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Glen Farley's weekly NFL picks.
It's that time of year.
Murmurs that the job of the Oakland Raiders' head coach is in jeopardy have begun.
For those of you who may have lost track, the current coach – No. 4 on your Raiders' roster since 2003 – is Lane Kiffin, a chap who barely looks old enough to be knocking on your daughter's door wearing a tuxedo and holding a corsage the night of the senior prom.
The other 31 NFL teams have head coaches.
The Raiders?
They usher guys in and out like game-show contestants.
Let's see, there was Bill Callahan in 2003 (his second and final season), followed by Norv Turner (2004-2005), Art Shell in 2006 and now Kiffin, who is 2-8 in 2007.
The Shell game wasn't the only case of "one and done" with the Raiders of the lost cause.
One decade ago, Joe Bugel (1997) also heard "Taps" after only a year as Oakland's head coach.
"Thanks for coming," Oakland's master of ceremonies, Al Davis, should say. "We've got some lovely parting gifts for you."
Do not misconstrue my choice of words earlier.
Being head coach of the Raiders these days isn't like hosting the game show "Jeopardy."
It's more along the lines of "The Wheel of Misfortune."
New England 76, Philadelphia 0 – I was so excited to learn that Gillette Stadium ranked No. 11 in SI.com's "NFL Fan Value Experience," I was prepared to hoist a brew in celebration, but at $5.50 for a 16-ouncer, I can't afford to.
Jacksonville 31, Buffalo 7 - What would you call Bills defensive end Chris Kelsay's sentence structure? Kelsay's grammar.
Denver 17, Chicago 14 – In wide receivers Mark Jackson, Vance Johnson and Ricky Nattiel, the Broncos once gave us "The Three Amigos." In quarterbacks Rex Grossman, Brian Griese and Kyle Orton, the Bears have given us the three who can't throw.
Cleveland 37, Houston 33 – In their past two games, the Browns have blown 15- and 13-point leads against the Steelers and Ravens. Excuse me, but when did the Browns sign Eric Gagne?
New York Giants 30, Minnesota 16 – This region's favorite Giant? That would be defensive tackle Justin Tuck. In New England, Tuck rules.
New Orleans 21, Carolina 20 – At the risk of implying that Panthers quarterback Vinny Testaverde is aged, need I point out that, at 21 years, his career is now old enough to drink.
Kansas City 20, Oakland 9 – If Chiefs wide receiver Dwayne Bowe wore a certain brand of shirt, you'd have a Bowe in Arrow.
St. Louis 17, Seattle 16 – The Rams signed defensive end C.J. Ah You to their practice squad Wednesday. In St. Louis, there is no "I" in team, but there eventually could be Ah You.
Cincinnati 23, Tennessee 15 – I can't say I've seen enough Titans games where I can intelligently comment on how LenDale White has been hitting the line of scrimmage, but, judging by the looks of him last Monday night, it's obvious to me the running back must have an explosive first step to the buffet line.
Tampa Bay 23, Washington 19 – Much has been made of the fact that supermodel Kate Moss recently met British opposition party leader David Cameron at a charity event and mistook the politician for a plumber. In defense of Ms. Moss, what's the diff? Either one of them is going to lead you down the drain eventually.
Arizona 18, San Francisco 3 – What would you call the clothes 49ers guard Tony Wragge wears? Wragge's.
San Diego 16, Baltimore 6 – Linebacker Ryan Riddle must have really been puzzled when the Ravens released him earlier this year.
Pittsburgh 35, Miami 6 (Monday night) – Let's see, last Sunday the Dolphins jumped on top of the sub-.500 (at the time) Eagles, knocked quarterback Donovan McNabb out of the game in favor of a guy (A.J. Feeley) who sounds like he should be delivering mail in "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" and they still managed to suffer a double-digit setback to plummet to 0-10. And NFL commissioner Roger Goodell expects Ricky Williams to rejoin this team and stay drug free?
Last week: 12-4
Season: 100-59
Flawless Farley's NFL picks column appears in the Sunday Enterprise.


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The Galilean Pendulum: A New Science Reveals An Unseen World
Description: Man begins 20-year search for afterlife following family tragedy Will non-religious members of society ever embrace the idea of an afterlife? Like many parents who have experienced the heartbreaking loss of a child, Bill Kaspari felt hopeless and depressed after his son John was killed. He began to search for answers to the age- old question, "what happens when we die?" Kaspari is not religious, so he pursued answers using scientific methods of analysis. He came to the inarguable conclusion that we do survive the death of our physical bodies. He details his findings in the new book, "The Galilean Pendulum." "My book gives a new perspective on what life is really about," Kaspari said. "It not only provides evidence supported by scientific studies that we survive bodily death, it also paints a picture of what I believe life in the hereafter is like, based on these studies.
Price: $20.00 to $25.00

