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Are you looking to start a wig shop or wig ?
Are you looking to add or expand services and new products to your existing salon?
Are you looking to become the The Leading - Wig Shop or Salon in your area?
Are you looking to get into the custom wig business?
As of April 2014
I am offering consulting services to any wig company or individual who has a need to help others and financially help themselves by adding services to their already existing hair salon or wig shop.
Why contact me for my services?
I have had the experience of being on top of my game. I had been offered several reality TV shows and made several appearances on cable shows on TV. I was featured in several magazines and News Stations.
My over confidence, lack of humility, absent owner of my company, lack of awareness and strength as well as not overseeing my independent contractors and employees and own practices cost me my company,reputation and all my years of hard work. I can help you avoid all the mistakes that has cost me my company and reputation.
You can learn from my mistakes and I can help set you up from the beginning a successful business in the wig and hair replacement industry that will not compete but shine strongly over all the competition in your area.
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Creating a successful custom wig and hairpiece company
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If your interested in learning more please go to my contact page.
You can also read more about my current lifes experiences and situations on my updates page.
Hair Lace Wigs Hairpieces
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Hot Pick: Blues jam at the Logon
Enjoy the serendipitous groove of a good blues jam at the Logon's monthly night just for blues players and those who love to listen. A lot of big names in local blues hit up this jam — go have a cold beer, a sandwich, kick back and enjoy. Or better yet, hop on in there […] [Read More]
Paul Orta's road to the blues
*Story by Julie Chang Paul Orta has come a long way from watching Dorothy and her cronies skip down the yellow brick road. The musical inspiration has led to his building his own career across the country and Europe, singing about gold-digging women and the disasters of a category 5 hurricane. "I remember learning all […] [Read More]
Silas Feemster's vintage blues
Silas Feemster has found my one true weakness: Old, old, old school blues. At 28 years old, the Southeast Texas native has been playing since he was 14 and he's found the sweet spot that I sometimes fear may become a lost art — he plays thacose gritty, gut-wrenching, guitar-pickin', simple yet oh-so emotionally complicated […] [Read More]
No mightier than the Orq
It was an otherwise ho-hum Friday night recently when I wandered in to the Logon Cafe for a beer, but it didn't stay ho-hum for long. I'd happened upon the end of a show from The Mighty Orq, a Houston blues rock trio with the energy and intensity of a band twice its size. Lead […] [Read More]
Hot Pick: Bankie Banx at the Logon
Remember that Valentine's Day episode of "The Bachelor" when Brad and Shawntell are walking on a moonlit beach in Anguila while a dread-locked, cowboy hat-wearing Anguillan blues/folk/reggae singer is serenading them very dramatically? We don't either but apparently it's a thing that happened once, and you get to relive it this weekend at the Logon. […] [Read More]
Hamilton Loomis: Bluesman by trade
Hamilton Loomis live When: 9 p.m. tonight Where: Dylan's, 8601 Ninth Ave., Port Arthur Cost: $10 Hamilton Loomis started playing blues at an age when most of us were playing with Legos. And lucky for us, he's still playing. The former Texas blues wunderkind is still touring, and tonight he'll bring his uniquely Loomis blues […] [Read More]
Hot Pick: Sunday shrimp & blues at Tequila Rok
Sunday afternoons are made for gorging on spicy food outdoors, and Tequila Rok's got you covered. Scott McGill, an excellent local blues musician, will serenade you while you enjoy fresh boiled shrimp, made good 'n' spicy by Crockett Street property manager Art Hanson. Bartender Shawn Hare will be workin' the bar and will mix you […] [Read More]
The history of blues meets the art of the storm
The Rains Came and Tropical [Im]pression opening When: 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday Where: The Museum of the Gulf Coast, 700 Procter St., Port Arthur Cost: Free Online: museumofthegulfcoast.org Two new exhibits at the Museum of the Gulf Coast in Port Arthur are getting ready to open: The Rains Came and Tropical [Im]pression. Tropical [Im]pression, […] [Read More]
Hot Pick: Larry Tillery at Big Nasty's
He may live in Austin these days, but bluesman Larry Tillery is a Beaumont boy at heart. Hell, he's even got the word "blues" tattooed on his guitar-strummin' hand. Tillery puts on one hell of a show. You're liable to see him wander the audience greeting good-looking lady attendees and crawling on top of tables […] [Read More]
Get down(town): Beaumont Jazz & Blues Fest
Now in its sixth year, this one-day festival is a great excuse to chill downtown and hear great live music while sipping beer in the sunshine. Local talent this year includes indie folk songstress Ashylnn Ivy, Lamar University President Jimmy Simmons and downright blues legend Barbara Lynn. Other acts on the bill include the Houston […] [Read More]
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Similar to Rule 34, Rule 34.2 is an addition to the 100 rules of the internet that defines a common stereotype that did not exist in the original founding of those rules. In this case, Rule 34.2 is used to describe the existence of a pony variation of literally anything using the obscure art-style of the infamous show; MLP:FIM. It's entire existence is supported and expanded by bronies.
de Bill_Cosby 12 août 2014


text:
— Before the sun rose too high above the guard tower one recent morning, prisoner Juan Meneses finished his daily gardening routine, raced across campus and bounded into theology class 15 minutes late.
Meneses, 35, didn't have time to take his seat before the professor ordered him to the blackboard. Still out of breath, he peeled off his orange "Grounds Crew" T-shirt to reveal prison blues, picked up a piece of chalk and scrawled the Greek letters epsilon, rho, chi, omicron, mu, alpha, and iota — perfect Greek for "I come."
Here in this classroom, surrounded by chain-link fences, barbed wire and prison guards, the convicted murderer once known as "Sinister" by his fellow Latin Kings says he is trying to escape the name and live a more virtuous life.
He is one of 38 inmates at Danville Correctional Center taking classes such as Greek and the New Testament at the first seminary inside an Illinois state penitentiary.
Divine Hope Reformed Bible Seminary serves Illinois inmates seeking to become pastors, preachers or theologians when they're released. Since no corrections funds have been set aside to provide college courses for the state's prison population, the four-year, privately funded program is the only route inmates have to earn a bachelor's degree.
"It gets inmates out of their cells and involved in something that keeps their mind moving toward bettering themselves," said Victor Calloway, the assistant warden of programs at Danville. "They take ownership in the mistakes they've made. I want to make sure when these guys leave here they leave with enough information in their heads so they don't come back. Then time served here will be better."
Danville has become a destination for convicted murderers, arsonists and drug dealers who seek education, redemption, and a potential career path. Donors and clergy who support the program believe seminarians also will experience a moral transformation that will rub off on other inmates and family members, potentially altering the course of future generations.
"I have men who prior to their involvement in seminary were the kind of men you didn't want to mess with — a lot of anger problems," said the Rev. Nathan Brummel, a Northwest Indiana Protestant Reformed pastor who is the program's only full-time professor. "Their self-esteem has grown in astonishing ways. Their joy has grown. Now I'm seeing some of those men have a dramatic change-around. They're peacemakers."
The concept of religious formation in modern-day prisons has been around since the end of the 18th century, when Christian reformers created penitentiaries where criminals could reflect on their sins.
Through the 19th and 20th centuries, corrections programs have also fostered rehabilitation. But the cost of rehabilitation isn't always politically palatable. In 2001 former Gov. George Ryan decided to cut $11 million from the state's budget by eliminating a two-decades-old higher education and vocational education program for prisoners. The program had been offered through 12 colleges statewide, including Chicago's Roosevelt University.
John Maki, executive director of the John Howard Association, an Illinois prison watchdog group, said religious organizations have been more aggressive about stepping in to fill the void, not only in Illinois but nationwide. However, it's hard to know if the religious component makes a difference, he said, since programming of any kind reduces recidivism.
Of the $1.3 billion spent on corrections in Illinois, 2 percent goes toward programming for nearly 49,000 inmates and 30,000 parolees.
"The best correctional folk will tell you that programming is essential to security," Maki said. "You can't do programming without security, but programming solidifies and strengthens security. It makes people hopeful."
The program at Danville is modeled after the renowned Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, which in 1995 formed a partnership with New Orleans Baptist Seminary. Hundreds of inmates have been trained to minister to that prison's population, many of whom serve life sentences.
But the seminary inside Danville, a medium security prison just a few miles from the Indiana state line, prepares prisoners to one day serve churches outside its walls. For two decades, the Rev. Manny Mill, director of Wheaton's Koinonia House National Ministries, dispatched volunteers to meet men coming out of the prison's gates.
To reach inmates earlier, Mill set out to emulate the Angola model in the Midwest. When established seminaries balked at the idea, he found a group of Indiana men to start a school of their own. The prison seminary opened last year.
"It's a risky proposition," said Mill, who served 21 months in a federal prison in the mid-1980s for transporting forged checks. "But it's the right thing to do. The millions of people behind bars in the country, they are our neighbors. If we don't do something about educating them in a better way, that's going to cost us more tax dollars and make more victims."
