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This man has to have 24 hour care and the person who had completed his form for him as his disability prevents him had not included something in the 30 page form which meant that due to that error his money will stop.
These forms are very lengthy they are complicated and they ask many intimate and intrusive questions very like the Disability benefit forms I complete on behalf of my children (Disability Living Allowance) they suck the hope out of you as you detail why those you care for need help.
The problem isn't the fact that you have to ask for help, it isn't the time it takes to complete them, it isn't the caring that you have to do at the same time, It isn't the humiliation that you feel as you complete them, it isn't the shame culture which has grown up in recent years around those legitimately asking for help, it isn't the grinding struggle of life with a condition or impairment which robs your dignity, it isn't the lack of a support network which isolates you, it isn't the fear of hate crime, or mate crime which vulnerable people face, it isn't the mental health issues which are a real and present danger for those who struggle to fit in to a world not created for disability, it isn't the lack of disability access which greet many disabled people who are called to an assessment with untrained staff, it isn't the MP's (from all parties)who show compassion in a photo with a disabled child only to vote for policies which will render them "undesirables", it isn't the Tabloid press who brand genuinely disabled people as scroungers and scum.
It isn't any one of those things. It's all of them.
The man was deemed fit for work, by virtue of an error a mistake. This mistake will take weeks to rectify and if reading this you still feel that this is a justifiable process in order to weed out the liars and fakes living in mansions and driving luxury cars, I ask you to think again.
The fact is that more money is lost in DWP error, than is lost through benefits granted to liars and fakes.
The fact that you feel this is a justification at all simply means that you have been desensitised by effective propaganda because Disabled people are the new scapegoats de jour.
Hopefully this error will be addressed but how long will it take and how was this allowed to happen?
Irrespective of what was omitted the words blind, deaf, epilepsy, non-verbal, were all, I'm sure included as were contact details, and medical contacts. A simple phone call would have resolved this issue rather than a systemic failure of a vulnerable man and a letter no doubt 2nd class announcing the cessation of all benefits with the only right to reply a lengthy and complicated appeal.
My thoughts are with those without a support network, those who are killing themselves because they have lost, or fear losing their benefits.
We have turned disabled people into the enemy within, as our hearts harden against the very people who need us the most.
The battle against disabled people shames us all.


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i still really like my concept of a dungeon i have created.
You have 3 bosses, one is a rogue, sneaking from anywhere at anytime in the instance, the next is a paladin, she(he) summons 1 random player in an arena and they fight pvp style.
The last is warlock/blood mage à la ToB; all the mobs you killed in the instance increase the power of the spells of the boss.
I might be really fuckan high on c-c-c-c-cocaine right now, but this concept would make an intance so much more interesting, people staying on their guards for the rogue, fighting like pvp(suck it PvE fags) ad the final boss who requires to skip as much trash as you can.

subset: commoncrawl


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Cannot Delete Properties: Error While Deleting Key
Earlier this week I got into a Windows registry mess because of issues syncing my iPhone with my Windows 7 laptop. For some reason the AutoPlay function stopped working so I had to get into the registry and manually delete some keys. Along the way I ran into Windows Registry Keys that I was unable to delete however by using the directions below you can delete any registry key. Please note that you should not modify anything in your Windows Registry without knowing what you are doing and also without making sure you have backed up the registry before you begin.


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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. Department of the Treasury said Tuesday it'll sell all of its remaining 234.2 million shares of American International Group Inc. AIG, -2.34% common stock at $32.50 per share in an underwritten public offering. The aggregate proceeds from the common stock offering are expected to be about $7.6 billion. "Since the financial crisis, AIG has undertaken a dramatic restructuring effort, which put it in a stronger position to repay taxpayers," the Treasury said in a statement. "The size of the company has been cut nearly in half as it sold non-core assets and focused on its core insurance operations." After Tuesday's offering, the U.S. Treasury will continue to hold warrants to purchase about 2.7 million shares of AIG common stock, which will "provide an additional positive return to taxpayers."
Treasury selling 234 mln shares in final AIG sale
Quote References
-1.26 -2.34%


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Ryan Mathews says change will be good for the Chargers.
Explaining why, the running back suggested the team had fallen into a rut under Norv Turner.
"I think we were just complacent," Mathews told the NFL Network. "At times, because he had spent a lot of time there, it was just the same routine over and over again. There wasn't anything new. He did everything he could to make us win, no doubt about it...We thought we were owed to win games."
Mathews also spoke of how he intends to stay healthy.
"Everyone always ask me if I am made of glass," Mathews said. "I just need to stop taking so many hits, quit fighting for extra yards when I don't need to. It has been a little bit of bad luck too. I broke both my collarbones and that's rare."
My reactions:
• Several Chargers players will not appreciate Mathews speaking for them. Did he intend to speak for them? Only he knows, but I doubt it. Mathews has been a supporting player and personality, not a team leader, in his three seasons with the club.
• Mathews is repeating the change-is-good message of Chargers president Dean Spanos and showing appreciation for new coach Mike McCoy. Make no mistake: Spanos is excited, as he explained to our Kevin Acee.
• The comment about not "fighting for yards" is nearly identical to what Mathews' locker-room neighbor Ronnie Brown told me after the season, as Mathews listened in. Brown said it's a lesson that he himself had to learn. The ankle injury Mathews suffered in the second game of his career, in 2010, when Jaguars defenders stood him up and twisted him over a pile of bodies, may have been due to excessive effort. But his collarbone fractures weren't caused by fighting for extra yards.
• Mathews ought to be excited about the new coaching staff. If any Chargers player needs a chance to start anew, it's No. 24. Then again, I doubt Turner will ever beg his new employer, the Browns, to trade for Mathews, who, to pick one example, wasn't suitably fit when training camp opened in 2011.
• I think Turner probably asked too much of Mathews in his first game back from the first collarbone injury. I also think Mathews couldn't have appreciated how A.J. Smith responded to his critical fumble in that same game, the 27-3 loss to the Falcons in Week Three. Venting to Acee a few days later, Smith spoke of "chronic fumblers" and what happens to them: "You will be somebody else's fumbler." Ironically, Smith got shown the door, whereas Mathews survived.
The 2013 season should let us know if Mathews will follow Smith and Turner out of San Diego.


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am·bi·tion /amˈbiSHən/ - a strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work. A desire and determination to achieve success.
At Ambit Energy, it's no coincidence that our annual conference is called AMBITION. Every fall, Independent Consultants from across the U.S. come together in Dallas for an amazing three days of motivational, professional and personal development. Plus, there are phenomenal awards and recognition for their achievements during the past year – not to mention tons of Texas-sized FUN! And with attendance and excitement growing every year, this event serves as the catalyst that turbocharges our Consultants on their road to success. And it's the one Ambit event that Consultants don't want to miss!
AMBITION 2017 took place from August 30 through September 2, and Ambit celebrated in great style, unveiling a bold new look, looking back on our successful expansion into Japan and ahead to our newest opportunity in Canada. We also prepared our Consultants for future growth with more key announcements, new products, recognition and training.
AMBITION 2017 Awards, Photos and News
AMBITION 2016 was an amazing opportunity for us all to discover new products, new technologies, new opportunities, and more than anything else, the amazing power of dedicated, inspired people working together toward a common goal. Here are some of the fun excitement and memories of this great event.
AMBITION 2016 Awards, Photos and News
AMBITION 2015 was an amazing opportunity for us all to discover new products, new technologies, new opportunities, and more than anything else, the amazing power of dedicated, inspired people working together toward a common goal. Here are some of the fun excitement and memories of this great event.
AMBITION 2015 Awards, Photos and News
AMBITION 2014 truly broke through to a whole new level. An outstanding collection of speakers and trainers inspired and instructed attendees on how to turn their goals into reality, and Ambit's executives unveiled breaking news about new markets, the latest promotion and exciting technology. Of course, there was time for fun, too, with the Consultants rallying to win our first-ever kickball game 5-4, an elegant "Great Gatsby" themed party and honors for our outstanding Consultants. It will be a challenge, but we're already working to top this year's event in 2015.
AMBITION 2014 Awards, Photos and News
Thanks to our determined Consultants, Ambit has recently set some game-changing benchmarks – surpassing $1 billion in annual revenue, exceeding 1 million Customers and being ranked as the 14th largest direct selling company in the world.
AMBITION 2013 kept this momentum rolling. Our breakout sessions, guest speakers and special events all empowered our Consultants to defy limitations, seize their potential and "Reach Further." The can't-miss event filled Dallas' biggest and best venues with breaking announcements, industry insight, networking, excitement and results-focused programs bound to enhance success. Check out our Photo Galleries to see what a great time everyone had, and remember, it's not too soon to start thinking about AMBITION 2014.
When we look back on AMBITION 2012, so many words come to mind — especially those like "biggest," "best" and "greatest!"
We want to thank all of our outstanding Consultants, our remarkable speakers and special guests, AMBITION 2012 Award Winners plus everyone from Corporate, Customer Care and Consultant Support who made this year our biggest, best and greatest event ever!
Our biggest and most power-packed AMBITION yet, AMBITION 2011 set a new standard for business-building training, exciting announcements, engaging events and high impact surprises. We've set our sights on taking on our most inspiring challenges for the upcoming year with announcements of our newest markets.
AMBITION 2010 marked another record-breaking year as everyone with Ambit Energy rallied and took success to the next level. Consultants raised their goals and growth expectations even higher with four days of events, announcements, training and more.
AMBITION continues to grow as AMBITION 2009 set a landmark attendance record and included three days of training and events.
Held at the Anatole Hotel in Dallas, AMBITION 2008 was a tour-de-force of celebration and recognition.
AMBITION 2007 was our inaugural annual company-wide event, held just south of Austin, Texas.


