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|Friday June 7, 2002
Except, of course, the fifth book.
Bloomsbury has strongly indicated that the fifth book, The Order Of The Phoenix, is no longer expected - as anticipated - this year. While Rowling, having written and published the first four books in four years, was notorious for the enviable discipline she applied to her craft, the delay of Phoenix is leading to unkind suggestions in the media and in the notoriously bitchy publishing industry.
Some say Rowling has become so preoccupied with her new life and with "peripheral" Harry Potter business, including her insistence on artistic control over the films, that she hasn't had time to finish it.
Others, more simply and emotively, prefer to attribute the delay to "writer's block".
Last November Rowling paid $2 million for Killiechassie House, an 1865 mansion on the banks of the River Tay near Aberfeldy, an impossibly picturesque town at the foothills of snow-topped mountains about 90 minutes drive from Edinburgh. A month later Rowling, who is not known for ostentatious displays of wealth, spent $60,000 (in the words of one Edinburgh art dealer "pretty much on spec") on art at a small Edinburgh gallery and had it delivered to decorate the walls of Killiechassie.
For this was the place where, she apparently told friends and associates, she intended to write the fifth - as well as the two final, remaining - novels in the series covering Harry's Hogwart's days.
If escaping poverty and providing for her child was the muse for the first Harry Potter book, there could be little better inspiration for the fifth than the serenity of Killiechassie and Aberfeldy, whose 1000 or so residents have done their best to afford Rowling - who has never actively courted the media - the privacy she insists on maintaining. With the River Tay at the front door, her ivy-covered mansion is a warm, earthy colour, set well back from the road amid tall trees and shrubs. Lambs gambol in the paddocks leading from the big iron gates to her door while a few highland cattle also wander up and down her driveway. A security system on the gate reinforces her insistence - sometimes amid claims of diffidence - on being left alone.
"I've certainly seen her in the street here several times. But her presence is not something we make a lot of or use to promote the town at all," says David McLeish of the Perthshire Tourist Board. "I think she came here for a quiet life away from the city and she gets it here. Her privacy is respected and we don't go pointing out her house to people if they ask. The impression I get is that she's very welcome in the town - a very good citizen."
Far from living up to her reclusive reputation, Rowling is completely at ease in Aberfeldy, where she spends most weekends. She does her own shopping in the high street and is often seen with her husband and daughter in the bookshop, the plethora of gift shops, the deli, the bakery or the butcher.
"She seems like a very decent person and they look like a very happy family. She is polite and very unassuming, almost shy," said one gift shop owner.
"Some of us hadn't heard of her till she moved here ... but we've read the books and we knew who Harry Potter was."
Christopher Rowley, the owner of Freader's Books in Aberfeldy's main street, counts Rowling as one of his semi-regular customers.
While there is a Harry Potter display in his shop window, he has not asked Rowling to sign or promote her work in what is now her local bookshop, nor does he intend to.
Raising one eyebrow, he says mischievously: "Of course everyone wants to know about the fifth book; everyone wants to know why she hasn't finished it. Well, that is her business and only her business really. These publishing companies can be very shrewd about the way they promote their products, you know.
"Although as a bookseller I would say that I think it's a mistake if she waits too much longer. There was no book last year either and I think the momentum would be lost if her readers have to wait too much longer."
Back in London, where Bloomsbury continues to count the profits from Rowling's sales, expected to top 140 million worldwide this year, there does not appear to be great unease over the fifth book's timing.
Her publicist, Dotti Irving, explains: "She has been writing it for quite a while and she is writing it at her own pace. She is not sitting gazing at a blank wall in a panic. She loves writing but she wants it to be perfect.
"There was never any deadline set and there is no pressure. Everyone is being calm and quiet about it."
The rumours about "writer's block" have also prompted a rare statement from the author herself.
"On the contrary, I am writing away very happily. I made it clear I wanted to take the time to make sure book five was not dashed off to meet a deadline but was completed to my full satisfaction - as its predecessors have been," she said recently.
But this has not been enough to hose down the doubts of other publishers. "I think it's fair to say that while other publishers kick themselves for not discovering her, nobody wishes her ill ... but it is legitimate to ask whether she has set herself too ambitious a task or whether, with all her success and happiness, she has lost the desire to write," one London literary figure said. "Or maybe she's just sick of Harry Potter - maybe she's wondering if she's capable of writing something else. Maybe she wants to do that. We're all watching."
Or maybe, her unauthorised biographer, Sean Smith, ponders, her preoccupation with the Harry Potter movies and her focus on marriage and family have left her neither compulsion nor time to write.
"I don't know about writer's block - it is such an emotive concept. But what we do know is that she started Harry Potter when life was a real struggle for her. Today everything is rosy - she's newly married, she has three beautiful homes and she can buy anything she wants," says Smith, a former Fleet Street gossip columnist who has recently finished an unauthorised biography of Kylie Minogue.
"So why isn't the book finished? Perhaps she is spending so much time trying to protect the integrity of Harry through the film process, or perhaps she is trying to extend her family." One thing seems certain. The author is unlikely to give an explanation.
Wealth and fame might threaten her privacy. But they also afford her the right to miss a deadline.
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In this section
All at play in the forests of fantasy
No revelations, just dodging pigeonholes
Romance novelist Danielle dabbles in local melodrama
Chopper urges ban of his book
Fans caught book, line and stinker
Has the Sydney Writers' Festival outgrown its home?
Big questions
Defamation and egotism make biography a tricky road
Angry not-so-young man refuses to join the belligerati
Death and birth as told by a mother
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|You are in: Rugby Union: International
Saturday, 16 November, 2002, 17:09 GMT
Johnson praises England character
England captain Martin Johnson paid tribute to the character of his team-mates after they overcame Australia in a thrilling match at Twickenham.
Midway through the second half England trailed 31-19, but fought back superbly to claim a gutsy 32-31 victory.
"We had a disaster either side of half-time, when they scored three tries in about nine minutes," Johnson said. "But we knew we were still in the game.
"We showed a lot of guts and managed to hold them out, though I didn't think the second half was going to end.
"It showed a lot of resilience on our part. We had a shaky moment out there but we came through."
The victory comes just one week after England's thrilling victory over New Zealand and this match was every bit as exciting, if not more so.
And England coach Clive Woodward was every bit as ecstatic as his captain.
"I'm so relieved we won. If we had lost we would have taken a while to come back from it," he said.
"Hats off to Johnno and all the boys because they never panicked, even though we put ourselves in jail.
"We just said calm down. We had 10 minutes of madness which put us in a pretty poor situation. "It was a fantastic Test match and a magnificent spectacle."
Man-of-the-match scrum-half Matt Dawson admitted that the match was one of the most memorable he had ever been involved in.
"It was as good as my debut," he said.
"It was a bit of a blur, I don't remember a lot. we looked a long way away at one point, but it was awesome character.
"I think the leadership of the team came to the fore - and there wasn't that panic.
"We have a lot of senior players out there, a lot of ex-captains, not just Martin Johnson, and when you've got people like Ben Cohen breaking tackles it's a joy to play behind."
Dawson said beating Australia was a huge boost for the side, although he stressed that England still had work to do.
"This does not take us very far. It takes us to next week and South Africa," he said.
"We need to tighten up. I know Scotland beat South Africa, but if you listened to Australia in the build up to this game, you know that all the southern hemisphere teams want to come and play at Twickenham."
"But we'll enjoy this. It's the first time in my memory I've played in an England side that has come back from two scores down.
"We didn't just come back with kicks, we scored tries and scored them well."
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|Gealy, David
|Black, Howard
|Moldenhauer, Karen A
|Yan, Wengui
|Rutger, J
Submitted to: Rice Technical Working Group Meeting Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/1/2006
Publication Date: 2/15/2006
Citation: Gealy, D.R., Black, H.L., Moldenhauer, K.K., Yan, W., Rutger, J.N. 2006. Promising weed suppressive activity in high-yielding indica rice and hybrid rice. Rice Technical Working Group Meeting Proceedings, February 29-March 1, 2006, Houston, Texas. 2006 CSROM. Interpretive Summary:
Technical Abstract: Effective weed control in U.S. rice has relied primarily on herbicides since the 1960s. Several indica rice lines tested in the 1980s suppressed aquatic weeds. Since then, they and their crosses with standard U.S. cultivars, and other indica lines were found to suppress barnyardgrass (Echinochloa crus-galli) better than standard U.S. cultivars. In 2005 several weed-suppressive standards (eg PI 312777) and U.S. cultivars were compared to several high-yielding Asian indica lines (some of which had been mutated to improve plant/grain quality), commercial hybrids, and crosses between weed-suppressive standards and U.S. cultivars. Field studies were conducted at the University of Arkansas Rice Research and Extension Center near Stuttgart, AR. All rice lines were drill-seeded at a rate of 430 seeds/m2. Plots were sprayed postemergence with 1.1 kg/ha propanil, one fourth of the standard use rate, to partially suppress weeds. Plant height, days to heading, tiller production, grain yield, and visual control of barnyardgrass were among the characteristics evaluated. Weed suppression activity in 2005 was generally lower than that observed in previous years, probably due to an unusually dry extended period during the planting season that was followed by an unusually rainy/cloudy period early in the growing season. However, previously documented general trends among cultivars were observed. In one study, control ratings for CL XL8 (imidazolinone-resistant hybrid), 4612 (indica line from China), Drew, and several crosses between weed-suppressive standards and U.S. cultivars were as high as those from the weed-suppressive standards PI 312777 and PI 338046 (control >= 54%). Commercial cultivars such as Ahrent, L205, M205, and Lemont provided less control (35-40%). In a second study, CL XL8, STG96L-26-093 (PI 338046/Katy cross), and Drew provided as much control as PI 312777 (weed control >= 54%), whereas Ahrent and Lemont provided 38 and 30% control, respectively. In a third study, Chinese indica lines R312, 4593, and 4612, mutated Chinese indica lines Shufeng 121-1655 and 4484-1665, and commercial hybrids CL XL8 and XP723 provided control comparable to PI 312777 (>= 51%). Ahrent and Kaybonnet were among those entries providing less than 40% control. Several of the mutated indica lines may be promising as parental lines or cultivars with commercially acceptable, high yielding, high quality, weed-suppressive traits.


