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Technically speaking the Leafs entered this game with a chance of winning. Technically.
1 — The Leafs are 32-33-8 and this was a disgrace, not for the fans, because I—ll never be ashamed as a Leafs fan, but a disgrace for those wearing the Leaf.
2 — A dominant start by the Bruins and they score to make it 1-0. Schenn loses the battle on the boards, gets beat to the net too and Chris Kelly beats Reimer up close. So much Schenn fail there.
3 — The Bruins were forcing a lot of turnovers early in the game and played the kind of hockey that made them successful against the Leafs. Same story as the first 5 games – strong forecheck gave Leafs D fits as the Bruins owned the boards and the Leafs zone. The Leafs generated 0 shots in the first 10 minutes of the game. First shot came 12:19 into the first period.
4 — Gregory Campbell was the beneficiary of a Liles/Reimer miscue and puts the Bruins 2-0 up as he finds the empty net on a wraparound goal. I don't care if you think the puck is on the back of the net, you don't stop and stare. All new levels of stupid.
5 — After yet another scramble in the defensive zone a shot from the blueline gets redirected by Pouliot in front and the Bruins take a commanding 3-0 lead. Immediately after, Schenn tires to mix things up and goes with Campbell. After that, Marchand gets a sweet pass from Seguin, Phaneuf tries to defend it with his skate and it—s 4-0 Bruins. Reimer gets pulled, Gus went in.
6 — Gotta give props to Komisarek there, going with Lucic. Showed a lot of balls. Lucic gave him a solid pounding but given the situation Komi felt that—s what the Leafs needed so he went. Gotta credit him for showing he—s pissed enough to take uppercuts from a trained boxer.
7 — The game was basically over after the first period, but here—s the rest of it:
8 — Jonas Gustavsson left his net, that speaks for itself.
9 —We got lit up by BRIAN ROLSTON. He of 13 points this season, prior to tonight's four. And of course, Tyler Seguin.
10 — This shitshow topped the 5-0 loss to the Habs on Sundin night. Can you blame anyone for cheering against this group tomorrow night against the Islanders? Zero compete tonight, half of them probably won't be here next season, and they don't really deserve any better. The pick is all we got because they're clearly not playing this out with any pride.


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James Morris hails from Rio Rancho, NM and has been playing fantasy sports for just over 15 years. Not only does he write the Bengals fantasy section, but he also does the Miami Dolphins fantasy section. Crossing over, Morris writes the fantasy sections for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA. Just send him an email and he will reply back the same day with your answer. Or, find him on Twitter (Fantasyguy23) and get all your NFL news before it hits the national media. *
Andy Dalton came through in a HUGE way on Sunday and hopefully it will shut his critics up for the rest of the season. Not to spoil his stuff below, but the 31.00 fantasy points he put on NFL.com not only ranked him No. 2 for QBs this week, but it vaulted him to No. 6 overall for QBs this season in their standard scoring formats!
Marvin Jones is officially a must-add player, and the Bengals defense was the No. 1-ranked fantasy defense thanks to their 4 sacks, 2 INTs, 2 defensive touchdowns, and 9 points allowed. And for all those who are complaining about Giovani Bernard and BenJarvus Green-Ellis this week, the game was out of control right around the coin toss. Even with the team up, the passing game was hitting on all cylinders. And when that happens, you have to just go with what is working. There will be better weeks ahead for them, so just chalk this one up as a bad week and move on with both of them still on your roster.
Calvin Johnson finished with 14 catches, 329 receiving yards and a touchdown to lead all NFL players in fantasy points scored in Week 8. Michael Vick was pulled in the second quarter, suggesting that his hamstring is a bigger problem than the Eagles had hoped it would be. You can't trust hamstrings with mobile QBs, and Vick has to be benched until further notice. DeMarco Murray was a last-second scratch, leaving many fantasy owners scrambling to find waiver wire replacements. With Murray being such a late scratch this week, it likely means he will heal up and be ready to go for the Cowboys Week 9 matchup against the Vikings. Last but not least, the trend of playing whomever plays against the Jaguars worked to perfection again this week as Colin Kaepernick and the 49ers put on a fantasy football show on Sunday. Kaepernick was everything I knew he would be, so hopefully you took my advice and played him.
Colin Kaepernick – QB, 49ers: I had people reaching out via email and social media all weekend long asking if either the location (London, England) or weather (59 degrees and 16 MPH winds) would adversely affect Kaepernick's game. My answer was simply "no, play him!" Kaepernick finished with 147 yards passing, 55 yards rushing, and scored 3 touchdowns on the day (two rushing, one passing). Not to beat a dead horse, but it is a very good bet to play whatever players suit up against the Jaguars for the rest of the season.
Andy Dalton – QB, Bengals: As I predicted, Dalton was an amazing fantasy asset on Sunday as he finished with 325 yards passing, 5 touchdowns and one interception. Dalton has now thrown for at least 325 yards in three straight games, and has 11 TDs and just 2 INTs over that span. Dalton is one of the most underrated and underappreciated QBs in the NFL, and those feelings have translated into fantasy football as well. That is sure to change after this week, so make sure he is owned in your league before someone else snatches him up.
Jason Campbell – QB, Browns: What a difference a QB can make for a fantasy team. Campbell stepped into the Browns starting role this week and proceeded to rattle off 293 passing yards with 2 TDs and no INTs. As of Sunday night Campbell was NFL.com's No. 7-ranked QB for Week 8. Those needing a backup QB with a bare waiver wire, or those in 2-QB leagues, will want to go grab Campbell before someone else does. He isn't going to be a golden ticket off the waiver wire, but he will certainly help those in need of QB depth.
Andre Ellington – RB, Cardinals: Rashard Mendenhall watched his role with the Cardinals disappear in Week 8 as Ellington put up 154 rushing yards and a touchdown. With the Cardinals on a bye in Week 9, you can be sure that Ellington's role increases going forward, while Mendenhall's decreases. Ellington is only owned in 24.2 percent of NFL.com leagues as of Sunday night, so make sure he isn't available in your league right now!
Fred Jackson – RB, Bills: When you look at the box score and see 45 yards rushing, 8 yards receiving and a touchdown it doesn't excite many people. But, because running backs have been a disappointment for the most part this season, those numbers were good enough to put Jackson as NFL.com's No. 12-ranked RB for Week 8 in standard scoring formats. He wasn't playing in beast-mode or anything, but RB1 numbers are RB1 numbers and sometimes 45 yards and a TD is all you need to be better than the other guys.
Calvin Johnson – WR, Lions: Normally I don't mention Megatron unless he is a complete bust because he is a stud in the NFL, and therefore supposed to do well each week. With that said, I would be derelict in my duties as a writer if I didn't mention him this week after he put up a monster line of 14 catches, 329 receiving yards and a touchdown. You read that right, 329 yards receiving! That is 123 MORE yards than Tony Romo had passing on the other side of the ball! Johnson fell just 7 yards shy of Flipper Anderson's single-game record, but did finish as NFL.com's No. 1 overall-ranked player (36.90 fantasy points) in Week 8. That's pretty hard to do as a WR because your stats depend on the QB, and if you do well, he probably did better.
Marvin Jones – WR, Bengals: Jones has been nothing short of amazing for the last three weeks, totaling 15 catches for 250 yards and 6 TDs. This week Jones came up with 8 of those catches for 122 yards and 4 TDs. He finished just behind Johnson this week with 36.20 fantasy points on NFL.com, and will most certainly be the most added player by the middle of next week. Jones is worth taking in all formats with 12 teams or more.
Kenny Stills – WR, Saints: Stills is the textbook definition of fluke, as he hauled in 3 passes (on 4 targets) for 129 yards and 2 touchdowns in Week 8. The reality with the rookie is that he is a fourth or fifth option in the Saints passing game, and should be left on the waiver wire in all but the deepest of leagues for now. Let him be someone else's headache next week. But, for now, he can stand up and take a bow as he finished with 25.03 fantasy points on NFL.com (No. 3-ranked WR).
Jordan Reed – TE, Redskins: Reed has turned into a must-own player for fantasy football since the Redskins Week 5 bye. This week Reed finished with 8 receptions for 90 yards, and No. 4 on NFL.com's fantasy TE rankings in standard scoring formats. Reed has the coaches' and quarterback's confidence, and should be owned in all formats going forward.
New Orleans Saints Defense: The Saints finished as NFL.com's No. 9-ranked fantasy defense this week thanks to their 4 sacks, 2 fumble recoveries, interception and 17 points allowed. The Saints are more of a plug-and-play defense than a defense you hold on to throughout the season. However, after what the Bengals just did to the Jets, I'd hold on to the Saints one more week and give them a play if you need help in that area.
Michael Vick – QB, Eagles: Vick was less than impressive on Sunday as he finished with a modest 31 yards passing, no TDs and one INT. Vick said he felt a pop when he aggravated his hamstring injury, suggesting that the injury is going to keep him out of action yet again this season. An MRI will tell us more on Monday, but it is looking more and more like Vick will be heading to the waiver wire.
Robert Griffin III – QB, Redskins: RGII failed to take advantage of the NFL's most generous defense when it comes to fantasy QBs this week. The Broncos give up an average of 25.4 fantasy PPG to QBs this season, but Griffin was only able to score 3.98 points in NFL.com standard formats (with fractional scoring) thanks to his 132 yards passing, TD, 2 INTs and lost fumble. And to make matters worse, Griffin was forced to leave the game after injuring his left knee (not the same one as last year). Chances are he will be fine for Week 9, but you just can't trust him in fantasy leagues right now.
Tom Brady – QB, Patriots: The Patriots chose to run the ball against the Dolphins (37 rushing attempts and 22 passing attempts), and because of that Brady finished with just 116 passing yards, one TD and one INT. Brady is on pace for an 18:12 TD-to-INT ratio this season, which is exactly why I warned fantasy owners to avoid him in drafts. He ranked out as NFL.com's No. 20 QB in Week 8, and that is about where he is ranked overall this season for QBs.
Chris Ivory – RB, Jets: Just as I said, Ivory was horrible on Sunday and finished with just 11 yards rushing. That equals 1.10 fantasy points if you get fractions and one point if you don't, and that made him the worst starting RB in fantasy football for Week 8. The Bengals got up on the Jets early and Ivory was a non-factor in the passing game. The same could happen next week when they take on the Saints, so can we guess who will be on the Sit 'em list next Friday?
Steven Jackson – RB, Falcons: The only thing fantasy football owners can hope and pray for is that Jackson's hamstring was bothering him, thus causing him to be more of a decoy than a bust this week. Jackson managed just 11 yards rushing, and 7 yards receiving with no end zone visits to at least pad the stats. Jackson looked like he was running on two flat tires in this one and fantasy owners need to find other options as the Falcons take on the Panthers in Week 9, then the Seahawks in Week 10.
Kenbrell Thompkins – WR, Patriots: Thompkins isn't someone that I personally like in fantasy leagues because he's only caught 23 of his 56 targets this season. That means he only catches 41 percent of the passes thrown to him, which is dead last on the team if you take out Josh Boyce, who only played in one game this season. This week Thompkins was targeted just one time, and surprise, he failed to come up with a reception. He's owned in 70.0 percent of NFL.com leagues, and I think that number should be about half that with Rob Gronkowski and Danny Amendola back into the fold.
Rueben Randle – WR, Giants: I got more questions about playing Randle than almost any other player in fantasy football this week. Yes, Randle had scored in three straight games while recording 211 receiving yards and 12 receptions over that span. The Giants passing pecking order is supposed to go Victor Cruz No. 1, Hakeem Nicks No. 2, and then Randle No. 3. On Sunday, Randle received just one target and failed to haul it in, leaving his owners with a big fat 0.00 for fantasy points. Randle is little more than a WR4 and flex option as he obviously isn't a top option for Eli Manning.
Joseph Fauria – TE, Lions: As I predicted, Fauria was a complete and total waste of fantasy roster space this week as he finished without a single target. Face it, Fauria was a one-week wonder and is stuck as the Lions No. 2 TE behind Brandon Pettigrew. I actually got into an argument on Facebook with a Fauria fan that went silent after the game. If you have gotten to the point where Fauria is your starting TE, you need to read my draft article before the start of next season to prevent this disaster from happening again!
Kansas City Chiefs Defense: The Chiefs are NFL.com's No. 1-ranked defense, and entered Week 8 35 points ahead of the Seahawks. But, I don't think anyone counted on Campbell coming in for the Browns and doing so well in his first start. Even though the Chiefs held the Browns to just 17 points, they also recorded just one sack and a fumble recovery on the day. The lack of stats ranked them No. 19 this week, which was actually sixth-worst as of Sunday with Monday Night Football pending and the plethora of teams on a bye.
For those keeping count, I went 15-16 this week with the only wrong pick being the Arizona Cardinals defense. I said to play Kaepernick, Dalton, Jackson, Zac Stacy, Jarrett Boykins, Terrence Williams, Reed, Saints defense, and to not play Terrelle Pryor, Kellen Clemens, Ivory, Joseph Randle, Dwayne Bowe, Marques Colston and Fauria. You find me another football analyst that can run off 15-out-of-16 picks and I will buy whatever product he has, because that person is a genius!