The Rev. Christopher Easton, Danville's chaplain, said many inmates recognize the seminary is a way out or at least a way to persevere while they're locked up for years.
"I believe God is seeking to reveal himself to all of us," said Easton, a pastor ordained by the Church of the Nazarene. "There continues to be light in dark places. That's why I'm here. These inmates are also lights in very dark places. They're (often) the only Christians in their entire family or in their wing."
Calloway said many of the men who transfer to Danville from other state lockups inquire about enrolling in the program when they arrive. In fact, a number of men in other facilities have applied, Brummel said. But they can't transfer to Danville for the explicit purpose of attending the seminary.


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Don't trust dividend stocks in a crazy market
Forgoing bonds for high-yield stocks amid the current volatility isn't as safe as you might think.
By Jeff Brown, MainStreet
With interest-bearing accounts paying practically nothing and bonds paying little more, many income-oriented investors are turning to dividend-paying stocks. But a fresh look at the numbers shows investors tread this path at their peril.
"More than $18 billion has poured into the Lipper Equity Income category . . . through September 2011, the largest amount of cash flow of any Lipper equity fund category year to date," the Vanguard Group reported earlier this week. "This seems to suggest investors may be looking beyond bonds in search of income."
Post continues below:
The Lipper Equity Income category includes mutual funds and stocks that, as the name suggests, try to maximize strong, steady income, primarily from dividend-paying stocks.
While there are many good investments in this category, Vanguard chief economist Joe Davis warns that high risks make dividends an overly risky substitute for investments that pay interest. In the term "dividend-paying stocks," the key word is "stocks."
You can see the issue clearly by looking at some standard measures. From Dec. 31, 1997, through Oct. 31, 2011, the average annual return of U.S. stocks was 4.2%, versus 5.7% for the dividend-paying stocks in the group, and 6.1% for bonds. That's right, bonds did better. Yields, or annual income from dividends or interest earnings, were 2.2% for all stocks, 3.7% for dividend stocks and 2.3% for bonds. Return adds interest or dividend earnings to the investment's price changes, up or down.
It's important to note that stocks had an unusually bad run during that period, thanks to the dot-com collapse and financial crisis, while bonds enjoyed rising prices as falling interest rates made older, more generous bonds more attractive. Today, there's no guarantee that bonds will continue to do so well, as rates are now very low and more likely to rise than fall, causing bond prices to drop in coming years.
A second performance gauge is standard deviation, a measure of how much the daily price of an investment tends to vary from its average price over a year. A bigger number means the price has wider swings up and down, which is risky for any investor who might sell during a downturn.
Over the period studied, the standard deviation for all U.S. stocks was 17.3%, compared with 15.3% for dividend stocks and 3.6% for bonds. In other words, dividend stocks behave like other stocks, presenting much more risk than bonds.
So if you put $100 into a one-year CD, you'd be certain to get $100 back in 12 months. Put $100 into dividend-paying stocks, and you would get only $84.70 a year later if those stocks suffered an average downturn. That loss would more than wipe out the $3.70 you'd earn in dividends.
The stocks could instead go up, and history suggests that in the long run those stocks would be more profitable in the average year than interest-bearing accounts, but there could be a lot of sleepless nights along the way. Also, any dividends taken as cash and spent would reduce those stocks' long-term returns, as those return figures assume all dividends are not spent but reinvested in the same basket of stocks.
Bottom line: Any money switched into dividend-oriented stocks or mutual funds should come from other stocks, not from the fixed-income portion of one's portfolio -- unless you really intend to take more risk.
Related Articles
I think that both bonds and stocks are risky right now. However, my focus for the last couple years has been on dividend growth stocks.... primarily major blue chips and utilities. Our portfolio still has a large allocation to cash since I can't find many dividend stocks that are currently a good buy. When the market goes down I'll be looking to buy more dividend producers.
havasu46: "Put $100 in a CD and get $0.96 back in 12 months after inflation plus 1 cent interest. Put $100 in a growth stock and get $80 back in a year after growth goes to zero or wait 5 years to maybe get $100 back. Put $100 in a dividend stock, get $4 during the next twelve months, and don't sell until it goes back to $100 or more"
....Good points, maybe add that if you are retired, or very close to it, there may be no need to consider selling the dividend stock, and hence no need to worry about share price. If it yields a consistent, predictable stream of income to add to other sources (pensions, SS, etc.), that could be reason enough to hold it, so be happy with that. Bank returns (CDs, MMKT) aren't a joke, they're insulting today. Growth stocks may eventually rebound, but I can't see it in even the intermediate future let alone the near term, so those are better suited to the much younger investors.
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text:
Why am I even posting this? You know I know you know this. But how do you think it feels to write that sentence?
Let's take this one apart:
Iranian Cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi. Hilarious until you think about how someone is really telling this to other people, who may believe him.
From Manohla Dargis's review of Kick-ass. It's hilarious that the Hit Girl trailer got red-banded because an eleven-year-old said the C word. (And also there's a bit of violence in there, but we all know that's not the real reason.) It's also off-putting: Chloë Grace Moretz sounds pretty forced when she actually says "ya cunts," and her costume seems way too big. From the trailer, she seems like she's on her way to owning it, but she's not quite there.
In any case, the reason for this post is: Damn but do I love Manohla Dargis. I used to avoid her reviews, preferring instead the barbs and quirks of A.O. Scott, but in the past couple of years I've come around. Her reviews are layered, spot-on, and fun, and she can pull off the direct allusion to Judith Butler in a newspaper in a way that makes my fingers crumble. You all know I'm a sucker for that.
Updated with correct spelling of subject's name. Even copy editors get the blues.
Don't get me wrong: I love living in a city wherein I can get in my car from an amazing dinner with my girlfriends and immediately hear "Drunk Girls" on the radio, but what's wrong about waiting to pee?
The always-unpredictable comic genius, Mary Mack, loves Minneapolis.
(via metromag)
Mary Mack is probably my most favoritest person in the Twin Cities, and you should read this interview and spend your morning watching clips of her. I'd be doing the same thing, except I have to shop for a new wireless router.
(Also, MetroMag, I like you guys, but Keillor is spelled with 2 ls. I can help you out with copy editing, if you'd like. Not even kidding.)


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I like to watch Starcraft II games, what other games should I be following, and how do I get up to speed?
September 5, 2012
I've begun to watch eSports recently (basically, competitive video game matches), and found them really interesting. For Starcraft II, I have learned how enjoy being a spectator, but it took a lot of effort: I had to play the game, gradually figure out who was worth watching, identify the right YouTube channels, learn the lingo, etc. What other competitive mutliplayer games are worth watching, and how do I get into them?
Specifically, I would be really interested in well-written guides for spectators (like
this one
for Starcraft II) and lists of
great matches like this one
(which means not just interesting to watch, but also well narrated).
I am pretty agnostic on the actual game: Defense of the Ancients, Team Fortress, whatever - it should be fun to watch and follow without being a complete expert. Any ideas?
posted by
Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation
(11 answers total)
7 users marked this as a favorite
Are you willing to watch other types of games? Starcity Games has Magic: The Gathering events pretty frequently that you can watch.
My wife thinks I'm a giant nerd for watching those.
posted by
on September 5, 2012
League of Legends has a huge streaming community (Riot does a lot of streaming on their own in additon to all the fan stuff) and is a DOTA-style game with a huge following and very active eSports scene.
This site
is pretty good for finding streams.
The Subreddit
actually has a lot of good information for learning to play, specifically the SummonerSchool subreddit linked on the right.
I will warn you, though, while LOL is a fun, intense game, the community is legendarily terrible to people, so expect them to treat you terribly if you jump in and play. I really enjoyed the game itself but got sick of being berated and insulted all the time so I no longer play.
posted by
Ghostride The Whip
on September 5, 2012 [
1 favorite
Honestly, for my money, SC2 is the only watchable esport at the moment. LoL and DOTA2 are fun as
but they are super difficult to get into as spectators because all of the crazy skillfull stuff is impossible to see in the blurry, sparkly mess that is a team fight. There was a huge dota2 tournament recently that had this one particular moment that got a standing ovation in the viewing hall. I read a 5-paragraph explanation of what had happened and watched the video clip of it happening several times in a row, but never got to the point where I could be like "woah, that was amazing".
There are some newish shooters that may make for good watching, but none of them have the polished and professional commentary that is (for me) so much of what makes watching SC2 fun.
posted by
on September 5, 2012 [
1 favorite
I recommend the site
as a great place to find various digital gaming streams.
If you're into Starcraft II, I highly, highly (highly!) recommend
as the most informative and easy to access of all the streamers.
posted by
on September 5, 2012 [
1 favorite
Company of Heroes is pretty good, and you pick up on it fairly quickly since it's WWII based and doesn't involve magical pixies or anything. The game itself seems to come up in Steam sales pretty often, and is probably the single best way to get acquainted with it, but it's not particularly hard. Similar mechanics to most RTS games, and historical basis means units and abilities are easy to understand.
