text:
The Common Core train has left the station. Is it a runaway train? Is it unstoppable?
Americans, get ready. Common Core State Standards have already left the station, according to Stephen Krashen, who was featured in NABE Weekly eNews, (2012), and the National Association for Bilingual Education, see S. Krashen, "Poverty is the problem that must be solved: Our schools are not broken" NABE NEWS, 33 (4): 5-8. July/August 2011.
But who is this Stephen Krashen? Why should we ask him? Why not ask Bill Gates? Or Pearson? Or David Coleman?
You can read about Krashen here on his website. He's an expert in education, unlike Gates, Pearson, or Coleman. The problem is, Krashen isn't driving the train.
Gates, Pearson, and Coleman are driving the train, and that's like having no one at the wheel. No one that knows what they are doing.
Is the train unstoppable?
Are schools really so broken across America that 45 states have to adopt these untested standards?
What do we do when every American child is put on board a train without a driver? Do we let that runaway train go until it crashes with all of them on board?
These are serious questions that someone needs to answer.
Let's get a feel for what might be at risk, then pay attention closely as we ask Stephen Krashen, an education expert.
Krashen wrote:
"It is not too late. We are frequently told that "the train has already left the station." It has not, however, arrived at its destination."
He and NABE have given their permission to print Krashen's work here. My photos and comments are added.
Stephen Krashen:
Do Those Who Like the Common Core Know the Facts?
Posted on NABE Weekly eNews (National Association for Bilingual Education)
"According to an Achieve poll, 68% of teachers and 74% of all voters approve of the common core state (sic) standards (either "very favorable" or "favorable")
[http://www.achieve.org/GrowingAwarenessCCSS]. A poll of Education Next readers showed less enthusiasm, but 40% supported the common core at the time of this writing (either "completely" or "somewhat" supportive) [ http://educationnext.org/ednext-readers-poll-common-core/ ]." ~ Stephen Krashen, NABE Weekly eNews, (2012)
My update, as taken directly from Education Next Poll on Common Core below, includes the week's previous poll results, giving US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan a strong "F" in job performance. Here are the results for both polls from their site:
"Last week we asked:
"What grade would you give Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's job performance?"
The results were as follows:
This week we want to know your thoughts on the following question:
As you may know, all states are currently deciding whether or not to adopt the Common Core standards in reading and math. If adopted, these standards would be used to hold the state's schools accountable for their performance. Do you support or oppose the adoption of the Common Core standards in your state?
Do you support or oppose the adoption of the Common Core standards in your state? (Poll Closed)
Completely support 17.29%
Somewhat support 12.62%
Neither support nor oppose 3.97%
Somewhat oppose 12.38%
Completely oppose 53.74% " ~ Education Next Reader's Poll: Common Core, (2012)
Yes, you read that right! 53.74% completely oppose the Common Core State Standards! Interesting, since implementation of Common Core State Standards is getting started already in 45 states across America!
Stephen Krashen took the time to comment on the Education Next poll. He said:
Stephen Krashen says:
"I wonder how the poll results would turn out if all those taking the poll realized that the common core state (sic) standards entails a massive increase in testing (about 20 times NCLB levels) and will be very expensive, at a time when money is very tight. I wonder how the results would be if respondees realized that there is no justification for the common core in the first place: the problem is poverty." ~ Stephen Krashen, comments, Education Next Poll: Common Core (2012)
Yes, I wonder how America will feel about the BILLIONS being spent, according to the Pioneer Institute on implementation of the Common Core State Standards? What if we invested those billions in wrap-around services to directly counter the impacts of poverty instead?
Krashen warns us of a MASSIVE increase in testing, 20 times the testing that NCLB requires as he continues in NABE Weekly eNews:
"I wonder how the poll results would turn out if those taking the poll realized that the common core state (sic) standards mean a massive increase in testing and will be very expensive, at a time when money is very tight. My estimate is that the common core will require about 20 times the amount of testing that NCLB requires, with more subjects and grade levels tested, interim tests, and maybe even pretests in the fall." ~ Stephen Krashen, NABE Weekly eNews, (2012)
Just what does all this testing do for children's learning? Remember, "testing is not teaching". How much time will teachers be spending on teaching with Common Core? How much excessive testing time goes on before the implementation? Sounds like a train wreck right around the corner to me.
Are we nuts? Who is driving this train? What could communities spend that $16 billion on instead of implementation and testing costs?
Are we assuming that by 20 x MORE testing, we are going to achieve better results? Who says? How do we know?
What else does Stephen say this evidence in NABE? What does he say about the REASON we need Common Core. Is there a justifiable reason? What are the real factors devastating some student achievement? What would the people of America think if they knew the answers?
"I wonder how the results would be if those polled realized that there is no evidence that increased testing will boost achievement, and that there is no justification for the common core in the first place: There is strong evidence that the major reason for low school achievement is poverty. According to UNICEF (Innocenti Report 10), the US child poverty rate is now 23%, the second highest among 35 "economically advanced" countries. Poverty has a devastating impact on school performance." ~ Stephen Krashen, NABE Weekly eNews, (2012)
Obama wants America to "race to the top". There's a "Race to the Top" medal for America. We have achieved, alright. We've achieved the second highest poverty rating among 35 "economically advanced" countries.
We get second place and after we spend these billions on implementing Common Core State Standards instead of dealing with the problem of poverty in the first place, maybe we'll win next year! First prize! Maybe it is better for us to start becoming un-advanced economically?
I suppose we should trust Pearson, Gates, and David Coleman and just implement the Common Core without any field testing, huh? Does America know these standards have not had any field testing? Will 20 x the testing help children in poverty achieve?
Oh, wait. There's more from Krashen.
"I wonder how those polled would respond if they knew that the billions to be spent on unnecessary and excessive testing could be used to protect children against the effects of poverty." ~ Stephen Krashen, NABE Weekly eNews, (2012)
But is it too late? Is the train of Common Core unstoppable?
He wonders too, what the pollers would have said if they KNEW these billions were being spent on UNNECCESSARY excessive testing. Is it unnecessary? Do you know, American parents? Start asking questions. Stop the train.
Do these standards really make a difference when in the end, we all group up with different passions, talents, and interests that lead us to different vocations, professions, and lifestyles? Why try to standardize everyone? Does it make sense, really? What if we embraced everyone's diversity instead?
When was the last time you heard of ANYONE solving any of the world's REAL problems by taking one of these bubble tests?
- Has anyone attributed these bubble tests to saving a life?
- Inventing something important for society?
- Adding to their success?
- Creating happiness?
- Establishing credibility in their future?
- What happened after you got your diploma?
- Did you EVER refer back to those bubble tests in your resume?
But more importantly: What would happen if we spent these billions on stemming the bleeding on poverty instead? What kinds of things might REALLY help?
Krashen has more questions too, and points out — when it comes to Common Core, it may not be too late. Could we stop the train? Is it unstoppable?
"It is not too late. We are frequently told that "the train has already left the station." It has not, however, arrived at its destination.
If the public knew the details about the Common Core, the astonishing amount of testing, the cost, and the lack of evidence that it will work, the train would stop immediately."
Note: NABE passed a strong resolution opposing the common core standards and tests at the 2012 annual meeting.
For sources, see S. Krashen, "Poverty is the problem that must be solved: Our schools are not broken" NABE NEWS, 33 (4): 5-8. July/August 2011.
Krashen inspires us, encourages us, and directs us to stop this train.
We don't need Common Core Standards.
Our schools are not broken.
We don't need 20 x the high stakes testing.
Our schools are not broken.
We don't need Value Added Measures [VAM].
Our schools are not broken.
We don't need charter schools to make the rich guys richer.
Our schools are not broken.
It's not too late.
Stop Common Core.
Stop the poverty train.
Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction.
I agree with Stephen Krashen.
Schools are not broken.
Society is broken.
Common Core State Standards won't help poverty. In fact, it's $16 billion price tag will likely make it a whole lot worse.
America, we need to put people like Stephen Krashen behind the wheel.
Don't be deceived by their propaganda: Take the wheel away from the corporations. Why would we trust them with anything? $16 Billion? Our children? Our schools? Our teachers? Why?
Let's stop this train — the poverty train — before it's too late.
Because these children —- these children in poverty —- these children in our public schools — they're real human beings —- they aren't numbers.