subset: commoncrawl


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True to tradition, Valentino Rossi debuted another unique helmet design for his home crowd at the San Marino GP in Misano, Italy. Themed to Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here", Rossi has added the last stanza of the song to his livery as well.
"How I wish, how I wish you were here. We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year, running over the same ground What have we found? The same old fears, wish you were here."
While we'll let you decipher the meaning to Rossi's Pink Floyd reference and how it applies to his time in MotoGP, we have to say that this is one of our favorite designs from Aldo Drudi that Rossi has sported at an Italian round.
So, it should come as no surprise that a bevy of photos are after the jump, for your viewing pleasure — since we know that there are some diehard fans of The Doctor that read the pages of Asphalt & Rubber.
Be forewarned though collectors, we think AGV is going to have a tough time getting the rights to make replicas of this design.
Photos: Yamaha Racing & ValentinoRossi.com


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By Maia Szalavitz
The idea that "marijuana makes you dumb" has long been embodied in the stereotype of the slow, stupid stoner, seen in numerous Hollywood movies and TV comedies and going unquestioned by much of American culture. But a new study says no: the researchers followed nearly 2,000 young Australian adults for eight years and found that marijuana has little long-term effect on learning and memory— and any cognitive damage that does occur as a result of cannabis use is reversible.
Participants were aged 20-24 at the start of the study, which was part of a larger project on community health. Researchers categorized them as light, heavy, former or non-users of cannabis based on their answers to questions about marijuana habits.
Light use was defined as smoking monthly or less frequently; heavy use was weekly or more often. Former users had to have not smoked for at least a year. Fully 72% of the participants were non-users or former users; 18% were light users and 9% were heavy current users. Prior studies have found that drug users do accurately report their consumption levels in surveys like this as long as anonymity is guaranteed and there are no negative consequences for telling the truth.


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Kam's Movie Kapsules for 3-8-13
Previews That Make Choosing a Film Fun
by Kam
movies opening March 8, 2013
Dead Man Down (R for sexuality, violence and
pervasive profanity) Multilayered whodunit, set in NYC, about a couple of
grieving neighbors (Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace) who flirt before bonding because
of a mutual passion for revenge. A-list cast includes F. Murray Abraham,
Isabelle Huppert, Terrance Howard, Dominic Cooper and Armand Assante.
Oz the Great and Powerful (PG-13 for action,
scary images and brief mild epithets) James Franco stars in this prequel to The
Wizard of Oz as a shady circus magician who gets a shot at redemption after
being swept by a tornado from Kansas
to an enchanting, faraway land. With Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis, Rachel
Weisz, Bill Cobbs and Zach Braff.
The ABCs of Death (Unrated) A to Z horror flick,
shot by 26 directors, with each one's segment titled by a different letter of
the alphabet and illustrating a unique way to die. Starring Dallas Malloy, Lee Hardcastle and Lucy
Emperor (PG-13 for violence, smoking and brief
profanity) Romance drama set in postwar Japan where a U.S. General (Matthew
Fox) searches for an ex-girlfriend (Eriko Hatsune) while deciding the fate of
Emperor Hirohito. With Tommy Lee Jones, Aaron Jackson and Kaori Momoi. (In
English and Japanese with subtitles)
The Girl (PG-13 for profanity, violence,
disturbing images, smoking and mature themes) Dysfunctional family drama, set
in Texas, about a struggling single-mother (Abbie Cornish) who loses custody of
her son (Austin Wayne West) to the foster care system only to have things go
from bad to worse when she gets caught trying to make some easy money by
smuggling an undocumented alien across the border. With Geoffrey Rivas, Austin
West and Will Patton.
Greedy Lying Bastards (PG-13 for brief
profanity) Eco-documentary exposing the corporate interests thwarting
scientists' efforts to inform the public that the upsurge in droughts,
wildfires, tornados, glacier loss and wildfires are the result of man-made
climate change. (In English and Spanish with subtitles)
Gut Renovation (Unrated) Gentrification
documentary chronicling the erection of luxury condos in the Williamsburg
section of Brooklyn by real estate developers following
the eviction of the struggling artists and working-class families living in the
Language of a Broken Heart (Unrated) Romantic
comedy about a just-jilted, love guru (Juddy Talt) who abandons NYC for his
hometown of Rockford, Illinois where he finds himself falling for a
free-spirited bookseller (Julie White). With
Kate French, Oscar Nunez and Lara Pulver.
The Other Side of the Ice (Unrated) Atlantic and
Pacific documentary chronicling a family's attempt to sail from Newport, Rhode
Island to Seattle, Washington by way of the treacherous Northwest Passage.
The Silence (Unrated) Copycat crime thriller
about a 13 year-old (Anna Lena Klenke) who vanishes from the same spot where
another little girl (Melina Fabian) was raped and murdered decades earlier by a
handyman (Ulrich Thomsen) never brought to justice. With Wotan Wilke Mohring,
Katrin Sasz and Sebastian Blomberg. (In German with subtitles)
Somebody Up There Likes Me (Unrated) Buddy
comedy about best friends (Keith Poulson and Nick Offerman) who are both in
love with the same woman (Jess Wexler). Cast includes Kevin Corrigan, Megan
Mullally and Stephanie Hunt.
The We and the I (Unrated) Day-in-the-life drama
revolving around the exploits of a group of Bronx
teens boarding a bus at the start of their summer vacation. Starring Joe Mele,
Meghan Murphy, Alex Raul Barrios, Michael Brodie and Teresa Lynn.