Plenty of tournaments going on, a thriving mod and game community, and the whole CoH scene is now getting excited about CoH2 - so plenty of renewed interest. Most of the casts tend to be fairly high level play.
As to watching them, Twitch, Justin.tv, Game Replays - but also just Youtube - here are a few of my favourite casters to check out: - most of them cast more than just COH, so check their playlists for COH only stuff, or tournament games.
Krebs COHO
Rogers & Pounder
The Frontline Network
posted by
on September 5, 2012 [
1 favorite
I love watching e-sports too. And I used to play a lot of it too, at a reasonably high level: placed top 10 for a Warcraft 3 national, a top 30 world ranked team for competitive guild wars (top prizes were $200k) and also played against some big name teams in World of Warcraft.
Unfortunately I think the general answer is, stick to watching Starcraft 2
Starcraft 2 is probably unique among most e-sports today in that it was clearly designed as a spectator sport.
Other games - guild wars, dota, counterstrike - may be more fun to play and have a large following, and even their own tournaments - but are really difficult to watch from a spectator point of view. As an example, a lot of the strategy hinges on cooldown timings: the team leaders are mentally keeping track of everyone's skills - they know the enemy mage blew his counterspell 15 seconds ago and thus there's 9 more seconds until it's ready again: his own warrior's intercept was used 15 seconds ago, and in 5 more seconds it's going to be up: he has a mental tally of ALL THE SKILLS available to his entire team, versus a mental tally of all the skills available to the enemy team, and has to choose when to deploy them.
All this information is completely not available to the spectator. The only spectators who can appreciate what's really happening in the game are the ones who're good enough to be a top tier team leader themselves. Otherwise it's just an incomprehensible mess.
On the other hand, everything you need to know about Starcraft happens right there on the screen.
Casters - or Commentators - can help a bit with this issue. They can help explain what is happening. But here again, Starcraft 2 has the advatange - there is enough "money" in Starcraft 2 that casting the game can be a full time job. Artosis and Tasteless do an excellent job of covering the scene in Korea - one of them plays Starcraft himself at a high enough level to understand what is going on, and they're both good at the actual casting.
I haven't seen any casters of equivalent knowledge + ability in the other e-sports.
If you still want to watch one more besides Starcraft 2 - it's going to be a toss up between League of Legends and DOTA2. Both these games have a huge following and lots of tournaments and support - there was a recent DOTA2 tournament that awarded a million dollars to the winning team.
This is probably the play
referenced above - it got a standing ovation from the crowd and they were chanting the team's name. I didn't even need to watch it to know what happened, because - to an experienced player - it was obvious from the hero picks. Again this highlights why DOTA and LOL are so difficult to spectate, but are very rewarding if you do. Basically, both teams have to pick and ban 5 heroes each from a pool of 100, and they do it in turns - as each team takes a turn to pick and ban, more and more of the team strategy gets revealed, and their expectations and choices get modified accordingly. Many many games are entirely won or lost in the picking phase before the game has even begun, by forcing the opponent into traps and bad combinations. This play was notable because Na'vi allowed iG to pick up an incredibly strong hero combination - Naga+Seer+Tide - without trying to break up that combination with their own picks or bans. The entire crowd couldn't believe what happened during the picking phase, gasps of shock / horror / disbelief depending on which side you were rooting for, but incredibly, you could see Na'vi laughing with each other when that pick happened, so that set things up for you to think, maybe they DO have a secret plan to deal with it... and they did. Great set up and payoff for the spectator.
In any case, I will have to recommend DOTA2 over League of Legends (LoL) as a spectator sport - because DOTA2 has a much much higher risk / reward factor.
LoL is a much more forgiving game, which is great if you want to learn and play it as a beginner. If you were asking for a new game to play I would say try both, but try LoL first.
But it doesn't have the "big plays" aspect that DOTA2 has - a team doing well in DOTA2 can gain a huge advantage over the losing team, you will see players with literally twice the gold and levels of opposing players, because the consequences for dying are so great, and the lethality of the game so high compared to LoL. Also with high lethality there's a lot more combat and killing going on in DOTA2 which again is good for spectators =P There are games in LoL where the casters characterize one team as having a "huge" advantage over the other but the difference in gold income is something like just 15%, while in DOTA2 a "huge" advantage over the other team is something like a 60% advantage in gold income. DOTA2 is a game of extremes - it's not uncommon to get to the point where some carry heroes can kill supports with a single strike. Everything is more low key in LoL - the fights last longer, and are arguably more strategic / tactical - but there are far fewer "holy shit" moments like you get in DOTA2.
Wow. Wall of text.
posted by
on September 5, 2012 [
3 favorites
xdvesper, do you have any suggestions for where a noob should watch DotA, to learn to be a good spectator?
I tried watching some games from the International, but it didn't go well. Between the jargon ("AS", "CS", etc), much of the action happening off camera, and the huge multitude of items and abilities I've never heard of, I can't really follow. Watching pretty fights is kinda fun, but I'd rather understand the strategy a bit. (I don't want to learn by playing it, I have RSI.) I'm encouraged that teamliquid.net picked up DotA2, since they're such a good place for SC2 info, so I really want to give it a fair shot.
posted by
on September 6, 2012
I prefer watching LoL but that's mainly because it's the only major eSports game that I've ever played (and still play regularly) so it's pretty easy to follow along. Interestingly, even trying to watch DOTA2 is confusing to me because I'm never sure what abilities that champions have and what exactly is going on, even though many are analogous to LoL champions. The strategies and concepts are
different enough to keep me from following along as well as I'd like.
posted by
This Guy
on September 6, 2012
The International is definitely not commentated for new players. This is in stark contrast to the Riot NA Regionals which were realllllllly basic. If you want to watch Dota without any background in the genre, there aren't a ton of great resources.
This article
from TL is nominally what you're looking for, but I think it assumes a little too much in terms of basic genre concepts that you might not have. But it's a good place to start nonetheless. Beyond that, it's one of those things that takes a bit of determination. Playing is certainly easier than just purely watching, but watching videos on YouTube can help a lot. If you just search for something like
"dota2 tutorial"
you'll find some decent stuff. Any of the "How to Play Dota" guides will be useful for you to learn the basics. You might also get something out of
's videos. They're not really all aimed for new players, but can still be pretty educational.
As for the relative qualities of different esports, my feeling is that Dota2 is strictly better than LoL for watching. LoL tends to be quite snowbally - the team that gets ahead early usually stays ahead and wins the game. Team fights resolve reallllly quickly and tend to be decided by someone getting caught out. There are very few ways to escape a gank in LoL other than to simply be aware of it and not be there when it happens. This creates very passive play that centers around silly poking fights around towers and just depend on a skillshot landing. In Dota, there are so many ways to force a fight that fights tend to happen in more diverse places with more interesting terrain effects. Plus, they last longer and have really interesting post-fight juking to get away.
But ultimately just try things out and watch what you enjoy! There's nothing purely intellectual about what makes a good sport. Arguing about whether hockey is a better sport than baseball is mostly silly. We just get trained that video games are consumer products that can be stacked up against each other and compared in some objective way. This is bullshit. It clicks with you or it doesn't, and it can be about the game, the commentators, the teams, or simply whatever you got introduced to first. There's no right answer here. I may like the Dota community and experience better than LoL, but that doesn't mean it's right for you.
posted by
on September 6, 2012
I don't think there are any dedicated DOTA2 video streams for newbies.
There is a
Spectator Client
for DOTA2 available on Steam, for free, which might be an alternative of sorts.
The spectator client will allow you to spectate any current live games as well as any previously played game, including the entire International tournament that just ran. Even better, this puts you in total control of what you see: you can select to move the camera yourself, use an AI driven "directed view" which follows the action, or you can put yourself "in the seat" and watch what the any of the 10 actual players are seeing and doing, down to actually seeing their mouseclicks.
You can fast forward, rewind, go to a specific spot in the game. (if it's an old game, obviously can't do this for live games, we haven't invented time travel). You can use "auto speed" which will fast forward through un-interesting and boring parts of the game, again on the direction of the in game AI. You can pull up graphs and data tables, showing in real time the progress of each time: comparing gold earned, items bought, showing in minute detail which team might have the advantage.
If something happens that you don't understand - a weird skill - you can pause the game, and click on the different heroes and read what their skills do - you can see which ones are on cooldown, showing they just used it. Then rewind 10 seconds and watch it again. You can even watch it again in extra slow motion.
If available - like for tournaments - you can select from your choice of up to 4-5 different commentators (but I usually mute them).
When you go to the "Watch" tab, it will bring up a list of live games going on - there are typically around 500-1000 live games at any time. The pages are ranked in order of skill - so the first page, by default, shows the top players in the world as they are playing random pub games. This depends on what time zone you are in - in my current time zone, Australia, after work when I get home I frequently see players from China and SEA online - so LGD, iG, aL, Zenith, ORANGE.
I sometimes just drop in on their games and just start watching if I don't feel like playing, I turn the spectator client to windowed mode and continue surfing the net. Watching these top players just practice and mess around is just as good for me as watching an actual tournament.