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Will Gunn was on a training mission to Buenos Aires when he learned that he might be chosen as the lead defense counsel in the trials by military tribunal of the detainees at Guantánamo Bay. The military has placed approximately six hundred and fifty suspected war criminals, captured in connection with the war in Afghanistan, in custody at the American naval base in Cuba—the interrogation and detention center now officially known as Joint Task Force Guantánamo. Their ranks, and thus Gunn's potential clients, could include Osama bin Laden, if he is ever captured. "My first reaction was, Is somebody trying to torpedo my career?" Gunn, a colonel in the Air Force, recalled recently. "It occurred to me that there would be people who would not be able to understand how I could represent individuals who are characterized as enemies of the United States."
Gunn, a career military lawyer, is forty-five years old and African-American. At six feet seven, he is used to viewing things from a distance, and he made a thorough evaluation of the opportunity that had been presented to him. "For me, a critical component of how I make decisions is I try to weigh the costs from a rational and intellectual standpoint, and I also pray about it," he said. Many friends advised him against taking the job, and his pastor was noncommittal. "We really don't know what God is trying to do," the pastor told Gunn.
The son of a high-school teacher and a social worker from Fort Lauderdale—and a graduate of the Air Force Academy and of Harvard Law School—Gunn has made steady progress through the military hierarchy; many of his colleagues thought the tribunal job would not help if he wanted to be promoted to general. Still, Gunn said, "I felt I could do the job well. I believe that the greatest risk to the country is that these trials could be conducted in such a way where the world's perception is that they are illegitimate proceedings. What I would bring to the table, I believe, is that I could divorce myself from concern about career advancement, and I could focus on doing my utmost to see that the process was in fact legitimate by pursuing a zealous defense." So when the general counsel to the Department of Defense offered Gunn the job, in January of 2003, he accepted. He now supervises a staff of six lawyers, from behind a set of unmarked doors in an anonymous office building close to the Pentagon.
More than two years after the September 11th attacks, the Bush Administration's approach to the legal aspects of its war on terrorism resembles its diplomatic and military strategy: aggressive, unilateral, and unapologetic. Gunn and his staff therefore find themselves in an awkward position, risking criticism for assisting some of the least popular clients in the West and for participating in a game rigged against those clients. Because the tribunals are likely to begin soon, Gunn's role has taken on new urgency. The Department of Defense has almost finished establishing the procedures for the tribunals, and the Bush Administration has designated six of the Guantánamo detainees as the probable first defendants. In the spring, the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments on a separate request by several prisoners, represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights and a private law firm, that they be allowed to challenge, in the American courts, their continued incarceration. But the absence of legal proceedings, as much as the cases themselves, may illustrate more about the Administration's war on terror—and about the place of the rule of law in this new kind of war.
Paradoxes abound in Guantánamo Bay. It's in Cuba, but almost no one speaks Spanish. It's a focus of international attention, but the hardest thing for many of the Americans who work there is the boredom. Some of these peculiarities can be traced to the origins of the American presence there in the Spanish-American War. After American and Cuban forces evicted the Spanish from the island in 1898, United States forces remained on forty-five square miles along the southern coast, an idyllic patch of Caribbean coastline where four-foot-long iguanas may startle unwary pedestrians.
The American presence became official with a treaty signed by the two nations in 1903. "The most important part of the agreement was that it became a perpetual lease," Les McCoy, the Navy captain in charge of the base, told me when I visited Guantánamo in December. "Unless we abandon the base, it will remain a U.S. base unless we both agree that Cuba should get it back." The annual rent is now four thousand and eighty-five dollars. The American government offers payment to the Cuban government every year, but during the four decades that Fidel Castro has ruled Cuba his government has not accepted it.
From its earliest days as a coaling station for warships, the base at Guantánamo Bay had little military importance, but during the Cold War it was a tense outpost. American and Cuban troops never fought, but the seventeen-mile fence between the two forces was lined by the biggest minefield in the world. (During the nineteen-nineties, the Americans removed their mines; the Cuban mines remain.) In the nineteen-sixties, the Navy built a desalination plant rather than rely on Cuban water, and many of the roads on the base still have small compartments designed to hold explosives, which were to be set off to slow the possible advance of Cuban troops. But the explosives have been gone for years, and Captain McCoy meets with his Cuban counterpart once a month, with the aim of heading off any misunderstandings. When I climbed one of the watchtowers along the border, the marine on duty let me look through his field glasses at the Cuban troops stationed a few hundred yards away. "We have staring contests," he told me with a grin. As McCoy said, "We don't guard the border so much as survey it."
The war in Afghanistan created an unprecedented level of activity at Guantánamo Bay and gave it international notoriety. In January, 2002, the military began moving prisoners there from Afghanistan, and all the armed services, not just the Navy, were asked to run Joint Task Force Guantánamo. In a gesture to promote interservice coöperation, members of the task force call each other not soldiers, sailors, or marines but, rather, "troopers." The Administration labelled the prisoners "unlawful combatants" rather than prisoners of war, and thus denied them the protections of the Geneva convention—a decision that provoked wide international disapproval. Among the rights granted by the Geneva convention is the right to an individual hearing to determine the status of each prisoner. (The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights has accused the Administration of using the term "unlawful combatant" in order to "avoid well-established standards of U.S. and international law." The Administration's view, expressed by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, is that the detainees are "committed terrorists" and therefore not entitled to P.O.W. status.)
At first, the detainees were housed in a facility that had held a stream of Cuban and Haitian refugees in the early nineties. That structure, which had been hastily built, was little more than a series of interlocking chain-link fences surrounded by barbed wire; it was known as Camp X-Ray. It was replaced in April of 2002 by the much larger and more secure Camp Delta, a sprawling complex at the remote western edge of the base, which comprises two dozen buildings, six guard towers, several interrogation trailers, and a hospital, all wrapped in six layers of barbed wire.
The construction of Camp Delta was a huge undertaking; it has already cost at least seventy million dollars. About two hundred journalists, delegations from fifty foreign governments, and many American elected officials have toured the base in the past eighteen months. Most detainees "inside the wire" are housed in seven-by-eight-foot cells built in blocks of forty-eight; the cellblocks, made of steel mesh, are open to the elements, though a roof keeps out the rain.
Nearly all the inmates are Muslim. The call to prayer sounds over loudspeakers five times a day, and in each cell a spray-painted arrow points toward Mecca. Food in the prison is prepared according to halal dietary requirements. Commander Louis Louk, Jr., a podiatrist and reservist who is the officer in charge of the detention hospital, notes that most of the detainees have gained weight. "They get fat very quickly," he said. "Two other big complaints are constipation and sports injuries—sprained ankles and toes, from volleyball and soccer." Most of the prisoners spend as much as twenty-three hours a day in their cells, with an hour for exercise. Apart from this daily recreation and one shower a week, they leave their cells only for interrogation. By the standards of American maximum-security prisons, the conditions at Camp Delta are harsh but not unusual. Delegates from the International Committee of the Red Cross have visited the detainees. That organization, in keeping with its practice, has refused to comment publicly on conditions at the base, preferring to negotiate directly with American officials.
On a day-to-day basis, Camp Delta is run by Colonel Jerry Cannon, an Army reservist who is otherwise the sheriff of Kalkaska County, in rural Michigan. As he led my tour group of six journalists though an empty cellblock, he pointed to one of the cells and chuckled. "Heck, in my jail back home, there would be two people in there," he said. (Actually, according to officials at Cannon's jail, their cells for two are about forty-five per cent larger than those at Camp Delta.) There is no execution chamber at Guantánamo, although under tribunal rules the death penalty may be imposed for certain offenses.
Criticism of the American operation at Guantánamo has focussed less on the conditions of incarceration than on its indefinite length. The military has disclosed the number of prisoners, and the fact that they included three teen-agers, who were kept in a small house known as Camp Iguana. (Last week, the Pentagon announced that the three juveniles had been released, after more than a year on the base.) The military has also disclosed that the inmates are citizens of forty-four countries. (A sign in the Camp Delta hospital indicated that patients there speak Arabic, Pashto, Urdu, Uighur, Russian, and Farsi.) But, with two exceptions, authorities have not disclosed the prisoners' names, and they have not said when, if ever, the detainees will be released or prosecuted. Twenty-one inmates have attempted suicide, some more than once. None of the suicide attempts were successful, though one prisoner who tried to hang himself was in a coma for three months and remains hospitalized.
There have been no suicide attempts in the past six months, but the International Committee of the Red Cross said last fall that the detainees were suffering "a worrying deterioration" in mental health because Washington had ignored their appeals for legal rights. Camp Delta has increased psychological evaluations of the prisoners, and about fifteen per cent are receiving medication and counselling; guards are supposed to look at each prisoner at least twice a minute. In the past year, about eighty new prisoners have arrived at Camp Delta, and about the same number have been sent home, most of them to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and a few to Saudi Arabia. American officials have not given reasons for either the releases or the arrivals. (Human Rights Watch has said that as many as several dozen detainees are farmers and other civilians.)
Recently, a shingled two-story office building that sits on a bluff overlooking the bay has been renovated and painted yellow. Its new official name is the Yellow Office Building, but it's an open secret that the renovation included a new courtroom on the ground floor—the site of the pending military tribunals, also known as "commissions"—so most people now call it the commissions building. Will Gunn and his staff have already visited it, and paced the floor where they will defend their clients.
A military tribunal is a streamlined legal proceeding that amounts to something less than a criminal trial or a court-martial. Throughout American history, the armed forces have generally employed some kind of tribunal to dispense rough justice in time of war to non-citizens on foreign soil. After the Second World War, the American military government in Germany conducted hundreds of such proceedings. Starting in late 2001, the Bush Administration set out its rules for tribunals, and they basically conform to the Second World War model: military lawyers and judges, flexible rules of evidence, and no right of appeal to the federal court system.
Gunn takes a cautious approach to his role. "I think the process is legitimate now," Gunn told me. "I do not necessarily say, 'Wow, yeah, I love each and every one of these rules, and this is exactly the way that I would have drafted them.' " Gunn's subordinates display fewer inhibitions. Charlie Swift, a lieutenant commander in the Navy, decided to be a lawyer when, as a navigator on a frigate in Indonesia, he helped four sailors who had been sent to a local jail after being arrested for marijuana possession. "As I was standing on the bridge, I said, 'I like doing that better,' " Swift recalled. He went to law school when he was in his early thirties, and now, at forty-two, he represents Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni national being held at Guantánamo. A Marine lawyer on Gunn's staff, Michael Mori, represents David Hicks, an Australian prisoner. Despite diplomatic pressure from around the world, these are the only two detainees who have been identified by the government or provided with lawyers.
"I certainly think these tribunals have the potential to be a rigged game," Swift told me. For example, the trials will be conducted before panels of three to seven officers, but all major legal rulings may be appealed only to the Pentagon, not to the federal courts, as courts-martial can be. "That's like, when there is a controversial call in football, turning it over to the home coach and asking if it's right," Swift says. Even more controversial are the rules about monitoring attorney-client conversations. "They say they can monitor my conversations with my clients, to prevent future terrorism," Swift says. "But I don't think I'm a risk to spread that information. I don't think my loyalty to the United States is under any question." The stated justification for allowing monitoring of attorney-client conversations is to allow the military to gather intelligence. "So, if they haven't gotten someone to talk, they can give him a lawyer and see if he talks to him," Swift says. "That turns the attorney into an agent of the government. You are using the legal system improperly. You are using the incentive to tell the truth to a lawyer against him. I find that disturbing."
Pentagon lawyers assert that the tribunals will adequately protect a defendant's rights. "We have built in a great many procedural safeguards—proof beyond a reasonable doubt, presumption of innocence, military attorney free of charge or private defense counsel at no expense to the government, no adverse inference from remaining silent, the ability to call witnesses," Major John Smith, a Pentagon attorney, says. "We don't fight a war the same way we conduct a police investigation. We are geared toward accepting evidence from the battlefield. It's not more or less fair—it's just different. We recognize the unique battlefield requirements. You are not getting search warrants. There are no Miranda warnings." As for monitoring attorney-client conversations, Smith says that those recordings will be used only for intelligence-gathering, not in prosecuting the detainees.
Even with these modest protections of defendants' rights, no one on Gunn's team displays much optimism about any of the tribunals ending with triumphant walks by lawyer and client into the Caribbean sunset. "The mantra that you will hear from me is that our first obligation is to insure full and fair trials," Gunn says. "I feel it's my obligation to hold the government to that." Michael Mori puts the point more bluntly. "It's a noble thing to stand up for someone who might have no one else in the world to stand up for him," he says. "Marines love underdogs. I'm a marine."
The boldest step taken so far by Gunn's team involves the case before the United States Supreme Court. In the past two years, human-rights groups and others have filed several lawsuits attempting to force the government to justify the indefinite term of the incarcerations. The government has fought these lawsuits furiously, arguing that the detainees have no right to bring cases in United States courtrooms, and that to give them such a right would undermine the President's authority and risk the lives of American troops. As Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson put it in his brief to the Supreme Court, "This litigation challenges the President's military detentions while American soldiers and their allies are still engaged in armed conflict against an unprincipled, unconventional, and savage foe."
In the Supreme Court case, that foe has an unusual ally: the military lawyers who work for Will Gunn. The lawyers, in an extraordinary brief filed on January 14th, directly contradicted the Bush Administration's position, arguing that "the struggle against terrorism is potentially never-ending. The Constitution cannot countenance an open-ended Presidential power, with no civilian review whatsoever, to try anyone the President deems subject to a military tribunal, whose rules and judges have been selected by the prosecuting authority itself." The case actually turns on a fairly narrow question of international law—and it involves one of the most peculiar precedents in Supreme Court history.
That case emerged from the period after the end of the Second World War, when American forces arrested German nationals who were continuing their fight in, of all places, China. In a military tribunal, twenty-one Germans were convicted of continuing hostilities against the United States after their government had surrendered. The German nationals sued in United States federal court to challenge their incarceration. In 1950, the Supreme Court ruled six to three that the prisoners had no right to sue, because they were not American citizens and were not situated "within any territory over which the United States is sovereign."
" 'Sovereignty' is an amorphous term, but it's clear what the Court was worried about," Kal Raustiala, a professor of international law at U.C.L.A.'s law school, says. "If you capture people on a foreign battlefield during a war, it would be crazy to let them file lawsuits in an American court. But it's clear that if they are inside the U.S. they can file lawsuits to challenge their detention. The harder questions are about territories that we control but that are not actually part of America. So the Court makes the test: If we have sovereignty over the place, then we let people sue."
The question now before the Supreme Court is whether the United States exercises sovereignty over its naval base at Guantánamo Bay. If it does, the detainees have a right to sue; if not, they don't. The Bush Administration's argument is that, because of the century-old treaty with Cuba, Castro, not Bush, is the true sovereign of the base. As the Solicitor General put it in his brief, "The military base at Guantánamo is not, and is not remotely like, an American territory."
The most persuasive refutation of the Administration's position may be Guantánamo itself. "This place is more like America than America," Captain McCoy, the commander of the naval base, told me as we sat in his office, which overlooks the bay. "It has been described as Mayberry R.F.D. with bad neighbors. There is little or no crime. It's like the fifties around here." The base, with a population of about five thousand, does resemble a small town. There is an outdoor movie theatre, a nine-hole golf course, and a McDonald's—the only one in Cuba. The speed limit is twenty-five m.p.h. on all roads, and there are no traffic lights. Military charters arrive from Florida about twice a week, and a few small airlines run flights to the base airstrip from Jamaica and other spots in the Caribbean. No one is allowed to fly in without approval from the military.
Of course, the reason that the military sends detainees to Guantánamo is its absolute security. Armed sentries in camouflage patrol the perimeter at all times. In the mess hall adjacent to Camp Delta, where the most popular treat seems to be Ben & Jerry's Peace Pops, Captain Gregg Langevin, a reservist from Sturbridge, Massachusetts, told me, "We have different teams to handle break-ins and break-outs, not that there have been any of them. There are electronic sensors and infrared sensors. It all seems like massive overkill. There doesn't seem to be the slightest chance of escape. The whole mission here is to keep from getting bored. One of my guys found a six-foot boa constrictor in his Humvee."
There are about twenty-two hundred military personnel at the base, and a little more than half of them are reservists or National Guardsmen. The rest of the population consists of contractors—people who cook the meals and collect the trash—and they are, for the most part, Jamaicans and Filipinos. Until the early sixties, as many as thirty-five hundred Cubans came to work every day at the base; today, just five elderly Cubans commute across the border. If Castro is sovereign on Guantánamo, it is only in the narrowest technical sense.
A practical understanding of the term "sovereign" suggests that the detainees have at least a reasonable chance of winning their case in the Supreme Court. However, such a victory would mean only that the government would have to present evidence to justify the incarceration of the detainees who filed suit; no one seems to think that any American court would dare order the military to release anyone. From a legal standpoint, and from the appearance of the base itself, it is clear that the prisoners—and the prison—at Guantánamo Bay will be there for a long time.
Even though the base now has its own courthouse, tribunals are far from the top priority of Joint Task Force Guantánamo. Geoffrey D. Miller, a two-star Army general, who is the task force's over-all commander, made this clear. A fifty-five-year old former artillery officer, Miller has directed his troopers to greet one another with the words "honor bound," a reference to the task-force slogan, "Honor Bound to Defend Freedom." He told me, "The joint task force's mission is to detain enemy combatants and develop intelligence to win the global war on terror. We are not about law enforcement, or rehabilitation, or punishment. We are here for intelligence." The interrogations of the detainees, which take place in windowless trailers set up beside the cellblocks, are carried out in great secrecy; journalists are not allowed to look inside the trailers or speak to prisoners.
"We are after three kinds of intelligence—strategic, operational, and tactical," General Miller said. "Tactical is perishable and decays quickly—what kind of weapon, who was in his little group. That is the start for interrogation, and that's mostly done over in Afghanistan, as soon as they are caught. Operational-level intelligence is how are terrorist cells formed. How are they recruited? How do they maintain themselves? How are they linked inside the country? Strategic is how money moves, how is it financed."
The interrogations themselves generally unfold in one of two ways. "In about eighty per cent of the cases, it's really almost conversation," the General said. "They become coöperative. Many of them have recognized that what they participated in was wrong. We show the enormous positive change that has gone on in Afghanistan—roads being built. We have a lot of pictures that we bring in. We do incentives-based interrogation. We found that is by far the best way."
As for the uncoöperative prisoners—the remaining fifteen to twenty per cent—Miller says that teams of two to five questioners interrogate them for up to sixteen hours a day. "Sometimes it's quite aggressive, but we don't use physically forceful methods, no stress positions, and we don't do sleep deprivation, which we define as more than sixteen hours a day," Miller says. "Incentives-based interrogation" for recalcitrant prisoners can include granting or withholding such religious items as prayer oil, beads, and rugs.
The biggest incentive offered to the prisoners is getting transferred to Camp Four, where there are far fewer restrictions on the detainees' movements than in the rest of Camp Delta. The hundred and sixty prisoners at Camp Four sleep in dormitory-style bunks rather than in cells, and are free to circulate within the camp for most of the day. As Jerry Cannon, the supervisor of Camp Delta, puts it, "If you don't give it up in the booth, you can stay right where you are." When I walked through Camp Four, I saw about a dozen prisoners eating apples at picnic tables. Several prisoners have learned English, and they chatted easily with the M.P.s. The guards don't want the prisoners to know their names, so they place tape over their nameplates.
The crucial question, of course, is whether the interrogations at Camp Delta have produced valuable information—and whether continuing interrogations of the same prisoners, some of whom have been there for two years, can yield useful intelligence. Miller says that the base has produced "information of enormous value," but there is no way to confirm this claim. "I cannot give you examples," he said. "This joint task force is like an iceberg. Ninety per cent is below the water. But we provide actionable intelligence for current action in Afghanistan." (Osama bin Laden's two top captured aides are being held elsewhere. There are no prisoners from Iraq in Guantánamo. The Iraqis are being treated as prisoners of war and for the most part are still being held in Iraq.) In his discussions of the work of the joint task force, Miller mentions military tribunals only in passing. "Should we be asked to do a military commission, we will be able to do it," he said. "Within about thirty days, we could put all that together." But with so few of the detainees declared eligible, the tribunals may not have much significance.
Still, Colonel Gunn and his colleagues speak earnestly of the value of a legal defense, even in wartime. Gunn has been studying John Adams's defense of British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre, in 1770. In two trials that year, Adams won acquittals for seven of nine Redcoats charged in the death of five Americans. As David McCullough recounts in his biography of Adams, the second President later recalled his role in the case as "one of the most gallant, generous, manly and disinterested actions of my whole life, and one of the best pieces of service I ever rendered my country." Gunn says of the Adams precedent, "His business suffered for a while, but he said it was actually one of the most important pieces of work that he ever did, because he believed that, based on the evidence, if those folk had been convicted and sentenced to die, that would have been a great tragedy, and that would have been harmful to the cause of liberty. I look at that, and I am encouraged by that."
Although the fighting in Afghanistan seems to be winding down, operations at Guantánamo Bay are not. Construction is now under way on Camp Five, which will be an interrogation center to replace the trailers. Gunn's team may have clients for the indefinite future. "I think we will be here until we win the global war on terror, however long it takes," General Miller said. "Salt water is tough on anything you build out here, but these are durable buildings. They are good for ten years, maybe a little longer." ♦


