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The PJ Tatler
Hollywood Hit Hard by ObamaCare
It's a real three-hanky movie, this one:
Hollywood productions, for instance, might find it irksome simply trying to categorize employees as full- or part-time, seasonal or variable, and it's important that they get the classifications right lest they face hefty fines. "ACA is thousands of pages, and it wasn't written with this industry in mind," says Belcher.
One of the unintended consequences, say some industry insiders, is that it could lead to productions running to foreign countries, given that ACA doesn't apply to U.S. citizens working abroad. Some also say the number of production days in the U.S. are likely to be cut due to ACA because there's a 90-day waiting period before productions must either pay a penalty or offer health insurance to full-time workers. That rule provides big incentives for a production to wrap in less than three months. While big-budget movies and season-long TV shows might not have such a luxury, smaller films or TV pilots could easily rush their schedules to make sure they come in at under 90 days.
Don't worry: Obama's big-ticket blockbuster donors won't be harmed; just the guys who need to work for a living. And it's not like California needs the jobs.
Heather Has Two Mommies
Wild medical news out of the UK:
The UK looks set to become the first country to allow the creation of babies using DNA from three people, after the government backed the IVF technique.
It will produce draft regulations later this year and the procedure could be offered within two years.
Experts say three-person IVF could eliminate debilitating and potentially fatal mitochondrial diseases that are passed on from mother to child.
Keep in mind the third "parent" would be providing only mitochondrial DNA for the treatment of mitochondrial disease, and not any of the cell DNA that actually makes a person.
Still, I did just finish rereading Brave New World and that is set mostly in Britain…
IRS Targeted Tea Party Groups
Your news-but-not-really-news item of the day:
Refuting Democratic suggestions that progressive groups were also swept up in the IRS probe of the tax status of Tea Party organizations, the Treasury Department's inspector general has revealed that just six progressive groups were targeted compared to 292 conservative groups.
In a letter to congressional Democrats, the inspector general also said that 100 percent of Tea Party groups seeking special tax status were put under IRS review, while only 30 percent of the progressive groups felt the same pressure.
"At this point, the evidence shows us that conservative groups were not only flagged, but targeted and abused by the IRS," said Sarah Swinehart spokeswoman for the Ways and Means Committee.
It's the Chicago Way.
Don't Let Your Pigs Go to Pot
How's this for an unintended consequence of Washington State's pot legalization — pot-fed pigs:
Part flavor experiment, part green recycling, part promotion and bolstered by the legalization of recreational marijuana in Washington state, pot excess has been fed to the hogs by their owners, pig farmer Jeremy Gross and Seattle butcher William von Schneidau, since earlier this year.
Gross and von Schneidau now sell their "pot pig" cuts at von Schneidau's butcher shop in Seattle's Pike Place Market at a premium price — bacon is $17 a pound while chops go for $16.90 a pound.
"He's like `let's see what kind of flavor it gives it.' So we ran it and it gave good flavor," Gross said. "It's like anything else, what you feed them is what they're going to taste like. It's almost like a savory alfalfa fed cow or alfalfa fed pig."
No, the bacon won't get you high. No higher than bacon already gets you, that is.
Up to 13 Years for Graffiti?
News from the Left Coast:
Jeff Olson, the 40-year-old man who is being prosecuted for scrawling anti-megabank messages on sidewalks in water-soluble chalk last year now faces a 13-year jail sentence. A judge has barred his attorney from mentioning freedom of speech during trial.
According to the San Diego Reader, which reported on Tuesday that a judge had opted to prevent Olson's attorney from "mentioning the First Amendment, free speech, free expression, public forum, expressive conduct, or political speech during the trial," Olson must now stand trial for on 13 counts of vandalism.
It's not often I find myself defending an Occupier, but the potential punishment, the judge's restrictions… outrageous.
'Deep Cuts' Coming to U.S. Army
Meet our new Army of One:
The Army will announce that it will cut more than 10 brigade combat teams, a significant reduction in the size of its fighting forces and combat power, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
The Army previously announced it would reduce its end-strength from its current level of 541,000 to 490,000 soldiers by 2017 under the $487 billion of spending reductions mandated by the 2011 Budget Control Act, but has not detailed where it will cut. The Army is working to notify Congress of the cuts, an Army official told Stars and Stripes.
Army officials have said they had hoped to draw down gradually, but additional spending reductions and budget pressures have put those plans in doubt, the Journal wrote Tuesday. Some defense officials said that the Army will likely have to speed up its plans for reducing the size of the force.
There are so many snippy little responses to this story. A few for your pleasure:
• Good thing we won that war on terror.
• It's not like anybody still feared us anyway.
• And yet we still found money for "stimulus" spending in an immigration bill.
• Maybe now Putin will give us Snowden back.
• It's part of our re-positioning towards the Pacific — Pacific Avenue.
• How can Obama pivot to jobs when there's still this great, big scary Army he has to look after?
I'm out. What've you got?
NYT to Weiner: Drop Dead!
Michael Barbaro reporting for the Gray Lady:
Anthony D. Weiner's improbable campaign for mayor of New York City is a wager that voters have made peace with his lewd online behavior, a subject he has largely left behind as he roils the race with his aggressive debating style and his attention-getting policy proposals.
But for the women who were on the other end of Mr. Weiner's sexually explicit conversations and photographs, his candidacy is an unwanted reminder of a scandal that has upended their lives in ways big and small, cutting short careers, disrupting educations and damaging reputations.
"I cannot tell you the devastation," said Ms. Weiss, a 42-year-old blackjack dealer in Nevada who exchanged dozens of explicit messages with Mr. Weiner, then a congressman, in 2010 and 2011.
Ms. Weiss, a die-hard Democrat who once volunteered for Bill Clinton's presidential campaign and was inspired by "Fahrenheit 9/11," a film critique of the Bush administration, said she had reached out to Mr. Weiner after watching him joust with Republican rivals on cable news. They traded admiring messages on Facebook that, at his prompting, became intimate and raunchy, she said.
From there, the story gets really brutal. Looks like the Times won't go down easy for the disgraced former congressman.
He's Fled the Country
There are those on the right who say President Obama is curiously detached from the unfolding Snowden drama:
Conservatives say Obama's posture in the case provides further evidence of a commander in chief whose credibility abroad has declined and who shrinks from presidential leadership at moments of international crisis, including in response to last fall's attacks in Benghazi, Libya.
"Nobody's afraid of this guy," said former George W. Bush administration adviser Eliot A. Cohen, who argues that Obama should have personally stood up to Chinese and Russian officials. "Nobody's saying there are any real consequences that would come from crossing him — and that's an awful position for the president of the United States to be in."
But then there are those on the left who say… well, that Obama is curiously detached from the unfolding Snowden drama:
Administration officials have not detailed any actions that Obama has personally taken to bring Snowden to justice, saying only that he has set the administration's strategic direction and has been briefed regularly by his national security staff.
Unlike other crises, the White House has not distributed any photographs of Obama and his advisers monitoring Snowden's movements in the Situation Room or calling foreign leaders from the Oval Office. All known communications between U.S. officials and authorities in Hong Kong, China and Russia have been made by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and other underlings, although a senior administration official said Obama could become personally involved at some point.
But I say that the time for inaction is over. I call on the President to personally direct himself and some buddies to at least nine holes of golf, and perhaps a weekend at Martha's, to be followed by a multi-deca-million-dollar tour of Asia or one of those places.
White House to China, Russia: Pretty Please Give Us Snowden?
Here's Jay Carney on Hong Kong's "technical" decision to release Snowden to Russia or wherever:
"We are just not buying that this was a technical decision by a Hong Kong immigration official," Carney said.
"This was a deliberate choice by the government to release a fugitive despite a valid arrest warrant, and that decision unquestionably has a negative impact on the U.S.-China relationship," he said.
Pique — that oughta work, Jay. And if it doesn't, maybe escalate to "snippy."
Dems Won't Make Boehner an Issue in '14
The GOP made Nancy Pelosi maybe the issue in 2010 (along with voter anger against ObamaCare) in their successful effort to retake the House that year. But it looks like Democrats won't be waging a similar campaign with GOP Speaker John Boehner in the crosshairs:
If Boehner were a woman, his predecessor Nancy Pelosi has said, he would be considered "the weakest speaker in history."