For example, I'm a fan of Ferrari, from iG, so if he's online and playing I'm definitely going to check out what he's doing. If I want to see how he plays a certain hero, I can bring up his historical games - EVERY single game he's played online - and I can spectate any one of them. I especially like watching the games where he loses, they are interesting too =P
I guess this is in some way a democratization of information: commentators are no longer the gatekeepers of tournaments, so even if it's unavailable, there's ways for fans to get the content.
posted by
on September 6, 2012
Just noticed
this new video
about how to watch Dota2. I didn't go through it all (it's over an hour) but it's ostensibly exactly what you're looking for!
posted by
on September 7, 2012 [
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Working together for wetlands: Exchange training at Champ-Pittet centre
Located in the heart of the « Grande Cariçaie », the largest lakeside marsh area in Switzerland, Champ-Pittet has welcomed Ms Ouassila Berrebib for a five-week stay to share knowledge on wetland centre management. Ouassila works at El- Kala National Park in Algeria which is located at the extreme north-east of the country and is listed as a Wetland of International Importance.
|El Kala National Park
On 3 April, Ouassila visited staff at the Ramsar Convention Secretariat and talked about her stay at the Champ-Pittet centre at the Lake Neuchâtel Ramsar Site, where she has enjoyed the exceptionally sunny weather. She has learned about some important tools needed to run an education centre. As part of the capacity-building exercise, she shared her expertise by showing the large variety of activities organised at El-Kala and the conservation policies in place to protect the site's cultural and natural heritage.
|Ouassila giving her presentation
|Ouassila discussing with Ramsar Africa team
Among the material produced by the park, Ouassila used an interactive CD-ROM (available in French, English and Arabic) for her presentation to Ramsar staff on El Kala, the largest national park of Northern Algeria (76, 438 hectares). She explained there is a strong will at national level to set up education centres in all national parks, some of which are designated as Ramsar Sites.
|Page extracted from the CD-ROM
To illustrate some awareness activities in the park, Ouassila brought a report on World Wetlands Day 2012 events that involved many schoolchildren and local communities. At the end of her presentation, staff congratulated Ouassila for her commitment to nature and wetlands.
|World Wetlands Day event on site
|Ouassila at El-Kala National Park
Photo courtesy: El Kala National Park


text:
And they are back !
New Proposal to re-zone Canyon Creek Plaza for a gas station, car wash & convenience store
Please sign petition here
Your Assistance is Needed !!!
Please attend community meeting with the city planning department
Date: 8th of September (Monday) @ 7pm
Location: Evergreen Community Center
Address: 4860 San Felipe Road, San Jose, CA 95135


text:
The real question regarding Cornelius' compensation will be what piece of the pie he will get when BMS is sold.
Interesting. Meanwhile BMS is forcing a "Work Right" initiative designed to save hundreds of millions in "low value" spending.
What is wrong with a normal 2 bedroom apartment like all the rest of the mortals in corporate housing?
Amazing..I guess I now know why we are being told to stay in lower priced hotels and to go out of our way to find cheaper (fast food equivalent) meals while on the road.
Do as I say…not as I do….I think the saying goes. I know what my response will be when I am put on an exception list about expenses.
That's a heck of a broker's commission, I think I'm in the wrong business.
May be they should invite Hank Mac also to join the party..I bet they all will fit together nicely..
As a share holder this is disappointing. BMS recently ran out of money to fund their retiree's health care insurance. Any increase in health care cost are now the full responsibility of retirees. The folks who ruined the company over the past 8 years ($79 per share to $27) are under the same benefit. Not!
When are we shareholders going to rebel against these obscene salaries, perks, and deferred compensation packages? These CEO's aren't worth it.
I have held BMY for 30 yrs. and have been reinvesting my dividends so I would have a nice nest egg for retirement. Well retirement's here and I have a less than half of what I had expected to have. I do not understand why the board of directors do not do their jobs and give these overpaid useless Ceo's the boot.
The WSJ Health Blog offers news and analysis on personal health, new research and health news.
It includes contributions from staffers at The Wall Street Journal, WSJ.com and Dow Jones Newswires. Write to us at email@example.com.


text:
|Total (w/tax)
|Total (w/tax)
Book Description:
Falstaff, Verdi's last opera, was given its world premi re at Milan's fabled La Scala in 1893. A century later, Hans Busch has collected, translated, and annotated 665 letters, telegrams, and reviews from the years 1889 - 1894 to trace the genesis of one of Verdi's greatest triumphs. To a much greater extent than most composers, Verdi concerned himself with the selection of the artists performing his operas and with the details of the stage design and direction. Verdi and his publisher shared a desire for perfection, as shown in their correspondence by the abundance of musical corrections, reproduced here in facsimile. These are particularly valuable textual records, as the otherwise rich Verdi legacy does not include any original production books for Falstaff. A human and artistic drama emerges from this collection, a story revolving around the lives of a great triumvirate: the octogenarian Verdi, librettist Arrigo Boito, and their publisher and producer, Giulio Ricordi. Lending insight into the mores of the fin de si cle are some intimate letters exchanged by Boito and the actress Eleonora Duse. Five appendixes assemble articles and reviews by writers who attended some of the first productions of Falstaff, which Richard Strauss considered 'one of the greatest masterworks of all time.' This book makes available the first English translation for the majority of these letters - and for all of the other documents. Indeed, much of the material in this ambitious volume is now being published for the first time in any language.
Tags: Arts-Photography, Music, Musical-Genres, Classical,


text:
By Stephen Campbell
Selecting an electronic medical record (EMR) will be the most significant technology decision any medical facility will make. There are a wide variety of EMR options available to cover your practice, surgical centers and surgical hospitals. Having hundreds of choices gives you the ability to procure an EMR that will meet your needs, but also makes the decision a challenging one. Don't be fooled into thinking that with so many choices you will find the perfect EMR. It does not exist, and most likely never will. Every EMR has strengths and weaknesses and your job is to try to match up the strengths with your needs while minimizing the impact of the weaknesses. Organizations that take on the difficult task of developing their own EMR still find they lack certain features and functions. Keep in mind that this is a tool to aid you in your clinical efforts and not an answer to poor clinical practices. If anything, it will point out your weaknesses as you go through the evaluation process. Be willing to address these before implementing a system.
When beginning your search for an EMR, the best approach an administrator or doctor can take is to put together a short list of successful EMR companies. There are myriad companies out there that can provide a nice demo, but then you may find out that they only have six implementations operational. Be careful as you approach these. You may fall in love with the interface or some whiz-bang feature only to later realize that there is a long list of items that are missing or coming in the "next release" just around the corner. If you put together a list of proven EMR companies with client implementation references, you will save yourself much time during the evaluation process.
Get some help in your evaluation! Many practices and surgical facilities are too busy doing procedures to have adequate time for a thorough evaluation of the current crop of EMR software providers. Enlist the help of your management company if you are so affiliated or an outside consultant to aid you in the process. The larger management companies have spent thousands of dollars in research and clinical criteria development tools that enable them to make a much more informed decision as it relates to features and functions that will be required. Seeking these recommendations can drastically reduce the time and cost to select a system and provider. When seeking an outside consultant, make sure they are not directly connected to a software provider and are free to recommend the proper system and not just the one they are selling. Develop a joint plan covering what the consultant can provide to you from their experience, and what methods they will use to uncover your specific needs.
Another selection criterion may include where your new system will be located. Many providers now offer both an onsite installation and a hosted model. The onsite installations require putting servers (computers running the EMR software) in your location and making sure you have someone to maintain them. Selecting the support provider factors into this decision almost as strongly as which EMR you choose. The EMR system will become the most critical computer system in your facility and making sure it is up and running will be paramount. A hosted system offers the benefit of having the server located at an alternate facility, and alleviates the need to ensure implementing an EMR possible at even smaller facilities.
Charges can be broken down by the number of users, operating rooms, or even by the number of doctors. Options may include a single upfront purchase or a pay-as-you-go fee, either monthly or quarterly. Look for pricing mechanisms that fit your needs. Many of these companies can create a plan the will make it work both financially and functionally.
As a facility looks to implement an EMR, they must remember that it is a large task. It is a change in the way you do your clinical practice and will require diligent effort from all parties to make it a success. The single most important contributor to a favorable outcome is the buy-in of your staff and doctors; involving everyone in the evaluation process an increase that likelihood.
Finding the right EMR will take time, energy and common sense. With all the choices out there make sure and take the time you need to conduct a thorough evaluation process and don't rush to get something put in place. Request an onsite visit once a provider is selected and see the application in use. Getting real input from current users of the program can assist you in determining if the application will really meet your needs. If you take your time, do your research and plan for the amount of effort that will be required by your staff you can have a positive EMR selection and implementation experience.