text: Dr Salim Alam PhD In 'People' Academic staffHonorary staffDoctoral researchers Back to 'School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences' School of Geography, Earth and Environmental SciencesResearch Fellow Contact details Telephone+44 (0) 121 414 email@example.com View my research portal AddressSchool of Geography, Earth and Environmental SciencesUniversity of Birmingham Edgbaston Birmingham B15 2TT UK Dr Alam's research focuses on understanding the chemistry of key atmospheric pollutants. His research involves interpreting laboratory and field measurements using numerical modelling, and improving the accuracy of chemistry within atmospheric models. Qualifications 2007-2011 Ph.D Atmospheric Science. University of Birmingham 2003-2006 BSc (Hons) Chemistry with Pharmacology (Class I). University of Birmingham Biography Dr Alam obtained his BSc in Chemistry with Pharmacology (2006) and PhD in Atmospheric Science (2011) from the University of Birmingham. His PhD research included the study of gas phase reactions of alkenes and ozone and their implications in the Earth's atmosphere; where he completed his laboratory studies at the European Photoreactor (EUPHORE) smog simulation chamber, Valencia, Spain. He is currently working as a Research Fellow continuing his interest in the measurement of key atmospheric pollutants and their interactions in the troposphere. Postgraduate supervision Anna (Eun-Hwa) Jang Research Atmospheric chemistry and composition Tropospheric oxidation reactions Alkene ozonolysis Air Pollution and Meteorology Numerical modeling Particulate Matter and Human Exposure GCxGC-ToF-MS Analysis Current and Recent Research Fundamental studies of the sources, properties and environmental behavious of exhaust nanoparticles from road vehicles (FASTER) The aim of this project is to study, at a fundamental level, the composition and properties of semi-volatile constituents of vehicle exhaust particles, and to measure and model their behaviour in the atmosphere. This will be completed by elucidating the composition of the exhaust particles utilising GCxGC-ToF-MS and studying thier conversion to vapour. This information will then be exploited to develop models of traffic particle behavious in street canyons and the urban atmosphere. Collaborators: Prof Roy Harrison, Prof Rob MacKenzie, Dr Xiaoming Cai, Prof Hongming Xu, Dr Irina Nikolova and Mr Christopher Stark Sources and atmospheric processes determining airborne concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and their degradation products Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) are ubiquitous organic pollutants, emitted into the atmosphere through incomplete combustion of organic materials. They are present in both gaseous and associated with particulate matter and are harmful to human health. PAHs can react with other constituents in the atmosphere which can lead to the formation of products such as quinones, which may be more toxic than their parent PAH. The aim of this project was to determine the sources and atmospheric processes of airborne concentrations of PAH and their degradation products. This was completed by sampling from various monitoring stations throughout the UK using meteorological and air pollution instrumentation collecting environmental data and PAHs / quinones, respectively. The data collected was then subjected to GC-MS analysis followed by interpretation using positive matrix factorisation. Collaborators: Prof Roy Harrison, Dr Juana Maria Delgado-Saborit and Mr Christopher Stark Total Radical Production and Degradation Products from Alkene Ozonolysis Unsaturated VOCs (alkenes) are emitted to the atmosphere both anthropogenically and biogenically from natural sources. Alkenes react with ozone leading to the production of organic species such as HCHO, acetone and acetaldehyde, as well as radical species HO2, RO2 and OH. The formation of these radicals (HO2, RO2 and OH) is of significant interest, as it may influence the radical budget in the urban and rural environments; ultimately affecting the removal of pollutants and greenhouse gases, otherwise known as the oxidative capacity of the atmosphere. The aim of this project was to directly observe the degradation products from selected alkene ozone reactions. The experiments were performed in an outdoor smog simulation chamber (EUPHORE) equipped with a range of instrumentation, including Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) and Chemical-Ionisation Time-Of-Flight Mass-Spectrometry (CIR-TOF-MS) to measure OH/HO2 and VOCs/OVOCs, respectively. The results were interpreted through detailed numerical modelling, drawing upon atmospheric models, namely the Master Chemical Mechanism. Reaction rate coefficients, humidity dependent radical yields and stable product yields were compared with those simulated, and implications for atmospheric oxidant levels were explored. Collaborators: Dr William Bloss (PhD, Supervisor), Dr Andrew Rickard (Leeds), Dr Marie Camredon (Paris) and Prof Paul Monks (Leicester) Interferences in commercial nitric oxide(s) analysers Nitric oxide(s) (NO and NO2) are important air pollutants which drive hydrocarbon oxidation in the atmosphere. NOx abundance controls the levels of the atmospheric oxidants OH, NO3 and ozone, and also regulates the production of ozone resulting from the degradation of VOCs. Accurate measurement of nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere is therefore of major importance in understanding the atmosphere. This project was designed to quantify the interference posed by alkenes, monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes in the nitric oxide mode of detection in commercial nitric oxide(s) analysers; and was achieved by testing a range of commercially available analysers at the EUPHORE smog simulation chamber. Collaborators: Dr William Bloss, Dr James Lee (York), Dr Monica Varquez (Valencia) Other activities Royal Society of Chemistry: MRSC Publications 2013 E. Jang, M. S. Alam and R. M. Harrison. Source apportionment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in urban air using positive matrix factorization and spatial distribution analysis. Atmospheric Environment. 79, 271-285, 2013 J.M. Delgado-Saborit, M.S. Alam, K.J. Godri Pollitt, C. Stark and R.M. Harrison. Analysis of atmospheric concentrations of quinones and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in vapour and particulate phases. Atmospheric Environment. 77, 974-982, 2013 M.S. Alam, J.M. Delgado-Saborit, C. Stark and R.M. Harrison. Using atmospheric measurements of PAH and quinone compounds at roadside and urban background sites to assess sources and reactivity. Atmospheric Environment. 77, 24-35, 2013 M. S. Alam, A. G. Scarlett, C. E. West, S. J. Rowland and R. M. Harrison. Application of 2D-GCMS reveals many industrial chemicals in airborne particulate matter, Atmospheric Environment. 65, 101–111, 2013 M.S. Alam, J.M. Delgado-Saborit, C. Stark and R.M. Harrison. Investigating PAH Relative Reactivity using congener profiles, quinone measurements and back trajectories. Atmospheric Chemistry & Physics Discussion. 2013 (submitted) M.S. Alam, A. R. Rickard, M. Camredon, T. Carr, K. P. Wyche, K. Hornsby, P. S. Monks and W. J. Bloss. Radical product yields from the ozonolysis of short chain alkenes under atmospheric boundary layer conditions. Journal of Physical Chemistry A. 2013 (submitted) M.S. Alam, A. R. Rickard, M. Camredon, T. Carr, K. P. Wyche, K. Hornsby, P. S. Monks and W. J. Bloss. Stable product yields from the ozonolysis of short chain alkenes under atmospheric boundary layer conditions. Journal of Physical Chemistry A. 2013 (In preparation) W.J. Bloss, M.S. Alam, J.D. Lee, M. Martinez. Alkene interference in chemiluminscent NOx measurements. Atmospheric Measurements Techniques Discussion. 2013 (In preparation) 2011 M. S. Alam, M. Camredon, A. R. Rickard, T. Carr, K. Hornsby, K. P. Wyche, P. S. Monks and W. J. Bloss. Total radical yields from tropospheric ethene ozonolysis. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. 13, 11002–11015, 2011 2010 M. Camredon, J. F. Hamilton, M. S. Alam, K. P. Wyche, T. Carr, I. R. White, P. S. Monks, A. R. Rickard, and W. J. Bloss. Distribution of gaseous and particulate organic composition during dark α-pinene ozonolysis. Atmospheric Chemistry & Physics. 10, 2893–2917, 2010View all publications in research portal


