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- February 27, 2024
The Players Theatre has been blessed with a "nun"-tastic event. "Nunsense," with book, music and lyrics by Dan Goggin, opened in 1985 and has remained off-Broadway's second-longest running show, rivaling "The Fantastics," and grossing more than $500 million as a result of its enduring, worldwide appeal.
The absurdist plot posits that among the order of the Little Sisters of Hoboken, its cook, Sister Julia, Child of God, has accidentally killed 52 members of the convent with her spoiled soup. The core five, who were off playing bingo, must raise the remaining funds for the burials. What will they do? Why, stage a variety show in the Mount St. Helen's School auditorium, of course.
Director Michelle Teyke has facilitated an evening of wonderful music and witty satire with this lively vaudevillian revival, filled with joking irreverence, entertaining song and dance and wacky high jinks. She's even updated some of the dialogue to reference modern technology. As choreographer, she's pulled off ballet, tap, modern and madcap dance. One of the musical numbers even includes a nun puppet.
To play each highly individualistic nun, a marvelous, melodiously talented cast has been recruited. Kathy Abney plays former circus performer Mother Superior Mary Regina, who sings, "Turn up the Spotlight," (meaning on her). She is constantly chided for using some of the burial money to buy a flat-screen HD television by Sister Mary Hubert, played with dignity and determination by Phyllis Bank, who can also grind out some funky, bluesy, soul sounds, as evidenced especially in the refrain, "Holier Than Thou." Sue Cole, who also does funny impressions using her white veil as a prop, delivers Sister Robert Anne, a tell-it-like-it-is nun in sneakers from Canarsie. Fifteen-year-old, singing and dancing Maria Wirries plays Sister Mary Leo, a novice who wants to add ballerina to her job description, and performs a charming flying-nun ballet. Sister Mary Amnesia, who lost her memory when a crucifix fell on her head, is well-played by Nikki Maach-Schuster, a woman of many voices and wide ranges, including the operatic.
A full-sounding orchestra, comprised of keyboardist and Musical Director Alan J. Corey, keyboardist Seth Wertz and percussionist John Januszewski, backs all the hilarity. Kaylene McCaw provided the costume design


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A round-up of stories on Washington wine from September 1st to 7th. Read previous round-ups here.
From around the country…
Wine Business.com writes about an auctioning of land on Red Mountain.
The Washington Times writes about escaping to Walla Walla.
The Chicago Tribune writes about the Taste of Tulalip.
From around the blogosphere…
Winophilia writes about Washington Syrah.
The Palate Press writes about the grape heaven of Horse Heaven Hills.
Paul Gregutt puts a spotlight on Beresan. He also looks inside the head of Christophe Baron.
Great Northwest Wine writes that Northwest wines make it into upscale Husky Stadium. They also write that Washington wine harvest a 60-day sprint to Halloween, 10 Pacific Northwest Tempranillos to try today, Gov. Inslee to help break ground for WSU Wine Science Center, and harvesting hot, heavy on Washington's Red Mountain.
Northwest Wine Anthem brings a Friday Find from Cor Cellars.
Lucha Vino presents Washington Garnacha v. La Mancha.
Write For Wine writes that it's not too late for summer sippers.
AgInfo.net writes about the early grape crop.
J and J's Excellent Adventure writes about Washington wine.
Woodinville Wine Update gives a final tally for the Auction of Washington Wines.
Wineshout writes about Washington wines of the Cascade Loop.
Washington Winemaker Approved writes about Public House 124. He also writes about Waitsburg Cellars.
From the locals…
Oregon Live writes that there is a Rhone wave breaking in Walla Walla.
The Union Bulletin writes about Waters Winery changing hands.
The Idaho Statesman writes that inexpensive red wines are perfect for midweek meals.
The Tri City Herald writes that the auction date for Red Mountain acres moved to Nov. 23. They also write that the Wine Science Center to break ground at WSU Tri-Cities.
The Olympian writes that Port Angeles native loving the adventure of winemaking.
The Bellingham Herald writes about Harbinger Winery. They also write that if you can't travel to a winery, check out its website or wine club.
Wenatchee World writes about Fielding Hills.
The Seattle Times says to take the red wine test.
KEPRTV writes that Washington wineries could go international.
That's all folks!

subset: commoncrawl


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Listen to a few seconds of this video (don't listen to the entire thing because it'll eat your brain):
Sounds remarkably similar the sound that bad tub bearings will make. This particular washer is only three years old– very early for tub bearing failure.
The actual problem turned out to be something very simple: a loose concrete counterweight mounted to the front of the tub. A few minutes with a wrench and problem solved– no parts needed for this repair!
To prevent the problem from happening again, add Loctite to each of the counterweight mounting bolts.
To learn more about your washing machine, or to order parts, click here.


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Fulvio Bisca
freelance illustrator, graphic and type designer based in Torino, Italy. Graduated in 1989 from ITIS G.B. Bodoni – Graphic Arts. From 2003 to 2006 editor and art director for Miele, free independent Italian magazine. Since 2007 teaching at IAAD – Institute of Applied Arts and Design (Communication & Graphic Design Dept.).


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10 bd de la bastille
75012 Paris, France
Wednesday–Sunday, 11am–7pm
Late night Thursday until 9pm
La maison rouge presents the first major international exhibition of neon art from the 1940s to the present day. Some one hundred works has been presented in all, many of historical significance, many being shown for the first time. The exhibition includes pieces by such pioneers as Lucio Fontana from the early 1950s, François Morellet, Bruce Nauman, Stephen Antonakos, Joseph Kosuth, and Mario Merz from the 1960s, and some of the many contemporary artists working in this medium, such as Jason Rhoades, Tracy Emin and Claude Lévêque.
French physicist and chemist Georges Claude developed the first neon tube in 1912, exactly one century ago. He unveiled his invention publicly at the Paris World Fair. A few years later, Claude filed a patent in the United States and, in 1923, sold his first two neon signs—reading 'Packard'—to a car dealership. The rest is history…
As early as the 1930s, Moholy-Nagy was predicting that it would not be long before the "field of expression" formed by night-time city lights found "its own artists."
Lucio Fontana showed the first ever work in Europe to be made entirely from neon, at the 1951 Milan Triennial: a vast, glowing, suspended whirlpool.
In the early '60s, in France, Greece and the USA, François Morellet, Stephen Antonakos, Bruce Nauman and Keith Sonnier began to use neon in their performances and visual works. Around the same time, Dan Flavin started working with a specific type of lamp: fluorescent tubes. All the work from this period was of an abstract nature, whether lyrical or geometric.
In the mid-sixties, neon learned to 'talk' and 'count,' first with Joseph Kosuth's neon tautologies then, a few years later, Maurizio Nannucci's early 'writings'—neon words or fragments of sentences in which colours, signs and meaning meld into one. At the same time, Mario Merz and Pier Paolo Calzolari incorporated neon words and numbers into their sculptural and/or sound installations. Martial Raysse, meanwhile, was including neon punctuation marks—'signs of desire'—in his assemblage-paintings.
In scarcely thirty years, this multitude of experiments and research took neon from a scientific invention, used primarily for advertising in urban areas, to an artistic medium in its own right.
Now neon brings together artists as diverse as Sylvie Fleury, Mathieu Mercier, and Cerith Wyn Evans.
Art made of color and light, yes, but neon art is also—first and foremost even—about line and curve.
Curated by: David Rosenberg
*The exhibition borrows his title to the work of Maurizio Nannucci, Who's afraid of red yellow and blue, 1970.
Photo credits: Cosmin Năsui


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About Safety Services
The motor carriers of the Arkansas Trucking Association are committed to sharing the road safely with all vehicles. Our goal is to keep our drivers, and your family safe on the highway.
Arkansas Trucking Association members put safety first through improved driver training, investment in advanced safety technologies and active participation in industry safety initiatives at the local, state and national levels.
Through regular meetings, legislative initiatives, industry outreach, research and safety recognition programs, we stay proactively involved in all aspects of driver and industry safety.
The Arkansas Trucking Association offers the following safety resources and programs:
- An active and member-led Safety Management Council (SMC), whose purpose is to promote cooperative efforts for increased safety throughout the industry.
- The Arkansas Road Team, a group of professional drivers from Arkansas-based carriers who serve as ambassadors for the industry. Their mission is to educate the public on safe driving, especially near large commercial vehicles.
- A Share the Road program, delivered by the Arkansas Road Team that addresses highway safety through free presentations to groups of all ages and sizes.
- An on-staff safety professional to provide regulatory guidance and leadership of safety initiatives.
We're proud to say that the industry is safer than it has ever been. Our continued focus on safety will only help us make our nation's highways even safer.


