a sweat but still being able to carry on a conversation) in 10-minute blocks. Conveniently, I could do most of my workouts at home or on the fly, which made them simple to fit into my schedule. A 10-minute bike ride here or 20 minutes of jogging there didn't disrupt my life one bit. Although I clocked fewer miles, I felt as if I were being more active because I was spreading the exercise out over the course of the day. Certain muscles I'd neglected during my cardio-only days were getting attention for the first time in years.
I did not achieve Madonna's biceps or drop a dress size, but I do feel leaner and more toned. Despite one or two cardio cravings that led to Spinning binges (which left me as exhausted as my marathon training had), I've finally found balance—and, these days, I always sleep in. —Claire Martin
Go with the (whole) grain.
I don't do diets. In fact, I've never really been on one in my whole life. This is not because I haven't needed to go on a diet—the year Mars introduced its Milky Way Midnight Bar comes to mind—but because I'm so impatient with all the rules you have to follow. A challenge is different, though. It lasts for a finite period and requires as few rules as I'd like to attach to it. So I challenged myself to replace processed grains with whole grains for three weeks. I would get more fiber and vitamins and maximize my health benefits at every eating opportunity.
I began by piling up relevant books (The Food Matters Cookbook by Mark Bittman and Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce) and looking for wisdom. One nugget was a godsend: When you're shopping for whole-grain products, the word whole should be part of the first ingredient on the list. If it's not there, it's not a whole-grain product. None of the frozen waffles at the supermarket passed the test, so I ended up making my own waffle recipe, swapping the all-purpose flour for whole-wheat flour.
The mantra that made my life the easiest: Embrace laziness. Rather than seeking out the best boxed bran muffin mix, I simply skipped the muffins. Instead of taking the special trip to Whole Foods to find wheat berries, I skipped the carbs on the plate that night. Rule-following people might have incorporated more millet and barley and quinoa into their days instead of merely eliminating the junky stuff, but you know what? With my approach, I ate less, felt much lighter and didn't crave a single potato chip. In fact, I still feel this way. Because guess what? My challenge had legs. —Jenny Rosenstrach


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Hyper Audio Linking and Speech to Text at EADH conference 2018Submitted by Alkibiades on Fri, 2018-11-23 13:35
At Transforming Freedom, we have been using Hyper Audio Linking since 2007 to give our users the choice between watching original documents and reading the text.
mike hentz - emotional logic systems, Vienna Poetry School 2018Submitted by leo on Fri, 2018-04-20 20:48
leo lädt - 31.3.17 - fluc viennaSubmitted by leo on Fri, 2017-03-31 15:29
March 31st, 2017 - One of the founding members of Transforming Freedom in 2004, Leo Findeisen, is celebrating his birthday at the fluc venue in Vienna:
Art's Birthday 2017! - Vienna/Graz/BrnoSubmitted by leo on Tue, 2017-01-17 18:30
Dear friends and radio art lovers!
Tune in to Kunstradio on January 15th and listen to the new piece "For
Morton Feldman ? a radio work" by Rupert Huber and Roberto Paci Dalò
And please join us for Art's Birthday 2017!
Stay with me - Artists´ Diaries from Istanbul - 21erHaus Exhibition OpeningSubmitted by leo on Thu, 2016-10-27 12:41
"At a point, as we were just standing there, 'something' else began. We were on the streets. Side by side. We didn't even know each other, but we were side by side. We were there. This was the hope itself. The spirit of solidarity, the challenge, standing side by side…. Then, nothing changed. We clammed up. … Now, we are tired.
Die Kunst der Geräusche - Zum "autonomen Bruitismus" seit Luigi Russolo, mit. J. UllmaierSubmitted by leo on Sat, 2016-06-04 23:53
Die Kunst der Geräusche - Zu Geschichte und Gegenwart des "autonomen Bruitismus" seit Luigi Russolo. Vortrag von Johannes Ullmaier.
Salon für Kunstbuch 21erhaus, Mittwoch, 8. Juni 2016, 7pm
Open Hardware Summit Europe & Openism - org. by Coded Cultures & R.I.A.T. ViennaSubmitted by leo on Sat, 2016-05-28 14:35
Coded Cultures: Festival for fringe research and experimental arts. OPENISM is the 6th issue of Coded Cultures discussing concepts of openness with a focus on open hardware and open technologies and their implications for art, science and society.
when home won't let you staySubmitted by Alkibiades on Sun, 2016-05-15 21:03
Exhibition at Heiligenkreuzer Hof, Schönlaterngasse 5, 1010 Vienna
5 - 25 May 2016
Curator: Işın Önol
Participating artists:
Europe´s Duty - DIEM 25 in Austria w. S. Sassen, Y. Varoufakis & Sr. Horvat, May 5th, 2016Submitted by leo on Mon, 2016-04-18 14:49
Join us in Vienna for Art´s Birthday 2016 in honor of Robert Adrian XSubmitted by leo on Sun, 2016-01-17 17:17
Art's Birthday 2016 – 1,000,053 Years of Art
Celebrating Art's Birthday is a tradition started by French Fluxus artist Robert Filliou who declared, on January 17th 1963, that Art had been born exactly 1,000,000 years ago when somebody dropped a dry sponge into a bucket of water.


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Subscribe To Rob Cohen Wants To Do A Found-Footage Action Thriller Updates
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Man, Rob Cohen has been doing a lot of talking lately. The director, whose past credits include The Fast and the Furious and xXx, made the publicity rounds on behalf of his upcoming adaptation of James Patterson's Alex Cross (in theaters on Oct. 19). Yet while he opened up a bit about Tyler Perry and Matthew Fox, he repeatedly talked about future projects he'd love to dive into if given the opportunity.
Cohen told reporters that his xXx sequel is dormant as he waits for Vin Diesel to stop making Furious movies … while, at the same time, admitting that he would return to that franchise (which he launched) if given the chance. The Cohen told ComingSoon that he's putting together a found-footage-style action film that will use multi-media in some way to assemble a story. He'd like to do it with Jason Blum, the producer behind the Paranormal Activity series.
But Cohen didn't stop there. He also updates the site on the status of his planned Monster Squad reboot (Cohen produced the original), saying, "It's sitting at Paramount. It's a great script. I've been kicking them. … They don't roll over. I don't understand it. I'm hoping that one day we just get a call that they've finally seen the light of day."
Yet, if they don't move on that, Cohen says he's also cooking up a period thriller centered around Sir Isaac Newton's little-known detective adventures. Um, what?
"Isaac Newton was a detective at the latter part of his life. He worked for the royal mint as warden of the mint and master of the royal mint. His job was to track down counterfeiters. So I've got this great physicist tracking down the worst counterfeiter ever, this guy William Chaloner. It's all real and we're using physics and things to motivate the action."
Part of me loves the fact that Cohen's just spit-balling all of these ideas, particularly as he heads into 1950, a Korean War drama that he has been shaping for years. Will any of these happen? Perhaps. Alex Cross making a fortune will help. Let's see how that one does, because it could buy Cohen some needed clout.


text: In the 1950s, with the airwaves filling with the sounds of rock 'n' roll, America was changing into a "transistor" nation. Deciding to capitalize on the popularity of radio, Winchester designated a prototype .308 Model 70 with a built-in radio in 1955. A speaker was set into the right side of the stock with a series of holes - carved in the trademark "W" outline - allowing the sound to be heard. Presented as a glittering show gun, the new Winchester soon proved a hard sell. The Winchester Radio Rifle is one of the many treasures at the NRA National Firearms Museum in Fairfax, Virginia.


