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Amid The Powers And Chances Of The World
Chapter 001
To Rivendell, Where Elves Yet Dwell
July 3019, Third Age, Minas Tirith
"He's still there, then?"
Aragorn Elessar slid an arm around his Queen as he put aside his pipe and joined her at the window of their sitting-room in the White Tower. For once neither spared a glance for the riotously-blooming roses which filled the Citadel's gardens in midsummer; instead their eyes were fixed on the figure who was – to their eyes if not to most Mortals' – just visible among the foliage of a laurel tree, leaning back against its trunk, gazing southwards towards Anduin, Dol Amroth and the Sea.
"He hasn't moved for hours," Arwen sighed. "Just like yesterday, and the day before that, sunk in misery, and I cannot break through to him – not in word nor thought; I have tried…"
"He's convinced there's no help for any of it, and that the Powers have spoken," agreed Aragorn. "I've suggested he go to Dol Amroth, offered him horses, couriers to take a message to her, but he'll have none. And judging by the manner of her departure – riding out alone at first light with only a note left at her bedside! – nor will she…"
"We were neither of us very foresighted, were we?" murmured Arwen, resting her head on his shoulder. "If I'd only seen how this would end when she was first brought to Imladris; just a year ago…"
June 3018, Third Age, Rivendell
It was mid-June, and high summer was upon Rivendell. The House of Elrond itself was almost deserted. At this time of year more than ever his folk were largely to be found out of doors, some cooling off by bathing in one of the deep pools below the falls of the Bruinen, others seeking elusive breezes in the topmost branches of the trees. One hot afternoon, Bilbo the hobbit was dozing in a quiet corner of the gardens; the sons of Elrond were lying in the shade of a beech-tree laying plots as to their next expedition after orcs; and Arwen Evenstar was sitting on the bridge which led to the house, dangling her bare feet in the cool of the water as she daydreamed. So it was that Arwen was first to hear the light steps which sped out of the woods. "Neldor - why such haste, in this heat?"
"Lady Arwen, I must find your father - there are mortals come, with a lady ailing, craving his aid!" And with that the Elf sprang over the bridge, his dark hair flying in his wake, and was gone towards the house.
Scrambling to her feet and untangling her skirts, Arwen was about to go after him when it occurred to her that the strangers would be approaching from behind her, down the valley. She turned instead and began to walk back the way Neldor had come, curiosity stirring. Mortals – and not Dúnedain from the Angle, by the sound of it, or Neldor would simply have said so… Well, that would stir Imladris from its summer torpor quickly enough.
Sure enough, as she moved across the valley, she heard the excited murmurings in the trees around her - and then she saw them, with Elves escorting them over the slippery grass of the steep valley slopes; two Men on horseback, with a mule following behind. The horses, she noted automatically, were fine beasts; a chestnut and a grey, powerfully made, as though selected for stamina rather than for speed. That made some sense, for the mule bore large saddle-bags on both sides, seemingly provisioned for a long journey. And indeed a long and weary journey it looked to have been.
The younger man was tall, and upright in the saddle. His mane of blond hair was darkened with sweat around his temples, and his shirt and breeches were also damp and dust-covered. Wary relief, Arwen saw at once, was written clear across his sunburnt, open features. His companion was, she thought, in the late middle-age of Men. His face was even browner, heavily lined in the way of elderly mortals who spent all their life outdoors, and his sparser hair was greying. Unlike the younger man, he spared little attention even for the curious Elves thronging around him; all his care was on his burden. Cradled in one arm, against his saddle-bow, he held the body of a woman.
Arwen wasted no time in demanding whys or wherefores. She bid them a swift and kindly welcome to Rivendell, and urged them to follow her across the bridge. The horses passed slowly in single file, one of Elrond's folk leading each, and came at last to the House. There the Master of Rivendell, alerted by the fleet Neldor, stood at the top of the steps, gazing gravely into the heavy golden light of afternoon to welcome these most unexpected guests.
The younger man dismounted swiftly, gladly gave over bridle and mount to one of the Elves who minded the stables, and moved at once to his elder companion's side.
"Give her now to me, Dirgon, my friend," he urged. With great care, the other lowered the woman into his arms; and those standing around could see now that her eyes were closed and her face very pale. She was clad in breeches and shirt like a man's, and despite the heat of the day a cloak was wrapped around her shoulders as though her guardians feared she felt the cold. She neither stirred nor showed any signs of life as the blond rider stepped carefully forward with her. Addressing the figure standing silently on the steps, as though aware this was someone of authority, he spoke in a voice hoarsened by dust and thirst:
"My lord, we seek one Elrond, called the Master of Rivendell."
"And you have found him, my friend," Elrond responded in the Common Speech the rider had himself used. "Come quickly. Bring the lady within to a chamber where she may rest and be cared for. When you yourself are refreshed you can tell us who she is, and how you come to bring her to us…"
For a moment the young man's shoulders trembled, and he closed his eyes. Then he squared himself again and mastered his voice.
"I thank you most heartily, then, Master Elrond." And as Elrond turned on his heel, the rider bore his burden up the steps behind him. His companion also dismounted, but did not follow, seeming a little lost. One of the stable-hands spoke a word to him; at this he brightened, and the two set off across the courtyard leading both horses between them. The respectful quiet which had surrounded Elrond yielded to a sudden flurry of whispers and murmurings, which dipped momentarily as Arwen moved through the thronging elves – then rose to a new hubbub, as she swept up the stairs and hurried in pursuit of her father and his charges.
Striding ahead of his guests down a passage-way which lay open on one side to the air, Elrond arrived at a doorway at the same moment as his housekeeper, who had quickly been summoned. She opened the door, listened attentively to another word from Elrond, and with a respectful nod was gone again, skirts swishing along the smooth marble floor. From behind her, a small dark-haired elleth darted through the doorway to straighten the bedsheets, and plump the unused pillows, before the guests were ushered in.
The room was as light and airy as any in Rivendell. On this side of the House, a cooling breeze blew up from the Falls of Bruinen on the hottest of days, and the trees of the garden diffused the harsh midday light. The rider's eyes widened for a moment as he followed Elrond into the room, taking in the exquisite carving of the window-frames and the vaulted ceiling; but he strode to the bed and lowered the woman on to it, positioning her head carefully on the pillows, and bending over a moment to smooth her heavy dark hair from her forehead. Only then did he straighten his back with a deep sigh, and turn to face his host.
"Be seated, my friend, while I examine the lady," Elrond commanded. The young man needed no second bidding, dropping into the cushions of the large wooden armchair which was indicated. The Half-Elven turned his attention to the woman, who lay still as stone upon the pillows. Swiftly placing hands on her forehead and her wrist, he found her breathing ragged, her pulse a distant whisper. And she was cold... on this hottest of days, there was a deep chill on her skin, beads of cold sweat standing out on her forehead, and her lips were blue.
"How long has she been thus?"
"Some eight weeks, my lord. Six of them while we journeyed here to you."
"What do you know of her condition? Do you know the cause?"
"I know when it began, my lord, but not truly how or why. It began with an accident, with a horse..."
"She was stunned? An injury to the head?" Elrond's long and slender fingers moved very gently around and under the woman's skull, feeling expertly for damage.
"Not that we could find, my lord. It is a long tale..."
"Then I think I must hear it." The Master of Imladris was silent for a moment. "But even without it, I think a little can be done. Let us see..."
Taking a deep breath, Elrond placed his palms across the woman's brow, concentrated a moment, and then steadily warmed her. Power went out from his fingers, flowing out against the cold that enveloped her. The only outward signs of it were Elrond's stillness, and the barely perceptible spread of blood into his patient's cheeks, gradual as the coming of sunrise. The Rider watched in silence, barely daring to breathe. Finally, Elrond tested the woman's progress, and ascertained that she breathed steadily, that her pulse was faint but regular, and that she was in no immediate danger of passing from them. There was time, then, to hear her companion's tale; but first he, too, must be cared for.
"She will do well enough, for now." Elrond turned from the woman's bedside as his daughter slipped in through the doorway. "I have touched her sleep, and ensured it will be deep and restorative; for although she was far from waking, there was something in it which was agitated and fearful. But now she truly rests, and I can do no more for her until I know more of her trouble and how you, all three, came to have sought our aid. Come therefore, my friend," he extended a hand to the rider, "and take refreshment, that I may hear all your tale. The lady shall not be alone; I will have one of my people stay with her –"
"I will watch over her, Father, if I may," Arwen broke in. "You can tell me later all I need to know of her journey. I will call you the moment I see any change in her."
"Lady, you – you are most kind –" the young man flushed and stammered, "but you must not trouble –"
"It is no trouble," Arwen soothed the flustered guest, who blushed even deeper. "I should like to stay with her. Go you with my father. Is there anything I should do for her?" She appealed to the master healer.
"Have cool water brought, and bathe her face if she seems over-warm," her father replied. "But beyond that, she needs only a friendly presence, I think, for she will know it even in her deep sleep."
"One more thing, my friend," Arwen turned another dazzling smile on the rider just as he was recovering his composure. "Will you tell me my patient's name?"
"Rowanna, my lady," came the reply, as the young man was escorted by Elrond towards the door.
"Rowanna..." Arwen echoed, as she drew up a chair beside the young woman's pillow, close to the window whose white drapes fluttered fitfully in the breeze, and her father closed the door gently on them both.
Elrond sat in a deep, cushioned chair with elaborately carved arms, fingertips lightly touching beneath his nose, watching his unexpected guest. When food and drink had arrived at the door of the audience chamber, the rider had suddenly awoken from the dreamlike state which the surroundings of Rivendell seemed to have induced in him, and asked after his older companion. Dirgon, he was assured, was taking a bite with the grooms, after rubbing down and tending to the three very weary beasts; and if he was not needed, was happy to remain and take his rest there for the time being. Elrond suspected that, being a man seemingly of few and painstaking words, this Dirgon was only too happy to let the fair-haired youngster muster explanations. For the arrival of three Mortals from the far South, one of them an unconscious woman, would take some explaining indeed…
The rider was, at Elrond's urging, eating and drinking his fill, and a hearty fill it was. Here was a young man of stocky build, well-muscled, who plainly lived largely out of doors. And clearly, Elrond had deduced as he watched the young man's stride down the corridor, mostly on horseback at that. Tension and fatigue visibly drained from the rider as he slowly allowed himself to believe in his surroundings, feeling the restorative effects of the cold meats, the fruits, and the cool water of Rivendell's spring slipping down his dust-roughened throat. Not only relief for the body, his host mused as he watched, but for the mind. Here is one who has carried a great burden of responsibility, for so many days that he had forgotten how it feels to be without it. Now he lays it down, and slowly straightens up, and blinks in the sunlight.
And indeed, the guest now stretched his long legs out before him, and his arms over his head, and heaved a great, gusty sigh of relief - then blushed (again! noted Elrond with amusement), as he recollected himself.
"Your pardon, Master Elrond! And my most humble thanks. Almost had I forgotten how food and water taste that are not coated with the dust of the road..."
"Then I am glad to have recalled them to you," his host responded, smiling. "Now then, my friend, you have much to recount to me, I think. Begin with your name – the lady's and your companion's I already know – and tell me how she arrived at this sad state, and how you have found the Last Homely House over so many weary miles. For you are come far from the South, I think?"
"I am Béodred, and we have brought the Lady Rowanna nigh on two hundred leagues North to you, indeed, my lord. But how did you know?"
"Although it is many years since I saw them last, I still know the gear and the mounts of the Riders of Rohan." Elrond smiled again at the startled expression which told him he hit his mark. "Those horses of yours are of Rohirric stock if ever I saw it, though bred for stamina rather than for racing."
"My lord, we are indeed come from Rohan," the other acknowledged. "The Lady Rowanna is partner with my uncle in the breeding and training of horses for the court at Edoras, and for such other noble houses as need more mounts than they can train up themselves."
"A rare thing, is it not, for a Mortal woman to be thus her own master and work alongside the menfolk?" Elrond arched an eyebrow.
"Rowanna is no ordinary woman!" the Rohir agreed fervently.
Indeed? Elrond observed wryly. "And no Eorling, from her colouring." For there is Dúnadan blood there, without question, in the lines of her face and in that dark hair.
"Indeed no, my lord. And it is through her bloodline and kinship that we come to be here, to have known the way to you, and been sent to implore your help for her. For if I was told it aright, then though distantly indeed, the lady is kin to your house."
One of Elrond's eyebrows rose just a fraction. "Go on…"
"Master, the Lady's father, long dead, was of a noble house of Gondor. But her mother descends from the Rangers of the North, the Dúnedain as she tells me they were once called," – Elrond smiled to himself – "and I am charged to ask your help on account of her kinship. Her mother is Míranna, daughter of Rían; and through many generations she traces her ancestry back to one Elros, Peredhel."
Both eyebrows shot up this time. The Master of Rivendell was positively startled. Elros' own line! Through so many Mortal lifetimes? I had not thought that any that married into the southern Dúnedain would remember yet, nor trace it back so directly…
"Is she then indeed of your kin, my lord?" The young man looked anxious. "We have come so far..."
"My friend, were she no more closely related to me than any child playing on the plains of Rohan, she should have all my aid and care," Elrond assured him. "But if the lady's mother is descended as she says, then we are indeed, very distantly, kin. Elros Peredhel, the Half-Elven, was my brother."
"Your - brother, my lord? But -"
The sight of the young man's mental faculties grating like ill-matched cogs on a pair of millwheels, as he endeavoured to make sense of this calm statement, was so painfully comic that the corners of Elrond's mouth almost twitched. But he had had all too many millennia to practice courteous self-control. And a moment later Béodred worked it out.
"Oh. Oh, of course. The immortality of the Elves. Forgive me, my lord. I – I am not used to such company…"
"Do not trouble yourself, Béodred. But you have my assurance that the Lady Rowanna would indeed seem to be distantly my kinswoman; and as such she, and you, are doubly welcome beneath my roof. Tell me now though what has befallen her, and how you found us; for only thus can I begin to see what may be done for her."
Arwen sat very still in the cool, quiet sickroom, watching the rise and fall of the woman's breathing. Rowanna had not stirred since the blond Rider had laid her upon the bed; but thanks to Elrond's touch that icy chill which had lain upon her had been drawn off, at least for the moment. There was colour in her cheeks and the bruised, bluish tinge was gone from her lips. From time to time Arwen reached forward and carefully laid two fingers to her throat beneath her jawline; her pulse beat sure and strong, restored by Elrond from the ragged, faint murmur which had barely sustained her for so long.
You are free of the darkness, for now, my friend, Arwen told her in her thoughts. And yet you are still so very far away. What did this to you? What fear or horror drove you so far down into the depths of yourself? Come a little nearer the light; you are safe here…
Softly, wanting to reach out to the fearful, assaulted mind of the mortal woman who lay so close to her, and yet so unreachable, Arwen began to sing. She wove the gentlest threads of sound, working into them reassurance, friendship, tenderness:
"When sky was clear and stars were keen,
then Dairon with his fingers lean,
as daylight melted into eve,
a trembling music sweet would weave
on flutes of silver, thin and clear
for Lúthien, the maiden dear..."
Slowly, the hot afternoon wore on; and as Arwen sang her own healing to Rowanna, elsewhere in the house Elrond listened intently to the Rider's tale of her fall.
Author's notes:
The story's title comes from Chapter I of the Silmarillion, Of the Beginning of Days: "Men..should have a virtue to shape their lives, amid the powers and chances of the world, beyond the Music of the Ainur, which is as fate to all things else".
Individual chapters' titles are all lines or half-lines from songs or poems in LoTR.
Arwen's song is from the Lay of Leithian (The Lay Recommenced, from History of Middle-earth Book 3, The Lays of Beleriand ).


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Nightwing - It's kinda floating in a strange direction now, but I'm hanging in to see where it ends up...Teen Titans - SEE ABOVE COMMENTS ON GEOFF JOHNS.
I picked up a few comics this week, and decided to pick up an issue (the latest) of Nightwing to see what it was like. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but thumbing through it doesn't look too bad.
The Nightwing book is headed in a really odd direction at the moment.After a really bad decision (or rather a moment of in-action to prevent something), Dick's life took a very strange turn. This, coupled with the recent War Game cross-over in the Bat-Books have taken Nightwing down a very strange road. I'm still not sure where they are taking him.His fall into crime and now team-up with Deathstroke ahve me going, "huh?" Hopefully there is a payoff at the end of this story, I'd hate to see Dick become yet another "Good Guy fallen to the Bad Guys until he's saved" shtick.Jeff
Is anyone reading the Multi-title cross over entitled "The Other". It's going through a bunch of the Spider-Man titles right now. I only really read Amazing Spider-Man due to Joe Straczynski's writing (you may remember him from Babylon 5).The story is pretty good, although I'm missing a couple of issues and need to track them down.
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For Immediate Release
Enough Tricks: Consumers Speak Up Against Monsanto's GE Sweet Corn
With the threat of genetically engineered sweet corn hitting grocery stores next year looming, 264,000 people petition top retailers and food makers
WASHINGTON - In response to Monsanto's release of the company's first genetically engineered sweet corn for human consumption, a coalition has collected more than 264,000 petition signatures from consumers who refuse to purchase the corn and are asking retailers and food processors to reject it. Today the coalition, including the Center for Environmental Health, Center for Food Safety, CREDO Action, Food Democracy Now!, and Food & Water Watch, announced that they have delivered the signed petition to 10 of the top national retail grocery stores including Wal-Mart, Kroger and Safeway, and top canned and frozen corn processors including Bird's Eye and Del Monte.
Two major national food companies, General Mills and Trader Joe's, have already indicated that they will not be using the Monsanto GE sweet corn in their products, according to replies the companies sent to a request from the Center for Environmental Health.
"The overwhelming number of people who have signed this petition once again reiterates the fact that consumers don't want genetically engineered food on their plates," said Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch. "Consumers should be outraged that as early as next year, GE sweet corn in cans, frozen and fresh off the cob could show up in grocery stores across the country and we will have no way of telling it apart from other corn."
"These grocery and food processing companies are the last link in the chain before this corn reaches consumers and they have a financial incentive to keep this unlabeled GE sweet corn off their shelves because their customers won't buy it," said Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director of The Center for Food Safety. "Two major food companies have already said they will reject this risky new corn. If they can do it, so can these other companies."
In August, Monsanto announced that its Roundup Ready GE sweet corn – as opposed to corn that has been used primarily in animal feed and highly processed foods since 1994 – would be available for the fall planting season. Although the sweet corn is the first GE vegetable of this type to be commercialized by Monsanto, it received swift approval from the USDA since the agency does no independent testing of GE crops and the seed's three distinct traits were previously approved, each separately, in 2005 and 2008. The three traits are corn borer resistance, rootworm resistance and tolerance for glyphosate – the primary ingredient in Monsanto's herbicide Roundup.
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"It's not surprising that the company responsible for producing nearly 90 percent of all GE seeds around the world now wants to sell its toxic crops directly to consumers, but it is clearly very scary to a lot of people" said Elijah Zarlin, Campaign Manager at CREDO Action. "We had an overwhelming response from over 160,000 CREDO Action members. It's shocking that, absent sufficient study of GMO corn, government regulators could be so cavalier in the approval of a product that raises significant concerns for so many people."
"Monsanto continues to produce genetically engineered food that Americans have no interest in eating," said David Murphy, Founder, Food Democracy Now! "It's clear, with the increasing approvals of these untested products, that President Obama needs to live up to his campaign promise to label foods that have been genetically modified, because, as he said to farmers in Iowa, 'Americans should know what they're buying.'"
Monsanto is aiming to grow its GE Sweet Corn on 250,000 acres next year, which is roughly 40 percent of the sweet corn market. They believe the corn will be used primarily in frozen and canned corn products, but could also be sold as fresh corn on the cob through retailers.
"Consumers deserve to know what's in their food, especially when there is a pesticide in every bite," said Charles Margulis of the Center for Environmental Health. "This whole, unprocessed corn has been spliced with genes that produce a risky, untested insecticide. Parents should be informed when food on supermarket shelves has been genetically altered."
The potential health and environmental risks associated with GE crops include increased food allergies and unknown long term health effects in humans; the rise of superweeds that have become resistant to GE-affiliated herbicides; the ethical and economic concerns involved with the patenting of life and corporate consolidation of the seed supply; and the contamination of organic and non-GE crops and through cross-pollination and seed dispersal.
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The Center for Environmental Health has a fifteen-year track record of protecting communities from the health impacts of toxic pollution and has uncovered lead and other toxic health threats to children from wood playground structures, toys, vinyl baby bibs and lunchboxes, and many other products. CEH also works with major industries and leaders in green business to promote healthier alternatives to toxic products and practices. In 2010 the San Francisco Business Times bestowed its annual "Green Champion" award to CEH for its work to improve health and the environment in the Bay Area and beyond.
The Center for Food Safety is national, non-profit, membership organization, founded in 1997, that works to protect human health and the environment by curbing the use of harmful food production technologies and by promoting organic and other forms of sustainable agriculture. CFS has nearly 200,000 members across the country. On the web at www.centerforfoodsafety.organd www.truefoodnow.org
CREDO Action has 2.2 million members across the U.S. who fight for progressive change and raise money for organizations like Food Democracy Now and Rainforest Action Network. Since 1985, CREDO and its membership have donated over $65 million to progressive causes. www.credoaction.org
Food Democracy Now! is a grassroots movement of more than 250,000 American farmers and citizens dedicated to reforming U.S. food and agricultural policy to improve farmer competition in the marketplace, protect our environment and promote organic and sustainable food for all.www.fooddemocracynow.org


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Asked by CNN Chief National Correspondent John King if he had any doubts about Obama's Christian faith, Graham, who has made controversial comments about Islam in the past, said the president's background is fueling the false perception that he is a Muslim.
"I think the president's problem is that he was born a Muslim, his father was a Muslim. The seed of Islam is passed through the father like the seed of Judaism is passed through the mother. He was born a Muslim, his father gave him an Islamic name," Graham said on CNN's "John King, USA."
"Now it's obvious that the president has renounced the prophet Mohammed and he has renounced Islam and he has accepted Jesus Christ. That is what he says he has done, I cannot say that he hasn't. So I just have to believe that the president is what he has said," Graham continued.
Earlier this year, the Army rescinded its invitation to Graham for the National Day of Prayer at the Pentagon over controversial remarks he made about Islam.
"True Islam cannot be practiced in this country," he told CNN last December. "You can't beat your wife. You cannot murder your children if you think they've committed adultery or something like that, which they do practice in these other countries."
Graham later tried to temper his remarks by saying that he had Muslim friends. However, Graham has a history of comments that bothered the Pentagon. Shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Graham called Islam a "very evil and wicked religion."
A new poll released Thursday conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that nearly one in five Americans falsely believe Obama is a Muslim, up from around one in 10 Americans who said last year they believed he was Muslim.
While most of those who think Obama is Muslim are Republicans, the number of independents who believe he is Muslim has expanded significantly, from 10 percent last year to 18 percent now, according to the Pew survey.
The White House stated unequivocally on Thursday that Obama is a Christian.
"President Obama is a committed Christian, and his faith is an important part of his daily life," Deputy White House Communications Director Jen Psaki told CNN. "He prays every day, he seeks a small circle of Christian pastors to give him spiritual advice and counseling, he even receives a daily devotional that he uses each morning. The president's Christian faith is a part of who he is, but not a part of what the public or the media is focused on every day."
In April, President Obama prayed with the Rev. Billy Graham and his son Franklin at Graham's mountaintop home in North Carolina. Billy Graham, a major figure in the American evangelical movement, has advised presidents dating back to Harry Truman.
WOW now if more people like him would come out we could debunk this.
Another GOP red herring. You Republicans are getting more and more strange, talking louder and louder and saying less and less.
Remember Republicans: Small minds are occupied by small things.
This discussion is disgusting! The President is an honorable man, an intelligent and bright mind and he works hard to better the lives of all Americans. That and only that should be of interest. The comments of this and the article above are a showcase of the good and the bad in America. And the "good" does not seem to come from the "real" Christians! Get a grip on it people!
This skin deep veil doubt about Obama's faith by a "Pastor" who is supposed to sheperd the flock to the truth is troubling.It's offensive.Biblically it has a meaning. The Jews doubted the Messiahship of Jesus even as the Truth lived among them.
Why should we talk of islamic radicalism and ignore such high profile extremism as this? Mr "pastor" there is no connection between genetic heridity and fath. YOU ARE DEAD WRONG AND THIS IS SATANIC!
President Obama is not a Muslim. I doubt he is really Christian either, although he had to say so in order to win elections in this sick country. He is intelligent and extremely educated; obviously a closet atheist. Duh.
It is so childish to even broadcast such polls that 18% believe that president Obama is Muslim, and worse, making it a news.
How about:
32% believe that Africa is a country in Asia?
34% believe that New-York is in California?
33% believe that the World War II happened in Afghanistan in 1972?
31% believe that Sarah Palin is the daughter of Nelson Mandela?
27% believe that babies are conceived after a woman eat young pork?
28% believe that John McCain is 45 yrs old?
All these not sense polls of what people believe should rather be used in mental facilities to determine who is mentally stable and who isn't; or who is stupid, and who isn't.
It would save us a lot money in health cost.
Many things are facts regardless what someone may believe, so why asking people what they believe about facts?
This man claims to be a religious leader and scholar.
He is a disgrace by his own words to his own so called christian beliefs.
Where is his charity, his tolerance, his respect for others, even those with whom he disagrees?
He cannot even fully believe the sinner who has repented and converted " I just have to believe him".
So where is Grahams faith and charity towards his flock?
Forget not, Christians used to stone people to death until Jesus son of god said "let him who be without sin cast the first stone" no mention of her!?
Mr. Graham needed to be challenged vigorously on his unethical ( true Islam cannot be practiced in this country) religious comments but was not... Why Mr. King!?
Just when you think America can not get any dumber! And here we go again. People like Graham adopt the philosophy if you tell a lie enough times, it becomes the truth. Sadly these people will only hurt America from the inside and will do far more harm than any external force. Shame on you Mr Graham, you are a helping to destroy your own country with this filth! The hate for Obama has become like a cancer that festers unabated.
Once again CNN instead of focusing on what the President is not! Why don't you spend some time informing and focusing on what he is!!! Typical sensatioal yellow journalism!!! REPORT THE FACTS!!! THAT ALL WE ASK!!!
Am I the only one that knows of several Christians that beat their wives or girlfriends or commit other crimes of violence then say Jesus died for their sins so it will be ok? Grahamn needs to stop trying to mislead people but then I rarely meet a Christian that I can trust to live according to the Bible anyway


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Miami-Dade pit bull ban up for vote
Many defend much disparaged breed
MIAMI – A ban on pit bulls has been in effect in Miami-Dade County since 1989, but a proposal to lift that ban on the Aug. 14 ballot has people debating both sides of the issue.
Miami-Dade Commissioner Sally Heyman is a lover of dogs, including pit bulls.
"I honestly believe (the problem) is not a bad dog, but an irresponsible owner," Heyman said.
Pit bulls have been banned in Miami-Dade County for 23 years after one mauled and disfigured a girl.
"A lot of things get called pit bulls that aren't necessarily pit bulls or part pit bull," said Alex Munoz, of Miami-Dade Animal Services.
The ban was debated Wednesday at the Downtown Bay Forum, although no one spoke in favor of keeping the ban.
"What would happen if someone came to your door and gave you a $500 fine, took your dog and killed it and gave it back to you in a trash bag without the dog having done anything?" said Dahlia Canes, who favors lifting the ban.
"And what if my granddaughter were out in the street, walking, and an aggressive dog, pit bull or not, came and attacked her unprovoked? I mean, don't I have a right? Doesn't she have a right to not have that happen?" Local 10's Michael Putney asked.
"You have every right to feel safe in this county," Canes said.
But, many don't feel safe around pit bulls, whose attacks garner media attention, even though other breeds bite more.
"This ban affects the American pit bull terriers, the American Staffordshire terriers, Staffordshire bull terriers or any mix thereof that would substantially conform to those breed characteristics," said Kathy Labrada, of Miami-Dade Animal Services.
Owning a pit bull is not against the law in Broward County. Those who want to lift the ban in Miami-Dade County said its dangerous dog ordinance will be toughed up to crack down on aggressive dogs and their owners.
Copyright 2012 by Post Newsweek. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Dog food reviews
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2 Star Dry Dog Food
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Nutro Products Inc Nutro Max Natural (adult dog food)
Date of last review
Mon November 21, 2005
Recommended By
Average Price
Average Rating
No recommendations
None indicated
None indicated
Feeding guideline:
A 50lb dog should be fed 2 1/2 - 3 1/3 cups.
Calorie Content
Nutro MAX Natural contains 3,690 kcal/kg of metabolizable energy (ME) on as-fed basis (calculated)
380 kcals/per cup
Ingredient list:
Chicken Meal, Wheat Flour, Ground Whole Wheat, Rice Bran, Poultry Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Corn Gluten Meal, Ground Rice, Lamb Meal, Natural Flavors, Yeast Culture, Calcium Carbonate, Monosodium Phosphate, Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Dried Buttermilk, Dried Kelp, Dried Egg Product, Lecithin, Zinc Sulfate, Iron Sulfate, Vitamin E Supplement, Iron Oxide, Garlic, Ascorbic Acid (source of Vitamin C), Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Niacin, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Supplement, Manganous Oxide, Thiamine Mononitrate (source of Vitamin B1), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Riboflavin (source of Vitamin B2), Calcium Iodate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of Vitamin B6), Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K activity), Folic Acid, Copper Sulfate.
Guaranteed Analysis
Crude Protein (minimum) 26.00%
Crude Fat (minimum) 16.00%
Crude Fiber (maximum) 4.00%
Moisture (maximum) 10.00%
Linoleic Acid (minimum) 3.50%
Ascorbic Acid (minimum)** 35.0 mg/kg
**Not recognized as an essential nutrient by the AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles.
Nutritional Adequacy Statement
Animal feeding tests using AAFCO¹ procedures substantiate that Nutro MAX Natural provides complete and balanced nutrition for all life stages.
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Registered: October 2005
Posts: 3953
Review Date:
Mon November 21, 2005
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First ingredient is a named meat product.
Insufficient meat products, extensive use of wheat, fats of unidentifiable origin and corn products in the food.
The first ingredient in the food is a named meat ingredient. There is a further named meat ingredient 8th on the ingredient list, but it is unlikely that this represents a substantial amount of the food.
Wheat is the main grain in the food. Wheat flour is a grain fragment (filler). The use of wheat is a significant negative: wheat is believed to be the number one cause of allergy problems in dog food. Whole wheat is also used in the food.
Poultry fat is an ingredient of unidentified origin for which it is impossible to determine source or quality. Unidentified ingredients are usually very low quality. AAFCO define this as obtained from the tissues of poultry in the commercial processes of rendering or extracting. It consists predominantly of glyceride esters of fatty acids and contains no additions of free fatty acids. If an antioxidant is used, the common name or names must be indicated, followed by the words "used as a preservative".
Corn is difficult for dogs to digest and thought to be the cause of a great many allergy and yeast infection problems. The AAFCO definition of corn gluten meal is the dried residue from corn after the removal of the larger part of the starch and germ, and the separation of the bran by the process employed in the wet milling manufacture of corn starch or syrup, or by enzymatic treatment of the endosperm. In plain English, that which remains after all the nutritious bits have been removed.
Rice is a decent grain. We would prefer to see the use of whole eggs than egg product. We note that this product includes synthetic vitamin K, a substance linked to liver problems and that is progressively being removed from better quality dog food products.
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Inside Occupied Western Sahara
January 19, 2013 Leave a comment
"Duck down and put your head below the window," says Hamid as we pass one of the smaller military outposts (housing an armoured vehicle) in southern Laayoune, the capital of Western Sahara. Bundled into a 15 year old Citroen with four Sahrawi human rights activists, I have to repeat the exercise multiple times before reaching the family home they use as headquarters and meeting place.
Military stations are one thing Laayoune has no shortage of. Western Sahara has been ruled by Morocco since 1975 when, after Franco's death, the Spanish left and allowed Morocco and Mauritania to enter.An International Court of Justice advisory opinion issued at the time did not find "any tie of territorial sovereignty" between Western Sahara, Morocco, and Mauritania, though it also noted the "difficulty of disentangling the various relationships existing in the Western Sahara region at the time of colonisation"
By 1979 internal resistance had forced Mauritania out, but Morocco's King Hassan II was committed to the Sahara as bilad al-siba, part of a "Greater Morocco" that would eventually cover all of Mauritania as well. Hundreds of thousands of Moroccan settlers were encouraged to enter Western Sahara with state subsidized property and employment, under the army's protection.
Morocco then fought a war against an indigenous Sahrawi resistance group, the Frente Polisario, which ended in 1991 when the UN brokered a ceasefire and pledged to hold an independence referendum within six months.
The referendum has still not been held. Morocco retains control of Western Sahara, and its lucrative phosphate and fishing resources. The country is now the last United Nations designated "non-self-governing territory" in Africa, and is home to between 100,000 and 140,000 Moroccan military personnel (despite a total population of just 500,000).
Morocco's reigning King Muhammad VI has said that "the issue of our Saharan provinces is central" in order "to complete our territorial integrity".
Life under the occupation
The fighting drove much of the indigenous population of Western Sahara into refugee camps in Tindouf, Southern Algeria, but some remain as a minority within the occupied territory, west of the 1,600 mile separation wall that Morocco built during the war with the Polisario between 1981 and 1986.
The UN peacekeeping mission, MINURSO, has limited jurisdiction: unusually for such missions, the UN Security Council has not given it a mandate to monitor rights abuses. Nor is it sufficiently staffed: the mission has only six police officers and 237 military personnel covering an area larger than Britain. MINURSO staff said they need an additional 10 civilian police just to monitor Laayoune.
Media access in Western Sahara is extremely restricted: almost no foreign journalists are given permits to enter, and the occasional groups of journalists who are allowed in have their movement controlled by the state. Accordingly, little is known about the lives of the Sahrawi in the disputed territory.
"Our group is underground," Fatima Tobarra, president of the Sahrawi Observatory for Women and Children, told me. "We tried to make an official organization, but the authorities refused even to receive our application, so we can have no premises."
Neither the Moroccan police nor the Moroccan government's human rights department responded to requests for comment for this article.
Life expectancy in Western Sahara is just 62, tellingly lower than Morocco's 72. Fatima's Observatory focuses on supporting vulnerable Sahrawi families, who feel the effects of the occupation keenly. "The police here guard the schools, and intimidate the Sahrawi children, then inside they are discriminated against by the teachers who are almost always Moroccans so attendance drops," she told me.
"Our children are not even allowed to join the activity groups that the Moroccan children have, so we run groups for them."
Many of the families have had relatives killed or "disappeared". Fatima's own father and uncle were split up as refugees, and neither have been heard from since. Her grandfather and grandmother were both interred in Agdz prison, and died there.
"We cannot live like this, and we will not," Fatima said. "We want our self-determination so that we can live good lives. The people in other countries, in Tunis, in Yemen, they won their freedom – and we want that to happen here, it has to happen here."
Repressing the internal resistance
Despite the extensive security apparatus, the Sahrawi have been holding demonstrations against Moroccan rule, and what they see as their second class citizenship, for years.
This peaked in October 2010, with the establishment of the Gdeim Izik protest camp: a tent city set up by activists south-east of Laayoune. The camp was forcibly dismantled by the Moroccan police, with between 11 and 36 Sahrawi killed.
I met members of a group called Coordination Gdeim Izik in a house that serves as their headquarters.
The group played a key part in the protest camp, and continue to organize regular non-violent demonstrations in Laayoune, Smara, and Dakhla. Most recently, they organized a protest on international human rights day, in front of the Moroccan human rights organization (CCDH) office in Laayoune.
The protest was forcibly broken up with beatings administered to the protesters, like Salimah, a Sahrawi woman in her late twenties."I was very badly attacked, they smashed my teeth to pieces and I had to get them reconstructed," she said, displaying the artificial replacements that now lie in place of her lower front six teeth. "The police came to the protest out of their uniforms and beat us with clubs."
Another young member, Khalil, told me that the security forces have become adept at pre-empting and breaking up their protests, routinely using clubs and batons against anyone who attends.
"They do not care if you are young, old, man, woman, if you come to the protests they will attack you", he said, adding that most of the 40 to 50 people in the room have stories like Salimah's.
In some cases the reprisals against demonstrators are more serious than assault. The next day I met with the family of a demonstrator who was killed by the police during a protest in Laayoune in December 2010.
Maryem Dambar explains how she watched as her brother, Said Dambar, was shot in the head by the police at a protest not far from his own house.
The Moroccan security forces then attacked the house, clubbing Maryem and her mother after she fled inside. The police subsequently denied all responsibility for Said's death, and to this day refuse to admit that the killing happened, or to investigate it.
"All our family wants is justice for Said," Maryem said. "I saw him killed, and cannot understand how the Moroccans can deny that they murdered him. If there were any human rights in Western Sahara, Said's death would not be denied, and his killers would be brought to justice."
The case may not be unique. Human Rights Watch has complained that Moroccoan authorities failed to follow-up on the beating of the group's research assistant in 2010, calling the attack a "case study of impunity for police violence".
"If there is impunity for police who beat up a citizen who works for an international organization in broad daylight, in front of witnesses and despite formal complaints, it's clear how vulnerable ordinary citizens are," Sarah Lee Whitson, a Human Rights Watch spokesperson, said in a March 2012 statement.
"Restricted Freedoms"
In April, Amnesty International reported that: "Sahrawis advocating self-determination for the people of Western Sahara remained subject to restrictions on their freedoms of expression, association and assembly, and leading activists continued to face prosecution."
Despite the danger of documenting unrest – anyone caught filming or taking pictures of protests in Western Sahara faces punishment, and usually the destruction of the camera equipment – Coordination Gdeim Izik say they have video evidence of the attacks on their protests.
In one video seen by this reporter, a 55-year-old woman is savagely beaten and kicked to the floor by two riot policemen; in another, uniformed military personnel beat a young girl so severely she had to be hospitalised, according to her friends. A senior member of the group, Sidi Muhammad Ramadiy, pointed to the screen and said: "This is human rights for Morocco."
The group's de facto leader, Lahib Salhi, said: "We live here always under the eyes, and under the clubs of the Moroccans. The world must do what it promised to do when the UN first came: hold the referendum, and give us the chance to live as we wish to live."
Many Sahrawis in fact blame the international community. "The Moroccans make the claim on our land because they can, because they are strong and because they are supported by France, the United States, and Britain," said Salhi. "But they know the claim is false. The Mauritanians once claimed Western Sahara for themselves. Where are they now? How much longer will the world permit this injustice?"
A version of this report was published with Al Jazeera, on January 3rd 2013.


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In huge win for digital privacy that will help pave the future of the Fourth Amendment, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Johnny Law needs a warrant before he can search the cellphone a person he arrested.
Despite a former DHS official's previous opinion that reduced the Supreme Court Justices to "nine Baby Boomers" who wouldn't know the "creepy line" if it bit them on the butt, yesterday SCOTUS showed that people are still entitled to Fourth Amendment protections even in the digital age. "Our answer to the question of what police must do before searching a cell phone seized incident to an arrest is accordingly simple--get a warrant," they ruled (pdf).
Regarding Riley v. California, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that cell phones "are now such a pervasive and insistent part of daily life that the proverbial visitor from Mars might conclude they were an important feature of human anatomy. A smart phone of the sort taken from Riley was unheard of ten years ago; a significant majority of American adults now own such phones."
"The term cell phone' is itself misleading shorthand; many of these devices are in fact minicomputers that also happen to have the capacity to be used as a telephone," Roberts added. "They could just as easily be called cameras, video players, rolodexes, calendars, tape recorders, libraries, diaries, albums, televisions, maps, or newspapers."
The New York Times wrote, "In what may be foreshadowing of future developments in privacy law, Chief Justice Roberts approvingly cites a high-profile concurring opinion by Justice Sotomayor in a 2012 case holding that the police needed a warrant to attach a GPS device to monitor movements by a suspect's car."
The decision boiled down to telling cops to "get a warrant" first, but the police can still search phones without a warrant if there are "exigent circumstances" such as "imminent danger to life or the possibility that evidence would be destroyed."
Justice Roberts added:
We cannot deny that our decision today will have an impact on the ability of law enforcement to combat crime. Cell phones have become important tools in facilitating coordination and communication among members of criminal enterprises, and can provide valuable incriminating information about dangerous criminals. Privacy comes at a cost.
Justice Samuel Alito also remarked on a smartphone's immense storage capacity before he added that "it would be very unfortunate if privacy protection in the 21st century were left primarily to the federal courts using the blunt instrument of the Fourth Amendment. Legislatures, elected by the people, are in a better position than we are to assess and respond to the changes that have already occurred and those that almost certainly will take place in the future."
You should either download or bookmark this Opinion of the Court (pdf). Debate, legal breakdowns and opinions have since flooded the web.
EFF Staff Attorney Hanni Fakhoury called the decision "huge for digital privacy. The court recognized that the astounding amount of sensitive data stored on modern cell phones requires heightened privacy protection, and cannot be searched at a police officer's whim. This should have implications for other forms of government electronic searches and surveillance, tightening the rules for police behavior and preserving our privacy rights in our increasingly digital world."
Yet Mark Eckenwiler, former deputy chief of the Justice Department's computer crime section, arguedRiley won't make that big of a difference because the police will simply ask for consent to search a phone. "And an extraordinary number of arrestees will give that consent," he said, "just as people consent today to all sorts of searches of cars and containers, very much against their personal interest."
SCOTUS twice cited Orin Kerr's "Accounting for Technological Change." Kerr, who is a law professor at George Washington University, disagreed with the Linda Greenhouse's argument that appeared in the New York Times; she suggested the results of United States v. Jones and Riley can be explained by the "Justices seeing themselves as potential targets of the government." Greenhouse wrote that the Supreme Court's ruling was less likely to be a result of "empathy;" instead, "the justices are walking in their own shoes. The ringing cellphone could be theirs -- or ours."
Kerr is skeptical the rulings in Jones and Riley were cases in which the justices "could never imagine that happening to them;" that they "could never imagine being arrested," or that "they can't imagine ever being the target of a massive narcotics conspiracy investigation." Kerr wrote that he is more inclined to believe "Jones and Riley are about equilibrium-adjustment." He added, "An interesting aspect of Jones and Riley from the perspective of equilibrium-adjustment is that the technological change was relatively easy to understand. Everyone has a cell phone and is familiar with smart phones. Most of us have experience with GPS devices in cars."
No matter the reason, in the end the pro-privacy decisions lay the groundwork for the future of the Fourth Amendment in this digital age.


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Charter of a gullet will enable you to visit the coast enjoying a change of scenery each day at a relaxing pace of such a boat. It will invite you to spend most of your time outdoors, on the deck, but will also offer lot's of comfort below the deck.
These boats will give you more pleasure in nearer contact with the sea, winds and real marine life scenery. Be aware that you will be able to visit less places in one week time than you could when chartering a motor yacht. Your route is always to be planned in coordination with the captain.
Please look through our offer in order to find the boat you would like to charter the most. If you cannot find what you are looking for please contact us – our offer is not limited to our web pages; we are at your service and will find the right boat for you.


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Authorities seek Serpent Mound vandals
Items buried at historic site
State officials expect to file charges soon against three to five people who they say vandalized and desecrated a 1,000-year-old site listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The suspects allegedly acknowledged in an online video that they buried small shiny objects called orgonites at the 63-acre Native American Serpent Mound. Three of the objects, made of resin and embedded with quartz crystals and aluminum foil, have been found so far.
But state officials say there may be hundreds more, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
Those responsible face misdemeanors charges, punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a $5,000 fine.
"Adding things to the property is just not acceptable," said George Kane, director of historic sites and facilities for the Ohio Historical Society.
Orgonites are crafted from metal filings, such as aluminum, and quartz crystals, cast in a resin base, often in a muffin tin, the newspaper reported. Websites that discuss making and using such devices claim they draw in negative energy and exude positive energy.
The people who apparently buried the objects showcased their actions in a YouTube video, acknowledging they "did some work" in September at the site in Peebles to help "lift the vibration of the Earth so we can all rise together," the newspaper reported.
The video, which has since been removed from the site, included comments from people who described themselves as "light warriors" and say they took several days planting the orgonites at the snake-shaped Serpent Mound to "reactivate it."
The video showed people running and leaping across the earthwork.
Volunteers will go over the site to find the devices, Kane said.
The historical society says on its website that Serpent Mound is a prehistoric effigy mound. Effigy mounds are raised piles of earth built in the shape of an animal or other symbol. They were constructed in some Native American cultures.


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Image by DVIDSHUB via Flickr
The Social Poets: Libya War: Funny Late Nite Jokes Roundup: "Check out what the comedians lampoon about The Peace President, Obama, going into Libya. Boy, I tell ya, a guy tries to help out some desperate people in a foreign country from getting slaughtered and all he gets is flak from the Republicans and comedians.
Of course, like so many sticky political situations, it's all about The Ego. The mostly male media ratchets up The Ego Meter by declaring Prez Obama is a wimp if he doesn't succeed at deposing Gadafi now that he's declared, 'Gadafi must go!' So, suddenly out come The Big Guns: the CIA operatives magicly appear in Libya 'advising' the rebel forces. Read that as, 'These guys are so clueless the only way to keep them alive is knock some sense into them and show them how to win.'"


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Response to RET Review19 December 2012
Today the Climate Change Authority (CCA) released the final report of its Renewable Energy Target review. It repeats all the same arguments I debunked in my response to the discussion paper released in October, and makes similar recommendations (though some of the details have been refined).
The RET Review fails to acknowledge that Australia and the world urgently need to phase out fossil fuel burning to avoid dangerous climate change, and the policies in place are completely inadequate to do so. Instead, on most matters it insists the status quo must be maintained to minimize policy uncertainty. But climate policy will be subject to uncertainty for the foreseeable future anyway, because it challenges powerful interests, so the best way to design the RET is to send the strongest signal possible to incentivize investment in renewable energy. The reason for the existence of a Climate Change Authority and regularly scheduled reviews is to provide regular opportunities to strengthen Australia's climate policies and thus accelerate decarbonization over time. CCA's rigid determination to recommend little change is creating the ludicrous situation where the body is making itself irrelevant.
CCA refuses to recommend increasing or strengthening the Large-Scale Renewable Energy Target (LRET). It recommends future reviews be scheduled at four-year instead of two-year intervals (though fortunately unscheduled reviews can be commissioned at any time by the Minister, the Parliament, or CCA itself). It envisages the 2016 review will consider the issue of post-2020 targets, and rules out consideration of accelerating renewable energy deployment before 2020 except "in the event of extenuating circumstances" (p. xi); it is unclear what would qualify as such a circumstance. The problem with this is that the RET is currently inadequate, a higher target is needed to incentivize new projects, and accelerating action cannot wait until 2016 or 2020.
CCA recommends no change to the shortfall charge that applies when a liable entity does not surrender the required number of certificates. This is despite the review's modeling showing the price of Large-scale Generation Certificates (LGCs) will rise to equal or nearly equal the shortfall charge (meaning liable entities would pay the penalty instead of investing in renewable energy), and then plummet toward zero (halting investment). The shortfall charge should rise with inflation so there is a high penalty for non-compliance to ensure the RET is achieved. CCA has deferred consideration of this proposal until the next review, but it should be made now to give investors confidence that the RET will continue to drive investment in the future.
The RET Review recommends weakening the RET in one key way (here the details have changed from the discussion paper, but the same wrongheaded policy intention remains). Although it recommends the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) remain separate to the LRET and notionally uncapped, CCA has bought claims by the Australian Industry Group (AIG) and others that it is necessary to contain its costs. It has not escaped my attention that CCA board member Heather Ridout is a former chief executive of AIG. The report recommends "mechanisms that reduce the risk of a possible rise in installations" (p. x) – yes, the Climate Change Authority believes an increase in solar PV installation is a risk!
This is blatantly at odds with the imperative of climate change mitigation and the objective of the RET (not to mention CCA's stated goal of policy stability). Instead of attempting to contain solar PV deployment, the government should design policies to further accelerate it. The more small-scale renewable energy technologies are installed, the better. In addition to having zero greenhouse gas emissions, they remove demand from the grid and lower wholesale electricity prices.
The final report discounts the discussion paper's proposal of discounting, instead recommending the SRES be phased out from 2017, solar PV systems larger than 10 kW be moved to the LRET to prevent a boom in solar PV on commercial buildings, and the Minister use their existing discretionary power to lower the price cap as an "emergency brake" should installations take off again. CCA is optimistic these changes, combined with the windback of state-level feed-in tariffs, will contain the epidemic of irresponsible solar PV installation.
The RET Review is blinded by a fundamentally flawed paradigm on Australia's role in responding to climate change advocated by government climate advisor Ross Garnaut, which doesn't bode well for the review which will recommend emissions targets. Garnaut argues Australia's role in the absence of a global agreement is merely to implement its (inadequate) emissions reduction target of 5% by 2020 at the lowest possible cost. He further argues the cheapest way of doing this is with a carbon price (including unlimited international offsets), and that with the carbon price in place the RET should become redundant over time.
Garnaut's view is reflected in the RET Review final report: "the RET is viewed as a transitional measure… ahead of a carbon price trajectory consistent with delivering on Australia's long-term environmental goals" (p. vii). I am pleased to see CCA now recognizes an extra reason for the RET's existence, "the risk that the carbon price is lower than optimal to achieve long-run mitigation goals" (p. 30), but it fails to recognize this as a reason to increase the 2020 LRET. CCA also continues to cite the Productivity Commission's claims about the relative cost-effectiveness of climate policies, which I have comprehensively debunked.
In the real world, where UN negotiations have not only failed to agree on an international regime of national emissions targets adding up to a safe global target, but have even agreed to delay such an agreement until it will be too late, radical unilateral action is needed to get a momentum for global action. Ambitious action by Australia should not be conditional on international action. We should not limit our role to implementing its inadequate existing emissions target, but use every lever at its disposal to accelerate decarbonization, including (though not limited to) cutting our domestic emissions to zero as rapidly as possible. In doing so, we should not limit ourselves to least-cost mechanisms, but use a comprehensive range of complementary measures.
The Government is required to respond to the recommendations within six months.
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Posted in Climate, Climate Politics, Energy, News, Politics, Renewable Energy Target | Tagged Australia, Climate Change, Climate Change Authority, Energy, Environment, Global Warming, News, Politics, Productivity Commission, Renewable Energy Target, Renewables, Thoughts |
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[…] 2012/12/19: PlanetJ: Response to RET Review Today the Climate Change Authority (CCA) released the final report of its Renewable Energy Target review. It repeats all the same arguments I debunked in my response to the discussion paper released in October, and makes similar recommendations (though some of the details have been refined). […]by Another Week of GW News, December 23, 2012 – A Few Things Ill Considered 25 December 2012 at 21:40


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Are iPhone users being overcharged, perhaps up to as much as 300%? A class action lawsuit filed against AT&T says yes.
The lawsuit alleges AT&T is overcharging its 20 million iPhone and iPad users for data usage, reports Venture Beat.
According to the suit, AT&T is charging its customers an additional $10 to $15 a month, but possibly more.
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
The lawyers behind the lawsuit claim they spent $80,000 in independent research. The company hired did tests that involved buying a brand new iPhone, disabling any apps that would use data, and letting the phone sit untouched, for two weeks. The results of the tests turned up charges on the bill for 35 separate transactions.
AT&T responded with a statement saying the allegations were "without merit." They claim the additional charges came from background processes the smartphones and tablets employ.
The lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Oakland, Calif. and is seeking unspecified damages.


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Crocodile Capers
The young Freshwater Crocodiles, Crocodylus johnstoni, that live in Surviving Australia are growing up.
Our three crocs, Snappy, Eric and Sobek, are always a hit with visitors and it is once again time for us to drain, clean and do any maintenance work on their exhibit to ensure that it is up to the task of looking good, holding water and of course holding the crocs!
One of our three young Crocodiles, 'Snappy', has moved on from the Australian Museum after reaching his maximum size for the exhibit. He has been re-homed with another exhibitor in Sydney.
The two remaining crocodiles, 'Eric' and 'Sobek', have a bit more growing to do and so will return to display in a few days, after staff have completed the scheduled exhibit maintenance and cleaning.
All three crocodiles were given a health check, weighed and measured before being removed from Surviving Australia. The exhibit will then have all its fittings, furnishings and substrate removed before everything is checked and given a good scrubbing.
You can see from the new photos how much they've grown since they arrived at the Museum in 2010 (see our Crocodile Transfers gallery).


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Early voting
Grand County, CO Colorado
Of the mail ballots issued for this year's election, nearly half have been returned already, according to the latest reports from the Grand County Clerk and Recorder's Office.
As of Oct. 29, Grand County had received 2,826 mail ballots out of 5,871 it sent out. Adding those ballots to the ballots of 297 early voters over the past five days, about 37 percent of Grand County's 8,589 active voters have already cast their ballots.
Non-active voters (meaning those who did not vote in the last election but are still registered to vote) can still vote in this election, according to Sara Rosene, Grand County Clerk.
Loose stubs
Support Local Journalism
There have been several reports of ballot stubs detached from mail ballots. According to Rosene, the detached stubs occurred due to over-perforated edges, that when folded, caused stubs to fall off inside envelopes. Such ballots with detached stubs are still valid ballots and can be filled out and mailed, with the stub put into the envelope with the ballot.
Ballots without stubs will still be counted. "A detached stub is not a reason to refuse to count a ballot," she said.
A stub detached from the ballot also does not compromise privacy of voting, Rosene said. "We don't even look at the ballot until the identifying information is removed from it," she said.
Even with stubs detached from ballots, Rosene encourages voters to vote on their mail ballots and send them in or drop them off at the Grand County Administration Building, rather than get new ballots at the polls. Getting a new ballot would mean getting a new provisional ballot, and those ballots will not be counted until Nov. 15, delaying results of the election.
Early voting is taking place from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Grand County Administration Building and will continue through Friday, Nov. 2. After that, voters can cast ballots at their respective polling locations on Election Day. For those who do not know the location of their polling location, go to govotecolorado.com.
Election officials plan to count and post early voting results on Election Day, Nov. 6.
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The work of custom toy creator Christian Hooton is no stranger to Kotaku. Whether it's StarCraft or Portal, Hooton's craftsmanship dazzles. Check out his latest creation: a 7-inch Portal 2 Wheatley light-up toy.
Hooton worked about a month to finish the Wheatley, which is made from lightweight plastic and has a moveable center "eye" that also lights up. According to the sculptor, "The weird thing about this one is that it's dangerously close to able to be used as a puppet. The eye is mounted on a gyrroscopesque [SIC] hinged in the center of the ball, and there are thin fishing line like strings keeping it a neutral position."
More photos on his blog in the link below.
PORTAL 2 Wheatley 7" custom light up toy [Sabretooth's Workshop via SuperPunch]


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Pho.to Community » Photo editing: most common problems and quick solutions » Dull photos, or how to adjust color, brightness and saturation » Post new reply
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Thanks for your sharing.I like your post
thank you for such a detailed explanation of Brightnes, Saturation and Hue terms.
Seems like you have forgotten to paste a picture in your last post, please, fix it if possible.
Next I want to talk to you about setting Hue / Saturation settings. First I want you to understand the definitions of each of these terms.
Hue: Hue is the aspect of color which is described as "red" or "yellow" etc. It is one of the three main attributes of perceived color. The other two are saturation and brightness.
Saturation: purity or strength of color, due to the absence of black, white or gray.
Brightness: Color brightness has to do with the amount of light added to a color.
Before you start using the hue / saturation tool I want to caution you with going overboard with it. Amateur photographers will often discover these tools and then overuse them so much that their photographs become unrealistic looking. This is fine if you are going for a surreal look, but if you're looking for photographic enhancements then use this tool with extreme caution.
The purpose of the tool is to alter the vibrancy of the colors in the photograph. You can choose to either enhance dull colors or artificially dull bright colors. Both choices can have some interesting visual effects. Take a look at the following photograph for example.
Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, and Sharpness
At first glance, it might seem that doing an article on the four most common image controls would be a waste of time. After all, brightness, contrast, saturation, and sharpness are often thought to be the simplest controls as they've been around as long as the color TV. People often overlook the fact that all four are related, however, and changing any one of them can change the other three. Do you know how they are related and how you are changing the balance of brightness, contrast, saturation, and sharpness by only changing one of the three parameters? Let's take a look.
Brightness is generally thought to be the simplest in concept. Just make the image brighter or darker by a specified amount, right? First we must distinguish between true brightness and something else called
Wow, just tried it there, makes a major difference to the pictures! Thanks!
"Nice tutorial! I have applied the process and able to do it. Having with nice mood after successful implementation.
Dear t.training001!
We are so happy to be of assistance to you!
Nice tutorial! I have applied the process and able to do it. Having with nice mood after successful implementation.
Hi, i am learning a lot of new things on this forum. Especially i love the editor which is amazingly advanced. Your example is very helpful to make dull image alive. I have many picnic photos and most of them are dull.. Now, i am going to make them alive.
How to make a DULL photo come alive?
If you want an instant, all-in-one enhancement made to your photo, use the handle_url_tag('http://enhance.pho.to', 'Enhance Photo!') service. It will perform color correction, lighting and contrast correction and saturation adjustment immediately after you upload your image.
handle_img_tag('http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3344/3344140164_5a40be5930_z.jpg?zz=1', false)
So how does it work? Just upload a photo into the service either from your computer or via an URL:
handle_img_tag('http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6081/6068902333_304321b0dd_b.jpg', false)
...and see your image immediately corrected!
To learn more about how to use the Enhance Photo! service, look through this handle_url_tag('http://pho.to/forum/viewtopic.php?id=219', 'tutorial').
You can also make adjustments to image saturation, contrast and color temperature in handle_url_tag('http://editor.pho.to', 'Online Photo! Editor') service. To do so, use the Adjust Saturation, Enhance Color and Color Temperature tools:
handle_img_tag('http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6077/6068956241_df9569141e.jpg', false)
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On Dec. 5, one of Elena Pacheco's biggest fears came true -- she received an eviction notice for the California Street apartment where she has lived for 23 years.
"Basically I have to get out of my apartment in 60 days," said Pacheco, "I am a part-time teacher -- where are the houses in Mountain View that I can afford?" Pacheco said. "I taught for 20 years in schools, it's time for me to retire. I should be enjoying my part-time teaching and my work with the Dreamers (undocumented students), but instead I'm trying to find a decent place to live."
Besides teaching in local schools, Pacheco has long been a community leader and activist for local "Dreamers" -- immigrants who were brought illegally to the U.S. as children, but cannot obtain citizenship. According to her eviction notice, her landlord wants to move into her three-bedroom apartment, which she shares with housemates to defray rental costs.
Pacheco's situation is emblematic of a growing crisis in Santa Clara County for low-wage workers, say those involved in building subsidized housing.
Pacheco has held out hope -- she's been on a waiting list since 2007 -- that she might get a unit in a place like the apartment complex recently built at the corner of Evelyn and Franklin streets, which houses 51 low-income families. But so far, no luck. The demand for such homes is "just overwhelming," said Matt Franklin, president of MidPen Housing Corp., which manages nearly 1,000 affordable units in Mountain View.
"The waiting lists are so long," said Beth Fraker, communication director for MidPen. Applicants could be on a wait-list for "a minimum of three years and could be seven years for our family properties."
Making matters worse are state and federal budget cuts to affordable housing funds, along with the elimination of redevelopment agencies that were required to provide 20 percent of their tax revenue to affordable housing.
According to a recent report by the Housing Trust Silicon Valley, funds for subsidized low-income housing projects have dropped by 64 percent since 2008 in Santa Clara County, down from $126.2 million available in 2008 to only $47.3 million a year. That is enough to subsidize only 313 homes throughout the county, far fewer than the 2,000 a year needed to meet new demands, according to goals set by the Association of Bay Area Governments.
Franklin called on Google and other large employers to help fund subsidized housing, as explosive job growth has driven up the demand and cost of housing.
"We hear from the business community that they understand the problem," Franklin said. "For the last five years the lack of affordable housing in the area has been among their top three policy concerns. But we're not seeing investment from those corporations in the Silicon Valley Housing Trust at the level you would expect."
"If they put $10 million into (the Housing Trust's) fund they could help create another 500 units," Franklin added. "We just fundamentally have an under-supply of affordable units and we've got to do something about it."
Pacheco has noticed all the the new luxury apartments being built in Mountain View, like the "Carmel at the Village" on San Antonio Road and the Madera complex that opened this year at 455 West Evelyn Ave, where rents are as high as $8,000 a month for a two-bedroom apartment. Developer Prometheus plans to build two other such complexes with similar rents, and several other developers also have luxury complexes in the works.
"They are building more for the rich community versus the poor community," Pacheco said.
Zwick said most people imagine job growth in Silicon Valley as for software programmers and engineers, but in reality, "for every high tech job that gets created, there's four other jobs created in the economy. The majority of jobs that are going to come are low-wage professions."
Job growth exacerbates the need for for affordable housing, Zwick said.
"The market does a really good job at providing housing for people at middle- and upper-income levels," Zwick said. "In order to get new housing available to people earning below $50,000 a year, which is a tremendous amount of households in the Valley, you need tools."
There is no single program that is going to solve the whole problem, but Zwick said there are a lot of individual things that can be done.
The Housing Trust report calls for cities to increase fees on development for affordable housing, to use surplus public property for housing, and to get state legislation passed that would allow cities to pass tax measures for affordable housing, among other things. The report notes the example of a recent survey commissioned by the city of Mountain View which showed that a majority of voters would pass such a tax measure, but that it would fail to garner the required two-thirds vote needed to pass it.
Franklin said low-wage workers who cannot afford the $2,467 average monthly rent in the county are essential to the future of the Valley but they are being driven out of Santa Clara County.
"We know what the impacts are. They are living in inadequate and unsafe and overcrowded housing, many families are doubled or tripled up, many are homeless, others are driving an hour to two hours from the East Bay, which clogs our roads or pollutes our environment. Folks still need to work, and they are doing their best, but it's not a sustainable dynamic."
Zwick said other cities should follow Mountain View's lead in raising "housing impact fees" on commercial development, which was done a year ago.
"If every city follows Mountain View's lead and passes a housing impact fee increase -- that would almost fill the whole need for affordable housing we identified," Zwick said.
But Franklin said the City Council should have gone even farther in raising the fee, as city staff had recommended, to $15 a square foot. Council members voted instead to increase it from $7.43 to $10 per square-foot, equal to $1 million for every 100,000 square feet of new commercial development.
Council members also refused to raise affordable housing fees on rental developments as high as recommended by city staff, going with $10 per square foot instead of the $21.94 recommended.
This story corrects an error in the print version


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Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008
Fraudulent calls increase in central New York
NEW HARTFORD — There has been a recent rise in fraudulent phone calls, e-mail phishing attempts, and even fraudulent text messages made to customers and non-customers of financial institutions throughout Central New York, according to the GPO Federal Credit Union.
Gary Roback, vice president of member services, said some of the credit union's members have been receiving calls and have given out personal information.
This has resulted in GPO's enacting proactive measures of blocking access to these affected accounts and re-issuing new debit and credit cards.
"The public needs to be aware...," said Roback in a phone interview. "The threat is there."
However, just being conscious of the existing techniques does not necessarily ensure safety.
He warned that once the information is obtained, "literally it could be seconds...less than a minute," before the victim's account is cleaned out. "Even if you think there's been some sort of information theft...the sooner you notify your financial institution the better," he continued
Attempts to contact representatives with NBT Bank and Adirondack Bank, both with local branches, were not returned.
Both banks issued new debit cards to customers in response to a data intrusion that affected Hannaford Supermarkets in March.
The attack on Hannaford stores revealed 4.2 million card numbers between Dec. 7 and March 10, with about 1,800 cards used fraudulently, reported the AP.
Two Oswego County workers suspended
OSWEGO — Oswego County Highway Department employees are once again the subject of a misconduct investigation after former legislator Jim McMahon, of 422 county Route 33 in Hastings, witnessed county employees cutting trees on his neighbor's private property.
The two Oswego County Highway employees who were involved in the incident were suspended without pay last week while county officials continue to investigate the incident.
"I have no idea what they were doing … they were in about 250 feet off the road on my neighbor's property," McMahon said. "It startled me. I asked myself, 'what are they doing?' so I started taking pictures."
He submitted the pictures to Doug Malone, D-Oswego Town, who forwarded them to County Attorney Rich Mitchell and County Administrator Philip Church. When contacted with questions concerning the incident, officials have been tight-lipped because the investigation is still ongoing.
Legislature Chairman Barry Leemann, R-Amboy, confirmed that two employees have been suspended without pay and were using county equipment during the incident being investigated. Church was unable to comment on the identity of the county employees or the incident.
In 2007, the department was under scrutiny when a highway department employee was seen unloading firewood at a co-worker's residence while using county equipment on county time. The incident served as a catalyst to revise the county's theft policy, however, more than a year after the Infrastructure and Facilities Committee approved a policy change, it never made it to the full legislature for a vote, said Leg. Clerk Ted Jerrett.
The policy, which was enacted March 1, 2000, by former highway Superintendent Don Morey, states that county employees can not use county-owned resources for personal gain.
Police: Drug-making chemicals force evacuations in Yorkville
YORKVILLE — Several Yorkville residents were evacuated from their homes Tuesday night after police discovered hazardous materials used to manufacture drugs inside a Champlin Avenue residence, according to state police.
The house at 1004 Champlin Ave. has since been deemed safe by the state police Community Emergency Response Team, and all residents returned to their homes this morning, state police Troop D public information officer Trooper Jim Simpson said.
Oneida County probation officers were serving a warrant on Michael Schecter around 5:30 p.m. at the location Tuesday night when they observed several containers of an unknown chemical, later determined to be ether, Simpson said.
Schecter was wanted on a parole violation, troopers said.
Ether is a volatile chemical that can cause eye and lung irritation, dizziness, skin burns, loss of consciousness and potentially death, depending on the level of exposure.
In this case, it is believed the chemical was being used to manufacture psilocybin hallucinogenic mushrooms and LSD, Simpson said. Ether is used to extract the hallucinogen from the mushroom in a concentrated form and free of contaminants.
The block on Champlain between Arnold and Highland avenues was evacuated. About 10 families from that area were asked to leave, Simpson said. Police cleared the area of the chemicals and the residence was deemed safe at 4 a.m. Residents were allowed to return at that time, Simpson said.
Schecter has been charged with violation of probation.
Additional charges may be pending based on laboratory tests, Simpson said.