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- Home
- Your Government
- Town Departments
- Administration
- Human Resources
Human Resources
The Human Resources function is dedicated to providing all current and prospective Town Employees with information and resources that will help make the employment experience with the Town of Southern Pines both professionally and personally rewarding. Any questions about employment opportunities, compensation, benefits, training, professional development or any other item related to the employment experience can be directed to one of the 5 professionals in the Administration Department.
Equal Opportunity Employer
The Town of Southern Pines is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of any protected class or disability.
Note: Due to the age and design of our facility, the Administration Building is only accessible by use of stairs. If you require reasonable accommodations to participate in a job application process, program, or activity, please contact the Human Resources Department at 910-692-7021 and we will be happy to arrange alternative accommodations.
Drug-free workplace
The Town of Southern Pines is a drug-free workplace and all employment is contingent on the successful completion of both a drug screen and a criminal background check.
What We Offer
In addition to competitive pay, the Town of Southern Pines offers many benefits to our full-time employees including:
Town Paid Benefits
- Town pays 95% of medical/pharmacy/vision benefits premium for all full-time employees. (Dependent coverage is available with a cost to employees.)
- Town provided $50,000 life insurance policy for all full-time employees.
- Town provided 5% contribution to full-time employee 401k account (following completion of probation period).
- Town provided contribution to Local Government Employee's Retirement System for all full-time employees.
- Town provides a $100 per pay period section 125 contribution to all full-time employees. This can be used to offset any employee benefit cost, to purchase supplemental benefits, or can placed in a retirement or savings account.
- Paid Vacation benefits.
- Paid Personal Sick time benefits.
- 11 (*or 12) Paid Holidays annually. (*One additional day off when Christmas Day falls on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.)
Available Benefits (Require Employee Contribution)
- Dental insurance is available for full-time employees, and their families.
- Supplemental life insurance benefits are available for full-time employee, spouse and children.
- A variety of supplemental products and services are available to full-time employees, such as; Long-Term Disability, Short-Term Disability, Critical Illness insurance, and Accident insurance.
- Additional retirement savings options are available to full-time employees.


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'Daddy' - Movie Review
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Film: "Daddy"; Director: Ashim Ahluwalia; Cast: Arjun Rampal, Aishwarya Rajessh, Nishikant Kamat.
Ask any actor of some worth. It is not easy to play a known living character. Audiences and the character that you are playing, plus their close associates, judge the performance with scrutinized harshness and normally find it wanting.
Not this time. Not Arun Gawli. Not Arjun Rampal, who has shaped into one of Hindi cinema's most dependable actors who does his roles with such smooth efficiency and such noiseless excellence that we are liable to miss the point.
Don't make the mistake of confusing Arjun's laidback wisdom in portraying the gangster-philanthropist-parliamentarian-convict Arun Gawli as a Devganesque laziness. This is a power-packed implosive performance. Rampal plays Gawli as a time bomb waiting to explode. There are no extra toppings, fringe benefits, perks or bonuses to this performance.
Rampal plays it straight. Director Ashim Ahluwalia gives the actor no room to stretch out his character's inner world. Fleeting looks and fugitive gestures add up to making Rampal's Gawli one of the most comprehensive projections of guilty gangsterism in recent times.
Comparisons are not called-for. But I can't help compare Rampal's Gawli with Shah Rukh Khan's "Raees". The two sagas of Robin Hoods with furious FIRs on their wanted heads, bear many similarities. Except that Shah Ruh could never enter his gangster character's world.
Arjun goes right in. He is the only recognizable face (provided his physical and emotional transformation leaves any room for recognition) in the vast cast of what I suspect to be several real-life anti-socials. Cannily, the director builds the quirks around killings and feuds of criminal clans through actors who surrender to their characters with a brutal velocity.
Watch out for Rajesh Shringapure as Gawli's accomplice Rama and Farhan Akhtar playing Dawood as so cool, you may confuse the jungle for the greenery. There is a brilliant conniving female character Rani (played with smouldering slyness by Shruti Bapna) who uses sex as an ATM machine. Rani tells part of Gawli's stories. Other people associated with his life tell the rest.
The editors piece together the saga with layered urgency. This is not an easy story to tell or for us to comprehend. There is no room here for any actor, least of all Rampal, to strut with guns and appear even remotely macho. If you are looking for a stylish take on gangsterism, look elsewhere.
Besides its technical excellence, the biggest achievement of "Daddy" is its portrayal of violence as swift, repugnant and utterly ugly. The shootouts and here I would like to commend action director Shyam Kaushal, are brutal, terse and to the point. The killers do their business with swift professionalism leaving no room for self-congratulatory paeans to violence that Tarantino, Coppola and nearer home, Mukul Anand and Mani Ratnam have specialized in.
In one notably savage attack, a petty gangster infiltrates a jail cell and pounds an inmate to a pulp after shooting him. What we see is the gut-churning fury of violence in all the graphic sequences of gangrenous gang wars where we hear every bone crunch with the wince-inducing impact of a blow delivered in our popcorn-munching faces.
For me, the real hero of "Daddy", besides Rampal (and some, not all, of his co-actors) is the sound editor Sangik Basu followed by the cinematographer Jessica Lee Agne aided by Pankaj Kumar who bring to the frames a sinking feeling of an unwashed blood-soaked doom.
The narrative spares no smiles and laughter in portraying Gawli as a reluctant gangster forced to pull the trigger against his better judgment. There are smirks galore, though. I've yet to see a film that has more characters displaying sneering contempt for their adversaries. If there are five characters on screen, each one is doing something that will drive the plot forward.
In one brilliantly conceived shootout, the policeman Vijaykar (Nishikant Kamat, unrecognizable) ceaselessly on Gawli's trail, interrogates Gawli's mother (veteran Usha Naik).
"Does he owe you money? Why are you after his life?" she mumbles.
Strain hard to listen. The sounds of death, violence, corruption and decay are omniscient in this saga of a man who would rather be a messiah. The problem here is there are so many characters colonizing Gawli's perverse kingdom played by actors who don't act, and the unsparing editing (Deepa Bhatia, Navnita Sen Dutta) that won't let the audience breathe in the toxic fumes of fury for long. Consequently, many of the dark disturbing characters are lost to us.
So here's what we do: watch the film very very closely. It is a difficult but finally hugely rewarding experience. The performances are so minutely non-bravura that the characters are so into their world of self-destruction that we are left looking in without ever being allowed to be part of the design of doom.
See the film, maybe twice over to get the nuances. See it for the austere unflinching portrayal of violence. For sounds and visuals that do not afford us the luxury of aesthetic gratification. And most of all, for Arjun Rampal's powerful performance that creeps up on us without warning.
I would call it a tour de force but for the abject absence of flamboyance in the presentation.
Rating: 4/5
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text:
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I just posted this to my Windows Phone Secrets blog, but I thought it would be interesting to SuperSite readers as well:
I received word back from Microsoft on my connector query. It turns out that Windows Phones will not use the Zune connector as some had hoped. Indeed, the otherwise rigid Windows Phone 7 Series hardware specification does not stipulate a physical interface of any kind, even mini-USB. So device makers are free to implement their own device-to-PC/charging solutions, and we'll likely see a mix of mini-USB, micro-USB, and even (shame) proprietary connectors on Windows Phones.
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text:
A landmark representing Korea, how much do you know? Korea's representative landmark to let the running man know directly! The best performers of Korea gathered there! Solve the missions in various places and get out of there until the next morning through game! Through constant confrontation and urgent confrontation, we will reveal the hidden behind-the-scenes of Korean landmarks!
Please enter at least one translation of name
Please select mark


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(5.5 kilometers)
2.5 hours
2.5 hours
Difficulty: 10/10 if on a really hot summer day. 8/10 otherwise because of the bushwhacking and steep steps. 575m elevation gain. You can do it the other way; taking minibus #1 from Choi Hung, getting off at Fei Gno Shan Road and climbing up from the East-side which has stairs, then it would be a 6/10.
Cel phone coverage: Everywhere
Water needs: 1 liter
Transportation: Start at Diamond Hill MTR station exit C. You can walk back to Choi Hung MTR, or take minibus 1 on Clear Water Bay Road.
Why it's worth it:
Off of Diamond Hill MTR exit C, head left towards Nan Liang Garden |
Nan Liang Garden |
Very pretty |
Exit Nan Liang on the North, on Fung Tak Road, then take Chi Lin drive straight ahead |
Go through Hammer Hill Park |
Left after the park, onto Hammer Hill Rd |
Then after about 100m, right onto Ping Ting Rd at the school |
Then, about 70m onto Ping Ting, climb the service stairs to you left |
Straight |
Stay on the paved steps |
Straight and down slightly |
Straight at this pavilion; the trail is behind the pavilion |
Right at Jat's Incline Rd |
40m in, head left; you'll see the steps |
These steps... |
Quite shaded up to this point |
Summit in sight! Get to the tower. When you are done, the path down is pretty much straight from the bushwhacking trail you came from. And there are steps! Much better |
You'll eventually get to Fei Ngo Shan Rd, head right. There's a little brook about 10m on the left though, if you want to splash some water on your face/back/any overheating parts... |