Stephen Campbell is the chief operating officer of Mavicor. Mavicor is a leading healthcare information technology company specializing in technology management for surgery centers and surgical hospitals. Campbell can bereached at email@example.com. Learn more about Mavicor at www.mavicor.com


text:
Leap Year Party
- When: Friday, February 29, 2008, 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
- Where: Holy-Field Vineyard & Winery, Basehor
- Cost: Free - $5
- Age limit: Not available
- Categories: Blues
Holy-Field Vineyard & Winery, 158th Street and State Avenue, will host a Leap Year Party from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. The event will feature live music by the Doghouse Daddies, a blues band that plays all around the Kansas City area.
Admission is $5 for adults and free for children 12 and under. For more information, call (913) 724-9463 or visit holyfieldwinery.com.
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.


text:
Bucknell Students 'EatWell'
A new web tool puts nutrition information at students' fingertips.
The world-renowned primatologist is the first speaker in the Bucknell Forum series, 'Revolution Redefined.'
A new web tool puts nutrition information at students' fingertips.
Douglas HecockEllen HermanTheir expertise spans a wide range of subjects, from Chinese dancing and children's literature to bat diseases and business management.
Bucknell students create slam poetry to confront their preconceptions about the feminist movement.
Three faculty members — Brian Gockley, Barry Long and Kevin Gilmore — have teamed to create a new Bucknell In program: New Orleans In 12 Movements.
Jane Goodall brought the crowd to its feet at Monday's packed Bucknell Forum event.
Notable awards, achievements and media highlights.
99% Invisible podcast
Bucknell University Professor Jonathan Bean, markets, innovation & design, discussed his study of IKEA hacking — the practice of reengineering and customizing IKEA products — and the mindset of the IKEA hacker community.
South China Morning Post
Zhiqun Zhu, director of the China Institute and MacArthur Chair of East Asian Politics, suggests the strongman type of leadership is over in China.
USA Today College
Bucknell is No. 4 on USA Today College's list of colleges and universities with the highest-paid business graduates, ranked in order of their average salaries.
Huffington Post Science
Bucknell University Professor Chris Martine, biology, explains why he's proud to be called a "botanist," and challenges misconceptions about the field.
The following links are virtual breadcrumbs marking the 27 most recent pages you have visited in Bucknell.edu. If you want to remember a specific page forever click the pin in the top right corner and we will be sure not to replace it. Close this message.


text:
Posts tagged Palestine
Posts tagged Palestine
In the latest scandal involving the Israeli military, soldiers stand by and refuse to intervene as extremist Jewish settlers open fire on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
May 3, 2012
Loai Odeh is a former political prisoner who was released from Israeli prison in the prisoner swap deal last year and forcibly transferred from Jerusalem to Gaza; before his release, Loai took part in the 22-day mass hunger strike launched at the end of September 2011 to protest cruel conditions and an escalating series of punitive measures against Palestinian prisoners.
Loai has published on Facebook very expressive, moving and informative diaries chronicling the experience of a hunger striker (see my translation of the first eight installements of Loai's hunger strike diaries, pubilshed on 24 April). His last status update was on the 15th day of the hunger strike, just before he went on open hunger strike along with fifty other people on the 16th day of the mass hunger strike. They have taken the sit-in tent in Gaza as their shelter, which they say they will not leave unless our prisoners stop suffering. They couldn't stand watching our prisoners going through slow death without doing anything in solidarity, so they have gone on a symbolic hunger strike that aims to draw attention locally and internationally to the prisoners' just cause.
I took the initiative to translate the rest of Loai's diaries from Arabic, hoping to inspire everyone who reads it, just like they inspired me.
On April 25, Loai wrote:
Today is the ninth day of heroism. Our strikers have already endured a long time of suffering and loss of weight. The provocative practices of the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) keep escalating. The searches get more intensive and violent. But we should keep in mind that "search" policy according to Israel's oppressive administration involves different processes.
During ordinary days, the purpose of searches is to find the contraband that our prisoners managed to smuggle in to ease their difficult lives. However, during a hunger strike, the only purpose of a search is to tire our strikers physically and psychologically. Soldiers burst into strikers' rooms aggressively as if they were confronting armed fighters on a battleground, not hunger strikers with feeble bodies that can barely stand. Knowing that strikers are intolerant of noise, soldiers break into their rooms with loud screams and initiate a hand search in a way that one feels that he's being beaten rather than searched. Whoever refuses to undergo these "searches" gets beaten up and is plunged directly into solitary confinement. The prisoners are then left in a yard outside with no place to sit for hours while their rooms are turned into a complete mess. The contents of the rooms are heaped into a single pile, indiscriminate of who they belong to, disheartening the prisoners when they return and discover the pile that they are faced with sorting through and straightening out. Moreover, they tear off their mattresses' cover sheets that take strikers a long time to put back or replace. Even during ordinary days these searches are tiring, so imagine how they are during hunger strikes. Jailers subject prisoners to these searches several times a day, leaving them for hours under the burning sun or in the cold night air while conducting the searches.
However, our heroes' determination and their solid commitment help them to neglect the guards' provocative and humiliating practices as they realize that challenging is a needed weapon to go on and win over the IPS's oppression. Solidarity movements have to use all the means available to help them have fewer days of suffering.
Prominent Palestinian activist and writer Salameh Kaileh was arrested overnight at his home in Damascus by Syrian authorities, human rights lawyer Anwar Bunni said on Tuesday.
"The security services entered Kaileh's home in the suburb of Barzeh at 2:00 am (2300 GMT Monday) and arrested him without explanation," said Bunni.
He said Kaileh's detention was clearly intended to "muzzle freedom of expression."
The 57-year-old author, born in Birzeit in the West Bank, is a well-known leftist who has authored a number of books on subjects ranging from Marxism to Arab nationalism.
He was imprisoned by the Syrian government in the 1990s for eight years.
Bunni, who heads the Syrian Centre for Legal Studies and Research, called for Kaileh's immediate release.
He accused the regime of also targeting doctors known to be providing aid to those wounded in the government crackdown against a 13-month revolt that has left more than 9,000 people dead according to the United Nations.
"The Syrian authorities are not content to violate human rights on all levels, or to pursue and arrest those who denounce their violations, they also are working to stop all who treat the victims of those violations," the lawyer said.
Tamimi was released despite the Military Posecution's appeal. His release conditions still include harsh restrictions on his movement.
After 13 months in an Israeli prison, the military court accepted a petition to release leading Palestinian activist, Bassem Tamimi from The village of Nabi Saleh. Earlier today the court rejected the prosecution's appeal against his release, but imposed restricting conditions on his release, including confining his movement to the city of Ramallah and imposing a house arrest every Thursday to Saturday, until the court issues the verdict.
Thirteen months after his arrest during a raid on his house, a military judge ordered Bassem Tamimi's release on bail from an Israeli prison. The decision was given after Tamimi's elderly mother has fallen gravely ill. Bassem Tamimi, a Palestinian activist from the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, has been in jail since March 24th last year, indicted on protest-organizing charges.
Tamimi has been recognized by the European Union as a human rights defender and recently pronounced a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.
During the course of Tamimi's trial, new evidence has emerged, including first hand verification given by a military commander of disproportional use of force by the army in response to peaceful demonstrations, as well as police admittal of systematic violations of Palestinian minors' rights during police interrogations, when a police interrogator who questioned both material witnesses against Tamimi, said on the stand that in his 25 years as an officer, he cannot recall a single time in which a Palestinian minor was allowed the presence of his parents during questioning.
The number of hunger-striking Palestinian political prisoners, held by Israel in various prisons, detention camps and interrogation facilities around the country, will likely reach 3,000 persons as waves of detainees intend to join the strike, demanding their rights guaranteed under international law.
Israeli Prison - File Nablus TV
Dozens of detainees are currently on hunger-strike that officially started last Tuesday. The strike, described as "the battle of empty bowels", aims at ending Israel's illegal administrative detention polices, halting all violations against the detainees and their families, and improving the living conditions of the detainees.
Head of the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS), Qaddoura Fares, told the Ma'an News Agency that the first group of detainees, held under administrative detention without charges, have reached the "no return point" as they have been on hunger-strike since 56 days, and insist on not breaking their strike until they are released.
Fares added that the second group of detainees have been on hunger strike for seven days now, and are demanding Israeli to improve their living conditions, allowing visitation rights, halting violations against their visiting family members, ending all solitary confinement policies, allowing them the right to education, and ending all night raids, and searches, targeting them and their rooms.
"The current number of detainees who are on hunger-strike is 1,400-1,600, and will likely increase to 3,000 in the coming few days" Fares said and added that it is unlikely that all 4,700 detainees will join the strike, but could hold solidarity hunger strikes, such as two days a week.
Fares said that the striking detainees are from different political factions and groups, and that they are all united in their legitimate demands regardless of their political affiliation.
It is worth mentioning that Israel conducted punitive measures against 1,200 Palestinian detainees by denying their visitation rights, and isolating them from the detainees who are not part of the protests yet.
Furthermore, a spokeswoman of the Israeli Prison Administration, stated that all "privileges" have been taken away from the detainees, including family visitations, and all electrical equipment has been removed.