text:
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Estonian recipes: fried pork escalopes in marinade
I'm thrilled to share another wonderful Estonian dish with you - fried pork slices in marinade, served cold. It's been a popular dish on various buffét tables for many decades, and as it can be made ahead - and it keeps well in the fridge - it's a useful recipe to have in your repertoire. You can eat it alongside a traditional potato salad, or perhaps on a slice of good dark rye bread - remember, it's a cold dish.
I've used pork shoulder (kaelakarbonaad) for making this, but you could also use any other soft boneless cut.
Fried pork in marinade
(Praetud sealiha marinaadis)
Serves 10 to 12
1 kg boneless pork (blade shoulder, Boston butt, loin)
a scant cup of all-purpose flour
salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 to 4 large eggs, lightly whisked
oil, for frying
1.5 litres water
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced
2 onions, peeled, halved and sliced
10 black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
1.5 Tbsp sugar
1.5 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp vinegar (30%)
Cut the pork into 1 cm slices, across the grain. Place the meat between two sheets of cling film or parchment paper. Using a mallet or a rolling pin, pound the meat on both sides until it forms a thin escalope. Cut each escalope into smaller pieces, about 4x5 cm in size.
Season the flour with salt and pepper, dip the meat pieces into flour and then into whisked egg.
Heat the oil on a frying pan over moderate heat. Fry the meat slices until golden brown on both sides and cooked through. Remove from the pan and transfer into a bowl and let cool.
Now make the marinade. Place all the ingredients - apart from the vinegar - into a small saucepan and bring into a boil. Simmer gently, until the carrot slices are al dente (crisp). Remove from the heat, add the vinegar, and let cool.
Pour the marinade over the meat slices. Cover and let stand for at least 24 hours before serving.
8 comments:
- 11:12 am, February 24, 2012
To serve, do you take them out of the marinade?
- 12:19 am, February 26, 2012
- Pille said...
I know, David! Did you ever get this dish in Estonia?
Anon. - yes, you take the meat slice out of the marinade.
- 8:02 am, February 26, 2012
- Anja said...
In Poland, we marinate this way fried herrings.
- 3:00 am, March 05, 2012
- Julius said...
Yummi - Thank you
- 1:48 am, March 06, 2012
- Juc said...
Ma oma kallile kaasale seda postitust ei näita - paneb mu kohe tööle muidu :). See on tema suuuuuur lemmik. Ja ausaltöeldes meeldib isegi mulle väga, kes ma ülearu sealiha ei armasta.
- 8:52 am, March 06, 2012
- Pille said...
Anja - we do this with Baltic herrings as well!
Julius - you're welcome!
Juc - eks neid ole natuke tüütu valmistada, aga meiegi peres lähevad need nii-öelda väga hästi peale :)
- 10:11 am, March 09, 2012
- Ariella Fixler Alon said...
Dear Pille
How are you?
.I am Ariela and I`m the blogger who will host you in Israel.
.I am extremely excited from your arrival and I am eagerly waiting for you.
.In the recent past days I read your lovely blog and I'm thrilled.
.My English is not quite good, so I do not leave a comment in every post, I slowly get used to the language and i hope it will be better.
I have to tell you that when I came to this post I started to cry.
My grandmother, the most beautiful and loved women, was making us that fish twice a week. and when I saw your recipe really the same as that of mygrandmother`s I swore to myself to prepare the fish to post a blog with a link to you.
It's funny, I feel that before we know each other - we're friends.
I'm really excited!
I wish you a pleasant flight to Israel, next Friday we meet.
For now I am sending you a big hug and I'm waiting for your arivel .
Ariella Fixler Alon
- 7:18 pm, June 22, 2012

subset: commoncrawl


text:
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a Connie Passalacqua Hayman
General Hospital: Confluence, according to the dictionary, means when three things meet at a certain point (rivers, for example). And that's exactly what happened on General Hospital early this week – confluence in Tuesday and Wednesday's episodes when three great storylines in which one couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next. This was stunning because, although soaps usually run three major storylines simultaneously, ordinarily only one is great and two you are tempted to fast forward through.
First, Sonny was left agape as Connie confessed she was married to Johnny, right at the beginning of the Sonny-"Kate" wedding ceremony. Second, Liz confessed to Jason she had changed the DNA lab test reports, confirming that Tea's baby son was biologically really Sam's. Third, oily Joe held Kristina at gun point, threatening to kill his rival Sonny's daughter.
What truly exciting soap opera! And rare, too! I can't remember a confluence of great stories in a few episodes like these since Guiding Light's blackout story in the 90s. Becky Herbst was Emmy-terrific as Liz. Kelly Sullivan stole the show, as bride Connie called groom Sonny a pig and a bully. (How true!) GH even had some nice humor, as lab assistant Ellie, attending the wedding with Spinelli, couldn't be dragged away from combined craziness (everyone was slapping and punching each other) exclaiming, "This is a great first date!" [Read more…]


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Windows - Other
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Name:Internet Download Manager v5 14 with Crack
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Internet Download Manager v5.14 - The best way to handle your downloads and increase download speeds. Added full support for Windows Vista, WOW! YouTube, Google Video, MySpaceTV, IE7 and Firefox
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text:
Retired Command Sgt. Maj. Bob Van Pelt, CDNY Chapter
President, presented retired Col. Johnson with an AUSA plaque.
Photo Courtesy of LTC Nicholas M. Laiacona
On Saturday, Nov. 15, the 2014 Veteran of the Year Award Ceremony was held in the New York State Military Museum. The annual award is co-sponsored by the Friends of the New York State Military Museum and the Capital District of New York (CDNY) Chapter of the Association of the US Army. The CDNY Chapter is a certified commemorative partner of the Vietnam War Commemoration.
The guest speaker was the Adjutant General of New York, Maj. Gen. Patrick Murphy. The event was open to the public, and about 125 people were in attendance.
The 2014 Awardee was retired Col. Charles R. Johnson, a 26-year Army officer who served as a Vietnamese ranger advisor, operations officer in a special operations group and as a battalion commander in the 9th and 25th Infantry Divisions.
Retired Brig. Gen. Barry Hartman, CDNY Executive Board Member, was the master of ceremonies. Retired Command Sgt. Maj. Bob Van Pelt, CDNY Chapter President, presented Johnson with an AUSA plaque, a copy of Jim Ryan's painting, "Jungle Warriors: Service and Sacrifice," and a check in his honor for $200 to the Albany, New York, Vietnam Memorial Fund.
U.S. Rep. Chris Gibson, who is a retired Army Colonel, spoke at the event and presented Johnson a U.S. flag that flew over the Capitol.
©2015 Vietnam War Commemoration. All rights reserved.