subset: commoncrawl


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Archive for the 'Local Government' Category
LGA Conference – Day 3
The day of great conversations
Today was the final day of the LGA Conference and for me it turned into a day of some great conversations and ended with a bizarre twist and the realisation that lots of work still has to be done.
Over the previous 2 days those that stopped by at the stand ranged from those with a genuine interest to those who were there just to have a go on the wii or pick up a business card holder. Today was different. Nearly all the conversations today were great ones. We had councillors asking us to talk to their service areas so that they could learn from us; I had the chance to show how to mash an RSS feed into Google Maps to show detail; I asked aCounty Councillor to consider shared ICT services with a neighbour; I asked another councillor to go back and find out who their BA was!
I really think that many of those who visited the Digital Inclusion stand went away educated, and I would hope in some way inspired to include Digital Inclusion in future plans for their councils.
I also managed to have some great conversations with other exhibitors (unfortunately I did not win the IPad). I learned today about the cultural transformation programme that Fenland District Council has implemented. It was very impressive to hear how it has changed the organisation from a demotivated, hierarchical council to one that driven by the employees for the benefit of the citizen.
Fenland have really understood that Leadership is different to Management and that people respond differently to leaders than managers. Many authorities and many companies can learn a great deal from that approach. (Learn to relax, learn to win.)
I also had a conversation with the Big Lottery Fund who are looking to support a number of projects that could really change peoples lives. In addition there will be the chance to bridge the Digital Inclusion gap with this funding.
By the time the Councillors and delegates had left to tell Michael Gove what they thought of him, I was on the way home feeling quite smug that, maybe, I had made a difference.
The bizarre twist
Having battled the traffic I got home and changed hats. One of my personal roles is Vice Chairman of Solihull Round Table and was invited to attend a local community meeting to help understand Council priorities for the future. I really thought that this was very timely.
It was a real shock entering that room to find that I was the only representative of a community group and the other attendees consisted of Local Council officers, Local Councillors (none of whom were at LGA) the Fire Service and the Police Service. The local people had put their trust in their councillors.
The conversations resolved around the work that the Council was planning to improve the neighbourhood and they were asking for affirmation that this approach was correct. The data used to formulate the projects was years out of date, a point quickly picked up on by the Councillors.
On Tuesday Eric Pickles made it very clear that from now on Councillors were in charge, the community knows what's best and the council needs to meet the needs of the locality. Big Society was born!
The bizarre twist was that these Councillors did not know what was happening in their area and did not seem enthused to find out. I challenged the Councillors at the meeting and they admitted that they only learned and followed the bad news stories (such as bin collections!) and never the good news stories.
The council had put a lot of effort in trying to engage with the local people but actually had a poor response from the public. It happened that I was also a resident of the area discussed and it turns out that I was putting my trust in these Councillors to accurately represent my needs to the council. I have never even met my councillor, how can they tell the council what is working well or needs to be improved?
The Local Government Information Unit (LGiU) has released an excellent paper discussing the need for engagement with the community and how Councils should work with community groups to understand local needs. It also describes the roles that Councillors should take in the future to meet the expectations of Central Government.
My personal experience has made me feel that unless the community realises what is expected of them, their councillors will not change their attitudes and we will continue along the same path with the Council second guessing what local people want by using out of date data.
My challenge to Councillors: Get on the street, talk to every resident, learn what's working and what's broken. Ask the RIGHT questions!
My challenge to Community Groups: Be part of the Council, get involved, make sure your voice is heard, be active, promote the good and the bad.
Till next time,
LGA Conference 2010 – Day 2
Bad start
Day 2 of the LGA Conference in Bournemouth got off to a bad start, my colleague and I had our cars broken into overnight and she had some items stolen. Luckily (if there is a lucky side) neither car was damaged. Needless to say this put a bit of a damper on our enthusiasm, but we rallied and did our best!
I would describe today as a mixed success – the number of people stopping by fell, however those that did come stopped and chatted for some time and, hopefully, went away with new ideas about Digital Inclusion. We also had a few repeat customers who, having thought over night about what we said, wanted to find out more.
There was a lot of discussion regarding the future of councils and the scope of their empowerment. I found that many of our visitors were interested in how the Beacon Councils have saved money by delivering services more efficiently through innovative use of ICT. It appeared that Digital Inclusion aimed to support the community and individuals directly was not on their radars.
I made the point today of asking our visitors what did they think the challenge was for Digital Inclusion in their areas. Two main concerns came to mind:
- Lack of access to broadband
In the majority of cases this was limited to accessing broadband in rural areas, however in some cases it was lack of high speed broadband that was causing the issue.
Many rural areas are still suffering from lack of coverage, however schemes and ideas do exist to help these communities. Schemes such as Staffordshire Moorlands Digital Bus which visits these areas, bringing with them a host of ICT equipment and connectivity to introduce people to the benefits of the internet. In other areas community centres are being used to host digital spaces. Where the centre is already connected, opening it up to allow access to other users is a benefit to the whole community.
Schools are another example of where they can be used as a hub of Digital Excellence in rural areas. One councillor I was speaking to was advocating that schools should be open 7 days a week around the year and become more than a traditional school.
The second element of lack of access to broadband concerns high speed broadband. For those areas luckily enough to be 'covered' and hitting the 2mbps universal commitment the next challenge is about how to attract new business to their area if they cannot provide high speed connectivity.
Large businesses have the ability to pay for what they want – if they want 100mbps lines then they pay and they get. Small businesses cannot afford this luxury and so instead are looking for locations that can provide these speeds "off the shelf". By not having this high speed internet access innovation is being stifled and ideas are quashed. What would a council say if it learned that the next Micro-Goo-App-Soft-le-le decided not to invest in their area because while they were small they could not get the broadband support that they needed at the time.
A number of Authorities around Birmingham, UK, have got together and formed the City Region group. One of their aims is to promote the availability of high speed broadband to enhance the region as a location for new businesses. A workstream of the group is to define planning guidance that will ensure any new developments (commercial or residential) will be capable of delivering high speed broadband to the premises.
To do this the region is asking planning departments to include requirements that ducting needs to be included in any new designs.The ducting will be used by the telecom operators to provide high speed fibre to the development to enable the speeds desired by companies.
A plan for the future roll out of broadband across the UK is essential. To become a digital nation we must accept that there is an urgency to clear the 'not spots' so all areas can receive broadband – but we cannot stop there. We need to be looking to the high speed future that is essential to keep innovation alive.
- The finances don't add up
I mentioned yesterday that the need for a suitable business case still has to be found. When speaking to Councillors today they were asking for the Golden Egg, that pot of cash that will be saved by investing in Digital Inclusion. I was happy to point out that Digital Inclusion is not 1 large egg but many small eggs that make up the savings. Unfortunately, although they agreed in principle, I doubt that they were anyway ready to sign and Digital Inclusion projects off!
Having been given time to reflect on the announcement that Local Authorities were going to be held responsible to voters and not to central government this gave me the chance to talk to the Councillors about what the voters wanted. Councillors have a duty to listen and how would they react if they were told that the voters wanted to be Digitally Included and that it was the roll of the council to create the environment that will support growth in this area. Would the Councillors then consider investing in community centres, or as mentioned above, transform schools to become the hub of the community with ICT facilities available to all.
When looking at the same problem from a different angle, the Councillors were suddenly warming to the idea. If the message is delivered by the voters, loud and clear, to the Councillors then Digital Inclusion can happen.
A surprise conversation and a challenge
One of the final people that I talked to today was from the construction training industry, a fellow exhibitor who stopped by the stand drawn in by one of the freebies! We got talking about the importance of Digital Inclusion in general terms and I started to think about how Digital Inclusion could be relevant to the construction training industry. I had a small eureka moment.
The courses that the construction training industry delivers are not just about putting one brick on top of another, they, like nearly all courses, include elements of research and the submission of coursework. Why don't a training provider, like the construction industry, work with a local authority to retrain individuals who are receiving benefits. In return the local authority would fund a PC and broadband connection for the duration of the course.
By providing the ICT to support the individual during their course would lead, hopefully, to an increased pass rate and less drop-outs. These increased skills would enable the individual to come off benefits sooner than if they had not taken the course, leading to a cashable saving for the council. (I cannot deny that there will be risks such as unfortunate job market etc, or guarantees that the course will lead to a job.)
I came to the conclusion that people need a reason to use a computer and succeeding in training could be the enabler that is required to make Digital Inclusion work. I think that this could be the start of a viable business case.
My challenge then is to Local Authorities to work with education provider and become that business case. Make Digitial Inclusion work.
Till next time,
Tomorrow is the last day of the LGA Conference. If you're around call in and see me on the Digital Inclusion stand, or alternative follow the twitter hashtag #lgaconf
Local Government Association 2010
On Tuesday 6th July 2010 I will be in Bournemouth attending the Local Government Association 2010 Conference.
It will be one of the first major events since the general election and the emergency budget, both of which have had a profound and urgent affect on Local Authorities up and down the country.
In October 2009 the SOLACE conference was flagging warnings about the situation to come. I am going to be interested to see if Local Authorities heeded the SOLACE message and how much of a 'shock' the emergency budget is having.
It is a time for Local Authorities to think beyond the norm are realise that how they have delivered services in the past may well not be the way to deliver the services in the future.
ICT is going to play a huge part in the future of service delivery for local authorities, both as a tool to process information but also as a way to shape services into 2011 and beyond. The new government has already shown the way to engage with tools such as:
- Your Freedom – the chance of members of the public to challenge the laws of the UK
- The Spending Challenge – inviting Public Sector Workers to tell it how it is and how it should
Changes are happening and this Government is serious about ICT. The challenge for Local Authorities is how to use ICT so that it delivers cashable savings and not become a Money Pit.
To me it is all about attitude and vision. Too many local Authorities are thinking about the immediate future but forgetting the long term benefits that ICT can bring. We need Local Authorities to plan for the future and be prepared to invest now and save later.
In addition it is necessary, when looking at the savings, to realise that there may not be a single ostrich that will lay a golden egg, instead it may be made up of many hummingbirds laying a lot smaller golden eggs. Digital Inclusion is an example of little savings making a big pot.
I will be looking to update this blog and will be tweeting while I am in Bournemouth, and if you're around get in touch.
Till next time
Solace – Day 2
We are now two thirds of the way through SOLACE 2009 and I thought that I would let you know of my observations since my last post.
As far as I could tell day 2 was all about leadership and the power of communication (led by Drs Peter & Susan Glaser). This comes as a useful reminder to any Chief Executive, no matter how many years 'under the belt' they have got to the name. As organisations Local Authorities have to treat people well to ensure that they will give their best. The definition of corporate leadership has been defined and redefined over many year and I doubt that 1 of the Chief Executives attending have never heard this message before in someway or other.
Although local authorities have been challenged before and each have managed these challenges it's still useful to review the approach to ensure that it is still gaining the objectives as it was intended. My question is how many people heard the message, realised that it applies to them, and decide what are they going to do about it?
The main surprise for me has been the attendance – or lack of it. ~350 delegates were registered, however when passing the registration desk at least 40% of the pre-paid badges had not been collected. It was also clear in the exhibition area when speaking to other exhibitors that not many Chief Executives were making the rounds and as 1 Chief said 'he could not be bothered with the hard sell'.
I also feel for Oracle who invited myself, along with all the delegates, to a free evening reception prior to the conference dinner. I would estimate that 60 people showed up for an event which Oracle would have expected at least twice that amount and catered accordingly.
I wonder if these major companies will think twice about signing up to sponsor next year. BT was a major conference sponsor but did not take a stand in the exhibition hall. I wonder if we're seeing the start of the end of 'conferences' in their traditional sense.
If delegates have more pressing engagements that force them to give up their conference seat then maybe the conference is not working. I would imagine that at least it will be scaled down next year.
I am going into day 3 of the conference glad to know that I am going home in a few hours. I feel that the people we did speak to benefited, however we did not get the message across as widely as we had hoped.
Make sure you follow the 'action' on Twitter using #solace09.
Till next time,
Solace 2009 Day 1 – what we've learned so far
Well the first day of Solace 2009 is over and I suppose it is a time to reflect on what I have observed during the conference, the exhibition, the curry house and the bar.
The general messages that was being delivered out were "the hard times are here to stay" "efficiency, efficiency, efficiency, save, save, save" "must do more to save more".
What I did not hear were the ways that our Chief Executives were supposed to get over these hard times, maybe this will come over the next couple of days.
It is a different perspective as an outsider watching the happenings of SOLACE 2009, I feel somewhat remote, but on the other hand passionate about what is happening on the other side of the wall. To explain, I am here as an exhibitor and my day-to-day role does not normally trespass on the Chief's territory so this is a rare opportunity for me to see what goes on behind 'closed doors'.
My role this week is to help promote the use of IT to deliver services that benefit the customer to local authorities Together with my colleagues from the other digital inclusion beacons we are working to enlighten the minds of chief executives one authority at a time.
Today was the first day of the conference and the passing footfall included some of the other exhibitors, a couple of delegates and a few interested parties. In short, not as many of the Chief Executives as we had expected. I had hoped to be able to ask our CE's what their authority was doing to meet the digital challenge and how IT was perceived within their organisation. Maybe tomorrow will bring better fortune!
From the observations that I have made today I feel that the general impression is that each authority needs to focus on generating savings to minimise spend as income is only going to get less. Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, not much was being said as to how this should be delivered.
A positive presentation came from Jeff French who talked about the perception of the public towards local government who started the discussion as to how local authorities can understand their shortfalls by ensuring they as the right questions.
Philip Hammond challenged the Chief's by saying "if we want innovation, we must learn to embrace failure" – I am not sure that many councillors will feel the same way and will lend their support to their chief.
Personally I view the issue as a 3 sided triangle (or as Andy Sawford put it at the bar tonight – a 3 legged stool) with PEOPLE, PROCESSES & TECHNOLOGY supporting the future. I can see that the drive to improve PROCESSES was being discussed today and I would imagine that it will carry on being discussed till the end of the conference.
The TECHNOLOGY was being discussed at the SOCITM Conference 2 weeks a go and I could imagine that at a similar HR event the PEOPLE element of the triangle would have been discussed.
So far SOLACE has not combined the 3 legs of the stool, and without this top down understanding the "savings, savings, savings' and 'efficiency, efficiency, efficiency' cannot be delivered. We need to build the business case that will allow us to embrace the failure and through combined effort transform into stronger local authorities.
I hope that the speakers tomorrow will help strengthen the triangle and I hope that more Chief Executives will come to the Digital Inclusion stand and not be distracted by the opportunity to drive around Silverstone in a F1 car!
Till next time.