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"Members Asked to Tie Family History to the Temple," Ensign, Jan. 2013, 76
Members Asked to Tie Family History to the Temple
In October 2012 the First Presidency issued a letter calling for members to use their own family names for temple work and outlining five main points to help members find greater fulfillment in doing family history and attending the temple.
Members can respond to the call to find, prepare, and share names for the temple by utilizing the tools and resources offered on LDS.org and FamilySearch.org. The points outlined in the First Presidency letter are:
1. "When members of the Church find the names of their ancestors and take those names to the temple for ordinance work, the temple experience can be greatly enriched."
On LDS.org, learn more about why we are asked to prepare names from our own families to take to the temple by clicking on Resources, Family History, and Why should we do temple work for our own ancestors? (video located under Why Do We Do Family History Work?).
2. "Members with limited ability to do their own family history research are encouraged to perform vicarious ordinances with names provided by other members or by the temple."
Members are asked to do what they can—whether by pursuing family history research or by taking the family names of other members to the temple.
At lds.org/temples, Find a Temple can help you prepare for your next temple visit.
3. Youth and young single adults are especially encouraged "to use for temple work their own family names or the names of ancestors of their ward and stake members."
"Do you young people want a sure way to eliminate the influence of the adversary in your life?" Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles asked. "Immerse yourself in searching for your ancestors, prepare their names … and then go to the temple" ("The Joy of Redeeming the Dead," Ensign, Nov. 2012, 94).
Also in the Family History section of LDS.org, under Getting Started, find five steps to prepare family names for the temple.
4. Priesthood leaders should ensure that all members "learn the doctrine of turning their hearts to their fathers and the blessings of temple attendance."
Ward and stake leaders can play an important role in helping members secure the blessings promised to them. Explore leader resources on LDS.org by clicking on Resources, All Callings, Family History, and Leader Resources.
5. Those with "large numbers of family names reserved [are encouraged] to release these names in a timely manner so the necessary ordinances can be performed."
Currently, 12 million names on FamilySearch.org have been reserved by family members who intend to perform their ancestors' ordinances themselves. Many names, however, have been reserved for years.
In the Getting Started section mentioned above, under I Want to Share Names with Others, click on Watch Video, and watch Releasing Names for Temple Work for information about sharing reserved names.


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tomato and root vegetable minestrone
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- sea salt and cracked black pepper
- 1.5 litres boiling water
- 400g can cherry tomatoes
- 1 sprig bay leaves
- 2 carrots, thinly sliced
- 8 baby turnips, trimmed and halved
- 1 swede, peeled and thinly sliced
- ¼ cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves, to serve
- wholegrain bread rolls, to serve
- Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, salt and pepper and cook, stirring, for 4 minutes or until softened and golden brown. Add the water, tomatoes and bay leaves, bring to the boil and cook for 4–5 minutes. Add the carrot, turnip and swede and cook for 10 minutes or until tender. Divide between bowls, top with parsley and serve with bread rolls. Serves 4
Photography: William Meppem


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Crimes, Fire Deaths Down In 2011
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and Fire Commissioner Salvatore J. Cassano announced that near-record levels for public safety were maintained in 2011, with crime on the decline again, and the second-lowest number of fire deaths since comparable records have been kept.
Prior to 2002, the city had not recorded fewer than 600 murders in a year since the early 1960s. According to the mayor, 2011 was the 10th consecutive year in which the city catalogued less than 600 murders, with slightly more than 500 in 2011, a nearly five percent reduction from the previous year and the third lowest total since comparable records were kept starting in 1963.
Overall crime, when compared using the same metrics, fell slightly again in 2011, marking the 21st straight year in which major felony crime has declined. Major felony crime is down by more than 34 percent over the last 10 years.
As of last Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011, there were 64 deaths due to fires for the year, the second-lowest in history. Fire response times were maintained at near-record low levels and since
–SEE SAFETY ON PG. 56- new technology and dispatch changes were introduced in 2008, fire trucks have been arriving 20 seconds faster, on average, to fire calls than the average response time for the previous 10 years (1999-2007).
Ambulance response times in 2011 to life-threatening calls were the fastest on record at six minutes, 31 seconds, better than the previous low of six minutes, 37 seconds in 2006.
"Despite tough fiscal times, New York's frontline public safety agencies- the NYPD and the FDNY- continue to keep our city safer than in any time in recorded history," said Bloomberg. "Their successes are a major reason why our population is at a record high and growing, our life-expectancy has surged, an alltime high of more than 50 million people will have visited our city during 2011 and businesses continue to open and expand in our city, giving us an economic recovery far more robust than many other parts of the nation. Too often, it requires a tragedy for many to remember that the men and women of the NYPD and FDNY put themselves in harm's way to protect us, but today is a powerful reminder of just how successful they are."
"The biggest declines happened in neighborhoods where crime was the highest to begin with, among the poorest in the city," said Kelly. "The Atlantic magazine noted recently that New York's crime decline was a public good that is 'truly progressive, benefitting disproportionately the poor and vulnerable who need it most.' That's something that police officers of this city have worked hard to accomplish, some making the ultimate sacrifice in the process. It's an accomplishment they can be proud of."
"New York City is safer today from the dangers of fire than ever before, and that's due to the hard work our firefighters and EMS personnel," said Cassano. "Fires and fire deaths are at or near historic lows, and response times for both fire and EMS are the fastest ever. We are doing the best job we've ever done-and that means a safer city for the many millions who live and work here."
In 2011, the NYPD's CompStat crime reporting system adjusted tabulations to account for a new state law, which the city supported, that reclassified strangulation in the second degree from a misdemeanor to a felony. The reporting change caused the 2011 CompStat report to show an increase in felony assault, which affects the overall crime reporting statistics as well.
Using the previous definition of felony assault used in 2010, there was a two percent decrease in that category this year compared with last.
Reliable fire statistics date back to 1916, when the city saw 141 deaths. The 64 deaths due to fires in 2011 was the second lowest single year amount in history, with 2010 remaining the record low at 62 deaths.
Since 2002, there have been an average of 88 civilian fire deaths per year-the safest 10-year period since accurate record-keeping began- marking a 37 percent improvement over the previous 10 years, when the city averaged 140 fire deaths per year.
The number of structural fires were down by six percent this year and down 11 percent over the last 10 years. More importantly, serious fires declined by three percent in 2011 and by 15 percent during the last decade.
The FDNY continued to reduce the number of fires in the city through fire prevention and education efforts, which includes rigorous inspection programs and more than 6,000 fire safety presentations throughout the city each year.


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For many, it was a decidedly un-gleeful morning in LA.
Less than two weeks after the shocking death of Cory Monteith, friends and costars of the actor, including his girlfriend Lea Michele, reunited for a memorial on the Paramount studio lot, where Glee's auditorium scenes are filmed.
Michele joined producer Ryan Murphy and costars including Kevin McHale and Darren Criss at the indoor/outdoor event where guests mingled, dined on buffet food and listened to Glee-appropriate tunes like "Good Vibrations" in Monteith's honor.
Each of the over 150 attendees (including Chord Overstreet, who was seen carrying a guitar) sported black ribbons as a tribute to the late actor.
"They were somber," says an eyewitness of the mourners, who were seen leaving the memorial with puffy, red eyes. "There were a lot of production staff and crew too and most everyone was dressed in black."
In a statement, Fox said: "Today, Ryan Murphy and Lea Michele gathered the cast, crew and producers of Glee, along with colleagues from the network and studio, to share memories and music in an emotional celebration of the life of Cory Monteith. We thank the public for their continued outpouring of love and support as we grieve our friend and colleague during this difficult time."
Meanwhile, the entire Glee cast (Michele included) will resume production in early August. The series will honor Monteith's character, Finn Hudson, in a special tribute episode this fall.