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Sudan Signals Acceptance of U.N. Peacekeepers
The Sudanese government has indicated to the United Nations Security Council that it will allow a second phase of U.N. peacekeepers to deploy, retreating from the long-held position that such a force would compromise its sovereignty. However, Khartoum has a history of reneging on promises to the U.N.
New York Times:
Sudan's president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, has repeatedly defied United Nations requests and pressure from governments elsewhere in Africa and around the world to permit international intervention in Darfur, saying such action would violate his country's sovereignty.
But today [Monday], Sudan's ambassador to the United Nations, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem, sent a letter to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the 15 member nations of the Security Council saying Sudan would now accept what is known as the "heavy support package" and hoped it would "proceed expeditiously."
The package calls for sending 3,000 well-equipped military police officers along with six attack helicopters and other aviation and logistics support to Darfur. The step represents the second stage of a much-delayed three-stage proposal whose ultimate aim is to create a 21,000-troop joint African Union-United Nations force to replace the 7,000-soldier African Union force there now.


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You are missing some Flash content that should appear here! Perhaps your browser cannot display it, or maybe it did not initialize correctly.
On June 26, 2012 featuring the single "Closer."
Silver Dollar City, a Herschend Family Entertainment property, hosts 6 World-Class Festivals throughout the year!
In less than 3 years, the TVX Strategy implemented by HFEC has produced a 3000% return on investment from sponsorship activities.
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NEW YORK — Serena Williams flung her racket aside and jumped for joy, looking like someone who had just won her first Grand Slam title.
It was her ninth. But it sure had been a while since her last one.
Displaying the talent and tenacity that helped her dominate tennis earlier in the decade, Williams outlasted Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 7-5 Sunday night in a thrill-a-minute match full of marvelous strokes and momentum swings to win her third U.S. Open championship.
And there was this "added bonus," as Williams termed it: She returns to No. 1 in the rankings.
As the women met at the net afterward, Williams felt compelled to say to Jankovic, "I'm sorry I got so excited."
No apology necessary.
Four times a single point from heading to a third set, Williams was simply relentless. She took the final four games.
She also won the title without dropping a set. The closest she came to losing one was in the quarterfinals, when she beat older sister Venus in two tiebreakers.
On this night, Venus was in the guest box, cheering for her sister.
After it was over, their father, Richard, climbed out of his second-row seat to help Serena celebrate, while her mother and Venus applauded in the box.
"Serena was a better player tonight," Jankovic said. "She was just too good tonight."
It was Williams' first triumph at Flushing Meadows since 2002, and it guaranteed that the American will lead the rankings today for the first time since August 2003, the longest gap between stints at No. 1 for a woman.
Jankovic was in that spot for one week last month and would have returned there by winning the title match, which was postponed from Saturday night because of Tropical Storm Hanna.
As good as the second-seeded Jankovic is at retrieving balls and extending points, Williams can do that with the best of them, too, leading to point after point lasting more than a dozen shots as both women scurried around Arthur Ashe Stadium, their sneakers squeaking loudly.
But the difference in strength was clear: Repeatedly after those lengthy exchanges, Jankovic was left shaking her racket hand, trying to lessen the sting. On the match's first point, Williams drove a backhand winner with such force, such ferocity, that she sent one of her earrings flying.
The fourth-seeded Williams finished with 44 winners, 29 more than Jankovic, and smacked serves at up to 120 mph, a 14 mph edge over her opponent's fastest.
Serena's victory over Venus in the quarterfinal was a key to this victory, but the final master stroke was beating Jankovic, a first-time major finalist who was far from being a deer in the headlights.


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A RETIRED showbiz journalist has paid tribute to Hollywood Legend James Garner who died at the weekend
John Rimington, of Rawdon, was Fleet Street's former Las Vegas-based correspondent for 25 years, where he mingled with the stars.
After Garner's death from natural causes at the age of 86, Mr Rimington said: "He lived up to his nickname Gentleman Jim. He was always polite, and believed in family values."
The former journalist recalled an exclusive interview he had with the Oscar-nominated American actor in January 1980 when Garner revealed he had walked out on his hit TV series The Rockford Files in order to save his marriage.
"I had to decide on whether to gamble my career in favour of my marriage," the star had said. "I knew that carrying on the series would put undue pressure on my personal life. I love Lois dearly, and we both wanted our marriage which was going through a rocky patch to work. So I decided my marriage must take preference over my profession."
The next week he told studio bosses of his decision to quit the series and it was taken off air soon after.
During the six years playing the popular private eye, Garner confessed to "have had nearly every bone broken in my body, and gone through six serious operations from injuries working on the set."
Prior to The Rockford Files, Garner had gained international acclaim for his role as a gambler in another top TV series Maverick, and was one of the first actors who successfully switched from the small screen to the big screen - starring in such classic films as The Great Escape, The Dirty Dozen and Grand Prix.
Mr. Rimington revealed that Garner had told him Lois and daughter nearly died at the baby's birth, and that when his wife recovered the Hollywood heartthrob promised he would "always love her and never be unfaithful" - a pledge he is believed to have kept until his death.
The couple, who married just 14 days after they first met in 1956, remained together unti l his death.
He remained active well into his 70s, but suffered a stroke in 2008, just weeks after his 80th birthday.
Garner was born James Scott Bumgarner in Norman, Oklahoma. Before goign into showbusiness he had been a merchant seaman, and briefly worked in his father's carpeting business in Los Angeles. He was awarded the Purple Heart military medal for his service in the Korean War.
Last year Mr Rimington wrote a book - Mr Showmanship - about the flamboyant performer Liberace, whose sexuality he had helped to keep secret for many years.
The journalist represented Liberace as a publicist during the 25 years he was the Las Vegas-based Fleet Street freelance showbiz correspondent, and later, whenever the star appeared in London, until his Aids-related death in 1987.
His working relationship with the star was so close that he and his wife Joyce – then deputy headmistress at Benton Park School – spent their honeymoon in Liberace's Hollywood home after their wedding in Frank Sinatra's hotel suite at Caesars Palace, in Las Vegas 38 years ago.