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Many of you have seen our previous posts about our involvement with Operation Shower, a 501 c(3) non-profit
organization that hosts fabulous baby showers for military spouses to ease the burden of deployment. We at Carousel Designs have been honored to sponsor several Operation Shower events throughout the past year, with many more in the works!To catch up on what happened at two of the showers we sponsored in 2011 (one involving First Lady Michelle Obama and Martha Stewart!) check out our previous blog posts, "Supporting Our Military Families" and "Operation Shower: Red, White & Coo."
We are very excited to announce our sponsorship of the next Operation Shower event, which will be held on January 24th in San Diego! A group of deserving military spouses will be treated to the baby shower of their dreams at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines Golf Club. Co-hosted by the PGA Tour and Birdies for the Brave, this is sure to be a memorable event.
In order to help you get to know Operation Shower and their woman-in-charge, Chief "Shower" Officer, LeAnn Morrissey, we put her through some pretty extensive Q & A. Below are the highlights of our interview!
How did Operation Shower get started?
In 2007, I asked my uncle what more I could do beyond sending him care packages while he was deployed to Iraq. He (and his wife) suggested I send cards to the pregnant wives of four men who were deployed overseas with him. This bit of encouragement or celebration of their imminent arrivals, he thought, would brighten their lives a little bit. I was happy to help but wanted to do more than just send a card.
After brainstorming and talking with family and friends, I decided to send each of the expecting military spouses a full baby shower — a "shower in a box". I had great support putting these boxes together and we shipped them to each mom. We had such a great response from the moms and their spouses overseas that we knew it made a difference and was something we needed to do over and over again. The moms felt recognized and "spoiled" for a day and the fathers felt relief that their loved ones were being remembered and joy at celebrating the baby on the way.
How many showers have you hosted so far?
We now take our "showers in a box" concept to a much larger scale and host full baby showers for large groups of military families on bases or other locations. We have, to date, hosted 18 showers for Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and National Guard units across the country. We have showered over 600 military families.
How has Operation Shower transformed since 2007?
Operation Shower has transformed in many ways, but with regard to our core values and what we try to convey, we are the same. We have grown from sending individual boxes to moms to doing large scale showers. We have definitely increased the number of moms/families we are able to reach. In previous years, the highest number of showers we had completed was four, for 100 moms total. In 2011, we completed seven showers for 300 moms. So we have definitely expanded our outreach and are looking to host more showers this year and reach even more families.
We pride ourselves on really spoiling the moms-to-be and making sure it is a "baby shower to remember." They deserve the best and we work to provide it. Our Chief Event Planner works with designers and event planners across the country to come up with ways to make it special. They often donate their services and time and we couldn't be more thankful.
A large part of our ability to reach more moms is the support from companies such as Carousel Designs and Birdies for the Brave and also from individuals and other companies across the country, who donate product and dollars.
We are still working out of the basement and still have a very small staff, but we have supporters across the country — actually, I should say, the moms-to-be have support across the country!
What is your favorite part of the shower process?
My favorite part is always shower day and meeting the moms. I love the end result of being able to provide them with the showers in a box and the other gifts we have collected — and also for them to be able to meet many of the supporters and volunteers from Operation Shower who truly want to recognize them for their service. Being able to connect the volunteers and donors with the moms and have them say "thank you" in person is a great feeling and I believe the moms leave truly understanding that we are sincere in our respect and admiration for them and that we are serious about making sure they have a day of fun!
Is there a particular shower that's been your favorite so far? A most memorable moment?
It is so hard to pick a favorite, as each shower really is so unique. Each shower includes new moms, obviously, with their own unique stories and each community that comes out to help does so in their own way. It was an honor, though, to have one of our showers last year attended by Mrs. Obama and Dr. Biden as part of their Joining Forces campaign. It was a great validation that Operation Shower is making a difference and doing something of great value.
Another truly memorable moment for me was at the close of one of our showers. An older gentleman volunteer who was there to help load the "showers in a box" came up to the podium of his own accord and said he just needed to say thank you to us for doing this. He said he had served in earlier wars and his wife delivered and raised their children while he was away for long stretches. He wished she had something like our showers. This was so meaningful to me — as I feel that not only are we honoring those serving now, but those families who served in the past but were not recognized as they should have been.
What is your advice for someone who wants to get involved in their community and make a difference, as you have?
Follow your heart. I love honoring military families; I love giving gifts; and I love helping moms-to-be. This is why Operation Shower means so much to me. I believe it is why it also touches so many others. So, my advice is to find something that you truly love and do it in some way. Find a way to do what you love — even if it is just a few hours a week or a month. Try different things until you find what works for you. I tried so many different care package ideas and ways to help moms and new business ideas (some really bad ideas) until I found the one that works for me and makes a difference.
What are you looking forward to in 2012 and beyond?
I am looking forward to meeting new military families and showering them with love! I am looking forward to seeing what creative ideas our team comes up with to do this in the best way possible. We are looking for ways to help local bases have their own showers with Operation Shower's support. This is a project I really want to pursue so we can reach even more families. I am looking forward to seeing military families have no doubt that they are appreciated!
If people want to contribute to Operation Shower's cause or help make a positive impact for military families, what should they do?
We have many ways that people can help. Tell us what you love to do — we can try to find a way to help you do it with Operation Shower!
We are always looking for sponsors for our showers. If you know someone, tell them about Operation Shower. We are always looking for product. People can donate in many ways — purchase items and mail to us — we can help you figure out the best items to send; purchase from our Amazon Wish List; host your own party (maybe a shower?) and collect donations. You can also donate on-line. And finally, you can help with our party planning!! Please visit our website (www.operationshower.org) and contact us.


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Welcome to Arthouse Wijn-Ton…
Artistic delights prevail in abundance.. both inside and out.. bringing about a state of relaxation and bliss...
Still in progression.. yes she grows.. to become a landmark in the mudane... To open eyes as to the vast abundance of creativity that exists...
To create an insight into what could be.. to inspire and delight.. to bring forth gifts from those otherwise overlooked...
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Spirit is always at home.
Wherever I find myself,
I know that I rest in the arms of Spirit, protected and comforted.
I look around my life and realize that the home in which I live
is also the dwelling place of Spirit, both in form and formless.
I let order and the wholesome nature of Spirit become manifest
in my home, tending to its needs consciously and joyfully,
seeing it as a selfless service to the One Power.
I keep my home clean and inviting, creating a space in
which to celebrate my life and the lives of all I love.
I give thanks for the beautiful place in which I live, and
I continually move through my life in a state of gratitude
for all that Spirit gives to me all creation in its lavish opulent way.
It is good, and so it is...
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Austere Britain. Hostile Britain. My viewpoint. 28/7/ 2015.
A while back, I wrote a post, in it I talked a little about who I am, where I was born etc. I've never really elaborated on my circumstances or daily challenges, me I'd rather focus on the good, the … Continue reading
Posted in #antiausterity, #therealityparty, #therighttoahome, Art garden, Art therapy, Arthouse Wijn-Ton., Arthouse., Aspien woman., Calm in the storm., childhood abuse., CPTSD., Drawing., Fine Art., Healing journey, Interior Design, Landscape gardening, Live music., Music, Original song., Ornamental garden., Outsider art, Paintings, Poetry..., Pondering., Sculpture, The storm., View of life from a "bum and no mark " in this system Tagged #antiausterity, #bedroomtax., #benefitbritain, #bigbrother, #enslavementofthemind, #feedthehomeless, #foodbanks, #humanrights, #judgementalbritain, #slaveryviacapitalism, #therealityparty, #therighttoahome, #welfarereforms., Art gardens., art therapy, Arthouse Wijn-Ton, Creative Endeavours., different stages, Freeflowing, journey of discovery 2 Comments
Update on creative endeavours… My thoughts and how it really is…
I've had my site on private recently and done very few posts in comparison to former years… This was due to a lot of research and reading up on an array of stuff so I'm more informed and have the … Continue reading


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The Maple Leaf Tartan was created in 1964 by David Weiser in anticipation of the 100th anniversary of Canada's confederation in 1967.
The colours represents the changing seasons of the maple leaf as the pattern incorporates "the green of the leaves' summer foliage, the gold which first appears in the early autumn, the red which appears with the coming of the first frost, and the brown tones of the fallen leaves. The design proved to be very popular throughout Canada".
The Maple Leaf Tartan was made an official national symbol by ministerial declaration on March 9th, 2011.


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Submission of the Ontario Human Rights Commission to the Independent Review of the use of lethal force by the Toronto Police Service
February 2014 - People with mental health disabilities are often among the most vulnerable people in Ontario. Many face a unique set of challenges where they live, in workplaces, or in our communities. When people are in crisis they also present a unique set of challenges to police services when considering the use of force. This leads to many concerns from a human rights perspective. It is not the role of the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) to comment on individual cases – we leave it to other experts to resolve these. But it is our role to look at common themes and concerns, and offer ways to move forward.