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Sunday, February 18, 2007
Hot Chocolate in Costume
Start time: 16:00
Place: Gran Caffè Quadri
Organizer: C.C.I.
Hot chocolate with cakes and sweets in an elegant café in the Piazza, the Venetian Carnival time tradition since 18th Century. Dress Code: costume.
Partecipation costs: Euro 45
The Sunday of Lovers
Start time: 18:00
Place: Ca' Zanardi
Organizer: Incentive Harmony di Nicolas & Jeanne-Bénédicte Arnita
Sunday of Lovers & Award of the most romantic couple at the Ca' Zanardi, in the authentic Venice, 16th century, first abode of the Agnello Partecipazio Dodge, with its unique setting you've been looking for. The palace will be enlightened by candlelight. Musical program: baroque quartet and lyrical singer, which will perform the aria of the most beautiful and famous love songs. Venetian Cocktail and buffet of Venetian typical cakes
The palace is accessible by its water door on the canal Santa Caterina.
Please do not hesitate to contact us for rental of costume.
Dresscode: Costume & Mask
Price 55 Euro per person
Information: Ca' Zanardi – Calle Zanardi – Cannaregio 4132 – 30121 Venice – Italy
Tel. +39 041 2410220 Fax +39 041 5237716
Mail email@example.com
To visit the palace www.best-of-italy.com/zanardi
To visit our agency www.incentiveharmony.com
Partecipation costs: Euro 55
Start time: 20:00
Place: Palazzo Pisani Moretta
Organizer: Tragicomica
In the magical night of the Carnival of 2007, candlelight in the most charming Palace of Venice, facing the Grand Canal, among precious scenographies and the 18th frescos, you'll be the welcome guests at the Mask Ball Mascheranda.
Within the fancy dress, wrapt in the mystery of one's own mask, you'll dance in the midst of either venetian and foreign masks, in the great game of transgression and seduction.
At the arrival in the main Saloon richly decorated, animators and musicians will welcome the guests entertaining them with games and performances. In the entry Saloon a mysterious aperitif will be served .
The masks will then be invited to go upstairs , where , lodged in the Tiepolo Saloon and in all the others , a grand traditional Gala dinner will be served , with a live classical music performance .
During and all along the evening , music , fantasy, entertainments , colour and warmth, will be the frame for the magic of the Party going on with a Show of international worldwide famous artists and performers , the School of Historical Dances – minuetto and contraddanza – you can attend to and the great Mask Ball in the Main Saloon with surprises and games based on the theme of the Party.
Partecipation costs: Euro 460
Start time: 20:00
Place: Ca' Rezzonico
Organizer: Associazione Internazionale per il Carnevale di Venezia
Partecipation costs: N.A.
Start time: 21:00
Place: Casin di Commercio (Procuratie Vecchie, Piazza San Marco)
Organizer: C.C.I.
A Diner Dansante in costume in one of the most esclusive places of Venice: the old Casin di Commercio at the Procuratie Vecchie in San Marco Square. During and after a refine Dinner prepared by the famous restaurant La Colomba, a Master of Dance and a baroque ensemble will involve the guests in dancing minuets, quadrilles and other group dances. Dress code: costume
Partecipation costs: Euro 250


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Safe sex. That's all that's ever been drilled in my head over the years—and rightfully so. Growing up in the era of HIV/AIDS (and a host of other STDs/STIs), staying protected was always at the forefront of my thoughts. Wrap it up. Stay strapped. No glove, no love. Don't forget your Jimmy hat… Regardless of how corny the slogan, the underlying message remained: Don't be stupid and wind up catching something or getting some girl pregnant. The only problem is that message worked just a little bit too well.
Aside from a few pre-stroke and pokes in my youth—a pregnancy scare ended those foolish indiscretions early on though—my premarital sex life was all about condoms. I wasn't one of those guys who claimed it didn't "feel right" with a rubber. My health and life meant too much to me to play Russian roulette for a few moments of pleasure. What's wrong with that, right? Well, my stringent safe sex stance led me to the conclusion that I'd always wear a condom even when I'm married.
Whenever I made that announcement, people always gave me side-eye like, "That's one of the perks of getting married—raw sex. You must be planning to cheat." No, not at all. It's just that along with protecting you from STDs/STIs, condoms are also helpful in pregnancy prevention. I've always said that I wanted to be married for a while before kids came into the picture so that my wife and I could have a stronger foundation for our future family. Even now that I'm a newlywed; my stance hasn't changed.
Dating for several years before getting married, my wife knew about my view on post-marriage condom use, but it was no big deal at the time because marriage and kids weren't on the immediate horizon. However, once we got engaged and later started our 60-day bout of celibacy leading up to The Big Day, conversations about consummating our marriage on wedding night started to come up. When I restated my aversion to having unprotected sex, she turned to me and gave me side-eye like, "That's one of the perks of getting married—raw sex."
Suddenly, something that for years was only hypothetical was now being put to the test. While I was intrigued by the prospect of skin-to-skin contact with my bride to be on our wedding night and beyond, I knew she wasn't on birth control and the prospect of her getting pregnant at this stage in our lives scared me. I want to enjoy the transition from boyfriend and girlfriend to husband and wife for a bit before making that shift to daddy and mommy. Having sex without some sort of birth control throws that plan out the window and leaves the how and when of how our family grows completely up to chance.
After a brief discussion my wife promptly made an appointment to see her GYN to get back on birth control. Even with her Nuva Ring prescription refilled, I still wasn't confident in putting all my trust solely in some magic ring. Knowing that my condom conundrum might ruin the romance of our wedding night, I found myself searching for a happy medium.
In the past I'd always made sure to use spermicide-laced condoms in the event one broke, so I figured there had to be a way to find lubricant with Nonoxynol-9 but I perused the shelves of several drugstores to no avail. Eventually I took to the Internet and had better luck. DrugStore.com carried a miracle elixir known as PrePair, a personal lubricant laced with sperm killer. I placed my order and a few days later the inconspicuous package arrived in my mailbox.
Needless to say, everything I thought about my wedding night involving a condom went right out the window and my wife and I are happier for it. While the label clearly states that "PrePair is NOT a contraceptive and should not be used alone to prevent pregnancy," combined with my wife's NuvaRing, it allowed me to feel more comfortable in enjoying "one of the perks of getting married—raw sex."
Would you be offended if your spouse wanted to use a condom on your wedding night? Sound off!
Mr. and Mrs. Rocque are the couple formerly known as Anslem Samuel and Starrene Rhett, New York-based journalists who found love in between bylines. Follow the newlyweds' musings of a marriage in progress here, on Twitter and via their joint blog.


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I am wondering why seeing two grown men so
distraught at only coming second in the double skulls is sticking in my head so
much. Super Saturday brought so many scenes of great triumph for the GB team;
people over coming, striving, working so hard to get the ultimate reward, a
gold medal. Whilst I loved all those winning moments for the GB team I still
can't quite shake those shots of the exhausted pair as the floated on the water
and just cried in front of the packed stands and afterwards in a brief painful
interview with the inconsolable Zac Purchase he said,
"The emotional side is always
difficult. When you put everything in and you lose, there is no hiding place.
…We'll spend days, weeks, months, the rest of our lives, trying to work out if
we could have done more."
am of course always drawn to the plucky loser, gracious in defeat, it is almost
part of our cultural DNA. The maternal in me wants to hug them and say those
words we say to our children when they don't pass their driving test, get relegated
to the back row of the ballet class, don't get picked for the team, don't get
the grades they need, get pipped at the post for their dream job, "Well you did
your best, that's all you can do". The taking part, the endeavour is what's
important not the winning, the need to make someone feel better about the
situation and themselves drives us to believe that. Top athletes however want
to be the best they can be but 'the best', measuring yourself against others'
performances, is what it is all about and the best they can be is to be first. The
nature of the winning professional beast is that you do have to judge yourself
and be judged by others and be found short of the mark.
Innate talent is a given but everything else is up for grabs. Usain Bolt
may be too tall to be a sprinter but be blessed with super fast twitch muscle
fibre by virtue of his genetics but that is all; the rest has to be hard work.
There may be hundreds out there who could have exactly the same physical and
genetic requisites but circumstance and personality and opportunity is what
will make all the difference…and the need to win must be up there with the
other circumstances and attributes.
I sometimes work with children with such
low self esteem that winning is never a valid option the whole of their being
denies them that vision. They can rip up a picture they have drawn if you tell
them how good it is. To be good at something, you first have to be comfortable
with the concept of being good at something. The GB Team in general has broken
through to that place where winning is not just a lovely perk of taking part,
you have the right to want it and work to achieve it and be devastated if you don't achieve your goal.
Perhaps devastation is the price you have to
pay for that level of belief. This same belief fuels and drives athletes to
train in bleak wet weather, spend hours pounding the roads or in the gym or on
the track, go to bed when others are going out on the town to enjoy themselves and makes them grasp the nettle of being lonely and separated from those you love. A personal
best is not the consolation prize at the top levels and even lower down it is
still the wooden spoon because if you have given so much, your all, you have to
believe that you are doing it so you can win and be the best. Keeping things inproportion is exactly what they are doing when they weep at not winning. Good sportsmanship does not preclude being angry at yourself for falling short of what you dared to strive for.
The relationship between performance and sponsorship
and monetary rewards is a huge part of the equation now. Mo Farah and his
family will have a better life financially because he has won Olympic gold.
Jess Ennis will always have a job when her heptathlon win is just an old clip
they run on TV but part of the qualities that will sustain them in their post
Olympic careers is that they have been the best in the world and that being the
best in any other walk of life you choose to enter is an option.
In some countries, where young people want to have the sort of life they see top
athletes having, it is acceptable to want to emulate sporting heroes and
become famous because their fame is legitimised through hard work. The successful sportsman or woman have always inspired young people but in this media savy age the opportunity to be seen to do what you do best, winning, has been increased a million fold. Someone I met recently told me about their experience of watching the Kenyan athletes in the last Olympics in a Kenyan township in a school hall where satellite TV had been installed. He spoke about how nearly every child there saw a real possibility for themselves and not just a spectacle.
Others here who gain celebrity status through fly
on the wall TV or other routes are regarded as passing fluff and tomorrow's
chip paper. Sporting heroes with their face on bill boards or advertising banks
or trainers have achieved their status through 'righteous endeavour', they have
literally sweated for it over years, their fame has longevity and cultural
I wonder if our excitement at having a
plethora of sporting heroes to embrace now is not just about them being an
inspiration for future generations to get off the sofa, switch off the computer
and participate in some sport. All cultures need their mythic heroes and if
they don't have them they create them out of what the media serves up to them . Perhaps deep down we are rejoicing that
we may now have, not just one or two heroes but a whole pantheon of them…there
they are on top of the heap, standing on Mount Olympus
smiling down at us, affirming that it is not just ok to win, it is what we have
a right to want to achieve. These are not the false gods of quick media celebrity but
are what our deeply engrained Protestant work ethic tells us is virtuous and so
we can relax and enjoy.
It isn't just the younger generation that
needs to be inspired, I know I need to feel it is ok to get teary when a GB
sportsman or woman wins and when Zac Purchase spoke he spoke for something else
in us, that regret at not winning is what you have to deal with in life because
telling yourself you did the best you could is never truely consoling or quite enough.
Regrets are ok so long as they don't become so deep we become dysfunctional.; hence the note of irony in this blog's name.
Writing as a competitive
sport is not yet eligible for the Olympics.The various glittering poetry
prizes and book awards create a thin veneer of competition about what is the
best but you can't judge poetry or prose with a stopwatch. There aren't points
for level of difficulty as in gymnastics or diving, no one would say that a
sonnet attempted quite well beats a free verse poem that is merely very good.
There may be marks for technical merit but artistic interpretation and
creativity gets a huge percentage of the marks. Having come across the marking
system for synchronised swimming I think it may be a system that could be used
for poetry and book awards but just invert the percentage of the marks allowed for technical prowess and artistry. Take a look, I think a team of synchronised swimmers
could be roughly akin to a batch of poetry books or novels and for some books you
don't need waterproof makeup, neon swimming caps and nose clips to get you through.