text:
February 25, 2005
LOS ANGELES — What's new and what's important for mid-size business in 2005? This and other issues facing today's companies will be the focus of the next UCLA Anderson Forecast Conference to be held on March 15, 2005. Leading economists from UCLA will also deliver their quarterly UCLA Anderson Forecast report. The Conference will take place from 7 a.m. to12:30 p.m. at UCLA.
Sponsored by Bank of America, the March UCLA Anderson Forecast will present an in-depth look at what important issues mid-size enterprises will face in the year ahead. Bank of America has been a regular supporter of UCLA Anderson School of Management scholarly endeavors.
"We've stepped up our sponsorship of the UCLA Anderson Forecast because we recognize the huge impact that this kind of high quality economic information and analysis has on business growth," said Lynn Pike, president of Bank of America California and president of Business Banking. "Businesses throughout the state, many of them our customers, have come to rely on UCLA Anderson Forecast projections when they make decisions that can have a critical impact on their future and on the health of the California economy."
Ms. Pike will be the keynote speaker for the conference, which will also feature other speakers including economists from the UCLA Anderson Forecast, Edward Leamer, director of the UCLA Anderson Forecast, Michael Bazdarich, senior economist and Christopher Thornberg, senior economist, who will deliver their quarterly economic projections for the nation, state and region.
Speaker sessions include:
The Economic Forecast for the Nation, State and Region
- How good will the year ahead be, and why (or why not)?
- How long will this expansion last?
- What kind of businesses will prosper in California during the next downturn?
Financing Growth
- With the yield on risk so low, is this the year to expand?
- How friendly are the traditional sources of capital?
- Is private equity the right choice for mid-size companies?
Forewarned is Forearmed
- What are the best business opportunities in the years ahead?
- Outsourcing doesn't always mean overseas: How can mid-size companies here in California do the outsourced work?
- Will this be the year of relief on the cost side of the ledger, or will it get even worse?
- What needs to be done to control costs and retain the best people?
Founded in 1952, the UCLA Anderson Forecast is one of the most widely watched and often-cited economic outlooks for California and the nation. Award-winning for its accuracy, the UCLA Anderson Forecast often breaks with consensus in its quarterly forecast reports, which feature projections for major economic indicators, including inflation, interest rates, job growth and gross domestic product growth.
Bank of America is the nation's largest business bank, with relationships with one in every five small and mid-sized businesses in its coast-to-coast footprint, covering 29 states plus the District of Columbia.
In November, Bank of America announced that it had retained its ranking as the number one Small Business Administration (SBA) lender in the United States, in California and in Los Angeles for the third straight year. During the fiscal year ending on September 30, 2004, Bank of America made SBA loans totaling $126.4 million to more than 3,600 California borrowers, more than half of them in Los Angeles.
For more information on the UCLA Anderson Forecast, or to register for the event, please visit its Web site at http://uclaforecast.com/.
About UCLA Anderson School of Management
UCLA Anderson School of Management is perennially ranked among the top-tier business schools in the world. Award-winning faculty renowned for their research and teaching, highly selective admissions, successful alumni and world-class facilities combine to provide an extraordinary learning environment. UCLA Anderson students are part of a culture that values individual vision, intellectual discipline and a sense of teamwork and collegiality.
Established in 1935, UCLA Anderson School of Management provides management education to more than 1,400 students enrolled in MBA and doctoral programs, and some 2,000 executives and managers enrolled annually in executive education programs. Recognizing that the school offers unparalleled expertise in management education, the world's business community turns to UCLA Anderson School of Management as a center of influence for the ideas, innovations, strategies and talent that will shape the future.


text:
» Tires » Michelin » Pilot Primacy
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Identity Theft
The Federal Trade Commission has established 1-877-IDTHEFT (1-877-438-4338), a toll-free number, to help battle identity theft, a growing crime in which criminals steal money or commit other crimes while posing as someone else.
A 1998 law making ID theft a federal crime and mandates that the FTC become the consumer's first line of defense. By calling the FTC's toll-free number, you can report the crime, get advice about minimizing damage and restoring your good name, or find out about preventative steps to take to keep you from becoming a victim. The FTC does not resolve individual consumer problems; filing your complaint with FTC can help in the investigation of this kind of fraud. This same service is available online at FTC's website:www.ftc.gov
The Department of Consumer Affairs, Office of Privacy Protection serves as a statewide resource for consumer information and sources of assistance on identity theft and other privacy issues.
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1625 N. Market Blvd. Suite N324
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Publications available: Office of Privacy Protection Consumer Information Sheets (Available in Spanish and Chinese) Office of Privacy Protection Publications
Cellular Phones
Computers (Privacy Rights)
Computer Fraud/Privacy Rights, Etc.
Check Payments (Privacy Rights)
Credit Card/Transaction Privacy
Medical Records (Privacy)
Privacy Protection, Office of Records
Consumer Resource & Referral Guide
Directory of State Agencies
Directory of Federal Agencies
Return to DCA Home Page