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"We've been working on this change. I've talked about the convergence of online and offline. We have implemented actions to be able to operate more effectively in the digital marketplace." A media executive speaking prepared notes for Davos? A big-box retailer holding forth at the Consumer Electronics Show? No, that was Kenneth Chenault, CEO of American Express, speaking in a conference call Thursday night in which the financial-services giant announced it would lay off 5,400 people and take a series of charges that would halve its quarterly profits.
Headquartered in the World Financial Center, American Express has blanketed the globe and segmented the market—gold, platinum, centurion. In the process, it has become a brand for the 1 percent and its many aspirants. Chenault, having run the firm since 2001, enjoys one of the longest tenures of any big New York financial firm. Virtually alone among the city's financial bigwigs, his reputation is of such quality that his name was seriously floated for Treasury secretary.
American Express makes money by facilitating and processing all sorts of retail transactions, by lending money to its customers, and by helping people and companies arrange travel. The core business is doing quite well. Card spending was up 8 percent in the most recent quarter, and customers are doing a much better job keeping up with their payments. "The write-off rate of the U.S. lending portfolio (principal only) was 2.0 percent for the quarter," the company reported.
While AmEx's card business benefited from one of the big business-friendly trends of 2012, the improving consumer, the company was hurt by some of the year's other big trends: tougher regulation and the relentless disintermediation of established business models by the digital revolution.
AmEx announced Thursday that its earnings would be impaired by three major charges. The first, $342 million, was done to account for a slight uptick in participants cashing in their points in its Membership Rewards program, in which card users accrue points redeemable for travel and other rewards based on spending. Given that Membership Rewards points are a liability for American Express—they have a cash value to customers and will be used at some point—the fact that more will be redeemed in 2013 rather than 2014 is more of an accounting issue than a fundamental business one.
A second charge can be directly ascribed to Washington forcing financial firms to change their behavior. AmEx is reporting a charge for $153 million to account for money it will have to return to card members. "This amount deals with fees, interest and bonus rewards as well as an incremental expense related to the consent orders entered into with regulators last October," the company said. Translation: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the creation of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), last year nailed American Express for a host of violations.
"This action is the result of a multipart federal investigation which found that at every stage of the consumer experience, from marketing to enrollment to payment to debt collection, American Express violated consumer protection laws," the CFPB said. The litany of accusations included levying illegal late fees and wrongly charging late fees. American Express had agreed to refund at least $85 million to some 250,000 consumers and pay a penalty of $27.5 million. The sum the company announced yesterday is the result of its own accounting for customers it had wronged.
That's a black eye for the company. But it wasn't the cause for the layoffs or the biggest charge. The company announced it will take a $400 million restructuring charge and fire 5,400 of its 63,500 employees to adapt to a future in which "more customers transact online or through mobile channels."
After falling sharply in 2008 and 2009, the consumer and business travel sectors have bounced back rapidly, but not in ways that cater to the strengths of American Express. Consumers, even the well-off consumers who used to patronize American Express, are now much more likely to book travel on their own through Orbitz, Kayak, Expedia, Priceline, or through a hotel website. And why shouldn't they? Booking online allows people to plan on their own terms and easily search for different options. These sites are also frequently more functional than American Express's human-machine hybrid. A recent effort to book international travel through American Express, a transaction that would have taken a few minutes on Kayak or Expedia or on the airline's website, wound up taking nearly an hour of failed website transactions and customer-service phone calls.
A large part of the company's business revolves around managing travel for large companies. And that's where American Express is really suffering. "The economics of particularly the business travel business have changed more dramatically than any part of our business," Chenault told investors on Thursday. When I arrived at Newsweek in 2007, there was a three-person team of American Express employees who sat in our offices and managed travel for editors and reporters. That model is now outmoded.
"Their primary business in travel is servicing corporate travelers through agencies and call centers," said Douglas Quinby, senior director for research at PhoCusWright, a New York–based consulting firm. But that business is evolving from a booking service into something more like management consulting, in which firms negotiate deals, help manage travel procurement, and design software that integrate travel booking with expense systems. "As all of these processes become automated, American Express and many other agencies have less need for physical staff to issue tickets," Quinby said.
Online travel companies like Expedia have rolled out tools aimed at corporate users that allow them to manage programs. Employers, in turn, are pushing employees to manage their own travel online rather than pick up the phone. At many companies, a new generation of managers and employers have grown up making their own travel arrangements. Indeed, many business travelers prefer to book their business travel through the leisure platforms they use in their personal life, such as Travelocity or Priceline. It's no surprise that everybody involved in the travel industry—airlines, hotel companies, online travel agencies, and corporations—is eager to do more of the work electronically, via computer, tablet, or mobile phone. It's just more efficient and cheaper.
In retailing and publishing, the digital natives often have a cost advantage over the clicks-and-mortar crowd, the pre-Internet firms that combine digital commerce with the old-fashioned type of commerce that involves human interaction. The same holds in business travel.