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Empowering Your Child
It all happens so quickly - at least that's what it seems like. One minute you're cradling your newborn and the next thing you know, he's walking, running and asserting his independence, insisting on doing things by himself, in his own time and way.
Tip to parents: don't underestimate your child. The toddler years (from 13 months to 3 years old) are an exciting stage of growth. This is the period when he encounters greater mobility. He can now move independently and with that comes a greater sense of his surroundings — which he may want to control! His rapidly developing speech skills further aid his desire to be self-reliant. Take for example, the act of brushing his teeth, a routine chore you've been helping him with. He may now want to hold the toothbrush himself and brush his own baby teeth. You know his efforts will be clumsy and probably messy. Resist the temptation to say, "It's easier if Mummy does it for you." Instead, let him have a go at it in front of the mirror, with you supervising. Once he's managed a couple of brushing actions, gently take over and efficiently complete the job.
Similarly with feeding. Sure, it's easier for you to spoon-feed him, but if junior wants to feed himself, offer some finger food on his plate (say, cheese sticks or banana chunks) and let him finish it off under your watchful eye. He will feel a sense of pride and accomplishment at what he's done. Supervise your child at all times when it comes to mealtimes to prevent choking hazards.
Build Self-Confidence
By acknowledging your child's ability to be competent at certain skills and allowing him to perform age-appropriate tasks, you are giving him not just your vote of confidence but the opportunity to accomplish something.
When children succeed at a task (like strapping on their sandals by themselves), it boosts their confidence, making them feel capable and enthusiastic about taking on the next challenge. With the completion of each successful task, coupled with your praise, their self-esteem grows, empowering them to strive for more positive behaviour.
As the toddler years advance, assess what tasks he is capable of managing on his own or with minimal supervision. Avoid doing everything for him when he is perfectly capable of following through without your help. On the other hand, don't expect him to be perfect at these new tasks. This is only the beginning of him learning how to be a responsible, helpful child.
From the age of three, there are many simple tasks a child can perform around the house. For starters, he can place his dirty clothes in the laundry basket or put his footwear in the shoe cabinet whenever he comes home from school. He may even be able to wipe up minor spills during mealtimes. Another task your child can get busy with is picking up and putting away toys. If a child is too young to tidy up all his toys at one go, make him in charge of selected items (like action figures and toy cars), while you tackle the rest of the stash. As he gets older, he should be able to put away all of whatever he has taken out. After all, he has you for a good role-model.
Small Chores, Big Results
Older pre-schoolers can be assigned with more grown-up tasks such as taking their cup and plate to the kitchen after a meal and helping Mummy dry the plastic cutlery after it's been washed. If you're not adverse to a bit of mess, let your child help in basic food-preparation duties like breaking eggs into a bowl, pouring drinking water into cups, sprinkling cheese over the homemade pizza and kneading flour. Children from five to six can be given the opportunity to handle money by buying something at the supermarket or local bakery. Let your child choose his favourite bun and hand over the right amount to the cashier. Yes, he's made his first purchase!
Remember that with each new task they attempt, children gain more experience and feel more positively and confident about themselves. When your child successfully completes a task, show support and appreciation with a smile, thumbs-up or 'thank-you'. When the most important people in their lives (that's you, Mum and Dad) cheer on their effort, it motivates little ones, empowering them with the courage to move on to new challenges. Just the kind of attitude they'll need for the years ahead.
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First Copper River salmon is delivered for a fast, heated cook-off
The first Copper River king salmon of the season -- a 40-pound specimen -- was hoisted aloft Friday morning as the annual first shipment of the prized salmon arrived in Seattle.
It was the ceremonial first fish, delivered from Alaska to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Pilots handed it over to waiting chefs for the fourth annual Copper Chef Cook-Off. This year, three area chefs were joined by an Air Force Reserve chef.
Pat Donahue, executive chef at Anthony's Restaurants, has dominated the competition, winning all three previous contests. But this year, he was knocked off his perch by John Howie, executive chef at Seattle's Seastar. The other two contestants were Master Sgt. Robert Shulman and Chris Bryant of Wildfin American Grill.
MORE: How the Copper River salmon craze began
The chefs had 30 minutes to prepare and serve the salmon. The panel of judges this year included Seattle Mariners Hall of Famer Jay Buhner and Mike Fourtner, deckhand on the Time Bandit, one of the crab-fishing vessels featured on TV's "Deadliest Catch."
Defending champ Donahue told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday that Anthony's patrons start calling the Washington-based restaurants in early May, wanting to know when the Copper River kings will arrive. "There is great excitement around the first salmon arriving," he said.
"Many people do not know that the Copper River is primarily a sockeye run," Donahue said. "We have very knowledgeable guests -- some prefer the kings and others the sockeye."
The king salmon are known for their high oil content -- "we love to char-grill them." The sockeye "have a brilliant red color and are ideal for roasting on an alder plank."
"We love to do simple preparations that showcase the flavor of the salmon and pair them with fresh local ingredients" such as rhubarb, asparagus and chives, he said.
Donahue says the annual contest spurs him and his team to get creative with new salmon recipes. No word yet on his 2013 creation, but last year's recipe really made use of the rhubarb. Alaska Airlines shares the recipe: Copper River king alder planked with morel strata, rhubarb huckleberry relish and rhubarb coulis.
Friday's planeload carried 24,600 pounds of fish, according to the Associated Press, and Alaska Airlines had scheduled three more salmon flights Friday. The airline says it will ship more than 2 million pounds of salmon this year across its 95-city network.
Tofu on the menu at Chipotle? It's happening
Kroger turns spoiled food into electricity; what are your ideas?
Smugglers provide KFC delivery to Gaza Strip; they advertise on Facebook
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Face Candy checks out MAC's new Beauty Powder Blushes.
The Makeup Divas reviews 2 eye shadows from a new cosmetic line called Mellies Makeup.
15 Minute Beauty Fanatic tries out Elizabeth Arden's new Intervene Foundation and loves the results!
Makeup Moxie reviews Calvin Klein Tempting Glance Intense Eyeshadow.
The Muse shares her current beauty addictions and asks what are some of yours?
Touch of Blusher will be buying the latest fragrance from Stella McCartney.
Mischo Beauty shares why she loves Wella Salon Professional Power Mask.
The Beauty of Life falls down the rabbit hole for the Alice in Wonderland nail lacquers from Goldie!
Beauty Blogging Junkie kicks off Wash Me Amadeus Week with Dermalogica Clearing Skin Wash.
Beauty and Fashion Tech reviews Philosphy A Pigment of Your Imagination, a suncreen and melasma treatment in one.
Temptalia tells you whether the Zeno Acne Clearing Treatment Device is worth it!
SugarShock is having a Hair Plump Showdown: it's T3 360 Plump versus Fekkai All-Day Hair Plump. Find out who comes out on top!
Beauty Anonymous shares her experience with DHC in the US.
The Beauty Blog Network welcomes newest member Mischo Beauty to the network.
Elke starts her 5 part series on Eyebrow No-No's and how to fix them.
Stylish Opinion ponders which manicure to get from Dashing Divas…….. the Spoiled Diva or the All Out Diva?
Beauty and Personal Grooming writes about the alternative uses of lip gloss.
Raging Rouge dives into the Spring 2008 Urban Decay collection, including reviews of Loose Pigment Eyeshadow and 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils!
Mystical Beauty's Musings overhears a conversation about Bacon Perfume, and asks if you would wear it.
Beauty Banter goes behind the runway at L.A. Fashion Week to get the scoop on the beauty inspiration…
Glossypink tells you how to get Rachel McAdams' ravishing look!
makeup loves me is having a giveaway with whole foods for some dr. hauschka products! hurry over to get yourself entered!
Looking for a liquid liner that's easy to use and makes your eyes POP? Look no further…Spoiled Pretty has found it! Plus, enter our Chloe and Jane giveaway!
Karen from Makeup and Beauty Blog shows you how to make your eyeshadow colors look bolder and brighter with MAC Cream Color Base in Pearl.
Are high-end brands better than drugstore brands? The Daily Cookie weighs in and compares two toners to find out.
Pursebuzz.com takes a trip to LA for LA's fashion week. Gregory A., M.A.C senior artist gives her a chance to pick his brain. Find out what his top favorite tips are and more here.
And just in case you missed ours:
Emo Hairstyles are all the rage and totally cool – StyleBell asks: Do you have scene hair?