So as the two political parties gear up for the 2014 midterms, it would seem natural in today's polarized environment that Democrats are eager to make Boehner a household word — and not in a good way. But interviews with several liberal strategists suggest that Democrats aren't planning to demonize Boehner — or even to campaign against him at all.
Maybe that's because Boehner isn't a woman, and is therefore more difficult to demonize in our male-dominated patriarchy. (Cough, cough.) Or maybe it's just because most voters would ask, "Speaker who?"
Score One for Chief Justice Roberts
SCOTUS goes 7-1 to further restrict affirmative action:
The Supreme Court drew new limits on colleges' use of affirmative action on Monday, saying that although racial preferences remain constitutional, they are permissible only if schools can first show that there are "no workable race-neutral alternatives."
The 7-1 decision written by Justice Anthony Kennedy is likely to subject schools' affirmative action programs to far tougher scrutiny in the future because schools will be required to show that they have no other way to create a diverse student body. The court stopped short of issuing a broader ruling either cementing or eliminating schools' ability to take account of an applicant's race when deciding who to admit.
Instead, Kennedy said that affirmative action remains permissible, but only if the University of Texas at Austin could prove that there was "no workable race-neutral alternatives would produce the benefits of educational diversity."
That's from the USAToday writeup. For more, go to SCOTUSblog's liveblog.
Rubio 'Toast' in Iowa
David Freddoso spoke with conservative Iowa radio host Steve Deace, who says Rubio "shouldn't even bother to show up here" in 2016. Give the whole thing a listen.
He's not the only one who thinks Rubio has blown what could have been an amazing political career.
Kerry Can't Cool Karzai Commotion
Step One in any smart peace plan is to piss off your thieving and unreliable peace partner:
US Secretary of State John Kerry yesterday made his second call to the Afghan President in 24 hours to ease Hamid Karzai's anger over the rollout of the Taliban's new political office in Qatar – a rift that temporarily delayed US talks with the militant group set to begin this week.
Mr Karzai was upset that when it opened its new office in Qatar the Taliban used its formal name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which is what it used when it was in power more than a decade ago.
Afghan officials said that violated an agreement that the office should open only for negotiations, not as a political entity like a parallel institution to the Afghan government.
Something tells me the peace talks — assuming we can attach enough jumper cables to its withered corpse — will end up bringing the Taliban formally into the Afghan government. They'll sieze total power just as soon as we've left, and then the country will go back to enjoying its national sport of killing anybody who ain't from around here. Or who might not be from around here. Or who looks different. Or talks different. Or who might have harbored an impure thought one time. And girls.
We need to bug out and let the Afghans work this out amongst themselves.
Inhofe: Now is "Not the time" to Cut Back on Nukes
Here's the Oklahoma Senator:
Inhofe was among several lawmakers who warned that cutting the country's strategic nuclear arsenal by one-third would put America at a disadvantage against countries like Russia, North Korea and Iran. Inhofe said the president's plan wrongly assumes that reducing the role of nuclear weapons would make the world safer.
"Instead, our experience has been that nuclear arsenals — other than ours — are on the rise, Russia defies us at almost every turn, efforts to curb the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran are failing, and our allies grow increasingly uneasy about the reliability of U.S. nuclear guarantees," Inhofe, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said.
Russia is modernizing its missile forces. The RT-2UTTKh Topol-M dates back only to 1997, and production of the RS-24 Yars began in 2010. Both are road-mobile to compliment Russia's collection of older, silo-based ICBMs. After years of neglect, Russia is rebuilding its SSBN fleet and arming them with brand new RSM-56 Bulava SLBMs.
Our strategic forces consist of 450 Minuteman-III missiles dating back to 1970, and about 540 Trident D5 SLBMs which first began operating in 1990. The Tridents are a problem, because the Navy won't be building enough replacement boats for the aging Ohio-class SSBNs to maintain the size of the current force. We have no road- or rail-mobile missiles.
So if Obama wants to negotiate down our forces, fine — but it ought to be on the condition that we start modernizing our nuclear deterrent.
Dem. Slaughter: Rape "Not so bad" to Republicans
Here's the story:
A leader of the House Pro-Choice Caucus suggested Tuesday that Republicans don't have strong feelings against rape.
The remark came as Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) criticized the GOP's proposed ban on late-term abortions ahead of a House vote on the measure.
Slaughter slammed Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee, all men, who rejected a rape exception to the bill during its markup last week.
"I'm of the opinion now … that if you really were to question all of them, that there is a sort of continuity of thought that rape is really not so bad and that the likelihood of getting pregnant is small," Slaughter told a press conference.
Vote fraud isn't so bad for Democrats, so I guess it's even.
Alaska Democrat: I'm a Rockefeller Republican
United Liberty has the story:
Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) seems a litte confused about what party he belongs to. During an appearance on CNBC, the Alaska Democrat tried to distance himself from his the Leftist-wing of his party by telling the hosts that he is a "Rockefeller Republican."
Begich was probably a shoe-in as Alaska's next former Senator, but the GOP ads for 2014 now practically write themselves.
California Senate Passes Bill Requiring Permit to Buy Ammo
Once again, Sacramento proves that to go really over-the-top, you've got to go to Democrat California:
The California Senate this week approved a collection of bills, including one (SB 53) that would require background checks, permits, and fees for the purchase of ammunition.
All ammunition sales would have to be face-to-face, happening only in the presence of a store clerk; and vendors selling the bullets would have to submit sales records to the California Department of Justice. Those vendors also would need a permit to sell ammunition.
Kira Davis notes that SB 53 also "requires background checks and a $50 ammo purchase fee."
It wasn't that long ago that I saw Dick Durbin on one of the Sunday shows, with the stuff-eating grin on his face, joked about taxing bullets until they cost a hundred or a thousand dollars apiece. Which I could find that video, but no one seems to have grabbed it.
So if you think something like this can happen only in California — think again.
Syria Policy? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Syria Policy
Two pieces today really bring home the incoherence of President Obama's Syria… "policy," I suppose is one word for it. Maybe you can think of a better one. But first up, Lee Smith at The Weekly Standard writes about the White House promise to arm the rebels:
However, there are other administration officials who tell the press that the White House is not going to send weapons to the opposition. Josh Rogin at the Daily Beast writes that his source "says that lethal arms are not part of the new items Obama has now authorized." "The president," says this official, "has made a decision to provide the Syrian opposition with military items that can increase their effectiveness on the ground, but at this point it does not include things like guns and bullets."
So is the White House arming the rebels or not? There's been confusion since Thursday afternoon when Sen. John McCain said on the Senate floor that Obama "will announce that we will be assisting the Syrian rebels by providing them with weapons and other assistance. I applaud the president's decision." Shortly after, McCain retracted his remarks, explaining that "the president has not made the final decision on arming." Afterward, McCain's spokesman, Josh Rogin reported, said the senator had been told by reliable sources that Obama was planning to arm the rebels.
A White House conference call with reporters Thursday afternoon hardly clarified matters. Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes was asked several times whether the White House intended to arm the rebels, or if it was just going to provide more of the direct non-lethal military assistance (like vehicles and night-vision goggles) that was promised in April but still hasn't reached the Syrian Military Council. "I can't go through an inventory of the type of assistance that we're going to provide," said Rhodes.
Got that? We may or may not be supplying the rebels with items we can't inventory.
Over at The American Spectator, Jed Babbin calls it "a farce." Read:
What the Times — the most faithful chronicler of liberalism — describes is the most desultory, most pointless and least compelling case for a war in American history.
Any case for Obama's action would have to answer a few basic questions. What are we trying to accomplish? In other words, what is the outcome we desire and how will Obama's decision produce it for us?
It's impossible to say what outcome we seek because the president is evidently writing off any prospect of affecting the outcome. Which probably doesn't matter much because the Syrian rebellion is about nothing more than which bunch of terrorists rules that country for the foreseeable future.
Babbin concludes that Obama can't even wag the dog properly — and I'm so frustrated here that I won't even add the obligatory "Obama eats dog" joke.