Have you heard much lately about the 1.5 million Palestinians illegally imprisoned by the Israeli government in the world's largest open-air Gulag? Their dire living conditions, worsened by a selective Israeli siege limiting the importation of necessities of life – medical items, food, water, building materials, and fuel to list a few – has resulted in an 80 percent unemployment rate and widespread suffering from unlawful punishment, arbitrary arrests and imprisonment in Israeli jails.
The horrific conditions were a result of the Israeli invasion of Gaza in late 2008, ignited by Israel's breaking of a truce with Gaza on November 4. Fourteen hundred people died, nearly three hundred of them children, and thousands were injured. The terror bombing of the Gazan population smashed into homes, hospitals, schools, ambulances, mosques, subsistence farms, UN facilities, and even the American International School. Israeli bombers destroyed over 30 members of one extended family in their home. That toll alone was three times the amount of Israeli fatalities, which included friendly fire.
The humanitarian crisis in crowded Gaza – about twice the size of the District of Columbia – "is now more dire than ever." That is the judgment of Norwegian physician and professor of medicine, Dr. Mads Gilbert, who just finished a ten-day speaking tour in the U.S. Dr. Gilbert, returning from a recent visit to Gaza, was one of the only two foreign doctors inside Gaza during the massacre of December 2008 to January 2009.
He says: "During the Israeli attack, I saw the effects of new weapons including drones, phosphorous and also DIME [Dense Inert Metal Explosives], which leave no shrapnel, but I witnessed their capacity to cut a child in two; they also leave radioactive traces."
Today, anemia and protein deficiency are widespread, reports Dr. Gilbert, especially among little children. UN and other relief supplies are inadequate, and UN humanitarian relief staff is often harassed by Israeli officials. Rebuilding pulverized Gaza is seriously obstructed by Israel blocking the imports of building materials.
Dr. Gilbert comments that he has "worked in other desperate situations in other places and Gaza is unique in a number of respects. It's a captive population – usually if civilians are being attacked, there's a safe place they can take refuge and then come back to their homes when the fighting has stopped. That doesn't exist for the people in Gaza since they are effectively imprisoned by the Israeli siege."
Writing in the prestigious British medical journal "The Lancet" in early 2009, Dr. Gilbert provided clinical details of the slaughter, including the destruction of ambulances and medical facilities that tend to the dying and the wounded.
He described a "shattered, attacked, and drained health-care system trying to help an overwhelming amount of casualties in a war between clearly unequal powers, where the attacker spares no civilian lives – be it man, woman, or child – not even the much-needed health workers of all professions."
It is no wonder the Israelis banned all foreign reporters, including those from the U.S. – the very country that provided the weaponry – thereby preventing the world from seeing the carnage as it happened.
Two years ago, Dr. Mads Gilbert (right) told me that his experience in Gaza during Israel's assault in 2009 was the "most horrific experience" of his life, a grim honor previously held by Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, which Gilbert also witnessed. Gilbert spent over two weeks as one of the only foreign doctors in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, and worked at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
Currently a professor of medicine at the University of North Norway, Gilbert is the co-author of the book Eyes in Gaza, which chronicles what he witnessed during the Israeli assault and invasion.
Today, Gilbert says Gaza remains in ruins, betrayed by the international community. The blockade of Gaza remains, and Israeli air strikes continue to kill civilians.
Gilbert, who is known for his deeply personal and riveting presentations on the Gaza Strip, recently concluded a speaking tour in the United States.
I caught up with Gilbert before his talk at Columbia University. We discussed his recent impressions of Gaza, the decision by the International Criminal Court to reject a probe into war crimes committed during Cast Lead, and much more.
Alex Kane: So, what brings you back to New York?
Mads Gilbert: Actually, it's my sixth invited speaking tour on Gaza since Operation Cast Lead. This time, it's a speaking tour of ten days to Washington, obviously New York, up north, to Madison and a number of universities. The tour is organized by Jennifer Loewenstein and the Carol Chomsky Memorial Foundation. So they are the ones that invited me, actually. So I think it's interesting that I've been here six times on speaking tours, speaking at a large number of universities, in church groups, at the Sabeel conference, and so forth, and I've been twice to Canada on a week-long stretch of tours and twice to the UK on week-long speaking tours. So it amounts to, all together, ten speaking tours on Gaza.
AK: And have you been back to Gaza since your time spent during Cast Lead?
MG: Yes. In fact in August 2009, with the manuscript for the families to review and to review the pictures. And I was back in January. I came the same route in and out as I did during Operation Cast Lead. So I traveled in through Rafah on New Year's Eve, to follow the footsteps of the mission during Operation Cast Lead, and went up to Shifa Hospital, met with my colleagues, did some clinical work, had meetings, gave lectures, and most importantly, met many of the patients that I had treated.
AK: What are your most recent impressions of Gaza?
MG: My impressions as of 2012—that's what I'm going to speak about tonight. The human rights abuses of the Israeli government, of the Israeli army, continues.
There is widespread lack of human security, ongoing killings, military attacks, week by week people are getting killed and injured. The siege is as brutal as it has been, resulting in lack of everything, from construction materials, to power—the power cuts are more extensive than they have been in a long time because of the lack of diesel and gasoline to fuel the generators. The lack of solid waste trucks makes it almost impossible to collect the solid waste. In Gaza City, they have contracted 280 donkey cart drivers to manually handle the solid waste. Many of the sewage cleaning installations are not working because they lack spare parts and maintenance, so sewage is pumped into the Mediterranean. And of course there is widespread deficiencies in nutrition. The malnutrition is well documented, and it causes anemia and stunting in children, not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank, but it's more pronounced in Gaza.
The people of Gaza maintain their dignity and their humanity, I would say. I was well received with great hospitality. People don't weep, they don't beg, they don't complain, but of course life is exceedingly difficult. Many are so tired and sick of the siege and the ongoing bombing, and they really want to see an end to that. Also, they want to see Palestinian unity. Many of the patients that participated in the treatment, they need follow-up, they need rehabilitation. Some of them need surgery. And of course the health care system in Gaza is quite overburdened by the number of people needing medical support, and the siege takes its tool on equipment, maintenance, spare parts, everything you can imagine. So, taken all together, the situation has not become easier. The attacks continue, but the people will not give up. The 600 tunnels are the lifelines of the influx of goods and animals to Gaza. The smuggler economy will increase the level of costs for all types of goods, so there is increasing poverty, and more and more people are living under the line as extreme poverty as defined by the UN.
AK: And obviously you've spent a lot of time dealing with the victims of Israeli airstrikes. Recently, there was a decision by the International Criminal Court that essentially said there will not be a war crimes tribunal for Operation Cast Lead. What's your response to that?
MG: I very much regret the decision by the ICC. I'm saddened, and in fact, quite provoked by it, because I think the ICC had a golden opportunity to tell the world, and to tell Israel, that they are not exempt from international law and the laws of war. As it now stands, because of the lack of formalities—that is, an international recognition of Palestine as a state—they use this as an excuse to let Israel off the hook, which I very much regret because it sends a signal to the superpowers and the military forces of the world that, you can get away with it.
And Israel always gets away with its war crimes, which is really demoralizing, because the types of warfare that Israel is waging, with siege and collective punishment, with starvation and with the destruction of civilian infrastructure in occupied territories is really taking us back to medieval times, yet they claim to be one of the most moral armies in the world. And this contradiction does not fit together. So the only thing we could have hoped for was that all the reports on the table—the Goldstone report, the Arab League fact finding mission, the B'Tselem report (PDF), the Amnesty International report and our book—should have served as strong testimonies and documentation sources that there was no way that the ICC could not open a case against Israel. As it now stands, nobody will be held responsible for 1,400 killed and 5,400 injured, and nobody is accountable for the ongoing siege of Gaza. And this, of course, is a heavy burden of responsibility for President Obama and your government.
AK: When you recently went back to Gaza, did you speak with some of the patients you saw during Cast Lead?
Three European airlines have canceled the flights of passengers from the Airflotilla2, or flytilla, the campaign in which activists challenge Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories by flying into Tel Aviv and announcing to customs their intent to travel to the West Bank. The campaign started last year with a similar "Welcome to Palestine" fly-in, where some were also refused entry onto their purchased departure flights, at the behest of Israeli security.
Again, this year based on "Israel's orders," Lufthansa Airlines, Brussels Airlines and EasyJet all have canceled flytilla passenger tickets. As of today, European airlines have canceled up to 40 passenger tickets.
Campaign organizers with Bienvenue Palestine also found the tickets of two passengers unaffiliated with the flytilla were included in the mass cancellations.
After arriving in-country, activists are expected to tour the West Bank with Bienvenue Palestine. I translated from French Bienvenue Palestine's full statementon flight cancellations:
Several dozen passengers who bought plane tickets to travel to Tel Aviv Sunday, April 15 were notified Thursday by Lufthansa airlines that their reservations were canceled, "by Israel's orders."