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In response to the New York Times article regarding the lack of Latino authors and books for children, Latina bloggers have launched the "Latinas for Latino Literature" campaign which works to identify the problems in today's publishing world that contribute to this lack of diversity so that we can provide ideas for changing the situation to the benefit of not only Latino readers and writers, but to the benefit of the industry itself as they tap into this growing demographic. Look out for forthcoming Google hangouts, Twitter parties, and follow-up posts as this coordinated effort to bring quality books to an emerging group of readers continues.
I kneeled on the coarse, crimson carpet at the library, the third library I had visited that week, trying to find something, anything, on the shelves about El Salvador – the native country of my new husband. I often left libraries and bookstores defeated, with a stack of novels about Mexico, Mexicans, migrant workers – stories that I ended up loving, and still love – but what I really wanted was a book with Salvadoran characters, and I couldn't find any. Any book I did manage to find about El Salvador would be non-fiction, and usually about the civil war.
When I became a mother of two boys, two Salvadoran-American boys, I wanted desperately to buy them books and read them stories with characters they could relate to. Again, visits to the library and bookstore turned up books featuring Mexican and Mexican-American characters, when we were lucky.
These days, the library selection has gotten better, and the online selection is a dream come true compared to what I faced when my boys were younger. I've read books about Cubans and Puerto Ricans, Argentinians, Venezuelans, Guatemalans and Paraguayans, and thanks to Sandra Benitez, an amazing book called "Bitter Grounds" with a diverse Salvadoran cast. I stayed up late turning the pages, almost not believing that after so many years, I was finally reading a book with Salvadoran characters.
Why am I writing this? – Because I want the publishing industry to know that I am here – an avid reader, hungry for these books for myself, for my husband, for our boys, and for the children out there whose parents won't go to the trouble I've gone to – the children who are at the mercy of whatever their school librarian decides to put on the shelves.
I want it to be known that I hunger for even more diversity, for Latin American characters and characters of Latin American descent from all walks of life. Don't stop telling the story of the migrant worker, the immigrant, of Mexicans – but let us hear other voices too. We want to hear from characters who are rich, who are poor, and everything in between. We want characters who are white collar workers, and blue collar workers. We want characters who are beautiful, ugly, inspirational, relatable, flawed, ordinary, outrageous, wise, hilarious, serious, complex – in other words, we want all the diversity of voices that are available in the general market. Please, keep seeking out fresh authors and publishing their stories – We are here waiting for them, (and in some cases, some of us are here writing them, too.)
Do you feel there's enough diversity in the books commonly available in bookstores and libraries? Which Latino/a author or book most influenced you and why?
Chécalo: Other "Latinas for Latino Literature"


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I'm probably older than most Hot Air readers. I'm significantly older than everyone else on the Hot Air writing staff, except for Jazz, and … well, no one's older than Jazz, so that's not much comfort. Jazz and I are old enough to remember when the entertainment industry produced a long string of tedious retrospectives — documentary and allegorical — about The Most Awful Period In American History, by which I mean the Hollywood blacklist era. There was nothing more evil and un-American than to fire people and keep them from making a living because of their personal or political beliefs, these turgid productions instructed, especially in the entertainment industry.
Good times, good times. After watching GLAAD nearly get Phil Robertson fired for his own take on 1 Corinthians (a mainstream evangelical view, for that matter), an endorsement in the California gubernatorial race has resulted in the termination of a well-known actress from a San Francisco stage production:
A famed actress is facing backlash in San Francisco's Latino community, after she voiced support for a conservative candidate for California governor.
Maria Conchita Alonso starred in a campaign ad for Assemblyman Tim Donnelly of San Bernardino County, a Tea Party favorite who is seeking the Republican nomination. …
The actress was to perform next month at the Brava Theater Center in San Francisco's Mission District in a Spanish-language version of "The Vagina Monologues," scheduled for a run from February 14th through 17th. The show is being produced by none other than Eliana Lopez, wife of San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi.
"We really cannot have her in the show, unfortunately," Lopez told KPIX 5. She said Alonso abruptly resigned from the cast on Friday, given the backlash on the immigration issue.
"Of course she has the right to say whatever she wants. But we're in the middle of the Mission. Doing what she is doing is against what we believe," Lopez said.
Of course audiences can't tolerate a Tea Party conservative in San Francisco! Why, that would be just as ridiculous as film audiences being forced to be exposed to Communists in the 1950s. Or even people suspected of being Communists, because you just can't take any chances with that sort of thing. Glad Lopez clarified that process for us. Of course, it's probably a good time to point out that we're not in the middle of a Cold War with a heavily-armed libertarian empire, but you never know when that will happen.
(Libertarian empire? I know, I know, but just work with me, okay?)
Glenn Reynolds gets to the point succinctly: "They told me that if I voted Republican, we'd see McCarthy-style blacklists. And they were right!" Our friend Rick Moran elaborates:
But Alonso's endorsement of Tea Party candidate Tim Donnelly proved to be a bridge too far for San Francisco Latinos. After Alonso cut an ad with the colorful Donnelly, the local Hispanic community went ballistic. This led to Alonso being forced to quit a production of The Vagina Monologues that was set to open next month. …
Oh, dear. We musn't have that, must we? After all, there's only one belief system among all Hispanics and if you don't agree, good luck getting a job, sucker.
Yeah, I seem to remember the entertainment industry and the Left rejecting the "only one belief system among all" argument from the end of the blacklist until very recently, and they were right to do so, too. What happened? It turns out that they're not interested in tolerance and diversity after all, and like the idea of silencing people. As long as they're the people the Left and the entertainment industry doesn't like. Heck, we even have the governor of a highly-populated state telling his opponents that they're not a legitimate voice in the political arena. So much for tolerance.
The most ironic item in this story is the ad itself. It's a web ad, far too long at 3+ minutes to run on television even for the most well-funded campaign. It's hilarious, but pay particular attention to what happens at the 1:54 mark:
What? A Tea Party candidate's ad allows for another point of view from its endorser? Why, that looks a lot like … tolerance to me. But maybe by this point, only Jazz and I are old enough to recognize it.


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Ag Innovation News is a quarterly newspaper that began circulation in 1992. In the inaugural January 1992 edition, Richard Nelson, then AURI's Executive Director, wrote: "Four times each year, these pages will offer a sampling of AURI's accomplishments in ag product commercialization, technology transfer and applied research. …There will also be news of important progress in agricultural utilization wherever it occurs." Along with news of AURI projects and activities, the first issue featured "New Uses Roundup — around the nation and the world." The regular feature is now "Elsewhere in ag innovations," and continues to offer news of ag product developments around the globe.
The newspaper is designed to make research and technical information easy to read and enjoyable for the average user. From an initial subscription list of 4,000, it has grown to reach more than 12,000 print and online readers every quarter, covering AURI's work in the development of new food products, renewable energy, biobased products and new uses for agricultural coproducts.


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Commissioners select architect, reinstate burn ban
The Nolan County Commissioners announced their selection of an architect for the new county jail and courthouse improvements during their meeting on Monday morning, Jan. 23, 2012.Chosen for the project was the Wiginton Hooker Jeffry Architect firm, a Dallas-based company. Before the announcement was made, Precinct 4 Commissioner Tony Lara thanked those who made presentations to the commissioners — some who were in attendance — for their time and professionalism during the process.Also in the meeting, County Judge Tim Fambrough praised the county and its safety director, Precinct 3 Commissioner Tommy White, for earning the 2011 Safety Award from the Texas Association of Counties for meeting and completing a number of criteria. Additionally, the commissioners approved to re-instate the burn ban for Nolan County.Other action items considered at the meeting were two resolutions. A reimbursement resolution for the incurred expenditures for the Nolan County Jail was approved, along with the resolution for support of extending the federal Production Tax Credit for wind energy.Furthermore, approval was given to declare one Sheriff's Office vehicle — a nine-year old vehicle which has been replaced — as "excess county property" which will be disposed of at auction on GovDeals.com.The commissioners also approved to replace the SonicWall 250M firewall for the Courthouse networking. New T1 Internet services were approved in September 2011, but upon installation, the current firewall proved to be outdated and was not compatible. A proposal from Your Way Computer Tech Team was given for the replacement, which will be paid for through the technology fund.In addition, two re-appointments to the city/county Airport Zoning Board were approved. Ken Lofton will continue to serve as a county appointee; Mrs. Jay Neal will continue her joint appointment.An item which required no action was a proposal presentation from Carol Chappell with Pro Star Energy Company on providing electric service for Nolan County facilities. Ms. Chappell made a presentation to the commissioners in December 2011 on the issue, but offered a market update regarding rates in the presentation. The minutes from the Jan. 9 meeting were approved, along with the reports received from the Nolan County Clerk, Tax Office and Veteran Service Office.