Right now, our President is in Belfast for the big G-8 conference, where Bloomberg reports that he is sounding out our allies on "how far to go to intervene" in Syria.
Would you put your country's blood our treasure on the line for a "leader" so confused and feckless?
NYU Caves to Pressure from Beijing?
Here's one of those local stories which should have gotten national attention:
Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, speaking out for the first time since The Post reported the school was giving him the boot, said pressure from Beijing had school officials planning his departure almost as soon as he arrived.
"As early as last August and September, the Chinese Communists had already begun to apply great, unrelenting pressure on New York University," Chen said in a statement yesterday.
"So much so that after we had been in the United States just three to four months, NYU was already starting to discuss our departure with us."
According to the report, NYU is trying to get help opening another campus — in Shanghai. And University president John Sexton never once met with Chen.
I don't recall hearing of any New York or national politicians taking up Chen's case, either. Isn't that what we used to do for dissidents of oppressive regimes?
Rand Paul: The Drug War's Federally-Mandated Racism
Here's Senator Paul on the disturbing disparity in drug-related arrest rates between black and white Americans:
In the case of arrests, federal agencies have hamstrung local law enforcement agencies by requiring them to meet numerical arrest goals in order to secure funding. Morally, this is troubling. In practical terms, instead of local enforcement agencies spending their time investigating serious felony crimes, they concentrate on minority and depressed neighborhoods to increase their drug arrest statistics.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which reported on the arrest statistics, highlighted the Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Program. This federal program distributes millions of dollars a year to local law enforcement agencies. Arrest numbers are a performance measure used in doling out the money.
We are literally sending our money to Washington where an overgrown bureaucracy is encouraging racial profiling before the money is allowed to be sent back to us. We should keep more of our money and decision-making power closer to home — and put an end to practices that encourage discrimination.
A radical concept, returning to the states criminal jurisdiction never granted to the federal government by the Constitution.
Did the Administration Hack CBS News Reporter's Computer?
CBS News's Cheryl Attkisson has been one of the few — only? — national reporters willing to look hard at Fast & Furious. Now I want you to look hard at her Twitter feed.
It seems certain that somebody hacked her.
That 10-Year-Old Girl Receiving Lung Transplant
Kathleen Sebelius could not be reached for comment:
A 10-year-old girl whose efforts to qualify for an organ donation drew public debate over how organs are allocated was getting a double-lung transplant Wednesday after a match with an adult donor was made.
Sarah Murnaghan, who suffers from severe cystic fibrosis, was receiving her new lungs Wednesday at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, family spokeswoman Maureen Garrity said. Murnaghan's relatives were ''beyond excited'' about the development but were ''keeping in mind that someone had to lose a family member and they're very aware of that and very appreciative,'' Garrity said.
No other details about the donor are known, including whether they came through the regular donor system or through public appeals.
If you don't like the way organ transplants are decided but haven't signed your donor card, may I suggest you do so as a temporary patch on the problem?
Hong Kong Activists to Protest for NSA Leaker
The Guardian has the story:
A group of 11 local organisations, many of them human rights NGOs, plans to hold the rally at 3pm on Saturday, according to a press release posted online on Wednesday afternoon. "We call on Hong Kong to respect international legal standards and procedures relating to the protection of Snowden; we condemn the US government for violating our rights and privacy; and we call on the US not to prosecute Snowden," it said.
The rally's press release said the participants would march past a Hong Kong government office and the city's US consulate, and suggested that they bring posters reading: "defend free speech, protect Snowden", "no extradition", "respect Hong Kong law", "shame on NSA", "stop internet surveillance" and "betray Snowden = betray freedom".
Hong Kong is an odd duck, being a part of Semi-Demi-Communist China but having its own semi-demi-independent political and economic system. Since the British handed Hong Kong back over, Beijing has increased its powers in the region, without ever quite cracking down.
So what I'd like to know is, if any of these 11 groups are fronts for Beijing, or how many of their members might be in cahoots with the mainland. Because Snowden, with a big assist from the NSA and the White House, has handed Beijing an excellent opportunity to embarrass the United States.
For the record, I'm glad Snowden revealed the NSA's data-mining program — no matter whether his personal motivations were honorable or treasonous. But that doesn't mean that there won't be some unpleasant complications.
More Russian Missiles to Syria
This is a new version with a much improved guidance system. Israel fears that some of these missiles will be sent to Hezbollah, who might use them against Israeli ships or offshore natural gas field platform facilities. Israel is trying to persuade Russia to stop delivering the missiles but Russia is reluctant to halt these shipments. Iran appears to be paying for this, so the loss of income would be felt in Russia.
This sort of thing has been going on for a while. Two years ago Russia delivered 72 Yakhonts and 18 of the mobile ground launchers (each carrying two missiles) to Syria. Also included were five battery command vehicles. Typically a Yakhont battery consists of one of these vehicles, four launchers, and several more trucks carrying security and maintenance personnel and equipment. The 2011 shipment cost $300 million dollars. The missiles can be stored in their launch containers for seven years before they require major component replacements and refurbishment to stay operational. Yakhonts have a range of 300 kilometers and are very hard to stop.
No matter who wins the Syrian Civil War, the Israelis are going to have their hands full dealing with all the new threats, courtesy of Moscow.
FBI Snooping Requests up 1,000 Percent Since 2009
The FBI has dramatically increased its use of a controversial provision of the Patriot Act to secretly obtain a vast store of business records of U.S. citizens under President Barack Obama, according to recent Justice Department reports to Congress. The bureau filed 212 requests for such data to a national security court last year – a 1,000-percent increase from the number of such requests four years earlier, the reports show.
The FBI's increased use of the Patriot Act's "business records" provision — and the wide ranging scope of its requests — is getting new scrutiny in light of last week's disclosure that that the provision was used to obtain a top-secret national security order requiring telecommunications companies to turn over records of millions of telephone calls.
Taken together, experts say, those revelations show the government has broadly interpreted the Patriot Act provision as enabling it to collect data not just on specific individuals, but on millions of Americans with no suspected terrorist connections. And it shows that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court accepted that broad interpretation of the law.
Remember when Obama campaigned on repealing the PATRIOT Act?
Yeah, me neither.
Dem Senator: Obama Didn't Brief Congress Like He Claimed
The Hill has the story:
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) on Friday disputed a claim President Obama made at a press conference only moments earlier, when the president said that every member of Congress had been briefed on the National Security Agency's (NSA) domestic phone surveillance program.
Merkley said only select members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees had been briefed on the program, and that he was only aware of it because he obtained "special permission" to review the pertinent documents after hearing about it second-hand.
"I knew about the program because I specifically sought it out," Merkley said on MSNBC. "It's not something that's briefed outside the Intelligence Committee. I had to get special permission to find out about the program. It raised concerns for me. … When I saw what was being done, I felt it was so out of sync with the plain language of the law and that it merited full public examination, and that's why I called for the declassification."
At a press conference on Friday, Obama said that every member of Congress had been briefed on the phone monitoring program.
Every member who was aware enough after not being briefed to seek out the information on their own. So I guess that clears that up.
Record 23,116,441 Million American Households on Food Stamps
The March numbers the USDA released Friday reveal 23,116,441 households enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, each receiving an average monthly benefit of $274.30.
The number of individuals on SNAP did not break any records but remained high, with 47,727,052 people enrolled in SNAP, receiving an average monthly benefit of $132.86.
Maybe it's just me, but every time I hear a left use the word "sustainability," I start feeling all slappy.
Religion of Peace Beheads 10-Year-Old Boy
Hold on to your breakfast for this one:
Taliban militants beheaded two children in southern Afghanistan, a provincial governor's office said.
The beheadings occurred in Kandahar province, the provincial governor's office said Monday.
One of those slain was a 10-year-old boy. The other was age 16.
A press release issued by the office said the militants caught and beheaded the 10-year-old Sunday after he had collected food waste from a trash bin in the area of a security checkpoint.
Barbarians, not "militants."
Payroll-to-Population Ratio Keeps Shrinking
That's Gallup, who adds:
Year-over-year comparisons are helpful in determining the degree to which monthly changes are the result of growth in permanent full-time positions rather than temporary seasonal hiring. The decline in P2P versus 2012 indicates that fewer people worked full-time for an employer this May compared with a year ago. The 43.9% found this May is similar to the 43.7% recorded in 2011 and 44.0% in 2010.