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Click the link above to read how FPL is selling off the Cutler Power Plant property.
As presented on the listing: The Cutler Plantation property is one of the few, large prime development opportunities for luxury residences in coastal Miami-Dade County. Nestled in the quiet, tree-lined streets of Palmetto Bay and Pinecrest, the 69-acre property was settled by William C. Cutler and used as a fruit and vegetable plantation. Nearly 100 years later, the Cutler Plantation site can be developed into distinctive residences that will complement the established Deering Bay Yacht and Country Club, Kings Bay, the Royal Harbour Yacht Club and the many estate homes nearby.Biscayne Bay
Listed property features:
- Waterfront development site
- Prime location for luxury residential development
- Located in Miami-Dade County
- +/- 8 acres submerged lands ideal for marina
- Immediate access to Biscayne Bay
Seriously Mayor and council members, we know there have been inquiries/meetings with the Planning department, so when will us regular Palmetto Bay residents be brought up to date on potential plans for this location?
My suggestion remains for the village to negotiate in good faith with FPL and work to obtain two things; land for the fire station (as the USDA site appears to be taking a 5 - 8 year nosedive due to the nearly 2 1/2 years of neglect from Mayor Stanczyk) as well as land for public green space. And don't forget about the existing picnic/party pavilion and BOAT RAMP! Exciting opportunities abound, unless the opportunity does ignored.
Check out the 1:27 video presentation on this property:


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This Guest Post is by my good friend, Sensei Angel Lemus, of the Zentokukai Okinawa Shorinryu Toude Association. Angel is the creator of One Minute Bunkai. The URL is oneminutebunkai.com. He and I are members of the Hawaii Karate Kenkyukai.
Guest Post: No Stances...
This Guest Post is by my good friend, Sensei Angel Lemus, of the Zentokukai Okinawa Shorinryu Toude Association. Angel is the creator of One Minute Bunkai. The URL is oneminutebunkai.com. He and I are members of the Hawaii Karate Kenkyukai.
- - - - - - - - - -
No stances, strategy, and the relationship of the players/pieces involved
I love the pleasure of NOT worrying about stances, the liberation of that part of your consciousness that has to think of stance delivery as you travel through your kata.
Now I just step out there and not think of what my feet are doing, why? Because I can. Because I'm not a beginner and I know that my feet, legs, and my lower body know what to do instinctively according to what my upper body is doing.
Its like my upper half and lower half are communicating with themselves checking with each other to ensure that everything is running in optimal condition assuring maximum power and results. Thus it leaves my higher functions to do their part, my eyes to see/gather input about situation surrounding me to allow my "instinct" adapt to the ever changing and chaotic nature of combat. My brain is put on shelf on standby mode so it can have a coffee break and look at the spectacle like someone watching a movie (but it does not butt-in).
Think of it like a tank crew, the tank commander is on the turret gathering intel, making command decisions and barking out orders putting the tank in a good offensive position while at the same time putting it in the best defensive position as possible. The tank driver only drives taking commands from the commander, the ordinance/fire chief aims and fires, the unit of 3 depend on each other, and one cannot possibly do it all at the same time. The commander is your self/instinct, your feet/legs are the driver, your hands/arms are the fire control.
I have found that by abandoning the focus on stances it is a liberating feeling that brings your awareness to a higher level that allows you to focus on the fighting while working kata. Your kata practice should feel like when you are attacked aggressively by your partner and you just move and do your thing. In partner work you don't stop to think for one second about stances. And if you do, that split second will cost you. In partner work your entire focus is (should be) on the attack aimed at your opponent, you just move in whatever "stance" you land in, and it will be correct and it does not need a name.
Going forward I will rely less and less on stance labeling when teaching my new students, at the beginning I will just say step here and there and bend your knees. I will say to them look at me and do what I do, "Mitori Geiko" learning by watching. I will just make minor corrections but not spend so much time (as I have done in the past) on making their cat stance look picture perfect. Because ultimately what matters is can they hit hard, not does the stance look pretty. And if the student is with you for many years he/she will figure it out over time. Of course this method will not work in sports karate because sport kata needs long pauses and the dramatic stances for judges to see the perfect balance and beauty of the presentation it is what it is.
In arriving at this juncture I now understand when I see videos of the old masters doing their kata and they always look like they move with a sort of abandonment of what stance they are in at any given time in their kata, the more experienced and older the less predominant stances are. When I wore my early karate diapers I used to see the old films and think, look at those old guys they can't do stances right anymore. Well now I'm wearing my advanced Karate Depends and loving it.
Posted by Charles C. Goodin on Friday, September 21, 2012


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Cremation Products
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Browse the full product catalog to see all of the urns and keepsakes Aurora has available.
Aurora's Pet Memorial Product Line includes various collections of pet urns and beautifully designed pendants.
Aurora has introduced a new jewelry line to remember your loved one.


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Facebook's decision to pay $1 billion for Instagram, a 13 person photo sharing startup with no revenue, is a bit of a shock.
While many people have congratulated Facebook for smartly taking out a budding rival, few have looked at the other side of what that means.
Facebook, with 800 million users, was freaked out by a tiny startup. It's always good to be paranoid, but when a giant company, one that's valued at $100 billion, is suddenly scrambling to protect its core business, it has to be worrisome.
A similar thing just happened with Zynga. It was getting clobbered in its core business of social gaming by a startup out of nowhere. So, it was forced to shell out.
Over the weekend, a friend was arguing Facebook is much more vulnerable than most people realize. As soon as the Instagram deal was announced, he claimed the deal was proof that he was right.
His reasoning: "I don't think the current world is about giant monolithic software companies owning content. It's whimsical one off apps that suit the need for a time and are replaced. Instagram doesn't solve Facebook's problem. There will be new reasons not to log on."
Don't Miss: Meet The 13 Lucky Employees And 9 Investors Behind $1 Billion Instagram
Watch Below: The Main Reason That Facebook Bought Instagram


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Heart of the Matter Meditation
Attend locally or via Streaming if your are in another city.
We invite you to experience a powerful meditation practice for this age that will help you open your heart, deepen your connection, calm your being, and think more clearly.
These evenings are for all levels of meditators from beginners to the very experienced. They begin with 30 minute conference call followed by a 60 minute guided meditation which uses various forms of music to assist your journey within.
Suggested Donation: $10 (First-time guests attend free)
Open to everyone 18 yrs. old and over. Dress comfortably and bring pen and paper.
For further information on streaming the meditation contact - email@example.com
Please register online if you plan on attending. Thank you.
Please arrive 15 minutes before start time if attending in person and 10 minutes early if attending via video chat.
(For those attending in person: Please call Honey at 828-337-8665 for address & directions.)
Come and connect more deeply with your heart, your passion and spirit.