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"Hey, I don't care who you are, or where you came from those things aren't toys to play with eh!" – Ski Patrol at Revelstoke regarding our rope-ollie antics.
Mother Nature has not exactly been kind to us on this trip; it seems like everywhere we go we are just a little too early for the good snow and we end up riding in a cloud while it's snowing. Revelstoke was no exception. The massive mountain in the interior of B.C. was our home away from home last season and we were all very anxious to hang out there again. Right off the bat things were going awesome. Rome rep Derek Hale had invited a bunch the Alberta and British Columbia shops to come and hang out in Revelstoke, ride some new product and cruise with the crew. We got to hang and exchange stories with Carl, who is the owner of Society Boardshop and a good friend of the Rome team which was rad. Carl dealt with so much stuff for us last year while we were in town filming it was crazy. Then it was out on the town with Derek, Carl and all of the shop guys. We won't go into exactly what happened that night in town, but shit got a little crazy involving some dude who swung a longboard at Marius. There may or may not have been some blood spilled over the weird longboard move, but at the end of the night all Rome riders were in bed unscathed.
The next day we all met up at Society and headed to Revelstoke. Although we really didn't get any good powder, we had a gnarly wolf pack that raged around the mountain all day. We spent the day riding logs, jibbing cat tracks, blasting side hits and spraying one another over and over again. Smiles were on everyone's faces and I'm pretty sure that all involved won't soon forget how fun the session was. At the end of the day there was a tailgate session in the parking lot with the local shred shops while Marius, Max, Will, and Justin sessioned a dirt gap hip.
It was around this time that we met a cool local named Dafydd (we called him David or Daffy). This guy was tight. He was ticket checker for the mountain, but when he heard we didn't get free lift tickets for the day he went out of his way to do whatever he could to make sure we had a good time. From what we can tell, he's a true snowboarder living in Revelstoke for love of the shred, and if there were more people like him, more concerned with good times, good turns, and good vibes we'd be a lot better off. Dafydd (Daffy) told us a gnarly story about how quick your luck can change on the mountain. Early in the season he had been riding on the mountain with a friend and they were following a riverbed down around last chair. They got a little confused and his friend turned back while Dafydd (Daffy) rode down near what he thought was trail, but really was a snow cat trail. He ended up way out of bounds and fell in a creek. The snow was so deep and he was so wet that he had to ditch his board and his gloves and try to hike back out. At around 10pm he realized he wasn't going to make it so he curled up in his jacket and made himself shiver until morning to keep from falling asleep. At first light he began trying to crawl back to what he thought was a road. Somewhere around this time he was spotted by a helicopter from the air and rescuers were able to get him. He nearly died on Revelstoke, but he rode with us with more stoke than anyone else we met at the mountain. He kept quoting things from No Correct Way to Max and Yan and especially Marius. It was super cool meeting him.
That night we hung out at Carl's place, played foosball and watched classic shred films like "The search for Mountain Jim" and of course "Whiskey". MFR arrived that night fresh off a trip to Chatter Creek with Oakley and from filming with Absinthe. We were all stoked to see her again and spent the rest of the night telling stories about our season so far. It's kind of weird to film for two years with a crew and see them every day for so long and then to not make a movie for a year, but when you do see everyone again it's like a big family reunion. It's one of the best things about the Rome team—everyone is genuinely friends with one another.
The next day the mountain was socked in, so we decided to try to check out some street stuff. We toured around with Carl and some locals but everywhere we looked the snow was pretty rock solid, making morale for the day a little low since it seemed like we weren't going to get anything done. To liven up the day a little bit I resorted to betting the team dinner that they couldn't get three shots on three different obstacles. Instantly they sprung into action and we made our way to a playground where we started building a bunch of cool jib features. We built a big step up to a flat roof that became a butter box for the team. Max, Marius, and Yan got super tech on it, while MFR took one of the craziest crashes I've seen in a long time. She should have been really hurt but instead somehow lucked out and nothing happened to her but a bit of a bruised ego. Meanwhile, Will built a pretty cool wall/roof ride that went around a tree that he and Max sessioned, and just before dark Marius came through to win the bet by building a crazy gap over a fence which he backside rodeo'd and even back flipped over the team on. Everybody was super stoked, as I had to take them to one of our hangouts from last year, this cool locals' hangout and sled neck bar "The Great White North".
Our last day at Revelstoke was again spent cruising the cat tracks and jibbing the mountain in a pack. Once again the peak was really foggy but we found a cool log slide. We ollied some fences (which ski patrol wasn't to stoked on) and just had a blast riding the groomers together for fun, something that a lot of us don't really get a chance to do all the time when we are stressing on filming video parts. Some really cool locals hooked us up with food and we made sure to spread the "Fuckin Eh" t-shirts out.
Once again Revelstoke felt like home. Carl and Society took care of us and we were sad to have to leave. We packed the van, said our goodbyes and blasted up the road to Golden where Bjorn met up with us. We're getting ready to ride Kicking Horse; should be more good times. Check back soon for another update and thanks again to Derek and Carl for all their help in Revelstoke, all of the shop guys that came to ride with us, Dafydd (Daffy) and all the locals that were so warm to us all, Revelstoke Mountain Resort. See you next year!


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(plural lurgies)
- (UK, slang) A fictitious, highly infectious disease; often used in the phrase "the dreaded lurgi", sometimes as a reference to flu-like symptoms
Usage notes
- Phrases like "I've got the lurgi" are commonly heard when somebody is explaining why they cannot attend a social occasion, come to work, etc.
- The term is also used in the context of playground games. For example, "You can't play with us, you've got the lurgi!" could be used when excluding another child from a group.
A nonce word popularized by Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes, scriptwriters for a 9 November 1954 programme of The Goon Show, "Lurgi Strikes Britain", in which Ned Seagoon must deal with a national outbreak of a highly dangerous, highly infectious and — as it turns out — highly fictitious disease known as the Dreaded Lurgi. Folk etymologies for this word include:
- that it is a corruption and contraction of the allergy. This is not supported by the use of the hard 'g' in lurgi (rhyming with Fergie), as allergy has a softer 'g' sound similar to a hard 'j'.
- that it is based on the Northern English dialectic phrase fever-lurgy ("lazy or idle").


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Spicy Horse's web-based Worms-meets-Mother Goose trajectory shooter Crazy Fairies flies from Facebook to Android, bringing cross-platform multiplayer to the Droid-loving masses.
Crazy Fairies is a turn-based shooter in the same vein as the PC classic Worms, with a heaping helping of American McGee's penchant for twisted fairy tales. Players choose a character from several fantasy archetypes and then take to the battlefield in single and multiplayer shooting matches. They'll collect fantastic weapons, level up their characters, and participate in massive online tournaments against fellow Android players, browser gamers and, eventually, iOS warriors.
Grab Crazy Fairies for Android for free at Google Play, or just go play it on the web. It's a heck of a good time.


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Christine Wu appeared in one of the year's most viral videos thus far: Billy Ray Cyrus' hip-hop remix of "Achy Breaky Heart." She played the electric violin — while doing a backbend.
Wu, who lives in Santa Monica, is breaking new ground in the performing arts by combining dance, yoga and complicated choreography with the violin. Wu recently talked about how she trains, how movement fuels her creativity and how she's carved out her niche career.
You do yoga and ballet as well as working out at the Venice Beach gym. How does your exercise regimen help with the physicality of playing the violin?
I have to stay fit, otherwise it's hard on your body to sit there and play, and you also don't have the stamina to play. You always have to be on the go, carrying your instrument and working out regularly really gives you that energy.
Plus you get muscle imbalance. I'll be really skewed to one side from holding the violin — this [latissimus dorsi] is stronger than that [latissimus dorsi]. I know some violinists who get surgery because their whole body just gets cramped and out of balance. It's asymmetrical. Plus, yoga strengthens your core and makes you more aware of your posture, which is important for violin.
You're known for doing acrobatic-style moves while playing. How do you learn and practice that?
When I was a little kid, maybe 7, I would do dance positions and play at the same time. So I kind of took that idea another step. I just wanted to do something no one else did.
To practice, I'll prance around the house on pointe shoes to see how much balance I can maintain, or I'll drop into the splits and play. I don't do Pilates anymore, but I refer to it. For instance, I'll be moving my leg, but my core is staying still. I already have the strength, so a lot of it is trying new things with the violin to see how they work.
Does your physical exercise help you as an artist?
If I'm feeling like I sound bad playing something, I'll just make myself go outside, get my feet in the sand. I try to enjoy myself like it's recess. But I'm conscious to move every day because I know that that keeps my whole spirit happy and my creative juices flowing. And I try to challenge myself — if I were to just jog three miles, I'd be like, "Ugh, that's nice, but ho-hum."
What is it about yoga and ballet specifically that's helpful for you in your playing?
Ballet is exercise, but it's also movement to music, and it informs your musical phrasing. So it's a two-for-one, at least for me. It's like doing music with your body. It's also good for the core and the form.
With yoga, it's that mindfulness of breathing and that focus. If you're trying to think about, "Oh, what was that song I was trying to write," you're going to fall on your face. You have to be in such real time — if you get into half moon and you're like, "Oh, here I am in half moon!" Kaboom! You're going to fall. With violin, there's also that real time of feeling it against the strings. So if you're super aware and you're in real time, you play better.
You're classically trained as a violinist. What made you want to start playing different genres and incorporate acrobatics into your playing?
A few years ago, I got divorced and I was like, "What just happened? How did I end up here?" So I thought, "OK, I can work through this mentally, maybe a little therapy," then I thought, "I need to exorcise this by moving. I'm going to change my life and be as joyful as possible and attract other joy to me." That's another thing exercise is good for: You move your body and shake off all that stress. Yoga is heart-opening, which is good for creativity, which is good for your life. I had all that stress and negativity, and I wanted to process my divorce, not just mentally but physically. That was a turning point.
A good fitness tool made better
L.A. brands have an inside track on sports clothing
Nick Carter sings a new tune after health turnaround


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Jon Chaffin
96 MinutesHD
IMDb: 5.8
1h 33min
Inspired by true events, 96 minutes is the story of four young lives slammed together in one shocking moment. The events of the night in ...
Country: USA
Actors: Christian Serratos, Brittany Snow, David Oyelowo, Evan Ross, Sylvia Jefferies, Justin Martin, Sharon Conley, Hosea Chanchez, Anna Enger, J. Michael Trautmann, Markice Moore, Elena Varela, Jon Chaffin, Sope Aluko, Jessie Rusu
IMDb: 7.7
95 min
While on probation, a black man begins to re-evaluate his relationship with his volatile best friend.
Country: USA
Actors: Daveed Diggs, Rafael Casal, Janina Gavankar, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Ethan Embry, Tisha Campbell-Martin, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Kevin Carroll, Nyambi Nyambi, Jon Chaffin, Wayne Knight, Margo Hall, Ziggy Baitinger, Travis Parker, Lance Holloway