text:
Deep Silver Apologizes for Mutilated Dead Island Torso
Pages PREV 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 NEXT
What EXACTLY is offensive about this anyway?
If it was a bloody disembodied head, there would be complains that it's gross but not much.
If it was an arm, a leg or whatever that'd most likely be fine too.
It's only so much controversial because it's a female torso.
So what exactly is wrong with it?
1) That it's female? So, chopping up guys would be okay?
2) That it wears a bikini? What, zombies can't wear bikini? Can't imagine people getting infected in a swimming pool or on a beach?
3) That the girl is, err I mean was, supposed to be sexy? So? Have something against attractive people?
4) Something else, like blood, or that it's disemboweled or something else? It's a zombie game you know.
Seriously, what the distributor should do is create two or more special editions. This one, one with a guy's torso and one with some other body part. Than we'd see where the reason for the backlash really lies.
No, its not smart or creative, theres games I play were the sex appeals a 'thing' but this... thats just crap, un-imaginative, not funny... I just don't see who thought this up... and what the point is... I GOT NOTHING!
You know who's been considered a trophy, a thing to look at, a lump of primary sexual characteristics, a faceless object with no agency, to be sold throughout history?
Not dudes.
depends on how buff it would have been made. I do not fancy buff looking guys.
I would buy it if it was male, female or Cthulhu shaped. I think its kind of silly to look at and it would be nice to have on my currently barren shelf.
And if they released a brutalized male lower half I'd be even happier cuz then I can mix and match :D
What on Earth were they thinking?
It isn't because it's sexist, it's because how stupid and untasteful this thing is.
I mean come the fuck on, it is truth that male torso wouldn't bring such an uproar, but do you really think that guys that made this had thoughts like: "Well equality you see! These kind of things happens to girls too!" -No. Of course not. It was if anything on the level of: "Hey! Look! Blood & Gore & TITS!".
Not getting this. What's wrong with it?
"we are sorry about this decision, we've rectified and now we are launching 'Dead Island: Riptide - Dead Stiff Edition' wich will include a male zombie groin statue" :P *rofl*
I can see why this is controversial, but I'm not offended by it. I've seen attractive girls dead/dismembered on screen before (Mortal Kombat has fatalities that essentially turn a female character into that thing).
All the same, I'd never buy it because, even if I'm okay with it existing, I have no use for it, or for collectible figures in general. That and I find zombies to be mind-numbingly boring unless they're surrounded by interesting characters, e.g. Last of Us or Left 4 Dead.
Meh, no big loss there. I think people completely blew it out of proportion. They were calling is misogynistic and pornographic, and they all looked like morons doing it. They were referring to it as oversexualized and sexist(which says a lot more about them than it does the piece). People even tried saying that torso sculptures don't actually exist, which isn't remotely true. That said, it's a god awful ugly piece and I don't know why anyone would want to own one. It's fine that it exists as it's completely in the context of the game. The internet is far too sensitive anymore. As a person formally educated in Fine Arts, I'm glad the internet didn't exist for the vast majority of human history. When push comes to shove, this piece has incited far more emotional reaction than a great many things sitting in museums. The original sculptor should be proud, to be honest. But still, god awful ugly.
As a stand-alone retail item? No.
As part of a multi-faceted collector's edition? Yes. It's definitely unique.
It certainly beats the factory bent-up pewter Ordinator figurine I got with Morrowind, back in the day.
If it were a male torso, I'd rather it be a plushie, so I could use it as a pillow.
There is nothing wrong with the piece, the thing that is wrong is people. The sensitive sensitive internet got all up in a tizzy about nothing at all. Just like it usually does.
Yes, I would, if I was a fan of zombie games/movies/books. I would totally buy it.
The thing is that Dead Island was to me mildly entertaining experience, and one that I'm not that much interested in revisiting again. But if I was a zombie fan and had really enjoyed the game, I wouldn't mind having this little "piece" in my collection of zombie memorabilia.
Would I buy it if it were a male torso?
What a silly question to ask.
Deep Silver obviously knows its audience and the fact that most of them are men or teenage boys. Market dictates the demand, and having this female torso with well-formed (probably silicon filled) breasts as an incentive makes absolutely and totally sense.
Is it sexist? Yes, probably.
What continues to amaze me is a small populace of vocal whiners, who were most likely not from UK (remember this was for UK collection only), who managed to whine and complain and thanks to that, in the end, deny something from others that they were not interested in themselves in a first place.
Now that's what makes ME upset.
Yes and yes, depending on the price.
It's just a severed torso, big deal. You'd think we, as gamers, would be mature enough to handle a statue of a dead body, eesh.
And (in response to accusations of "sexism") since it takes place on a TROPICAL ISLAND RESORT, you're going to be pretty likely to find a torso with breast implants, just like you'd be likely to find a male torso with chiseled abs. Neither of these are "sexualized," just, well, realistic.
In short, I think the people accusing the marketers of "being stupid," are, themselves, rather immature. The marketers probably figured that gamers were mature enough to handle some gore, but were clearly mistaken.
The sole concession is that they probably should have anticipated the sexism comments and made them for both genders, with "sexy" features for both (breast implants/chiseled abs).
Side note: For people essentially saying, "I don't like it, so no one should have it," or, "Why would someone want this disgusting thing"...What exactly has your knickers in a twist? If some dude wants this on a mantle with all of his other limited-edition swag...so what? Just because it's a torso in a bikini doesn't mean sex is the appeal. The appeal could easily be the absurdity or the gross factor.
Is this a pun on her lack of arms? If so, well done. If not, good attempt at deflecting the discussion with the age old "What if it was a dude?!?!?!" question.
No and no! No chance in hell I'd pay money for a torn apart model of a torso, male or female.
I must add though; Zombie Bait? Bait? A half nekkid lady is now bait? Really?!
I enjoyed the first game a lot but I'm not getting this one.
I will admit I'm wierded out by it...
Not because I don't think they should be allowed to do it, just (as you mentioned) I fail to see the relevance >.>...
Yeh, its more weird than anything.
Surprised they didn't just go with a scale model of a zombie girl in a Bikini? Since there were plenty of those in the game.
Still wouldn't want it, but fits it better.
I would say "Usually not dudes."
There are a lot of instances of young men being sold into the sex trade to be just that. This shouldn't be a competition of which gender has been abused more.
The issue of the sex trade and the act as a whole needs to be addressed as being wrong no matter what.
When I saw it this morning, I thought, "Wow, that's tasteless. Gamers will probably eat it up."
For people who keep asking what the problem is, for me, the problem is that they've clearly made it into a sex object. She has no face. She has no identity. She's just a meat sack with incongruously unspoilt tits. Because apparently, that's all Deep Silver thinks male gamers want. And apparently male is all Deep Silver thinks gamers are.
Now, I didn't think to criticize at first for two reasons. First, because I have absolutely no intention of playing a Dead Island game (certainly not after Yahtze's review of the first one). Second, because I'm definitely not shelling out extra money for a collector's edition. So basically, I recognized the product as shit but just mentally categorized it in the same category of the rest of the shit many gamers drop their money on that I can't ever imagine wanting. Like Mountain Dew.
So, I guess kudos to people who made enough noise about this to get a change. Raspberries to Deep Silver for being passive-aggressive dicks who refuse to take responsibility for their own marketing decisions. And thumbs up to gamers who don't understand why this is offending some people, but who ask with genuine interest in understanding other people's points of view. Exasperated sighs at privileged gamers who think because they personally aren't offended by this that no one has any right to criticize it.
Someone replies with some common sense and realises the figure is about fitting the theme of the game not being sexist (seriously that and the racism card are called so often they have no meaning people! ).
Yeah, it is tasteless, yeah, it is exploitative.
But, know what? I can buy pretty gruesome statues and figurines from Toy Stores. And no one is flipping out at that. Guess toys representing movie slashers, or a Gears of War character splitting a Locust in two are perfectly acceptable on our desks as long as there are no boobs involved. Heck, I'd even bet a few slasher/horror/gore movies have had similarly gruesome extras as part of their own collector's edition.
I could even point out that the senseless and gory killing of beautiful women has been a staple of horror for as long as the genre has existed, precisely because it irks most people greatly, and this game is part of said genre... But that'd be defending this shameless marketing stunt which I have no intention of doing.
I just want to poke fun at how monumentally stupid is to get worked up over this.
That was a pretty insightful thing to say, but I think you're romanticising the marketing department's intention a bit. When they announced this content, they weren't spreading some deep message about gender or sex or whatever - they were pandering plain and simple.
That's unfair. The people who marketed and advertised this wouldn't have the same people who actually developed the game. For the most part, at least. The same could apply for most short-sighted ad campaigns (Dante's Inferno, anyone?).
I'd love to have been in the room when this was discussed and they decided it would be a good idea. It makes you wonder what they thought was too over the line?
Not sure why they didn't just go with a zombie girl in said bikini. It would be disturbing and wrong, sure, like zombies are supposed to be, but it wouldn't evoke, I don't know, bomb blast victims? This is just unidentifiable gore.
You know, I never played the original Dead Island SPECIFICALLY because I knew there was no way they could match the emotional impact of the trailer. Your reference was almost lost on me there. Almost.
I dunno, this is the first time I hear of the whole thing, but honestly... this is wrong on so many levels I can't help but want one.
One can say it definitely crossed the line twice.
This collector's item was bad and it should feel bad.
I love how the logic for some people will always be "I wasn't offended and therefore anyone who was is stupid."
I wouldn't have bought it and I don't particularly like it. I love the silly outrage, though.
We ARE mature enough to handle this and that's the thing, we did handled it maturely. We called them out on their childish bullshit.
They made it thinking that most of the gamers will just accept it as "awesome" and "mature" and some other shit, but what it actually got is negative response because most of us recognized how fucking IMMATURE this is.
You just described my thought process exactly.
I'm not insulted to my very core or anything, but I guess its a bit tasteless? I wouldn't want it on my shelf, but Ive seen worse things pulled out of a box before.
I wouldn't buy it regardless of gender. I think it just goes to show that a dismembered torso isn't just bad taste in terms of violence, but also bad taste in terms of how it relates to the game. This was just lazy.
I think the best comparison would if the collector's edition of Fallout 3 came with a model severed head (obviously that happens a lot) as opposed to the Vault-Tec bobblehead. The collector's edition bobblehead was the perfect symbol which echoes your efforts within the game.
Even Duke Nukem Forever had a relevant collector's edition, and that game is almost universally despised.
I've never played Dead Island (and probably never will), but I'm going to make a wild guess and say that they would have been better off using a plastic first aid box as part of the collector's edition. Include a large novelty (or real) Band Aid that looks like a zombie bite mark on the outside. There you go, Deep Silver, I fixed it for you in about five minutes.
No. Also, if I was given it for free I wouldn't keep it.
Nothing about it says "zombie". If it was a zombie in a bikini I still wouldn't buy it but at least it would have meaning. It would be tied to Dead Island and most people, even if they didn't know the game, would generally get the idea behind it. As it is, it's just a mutilated female torso. Hooray! Now I can display my love of dismembering women and having sex with their corpses with something that won't decompose. Thank you Deep Silver!
Not this no.
If it wasn't just a torso and had a head and maybe at least one arm I think it would be a cool collectors item regardless of the gender.
No it doesn't regret fucking shit!
That bust (no pun intended) was nothing more than a publicity grab, they only made one of those things to stir up controversy. Nobody is stupid enough to ACTUALLY think people would like that. No they knew they would hate it and tried to use it as a cheap publicity stunt.
The bad news for them being that I only heard of it now. Meaning nobody gave enough of a shit to raise a big enough issue like with the Hitman Nuns.
This is the first time I actually see the reason for this being deemed sexist worded. By now it was for the most part "How would anyone even think of this?!" or "Yep, it's sexist, and creepy." No exploration of why it's sexist.
And here comes the second. Awesome. Now to answer them:
It makes sense. Reducing a woman to what is perceived as the most defining - and most sexual - parts, and then placing "her" on what is essentially a trophy bloc, is definitely in very bad taste, and regarding recent events not exactly the brightest of decisions.
But, as I said before: I agree with that. It is sexist, it is yet another pretty poor statement about the games industry. What it not is, however, is a carefully executed plot against women. That, is how it felt to me with news posts not only on the Escapist, but all throughout gaming magazines, though.
If I had the money, it was available where I live and I actually liked the game, well, I'd probably buy it. Not because TITS, but because it is fitting for the game, if you take out the implications. If "she" was a male torso, any other body part, or didn't have such obvious ... uhm, adjustments made, "she" would be perfectly fine. Great idea, lacking big in execution.
It's repulsive and in poor taste but the thing about taste is it's subjective. I've seen lots of weird collector stuff around for movies, particularly horror, and I don't see how this is any worse than that. It's a zombie game so why is a torso such a weird idea for a collectors edition? I don't see what all the uproar is about.
I would think this thing had anti-sex appeal since it's horrid.
This. Who honestly thought a dismembered bikini-clad torso would sell? Whoever seriously thought that deserves to be chemically neutered.
Before this thing, I had forgotten about Dead Island, and I had no idea about the Riptide expansion.
I pronounce this obvious PR stunt a success.
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Jean-Marc Silva
France Montagnes, Le portail de la montaigne française
Driven by a veritable passion for mountains over more than 30 years, Jean-Marc SILVA has been serving as the director of France Montagnes since 2010, at Alpespace in Francin, Savoie Department, France.
France Montagnes, the leading promotional and communication platform for French mountain destinations both domestically and internationally, was the outcome of the merger among de SFI, PAM and Ski France-ANMSM (National Association of Mountain Resort Mayors), whose president is Gilbert BLANC-TAILLEUR.
A native of Grenoble, and armed with his diploma in Mechanical Fabrication, Jean-Marc Silva began his professional career at age 19 as a purchaser for chairlift specialist Pomagalski S.A. He quickly moved on to be an industrial draughtsman and then an international sales technician at Neyrpic's sluices, dams and telecommunications department, while at the same time continuing his higher education by taking night courses. His dream of working at a ski resort was realized at age 30 when he took on the post of Mechanical Lift Sales Manager of the 7 Laux resort in Isère, where he put into place a sales service department, a central reservation system, and various tourism products in the domestic and international markets. Just a year later, he became the General Manager of the resort.
In 1991, Jean-Marc SILVA changed course and headed to the salt air of Brittany, where he served as Sales and Marketing Manager of tour operator Vacances Morvan and Condors Ferries in Saint-Malo, thus learning the ropes of operating a travel agency, a tour operator, local reception and maritime transport.
But the call of the mountain proved stronger, and he did not hesitate, two years later, to apply to become Director of the Tourism Office of Arcs–Bourg St. Maurice, a post that he would occupy for nearly ten years. He went on to create the central reservation system Agence de Voyages des Arcs and developed promotion and marketing within the new Tourism Office.
In 2000 he witnessed the arrival of North American group Intrawest, which planned to build a village resort in Arc 1950. In 2003 he left the Tourism Office to manage the Resort Club Arc 1950 thus embarking on a grand adventure which was set in motion by Alpine resorts with an investment amounting to 250 million euros, at the same time as the emergence of Paradiski (Les Arcs-La Plagne ski area).
Created at the initiative of three founding members—ANMSM led by Gilbert BLANC-TAILLEUR, the Syndicat National des Téléphériques de France (SNTF) headed by Pierre LESTAS, and the Syndicat National des Moniteurs du Ski Français (SNMSF) whose president is Gilles CHABERT—this association brings together all the partners and actors of the sector such as ski areas with SNTF, ski monitors with the SNMSF, tourism institutional bodies with Atout France, the Regional Tourism Committees (CRT), the Confédération Pyrénéenne, the Departmental Tourism Committees (CDT), mountain resorts, manufacturers and retailers of sporting gear, accommodation establishments, etc.