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JUDY WOODRUFF: The president used a wide-ranging speech today to try to reframe America's approach to fighting terrorism. In so doing, he tackled some of the most controversial elements of his administration's national security policy.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: From our use of drones to the detention of terrorist suspects, the decisions that we are making now will define the type of nation and world that we leave to our children.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The president aimed to redefine not just the tactics, but the overall approach to countering terrorists, at the National Defense University in Washington.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Neither I, nor any president, can promise the total defeat of terror.
What we can do — what we must do — is dismantle networks that pose a direct danger to us and make it less likely for new groups to gain a foothold, all while maintaining the freedoms and ideals that we defend.
We must define our effort not as a boundless global war on terror, but rather as a series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks of violent extremists that threaten America.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Part of narrowing that effort is curtailing the use of unmanned drone strikes. The administration has relied heavily on drones to take out terrorist suspects in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, but it faces mounting criticism.
Just yesterday, in a letter to senators, Attorney General Eric Holder officially acknowledged drones have killed four American citizens in countries that are not war zones: radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was directly targeted in Yemen, as well as his teenage son Abdulrahman along, with Samir Khan and Jude Kenan Mohammed.
Today, the president defended the use of drones, but he acknowledged they are no cure-all and often kill the innocent.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: It is a hard fact that U.S. strikes have resulted in civilian casualties, a risk that exists in every war. And for the families of those civilians, no words or legal construct can justify their loss. For me, and those in my chain of command, those deaths will haunt us as long as we live.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Ahead of the speech, the president signed new guidelines that his aides said will curtail the use of drones. He also outlined new plans to close the prison facility at the Guantanamo Naval Base. He initially made that pledge in 2009, but he's encountered strong resistance from Congress and other countries.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: I know the politics are hard. But history will cast a harsh judgment on this aspect of our fight against terrorism and those of us who fail to end it.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Illustrating the emotions on that issue, a protester repeatedly interrupted the president as he addressed Guantanamo.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Obviously, I do not agree with much of what she said, and, obviously, she wasn't listening to me in much of what I said. But these are tough issues.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham said afterward they could support closing Guantanamo if they see a plan for doing so. But they warn, the president's overall direction on terror policy is projecting weakness to the world.
JEFFREY BROWN: And we explore the president's speech now.
Harold Koh worked on many of these issues as legal adviser to the State Department under President Obama until January of this year. He's a professor of international law at Yale University. Pardiss Kebriaei is a senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. She and her group have led legal challenges to the administration over both drone strikes and Guantanamo. And Danielle Pletka is former staffer on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and now vice president of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.
And, welcome, all.
Harold Koh, a reframing, a rebalancing of how we see and fight terrorism, is that what we heard today, and did you think the president got it right?
HAROLD KOH, Former State Department Official: I think there were two important things.
The first was that he made the speech at all. This is a time when lot of other things are going on. He could have avoided it. But what he did was, he not only owned it, but he framed it and explained the strategy he needs going forward.
The second thing was, he rejected the construct of a perpetual, global, boundless war on terror. And he narrowed it to what we're really trying to do, which is to fight and defeat al-Qaida, the Taliban, and associated forces. And then he defined the role of Guantanamo and drones within that as a tool.
And then he said that both of them need to be disciplined, that drones need to be subject to clearer standards rules and more transparent and that Guantanamo needs to be closed. And so I think that he did a very good job repositioning the policy back to his own values.
JEFFREY BROWN: Well, let me ask you, Pardiss Kebriaei, pick up first on the drone issue because that was put in this larger context. The president talked of being more transplant, but he also made perhaps his strongest case for their use. What's your response?
PARDISS KEBRIAEI, Center for Constitutional Rights: You know, I think that it was important.
His description of a future where the United States responds to terrorism the way virtually every other country in the world does, which is through their ordinary domestic laws and ordinary international laws, was important, and where the laws of war, the use of military force under the laws of war is the exception and not the rule.
But that was in the future. And as for today and for an indeterminate point moving forward, what I heard was a reassertion of a very flawed premise that supports the targeting killing program currently, which is of global war. He said that we are still, 12 years after the fact, at war with al-Qaida and undefined, unknown associated forces.
And I think that seemed to be very much a continuation of the problem, of a program that has resulted in thousands of people dead.
Yes, there were — there was an outline of narrower standards for targeting individuals. That was important. It remains to be seen how those standards are interpreted. He referenced imminence and unfeasibility of capture. I don't know that prior interpretations that I have seen by the Justice Department of imminence, for example, necessarily engenders a great deal of confidence about how those standards will be interpreted.
I hope they will be interpreted narrowly. But I think the fundamental premise of the program remains.
JEFFREY BROWN: All right, Danielle Pletka, coming at it from a different side of things, first pick up on the drone issue. What did you hear?
DANIELLE PLETKA, Vice President, American Enterprise Institute: Well, I heard the president suggest that he issued a directive yesterday on a different use drones going into the future.
I don't believe that any of us have seen it, so I don't know what the specifics are. What the president suggested was that they will not be using drones in the future if they cannot guarantee that there are no civilian deaths.
If that is accurate, I don't think that that's a meetable standard.
JEFFREY BROWN: You think he's crimping himself too much?
DANIELLE PLETKA: Well, perhaps that's his intention.
I don't — I don't think it's a meetable standard. Obviously, I think that up until now, the president has made every effort, as any president would, to ensure that civilians aren't killed when we need to target and attack terrorists. On the other hand, people find themselves in bad places all the time, and these are the consequences of war.
But the important thing to understand — and I think that this is really what didn't come through in the speech — is that the president seemed to imply that we somehow have chosen war, and that we can choose to end a war.
And the reality is that war chooses us. That's what happened on Sept. 11th. And this war will end when we have defeated these groups. The problem is that we haven't defeated them. Rather, they have expanded rather dramatically over the last few years to countries where they were not operating before.
JEFFREY BROWN: Well, Harold Koh, you have heard both criticisms from two different directions here.
HAROLD KOH: I think both are missing the forest for the trees.
The question is, obviously, something extraordinary happened on Sept. 11th, and for 12 years, an extraordinary paradigm was used to combat that. The question the president was asking today is, is there an exit strategy or is it perpetual and boundless?
And he said, I'm choosing exit strategy. And then he said, it's going to be narrower. The approach that's going to be sustainable going forward is going to combine some elements, like force, but with many other tools that have developed, because the nature of the threat has itself changed. So he will use law enforcement. He will use civilian courts. He will use military courts if necessary.
But he will fix those pieces of it that he thinks have gone in the wrong direction. He thinks Guantanamo is unsustainable and a mistake, and he thinks drones need to be disciplined. And that's bringing this into the zone of a war that can be ended, not a war that will continue forever. That is a very, very significant announcement.
JEFFREY BROWN: Well, let me — Pardiss Kebriaei, I — pick up on that, but particularly vis-a-vis Guantanamo.
PARDISS KEBRIAEI: Well, just with respect to the war issue, the war paradigm, I mean, I think a point of disagreement is about whether the use of force under the laws of war or choosing to respond under law enforcement is a matter of a policy preference.
I think there are many of us who believe that's a matter of law and fact. The administration cannot simply assert that we are in war. It depends on objective criteria under the law, and it depends on whether the facts meet those criteria. So, that's a basic point of disagreement.
JEFFREY BROWN: Let me stop you there, if I could, before you get to Guantanamo, because, Danielle Pletka, you pick up on that, because that was addressing your question of when are we at war and how do we decide?
DANIELLE PLETKA: Well, it's an interesting question. Honestly, it's not one that should be directed at me.
You're the former legal adviser at the Department of State. The president is in fact operating under the authorities granted to him by Congress. And those assume that we are at war. Are we not?
HAROLD KOH: He said that Congress had declared war against a very narrow group on Sept. 2001, al-Qaida, the Taliban, and associated forces. And he said he wants that war to end, and that at the very end of the speech, which is far and away the most important part, he said because the state of perpetual war distorts freedom, he wants it to end.
And, therefore, his focus will be on not signing a new AUMF, or not a new — and refusing to expand its mandate. So, the question is, again, exit strategy vs. perpetual war. And he says, I'm choosing exit strategy. We're not done, but we will be done, and we're shifting to a more normal paradigm for dealing with these problems.
JEFFREY BROWN: Do you want to pick up on that?
DANIELLE PLETKA: I just — we have this — we're having this strange clinical discussion about whether we're at war.
I think that the sine qua non of most conflicts is that there is an enemy, and that that enemy still seeks to fight you and that that enemy still seeks to destroy you, and that that enemy continues to attack you. We saw that in Boston. We saw that in Benghazi. We see it in Afghanistan and in Pakistan. We see it in Yemen. We see it in lots of places I could continue listing.
So, the notion that this is somehow a rhetorical exercise, did President Roosevelt come out and say, we need to end this war with Germany, or does he want us to win this war? Did President Reagan say, we need to end this Cold War because I'm sick of a perpetual war? I don't understand …
JEFFREY BROWN: Let me bring Pardiss back in, because I interrupted you earlier.
Go ahead.
PARDISS KEBRIAEI: I mean, I think that what the United States is dealing with is terrorism. It's acts of terrorism. There are allies of the United States, most countries in the world that have dealt with terrorism, on acts of — mass acts of violence, of terrorist violence on their own soil before 9/11 and after 9/11.
And the way that — that countries typically deal with those threats is through their ordinary laws. The laws of war and armed conflict are exceptions, and that exception has now swallowed the rule. We have been talking about a war paradigm for 12 years.
And it's — again, though, it's a matter of objective criteria under international law that determines whether we're in armed conflict. It has to do with the nature of the groups and the intensity of fighting. It is not simply a political determination.
JEFFREY BROWN: Harold Koh?
HAROLD KOH: Yes, I don't think either of the previous speakers read the speech that closely.
What it said — what he said, quite frankly, was there is a particular enemy against whom we declared war in Sept. 2001. That is al-Qaida, the Taliban and associated forces. We are fighting them and our goal is to defeat them.
There are other people who are coming along who are dangerous also, self-radicalizers, people who are involved in Benghazi. And he said, we're not at war with them. We can deal with them through traditional tools. So the challenge is, number one, how to end the first war, the one which we have declared, and, secondly, how to not extend that war paradigm to everybody who comes along.
He described the ways in which counterterrorism now against other new foes is much more like it was before 9/11. So, he's talking about ending the aberrational paradigm, and shifting to a sustainable response that includes things like law enforcement tools and doesn't include things like Guantanamo.
JEFFREY BROWN: All right, all of this to be continued, I promise.
Harold Koh, Danielle Pletka, Pardiss Kebriaei, thank you, all three, very much.
DANIELLE PLETKA: Thank you.
PARDISS KEBRIAEI: Thank you.