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News Right to Your Inbox with E-News from SADD
"The SADDvocate" – a monthly n e-newsletter just for SADD advisors and students! This publication is packed full of tips and suggestions on making your chapter great! You'll find SADD STRONG information, fundraising opportunities, campaign calendar, partner contests, leadership development, and scholarship opportunities. A must-have resource for SADD chapters across the country!
"Now@SADD" – a newsletter by CEO Dawn Teixeira, highlighting how the Power of SADD is saving lives across the country, answering questions and conducting interviews with students, parents and experts in the field of youth health and safety. Now@SADD also highlights supporters and partners and offers unique opportunities to support the work of SADD and become involved in various aspects of the organization.
"ParentTeen Matters." – a monthly e-newsletter packed with important tips and information to keep parents informed and engaged with their teen and pre-teens. From how to start a conversation on a variety of sensitive subjects, to recognizing signs and symptoms of substance abuse and other potentially harmful issues facing teens to healthy lifestyle suggestions for the whole family.
Click here to subscribe! You can also read archived versions of both SADD e-newsletters.
Want to get involved? Connect with SADD on social media or email us at info @ sadd.org


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Author Archive
Art, and the Indie Game
There has been a trend developing recently in the indie game world. A lot of people have been giving certain developers flak for what they view as 'being uncreative', and making games with a similar style to countless other recent games. For starters, recently there have been a lot of 'silhouette' games, in terms of graphical presentation, and many players view this art direction as a sign of a lazy developer, particularly given how popular the style is becoming in some recent indie titles. This 'oversimplification' applies not just to the visual presentation of some of these games, but also to the user interface, game play, and various other elements of the game. However, some of these games are completely, utterly unique in many ways, and are often viewed as a cross between game and art. Let's take a look at a couple from European developers Boss Baddie.
Seiklus – A Surreal, and Wonderful Adventure
I've been waiting to post this one.
I'm sure many of you have already played Seiklus (pronounced 'sāke loose'). If you haven't, you absolutely should. While Seiklus doesn't seem to be all that entertaining from the screenshots, it reveals incredible creativity and depth once you jump in.
The premise of the game is simple, if strange. It begins with two amorphous characters, a male and female couple, are standing on a cliff above the clouds watching a meteor shower. By chance, a single meteorite strikes the cliff, knocking the male character off into the depths. The entire game follows you playing as this character trying to make his way back to his lover above the clouds. Silly, but a wonderful experience.
The game world is divided up into a variety of clearly defined regions. You'll go from a surreal grassy area, to silent snowy lands, and into the belly of a sea beast, to name a few. The graphics are colorful, and while simple, this adds to the appeal of the game. No other control input besides the keyboard is supported, but because of the simplicity of the game's controls, this isn't an issue.
In large part, the music in Seiklus is incredible. Even though it was all added in as an afterthought by the developer, the music sets the tone of the game perfectly, no matter which area you're in. The game simply must be played with audio enabled. There is no dialogue, and few sound effects to speak of, but they're simply not needed.
Seiklus is available as freeware as hosted by the developer here, so you have absolutely no excuse for not playing it. It's an absolutely beautiful experience, and one of my personal favorites.
Octopede – Endless Arcade Action for $1.00
Out of games to play? Looking for a deal? Me too!
This is the first in a continuing set of (hopefully) weekly posts by me, where I'll introduce you all to some great indie games for as cheap as possible.
This week's game: Octopede
Octopede is a reinvention of the basic principles of the classic Snake with a neat digital twist. The player can move in eight directions around the play area, collecting data that is used to lengthen the Octopede's tail. Every eight segments of tail can be 'cached', which increases the score multiplier, but means that those tail pieces can no longer be used as extra health when taking damage. As well, there are various weapons and abilities that need to have 'ammunition' collected first, or they will remove an un-cached segment of your tail.
The game takes place on a single, rectangular stage, as shown above. However, as you play the game, new elements are added, and the board is cleared, rebuilt, cleared, and rebuilt again. The game starts out pretty slow but starts throwing new things at you pretty quickly. You'll be dealing with viruses that chase you outright, firewalls that are best avoided, and all sorts of other enemies and bosses that will corrupt your data if they get their way.
It's actually a pretty engaging experience; trying to balance your remaining health pieces and cached multiplier can get pretty intense if you're going for the high score. The game has nice, computer-y graphics, and an awesome (if limited) chiptune soundtrack that doesn't get on your nerves even after a 20 minute run.
As far as the controls go, they might take some getting used to, but once you've gotten the hang of it, you'll be zipping all over the place. Of note is that the game also supports a gamepad input, which can make it easier to play.
The game is available as 'pay-what-you-want' over at Indievania, with a minimum of a $1.00 purchase. And it's absolutely worth it.