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The Field Services Section, Superfund Division, Region 5 has the ability to perform limited field surveys at hazardous waste sites. The Section has staff and equipment to provide the following services using various techniques and field equipment:
The following underwater survey equipment is available to the Region through the US EPA Emergency Response Team (ERT):
The following diving and diving support resources are available to the Region through the US EPA Emergency Response Team (ERT):
The Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Surface Warfare Program directs the U.S. Navy's Salvage Program which stems from 10 U.S.C.§7361-7364 (Salvage Facilities Act) authorizing the Secretary of the Navy to provide necessary salvage facilities for public and private vessels and settle claims for salvage services rendered by the Navy. This authority allows for the maintenance of a national salvage and oil spill response capability for use in peacetime, war, or national emergency, many of the primary responsibilities of which are assigned directly to SUPSALV. The NAVSEA 24-hour duty number is (202) 781-3889.
Information about SUPSALV is available online at www.supsalv.org/00c25_home.asp?destPage=00c25&pageId=25.1.
A variety of land-based remote sensing methods exist which have been successfully used and are commercially available through contractors. Contact US EPA for details and to access its contracted resources.
Aerial remote sensing, primarily used for locating pollutants in water, is in its early stages of development. Technologies are similar to land-based systems; however, data acquisition and interpretation are costly and of limited value. The agencies listed below have capabilities and experts that can be consulted regarding the use of these techniques.
CAMEO is a suite of software tools developed by EPA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to assist front-line chemical emergency planners and responders. They can use CAMEO to access, store, and evaluate information critical for developing emergency plans. For more information, visit www2.epa.gov/cameo/what-cameo-software-suite.
ALOHA is the hazard modeling program for the CAMEO software suite. It allows users to enter details about a real or potential chemical release, and then it will generate threat zone estimates for various types of hazards. ALOHA can model toxic gas clouds, flammable gas clouds, BLEVEs (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosions), jet fires, pool fires, and vapor cloud explosions. For more information about ALOHA, visit www2.epa.gov/cameo/aloha-software.
The most current weather information can be found on the National Weather Service website at
Click here for Flood Planning Viewer
The GLOS Data Portal provides access to near-realtime and archived observations and to model forecasts for the Great Lakes. For more information, visit GLOS.US.