Gallup's P2P metric is an estimate of the percentage of the U.S. adult population aged 18 and older who are employed full time by an employer for at least 30 hours per week. P2P is not seasonally adjusted.
As ObamaCare kicks in, the amount of money flowing out of Washington will grow. But the proportion of workers with even just parttime jobs keeps shrinking.
This will end badly.
How Big is Our Unemployment Problem?
Full story here.
UCLA Study: There is No Recovery
So a bunch of economists looked at a bunch of numbers and came up with this:
"Growth in GDP has been positive, but not exceptional," UCLA economists wrote in their quarterly Anderson Forecast. "Jobs are growing, but not rapidly enough to create good jobs for all."
The report, which analyzed long-term trends of past recoveries, found that the long-anticipated "Great Recovery" has not yet materialized.
Real GDP growth — the value of goods and services produced after adjusting for inflation — is 15.4% below the 3% growth trend of past recoveries, wrote Edward Leamer, director of the UCLA Anderson Forecast. More robust growth will be necessary to bring this recovery in line with previous ones.
"It's not a recovery," he wrote. "It's not even normal growth. It's bad."
If this is news to you, you must live in or around DC.
Who's Sworn on First?
Twitchy Team is on it for you:
O'Donnell deleted his tweet once he — or one of his brighter young interns — realized just how stupid he'd been.
"Overreach" of the Day
On Monday it was Chris Cillizza and Sean Sullivan for WaPo, and Caitlin Huey-Burns at RCP. Then Joan Walsh and Alex Witt were warning that the GOP would "overreach" on the IRS scandal. Today, Leonard Pitts:
An old political axiom says that you should never interfere while an opponent is busy destroying himself. Not that Team Obama is destroying itself, but it is undeniably wounded. That should be the story here. Instead, the story is becoming — again — GOP overreach, opportunism and craziness.
The IRS is on the warpath against conservative groups, but Darrell Issa is nuts.
Glad we're all — all — on the same page here.
WaPo: Will GOP Overreach on IRS?
Chris Cillizza and Sean Sullivan blogging in today's paper:
By the end of the week, there will have been six hearings in the House or Senate regarding the IRS's scandal, which leads to the question: How many is too many?
"My suspicion is Republicans in Congress will stay too obsessed," former White House senior adviser David Plouffe predicted in an appearance on ABC's "This Week" program Sunday. "Kind of surfing scandals, trying to repeal Obamacare for the 40th time, and less on the economy, and doing the job they were sent [to do]."
Karl Rove, the chief political strategist for George W. Bush's presidency, acknowledged that he worries "a little bit" about the possibility of overreach, particularly if his party loses sight of the need to offer its own vision on the economy.
Then there's the equally-helpful Caitlin Huey-Burns for RCP:
With the field starting to take shape for the 2014 midterm elections, Republicans hope to increase their numbers in Congress. If party leaders have their way, controversy over the IRS targeting of conservative groups and the DOJ's subpoena of reporters' records (mixed with the lingering specter of the Benghazi consulate attacks) will consume much of the summer, with the scandals driving a wedge between voters and the president's party.
That could happen. What also could occur is that the GOP's zeal could backfire by galvanizing the Democratic base to defend a man they see as being hounded by an obstructionist Republican Party.
These "Quit while your ahead!" stories always come out just when the scandals start to get seriously juicy.
Go get 'em, Darrell.


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Expedia App Goes Universal
The popular Expedia Hotels & Flights app for iOS has been updated this week and it now comes in a universal build for both iPhone and a new, beautiful iPad version. The Expedia app leverages the Expedia service you are likely familiar with and makes finding hotels and flights to destinations around the world quick and easy.
The new version has a completely revamped interface for both iPhone and iPad but it is the latter that is really eye popping. Now you can simply tap and swipe your way to finding hotels and flights and you don't even necessarily have to put in travel dates.


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We are very excited to announce our three winners of the Orlando@50+ blogger competition. These three blogged their way to all-expenses paid trips to our annual member event. In return, they'll document Orlando@50+ from their point of view.
Our awesome judges had a hard task, narrowing down the submissions from terrific elder bloggers, but Craig Newmark, Ronni Bennett, and AARP's own ShAARP Session blog editor Alejandra Owens were up to the task, and picked their favorites from our cadre of bloggers. Without further ado, the winners are:
Mr. GoTo at Go To Retirement, Cowtown Pattie at Texas Trifles and Frank Paynter at Listics. Congrats, you three -we'll be in touch shortly to set up your travel arrangements!
What made our judges pick these particular bloggers? A combination of fabulous submissions, history of interactive buzz building, and of course, being fabulous at 50+.
Interested in our runner-up bloggers? We'll be posting a listing of all finalists and some of our favorite highlights about life at 50+ right here on ShAARP Session.
Thanks to all who participated, and get excited for Orlando@50+!
Join or Renew Today
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Radios For Sale
Visitors Since 22 October 1998
Designed by Ben Azari
SCR-694 / BC-1306 Radio Signal Corps Training Film
Variable Tune Modification
By Major Breckinridge S. Smith USAF (Retired)
E-Mail firstname.lastname@example.com
Web Site: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/smithab11/
Please Note: Army Radio Sales Co. and this
Article's authors are not responsible for any damages or personal injury whatsoever, that
may occur as a result of information provided here. This Article is published in good
faith and as far as we can tell accurate. Make sure you understand the instructions before
starting. Modifications to military radio sets may invalidate the suppliers warranty and
reduce the re-sale value of the radio.
Thanks to Ray KA3EKH for collaboration on this mod, it was his idea
to direct me to re-attack the temperature compensation circuit.
The PRC-47 transceiver can only be adjusted in 1 Kc steps, this
modification will allow you to swing the oscillator 400 to 500 cycles on 80
meters, and as you increase the operating frequency the swing becomes
larger, up to 2 Kcs at the top end. You will find that this will help you
zero beat just about all signals heard. Your target is the Master Oscillator . This oscillator feeds the entire
frequency chain. See block diagram below.
Terms Used:
* Pot = Potentiometer.
* Osc= Oscillator.
* Mod= Modification.
Master Oscillator Block Diagram
The mod consists of two changes in the circuit of the R.F.
Oscillator module. All you have to do is to lift the end of a resistor
(ARROW) and solder on a wire, and put a wire jumper across a small cap C-5
(ARROW) in the Oscillator module. By lifting the wire you are disconnecting
the temperature compensation circuit for the crystal oscillator, you will
then provide a voltage via a 100K pot mounted on the front panel of the
radio to swing C-12 a crystal varicap. By soldering a wire across C-5, which
is a "series" cap you are effectively removing it from the circuit and thus
increasing the operating value of varicap C-12 making its value higher and
more effective.
Target Module, last one in the right rear. Marking on the top is
Oscillator R.F. Unscrew the module retaining screws from the bottom of the
radio, remove the module and then remove the module cover, the cover slides
off. Take out the foam. Be sure and remove foam from the correct side.
Unsolder the end shown by the "Red Arrow"
and lift the resistor end. Do not unsolder any other wires on this terminal.
The "Yellow arrow" points to C-5. The resistor is now lifted free.
Connect a 5 inch wire to the free end and then cover the resistor and
wire connection with heat shrink for insulation and strain relief.
Moving on, the 2nd target , "Yellow Arrow" ,C-5 a 1000 pf ceramic cap. You
should be able to see the value printed on the side.
Find the connector which is in the bottom of
the oscillator module. You are going to use a spare pin to supply the
variable voltage from a panel mounted pot. Select a spare pin on the module
connector and connect the new wire from the free end of R-6 to this pin.
This way you will be able to provide a variable voltage to the module for
frequency control and still be able to plug and unplug the module without
any extra wires. I used pin 4, its a nice even number and easy to get to. I
used some type 77 ferrite beads to de-couple the wire but ran tests without
the beads and the mod functioned OK.
Diagram of the module connector located in the bottom of the module, see diagram below.