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Update: Measuring up the Republican Field
Last June, Kevin Collins and I co-wrote a post on measuring the ideology of the Republican presidential field. At the time, many of the candidates had yet to enter the race or had recently entered. In lieu of current FEC records for these candidates, we relied on past donations raised by those candidates' congressional or gubernatorial campaigns to estimate their positions. Thanks to the recent FEC filing deadline, there is now enough data available to re-estimate positions based solely on contributions made to the candidates' 2012 presidential committees.
In the previous version of the figure, the y-axis measured the proportion of dollars raised from small donors, which revealed a relationship between small donors and ideological extremism. In this version, the y-axis plots the proportion of funds raised from pro-life versus pro-choice sources. I calculate this by first identifying the subset of contributors in the database that have given to one of the many PACs or ballot measures that specifically advocates a pro-life or pro-choice cause. I then classify each contributor as pro-life or pro-choice depending on whether they have donated to a pro-life or pro-choice organization. For example, anyone who has made a political contribution to Right to Life, the Susan B. Anthony List, or in favor of the South Dakota abortion ban referendum is coded as pro-life; whereas anyone who has made a political donation to NARAL, the Republican Majority for Choice, or against the South Dakota abortion ban referendum is coded as pro-choice. I then calculate the pro-life/pro-choice proportions such that,
y = ($ raised from pro-life donors) / ($ raised from pro-life donors + $ raised from pro-choice donors).
Lastly, the size of the circles scales to the percentage of a candidate's donors that have made political contributions pro-life/pro-choice organizations. Roughly speaking, the larger the circle, the more important social conservatives are to a candidate's fundraising operations.
Rick Santorum, who has jockeyed hard to position himself as a champion of conservative social values, has the most pro-life position on the y-axis as well as the largest percentage of abortion activists in his donor pool (all of whom are pro-life). The percentage of donors who have supported pro-life/pro-choice organizations is much smaller for candidates like Ron Paul, whose economic conservatism appears to outweigh his vocal pro-life position. This is also the case for Herman Cain who has recently come under pressure from pro-life activists.
Mitt Romney has raised a larger proportion of funds from pro-choice donors than from pro-life donors, which might not bode well for his campaign. On the other hand, despite a crowded field of bona fide pro-life candidates, many pro-life donors still opted to give to Romney's campaign. In fact, Romney boasts a larger total number of pro-life donors than Santorum, even if they represent a much smaller percentage of Romney's overall donor base. Equally telling is that in the absence of a single viable pro-choice candidate, the Rick Perry has attracted a sizable contingent pro-choice donors. This seems to speak to the extent to which economic issues have overshadowed social issues with respect to fundraising. We will have to wait and see whether this generalizes to voters in the primaries.
Small Donors and Polarization
Heckle and Prosper
The Washington Post recently published an article on money blurts which has also been discussed at The Monkey Cage and elsewhere. I've done some research on this topic, so I thought I would recycle a plot of Joe Wilson's donors before and after his outburst.
The figure shows the ideology of Joe Wilson's contributors leading up to and following his outburst during the President's health care speech. Each point represents the ideology of an individual contributor (higher points are more conservative) and is scaled by donation amount. What I find striking about the figure is not so much the spike in contributions following the outburst but rather that a large percentage of his post-outburst donors were more conservative than anyone who had given to him before. Many of the far-right donors that Wilson activated were the same people who later made up the core of the Tea Party's fundraising base.
The flip side is that Wilson's Democratic opponent, Rob Miller, also received a substantial boost from small donors, prompted Miller to develop a national donor network centered on fundraising from the professional left. We take for granted that money blurts are strategic behavior. I find it more likely that these candidates are blurting out polarizing rhetoric for its own sake. The resulting floods of ideological money serve only to encourage partisan rhetoric. To quote fundraising superstar Alan Grayson, "There's an audience — It's clear that people want to hear the music, and I'll keep singing."
I've been researching the effect of small donors on elections and have found their influence to be highly polarizing (I'll be presenting a paper on this research later this year at APSA). While the proportion of campaign dollars coming from donors giving in small amounts is somewhere in the range of 15 and 25 percent (depending on how one classifies a small donor), the influence of small money on electoral outcomes is augmented by the tendency to target a select group of candidates. During the 2010 Midterms, ten percent of candidates reined in over fifty percent of the funds from small donors. A small donor network has become fashionable on the Hill and badge of honor on the campaign trail. Yet despite enjoying a reputation as protectors of democracy, small donors tend to be ideological warriors out to reward polarizing rhetoric and to punish bipartisanship.
Measuring up the Republican Field
(Co-written with Kevin Collins)
What will the field of candidates for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination look like? Presidential primaries tend to highlight divisions within parties, and the press has focused on moderates versus conservatives, social conservatives versus business conservatives, party insiders versus Tea Party insurgents, electable candidates versus long shots.
Some commentators, notably Nate Silver in his visualization of the potential Republican field, have depicted these dimensions as orthogonal. Specifically, he graphically depicts candidates ideological placement, status as insiders, and chances of winning. However, while Silver uses Intrade values as a measure of candidate chances, his placement of candidates on the other two dimensions is based on his judgment alone. Based on his judgment, these three dimensions appear to be unrelated to one another. However, drawing on data from federal and state campaign finance records, we can more reliably estimate both candidate ideology and reliance on large donors, which we take as a proxy measure of insider status. Based on this analysis, we show that these dimensions are in fact strongly correlated.
The figure below summarizes the 2012 Republican presidential field. The upper panel plots the proportion of funds raised from donations of $500 or less (including unitemized contributions) against candidate ideology. As is evident, more conservative candidates, particularly those affiliated with the tea party, raise a greater proportion of their funds from small donors. The circle sizes are proportional to the Intrade share prices for the respective candidates as of June 13th. The circles are colored coded based on candidacy status. Those who have officially announced their candidacy are red, those who have not yet announced are purple, and those that have decided not to run are green.
The bottom panel overlays two kernel densities drawn from the 2010 Election cycle. In red is the ideal point distribution of Republican candidates. This gives a sense of how the presidential candidates locate with respect to the party as a whole. In gray is the distribution of Republican donor ideal points, each weighted by the total amount donated during the 2010 Election cycle. This characterizes the fundraising landscape with respect to ideology.
The idea underlying measuring the ideology of candidates from campaign finance records is relatively straightforward. Contributors are assumed to prefer ideologically proximate candidates (i.e., those who share their views). A model then conditions on the ideology-based research conducted by the millions of political donors to provide estimates of candidate ideology.
When we compare the measures with those created by Nate Silver (link), reprinted below, we find that the rankings are correlated but exhibit a few large discrepancies. Silver ranks Ron Paul among the most moderate candidates, whereas the donors place him on the far right. (Paul may technically agree with Democrats on several key issues but has his own reasons.) He identifies Santorum as the most conservative candidate in the field, but Santorum's donors place him nearer the center of the Republican Party. In both cases, the candidates' DW-NOMINATE score reflects his CFscore–that is, roll call voting records consistently place Paul on the far right and place Santorum somewhere in the interior wing of the party.
Mapping candidates in this way highlights what we gain from quantitative measures of ideology. Cultural issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage happen to be strongly correlated (a pattern confirmed by looking at who donates to ballot campaigns), but they take a back seat to explaining how ideological preferences map onto political behavior and outcomes. In the end, traditional left-right economic issues best explain how a member votes and which candidates donors support.
As a point of reference, we include in the figure past Republican presidents. One of the advantages of measuring ideology from contribution records is that both candidates and contributors are typically active across multiple election cycles, which facilitates more reliable across-time comparisons (see the discussion here). If they were running today, both Bush's would locate to the left of the mean ideal point of the Republican Party, which has become steadily more conservative over the last three decades, whereas Reagan would be slightly to its right.
Candidate positions are typically stable but are subject to change, especially for candidates seeking to reinvent themselves when competing for a new office. This certainly describes Romney predicament. Romney's ideal point shifts dramatically over the course of his political career. Romney began his career with a score of 0.59 during his failed 1994 senate bid against Edward Kennedy, adopted a centrist position while running for governor, bringing his score to 0.48, and has currently settled near the center of his party with a score of 0.78.
These data come from the most recent available campaign finance records for each candidate, which do not include any current presidential exploratory or candidate committees but do include state records (for current and former governors) and older records, when the person in question has been out of office for a substantial period of time. These variations in source data could potentially bias the measures in a number of ways. First, if candidates have shifted their ideology since their last campaign record, their previous donation pattern may not reflect their current ideology. For example, Newt Gingrich's fundraising as a Member of Congress may not perfectly reflect his ideology today.
Second, states have different campaign disclosure thresholds than do the federal government. While the Federal Elections Commission reports the individual records of all donations made by any individual who donates to a candidate over $200 in total, this disclosure threshold is lower in most states. In MN and IN it is $100, and in UT it is $50. Since small dollar donors tend to be more ideologically extreme than large dollar, access seeking donors, if state candidates are receiving substantial amounts of donations in between their state and the federal disclosure thresholds, these amounts could make them appear more ideologically extreme. However, since the candidates for whom state records are used are distributed roughly evenly across the space, these differences in disclosure thresholds may not be a significant source of bias here.
Our measure of proportion raised from small donors is also in part a function of campaign finance laws. This matters for past candidates for president who fundraised subject to the $1,000 limit on individual contributions in place prior to the implementation of the BCRA during the 2004 Elections. This discrepancy make past president look as though they raised slightly more funds in small amounts than they actually did.
Variation in campaign finance laws matters much more for governors turned presidential candidates. Pawlenty, Daniels, Perry and Huntsman campaigned for governor under state laws that foster very different fundraising environments. (We rely solely federal contribution records for Romney and Palin). Minnesota's contribution limits favor fundraising from small donors whereas limits in Indiana, Texas and Utah have no limits on the amount an individual can donate to a candidate, thus favoring fundraising large amounts from a smaller set of donors.# This highlights that Pawlenty has experience fundraising in small amounts but is not particularly informative when making comparisons to other candidates. Fortunately, this will no longer be a problem as future FEC filing deadlines approach.
The Changing Politics of Health Care Professionals
The New York Times published a fascinating article last week about the changing politics of physicians. The article reports that as more physicians abandon practices for salaried positions their politics have trended to the left. This trend is also present in the contribution patterns of health care professionals.
The figure below tracks the changes across time in the ideological giving patterns of four groups of health care professionals: surgeons, nurses, mental health care professionals (restricted to psychiatrists and clinical psychologists), and all other physicians. The trends track the mean ideological position (ideal point) of donors within each group. For each election cycle, I take the subset of donors from each group that gave at least once during that cycle and calculate their ideal points based on all donations made during that cycle and cycles prior. This permits the ideal point estimates to update with time.
Here are some helpful summary statistics for interpreting the scale. The mean ideal point for the entire sample of 2.5 million individual contributors (which includes health care professionals) is -0.16. The mean ideal point is -0.66 for Democratic candidates and 0.82 for Republican candidates.
Surgeons are by far the most conservative. They are also the group that was, on average, more conservative in 2010 than in 1990. The other three groups trend to the left in varying degrees.
I included nurses to emphasize that the industry has been changing as a whole. I also included psychiatrists and clinical psychologists to emphasize that differences between groups is probably better understood as a function of self-selection into a given profession than anything else. Whatever differences in pay and work conditions exist between mental health professionals and other physicians, they would not be sufficient to explain the differences in ideology. That mental health professionals are significantly to the left of nurses reinforces this point.
Although revealing, the trend line for physicians leaves out much of the story. The mean ideological position is relatively stable, but there is plenty of action in the distribution. The 1994 and 2010 midterm election cycles represent the closest thing to electoral deja vu that we can expect to see in our lifetimes. This makes these cycles useful points for comparison. The figures below show the ideological distributions for surgeons and physicians in 1994 and 2010. The distribution for surgeons fills out a little on the left over the years but remains unimodal. In contrast, the distribution for physicians changes quite a bit. Ideologically speaking, physicians have become more evenly divided and more polarized.
These figures can help address one of the paragraphs from the article that caught my attention:
"Dr. Cecil B. Wilson, the president of the A.M.A., said that changes in doctors' practice-ownership status do not necessarily lead to changes in their politics. And some leaders of state medical associations predicted that the changes would be fleeting."
I strongly suspect that Dr. Wilson is correct in his assessment. The link between doctors abandoning private practices for salaried jobs and their changing politics is probably overblown. I attempted to get at this question by dividing the sample into physicians who report being self-employed and physicians who report having an employer. I found only a slight difference between the groups. On the other hand, I sincerely doubt that the changes will be fleeting. The changes appear to be responding to generational shifts—in particular, the influx of women doctors.
I was curious as to whether the rightward jump observed during the 2010 midterms resulted from 1) donors that had previously given to Democrats shifting their dollars to Republicans or 2) increased giving by Republican donors relative to Democratic donors. In other words, was it a case of changing minds or changing wallets? For each year, I categorize donors into one of six categories based on their giving patterns in previous cycles.
- Strong Democrat – greater than 95% of donation dollars went to Democrats in prior elections
- Lean Democrat – between 60% and 95% of dollars went to Democrats in prior elections
- Toss Up – between 40% and 60% of dollars went to Democrats in prior elections
- Lean Republican – between 5% and 40% of dollars went to Democrats in prior elections
- Strong Republican – less than 5% of dollars went to Democrats in prior elections
- New Money – first time donors/had not given in prior elections
Each bar displays aggregate amounts donated to each party. For example, the bar labeled "Strong Dem" in the 2010 panel shows that donors who in previous cycles gave 95% or more of their dollars to Democrats, gave $41 Million to Democrats and $1.5 million to Republicans.
Partisan defections by Democratic donors had little to do with the 2010 shift in favor of Republicans. (In fact, the defection rate was greater for Republicans donors.) Increased giving by Republican donors and slightly reduced giving by Democratic donors account for the lion's share of the swing. Republicans also received a larger proportion of dollars from first time donors than they had in the past. Republicans won 62 percent of the dollars from first donors in 2010, up from 44 percent in 2008 and 57 percent in 2006.
Lastly, it is worth noting that the overall rightward shift during the 2010 midterms is no larger than what we saw in other industries. Hence, I caution against concluding that the shift was in direct response to the Affordable Health Care Act.
Judicial Ideology and The Wisconsin Supreme Court Election
The Wisconsin Supreme Court election between Justice David Prosser and Assistant Attorney General JoAnn Kloppenburg has received more media attention than any state judicial election in recent memory. The race was extremely close, but following the tide-turning discovery of 14,000 unrecorded votes from Waukesha County, a Prosser victory now appears all but certain. A challenge from Kloppenburg's campaign will likely lead to a recount of Waukesha County, along with the possibility of a federal investigation, so the official outcome may take some time.
My co-author Michael Woodruff and I have been working on a paper that develops a quantitative measure of state supreme court ideology based on campaign finance records. I have come across several articles claiming a Kloppenburg victory would swing the court to the left. This naturally piqued my interest as something our measures can easily address. Below are the ideological measures (CFscores) for the current Wisconsin justices, as well as for Kloppenburg and a few other Wisconsin politicians. I measure Kloppenburg's ideology based on 32 campaign contributions made by her over the last two decades. This sidesteps the problem of measuring Kloppenburg's ideology based on a campaign that has arguably become less about her as a candidate than about opposition to Governor Walker's policies.
Kloppenburg is indeed far more liberal than Prosser, locating near Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson. In this sense, a Kloppenburg victory would move the court to the left. However, what really matters is the resulting position of the pivotal (median) justice. If Kloppenburg wins, Justice Roggensack will become the median justice. Judging by her donors, Roggensack is a moderate conservative, not a liberal. I should note that the uncertainty bound on Roggensack's estimate is unusually large, indicating that her donors are not an ideologically cohesive group. In other words, she belongs to the rare breed of candidates capable of raising funds from both liberals and conservatives. That being said, she raises the bulk of her funds from conservatives. Overall, 65 percent of Roggensack's donors are conservatives (defined as individuals with CFscores >0.5), compared with 85 percent of Prosser's donors, 24 percent of Justice Bradley's donors, and a mere one percent of Abrahamson's donors.
I will refrain from speculating on Roggensack's personal views on the union legislation or the extent to which it might influence her ruling on the matter. Yet I doubt she is eager for the union legislation to make it to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. If it does, siding with her liberal colleagues would risk gravely upsetting the majority of her donors. Unfortunately, siding with her conservative colleagues would similarly upset her liberal donors. Such is the dilemma of maintaining an ideologically diverse donor base.
Whatever the outcome, the election is an important development for the court and Wisconsin politics in general, as there is good reason to view the results as a proxy referendum on Governor Walker's policies. But regardless of which side prevails, the evidence suggests that the Wisconsin Supreme Court is destined to remain in conservative hands.
Introducing the 112th Congress
Now that the dust from the 2010 Elections has cleared, it is time to start looking at how the 112th Congress will compare to the 111th. The figure below tracks the ideological positions of the median House member, the mean Democrat, and the mean Republican since 1988. The replacement effect of the 2010 Midterm Elections is unlike anything in recent memory. The shift in the House median is two and a half times what was observed after the 1994 Election, wiping out the effect of Democratic gains in the previous two elections and then some. The 111th was the most liberal Congress in the past three decades; the 112th will be the most conservative.
The 2010 Elections had a profound effect on congressional polarization. Not only will the 112th House be the most polarized on record; 2010 will surpass 1994 as the most polarizing election cycle.
The figure below helps place the historic jump in polarization in perspective. It displays the ideological distributions of House members continuing on from the 111th Congress, alongside the distributions of the entering class of Republicans and the sitting Democrats they defeated. Two features stand out. The first is that the mean entering Republican (1.09) is substantially more conservative than the mean continuing Republican (0.82). In total, 77 percent of freshmen Republicans in the 112th Congress will locate to the right of the party median from the 111th. In other words, nearly 8 in 10 incoming House Republicans would have been on the right wing of the party in the 111th Congress.
The second standout feature is that, contrary to many media accounts, the Republican wave was an equal opportunity un-employer for Democrats. Democrats who lost their reelection bids were slightly more moderate than those who retained their seats—0.61 compared to 0.64—but the difference is statistically insignificant. The attrition rate was greater among centrist Democrats, but there were so few Democrats remaining in the political center that the losses had to come from elsewhere.
The polarization resulting from the 2010 Midterms is fundamentally different and more worrisome than what had preceded it. By historical standards, the post-war era stands out as a period of relatively low partisan polarization. This is largely attributable to the coalition between Northern and Southern Democrats. The increase in polarization during the 103rd through 105th Congress corresponds to the tail end of the Southern partisan realignment, a period during which southern districts that had traditionally elected moderate Democrats (a.k.a. Dixiecrats) began electing conservative Republicans. As the Southern Democrats gradually disappeared throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the parties became more clearly defined, thus returning congressional polarization to the historical norm.
The hollowing out of the political center explained the momentous rise in polarization during the Southern realignment. Now that only a handful of moderates remain in the House, polarization can no longer be portrayed as a story of vanishing moderates. It appears the rise of the extremists has stepped up as the driving force behind congressional polarization.