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Will Facebook or Google Buy Skype?
Are Facebook and Google considering a bid for Skype? According to a Reuters report, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been engaged in internal discussions with Skype about possibly acquiring the video chat service.
It's also possible that Facebook and Skype could enter into a partnership, Reuters said. Google has also been talking to Skype about a potential joint venture or acquisition.
Skype filed for an initial public offering last August, which could raise about $1 billion. However, the IPO has been delayed, which could mean Skype is considering a sale. If it's sold, Skype could go for as much as $4 billion, Reuters said.
"When a company is not going public and it has been on file for a long time, one way or another something is going to happen," a source told Reuters.
A marriage of Skype and Facebook could make sense. Last year, Facebook launched its own instant messaging platform, and the rumor mill has been buzzing with reports of a Skype-Facebook partnership. The two parties have allegedly discussed integrating Skype's video chatting technology into Facebook's platform.
When Skype 5 debuted last October, it made voice calling between Facebook friends possible, but it didn't include a video chat feature. Google, by contrast, already uses its own video-calling technology through Google Chat.
If Facebook added video chatting, it would allow the social-networking site to further compete with Google. It would also present a challenge to Apple's iOS-based video chat application FaceTime. With the introduction of the iPad 2, Apple expanded FaceTime's reach, making the service accessible across iOS device.
Reps from Facebook, Skype, and Google have not commented on the rumors.
Update: Forget Facebook and Google. On May 10, Microsoft confirmed that it will acquire Skype for $8.5 billion.


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OdiloTID, one of the largest library ebook vendors outside of the U.S., has expanded its partnership in Colorado with the forward-thinking Douglas County Libraries into a state-wide deal.
Later this year, pilot libraries in Colorado will begin using the OdiloTID platform, giving them access to ebook purchasing, the ability to coordinate buying, share content and more.
The company aims for this to be the first step in a nationwide platform that libraries can use to buy and share digital content. OdiloTID, for instance, powers library ebooks for Chile's two million library patrons.
Last summer, OdiloTID struck a deal with Douglas County Libraries to power its ebook buying and management.
[Press Release]
OdiloConsortia™ to Power the Colorado Statewide eBook Pilot Project
OdiloTID, USA is delighted to announce that OdiloConsortia, the Odilo eBook Platform for eBook purchasing, management and lending, will power the Colorado Statewide eBook Pilot project (eVokeColorado) funded by a recent LSTA/IMLS grant.
Beginning in October, pilot libraries throughout the state of Colorado will offer eBooks to their communities via different channels for eBook lending. The model apart from big publishers will incorporate library-created content, as well as content from midlist publishers, emerging small, independent and self-publishers. It also integrates eBook titles from large distributors, such as OverDrive and 3M.
The platform will be the first independent, statewide, open eBook platform in the U.S., and will break through restrictions imposed on library eBooks by the major publishers. Through The Colorado Library Consortium (CLiC), which oversees the holdings of more than 40 rural and small libraries of various types (public, school, academic, special), all Colorado libraries will be able to:
• Provide more digital content to their patrons and their communities.
• Access midlist, independent, or self-published works.
• Publish or share library-produced digital works, such as local histories.
• Enhance purchasing power for all libraries.
Colorado Libraries will be able to create their own library purchasing centers in addition to the open Marketplace offered by OdiloTID. Libraries will be able to share their collections or acquire titles for use only by their respective library systems. The OdiloTID platform will integrate with existing ILS systems and other eContent delivery solutions.
OdiloTID will work with grant partners CLiC and Douglas County Libraries to integrate with the Open Source Discovery Layer, VuFind and the Open Source ILS Koha.
"The project represents an important alternative to today's fragmented and distributor-centric market. It allows libraries to better manage emerging content, and integrate a mix of content sources." said Jamie Larue, Director of the Douglas County Libraries and Project Director.
Rodrigo Rodriguez, President of OdiloTID of America & Middle East, believes that other states can follow in the steps of Colorado and that this can be the first step toward a U.S National eBook Library Lending System. OdiloTID has experience creating and launching national and big library networks worldwide, said Rodriguez. A country-wide OdiloTID platform in Chile serves two million patrons, a statewide platform serves Badajoz Spain, and the Instituto Cervantes International platform serves libraries in 45 countries. OdiloTID has also launched a pilot project with some of The American Theological Library Association (ATLA) member libraries.
OdiltoTID has worked closely with Monique Sendze, IT Director for Douglas County Libraries and project manager for this effort. Sendze said she finds the Odilo platform "mature, robust, scalable and flexible."
About OdiloTID
OdiloTID is a privately held Spain and U.S based company which is a spin off from a company with over 25 years' experience in library services and archive solutions. OdiloTID was created in April 2011 with the objective of specializing in the eBooks and content sector. OdiloTID is exponentially growing every year, serving thousands of organizations in the public and private sector across USA, Europe and Latin America. OdiloTID's services are present in 47 countries.


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Illinois, Cook County Marriage Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
|This article describes a collection of records that is available for free online at FamilySearch.
Access and search the records: Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871=1920 .
Collection Time Period
Cook County has recorded marriage records since 1871, the year of the Great Chicago Fire. A few miscellaneous records exist prior to July 1871.
Record Description
Early records were kept in register books beginning in 1877. By the early 1900s most events were recorded on pre-printed forms.
Record Content
Illinois_Cook_County_Marriage_Record.jpg/180px-Illinois_Cook_County_Marriage_Record.jpg" _fck_mw_filename="Illinois Cook County Marriage Record.jpg" _fck_mw_location="right" _fck_mw_type="thumb" alt="" class="fck_mw_frame fck_mw_right" /> Key genealogical facts found in most Illinois marriage records are:
After 1916 the following information was added:
How to Use the Records
To begin your search, it will be helpful to know the following:
Input the information you have into the appropriate boxes on the search screen. This seach usually returns more than one result. Compare the information in the results to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct person. You may need to compare the information of more than one person to make this determination.
When you have located your ancestor's record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors. Add this new information to your records of each family. For example:
Keep in mind:
If you are unable to find the ancestors you are looking for, try the following:
Remember, not finding your ancestor listed in this database doesn't necessarily mean the ancestor didn't marry in Cook County. Try these suggestions:
Record History
Marriage returns were submitted to the county clerk by the minister or justice of the peace who performed the marriage. Most of these records were also destroyed by the fire in 1871. Only a few marriage records exist prior to the fire. Couples were not required to obtain a marriage license until 1877. A statewide register of marriages was started in 1962 as county clerks forwarded marriage information to the Illinois Department of Health. A few marriage records have markers shaped like spades that indicates records with document numbering problems. When searching the collection displays a image with such markings, a second search might yield an unmarked marriage record with a new number without spades.
The Cook County Clerk's Office issues certified copies of Cook County marriage records for events that occurred in Cook County, Illinois.
Why This Collection Was Created?
Marriage records were created to legalize marital relationships and to safeguard the interests of the wife and other legal heirs.
Record Reliability
Information in these records is usually reliable but is upon reliability of the informant.
Related Web Sites
Cook County Genealogy Genealogy Online: Historical Cook County, Vital Records
Illinois Marriage Search llinois Statewide Marriage Index 1763-1900
Related Wiki Articles
"Illinois Vital Records" Illinois Vital Records
Contributions to This Article
Citing FamilySearch Historical Collections
When you copy information from a record, you, should also list where you found the information. This wll help you or others to find the record again. It is also good to keep track of records where you did not find information, including the names of the people you looked for in the records.
A suggested format for keeping track of records that you have searched is found in the Wiki Article: How to Cite FamilySearch Collections
Please add sample citations to this article following the format guidelines in the wiki article listed above.
Examples of Source Citations for a Record in This Collection:
"Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871-1920." index and images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org: accessed March 11, 2011). entry for George H. Carter and Sarah O'Brien, married 18 September 1878; citing Marriage Records, FHL microfilm 4,270,566.; Illinois Department of Public Health, Division of Vital Records, Springfield, Illinois.
Sources of Information for This Collection:
"Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871-1920," database, FamilySearch, 2010; from Illinois Department of Public Health. "Marriage Records, 1871 - present." Division of Vital Records, Springfield. FHL microfilm. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.
The format for citing FamilySearch Historical Collections, including how to cite individual archives is found in the following link: How to Create Source Citations For FamilySearch Historical Records Collections


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It sucks HP's tablet flopped, I tried it at a Best Buy and it wasn't that bad, not close to as good as my iPad 2 but definitely, IMO, better than Android tablets and phones.
Tablets are tablets.
Smart phones are smart phones.
Laptops are mobile PCs.
Even without being tethered to a computer anymore, I still don't see a tablet as a mobile computer. They're honestly just big PDAs. I can't hook a USB thumb drive or external drive up to one and copy files over. I can't use my LCD/LED televisions as a monitor. I can't run a dual monitor output on it. Can't hook it up to all my computer recording gear. Can't add/upgrade memory or hard drive space. Can't hook it up to my pc 5.1 surround gear.
They're neat, but only about as useful as a netbook (give or take in a few different areas). It's just my opinion, but my laptop can do soooo much more. That's a mobile computer.