See the picture of the connector J9 underneath the chassis showing the
spare pins available. I choose pin four, the second pin over from the large
connectors A2 and A3. It all ready has my Violet wire connected. This is a good
choice to prevent shorting out the connection. This picture is for information
only you will connect the pin later.
Replace the foam with a new piece
or else carefully pick up all of the little pieces of foam that you removed
previously and glue it all back. Replace the cover and trim foam as
Remove the 115 volt fuse holder (originally suggested by Dennis Starks),
this will create a hole, the hole will be used for mounting the frequency
control pot. Heat shrink the unsoldered leads and secure with a cable tie.
See the picture of the rear of the pot mounted in the
hole, Violet the centre tap supplies the variable voltage to pin 4 of J9 (Osc
module socket), the left red wire will go to the 20 volt voltage source and
the far right wire (black) is grounded to the chassis. A small solder lug is
used for the ground wire of the pot and as a strain relief for the other
Next target area. Top arrow points to the voltage distribution strip. The
bottom arrow points to J-9 the oscillator chassis socket. Snake the wires from
the pot down and behind the front panel, secure with a solder lug and cord or
cable tie, and then run through the chassis grommet.
Connect the
RED end wire of the pot that you installed to terminal 4 of TB-4,this point
is going to supply regulated 20 volts DC from the radio's power supply. The
bottom of the picture is the rear of the radio. On some radios TB-4 was not
marked on the chassis. Connect the centre wire of your pot to pin 4 of J-9,
see diagram below. Put a piece of heat shrink on the wires. Its usually
easier to put the heat shrink on the wire first and then solder the wire.
Visitors to this page since
03 January 2003
Back to Your Articles Index Page.
Army Radio Sales Co. Home Page.


text:
Bond End Table
Item #: 6777
Additional Information
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Discover the entire Bond Collection!


text:
Rollover image for closeup
Qwik Tune Snark SN-2 Clip-on Instrument TunerItem #: MC.SN-2
List Price: $39.00
Unrated ( Be the first to review this item )
by Qwik Tune
Clip-on Instrument Tuner. Made by Qwik Tune. (MC.SN-2)
Free Shipping on this item in orders above $199
In Stock
Found in: Brass Instrument Tuners, Clarinet Tuners, Saxophone Tuners, Stringed Instrument Tuners, Trombone Tuners, Trumpet Tuners, Viola Tuners, Violin Tuners, Woodwind Tuners
The Snark Chromatic All-Instrument Tuner provides a solid connection to your instrument or music stand, precise tuning, and advanced features too! Its full color display makes it fast and easy to tune, plus it's got a tap tempo metronome, pitch calibration, and a transpose feature. Use the Snark tuner's built-in mic or internal vibration sensor to tune your instrument quickly and accurately.


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text:
- Northern New York Newspapers
- Watertown
- Ogdensburg
- Massena-Potsdam
- Lowville
- Carthage
- Malone
- NNY Business
- NNY Living
- NNY Ads
Someone must have told Mother Nature today is the first day of winter.
The snow will fly starting this afternoon and through the weekend. However, for most of Northern New York, the past two months have been a lot more green than white.
Weather spotters recorded 2 inches of snow in Watertown, nearly 17 inches in High Market and anywhere from an inch to 5 inches throughout St. Lawrence County.
So far for the month of December, were running 8.1 degrees above normal, said Buffalo National Weather Service meteorologist Aaron A. Reynolds. Were running warm.
Although the temperatures have risen as high as the upper 60s this month, Burlington, Vt., NWS meteorologist Brooke O. Taber says there is a high probability for a white Christmas.
Anywhere from 2 to 8 inches of snow will blanket the north country by the end of the weekend, Mr. Taber said. He said there is a winter weather advisory warning of wind gusts up to 25 miles per hour from this evening to Saturday night, cutting visibility down to a half-mile at times. The majority of the snow will hit higher terrain.
The temperatures behind that, by Sunday, itll definitely start feeling like winter, he said. Temperatures will drop to the teens on Sunday and in the single digits next week.
Tuesday will be partly cloudy, with a high of 21 and a low of 13, Mr. Taber said. Snow also is possible Thursday.
Mr. Taber said the rest of the month will show above-normal temperatures and average precipitation. However, he predicts January will be average, meaning a lot of snow and low temperatures.
I think that as we go into January, well get a more typical weather pattern across the area, he said.
Typical weather is what one business owner is hoping for. Dry Hill Ski Area owner Timothy L. McAtee said his business was open Saturday and Sunday but hardly anyone came out.
We learned last year that there has to be snow in everyones backyard for them to think about skiing, he said Thursday. Theres some very good snowmaking weather starting tomorrow night.
Mr. McAtee made enough snow to cover one trail and plans to open the ski area again this weekend. The lack of real snow is d�j� vu for him and is hurting his business.
Snowmaking is very expensive, he said. We were very much looking forward to winter in Northern New York, especially after last year. Day after day, week after week, people kept asking if we were open.
Thousands of readers like you have made Northern New York Newspapers the number one ranked website* for local news and sports coverage in the north country.
You can continue on to this article in a few seconds, or you can visit one of our websites:


text:
(Detroit Free Press) - President Barack Obama won Michigan in today's presidential election, beating native son Mitt Romney in a race that heavily featured Obama's rescue of General Motors and Chrysler in 2009.
The last Michigan polls just closed at 9 p.m., so few results were immediately available. But a survey of results from key precincts across the state supplied to the Free Press showed Obama winning Michigan, 54%-45%. Exit polls were also expected to show Obama with a strong lead in the state over Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who was raised in Bloomfield Hills.
Obama won Michigan by 16% four years ago.
Throughout the campaign season, pundits said they believed Michigan was almost certain to go for Obama, who made the auto rescue one of the primary examples of success in his first four years in office. After entering office, his administrated upped the investment in the two companies to $82-billion and steered GM and Chrysler through a managed bankruptcy that helped them shed debts and restructure.
Both automakers have returned to profitability.
Romney's father, George Romney, was a popular three-term governor of Michigan and head of American Motors. But Mitt Romney, 65, moved to Boston decades ago and was castigated as a turncoat by Democrats after writing an editorial for the New York Times in November 2008 in which he counseled against heavy government investment in the auto companies. It appeared under the headline, "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt."
While Romney's surrogates in Michigan insisted the state remained in play, the campaign itself did not advertise in the state, and Romney himself hadn't visited since August.
What remained to be seen was whether the issue of the auto industry played in much the same way in Ohio, a state many experts considered vital to Romney's chances of winning the White House. Polls had shown Obama with an edge there and some pundits argued that white, working-class voters were supporting the president because of his support of the auto industry.
Next to Michigan, Ohio has more auto jobs than any other state in the country.
By Todd Spangler, Detroit Free Press - Washington Staff


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A Facebook Site for the Building Industry?
Honest Buildings is a new social media platform that connects people to the buildings they live, work, and spend time in.
|The Honest Buildings website profiles more than 50,000 buildings (and counting). The founders hope that transparency and competition will accelerate demand for high-performance buildings.
Based on what you have seen and read about this project, how would you grade it? Use the stars below to indicate your assessment, five stars being the highest rating.
Imagine an online social network that's all about buildings. Architects, contractors, and engineers can connect with future clients and subcontractors, give and receive referrals, and even get RFPs and submit bids right in the same platform. Property managers and building owners can show off their retrofit projects and rental spaces.
At the same time, prospective tenants can click a button to compare the energy performance of a whole group of properties in the same neighborhood. Occupants can praise—or kvetch about—the buildings where they work.
This is the promise of Honest Buildings, a new social media platform that could be a powerful marketing tool for the design and construction community while also giving tenants and building occupants unprecedented knowledge and influence. Are we ready for this kind of transparency?
Yes, says Josh Boltuch, chief marketing officer at Honest Buildings. More to the point, he argues, we need it. "There will be more competition to be better than your next-door neighbor," explains Boltuch. "By creating this transparency, we're catalyzing competition and accelerating demand for high-performance buildings." Honest Buildings already had more than 50,000 building profiles in more than 5,000 cities at the end of its pilot phase; now it has opened the beta platform to everyone.