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After speaking with some very talented people at Marklogic. I decided to air my wishlist with the community at large and get some feedback.
Server Functionality:
- Samba/CIFS Server – The big challenge with integrating marklogic at my company has been getting the content into marklogic. While often we can write custom loaders or some of the code on developer.marklogic.com, such as xqloader. We dont have time to prove value without some long drawn out development project. It would just be as simple to expose marklogic as a CIFS/Samba server rather than a webdav server in its current releases. First, I will say without a good webdav client or some api that is easy to follow. its useless for large scale loading of content. I think most people when they get started with Marklogic is to just mount a share and start building a directory and dropping in their xml content. Alfresco has successfully implemented such functionality with JLAN implementation and this made a big difference in me getting alfresco up and running.
- Versionable File System – Automatic file versioning similiar to Subversion or CVS. This is purely an nice to have feature. But often as a developer you dont want to have to figure out how to manage versioning of files(version storage, apis to handle it). Better if Marklogic provided this out of the box IMHO.
Language Features
- True Schema Support functionality – I understand that you want to be able to handle Xml without restrictions, buts lets face it if you could validate a document against a schema in marklogic you could at least have a choice as to whether you want to bomb the file or not. I dont know how many times I have encountered a problem in one of my parsing applications because of some unknown element is introduced into my content that I havent accounted for. We can ignore things we dont like but it only makes it worse after you have ignored this problem. If I can know what schema violations a particular document has I can at least move it to QA for fixing. If anybody has implemented a schema validator in marklogic. Please send me a message.
- External Xquery functions – No I dont mean java or dotnet based functions. I mean xquery functions that can be passed to a module (which I guess would require High Order Functions). Often when writing a transformer for a particular type of Xml Content such as Docbook or NITF. You want often end up writing a series of typeswitch statements that iterate over the content. For every transformation you want to do from the base transformation(ie XSL-FO,HTML) you have to duplicate this functionality. By allowing passing of external functions you can write modules that accept a series of functions and will call that function or use the local functions. This would seriously reduce the amount of boilerplate code you would have to write for new transformations. Also the inclusion of checking if a function or variable is undefined would also prevent try catch statements from XDMP:UNDEFINED errors.
- XQuery Reflection – XQuery Reflection over modules(I have posted about this earlier tonight:0). Oh the use cases I could write for this! I will boil it down to these 3, Documentation stubs(ie XqDoc) , Dynamic Programming, and Code Generation(WSDL's, Dynamic Eval, Scaffolding Rails???)
- Xml Diff – This would be awesome. So a few flavors would need to be handled order sensitive and insensitive. Also update functions that accept a diff-gram would save alot of headache in writing update code.
Any thoughts?


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Welcome to our Concord, Massachusetts funeral home
Over 150 years of service ~ Caring for families since 1868
Susan Dee and Charles Dee, born and raised in Concord, are the fourth generation of Dee family funeral directors. The Dee family has served families of all faiths in Concord and the surrounding communities since 1868. John J. Arena III is a dedicated funeral service professional and fourth generation Concord resident.
We are located near the entrance of historic Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, and close to St. Bernard's Cemetery.
A Concord, Massachusetts funeral home since 1868, we are Concord's largest, most established, family owned, non-sectarian funeral home & cremation service. Our Concord Center location provides ample parking, and neighbors Holy Family Parish, First Parish in Concord, Trinitarian Congregational Church and is conveniently located near Trinity Episcopal Church, Kerem Shalom, The New Church of Concord and West Concord Union Church.
Personalized services are our trademark. We provide you with the highest quality service in our comfortable family oriented environment with memorials and options for all to select.
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Our complete online obituary system provides a variety of information for families and friends, as well as an opportunity for people to write their thoughts and memories.