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Fiction Reviews
Trashed by Alison Gaylin
- Trashed
- NAL Hardcover, 336 pp.
Bad Ending Trashes Good Plot
The joys of working for one of Hollywood's scandal sheets – a rags to riches story for Simone Glass who is attempting to outdo her "legitimate" TV journalist sister in the news gathering racket – are manifest and many. In Alison Gaylin's Trashed Glass heads to LA for a job with another scandal sheet that folds before her first day on the job only to latch on with the infamous Asteroid. Her sister and the rest of her family will not be thrilled in the least when they learn of her career choice. Matters are further complicated by Simone's near complete lack of money to see her through the first few months in California.
Our heroine, a recent graduate of Columbia journalism school, is not nearly ready for the nefarious, dumpster diving antics employed and needed by the hardcore souls who ply their dirt-digging trade for the tabloids. These driven individuals scour celebrity garbage cans, pose as anyone but themselves, lie as though the truth was a concept to be scorned and in general have all of the journalistic ethics commonly associated with FOX News. Getting the goods on the rich and famous is all that matters in this weird league.
Glass's first assignment drives her undercover posing as a waiter at a ostentatious benefit and she actually holes up in a, surprise, dumpster outside the party hearing what proves to be crucial dialogue between a famous actor and up-and-coming actress who also turns out to be Glass's former high school best friend. Ah, but aren't the twists and turns of the glamour life so intriguing? When a soap opera star commits suicide and the actress's emotionally unstable assistant insists that someone murdered her boss, Glass sets out to dig up the real, untold details. Life and the road to enlightenment turn ugly and bloody from here on out as a teenage stripper with sordid celebrity connections is found soaked in her own blood and as Vonnegut would say, "And so it goes." Even Simone's most trusted sources start tripping the dance paranoid while the psychopathic killer runs amuck dishing out oblique leads as he kills his way ever onward.
The insights into the tabloid Hollywood world of reporting are interesting and Gaylin writes with a touch of flare, even panache, but as in City of Fire by Robert Ellis, the ending comes out of nowhere with little if any foreshadowing along the way. Its as though the author wearied of working on Trashed and whipped together a supposed surprising and shocking ending that was designed to make the reader feel not quite cheated in pursuing the previous 300 pages.
Gaylin, a journalist who has covered arts and entertainment for ten years, is the author of Hide Your Eyes, an Edgar Award finalist for Best First Novel, and You Kill Me. She has escaped Hollywood and now lives in upstate New York with her family.
There is a good deal to recommend this novel – the inside depiction of Hollywood and all its seaminess, the sub pots that add to the main story arc including her growing love affair with Neil Walker – also a tabloid reporter, her chaotic and humorous work relationship with her tyrannical and mildly schizophrenic boss at the paper, and the quality of writing such as:
If one year at the Anaheim Sentinel and ten years in the tabloids had taught Neil Walker anything, it was that press conferences, all of them were a complete waste of time. It didn't matter whether it was the mayor of Mission Viejo or the chief of police or the cast of Devil's Road, anybody who is knowingly standing on a stage in front of fifty reporters is not going to say damn thing worth printing.
Or this scene setting paragraph:
…Like everything else in the Beverlido, Swifty's had undergone a sort of retro face-lift. With its dark wood paneling, Tiffany light fixtures, and elaborate 1930s-style ashtrays (those important enough to get in were actually allowed to smoke), the bar was designed to make you feel like you'd stepped into an unusually glamorous time capsule. It was, as they say, art directed to death.
There is a constant thread of tension in the professional competition between Simone and her sister that ties much of the narrative together, as does her competition with Walker and their on-again, off-again partnership aimed at getting a hot story and discovering the identity of the killer. The sections devoted to the mildly depraved, lewd and pathetic behavior of some of the film industries glitterati are well drawn as are passages that deal with the attitude and machinations of a big-time agent, but what undoes Trashed for me is the out of the blue ending that Gaylin attempts to justify with a semi-emotional final scene. But as she says to Walker in the book's last line when he asks her how a meeting went, Glass responds:
"It went," said Simone. ""It went."
I guess the same thing can be said of Trashed.
John Holt and his wife, photographer Ginny Holt, are currently finishing up a pair of related books – "Yellowstone Drift: Floating the Past in Real-Time" (to be published by AK Press in February 2009) and "Searching For Native Color – Fly Fishing for Cutthroat Trout." John's work has appeared in publications that include "Men's Journal," "Fly Fisherman," "Fly Rod and Reel," "The Angling Report," "American Angler," "The Denver Post," "Audubon," "Briarpatch," "counterpunch.org," "Travel and Leisure," "Art of Angling Journal," "E – The Environmental Magazine," "Field and Stream," "Outside," "Rolling Stone," "Gray's Sporting Journal" and "American Cowboy." Chesapeake Bay Bridge
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The Responsibility to Protect
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Beneath Insanity, "Christmas with the Kranks" Has a Message
- Annabelle Robertson Entertainment Critic
- Updated Jul 27, 2007
Release Date: November 24, 2004
Rating: PG (for brief language and suggestive content)
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Run Time: 1 hr. 34 min.
Director: Joe Walsh
Actors: Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dan Aykroyd, Julie Gonzalo, M. Emmet Walsh, Elizabeth Franz, Austin Pendleton, Cheech Marin, Jake Busey
Warning! Frozen cat ahead! But don't let that stop you from seeing "Christmas with the Kranks" – especially if you're a dog lover, like me.
As the holidays creep up once again, Luther Krank (Tim Allen) is feeling a bit cranky. After all, his only child, Blair (Julie Gonzalo), has just left town for Peru with the Peace Corps, and he and Nora (Jamie Lee Curtis) must celebrate Christmas without her. Somehow, all alone, the decorations, food and parties really seem … excessive. Then, when Luther adds up the bills, he realizes that it is excessive, to the tune of $6,300. Why, with that kind of money, they could … they could go on a luxury cruise! And why shouldn't they? They'll save half the money and all the hassle. All they have to do is skip Christmas.
Nora isn't as keen on the idea, but Luther can be very persuasive. So the Kranks begin preparing for their dream vacation by losing weight, buying bathing suits, indulging in Botox and even getting fake tans. As word leaks out, however, the Kranks realize that not everyone – and maybe no one at all – shares their sense of adventure. Their vendors feel slighted, their friends feel left out and their neighbors – well, let's just say that the neighbors on Hemlock Street, under the auspices of Vic Frohmeyer (Dan Aykroyd), need more than a few sessions on the counselor's couch.
The more Vic pushes, however, the more the Kranks resist – even when the neighbors begin to taunt them with exhortations to "Free Frosty!" and visiting carolers become positively frenzied in their holiday cheer, peering through the Kranks' windows like would-be prowlers. Christmas Day, departure day, can't come soon enough. But then Blair calls, on Christmas Eve, to announce that she's on her way home with her new fiancé. Worse, she can't wait for him to see all their family traditions. So all the bets suddenly are off, and the Kranks are forced to eat crow.
Based on the novel by John Grisham called "Skipping Christmas," the film version is mostly faithful to the original story. Many will criticize it for its shallowness, and it's probably not going to win any awards, but beneath the insanity – which is surprisingly funny – there's a definite Christian message. Joe Roth ("America's Sweethearts") a veteran producer who cut his teeth at Disney, does a decent job with this one, using the score for comedic effect and coaxing brave performances from all of his actors. Chris Columbus' script could have been better, however, with characters (especially Luther) that are more likeable.
Allen is his usual silly self, despite a few over-the-top scenes that include a Botox fix, which leaves him unable to eat, and a tree-stealing scenario that will have most adults rolling their eyes. Children, on the other hand, will howl with recognition as Luther and a neighborhood boy break the fragile ornaments. And we can only admire a man who will stand under freezing cold water, even if it is for a million-dollar paycheck.
Curtis is as good as she was in "Freaky Friday," with comedy that is perfect for families. Harried women will relate to her character as she tries to place a friendly face in the liquor store then reluctantly invites the stranger to her party. And all women will heave a sigh of relief when she appears in a bikini, warts and all. Jamie Lee, thanks for once again debunking the myth of the perfect movie star body. You're my hero!
Many of Grisham's readers, including myself, have questioned the story's ending, which has the Kranks inexplicably willing to ditch their plans in order to please their daughter. What is clear is that Grisham meant the tale as a caution against the excesses we are all prone to during the holidays, as well as the perils of conformity. What is unclear is why he chose to have everyone completely reverse course, then do exactly what they (and we) have come to despise. Did the author, who is a Christian, mean to say that what really counts is friendship and family, even amidst the excesses, as well as forgiving those friends, even when they have acted heinously? Perhaps – but I have a different take.
I think Grisham may be showing us, in yet another way, how easy it is to give in to the false trappings of Christmas, even when we have done everything in our power to escape them. I see it as yet another caution – an even stronger one than the rest of the story – against the lure of the canned merriment we call Christmas. As a writer, I would have ended the story differently. However, I must acknowledge that it works, and perhaps even better onscreen than it does in the book. So the real message, it would seem, comes when Luther gives up his cruise tickets and gives them to his neighbor, who is dying of cancer.
For, isn't that what Jesus does for us? He comes, unexpectedly and even reluctantly (for a brief moment, when He begged the Father to release him from the task), in the midst of the death that surrounds us, to give us a beautiful, valuable gift we could never purchase or acquire for ourselves. And because of it, we are forever changed – but only if we accept.
So, despite the schlock, I like this film, because it embodies what Christmas really means, and contrasts it with the very things that keep us from celebrating the Christ Mass. And that, these days, is as rare as reindeer. Bravo, Revolution Studios.
AUDIENCE: All ages.
- Drugs/Alcohol Content: Average. Characters drink wine during dinner in several scenes. One scene in a liquor store where character buys a dozen or so bottles of wine and liquor for a holiday party. At holiday party, many people arrive carrying bottles of wine and champagne, and others are seen in background with people drinking. Main character pretends to "smoke" large cinnamon sticks like marijuana.
- Language/Profanity: Very Mild. Two mild obscenities, one of which is rebuked by another character. One mild profanity ("What in God's name.")
- Sexual Content/Nudity: Mild. Wife gets excited when husband talks about a surprise, unbuttons pants offscreen and says, "But it's not Saturday night!" only to realize he is talking about something else.
- Violence: Lots of physical comedy that results in falls and "accidents" where no one is hurt. Main character has serious fall from roof of house but is stopped by rope and left dangling. Thief runs from police, is tackled then slammed against car window. Same thief is later hit by a man dressed as Santa Claus wielding an umbrella.


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The University of Missouri did not investigate or tell law enforcement officials about an alleged rape, possibly by one or more members of its football team, despite administrators finding out about the alleged 2010 incident more than a year ago, an "Outside the Lines" investigation has found. The alleged victim, a member of the swim team, committed suicide in 2011.
For most of 2010, Missouri swimmer Sasha Menu Courey harbored a secret: She believed she'd been raped by a football player. Late that year, her life spiraling downward, Menu Courey began to share her secret with others, including a rape crisis counselor and a campus therapist, records show. In the ensuing months, a campus nurse, two doctors and, according to her journal, an athletic department administrator also learned of her claim that she had been assaulted.
Healthcare providers are generally exempt from requirements to report such crimes and also are bound by medical privacy laws. But those same protections do not extend to campus administrators, who at Missouri were made aware of claims that Menu Courey had been raped through several sources, including a 2012 newspaper article as well as the university's review of records when fulfilling separate records requests by her parents and "Outside the Lines."
Under Title IX law enforced by the U.S. Department of Education, once a school knows or reasonably should know of possible sexual violence it must take immediate and appropriate action to investigate or otherwise determine what happened. The law applies even after the death of an alleged victim. Further, the federal Clery Act requires campus officials with responsibility for student or campus activities to report serious incidents of crime to police for investigation and possible inclusion in campus crime statistics.
Among the thousands of pages of documents gathered by Missouri administrators in late 2012 in response to a records request was a December 2010 online chat transcript between Menu Courey and a rape crisis counselor that had been saved in Menu Courey's university email folder. In the transcript, the former top swim recruit describes an assault after having consensual sex with an unidentified man. Another document discovered by a university hospital administrator shows Menu Courey had told a campus nurse and doctor in 2011 that she had been raped by a football player in February 2010.
Menu Courey committed suicide in June 2011, about 16 months after the alleged assault. The incident has not been reported to campus police, University of Missouri Police Capt. Brian Weimer said Thursday. City police and the Boone County prosecutor's office say they also have not received any reports.
Missouri officials have told "Outside the Lines" the information is insufficient for them to bring to law enforcement or to investigate under Title IX.
"The chat transcript was not very clear about the situation and didn't identify anyone else involved, nor did it give any indication that Sasha had reported the situation to anyone," Chad Moller, athletic department spokesman, wrote in a letter to "Outside the Lines" in December. He said information about the alleged rape reached athletic officials only after she died.
"No one on the coaching staff ... and no one in our administration nor any staff members were, to the best of our knowledge, ever told about this event while Sasha was alive. Had Sasha told any of our staff that she felt she had been assaulted, we expect that our staff would have reported it immediately to the proper authorities."
On Thursday, after being shown medical records by "Outside the Lines," Moller said that the university, in declining to launch an investigation, is honoring what it believes were the wishes of Menu Courey, who never reported the incident to police. "An important consideration in deciding how to address a report of a sexual incident is to determine what the alleged victim wants," Moller wrote in an email. "In this situation, it is clear that Sasha chose not to report this incident to anyone at MU other than mentioning it to healthcare providers who were bound to respect her privacy."
At least one expert said Friday evening that Missouri is shirking its duties under Title IX law. "At the point that the university's administrators had notice of the alleged rape(s), they had an obligation to investigate, based on the potential harm that the alleged rapists posed and pose to the university community," said Brett Sokolow, executive director of the Association of Title IX Administrators. "Title IX obligates universities to these actions, and to efforts to remedy the effects of the acts for the victim and the community."
"Outside the Lines" has also learned that Menu Courey shared with at least one other person details of the alleged assault. A friend said he has seen a videotape of the alleged incident that corroborates the basics of what she told medical officials, and that three Missouri football players actually were involved.
Lynn Courey, mother of the late swimmer, said she wants Missouri to share the materials it has gathered and other potential evidence with law enforcement. "They should investigate," she said. "Without a doubt."
A life starts to tumble
Sasha Menu Courey, a sprinter and relay specialist, swam at Missouri from 2009-11. She was from Toronto, where she began swimming in grade school, and by her teenage years was considered a top prospect for the Canadian national team. At age 16, distraught over a breakup with a boyfriend, she attempted suicide by taking several Tylenol pills before calling an ambulance. A therapist wrote the attempt off as teen angst. Counseling ended after a few sessions, and she continued to excel in both the pool and in school.
At Missouri, she was given a near-full scholarship after receiving several offers from other U.S. colleges. She was sidelined her freshman year due to an NCAA eligibility question related to her Canadian education, but was a straight-A student and named the university's Student Athlete of the Week the first semester of her sophomore year.
Her life would take a turn at the start of her second semester.
In February 2010, after a night of drinking, Menu Courey and a male friend returned to his apartment where they had consensual sex. Documents obtained by "Outside the Lines" and interviews show differing accounts of the details of what happened next. But it's clear she believed she was raped by at least one assailant, allegedly a football player.
Menu Courey described what happened to a rape crisis counselor in an online chat. A verbatim excerpt:
"[We] were falling asleep & then i heard the [door] open & some other guy walked in & locked the door & i couldnt really see who it was & i never saw a face the whole time.... but i remember just sitting upright in bed at the sound of someone walking in. & i just remember feeling really scared thinking that the two guys had planned this or something. so my first thought was figure out who this other person was in case so that if i needed the informaton i would have it later... the guy told me his name & then he pulled down his pants & put on a condom & just knew i was screwed ..."
Menu Courey went on to describe the assault in detail, mentioning that she tried to reach a friend and former boyfriend on the phone during the assault:
"... I started to panick & as i still on the phone trying to reach one of them tears start going down & the guy just lift up my dress & next thing i knew he inserts from behind. by that point tears were falling more but i wasnt loud & didnt anything. and then i just snapped and kind pushed him away & yelled no! and then he just left."
The basics of Menu Courey's account are supported by a former Missouri football receiver, who alleges that more than one of his teammates raped her that night. Rolandis Woodland, a receiver with the Tigers from 2008-12 and a friend of Menu Courey's, was not at the scene but said the morning after the incident she was distraught and crying, confiding to him that something bad had happened to her without saying exactly what.
Later, after she died, he said he saw a videotape of three players in a dark room assaulting her in a drunken state.
"You could see her saying 'No, no,' hysterically crying," Woodland, who had dated Menu Courey briefly, told "Outside the Lines." "She uses the name of [redacted player] when she tells him to get off of her, and he says, 'It's only me.' They dim the lights and you could see them switching [assaulting] her but you cannot see who was switching because the lights were dimmed. About three minutes into the tape, she pushed whoever was on her off of her and ran out of the room."
Woodland said he believes Menu Courey didn't realize, because she was intoxicated, that multiple players took part. The video was sent to him, he said, by Menu Courey, who mailed the package just before she killed herself in June 2011. He said Menu Courey had told him she received the tape from a former girlfriend of one of the players. Woodland said the tape was inadvertently misplaced by one of his family members, and he has been unable to find it.
Woodland attributes the discrepancy in his account and Menu Courey's to her intoxication. He stands by his account that she was raped by teammates and said he angrily confronted three of them shortly after her death. He said that after being pressed, one of them admitted being with her sexually -- that he took advantage of the situation -- but denied it was against her consent.
"[They said] 'Oh, I'm sorry, you know, this was going on, I didn't know that I was putting her in that situation,'" Woodland said. "I'm like, 'Yes, you did know. You knew.'"
Woodland said he did not go to police with the information or allegation because he wasn't sure Menu Courey would have wanted that. Courey's journal entries reviewed by "Outside the Lines" show she was not confident anything would happen if she contacted police.
"Outside the Lines" is not naming the alleged assailants because the incident was never reported to police.
Mentally and emotionally, Menu Courey experienced a significant decline after that night, documents and interviews show.
A descent to suicide
As soon as the morning after the incident, Woodland said he began hearing Menu Courey talk about potentially taking her life. Within two months -- April 2010 -- according to medical records, she checked herself into the campus hospital without her parents' knowledge, feeling suicidal, and began seeing counselors for the first time since high school. Team doctors and other campus doctors began to fill prescriptions for an anti-depressant and a sedative. By July, she was undergoing regular counseling at the university's student health center, also unbeknownst to her parents.
In August, on a pre-participation form for the 2010 swimming season, she disclosed to the athletic department that she had been hospitalized for a "major depressive disorder." She injured her back in August but practiced and competed until her back worsened. Counseling continued.
Menu Courey contacted an online rape crisis hotline, saving the transcript of her conversation as a draft in her Missouri e-mail account on Dec. 8. Near the end of the month, she told her campus therapist for the first time she had been raped.
Thirteen days later, head swimming coach Greg Rhodenbaugh asked her to stop participating in team workouts and competitions. He told "Outside the Lines" he had no idea she allegedly had been raped. He said his decision to separate her from her teammates was made to motivate her to continue regular counseling.
"At that point, she had stopped going to see counselors, was in a back brace and she couldn't do what we were doing," Rhodenbaugh said. "Swimming was something important to her, [so] we were trying to get her to go to the counseling."
Student health center records show, however, that Menu Courey had never stopped seeing counselors. She understood the decision as being "kicked off" the team, according to a text message she sent the coach. Teammates and friends who spoke with her said she was under intense pressure to come back from her injury, and she believed her scholarship was in jeopardy. Medical records confirm her dismay.
Isolated from her teammates and out of the water, she struggled emotionally to an even greater degree. Her mother said her daughter experienced extreme high and low mood swings. In March 2011, after a breakup with her boyfriend and with her teammates away at nationals, she checked herself into the campus psychiatric center. The next day, in a nursing assessment, she told the nurse she had been raped by a football player. Two doctors there also were made aware of the alleged assault.
During the 10-day hospitalization, she was diagnosed by doctors with borderline personality disorder, a condition marked by extreme highs and lows and turbulent relationships that one of her doctors, Blaise Aguirre, later told "Outside the Lines" had been aggravated by the alleged assault.
After being released to her parents' care, a few days later Menu Courey took her parents on a tour of the swimming facility. She convinced her parents that night she wanted to spend time with friends. Instead, she went to a local hotel and slashed her wrist. Police were called, and officers had to pepper spray and taser her to get the razorblade out of her hands. Her mother said a police officer later said that Menu Courey was yelling, "The system failed me! The system failed me!"
She was hospitalized again and placed on a 96-hour involuntary commitment. While in the hospital, Missouri athletic department staffer Meghan Anderson presented a University Withdrawal Form to Menu Courey, which Menu Courey signed despite a desire to continue with her schooling and the fact that she was legally incapacitated at the time. Rhodenbaugh said the withdrawal form was presented in order to preserve her grades and prospects of returning to Missouri. Yet one of Menu Courey's professors told "Outside the Lines" she could have passed his two courses.
On April 26, Menu Courey was moved by her parents to Boston and admitted to McLean Hospital, which has specialized treatment for borderline personality disorder. There, she mulled a return to Missouri, but whether she was welcome to return, and the status of her scholarship, was not made clear, according to emails and her journal account.
On May 12, Menu Courey wrote in her journal that she called Anderson and told her about the alleged rape. Phone records confirm a call. Anderson denied to "Outside the Lines" that Menu Courey had told her she was assaulted.
"She also wanted to know if she could return to Mizzou," Anderson wrote in an email to "Outside the Lines." "I told her ultimately that is not my decision, rather the decision resided in her healthcare providers, family and herself to decide whether returning to Mizzou was the best decision for her future. Academically, she was able to return since she left on good academic standing, however the other elements involved were not my decision, rather those closest to her and administration at Mizzou."
On May 24, Missouri's Student Financial Aid director sent Menu Courey a letter saying she was no longer eligible for financial aid because she had withdrawn from school. Missouri officials told "Outside the Lines" the letter was a form letter sent to 1,472 students, and it was not referring to her athletic scholarship. University officials say they had planned to take steps to reinstate her aid, if she returned.
On June 15, 2011, still hospitalized in Boston, her parents said Menu Courey somehow managed to obtain a large number of Tylenol pills. She took 100 of them. Two days later, she died of organ failure.
Woodland, back in Columbia, got a call shortly after that, notifying him that she had died. "My whole body just went numb," he said. "She was my best friend."
Parents begin to doubt university
Initially, Menu Courey's parents were supportive of the university's handling of their daughter's situation. But concerns were raised after they read in their daughter's journal that she claimed to have been sexually assaulted. They disclosed that information in a Feb. 21, 2012, feature story about Menu Courey in the Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune.
Under Title IX law, a media account is considered relevant to the Department of Education in determining whether officials were notified of possible sexual violence involving a student. No details were offered in the article, but Courey's parents and reporter David Briggs say no one at the university asked for more information after it was published. On the contrary, Mike Menu and Lynn Courey say, Rhodenbaugh began to cut off all contact with them. Further, they say, when they attended an on-campus memorial service, they were bothered that no Missouri officials had asked about the alleged assault mentioned in the article.
Their concerns grew as they learned more about the events leading up to her death, through records requests made of the university by themselves and "Outside the Lines."
Records show that the first university staffer whom Menu Courey told of the alleged incident was her on-campus therapist, in December 2010, 10 months after the incident. The first information uncovered by "Outside the Lines" in which she identified her assailant to university staff as a football player dates from March 2011. The mention appears on a nursing assessment after she had checked herself into the on-campus Missouri Psychiatric Center. Asked if she had a history of sexual, physical or emotional abuse, Menu Courey answered yes. The nurse wrote below that, "raped/football player."
In the admission notes that day, a physician also referred to an assault. Dr. Melissa Pell wrote, "Was raped when intoxicated 02/2010 by acquaintance." Pell and the nurse could not be reached by "Outside the Lines." In all, records show that, while Menu Courey was still alive, six campus medical officials either knew or signed documents that included information that Menu Courey was allegedly raped.
The federal Clery Act, which governs campus security, does not require all health providers to report a crime to law enforcement. Professional ethics can prevent certain on-campus medical personnel from disclosing information, such as sexual assault, without the patient's consent, but once a patient is deceased, those guidelines may be interpreted less strictly. According to email records, Missouri athletic officials knew the name of Menu Courey's therapist and doctor.
During interviews in September, "Outside the Lines" told Menu Courey's coach and an athletic administrator that medical records showed she had told multiple university medical employees, including mental health counselors and a nurse, about an alleged assault while she was still a student.
On Thursday, asked if administrators have reached out to her therapist for further information about the alleged assault, Moller said no.
"MU officials did not try to obtain information from medical personnel who treated Sasha about any sexual incident she may have reported while seeking treatment," he wrote in an email. "Medical personnel employed by MU have privacy and confidentiality obligations to their patients and MU respects those obligations. Sasha had not provided any authorization for MU officials to access her medical records in that regard, nor do MU officials have any such authorization from Sasha's parents. As soon as MU officials became aware of this sexual incident while reviewing Sasha's e-mail account in response to a records request from Sasha's parents, they wrote to Sasha's parents and asked whether they wanted an investigation to occur. Sasha's parents have not responded."
Donnell Young, director of the Office of Student Conduct, reached out to Lynn Courey and Mike Menu in a letter received in February 2013 after the parents' request for records unearthed the chat transcript between her and the rape crisis counselor.
Missouri had found the document in late 2012 but provided it to her parents three months later.
Courey told "Outside the Lines" she and her husband did not follow up because they didn't feel it was their job to investigate and that Missouri had the access to relevant records. They also said the three-month delay between Missouri officials discovering the chat and when officials told them about it showed a lack of sincerity on the part of the school.
Missouri officials were made aware of an entry from Menu Courey's journal by "Outside the Lines" in September when Rhodenbaugh and senior administrator Sarah Reesman were interviewed. The entry, from May 12, 2011, describes Menu Courey telling her athletic department academic advisor, Meghan Anderson, about the alleged rape for the first time. She called Anderson from the Boston psychiatric hospital. Phone records from the hospital confirm that Menu Courey placed the call to Anderson at the day and time she wrote in her journal:
"My voice was firm and direct when I told her I'd been raped and then I moved on to telling her how I'm doing well now, talking to therapists and figure out the next steps," she wrote. "I was pleased that she didn't mention the rape again and simply told me she was happy I was at McLean [Hospital] getting better."
If accurate, the journal entry appears to represent the first time that an athletic department staffer would have been told directly by Courey about an alleged rape. The first time that athletic officials other than Anderson appear to know of the claim was when the February 2012 local newspaper article was published. A records search showed that the executive assistant to athletic director Mike Alden sent an email to Alden and five other senior athletic department officials alerting them to the existence of the article, which was cut-and-pasted into the note.
Still, the athletic department did not take the information to police or open their own investigation.
At the time, the University of Missouri was facing an uptick of reported campus sexual assaults. The number of reported allegations of forcible sexual crimes rose from two during Courey's freshman year of 2009, to five in 2010 when she was allegedly raped, to 11 in 2011, according to Department of Education data compiled by the school. The athletic department was also under scrutiny at the time, as star running back Derrick Washington was charged with felony sexual assault of an athletic department tutor in 2010 and convicted in 2011.
The 2010 Missouri football team was one of the university's best, going undefeated at home and tying for first place in the Big 12 Conference North Division. In November 2011, after a courtship with the Big Ten Conference, the Tigers were invited to join the Southeastern Conference, starting in 2012.
The allegations involving Missouri and Menu Courey come on the heels of the White House calling on universities to more aggressively prevent sex crimes, given statistics showing that one in five women is a survivor of attempted or completed sexual violence while in college. On Wednesday, President Obama encouraged schools to "investigate reports of rape and sexual assault and take swift action to prevent their recurrence" and announced the formation of an inter-agency task force that will help institutions "meet their obligations under federal law."
'I'm still damaged goods'
Menu Courey's accounts in her journal and online chat with the counselor differ from that of Woodland in that she describes only one assailant. Woodland said she was unaware, perhaps due to her intoxication, that multiple football players were taking turns having intercourse with her.
Gil Moye, a running back who left the team in February 2010, told "Outside the Lines" in a phone interview that he had consensual sex with Menu Courey that evening. He denied that he let other players assault her, or that teammates had sex with her at all.
Moye had agreed to an on-camera interview but backed out, writing in a text message, "I'm concerned about myself. I would like to help as much as I can, [but] it was a really touchy subject and is still wearing on me now. Again I'm really sorry but I have nothin to gain from doing this."
Menu Courey's parents shared excerpts of her diary with "Outside the Lines." In one entry a month before she committed suicide, Menu Courey describes being gripped with fear over the alleged incident and describes why she never took it to police.
"Gil would have to be willing to testify and I doubt he'd testify against one of his 'friends', even if he did seem to feel really terrible after I'd been raped," she wrote. "I really really would like to think that Gil had nothing to do with planning me getting raped. I'd really like to believe his excuse that he was too drunk to intervene and that he had no idea that guy was going to come into his room and force himself inside me. Ugh, [expletive] it. Even if Gil had nothing to do with it and Gil testified in court, what would I get out of it anyway? I've still been raped, and no matter how many times I've had sex afterwards, I'm still damaged goods.
"Maybe I could stop the guy who raped me from raping other girls? He is awfully creepy and what he did to me was so not right. He might not be your textbook rapist, but he sure loved [to] take full advantage of me. How many girls has he taken advantage of like this? How many girls since me? Should I be feeling guilty for not having pressed charges then? I just can't do it. I wouldn't be able to face him and go through the whole legal process."
One of the players Woodland identified as raping Menu Courey told "Outside the Lines" that he never had sex with her, that night or any other.
The parents of the late swimmer remain unconvinced -- yet hopeful that the new information will cause law enforcement to begin investigating the alleged assault.
"This cost her her health," Lynn Courey said. "It cost her her swimming. It cost her her life. I really believe today that the rape really put her into that borderline personality [disorder] full bloom. This is what killed her. The reason why she needed all this treatment is because she was raped. And nothing was done about it."
Nicole Noren is a producer for ESPN's Enterprise/Investigative Unit and can be reached at email@example.com.


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Summer Fun On Your Trampoline from Rave & Review
Santa brought us a trampoline for Christmas 6 years ago. A couple of summers in Arizona, followed by a couple of wet winters and dry summers in Texas and we had to send her to the trampoline graveyard. To this day it was one of the best Christmas presents ever. As soon as we are settled in our new house we will be buying a new one and thanks to a link I found over at Ucreate with Kids I know have a fun list of summer activities that go along with a trampoline. 50 Things to do on your trampoline to be exact.
Using sidewalk chalk (why didn't I think of that?) is probably one of my favorite ideas on the list. You can check out the rest of the summer fun trampoline activities over at Rave & Review.


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The girl was the first suspected case in Ghana of Ebola, which has killed more than 90 people in Guinea and Liberia. Another suspected case has been reported in Mali.
Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres has warned of an unprecedented epidemic in an impoverished region with weak health services.
Samples from the girl, who has not been identified, were brought to the capital Accra from the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, Ghana's second-largest city.
"The report from the Noguchi Memorial Institute says categorically that the samples of the blood they analyzed is negative ID Ebola virus and also negative of any common viral fever," Ayittey told a news conference.
"We would like to allay the fears of Ghanaians that the Ebola virus has been detected in Ghana," she said.
Ayittey said Ghana, which borders Togo, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, has stepped up its health surveillance since the Guinea outbreak.
It has trained port and borders workers to detect signs of the disease, set up a national committee, restocked testing equipment and established a telephone hotline, she said.


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New Agreements Increase UFC's Presence in Japan Following the Entry of Three More Japanese Fighters
Tokyo, Japan – The world's leading mixed martial arts organization, the Ultimate Fighting Championship®, has announced two agreements that will further UFC's development in Japan.
The announcement was made in a joint press conference held Monday at Yoshihiro Akiyama's Cloud Dojo by senior executives from the UFC®, TV Bank and NTT Plala. The digital media distribution deals will enable significantly wider access to a range of UFC content to Japanese MMA fans.
First, UFC® officials announced a deal with TV Bank Corp. which will provide an Official UFC Mobile site across all three major Japanese cellular networks - NTT Docomo, KDD AU and Softbank. The agreement with TV Bank Corp. will ensure that UFC® updates, ringtones, wallpapers, fights on demand and other exciting content are made available to UFC fans in Japan.
Most news and features will be accessible for free, while premium content will be available on a pay basis. The partnership establishes TV Bank, a subsidiary of major Japanese digital media company Softbank, as the UFC's primary online content distributor in Japan.
In a second announcement for Japanese UFC fans, UFC officials confirmed an agreement with the Hikari TV, the internet protocol television network (IPTV) operated by NTT Plala Corp. The digital network will air delayed live and archived UFC bouts, as well as classic fights from the famed PRIDE® library. Hikari TV currently enjoys a rapidly growing subscriber base of more than 1.3 million subscribers in Japan.
Both the Official UFC Mobile site and UFC/PRIDE content on Hikari TV will be launched on Feb. 1, 2011.
"Today is a very important step in expanding our media platforms to bring the UFC to more Japanese fans than ever before," said Mark Fischer, UFC Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Asia. "We want to make sure that any fan who wants to watch the UFC has the best access they can and, at the same time, reach new fans."
TV Bank President Tomotaka Nakagawa and NTT Plala President Koji Bando also touted the new joint initiative during the joint press conference.
"The UFC's popularity is growing on a daily basis around the world, and we're delighted to be one of the UFC's partners to help them grow in Japan," TV Bank's Nakagawa said. "We are a subsidiary of Softbank, but we also deal with other networks, such as NTT Docomo and KDDI AU. Our plan is not to monopolize the content, but rather for the UFC brand name and the sport to become more popular in Japan. Of course, we're also very happy to provide a way for fans to see Japanese fighters competing abroad. Our ultimate goal would be to assist in any way possible, to bring the UFC to Japan."
NTT Plala's Bando agreed.
"The UFC is a sport that is popular worldwide and we're excited about this opportunity," Bando said. "In our sports programming, we already have Japanese Baseball and Japanese Soccer, but adding UFC content will certainly boost our sports offering."
UFC's increased presence in Japan comes just weeks after the organization added three exciting Japanese fighters. The highly-decorated Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto will make his UFC debut at UFC 126®: SILVA vs. BELFORT on Feb. 5 in Las Vegas, while featherweight Michihiro Omigawa returns to the UFC on the same date. Middleweight Riki Fukuda will also join the UFC, making his debut at UFC® 127: PENN vs. FITCH in Sydney, Australia on Feb. 27.
The trio joins current UFC middleweight contenders Yoshihiro Akiyama and Yushin Okami as proud Japanese warriors scheduled to grace the Octagon™ in 2011.
"There has never been a better time to be a UFC fan in Japan," Fischer said. "Along with our existing partnership with WOWOW, the two deals announced continue to expand our media partnerships and consumer reach. Furthermore, the UFC is clearly building momentum in Japan toward finally bringing a live UFC event here for the first time in over a decade."
Pictured from left: Japanese UFC fighters Riki Fukuda, Kid Yamamoto, Yoshihiro Akiyama, Michihiro Omigawa and Yushin Okami pose for photos at Monday's press conference in Japan.
Jamahal Hill Talks UFC 300 Main Event
Hall Of Fame


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Inspired by the Google's Project Glass, computer programmer Will Powell has built a prototype real-time translation system that listens to speech, translates it into one of 37 languages, and then displays the resulting text as subtitles directly onto the user's glasses.
In a nutshell, here's how it all works. A Bluetooth microphone picks up the audio signal and connects to a smartphone or tablet to provide a clean, noise-cancelled audio feed. The signal is then sent to the Microsoft Translator service, which detects the foreign language and transcribes it into the target language of choice. Finally, the translated text is displayed on the lower half of the glasses – effectively providing real-time subtitles for a conversation in a foreign language.
The subtitle interface and the pictured TV display (a non-essential component used in a demo to display the text of the entire conversation) is powered by two Raspberry Pi units - credit card sized, single-board computers that retail for US$35 each.
The resulting system appears quite responsive, although it may still be a little too slow for real-life applications. Most of the delay in the subtitles is caused by the server time needed to process the information and, says Powell, caching the most common expressions has somewhat mitigated the problem, but not solved it.
Nifty? Yes. Practical and accessible? Not quite. The augmented reality Vuzix Star 1200 glasses that Powell used for this project – which are completely transparent, like a pilot's head-up display – retail for US$4,999. Moreover, the quality of the translation might be heavily affected without the interlocutor wearing a headset (or a second pair of glasses) to improve audio quality.
The video below is a short demonstration of the concept. The subtitles mirror the text appearing on the user's glasses.
Source: Will Powell


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Reddit's great for many things: funny pictures, interesting factoids, revealing crowd-sourced interviews. Also, assault rifles. Mother Jones just published an unnerving investigation into the little known gun market tucked into the GunsForSale subreddit, and the numbers are disturbing.
According to the magazine's research, the site has hosted at least 159 transactions since last June, nearly 100 of which included the sale of AR-15 assault rifles. The exact number of guns sold on Reddit is unclear since even more transactions take place in private messages, but it's likely in the several hundreds in the past six months. Even if just one gun was sold in each of those 159 documented transactions, that's nearly a gun a day being sold on Reddit.
It gets worse. It's not just the fact that people are selling guns on Reddit that's disturbing. It's how they're doing it. For one, there's reason to believe that guns are being sold illegally and without background checks. Since much of Reddit is anonymous, it's easy to see how unlicensed sellers could fly under the radar. At the very least, Reddit's infrastructure (and a legal loophole) allows guns to be sold without background checks.
These sellers aren't exactly swell guys either. Mother Jones identifies one Reddit gun seller, Firearm Concierge, who posted 268 listings on GunsForSale in the second half of last year. He also sent this tweet.
What a guy.
It's definitely worth checking out the specific details of Reddit's gun market on Mother Jones's website. The part about how Condé Nast sanctioned the licensing of the Reddit logo to be applied to AR-15 rifles is particularly disconcerting. [Mother Jones]
Pictures: Reddit / Mother Jones


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Please park safely in the car park. For non permit holders (only £15 per year) it is £1 for 2 hours pay and display. We will meet up the cafe end of the car park.
Please wear walking shoes or trainers with a good tread, ideally waterproof and dress according the weather, lots of layer, hat and thin warm gloves.
This week we will focus on step 9 of the British Nordic Walking 10 step technique. This is a 5 week course costing £35. Please arrive 10 minutes before the lesson is due to start, it will last an hour. Poles will be provided.
Nordic Walk your way to fitness in Nowton, Bury St Edmunds.
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2 years ago the building on the corner of Fillmore and Haight caught fire and it displaced not only FFDG and the ground floor businesses but also the many people in rent controlled apartments above. Sounds as though many of those people took a payout and thus don't have first dibs on the remodeled apartments that are now back on the market.
What was once a one bedroom apartment that an artist could afford is now $3,995/ month! Yep, a 700 square foot one bedroom is on the market for $3,995/ month. Ouch ~right here.


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Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Into the Woods will be part of Encores! series, helping to usher in a new tradition at New York City Center celebrating iconic American musicals. Encores! Artistic Director Lear deBessonet will direct.
"If the reason to revive a hidden gem is to discover it, then the reason to revive a beloved musical that holds enormous meaning to so many people is to discover what we have in common, and how our experience with these shows connects us," deBessonet said in a statement. "Among its many rich layers, Into the Woods is a fable about how humans pursue their wishes, and what happens when they set aside their individual wishes to create a greater community wish."
Into the Woods joins a previously announced lineup that includes The Life, adapted and directed by Tony and Emmy winner Billy Porter, and The Tap Dance Kid, directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon.
With theaters still shut down due to the COVID-19 crisis, performance dates, casting, and more will be announced later.


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Wille's going to Dublin! And actually it's a little further away than 20km for us.
After Wille graduated back in June he's been working at my office and has also had a little bit of time off and as he's still not sure what he wants to do in the future and is taking a leap year he'll be going to Dublin for a month leaving September 1st. He's enrolled in a bartending course which he hopes will help land him jobs while traveling further away (Australia possibly!) after new year. I'm so excited for him!
So, if you have any Dublin tips, Wille and I are all ears! Wille LOVES Irish folk music so if you have any recommendations on where to go for that you get a gold star! We did a bit of Googling and guide book reading and found out about a place called the Cobblestone Pub but we're not sure if that's an Irish music tourist trap or the real deal. Anyone know? All other tips are also very welcome! Thanks guys!
Image from here


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A security deposit will help me take the first step in getting a new apartment and starting a new life with my daughters, who will be able to join me.
I need $700 to pay the security deposit for a new apartment. This includes all the upfront costs associated with moving into a new apartment.
Meeting this need will help me because it will help me take the first step in getting my new apartment. Without the money for a security deposit, I will not be able to start my new life with my daughters.
I have been working with a wonderful job placement counselor and shortly I will have a job that will make my family proud. The $700 security deposit is the next major step towards regaining stability in my life.
I am a 30-year-old mother of two girls, born in Boyle Heights, in East Los Angeles. For the past six years, I have been basically homeless, going from place to place, sleeping on couches of friends or riding the buses all night just to stay out of the cold. My two beautiful daughters were taken away from me because our living conditions were so unstable.
I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and I have had the support to help me put my family back together in a nice, safe home.
Right now, my biggest challenge is finding a job and a new apartment, so my daughters can come back home to stay with me.
I think of myself mostly as a good mother of two beautiful daughters.
I'm most proud of my struggle and the progress I've made to take my life back into my own hands.
Thank you for helping Stefanie fund this need.
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I have known Stefanie since August 17, 2012. She is a resident at the homeless facility, People Assisting the Homeless, where I work.
I think meeting this need is important because as a mother of two children Stefanie needs assistance. Through a series of bad decisions, she lost everything, and her children where taken away from her. I believe she loves her children and would like to get them back to live with her when she has successfully gotten a job and can afford an apartment. Through her time here at PATH she has gained confidence, and is going out on job interviews. With support she can succeed.
This will move the recipient's life forward by providing a safety net where she can regain stability to care for her children in an adequate manner. Stefanie has a sweet soft-spoken manner. She is always helpful, and pleasantly willing to do her chores around the facility.
My job title is Resident Associate at PATH West Los Angeles. I have been in this position since 2006. I am a Resident Associate, meaning I make sure the residents have what they need, and keep the facility clean. With my other hat I am the volunteer coordinator for our Westside PATH facility. I… Read more


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I'm always on the hunt for great whole grain, naturally sweetened baked good recipes and I'm happy to share another with you today. Well technically, it's really more like three quick bread recipes in one, because the resulting loaves taste so different depending on which sweetener you use! I came across Joy's recipe for quick molasses bread on a cold night this winter. Looking for an excuse to crank up the oven, I peeled myself off the couch, poured myself a drink, mixed all six (6!) ingredients together and popped it in the oven.
An hour later, I pulled out a dense and heavy, moist molasses bread. I nibbled on a corner piece and wondered, could I make this with honey? I poured myself another drink and mixed up some more quick bread batter, this time with honey instead of molasses. The recipe is so simple that I had almost had it memorized by the second go-around. The next thing I knew, I was nibbling on delicious honey bread. Since then I've tried the bread with blackstrap molasses and maple syrup; each loaf has its own signature characteristics but they are all delicious.
My dear friend/college roommate Grace and I have been in an ongoing discussion about natural sweeteners in the comments of my banana bread post. Neither Grace or I did much baking when we lived together, but we've both developed an interest in the years since and I love comparing results with her. She has such a voice, in person and in writing, that when I read her notes I hear her speaking them in my head (have a I told you that, G?). Every time I hear from her, I feel like we're back in our cozy living room on 315 College Avenue and the discussion is as lively as ever.
Today I thought I'd publicly share my notes for this recipe with Grace and all of you so we can open up the discussion. I don't have anything groundbreaking to report, but I hope you glean some useful information and feel more confident playing around with the natural sweeteners in your pantry after reading my notes. Here we go!
Honey is the sweetest, and the signature honey flavor really shines through when used in baked goods. The flavor will depend on the type of honey used. Clover honey, the most common type, is milder than most and the kind that I use in my baked goods. Honey browns easily in baking so most recommend baking with honey at a lower temperature. Some recommending reducing the temperature by 25 degrees Fahrenheit. Both my banana bread and this bread recipe specify a 325 degree oven, which seems ideal.
Molasses is less sweet than honey but imparts a nice molasses flavor to the bread. The resulting bread could go either sweet or savory depending on toppings. As expected, molasses that is lighter in color is also lighter in flavor and produces a loaf with a lighter color.
Blackstrap molasses is the most concentrated of molasses and is also the highest in minerals. Slices from my blackstrap loaf required a considerable amount of almond butter or cream cheese to balance the strong, bitter flavor of the blackstrap molasses. I actually learned to love the intensity of the flavor, but I would only recommend making all blackstrap bread to hardcore molasses lovers. You can ease the intensity by mixing blackstrap with lighter molasses or honey for a total of 1/2 cup.
When you're shopping for molasses, be sure to check the ingredients label. I grabbed the only organic molasses in the store, which was labeled on the front simply as molasses, but the ingredients label revealed that it was entirely blackstrap.
Real maple syrup imparted the least amount of flavor to the bread. It had nice mapley undertones and a light sweetness. Unexpectedly, the maple syrup either enhanced or allowed the cornmeal flavor to shine through. That loaf almost tasted like cornbread (in a good way!) and I'm trying to adapt it into a more authentic cornbread recipe. Maple syrup comes in grade A and grade B. Grade A is less expensive, easier to find and less intensely flavored. I used grade B maple syrup this time, but I have not noticed a significant difference between Grade A and Grade B, so either will do.
I did not try making a loaf with agave nectar, but based on other baking experiences, I think it would turn out fine. Agave has a neutral flavor, so it would just contribute sweetness. Agave is less sweet than honey. I tried substituting agave for honey in my zucchini brownies once and the brownies turned out bittersweet. Agave's health benefits are debatable and I enjoy the taste of other, less processed natural sweeteners so I tend to use it sparingly.
Further considerations for substituting one natural sweetener for another in baked goods:
Keep in mind that the ratio of sweetener to other ingredients was relatively low, but based on the results from this bread experiment, all three of the natural sweeteners used can be substituted for each other 1 for 1. The most important considerations are flavor and the level of sweetness desired.
Roughly speaking, when comparing 1 cup of honey, maple syrup or agave to 1 cup of sugar, they are each more sweet than sugar. Molasses, on the other hand, is about half as sweet as sugar (source: Grainlady). When you're looking at bottles of sweeteners in the store, the darker shades of each natural sweetener generally have stronger flavors. By the way it is best to buy organic natural sweeteners since they are concentrated products.
Feel free to mix different natural sweeteners to achieve the level of sweetness and flavor desired. For instance, mixing a bit of molasses with agave nectar would produce a sweet loaf with a very light molasses flavor. Honey would also sweeten up molasses but it will also add its own flavor. And on and on!
PrintQuick Whole Wheat Molasses (or honey or maple!) Bread
- Author:
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 45 mins
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 1 loaf 1x
- Category: Quick Bread
Super simple, whole grain, naturally sweetened quick bread. This recipe yields 1 loaf.
- Oil or butter for greasing pan
- 1 ½ cups milk of choice and 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (or 1 ⅔ cups buttermilk or plain yogurt*)
- 2 ½ cups white whole wheat flour or regular whole wheat flour
- ½ cup cornmeal (I prefer medium grind cornmeal)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup molasses (or honey or maple syrup, see notes on blackstrap molasses above)
- Heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8-by-4-inch or 9-by 5-inch loaf pan (Bittman recommends a non-stick loaf pan but I prefer my stoneware loaf pan).
- If using buttermilk or yogurt, ignore this step. Make soured milk: gently warm the milk gently (1 minute in the microwave will suffice) and add vinegar. Set the soured milk aside.
- Mix together the dry ingredients. Stir molasses (or honey or maple syrup) into the soured milk, buttermilk or yogurt. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir with a big spoon, just until combined. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.
- Bake until firm and a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Allow the bread to cool in the loaf pan for 15 minutes, then carefully invert the bread onto a wire rack.
- If you can stand it, let the bread rest for a day. I've found that whole wheat quick breads taste better the next day, when the flavors have had more time to develop. This bread freezes wonderfully. I slice it beforehand so I can pull out a slice of bread any time. Defrost it and boom—breakfast is served.
Recipe adapted from Mark Bittman via Joy the Baker.
*Milk vs. yogurt: I have tried using both milk and yogurt and didn't notice a big difference in texture either way. I use milk most often because it's less expensive.
Make it vegan: This bread is already eggless, so just substitute your preferred non-dairy milk for the dairy milk.
Serving suggestions: Molasses bread is great with almond butter, cream cheese or homemade citrus curd with Greek yogurt!
Thank you: To Native Roots Market in Norman for supplying the local clover honey for my honey loaf!
▸ Nutrition Information
Further reading materials:
- Mark Bittman on quick breads.
- Sara of Sprouted Kitchen on natural sweeteners.
- Heidi Swanson of 101cookbooks' favorite natural sweeteners.
- Lindsay Nixon's tips on how to replace sugar with natural sweeteners.
- [Book] Green Market Baking Book: 100 Delicious Recipes for Naturally Sweet & Savory Treats.