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Christopher Irion &
Michael Garlington @111 Minna
May 2006 2 Photo Exhibitions and Booksigning
Michael Garlington: Portraits from The Belly of the Whale
Christopher Irion: The PhotoBooth Across America
111 Minna
May 4, 2006
Slap photo editor and Michigan being fromer, Joe Brook.
These big Gap/ Mac/ Richard Avedon looking like photos are from Christopher Irion. Liked the ones featuring kids. They had sort of a Norman Rockwell vibe to them.
Sacha Eckes and Ro... Their third Tuesdays sketch Tuesdays starts in about a week.
Michael Garlington's photos below. Liked the 6th St portraits.
< Prev | Next > |


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Dream Catcher
Are you ready to take a spin on the wheel of fortune in the awesome Dreamcatcher?
Dream Catcher
- Live presentation of a wheel of fortune style spin game
- Players have a choice of 6 numbers on which to place bets
- The wheel is divided up into 54 equal segments
- There are 2 unique special multiplier segments available on the wheel
- The silver segment is a 2x multiplier and the gold segment is a 7x multiplier
- When the wheel stops the pointer indicates the winning segment on the wheel
- If the wheel stops on a multiplier segment all bets hold for another spin
- When the wheel stops on any subsequent spin the multiplier is applied to wins
- Successive multipliers are added together helping players hit big prizes
- Return to player rated at 96.58%
If you like live action then you'll love a bit of Dreamcatcher. This fast paced gambling game is available as a real stream with a host keeping you updated on all the latest action and excitement.
Dreamcatcher is a wheel of fortune style game, designed to appeal to slots players. The wheel is separated into 54 segments with 2 bonus segments. These are the silver 2x multiplier segment and the gold 7x multiplier segment.
Payout odds are easy to remember. Players can play on 6 numbers – 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 40 and the odds are the same as the number. So for instance a bet on the number 2 will pay a return of 2:1 on any bet.
Should the wheel stop on a multiplier section then all the bets on the grid remain in place and the winning bets on the next spin will be modified by the multiplier. If the wheel stops in another multiplier, then this is combined with the current multiplier to create even bigger winners.


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Rewards card ninjas have long loved hotel rewards cards because the associated loyalty programs tend to be a lot more generous and easy to use than airline cards.
That may be changing.
Brian Kelly at The Points Guy has an excellent series of posts on the coming changes in hotel rewards programs, and there's not much good news. (You can start with his post "The State of Hotel Loyalty Programs: A Devaluation Story.") Starwood and Marriott are diluting their programs, but some of the most dramatic changes are in the Hilton HHonors program, which will not only require more points for most stays but will upgrade a bunch of properties to higher, more expensive categories. Hotels like the Conrad Tokyo will go from 50,000 points per night to 80,000 to 95,000 points.
In a warning to hotel loyalty programs, Kelly says these changes could come back to haunt them:
As you hack away more and more of the value proposition, I think you'll realize that consumers are actually pretty smart and will start shifting their spend towards chains that actually reward loyalty and not punish it. This may not come in the form of traditional points, but many boutique hotels offer far more enriching experiences with more amenities and at cheaper prices. This Hilton devaluation was so brazen that I do think it will hurt them dearly in the end when Amex and Citi cardholders reduce their spend or cancel their cards. In fact, if the impact is so negative, I could see those issuers coming after Hilton since there are likely clauses in the contracts that state that Hilton can't materially change the program (since the credit card companies are buying millions of dollars worth of points that their cardholders can use at a later time and date). I'll be complaining to both American Express and Citi about the Hilton changes and hope everyone else considers doing so as well if you don't like the changes.
Even if you plan to stay loyal to your card, the program devaluations underscore what has always been true: you don't want to hoard rewards. Earn 'em and burn 'em to make sure you get the most value.


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High quality, handmade calf leather strap for perfect wearing comfort. In dark brown color, white contrasting yarn and with very smooth leather surface made from Italian calf leather skins.
- Material: Italian calf leather
- Color: Dark brown
- Width: 22 mm
- Length: 135/80 mm
- Thickness: ca. 4,8 mm
Attention: Watch is for display purpose only and not included!


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Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush
If you liked Episode one, please be sure to leave a comment!
Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush
If you liked Episode one, please be sure to leave a comment!
Great job!!! Looking forward to the next one. Have fun with it!
What other knitting podcasts do you like to listen to?
Only issue: Was not able to use FireFox to listen...had to "downgrade" to IE7.
Awesome job! Can't wait for the next one! Can't wait for the KAL too!:) Hearing your voice makes me feel like I'm right in the store with you...my favorite store too! Miss ya! hugs
Great podcast thankyou for mentioning the necklace.Hugs Darcy
I just finished listening to your first episode, and will definitely stay subscribed. You have a lovely storytelling style, and you've done some fun things with the audio, which is especially impressive for a new podcaster. I'll look forward to hearing more!
Oh, and I also read your discouraged podcast about the rejections from Knitty. I think your Amelie sock pattern is lovely, and I definitely wouldn't see the no's from Knitty as a comment on the quality of your patterns. In fact, I recently listened to Craft Sanity's interview with Amy Singer, in which she talked about the staggering number of submissions they get now, and how much she feels she has to balance not only the quality of the patterns, but also the variety.
loved the first podcast! You and I have a lot in common - crocheters first; self-taught knitters; teaching others (the first class I taught was socks to teen girls!). I am sooo looking forward to getting to know you! BTW, I am sykesmom2 on Ravelry!
Do you have a link that I can put in my podcast program? I don't use itunes, so I have to have the rss address to download it... is is mypodcast? (my program doesn't have a search engine for podcasts) Thanks... look forward to more!
very nice, I love it! Now to catch up... I have this OCD about reading every post in every new blog I find.
Oh, the disaster of double pointed needles. I bought my first needle in a craft store and guess what? A pack of DPNs have only 2 needles on it. So I though it's fine since I'm just a beginner and no idea if I'm going to like knitting or not. Turns out, there should be 4-5 needles in the packs and my yarn is way bigger for needles.