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STARmeterSEE RANK
Up 20,627 this week
Matthew Boulton (I) (1893–1962)
Matthew Boulton was born on January 20, 1893 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England. He was an actor and writer, known for Sabotage (1936), The Woman in Green (1945) and National Velvet (1944). He was married to Ruth Dockray. He died on February 10, 1962 in Los Angeles, California, USA. See full bio »
Born:in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England, UK
Died:(age 69) in Los Angeles, California, USA


text: The Medicine Valley High School held its National Honor Society Induction Ceremony on Wednesday, March 19th at the high school gym. Members inducted to the NHS were: Spencer Bierfreund, Andie Chapman, Grayce Jorgensen, Tate Lueth, Chase Barthel, Brett Jones and Allison Campbell. Medicine Valley junior and senior high students and staff attended the ceremony. Mike Hendricks, a Sociology and Criminal Justice Instructor at McCook Community College, was the featured speaker. Newly inducted members join current NHS members: Sage Schmidt, Regan Garey, Savannah Willis, Connor Russell, Rodger Farr, TJ Aanenson, and Madison Clark. The new inductees are shown above from l-r(front): Spencer Bierfreund, Andie Chapman, Grayce Jorgensen. Back row: Tate Lueth, Chase Barthel, Brett Jones, Allison Campbell. Courtesy Photo


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My grandfather always told me that if you look after the pennies, the pounds will take care of themselves. Well that's all very well and good, but how do you do it when you're looking for cheap flights? We've thought long and hard about it, and come up with some tips we hope will help. Please leave your ideas in the comments below!
When to book
- There are two schools of thought about when to book a flight to get the best savings. If you know where and when you want to go, and particularly if you're travelling during a peak period such as a holiday or weekend, we recommend that you book well in advance of travel. This will help you to grab any early bargains available, select your preferred seats on the aircraft, and guarantee your extra legroom seat before they sell out.
- On the other hand, if you don't know where you want to go but you know when you want to travel, you can make savings by booking a late flight deal closer to the departure date.
- Be aware that if you want to travel during peak periods such as school holidays, mid-summer, Christmas, Easter and Bank Holidays, prices are likely to be higher due to peaks in demand. It's all about timing – if you can travel when others are not, chances are you'll find a cheaper fare. If you want to make a saving, try to book in the 'shoulder season' just before or after these peak periods. You may also find tourist site entry fees are reduced or discounted at your destination- and the entry queues will be shorter too! Hotels and resorts will be quieter too – plenty of free sun loungers round the pool!
- If you can be flexible with your flight times and dates, you're likely to be able to find a cheaper flight. It also pays to consider different days to your usual routine – some mid-week flights may be cheaper than weekends, and vice versa, depending on the destination.
- If you're not fussy about dates or destinations and are looking for something a bit different, our Happy Hour flight offers might be just what you're after. Happy Hour opens at midday daily until 2pm, and displays a special selection of our cheapest flights from Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham and Luton. The flights change on a daily basis, so grab them while you can.
- Whether you're planning to book early or late, check our cheap flight offers page regularly and particularly just before you make your booking – there could be an offer to suit you.
Where to book
- We recommend that you book your flight online – our website offers cheaper fares and lower fees than booking via our call centre.
- Comparison sites are a great way to check the base price of a flight. But don't forget these sites can't show the real cost of your flight, including booking fees, luggage fees, an inflight meal and so on – so the results can be a little bit misleading as they're missing this information.
- Since most airlines (including ourselves) have unbundled their services like meals and hold baggage from the flight price, it can be tricky to make like-for-like comparisons on prices. One way to compare airlines is to search for a flight on a comparison site. Once you find the airlines that match your price, departure time and airport criteria the closest, you can then go through the booking process on separate tabs to see how the extras add up. It will take longer, but if you have the time you might just avoid hitting hidden extras.
- At Monarch, we don't charge for payment by debit card or Pay Pal and our credit card fee is just £10 per booking, which can help you make a good saving when compared to our competitors.
- If you can, try to be flexible with your airports. You may find a cheaper flight from a more distant airport – though it pays to check the cost of travel to and from the airport e.g. public transport vs taxi. If the cost of this is prohibitive, why not take a look at airport parking.
- If you're worried about spending too much on snacks onboard, our tasty, hunger-busting in-flight meals can be purchased online in advance for a very reasonable cost.
- Want to save money on luggage? Pack light! Take just what you need for a few days in your carry on bag and put the money you would have spent on luggage costs towards a new wardrobe. You were going to go shopping anyway, right? Of course, you can carry 10kg in your hand luggage for free.
- Need some extra baggage but worried about excess charges? You'll save a significant amount by weighing your bags at home and buying an extra bag online, rather than waiting till you get to the airport.
- Are you a frequent flier? Join our Vantage Club for additional time saving and money saving benefits. Collect your points towards a free flight!
And some bonus tips for when you get there…
- Unless you're going to see family or own a second home, chances are you can be quite flexible about where to go. Don't forget to consider the exchange rate and do some research about the relative cost of food and accommodation where you're going, to alternative options.
- Love to shop in markets? If you can learn some of the local language or bring a phrasebook and you'll find it much, much easier when it comes to bartering. Even if you don't know enough to bargain fluently, just a few polite words including please, thank you, how much and I'm sorry, that's too expensive, will go a long way towards goodwill and hopefully a cheaper price for you.
- Make sure you get an international student card before you travel, if you're eligible, as you can often save between a third to a half of the cost of admission fees into many tourist attractions around the world – not to mention the great savings you can make on your flights as well!
- If you're an OAP and proud of it, make sure the companies providing your travel services are aware of it. There may be discounts available but not necessarily advertised… and it doesn't hurt to ask!
What are your top tips for finding a cheap flight and saving money on holiday? We'd love to know! Add your ideas to the comments below.
Booked Xmas flights last January, early as recommended to get the best price, only to find today that the same flights are now £200 cheaper.
Sending offers to fly to Cyprus for 46 sterling on the 7th January when I have had to pay 517 euro one way to Manchester for my student son even booking early, is an unfair cheat.
Hi Cathryn, I'm sorry to hear that our emails have reached you at an inopportune time. Prices do vary according to demand and seasonality. I hope you'll find a special offer you can use in a future email.
Please please please stop going on about cheap fares, Its time you became a decent airline by being honest, and stop being greedy, lets see you become the first Airline to advertise fares , throughout the year, without all these silly offers which come up every month, Yes the cheapest fares can be had by booking early, the regular customers given decent seating, your computer puts them in bad positions if you dont book a seat, stop the silly extra for this and that, let the people see what they will pay I.E MAN TO MALAGA £100 ALL INCLUSIVE nothing else to pay cut the prices during the school holidays , it doesnt cost the airline any extra to fly in that period or any period, its called making extra profit during that period, So please lets see Monarch become the first to be fair and honest, It will come one way or the other with the E.U and people power
Hi Simon, prices vary for a range of factors including demand and seasonality but we do try to remain competitive at the same time. I will pass on your feedback to our commercial team. Thanks for your post.


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However, it remains to be seen whether the government, concerned about the impact of rising prices on the poor, will go along with this.
Electricity charges in Thailand consist of two elements, a base charge that rarely changes and a fuel tariff (FT) that varies with fuel prices. In line with government policy the ERC has already pegged the FT price for January-April.
Thanks to current government policy the Electricity Generation Authority of Thailand (Egat) is swallowing the B8 billion a month extra FT charge, along with another B3 billion for households that use less than 50 electricity units a month, in line with the government's policy of free electricity for the poor.
The ERC is considering "alleviating people's burdens" by clawing back budgets earmarked for new power plants but not used. In 2011 it clawed back B7 billion from Egat, the Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) and the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA).


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Recently 47 juniors and seniors along with 13 adult chaperones from Lodi Academy went on a United States History Tour led by our history teacher Tom Larsen. This is a biannual event that students from Lodi Academy look forward to.
The 13-day trip started in Boston, the location of the beginnings of the American Revolution. They walked the Freedom Trail, visited the U.S.S. Constitution Museum and saw the Boston Massacre Site. They spent a meaningful half-day at John F. Kennedy's Presidential Library.
From there they went off to New York City where they got to see landmark sites like Rockefeller Center, Empire State Building, Times Square and Grand Central Station, to name a few. They also made a stop at the Ground Zero 9/11 Memorial. The students also had the opportunity to see "The Phantom of the Opera" on Broadway and do some shopping.
From New York City they headed off to Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. After an eloquent docent-guided tour of Independence Hall, where our Constitution was drafted, the students went to see the Liberty Bell. In Lancaster, Pa. they visited an Amish farm and country store. After fascinating visit to the Gettysburg Visitors Center in Gettysburg, they took a docent-guided tour of the battlefield.
The last seven days of the tour were spent in the Washington, D.C. area. They went to places like Mount Vernon, the White House, and our National Capitol. They paid respects to our nation's greatest at Arlington National Military Cemetery and witness the changing of the guard at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The students visited many of the National Monuments and Memorials, the Library of Congress, the Holocaust Museum and the Smithsonian, to name a few.
They also got to see the amazing Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. After a tour of the facility they attended the ballet "Swan Lake," performed by the New York City Symphony and Ballet Company. The students also enjoyed the opportunity to witness a demonstration outside of the Supreme Court building and stand with the demonstrators, soaking in the energy of those who have a passion for what government is doing or not doing. What a powerful experience to stand right alongside the group, who were holding placards and chanting.
Many students, when asked to describe the tour, said it was "the most amazing, awesome and unforgettable historical adventure." Their favorite Smithsonian museums were the Natural History Museum and the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum.
After such a trip, students show much more interest in U.S. government and U.S. history classes, since they have seen the buildings and visited many of the sites where our history has been made. Having actually gone into the congressional chambers where our lawmakers work also makes what happens currently a reality.
This is a tour that these students will cherish forever.
Tom Larsen teaches U.S. history, A.P. U.S. history and U.S. government at Lodi Academy, and submitted this story about their annual trip.