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Data file describing the biogeochemistry of samples collected at various sites near Toolik Lake on the North Slope of Alaska. Sample site descriptors include a unique assigned number (sortchem), site, date, time, depth, and category (level of thermokarst disturbance). Physical measures collected in the field include temperature, electrical conductivity, and pH.
Data Set Results
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(c) Martin Pugh
This picture of the Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as M51, won top honors in the Deep Space category and the overall competition for 2012 Astronomy Photographer of the Year. The picture was entered by British-Australian photographer Martin Pugh. Here's what the Royal Observatory says: "This beautifully composed image of the Whirlpool Galaxy combines fine detail in the spiral arms with the faint tails of light that show its small companion galaxy being gradually torn apart by the gravity of its giant neighbour. A closer look shows even more distant galaxies visible in the background."
The Whirlpool Galaxy is one of the most photogenic spirals in the known universe, but not all whirlpools are created equal: Australian photographer Martin Pugh's view of the galaxy, also known as M51, was stunning enough to win him the top prize in the Royal Observatory's Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition.
"It's a remarkable achievement by an amateur astronomer; one of the best images of M51 that I've seen," Marek Kukula, the Royal Observatory's public astronomer and one of the contest judges, said in a news release. More than 800 entries were submitted, and the observatory announced the winners on Wednesday night.
Pugh said via Flickr that he was "absolutely delighted" by the honor — but for him, this isn't exactly a novel experience: He also won top honors in the 2009 competition.
Sir Patrick Moore, who's best-known for his British TV programs on astronomy, was impressed by the level of professionalism that today's amateurs bring to their sky snapshots. "Many of the pictures have been taken with equipment that was out of the range of the amateur many years ago," he said. "I also like the choice of subjects: photographing people and the night skies is very difficult. The entrants have done very well indeed."
Take a look at these winners, and then click your way through all the favorites at the Royal Museums Greenwich website. You can also scan through thousands of archived entries at the APotY Flickr gallery, and see the photo exhibition at the Royal Observatory through February.
(c) Masahiro Miyasaka
Japan's Masahiro Miyasaka won top honors in the Earth and Space category with this shot of Orion, Taurus and the Pleiades shining in the night sky above an icy landscape. The category is for photos that include "Earthly" things along with an astronomical subject. Miyasaka's entry, titled "Star Icefall," included a poem about the view: "The stars fell from the heavens. / The stars transformed themselves into an icicle. / Stars sleep eternally here."
(c) Chris Warren
The sun shines through the clouds during June's transit of Venus, as seen in this prize-winning photo from Britain's Chris Warren. The picture, captured through a hydrogen-alpha filter, won top honors in the Our Solar System category. Venus is visible as a black spot toward the sun's upper right edge."Our first and only glimpse of the transit before third contact, through a thin patch in the clouds at Blackheath in London," Warren writes.
(c) Jacob von Chorus
Fifteen-year-old Jacob von Chorus of Canada won top honors in the Young Astronomy category with this view of the Pleiades star cluster. "This image was a test to see what would happen with such a long exposure," von Chorus writes. "It was taken near dusk, with only two frames and an hour of exposure. This image has since become one of my best." The Young Astronomy category is for photographers under 16 years of age.
(c) Laurent Laveder
France's Laurent Laveder won a special award for this photo of a Venus-Jupiter conjunction on March 15, taken on the beach at Tréguennec in northwest France. "In this image, Venus is higher and on the right of Jupiter," Laveder writes. "I take my place in the lower right corner of the frame to complete the diagonal formed by me, the two planets, the Pleiades and Taurus. With my red flashlight on my head, I illuminate the beach. At low tide, the sand is wet and is reflecting the blockhouse." Laveder won the People and Space award, for photos that include people in a creative way.
(c) Lorand Fenyes
Hungary's Lóránd Fényes won the Best Newcomer award, reserved for photographers who have taken up the hobby in the past year and have not entered an image in the competition before. This picture shows the Elephant's Trunk nebula, seemingly uncoiling within the star cluster IC 1396 in the constellation Cepheus. "The Elephant's Trunk is my 34th photo," Fényes writes.
(c) Thomas Read
Twelve-year-old Thomas Read of Britain won the Robotic Scope prize with this view of the Sunflower Galaxy (M63), captured online using the Bradford Robotic Telescope in Tenerife. "I love this image, as it shows fantastic detail in the spiral arms," Read writes. "I was curious about the Sunflower Galaxy and how to maximize photographic results for a distant galaxy." The award goes to images taken by robotic or remote telescopes and then processed by the entrant.
More marvelous astronomy shots:
- Slideshow: The World at Night 2012
- MSN UK: Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2011
- Slideshow: Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2010
- All-time top 10 from Astronomy Picture of the Day
- Space Gallery at NBCNews.com
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ circles. To keep up with Cosmic Log and NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, sent to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.