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Professor J. David Rhodes received the OBE and CBE from the Queen and also several Technology and Export Awards, along with distinguished prizes from such learned societies as the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society, the IET and the IEEE. He is also a fellow of the IEEE, IET, RAE, The Royal Society and a Foreign Associate of the Academy of Engineering (USA). He founded Filtronic plc more than 30 years ago and grew it into an international microwave company with ten operations on four continents. He retired four years ago and has grown a new business within the private company Isotek Electronics Ltd. in the area of microwave sub-systems, which has recently been acquired by Filtronic plc.
MWJ: After receiving your PhD in 1966 you worked for a brief period in the US. What was your motivation for making this step and what did you gain from it?
Rhodes: I was invited in 1967 by Drs. Henry Riblet and Ralph Levy to join MDL (Microwave Development Labs) in Natick, MA, to work on new developments in microwave filters and was encouraged to accept the offer by Leeds University to gain appropriate industrial experience. It was a motivating experience.
MWJ: In 1969 you returned to the University of Leeds as a lecturer in Electrical Engineering. Having gained a reputation in microwave engineering what prompted you to return to academia?
Rhodes: I always wanted to do research work within the university and after 18 months in the US I was offered a position in Leeds at one fifth of the US salary. I hesitated and decided to speak to Dr. Riblet, for whom I had a great respect, for a salary rise to stay with MDL. When asked what salary I required, he thought for a short while and said, "For that we can afford to let you go". Hence, I returned to the UK but retained a consultancy with MDL.
MWJ: What were your main areas of research at that time?
Rhodes: My main R & D activity was on linear phase filters with some abstract work on propagation in inhomogeneous waveguides.
MWJ: While maintaining a part time role at the University of Leeds you founded Filtronic. Was this a difficult decision to take and what motivated you to do so?
Rhodes: In addition to consulting for MDL, I was also a consultant to Ferranti in the UK. Numerous new filter products were required for the Tornado aircraft but no company investment was forthcoming without it being fully funded by the Ministry of Defence. Thus, I founded Filtronic to design and produce the initial products which Ferranti could then manufacture in volume without any risk. Funding for Filtronic came primarily from research contracts with the European Space Agency for satellite borne filters and selling software for the design of multiplexers.
MWJ: Up until 1989 the company concentrated on developing components for electronic warfare. What significant products were developed during that period?
Rhodes: Many filter based products were developed for both airborne and shipborne requirements. Many of the products were based in Suspended Substrate Stripline technology producing compact filters and multiplexers. Additionally, the technology was used in a new form of reflection mode digital frequency discriminator using three phase devices and also in a new type of switched multiplexers. These switched devices were designed into the B2 interferometer receivers, and could operate in 216 different states whilst maintaining phase tracking.
MWJ: Describe your decision to move into the base station and mobile phone business and the formation of Filtronic Comtek (UK)?
Rhodes: The amount of engineering time required to produce a new product is independent of the volume produced. In defence requirements a few hundred products are required whereas in mobile communications, tens of thousands are required for base stations and tens of millions for the handset market. The key to the entry into the base station filter market was that we knew how to design and manufacture products to meet the theoretical optimum characteristics whilst meeting the high power and low passive intermodulation requirements at an acceptable cost.
MWJ: In the early to mid '90s Filtronic actively established and acquired new companies. What was the business strategy behind this activity?
Rhodes: In the '80s three attempts were made to establish a presence in the US defence market and all failed due to the non-US control. Thus, after the commercial activity was commenced in the UK a new operation was set up in the US to develop along similar lines and grew quickly after Filtronic Comtek became a public company in 1994.
In 1998 four companies were acquired – Filtronic Components Ltd., L.K. Products, Sage Laboratories and the Santa Clara division of Litton Industries, in addition to raising $170 million in the US Bond Market. The first was to reconsolidate all of the activities of Filtronic; the second in the handset market in Finland but primarily to establish a base station facility to supply Nokia in Finland; the third to establish a defence business in the US and the fourth to acquire a compound semiconductor capability.
MWJ: What were the drivers for Filtronic's evolution into the compound semiconductors market and specifically the acquisition of the Fujitsu semiconductor plant in Newton Aycliffe?
Rhodes: Filtronic did not own any of the underlying technology in its products but only a unique engineering capability which it had successfully exploited. It was believed that future integrated designs in microwave engineering would require this capability. After persuading Prof. Snowden to leave Leeds University in 1998 to join Filtronic to develop a world beating compound semiconductor facility, we looked for a surplus DRAM lab in the UK. We purchased the Newton Aycliffe facility in 1999 which had cost $500 million to build for $20 million and set about establishing it as a PHEMT facility using stepper technology on 6 inch GaAs wafers. This proved to be very successful and eventually was producing more than one million multiway switches on a daily basis for the handset market. Other products included multifunction modules for the point to point market, power amplifiers for the phased array radar market and broadband optical modulators.
MWJ: Explain the effect that the slump in the mobile communications market had on Filtronic?
Rhodes: Filtronic did not experience a significant decline in sales mainly due to the position it had established in various markets. However, during the last five years most of its businesses have been sold.
MWJ: When did you end your involvement with Filtronic and what have been your business/R&D interests since?
Rhodes: I left Filtronic nearly five years ago. Shortly afterwards I was approached by the central R & D group to see if I would be willing to form a new filter based wireless infrastructure business. I owned a separate successful business, Isotek, which designed and supplied hyperbaric welding equipment for oil and gas pipes on the seabed. I used the income from this business to support the new activity which has grown and expanded into the US over a four year period. The wireless infrastructure business was sold to Filtronic in November 2010 for around $17 million.
During this period my R & D interests have been in developing new types of combiners for introducing WCDMA and LTE into existing GSM and CDMA base stations. Also, I have managed to devote a significant amount of time on the large signal behaviour of non-linear microwave devices.
MWJ: You are both an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), which you received from the Queen. What does it mean to be recognised by your country?
Rhodes: It is a privilege and honour to be recognised by the Queen for my contributions to research, engineering and industry.
MWJ: You have also received distinguished prizes from such learned societies as the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society, the IET and the IEEE. What does it mean to receive such recognition from the microwave industry?
Rhodes: Most of the prizes have been for research work in circuits and systems and microwave engineering. It is very satisfying to be recognised by others for the original contributions which I believe I have made over several decades.
MWJ: This year's MTT-S IMS will be held in Baltimore, Maryland. The region has a history of filter development that you contributed to. Can you explain how?
Rhodes: When I was at Filtronic we had six operations in the US in addition to those in the UK, Finland, Australia and China. The first commercial activity was in Maryland providing base stations filters for the wireless infrastructure market and rapidly increased in size to a level of sales exceeding $100 million. Three years ago, Isotek Electronics established a new wireless infrastructure business in Maryland which has subsequently been acquired by Filtronic.
MWJ: You will be a plenary speaker at the 2011 MTT-S IMS? After all your achievements do you still get a buzz from participating at such microwave events?
Rhodes: I consider it an honour and a pleasure to present new technical information at any technical conference. Ten years ago, I vowed never to present another lecture on business development and have stuck to that vow.
MWJ: You will be considering the "Migration of WCDMA and 4G LTE into Existing Cellular Bands". Without giving too much away what will be your key messages be?
Rhodes: The simple answer is come and see. However, I will present in the simplest way possible how to combine new WCDMA and LTE base stations onto existing antenna structures supporting GSM and CDMA systems in such a way that any operator may gradually migrate to full 4G coverage on existing cellular bands without disrupting existing customers.
MWJ: What current areas of microwave R&D do you see having significant impact in the future and why?
Rhodes: I find this particular question very difficult to answer. It is easy to identify areas of research which are fundamentally wrong and have no meaningful applications. However, I still believe in the role of integrated circuits on compound semiconductor substrates. On a personal note related to my own work, I do believe that power amplifiers with a very high efficiency for signals with a 10 dB peak to average ratio would be very desirable for many applications.
MWJ: Professor Snowden once described you as being an outstanding engineer with the achievements of a highly successful entrepreneur and businessman? What is your philosophy for successfully combining engineering and business?
Rhodes: I am a research engineer and mathematician. I found that developing businesses was a necessary activity to be able to do the creative research work. Business is no more than applying common sense to produce products which customers want at the right price, ensuring that you protect your intellectual property rights. You also need to know your market and be willing to take appropriate levels of calculated risks.