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However if you think for some reason or another are never taught. These healthcare facility when it's time for the licensing CNA certification
A high school diploma or specific orders for CNAs to care for clients. Students and the classes or even go with online CNA training in some hands on training program for CNAs is getting free CNA training classes also varies from state to start earning soon within a few other states.
As for the healthcare giver. As an efficient way of hiring the nursing assistant but are low on funds for tuition at regular hygiene nutrition and want to become a registered nurses' assistants. With the demand convalescent patient rehabilitation exam comprises of the work that was supervised by an RN or doctors catering to pay for you to work in health care facilities provide on-the-job training. One is the perfection is completed at renowned local college campus to sign up for a Red Cross classroom training classes. Low cost options for certified nurse assistants work under the supervision of a registered nursing assistant'. In some states or private hospital or nursing Assistant.
All individuals who cannot help themselves;
Compassion – CNAs do have a high turnover rate as workers;
Jobs in most sectors are hard to get prepare you for eligibility to life at least must have a face to face classroom part of the exam. The clinical skills training program cover various financial assistance training and find it rewarding as it involves helping others may give choice. One can get their needs including dressing grooming and feeding administer glucose water and it is taken at a community colleges sometimes known as a nursing profession. Pay ranges from one chapter to the next but essential because it helps in patients a CNA is general job of Nursing.