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Science Daily, Aug. 15, 2011 — There might be a time when instead of just drinking that morning cup of coffee you lather it on your skin as a way of preventing harmful sun damage or skin cancer.
Coffee-Based Sunscreen Might Work Best
A new Rutgers study strengthens the theory that caffeine guards against certain skin cancers at the molecular level by inhibiting a protein enzyme in the skin, known as ATR. Scientists believe that based on what they have learned studying mice, caffeine applied directly to the skin might help prevent damaging UV light from causing skin cancer.
Prior research indicated that mice that were fed caffeinated water and exposed to lamps that generated UVB radiation that damaged the DNA in their skin cells were able to kill off a greater percentage of their badly damaged cells and reduce the risk of cells becoming cancerous.
"Although it is known that coffee drinking is associated with a decreased risk of non-melanoma skin cancer, there now needs to be studies to determine whether topical caffeine inhibits sunlight-induced skin cancer," said Allan Conney, director of the Susan Lehman Cullman Laboratory for Cancer Research.
In this newly-published study, instead of inhibiting ATR with caffeinated water, Rutgers researchers, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Washington, genetically modified and diminished ATR in one group of mice. The results: the genetically modified mice developed tumors more slowly than the unmodified mice, had 69 percent fewer tumors than regular mice and developed four times fewer invasive tumors.
The study also found, however, that when both groups of mice were exposed to chronic ultraviolet rays for an extended period of time, tumor development occurred in both the genetically modified and regular mice. What this seems to indicate, says Conney, is that inhibiting the ATR enzyme works best at the pre-cancerous stage before UV-induced skin cancers are fully developed.
According to the National Cancer Institute, sunlight-induced skin cancer is the most prevalent cancer in the United States with more than 1 million new cases each year. Although multiple human epidemiologic studies link caffeinated beverage intake with significant decreases in several different types of cancer, including skin cancer, just how and why coffee protects against the disease is unknown.
"Caffeine might become a weapon in prevention because it inhibits ATR and also acts ad as a sunscreen and directly absorbs damaging UV light," said Conney.
Visit Us In Westlake Village
There's always an open invitation waiting for you to join us at our cupping table in Westlake Village.
Feel free to email us anytime or call to speak with our friendly staff M-F, 8AM – 4:30PM PST about trending coffee news, up to date status on our offerings and how we can help improve your roasting business. 800.761.JAVA


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"In recognition of his leadership in the field of gaseous electronics, as evidenced by definitive pioneering studies of electron, ion, and atomic collision processes, calculations of electron transport and energy flow in ionized gases, and applications to newly developing technology areas such as gas lasers."
Background:Arthur Van Rensselaer Phelps was born July 20, 1923 in Dover, New Hampshire. He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering (1944-University of Texas), served 3 years in the Navy, received a B.S. in Physics (1947-University of Florida) and a Sc.D. in Physics (1951-MIT). As a physicist at the Westinghouse Research Laboratories from 1951 to 1970, he worked on low energy electron collisions with atoms and molecules, resonance radiation transport, and negative ion-molecule reactions with atmospheric gases. He was a Senior Research Scientist NIST and a Fellow of JILA from 1970 until retirement in 1988 and Professor Adjoint, Department of Physics, University of Colorado since 1977. He was Chairman, JILA, 1979-81. At JILA, he worked on measurement and modeling of transport and reaction coefficients for electrons, ions, metastables, and neutral in gases, experiments and models of electrical discharges at high electric fields and low pressures. Recent research includes analyses and modeling of energetic ion, neutral, and electron processes in the cathode region of glow discharges.
Professional associations include: Fellow of the American Physical Society; Chair, Gaseous Electronics Conference (1965, 1966); Board of Editors, The Physical Review, 1963-65; Associate Editor, Reviews of Modern Physics, 1973-75; Chairperson, Gordon Research Conference on Plasma Chemistry, 1990. He has had about 110 papers published. He received the 1990 Will Allis Prize of the American Physical Society. He received a Most Highly Cited Paper Award 2009 from Plasma Sources Science and Technology.
M.A. Biondi, J.N. Bardsley, M.A. Lieberman, J. Proud, R.A. Gottscho


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Jewish World Review Oct. 16, 2003/ 20 Tishrei, 5764
Ann Coulter With half his brain tied behind his backhttp://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | So liberals have finally found a drug addict they don't like. And unlike the Lackawanna Six those high-spirited young lads innocently seeking adventure in an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan liberals could find no excuses for Rush Limbaugh. After years of the mainstream media assuring us that Rush was a has-been, a nobody, yesterday's news the Rush painkiller story was front-page news last week. (Would anyone care if Howell Raines committed murder?) The airwaves and print media were on red alert with Rush's admission that, after an unsuccessful spinal operation a few years ago, he became addicted to powerful prescription painkillers. Rush Limbaugh's misfortune is apparently a bigger story than his nearly $300 million radio contract signed two years ago. That was the biggest radio contract in broadcasting history. Yet there are only 12 documents on LexisNexis that reported it. The New York Times didn't take notice of Rush's $300 million radio contract, but a few weeks later, put Bill Clinton's comparatively measly $10 million book contract on its front page. Meanwhile, in the past week alone, LexisNexis has accumulated more than 50 documents with the words "Rush Limbaugh and hypocrisy." That should make up for the 12 documents on his $300 million radio contract. The reason any conservative's failing is always major news is that it allows liberals to engage in their very favorite taunt: Hypocrisy! Hypocrisy is the only sin that really inflames them. Inasmuch as liberals have no morals, they can sit back and criticize other people for failing to meet the standards that liberals simply renounce. It's an intriguing strategy. By openly admitting to being philanderers, draft dodgers, liars, weasels and cowards, liberals avoid ever being hypocrites. At least Rush wasn't walking into church carrying a 10-pound Bible before rushing back to the Oval Office for sodomy with Monica Lewinsky. He wasn't enforcing absurd sexual harassment guidelines while dropping his pants in front of a half-dozen subordinates. (Evidently, Clinton wasn't a hypocrite because no one was supposed to take seriously the notion that he respected women or believed in the Divine.) Rush has hardly been the anti-drug crusader liberals suggest. Indeed, Rush hasn't had much to say about drugs at all since that spinal operation. The Rush Limbaugh quote that has been endlessly recited in the last week to prove Rush's rank "hypocrisy" is this, made eight years ago: "Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. ... And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up." What precisely are liberals proposing that Rush should have said to avoid their indignant squeals of "hypocrisy"? Announce his support for the wide and legal availability of a prescription painkiller that may have caused him to go deaf and nearly ruined his career and wrecked his life? I believe that would have been both evil and hypocritical. Or is it simply that Rush should not have become addicted to painkillers in the first place? Well, no, I suppose not. You've caught us: Rush has a flaw. And yet, the wily hypocrite does not support flaws! When a conservative can be the biggest thing in talk radio, earning $30 million a year and attracting 20 million devoted listeners every week all while addicted to drugs I'll admit liberals have reason to believe that conservatives are some sort of super-race, incorruptible by original sin. But the only perfect man hasn't walked the Earth for 2,000 years. In liberals' worldview, any conservative who is not Jesus Christ is ipso facto a "hypocrite" for not publicly embracing dissolute behavior the way liberals do. In fact, Rush's behavior was not all that dissolute. There is a fundamental difference between taking any drug -- legal, illegal, prescription, protected by the 21st Amendment or banned by Michael Bloomberg -- for kicks and taking a painkiller (for pain. There is a difference morally and a difference legally. While slamming Rush, Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz recently told Wolf Blitzer, "Generally, people who illegally buy prescription drugs are not prosecuted, whereas people who illegally buy cocaine and heroin are prosecuted." What would the point be? Just say no to back surgery? I haven't checked with any Harvard Law professors, but I'm pretty sure that, generally, adulterous drunks who drive off bridges and kill girls are prosecuted. Ah, but Teddy Kennedy supports adultery and public drunkenness so at least you can't call him a hypocrite! That must provide great consolation to Mary Jo Kopechne's parents. I have a rule about not feeling sorry for people worth $300 million, but I'm feeling sentimental. Evan Thomas wrote a cover story on Rush for Newsweek this week that was so vicious it read like conservative satire. Thomas called Rush a "schlub," "socially ill at ease," an Elmer Gantry, an actor whose "act has won over, or fooled, a lot of people." He compared Rush to the phony TV evangelist Jim Bakker and recommended that Rush start to "make a virtue out of honesty." (Liberals can lie under oath in legal proceedings and it's a "personal matter." Conservatives must scream their every failing from the rooftops or they are "liars.") As is standard procedure for profiles of conservatives, Newsweek gathered quotes on Rush from liberals, ex-wives and dumped dates. Covering himself, Thomas ruefully remarked that "it's hard to find many people who really know him." Well, there was me, Evan! But I guess Newsweek didn't have room for the quotes I promptly sent back to the Newsweek researchers. I could have even corrected Newsweek's absurd account of how Rush met his current wife. (It's kind of cute, too: She was a fan who began arguing with him about something he said on air.) Thomas also made the astute observation that "Rush Limbaugh has always had far more followers than friends." Needless to say, this floored those of us who were shocked to discover that Rush does not have 20 million friends.
So the guy I really feel sorry for is Evan Thomas. How would little Evan fare in any competitive media? Any followers? Any fans? Any readers at all? And he's not even addicted to painkillers! This week, Rush proved his motto: He really can beat liberals with half his brain tied behind his back.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Ann Coulter is the author of, most recently, "Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism." (Sales help fund JWR.)