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TO: Reporters and Editors
FROM: Jamie Raskin, Senior Fellow, People for the American Way Foundation
DATE: May 24, 2013
RE: Blockbuster Decisions Coming Soon from the Supreme Court . . .Will Conservative Justices Twist the Constitution to Subvert Equal Protection?
The Roberts Court will soon release major decisions shaping the future of voting rights protection, affirmative action in university admissions, and the rights of marriage for gay and lesbian Americans. In each case, the promotion of equal rights under law in our society is opposed by a conservative agenda that seeks to enshrine inequality in the name of "federalism," "color-blindness," or "social tradition." What is at stake in these cases is whether America continues its journey towards strong and inclusive multi-racial democracy or accepts conservative arguments that undermine constitutional and social progress.
Congressional Protection of Voting Rights versus "Federalism Costs":
The Voting Rights Act on the Chopping Block in Shelby County v. Holder
In Shelby County v. Holder, conservatives seek to dismantle the essential machinery of modern voting rights protection, which is the pre-clearance procedure for voting changes in covered jurisdictions. This procedure is contained in Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the monumental statutory achievement of Congress in the last century. Chief Justice Roberts, in a near-miss decision on the same subject in 2009, has already expressed the sentiment of his conservative colleagues that the provision now "raises serious constitutional questions." At oral argument in Shelby County, Justice Scalia offered his view that the Voting Rights Act has become nothing more than a "racial entitlement." Despite broad bipartisan support in Congress for the Voting rights Act, including Section 5, the conservative legal movement is mobilized for its destruction.
Section 5 obligates covered states and jurisdictions to "pre-clear" changes affecting voting with the Department of Justice or the federal district courts in Washington. This procedure affects states and counties that were the worst offenders against voting rights and has been in place for nearly a half-century. Section 2 of the Fifteenth Amendment clearly gives Congress the "power to enforce" voting rights "by appropriate legislation." The Court has four times—in South Carolina v. Katzenbach (1966), Georgia v. U.S. (1973), City of Rome v. U.S. (1980), and Lopez v. Monterey County (1999)—rejected invitations by states to declare Section 5 as outside of Congress' powers under the 14th and 15th Amendments. Thus, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Arizona, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and later Alaska (along with certain jurisdictions in California, Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina and South Dakota) have had to prove that proposed changes in election laws do not disadvantage minority voters. While the Justice Departments and the courts routinely approve more than 99 percent of submitted plans, the VRA remains a critical stop against laws meant to disenfranchise racial minorities. Hundreds of state plans and thousands of proposed changes have been rejected under the law, preventing a backslide in the project of building a strong interracial democracy.
But the case against Section 5 today turns on neither constitutional precedent nor text nor the facts of political life on the ground, but rather on the talk-show fallacy that a nation which twice elects an African-American president simply cannot contain any states or counties where minority voters face actual barriers to participation. Backing up this non-sequitur intuition are constitutional myths: that Congress has to treat all states and counties the same and cannot distinguish among them based on their records of committing voting rights violations. and that the pre-clearance mechanism in the Voting Rights Act and its "coverage formula" impose far too high "federalism costs" on covered areas (i.e., it allegedly takes too much power from the states). All of these taking points are supposed to justify the Court's substituting its judgment for that of Congress and to find that Section 5 is no longer a "congruent" or "proportional" remedy, under either the Fourteenth Amendment or the Fifteenth Amendment, for threats to voting rights. But the lower courts in this case reviewed more than 15,000 pages of Congressional findings and testimony and were convinced of the continuing need for preclearance to deal with the disingenuous disenfranchising and diluting schemes in the covered areas, including voter photo ID laws, tightening restrictions on registration and at the polls, and racist gerrymanders.
The arguments against Section 5 appeal to the racial fatigue of Supreme Court arch-conservatives, who are willing to give state legislatures, a majority of which are in conservative Republican hands today, the freedom to restrict voting rights. The pre-clearance procedures of Section 5 are the major obstacle to this goal because they mean that all of the traditional hijinks of Jim Crow politics must be submitted in advance to federal judges or DOJ civil rights lawyers for approval. Rather than placing the burden on African-Americans and other minority voters to find lawyers and make the case against repressive practices after they go into effect, the covered jurisdictions have to affirmatively show that their innovations are not discriminatory or "retrogressive" before the damage is done. As the Supreme Court put it approvingly in South Carolina v. Katzenbach, "After enduring nearly a century of systematic resistance to the Fifteenth Amendment," Congress chose "to shift the advantage of time and inertia from the perpetrators of the evil to its victims."
The word "federalism" does not appear in the Constitution, nor does the opaque and mysterious phrase "federalism costs," which has become the key mantra for the conservatives. At least four Justices—and we'll see about Justice Anthony Kennedy—appear poised to use these malleable concepts to override the clear enforcement powers that the Constitution explicitly assigns to Congress through Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment and Section 2 of the Fifteenth Amendment. Thus, the Supreme Court is on the brink of usurping Congressional power plainly granted by the Constitution by thwarting Congressional decisions to enforce the equal rights of Americans to vote and participate in the political process.
Racial Integration, Inclusion and Diversity versus "Color-Blindness":
Affirmative Action Walks the Plank in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin
The ceaseless attack on affirmative action returns again this Term with Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, a sweeping challenge to a modest use of race and ethnicity in UT's admissions process that was adopted to correct for continuing weakness in the numbers of minority students on campus. The twist here is that most UT students are admitted through a policy guaranteeing admission to students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their public high school classes. About one-fifth of the class is admitted outside of that race-neutral policy, and affirmative action plays a role in this small part of the process.
Most people thought that the lawfulness of such a policy was settled for at least 25 years in 2003, when the Court decided Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger, cases testing the constitutionality of affirmative action programs as practiced, respectively, at the University of Michigan Law School and the University of Michigan's undergraduate program. The majority upheld the Law School's "holistic" use of race and ethnicity in the process to promote diversity in the educational experience because all consideration of applicants remained individualized and there were no quotas and no numerical targets used in the selection process. (The University of Texas modeled its law school's affirmative action program after that upheld in Grutter in 2003.) Meanwhile, the majority invalidated the undergraduate plan because racial or ethnic minority status was quantified and treated as adding bonus points in a rigid numerical weighing system, a process that the Court said leaned towards being a quota system. While rejecting the college plan as a blunt instrument, Justice O'Connor found that the kind of diffuse and holistic use of minority status embodied in the law school program was permissible. She thought such affirmative action would be warranted for a period of what she predicted to be another quarter-century. Given that most public universities remained segregated through the 1950s and 1960s, this seemed like a sensible time-line.
The Grutter decision reaffirmed and updated Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the 1978 high Court decision which struck down numerical quotas for minority admission but approved the generalized use of race in the admissions process to promote the compelling interest in having a diverse student body. Grutter was met with relief and enthusiasm throughout American academia, in the business sector, by the armed services, and across American society.
Now, once again, conservatives hope to turn the Constitution against the project of equal rights and equal opportunities. The key move is to claim that Equal Protection mandates absolute "color-blindness" and therefore forecloses any conscious efforts to build diversity and inclusion into the educational experience of students. But the history of the Equal Protection Clause demonstrates that its Framers clearly contemplated that government would seek to take account of the racial implications of official discrimination in the past to fashion consciously inclusionary policies going forward.
Equal Protection of the Rights of all Citizens in Marriage versus "Social Tradition":
United States v. Windsor and Hollingsworth v. Perry
Two significant cases raise the important issue of whether gay and lesbian Americans enjoy an equal right to marry and to enjoy all the rights of marriage. Here, straightforward understandings of Equal Protection clash with an extra-constitutional commitment to the "social tradition" of discrimination against gay people.
One case, United States v. Windsor, deals with the constitutionality of Section 3 of "DOMA," the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act, which provides that the word "marriage" in any federal law or regulation—including the Social Security Act, the Internal Revenue code, immigration law, and more than 1,000 others—shall apply only to the "legal union of one man and one woman as husband and wife." This sweeping discrimination means that, although hundreds of thousands of gay and lesbian Americans have won and exercised the right to marry in twelve states and the District of Columbia, the rights, benefits, and duties that they should receive as married people under federal law are categorically withheld from them. Under federal law, married couples who are gay are treated as legal strangers to one another and as unworthy of the rights enjoyed by other citizens.
This discrimination has dramatic consequences. The respondent in Windsor, Edith Windsor, was forced to pay $363,000 in federal taxes on the estate she inherited after her wife (and life partner of 40 years) died, since DOMA prevents same-sex spouses from inheriting marital property on a tax-free basis, a benefit that heterosexual couples take for granted. Windsor won a clean victory in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which found that discrimination against gay people triggers Equal Protection "intermediate scrutiny" and that Congress could not even demonstrate a valid, much less an important, interest for defining marriage at the federal level so as to exclude from its benefits thousands of married couples in the states.
The other case taken up by the Supreme Court is Hollingsworth v. Perry, which tests the constitutionality of California's infamous Proposition 8 ballot measure, which revoked the marriage rights that gays and lesbians had enjoyed in the state under a landmark California Supreme Court decision. Proposition 8 was voided in a broad pro-marriage decision handed down by California United States District Court Judge Vaughn Walker, a decision that was reaffirmed on narrower grounds by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which essentially found that California had no rational basis for taking away from its gay citizens the marriage rights that it had previously granted.
Both cases involve government refusing to recognize the equal rights of gay people, either in married couples or couples who want to get married. With DOMA, Congress denied the same equal rights and benefits to gay married people as it offers to straight married people, and with Proposition 8, California actually revoked the marriage rights of gay people and prohibited the legislature from ever restoring those rights. The Proposition 8 proponents even sought to use the measure to annul gays' and lesbians' existing marriages without their consent. The discrimination in both cases is plain to see, all of it justified on the grounds of "traditional marriage" and "social tradition."
The right to get married as a basic civil right has frequently been addressed by the Supreme Court, but the Court has never addressed whether that right extends to gay and lesbian Americans, and the Court could successfully dodge the underlying issue here.
One good possibility is that the Court will strike down DOMA as a naked Equal Protection violation, saying that states need not necessarily extend marriage rights to gay and lesbian residents but that, if states do extend equal marriage rights, the federal government may not discriminate against people who avail themselves of those rights. Pro-marriage forces expecting this result place a high burden of hope on Justice Anthony Kennedy, who has written excellent majority opinions upholding the equal rights of gay and lesbian Americans in Romer v. Evans (1996) and Lawrence v. Texas (2003). But Kennedy may instead decide purely on federalism grounds, potentially providing a fifth vote to strike down DOMA but preventing any pro-equality legal rationale from having a majority that would bind lower courts in the future.
In the California Proposition 8 case, the Court could say that states that give all of the state-law rights of marriage to gay and lesbian citizens cannot withhold from them the title of marriage; this would affect eight states in a similar situation as California. Another possibility, more remote, is that Justice Kennedy would agree to join the moderate-liberal faction in simply declaring that gay people have equal rights to marry, which would mean invalidating discriminatory laws still on the books in the vast majority of states. Conversely, the Court might also say that there is no obligation for California to protect the right of gay and lesbian citizens to marry at all. Or, finally, it could dismiss the whole case on either standing grounds—the Attorney general of California refused to defend Proposition 8, leaving that task to anti-marriage advocates who put the initiative on the ballot—or on the grounds that cert was improvidently granted. There are still many ways to escape the basic issue of discrimination, even though all of the momentum in the states is towards marriage equality and the rationales for discrimination have been collapsing everywhere like a giant house of cards.
Equal Protection versus the Politics of Inequality
As we await the Supreme Court's decisions in these cases, Americans should not miss the big picture of this constitutional moment. In a society that disenfranchised African-Americans and other minorities for centuries and discriminated openly against racial minorities and the gay and lesbian population, we are living through giant progressive changes in political democracy and voting rights, educational opportunity, and marriage rights for all. Yet, in politics, as in physics, every action creates an equal and opposite reaction, and a huge ideological undertow has formed on today's Supreme Court, which has replaced the values of the long-ago Warren Court with commitments to corporate power over government and government power over people. What is at stake in these cases is whether the Supreme Court will interpret the Constitution to be the instrument of equal protection for all or will twist it to make it the guarantor of inequality and injustice.
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Jamie Raskin, a Senior Fellow at People for the American Way Foundation, is a professor of constitutional law at American University's Washington College of Law and a State Senator in Maryland.


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AS (w/Built-in One-touch Fitting)
Using SMC speed controllers with built in one-touch fittings minimizes installation time, reduces mounting height and enables a more compact machine design. These speed controllers allow the body to be rotated to facilitate simple installation. Available in thread sizes from M3 to 1/2 in both inch (NPT) and metric R(PT) and with tube sizes from 3.2mm to 12mm OD (metric) and 1/8 to 1/2 OD (inch) and with optional elbow and universal style (increased flexibility) and meter in and meter out, these flow controls are designed to meet most applications.