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You've probably heard the phrase 'to know a lot about wine you have to drink a lot of wine.' It's true. With the hundreds of varietals of wines, it takes a lot of tasting and contemplating what's in the glass.
The more I learn, the more I want to learn. And, I realize and am thrilled by the challenge that I'll never know all there is to know and never know enough to be satisfied. There's great adventure in that pursuit!
Some sage advice I received when starting this journey came from a sommelier who said it's best to start with the classics—the wines that set the standard for quality. Everyone needs a baseline, so to speak, from which to compare and contrast other wines. So Bordeaux, being the standard bearer of the world when it comes to wine, became dead center on my radar of wine regions to visit.
We recently returned from our second visit to the historic wine region…part of a special thirty year wedding anniversary that we'd been planning for and saving for awhile. We also traveled to some amazing wine regions in Italy on this long awaited trip which I'll talk more about later.
Back to Bordeaux! Visually, spring was in full bloom, but the temperatures were actually much cooler than normal, and all of Bordeaux was receiving an uncomfortable amount of rain for this important growing time of the year.
This visit we stayed in the commune of Léognan which is home of the 16 Graves Crus Classés—a beautiful region just south of the city of Bordeaux. The Pessac Léognan region is known for both its red and white wines. It's a relatively new appellation, but the quality of its wines has been common knowledge for many years.
One of the more memorable chateaux we visited in Bordeaux was Chateau Haut-Bailly, one of the premier crus in the Classification of Graves and a highly acclaimed producer. Both Wine Spectator and Parker rated the 2010 Haut Bailly at a 95. Parker gave the '09 a 98!
- It's a beautiful spot with a history of growing grapes that dates back to the 15th century. Chateau Haut-Bailly is now owned by an American but is managed by Veronique Sanders, our host and the granddaughter of the previous owner. Veronique is the fourth generation of her family to be associated with the vineyards and one of the first women in Bordeaux to run a winery.
Growing up in the vineyards at Chateau Haut-Bailly, Veronique says she constantly tagged along with her grandfather as he worked the vineyards and made the wine. She says her dream since she was a young child was to run Chateau Haut Bailly…to make the wines just as her grandfather did. It was a dream that almost didn't happen.
Veronique was just finishing college studying wine making when her grandfather dropped a bombshell. He sold Chateau Haut-Bailly! Heartbroken but not defeated she called the new owner, an American, and asked for the opportunity to run the winery. After all, who could know its vines better than someone who literally grew up on the property.
The owner, Robert G. Wilmers, must have not only recognized Veronique's knowledge of wine making at Haut-Bailly but also her passion for the land . After all, when you meet her, you can't help but notice her eyes are alive with such energy. Wilmers gave her the job she'd always dreamed of having, and the winery has consistently won rave reviews.
The Chateau Haut-Bailly wines were lovely with beautiful fruit and silky tannins. Old vines often make the best wines, and the average age of the vines on the property at Haut-Bailly is 120 years old. From the La Parde de Haut-Bailly (the second label) to the well respected Chateau Haut-Bailly, their elegance and finesse shined through.
In fact, these full bodied red wines paired beautifully with our lunch which was seafood based—a delightful prawn and vegetable salad followed by a beautiful sea bass served with baked zucchini topped with a black olive tapenade.
We enjoyed the wine so much we purchased a bottle of the 2000 Haut Bailly and tucked it into our suitcase to savor at a later date. BTW, Masraff's in Uptown features Chateau Haut-Bailly on its menu in addition to many more of Bordeaux's finest. Let Sommelier Ben Roberts be your guide!
I'm already looking forward to duplicating some of the incredible food we discovered on this trip…an excuse to drink more Bordeaux. More on that amazing food and a recipe for escargots that is incredible! Also, I have to give a shout-out to my friends at At&t. If you've ever driven through a foreign country, you know how easy it is to get lost. My iPhone saved us a thousand times on this journey and At&t's cook app for finding hot spots was priceless!
For more wine info and wonderful recipes from top chefs, head to Goodtaste.tv. While you're there sign up for a chance to win our Golden Gate Getaway – two roundtrip tickets on Southwest Airlines, three nights at the beautiful Westin St. Francis on Union Square and dinner for two at Cotogna.


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The Sindecuse Museum was created in 1991 with a gift from Gordon H. Sindecuse, DDS, a 1921 graduate of the University of Michigan School of Dentistry. The Museum officially opened on September 18, 1992 after hiring its first professional part-time curator the prior year. At its founding, the Sindecuse Museum was housed within the first and ground floor lobby areas of the Kellogg Institute Building. In 1995, plans were initiated to expand the museum as part of the Kellogg renovation.
By September 8, 2000 the Sindecuse Museum re-opened after a two-year construction phase. The internal courtyard connecting the Kellogg and Dental Buildings was converted into an atrium to house the Museum's expanded exhibit space. Five new exhibit cases were added in a nearby hallway of renovated space. A climate controlled room specifically designed for collection storage was part of the renovation in the Kellogg Building. It includes state-of-the-art storage cabinets and mobile storage racks.
Today the Museum is staffed by two full-time museum professionals, Curator Shannon O'Dell and Collections Coordinator Adam Johnson, and assisted by two museum assistants, Meredith Counts and Gina Genova, who work with us part-time and are School of Information graduate students.
Learn more about the Museum:


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Over at The New York Review of Books, Daniel Mendelsohn tackles the "Mad Men" craze:
Since the summer of 2007, when Mad Men premiered on the cable station AMC, the world it purports to depict—a lushly reimagined Madison Avenue in the 1960s, where sleekly suited, chain-smoking, hard-drinking advertising executives dream up ingeniously intuitive campaigns for cigarettes and bras and airlines while effortlessly bedding beautiful young women or whisking their Grace Kelly–lookalike wives off to business trips in Rome—has itself become the object of a kind of madness. I'm not even referring to the critical reception both in the US and abroad, which has been delirious: a recent and not atypical reference in the Times of London called it "one of the…best television series of all time," and the show has repeatedly won the Emmy, the Golden Globe, the Screen Actors Guild Award, the Writers Guild of America Award, and the Producers Guild of America Award for Best Drama Series. (A number of its cast members have been nominated in the various acting categories as well.) Rather, the way in which Mad Men has seemingly percolated into every corner of the popular culture—the children's show Sesame Street has introduced a Mad Men parody, toned down, naturally, for its tender viewers—suggests that its appeal goes far beyond what dramatic satisfactions it might afford.
At first glance, this appeal seems to have a lot to do with the show's much-discussed visual style—the crisp midcentury coolness of dress and decor. The clothing retailer Banana Republic, in partnership with the show's creators, devised a nationwide window display campaign evoking the show's distinctive 1960s look, and now offers a style guide to help consumers look more like the show's characters. A nail polish company now offers a Mad Men–inspired line of colors; the toy maker Mattel has released dolls based on some of the show's characters. Most intriguingly, to my mind, Brooks Brothers has partnered with the series's costume designer to produce a limited edition Mad Men suit—which is, in turn, based on a Brooks Brothers design of the 1960s.
I've only seen a few episodes. I've talked to some people who say the show is spot-on; others say it is contrived.
What's all the hubbub…bub?


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ReleasesBack to
Terence Blanchard
Rachelle Ferrell made her name performing R&B, but this strictly acoustic jazz CD is her earliest recording. Her voice is quite soulful, making her later shift to R&B less of a surprise in hindsight, but Ferrell seems quite unsure of how to use her wide range, and her improvisations are often quite eccentric. Her lack of warmth and subtlety (along with a tendency to scream and screech in unexpected spots without a buildup) makes it difficult to listen to several of the numbers on this standards-oriented set. Trumpeter Terence Blanchard and Wayne Shorter on tenor make worthwhile cameo appearances, but Rachelle Ferrell at that point in her career did not really sound ready for prime time, despite her potential. ~ Scott Yanow


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Chuck Leavell is happiest around trees or Stones
Chuck Leavell Keyboardist for the Rolling Stones and co-founder of Mother Nature Network, a website dedicated to pushing out eco-news. Jessica Lifland
SAN FRANCISCO — The doorway into Studio Trilogy isn't particularly wide, so by all accounts, Chuck Leavell's head shouldn't be able to squeeze through it.
Both as a musician and an environmentalist, Leavell, 61, has reached heights that would swell the craniums of most mortals to blimp proportions. Keyboardist for the Allman Brothers, Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones. Tree farmer, eco-pal of presidents and co-founder of the website Mother Nature Network.
Yet his ego gets checked at the door.
"I'm just a guy who loves music and loves this planet, and wants to see both thrive long after I'm gone," Leavell says as he settles into a sofa not far from a recording space where Lada Gaga recently hit some high notes.
Leavell is on break from the current Stones tour — interrupted by the March suicide of Mick Jagger's partner, L'Wren Scott — and in town to receive kudos from the think tank Pacific Forest Trust.
"We just got to 7 billion people here," he says. "That means we'll be facing a lot of resource challenges as a human race."
Artists with causes aren't a new tune, but the roots of Leavell's commitment run deep. They were planted during a rural childhood in Alabama and blossomed after his wife, Rose Lane, inherited 1,000 acres of Georgia farmland near Macon not long after the couple married in the early 1970s.
"We were wondering what to do with some of it, and I looked around at the things I loved, like pianos, and, realizing they were made of wood, decided that sustainable forestry was something I wanted to do," he says.
Those efforts led to two books, Forever Green: The History and Hope of the American Forest and Growing a Better America, as well as an appointment as spokesman for Georgia forestry and a friendship with President Jimmy Carter.
Carter recalls an evening some years back when Leavell did a concert to raise money for the American Chestnut Foundation, which was looking to fight a blight attacking those trees.
"A crowd of rich city folks came to the Carter Center one evening to hear Chuck perform and became enthusiastic supporters after they heard his speech," says Carter, whose successful run for the 1976 presidency was supported by Allman Brothers concerts. "I have known Chuck for many years and cherish our friendship."
But of all the high and low roads Leavell has walked, the strangest one yet has led him to an office with the title dot-com founder.
"Never in a million years would I have imagined this, but the opportunity was irresistible," he says. He describes how, in 2009, Atlanta pal and public-relations executive Joel Babbit felt that the duo should create a site dedicated to non-partisan environmental news.
Dubbed "the USA TODAY of sustainability" by Fast Company, Mother Nature Network now attracts 10 million unique visitors a month and boasts a for-profit business plan that has drawn advertisers such as Coca-Cola and AT&T.
"From the start, our mission was to get an audience that went beyond the green movement, that was less strident than some advocacy group sites and easier to use than many government sites," says Leavell, adding that 85% of MNN's content is original and ranges from updates on the genetically modified crop debate to features on nine foods that help with bad breath.
"The environment really doesn't care if you're Republican or Democrat," he says with an ever-present smile. "We're really in this together, and our job at MNN is to help find common-sense solutions to the issues we're all facing."
Leavell has testified more than once before congressional leaders, among whom he's known as a guy who's committed to the land and happens to also play some piano.
"Chuck is an incredible example of a person who really puts his passion, and his time, behind the issues he cares about," says Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. "He's very gifted at garnering attention for the issues he cares about and communicating why stewardship of our land and water is so important."
Leavell concedes that his green talk is sometimes met with "a lot of head scratching backstage (on tour)," and he doesn't actively try and convert his fellow Stones. "But we're all parents, and we see the writing on the wall."
Ever the Southern gent, Leavell is diplomatic when it comes to his famous friends.
His only comment on Scott's death is a polite nod. He calls Clapton "a consummate musician you just want to play your best for."
Meanwhile, a question about how a deft and lyrical piano player fits into a grinding rock band like the Stones draws a big laugh.
"I'll just say that Keith (Richards) reminds me often that I'm in a guitar-driven band," Leavell says. "But I'm very proud of my 32 years with them. I find my place to play, and then lay back and keep track of how we're arranging the songs."
In fact, if the piano man has another book in the offing, it should be mined from the voluminous notes he's taken over the decades on the various ways in which the Stones have hammered out hits on tour. From his vantage point as unofficial musical director, Leavell has a unique perspective on the vaunted rock band.
"What makes them who they are is, first and foremost, the amazing songwriting," he says. "I mean, how Keith just comes up with those indelible riffs is beyond me."
At that, Leavell sits down at a nearby piano and pounds out the opening notes of Start Me Up and a few other classics, before launching into a full run-through, complete with vocals, of Honky Tonk Woman, whose indelible trills he picked up firsthand from the Stones' original pianist, Ian "Stu" Stewart.
Leavell is just warming up. Next, he fires off his moving solo from the Allmans' 1973 classic Jessica, before closing his eyes and disappearing into an early hit by his personal hero, the late Ray Charles, called Losing Hand. The song is on his latest solo release, Back to the Woods. The CD case is made not from plastic but paper, naturally.
"I suppose for some people, it's weird that this rock piano player is also into forestry, but to me, it's all linked together," says Leavell, putting on a long black overcoat before heading for his flight home. "I was a child of the '60s music scene, and the realization that we all can get together to solve our problems never left me."
Chuck Leavell keyboardist for the Rolling Stones performs Honky Tonk Women.