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Nova Careers
Careers are listed on novacommunications.com, you will be redirected in 5 seconds
Nova Communications is a wireless voice and data communications company, and the largest communications systems integrator in Atlantic Canada. Our team of more than 25 staff across the Maritimes service a wide variety of corporate and government customers within the public safety, energy, transportation, construction and resource sectors. Learn More »


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The technology behind IPTV is standardized, but those standards are coming from a host of different bodies and cover various parts of the transmission path. The result is alphabet soup: IPTV systems use technologies standardized by 3GPP, TISPAN, ATIS IIF, OMA, DBV, DNLA, HGI, and ITU-T, but making them all work seamlessly together is a major undertaking. Current set-top boxes must be tuned to work with specific IPTV implementations, but a new group hopes to change all that and allow consumer equipment to work seamlessly with multiple service providers.
The Open IPTV Forum will function as a sort of meta-standardization body that makes all the current standards work smoothly from headend to home; the group has no desire to start creating new low-level standards from scratch. "It is essential to find a way to bridge the different islands of standardization in order to accelerate market deployments," said the group in a statement.
Founding members include AT&T, which is in the midst of the only large-scale IPTV rollout in the US, Ericsson, France Telecom, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Siemens Networks, Sony, and Telecom Italian. Despite the Euro-weighted membership list, the Forum will be developing an "open end-to-end IPTV platform that can be applied globally." They aim to have a first draft of both architecture and protocol specifications ready by December 2007.
Microsoft is a notable no-show on the group's roster, since its IPTV software has been widely deployed around the world. It powers the new BT Vision service in the UK, for instance, and Microsoft technology also powers AT&T's U-verse project, though there have been persistent rumors that AT&T has not been happy with performance. Though the Open IPTV Forum says that it will be open to other members later this year, Microsoft's initial absence is regrettable to those who just want their IPTV. We asked Microsoft about the reason for their absence from the group but received no response prior to publication.
Should the Forum's work prove successful, consumer IPTV equipment should prove capable of working with different service providers—something that cable boxes have long failed to do. The CableCARD initiative in the US represents the government's attempt to separate the security and navigation functions of a set-top box so that any device can work with any cable operator. That program has run into problems, in part because cable operators have had to support CableCARDs but did not need to use them in their own boxes (that will change this summer when an "integration ban" is scheduled to go into effect). The Open IPTV Forum's work might well mean that IPTV boxes will be able to access multiple services without government involvement, and their work should give customers more choice. And—hopefully—lower prices.


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Ian Marvy
Our Fellows
Ian Marvy
2002 Global Fellow
Founder of Added Value
Ian Marvy 2002 Global Fellow
Nurture a new generation of leaders to promote the sustainable development of Red Hook in South Brooklyn.
Ian Marvy is the co-founder and Executive Director of Added Value, and a resident of the Red Hook, the Brooklyn neighborhood where his organization works. Prior to founding Added Value, Ian spent 15 years organizing youth to become a positive force for social change in post-industrial cities and towns like Holyoke, Massachusetts, Camden, New Jersey, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He also spent two years in New York designing service-learning programs for youth caught up in the juvenile justice system. Ian is a graduate of Hampshire College, where he majored in Political Theory and American History, receiving the Peace and World Security Scholars Fellowship and the Social Justice Scholarship.
- 2002 Fellow
- Global Fellow
- Education
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- Poverty Alleviation & Economic Development
- North America
- United States
Bold Idea and summary information may only be accurate as of the awarding of the Fellowship. Echoing Green attempts to maintain current Experience information, but for their most recent status it may be best to contact the Fellow directly.
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Meet today's bête noir among the politically-correct crowd — NBC's Luke Russert. When Nancy Pelosi announced that she would not step aside for fresh leadership for the House Democratic caucus, Russert had the temerity to ask whether that decision would make the caucus leadership a little too old to relate to younger voters. Russert goed booed for his question, while Pelosi claimed that no one would ask that question about a man:
When Pelosi took questions from reporters, NBC's Luke Russert asked her whether she thought the House Democratic leadership is too old.
"The answer is no," Pelosi responded as her colleagues booed loudly. She later called the question offensive and noted that reporters rarely ask such questions of male leaders, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
"Everything that I have done in my almost decade now of leadership is to elect younger and newer people to the Congress," Pelosi said. "In my own personal experience, it was very important for me to elect young women."
But the question is worth asking, because Democratic lawmakers have said privately that the party need to begin fostering younger leaders. Pelosi, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), an assistant to Pelosi, are all in their 70s.
In fact, I mentioned that in my post this morning that preceded Pelosi's presser. The Republican leadership in the House is noticeably younger, and if Cathy McMorris Rodgers wins her leadership fight with Tom Price (both excellent choices, in my opinion), it will get younger still. The comparison will not go unnoticed by political analysts.
For that matter, age issues didn't go unnoticed in this past election by the media, either. It would be impossible to measure the amount of analysis that went into the stark differences in support between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney based on age demographics. Why would that not relate to the age of the political leadership in play? It's not "age discrimination," as the catcalls at the presser claimed, for some voters to feel less affinity for political leaders because they are too far removed from their own personal experience. At least it wasn't when Democrats attacked Republicans all year for not being diverse enough to attract a national coalition.