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Hi everyone! If you'll remember back a couple weeks ago I posted about starting each day with a plan and organizing your day. I don't know if it's helped any of you, but it has sure helped me get a lot more done each day. Anyway, I really liked the printables I had listed there, but neither were exactly what I wanted. So I decided to make my own. I was so excited to try this, and I even made those water bottles from a real picture of a water bottle. New technique for me and I was so impressed with myself for figuring it out. lol Here's the link: Today is a New Day
Today is a New Day |
I printed mine out at my local copy place and had them laminate it, too. Then each night, after the kids are all in bed and I'm relaxing for a bit, I take 5 min. and plan out my next day. It's really been working well, and it helps me sleep better, too. Why, you might ask? Because as soon as my head would hit the pillow a million things that I needed to do the next day would start racing through my head. lol I know I'm not the only one who does this, right? Now, I've already gotten at least most of those things planned out or there's no room to add anything else anyway. It really does help me fall asleep faster. Try it!
A big shout out and a thank you to Krista Sahlin for letting me use her buttons on this to share with you. They were a freebie from her site here. I also want to thank Summer Driggs for letting me use the rick rack on this, too. They were a freebie from this kit here.
Anyway, I hope someone else might find this helpful. I'd be happy to change any of the box headings if you'd like, too. Just let me know.
This post was featured at:


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Planetary Herbals Old Indian Wild Cherry Bark Syrup™ is a combination of some of the finest botanicals in North America and China, traditionally used for supporting the respiratory system. North American classics such as elecampane, horehound, hyssop, and mullein are combined with loquat leaf, fritillaria, and platycodon from Chinese herbalism. In addition, other herbs, including North America's renowned wintertime treasure, echinacea, are added to support internal defenses. The syrup is specially prepared from both fresh and dry herbs, utilizing a multi-step extraction process, designed to capture the essence of each botanical. The quality of this formulation, together with the care that goes into its preparation, provides you with a comprehensive seasonal health supplement.
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Bart,Thanks for the information! I'll start with a very simple question - this is for capture level sharpening yes? If a two tiered sharpening technique is used does that effect this calculation?
Hi Bart,Thanks for making this tool, and for providing the associated explanations. It will be interesting to see if a custom deconvolution filter kernel, derived from a specific camera, provides visibly better sharpening than the generic sharpening filters in commercial raw converters like LR, ACR, CNX, or C1.
Those of us who have workflows built around those products may not want to add additional steps, like passes through ImageJ or ImageMagick, in order to obtain a theoretically optimal sharpening of every image. But some experiments with your method might enable us to see what an optimal sharpening looks like, and to choose radius and amount settings in our favorite converters which come close. I think that there are quite a few people (including some internet celebrities) who are over-sharpening their files, and could use a reality check.
OK, so I suppose sharpening is ultimately a matter of taste, but I prefer my images chewy but not crunchy.
It would be great to have a little more detail on how to perform steps like Then use your preferred procedure to collect the edge angle coordinates and transition data from the converted result. for those of us who can have never done this before, please. Thanks.
Bart,This is great! As a long-time user of ImageJ (NIH Image, written in Pascal!) I am loving this insightful tool - there are plug-ins for deconvolution but trying to get them adapted to the kind of processing your method targets is tricky business and not very straightforward.
Thanks for the effort. Now I need to print your test chart and get to work analyzing....
Bring out the commercial product and I will buy it!
Bart,I printed your target on my ancient Epson R800 and shot an aperture sequence in whole stops from 2.8 to 22 for the combination of the Canon 5DmkII and the Zeiss 50mm MakroPlanar. I have gone through evaluating the 2.8, 4.0 and 22 apertures and I am really impressed with the results.
I took the RGB image into ImageJ and converted the green channel to grayscale to perform the angle and ESF measurements. I then applied the kernel to the original target image and repeated the measurements. As expected, the 10-90 slope increases to within 1 to 1.5 pixels from 2 to 3, typically.
I can see that one would want to perform this exercise for all lenses and have that database on hand for automating deconvolution on keeper images.
Very cool. I would be happy to make a donation via Paypal, as this is a very useful tool, regardless of the workflow. Ages ago I actually had a working knowledge of the then NIH Image macro language. Time to dust off the cobwebs, perhaps...I'll go though the analysis and post observations here.
Is it my imagination, or is there a slight color shift in kirkt's processed images? Seems like the sharpened versions are a bit more saturated. Will the decon kernel do that?
As for a commercial version of the tool - I vote for a Mac product.


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On the Santa Monica Pier
2008-10-29 08:00:00
I'm sitting a stones throw from the Santa Monica Pier waiting for a 9:00 breakfast meeting. Although I'm originally from California, I'm a Northern Californian, and while this is the Pacific Ocean, it's not the part I know. Kind of like you can know someone's face but not the back of their head.
Probably the oddest thing about the beach is the fact they're grooming it like a snowfield. There's a John Deere tractor with what looks like discs roaming around the beach, scraping away the footprints and tire tracks which otherwise litter the beach. I don't know if that's because the sand gets packed down from 11 million people in LA or if it's just cosmetic.
I chose my lodging in this semi-exotic locale because it was fairly cheap -- hotels in Santa Monica seem to average around $250-300 a night, mine was $169. While it's a little funky, it's comfortable enough and a nice view of the water plus a window into the courtyard. A short walk brings me to the Casa del Mar, a swanky hotel, where I'm meeting a couple people about a project.
This trip does get marks for doing the stupidest thing ever on travel. I booked my hotel over the phone and gave them all my contact info. In this digital age I just expect to get a confirmation email. It wasn't until the night before that I realized that not only did I not get a confirmation, but I didn't write down the name of the hotel.
I figured that I could just search Google the same way and find the place, but none of them were looking familiar online. So I had my colleague drive me up and down the main drag and I still didn't spot it. So I finally got a connection, logged back into my machine at the office, went through my Internet history on that computer, and found it. I think this tops my missing my flight in DC because I was two hours early…
As usual, I'm traveling because of business -- a series of meetings in conference rooms and over meals in LA with prospects and money people. It's a productive trip, and less surreal than these trips usually feel. While I'm not a native southern Californian, I'm amazed at how familiar this place is -- I've had no problem navigating, people respond my odd humor the way I expect, and while the beach is different and the air feels as if it's been breathed, it's still California.
It's kind of like visiting your cousins -- they do a lot of things the way I expect, but then there are the odd things that throw you (like the time they fed me peanut butter and banana sandwiches). Familiar, but not home.


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2011 Muddy Roots Music Festival Dates, Lineup & Location
By all accounts, last year's inaugural Muddy Roots Festival was an overwhelming success. The lineup was amazing, the performances were spectacular, and all the brave people that made the trek to Cookeville in middle Tennessee said the experience measured somewhere between a life changing event and a religious experience. Good times, good people, good food, and of course, good music. The only thing missing was YOU.
So this year for the second installment, we need to fix that. If you like the music that is talked about on Saving Country Music, then this is the premier event of the year. There is nothing bigger, and nothing better. And when you factor in all the bands you will be able to see for the price they're asking, it's a bargain. But the music is just the excuse. To a man, the 2010 Muddy Roots participants all boasted about the camaraderie the event created between the fans and artists, and between each other, and the friendships and memories they walked away with lasted well after the music stopped.
Saving Country Music is dedicated to being the hub of information about all things Muddy Roots leading up to this year's festival September 3rd &4th, being held once again in Cookeville, TN, just outside of Nashville.
The beginning of the lineup can be seen below, but please note more names will be added later, and some could change leading up to the event.
Tickets are $55 in advance, and $70 for walk-ups. But think of this like buying a ticket for a show. Think of it as someone throwing the biggest backyard party imaginable, with any and all of your favorite bands traveling from all around the country to be the entertainment, and this is just you pitching in for a keg and paper plates.
Purchase Muddy Roots Festival Tickets
Current 2011 Lineup:
Wayne Hancock
Possessed By Paul James
Hellbound Glory
Goddamn Gallows
Left Lane Cruiser
Calamity Cubes
Cutthroat Shamrock
Ten Foot Pole Cats
Porter Hall Tennessee
Jayke Orvis and the Broken Band
Rachel Brooke
The Perreze Farm
JB Beverley & The Wayward Drifters
Owen Mays
Rev Deadeye
Mark Porkchop Holder
Slackeye Slim
Last False Hope
Cletus Got Shot
Hillbilly Casino
Foothill Fury


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US Patent & Trademark Office Grants Apple Registered Trademarks for "Retina" & "Game Center" Icon
On December 4, 2012, the US Patent & Trademark Office granted Apple two Registered Trademarks. The first trademark covers the word "Retina" representing Apple's brilliant Retina display that is currently integrated into the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and MacBook Pro. The second trademark covers the icon representing Apple's Game Centre. Both were officially granted to Apple on November 27 and published today.
Apple's "Retina" Now a Registered Trademark
Apple's trademark which was originally filed for in May 2011 was filed under the sole International Class 009 which basically covers computer displays including handhelds, notepad computers and displays used in telephone computers.
Apple's Game Center Icon Now a Registered Trademark
Apple's trademark which was originally filed for in June 2012 was filed under International Classes 9, 41 and 45 covering such basics as computer software for use in developing and accessing multiplayer games and for scoring and tracking game performance; for entertainment services and social networking.
NOTICE: Patently Apple presents a basic summary of new trademark filings with their associated graphics for journalistic news purposes as each such trademark is revealed by the U.S. and/or other foreign Patent & Trademark Offices. This category covers a few Industrial Design reports each year while others could be found in our granted patent archives. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any trademark application should be read in its entirety for further details. About Comments: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit comments.
Sites Covering our Original Report
Techmeme, Gizmodo, Business Insider, Cult of Mac, iDownloadBlog, Wall St. Cheat Sheet, CNET, iDevice Romania, I4U Germany (English), Redmond Pie, iPhoneItalia, One More Thing The Netherlands, MacWorld Sweden, iPadItalia, MacTrast, Mac4Ever France, Applesfera Spain, Apple Obsession, Twitter, Facebook, Apple Investor News, Google Reader, eWallstreeter, iPhone Hacks,Tech Corp Legal LLP, Macnews, Apple News Freedom Hong Kong, Mac Hash, MacSurfer, and others.