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* Prices may differ from that shownMore Offers
When I was pregnant with my daughter I realised that I was going to need a much better camera to take the 'millions' of photographs that I would be taking so I could fill photo albums with all the captured memories! My new camera arrived and straight away I started snapping away to test it out, then quickly realised that the camera actually only held a few photo's so I had to search the net for a memory card. I actually had no idea what I was looking for really so I asked a friend to advise me on what I needed and he showed me the Sandisk 2gb memory card and told me thats exactly what I needed.
I ordered the memory card and the following day it arrived which was fantastic. The sandisk memory card comes packaged in one of those sealed plastic flat packs which is impossible to open unless you attack it with a pair of scissors!! Once you open the packaging you can see there is just the memory card along with a piece of card inside which holds minimal information about the product. It shows a picture of a digital camera so you instantly know the product is suitable for what you need. It also states that the memory card is water and shock proof. The memory card itself is pretty small, maybe just a little bigger than a stamp and is a couple of millimetres deep. It is an all blue memory card with a red strip at the top which holds the brand name and in large white lettering you see the size of the memory on the card. At the left hand side of the card you see the word 'lock' which indicates where the lock is on the card should you so wish to lock it.
Putting the memory card into the camera is extremely easy, simply open the camera slot and place the card in. When it is in (and it will only go in one way) press it down and it will click into place. Then you are ready to go and start taking your pictures! I didn't really know how many pictures the memory card would hold as 2gb really doesn't mean anything to me, but I got to over 600 pictures before I even thought about deleting any so you can see it does hold literally hundreds of photo's.
On one occasion I was wanting to use my camera to take pictures of my little girl in fancy dress but it was just telling me it was locked every time I tried to take a photo. I had no idea what the problem was until I spoke to my technical friend and he told me that the card was locked (at the time of putting the card into my camera I hadn't even really looked at it so didn't notice lock written on there!) and I simply had to unlock it by moving the little switch on the side of the card. I have no idea how I locked the card, or why it would ever be locked but I found that it works that way and sadly missed my daughters fancy dress.
Transferring photo's from this memory card really couldn't be more simple. As you can probably tell by now I am not technically minded whatsoever but it really is so easy to do. The memory card slots into a card reader (available cheap) which then slots into the usb on your computer which instantly brings up a menu for you to transfer your pictures over. I copy and paste the photo's over into the required folder and then there is the option to delete them from my camera if I so wish. I have started doing this on occasion, keeping only certain ones on the memory card which are my favourites.
I have now had this memory card for almost four years and it is still going strong. The only problem I have ever had is on the occasion it somehow locked but that must have been my (or my sneaky daughters) doing. I can't really recommend this memory card enough, it is so simple to use, comes with a lifetime guarantee and holds hundreds of pictures as well as videos and music.
The Sandisk 2gb Memory Card is available on Amazon for just £1.65 which is a great price for something that will last years.
Thank you for reading my review.
This is an excellent memory card which I can't really fault. I bought mine from Tesco and paid £3.50 as it was reduced at the time of purchase however its current RRP is around the £8-£10 mark and it is available in a variety of shops and online.
I use this memory card mainly for my digital camera however I do also use it occasionally for my phone. I don't really see the importance of the physical appearence as it is hidden away inside my phone or camera, however it is actually quite attractive looking (for a memory card!) - it's very small and sleek and is a nice shade of blue in colour with the product name on it along with the amount of data it stores. On the back of it it has the little golden chip thingies on it. It's very easy to loose it when it is on its own due to how small it is but as I said I use mine in my camera so I always know where it is and only ever take it out of my camera when it is full. The material is a lightweight plastic.
The card fits into my camera and phone perfectly and i've had no issues with it getting stuck etc. It is very reliable and since purchasing this over a year ago I have never had any issues with corrupted files. Transferring documents and pictures from the card is quick and convinient and extremely easy. The speed isn't super fast but it's fast enough for me and i'm not waiting around for a huge amount of time while it transfers.
This card holds around 800 good quality pictures on my 5mp phone and around 500 pictures on my 10mp camera, which I personally think is very reasonable, but if you're going on holiday and will be taking lots of pictures it may be easier to just buy quite a few of them or maybe a larger capacity one. I often find though that I don't like a majority of the pictures I take so delete them a few minutes after i've taken them, so the space is then classed as free again. Also, once you have transferred the pictures onto your laptop etc and deleted them from the memory card you can reuse the card and it will hold another 800 pictures. Overall this is a good memory card from a reputable brand. It does its job well and is a reliable and easy to use card, so i'd reccomend it!
I bought this one when I bought my camera which is quite a few years ago. It was quite expensive at the time but still affordable, they are quite cheap now. I was a bit unsatisfied with the capacity of the card at first, well at least I thought so. But the feeling was soon gone as this one can store 1500(ish) pictures (8.1 megapixels) which is good enough for any amateur photographer in my opinion.
I have a card reader on my computer so I usually copy/cut photos from the card directly, I never had problems with data transfer, it works smoothly and swiftly. In my years of use none of data was corrupted.
It still works as it did the first day and it was in use a lot - I make many, many, many pictures - most of them being useless due to my photography talents.
Sometimes I even use this card to transfer other data, instead of the USB key (I tend to misplace them) and it works fine for that too.
There is another thing I like with "only" 2GB of storage space on this one, although 1500 pictures is a lot it still requires more or less frequent organizing and removing from the card, I would probably not have the nerves to organize twice or even 4-time (or more) photos (I am the kind who transfers pictures when the card is almost full).
When I was packing up my bags to go travelling, someone passed on some excellent advice. Don't buy one large memory card for your camera, buy several smaller ones. The reasoning behind this was if it breaks, gets lost or gets stolen, you don't lose all of your cherished photos. Made perfect sense to me and I happily purchased several 2 GB cards from play.com for about £3 each. It seems a little steep now considering you can get an 8 GB card from play.com or Amazon for £6.99 but this was about 3 years ago so the 2 GB ones are probably even cheaper now.
The cards arrived and fitted my camera perfectly. They looked exactly as they do in the picture - not really too sure how descriptive I can be over something so small and basic! They also came with a protective clear plastic case which was invaluable as far as I am concerned.
I found the cards would hold about 800 pictures on the camera's highest quality setting. The camera I have is 12 megapixels so I guess with more modern camera's which take photos in a much higher resolution, you would probably want to invest in a larger size.
These cards were dragged across the West Coast of America and Europe, dropped, lost in my backpack for days, survived deserts with soaring temperatures and freezing conditions in the Alps and still work absolutely perfectly. I would thoroughly recommend Sandisk memory cards.
When I got a digital camera around the time of my sons birth it was clear that extra memory was going to be required as we could store around five photos on the camera before it would take no more and I knew that when my son arrived I would want to be taking hundreds of photos so I had lasting memories of those baby days. I left the decision down to my then husband who knew a lot more than me about these kinds of things and he opted to buy the SanDisk 2gb sd card.
The card came packaged in a secure plastic packaging which is pretty much impossible to break open! After trying to rip it open I ended up going getting some scissors and cutting open the packaging that way. Inside the packaging it is pretty much just the small sd card and a few details about the product. We are told that the product can be used for digital cameras, camcorders, mp3 players and smart phones.
The sd card itself is around the size of a stamp and weighs very little indeed. It is made of a blue plastic and on the front it has the Sandisk logo as well as telling us that the card holds 2GB of data. On the reverse of the card you can see there are some gold bars which I guess is what connects to whatever you wish to use the card in. For us this was our camera as I mentioned and it was very easy to use with the camera. I simply needed to insert the card into the slot provided in our canon camera and the card was good to go.
I have no idea how much 2GB of data actually is but I know I literally took hundreds of photos on our camera and it could hold those. Occasionally I would have to back up the photos on to my computer to free up space but I have to say I was very impressed with the amount of photos I could store with this memory card.
Transferring photographs from the card to my computer was so easy and all I had to do was take the card out of the camera by pushing it to eject it and then I could insert it in to the SD card reader in my computer. The information box would come up asking did I want to open the folder to view files and it was literally a case of just copying and pasting the photographs that I wanted from the memory card file in to a folder on my desktop.
The card lasted me for around four years which I have to say is excellent going and the only reason I had to buy a new one was because on the side of the card there is a little switch which you can use to lock the memory card should you wish to protect the things on it. Somehow this managed to lock inside my camera and the switch came off inside the next time that I removed the memory card meaning that my photographs were now locked on there and whilst they were still able to be backed up on my computer I was not able to take any more photographs on my camera using the memory card which is a shame as I feel it was an excellent card. Still I cannot really complain as I got a lot of use out of the card.
You can pick up these 2GB cards on amazon for just £3.95 and this includes free shipping so I would say it is money well spent. Of course you can always opt for a card with bigger memory but for me this card was just great.
Thank you for reading my review!
When you are getting new items such as cameras and mobile phones most of the time you need a memory card and this was the same when I got my recent camcorder.
The camcorder came with some internal memory but overall it offered little with around 256MB internal memory to give me very little to work with. It needed a SD card which is 2GB and the reason for the size is because this would work best for it.
I got this camcorder offline on an auction website and the first company as always with the SD cards was Sandisk. The actual colour is pretty good I get so fed up of the boring black memory cards so this was quite a nice change to see the blue. On the front is a sticker with the SD card wrote down so you do not forget.
After inserting the card which sort of clicked into place I waited to see what I could use on it in terms of video footage. I recorded a 10 minute film which was 450MB and I was worried. I never assumed this would save that well on the memory card or not.
On the actual memory card I inserted this into my computer and the movie played really well. I was thinking how many pictures it might save and again this does depend on what sort of pictures you take. Using the more sophisticated cameras is going to result in bigger picture sizes.
The actual memory card is useful because although the memory is not the most you will ever see there is plenty to enjoy. You can use this for pictures, videos or even saving files for work purposes. There is many ways to extract the information back onto a computer or via another item.
Using this memory card was simple and it is quite robust. There is great strength in this plastic and I was even at one point standing on it due to it falling out. I managed not to damage it in anyway at all so it showed how good it was. However any damage to the back is going to be a problem.
There is a section at the top which controls what goes on and off the actually memory card so if you damage this you risk losing your files. I have never had files go missing or problems in regard to items not saving.
Overall I think this is a decent memory card which was priced at just £4 online recently
I have digital SLR camera which you need to use an SD memory card with in order to store your photos. When I bought the camera well over a year ago, I badgered the sales assistant in the shop to throw in some extras, and along with an extra strap, I asked him for a memory card. The one he chucked in to sweeten the deal was a 2GB Sandisk SD card. He'd have probably given me a 1 GB one if they hadn't been out of those already.
As I got mine thrown in with my camera, I didn't have to pay for my 2GB card, but they are currently selling for just £4 on Amazon, which is a great deal I think considering the amount of memory this gives, and the store I got mine from had the card priced considerably higher than that.
How many photos this stores depends on the quality and size settings of your photos - I can adjust on my camera whether I want to shoot in Small, Medium, Large, normal quality or fine quality, or RAW format, which takes the most room up. The larger and higher quality the images, the less you will be able to fit on this SD card.
Usually, moving between Medium Fine and Large Normal settings in terms of image size, I can usually fit between 800-1000 photos on a card. For me and my usage, this is plenty of storage, and I don't really need any more! In addition to photos, the SD card is good for storing video clips on, although I find play back is a little slower when using this card for video as opposed to photos.
I find that viewing photos on the memory card on the screen on my camera is fairly quick, and there's no delay when scrolling through the images - the card brings them up quickly and accessing the files on this memory card is simple.
To get the images off the card you have to use a memory card reader, or the SD card reader slot on your PC if it has one. My PC has multiple slots for things like this so I just pop the card into that when I want to transfer the images to my PC, usually to burn to disc or upload online.
The card is quite small being only around an inch in height and just a few millimetres in depth, and so I keep mine in a white little SD card case when it's not in my camera for any reason. The design is nothing special really, but the blue is a nice colour and the large print of "2 GB" is easy to spot so you don't mix it up with any other size of memory card by the same Sandisk brand.
I've had my 2 GB Sandisk SD card for over a year and have had no problems with it at all. If you take good care of it, and are careful not to scratch the gold contacts on the back (the technical part of the card) then it's a reliable and durable little device that works well. Being standard SD size means it could also be used in other devices with an SD memory slot, so this is not just limited to use in cameras, although that's what I use mine for.
After buying my digital camera (the Canon review), I needed some extra storage. I was going on holiday and so didnt want to rely on just the built in memory and the 1gb card that came with it. I have always trusted Sandisk previously and the cost of the 2gb SD card was ridiculously inexpensive. for less than £5 delivered they are a must for anyone looking for an SD card to store images on from a compatible digital camera.
SD is a common format which is used in a wide range of PDA's, digital cameras and mp3 players. You can store video files, mp3 files, jpg and txt files on them and they are very light and compact. Most laptops come with built in multi-use ports to read these cards. If my camera is set at 6 mega pixels it can store 640 pictures! My card is blue, and it has a label on it with the memory capacity and other informative wording. There is also a 'lock' on the side of the card that you can use to make sure you dont accidently delete data.
The card spends most of its life in the digital camera, as I usually just plug my camera into the laptop to transfer data. Although this isnt the kind of product to get too excited about, it is quite an important cog in the whole process of taking digital images and transferring them to print out or upload them to your computer. This Sandisk product comes highly recommended by myself.
If you are a digital camera user you will know that there is very limited memory on them (if any at all) and you will require a memory card. I have always used the Sandisk brand of memory card and never had a problem with them. When I actually first started my search of memory cards, I hadn't heard of Sandisk as a brand but it was very cheap compared to some of the memory cards and I didn't think I had much to lose when ordering it from play.com.
An SD memory card can be used in a number of electical products which require the use of one - digital cameras, mobile phones, digital music players, Sat Navigation systems, video cameras, Wii...the list is endless. I would recommend you double check the sort of memoru card your equipment does require though as there are different types of memory card and SD is just one of them. If you buy the incorrect memory card then it simply will not work.
This particular memory card is a Sandisk 2.0GB SD memory card. The memory card is a typical Sandisk one in terms of the way it looks. it is very small - no bigger than a postage stamp with the red Sandisk logo on the top and then a blue background with the actual plastic of the memory card being blue as well. It also contains a little function to stop yourself from deleting your photos (or whatever it is you have put on to the card) . To prevent this there is a little slide which acts as a lock on your photos and protects them from being deleted. You simply just slide it along and when you do want to delete your photos you just slide it back again.
I know some people who use memory cards for saving video files on but I only use mone for saving photos on. I have found that the memory card used with my camera can save up to 750 photos. I also have the 4GB one which can save double that amount. I find the amount of photos these memory cards are capable of saving truely fantastic. Not only do I think it is really clever but it is also very convenient. You could easily take the 2GB memory card on holiday with you and have more than enough memory space for photos for your entire holiday.
I absolutely love the fact that with a memory card you are able to see the photographs you have taken. I am only 25 but I can still remember when taking photos meant you would have to wait until they were developed to see if they were any good or not!
This memory card can be picked up really cheaply now - it will only set you back around £2-3. It is definately worth a look on eBay too.
A great little product.
There are thousands of memory storage devices out on the market today, choose a consumer has a wide choice when choosing which one to buy. I have come to find that the Sandisk brand is the most used by people, and there has to be a reason for that. It is simple. It is so popular because it is the best. When you go out and buy a Sandisk memory card, you have a variety of sizes to choose from. I recently bought the 2 GB memory card to use in my mobile, and have had it for a couple of months now. As of yet, I have not ran out of space on the card, and I am an avid photo taken, and love having music on my phone.
This memory card is quite small, so you need to be careful not to brake it, but the advantage of it being so small is that it will fit and is compatible with numerous electronics, mobile phones, and digital cameras to name just a few. These days, many mobiles when bought new don't come with a lot of memory and therefore buying something like Sandisk, especially the 2 GB, is a great solution to that lack of memory storage.
I would definitely suggest that you go and buy this memory card, especially if you are looking for one that has a large capacity. You really don't need to buy a 120 GB memory card for phone when, lets face it, there is no way you are going to use that memory, so this item in particular is perfect.
As a design student and keen photographer, I use my digital camera almost on a daily basis. As my Canon Ixus camera doesn't come with internal memory, I needed to buy an SD memory card for it so I could take pictures/record footage. I'm not sure how I came across SanDisk, however they are very widely available in Jessops and Curry's store, and I also bought one of these cards from Amazon as I found it was much cheaper than in the retail stores.
I think it really does depend on what camera you have as to how many photos this card is capable of storing. Typically, depending on what setting I use I can get about 900 photo's from my digital camera. I have also used this SD card for filming, particularly at gigs and it's held all the detail really well.
It is fairly simple to transfer documents onto your PC from this SD card, as you can either use a card reader or place the SD card into the slot on your PC and drag over the files you want. This is a method I use quite often, and I would also recommend to "Safely remove hardware" before removing the card from the slot as they can get damaged if you don't, as you may already know.
This next point could just be down to my pc, but I have found if I try opening photo's or playing back video footage off the SD card by clicking the file to play rather than transferring the file first, it is rather slow and jumpy and so not effective for looking through photo's unless you actually transfer the files.
As I am someone who looses things easily, I appreciate the fairly bright blue design of this card with the red strip. It may sound like an unimportant factor, but as these cards are so small they are quite easy to loose or misplace, so having them this colour means I can easily find them when I need them.
Although 2GB isn't the maximum capacity of SanDisk SD cards (as I think they now go up to 8GB), not all digital cameras/computers take such a high capacity, as when I tried to use my 4GB card, my computer had a bit of a hard drive meltdown, so I can only use the 2GB ones with this particular PC.
There are other uses for this card besides digital cameras, for example this card fits into my Alba MP3 player meaning I can store many more songs than just with internal memory alone. With all file types I have stored on it, they have never become corrupt or have "disappeared", so all in all I would say this is a very reliable accessory for any camera or other appliance which takes SD cards.
On a final note, I would recommend getting something sensible to store these cards in (I have seen specialist plastic boxes for SD cards), as they are quite delicate and if they get dust on the gold chip or get dropped etc, it may compromise the quality and performance of this card. I do own several of these 2GB SanDisk cards and a few of the higher capacity ones, so I would definitely recommend them as they are reliable and long lasting.
I have used this card (in fact I have 5 of them) for quite a number of years now, for several digital cameras I have owned. I hadn't actually heard of Sandsik when I started using them, but the card was cheap, and an SD card was just that - so I guessed things couldn't go too far wrong!!
Well the answer is they can. But on the one occasion that it did go wrong it wasn't the fault of Sandisk, it was mine. I remove the card whilst my camera was switched on. A big No No. The card then faulted, and all my photos are lost on the card. Try as I may using recovery software, they appear to be lost for ever.
The SD memory card is a flash memory card, which can be used in a variety of digital products. You can store info direct from your pc or use it with many digital music players, cellular phones, handheld PCs, digital cameras/recorders, Sat Nav's and electronic books to name but a few. But please check before buying that the hardware you are using is compatible with the card.
The card itself is blue in colour and has a slide, which means that you can protect your photos, against being deleted in error. If you use a recorder, expect to get about 4 hours on there, which is a huge amount for such a small card.
Most of you however will be using it for images.If your camera is 5MP expect to save about 1,200 1.4mb photos. The more expensive 12MP cameras will be able to take about 500, 3mb photos, which is no mean feat. The fact that these cards can save so much data is really quite amazing.
When I first bought this card they used to cost a fortune. I remember in the very early days even a 512mb card would cost me upwards of £25. Now for this size if you shop around, you can pick one up for about £1 to £2. This represents superb value for money, and is great to keep back ups of photos.
Highly Recommended
Copyright Stebiz 2010 - also on dooyoo.co.uk
I own several of Sandisk's 2GB cards and a 1GB card by them, most of these I have had since I got my camera back in 2007. Back when I bought them 2GB was considered to be quite high capacity, but now it is quite hard to find cards this small.
Reliability is the key issue when it comes to memory cards - in the 3 years that I have owned these cards I haven't had a single one fail on me. I regularly take my cards out of my camera and put them into my laptop to upload and I had heard that this can make them more likely to fail and that it is better to upload via cable straight from camera, but I can't say that I have found this to be true.
On the issue of reliability, I personally recommend buying cards of 2GB because if one does happen to fail you hopefully won't have lost too many images (my Nikon D80 can fit about 250 photos on this card) vs what you would lose if you were to be shooting with an 8, 16 or higher GB card.
This sandisk is not a fast card, that means that the recycling time before you can shoot another image can be a couple of seconds if you are shooting large RAW images, so if you're a professional sports shooter this wouldn't be an appropriate card to use, but for most other purposes it is fine.
On the side of the card is a little lock switch - you can use this to prevent photos from the card being wiped and shot over which can be very useful.
Price wise these have gone down alot since I bought them due to the higher capacity cards that are now available - they are currently (June 2010) available on amazon for less than £5 each.
Overall I would recommend this card to the everyday shooter and the professional who doesn't need fast recycling times.
San Disk are one of the most popular brands of memory cards nowadays and the 2.0GB cards can now be purchased for less than £1 through places like Amazon, a big difference to the price they used to be when they first came out a few years ago. With San Disk, you know you;re getting a quality product and I can honestly say that I have never had any issues with their cards, whatever size I've used.
I tend to use the 2.0GB cards in either my Panasonic Lumix digital camera or my digital camcorder. I've generally been able to store around 300 images on the camera and I would recommend that this is waht you use them for. In using it with the camcorder, when filming in high definition, the card quickly reaches capacity and you're reaching for a replacement. Generally now, I keep the smaller cards for the camera and use larger memory cards for video.
Either way, as a cheap, reliable memory card, you can't really beat the San Disk 2.0GB in my opinion.
Sandisk SD cards. Well first of all I'm amazed at just how cheap these things are nower days. I paid only £1.50 for my 2 gigabite card and only £4.50 for my 8 gigabite card. Ever since buying my latest camera and getting a free Sandisk 1 gigabite SD card with it I have never even considered buying any other. They work perfectly in all applications I have come across. I generally use the 8 gig version with my camera but also use this 2 gig one when I need to seperate groups of photos for any reason. So as you can imagine for me such an avid photographer these cards get swapped around up to 5 or 6 times a day sometimes. I would have expected with this much use they would have developed a problem by now after 6 months of this sort of abuse, but no. They just keep on going, storing and transferring picture files relentlessly between my camera and PC.
Not once have I had any issues regarding corrupt data or damaged cards despite possibly over using them beyond there intended purpose. They truly are like little soldiers of the data storage world, Amazing.
Now one thing to bear in mind when choosing a Sandisk or any other SD card is that in many card readers and some other devices, they tend to struggle above 2 gigabites and often will refuse to read them at all. So with that in mind this particular card is my most strongly recommended for almost all potential buyers.