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Sugars In Wine Making Summary
There are 2 main sugars in grapes, Glucose (Dextrose) and Fructose.
Fructose tastes 1.73 times sweeter than Glucose.
As grapes ripen, the level of Glucose remains relatively constant, while the level of Fructose increases.
At typical normal ripening, the levels of Glucose and Fructose in grapes are about equal.
Sucrose (table sugar) is a di-saccharide, consisting of equal parts Glucose and Frustose.
Late harvest wines will have higher proportion of Fructose.
Yeast will only ferment Sucrose after breaking it down, with invertase and acid, into Glucose and Fructose.
Yeast will ferment Glucose before it ferments Fructose.
In wines like Port, the addition of neutral grape spirits stuns the yeast and halts fermentation, leaving a wine with a higher proportion of fructose sugars and creating a sweet wine.
Fructose, along with glucose, is one of the principle sugars involved in the creation of wine. At time of harvest, there is usually an equal amount of glucose and fructose molecules in the grape; however, as the grape over ripens the level of fructose will become higher. In wine, fructose can taste nearly twice as sweet as glucose and is a key component in the creation of sweet dessert wines. During fermentation, glucose is consumed first by the yeast and converted into alcohol. A winemaker that chooses to halt fermentation (either by temperature control or the addition of brandy spirits in the process of fortification) will be left with a wine that is high in fructose and notable residual sugars. The technique of süssreserve, where unfermented grape must is added after the wine's fermentation is complete, this will result in a wine that tastes less sweet than a wine whose fermentation was halted. This is because the unfermented grape must will still have roughly equal parts of fructose and the less sweet tasting glucose. Similarly, the process of chaptalization where sucrose (which is one part glucose and one part fructose) is added will usually not increase the sweetness level of the wine. – Wiki - Sugars in Wine
Sucrose is ideal for chaptalization of wines to be fermented dry.
Two wines sweetened before bottling, one with Sucrose, one with Fructose (equal amounts) will have the same residual sugar (RS), but the Fructose sweetened wine will taste sweeter. (Note – after a few weeks, the acid in the wine will break down the Sucrose into its Glucose and Fructose components).
During fermentation, the point where the Glucose and the Fructose starts being consumed may stress yeast, causing, among other things, a "stuck" fermentation.
WRT sparkling wines, Sucrose is usually added for the second (bottle) fermentation and in the dosage to sweeten after disgorging. It may be more advantageous to use Glucose in the bottle fermentation, thus acclimating the yeast to it. Then, sweetening the dosage with Fructose, where what little yeast is left, would have difficulty fermenting it.


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I shouldn't admit this, but the first thing I did upon receiving Crazy U: One Dad's Crash Course on Getting His Kid into College was to flip to the back to see which college his kid gets into.
Why did I care? Because having just gone through the same absurd process with my oldest child, I was not willing to listen to some guy wax poetic on how – "crazy" though it was – his bionic child clambered to the top and is now happily overachieving at, say, Harvard. And that all it cost was a few grand for SAT prep, private tutors, hired essay writers – things you, dear reader, can buy, too!
Fortunately, Ferguson is no such fool, and this delightful memoir had me laughing from the first page. It's an honest account of a devoted dad who finds himself torn between wanting to help his son win the admissions game and not wanting to play by the contradictory rules forced upon them. It's an unflinching look at the craziness of college admissions, the outrageous price tags of higher education, and, finally, how wonderful it is to watch our teenagers step into that new unknown that begins the rest of their life. (And ends our financial security as we know it.)
Ferguson, a respected journalist with Bloomberg News Service in Washington, D.C., begins by admitting the troubles he is about to detail are those of an already privileged family. At least his son has involved parents, safe schools, and is all but guaranteed college admission somewhere. Students in struggling inner-city D.C. schools may be only miles away as the crow flies, but light years away in opportunities available. So we leap over the
inequality elephant in the room and move on.
First stop: another elephant. This time, the privilege that separates the middle class from the super-rich – in the form of "Dr. Cohen," an overdressed ex-Brown University admissions officer in Manhattan who charges $40,000 for the "platinum" package of admissions help. For one child. Her advice? Treat the process like a marathon: start young (preschool), get involved in school activities, and "early on in high school" start sucking up to the teacher you'll be asking to write that all-important recommendation.
So discouraged is Ferguson when he meets with Cohen that he lies about (inflates) his son's PSAT scores, breaking a vow he'd made to keep from getting caught in the race. Cohen herself is nervous about an interview for her own child – a 9-month-old seeking a spot in an exclusive day care. Shaking his head over the craziness, Ferguson asks Cohen, "How did all this get started?"
"All what get started?" she responds, without cynicism. Ferguson writes: "[Cohen] had spent most of her professional life in this world of high competition, where children quite often served as proxies for status and parental self-worth, and she took the world as she found it. She ignored my question."
Ferguson's search leads next to the vast storehouse at US News and World Report, whose landmark 1983 ranking of US colleges spawned an entire industry, mushrooming into books about colleges, books about rankings, and books about books about colleges and rankings.
But it also bore a dark side: Rankings mean big bucks to colleges, leading administrators to lie and fudge data – such as "massaging" SAT averages, for instance, by choosing to leave out verbal scores of nonnative English speakers.
And then there's the all-consuming SAT. Here Ferguson shines: He takes us from the gleaming offices of the highly paid College Board execs to the test's humbler origins as a multiple-choice test used by the Army in World War I. Though intended to expand admission beyond the privileged white boys that earlier tests had favored, the SAT seems to have come full circle. No matter how many "Julios" and "Matsukos" are inserted to rid the SAT of bias, scores still favor the wealthy. As one activist puts it, the SAT is good only for measuring "the size of the student's house."
(If you can get your kid labeled ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, he/she will get extra time to finish, virtually guaranteeing a higher score, with colleges none the wiser.)
Perhaps the least satisfying part of Ferguson's book is his examination into why college costs have skyrocketed. We readers want an answer, but – not for lack of trying – Ferguson doesn't have one. Or perhaps we want to believe it's more than that given by Ohio University's economics professor Richard Vedder: Colleges keep raising tuition "because they can ... there's nothing stopping them."
Nor are there incentives to keep costs down, as colleges have to "buy off" professors (high salaries), alums (good football teams), students (light work loads, good food, great facilities), and legislators and trustees (get good ranking from US News, admit their kids if they apply). Of every $1 spent at public colleges, only 26 cents goes to the classroom. The average debt load of college graduates weighs in at a cool $22,000. What about those students on the upper end of that burden – dragging around $100,000 in debt and perhaps still jobless? Says Vedder, "If you look at higher education as an investment, there's a lot of disappointed investors out there."
The book concludes with the funniest section, watching Ferguson's son anguish over the college application essay. Bookstore shelves are stuffed with advice on writing this "confessional" monster. (Like Ferguson, I purchased an assortment of these books for my son. Like Ferguson's son, mine refused to so much as crack one open. They still collect dust in his now-empty bedroom.) Woe to those students who have never suffered a tragedy to write about, or who would prefer to keep their inmost thoughts private.
In the end Ferguson follows his son to "BSU" – a fictitious acronym for the state college where the boy matriculates one sunny autumn. I imagine Ferguson driving home, slipping into his BSU T-shirt (the way I wear the one from my son's new U) and thanking his lucky stars that his son made it and is going to do just fine.
Elizabeth A. Brown's son is enjoying freshman year at Hipster U in California, where he was the only guy in his dorm who knew how to do laundry.
Join the Monitor's book discussion on Facebook and Twitter.