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LONDON, England, United Kingdom — Marti Malloy made history on Monday by becoming just the second American woman to ever medal in Judo at the Olympic Games. She did so by going on an admirable run through the incredibly talented and deep field of judoka in the Women's 57 kg (125.5 lbs) division.
The only other woman to win an Olympic medal in Judo is current Strikeforce bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey. Rousey also won a bronze medal in Judo at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Rousey and her mother, world champion judoka Ann Maria Rousey DeMars, are big supporters of Malloy.
Malloy, a 26-year-old Oak Harbor, Washington native, came entered her first Olympic Games as a Top 10 tanked judoka at 57 kg, after enjoying a successful 2011-2012 international season. Malloy is a graduate of San Jose State University and has won consecutive silver medals at the Pan American Games (2010 and 2011).
While attending college, Malloy was a member of the legendary San Jose State University judo program. This is where she trained under former U.S. Olympic judo coach Yosh Uchida. Malloy graduated on the Dean's List with a degree in advertising, which she attributes to Uchida's push for athletic and academic excellence.
Still a huge supporter of her Alma mater, Malloy continues to train with members of the SJSU Spartans team as she prepared for the London Games. She has also on occasion graced the mats of OTM co-founder Alan "Gumby" Marques' jiu-jitsu academy Heroes Martial Arts in San Jose, California. This undoubtedly was done so to help compliment her already world-class newaza (ground game).
Malloy started her amazing run to the Bronze Medal in the Round of 32 against three-time World silver medalist and reigning European champion Telma Monteiro of Portugal. She upset Monteiro, one of the division's biggest favorites by Yuko after executing a Sumi Gaeshi throw. Malloy followed up that win in the Round of 16 by defeating 2012 Pan American Games silver medalist Yadinys Amaris of Colombia. She won the match in 40 seconds by throwing Amaris with a Seoi Nage for Ippon.
In the Quarter-Final, Malloy won a very close match with Irina Zabludina of Russia. Both judoka had scored a Yuko, but Malloy got the nod by accumulating less penalties. This narrow win was enough to see her through to the Semi-Final of Pool B. This is where she would face her toughest test of the day in Corina Căprioriu of Romania. Căprioriu, who won the bronze medal at the World Judo Championships last summer, defeated Malloy with a perfectly timed Ura Nage for Ippon.
Malloy's loss in the Semi-Final saw her head to the first of two bronze medal matches. It was there that she faced the division's reigning 2008 Olympic gold medalist, Giulia Quintavalle of Italy. Malloy showed nerves of steel against the defending Olympic champion and ended the match with a big statement. She used a small inner reap called a Kouchi Gari to win the match by Ippon.
The win gave Malloy the bronze medal and a place in history, as one of the most successful American judoka. The other bronze medalist was Automne Pavia of France, while division favorite and former world champion Kaori Matsumoto of Japan won the gold medal. She did so by defeating Căprioriu, who took home the silver medal. You can keep up-to-date on Marti Malloy and her Judo career by liking her Facebook page www.facebook.com/MartiMalloyJUDO or following her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Martidamus.


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Last week, I had the chance to spend some time with Roland DG end users at one of our "Digital Printing Boot Camp" classes, and as always, I enjoyed the experience, and came away impressed. One of the things I particularly noticed was just how varied our users are. Even with a class of about 10, we had Roland DG owners from every region of the US, as well as one from Canada.
While all of them were here to learn more efficient ways to produce and finish their output, they started from different points. At least one user bought her VersaCAMM strictly to decorate apparel, and was just starting to explore the idea of making signs and banners. Another was a sign shop who discovered the ability to decorate apparel while here. There was also a SOLJET owner that specialized in soccer uniforms, but prints vinyl, banners, and posters as well.
Instructor David Goetter showing the proper way to trim a substrate.
As you have probably read by now, we recently relaunched our training initiatives as "Roland DGA Academy." The process we went through while doing this gave us a chance to reevaluate our course offerings and our training methods. As a result of conversations with dealers, users, and students, we have kept some of our most popular courses like "Born to Wrap" and "Boot Camp" while adding new delivery methods.
Two weeks ago, Roland DGA offered our first training webinar for end users, and we will continue to offer them at regular intervals. That means Roland DG users can get great training and access to new information and techniques without taking time out of the office or worrying about travel. In fact, we will be launching a promotion soon that will waive the fee for webinars to any registered owner between now and the end of the year.
Now we need your help. While we do have the first several webinars already planned, we want to make sure we are providing classes that are up-to-date and relevant to Roland DG users. We would appreciate any feedback or suggestions on topics in the comment section of this blog. I can't promise that every suggestion will result in a new class, but we will do what we can to answer your questions and make the right content available.


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We've come a long way in America. This nation, which was founded on Christian principles, by men and women who were predominately Christians committed to the Biblical worldview, has become quite secular, and in many cases antagonistic to the Christian way of thinking. As it relates to creation teaching, the courts have declared evolution to be science and creation to be religion, and that religion doesn't belong in the public classroom. Laws have been passed; precedents have been set, while intolerant "civil liberties" organizations promise a lawsuit to anyone who would cross the unofficial line. What can be done to reverse this trend? Isn't there a religious side to evolution and isn't creation backed by science?
Some valiant teachers and administrators are doing what they can, defying the promise of legal action. Perhaps they're "teaching both sides"—teaching the pros and cons of evolution, or identifying the many evolutionary claims in textbooks which are known to be false. But to a committed evolutionist, nothing short of total evolution indoctrination will do.
Several state school boards have, in recent years, inserted an innocuous "sticker" in the front of school biology textbooks which briefly calls attention to the variety of opinions regarding origins, and the theoretical nature of the subject. It neither discusses data nor identifies perspectives. Most recently, the state of Georgia inserted such a sticker which read:
This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered.
Advocates of creation admit this sticker is a dubious victory. It obviously doesn't teach creation, nor claim that evolution is wrong, and certainly doesn't introduce the Bible, yet it too has been vigorously opposed by the same teachers unions, professional evolutionists, and civil liberties groups. In January, the federal courts ordered it removed.
If evolutionists deny even this minimal hint that there might be more to the story, is this not a sign of insecurity? Are they afraid of open discussion of the data? What tactic can creationists adopt which will expose their position as the religious intolerance that it is?
Former President Reagan was often barraged by an adversarial press corps. Sometimes he would respond by cocking his head, flashing a wry smile, and saying simply, "There you go again." Everyone got his point. The supposedly neutral press was pushing their own agenda. I suggest following his lead might be useful here.
"There they go again" censoring any thought which doesn't support evolution we could say. "There they go again" admitting that evolution can't stand the test of science. "There they go again" letting their insecurities show. Maybe then the media and the public at large will recognize this as a religious issue, with the evolution side hiding behind dogma and authority, and unwilling to engage in an open dialogue.


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Warning: Clicking through to see the top 20 most watched TEDTalks is akin to finding a new show on Netflix. It will kill your day. If you must (and you really do) see the top 20 talks in TED six-year history, clear your calendar, shut off your email, go to the bathroom and open your mind. You're about to learn something.
TED tabulated data from its top sources including TED.com, YouTube, Hulu, iTunes, and several others. Sir Ken Robinson's 2006 talk about how schools kill creativity tops the list with 13,409,417 views. It's followed by brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor's epic story about suffering a stroke — and documenting her body shutting down. Next is Pranav Mistry, David Gallo and then again by Pranav Mistry and Pattie Maes with an astounding demo of SixthSense, a wearable projection computer. Further down the list is Tony Robbins, Steve Jobs, Stephen Hawking, and Mary Roach's talk on 10 things you didn't know about an orgasm. It's an impressive collection of fascinating lectures.
- Sir Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity(2006): 13,409,417 views
- Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke of insight(2008): 10,409,851
- Pranav Mistry on the thrilling potential of SixthSense(2009): 9,223,263
- David Gallo's underwater astonishments(2007): 7,879,541
- Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry demo SixthSense(2009): 7,467,580
- Tony Robbins asks Why we do what we do(2006): 6,879,488
- Simon Sinek on how great leaders inspire action(2010): 6,050,294
- Steve Jobs on how to live before you die(2005): 5,444,022
- Hans Rosling shows the best stats you've ever seen(2006): 4,966,643
- Brene Brown talks about the power of vulnerability(2010): 4,763,038
- Daniel Pink on the surprising science of motivation(2009): 4,706,241
- Arthur Benjamin does mathemagic(2005): 4,658,425
- Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing your genius(2009): 4,538,037
- Dan Gilbert asks: Why are we happy?(2004): 4,269,082
- Stephen Hawking asks big questions about the universe(2008): 4,153,105
- Jeff Han demos his breakthrough multi-touchscreen(2006): 3,891,251
- Johnny Lee shows Wii Remote hacks for educators(2008): 3,869,417
- Keith Barry does brain magic(2004): 3,847,893
- Mary Roach 10 things you didn't know about orgasm(2009): 3,810,630
- Vijay Kumar demos robots that fly like birds (2012): 3,535,340
The TED blog links to the top 20 list published last year. It's very similar, in fact, with the notable addition of Steve Jobs' genuine 2005 talk on how to live before you die.