Any individual or organization can join the network, and anyone can submit and review buildings. Once the profile is in the system, it begins building up its "Honesty Rating"—up to seven stars—based on user reviews, location (there's a built-in Walk Score engine), activities, projects, and energy performance. Building owners and managers can find contractors and designers to help them with their next project. Service providers can showcase completed projects and network with potential clients for free or can sign up for a premium membership that includes advertising and targeted lead-generation opportunities. Boltuch's vision is to "take that word-of-mouth process that's so important for every service provider and really make it efficient and 21st-century."
Although some service providers or building owners might hesitate to lay their buildings open to public criticism, Boltuch asserts that the goal is to be positive and constructive, and that owners have a lot to gain by participating. The overwhelming trend is for more open data and transparency not only in the real estate world but also across industries, he says. Emphasizing that tens of thousands of buildings are already profiled on the website and many more will be coming, Boltuch encourages owners to claim their buildings so they can "get ahead of the curve and market what's great about their buildings."
Honest Buildings, which was founded by Riggs Kubiak (former global head of sustainability for real estate developer Tishman Speyer) has developed partnerships with the Energy Star program, the Environmental Defense Fund, Building Operator's Certification, and the CUNY High Performance Building Lab. The startup has received funding from a number of investors, including Spring Ventures.
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by Dave Brinker
Did you ever get in trouble with your mother -- as an adult? Well, I did! The
year was 1987 and I was conducting research for the Department of Natural
Resources (DNR) on colonial nesting water birds while living in a comfortable
but rustic, 50-year-old pine-paneled hunting lodge on tiny, uninhabited Tizzard
Island in Chincoteague Bay.
Electricity at our outpost consisted of 12-volt service from marine batteries
that we charged on the mainland. Running water was a shallow well and hand pump
next to the kitchen sink. The "facilities" were the new outhouse out back, and
we cooked on two stoves fired by wood or propane. That first spring out there,
my wife boasted to her mother of cooking dinner on a wood stove as we opened up
the field station over a cool Easter weekend. Refrigeration was a 1930s-style
icebox with ice hauled from Salisbury; a 100-pound block lasted a week during
April and May but barely two days in the heat of summer. And with no such thing
as cell phone service back then, the island was a remote and wonderful place to
spend two summers doing research.
The trouble with my mother started when I was fortunate enough to find the first
brown pelican (Pelicanus occidentalis) nest ever recorded in the state.
While this was great news for the Maryland Colonial Water Bird Project, we
wanted to keep it quiet until the eggs hatched. My field crew was sworn to
secrecy and only one person within DNR knew of the nest. I didn't even tell my
research counterpart on the Chesapeake Bay side of the Delmarva Peninsula!
Once the eggs hatched, we contacted the local news media with this "feel good"
story. Little did we expect that news of this nest would make the front page of
the Baltimore Sun and even get picked up by the national wire services!
I'm getting to the part about the trouble with Mom…
My father and his cousin, both Cumberland natives, left Maryland as young men in
the late 1940s to work in the factories of Milwaukee, but their hearts remained
along the Potomac River. When Cousin Jimmy read in USA Today's Maryland
Roundup that I had discovered the state's first brown pelican nest, he
immediately called Dad. And that was it for Mom. Why, she wanted to know, did
she hear such exciting news from a newspaper rather than from her own son! As
was the case in my younger days, no excuse was acceptable, not even the argument
that we didn't have a phone on the island. She never let me forget that breach
of family etiquette, even years later while birding on Delmarva with her young
grandson. But as with any good tale, the trouble I got into was well worth it;
my life and the lives of many have been enhanced by brown pelicans ever since.
A Species on the Edge
Rewind 40 years. The mid-20th century was the time of the great environmentalist
Rachel Carson's revolutionary publication, Silent Spring. Brown pelican
populations nationwide had been seriously reduced as a result of the use of the
pesticide DDT, which caused the birds to lay paper-thin eggshells that could not
be incubated properly. Virtually extirpated from the Gulf Coast and very
seriously reduced in Florida and the Carolinas, pelicans were listed by the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service as a threatened species. When the pesticide was
finally banned in the 1970s, populations slowly began to recover, first on the
Atlantic Coast and eventually on the Gulf as well. So the 1987 story of
Maryland's first brown pelican nest in recorded history was indeed big news!
As they gained their flight feathers and neared the age of fledgling, Maryland's
first five brown pelican chicks were banded with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
bird bands. Why all the fuss? This was a unique opportunity to document and
monitor an expanding bird population, to understand the expansion of pelicans
north along the Atlantic Coast.
In order to conserve and protect the species, DNR needs to know where the
pelicans from Maryland spend their winter and how successful their breeding
colonies are each year. Counting the number of breeding pairs and banding their
offspring each season provides a good way to assess the reproductive output of
the Maryland population. Since those first five, over 95 percent of the chicks
raised in the state each summer have been banded.
Maryland also cooperates with the Virginia Division Game & Inland Fisheries to
study the large pelican colony that exists across the MD-VA line on the group of
islands, some little more than sandbars, that make up the Smith Island
archipelago. As of the end of 2005, over 11,600 pelican chicks had been banded.
Hundreds have also been fitted with blue leg bands bearing easily readable codes
to increase recovery information.
Far & Wide
The banding effort has provided us with wonderful insights into the movements of
Mid-Atlantic-born brown pelicans. The first recorded in Maine was a juvenile
that had made its way to an inland lake only four weeks after being banded in
Maryland as a nearly-fledged chick. Others have reached Bermuda, Louisiana,
Texas, the Yucatan, Belize, Honduras, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. During
the winter, most Chesapeake Bay pelicans spread out from the mouth of the Bay,
south through Florida and Cuba.
Pelicans from the Mid-Atlantic population are believed to be the most migratory
of the species. The birds begin their migration in October and slowly move
south, with most reaching Florida and the Caribbean during December and January.
Yes, they behave like "snowbirds" – but without the golf carts!
As their regional population has grown, so have the locations of their colonies.
Since 1987, brown pelicans have nested on a number of islands in Delmarva's
Coastal Bays and along the Chesapeake. Two traditional colony sites --
Fisherman's Island at the mouth of the Bay and the marshes south of Ewell on
Smith Island --now represent the core of the Mid-Atlantic population, with 750
to 1,000 pairs breeding at each location. In many years, smaller satellite
breeding colonies have been found on other Chesapeake and Delmarva coastal bay
At present, Maryland retains its distinction as the northernmost state along the
Atlantic Coast where brown pelicans nest. Our birds begin nest building and egg
laying in April and most chicks leave the breeding colonies during August and
September. Since it takes 13 weeks from the start of incubation until pelican
chicks are capable of flight, expansion of breeding pelicans is limited to areas
with relatively long frost-free periods. With continued pressures from the
expanding population, the "northernmost" title will likely soon be passed to a
neighboring state, most likely New Jersey. Summer shortens quickly as one moves
north along the coast from Maryland; how far up this expansion will continue is
hard to predict but as our climate warms, there will be more room for northward
Population Explosion
In the late 1980s, no one predicted that the future of brown pelicans in
Maryland would turn out to be so dramatic. From that first nesting of four pairs
at South Point Spoils in 1987, the heronry in Chincoteague Bay, the Mid-Atlantic
population has increased exponentially to 1,500 to 2,500 breeding pairs in the
Chesapeake Bay during each of the past six summers! This truly phenomenal
expansion of breeding pelicans into the Chesapeake region illustrates the impact
of applying sound science to conservation issues. The research that was
conducted to better understand the movement of DDT though the food chain
ultimately resulted in citizen and governmental action to improve our physical
environment. These actions significantly improved the health
and lives of
Maryland citizens and our native wildlife. As a result, populations of numerous
other species – including bald eagles, peregrine falcons, and many other
lesser-known species -- have significantly recovered from mid-20th century
declines. DDT taught us a valuable lesson on the use and misuse of manmade
chemicals in our daily lives that continues to affect environmental
For now, the future of brown pelicans in the Mid-Atlantic and Chesapeake Bay
looks bright. Continued monitoring is an essential part of a good management and
conservation program. Reproductive success is closely linked to the presence of
healthy fisheries, as pelicans feed mainly on menhaden and similar schooling
fish. If forage fish populations remain stable and healthy, then pelicans should
also do well.