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Ach. No sooner had I said that our web hosting woes were over did we have more problems. Finally I believe everything is back up as are my emails. Unfortunately if you don't hear from me in the next few days you may have to re me.
We moved from choppy Dreamhost, who kept crashing, to Mocha Host who had awful customer service – reminded me of talking to a sales person in the BT department when who you need is a technical engineer – finally to Liquid Web hosts who are PHENOMENAL. It's pretty expensive, 3 times more than our old hosts but wow – they really know what they're doing.
Enough web hosting chat – I have tons to catch up on now, hoping you had a great week and have fun things planned for the weekend?
P.S. If you have any problems viewing the site, leaving comments, with emails etc etc please do let me know.


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Organic vs. Conventionally Grown Spinach
Feb 23rd, 2017
Organic Spinach Takes the Nutritional Cake
Power veggie
Spinach is a great source of antioxidant vitamin C and bone-building vitamin K, as well as folic acid, carotenoids (like beta-carotene), and flavonoids. It also contains nitrates that are converted in the body to nitrites, which can lower the blood's oxygen-carrying capacity and form carcinogenic compounds. Oxalates in spinach inhibit the absorption of minerals like calcium and magnesium and may contribute to the formation of calcium oxalate kidney stones, although most of the oxalate is not absorbed.
More reasons to go organic
Avoiding pesticides is one reason that people cite for choosing organically grown foods. But there are other benefits to eating organic, like the nutritional content of the food.
To see how organically grown spinach compares to conventionally grown varieties, researchers from the University of California at Davis compared levels of vitamin C, flavonoids, nitrate, and oxalate in 27 different spinach varieties from two farms in Washington State. One crop was grown using synthetic fertilizer, but no pesticides. The other crop was certified organically grown with no synthetic fertilizers or pesticides.
- All varieties of organically grown spinach had significantly higher levels of vitamin C and total flavonoids than conventionally grown varieties.
- Conventionally grown spinach had up to four times more nitrates than organically grown varieties.
Levels of oxalate were similar between the two growing conditions, however, "Organic spinach containing higher vitamin C and flavonoids but less nitrate content would be more health-promoting than the conventional counterpart," the researchers commented.
Use your green for healthy greens
Some pesticides may affect the nervous and endocrine (hormonal) systems, while others may cause cancer. Children seem to be particularly sensitive to the effects of pesticides. Eating spinach raised conventionally but without pesticides, like the kind the researchers used in this study, would seem a reasonable choice if minimizing exposure is your primary goal. However, to be assured that your spinach has no pesticide residue, since that information is often not available, and to get the extra nutrients this study suggest it contains, spinach seems a wise use of your organic dollar.
(J Agric Food Chem 2012;60:3144-50)
Copyright © 2019 Healthnotes, Inc. All rights reserved. www.healthnotes.com


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TRIBUTES are being paid to a Newport man who worked for more than 40 years at the city's Whitehead steelworks.
Fred Jukes, 85, died on June 29 at his daughter's home in Nailsea, Bristol, following a short illness.
Mr Jukes was born in Tredegar and was the youngest of six brothers.
The family moved to Newport when he was four-years-old.
Mr Jukes and his brothers followed in the footsteps of their father Jack who worked there for 50 years.
The family lived in the Gaer and Mr Jukes went to Stow Hill School.
He left school aged 13 and worked for the local milkman until he was old enough to join his brothers at Whitehead where he started as an electrical apprentice.
Mr Jukes went to night school and became a fully qualified electrical engineer and was devoted to the Whitehead company.
He retired in 1982 at the age of 55 as first chief electrical engineer.
Mr Jukes was also interested in chess and enjoyed motorcars, tennis and golf.
He was also a founder member of Whitehead's sailing club.
Mr Jukes' wife Sheila died in 1991 and he remained in Newport until last November when he moved to Nailsea to live with his daughter and son-in-law Linda and Roger Cox when his health started to deteriorate.
Mr Cox said: "He has always been a very kind man and would go out of his way to help others. Family was very important to him.
"He lived a long life and he will be missed by those who were close to him."
Mr Jukes also leaves behind his four granddaughters Vicki, Kate, Bethan and Emma, great-grandson Samuel, companion Hannah and brother Horace.
Mr Jukes' funeral will be held at Gwent Crematorium on Friday, July 13, at 10.30am.


