text:
Interview with Brian Alleyne, Sociologist Studying KDE
A few months ago, the British journal Sociology published an article titled "Challenging Code: A Sociological Reading of the KDE Free Software Project". Eager to find out what a 'sociological reading' of KDE entails, Dot editor Oriol Mirosa rushed to contact the article's author, sociologist Brian Alleyne, who graciously and patiently agreed to be the subject of an interview. Read on to learn more about Brian, sociology, and the significance of KDE for the social sciences:
Sociologist Brian Alleyne
Oriol: Hi Brian. Can you start by telling us a little bit about yourself?
Brian: I live and work in London. I grew up in Trinidad in the Caribbean. I come from a family with a long history of migration, so I like to think of my 'routes' rather than 'roots'. I am currently a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London. I teach social theory, research methods, and global development issues to undergraduates and postgraduates. From January 2012 I will teach a new short course on Free Software cultures and practice, aimed at non-technical postgraduate students. My research is currently in two connected areas; first, on narratives, i.e. studying and using stories in order to better understand the social world; and second, on various aspects of information society, but especially Free, Libre and Open Source Software – FLOSS.
Oriol: What do sociologists do?
Brian: Sociologists are interested in understanding human life in the collective sense. A key question for us is: what are the structures and processes that enable and constrain social life? We take any and all aspects of social life as potential material for investigation, from language and culture to technology and politics. We use a wide of range of methods to generate data, from close observation, to interviews, to complex statistical analysis. We treat the everyday as if it were strange, and we seek to make the seemingly strange more accessible. People who do not understand or like what we do often accuse us of writing long articles on trivial matters. Well, they miss the point: the everyday social world as we experience it is far from trivial, it is actually much more than its surface appearance. Think of the web of social relations and culture (apart from the technology in the strict sense) that is implied in sending out text messages to arrange to meet friends for drinks.
Oriol: How did you become interested in free software and KDE?
Brian: We sociologists never give short answers (we are like Tolkien's Ents). So by way of background to my encounter with KDE, I was a geek before becoming a sociologist and I proudly remain a geek. I first got involved in the personal computing scene in 1982, when I got my first machine (and yes, I did have an Amiga, back in the mid 1980s). I learned to program in BASIC, Turbo Pascal, modula-2, and even dabbled a little in C. I first encountered Unix around 1986 and worked with it for a year or so: my job involved tailoring an Informix database for an insurance broker, and then I had to modify an accounting package that ran on a version of Unix - Xenix I think it was called; there was no IDE, I had to work on the code in vi. (I have painful memories of working with RPG II on IBM minicomputers: the less said about that the better). After working as a programmer and computer tutor for a few years, I went to university in 1988 to study Sociology. I've been in university ever since.
When I look over my personal and research journals of the past 10 years, I find that there are hundreds of entries on my experience with Linux and KDE. I first encountered Linux itself in 1999 in the form of Caldera Linux, on which I seem to remember there was an early version of KDE. I then moved on to Mandrake and SUSE in the early 2000s, on both of which I found KDE to be the desktop environment that was to my liking. I did my PhD at the University of Cambridge, where people referred to the great rival – Oxford – as 'the other place'; by way of analogy, I never took to the 'other desktop environment' :) I have been using Linux for about half of my computing since 2004, and have always used KDE software. So, yes I am a KDE user. As a way of tackling the learning curve, I used KDE software on Mandrake and SUSE almost full-time for a couple of years to do my regular work as an academic: writing lectures and papers, preparing graphics, emailing and web browsing/archiving. It was enlightening and invigorating (except when I was fiddling with LILO and battling with printer drivers). I studied the Qt toolkit for a bit and planned to learn PyQT and PyKDE to get back into coding, but have not found the time. I am currently thinking through what role I can play on becoming an official KDE member.
Oriol: As a sociologist, how did you become interested in KDE as a research topic?
Brian: It was always a dream of mine to combine the two main intellectual interests of my life: sociology and computing. KDE software as an open technology allowed me to look under the hood, but the main reason I chose it as a research topic was because of the excellent online community and resources. The project web site is a superb resource for a researcher. I also learned a great deal about the human side of KDE from the 'People behind KDE' series. The biographical sketches were a gold mine for someone like myself, because ever since my PhD research, I have used biographical methods (i.e. the in-depth study of an individual's life in order to understand particular social processes) in my work.
As a sociologist I am very interested in the idea of community, in how people come to understand themselves as belonging to some community and how they determine who is in and who is out. I have worked on questions of community for some years now. I was struck by how often the term community came up in FLOSS discussions, and in KDE more specifically. Even as I was using KDE software on a regular basis, my sociological half was wondering: What is the KDE community? Who is in it? What are the kinds of activities that are characteristic of FLOSS communities? Are there social structures as sociologists understand these, e.g. class? Is there some distinctive culture involved, e.g. use of language? What kind of knowledge is produced and valued in the KDE community? How does one learn to operate in the community? How is the community governed?
Oriol: You just published a paper about KDE titled "Challenging Code: A Sociological Reading of the KDE Free Software Project." What is the main argument you are making in that paper?
Brian: Well, that paper is the first in a series. My aims were to bring FLOSS into mainstream (British) sociology through discussion of a project, and I also wanted to consider the KDE project from sociological theories of activism and social movements. My basic argument is that the social significance of KDE, as FLOSS more generally, is in its making a critical intervention into the economic and social relations of software production and use. KDE, as a radically democratic and open project, in rejecting the norms of proprietary software, is not just about the politics of software, but is in fact an example of a broader potential shift in society and economy towards openness and sharing. It is far too soon to know how this will all turn out, but I want sociologists to pay more attention to FLOSS because it is a pivotal space in our world and is likely to increase in significance.
The overall framework I adopted in the paper was a theoretical perspective on social movements, which sees them as a 'cognitive praxis': a way of generating and applying knowledge in the pursuit of a particular political project (political here refers broadly to any activity in which there are different, opposed ideas and objectives, for which some kind of conflict resolution is required). I think that this framework was well suited to analyze KDE as a project.
There is lot of fantastic material written on FLOSS (some of which I discuss in my paper) but even if you're not a hacker, you at least need to be a geek to follow a lot of it, e.g. Raymond's The Art of Unix Programming assumes a fair bit of technical knowledge. I wanted to discuss a project that non-technical students of social science could grasp. But that project had to be a big part of the FLOSS world. KDE fit the bill, it ticked all of my boxes, it was a project and software suite that I had been using for several years. I try to act as a kind of translator between the world of free and open source software as represented through KDE, and that of sociologists.
Oriol: How did you do your research on KDE?
Brian: My work is what we call ethnographic, a term borrowed from anthropology; an ethnography - as the Greek roots imply - is a written account of a social and cultural milieu, or community. To produce an ethnography, a researcher immerses him/herself in the world they wish to study for an extended period of time. By using KDE software for my own work over several years, I became immersed as a user. Then I followed the many mailing lists and forums, and more recently, various blogs and podcasts. I collected interviews that had been done with key figures. My main face-to face encounter with the project was at Akademy 2007 in Glasgow, Scotland. There I had many informal talks with people. Because of my interest in narrative text, I have so far focused on the material published on the Web. In the future I hope to do more interview and observation work.
Oriol: How has the KDE community responded to your interest in researching it?
Brian: The people I have discussed my work with have been very helpful, if not always sure what sociologists do!
Oriol: What are your future plans for your research? Do they include KDE?
Brian: I have just completed a paper on hacking, in which I take an overview of the various forms: clandestine, FLOSS hacking, hacktivism, and hardware hacking. I am just finishing up another paper, on 'Ideas of community in FLOSS worlds', in which I apply sociological theories of community to the many articulations of community in FLOSS; as empirical material I examine the recent forking of Mandriva to Mageia as a case of community conflict, and I look in-depth at Jono Bacon's book, The Art of Community (I take Bacon to task for his dismissive attitude toward social theory!). Beyond that I hope to do more work on KDE through interviews and participation.
Oriol: In the course of your research and in your experience as a user, have you found out anything about KDE that could be useful for the KDE community to consider?
Brian: I think the documentation needs to be much better. Having said that, this is one of the areas where I hope to contribute in the future.
Oriol: What do you like best about KDE software? What are your favorite applications?
Brian: I like the ease of customization of just about everything. I like the visual style overall and the consistency of visual style across applications. Most exciting to me is the promise of Nepomuk: I think Sebastian Trueg has done wonderful work. I look forward to the full realization of the semantic desktop, which will be a big benefit for the kind of work that I do, as for many academics in the social sciences and humanities.
My favorite KDE desktop application is Amarok. Overall, I really like the way Plasma has developed. I am keeping an eye on ownCloud as well.
Oriol: Do you have any final thoughts that you would like to share with the readers of the Dot?
Brian: I am truly excited to be carrying out research on as rich and vibrant a project as KDE.
Oriol: Thank you very much for your time and insights!
Article text?
Is the Sociology article available to us, the innocent research subjects?
By Will Stephenson at Tue, 2012/01/10 - 9:21pm
article here ...
see here for full text of paper ...
By Anonymous at Tue, 2012/01/10 - 10:45pm
See: http://goldsmiths.academ
By Anonymous at Tue, 2012/01/10 - 10:57pm
As a PHD Student you learn how to do this...
By Anonymous at Tue, 2012/01/10 - 11:11pm
Good to have another British KDE enthusiast!
Be sure to keep us updated with any future relevant papers.
By Anonymous at Tue, 2012/01/10 - 11:07pm
I will certainly do!
I will certainly do!
By Anonymous at Wed, 2012/01/11 - 9:27am
Wonderful interview, and
Wonderful interview, and awesome to see involvement from you to bridge the various worlds together. Looking forward to more insights/results that come out of something like this! :D
By Anonymous at Tue, 2012/01/10 - 11:34pm
Thanks! That article is just
Thanks! That article is just the beginning, I have a lot more work in progress and planned. Watch this space :)
By Brian Alleyne at Wed, 2012/01/11 - 9:33am
Word up!
I would like to second the comments above, namely:
Tue, 2012/01/10 - 11:34pm — Anonymous
Wed, 2012/01/11 - 1:09pm — odysseus
If you're ever in need of a London-based victim, err research subject, drop me a line at [email protected].
Then say,
Great work dude!
By Anonymous at Thu, 2012/01/12 - 9:31am
Not a democracy
KDE is a technocracy/meritocracy. A developer can push the project into a new direction simply by working on something. If a certain feature is being implemented is only based on decisions by developer and not users.
In a democracy every user would have the equal say about the direction of the project and that's clearly not the case.
By Anonymous at Wed, 2012/01/11 - 2:44am
Democratic is not the same as democracy
Saying a community is democratic does not mean that everything is determined by a vote. Rather, it means that each member has equal opportunities: anybody can become an important contributor and affect the direction of the project.
Cases where a meritocracy might not be democratic could be when a newcomer couldn't become a contributor because of nonexistent documentation, inaccessible code or dismissive attitudes of main developers. Might be the case in some KDE projects but many seem to feel that KDE is democratic in general.
By Tuukka at Wed, 2012/01/11 - 8:26am
Democracy and meritocracy
My sense, as an observer, is that KDE is democratic in general. In the paper that follows the one mentioned in the interview, I am looking at Jono Bacon's defence of the Ubuntu 'meritocracy', and the whole debate around governance in Ubuntu. I always suspected that the role of 'Self Appointed Benevolent Dictator for Life' was going to irritate many in a largely voluntaristic community. A lot to think about here ...
By Anonymous at Wed, 2012/01/11 - 9:26am
My sense is also that KDE is
My sense is also that KDE is also a democracy: even if a direct one. In my next paper I am looking at a number of debates, including one around democracy and meritocracy in FLOSS projects. I always suspected that the role of 'Self Appointed Benevolent Dictator for Life', while cute, funny and ironic, was going to irritate many people, especially when the balance between benevolence and dictatorship swings toward the latter.
By Brian Alleyne at Wed, 2012/01/11 - 9:39am
Depends on who is considered part of the democracy
Nope, I do not think that KDE is no democracy. Just because you're using American products you would never be permitted to vote in the US. And you wouldn't say the US is no democracy (although it's ... peculiar at times to Europeans ;) ).
Inside KDE, there is a lot of spontaneous democracy: Everyone is allowed to speak up, contribute his/her opinion on a topic and very often they are also heard - independently of their origin, their capabilities in programming and so on. You just have to be somewhat engaged, which is a small price. KDE's openness to anyone and anyone's opinion makes it a democracy - maybe not strictly speaking in its structures, but in the way it's structures are filled with life. Thats probably the difference between a sociological and a political/institutional approach to defining democracy.
By Anonymous at Wed, 2012/01/11 - 8:53am
A single developer can _try_
A single developer can _try_ push the project in a single direction, but without the agreement(or at least the indifference) of the wider dev community they won't get very far. So KDE is a democracy of developers, not of users, which operates on the principle of consensus.
By odysseus at Wed, 2012/01/11 - 1:15pm
If you're ever in need of a London-based victim, err research subject, drop me a line at [email protected].
By odysseus at Wed, 2012/01/11 - 1:09pm
meeting in London
Soon, I hope to meet and interview KDE people in London.
By Brian Alleyne at Thu, 2012/01/12 - 9:49am
Akademy 2012
Great interview! Brian, you should come to Akademy this year :)
By Anonymous at Wed, 2012/01/11 - 4:10pm
I hope to!
I hope to!
By Brian Alleyne at Thu, 2012/01/12 - 9:48am
KDE is whatever-cracy, FLOSS is libertarian
KDE can be whatever, but whole FLOSS world is more libertarian or anarchists than democratic or meritocratic or something else.
It doesn't matter if KDE is democratic or what. You can skip from KDE to e.g. Gnome and you are not obliged to leave your old PC with all data inside.
By Anonymous at Wed, 2012/01/11 - 8:32pm
Freenode channel
There's a ##sociology channel on irc.freenode.net if anyone wants to lurk and see if it can develop.
By Anonymous at Mon, 2012/06/11 - 12:55pm