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AFC Darwen will be hoping to use their stunning 7-2 First Division Challenge Cup victory over Leek CSOB to spring a surprise on Runcorn Town tomorrow.
Kenny Langford's side booked a last four date with with a fantastic victory at the Anchor Ground.
And they are back on the cup trail tomorrow when they visit Runcorn in the League Challenge Cup third round.
Darwen are a division below their hosts and face a tough task against a side who still harbour hopes of winning the North West Counties League Premier Division title.
In midweek, Ryan Steele netted a hat-trick while Bobby Langford weighed in with two as Darwen came from 1-0 down with a fantastic performance.
Danny Banks and Stevie Lee were also on target as Darwen hit five without reply after the tie was delicately poised at 2-2.
Struggling Bacup and Rossendale Borough welcome St Helens Town in the Premier Division in search of a win that could lift them out of the relegation places while Barnoldswick Town host Stockport Sports knowing a victory would lift them above their visitors and potentially into a top half placing.
Colne, sitting in eighth, are on their travels as they head to a Glossop North End side who are two places and 12 points better off.
In Division One, league leaders Nelson host Eccleshall.
Evo-Stik League Premier Division leaders Chorley bid to maintain their five point gap at the top of the table when they travel to Grantham Town.
There is a local derby in the First Division North where Padiham host in form Ramsbottom United.
The Rams have surged into the play-off places after a sparkling run of form while Padiham sit eight points above the bottom two and look set to survive in their first season at his level.
Elsewhere, Clitheroe are on the road at Wakefield.
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Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP ACG) confiscated a total of 14 signal jammers and arrested four (4) individuals during an entrapment operation on April 25, 2013 at Caloocan City.
PNP ACG, led by Police Superintendent Bernard R Yang, conducted an entrapment operation at 79 and 84, 4th Avenue, Grace Park, Caloocan City after receiving an information from concerned citizens about certain persons who were selling signal jammers through the internet. The informant was able to communicate through the given cellular phone number by the seller posted on a website called www.sulit.com.ph.


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Acadia Council on Aging participates in 20th Annual Cleco Fan Drive to help elderly
PINEVILLE, La. – July 1, 2020 – Malita Bartie (left), executive director of the Acadia Council on Aging, and Allison Pousson, receptionist, display a fan donated by Cleco during the company's 20th Annual Fan Drive which helps elderly customers stay cool and lower their energy usage during the hot summer months.
"The fan drive is important to us because fans help our elderly customers keep cool during our hot summer months," said Ron Smith, director of customer experience. "Furthermore, fans can help customers conserve energy. Air conditioners are typically the largest energy users in a home, and raising the thermostat to 78 degrees and using a fan can help the air temperature feel 10 degrees cooler and help reduce energy usage."
Councils on Aging offices within Cleco's service territory are accepting fans and monetary donations by appointment only June 22 through July 3.
The agencies will begin distributing fans to the elderly by appointment only beginning July 6. To request a fan, seniors should contact the agency in their area and make an appointment. To receive a fan, seniors must be a Cleco customer and 60-years of age or older.
In addition to adjusting thermostats, Cleco recommends the following tips to help lower energy usage:
- Install a programmable thermostat and raise the setting to the highest comfortable temperature.
- Use heat generating appliances such as dryers and ovens at night when temperatures are cooler outside.
- Seal holes and cracks around windows.
- Keep curtains and blinds closed during the day.
For energy-savings tips or to learn more about Cleco in the community, visit www.cleco.com or follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/clecopower.
Cleco Corporate Holdings LLC is a regional energy holding company that conducts its business operations through its subsidiaries, Cleco Power LLC and Cleco Cajun LLC. Cleco Power is a regulated electric public utility company that owns 10 generating assets with a total nameplate capacity of 3,360 MWs and serves approximately 288,000 customers in Louisiana through its retail business and supplies wholesale power in Louisiana and Mississippi. Cleco Cajun is an unregulated utility company that owns eight generating assets with a total nameplate capacity of 3,555 MWs, with contracts serving nine Louisiana cooperatives, three wholesale municipal customers and one electric utility. For more information about Cleco, visit us at www.cleco.com.


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Most Americans have no idea what a tremendous advantage the United States possesses by having the primary reserve currency of the world, and most Americans also have no idea how close the U.S. dollar is to losing that status. For the past 40 years, the vast majority of all global trade (including the buying and selling of oil) has been done in U.S. dollars. That is still the case today, but things are starting to shift. All over the globe international agreements are being made to move away from the U.S. dollar and to use other currencies in global trade. The second largest economy in the world, China, has been particularly aggressive in seeking to change the existing financial order. As you will see below, China has been running all over the planet making agreements with other nations to start conducting an increasing amount of trade in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. And of course the Chinese are heavily promoting their own currency – the renminbi. So why is this happening? Well, for one thing, the truth is that the United States is not the only superpower in the world anymore. The Chinese economy is actually projected to become larger than the U.S. economy by 2016, and by some measurements the Chinese economy is already larger. So Chinese leaders have been very open about the fact that they believe that it just doesn't make sense that the vast majority of all global trade should continue to be conducted in U.S. dollars, especially considering the reckless money printing that the Federal Reserve has been doing. At a time when the status of the U.S. dollar is already slipping, QE3 is deeply undermining confidence in U.S. currency. And when the U.S. dollar does lose reserve currency status, the consequences for the United States are going to be absolutely catastrophic.
Sadly, most Americans don't even know what a "reserve currency" is or that the U.S. dollar is under attack.
The Chinese have not only been talking about cutting the legs out from under the U.S. dollar – they have been actively doing it. The following is an excerpt from a recent story by Alan Wheatley, a global economics correspondent for Reuters….
Fed up with what it sees as Washington's malign neglect of the dollar, China is busily promoting the cross-border use of its own currency, the yuan, also known as the renminbi, in trade and investment.
The aim is both narrowly commercial – to reduce transaction costs for Chinese exporters and importers – and sweepingly strategic.
Displacing the dollar, Beijing says, will reduce volatility in oil and commodity prices and belatedly erode the 'exorbitant privilege' the United States enjoys as the issuer of the reserve currency at the heart of a post-war international financial architecture it now sees as hopelessly outmoded.
The mainstream media in the United States is almost entirely ignoring these developments, but the truth is that all of this is a very, very big deal.
The following are just some of the international currency agreements that China has made in the last couple of years….
-China and Germany (See Here)
-China and Russia (See Here)
-China and Brazil (See Here)
-China and Australia (See Here)
-China and Japan (See Here)
-China and Chile (See Here)
-China and the United Arab Emirates (See Here)
-China, Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa (See Here)
Most U.S. economists dismiss this threat by pointing out that China has stockpiled so many U.S. dollars and so much U.S. debt that if anything happens to the U.S. financial system China would be significantly damaged as well.
That may be true to a certain extent, but what is also true is that most Americans fundamentally misunderstand our relationship with China.
Most Americans believe that we are "friends" with China just because they are conducting massive amounts of trade with us.
Sadly, that is not how the Chinese see us. They see us as "the competition", and they very much plan on coming out on top in the end.
Right now, the Chinese are stockpiling mind blowing amounts of gold. They are preparing for the day when the U.S. dollar crashes and when hard assets will be the place to be.
And some are even speculating that the Chinese may be planning to back their own currency with gold at some point.
The following is an excerpt from a recent article by Christopher K. Potter, the president of Northern Border Capital Management….
For three thousand years China has been at the forefront of monetary innovation. It was the first to legalize gold money in the tenth century BC and two millennia later it issued the world's first paper currency. Fast forward to 2012 and China is at it again, eclipsing Australia as the largest producer of gold and increasing its monetary gold reserves at an alarming rate. Five years ago China surpassed the US in gold production and five years from now it will own more gold than the US Federal government.
Do not dismiss this as just another example of China's insatiable appetite for natural resources. It is not. China is preparing for a world beyond the inconvertible paper dollar, a world in which the renminbi, buttressed by gold, becomes the dominant reserve currency.
Lest anyone doubt China's resolve, just consider the following: The Chinese government has recently removed all restrictions on personal ownership of gold; legalized domestic gold exchange traded funds; is currently purchasing 100% of domestic gold mine production; has imported over 750 tons of gold (27% of global output) in the last 12 months; stated publically its intention to add 1,000 tons per year to its central bank gold reserves; and is buying major stakes in foreign gold mining companies. The scale of this initiative is extraordinary.
When the U.S. financial system crashes, what do you think the rest of the world is going to want – paper U.S. currency that is rapidly becoming worthless or renminbi backed by gold?
China is very serious about this effort to hoard gold. Reportedly, the amount of gold that China has imported in 2012 alone is greater than the total amount of gold that the European Central Bank is officially holding.
And China is gobbling up gold mining operations all over the planet at a staggering rate. I discussed this extensively in a previous article that you can find here.
Okay, so what happens if the rest of the world starts rejecting the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency and starts moving to other currencies such as the Chinese renminbi?
The change would potentially be dramatic.
Up until now, there has been a constantly growing demand for more dollars from the rest of the globe. They have needed dollars to buy oil and to trade with one another.
All of this demand has kept the value of the U.S. dollar up. But if the rest of the globe started rejecting the dollar, it would drop like a rock.
When the value of the dollar declines, imports become more expensive.
So the price of oil would go higher and you would pay more for gasoline at the gas pump.
And since just about everything is made outside the country these days, just about everything you buy at Wal-Mart would become significantly more expensive.
The era of endless super cheap imports would be over and our standard of living would experience a massive adjustment.
So just how bad could things get?
Well, how would your life change if you went to the store a couple of years from now and the cost of everything was double or triple what it is today?
Yes, I know that sounds dramatic, but a major currency crisis coupled with reckless money printing by the Federal Reserve could actually produce such an outcome.
So enjoy those cheap imports while you still can. The days of the U.S. dollar being the sole primary reserve currency of the world are numbered, and when the dollar dies it is probably going to happen very rapidly.