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LAKEWOOD — Zoe Peterson knew how important the goal would be.
After all, the Evergreen Lady Cougars were just 2-3, but a win over D'Evelyn on April 5 at Lakewood Memorial Field would do more than bring her team back to .500. It hopefully would go a long way in determining the pecking order in the 4A Jeffco League.
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No matter how you measure it – sales, leads, donations, clicks – if results matter to you, you've come to the right place. Since 1981, we've built our success on a deep understanding of the discipline of direct marketing. And we've done so for some of the biggest brands out there. Carefully crafting campaigns that support the sensibilities of the brand and generate extraordinary results is what we do.
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SHELBY � When Gardner-Webb University�s Henry Rundio was a standout baseball player at North Gaston High School, the colleges who recruited him frequently debated what his best position at their level might be.
A standout pitcher, outfielder and infielder for the Wildcats in high school who earned 2010 Gazette player of the year honors and 2011 first-team All-Gazette honors, Rundio was considered a versatile talent.
Good enough to be fifth in career batting average and career hits at North Gaston, Rundio also is one of only four 20-game career pitching winners in school history; Others are eventual minor leaguers Jake Buchanan (34) and Chad Brown (23) and current North Gaston standout Jared Wallace (24).
Now a sophomore at Gardner-Webb University, Rundio has surprised even the coach who signed him with that versatility.
Recruited by Rusty Stroupe as a second baseman and shortstop, Rundio has spent his sophomore year as a starting third baseman for the Bulldogs (22-21-1), who host East Carolina Tuesday at 5 p.m.
�Henry Rundio is a great athlete,� said Stroupe, the 1982 Cherryville High graduate who is in his 11th season as GWU coach. �We brought in four middle infielders last year and they�re all good and they�re all playing.
�It turned out that when we started moving people, Henry was very willing to make that change, especially since it got him into the starting lineup.�
Rundio, who bats second in the lineup, is hitting .252 with three home runs, 19 RBIs and 14 stolen bases in 42 games (41 starts). He leads the team in home runs and stolen bases, is fourth in RBIs and seventh in batting average.
�Last year, I knew I had to play my role and be a situational guy,� said Rundio, who hit .223 with one home run and 11 RBIs in 51 games (27 starts) for the Bulldogs a year ago. �This year, I worked hard in the summer and got the nod to start. I came in as a shortstop-second baseman. But the shortstop did pretty good last year, so I really didn�t have shortstop or second base to go to and he put me at third.�
Last week, Rundio and the Bulldogs knocked off No. 15 South Carolina 7-6 at Shelby�s Veterans Field at Keeter Stadium with Rundio�s first-inning single sparking a three-run first inning rally.
�This win, I think will give us confidence to do better and better,� Rundio said.
Stroupe certainly hopes so, as Gardner-Webb has two more weekend series � May 10-12 at High Point and May 16-18 at home against Presbyterian � to improve on its 8-9 Big South Conference record.
�I�ve been real impressed with how Henry�s played for us this season,� Stroupe said. �He�s one of the best athletes at third base in the Big South Conference. He�s a very determined young man and I�m very proud of him and how much he�s progressed. This has been his coming out year and he�s been getting better and better.�
Richard Walker: 704-869-1841; twitter.com/JRWalk22


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Pigeons' brains have 'GPS neurons' to help them navigate, scientists foundMonday, April 30th, 2012
Article Shared From: The Global Post
Written By: Talia Ralph
Pigeons' brains appear to contain "GPS neurons" that help them navigate, according to a new study published in Science journal.
Scientists at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas have discovered a group of 53 cells in the birds' brains that respond to the direction and strength of the Earth's magnetic field, BBC News reported.
Le-Qing Wu and David Dickman, the study's lead researchers, found that the neurons "buzz" at different levels depending on how strong the magnetic field is and which direction it's pointing in, Discover Magazine's blog reported. (more…)


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Gearhead v.6 & Speed Kills v.6
Posted by Andrew Coulon on October 20, 2010
This week, we've got not one, but two Zines of the Week and they different than anything else we've offered up before. Behold: Hot Rod Zines! These aren't your common muscle car mags, these are two mid-nineties gems of muscle-car lovin' punk-rock culture. You can expect lots of hot rods, rockabilly artwork and attitude.
First, Gearhead Vol. 6 puts Southern car culture on display with a terrific article on the roots of figure 8 car racing, a road trip tour for classic car lovers and a visit to Graceland. Also, check out a cool interview with ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons and lots of zine and album reviews.
Speed Kills Vol. 6 leans more heavily on the music side of the equation; band features include the Beastie Boys, Superchunk and Neu, plus tons of album reviews. Also, there are a decent number of zine reviews and a whole lot of cars. But the single most interesting thing in Speed Kills is a short transcript from a motivational speech Evel Knievel gave to some people… I don't really know who, but that's not the point. Evel Knievel really wants to motivate YOU. He thinks you should do the things you love to do (within reason of course, but this is the most famous stuntman of all time, so reason is relative) and take responsibility for your own destiny. Evel Knievel had a natural DIY mentality and that, friends, is what the Zine Collection is all about…


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Journal of the South African Veterinary Association
versão On-line ISSN 2224-9435
versão impressa ISSN 1019-9128
J. S. Afr. Vet. Assoc. vol.79 no.2 Pretoria 2008
The scintigraphic evaluation of the pulmonary perfusion pattern of dogs hospitalised with babesiosis
L SweersI; R M KirbergerI; A L LeisewitzII; I C DormehlIII; E KillianIV; F NaudéV
IDepartment of Companion Animal Clinical Studies, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X04, Onderstepoort, 0110 South Africa
IIDepartment of Veterinary Tropical Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X04, Onderstepoort, 0110 South Africa
IIIAEC Institute for Life Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria, PO Box 667, Pretoria, 0001 South Africa
IVBiomedical Research Centre, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X04, Onderstepoort, 0110 South Africa
VDepartment of Nuclear Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria, PO Box 667, Pretoria, 0001 South Africa
The possibility of coagulopathy in Babesia canis rossi infections in the canine patient has been suggested in the literature, but minimal work has been done to evaluate the clinicopathological nature of it in further detail. Pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) has not yet been implicated in canine babesiosis (CB), but may also be one of the causes of the sudden dyspnoea and tachypnoea that are frequently seen in complicated CB patients. The objective of this study was to prospectively evaluate the scintigraphic pulmonary perfusion pattern in hospitalised dogs with babesiosis in an attempt to ascertain whether a scintigraphic pattern consistent with clinically relevant PTE does indeed occur in these patients. The study consisted of a normal control group of 9 mature healthy Beagle dogs (group 1) and a Babesia group with 14 dogs of a variety of breeds that were naturally infected with Babesia (group 2). Pulmonary perfusion scintigraphy was performed after making thoracic radiographs and performing a blood gas analysis in both groups. The scintigraphic images were visually inspected for changes suggestive of PTE, but not a single dog in group 2 had pleural-based, wedge-shaped perfusion defects which would have resulted in a high probability for clinically relevant PTE. The scintigraphic pulmonary perfusion pattern demonstrated was not significantly different between the 2 groups (P=1.00).
Keywords: canine babesiosis, pulmonary perfusion, pulmonary thromboembolism, scintigraphy
"Full text available only in PDF format"
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Received: November 2007
Accepted: May 2008
* Author for correspondence. E-mail: email@example.com
Sweers L, Kirberger R M, Leisewitz A L, Dormehl I C, Killian E, Naudé F The scintigraphic evaluation of the pulmonary perfusion pattern of dogs hospitalised with babesiosis. Journal of the South African Veterinary Association (2008) 79(2): 76-83 (En.). Department of Companion Animal Clinical Studies, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X04, Onderstepoort, 0110 South Africa.


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A free screening for children birth through 5-years-old will be Tuesday at the Christian Church, 334 W. 5th St., Florence. Appointments will be available from 12:30 to 3 p.m.
At the screening, development will be checked in learning, motor, language, and social areas. Vision and hearing will also be screened. This process usually takes at least one hour for a child to complete. All children are welcome, but an appointment is necessary.
Call (620) 382-2858 for an appointment.