text:
Check out two different trailers for James Bond's return in Skyfall.James Cameron explains the future of Avatar. Kick-Ass 2 adds a villain. Why can't The CW figure out how to copy The Hunger Games? Plus a Total Recall clip!
Spoilers from here on out!
Top image from Skyfall.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
The big question hanging over the Amazing Spider-Man sequel is whether Marc Webb will be back to direct it. The film has been enough of a critical and commercial success for Sony and Columbia Pictures to want him back, and Webb himself reportedly wants to return — but he still owes 20th Century Fox a movie as part of the two-picture deal that previously produced 500 Days of Summer. Fox is reportedly willing to grant him permission to go back into production on the next Amazing Spider-Man, but only if he agrees to make two additional films down the line instead of just the one. That would limit his future flexibility quite a bit — and it seems as though this would remove much of any chance that he could direct the mooted Amazing Spider-Man 3 — but the short-term benefits may be too much to pass up. Either way, this is likely to be resolved fairly soon, given that the next Spider-Man movie is due out in April 2014. [Los Angeles Times]
Avatar 2 and 3
Director James Cameron has bought a bunch of farmland near Lake Pounui in New Zealand, and a New York Times report on his move suggests that he might well move more aspects of production of the Avatar sequels to New Zealand. Here's the key quote from the piece, which also once again pushes back the timeline on the Avatar sequels:
The "Avatar" sequels, Mr. Cameron said, will almost certainly be shot in [Peter] Jackson's Wellington production studio, about 15 minutes by helicopter from Pounui. Visual effects will be completed at nearby Weta Digital, owned by Mr. Jackson and his partners, though motion-capture work on the "Avatar" sequels will still be done on a stage in California. "Avatar 2" will not be ready until 2015 or later, at least a year past the 2014 date Fox executives once had in mind.
The article also says Avatar 4 is not yet definite thing and only the first two sequels are confirmed. Of course, Cameron himself has talked about making about six Avatar movies, and I'd be shocked if we see any of these by 2016 at the earliest, so who even knows at this point. [New York Times]
Total Recall
Here's another sneak peek clip. [SpoilerTV]
And here are the first two full trailers for Daniel Craig's latest James Bond movie. One is the American version and the other is for international audiences, and the two feature some slightly different footage. They both feature Bond pretending to be dead (after M accidentally ordered him shot), some major changes at MI6, the emergence of Ralph Fiennes as a challenger to Judi Dench as M, and Javier Bardem being evil and sporting a silly haircut, as he is wont to do. Also, Ben Whishaw shows up as the new Q. Basically, yeah, I'm excited.
Kick-Ass 2
John Leguizamo, who redefined for all time what cinematic villainy could be when he played Clown in Spawn (he redefined it as this, whatever the hell that is), will reportedly play Javier, the bodyguard to Christopher Mintz-Plasse's returning bad guy Red Mist. Or I should say one of Red Mist's bodyguards, as I'm pretty sure the movie is still going to feature the extremely tall, roided out female ex-Soviet bodyguard. Also, I'm pretty sure Red Mist is now known as The Motherfucker. Basically, "ridiculous" doesn't even begin to describe this movie. [Deadline]
Paranormal Activity 4
Here's another teaser trailer for Catfish directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman's second entry in the franchise.
Doctor Who
I feel like this was sort of inevitable ever since that closing statues montage way back in "Blink", especially since we know Amy and Rory's final episode is set in New York and features the Weeping Angels, but it's now being rumored that the Statue of Liberty will be revealed as the biggest Weeping Angel of them all. Assuming this is true — and this seems like the kind of rumor that's so crazy that, yes, it absolutely could be true — there are a couple logical questions to this big twist. First, how exactly the Statue of Liberty could be a Weeping Angel when we know exactly how it was built, and the joint French-American construction project didn't to my knowledge involve any deathless evils from the dawn of time. Second, how there could ever be an occasion where nobody was looking at the Statue of Liberty (well, actually, I can think of one real-life example of that). Anyway, I'd take this all with a grain of salt until we hear more, but this does pretty much sound like the kind of thing Steven Moffat would do. [Blastr]
The Walking Dead
Here's a poster for the upcoming third season. [SpoilerTV]
Here's a complete set of cast photos for season two. [SpoilerTV]
The seventh episode will reportedly feature a guest character named Bill, described as "a Drang-Zorn (a badger-like creature) who is on the run with his daughter." [SpoilerTV]
The fourth episode of the upcoming season eight is reportedly called "Bitten." Here are some tidbits on some of the episode's various guest characters:
It will feature Kate a possible recurring guest who is described as a pretty coed. Also a character called Michael who falls in love with Kate but their relationship is hindered by a supernatural force. And finally Brian, Michaels best friend who hates Michaels relationship with Kate. A college professor named Ludensky, who has a secret past, is also being cast.
The United Kingdom's Channel 4 will be airing another eight sixty-minute episodes later this year for the show's fourth season. Here are some newly revealed details for the latest additions to the cast:
Misfits is back. And it's business as usual. With a couple of new faces. And some powers right off the actual A-list. New girl Jess (Karla Crome - Hit and Miss, Murder) is zipping on the jumpsuit, she has X-ray vision. And - well actually that's it. Because Finn (Nathan Mcmullen - Shameless) who also joins Jess, Rudy and Curtis in the locker room, he's telekinetic, but not in an A-list kind of way.
As Jess and Finn start their community service, it's not just litter they're picking up; it's bad vibes, body parts and power tools. And that's just the morning shift. With a six foot killer rabbit on the estate, a mysterious but easy-on-the-eye barman (HELLO ALEX!) getting Jess a little shaken but not entirely stirred *winks knowingly* and all hell quite literally breaking loose with the arrival of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, it's time to power up. The future's bright. The future's still a dirty shade of orange.
Warehouse 13
Here are some promo photos for next Monday's episode, "Personal Effects." [SpoilerTV]
The Vampire Diaries
Showrunner Julie Plec describes the new hunter introduced early in the fourth season, to be played by The Chicago Code's Todd Williams:
"[He's] very hardcore, he's very skilled he's very strong. He kind of takes our heroes by surprise, in that they think they can wipe the floor with him pretty easily and quickly, and he sort of stuns them with being difficult to defeat early on. They're going to realize they've got a bigger problem than they're used to."
She also discusses what's ahead for Klaus and the rest of the Originals in season four:
"He definitely has an agenda that he wants to service which we'll start to get a hint at about three episodes, four episodes in, and it will involve how he feels about the existence of this hunter. We'll definitely get glimpses of the other Originals over the course of the year. One of the things that we've always said in the writer's room is Esther's creation of the original vampires was predicated on a spell that she already had, so where did she get that? And what does that mean?" says Plec. "Does it mean that there are vampires that pre-date the original vampires?"
There's a ton more tidbits on season four at the link. [EW]
Battle Royale
The CW president Mark Pedowitz confirms the network's eternal quest for a Hunger Games copycat show has indeed led them back to the very thing people (rightly or wrongly) often accuse The Hunger Games of copycatting in the first place. But whether there actually will be an American TV version of Battle Royale is another question entirely:
"It's amazing what happens when you have just a phone call and a discussion. We'd love to do it. Hopefully, we'll be able to make a deal with the producers, and we'll see where it goes. But at this point in time, it's just a discussion for development."
He also revealed that no, the show won't be as gory as the source material:
"We're not planning to do anything we cannot get in the air. No, we are not going to go in that direction. We're going to wait and see what happens and how things develop."
The Selection
Mark Pedowitz also explains why The CW wasn't happy with their first attempt at a Hunger Games show, specifically one that supposedly melded The Hunger Games with elements of The Bachelor, based on the book by Kiera Cass. And while the failure of such a concept might seem obvious, let's remember that that this is The CW we're talking about, so that really sounds like it should be ideal:
"It just wasn't where we wanted to be tone wise. The producers and writers have gone back and are re scripting as we speak. We'll hopefully see something soon or make a determination whether to go forward. Big believer in the show. I really wanted a show that had a 'Game of Thrones'/'Hunger Games' tone, and we hope it's 'The Selection.' If it's not, then we will look at another arena to go to in terms of that. 'Battle Royale' comes with a nice, you know, cult following, as we all know, and might have been one of the predecessors of a lot of these things we see today."
Additional reporting by Rob H. Dawson and Charlie Jane Anders.