"Israel produced a list of names of persons to whom this country denies entry. Yours is on it, which brings us to cancel your ticket and we will immediately refund your credit card," said Lufthansa employees to the passengers.
Unable to distinguish between those who intended to participate in the Welcome to Palestine mission and those who were not involved, the Israeli government, long accustomed to mass "collateral damage," apparently decided to blacklist passengers in bulk. As of Thursday evening we had reports of at least two people who are not connected to the campaign and were planning to travel to Israel whose tickets were also canceled.
Passengers on Lufthansa flights have not committed any infractions, and do not accept the mafia-methods, favored by governments complicit in the imprisonment of the Palestinian people, starting with the French government.
Therefore, with the support of many friends, passengers with the campaign will arrive at their departing airports as scheduled this weekend, as a reminder that the West Bank and the rest of Palestine do not belong to Israel, and to demand respect of international law.
Passengers also received cancellation notices from the other European airlines, stating "Israel Immigration Authorities have informed us that you will be refused entry to Israel and instructed us to refuse you carriage." Bienvenue Palestine posted the text of the notices. Below is one from EasyJet:
I returned ten days ago from a week of teaching international humanitarian law in Jericho. It was my first time in the West Bank, and I won't soon forget it. I was particularly struck, not surprisingly, by the limitations on Palestinian life and movement — the endless checkpoints, the hideous wall, the massive illegal settlements dotting the landscape. You know you're not in Melbourne or New York when you have to wait an hour for a taxi to come from Jerusalem to take you to the Dead Sea, less than 10 minutes from your hotel, because the local taxi drivers don't have the permits needed to make the journey.
All that is a backdrop to a recent article in The Guardian that I found indescribably sad:
Two large solar panels jut out of the barren landscape near Imneizil in the Hebron hills. The hi-tech structures sit incongruously alongside the tents and rough stone buildings of the Palestinian village, but they are fundamental to life here: they provide electricity.
Imneizil is not connected to the national electricity grid. Nor are the vast majority of Palestinian communities in Area C, the 62% of the West Bank controlled by Israel. The solar energy has replaced expensive and clunky oil-powered generators.
According to the Israeli authorities, these solar panels – along with six others in nearby villages – are illegal and have been slated for demolition.
Nihad Moor, 25, has three small children. The family live in a two-room tent kitted out with a fridge, TV and very old computer. She also has a small electric butter churn, which she uses to supplement her husband's small income from sheep farming.
"The kids get sick all the time. At the moment, because of a change in the weather, they all have colds. Without electricity I wouldn't even be able to see to help them when they need to use the [outdoor] toilet at night," Moor says. "I don't want to imagine what life would be like here if [the panels] were demolished."
Imneizil's solar system was built in 2009 by the Spanish NGO Seba at a cost of €30,000 to the Spanish government. According to the Israeli authorities, it was built without a permit.
The problem for Palestinian communities here is that permission to build any infrastructure is very hard to come by. According to figures from the civil administration quoted by the pressure group Peace Now, 91 permits were issued for Palestinian construction in Area C between 2001 and 2007. In the same period, more than 10,000 Israeli settlement units were built and1,663 Palestinian structures demolished.
The Jewish settlements in Area C are connected to the national water and electricity grids. But most Palestinian villages are cut off from basic infrastructure, including water and sewage services. Imneizil, which borders the ultra-religious settlement of Beit Yatir, currently has nine demolition orders on various structures, including a toilet block and water cistern for the school.
One UN expert, speaking anonymously as they are not authorised to talk to the media, believes the crackdown on the alternative energy movement by the Israelis is part of a deliberate strategy in Area C. "From December 2010 to April 2011, we saw a systematic targeting of the water infrastructure in Hebron, Bethlehem and the Jordan valley," the source said. "Now, in the last couple of months, they are targeting electricity. Two villages in the area have had their electrical poles demolished.
"There is this systematic effort by the civil administration targeting all Palestinian infrastructure in Hebron. They are hoping that by making it miserable enough, they [the Palestinians] will pick up and leave."
It's a vicious logic: don't connect Palestinian communities to the national electrical grid; deny permits to build solar alternatives; then demolish solar panels that are "illegally" built. All to open up room to expand Israel's illegal settlements.
There is no question that Israel has legitimate security interests in the West Bank. But that doesn't justify depriving people of their basic human needs.
سيد قشوع
أوقفْ تطبيعَ النكبة وألغِ محاضرتك في جامعة تافتس احتفاءً باستقلال
الكيان الصهيوني
Stop Normalizing the Nakba; Cancel your Lecture at Tufts University for Israeli
"Independence" Week!
Arabic text follows English النص باللغة العربيّة يتبع
Dear Mr. Kashua,
We are deeply troubled to learn that you will be giving a lecture for Israeli Independence Week at Tufts University in Massachusetts on the 16th of April.
As Palestinian citizens of Israel and supporters of the Palestinian cause from around the world (including in Palestine/Israel), we are truly shocked that you would give a lecture to celebrate 64 years of so called "Israeli independence" when Palestinians from around the world are mourning 64 years of ethnic cleansing, oppression, ongoing dispossession, and exile.
To celebrate 64 years of Israeli independence in this way not only whitewashes the actual events of the Nakba, including the exile of more than 700,000 indigenous Palestinians from their homes and the complete destruction of more than 500 Palestinian villages and towns, but also serves to legitimize almost two decades of brutal military rule that Palestinians with Israeli citizenship lived under between 1948-1967, as well as masks the policies of systematic land expropriation, state-sponsored racism and political persecution Palestinians in Israel continue to face.
Your lecture further legitimizes the recent anti-democratic legislation in the Israeli Knesset that aims to penalize those who commemorate the Nakba and erase our collective memory.
While you may believe that this event will allow you to tell the so-called "Friends of Israel" the truth about the Nakba, we believe that your participation will be exploited in order to "brown-wash" apartheid.
We recognize that you are entitled to your own political views, but we ask that you not allow supporters of the continuing military occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian lands to use your lecture as a way to deflect criticism of these abuses that continue today.
As deeply concerned Palestinians and citizens of the world, we ask that you cancel your event out of respect for your fellow Palestinians and all people struggling to have their personal and shared histories of heinous abuses to our rights as human beings recognized, commemorated, and legitimized.
سيّدي العزيز،
نودّ التعبير عن انزعاجنا الشديد لسماعنا أنّك عازمٌ على إلقاء محاضرةٍ
احتفالًا بأُسبوع "الاستقلال الإسرائيلي" في جامعة تفتس في ولاية
ماساشوستس في السادس عشر من نيسان.
كفلسطينيّات\ين من الخطّ الأخضر ومناصرات\ين للقضيّة الفلسطينيّة من جميع
أنحاء العالم، تكتنفنا صدمةٌ شديدةٌ من قرارك بإلقاء محاضرة تحتفي بما
يُعرف ب"استقلال إسرائيل" بينما ت\يحيي الفلسطينيّات\ون الذكرى الرابعة
والستّين لنكبة شعبنا والتطهير العرقي والاضطهاد وسلب الأرض والنفي
الاحتفال باستقلال إسرائيل يشوّه حقيقة ما جرى في النكبة، التي هُجّر
خلالها أكثر من 700.000 فلسطيني ودُمّرت إبّانها أكثر من 500 بلدة وقرية
فلسطينيّة. أضف إلى ذلك أنّ مشاركتك في الاحتفال باستقلال إسرائيل تضفي
الشرعيّة على زهاء عقدين من الحكم العسكري الاستبدادي الذي رزح تحته
فلسطينيّو الداخل (بين الأعوام 1948-1967) وتلمّعُ سياسات مصادرة
الأراضي الممنهجة والعنصريّة الممأسسة والقمع السياسي الذي يعاني منه
فلسطينيّو الداخل.
محاضرتك المُزمع إلقاؤها تمنح الشرعية ل"قانون النكبة" الذي ينصُّ
بمعاقبة وتغريم كل المؤسّسات التي تحيي ذكرى النكبة والذي يهدف إلى طمس
ذاكرتنا الجماعيّة.
قد تظنّ أنّ هذه المحاضرة ستمكّنك من إخبار المدعوّين ب"أصدقاء إسرائيل"
بحقيقة ما حصل في النكبة، إلّا أنّنا موقناتٌ أنّ "أصدقاء إسرائيل"
سيستغلّون مشاركتك لتجميل صورة نظام الفصل العنصريّ الذي تنتهجه إسرائيل.
ليس هدفنا الإملاء عليك بتبنّي آرائنا السياسيّة ولكنّنا نناشدك ألّا
تتيح الفرصة لمناصري الاحتلال العسكريّ والتطهير اعرقي المستمرّ
باستخدامك كأداة لغض الطرف عن انتهاكات إسرائيل وجرائمها.
إنّنا وإذ نطالبك بإلغاء محاضرتك فإننا نريدك أن تفعل ذلك من منطلق
احترام أبناء وبنات شعبك وجميع أولئك الذين يناضلون من أجل حقّهم
بالحرّيّة وإناطة اللثام عن الجرائم الوحشيّة التي ارتُكبت ولا زالت
تُرتكب بحقّهم.