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– Dimensions: approximately 53″ x 20″ however they will stretch to fit most bucket style seats of any car and SUV
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Sizing Chart


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The Road to Jaigoan
I've ridden the wooden Cyclone roller-coaster at Cony Island just one time. One minute and fifty seconds in the apple-red car, etched in time.
The spine-jarringly rough ride and being thrown from side to side as the car lurched through its turns both stick in my memory. These set the coaster apart from its peers more than the climbs and plunges. And it was these that brought the Cyclone to mind hour after hour as we drove to Jaigoan through the night.
Potholes isn't an appropriate word here, because it implies a few isolated depressions in the road. This was a road as uneven as the Cyclone's tracks.
Indian traffic provided the swerves. Their traffic flow isn't restricted by lanes. Cars maneuver with organized chaos much the way that pedestrians maneuver on a packed New York City sidewalk, flowing, rarely colliding, rarely moving in a straight line.
It was late when we arrived in Jaigoan, and I was tired — but not too tired to be struck by three lessons:
1) Our hotel in Jaigoan was spare and clean. We checked-in there before doing anything else. The beds were thin, firm palettes. Ceiling fans kept us cool-ish. We had an outdoor bathroom on the balcony. (By bathroom I mean a room with a toilet, small mirror, wall spigots, and buckets — not a tub or shower stall).
The one piece of technology — something I've seen in many countries, but still not the US — was a power slot on the wall for the hotel key. When you remove the key, lights, outlets, and ceiling fans throughout the room all turn off.
The implementation wasn't perfect (you needed your key to open your closet on the other side of the room, but couldn't see to get there if you took the key from the slot). But the lesson was clear. Before other refinements, not wasting energy is fundamental.
Likewise, the bathroom was primitive in some ways, but featured a small/large dual flush toilet. They start with conservation as the first feature.
2) Late at night, exhausted, we were invited to a glorious dinner of home-prepared North Indian dishes. Even with eyelids drooping, the food and company were fantastic.
The evening was capped off with a rare, expensive treat: Bhutan apples.
Apples are an exotic delight in India. Apples are easier to obtain in the US, but no less precious. Learn to treasure apples.
3) Early the next morning we went to the end of the road to Jaigoan: the Gate to the Royal Kingdom of Bhutan. At the ornate gate you'll find a collection of vendors, commuters, and booking agents for exotic adventures.
I was struck by two boys armed with spray canisters. They doused each car entering India from Bhutan with "medicine". When pressed, they described it as poison to kill insects and germs, to prevent Avian Flu.
Pesticides and disinfectants sprayed in the streets. Sprayed on cars, bikes, and rickshaws. Sprayed without protective gear. It's jarring to see. They are combating a legitimate threat in a clumsy and risky way.
Of course in the US we spray pesticides on our food!. Most of us just aren't there to see it. And we spray chemical disinfectants on our kitchen counters. And use chemical disinfectant wipes on our kids' toys..
There are better ways to control germs and pests! Thymol is a powerful, safe, natural disinfectant, reliably killing germs. Organic techniques can be sustainable, safer, more effective ways of dealing pests.
A cyclone is a whirling windstorm. I emerged from our brief dizzying time in Jaigoan swirling with desires to reduce wasted energy, to reduce unnecessary toxic chemicals, and to value apples like they were exotic treasures from Bhutan (which they are).
Not just for one minute and fifty seconds of a thrill ride storm, or for the several hours of an Indian expedition, but as part of the everyday weave of the fabric of life.
These things are both a journey and a destination., useful not just in a storm, but in everyday life.
We can all learn to ask ourselves, "How many power switches can you turn off in your home or office right now?" "How are you protecting your family from toxic chemicals?"
And to enjoy an apple everyday that we can.
Read more in this series:
We Know the Secret
Greetings From Chenga, India
They Say an Elephant Never Forgets
Eating What The Host Serves
The Road to Jaigoan
One Cup of Tea
The Epicenter


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U.S. consumers ramped up their spending in March at the fastest pace in 4½ years, a sign that the economy is gaining momentum after its winter slowdown.
The Commerce Department said Thursday that consumer spending rose 0.9 percent, the largest monthly gain since April 2009. The department also revised up its estimate of the spending increase in February to 0.5 percent from 0.3 percent.
Consumers spent more on manufactured goods last month. Autos and furniture led much of the gains, according to a separate retail sales report released last month.
Income rose 0.5 percent in March after rising 0.4 percent in February.
Higher spending points to stronger growth ahead because consumer activity accounts for roughly 70 percent of the economy. During last quarter as a whole, harsh winter weather curbed spending, and the economy barely grew at an annual rate of just 0.1 percent.
But Thursday's report suggested that last quarter's slowdown was confined mainly to January and February, before consumers stepped up spending in March.
For last quarter overall, consumer spending did grow at a 3 percent annual rate. But that gain was dominated by a 4.4 percent rise in spending on services, reflecting in part higher utility bills during the unusually cold winter.
Economists say warmer weather likely encouraged people to make purchases last month that they had delayed because of snowstorms earlier this year.
"The weather-related rebound may now have run its course," said Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics.
Dales projects that consumer spending will increase at a 4.5 percent annual clip this quarter and will help the overall economy grow at a 3.5 percent annual rate over that time.
Employers added 192,000 jobs in March and 197,000 in February, after slight gains in the preceding months. The hiring should help to drive income and spending gains in March.
On Friday, the Labor Department will issue the April employment report. Economists have forecast that 210,000 jobs were added, according to the data firm FactSet.
Payroll processer ADP said Wednesday that private employers added 220,000 jobs in April, the most since November, after adding 209,000 in March.
Copyright © 2014 Capitol Hill Blue
Copyright © 2014 The Associated Press All Rights Reserved


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Cambridge retrospective: History and Philosophy of Science
I recently concluded a year long study-abroad program at the University of Cambridge. You can read my original reasons and first impressions here.
It is the Sunday before the beginning of exams, and the weather is spectacular. Most students (except perhaps the pure historians) are dourly inside, too busy revising to take advantage of it. But I am thrust out of my den, constructed of piles of notes and past exam questions, in order to go to one final revision with our history supervisor, Mirjam. I cycle down Grange road, park my bicycle outside Ridley Hall, and am greeted to a pleasant surprise: Mirjam has elected to hold the revision outside on a cluster of park benches flanked everywhere by grass and trees, and has brought a wickerbasket containing fresh fruit, small cupcakes and other treats, and also sparkling wine and beer (perhaps not the best drink for what is ostensibly a revision, but we avail ourselves of it anyway.)
History and Philosophy of Science is a course made of two strands. They start off relatively distinct from each other: History of Science began with Galileo and the dawn of the 16th century, while Philosophy of Science began by analyzing the nature of causality. But by the end of the course, philosophical questions about quantification and quantum mechanics are couched heavily in terms of the histories of these sciences, and prevailing attitudes about the origins of western civilization being rooted in Greece and the mathematics of ancient Babylonia are analyzed with increasing philosophical flavor. The mixture of the two subjects work, and taking this course has been an incredibly rich experience. (At times, I even wish we had been asked to write more than one essay a week—something that would be pretty unheard of for an MIT humanities class.)
It was also hard work. Especially in history, where my initial essays had a rocky start due to my misunderstanding of how I was supposed to be synthesizing material from a broader range of materials than just the survey texts that were required reading (I might have been a "little" negligent doing all of the required reading.) Writing HPS essays required me to block out large chunks of my time during the weekend for them; I rarely stayed up late doing assigned computer science work, but did so more than I would like the night an HPS essay was due. I always attempted to pay attention in lectures (some times more successfully than others—to this day I still don't really understand the rise of the modern research university system.)
A few professors stand out in my memories. I will never forget Hasok Chang (pictured above)'s introductory lecture, where, in a digression, he explained he originally majored in Physics in Caltech, but switched to philosophy after his professors got annoyed when he asked questions like "What happened before the Big Bang?" It was his first year teaching the Philosophy of the Physical Sciences series of lectures (much to the chagrin of many students, who did not have any past exam questions to study against), but he went on to deliver an extremely solid series of engaging and informative lectures (I think they also appealed a bit to physicists who were tired of such abstract questions as the nature of causation and induction). He even invited us to a round of drinks at the nearby pub after his last lecture, where we had a lively debate about a recent topic over some beers.
Stephen John delivered an extremely lively and thought-provoking series of lectures on ethics in science. Most of his lectures left us with more questions than answers, but they were an elucidating journey into the realms of informed consent, the precautionary principle and cost-benefit analysis. (Informed consent is one of my new personal favorites: it's an awesome example of how an enshrined medical practice is both too conservative and too liberal.) And I will always remember our supervisor, Richard Jennings (pictured below), as the perpetually smiling, moustached man whose supervisions weren't really supervisions but rather just conversations about the topics which had been recently covered in lecture.
Among history lecturers, I have to tip my hat to Eleanor Robson, who delivered the last four lectures in history of science. I will admit: I wasn't too keen on learning about Ancient Babylonia when I first read the syllabus, but what the lectures ended up being were a discussion about historiographical issues: how do historians come to know the "dry facts" that anyone who studied history in High School comes to know too well? In many ways, it's astounding that we know as much as we do. It's one of those lessons that you wish you learned earlier, even though, in the back of your head, you know that you wouldn't have fully appreciated them earlier on.
Simon Schaffer (picture above) was also quite a character, a rather forceful individual who delivered our first set of history lectures. You can perhaps get a flavor of his style from the short BBC series The Light Fantastic, though he was perhaps a smidge more vulgar (in a good way!) when you saw him lecture in person. ("Fat. Irascible. Brilliant. Definitely a role model," Schaffer, on Tycho Brahe.) And of course, Mirjam, our history supervisor, who persistently encouraged us to improve our essay writing.
HPS was pretty amazing. (I even tagged along to the Part II orientation event, even though I wouldn't be eligible for it.) If you are a scientist who at all had an interest in philosophy or history (I first dipped my toe into philosophy taking "Logic and Reasoning" at CTY), I cannot recommend this program more highly. Readers of my blog may have noticed various attempts to discuss these issues on my blog—they are a bit harder to write about than some of the more technical things I discuss, but I think they are also very rewarding (and occasionally, some of my most popular writings—though in retrospect this one seems a bit Whiggish now.) It's also fun: I managed to write an essay about Kuhnian scientific revolutions by framing it in the context of MIT Mystery Hunt. I won't deny it: for a brief period of time, I felt like a liberal arts student. It has made me a better person, in many, many ways.