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Thread: Wr300 2012
04-04-16, 08:26 #1
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Wr300 2012
Hi all. I have just bought a Husqvana WR300 so that I can go off road in with my daughter but I would also like to get this bike set up in supermoto. Does anyone know what wheels etc would fit or have any other advice. Thanks Jason


text:
- 1.Faithless
- 2.White Rabbit
- 3.The Trees
- 4.The Caudal Lure
- 5.Eulogy
- 6.The Weapon (Part II of Fear)
- 7.End of the World
- 8.Set Fire To The Hive
- 9.Totem
Added by Tom Thompson 1 Comment 0 Likes
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Started this discussion. Last reply by Tom Thompson Jul 22, 2010. 2 Replies 0 Likes
I discovered a new service, Freebase, which aggregates all types of information. I started perusing the religion section and it occurred to me that it may be of interest to others here to catalog a…Continue
Tags: education, resources, encyclopedia, religion
Started this discussion. Last reply by Richard Healy Jul 10, 2010. 10 Replies 0 Likes
What happened to the updated posts and blogs on the front page? I hope they aren't gone forever. That's the only place that I know how to easily see what's new.Continue
Tags: ning
Started this discussion. Last reply by Francisco Gutierrez Jul 1, 2010. 87 Replies 0 Likes
If you had to choose a theocracy to live in which would you prefer? Personally, Islam would always be my least desirable option.I understand that none of us would prefer to be forced to live under…Continue
Tags: freedom, ideology, islamization, islam
Started Jun 3, 2010 0 Replies 0 Likes
Neurologist VS Ramachandran explains the case of split-brain patients with one hemisphere without a belief in a god, and the other with a belief in a god. This is a hilarious and thought provoking…Continue
Tags: neurology, brain, ramachandran, youtube
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Posted on June 13, 2010 at 2:00pm 4 Comments 0 Likes
I am reading Christopher Hitchens' book 'god is not Great' and chapter 5 concludes with an obvious but, nonetheless, important point.
Actually, the "leap of faith" - to give it the memorable name that Soren Kierkegaard bestowed upon it - is an imposture. As he himself pointed out, it is not a "leap" that can be made once and for all. It is a leap that has to go on and on being performed, in spite of mounting evidence to the contrary. This effort is actually too…
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text:
Pollyanna Santos doesn't let her 6-year-old son play at a friend's house unless she knows all of the adults who live in the home — and those who might be visiting. "You don't know what can happen in the next room," said Santos, a waitress from East Boston.
In Braintree, Debbie Currie feels anxious when she leaves her 7-year-old daughter at gymnastics class. "There are 20 other kids in there, and we live in a nice town, but you just never know," said Currie, a customer service supervisor for Comcast.
Bernice Ferrara, a retired MBTA bus driver from Brockton, will not let her 15-month-old granddaughter sit on Santa's lap because she doesn't know the man behind the beard. "I don't want to feel that way," she said. "But I do."
After years of revelations about sexual predators lurking in some of our most high-profile institutions, including recent accusations against Elmo's puppeteer, it has come to this: Parents and caregivers say they're living in a state of high alert, suspicious of even the most innocuous-seeming encounters, worried even in their own homes, where the Internet has the power to deliver predators to their children's bedrooms.
In 2012, forget what Santa thinks about whether we've been bad or good. We're watching him.
"There is no escaping it," said Stuart Goldman, a psychiatrist at Boston Children's Hospital. Among the parents of his patients, he has observed a growing awareness of child sexual abuse, and with it, caution. "Do you feel comfortable having your son camp out in the woods with the Boy Scout leader?" he asked.
The growing unease about sex abuse is reflected in two surveys taken four years apart by MassKids , a nonprofit child advocacy organization. In 2003, fewer than half of Massachusetts residents said they would be willing to participate in training to learn about child sexual abuse and how to prevent it. By 2007, two-thirds of residents said they would be willing.
Parental anxiety seems to be on the rise even as the rate of child sexual abuse is falling, according to a large-scale analysis by the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.
Data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System showed that the rate of substantiated child sexual abuse dropped 62 percent between 1992 and 2010, from 150,000 cases to 63,000 cases, said the center's director, David Finkelhor.
The trend was confirmed by data from six other sources, including governmental agencies, the FBI, and reports by victims, he added.
A combination of factors has led to the decline, said Finkelhor, a UNH sociology professor, including: more aggressive law enforcement; prevention education; public awareness; and cultural changes such as the empowerment of women.
But even so, the list of organizations that have housed molesters keeps growing.
While the Catholic Church has been at the center of sexual abuse scandals for years, the Penn State football program and the Boy Scouts of America have now been implicated.
In early October, Penn State's former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison in a child sexual abuse case, and later that month, files were released showing allegations of sexual abuse in the Boy Scouts of America.
Last month, the Tennis Hall of Fame suspended disgraced star Bob Hewitt following allegations he sexually abused underage girls he coached from the 1970s to the early 1990s, and Kevin Clash, the voice and puppeteer behind the "Sesame Street" character Elmo, resigned after allegations that he had sexual relations with underage boys.
And those are just the nationally known cases. The media regularly carry a steady stream of local stories as well.
Just weeks ago, Massachusetts Maple Leafs hockey coach Anthony DeSilva of Acushnet was arrested on charges he allegedly attempted to seduce two Florida boys online.
In August, Rockport guidance counselor Howard J. Kasper was placed on leave after being accused of inappropriately touching two students years earlier at a school in Beverly.
The media accounts have led to a generalized mistrust among parents that can be seen in the smallest of actions: a father deciding not to run a 10-minute errand and leave his child alone with the piano teacher; a mother watching out the window as a (too friendly?) neighbor plays catch with the kids.
The growing suspicion that predators are among us can be seen in places like Athol, where a 10-year-old "Enough Abuse" training program is gaining a larger audience.
"In the kick-off years we were doing a lot of outreach," said Rebecca Bialecki, executive director of the nonprofit North Quabbin Community Coalition. "Then we went through a period where there was a lull."
But within the past few years, "groups are reaching out to us," Bialecki said.
The training aims to help parents, caregivers, and people who work with children recognize warning signs and keep kids safe, and the message is simple, Bialecki said. "Sexual offenders can look like anyone around you, and they can be in your family, your neighborhood, your friends, and in positions of trust in a community."
Indeed, 80 percent to 90 percent of abusers are people known to the children, said UNH's Finkelhor.
Despite the dropping rate of substantiated sexual abuse cases, widespread media coverage and high-profile offenders make for a nervous public, he said. "There's been a steady parade of sex crimes against children in the news over the last 20 years."
"Some of the anxiety is positive," he added, "in that people are taking precautions and thinking about who their kids are with and making sure they've talked to their kids, but some of it is probably an overreaction, too."
Jetta Bernier, executive director of MassKids, says her organization's surveys show that parents have become more anxious over the years. "In some ways that's a good thing — there's greater recognition that this is not just some rare occurrence."
Parents aren't the only ones becoming more educated, Bernier added. Child-safety advocates are, too.
When the Massachusetts Medical Society asked her to revise a brochure on child sexual abuse that she had written for the group in 2006, Bernier realized she needed to completely re-do it.
"We have learned so much since then," she said, explaining that in-depth interviews with sexual abusers have provided valuable insight.
Bernier gave an example: "Sometimes [the predator] will start with 'accidental' touching to see if the kid is a good target. They'll sit on the couch really close to the kid and see if he wiggles away. They might even do it in front of another adult. If the kid doesn't move, that says it's OK."
But even as education increases, and abuse rates drop, many parents say the only time they feel truly safe is when their kids are in view.
"Their lives can be destroyed so quickly," said Christine Nolan, a Somerville mother of three who supervises as many of their activities as possible. "If I can prevent that, I'm going to. They're all I have."
Beth Teitell can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow her on Twitter @bethteitell.