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Worship Allah
Our Lord, the Creator of everything within you and around you, possesses infinite might. Allah created us and commands us to obey Him and to conduct ourselves correctly as described in the Qur'an. Everything our Lord demands from us is worship. Fasting, praying, being grateful to Allah, being steadfast, and engaging in good deeds are a few of these acts of worship.
Fasting is also a form of worship commanded in the Qur'an. During the month of Ramadan, Allah demands that we not eat and drink in the daytime. Fulfilling this worship, we show steadfastness while going without food and drink for a certain period of time.
Paying the zakat, on the other hand, is giving a portion of one's wealth to the poor and needy and others who may receive it. As with other forms of worship, fulfilling this is very important because avoidance of meanness, and showing self-sacrifice are character traits that please Allah. This aside, paying the zakat improves co-operation between people and matures the human spirit.
Supplication is a Way to Draw Closer to Allah
Allah attaches great importance to supplication. Allah relates the importance of supplication in the verse stating: "Say: 'What has My Lord to do with you if you do not call on Him? ….' " (Surat al-Furqan: 77) As this verse suggests, a person's value before Allah depends on his prayer. That is because a person who prays asks for what he needs from Allah alone. Allah is the Owner of everything.
Allah creates everything we need. Take, for example, the food that is essential for human life. Allah creates vegetables, fruit, chickens, cows and so on. Allah creates your parents and all the people around you. Allah, the All-Mighty, endows people with the bodies, intelligence, knowledge, strength, health and the opportunities they enjoy.
This is the outlook we must adopt, and it also explains why we need to pray to Allah. That is because Allah creates everything.
A list of reasons why we need to thank Allah and pray to Him would fill millions of volumes of books. That is why the existence of people around you who do not attach importance to these must never dissuade you. Their failure to employ their intelligence and their avoidance of thought and reflection draw them into great error.
Allah informs us of the end awaiting these people. Our reward or punishment in the hereafter depends on how we conduct ourselves in this world and whether we strive to draw closer to Allah. Every person will be recompensed for his deeds in the hereafter.
- How Can We Supplicate?
Thinking of Allah's might and grandeur, feeling awe of Him and praying humbly and secretly are essential for supplication. Allah informs us how to pray in the Qur'an.
Call on your Lord humbly and secretly. He does not love those who overstep the limits. (Surat al-A'raf: 55)
Supplication cannot be limited to certain places or time. We can think of Allah and pray to Him at any moment. Allah commands as follows in the Qur'an:
Those who remember Allah, standing, sitting and lying on their sides, and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth: "Our Lord, You have not created this for nothing. Glory be to You! So safeguard us from the punishment of the Fire." (Surah Al 'Imran: 191)
Remember Me—I will remember you. Give thanks to Me and do not be ungrateful. You who have faith! Seek help in steadfastness and prayer. Allah is with the steadfast. (Surat al-Baqara: 152-153)
Allah provides us with examples of supplications in the Qur'an. Some of the prayers of the prophets and believers are related as follows:
He [i.e., Nuh] said, "My Lord, I seek refuge with You from asking You for anything about which I have no knowledge. If You do not forgive me and have mercy on me, I will be among the lost." (Surah Hud: 47)
And when Ibrahim built the foundations of the House with Isma'il: "Our Lord, accept this from us! You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. Our Lord, make us both Muslims submitted to You, and our descendants a Muslim community submitted to You. Show us our rites of worship and turn towards us. You are the Ever-Returning, the Most Merciful. Our Lord, raise up among them a Messenger from them to recite Your Signs to them and teach them the Book and Wisdom and purify them. You are the Almighty, the All-Wise." (Surat al-Baqara: 127-129)
[Yusuf said:] "My Lord, You have granted power to me on earth and taught me the true meaning of events. Originator of the heavens and earth, You are my Friend in this world and the Next. So take me as a Muslim at my death and join me to the people who are true." (Surah Yusuf: 101)
[Sulayman said:] "…My Lord, keep me thankful for the blessing You have bestowed on me and on my parents, and keep me acting rightly, pleasing You, and admit me, by Your mercy, among Your slaves who are true." (Surat an-Naml: 19)
Say, "O Allah! Master of the Kingdom! You give sovereignty to whomever You will You take sovereignty from whomever You will. You exalt whomever You will You abase whomever You will. All good is in Your hands. You have power over all things." (Surah Al 'Imran: 26)
He [i.e., Musa] said, "O Lord, expand my breast for me and make my task easy for me Loosen the knot in my tongue so that they will understand my words. Assign me a helper from my family, my brother Harun. Strengthen my back by him and let him share in my task, so that we can glorify You much and remember You much, for You are watching us." (Surah Ta Ha: 25-35)
Those who remember Allah, standing, sitting and lying on their sides, and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth: "Our Lord, You have not created this for nothing. Glory be to You! So safeguard us from the punishment of the Fire. Our Lord, those You cast into the Fire, You have indeed disgraced. The wrongdoers will have no helpers. Our Lord, we heard a caller calling us to faith: 'Have faith in your Lord!' and we had faith. Our Lord, forgive us our wrong actions, erase our bad actions from us and take us back to You with those who are truly good. Our Lord, give us what You promised us through Your Messengers, and do not disgrace us on the Day of Rising. You do not break Your promise." Their Lord responds to them: "I will not let the deeds of any doer among you go to waste, male or female—you are both the same in that respect…" (Surah Al 'Imran: 191-195)