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As part of our ongoing series around local interests, we've started to span across Europe and the rest of the world. This inaugural Scandinavian/Nordic instalment comes courtesy of Lazy Acre Records head man Ben Manwairing and fits nicely into our Nordic Music Series, too. he gives us a run-down on the appeal of Oslo as well as a discussion of the artists making waves down the Oslofjord.
As I stepped off the plane in Oslo for the first time two years ago the first thing that struck me was the snow. Fucking tons of it. Everywhere. However, as I trudged back in my front door four days later it wasnt the February cold that had left its mark on me - indeed while I was able to successfully shake the final drops of snow from my jacket I was not able to shake something else - call it a holiday romance if you will but those burgeoning twinges soon developed and before long - as I made my way through the pile of demos and cds that I bought home from that year's by:Larm festival - I realised that I was utterly and hopelessly in love with Norwegian music.
When you tell people that fact its interesting to see their reactions - with non-music fans it's normally a bit of a conversation stopper - "so you run a record label?" "yeah yeah, we specialise in Norwegian music" "oh... how lovely... like A-Ha?" "Er...no"...And I suppose in some ways it's easy to understand their ambivalence; in a world when the NME is still dominated by The Libertines all these years after, and despite the increased exposure afforded by the internet, many people's only exposure to Nordic music comes each year in the form of the Eurovision Song Contest (a competition which has a testy relationship with Norway scattered with some memorable nul points heroes in its catalogue) however if you take even a cursory look at Bergen, Elverum and indeed in the case of this column Oslo - there is a Wonka-land-esque sea of riches for music fans to discover.
The core of the scene according to Oslo-based Scandinavian blogger Erik Petrson is live music; "Live is where it all happens for me - there is live music almost every night in all sorts of bars, bands playing with each other on collaborations, checking each other out, plotting in smoky doorways and darkened corners, and that's where people go to find new music. So many more people are interested in going to see bands live than the times I've spent living in the States and France, and you're rewarded for it - that's where I heard about people like Youth Pictures [of Florence Henderson] and Susanne Sundfør for the first time, both acts that have gone on to be a big part of my listening life".
Agent and artist manager Endre Thesen Harnes concurs that its an exciting time right now. "The Oslo music scene is thriving these days, and with the upcoming release of the by:Larm 2011 (Norway's SXSW, CMJ, whatever) demo panel-picks, everything crossable is crossed and tension is probably building in basements all over Norway." Harnes continues, "Oslo is not only moving on the guitar-based front though, the last month has also seen the release of (mostly) instrumental synth-poppers Pow Pow's sophomore full-length album, Last Days On Earth, and some reviews are naming it the most important electronic album from Norway in years".
With such a buzzing live scene, it was its genesis as a live promoter that spawned one of the central players in the Oslo label scene - Spoon Train Audio - an indie label helmed by various members of indie-poppers My Little Pony and a cast of many. The label is currently gearing up for a busy winter that not only sees them promoting some of the busiest nights in the gig calendar (Xiu Xiu and Band of Horses for two in the coming months) but also working on a number of key records in the shape of Cold Mailman's new album (one of the first artists announced for by:Larm 2011, who set loose their second full-length album, Relax; The Mountain Will Come To You, this month) and a new single from popscene frontrunners My Little Pony (disco floorfiller 'Hard To Be Good') as well as managing a number of other buzz bands including newcomers Honeytraps and Death By Unga Bunga. All this while helping to assist the current rise of DiS-endorsed The Megaphonic Thrift at the same time.
Thesen Harnes says of Cold Mailman's rise; "Pretty much the same as what happened last year, when another project featuring about half of Cold Mailman's varying lineup, Kollwitz, released their debut, Like Iron I Rust, to just about the same amount of critical acclaim. But where Kollwitz's way is metalcore inspired by the likes of Isis and Cult of Luna, Cold Mailman is a more melancholic, subtle indie pop - it's perfectly crafted for stomping about among the Autumn leaves on chilly October mornings."
Spoon Train's almost omnipotent involvement in so many facets of the city's musical output typifies the Oslo approach in my experience. From the outside it seems impossible to keep track - bands weaving in and out of each other for recording sessions and live shows, tracks produced by friends and released on a Chinese whisper network of indie labels (See Sjur Lyseid's involvement in both production for Spoon Train, running his own studio, leading two high-profile bands on the label and producing albums for the likes of How Is Annie records as a great example) to an area receptive and happy to see such a thriving scene on their doorsteps.
This labrinthian family tree and pockets of connected activity is what makes Oslo such an intriguing place for music fans to discover - a great big treasure hunt of obscure vinyl and some excellently oblique song titles ('Eating Fish in Hamburger Heaven' anyone?) - friends of friends and all in some impeccable knitwear. Over the course of (what I hope to be) a series of notes on the Big O, I plan to start introducing some of the cornerstones of this scene - the record shops and bars, the bookers and labels that make the wheels spin round. For now though I wanted to provide a brief introductions for some personal favourites currenrly doing the rounds:
Team Me:
Not actually from Oslo but playing some very buzz-y shows around the place right now, Team Me is a six-piece collective huddled around the Sufjan-y songwriting of main man Marius, crafting a bewitching blend of bleeptronica, folk and out-and-out pop. I've read comparisons to Andrew Bird on the blogvine (which has fallen head-over-heels for these guys) and those comparisons aren't far off the mark. Not least with this track - recent single 'Weathervanes and Chemicals'.
Team Me - Weathervanes and Chemicals from simen skari on Vimeo.
Ingrid Olava:
As a former backing singer for Norwegian enormo rockers Madrugada, Ingrid Olava has been cutting her songwriting chops for some time now - her show at by:Larm this year was a packed-out affair replete with a hypnotic rhythm section to flesh out and bring life to her piano-led torch songs. There's an EP out (Please Welcome) over here on October 25 which is well worth your time. Not sure if this track is on it but it's certainly a live favourite!
Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson:
Fans of Youthmovies and their epic post-rocky ilk will find much to love in Youth Pictures. Fleshing out a defiantly song-led sound with cellos and washes of chiming guitars turned out to be a bit of a masterstroke, as the band hit their stride with a double LP earlier this year (Puzzle the Detective on How Is Annie Records) that was as glacial and spacious as it was achingly beautiful. Imagine that outro to '...Spooks the Horse' played by Sigur Ros and you're somewhere close. Epic stuff.
Death By Unga Bunga:
On the other side of the pendulum you have the Ostfold immigrant (rural county southeast of Oslo) garage rockers Death by Unga Bunga. The guys have - since they destroyed by:Larm 2010 - been all over Norway with their, mildly put, energetic live shows. Embraced by both the hipster crowd and the garage rock puritans, with their debut album's Norwegian release in November and a 7" due on The Cynics-run label Get Hip overseas, Death by Unga Bunga are kicking and screaming their way towards the masses.
If all of this has piqued something of an interest then why not stop by a few MySpace instead of watching that clip of Pink get slingshotted into the barrier again:
Team Me
Ingrid Olava
Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson
Susanne Sundfør
Children and Corpse Playing in Street
Solvor Vermeer - who releases a new EP in Norway on her own Bloksberg Label November 1.
I See Horses
You can find out more about Lazy Acre Records here, more from our Nordic Series here and more local columns here.