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When is the cheapest time to fly to Basel?
Travellers to Basel land at the Euroairport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg, which is an international airport jointly run by France and Switzerland. Constructed on French soil this airport is merely 4 kms. from Basel and is connected to the city by a customs-free road.
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More news on the flying-car front this week, as the UK's National Air Traffic Services (NATS) has announced that it will provide an affordable auto-warning gadget - supported by free downloadable updates - to prevent private pilots infringing controlled airspace and/or crashing into obstacles such as factory chimneys or broadcast antennae.
"Infringements into controlled airspace are a serious safety concern for private and commercial pilots. In the complex airspace over the UK, it is imperative that all aircraft respect airspace boundaries so we can all share the sky safely." says Gretchen Burrett, NATS safety honcho.
"NATS is proud to have been involved with this project which we believe will be a major asset for airspace safety."
Much of the UK is blanketed at differing altitudes by controlled airspace of one kind or another, which private pilots often aren't qualified or permitted to enter. But they sometimes wander into prohibited sky anyway, causing worrying moments for air-traffic controllers and professional pilots nearby. NATS says that there were more than 600 such infringements in 2008.
Thus it is that NATS has teamed with aviation-satnav provider Airbox to develop the AWARE gadget. This uses a GPS receiver to monitor not only the aircraft's ground position but also its altitude, and compares this to a complete database of controlled airspace and tall obstacles, and issues a warning if there's trouble ahead. Updates for the database will be downloadable free from NATS.
The gizmo is metal-cased, features a 4.3-inch sunlight-readable touch screen, and will run for two hours on its internal battery - though an extender package for plugging into cockpit power is recommended. It shows the aircraft's position on a moving map, and optionally can be used to navigate routes as well as warn of trouble.
The navigation feature isn't compulsory, however - NATS is well aware that most private pilots who want to navigate using GPS are already doing so, and are hoping to reach out to the old-school diehards who commit most of the "busts".
"It does not replace map and compass navigation," insists the NATS announcement, "but rather supplements it by aiding a pilot's situational awareness."
The AWARE box is expected to be offered next year from £149, which isn't too expensive for anyone who can afford to fly recreationally.
One of the main arguments against flying cars is that it would be terribly unwise to allow average members of the public to operate powerful machines carrying a frightful amount of kinetic and potential energy - indeed this argument is nowadays used by some against the "general aviation" community of private pilots with only basic skills. For that matter it was used against ordinary cars when they came in.
Thus it is that most flying-car advocates tend to suggest capable autopilot technology, able to more or less fly the aircraft itself with only the most basic input from the human driver.
Autopilots can already navigate a plane from point to point, and if necessary land it hands-off should the pilot suffer a heart attack or something - the so-called "digital parachute" option. Now they are reaching the point of being able to deal with complex air-traffic environments too, if only (thus far) to the extent of avoiding them.
If something like a Terrafugia Transition were fitted with all these already-existing options, it really could be flown quite safely by someone with very little training - hardly more than one needs for a driver's licence. That is of course legally impossible at the moment, however: even a basic US "sport pilot" ticket is much harder to get than a groundcar one.
But it seems as though developments in air safety will mean that the robo-autopilots will be ready as soon as the flying cars are. ®
Lewis Page holds a Private Pilot's Licence, now rather out of date as, having foolishly acquired a family and become a writer at the same time, he is no longer a person who can afford recreational flying. He qualified in the old map/stopwatch/compass days, but gratefully went for GPS as soon as it became obtainable and reliable.
Sponsored: Webcast: Ransomware has gone nuclear


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The Giants made a move to solidify themselves entering free agency, signing left tackle Will Beatty to a new five-year contract.
According to Jenny Vrentas of the Newark Star-Ledger, the Giants signed Beatty to a deal worth up to $38.75 million, with $12.5 million signing bonus and $19 million fully guaranteed.
The former second-round pick has been a solid player when well, and striking a deal before he hit the market reflects the realities of playing a position with plenty of options.
The Giants also have to deal with left guard Kevin Boothe, and Diehl admitted yesterday his $4.475 salary makes his future uncertain.


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Shipping Information
Product Information
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Crime report: Four thefts from area cars
The following crimes are from the week of Sept. 2 to Sept. 8, 2012.
Sept. 4. Unit block E. Springfield Ave. someone broke passenger side window and stole a black bag containing a MacBook Pro laptop.
Sept. 4. 200 block W. Evergreen Ave. Someone broke the right front driver's side window and stole a GPS and wires.
Sept. 5. 100 block W. Willow Grove Ave. Complainant states that between 6 p.m. on Sept. 4 and 7:30 a.m. on Sept. 5, someone ransacked a vehicle, opened glove compartment and stole a registration card, insurance card, three ink printer cartridges and money.
Summary – Four crimes for week: four thefts from vehicles.
If you have been the victim of a crime and would like information, service or support, call Northwest Victims Service, 6301 Germantown Ave., Second Floor, Suite One, 215-438-4410. The service is free.


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Ensuring Ohioans Have the Paid Sick Days They Deserve
This has been a particularly tough flu-season – for Ohioans of all ages. To put it into perspective, as of January 19, more than 3,000 flu-associated hospitalizations were reported to the Ohio Department of Health. During this same period last year, there were fewer than 100 flu-associated hospitalizations. With extensive hospitalizations and a few deaths, it's clear that the flu is widespread throughout our state. And while it's important to be aware of the steps you can take to prevent the flu, sometimes getting sick is unavoidable. But for four in ten Ohioans, getting sick doesn't just threaten their health; it also threatens their family's economic security.
Doctors, nurses, and pharmacists all advise flu-sufferers to stay home to avoid spreading the illness. But, for far too many Americans, a day home from work means a day without pay. In fact, some 40 percent of private-sector workers in the U.S. don't have any paid sick days at all. It's worse for low-income workers—three in four don't have any paid sick days available. And while in 78 percent of households both parents work, women are less likely to have paid sick days than men. The typical couple works close to 90 hours per week. But our policies lag behind—and families are struggling as a result.
While the Center for Disease Control (CDC) urges Americans to stay home from work and school to avoid the spread of illness, we all suffer when workers without paid sick days don't have that option. In fact, according to recent studies, workers without paid sick leave are one and a half times more likely than are those with paid sick days to report going to work with a contagious illness. We all have a responsibility to keep each other healthy and safe.
Paid sick leave is good for public health and also good for our economy. Illness costs our national economy $226 billion annually in lost productivity. When one is sick, they don't perform their best. Unsurprisingly, the CDC has found workers without access to paid sick leave are more likely to suffer serious work-related injuries. Ensuring American workers have the option to take a day off when they need it important for the worker and their employer.
That's why I am a proud co-sponsor of the Healthy Families Act. This legislation would allow workers at business with 15 or more employees to earn paid sick days. Under the bill, workers could earn up to one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to a total of seven days of paid sick leave.
Congress passed the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) in 1993, which provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year. It's time we began to discuss updating the law.
While FMLA protects workers when severe conditions arise, what happens to a restaurant worker with the stomach flu who needs to stay home a few days to recover?
That National Partnership for Women and Families, and more than 100 employers across our state support this legislation. Many business owners realize that healthy workers are often more productive workers. They know that doing the right thing is also right for business.
Last week, I spoke with Heather Rocco Geissler, the CEO and co-owner of Challenger Aviation Products—a small, family-owned business in Dayton. Heather has a sick leave policy in place, and she explained that for every 20 hours an employee works, he or she earns four hours per month of paid sick leave to use either for personal use or take care of a sick family member. Heather has found that as a result of this policy Challenge Aviation Products employees are happier, healthier, and more productive.
Can you imagine losing income because you have to stay at home with a sick child? Can you imagine losing income because doing a double shift – doing work that is hard on your body finally catches up with you? It should not take an influenza outbreak for us to see the significance of paid sick leave.
The Healthy Families Act would allow American workers to earn the sick leave that would once have been negotiated on their behalf by unions through collective bargaining.
This flu outbreak reminds us that public polices matter to families. Paid sick days save employers money. They reduce turnover and help increase productivity. Paid sick days are vital to maintaining public health.
Families, workers, business owners, and communities deserve better. They deserve paid sick days.


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RIVERSIDE >> Gabriel Luis Acosta was celebrated Saturday as a family member, as a faithful Christian, as a skilled and dedicated photographer and as a playful but responsible presence in the lives of those who knew him until his death at age 46 on Sept. 14.
Acosta excelled in each of those pursuits — as a photographer with The Sun and Riverside Magazine for more than 20 years; as the loving husband of Laura and father of Zachary, 14, and Gabriella, 11; and as an involved member of The Grove Community Church — speakers said between laughter and tears at a funeral that brought hundreds of people to The Grove.
Acosta died after a fall from a tree he was trimming at his home in Riverside.
His work ethic started early, with yard work and other responsibilities at his grandfather's house, Acosta's brother, Mark, said Saturday.
"Grandpa taught us never to do anything halfway, and I think those of you who know Gabe know he never did anything halfway," he said.
Mark recalled that Gabriel, 14 months older, was always "the ringleader" of the four sons.
An artist before he was a photographer — he described himself as "an artist who makes a living as a photographer" — Acosta as a child would draw comics and Hulk pictures, assigning Captain America and Spider-Man to his siblings.
He and Mark also started a "yard service" for for their block, dragging a broom and rakes on a wagon, before getting his first paying job by dressing up as a Twinkie for a local grocery store, Mark said.
But it was his photography that made Acosta known to many of those in attendance Saturday, and to many others who saw his photos of the biggest news events of the last two decades and revealing portraits of many in the Inland Empire.
"Gabe could turn an average scene into sheer beauty…. The thing that strikes me most in his photos is the way he captures people," said Mike Barnes, a pastor at The Grove who hypothesized that Acosta's humanity made people look beyond the camera lens and let their character be shown. "Gabe had a sense of calling in his profession, a sense of honor."
There were multiple attempts to recruit him to The Press-Enterprise, based in his hometown of Riverside, but he stayed with The Sun in San Bernardino because the fixed schedule gave him more time with his family and because he was sharply loyal to the paper that gave him his start as a lab technician in 1991, said Press-Enterprise photographer David Bauman.
Bauman shared remembrances from many Inland Empire journalists during his eulogy, including one from Press-Enterprise photographer Stan Lim.
"Although we were competing, looking for the best shot, he would always share what he knew, because to him, we were still a brotherhood of photographers," Bauman quoted Lim as saying.
Acosta won numerous awards from the Inland chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and the California Newspaper Photographers Association and mentored youths interested in photojournalism through the California Chicano News Media Association's Inland Chapter. Colleagues remember him as passionately producing eye-catching photos.
Yet his family and his faith came first. His note-filled Bible and love were stressed repeatedly during a nearly two-hour service.
His wife said the tributes people have been sending had helped support the family.
"For all of the many ways that he has touched you over the years, this has come back to touch us," she said in a brief but tearful message. "Thank you so very much. We are so blessed."
Perhaps the perfect response to the death that shocked so many was one Gabe himself had given to his brother when their father died eight years ago, Mark said.
"Michael," Mark remembered him saying, "today's a great day because Dad's up in heaven with God."


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An evening at the theatre with its marvelous splendor arouses a certain childlike curiosity in us all. Apart from the obvious social dimension which may include book-ending the affair with dinner and then drinks, we hope to be moved by its magnificence as we escape into its storyline. The eccentric costumes, elegant staging and a meticulously arranged musical score and script, together with a spectacular cast, are all painstakingly assembled to perfection under one roof. Our hopes and heightened expectations lie in the balance as the first curtain is drawn.
Captivating, enchanting and mesmerizing could only describe Thursday evening inside the charming Detroit Opera House. With music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman, "Wicked", The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz, returned to Detroit in all of its spellbinding majesty. Based on the best-selling 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire, this box office record-breaker was first introduced in the fall of 2003 at the Gershwin Theatre on Broadway in New York City. Concurrently, the novel has sold 4 million copies, with 3.3 million of those sold since 2003 when the musical originally opened.
Presently in its 8th year on Broadway, the musical's North American and international companies have collectively earned over $2.2 billion and have been witnessed by nearly 28 million theatre-goers worldwide. Since it began in March, 2005, house records have been broken in every single city in which it has played including Detroit. With a Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album in November, 2006, three Tony Awards and six Drama Desk Awards including Best Musical, the accolades for "Wicked" are endless.
Returning our memories back to the 1939 film version of "The Wizard of Oz" featuring Judy Garland, we were immediately introduced to Glinda the 'Good Witch', who elegantly floated down to the stage in a creatively designed bubble machine. She proceeded to tell the fascinating story of how she, a beautiful, ambitious and quite popular young woman is introduced in college to an intelligent, feisty and misunderstood emerald green-skinned outcast. Though they initially recoil from one another, they slowly become best of friends as well as roommates, and the story of Elphaba unfolds as she is unwillingly destined to become the 'Wicked Witch of the West'.
By far the most fascinating aspect of this musical, aside from its brilliant production, was how a fable, told seven decades ago and forever chronicled in American film culture, could now be retold in such a fascinating new perspective than its predecessor. Cleverly rewritten, the musical teaches us how the original characters from the movie such as the cowardly lion, heartless tin man and dull-minded scarecrow were created. As well, contrary to our initial interpretations, the Wizard of Oz was not so wonderful but in fact corrupt and manipulating. Throughout the evening as well, our repulsive outlook of the 'Wicked Witch' turns to empathy and compassion as the audience helps champion her quest to bring justice back to Oz.
With 200 pounds of dry ice, 175,000 pounds of scenery and enough electrical wattage to power approximately twelve homes with each performance, "Wicked" is a stellar musical blockbuster and one to be rivaled alongside other Broadway epics. With shows intermittently running through December, this musical is 'wickedly' charming and is intended for both the young and the young at heart who may themselves imagine their perfect world 'somewhere over the rainbow'!!
For more information about "Wicked" log on to www.wickedthemusical.com or www.broadwayindetroit.com. For show dates, times and ticket prices please click here.


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Black gold....not the Texas tea variety
Unfortunately, this is not a story about a man named Jed, who could barely keep his family fed; who became a millionaire and subsequently moved away from there. No, this is a story about a solution of nano gold and why it's being protected from the cold. It will be shipped separately from the main NanoDays kit, only to keep it from getting frost-bit. Ok, no more rhyming. It's starting to get confining. (ok, seriously…)
The reason for shipping the nano gold solution separately from the main NanoDays 2012 kit is not for lack of space in the box, but because of temperature; it will turn black if it freezes. The nano gold solution is a mixture of gold nanoparticles and water. As the water freezes, the gold particles get concentrated into smaller pockets of liquid. This will eventually lead to a very high concentration that causes the particles to irreversibly stick together (due to van der Waals forces), thus destroying the interesting optical properties and leaving only little black flecks floating in water……not as fun an activity for visitors.
So, because January in Minnesota is (typically) a bit chilly, we wanted to be able to ship the gold faster than the main box (which is in transit for about 3-5 days) to reduce the time in potentially frigid delivery trucks. The material is actually quite stable, but we didn't want to take any chances. The nano gold can be stored at room temperature or in the refrigerator (at 4° C), but just not frozen. Because unlike the bubblin' crude ole Jed found, this black gold is not desirable.
Y'all keep warm now, y'hear?


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ScratchWizard Ready to Spray automotive paint is a high-quality easy to apply basecoat that that meets national VOC regulations. ScratchWizard is formulated to match Original Equipment Manufacturer's (OEM) finish and ideal for exterior automotive spot, scratch or touchup repairs. Please use ScratchWizard Clear Coat with this Basecoat to deliver excellent appearance, outstanding gloss, and distinction of image.
Reduced and ready to spray:


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Astrid Holmann of the Hollmann Sturm family in Hamburg, Germany with her daughter Lillith Sturm, and son, Malte Erik at the stove. Preparing white asparagus for supper. They were photographed for the Hungry Planet: What I Eat project with a week's worth of food in June. Model Released.
- Filename
- GER_130612_254_x.jpg
- Copyright
- © Peter Menzel www.menzelphoto.com
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- 1024x683 / 530.2KB
- Contained in galleries


text: A simple call to action that speaks to everyone. Now that is how you widen your access point. Scott Bedbury would be proud of this. It speaks immediately deep down inside all of us. We know we said we were going to run tomorrow but did we? This makes Nike not just a product but an ideal and is a perfect example of how to widen a brand's access point


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May sakit ako ngayon so nagkaroon ako ng time for blogging.
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It's been barely a month since Caritas in Veritate was released by Vatican but the news of its publication seemed slow to spread in the Philippines. I've been scouring the local papers for some words about it, but the first social encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI seem not as newsworthy as, say, our politicians being photographed with the US president or his pet dog. It's quite saddening that the world's most recent knowledge of the Popeever speaking of something socially relevant wasthat misquoted opinion of the Holy Father against the use of contraceptives in the AIDS-stricken African nations. And what do we make of Caritas in Veritate? It's just tad too boring to rouse the media hype.
But we still have plenty of time ahead of us. Malay ba natin, it's just picking up its momentum. Lalo na when the latest Vatican offering on social issues is lauded by experts as Church's learned dialogue with sociologists, economists and leaders of the land. The authoritative and modern manner that it was written just goes to show that the Pope has been doing his homework of updating himself to the current global realities. Reading the encyclical, one cannot but rail to remark how Caritas in Veritate acted like the biblical dragnet (from the Gospel of St. Matthew, you heathens), scouring every important corners and backalleys of the modern society for "occasions of salvation" : the financial system, the labor unions, bioethical issues, international economic institutions, ecumenism, and even a "espace sacré" for tourism and the plight of the migrant workers. While we say that Caritas in Veritate packs a social clout, this is not to say that it pales on the theological department. At each themes and subthemes, Pope Benedict XVI exercised well his vocation of preaching the coming of the Kingdom, by precising on economical and sociological terms, the image of the Kingdom of God. And for our main man Benny, if our quest ofr the much anticipated Kingdom of God has a soundtrack, it has the words "love" and "truth" all over its refrain.
Personally, I find the English translation of Caritas in Veritate a refreshing, albeit a longish, read, especially when at some rare moments, we'll find a few very up-to-date English expressions that somehow lent a little zest on the usual conciliar or curial language of the Vatican documents. Thus, we find phrases like "weaving the networks of charity," "putting the breaks on violence," "gaining a foothold on economy" and "running on a level playing field," just to name a vivid few. Whether the credit for such novelty is due to the genius of the translator or to Pope Benedict himself or even to the alleged ghostwriters of this document (many remarked that Veritas in Caritate is sooo un-Benedict.), I don't know. All I know is that omong these "pop-culture" savvy lingo that found a usage in the newest encyclical, my personal favorite is the word "breathing-space." The term, breathing-space is found at least four times in the document: on numbers 3, 11, 20 and the fourth one, it just eludes me right now. But it's right there, look for it. Veritas in Caritate (VC) # 3 spoke of how "truth frees charity from fideism that deprives it of human and universal breathing space". VC # 11 reports that "without the perspective of eternal life, human progress in this world is denied breathing-space." Then, CV # 20 tells us how "the perspective of charity of Christ remains fundamental in giving breathing-space to our comitment for the development of the people." Again, the fourth mention of breathing-space, ikaw na ang maghanap. Andyan lang yan, pramis.
Now the word "breathing-space" may not perfectly put into nutshell the social message of the Pope, but ican very well be the Holy Father's one-word critique to the whole world today. By this word, breathing-space, itcan be conjectured that the world today seemed more and more deprived of its natural function of breathing, that is, breathing in every sense of the word. Which means that we are being stifled, held by the neck, strangled, asphixated, not just environmentally, physically or economically, but culturally, morally and spiritually as well. To breathe without restraint is one of the most basic freedom of every human being, with the breath, the biblical "ruah" as the primordial gift of God to mankind in the book of Genesis. Thus, to give humankind a space for breathing is to allow the Spirit of God to work in us, as we pursue our paths to progress. Bringing back the much needed breathing-space in our modernity is a call for us not to stifle or strangle the Gospel values of truth and charity, in the name of economic development. The pope's demand for a "breathing-space" is a rallying message that global progress does not consists only of tehcnology, commercial wealth and financial wizardry, but rather it has on its very heart, the welfare of humanity, the living and breathing humanity, which must wholistically benefit from such modernity, and at the same breath (no pun intended), be inspired by the Holy Spirit, who breathes through the two nostrils of truth and charity.
In Caritas in Veritate # 77, Pope Benedict XVI is telling us, "In every truth, there is something more than we woudl have expected; in love, there is always an element that surprises us. We should never cease to marvel." This is an invitation for us to learn how to gasp in awe and wonder in God's continous creation despite all the scientific learning and economic progress we have acquired. True to the Second Vatican Council's tradition of "letting the fresh air in the Church," the Holy Father is calling us to always reserve a big breathing space for humanity, for the Spirit to work on, that whatever progress we may have attained, it be always geared up towards the sanctity and wholeness of the human person, turhtfully and lovingly on its way towards the Kingdom.
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At syempreds, ang ating stainglass window of the day ay ito:
Ito ay isang stained glass window sa Chapel de Notre Dame de l'Assomption ng La Salle en Beaumont, sa parokya namin sa La Mure, France. Ito ay nagdedepict ng passion ni Christ. Modern-modernan ang istilo dahil sobrang modern din ang simbahan na ito.
In fact, eto ang altar nya.
at eto naman ang modern rendition nila ng Blessed Mother:
Gawa ang estatwang yan sa isang tipak ng kahoy. Teka, at eto nga pala ang labas ng chapel:
God bless!
Filed under: Religion | Tagged: approval ratings, family, favorite Catholics, photography, popular religiosity, theology, travel |


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We all know the stakes — or do we? Plan B is, at base, a messaging ploy designed to convince the public that, if we go over the cliff, it's because Obama and the damned Democrats wouldn't take yes for an answer on taxing millionaires. But will the public receive that message?
The latest polling shows that if the country falls over the cliff, 48 percent of Americans will blame GOP leader John Boehner. Only 37 percent said they would blame the president.
"The optics of this favor the president and the Democrats," Kondik says. "Honestly, how many people are paying attention to Boehner's 'Plan B?' This is a more difficult fight for the Republicans than it is for the president."
If the PR value is thin, then why'd Boehner do it? Because, for the moment, he can't get the votes he needs on a deal with Obama:
Republican officials said that members of the GOP leadership had balked at the terms that were emerging. Democrats said Boehner's abrupt decision to shift to his Plan B — legislation drafted unilaterally by Republicans — reflected a calculation that he lacked support from his own rank and file to win the votes needed for the type of agreement he was negotiating with the president.
That's from an AP article arguing that there'll be more negotiations to come after Christmas, although Boehner will obviously have more leverage with Obama if tonight's bill passes than if it fails. The House has already (barely) passed the companion bill to Plan B this evening, incidentally: The Spending Reduction Act eliminates the automatic defense cuts that were set to take effect on January 1 as part of the sequester. That bill was Boehner's attempt to sweeten the pot on Plan B for conservatives by giving them some cuts to vote for too. It squeaked through, 215-209. The vote on Plan B itself is scheduled for 7:30 ET but could come a bit sooner or later.
Under normal circumstances, failing to hold the caucus together on a vote on which Boehner's staked so much might be cause to start looking for a new Speaker. But the rest of the leadership has lined up behind him on this. If it fails, it's not just his failure, it's theirs too. Stand by for updates.
Update: Harry Reid's top flack is milking this for all it's worth:
House GOP whipping furiously. Can't remember the last time this much effort went into a pointless vote.
— Adam Jentleson (@AJentleson) December 20, 2012
Update: Democrats' new favorite Republican wonders why we can't all just get along.
Update: Here's the key number from CNN's poll today. Plan B is supposed to move these numbers towards the GOP a bit. Emphasis on "supposed to."
Update: Hmmmmmmmmm:
House GOP calls conference meeting at 7:45 pm et tonight. #fiscalcliff
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) December 21, 2012
Update: Keith Hennessey imagines what a viable fiscal-cliff deal based roughly on Plan B might look like:
I think the following bill could pass the House and Senate before the end of the year.
All tax rates below $700K of income are extended permanently as they are now.
Above $700K, tax rates revert permanently to their pre-2001 rates: 39.6% for income and dividends, 20% for capital gains;
the Personal Exemption Phaseout (PEP) and Pease limit on itemized deductions are not reinstated; and
the AMT is permanently patched.
In addition, I think a separate bill or bills pass to:
extend unemployment insurance in some form;
patch the Medicare "doc fix" for another year; and
delay or mitigate the spending sequester for 6-12 months.
Update: Are they going to pull the bill?
Cantor on whether they would come back and vote tonight: "We'll see, we'll see." #fiscalcliff
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) December 21, 2012
Update: Sure sounds like they're thinking of pulling the bill:
Rep. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), on his way to see Inouye's casket, said "I have no clue" what would happen with Plan B — and responded "I have no clue" when asked whether he planned to vote for it…
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), a key Boehner ally, emerged from the Speaker's office suite carrying a plate of Chick-Fil-A. Asked if she knew whether her conference had the votes to pass the bill, she said, "I have no idea" before rushing away. When she was asked again later as she returned to the office, Foxx grimmaced and kept walking.
Also, Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) nodded her head "no" when asked by reporters if she thinks the House will be able to vote and pass Plan B tonight.
Update: Embarrassing:
Cantor says no vote tonight. #fiscalcliff
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) December 21, 2012
Update: The House won't act further until after Christmas.
Update: Krauthammer, a few hours before the non-vote: "If the 'Plan B' does not succeed, if he fails in the House, Boehner has a 'Plan C.' That's the Mayan apocalypse tomorrow."
Update: War?
Top R source who's anti-Plan B tells me this doesn't threaten Boehner's speakership — but does portend GOP intra-party war.
— Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) December 21, 2012
Update: Boehner's statement:
"The House did not take up the tax measure today because it did not have sufficient support from our members to pass. Now it is up to the president to work with Senator Reid on legislation to avert the fiscal cliff. The House has already passed legislation to stop all of the January 1 tax rate increases and replace the sequester with responsible spending cuts that will begin to address our nation's crippling debt. The Senate must now act," he said in a statement.
Update: Brutal:
OH: "Only these Republicans could turn the Bush tax cuts into the 2013 Obama tax cuts."
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) December 21, 2012


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Like New Orleans itself, the aquarium is now on a long road back. And like the city, the revival will depend, in part, on hardy holdouts and returning evacuees, some still living far away.
NEW ORLEANS It's lunchtime and Elvira and Nick are having a quick bite, then it's back to an afternoon of swimming in their big glass house on the Mississippi River.
Their midday routine has resumed at the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas, where the two 5-foot (1.5-meter) tarpons are once again sharing meals and a home with Midas, the 300-pound (135-kilogram) green sea turtle who returned after a six-week exile in Texas.
Slowly, this watery world is rebuilding from the staggering blow it suffered in Hurricane Katrina: Generator problems killed up to 10,000 fish, including some rare species nurtured over many years.
Like New Orleans itself, the aquarium is now on a long road back. And like the city, the revival will depend, in part, on hardy holdouts and returning evacuees, some still living far away -- including Satchmo, Voodoo and 17 other penguins now cooling their heels in California.
While no one here equates the disaster at the aquarium to the epic human devastation left by Katrina, the animal losses are still heartbreaking to devoted workers who tend to these sea creatures each day.
"Not only is it sad because you know how much life is lost ... you know you'll never be able to replace it like it was," says Lance Ripley, assistant curator of fish.
The aquarium has begun restocking and plans to reopen this summer, but it won't be easy. Finding the right fish to fill a million gallons of water not only takes time and money, but generosity and luck.
Hundreds of fish already have been donated by other aquariums. And expeditions are being planned to the Florida Keys, the Caribbean and other spots to collect more.
"There are no pet stores that sell 9-foot (2.7-meter) sharks," says John Hewitt, the aquarium's director of husbandry. "You've got to get them some other way. We're going to try and collect as many animals as we can."
But it will be difficult, maybe even impossible, to replace some losses -- such as a 13-foot (4-meter) small-tooth sawfish called Mr. Bill, and a 250-pound (113-kilogram) goliath grouper, both on the endangered species list, along with nine sandtiger sharks, whose numbers have been dwindling because of commercial fishing.
"Some of these collections have taken years to accumulate," Ripley says. "We had five species of freshwater stingray. We had dozens of breeding projects over the last 15 years. We had a jellyfish gallery 10 years in the making. ... All that's gone."
And there's no quick way to bring it back.
"You have to repopulate slowly," Hewitt says. "To capture a couple of sharks and move them across the country, you have to have holding spaces, isolation and quarantine areas. ... Catching them is the easier part. Getting them from here to there without mortal damage is what gets complicated."
Once they do arrive, fish can't simply be dropped in water. Some need time to warm up to captivity, the public -- or each other.
But newcomers are taking the plunge.
The Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga and the Underwater Adventures aquarium at the Mall of America in Minnesota donated catfish, shark pups, crappie and hundreds of small reef fish. A seafood restaurant in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, handed over a 2-foot (0.6-meter) shark that had outgrown its tank.
"Everyone says, 'If we have it extra, it's yours,' " Ripley says.
Louisiana fishing clubs have offered help to the New Orleans aquarium, which also received an invitation from the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago to use its 85-foot ( 25.5-meter )research ship, the Coral Reef II, for a collecting expedition in the Caribbean.
Repopulating the aquarium is important to the city's economy. It's a big tourist attraction, drawing 1.4 million visitors a year along with its adjoining IMAX theater. (Another popular spot, the zoo, lost just a few animals and reopened in November.)
The problems at the aquarium came after workers who had hunkered down in the building during the storm were told to evacuate as the looting edged nearer and floodwaters rose.
Ron Forman, president and chief executive officer of the Audubon Nature Institute, which operates the aquarium, ordered his staff out, fearing for their safety. He stayed behind, joined by several New Orleans police officers, who set up a command post.
The officers traded their dirty, wet uniforms for gift shop shorts, caps and T-shirts and hand-fed several animals.
Don Kinney, an officer who brought along his pet cockatoo, Yogi, scrounged around the aquarium's refrigerator and kitchen and found fish for the otters and penguins, red meat for the white alligator and frozen (but thawing) mice for the birds.
Toting a flashlight and a feeding bucket, Kinney was a welcome sight to the hungry holdouts.
"It gave me a good feeling in my heart knowing I was feeding animals and keeping them alive," says Kinney, who lost his own home in the floods and ended up bunking on an aquarium bench.
But no one could save thousands of fish after the generator clogged and couldn't produce enough electricity to run systems that add oxygen, rid the tanks of waste and keep the water cool.
"It was a total domino effect," Ripley says.
Cool, clear water turned hot, dirty and toxic. "Every day it got worse," Forman says.
When workers returned the weekend after the storm, they faced a grim scene: cloudy, bacteria-filled tanks littered with thousands of dead fish. Some donned scuba gear and began scooping them out.
"It was incredibly difficult," Hewitt says. "It's like burying your children -- and that's all I'm going to say about that."
Having worked at the aquarium its entire 15 years, Hewitt had a deep attachment to the creatures.
"I took many of them out of the wild," he says. "There's a great deal of responsibility that comes with that ... to ensure that the animal has the best possible chance of a long, productive life."
About 2,000 animals, including penguins, raptors, turtles, otters, the white alligator and some fish such as tarpons that have the capability to breathe air, survived -- along with sea dragons, sea horses and clownfish.
But some barely hung on.
The macaws were panting because temperatures in the Amazon rain forest exhibit, with its lush tropical foliage, had soared to 135 degrees.
The 19 penguins were dirty and agitated, but aviculturist Tom Dyer was thrilled they were alive. He jokingly calls them his kids, knows each bird's personality and can instantly distinguish their seemingly carbon-copy features.
"You could paint them all orange and I could tell you in 30 seconds who's who," says Dyer, who quickly offers proof by rattling off their idiosyncrasies:
There's Satchmo, who sits between the legs of the person feeding him, Voodoo, who is delicate and fastidious, and Patience, his favorite. Dyer glances at a calendar on his watch and notes that Patience is "going to be 23 tomorrow. ... She's getting a little harder to feed. She can't get her beak around the food. But she's still going strong."
Dyer escorted the birds -- along with sea otters Buck and Emma -- on a cargo plane to their temporary home, California's Monterey Bay Aquarium. He keeps on eye on the birds' progress via Web cam.
He has taken other trips, too, with some of his charges -- even getting a police escort in the post-Katrina chaos to return five rehabilitated sea turtles to the Gulf of Mexico. The aquarium treats endangered turtles that are sick or injured and releases them back to their natural habitat.
Dyer had a bittersweet goodbye for 3-pound (1.4-kilogram) Mr. Chompers, a loggerhead he had nursed back to health after it arrived nearly a year ago weighing a puny 3 ounces.
He got a brassy "Helllooo!" weeks later when he traveled to the Houston zoo and was greeted by Spike, one of the macaws he'd come to take home from her refuge there. The enthusiastic welcome surprised the keepers who said the bird hadn't talked while she was there.
"People say elephants never forget," Dyer says. "But it's birds."
The macaws are back, but some animals won't return for months. Money is one reason. The two otters, for instance, have white-tablecloth tastes -- lobster, clams, shrimp and squid, five meals a day -- and it costs $40,000 (euro33,907) a year to feed them.
The aquarium faces more than $5 million (euro4.24 million) in repairs, though insurance will likely cover that.
But Forman says finances alone don't dictate the aquarium's revival, noting the homecoming of Midas, the green sea turtle, was a morale boost more than anything else.
"It's important for the spirits of the community," he says. "We have animals who've left and animals who've died. We had to show that our animals are coming back."
Source: Associated Press
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Public Comment
The Future of the Downtown Berkeley Post Office
The USPS plans to sell off the downtown Berkeley facility and have a smaller scale storefront Post Office nearby. I suggest instead that the scope of USPS occupied space in the existing facility be reduced and other Federal agencies move in.
The first other Federal tenant which comes to mind is the Berkeley Social Security Administration office, presently across the street (2045 Allston Way) and maybe 100 feet closer to Shattuck Ave than the Post Office on the ground floor of a parking garage.
If that is not enough there is a Marine Corps office with regional responsibilities for recruiting Marine Corps Officers located at 64 Shattuck Ave, also quite nearby.
The lobby of the current downtown Berkeley Post Office could easily serve as a waiting room for Social Security claimants. The SSA office in SF Chinatown is/was in an old branch bank with similar counters, etc and it looks great.


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Online education is the preferred mode of learning for an increasing number of students. The convenience and flexibility of online learning are two factors that account for the popularity of e-learning. In this article you'll find an overview of the top ten online schools in the nation by enrollment, according to a report by the US News and World Report.
There are lots of great reasons to earn a college degree online. Online programs allow you to work from home, at your own schedule and pace. They also let you work around everything else in your life, like your job, kids, or other responsibilities. And, they don't leave out the option of face-to-face learning; you can always video chat with your instructors or peers.
Online education, or distance education, is an innovative and novel system that moves the traditional classroom online. The flexibility in time and space offered by distance education attracts people with especially complex schedules. Although some institutions remain doubtful, online courses can be very demanding – even more so than traditional courses. Without an instructor physically present, online students take responsibility for their own learning.
While there are many factors to consider before selecting an online degree program, accreditation is arguably the most important qualification to look for in an e-learning institution. This article will help you understand what accreditation is, how a virtual school earns accreditation, why it is important, and where you can find out whether your school has received accreditation.


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Participants can take the CISA® Exam by directly registering on the ISACA website.
ISACA uses and delivers scores on a regular scale from 200 to 800. For instance, the top score of 800 represents a perfect tally with all questions answered correctly; whereas a score of 200 is the lowest score possible and signifies that only a small number of questions were answered accurately. To pass the CISA® Exam, you need to achieve a score of 450 or above.
The CISA® exam covers 5 IS audit, control or security areas, each of which is further defined and detailed through task and knowledge statements.
Considered the globally accepted standard of proficiency in IS audit, Certified Information Systems Auditor® (CISA®) is a certification for Information Technology Audit professionals, and serves to validate their competence in the fields of audit, control and security of information systems. The certificate is awarded by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA).
There is no prerequisite to attend the training; however to gain the CISA Certification, there is a minimum requirement of 5 years of professional information systems auditing, control or security work experience. Substitutions and waivers of such experience may be obtained if certain education and general IS or audit experience requirements are met.
You can maintain your CISA® by earning continuing professional education (CPE) credits. This is important to stay relevant and up-to-date with new techniques and tools in the field of information systems audit, control and security.
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It is easy to enrol for classroom training online. There are several options to pay either through your debit/credit card that includes Visa Card, MasterCard; American Express or- via PayPal. Payment receipt will be issued to the candidate automatically by email.
Any registration cancelled within 48 hours of the initial registration will be refunded in FULL (please note that all cancellations will incur a 5% deduction in the refunded amount due to transactional costs applicable while refunding). Refunds will be processed within 30 days of receipt of written request for refund. Kindly go through our Refund Policy for more details: https://www.knowledgehut.com/refund-policy
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This course has been designed to intensively prepare delegates for the CISA examination as outlined by ISACA. Additionally, this course would immensely benefit professionals responsible for controlling, monitoring and assessing an organization's information technology and business systems and also for those aspiring to make a career in Information Systems Audit. The participant mix is as follows:


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Police in Prince George's County, Maryland, are installing cameras...to watch their cameras.
Six speed cameras in Maryland have been vandalized since April, WTOP reported.
The cameras cost $30,000 to $100,000 to replace, so police have started installing surveillance cameras designed to catch vandals in the act.
A dozen of the new cameras will be in place by the end of the month, WTOP reported.
Police call it a matter of public safety, not an attempt to generate profit.
More content from NBCNews.com:
- Ex-Navy SEAL killed in Libya attack a highly trained pilot, marksman
- Clandestine dentist arrested in Miami after filing teen girl's teeth
- Cop drags woman, 77, from car after ID refusal
- Video: Was cash-from-car chase 'Robin Hood' situation?
- 73-year-old birdwatcher: I was raped in New York's Central Park
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MAT193 Matrix spare adjustable string crystal for MAT5450
Due to the continuing situation surrounding COVID-19 and inline with government guidelines our store is closed to the public. If you have an order you would like to pickup please email the team on email@example.com
to arrange a time.
Our web orders are mostly unaffected at this time.
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Today I present the sheer MOC, the story will follow later.
This is Santa Maria Naranco, a preromanesque palace hall near Oviedo, Spain. Built by King Ramiro I. (842-50) for prestigious purposes, but it was later on changed into a churche dedicated to Maria, thus the name.
And this is, what I made of it:
Yes, I'm guilty of laziness. I didn't fix the loose bricks in the vault before I took the pictures... Maybe I'll fix that later.
The reason why it is called "Albirona's Hall" I'll tell when I have written the story, more precisely when I'll have written and translated the story. There will be additional pictures then. (Bruce, be patient! )


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Oscillating joint solutions
Reduced maintenance and high performance
One example of an SKF oscillating joint solution includes high performance TX spherical plain bearings and rod ends with LS heavy-duty seals and sealed self-aligning roller bearings. This arrangement's heavy-duty sealing and greased-for-life capabilities help eliminate bearing failures caused by contamination or poor lubrication. This reliable SKF solution results in greater productivity, and is also environmentally friendly.


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Nashville, Tenn. – Junior tight end A.C. Leonard and junior defensive tackle Samquan Evans were both honored by the College Football Performance Awards (CFPA) following TSU's, 41-21, victory at Tennessee Tech last weekend.
Leonard was named National Tight End of the Week for the FCS, while Evans was an honorable mention for the Defensive Lineman Performer of the Week.
Leonard caught a season-high five passes for a career-high 122 yards and two touchdowns in the win. Leonard's two scores both occurred in the second half and helped the Tigers run away with their first Ohio Valley Conference win of the season.
The Jacksonville, Fla. native now has a team-high 16 catches for 219 yards and an average of 13.7 yards per grab. His two touchdowns at Cookeville were the first of his 2013 campaign.
Evans, led the Tennessee State defense as the Tigers became the first OVC team to improve to 1-0 in conference play. The junior had a career-high eight tackles, including 2.5 tackles-for-loss (for 18 yards), 1.5 sacks (for 10 yards) and a forced fumble.
The product of Walkertown, N.C. is now second on the team in tackles for Big Blue with 20. His two sacks only trail Anthony Bass for the team lead.
TSU will go for win number four on Saturday when the squad takes on Central State in the St. Louis Gateway Classic at 2 p.m.


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The US Servers will come down on Tuesday, January 29, 2013, at 7:00 am Pacific* for an update. The expected downtime is one hour. This downtime will coincide with the SOE-wide maintenance scheduled for the same time.
The EU servers will come down on Wednesday, January 30, 2013 at 5:00 am London*. The expected downtime is two hours.
Update Notes are posted here Game Update Notes.