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Despite its important role in the screen-printing process, the squeegee often doesn
Whether you are new to garment decorating or an experienced printer, it's critical that you pay some attention to that not-so-simple tool of the trade, the squeegee. Don't think of the squeegee as merely a strip of polyurethane; instead consider it in a more holistic sense that includes knowledge about material options, squeegee maintenance, and use of the squeegee on press.
While I'm not an expert on polyurethane or the squeegee-manufacturing process, I am an experienced printer and owner of a high-volume contract-printing shop that specializes in a range of printing techniques. Our success is based on producing high-quality prints while optimizing press efficiency. Although we put tremendous effort into our prepress and setup procedures, that work is negated if we are not printing with properly selected and well maintained squeegees. Moreover, if our press operators do not understand correct use of the squeegee, all is for naught.
Squeegee selection
The first step is to determine what types of squeegees are most suitable for your operation. The main factors to consider are material types, blade profiles, durometer, and cost.
Material Throughout the history of the squeegee in screen printing, many materials have been used, from natural rubber and neoprene to what is most commonly used today: polyurethane, commonly referred to as urethane. Urethane has become the standard squeegee material for its excellent abrasion resistance, durability, and performance with a wide variety of ink systems. Other factors contributing to urethane's popularity are the relatively low cost of the material and its widespread availability.
There are different types of urethanes available. The two most common in North America and Europe are Methylenebisdiphenyl Diisocyanate (MDI) and Naphthalene Diisocyanate (NDI). MDI is the more common of the two and generally provides a very good performance/cost benefit. NDI provides the most chemical and abrasion resistance, but it also comes at a higher price than MDI.
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UAE. Q4 witnessed a total of eight IPOs in Q4 2017 in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), representing a notable increase compared to the previous quarter (Q3 2017: 5), and raising a total proceeds of USD 2.5 billion, an increase of USD 2.3 billion compared to Q3 2017 (USD 234 million).
Compared to the same period last year, the number of IPOs and proceeds raised in Q4 2017 is considerably higher with USD 2.5 billion from a total of eight floats, compared to only USD 37 million raised from one IPO in Q4 2016.
Dubai Financial Market (DFM) and Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) led the GCC IPO activity this quarter (Q4 2017) in terms of proceeds, with two major offerings, raising USD 2.2 billion (88% of total GCC proceeds).
Tadawul was the largest in terms of IPO volume, witnessing IPOs of three Real Estate Investment Trusts ("REITs") (38% of total IPO volume in Q4), raising USD 209 million.
Whereas, the Muscat Securities Market ("MSM") saw three IPOs, which raised total proceeds of US 82 million.
Year on year performance
The total number of GCC IPOs increased significantly in 2017 to reach 28 offerings, compared to four in 2016. This was driven by increased listing activity on Tadawul's NOMU parallel market, which welcomed nine IPOs (32% of 2017 GCC volume), together with the introduction of REIT listings which also saw nine IPOs across the GCC.
Furthermore, proceeds raised during 2017 were higher by USD 2.5 billion (322%) compared to 2016, mainly due to the USD 1.3 billion IPO proceeds raised by Emaar Development PJSC and USD 850 million IPO proceeds raised by ADNOC (together 66% of total GCC proceeds during 2017).
Steve Drake, Head of PwC's Capital Markets and Accounting Advisory Services in the Middle East said: "The GCC IPO activity ended 2017 on a high, supported by government policies and improved market conditions. Furthermore, we are seeing renewed appetite for cross-border IPOs and an increase in confidence from institutional investors in GCC equity markets."
Adding " The outlook for 2018 looks positive, with a strong diversified IPO pipeline subject of course to volatility arising from geopolitical factors. The spotlight will remain on Aramco's IPO, in 2018 which if it comes to market will be the largest global IPO ever".
Global IPOs
Global IPO activity in Q4 recorded total proceeds of USD 63.5 billion from 370 IPOs. The quarter was 17% higher in terms of proceeds and 9% lower in terms of the number of IPOs, compared to Q4 2016.
In 2017 as whole, the Global IPO activity was robust with total proceeds of USD 204.7 billion from 1,483 IPOs, outperforming the previous year in terms of number of IPOs and total proceeds by 47% and 44%, respectively.
The number of IPOs hit a post-financial crisis high, with global IPO activity benefitting from favourable conditions throughout the year, while volatility remained low, as jitters surrounding the French election and the Korean peninsula have failed to unnerve investors. Despite the expectation that monetary conditions will tighten in the US and Europe, the global IPO pipeline for 2018 looks promising.
The largest IPO for the year was Snap, a US based technology company which raised USD 3.9 billion on NYSE.
GCC bond and sukuk issuances
Q4 2017 was a strong quarter for debt issuers in the GCC, with the KSA and Abu Dhabi governments amongst key sovereigns, issuing international bonds worth USD 12.5 billion and USD 10 billion respectively.
Yearly performance
GCC fixed income transactions have surged in 2017, with sovereign issuers accounting for the lion's share; followed by corporate debtors, amid strong interest from regional and international investors, cemented by a stable credit outlook.
On the sovereign front, the government of KSA raised a total of USD 21.5 billion, between sukuk issuance of USD 9 billion in Q2 2017, and bond issuance of USD 12.5 billion in Q4 2017. The government of Abu Dhabi was another leading issuer with USD 10 billion worth of bonds issued in Q4 2017.
On the corporate front, Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) Ltd ("DAE") issued one of the largest bonds during the year, raising USD 2.3 billion; while the Islamic Development Bank ("IDB") issued one of the largest sukuks during the year, raising USD 1.25 billion.
Steve Drake, Head of PwC's Capital Markets and Accounting Advisory Services team in the Middle East said: "GCC sovereign and corporate debt issuers continued to remain very active during the year, as they have capitalized on strong debt markets globally at competitive rates, ahead of expected interest rate hikes. Moving forward, the US Federal Reserve's hawkish monetary policy along with ECB plans to scale back quantitative easing may cause a ripple effect on borrowing costs for GCC debt issuances."
For the full report click here:
Photo Caption: Steve Drake, Head of PwC's Capital Markets and Accounting Advisory Services in the Middle East
About PwC
At PwC, our purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems. We're a network of firms in 158 countries with more than 236,000 people who are committed to delivering quality in assurance, advisory and tax services. Find out more and tell us what matters to you by visiting us at www.pwc.com.
Established in the Middle East for 40 years, PwC has 23 offices across 12 countries in the region with around 4,200 people. (www.pwc.com/me).
PwC refers to the PwC network and/or one or more of its member firms, each of which is a separate legal entity.
Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details.


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Wade Phillips is done. He cannot keep this team focused enough to win football games. Good thing they have all this talent because most teams would not have been in that game yesterday with all those penalties. Seriously, you just had a bye week to get ready for this game. How in the hell do you have a bye week and not be focused and prepared for them. They made V Young look like P Manning in the first half. They can't disguise their blitzes, my 2 year old could pick those blitzes up.
I have been backing Phillips because I thought he could put the D over the top. Which he has done a good job for the most part. But he is the overall HC and for the team to keep racking up penalties like that is ridiculous. What sucks is that I don't think Dallas will be able to get another HC in that will demand discipline because those types of personalities will never bow down to JJ.
Now for Romo. Where the hell were some of those passes going. You are lucky you didn't end up with 6 int's in that game. You can definately tell when he is in the game and when he isn't. He wasn't in it passionately yesterday. Sure he had big numbers, but he got away with some throws for sure. The M. Austin touchdown was an incredible play by Austin and a bad throw by Romo. This guy is great when he is in the game and we need him to focus every week and stay in it because when I see him with a numb look on his face, I know something bad is going to happen. I had no confidence in that last drive and it turned out the way I expected after seeing his body language.
New Coach=New Attitude=Less Penalties=Wins


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As the copy says,
Viva la Revolución! So maybe you can't take up arms and join the resistance right now. In the meantime, keeping these guys handy will remind you of your revolutionary roots and let everyone else know that you don't roll with The Man.
As a commenter said, does it come with its own concentration camp playhouse or what?


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Springtime is here and so are the allergies. Normally, I am not bothered by seasonal allergies, but for whatever reason this year, I have found myself sneezing, red, watery eyes and even a cough. Rather than taking over-the-counter medicine, I turn to acupuncture and oriental medicine to help get me through the blooming season.
Acupuncture and herbal medicine can be very effective in helping relieve allergic rhinitis symptoms. It works best if people with known allergies come in prior to the 'blooming' season. This depends on the severity of the allergies, so some may need to come in months prior. The pre-season treatments allow us to prepare and strengthen the body before it is overloaded with all the allergens in the air. During the allergy season, acupuncture and herbs are maintained to help manage allergic rhinitis. The number of treatments during the allergy season depends on each person. Personally, I take my herbs daily and give myself a minimum of one treatment per week. If I know I will be spending a lot of time outdoors, I take a couple of herbs before heading outside and the allergens do not bother me.
The American Journal of Epidemiology recently published a study that showed that acupuncture can significantly relieve allergic rhinitis symptoms. In this German study, 5,237 men and women were analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture in addition to routine care in patients with allergic rhinitis compared with treatment with routine care alone.
In this trial, patients with allergic rhinitis were randomly allocated to receive acupuncture for a 3 month period or to a control group that received no acupuncture. All patients were allowed to receive usual medical care. The Rhinitis Quality of Life Questionnaire (RQLQ) and general health-related quality of life (36-Item Short-Form Health Survey) were evaluated at baseline and after 3 and 6 months.
Improvements were noted at the 3 month and the 6 month evaluation for the patients receiving acupuncture. The authors of this trial concluded that treating patients with allergic rhinitis in routine care with additional acupuncture leads to clinically relevant and persistent benefits.
Source: European Journal of Integrative Medicine. 2008 Nov;101(5):535-43.