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Preparing for ALMA in Light of HST and JWST:ALMA Community Day Event at STScI
ALMA Community Day Event at STScI
Monday, April 18, 2011
The Atacama Large Millimeter Array(ALMA) project is the next large ground-based telescope to come online. It will provide forefront capabilities in the mm and sub-mm wavebands. By the end of 2011, when early science with ALMA commences with 16 antennae, ALMA will be the most sensitive mm and sub-mm telescope. The full-up ALMA project will have more than 50 antennae, greatly increasing the capabilities in these wavelength regions. The science topics at which ALMA will excel have much in common with questions being pursued now by HST and in the future, JWST. The purpose of the event was to enable people to learn about ALMA and prepare for the early science phase of the project. The event featured NRAO personnel leading updates on ALMA's capabilities as well as walk-through demonstrations of proposing and observing tools, discussion of mm/sub-mm observing techniques, and discussions focussed on maximizing the scientific return of ALMA, HST, and JWST.
STScI hosted a Community Day event on April 18, 2011.


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Kids feel pain of of government shutdown
Natalie DiBlasio hosts USA NOW for Oct. 2, 2013, asking, "Are politicians going overboard with PR stunts?" USA NOW, USA TODAY, Kaveh Rezaei
A long shutdown could mean heartache, homelessness and worse for many Americans.
Children are the collateral damage of the government shutdown as it heads into Day 3.
The federal shutdown has forced pre-kindergarten classes to close. Patients with incurable diseases have been turned away from a federal hospital. Millions of America's poorest children are at risk of losing baby formula and healthy meals provided by federal programs.
The National Institutes of Health's Clinical Center closed its doors due to the shutdown, turning away about 30 children who come seeking cures for incurable illnesses from cancer to infectious diseases, said Francis Collins, director of the NIH.
"When I think of the patients who come here — we are their last hope and to have to turn them away, how can I not feel emotional about that," he says. "It's pretty disheartening. ... As the director of the NIH, I feel powerless."
Collins said the Clinical Center receives on average about 200 new patients every week, about 30 of them children.
Congressional Republicans have proposed a series of piecemeal bills to address funding lapses for popular government services and agencies.
House Republicans are scheduled to advance Wednesday a bill to reinstate NIH funding so that cancer treatments and other medical programs can continue unabated.
Twenty-three programs across 10 states and Puerto Rico have no money to provide classes, meals and health services to almost 19,000 low-income children under 5. More closures are threatened if the shutdown lasts more than a month.
Vanessa Rich, president of the National Head Start Association board, says programs with fiscal years that began on Oct. 1 closed because they did not receive money to operate. She says others will run out of funding if the shutdown lasts much longer.
Head Start was started in 1965 to help low-income children from birth to age 5 succeed in school, a direct result of President Johnson's War on Poverty. Last year, Head Start served about 1 million of the nation's poorest children with pre-kindergarten classes, meals, health screenings and parent training.
Rich says the program was already hobbled by the sequestration, which cut more than $400 million from its $8 billion budget. That translated into 57,000 children who were denied a place in Head Start and Early Head Start.
In Tallahassee, Victoria Thomas, 26, was left scrambling for child care for her daughter, Faith, 4, after nine Head Start programs closed.
"I can't afford child care with my limited resources," says Thomas, a single mom who is studying for a master's degree in business. And she worries her daughter may fall behind.
"She's learning so much," she says. "The program is preparing her for kindergarten next year."
In Talladega, Ala., more than 800 children under 5 have no Head Start programs, says Kay Jennings, executive director for Talladega Clay Randolph Child Care Corp.
She worries that parents, out of desperation, will leave children unattended. Parents say to her: "What about my child? I have to go to work."
"You're hurting kids in the long term and their ability to grow and learn and eventually become productive citizens," says Cathy Flanigan, a spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Health, which administers the state's WIC program.
About 8.8 million women and children who belong to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC, are at risk of not getting vouchers to buy healthy food and baby formula.
Some states, such as Delaware, are scrambling to fund the program through the end of the week. Arkansas received an emergency grant from the federal government to last through Friday. Utah has stopped accepting new participants.
"These are vulnerable women and children," says Douglas Greenaway, president of the National WIC Association.
WIC provides an average $45 a month worth of fruits, vegetables, diary, grains, canned fish and infant formula. Unlike food stamps, WIC provides food from a specific list of approved items, all of them nutritious and low in fat, calories and sugar. Most of the people served by WIC, a program started in 1974, are at or below the poverty level.
Contributing: Olga Hajishengallis, Yamiche Alcindor in New York, and Jeff Burlew in Tallahassee


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A Matchbook Made In Heaven
We designed this wedding invitation for the lucky couple that won our giveaway with Martha Stewart. It's only too fitting that the couple we chose to work with will be jumping fires on their wedding night. Besides complimenting our studio name, their scheduled wedding night activities (get your mind out of the gutter) lends perfectly to the orange and white color palette featured by Martha Stewart. Juan and Irma will be getting married in Madrid on the 24th of June, the night of "San Juan," traditionally a night when friends and family gather to build bonfires and leap across them in celebration of the summer solstice. (We did some intense Googling and it appears that in many parts of Spain this is a party night not to be missed). They wanted to keep the invitations informal (reflecting the backyard bbq reception), to the point where it doesn't even use the word wedding–we had to imply celebration and union strictly through the design.
With fire as a central part of the celebration, a matchbook format for the actual invitation seemed only natural. The whole letterpress printed suite is designed in physical layers, causing the viewer to interact as they unfold the invitation setting the stage for the matchbook sitting in the center of a custom frame. The invitation itself is a two and a half inch by three and a quarter inch matchbook that opens to reveal french folded text weight sheets (spanish on the front, english on the back), an intimate piece meant to directly reflect the fires that will be sparking that night.
The copy inside reads "Celebrating the arrival of the summer solstice (amongst other astronomical events)," so we created custom illustrations based around the sun, the moon and the stars to give the suite a celestial feel.
The wrap features the graphic sun inspired emblem with a smattering of stars making their way to a moon icon on the inside flap.
Several diecut papers and a pop of edge coloring create a custom built A7 size frame surrounding the matchbook invitation for mailing.


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Just the other day we posted about the new GroupMe 4.0 launching on Android and iOS with an IOU about the Windows Phone version being "on its way". Well, it looks like it was only behind by a few days as GroupMe 4.0 is now available in the Windows Phone Store.
The jump from version 3.5 to 4.0 is indicative of some major changes and indeed, it is. The changelog is quite detailed and mostly focuses on the new UI and design, bringing Microsoft's new group-chat service up to date with a more "modern" look.
From the changelog:
- Windows Phone 8 Support
- Brand new start screen with large, beautiful, animated tiles
- A prettier chat interface
- It's a whole lot faster
- And other smaller improvements
Surprisingly the Windows Phone 8 support does not include Lock screen notifications nor a double-wide tile. Baby steps, we suppose.
In addition they have made the app much simpler with no "fluff" as it refocuses exactly on what the app is meant to do: group chatting. Of course some of you may be wondering what is the advantage of GroupMe over the built in Groups or Rooms on Windows Phone? Well, GroupMe is first and foremost a cross-platform service tied to your phone number, but it (optionally) uses push-data first over SMS, thereby saving costs. In an example for Windows Phone Central, Rich and Rob can be a part of our group chat and I don't have to worry about sending an SMS message to the UK or vice versa.
Granted, if we're all on Windows Phone together it's probably better to use Rooms in Windows Phone 8 but for people on different platforms, GroupMe is quite a nifty solution to having group chats.
The 4.0 version shows Microsoft is still actively developing and promoting the service and we're okay with that. Will it be folded into Skype itself someday? After all, Microsoft only came into possession of GroupMe because Skype bought them first. Maybe it will but for now, it's clear that the service will remain separate.
Head to the Windows Phone Store to get 4.0 of GroupMe right here. Thanks, Wade K., for the heads up!