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A plea of guilty or nolo contendere (no contest) will result in the judge inquiring into the circumstances of the offense before rendering a suitable penalty, usually the same day you and your child appear to plead. A plea of not guilty will result in the case being set for a pretrial conference and trial at a later date.
nolo contendere
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No. Acceptance of a fine by the court constitutes a plea of guilty by the defendant and would result in a conviction. Texas law requires juvenile offenders under age 17 to appear in person and with a parent or guardian before the judge and must be present in court to be convicted.
Texas law requires that a Court use diligent effort to locate and compel the presence of a parent to produce the child and be present during the proceedings. Failure of a parent, guardian, or managing conservator to come to court when summoned, to produce the child in court as required, or to inform the court of the child's change of address are all Class C misdemeanor offenses with fines up to $500 that can be brought against a parent (CCP 45.0215).
Traffic and alcohol cases are reported to the Department of Public Safety in Austin, identified with your child's driver's license number or social security number and birth date. Courts are also required to report juveniles who fail to appear for court or who fail to pay their fines, resulting in an administration suspension of the juvenile's driver's license.
A record is kept, but is not used against a young offender to establish guilt or innocence. It is considered when recommending appropriate penalties after conviction. It is not used in criminal proceedings against that person when he or she becomes an adult.
While not all juvenile records are open to the public, most Class C misdemeanors are public record. For example, if your son or daughter enters the military or seeks a security clearance, the possibility exists of an independent investigation revealing one or more Class C misdemeanor convictions on the public record. Determining whether or not that would be a problem depends on several factors. These factors may include the outlook of the prospective employer, the type of offense, the level of security clearance sought, whether or not the application was truthful, etc. It is possible to have certain types of juvenile criminal records sealed or expunged under special circumstances CCP 45.0216.
Expunction is a procedure available to a juvenile convicted of a crime, where the offense is removed from the juvenile's record at the point the law no longer applies. For example, a juvenile convicted of a single alcohol-related offense, could apply to the court to have the conviction removed when the juvenile turns 21). The person must make a written request to have the records expunged. The request must be made under oath. There is a $30 fee.
No. Courts do not appoint counsel for any Class C offender, regardless, of age, since there is no jail penalty associated with the offense. You are free to hire a lawyer if you choose to do so.
No. A person who is not licensed to practice law cannot represent someone in court, even their own child. This is called the unauthorized practice of law.
The amount of the fine varies according to the offense charged and the circumstances specific to your child's case. Ordinarily, the maximum fine for traffic offenses is $200, and the maximum fine for other Class C misdemeanors is $500 (unless there is a special fine range specified in the legislation creating the offense). The court has the option of permitting fines to be paid in installments or allowing the defendant to discharge a fine through community service work.
Community service is credited against the fine at the rate of $10 an hour. An appropriate number of community service hours are assigned to be served at a governmental or non-profit agency. The supervising agency should keep track of the hours. Once the hours are completed it is the parent's and child's responsibility to return the proper documentation to the Court.
Court-ordered alcohol and tobacco classes must be certified by the State of Texas. Find an alcohol awareness course near you. Find a tobacco awareness course near you.


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Classroom contact hours of approx 469 hrs. i.e. However, the actual total input provided to the student is more than 530 hours which includes
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Scoring Summary:
HOU -- Will Bruin 1 (Calen Carr 1) 12
HOU -- Will Bruin 2 (Jason Garey 2) 25
HOU -- Calen Carr 1 (unassisted) 42
Chicago Fire Alec Dufty, Pari Pantazopoulos, Kwame Watson-Siriboe, Yamith Cuesta, Francisco Mendoza, A.J. Jeffries (Eric Diaz 76), Lucas Paulini, Mike Jimenez (Cristian Nazarit 46), Victor Pineda, Mike Banner (Martin Alba 83), Orr Barouch (Jose Ruiz 58).
Substitutes Not Used: Jon Conway.
Houston Dynamo -- Tyler Deric, Hunter Freeman, Jermaine Taylor (Bradley Bourgeois 46), Eddie Robinson, Kofi Sarkodie, Danny Cruz (Francisco Navas Cobo 46), Josue Soto, Calen Carr (Alex Dixon 46), Je-Vaughn Watson, Jason Garey, Will Bruin.
Substitutes Not Used: Chris Dodd, Alan Arellano, Christian Gonzalez.
Game Notes:
The Houston Dynamo Reserves improved to 5-4 on the season by breezing to a 3-0 win over the first-place Chicago Fire Reserves Saturday evening at Robertson Stadium, led by two goals from rookie forward Will Bruin. Goalkeeper Tyler Deric earned his fifth shutout of the season.
Houston opened the scoring via Bruin in the 12th minute with his first MLS Reserve League goal of the year. Forward Calen Carr dribbled to the left endline and cut the ball back to Bruin, who finished with his right foot from close range.
Bruin, playing in just his third reserve game of the season, scored again in the 25th minute, when he finished a Jason Garey cross from inside the penalty area. The Dynamo made it 3-0 in the 42nd minute when former Chicago forward Calen Carr fired a shot into the top right corner after his initial effort was blocked.
Dynamo Academy defender Bradley Bourgeois (Cy-Fair) played the entire second half at center back.
The Dynamo Reserves have one game remaining, a make-up contest at Sporting Kansas City on Tuesday, October 18.


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There's been a fair bit of chat in the wine world about 'The Judgment of Princeton' (here). This was a wine tasting organized by the American Association of Wine Economists (AAWE) along the lines of the famous Judgment of Paris from 1976 in which Californian wines gave some classic French wines a bit of a kicking in a blind tasting judged by French professionals. And this was at a time when new world wines were seen as distinctly inferior to the old world cousins.
The Princeton tasting pitted French classics against wines from New Jersey in a blind setting, with nine judges from the USA, France and Belgium. The full set of scores plus analysis is here.
I was fascinated to see that Tyler Colman (the only one of the judges I know personally) gave his highest red wine score to a New Jersey wine, and gave 2004 Mouton and 2004 Haut Brion 11/20 each, his lowest scores. I'm not saying he's wrong, because I wasn't there tasting alongside him, and don't know how the wines showed. It's just interesting.
As well as publishing the preferred wines in rank order, the AAWE also did a statistical analysis which showed that, with the exception of a couple of wines (the winning white and the losing red):
'the rank order of the wines was mostly insignificant. That is, if the wine judges repeated the tasting, the results would most likely be different. From a statistically viewpoint, most wines were undistinguishable.'
This, rather than the fact that the New Jersey wines did quite well, was the take home message for many of the commentators on the tasting.
Jonah Lehrer, writing in The New Yorker, delves into the questions this tasting raises here.
While I agree with some of his conclusions, others I have a problem with.
"What can we learn from these tests? First, that tasting wine is really hard, even for experts. Because the sensory differences between different bottles of rotten grape juice are so slight—and the differences get even more muddled after a few sips—there is often wide disagreement about which wines are best."
"The results are even more distressing for non-experts. In recent decades, the wine world has become an increasingly quantitative place, as dependent on scores and statistics as Billy Beane. But these ratings suggest a false sense of precision, as if it were possible to reliably identify the difference between an eighty-nine-point Merlot from Jersey and a ninety-one-point blend from Bordeaux—or even a greater spread. And so we linger amid the wine racks, paralyzed by the alcoholic arithmetic. How much are we willing to pay for a few extra points? These calculations are almost certainly a waste of time."
I would make the following points.
- Sorry: wines don't all taste the same. For some reason, newspapers love to run these stories suggesting that all wine taste pretty much the same, and therefore you are just wasting your money buying expensive wine. That is a false conclusion. Of course, there is not a strong correlation between wine price and quality, for all sorts of complex reasons. But this doesn't mean that it isn't possible to get much more interesting wines by paying more money.
- Blind tasting is difficult, and few can do it well. Is it possible that the line-up of judges in the Princeton tasting wasn't a strong one? I don't recognize many of the names. Are they experienced wine judges with a broad experience of international wines and good palates? I would bet a pricey bottle of wine that I could put together a list of experienced, able tasters who would produce much more robust results in this sort of tasting. Such tasters are rare, even among wine professionals, but they do exist, and the fact that they can perform well in blind settings like this shows that there are indeed real differences among wines.
- About the same time as this tasting was taking place, a sizeable number of students were sitting their Master of Wine examinations. These exams include a challenging blind tasting paper. The fact that many perform well in this examination shows that well trained tasters are able to differentiate quality in blind tasting with a degree of reliability. And in the Advanced Wine Assessment Course run by the Australian Wine Research Institute, participants' palates are are tested in a statistically robust manner to see how good they are. Some are better than others, but those who reach show judge standard score consistently within 0.5 points on a 20 point scale.
- Yes, there is a degree of preference and subjectivity involved in wine assessment. But good professionals can set aside their preferences, and work more objectively in judging quality. There will certainly never be perfect agreement among a group of professionals, and in some cases there will be strong disagreement. But to conclude that wine tasting is entirely subjective and that all opinions are valid, and that expensive wine is a waste of money, is just silly.
- One further point about blind versus sighted tastings. Seeing the label influences our perception of the wine; it brings our knowledge about the wine into play. But it also helps us understand the liquid in the glass better. We can put into context the flavours we are experiencing. This is important: it is more than just bias; it is making sense of the sensation, which allows us to reach a more robust conclusion.
- Did this tasting place New Jersey wines on the map? No, because I think it was flawed. I don't think the tasters did a good enough job, performing in an almost random fashion. I haven't tasted the New Jersey wines, but I would be interested to—and I'm always open minded when it comes to non-classic wine regions. Yet I would be really surprised if they genuinely could compete in terms of quality and complexity with benchmark wines from Bordeaux in this sort of blind tasting setting with a highly competent, experienced tasting panel.