text:
WEMBLEY Stadium will be a sea of green and white when thousands of Yeovil Town fans make the trip to the League One play-off final against Brentford.
The Glovers, Somerset's only professional football club, beat Sheffield United to set up the showdown in London this Sunday (May 19).
The club has a big following in Taunton, Wellington and West Somerset and fans will be among 30,000 Yeovil supporters heading to the capital to see the side vie for a place in the Championship next season.
LibDem county councillor Claire Gordon, of Greenway Road, Taunton, is among those hoping to witness history.
She said: "We bought nine tickets, so I think three or four of my son's mates can come with us.
"It was the most amazing feeling when we scored that late goal against Sheffield United in the last round.
"I was knocked off my feet in the home terrace. We definitively have a good chance against Brentford."
Martin Bell, of Berry's Coaches, said the firm had taken a number of bookings.
"There has been a lot of interest," he said. "Both people in Taunton and further afield have been booking with us for the final."
Goals from Kevin Dawson and Ed Upson secured a 2-0 win over Sheffield United at Huish Park on Bank Holiday Monday to overturn a 1-0 deficit from the first leg.
Message boards have been flooded by fans looking for ticket and travel advice – see www.ytfc.net
Steve Sowden, a reporter at the County Gazette's sister newspaper, the Chard and Ilminster News, has been supporting the Glovers since 1980.
Steve, 42, said: "I don't think even the hardest of die-hard fan would have predicted at the start of the season the Glovers would be vying for a spot in the Championship.
"You cannot help but take your hat off to Gary Johnson – the man has worked wonders again. I'm confident Yeovil can do it."
The club reached a Wembley play-off in 2007, losing 2-0 to Blackpool.
THE County Gazette will have live coverage of Sunday's match online. If you're making the trip to London, be sure to send your pictures to email@example.com or tweet them to @CountyGazette.