However, the lessons of the 20th century must not be forgotten. Environmental
conditions can change quickly. New chemicals with unknown effects are
continually being introduced, and sea level rise is eroding away the remote
nesting islands essential to many colonial breeding water bird species,
including the brown pelican. Regularly, research scientists warn us of declining
fisheries and the over-exploitation of our coastal resources.
Maintaining a healthy, diverse and fully functioning Chesapeake Bay ecosystem,
both its land and water components, is the best way to conserve both the
pelicans and the diversity of Maryland's flora and fauna. Conservation begins
with each of us, at home and in all aspects of our lives.
My parents did not live to see the phenomenal spread of brown pelicans across
their beloved home state, but their grandchildren have grown up assisting in the
bird-banding and field surveys. With proper care of the Chesapeake Bay
ecosystem, these same children may someday retell the funny story about how
Daddy got in trouble with Grandma, to be greeted with disbelief that there once
was only one brown pelican nest in Maryland.
Dave Brinker is DNR's Central Region Ecologist, specializing
in studies of water and shorebirds.


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Retro science fiction artwork by Simon Stalenhag
By The Flying Dutchman in New Art on Tuesday 20 May 2014
There is something very special about the light in the far northern latitudes. Seizing upon this readily available source of atmospheric melancholy, artist Simon Stalenhag creates strange yet familiar landscapes. Injected with retro science fiction elements and deep-rooted pop culture references, his work goes far beyond that of simple genre painting. His world may be […]
- 15
Brilliant animation takes us on a trip through the bizarre unconsciousness of a drug overdosed girl
By The Flying Dutchman in Video on Monday 19 May 2014
The short film Endtrip by directors Ballast, Fransen and de Mol is rather unlike most such explorations out there. Falling from earthly consciousness, our overdosed protagonist passes through strange, dreamlike worlds.
- 31
Spacecraft and science fiction-themed artwork by the late John Berkey
By The Flying Dutchman in New Art on Wednesday 14 May 2014
There's no school like the old school and this certainly rings true for the art of science fiction master John Berkey. His bulbous spacecraft appear in realistic environments, like an enormous exercise in kit-bashing. The sense of energy that the shapes seem to emanate will keep new fans enthralled for many years to come. He […]
Microscopic Mayhem: terrifying microscopic images of everyday mites
By The Flying Dutchman in New Photography on Thursday 17 April 2014
Don't look too close, you might not like what you see. That's what these wonderful terrors boil down to. Microscopic images of creatures found all around us, all over us and often inside us will probably send some on a spiral of germophobic OCD, while others among us will no doubt grab a sketch pad […]
- 17
Incredible wood carvings by Maskull Laserre
By The Flying Dutchman in New Art on Friday 11 April 2014
The Devil is in the details. Upon first glance, the work of Maskull Laserre seems like just another contemporary art show, seemingly random found objects arranged in a gallery space. We then notice these everyday items, which all happen to be made of wood, appear to be badly damaged in one way or another. Of […]


text:
|ASU Women's Tennis Sweeps Wofford in SoCon Finale
|Written by Paul Blascovich
|Tuesday, 10 April 2012 05:04
Closing conference play with a 5-5 record, Appalachian State University women's tennis swept Wofford, 7-0, in the team's final Southern Conference match of the season at Reeves Tennis Center on Monday. With the win,
the Mountaineers (12-9, 5-5 SoCon) tally their most overall wins and conference victories since going 13-8, 5-4 SoCon in 2006. Meanwhile, Wofford (5-13, 1-7 SoCon) falls to 1-8 on its home courts.
|Share This Article:


text:
Illyrio expected Dany to die. Varys couldn't have known Dany's dragon eggs would hatch. Viserys was crazy. The Dothraki were never very likely to cross the ocean and invade Westeros. Are we really to believe Varys' entire plans have hinged on 4 guys on a raft? What is this giligan's island? "Aegon" is supposed to be safe, in a pirate strewn, disease encrusted, war torn, corner of the world. Is that really where you store your most valuable asset?
Varys says he cares for innocents (when talking to Ned or Kevan) but murders children constantly to run his spy ring.
Why would Varys help a faceless man on mission to the Citadel to learn secrets about killing dragons? How did Jaquen get into the black cells?
Either Varys' plan to put Aegon on the throne is terrible or Varys is working for someone else.
Varys is not working for Littlefinger or the Lannisters. He's not working for the Starks. He doesn't seem to be working for Aegon's benefit, leaving him on that raft for 15 years. He wasn't doing Dany any favors marrying her to Drogo at 13. What faction is left?
The Others.
Maybe it was the Great Other Varys heard in that fire where his nuts were roasted. Maybe Varys has worked out a deal like Craster, and that's why he runs through so many children spies.
(either that or Varys is working for Euron, there's no one else left.)
Edited by The Rise of Dorne, 26 January 2013 - 05:10 PM.


text:
The Night Wanderers
Uganda's Children and the Lord's Resistance Army
(If any tax is payable it will be calculated and shown at checkout.)
moreFleeing the aggressive reach of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and their brutal leader Joseph Kony, on an average night in northern Uganda tens of thousands of children head for the city centers to avoid capture. They find refuge on the floors of aid agencies or in the streets. In recent years, the civil society was almost completely destroyed by the LRA, itself made up almost entirely of kidnapped children. Piecing together what has been broken is proving to be a nearly impossible task.
Polish journalist Wojciech Jagielski inserts himself into this hellish landscape and finds a way to speak of these children and their wounded world. In The Night Wanderers, Jagielski shows his readers the horror of children who have been abducted from their homes and forced to kill their own family members; children who, even after they have escaped the LRA, carry the weight of their own acts of murder on their young shoulders. Jagielski portrays Uganda through their eyes as well as his own. Carrying on the rich tradition of Ryszard Kapuściński, Jagielski digs himself deep into the Ugandan landscape and emerges with a compassionate, incisive, painful, magisterial account of a world that is just starting to pull itself out of the horrors of war. The original Polish edition of The Night Wanderers is shortlisted for the Nike Prize, considered to be the most prestigious literary award in Poland. less
Seven Stories Press; February 2012
Download in secure EPUB
Title: The Night Wanderers
Author: Wojciech Jagielski; Antonia Lloyd-Jones
Download in secure EPUB
Title: The Night Wanderers
Author: Wojciech Jagielski; Antonia Lloyd-Jones
Buy, download and read The Night Wanderers (eBook) by Wojciech Jagielski; Antonia Lloyd-Jones today!
More History
Killing Reagan 2015 US$ 14.99
Roots of Freedom 2014 US$ 12.99 226 pages
Arc of Justice 2007 US$ 9.99
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down 1998 US$ 9.99 339 pages
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text:
31 December 2012
cupcakes & kale: a year in review
16 comments:
beautiful post. happy new year! xoxoReplyDeleteReplies
same to you kelli!Delete
Happy New Year! Woodrow is so cute, as are those curtains! :)ReplyDeleteReplies
yep, i'm 'a smitten with him :) and the curtain fabric was sourced at good old ikea!Delete
What a full and wonderful year. Happy New Year! :)ReplyDeleteReplies
thank you heather :) all the best to you for 2013!Delete
Gorgeous post! I love it and I'm thrilled this year has brought you so much happiness!ReplyDeleteReplies
thanks sweet cadry, xo.Delete
Happy new year to you! May 2013 be just as wonderful :)ReplyDeleteReplies
i certainly hope so! thank you so much nikkiDelete
Happy New Year! And what a beautiful baby!ReplyDeleteReplies
and a happy, luminous year to you too!Delete
- AnonymousJanuary 2, 2013 at 2:37 PM
Can you post a link to that cake recipe photographed in this post? It looks amazing!!ReplyDeleteReplies
here you go!Delete
I love this post... so lovely to see a person thriving, living her bliss! Love to you and W and M. Happy new year!!! xoxReplyDelete
- AnonymousMarch 20, 2013 at 7:12 PM
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Longnecks Sports Grill: Flames engulf popular N. Ky. bar
WILDER, Ky. – Campbell County fire crews responded to a fire at Longnecks Sports Grill Tuesday evening.