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COOKEVILLE, Tenn. --- A five-run sixth inning for Eastern Illinois proved to be the deciding factor Saturday afternoon as the Panthers handed Tennessee Tech a 9-8 loss in game two of their three-game series.
The Golden Eagles batters combined for eight hits, seven walks, and seven hit batters, but they were only able to get eight runs across the plate compared to EIU's nine runs on 14 hits.. Chad Hayes and Dylan Bosheers recorded the big hits for Tech as Hayes notched a three-run triple in the fifth inning, while Bosheers drove in two with an RBI-single in the eighth.
Despite the score, both offenses remained quiet at the plate as TTU starter Matthew Shepherd and EIU starter Christian Slazinik each threw three shutout innings to start the game. Each team had at least one base runner in each of the first three innings, but clutch pitching prevented each team from bringing the runners around.
In the fourth, both offense came to life as the Panthers drove in three runs in the top of the inning only to see the Golden Eagles respond with a two-spot in the bottom of the inning. Evan Frazier accounted for one of TTU's RBIs with an RBI-triple.
Tech kept the pressure on in the fifth as Hayes drove in three runs with his RBI-triple, but in the sixth EIU managed to plate five runs on four hits, including a three-run shot for Nick Priessman, to give the Panthers an 8-5 lead.
Eastern Illinois added an additional run in the eighth, which proved to be the game-winner as Tech rallied for three runs in the bottom of the eighth to pull within one at 9-8. The Panthers shut the door in the ninth to secure the win.
Luke Busher (2-1) earned the win in relief for EIU as he threw .2 innings. Adam Clark earned his third save of the season as he allowed just one run in 1.2 innings, while striking out three.
Shepherd (4-3) took the loss as he gave up six runs in 5.2 innings, while posting three strikeouts. Josh Bryant and Cullen Park finished the game for Tech as Bryant gave up two runs, while Park allowed just one run to cross in 3.1 innings.
Hayes led the Golden Eagles offense with two hits and three RBIs, while Priessman led the Panthers with four RBIs and four hits.
Game three of the series is set for Sunday at 1 p.m.


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Salsify Seeds
Macro image of salsify seeds, central california coastal mountains, California, USA.
A cottonwood turns vivid yellow against slick rock wall in ZIon Canyon, Zion National Park, Utah, USA.
Frazil Ice
Frazil Ice results from frozen mist created by the high water volume in Yosemite Creek frrezing then falling into Yosemite Creek causing a slushy topping. Yosemite National Park, California, USA.
Desert cacti grows in the Sonoran Desert north of Scottsdale, Arizona.
Springtime in full bloom is evidenced at Cave Creek Recreation Area north of Phoenix, Arizona. March 2005.
Cactus grows in the Cave Creek Recreation Area in the Sonoran Desert north of Phoenix, Arizona.
A single rain drop from an early morning shower hangs onto the tip of the spathe of a calla lily, Big Sur Coast, California, USA.
Sea Anemone
A vibrant sea anemone resides amongst colorful pebbles in a tide pool at Weston Beach, Point Lobos State Reserve, Carmel, California, USA.
A cottonwood displays late fall color in January in the middle of the Kern River, Kern River Canyon, California, USA.
Horsetails along seasonal creek, Big Sur Coast, California, USA.
Macro image of a red aspen leaf at 10,200 feel elevation in Rock Creek Canyon, eastern Sierra-Nevada range, California, USA.
Aspen leaves in fall color, Eastern Sierra, California, USA.
A snowbent aspen trunk is juxtaposed next to a straight trunk, Eastern Sierra, California, USA.
The weathered bark of a britlecone pine, proven by dendrochronology to be more than 4,000 years old, is warmed by the last rays of the setting sun in the Schulman Grove, White Mountains, California, USA.
Mist bow over Beri Creek Falls, Big Basin State Park, Santa Cruz County, California, USA.
Late afternoon sun rim-lights Echium Candicans, Big Sur Coast, California, USA.
Big Tooth Maples, Zion Canyon, Zion National Park, Utah, USA.
Calla Lily, Garrpata State Park, Big Sur Coast, California, USA.
Crepuscular rays through rising mist after early morning rain, Big Basin State Park, Santa Cruz County, California, USA.
A hillside covered with California Golden Poppies (Eschscholzia Californica), Merced River Canyon near Yosemite National Park, California, USA.
Desert Trumpets, Sedona, Arizona, USA.
Fern fronds, Fern Canyon, Prairie Creek State Park, California, USA.
A California oak is shrouded in early morning fog as the sun rises in San Benito County, California. January 2005.
The sun sinks into a cloud bank above the Pacific Ocean over Monterey Bay as seen from Fremont Peak State Park, California, USA.
Ferns line the banks of Soberanes Peak, Garrapata State Park, Big Sur, California, USA.
A clearing storm reveals a frozen forest in Yosemite National Park, California, USA.
Frozen alders below Cathedral Rocks, Yosemite National Park, California, USA.
Early light illuminates California's Gabilan Mountain Range, Monterey County, California, USA.
Crepuscular rays radiate over Cienega Valley and the coastal hills of central California. April 2005.
Fresh snow covers trees along banks of Merced River near El Captan as seen from El Capitan Bridge, Yosemite National Park, California, USA.
Caifornia Golden Poppies, Yosemite National Park, California, USA.
Snow covered trees below Bridalveil Fall, Yosemite National Park, California, USA.
beauty in naturewinteroutdoor landscapetranquilityserenity


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Tag: Namby-Pamby
Live. Laugh. Vomit.
Alright, we've all seen them. You know who they are. They're those women who slap "Live. Laugh. Love." all over their Facebook pages. When you have the grievous misfortune of entering their homes, it's stenciled in paint over the header of a doorway or on alternating steps going into the basement. It's disingenuous tripe and […]
Posted: April 4th, 2011 under Slow Burn.
Tags: Banal, Drivel, Live. Laugh. Love., Namby-Pamby, Prattle, Tripe, Twaddle, Unimaginative, Vapid
Comments: 3


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men's commando full zip wellington boots: oliva oscuro
Designed to perform on challenging and rough terrain, the Commando Wellington Boots feature a full-leg zip for ease of entry. Handcrafted from natural rubber, the sole offers enhanced comfort and shock absorption and features an ice trek compound for abrasion resistance. With changeable 3mm and 5mm insoles to ease foot fatigue, the sole has cleats for grip and mud release.
- This is a performance style with high durability
- Handcrafted
- Waterproof
- Adjustable gusset
- Newflex Vibram® outsole
- Soft rubber compound
- Rubber rand and kick spur for ease of removal
- Multi-directional cleat
- 3mm and 5mm cushioned insoles