The fiftieth anniversary of the death of revolutionary, writer and psychiatrist Frantz Fanon was commemorated this past December. In late February, the not-so-revolutionary judge Asher Grunis was elected President of the Israeli Supreme Court.
The fanfare that accompanied Grunis' inauguration was an opportunity to extol Israeli democracy by playing out the ritualized Supreme Court induction ceremony. Yet, there was a disquieting stink about the celebration. Mum among the lot of Hatikva-singing judges was Justice Salim Jubran, the Arab. His refusal to join the chorus likely stemmed from not identifying with the lyrics, "as long as in the heart, within, a Jewish soul still yearns…" His silence, however, prompted loud condemnation from the public and Israeli Knesset members, leading some to propose legislation that would impeach Jubran and effectively bar Arabs from serving on the bench.
This article reads Fanon's death anniversary and Grunis' appointment and inauguration ceremony against one another, as an opportunity to recycle Fanon's ideas to better situate the place of Palestinians, as a colonized people, within the imagination of Israeli law today. In particular, the article traces the outlines of Fanon's historico-racial schema in Israel/Palestine, emphasizing the legal experience of Palestinians from the Beersheba region, or the Naqab.
Look Mama, an Arab!
Fanon's historico-racial schema builds on Merleau-Ponty's (1964) corporeal schema, which is the body's agency in relating to itself and its historical world (surrounding environment) wherein there is a communication between the two through a perpetual contribution to and reordering of one another. Therefore, as the world contributes to how the body sees itself, the body is an agent that continually transforms and disrupts the historical world, their mutual constructions always being altered and differentiated. For Fanon, the colonial context describes a historico-racial schema rather than a corporeal one. The colonized self does not contribute to this schema as a full sovereign (i.e., citizen) because in an encounter with whiteness, the black body constructs a self-image that is deficient, owing to signifiers by a white mythos that weaves the black body from "a thousand details, anecdotes and stories" (Weate 2001, Fanon 1967: 89-119). This article shows how Israeli law functions as a powerful element of a similar white mythos, weaving the "Bedouin, Palestinian" subject out of anecdotes of comparable mythical proportion. As a result, the possibilities are similarly thin for Naqab Palestinians to effect free agency and participate fully in the schematization of the historical world they inhabit.
The legal status of Palestinians in other locales in Israel/Palestine also reveals how Israeli law is in fact, vis-à-vis Palestinians, not only illiberal and undemocratic, contrary to the claims of certain enthusiasts, but even more harmful. After the Arab Supreme Court Justice stood out like the reluctant elephant in a room full of Hatikva-singing comrades, the liberal and democratic court could be forced to ask very existential questions. Why were the Court's most touted values denied to one of its own members by the larger society, including the legal community? Why was a Supreme Court judge, who happened to be Arab, not allowed the liberal privilege of being "tolerated" for his silence? And why was he condemned for exercising his democratic right to non-participation and silent expression?
The heterogeneous strands of Fanon's works can be applied in the Israeli/Palestinian context to speak about the need for an episteme of colonialism to inform the power-knowledge system of Palestinians' habitation, to highlight the shortcomings of national consciousness, and to probe the psychiatric treatment of political prisoners in a colonial context. Edward Sa'id (1989) also mobilized Fanon to criticize fixed ideas of identity as a mark of colonial thought.
To discover how the Fanonian white mythos is propagated by Israeli courts, we look at the discursive effects of a few cases over the past two decades. Law is a major propagator of the white mythos, though the media (see Kabha), education and the medical establishment are also contributing factors (Fanon 1963: 249-310).
Legal rules, decisions, settings, negotiations, confrontations, affidavits, minutes, appeals, orders nisi and other temporary remedies, press releases, news reports and analyses recycle the facts of the case and the ways in which Palestinians are mythified. As each textual form peters down to the lived conditions of those who are immersed in but unequal before the law, or all Palestinians, it leaves an imprint on how the senses see the self and the historical world they inhabit.
The dominant legal framing of Palestinians from the Naqab is within the strictures of criminality by a homogenous mass, even in cases that achieve legal victories for the community. Other characteristics that the courts contrive are those of violent, irresponsible Palestinians, and those who deserve "a minimal right to life in dignity," or in layman's terms, the right to be "the living dead."
"The native…a sort of quintessence of evil… invisible to ethics… the corrosive element, destroying all that comes near him" (Fanon 1963: 41).
The first case we will examine is the 1984 "landmark" el-Hawasheleh decision (CA 218/74). This decision set the precedent for future courts to undermine Bedouin settlement and pastoral lifestyle, thereby classifying their lands as mawat (dead), thus providing the basis to conclude that Bedouin had no historical rights to the land. In reaching this conclusion, the court cited the work of the nineteenth-century British explorer E.H.Palmer, who "found a wasteland, ruins of antiquities, Bedouin vagabonds, who did not work the land in any particular manner." Later in the same text Palmer wrote that "the Bedawí… wherever he goes… brings with him ruin, violence and neglect."
"The fellaghas are ambitious peasants, criminals… (1963: 287)… The Algerian people: they were born slackers, born liars, born robbers, and born criminals" (1963: 296).
Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land
Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land U.S. Media & the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict How Israel manipulates and distorts American public perceptions Through the voices of scholars, media critics, peace activists, religious figures, and Middle East experts, Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land carefully analyzes and explains how—through the use of language, framing and context—the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza remains hidden in the news media, and Israeli colonization of the occupied terrorities appears to be a defensive move rather than an offensive one.
I've been duped.
Do you know the frustration you feel when you believed in something strongly and then you realize that the information that made you believe was from a source with an agenda to deceive?
I just watched a powerful and courageous documentary called Peace, Propaganda, and the Promised Land. It certainly has its own agenda and doesn't present balanced coverage. Still, it showed me how my understanding of the struggles in the Middle East has been skewed by most of our mainstream media. I saw how coverage of the Israeli/Palestinian problem is brilliantly controlled and shaped. I pride myself in understanding how the media works… and I find I've been bamboozled.
Invest 75 minutes in watching this, because most of the time we only hear one viewpoint when it comes to the interminable struggle in the Holy Land. While this documentary would never be shown on commercial TV in the USA, it can be viewed online (Peace, Propaganda, and the Promised Land). In my view, many Palestinians live under inhumane conditions, and U.S. taxpayers help to make it happen. Please, watch this and then share your impressions.
Criticism of Israel's policies is not automatically anti-Semitic (see J-Street for an example of a pro-Israel, pro-peace group). In fact, the irony is that for Israel's hard-liners, their clever PR strategy could be their own worst enemy. While Israel certainly deserves security on its land, the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory (in Gaza and the West Bank) degrades Israel and drives Palestinians to desperation. The question of whether Israel is conducting a brutal military occupation or a reasonable defense against terrorism gets no real airtime. If we care about the long-term security of Israel, we have a responsibility to understand what our government is funding and supporting.
I believe that watching this documentary is a painful first step to finding a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. If you are a friend of Israel, you must watch Peace, Propaganda, and the Promised Land.
Outrage in Germany, Nobel Laureate Günter Grass has, once again told the truth about Israel being the greatest threat to world peace.
Günter Grass, Germany's most famous living author and the 1999 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, sparked outrage in Germany on Wednesday with the publication of a poem, "What must be said," in which he sharply criticizes Israel's offensive approach towards Iran.
Once again, it is the artist rather than the politician, who tells the truth as it is. Once again it is the Artist rather than the academic who speaks out.
Why did I wait until now at this advanced age and with the last bit of ink to say: The nuclear power Israel is endangering a world peace that is already fragile?" Wrote Grass.
In the poem, published by Germany's Süddeutsche Zeitungnewspaper and other European dailies on Wednesday, Grass also calls for an
unhindered and permanent monitoring of Israel's nuclear potential and Iran's nuclear facility through an international entity that the government of both countries would approve."
Israel and some German Jewish prominent voices were quick to react. The Israeli Embassy in Berlin issued a statement offering its own version of 'What must be said.'
What must be said is that it is a European tradition to accuse the Jews before the Passover festival of ritual murder," the statements reads.
Pretty outrageous, don't you think? In the open Israel together with its supportive Jewish lobbies (AIPAC, AJC) are pushing for a new global conflict. Yet, shamelessly the embassy defies criticism tossing in the air the old blood libel. The appropriate timely question here is why Israel and AIPAC are pushing for a world war and a potential nuclear conflict just before Passover? Can they just wait for another Yom Kippur (atonement day)?


text:
Peter Pan was a sell-out success, with standing room only available during Saturday night's finale performance. A packed audience of 250 people watched as Tamarindo's talented children and adults performed a celebrated rendition of Peter Pan!!! Wonderful job everyone!!! We're all so proud of all you budding stars!!!!!
Posted by Rhonda on 5/16/2010 2:42:37 PM 0 Comments