Authorities said they received a call of a two-alarm fire at 5:07 p.m. The flames were out before 6 p.m.
Longnecks is located off of the AA Highway near I-275.
Hannah Chitkara tweeted an image from the scene at 5:20 p.m. showing flames coming from the building.
In an update Tuesday night on Longneck's Facebook page, the eatery said the fire was believed to be an accident started when employees were cleaning the fryers in the kitchen. They said the fire was isolated to a single fryer and caused significant smoke damage.
The message posted at 9 p.m. Tuesday read:
"Blessed be that everyone got out ok. It never got serious enough to where anyone was going to get hurt thanks to our great manager Jordan Brown. After the ashes settled and we got to walk around it really hit hard. What meant most to us was what we had always known. We just built the place. It was all of our staff and all of you who made this place. Tonight we cried with our staff and guests alike. So many of you came to grieve with us or offered your condolences through calls, text, twitter and Facebook. We are the most fortunate establishment on the planet because of our staff and our guests. We will be back and we will back better than ever. Holly's Bar will stand. Jimmy's kitchen will be stronger. And I can't wait to share a beer with you. Love you all."
There is no word how much damage was done to the shop.
The blaze is under investigation.


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Federal agencies are giving the public 30 more days to comment on a proposed rule dealing with project labor agreements in construction contracts. In an Aug. 24 Federal Register notice, the Defense Dept. and two other agencies said they are reopening the comment period through Sept. 23. The proposed rule would implement President Obama's Feb. 6 executive order encouraging agencies to consider requiring PLAs on projects over $25 million.
Rules: Comment Period Extended For PLA Proposal
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David Gefen, PhDProfessor of Management Information SystemsManagement DepartmentLeBow College of BusinessDrexel University
Music is central to human culture and is known to affect emotions and behavior. Trust too is central to human culture, determining social behavior and economic activity. Why music affects behavior and emotions and whether somehow music may affect trust is unknown. The objective of this study is to take the first steps in addressing the relationship between music and trust. The study examines how different tempos of music affect behavior during a trust game while recording neurological activity in the prefrontal cortex through functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIR). The results suggest that music and trust might be related at least in relation to Brodmann Area 9, which was associated in previous research with increased behavioral inhibition of voluntary behavior. Specifically, the data indicate that allegro vivace tempo is associated with more activity in the right dorsal region of the medial prefrontal cortex and with increased trusting behavior in the trust game when compared to data collected without background music. This may indicate that fast tempo music may reduce apprehension, apprehension that would otherwise reduce trusting behavior. On the other hand, allegretto moderato tempo results in less activity in the right dorsal region of the medial prefrontal cortex and in less trusting behavior compared to there being no music in the background. Implications will be discussed.
The Monell Chemical Center is located at 3508 Market Street.


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Salt Printing
From December 3, 2012 through December 5, 2012 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm at George Eastman House
Learn the basics of making prints with the first photographic printing process introduced by William Henry Fox Talbot in the 1830s. Mark Osterman guides participants though the steps of coating, printing, processing, and displaying salted paper prints made from historic glass and paper negatives. The class also includes an illustrated lecture on the theory of sun printing followed by class discussion and viewing original salt prints by William Henry Fox Talbot, Hill and Adamson, James Robertson, Roger Fenton, and others from the vaults of George Eastman House.
All participants receive complete instructions and formulas as well as reprints of relevant historic articles on the salt printing process.
Limited to 10, this three-day workshop is suitable for curators, photograph conservators, historians, photographers, artists, and anyone interested in the evolution of photography. No experience is necessary for this very hands-on workshop.
Tuition: $450 members, $475 non-members, plus $50 materials fee; extra-day option: $150
Cancellation Policy: Withdrawal from the workshop two weeks before the session start date will receive a refund, minus a $50 processing fee. No refunds will be given for cancellations made less than two weeks before a workshop start date. If the workshop is cancelled due to insufficient enrollment, the entire class will be fully refunded. The Eastman House is not responsible for airline ticket cancellation costs or fees. The Eastman House may take and use images, still or video, for educational and promotional purposes.
Location and Scheduling: Daily sessions begin at 9 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. Unless otherwise stated, the workshops are held at George Eastman House in Rochester, New York. Directions can be found at our website at www.eastmanhouse.org/visit/location.php.
Lodging: Lodging is not included in the cost of the workshop. Participants must make their own arrangements. The host hotel for workshops held at George Eastman House is the East Avenue Inn & Suites, www.eastaveinn.com. This hotel is within walking distance of the museum. Room rates begin at $99 per night. The East Avenue Inn & Suites also provides transportation to and from the airport. Reservations can be made by calling (800) 559-8039. When calling to make a reservation, please mention you are taking a workshop at George Eastman House to get this special rate.


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The Lego Millenium Falcon collection is the result of what started way back in 1999, when the Lego Star Wars theme was launched with the model 7140, Lego X-Wing. This was just the first release of what was soon to become a huge part of the Lego brand. Star wars was actually the first intellectual property to be licensed by Lego. They started by launching a few sets based on the original trilogy just as The Phantom Menace was released in theaters. Then they continued to release new Lego Star Wars sets every time a new movies was about to be released.
Here is a detailed history of the whole Lego Star Wars Millenium Falcon collection:
The first ever model of the legendary Han Solo's ship was released back in 2000, the Lego 7190 Millenium Falcon. This set is part of the Lego Star Wars Classic line. It has 659 pieces, is 12″ across and comes with 6 mini figures, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, Like Skywalker, R2-D2 and C-3PO.
The second set of this precious collection was released in 2003, the Lego 4488 Mini Millenium Falcon. This set is a lot smaller, and contains only 87 pieces. It comes with extra parts that allows you to build a Y-Wing Fighter when combined with parts from sets 4489, 4490 and 4491. As Lego describes it, it might be small, but it's still the fastest ship in the galaxy!
The third Star War model released was the Lego Millenium Falcon 4504. Also in the Classic Star Wars line, the Lego 4504 set was released in 2004. It has 985 pieces, has several movable parts, includes a Hoth version of the ship, as well as 5 minifigures, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, Snowtrooper, C-3PO and last but not least, Han Solo!
The next release is a real special one, the Lego 10179 Ultimate Collector's Millenium Falcon! Released in October 2007, it is one of Lego's largest sets ever produced, measuring a whopping 33″ long by 22″ wide and 8.3″ tall, yet it still scales fine with the mini figures (most other sets in Ultimate Collector Series don't). with it's 5195 pieces, and a manual of over 300 pages, this is more than a simple toy, it is a really special collectible for any true Lego StarWars fan. Note that the Lego 10179 is now very rare as it was discontinued on the 24th of June, 2010. But from my research is it still possible to find, yet not easy. This UCS set has an incredible 5195 pieces, and comes with 5 minifigures, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Chewbacca, Princess Leia, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker!
Then in August 2009 was released the Lego 7778 Midi-scale Millenium Falcon, a Star Wars 10th Anniversary Line set. This model is the first of what is supposed to be a new generation of "midi-scale" Lego StarWars sets. It is large enough to challenge advanced builders and to show a good level of details, yet too small to really support minifigures. This set has few moving parts, and is mostly layered pates rather than the traditional bricks. Unlike the Lego 10179 Millenium Falcon, this 356 pieces set is a good balance between play and display.
One of the latest sets, released in July 2011, is the Lego 7965 Millenium Falcon. Straight from the Death Star escape scene of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, this 1238 pieces vessel mesures over 15″ wide and 4″ tall, and features several moving parts such as rotating quad laser cannons, missiles, hull plates that open and a removable cockpit cover. With the Lego 7965 you also get 6 minifigures, Darth Vader (with several weapons), Princess Leia, Chewbacca, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Ben Kenobi.
Look out for my other posts where I review in great detail every single one of these models, making this the official site for everything you need to know about the Lego Millenium Falcon sets!
Lego Millenium Falcon Reviews
-Read my in-depth Lego Millenium Falcon 10179 review!
-Read my detailed Lego Millenium Falcon 4504 review!