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Best Artificial Intelligence Training in Jaipur Best Artificial Intelligence Training Institute Jaipur4.5 out of 5 based on 301 ratings. 5 user reviews.
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- Personality development classes, interview session, English speaking session is also available in our Institute.
Important Question's
What is the course all about?Artificial intelligence (AI) makes it possible for machines to learn from experience, adjust to new inputs and perform human-like tasks. Most AI examples that you hear about today – from chess-playing computers to self-driving cars – rely heavily on deep learning and natural language processing.
Why is the certification most sought-after?With $14.4 billion in revenue, the analytics market requires 250,000 certified analytics professionals to handle ever-increasing volumes of data. Top companies like Amazon, Google, Oracle, IBM, Microsoft and Dell are looking for certified and skilled analysts to meet this challenge head-on. Additionally, the Big 4 audit firms – PWC, E&Y, Deloitte, and KPMG, are hiring Artificial Intelligence in large numbers.
What learning benefits do you get from Sky Infotech training?Sky Infotech imparts immense learning benefits with a clear focus on the vital concepts of Artificial Intelligence. By the end of the training, participants will be able to:
- Understand and work on Artificial Intelligence concepts.
- Develop a structured approach using Artificial Intelligence techniques on the IT platform.
What are the career benefits in store for you?Certified Artificial Intelligence draw a lucrative salary with excellent growth prospects. Statistics from KDNuggets suggest a tremendous salary increase with a certification, at 50% and 13% in Asia and the rest of the world, respectively. According to Indeed.com, certified Artificial Intelligence earn an average of $97, 000 and are sought-after in Fortune 500 companies. A Artificial Intelligence credential opens up career opportunities in almost every industry and vertical. Artificial Intelligence skills are also quickly becoming transferable between industries.
Who should do this course?This course is meant for students and professionals who are keen to enter the field of Artificial Intelligence.


text:
The scene:
Chez La Mom. Paris 75016.
The Story:
La Mom is hiring an au pair. Boston Au Pair is our third, and final, candidate.
Boston Au Pair:
She's in Paris studying to be a chef.
The Interview:
La Mom starts by asking the typical questions:
1. Why did you choose to be an au pair?
2.What are your child care qualifications?
3. What's the most important aspect of an au pair's job?
Then Big Cheese decides it's time to get down to business. You know, time to ask those really important, heavy duty questions that only a French person thinks of. Questions that, depending on one's answer, will make or break the interview.
Big Cheese: So what do you bring to the table that's different from the other applicants?
(Sidebar: Key word here is 'table.' French code for 'let's talk about food.')
Au Pair: My love of French food and pastries. I would really enjoy teaching the French Fries how to make homemade madeleines, financiers, and canalets for their goûter. Homemade is so much better than the store bought stuff (slight nod in the directions of my macarons).
Big Cheese: The French Fries are going to adore baking with you. La Mom can't bake for all the cheese in France.
La Mom to self: Merci chéri.
Big Cheese: So what signifies a quintessential French meal for you?
Au Pair: A steak au poivre, for sure.
Big Cheese looks at me and winks. Then he goes in for the kill.
Big Cheese: Really? So how do you cook a steak au poivre à la francaise?
Au Pair: With crème fraîche.
Big Cheese: Anything else?
La Mom to self: C'mon Boston Au Pair. Show the snobby Frenchman you know your stuff.
Au Pair: And cognac, of course.
Big Cheese: And what about dessert?
Au Pair: My personal favorite is a moelleux au chocolat. The secret to getting a perfect moelleux is to add three eggs to the flour mix one by one. Never all at once. There's absolutely no reason to hurry when cooking.
Oh là là. I think we have a winner.
Big Cheese raises his eye brows, let's loose a typical Gallic shoulder shrug, sticks his chin out in that oh-so Parisian way, and says under his breath to moi, "Pas mal!"
Wow, Boston Au Pair seems perfect.
Wait. Maybe too perfect. If a way to a man's heart is through his stomach, and the way to my children's hearts is with homemade pastries, then La Mom's got some serious competition.
The dilemma:
Help La Mom. Does Boston Au Pair get the job? Is she a threat?
Speaking of French food, check out Lucullus Succulus for delicious easy-to-make recipes and healthy food tips for kids!
Lucullus Succulus plus que jamais dans son assiette ! Encore plus pédagogique, toujours aussi gourmand, à découvrir ou redécouvrir, le premier magazine de cuisine pour les enfants.


text:
Shred hard with the Chicks in Bowls grind trucks.Recommended for:
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Skate park skating
Not usually recommended…
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Outdoor concrete skate parks
Indoor skate parks with grippy surfaces
Small hard wheels designed for skate ramp skating.Recommended for:
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Indoor skate parks with grippy surfaces
CIB Slide Blocks come in four sizes and are compatible with popular plates. Best of all, they're super easy…
Show your love for Chicks in Bowls with the new CIB Heart Cap.Recommended for:
Folks who like hats
Folks who…
Super cute patch from Chicks in Bowls. Recommended for:
Gifting to the shredder in your life
Gifting to yourself, because…
These super cute hybrid wheels by Moxi transition seamlessly from the streets to the skateparks to the dance floor!…
These are a high end boot designed for ramp, park and aggressive skating. Designed to mold to the skaters feet,…
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Penny skate board trucks make excellent grind trucks for roller skates. Modifications to the kingpins, cushions and pivot cups…
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text:
|Andrew Thompson: AT Record-Holder
This was the hardest day yet on the Trail. I know there will be harder, but the mileage, the accumulation of fatigue, and the tough terrain took their toll on this day. Mt. Moosilauke was really neat and Andrew ran with me in this section. The next section was 16+ miles unaided over the Kinsman Mtns to end the day. It was tough and slow with lots of hand-over-hand climbing. I was determined to not be out after dark on this day and pushed very hard to make sure that I wasn't. 16.3 miles in 6.25 hrs sounds super slow, but I can assure you it was not. Absolutely amazingly beautiful country here in NH, but in the same breath tough and unforgiving.
Day 58: Zero Day. I was pretty whipped after yesterday and woke up to driving rain this morning. I got up and got ready to go, but made the decision at 7am that climbing up to 5,000' and doing a 28 mile day with no aid-spots (read bail-out spots) in weather that was 48 deg and driving rain at 1,500' would not be fun and potentially dangerous. I really needed a day to rest-up for the final push anyway and I think my wife has been missing me a little bit. I don't think 30 years from now I'll care whether I finished the AT in 69 or 70 days, I just want to make sure I can finish in one piece at this point.


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Don't miss out on spring flounder action
As most saltwater anglers already know, there is an annual flounder run that occurs usually in October and early November. What gets much less attention is the spring flounder run that is beginning about now. For a reason that is unknown to me, the springtime fish are not as large on the average as are the fall fish. I know that they do not shrink during the wintertime lull. Not to be misleading, there will be some outsize flukes taken during the spring run, but there will also be a good number of them that will either just barely reach the legal Texas length of 14 inches or more likely just under that. None of that matters if locating and catching flat fish is your goal.
Flounder are not considered to be strong swimmers. They spend their adult life lying on their side mostly waiting in ambush for their prey to come near enough to attack. Even so, whenever one of them is hooked, they will turn into very worthy adversaries. That's especially the case when it weighs over a couple pounds. Those seeming dossal fish will turn into wild cats when they are hooked.
During the fall months, the flounder seem to move out into deeper water areas as the tides fall. The times before that migration offer some hot and heavy fishing action. Once that major run is passed, the fish seem to vanish. In fact, many of the dedicated flounder anglers have a number of fishless trips. Of course, there are usually plenty of redfish and some speckled trout around to fill the gap. That will also be the case in the spring. I have mentioned this so that you will be ready to take them on when and if the hard fighters decide to show up.
During the springtime flounder run, much like during the fall, it would be a no-brainer to know where to begin going after flounder. Moving water is always a good bet. I've found that the incoming early springtime tidal flow will move the fish onto feeding areas. I've also found that the incoming tide is a better one for them. Whenever the water has moved in far enough to reach the vegetation or structure that was not in the water before, then expect the flukes to be somewhere nearby. That would make it necessary to position yourself so that you can cast your lure or bait right up to the edge of the grass or structure. Then after the cast, allow the offering to drop straight down before slowly retrieving it. Keep in mind that the fish will likely be bedded on the up-tide side of whatever you choose to use as a target. It's always good to position yourself so that you cannot only cast into the shallows, but also into deeper water. There are times when the early spring flounder will stack up along the ledge between the deep and shallow water. By checking the water temperature, it will be possible to fish in the warmer water. Even a couple degrees warmer can be where the action is.
Deciding whether to use live bait or lures is, as always, angler's choice. Both of these are effective at times, but it's difficult to beat the live bait. The lures are designed to mimic the live bait, and there is no doubt that they work well on most occasions.
Live mud minnows, finger mullet or live shrimp will take the flatfish. The problem with the shrimp is that practically everything that swims will eat them. Replacing them or unhooking undesirable fish such as hardhead catfish can be time consuming. It's best to spend more time fishing and less time doing those things. One of the tips that has been passed along by Capt. Darren Guernsey is to not use small live bait if larger fish are your quarry. Small baitfish do a good job, but the smaller, mostly illegal flounder will readily take them. Here, again, unhooking, releasing and re-baiting will take up fishing time.
It seems that lures such as lead-head jigs with flexible plastics added to them are the choice of most flounder fisherman. Those that are in the know will add a piece of fresh or fresh frozen shrimp to the hook. Even though the lure does a good job, the shrimp will increase the strikes. If shrimp are not available, I have done well with small pieces of filleted baitfish. Cut croaker or shad seem to be the better choices for the add-ons.
It is now time for the spring flounder action, so don't miss out on it.