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When I was a sophomore in college, a woman in my class named Katherine Brodsky died because she never imagined that a bowl of chili at a local pub would have peanut butter as a "secret ingredient". She had the most severe form of food allergy, known as anaphylaxis. Her airway closed, and she died a couple of hours later. Although I didn't know Katherine personally, her tragedy stuck in my head.
Almost two decades later, I met my wife Sarina, and she has the same type of allergy. Peanuts and every type of tree nut are poison to her. Although we eat out frequently and with pleasure, there is always an element of fear. Will this be a normal meal, or one of those horrible nights we spend at the emergency room? Or, god forbid, worse. In the 5 years, I've known her, we've had far too many instances where she has ingested nuts at a restaurant or catered event.
Now mind you, we always explain the situation to the waitstaff. We tell them that she has a life-threatening allergy to nuts. We ask about every dish. If we sense any uncertainty on the part of the server, we ask them to double check with the kitchen, and if it still isn't clear, we'll change our order or even leave. In spite of all this caution, we've had at least 6 cases where we ended up at the hospital. Two cases of a stray peanut in the middle of a bowl of Vietnamese noodles. Something cross-contaminated onto a loaf of bread in a German health-food restaurant. Two cases of sweet-lupine flour (who knew?) in industrial pastry crusts. Pine nuts in a phyllo appetizer at a very high end restaurant that caused us to miss her Step-mom's 60th birthday party. Most recently, a dish of stewed farro and pine nuts. The nuts weren't mentioned on the menu, the waitress swore it was a safe dish, and the dark color of the broth made it impossible to see them mixed in the grain.
When this happens, she is pumped full of intravenous epinephrine, benadryl, steroids, and other drugs. An epipen is great as an emergency measure, but we still have to go in for the full treatment. She spends the next few hours puking her guts out, scratching every inch of her skin, shivering and shaking. The next few days are a total loss as her body struggles to recover from the onslaught of poison and antidote.
Having worked in professional kitchens, I understand all too well how these accidents can happen. Restaurants are busy places with competing priorities and many people responsible for the food that ends up in front of the customer. But these excuses aren't going to mean much if you kill someone.
Besides peanuts and tree nuts, other common dangerous allergies include milk, egg, fish, shellfish, soy and wheat. Of course many people have much less severe reactions to some of the same foods, which is why it is so important to have a dialogue with the customer.
For the purposes of this article, we aren't talking about the "it gives me gas" allergies (though I don't mean to minimize how severe that can be, and it can be a precursor to something worse if the allergy escalates) or personal dietary preferences, we are talking about deadly serious stuff. Every restaurant has its own policy on how to deal with food preferences, and we can argue all day about the best way to handle that. But when a customer tells you they have a very serious allergy, there are only two ethical choices you can make. You can serve the customer, making every feasible effort to ensure their food doesn't contain the allergen. Or you can refuse to serve them. Any other choice puts that customer at grave and undue risk. It also threatens your reputation, finances and insurance, and your ability to sleep at night. Do you really want to risk poisoning your clientele?
Assuming the answer is no, the rest of this article is divided into three sections, for chefs & cooks, front of house, and management / owners. You should read all three sections so that you can understand each other's responsibilities. This is geared toward folks in the restaurant industry, but home cooks can learn important ideas for when they entertain guests with food allergies.
Although I am passionate about this topic, I'm not an expert and you can't rely on this article to teach you everything you need to know. For more information, please visit foodallergy.org and see the additional links in the Owner / Manager section below.
Also, please take a moment to pass this information on, by emailing it to friends who work in restaurants, printing it out and tacking it up on the bulletin board, mentioning it on your blog, giving it a Thumbs Up or a digg or tweet or sharing on Facebook. Whatever you do to get the word out is a big help. There is a box with tools to help you do that at the end of the article.
And thanks for listening. The life you save might be my wife's.
As you read through these guidelines, keep in mind that most mistakes are in two broad categories: communication failures and cross-contamination. If you learn to think in those general terms, you'll quickly become aware of other risks besides the specific ones I call out below.
Food Allergy Safety for Chefs and Cooks
- Be aware when products change. I recently saw an instance where a smart prep cook noticed that a new brand of egg replacer had wheat flour in it and therefore wasn't safe to use in dishes that were labeled gluten-free on the menu.
- Be aware of spills of common allergens in storage areas or during prep. Treat cleanup the same as if it was gasoline.
- When handling allergens, all utensils and equipment must be washed thoroughly between uses, including cutting boards. If there are machines or other tools that cooks wash themselves instead of putting them in the dish pit, be sure to do a thorough job.
- Wear gloves when handling allergens, then dispose of them immediately. This will greatly reduce the risk of cross-contamination.
- Bowls and tongs for tossing salads are a likely place for cross-contamination. When handling an allergy ticket, take the 10 seconds to grab a fresh set.
- If you have any allergens on the line, segregate them from other ingredients, preferably in a way that makes it unlikely to drop a stray bit into a normal ingredient. Never use the portioning utensil from an allergen pan in any other food.
- Most definitely do not reuse a saute pan that has had an allergen in it.
- Where possible, design your recipes so that common allergens are added at the last minute. That makes it much easier to accommodate guests that can't have them. For example, you might have a butternut squash ravioli in brown butter; rather than adding hazelnuts to the saute, pre-toast them and simply sprinkle them on the final dish.
- Design recipes so that allergens are visible and obvious if at all possible. The most dangerous ones are invisible to the diner. See the story about the farro and pine nut dish above.
- During prep, follow the recipes; don't make any substitutions without informing the rest of staff, especially of common allergens.
- Segregate allergy tickets and be mindful of them the entire time they are at your station
- I know you love to yell at the waitstaff, but if they are asking you a question about allergens in a recipe, or letting you know a table has a serious allergy, stop what you are doing for a second and be sure you give them your undivided attention. Even if you are in the weeds. Whatever you do, don't make up an answer. If you don't know, tell them to pass that on to the customer and have them choose a different item.
- Make sure that allergy tickets are picked up correctly by the food runners. What good is it if you make one pasta without the nuts if it goes to the wrong table?
- If a plate is ever returned to you because of an accidental allergen, make it over from scratch. Absolutely do not just pluck the allergen off and send it back out. The other food on the plate is already contaminated!
Food Allergy Safety for the Front of House
- You are on the front line of communication between the customer and the kitchen. Your diligence is critical to that customer's safety. I can't promise you this is true for everyone, but when we see that a server is taking the extra steps to be sure our food is safe, the tip is definitely bigger. (The opposite is also true!)
- Know the ingredients of menu items and specials in advance, so you are prepared to offer guidance to the customer.
- If you offer a bread basket and any of the breads have allergens, it is wise to mention it when you drop it off. "This is our olive-walnut bread". And if a customer requests you remove a bread containing an allergen, don't just go remove the offending slices because it may have cross-contaminated already. Give them a fresh portion on a clean plate.
- If a customer informs you that they have an allergy:
- Ask them about the exact substances that cause the problem, and the severity. For example, "Is it all nuts or only some?", "Are any seeds an issue?", "Do you need to avoid packaged foods with the made in a factory that processes nuts labeling?". "Is this a very serious allergy or an intolerance? I want to be sure I understand so the cooks have the right information."
- If they have any questions about menu items, discuss them with the kitchen unless you are 100% sure you know the answer. In fact, even if you are sure, ask anyhow. See the farro and pine-nut story above!
- Make your manager aware of the allergy so they can pass it on to anyone else that may be involved with the table.
- Communicate back what you learned from the kitchen, and anything your management might require you to say. Some restaurants have a policy of saying something like "we'll do our best, and the pancakes don't have nuts in the ingredients, but of course we can't guarantee your safety". Fair enough.
- Write "Nut Allergy" (or whatever it is) in big bold letters on the ticket, and make sure it is communicated to every station that will handle the order.
- Double check when you pick up. "No peanuts on that one, right?"
- When running food, if there are allergens on the same tray, be sure nothing can cross-contaminate between plates.
- When you drop the food, confirm for the customer: "and this is the one with no peanuts, I double-checked with the chef". This isn't required for safety, but you have no idea how much you'll put the customer at ease.
- If you ever do have a customer have an allergic reaction, immediately:
- Get your manager
- Offer to call 911
- Apologize sincerely and profusely
- Never under any circumstance argue with the customer. I've seen instances where a waiter, cook, or manager has tried to deny what happened and have a big discussion while my wife's tongue is rapidly swelling.
- Get the customer's phone number so the manager or owner can follow up the next day
Food Allergy Safety for Restaurant Management and Owners
- Make sure that menu items specifically call out allergens in the description. Writing "Fettuccine with a basil-pine nut pesto" might save a life.
- Be sure your staff is aware of the issues listed above and have them trained by a specialist. Here is information about a new training program, and the Food Allergy Initiative.
- Be sure your staff is aware of any specific policies your restaurant has on these issues.
- Be sure your staff reports any incidents that do occur. For goodwill and to prevent future incidents, fully investigate what happened and why, then get in touch with the customer to offer an apology. You may also wish to offer them a gift certificate as a gesture that you are taking it seriously, but the most important thing is that phone call. Remember that this customer is very likely to tell others about their experience, so you want to do everything you can to minimize the damage and restore trust.
Thanks again for your attention, and please do pass this article on! (There are sharing tools to your left.)