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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:56:14 — 53.2MB)
Fired up on burgers and vodka, the boys take on this week in comics (and why we're so in love with Mark Waid right now), DC's new logo, the horrors of Rob Liefeld, and the wonder and glory of Ninjasaur, which you should go help fund via Kickstarter RIGHT THIS INSTANT.
Listen now or whenever you feel like it on iTunes!
And be sure to hit up the dadsbigplan Facebook page for some context around Bobby's mind-boggling cap.
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Living full-time at the beach or very close to a beach most definitely has lots of advantages. It is so fantastic to be able to walk or take a short drive to the beach, temporarily forget about your problems and just relax, soaking up the sun and listening to the relaxing waves. It's pure bliss to take a swim and cool off in the clear turquoise water.
Being weighed down with heavy bags, lugging around coolers and bulky beach chairs is not relaxing or comfortable when taking a day at the beach. It's much better to be mobile and pack light.
Read on for some great tips about how to pack for a day at the beach.
Using a mid-sized backpack if you are walking or riding a bike is a good idea, or a large, patterned tote if id you are not walking for long and care more about your overall beach look or plan on meeting someone for lunch, drinks or going out.
If you are walking a distance or riding your bike, you may not want to ever carry an umbrella. You can choose a hat instead, which you don't have to worry about lugging around. However, if you are carrying an umbrella, you can pick up one of those that are light and come with a carrying case you can carry on your shoulder or back.
If you're going to the beach with a friend or partner, consider a sheet and a rolled up small towel. Sunbathing on a sheet at the beach is great because it takes up less room in your bag then a huge beach towel, is more comfy to sunbathe on and more roomy. That way, you have the compact size towels to dry off with after a swim, and the blanket or sheet to lie out on.
Food and drink
It can be heavy and cumbersome to carry a big cooler around. You can opt instead to throw a piece of fruit or bag of chips and a bottle of water in your bag. But, if you are bringing cold food and beverages it's best to carry a very small cooler that is lighter than a big cooler. A good idea is to carry your water in an eco-friendly water bottle that keeps it cooler than plastic bottles. You can then stick it in a beer koozie and wrap up in a towel in your bag. Almost as good as a cooler! If bringing beer or other beverages, go with cans.
Sunscreen and products
You don't have to lug around the sunscreen aisle in your bag. Don't stick 5 different sunscreens, lip balms, hair sunscreen, lotions, etc. all in your bag. Consider taking one very high SPF (35 or up) for face, neck and other sensitive areas, and then one lower/lightweight SPF for everything else. It's good to bring one tinted SPF lip balm, a hair clip and leave everything else at home. Keep any lip balms, etc. in a pouch in a pocket to keep them out of the direct sun.
Reading material
Don't lug a big old book around in your beach bag if you are looking to pack light. You can save that for reading at bedtime. If you're looking to pack light, bring thin magazines you can roll up or little paperbacks which don't take up room.
Hopefully these have been helpful tips to help you pack light for your day at the beach!next article >>

subset: commoncrawl


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Previous Subject
Complete and continue
Strategically edit WOW images using Snapseed
Module 1. Photography Intention and Visual Language
1.1 Introduction to your course: Strategically edit WOW images on your smartphone
1.2 Self-Assessment and invitation to your Facebook community (7:38)
1.3 Storytelling, photography intention, visual language and aesthetics
1.4 How to create a WOW photo
1.5 Snapseed Settings, Android and iPhone differences and other apps covered
Module One activity - introduce yourself in the comments
Module One PDF download
Module 2. Basic editing
2.1 Perspective Tool to straighten and change perspective (5:21)
2.2 Cropping - the most critical step (9:43)
2.3 Tune Image to adjust colour, lighting, contrast, etc (9:19)
2.4 Healing - remove distracting elements. Alternative Retouch App (11:31)
2.5 Details Tool - sharpen the image (2:51)
Module two activity - Share a before and after image that has been cropped and perspective adjusted
Module Two PDF download
Module 3. Intermediate editing
3.1 Tonal Contrast to add depth and sharpness (6:50)
3.2 Selective and Brush Tool - area specific adjustments (14:50)
3.3 Lens Blur to add background blur. Plus After Focus app (8:11)
3.4 Expand tool to add extra sides to your image (5:02)
3.5 Snapseed app tips and hacks (16:12)
Module three activity - quiz time
Module Three PDF download
Module 4. Advanced editing
4.1 Versatile Curves tool explained - black, white point and contrast (7:27)
4.2 White Balance to correct colour cast issues (5:35)
4.3 When and how to create black and white images (9:44)
4.4 Stacks (layers) and Masking - the hidden most powerful Snapseed feature (18:26)
4.5 Double exposure in Snapseed, SuperImpose and Adobe Mix (24:35)
Module four activity - share a black and white image
Module Four PDF download
Module 5. Looks and Styles (Filters)
5.1 Apply and view the steps in a Style/Look (1:54)
5.2 Save your own 'Style / Look and share editing steps via QR Code (5:34)
5.3 Colour grading / colour toning using the colour channels in Curves (7:44)
5.4 HDR Scape filter (4:02)
5.5 Grunge filter and how to create a monochrome effect (2:15)
Module five activity - Create a filter then share the QR code in the comments
Module Five PDF download
Module 6. Editing workflow examples
6.1 My 6-step photo editing process for any image (24:46)
6.2 Nature - waterfall photo editing example (7:51)
6.3 Travel, Holiday - beach photo editing example (10:33)
6.4 Food photo editing example (10:53)
6.5 Group photo editing example (11:42)
Module six activity - share a before and after photo using some of the skills you have learned
Module Six PDF download
Course resources
All the videos can be watched here in the one place! Over 4 hours - most under 10 minutes (247:13)
All the lessons in one printable 176 page PDF - including links to watch the videos
All the video audio downloads to listen to offline on your walk or commute!
What is next?
Send your photo for feedback/critique (normally $50 - free for you)
Provide feedback on the course structure and content
Affiliate Application
Module six activity - share a before and after photo using some of the skills you have learned
Subject content locked
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you'll need to login
Enrol in the course or module to unlock and access


text:
001. SNOW. That's pretty much all everyone from the UK has talked about this week! Snow brings the UK to relative stand still, You think we'd be better prepared as we tend to get it every year though! I did get alot of university work done this week though which was a relief. I'm really starting to fall behind because I've always got different things to get on with, I'm totally gonna be working non stop over the Christmas period though!
002. As you can see from this Twitpic I won a 2 cases of Vitamin Water this week. So happy as I LOVE it so much! My favourite vitamin water is the "yellow one" (spark) and "the orange one" (essential), So was nice to try two I hadn't tried pink & purple! Very nice! Vitamin water is actually one of the only calorie laden drinks I'll have. I refuse to have any drink with more than 50 calories in, Whats the point in drinking your calories away, I'm looking at you regular coke! So good, yet so wrong!
003. I NEED A NEW TV SHOW TO WATCH! Seeing as Glee and Gossip Girl are just about to take their mid season breaks so I'm in dire need of something new to watch online! I spent the other week watching all of the True Blood series, so that is out of the question! I like most types of TV, especially trashy American shows! Any good series worth checking out at the moment?
004. Just wanna say this guys, Don't take things I say too seriously. I'm a joker, half the things I say are sarcastic or just sound stupid! Life is to short to care or get upset/offended by something someone you dont know says on the internet! I hate that I have to address this too, personally I find it SO petty, but I've had far too many comments/emails this week dwelling on a joking, not intended to mean any harm or upset, passing comment related to uggs. And remember just because I don't like something, doesn't mean you cant! I'm not here to tell you how to dress!
005. Five to Follow: Selina, Becky-May, Marianna, Alyse & Shalane.


text:
Browsing Research documents by Title
Previous Page
Now showing items 1173-1192 of 3273Next Page
Petersen, Bent; Welch, Lawrence S. (København, 1999)[More information][Less information]
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6530
Files in this item: 1wp6.pdf (64.04Kb)
Thomsen, Steen; Kronborg, Dorte (København, 2006)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Does foreign ownership enhance or decrease a firm's chances of survival? Over the 100 year period 1895-2001 this paper compares the survival of foreign subsidiaries in Denmark to a control sample matched by industry and firm size. We find that foreign-owned companies have higher survival probability. On average exit risk for domestic companies is 2.3 times higher than for foreign companies. First movers like Siemens, Philips, Kodak, Ford, GM or Goodyear have been active in the country for almost a century. Relative foreign survival increases with company age. However, the foreign survival advantage appears to be eroded by globalization, it decreases over time and disappears at the end of the century. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6624
Files in this item: 1working paper int_steen thomsen.pdf (1.797Mb)
Skabelse af forestillinger i læge- og plejegrupperne angående relevans af nye idéer om kvalitetsudvikling gennem tolkningsprocesserAlbæk, Jens (Frederiksberg, 2009)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The aim of this dissertation is to identify how ideas of organisational development are incorporated into and employed in hospital departments. The dissertation focuses on the conceptions of professional identity among doctors and nurses, their conceptions of clinical practice and the ideas of development they are introduced to. The health professionals' conceptions of development and practice are connected to their perception of 'professional relevance' in the dissertation. This conception of 'professional relevance' thereby forms a recurring expression of conceptions among the actors. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7806
Files in this item: 1jens_albæk.pdf (1.570Mb)
A Literature ReviewBwagalilo, Fadhili; Mwamfupe, Asubisye; Olwig, Mette F. (Frederiksberg, 2019)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Forestry decentralization policies follow an inherent logic that centralized governance of forest resources cannot address the multifaceted nature of forest-related problems. It is through a diverse range of institutions and a combination of multiple partners consisting of state, non-state actors and rural communities, that such problems can be efficiently addressed. Central to decentralization policies is the argument that it envisions a triple win involving improved natural resource governance, improved rural livelihoods and improved biophysical conditions. However, an important and often overlooked consequence of these policies is that they also enable a growing commercialization of forests. In this context, increasing profits are constitutive for the governing logic. Based on a review of the state of knowledge on forestry decentralization and its impacts, and drawing on insights from Tanzania's forestry sector, this literature review discusses the background of decentralization policies in Tanzania and how they have led to a proliferation of community-based forest enterprises with potentially adverse effects on both the sustainability of the forest and local livelihoods. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9720
Files in this item: 1NEPSUS-WP2019 1.pdf (287.8Kb)
Nielsen, Søren Bo; Raimondos-Møller, Pascalis; Schjelderup, Guttorm (København, 2000)[More information][Less information]
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7654
Files in this item: 1wpec182000.pdf (398.5Kb)
Nielsen, Søren Bo; Raimondos-Møller, Pascalis; Schjelderup, Guttorm (Munich, 2001)[More information][Less information]
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7642
Files in this item: 1491.pdf (280.4Kb)
Moralens evindelige genkomstRaffnsøe, Sverre (København, 2001)[More information][Less information]
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9193
Files in this item: 1
Langberg, Kamma; Sørensen, Claus (Aarhus, 2000)[More information][Less information]
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8138
Files in this item: 1x645152535.pdf (323.4Kb)
Lund, Lars (København, 2005)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The paper defines a base model of the airborne passenger traffic to and in Greenland showing the number of passengers on every non-stop connection. The type of airplane is defined for each route, and that determines the flying time. The number of connections and capacity utilization are fixed with due regard to the timetable of Air Greenland and the density of traffic on each route. Assumptions as to the cost per hour as a function of the duration of the flight are made for each aircraft. Applying this to different investment scenarios for airports and landing strips an index for the costs of supply of air traffic is found. Using this index the supplier's cost savings in the scenarios are found as a percentage of the relevant sale. A number of reports from recent years have information about the necessary investments in the scenarios, and matching these with the changes in costs permits the calculation of present values for the different projects. Apart from direct savings there are derived benefits in some of the scenarios the most prominent being the possibility to abandon Kangerlussuaq. The calculations include these indirect effects. Two scenarios have high present values: the use of Keflavik as hub, and the construction of a new airport with a 3000 meter runway south of Nuuk: two rather different scenarios, the first dominated by current savings, and the second dependent on a large fixed investment. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7526
Files in this item: 1wp1-2005.pdf (978.5Kb)
Bjørn-Andersen, Niels; Mørup-Petersen, Anders (København, 2000)[More information][Less information]
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6481
Files in this item: 12000-5.pdf (95.37Kb)
Fire cases om forskningsevaluering og kvalitetssikring i industriel forskning og sektorforskningHansson, Finn (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6416
Files in this item: 1wp15-2003fh.pdf (768.8Kb)
Hansson, Finn; Frederiksen, Frode (København, 2002)[More information][Less information]
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6322
Files in this item: 1wp21-2002fhff.pdf (248.2Kb)
Diagnostisk Afdeling, Glostrup Hospital 2011-2015Nicolaisen, Line; Ry Nielsen, J. C.; Tørnkvist, Annette; Hedegaard Lethmar, Helle; Morsel-Carlsen, Lone; Skovgaard, Niels; Rye Jørgensen, Niklas; Hambak Hovind, Peter (Glostrup, 2015)[More information][Less information]
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9215
Files in this item: 1
Storytelling i ledelse og virksomhedskommunikationNiss, Hanne (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6852
Files in this item: 1nr.203-2003ny.pdf (265.0Kb)
Humle, Didde Maria (Frederiksberg, 2013)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Denne afhandling er en artikelbaseret afhandling bestående af fire artikler og en kappe. Afhandlingen er et narrativt og etnografisk casestudie af, hvordan job- og personalekonsulenter i en specifik konsulentvirksomhed gennem arbejdspraksisfortællinger om selv, arbejde og organisation arbejder med at skabe mening og identitet (individuel, kollektiv og organisatorisk) i forhold til deres daglige arbejde og organisationen. Konsulenternes daglige arbejde er kendetegnet ved at være immaterielt videnarbejde (Alvesson, 2000; Ipsen, 2006), hvor både input (konsulenternes viden og erfaringer) og output (kandidater, kunder og samarbejdspartneres tilfredshed og fremdrift) er af en immateriel karakter. Herunder fremstår det centralt, at en stor del af arbejdet er at etablere og "være i" relationer til kandidater, kunder, virksomheder og samarbejdspartnere, og at konsulenterne er centrum for mange, til tider modsatrettede, krav og forventninger fra kunder, kandidater, kollegaer, ledelse osv. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8778
Files in this item: 1Didde_Maria_Humle.pdf (1.263Mb)
Sammenhængende borgerforløb, innovation og partnerskaber i kommunale ledelsesindsatser på ældreområdetRyberg, Marie (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Antallet af ældre borgere og borgere med komplekse og kroniske sygdomme stiger i disse år, og kommunernes opgaver på ældreområdet er vokset og blevet mere specialiseret. Denne specialisering hænger dels sammen med den opgaveglidning, der sker i disse år fra sygehusene til kommunerne, eksempelvis fordi patienter udskrives tidligere fra hospitalerne. Desuden hænger specialiseringen sammen med en generel specialisering på sundhedsområdet, eksempelvis med fokuseringen på evidensbaserede indsatser. Endelig hænger specialiseringen sammen med bestræbelserne på at modernisere de styringsmæssige strukturer omkring ældreområdet. Disse moderniseringsbestræbelser tog for alvor fat i slutningen af 1990'erne ud fra idéer, der kan betegnes New Public Management. Her introducerede man fritvalgs-‐ordningerne, herunder BUM og lagde op til en standardisering af ydelserne gennem Fælles Sprog. Introduktionen af fritvalgs-‐ordningerne har flere steder betydet, at eksempelvis opgaver -‐ som eksempelvis rengøring i hjemmeplejen – er blevet fordelt ud til forskellige specialiserede aktører. Den øgede specialisering betyder, at ældreområdet i visse sammenhænge kan bære præg af en silostruktur. Her kan forskellige enheder, specialer, traditioner og sprog være konflikt med hinanden og opgaverne løses ikke altid mest optimalt. Denne rapport er et led i projekt, der handler om tværgående ledelse på ældreområdet. Projektet har fokus på ledere af medarbejdere med borgerkontakt i hjemmeplejen og pleje/omsorg. Og projektet sigter på "at udvikle velfærdsledelse, der sætter kerneopgaven i centrum og nedbryder formelle og uformelle grænser i opgaveløsningen" URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8874
Files in this item: 1Ryberg_2012.pdf (312.2Kb)
Security sector reform in Sierra LeoneAlbrecht, Peter Alexander (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The thesis argues that security sector reform (SSR) has failed according to its own ambition of establishing a 'centrally governed state'. A primary reason for this failure is found in the concept of authority that state-building projects and much of the academic work that underpins it. Since the late 1990s, internationally supported efforts to make and consolidate peace in Sierra Leone have been synonymous with SSR. Support was given by the United Kingdom (UK) in particular to contain and ultimately overhaul the armed forces, which staged two coups in 1992 and 1997. Support was also provided to the central government to institute national security coordination and intelligence organizations, and to reestablish the Sierra Leone Police (SLP). The collapsed, but internationally recognized state was to be rebuilt, and security was seen as not only a prerequisite for this process to begin, but its very foundation. The first question of the thesis revolves around why the western universalist state concept came to guide SSR in Sierra Leone, and why it was considered of such fundamental importance to stability internationally. The second question revolves around how to conceptualize authority when actors such as paramount and lesser chiefs that may neither be categorized as state nor non-state are the primary makers of order in rural areas of the country. Speaking of the weakness or failure of a state is a way of describing what it is not, namely a centrally governed set of institutions that is able to make order within the territorial space that defines it. A focus on the state as an analytical concept does not, however, tell us much about how order is then made, and by whom it is made in Sierra Leone. The thesis rethinks what authority is in a way that does not privilege 'the state' as an analytical category, a tendency that has dominated much policy and academic thinking. The thesis' empirical basis of doing so is data relating to international policy-making processes, interviews among the key actors of Sierra Leone's SSR process, and ethnographic fieldwork in Peyima, a small diamond mining town in Kamara Chiefdom, Kono District. In a view of authority tied to 'the state' lies the conceptualization of a political entity, a bordered power container, which stands above, is detached from, and at the same time encompasses, controls and regulates society. In UK support of Sierra Leone's statebuilding efforts, the practices of traditional leaders and their productive effects in the justice and security field, and enforcing order, were acknowledged. However, failure to respond adequately to their central role in governing Sierra Leone's countryside came in two ways, both of which are related to concepts of the western universalist state that continue to guide SSR. The first failure was embedded in misrecognizing the resilience and productivity of local actors and institutions, and their authority to appropriate, interpret, translate and above all shape the elements of what was offered through SSR. The second failure came in not recognizing the hybrid nature of all actors in the justice and security field, based on the fact that they draw authority to act within the field from numerous sources across physical and symbolic space, in local and national domains. Hybridity is integral to state formation in Sierra Leone. It is foundational, and is historically grounded in the colonial era, articulating an infinite mixture of various forms of authority (from state legislation to status of autochthony and secret society membership). Inevitably, this order was reproduced by SSR, even if the aim of the international actors who supported this process of change had been to eradicate it. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8549
Files in this item: 1Peter_Alexander_Albrecht.pdf (8.787Mb)
do companies need owners?Thomsen, Steen; Rose, Caspar (København, 2002)[More information][Less information]
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7198
Files in this item: 1thomsen_rose.pdf (94.29Kb)
Introducing Seven New Product Project Types for the Study of Innovation ManagementRosenø, Axel (København, 2005)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Product innovativeness is a key moderating variable for the study of innovation management (Song & Montoya-Weiss 1998, p. 124). For this reason, some empirical studies of innovation management examine new product processes, critical success factors, and market learning practices for incremental versus discontinuous new product projects (Song & Montoya-Weiss 1998; Atuahene-Gima 1995; Veryzer 1998a; Lynn et al. 1996; O'Connor 1998; Rice et al. 1998). By looking at both these types of new product development projects, empirical observations are likely to be more realistic than those of studies that do not discriminate between more or less innovative projects. Even so, a dualistic view of the matter does not capture the nuances (Green et al. 1995)1 of the relationship between product innovativeness and innovation management practices. Hence, there is a need for richer innovativeness typologies that go beyond the dichotomous view and, thereby, lend themselves to a more finegrained study of innovation management practices for different types of new product projects. In fact, various innovativeness typologies exist that include more than two product types. Notably, the typology by Booz, Allen & Hamilton (1982)2 introduces two dimensions: newness to the market and newness to the company, resulting in six products types (with various combinations of high, medium and low newness). An alternative set of typologies differentiates between the product's technological newness and its market newness, for example Abernathy & Clark's (1985) typology with four new product types; Leonard-Barton's (1995) five product types; and Veryzer's (1998a) four types in a two-by-two matrix. Interestingly, these two meta-perspectives on product innovativeness (i.e. 1. new to the market and/or new to the company and 2. technological and/or market newness) are generally not included within the same typology in extant literature. For example, discussions of the technological and/or market newness of a product, often leave out the question of whether that newness is in the eyes of the industry and market (exogenous newness) or only for the focal firm itself (endogenous newness). More broadly, it can be stated that "... little continuity exists in the new product literature regarding from whose perspective this degree of newness is viewed and what is new" (Garcia & Calantone 2002, p. 112). URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6441
Files in this item: 101-2005.pdf (2.685Mb)
Moreira, Solon (Frederiksberg, 2014)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Licensing contracts represent one of the most widely used mechanisms to exchange technologies and transfer know-how between firms. Due to the opportunities that licensing creates for firms operating on both sides of the markets for technology, it has increasingly become an integral part of firms' R&D strategies. On the supply side, the existing literature has been focused on understanding how technology licensing can be used by firms as a mechanism to recover investments in innovative activities and to foster learning opportunities. On the demand side, it has been shown that licensing is an important source that firms can tap into to feed their internal needs for innovative knowledge. While several studies have examined technology licensing through the lens of the licensor, research on how firms rely on licensing contracts to acquire knowledge and improve their innovation performance still leaves much to be investigated. Furthermore, with few exceptions, neither organizational nor contractual characteristics related to the licensing deals have received enough attention as determinants of the capacity of the acquiring firm to benefit from licensing in a new technology. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the relationship between technology licensing and firm innovation, also examining how the characteristics of the acquiring firm and the use of specific contractual clauses affect this main relationship. The papers in this dissertation build on a different set of theoretical perspectives connected to the licensing literature. The dissertation consists of a general introduction, four papers, and a conclusion. Although all the papers build on the same main dataset related to licensing contracts in the global pharmaceutical industry, supplementary information from different data sources was connected to the licensing contracts to answer the specific research questions. Indeed, each paper, from a different perspective, contemplates and contributes to the existing literature by examining the relationship between technology licensing and specific dimensions of firm innovation. Understanding how licensing deals affect the performance of licensees and licensors is critical to understanding how markets for technology function. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8868
Files in this item: 1Solon_Thesis.pdf (1.181Mb)
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text:
Place of many passions
Germany's Black Forest is drawing more visitors than ever before. Some go for the mystique, others for the cuckoo clocks and cake. We tour Germany's most German region to see what's really there.
You hear them before you see them. An eager babble swells the silence. Then, out of the morning mist, the first shapes appear dressed in beige outdoor jackets and green Mayser fishing hats, neatly creased pants and Gore-Tex: a group of Chinese, Korean and Singaporean tourists on their 10-day Loving Europe tour. Today's program: Germany. Titisee, a town on a lake in the Black Forest, no more, no less. A single day to convey the essence of all that is German. But what is that, exactly?
Ten kilometers to the southwest, Achim Laber climbs into his old Audi 80. Driving along a mountain track cut into the Feldberg, he laughs out loud. Laber laughs a lot. He's a forest ranger who loves his work. Silver firs line his path here in the oldest and largest nature reserve in the state of Baden-Württemberg, where the yellow gentian is protected, the Alpine mountain locust has survived, and the lynx have returned. You could say that the Black Forest is one with itself on the Feldberg, as is Laber, who's been a ranger here for a good 25 years. "The Black Forest fills me, breathes in me, is in me," he says. In case that sounded weird, he adds, "I hear that from the hikers who come here, too. We're seeing an amazing return to the forest in Germany."
Laber is right. For the past two years, forester and author Peter Wohlleben has been whispering his way through the book charts with his tree and animal primers, while magazines such as Wald and Landlust have been celebrating the escape to the countryside and into nature. The Germans and their forests – it's a special relationship. The ancient Teutons worshipped the forest as the home of their gods. Hermann the Cheruscan defeated the Roman legions in the forest. To the Germans, it's the ultimate place of magic and mystery. The forest is the world of Grimms' fairy tales. It's a romantic refuge. On the German export charts, the forest is topped only by beer, punctuality and lederhosen. The poets Eichendorff, Goethe and Rilke waxed lyrical over it. And Germany is arguably the only country where a nature conservancy party could become as big as the Grüne has. Maybe there is nothing more German than the German forest, and perhaps the Black Forest is the most German of them all. It's a wonderful place for testing clichés because it's where two different longings come together: that of the Germans for the forest, and that of foreigners for Germanness. A trip to the Black Forest is effectively anthropology live.
Our narrative proceeds to Freiburg, to a boutique in the Wiehre district where Kim Schimpfle makes traditional costumes. What? you mutter to yourself, no one wears them anymore, except at the Munich Oktoberfest! But you would be quite wrong. "First of all, we're in the Black Forest and not in Bavaria," says Schimpfle, "and second, we have many occasions to wear traditional dress, like birthdays, parties and work events." The self-taught designer tailors her own brand of traditional haute couture, including figure-hugging styles and colorful skirts featuring digital prints – of postcard motifs from 1900. "It's easy to lose our identity in the online world, so people are using heimat as an anchor again," she explains. (The German concept of heimat encompasses a sense of tradition, wholesome, old-fashioned values and belonging.)
Heimat is a tricky buzzword, a minefield, in fact, ever since nationalist parties have been gathering force in Europe. Is it possible for a harmless sense of "homeland" to exist? Are people in the Black Forest actually ahead of the rest of Germany because much of what is considered typically German has always been found right here? In Schimpfle's opinion, heimat can be totally positive if you give it a modern twist. One of the garments she has just completed bears the German for "Black Forest, my home! How wonderful you are!"
The Asians are now crossing the lake on a tourist steamer. "Beautiful! Beautiful!" Their cries of delight echo across the water. They take pictures of everything: the forest, the lake, the reporter, and themselves with the reporter and the forest and the lake in the background. No one pays any attention to the guide's patter booming from the loudspeakers, but the moment a woman in traditional dress steps out of a cabin on the southern bank and waves, a Chinese woman shouts: "So fantastic! This is my Deutschland!" She opens her arms wide and twirls around as if in a trance.
Year after year, the Black Forest reports record visitor numbers – and not just because of the Asian tourists who pick up their fix of Germany here. Arabs, Israelis and Americans also flock to the region. In 2015, the guests numbered 7.95 million, more than ever before. Nearly 30 percent were from abroad, and that trend is rising. New records are broken every year. The Black Forest has no dearth of attractions, of course. Baiersbronn has restaurants boasting a total of eight Michelin stars. Baden-Baden is an appealing spa city with casinos. The region has mighty waterfalls and tiny villages. The climate here is wonderfully mild even in the fall, the air is clear, and visibility excellent. But that's not all. There's also something that's hard to put a finger on, but the Brits you meet in Freiburg will tell you in hushed tones that it's "the mystique of the Black Forest."
Stefan Strumbel, an artist, attempts to shed light on that mystique. His pop-art crucifixes and giant, neon-colored cuckoo clocks have catapulted him to fame, and his work has featured in Shanghai, London and New York. Strumbel helped to boost this region's international popularity. Like few other artists, he has dissected, deconstructed and consolidated the heimat theme, almost to the point of producing kitsch. Strumbel's studio is in Offenburg, at the heart of the Black Forest. But on a sleety afternoon, he can be found in Grafenhausen, where you will find his latest work outside the Rothaus brewery: two 15-meter-tall, rust-red pine cones weighing six tons each. Strumbel, youthful-looking, a big talker in a herringbone-tweed flat cap and with tattoos on both arms, looks up and says: "I'll never be done with my heimat, no way. It's absolutely me. I love the Black Forest."
No-one was talking about heimat fifteen years ago when Strumbel started out. He dug up the concept and approached it with irony, color and verve. "Today, heimat is trending and you have to be careful not to upset the trend, to make sure it doesn't become an empty feeling. As long as it stands for reflection on traditional values and a sense of belonging, that's fine, but it shouldn't stand for withdrawal or detachment from the world." That's a good, smart statement from Strumbel, and one that also pretty well describes the Black Forest, which walks a fine line between tradition and modernity. The corresponding questions are: "What is real, what is backdrop? A cliché is a cliché, but wasn't it something very different long ago? Doesn't every cliché have a grain of truth at its core?
Strumbel is expanding his studio in Offenburg. He once tried living and working in Berlin, but couldn't cope with the parties, the distractions, the capital-city vibe. So he went home to the Black Forest. Strumbel can only turn heimat into art if he makes art in his heimat. The rain drips off the giant pine cones. They will be here forever.
Forester Laber has meanwhile reached the summit of the Feldberg. At 1493 meters above sea level, the view is incredible, with the Alps shimmering to the south and the Vosges mountains glimmering to the west. The sun sinks below the horizon and bathes the slopes in a prism of colors: red, yellow, brown and finally, oil-black. Laber peers through his binoculars and says, "Crazy, isn't it?" Not long ago, someone asked him to run a refugee center in the valley. A good organizer who gets along well with people, Laber agreed, but with some reservations, since it meant neglecting his forestry duties. The weeks turned into months. Returning to his post, Laber was afraid that in his absence, something might have happened to the countryside, but it was as beautiful as ever. That set him thinking. He realized that he needed the forest more than it needed him.
The German forest is primordial, magical and irresistible as German beer
There's no escaping the cuckoo clocks in the Black Forest. The Asians stand facing a wall of them in a basement workshop in Titisee while a staff member explains the pendulum mechanism and organ pipes, and states each model's price to ooohs and aaahs. Some of the housings cost more than a small car. There's a certain charm to the idea of those heavy German clocks hanging in thousands of Chinese homes, their cuckoo-cuckoo interrupting the tea ceremony. "Is there any particular feature you are looking for?" the presenter asks. A Taiwanese man says he would like to see a peasant raising a glass of wheat beer on the hour. "Do you have one like that?" Laughter ensues. In the afternoon, the Asians depart by coach. That's Germany done and dusted, now it's on to the Netherlands. In addition to cuckoo clocks, they've bought Thermos flasks, knife sets and stainless steel pans. All "Made in Germany."


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What we need is another Harding. Seriously
The presidential campaign was heating up, and the progressives in office were nervous about their chances of holding the White House. It was unclear at first which contender for the Republican nomination would get the nod, but when the candidate eventually was chosen they denounced him as "a confirmed and hopeless reactionary."
The year was 1920, and they were talking about Warren G. Harding. The editor of the New Republic foresaw dark days: Though no fan of the Democratic candidate (James Cox), Herbert Croly expected Harding's Republicans to concede nothing to the progressives. The United States, he wrote shortly before the election, was about to enter eight years of "reaction, prolonged and untempered."
And indeed, Warren G. Harding has come to be thought of as one of the worst presidents America has ever had. Yet the truth about his presidency is quite the opposite. He achieved a good deal more in the two and a half years he served before his sudden death than many presidents accomplish in a full term. A popular newspaper publisher and senator from Ohio, Harding won the presidency in a landslide, with 60 percent of the popular vote, the highest share ever recorded up until that time. The handsome, warm, gregarious, and modest Harding was a natural politician, known in the Senate for his ability to bring opposing sides together. He was as different from his predecessor--the by-then unpopular Woodrow Wilson, perceived by many as a rigid, unapproachable ideologue--as one could possibly be.
The outlook was certainly bleak for America when Harding took office in 1921. The country's entry into World War I in 1917 had resulted in an economic bubble. Wartime demand kept employment, wages, and profits high, while the Federal Reserve inflated the money supply. Under Wilson, not only the Army and Navy but the entire federal government grew at a fast clip, and the national debt skyrocketed, from around $1 billion in 1914 to $24 billion in 1920.
When the war ended in November 1918, Wilson's lack of planning for demobilization meant that four million soldiers were sent home under chaotic conditions with little money and few benefits. Demand fell, bringing bankruptcies, business closures, and rising unemployment. During the depression of 1920 to 1921, industries cut back production, many of them running half-time. The drastic drop in wholesale prices hit farmers hardest, causing the price of farmland to collapse. When African-American soldiers returned home after fighting abroad for democracy and couldn't find jobs, they felt they were once again being relegated to second-class status. The result was race riots throughout the Midwest's industrial belt.
A return to "normalcy"
Harding promised to heal the nation and return it to prosperity--to "normalcy," as he called it. He would turn things around by lowering taxes from their wartime highs, reducing the debt, balancing the budget, and making the government smaller and more efficient. Taxes, he thought, had become so high they were counterproductive, preventing the revival of business. Harding had campaigned on this platform, and once in office he faithfully carried it out.
To Harding, America was an exceptional country whose citizens enjoyed equal opportunities to develop their abilities, and whose success ultimately depended on a dynamic free market. At no time did these principles stand in such stark relief as in 1920, three years after the Bolshevik Revolution. During the campaign, Harding delivered his message to over 600,000 people who traveled to Marion, Ohio, to hear him speak from his front porch. Some of them were African Americans, a majority of whom supported the Republicans, the party of Lincoln. He told them:
Abroad, particularly in Russia, there has grown up the idea that by some impossible magic a government can give out a bounty by the mere fact of having liberty and equality written over its door, and that citizenship need make no deposit in the bank of the common weal in order to write checks upon the bank. Here at home we have had too much encouragement given to the idea that a government is a something for nothing institution. . . . It is only in a country where the merit, capacity and worth of men and women are recognized and rewarded that merit, capacity and worth are developed.
You and I, and good Americans of whatever color, blood or creed, know that the aspiration of all men is equal opportunity, and that no injustice known to man can be greater than that of the tyranny and autocracy that . . . enslaves all men and all their ambitions and all their freedom.
Harding was inaugurated on March 4, 1921, and he immediately tackled the crisis. He called for a special joint session of Congress, to take place before the legislators were officially scheduled to convene. At the session, Harding laid out his agenda and priorities. His ambitious program included: tax reform, continued tariff protection, legislation to help farmers, creation of a national budget system to help get government spending under control, construction of a great merchant marine, a system of national highways for interstate commerce and the "motor car" (financed with local and state bond issues), encouragement of aviation technology for civilian and military purposes, increased federal participation in international cable and radio transmissions, a Veterans' Bureau, and a Department of Public Welfare to help women and children.
Harding also called for a federal antilynching law, to "rid the stain of barbaric lynching from the banner of a free and orderly representative democracy." And he proposed creation of an interracial commission to promote better relations between the races. Woodrow Wilson had introduced segregation into the federal government; Harding urged his cabinet to appoint qualified blacks to their departments, and in speeches he attacked the Ku Klux Klan. The legislation he championed, however, came to naught. When the Republican majority in the Senate was ready to pass the antilynching law Harding favored (the Dyer Bill), Southern Democrats killed it with a filibuster. The proposal for an interracial commission died in committee.
But at the top of the president's list was setting the country's economic house in order. During the war, he told his former colleagues, "our expenditures were so little questioned, the emergency was so impelling, appropriation was so unimpeded that we little noted millions and counted the Treasury inexhaustible. . . . A continuation of such a course means inevitable disaster." A way must be found, he continued, "to restrict our national expenditures within the limits of our national income, and at the same time . . . lift the burdens of war taxation from the shoulders of the American people."
To help achieve his goals, Harding was determined to put together a stellar cabinet, and for the most part he did. To instill confidence in the business community he chose Andrew Mellon as secretary of the Treasury. He picked Herbert Hoover to be his secretary of commerce. He admired Hoover's work as head of the American Relief Committee during the war and believed he could help the country gain access to new world markets. Charles Evans Hughes, former governor of New York, was tapped to be secretary of state and Henry C. Wallace secretary of agriculture.
Harding had originally wanted Charles G. Dawes to be his Treasury secretary. Dawes, a banker and successful businessman, had served as President McKinley's comptroller of the Treasury and had a reputation for efficiency and for getting results. Harding had been intrigued by a magazine article Dawes had written entitled "How a Presi-dent Can Save a Billion Dollars." After the election, he asked Dawes to come to Marion and offered him his first cabinet appointment, secretary of the Treasury. But Dawes rejected the offer. If Harding was truly interested in balancing the budget and reducing the debt, he told him, the secretary of the Treasury was not the man to do it. It would have to be done through legislation providing for an executive budget. If such an act were passed, then Dawes wanted to head the Budget Bureau.
There was general agreement in Washington that the federal budget process was a mess. For over a hundred years each department had submitted its own budget with little coordination or control. Wilson had tried to get a bill passed dealing with the budget process, but had failed. Now Harding stepped up. The Budget and Accounting Act passed on June 10. It placed the new Budget Bureau--predecessor to today's Office of Management and Budget--in the Department of the Treasury, but made it accountable to the president. Harding appointed Dawes its director. Dawes agreed to take the job on two conditions: that he would have the president's complete support and that he would serve for only one year, allowing him to set up effective operating procedures so that the bureau could carry on without him.
On June 24 a meeting was held in the auditorium of the Interior Department attended by the president, Vice President Calvin Coolidge, the cabinet, and 1,200 bureau and division chiefs. Harding began by telling his audience, "There is not a menace in the world today like that of growing public indebtedness and mounting public expenditure." It was imperative that this trend be reversed. Dawes then explained that the purpose of the new bureau was to help all present get rid of the "fat" in their budget requests, and to reduce unnecessary expenditures. The bureau was to be nonpartisan and existed only to gather information and inform the president. He then asked those in the audience on whom he could count to please stand up. Everyone stood.
Dawes was not in a good mood at the next meeting. While he was receiving cooperation in his campaign for economy from many quarters, it was being sabotaged in others. To make his point he held up two brooms: one an Army broom made to Army specifications, the other a Navy broom made to Navy specifications. The Army had 350,000 surplus brooms, and the Navy needed 18,000. But the Navy rejected the suggestion that they take the Army's excess brooms because those were wrapped with twine instead of wire. In the end, the Army sold their surplus brooms at low prices to speculators who turned around and sold them at a hefty profit, and the Navy went out and bought new brooms at top prices. If such a thing had occurred in a private business, Dawes said, the person responsible would have been immediately fired.
By the time Dawes's year was up in June 1922, the federal budget had been balanced, revenues exceeded expenditures, and the public debt had been reduced. Dawes had exceeded his promise to help the president save a billion dollars: Federal spending had dropped from $6.3 billion in 1920 to
$5 billion in 1921 and then $3.3 billion in 1922. When Dawes left, he took two brooms home with him as mementoes.
While Harding had presented Congress with the nation's first coordinated federal budget, he had also approved passage of the Revenue Act of 1921, which eliminated the World War I excess-profits tax, settled on a corporate tax rate of 12.5 percent, brought the top marginal income tax rate down from 73 percent to 58 percent, decreased surtaxes on incomes above $5,000, and provided increased exemptions for families.
Harding was consistent in his dedication to fiscal responsibility, even when he knew it would be unpopular and go against his own instincts. Such was the case with the bonus voted by Congress for World War I veterans. Harding's pledge to cut taxes conflicted with the desire of Congress and the public to grant the veterans a generous bonus, paid for with deficit spending. Harding felt so strongly about the issue he appeared before a special joint session of Congress to make his case. While he sympathized with the impulse to grant the bonus, the country needed tax relief to get back on its feet and could not afford to do both. If Congress wanted the bonus, it would have to find the revenues to pay for it.
Congress was shocked that the president would oppose the bonus, and many Republicans were furious with him, since they would shortly face an election. But Harding vetoed the bill, as he had said he would, writing that while the nation owed much gratitude to those who had served, the burden of high taxes affected every American citizen. "To add one-sixth of the total sum of our public debt for a distribution among less than 5,000,000 out of 110,000,000, whether inspired by grateful sentiment or political expediency, would undermine the confidence on which our credit is [built] and establish the precedent of distributing public funds whenever the proposal and numbers affected make it seem politically appealing to do so."
Prosperity restored
Harding died of a heart attack on August 2, 1923, having fulfilled his goal of restoring prosperity. The night of his death, his wife Florence had been reading an article to him from the Saturday Evening Post entitled "A Calm Review of a Calm Man" by Samuel G. Blythe. "There is nothing so political as the Presidency," Blythe observed, "and the better a politician a President is the better President he will be." Blythe reminded his readers that things had been in a bad way when Harding came into office, but now America was "the only legitimately prosperous country in the world." Prosperity, he continued, "extends from coast to coast, from the Canadian border to Mexico. Labor is universally employed at high wages. Money is plentiful. All lines of business are flourishing. And there is no other country in the world of which this can be said."
Blythe's account was accurate. Harding's policies, put into practice by men like Charles G. Dawes, succeeded in turning the country around. This was not easy with a fractious Republican party at odds over regional and economic issues. Nevertheless, Harding cut income tax rates for Americans at every income level. According to economist Benjamin Anderson, employment and businesses rallied as a result of "a drastic cleaning up of credit weakness, a drastic reduction in the costs of production, and on the free play of private enterprise."
It had been Harding's hope that inequality of income would decrease as foreign markets expanded, creating more economic opportunities; he worked hard with Herbert Hoover and Charles Evans Hughes to achieve this. Harding also modified his position on the tariff, coming to favor a degree of flexibility. He entered the White House having won an overwhelming mandate. He succeeded in healing a divided country by combining fiscal conservatism with some socially progressive attitudes. His efforts to end lynching and his belief in racial equality showed him to be more enlightened than many of his countrymen. They entitle him to be regarded as one of the first modern civil-rights presidents.
The policies of Harding and his successor Calvin Coolidge were undone in the 1930s, when President Hoover adopted the statist measures that laid the foundations for what would become the New Deal. With the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt, a new kind of welfare state was created, and progressivism began once again to flourish. Surveying the situation in 1940 after the economy's downturn and what people were beginning to call a new Roosevelt depression, Dawes penned a warning:
Some day, a President, if he is to save the country from bankruptcy and its people from ruin, must make the old fight over again, and this time the battle will be waged against desperate disadvantages. Against him will be arrayed the largest, strongest, and most formidably entrenched army of interested government spenders, wasters, and patronage-dispensing politicians the world has yet known.
Dawes was prescient. As the old fight is once again being waged, we can only hope that the president Americans elect in 2012 will be as much of a "reactionary" as Warren G. Harding--and as much of a success.
Ronald Radosh is an adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute and a writer for Pajamas Media. Allis Radosh is a historian. They are coauthors of A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel and are writing a book on the presidency of Warren G. Harding. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.


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Distinct Populations of Gray Wolves Found Living Side by Side in Canada
A team based at the University of Victoria recently reported the results of a study in an area of British Columbia known as Bella Bella. The area includes a mainland land mass separated by water from five nearby islands. There … Continue reading
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An article co-written by mathematician Dr. Tim Pennings of the Hope College faculty concerning the way that his Welsh Corgi Elvis demonstrates mathematical principles is receiving national recognition from the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) for its effectiveness in teaching about calculus.
The MAA is presenting Pennings and his co-author Dr. Roland Minton of Roanoke College with its George Polya Award for their article "Do Dogs Know Bifurcations?" They will receive the recognition during the association's annual summer meeting, MathFest, being held in Madison, Wis., on Thursday-Saturday, July 31-Aug. 2.
Pennings, who is a professor of mathematics at Hope, and Elvis have also been invited to present the paper during the meeting, which is geared toward mathematicians, professors, undergraduate students, graduate students, high school teachers and others who enjoy mathematics.
The George Polya Award is given for articles of expository excellence published in the "College Mathematics Journal," and includes a prize of up to $500. Published in the journal's November 2007 edition, the article by Pennings and Minton, who is author of a popular calculus textbook, considers how Elvis responds in retrieving a ball when he is in the water and the ball is thrown into the water down shore. The citation that the MAA has prepared in conjunction with the award praises the article for its accessible presentation of calculus principles.
"This paper gives an engaging presentation of a nice optimization problem that calculus students can easily visualize and understand," the citation notes. "It presents some lovely intuitive arguments that confirm the mathematical conclusions and a limiting case of the problem that gives rise to a pictorial proof of the arithmetic mean-geometric mean inequality."
Pennings appreciates that the award is named in honor of Dr. George Polya (1887-1985), who he noted is renowned among mathematicians for thinking about the creative discovery process and trying to help students learn how to do mathematics.
"I am grateful and honored to receive an award bearing the name of George Polya. Professor Polya spent his career not only doing mathematics, but also thinking about how we do mathematics," he said. "Thus, there is a pleasant irony in the fact that Elvis shows that even dogs have instinctive creativity and problem-solving skills."
The article examines the options available to Elvis in retrieving the ball in the water and how their effectiveness can be analyzed mathematically.
One possibility would be to swim directly for the ball. Another possibility would be to swim to shore, run along the shoreline to get closer to the ball and then to swim out to it. Which route is optimal - defined as the fastest - depends on a variety of factors, including the distance from shore and the distance to the ball. The point at which one strategy or the other should be employed is called the bifurcation point, and can be calculated. The calculations, Minton and Pennings, reflect choices that Elvis makes instinctively.
Pennings specializes in mathematical modeling, the way in which mathematics describes natural phenomena, and has been sharing his experiences with Elvis as a living example for several years. His original explorations focused on how Elvis responded when standing at the shoreline when a ball was thrown diagonally into the water, determining the optimal combination of running some of the distance along the beach and then swimming on an angle to reach the ball.
They have shared their experience with a variety of audiences as an accessible way of highlighting serious mathematical concepts, including by speaking at area schools. They have been featured by multiple news organizations and in professional publications, including the BBC and as the cover story of the May 2003 issue of "The College Mathematics Journal." In April 2007 Pennings discussed his work with Elvis and the topic at a National Science Foundation-funded conference at DukeUniversity, and in November of this past year he and Elvis were featured keynote speakers during the annual "Research by Undergraduates in Mathematics Boston University Symposium."
Founded in 1915, the MAA is a forum for educators, students, professionals, and mathematics enthusiasts to share ideas, keep abreast of developments in the mathematical community, enhance their careers and make new friends. The organization's membership includes more than 25,000 individuals and institutions nationally.


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Aug 23, 2012 5:31 AM GMT
Michael D. Higgins (who was elected president of Ireland last year) is fed up with over-the-top Tea Party rhetoric, and he isn't afraid to show it. Listen to him call out radio host Michael Graham on everything from health care to foreign policy. Trust me, you don't want to miss this one.


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Thursday, August 18, 2005
Take a stand...
2 cups java (with cinnamon), 2 Sudafed, 1 Claritin and 2 Excedrin…
The Today Show was boring beyond belief. My ass clicked over to CNN after Katie launched into a story about teens dying after playing some sort of choking game. A bitch knows that childhood is difficult, but my ass never considered choking a fun activity. Well, that's not entirely true. A teen bitch did fantasize about choking several of my classmates, but my ass suspects that this game isn't about revenge.
CNN was in their over the top Breaking News mode because of the Israeli withdrawal of settlers in Gaza. A bitch hopes that the withdrawal of the settlers and the Israeli troops that protect them will bring some peace to that region. Watching people being torn from their homes is heartbreaking and should be a motivator to both governments involved to not fuck this shit up!
It took my ass 15 minutes to decide that CNN was going to milk the footage of settlers being dragged out of their homes for hours. Sadistic fucks. While watching TiVoed episodes of The Daily Show my thoughts turned to politics and the challenges that face Americans in the next two years. As much as a bitch loves to blast the political right, we bitches on the left have some work to do. Since nothing pisses this bitch off more than a bunch of conservatives shouting about what liberals think, my ass would like to put my thoughts out into the atmosphere…
ABB's Liberaltudes...a work in progress
Stop being such complete shits…yeah, my ass means you! Fact – it costs more to treat catastrophic illnesses than to prevent them. Fact – mass illness is a huge threat to our country. Fact – we can afford it…let me repeat, WE CAN AFFORD IT! Everyone take a potty break and come back to the table and work it out. Lock the motherfucking doors and do not take any phone calls from the pharmaceutical industry or insurance. Create the plan that delivers healthcare to everyone and then make it happen. Set the goal and then achieve it. Fuckers.
Social Security
Accept the fact that Social Security was a brilliant idea. Catch your knee before it jerks and listen. When Social Security was created this nation was in a world of shit. Not to get into the particulars, but it was fucking brutal. Because the Great Depression was a national disaster and a threat to our democratic form of government the nation responded. Social Security is a good thing, but it is a wee bit ill. If Social Security were a horse it would have a strained knee. Scooter believes that we should put the horse down. This bitch believes that we spent some cash and energy on that fucking horse, that the horse is still a good horse and that we might want to treat the fucking sprain! To my fellow liberals…stop bitching about what Scooter has proposed, prepare a fucking proposal to fix the fucking sprain and take some motherfucking time to explain to people why the horse doesn't need to die. Fucking do it!
The War
A bitch wishes my ass could just say end it, but we took a shit in the room and we need to either pick it up or make sure it gets picked up. First, we need to redefine our foreign policy. Be consistent, assholes! If we're going to withdrawal aide to one country for its human rights abuses then we need to stop abusing human rights! And stop being friends with countries that openly do what you invaded Iraq for doing! It's confusing and fucking hypocritical…and no one respects a fucking hypocrite! Next, we need to develop a uniform definition of success in Iraq and it cannot be the defeat of terrorism. What are we trying to achieve, how long will it take and why are we doing it…1, 2 and motherfucking 3! Then, follow through on 1, 2, and motherfucking 3. We have destabilized the region and we need to fucking resolve some shit, but the constant changing of our purpose reeks of Vietnam and we are about to hit the fucking draft wall fast and hard. Finally, learn from this fucking mistake…once more time with feeling, LEARN FROM THIS FUCKING MISTAKE!
Public education needs to be uniform and fucking financed in a uniform way. Just do it! Fucking do it! This is tied into Social Security, assholes. A bitch has met several generation Y motherfuckers and they are disturbingly stupid. How the fuck are these idiots going to pay for my retirement? Education is not rocket science, for the love of all that's holy! Tell the religious right to get serious about private school and fucking take it back to basics. Instead of debating "intelligent design" lets have a debate on why children can't fucking spell "intelligent"! Fix it, remove the religious shit and tell the fucking zealots to take care of that shit at home and start educating these chil'ren so my black ass can retire!
The Environment
Stop fucking with it! Stop making compromises on no compromise shit! Stop apologizing for science! And fucking cease debating fucking facts! Get firm, get decisive and get moving. This black bitch wants to have drinking water in 15 years! Assholes!
Fuck! A bitch isn't standing around praying that women get abortions. This bitch is praying that they get access to sexual education and fucking birth control! Who the fuck do these conservatives think they are? We need to educate women on their rights and on their options. We need to work with young women to build up self-esteem and respect while working with young men on the exact same shit. And we need to study some fucking history and remember America without choice. Stop listening to chants and looking at vile pictures. Turn to those clinic protestors and tell them that there is a shelter for homeless moms just waiting for their ass to volunteer. Tell them that mentor programs have a motherfucking waiting list for volunteers. Tell them that there are homes to build at Habitat for Humanity. Pro-Life? Then show it. Nuff said.
Equal Rights
We are liberals! Take a motherfucking stand on some shit! Tell newcomers that if they do not support equality for all then they need to take a right at the motherfucking light! Stop pandering to the undecided. How the fuck are they so unsure anyway? Be something, believe something and have no fear. Equal pay for equal work, equal access and protection for marriage rights, equal protection for employment…these are basics, baby! Look those freaks in the eye and tell them "My ass does not fear gay marriage and you're a fucking freak for fearing it your damned self"! Look them in the eye and tell them "My ass doesn't fear an empowered woman and you're a fucking freak for fearing one"!
Stand up motherfuckers, because the battle has already begun and there are hearts and minds to be won…
17 comments:
- equeyaya said...
Lovely to see you as always. And thanks for the link. :)
- Maven said...
The choking game is only one half of the fetish "auto-erotic asphyxiation. That's basically what some folks end up dying from.... they choke themselves to heighten their climax. Sick sick sick stuff what kids today consider a GAME. And wtf? One girl was found hanging from a bicycle chain?? Goodness! That could not have been pleasant!
- monkey said...
take a stand was aptly titled, since too many lazy assholes have been sitting for far too long.
in regards to the comments section, again a huge WTfiggetyFUCK?
rainbow vacuum parts gives a brief history of blogs, abb-specific praise, advice for blogging topics, then self-promotes vacuum parts.
shameless. tacky. most of all, triflin'.
as a devoted abb reader, i don't find she's had much difficulty with topic selection(tackling numerous issues today in one sitting, thankyouverymuch).
- Sangroncito said...
Right on! My sentiments exactly. Now what can we lefties do to make this happen? We need new leadership, new voices, a lot of rightous anger and an American people who need to wake up from their lethargy and get the hell out of the malls.
- CrankyProf said...
Brilliant as always.
Let's hope people get up off their asses and start standing up. It's about friggin' time people started putting hteir money and time where their mouths are.
And a loud FUCK RAINBOW VACUUM PARTS. Self-promoting like that for commercial sites is just tacky.
- purpletwinkie said...
I stood and applauded! I hope you heard me.
- dondon009 said...
You're on a roll... and I love it! The thing is, you're right on all counts! I applaude you...
- Melody said...
Damn, girl! You are SMOKIN'!
- lasomniloquy said...
coming here by way of recommendation from the mighty sangroncito...and your post is - yes yes yes.
- Cher said...
Oh how I [heart] ABB - I'd marry you if I could (you know, pesky laws against gay marriage & polygamy getting in my way)! Preach, sistah!
- dmfinny said...
Get outta my head already! Seriously, I'm right with you.
And RVP -- wtf? That same self-promotion shit happened as a "comment" on my blog. Leave it to lowlifes to find some way to leave their detritus behind. Asshat.
Now, on to the revolution...
- MTG said...
Liberal???? Girl you do not sound like one...just a bitch with some fucking good sense!!!!!
- Jege (Jen) said...
Isnt that the definition of a liberal? A bitch with some fucking good sense?
When did "liberal" become a bad word anyway? Fuck yeah, I'm a fucking liberal.
- farai said...
you see it, and you tell it how you feel it.
in general, brethren and sistren just don't got enough passion when it comes to dealing with the politrix that affect their lives.
for too long it has been widely believed that rational thought, emotion and politrix don't mix.
then along came ABB...
- Elizabeth said...
This is an excellent article on the real reason for the melodrama of the Gaza settlers.
- The Cook Crazy Economist said...
Here's another articles taken from the Israeli english paper Haaretz. Our taxes will pay for this Perez comes to get the check next week. I have to learn this hussle.
In the beginning, the treasury allocated NIS 3.5 billion for the evacuees. But they brought lawyers and demands. In the end, their plots were valued like those in Kiryat Gat. Their houses were valued at $1,000 per square meter and they received compensation for every year of residence in Gaza, plus a six-month vacation from the state, plus a pension for anyone above 55, plus rent for two years.
On average, an evacuated family will receive $450,000. Those who lived there almost rent-free for two years will receive $150,000. Is there any better investment anywhere?
The idea was that they would take the money, build a future and not have complaints. But the settlers knew they could squeeze more out of Ariel Sharon, so they invented the idea of a community. They now want to move en bloc so that the state will build the community for them. That is, they will get compensation, get rent and also get the state to do everything for them.
Now the director general of the Prime Minister's Office, Ilan Cohen, is breaking new records. He is proposing to set up an exact copy of Neveh Dekalim with all its public institutions, so that all the functionaries will have jobs.


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The Medal of Honour series once led the way in the first-person shooter market. Now overtaken by Call of Duty, recent years have seen it scrambling for sales space against Activision's gargantuan franchise.
This time round, helped along by its masterful Frostbite 2 engine, DICE hopes to take a slice from COD's pie with Medal of Honour Warfighter. But is its Battlefield 3 heritage enough to win in one of the most competitive gaming markets? From what we have seen, it could just be.
First up, Medal of Honour looks incredible. Remember the first time you saw that Battlefield 3 gameplay video? Well it's that all over again. The dynamic lighting, rain splashing on the screen, particle effects . . . everything is incredibly polished. This is definitely a good thing, as the last Medal of Honour was a fairly unwieldy beast to look at.
Warfighter follows the story of elite groups of fighters around the globe. It comes from a storyline penned by real-world special forces groups. Twelve different elite fighting units across 10 different nations are all involved, ensuring that the game has hugely varied environments to play across. Each unit gets its own battle based around real-world situations. For example, the level we were shown was about a hostage rescue in the Philippines. Developers said you would also be taking on the likes of Somalian pirates and other terrorist organisations.
A short but sweet gameplay video of Warfighter already exists, showing snippets of the Phillipines level that we saw in action - but believe us, it is nothing on the actual experience. Unlike Battlefield, this is a much more on-rails game, hence the similarities with Call of Duty. Battles are also a lot more close quarters based and gunplay a much quicker experience. The gunsight snaps to your eye quickly and enemies drop easily, all giving the sense that you are part of an elite fighting unit.
The sheer amount of explosions and debris flying about while we witnessed a squad being guided around on the mission set in the Philippines was particularly impressive, as was the later on-rails escape scene set on a rubber dinghy. Firing immense numbers of rounds from a front-mounted gun at RPG brandishing bad guys, the game had all the trimmings of a high-quality FPS rollercoaster ride.
Our gameplay demo was short but oh so very sweet. We were also given a few details about multiplayer plans, which is set to appear at E3 later in the year. Essentially you will be able to exercise a bit of national pride by representing your country using its own special forces unit. Teams will then battle it out in "blue on blue" multiplayer, where the likes of the German GSG9 takes on the British SAS.
We will have more on Medal of Honour Warfighter when it appears at E3 and in the build up to its launch on 23 October.
Like the sound of the new Medal of Honour? Let us know in the comments below ...


text:
German leader Angela Merkel and businesswomen dominate Forbes magazine's new list of powerful women, while First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton didn't break the top 30.
Merkel headed the list, published Wednesday, for the fourth year running, with the magazine highlighting her role as leader of the huge German economy and her likely re-election in September.
Reflecting the world's focus on recession and the struggle to keep the financial markets afloat, Merkel was followed almost exclusively by businesswomen.
In second place came Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, which insures US banks.
Third was Indra Nooyi, chief executive at PepsiCo, then Cynthia Carroll, the chief executive of mining giant Anglo American, and Ho Ching, chief executive at Singapore's government investment company Temasek Holdings.
|German Chancellor Angela Merkel is seen here on August 17.
Hillary Clinton slipped from 28 last year, when she was close to winning the Democratic presidential nomination to 36, despite heading the powerful US State Department.
Michelle Obama came into the list for the first time. Although she has the ear of the US president around the clock, she ranked only 40.
Below her, at 42, came Britain' Queen Elizabeth II.
Herewith the full top 10 in the list on www.forbes.com/women:
1: Angela Merkel, chancellor. Germany
2: Sheila Bair, chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. US.
3: Indra Nooyi, chief executive, PepsiCo. US.
4: Cynthia Carroll, chief executive, Anglo American. UK.
5: Ho Ching, chief executive, Temasek Holdings. Singapore
6: Irene Rosenfeld, chief executive, Kraft Foods. US.
7: Ellen Kullman, chief executive, DuPont. US.
8: Angela Braly, chief executive, WellPoint. US.
9: Anne Lauvergeon, chief executive, Areva. France
10: Lynn Elsenhans, chief executive, Sunoco. US.


text:
The Accenture Intelligent Patient Service Exchange (IPEX) is a digital marketplace of leading technology solutions that have been integrated within the Accenture Intelligent Patient Platform allowing life sciences companies to quickly and easily use them in a plug and play environment.
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Accenture's life sciences experts share their insights and opinions on the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical technology, and consumer health industries.
Accenture's life sciences experts share their insights and opinions on the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical technology, and consumer health industries.