text:
The anti-science and anti-medicine movements and the apparent willingness or preference to believe utter nonsense.
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text:
Visit our main website at www.StDavids.com
Amy Scholten, MPH
Insomnia is a sleep disorder. It may cause a number of sleep problems including trouble falling asleep, waking in the middle of the night, or waking very early in the morning. It may also be a sleep that is not restful. Insomnia can be a short-term problem, or it can be chronic. Chronic insomnia lasts for more than 4 weeks.
Insomnia can occur for many reasons. Short-term insomnia is often caused by temporary situations or problems with the environment. They may include:
There may be no clear reason for chronic insomnia. It may also be due to other medical or psychiatric conditions. Examples of conditions that can lead to sleep problems include:
Both chronic and short-term insomnia may be due to
Insomnia is more common in women during and after menopause. It is also common in adults 50 years of age or older.
Other factors that increase the risk of insomnia include:
Symptoms include:
Call your doctor if you are having frequent insomnia. Let your doctor know if the insomnia is making it hard for you to do your daily activities.
You will be asked about your symptoms and medical history. A physical exam will be done. You will also be asked about your job, eating habits, and drug and alcohol use.
You will also be asked about your schedule and sleep patterns. You may be asked to keep a sleep diary. This will include information about your naps, bedtime, and how often you wake during the night. Your doctor will review the medications you take, including over-the-counter medications and herbal supplements. These questions will help your doctor understand what is causing your insomnia.
Your doctor may recommend observation in a
sleep lab. This may be done if the diagnosis is uncertain or if other sleep disorders are suspected. You will need to spend the night in a special center. Your movements, breathing, and brain activity will be monitored. This will allow your doctor to identify a treatable condition that is affecting your sleep.
Copyright © Nucleus Medical Media, Inc.
A number of physical and mental disorders can disrupt sleep. Diagnosis and treatment of the underlying illness, may fix the insomnia.
There are steps you can take to improve your chance of a good night's rest. Your doctor may ask you to reduce intake of certain items or avoid them to see if your sleep improves. You may be asked to:
Your sleep habits can also affect how well you sleep. Steps that may help you sleep better include:
Sleeping pills are available by prescription or over-the-counter. Some doctors advise against the long-term use of sleeping pills. They may cause dependence. This is a physical change in your body. It makes your body dependent on the drug for sleep.
Proper use of prescription sleep medication may increase sleep. Most of these medications are only approved for short-term use. They can cause drowsiness, lightheadedness, and headache. Serious side effects can include abnormal thinking or behavior changes, including having suicidal thoughts.
Many over-the-counter sleep medications contain diphenhydramine. This medication can make you feel groggy and might help you fall asleep. However, this drug can have serious side effects. Most people should avoid using this drug regularly.
Exercise can help you get a better sleep. It can reduce stress and allow your body to reach a deeper state of relaxation. The timing of exercise is important. Exercising early in the day may be best if you are having trouble sleeping. If you have to exercise later in the day, make sure you are done exercising at least a few hours before bedtime.
Some people use the herb valerian to reduce insomnia. Others take
melatonin. It is not clear that these supplements help. Talk to your doctor before taking any herbs or supplements.
This therapy may reduce or eliminate anxiety and body tension. It stops the mind from racing and allows the muscles to relax. This can support a restful sleep. The therapy may include deep breathing and progressive relaxation.
A sleep restriction program is a strict sleep program. It limits the amount of time in bed to only the time that you are actually sleeping. Previous sleep logs will determine the amount of time allowed in bed. The time you spent sleeping will be used to determine the amount of time you can spend in bed. At first, your time in bed may seem short, usually about 5 hours. Gradually, the time is increased until a more normal night's sleep is achieved.
Cognitive behavioral therapy
(CBT) is a form of talk therapy. This means that you discuss your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors with a mental health professional. CBT focuses on how the way you think affects the way you feel and act. CBT may have more lasting effects than medication.
Reconditioning helps people associate the bed and bedtime with sleep. This means not using the bed for activities other than sleep and sex. As part of the reconditioning process, the person is usually advised to go to bed only when sleepy.
To reduce your chance of having insomnia:
National Center on Sleep Disorders Research
National Sleep Foundation
Better Sleep Council Canada
Canadian Sleep Society
Insomnia in adults. EBSCO DynaMed website. Available at:
http://www.ebscohost.com/dynamed. Updated April 10, 2015. Accessed June 2, 2015.
Jacobs GD, Pace-Schott EF, et al. Cognitive behavior therapy and pharmacotherapy for insomnia: a randomized controlled trial and direct comparison.
Arch Intern Med
. 2004 Sep 27;164(17):1888-96.
Available at: http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=217394. Accessed June 2, 2015.
Insomnia. Family Doctor—American Academy of Family Physicians website. Available at:
http://familydoctor.org/familydoctor/en/diseases-conditions/insomnia.html. Updated Apirl 2014. Accessed June 2, 2015.
Morin CM, Vallieres A, et al. Cognitive behavioral therapy, singly and combined with medication, for persistent insomnia: a randomized controlled trial.
Sleep insomnia, lack of sleep. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute website. Available at:
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/inso/. Updated December 13, 2011. Accessed June 2, 2015.
Last reviewed June 2015 by Marcin Chwistek, MD
Please be aware that this information is provided to supplement the care provided by your physician. It is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
Copyright © EBSCO Publishing. All rights reserved.
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text:
All of the items sold on HallabSweets.com are divided into three shipping categories: Standard Ship Items, Special Ship Items and Oversized Items. Each shipping method has different restrictions and charges. We currently ship to International addresses.
packages of 1 kilo cost $16 USD.
packages between 2 and 6 kilos cost $13 USD each kilo.
packages greater than 6 kilos cost $9 USD each kilo.


text:
This rad cover of "Sexy And I Know It" by LMFAO is currently blowing up the internet and blowing ladies' minds. Turns out this guy looks a lot like me, and he is from South Carolina where I lived for many, many years. I am starting to wonder if we are long lost twins… and if he needs a drummer.
Turns out this kid played just last week for only forty people in his hometown. Now he is all over the place. The internet – changing lives every day! Good for him, I say!
I would love to be able to stick my head in the sand like a TV executive.
Now, granted, I don't know too much about what they do, but I know one thing that they do – make decisions that don't seem to make any amount of common sense. The third season of a capella singing show The Sing-Off ended a good bit ago and with very little fanfare after a season that was overly long for the premise.
Since then though its winners Pentatonix have started to blow up with millions of youtube hits, high profile media appearances, and their first non-Sing-Off release coming out soon. By all accounts Pentatonix is well on their way to being the high profile act that the show wanted to produce. It's a far cry from season two winners Committed, who God bless 'em, were nearly impossible to find on the internet at this point after winning the show.
A capella may finally make it, and NBC won't be able to capitalize.
The decision doesn't come without merit – the show's ratings sagged badly in the third season. But to cancel it is to ignore what really happened – NBC took a successful format for the show and broke it. For its first two seasons the Sing-Off was an in between season treat for music lovers, it was a short season and did well enough to be renewed twice. Then in a fit of brilliance the network decided to try and make it one of its bigger reality competition shows.
Problem is, no one wanted that.
I'm sure it made someone some money, but this show was never going to have the market share of a show like The Voice or American Idol. It lacks the flash of other shows where the contestants have to have less talent, it always stayed away from manufacturing drama just to do it, and it was just too smart. It was a nerd's show, I mean one of the judges was Ben Folds, come on! Anyone with any sense could have seen this coming when they announced a full season of a capella.
All isn't lost, I suppose, there's a chance that a cable network could have need of an inter-season show that would garner consistent ratings, but I don't know how likely that is. It's really a shame though. I had the opportunity to work with people around the show and they were all huge music lovers, and not to mention fantastic people. I truly wish them the best.
I also hope Pentatonix becomes a huge smash hit and it makes NBC look really, really stupid. Yes, I am that petty. Deal with it.
I can relate to this. Hot dudes have problems too. I'm just glad someone was brave enough to speak about this powerful message.
Pop and R&B legend Lionel Richie has suddenly popped on the charts again. I love me some Lionel, and have since his glory days in the '80s, so I was excited to see what he had going on.
I wish I hadn't. Here's why:
That is a video of Lionel performing his famous Diana Ross duet with… Shania Twain?? Huh? What are you doing Lionel?? Why are you destroying one of your own hit songs by "updating" it and performing it with a far lesser singer than Diana Ross? I don't understand!!! YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LIONEL!!!
I really wish I had more in-depth commentary on this, but I am just confused. People destroy other people's songs all the time (see below), but to destroy your own song?? Augh!! It makes no sense!!!! Maybe this is a Terminator-esque thing. Maybe "Endless Love" takes over the world in the future so they sent Shania Twain back in time to put a stop to it. Right, right?!?
Oh, people are enjoying it??
I can't take it, blog post over. I would rather go watch this: