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Sautéed Chicken Breasts
By Kosherscene– @ New York Jewish Guide.com
This is an easy recipe to prepare and yet it's delicious. Proof, again, that a good dish need neither be intricate nor overly time consuming to make.
Sautéed Chicken Breasts
(Adapted from The Best 30-Minute Recipe, by America's Test Kitchen at Cook's Illustrated Magazine)
Serves 4
- 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- salt and ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- Spread flour in shallow dish. Pat chicken dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Dredge chicken in flour to coat and shake off excess.
- Heat oil in 12″ skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Carefully lay chicken in skillet and brown well on one side, 6 to 8 minutes.
- Flip chicken over, reduce heat to medium-low, and continue to cook until thickest part of breasts registers 160 degrees on instant-read thermometer, 6 to 8 minutes longer.
- Transfer chicken to plate, civer with foil, and let rest at least 5 minutes before serving.
Cooking Tips – To cook chicken breasts correctly, the first thing to consider is size. Be sure to select chicken breasts of equal size, so they will cook evenly. Flouring the chicken prior to sautéing will protect the meat from drying out and helps prevent it from sticking to skillet. Turning the heat down when browning the second side is crucial to prevent the pan from scorching while the chicken cooks through and will avoid a leathery, stringy exterior.
I served it with a wine sauce, made from a recipe also adapted from The Best 30-Minute Recipe.
Red Wine Pan Sauce
The Base of a pan sauce is the fond, or browned bits clinging to the bottom of the skillet after sautéing or searing meat, poultry or fish. Once the skillet protein is removed from the skillet, aromatics such asminced shallots can be sautéed, and then, in a process called deglazing, liquid – usually wine, stock, or both – is added to help dissolve the fond and make a flavorful sauce. The sauce is then simmered to concentrate flavors and chicken.
Makes about 1 1/4 cups
- 1 shallot, minced
- Salt and ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup dry red wine
- 1 1/2 cup chicken stock*
- 1 tbsp light brown sugar
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp unsalted margarine, cut into 3 pieces and chilled
- 1 tsp minced fresh thyme
- After removing cooked protein from skillet, add shallot and 1/4 spoon teaspoon salt to oil left in skillet, return to medium-high heat, and cook until softened, about 2 minutes.
- Stir in wine, scraping up any browned bits. Stir in 1 1/4 cup of stock and brown sugar, simmer until sauce measures 1 cup, about 5 minutes.
- Whisk remaining 1/4 cup stock and cornstarch together until smooth, then whisk into sauce. Add any accumulated meat juices and continue to simmer, about 2 minutes.
- Reduce heat to low and whisk in margarine, one piece at a time. Off heat, stir in thyme and season with salt and pepper to taste.
* Chicken Stock – Brodo di Gallina
Yield: 16 cups
- 1 small bunch (about 1/2 oz) Italian (flat-leaf) parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 4 pound hen, cleaned and cut into four pieces
- 1 medium yellow onion
- 3 celery stalks
- 1 large carrot
- 4 bay leaves
- 12 black peppercorns
- 4 cloves
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Place the celery and peppercorns on a piece of cheesecloth, then using kitchen string, tie the ends of the cheesecloth together to make a bag.
- Place 16 cups water in a large pot. Add all other ingredients. Bring to a boil over medium high heat.
- Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 4 hours, skimming the surface occasionally to catch and discard the residue and foam. Add extra water to the broth, making sure the original level of broth is maintained throughout.
- Drain the stock through a strainer discarding the vegetables and reserving the flesh for further use in other recipes.
The chicken stock can be refrigerated for up to 4 days or frozen up to 30 days.
Enjoy, gentle reader, enjoy!
mh- New York Jewish Guide.com


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subset: commoncrawl


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It's become common over the past year or two to note how well Wall Street is doing while Main Street is still struggling.
Sadly, that tale of two economies has resulted from a conscious choice by those at the very top levels of our nation's financial and political elites.
The choice was inadvertently highlighted in a recent USA Today column by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In that column, Pelosi describes some of the political dynamics surrounding the beginning of the bailout era five years ago.
In Pelosi's telling of the story, public opinion was never mentioned once. That's significant because public opinion was primarily focused on Main Street while the elites were focused on Wall Street. Those in power didn't want to hear about anything but the financiers.
From the beginning, public opinion was hostile. The outrage was so strong that it eventually led to creation of both the tea party and the occupy movements. While those in Congress rarely listens to those they are supposed to represent, in this case, they couldn't help but hear the shouting.
Stunningly, with both the Republican president and Democratic Congressional leadership pleading for $700 billion, Congress initially listened to Main Street and rejected the bailout legislation. That created panic among the elites, and the stock market fell almost 800 points the next day.
After the market reacted, Congress reversed course.
The legislators made a conscious decision to back Wall Street rather than Main Street. They voted to reassure the bankers and ignore the rest of us.
Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General for the TARP bailouts, recounts the maddening tale in a great book, "Bailout: An Inside Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street.''
In the aftermath, an argument erupted about who was to blame. Conservatives tended to point to government failures. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said, "In fact, a major cause of our recent downturn was a housing crisis created by reckless government policies."
Liberals pointed in the opposite direction. Mark Zandi, an economist whose analysis is frequently cited in support of Obama administration policies, said, "The biggest culprits in the housing fiasco came from the private sector, and more specifically from a mortgage industry that was out of control."
A better understanding comes when you realize that the financial wizards and the government officials were on the same team. One day Henry Paulson was chairman of Goldman Sachs; the next he was Treasury secretary. One day Robert Rubin was Treasury secretary; the next he was running Citibank.
In the years since the bailouts, nothing has really changed. The biggest banks weren't broken up; they've gotten bigger. They still require ongoing government subsidies to remain profitable. That reality is bad enough. But what makes it even tougher is that the political class is proud of the two-tier economy.
To find out more about Scott Rasmussen, visit creators.com.


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Babak Armajani was a Management Insights contributor. He was the chair for the Public Strategies Group, where he and his partners focused on transforming bureaucracies into customer-focused enterprises. Armajani previously served as Deputy Commissioner of Minnesota's Department of Revenue, where he led the department through deep and dramatic changes. While serving as the deputy commissioner in the Department of Administration, he helped develop two innovations that were recognized by the Harvard/Ford Foundation Innovations in Government Awards. Armajani taught graduate management courses at the University of Minnesota, Indiana University and Metropolitan State University and co-wrote Breaking Through Bureaucracy with Michael Barzelay, a book that argues for a new approach to funding and managing internal services like data processing, printing, building maintenance, and internal consulting and analysis. He died June 3, 2013 at the age of 66.
Babak Armajani


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For St Valentine's day,we should remember the same sex lovers (a surprising number of them) who feature in Scripture and in the history of the Catholic Church. In the list below, I do not not claim that the relationships were necessarily sexual (although some of them most definitely were, but all are deserve attention by modern queer Christians. (For fuller assessments, follow the links).
Biblical Lovers
Right at the beginning, the Hebrew Bible opens with the greatest love story of them all – that of God for humankind. Chris Glaser ("Coming Out as Sacrament") points out that at the most literal level, this can be seen as a same-sex relationship, as God is conventionally described with a male pronoun and Adam pictured as a man. However, even if we recognize that God is more properly pictured as omnigendered, the relevance of the idea is not diminished, and even enhanced. "Adam" is more properly seen in the earliest traditions as " 'adam", that is humankind, and androgynous. We can therefore view both parties to this love relationship in whatever gender terms is most appropriate to us. The important point, which we really ought to remember, is that whoever we are, God's love for us is unconditional, and is totally free of bias to any particular biological sex, gender role, or sexual orientation. This thought should sustain us, no matter how much we may sometimes feel condemned or rejected by the Church or by secular society.
Elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, Glaser notes that the two longest love stories are those of same sex couples. The love of David for Jonathan "surpasses that for women", and the words of Ruth to Naomi, although from one woman to another, are regularly used in liturgies for marriage ceremonies. The Song of Songs is not between a same sex couple (although some believe it may originally have been so. See a discussion at The Wild Reed), but is nevertheless worth consideration, for its frank celebration of physical, erotic love, without being tied to procreation or even to marriage. This is simple, joyous celebration of love on its own terms – while also standing as a metaphor for God's love for God's people, just as our love relationships can also have sacramental value, in mirroring God's love.
In the New Testament, we have the celebrated example of Jesus and the Beloved Disciple, whoever he was (possibly, but not necessarily, John the Evangelist). It is unclear whether there was a physical dimension to this relationship – but some scholars believe there may have been, and there was once a popular tradition that the bridal couple in the wedding at Cana were precisely Jesus and his Beloved Disciple, John. Even if we reject this idea, we should remember the entirely orthodox idea that the Mass commemorates the wedding at Cana, as the marriage of Christ and his church. For half of all Catholics, this mystical marriage is certainly male to male .
Martha and Mary are described as "sisters", but this could be a euphemism. In the cultural context, they could well have been a lesbian couple. Equally, the Roman centurion and his "servant" probably included a sexual element in their relationship.
The Early Church
The early Christian Church honoured as saints several pairs of same sex couples. The Roman soldiers and martyrs Sergius and Bacchus are the best known, with Polyeuct and Nearchos another pair of military martyrs. Felicity and Perpetua are often mentioned as a corresponding pair of female martyrs.
Saints Galla and Benedicta were a devoted pair who lived in a 6th century Roman community of religious women. At about the same time, Symeon of Emessa and John were not martyrs, but hermits in Syria. Theirs was not a sexual relationship, but it was clearly emotionally intimate, and was formally blessed by an abbot in what appears to have been a rite of adelphopoeisis, or "making brothers".
This rite, formally recorded with specific liturgies for blessing in church, is an important reminder that for many centuries, the church regularly blessed same sex unions in church. (These rites still exist today, and can be easily adapted for modern blessing ceremonies). In addition to celebrating same sex unions in church as they were formed, the Church also recognized special unions at their dissolution in death. Archaeological evidence from Macedonia shows many examples from the 4th to the 6th centuries of same sex couples who were buried in shared graves.
Also from about this period of the early church, we have a bishop and saint who celebrated homoerotic love in verse directed at his lover, Ausonius – St Paulinus of Nola. In Ireland, there is some evidence that St Patrick may have taken a young (male) lover in later life, while St Brigid had her soulmate, Drogheda.
The Middle Ages.
As in the early church, there are notable examples of saints, bishops and abbots who are remembered for their literary output – addressed to the men they loved, either in verse or in letter form: Saint Aelred of Rievaulx wrote explicitly of the value of close spiritual friendship, and addressed intimate love letters to a series of special friends of his own. One notable example of this kind of intimate (but celibate) love between clerics was that of St Bernard of Clairvaulx, and Malachi, the Archbishop of Armagh, who after death were buried in a shared grave. Alcuin of Tours also addressed love letters and poems to his own special friends, such as this one to Arno, the bishop at Salzburg:
Love has penetrated my heart with its flame,
And is ever rekindled with new warmth.
Neither sea nor land, hills nor forest,
nor even the Alps Can stand in its way or hinder it
From always licking at your inmost parts, good father…
Other notable saints and senior clerics who wrote love letters or erotic verse to their colleagues included Saint Anselm of Canterbury, Marbod of Riennes, Archbishop Baudri of Bourgeuil, a "Spanish Monk", Walafrid Strabo (c. 808-849) to the cleric Lutziger, Saint Notker Balbulus (c. 840-912), and Salamo (c. 860-920), and Egbert the monk, to Saint Boniface.
There are also others who are remembered not for their sanctity, but for their notoriety. It is said that in the early 11th century, the papal reign of Benedict IX became infamous for having "turned the Vatican into a male brothel". Later in the 11th Century, under a reforming pope, Archbishop Ralph of Tours succeeded in having his lover John appointed as bishop of Orleans, even though the younger man was well known as a former bed-partner of many highly placed men in the Church and the royal court – including a previous archbishop, and also the king of France.
In the Western Church, there was a rite corresponding to the Eastern adelphopoeisis, known as the rite of "sworn brotherhood", which Alan Bray describes in "The Friend", especially from the medieval and later periods . This too has an echo in modern liturgies, for another term for the "sworn brother" was – "wedded brothers". Same sex "weddings" in Church are not new – although the term then referred to a contract, not to marriage in the modern sense. (These "sworn brothers" did not necessarily include a sexual relationship, although some did, often in parallel with heterosexual marriages). One high profile example of these sworn brothers was that of the English king, Edward II, and Piers Galveston. (After his execution, Edward was for a time popularly venerated as a saint).
In addition to the practice of blessing same sex unions in Church, there is also abundant evidence of same sex couples who, like SS Bernard and Malachi, were buried in shared graves. Bray describes many of these in the Western (especially the English) church, from the medieval period right up to the 19th century (Blessed John Henry Newman and St John Ambrose).
The Renaissance Paradox
With the persecution of "Sodomites" by the Inquisition and the secular authorities at their instigation, it is not surprising that there were fewer accounts of homoerotic relationships, and less literary celebration of same sex love. However, this does not mean that they did not occur. For those with sufficient power or influence in the church, male sexual relationships continued, at the highest level. Pope Julius III was so infatuated with a young street urchin he fell in love with, that he appointed the youngster a cardinal at the grand age of 17 – in spite of a notable lack of any appropriate qualifications whatever. Pope Paul II is said to have died of a stroke – while being sodomized by a page boy. (For more on the gay popes, see "Gay Popes, Papal Sodomites").
The Modern Period
The best known same sex relationship among the modern clergy is that of Blessed John Henry Newman and his beloved Ambrose St John, who were famously buried in a shared grave in Birmingham Oratory. Less well known are two examples of nineteenth century women from the United States. Phebe Ann Coffin Hannaford, possibly the first woman since ancient times to be ordained in a major Christian denomination, and lived openly with her partner Anne Miles. Saint Vida Scudder, who lived in a clearly lesbian relationship with her partner Florence Converse, is recognized as a saint by the American Episcopal Church.
In the twentieth and twenty first centuries, it has become possible for countless male and female couples to declare their loves openly, and even to have them formally recognized in church – as full marriages, or as blessing of unions. I'm not going to attempt to list them, here. While we celebrate the continuing advances to marriage equality, in church and in secular society, let us also recognize and honour all those same – sex couples who have preceded us in loving partnerships – whether sexual or celibate
[Updated January 2015]
Recommended Books
Boswell, John: Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe
Bray, Alan: The Friend
Glaser, Chris: Coming Out as Sacrament
Jordan, Mark D: Blessing Same-Sex Unions: The Perils of Queer Romance and the Confusions of Christian Marriage
Related Articles
- The Story of the "Queer Saints and Martyrs": Taking Shape
- Gay Popes, Papal Sodomites


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Let me start reading where I left off last night and pick out what interests me.
Obama is asked "what are America's three most important allies around the world?" He throws in so much extra material that he gets around to naming two: the European Union and Japan. A follow-up question is asked: "I didn't hear you mention Israel, and I ask because there is a quote attributed to your name. You said recently, 'No one is suffering more than the Palestinian people.' Do you stand by that remark?" Answer:
Well, keep in mind what the remark actually, if you had the whole thing, said.What the remark said. There's that remark, talking away, and I'm over here, so I guess you can say I'm standing by it. Standing by, watching with amazement, wondering what that darned remark will come out with next.
But in his next sentence, he takes ownership of the remark:
And what I said is nobody has suffered more than the Palestinian people from the failure of the Palestinian leadership to recognize Israel, to renounce violence, and to get serious about negotiating peace and security for the region.And:
Israel has been one of our most important allies around the world. It's the only established democracy in the Middle East. It's the linchpin of much of our efforts in the Middle East.Has been? So it "has been" an important ally, but it "is" a "linchpin" of our "efforts."
Hillary Clinton is asked about Giuliani's statement that "the Democrats do not understand the full nature and scope of the terrorist war against us," and "America will be safer with a Republican president." She responds with what looks like her favorite debate move: say the current President is a failure.
We haven't secured our borders, our ports, our mass transit systems. You can go across this country and see so much that has not been done. The resources haven't gotten to the front lines where decisions are made in local government the way that they need to. And I think that this administration has consistently tried to hype the fear without delivering on the promise of making America safer. And its foreign policy around the world, as you've heard from all of my colleagues here, has also made the world less stable, which, of course, has a ripple effect with respect to what we're going to face in the future. So I hope that we can put that myth to rest. It is certainly something I will try to do during the campaign.There is absolutely nothing there about why she would do a better job as the next President, and we were just reminded of Giuliani. Who do you want to trust, Clinton or Giuliani? That's the question. She gives not one shred of a reason here to go with her. Is there some way she would secure our borders and ports better than he would? Picture her standing at a debate next to Giuliani a year and a half from now. That's what you ought to do if you're trying to pick the best Democratic candidate. Is she the one you Democrats want standing there?
There's a "show of hands" question: "Do you believe there is such a thing as a global war on terror?" Kucinich doesn't raise his. I don't bother to read his explanation.
Let's read something important. Obama is asked "how would you change the U.S. military stance overseas" if there were another attack on two American cities and we knew "beyond a shadow of a doubt" that al Qaida did it:
Well, the first thing we'd have to do is make sure that we've got an effective emergency response, something that this administration failed to do when we had a hurricane in New Orleans.The first thing he thinks of is Katrina. Bush failed there, don't you know. Think fast, Senator. It's another 9/11! What is the military response? Show us you can think like a Commander in Chief:
And I think that we have to review how we operate in the event of not only a natural disaster, but also a terrorist attack.So the military response is: think and talk.
The second thing is to make sure that we've got good intelligence, a., to find out that we don't have other threats and attacks potentially out there, and b., to find out, do we have any intelligence on who might have carried it out so that we can take potentially some action to dismantle that network.
But what we can't do is then alienate the world community based on faulty intelligence, based on bluster and bombast. Instead, the next thing we would have to do, in addition to talking to the American people, is making sure that we are talking to the international community.
Because as already been stated, we're not going to defeat terrorists on our own. We've got to strengthen our intelligence relationships with them, and they've got to feel a stake in our security by recognizing that we have mutual security interests at stake.
Edwards is supremely fortunate to get a shot right now at the same question:
Well, the first thing I would do is be certain I knew who was responsible, and I would act swiftly and strongly to hold them responsible for that.So, be strong. But mainly just try very hard to figure out how they did it and how we can defend against the next attack. His idea seems to be about winning the hearts of the next generation. How do you fight the terrorists? Why not make them love us so they won't want to be terrorists anymore? Surely, if they see the Democrats have brought their new tools into the White House, they'll feel the love.
The second thing I would do -- and, of course, some of these have been mentioned already -- is find out how did this happen without our intelligence operations finding out that it was in a planning stage; how did they get through what we all recognize is a fairly porous homeland security system that we have in this country that has not been built the way it needed to be built?
You know, did the weapons that created these two simultaneous strikes come through our ports? Were they in one of the containers that have not been checked? How did these weapons get here, and how do we stop it from happening again?
I believe -- and this goes to the question you asked earlier, just a few minutes ago -- global war on terror. I think there are dangerous people and dangerous leaders in the world that America must deal with and deal with strongly.
But we have more tools available to us than bombs.
And America needs to use the tools that are available to them, so that these people who are sitting on the fence, the terrorists are trying to recruit the next generation get pushed to our side, not to the other side. We've had no long-term strategy. We need one and I will provide one as president.
Now, Clinton gets her shot. Come on, Hillary, show you can do it! Your two biggest opponents have set this up perfectly.
Well, again, having been a senator during 9/11, I understand very well the extraordinary horror of that kind of an attack and the impact that it has, far beyond those that are directly affected.Boring. Non-responsive.
I think a president must move as swiftly as is prudent to retaliate.Yes! Retaliate!
If we are attacked, and we can determine who is behind that attack, and if there are nations that supported or gave material aid to those who attacked us, I believe we should quickly respond.Attack! Destroy! Thank God, one of them is willing to say it. Hillary wins.
Now, that doesn't mean we go looking for other fights. You know, I supported President Bush when he went after Al Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
And then when he decided to divert attention to Iraq, it was not a decision that I would have made, had I been president, because we still haven't found bin Laden. So let's focus on those who have attacked us and do everything we can to destroy them.
No one else is given a turn at this, the key question of the night. But the next time Richardson is called on -- with the special Hispanic question "How do you feel about normalizing relations with Castro's Cuba?" -- he insists on going back to the "two cities" question. Good for him! And he must have been pissed to have been excluded from the A group.
I would respond militarily, aggressively. I'll build international support for our goals. I'd improve our intelligence, but that would be a direct threat on the United States, and I would make it clear that that would be an important, decisive, military response, surgical strike, whatever it takes.That beats Hillary. Richardson is my favorite of the Democrats. And Obama and Edwards are unacceptable.
But wait.
Taking a cue from Richardson, when Obama is asked a question about lightbulbs -- yeah, really, what kind of lightbulbs! -- he goes back to the terrorism question. Now, that he's heard the others answer, he knows he's screwed it up.
But one thing that I do have to go back on, on this issue of terrorism: We have genuine enemies out there that have to be hunted down, networks have to be dismantled.Am I going to let him off the hook for this? "In some cases, lethal force"?
There is no contradiction between us intelligently using our military and, in some cases, lethal force to take out terrorists and, at the same time, building the sort of alliances and trust around the world that has been so lacking over the last six years.
And that, I think, is going to be one of the most important issues that the next president is going to have to do, is to repair the kinds of challenges that we face.
Kucinich is spurred to challenge Obama.
My good friend, Senator Obama, that's a very provocative statement. You previously said that all options are on the table with respect to Iran. And I think that it's important for people to reflect on the real meaning of that, that you're setting the stage for another war.Oh, no. Kucinich is pushing him back into the peace corner.
I think it's important that we move away from global warming and global warring. And the connection is oil. We're in Iraq for oil. We're looking at attacking Iran for oil.Oh, no.
And until we change our international policies, which quit using war as an instrument of policy ... and change our energy policies ... we will continue to repeat this sorry cycle.Obama responds (with Kuchinich interrupting him throughout):
I think it would be a profound mistake for us to initiate a war with Iran. But, have no doubt, Iran possessing nuclear weapons will be a major threat to us and to the region.... And I don't think that's disputed by any expert. They are the largest state sponsor of terrorism... Hezbollah and Hamas.... There is no contradiction between us taking seriously the need, as you do, to want to strengthen our alliances around the world -- but I think it is important for us to also recognize that if we have nuclear proliferators around the world that potentially can place a nuclear weapon into the hands of terrorists, that is a profound security threat for America and one that we have to take seriously.Gravel goes wild here and says, among other things: "Who the hell are we going to nuke? Tell me, Barack. Barack, who do you want to nuke?"
Obama's all: "I'm not planning to nuke anybody right now, Mike, I promise."
Well, now I do want to watch the video. It seems as though Obama comes to life at the end, that he does best when he's reacting to the other candidates, rather than answering the question cold. This is a good sign that he may be an engaging candidate. I'll say more when I've seen the video.
From the transcript, I like Richardson best. Hillary didn't do anything wrong. Obama worries me. Edwards did not impress me. The others... I don't have to have an opinion on them. But what a nut that Gravel is.
UPDATE: Mere Rhetoric notes a discrepancy in some transcripts and questions whether Obama said "Israel has been one of our most important allies" as I have it quoted or "Israel is one of our most important allies" as the quote appears elsewhere. Since I have the debate TiVo'd, I checked. My quote is correct. I am certain.


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For more information, including solar options, energy efficiency, rebates and financing options, visit their website at SLO Clean Air Website.


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This article is more than 1 year old
Wales: We'll encrypt Wikipedia if reborn gov net-snoop plan goes live
But what is the plan? Sorry, that's a secret
Jimmy Wales, talking in a purely personal capacity, has lambasted Britain's Home Office for its plans to massively increase online surveillance of all UK citizens. The Maximum Leader says that such a draconian measure would prevent him from plonking Wikipedia servers on Blighty's soil.
Talking in Westminster last night to a committee of MPs and peers, however, Jimbo omitted to mention that his online encyclopedia outfit has never operated from the UK - and has no intention of ever doing so - because of the nation's strict laws on defamatory material.
Wales has already launched stinging attacks on the UK's tight libel legislation. Last night he sneered at what he described as a "technologically incompetent" draft communications data bill, dubbed colloquially as a "snoopers charter", that is currently being perused by politicos.
Wales told them:
We don't have servers in the UK, we would be highly disinclined to collect more data than we actually do, which is very, very little for a variety of reasons including our views on freedom of expression, human rights and what people are reading. But if we find that UK ISPs are mandated to keep track of every single web page that you read on Wikipedia, I'm almost certain - err, I shouldn't speak for our technical staff - we would immediately move to a default of encrypting all our connections in the UK.
During the same session, Wales also played the think-of-the-children card: he mentioned British startups in - yes - Silicon Roundabout, who could find their innovative app, website or digital toaster stifled by such legislation, if it works its way through Parliament in its current form.
He also described Wikipedia as a "gift" for its users as opposed to other unnamed websites that function by "surveilling you".
Meanwhile, two key figures in the telco debate relating to mass surveillance of the internet were also speaking to the committee.
Malcolm Hutty of the London Internet Exchange (LINX) and Nicholas Lansman of the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) were both on hand to offer up rather less shouty perspectives on the contentious bill.
Both questioned the Home Office's £1.8bn costing estimate, the majority of which apparently relates to data retention. Over 50 per cent of that cash is set aside for storage, according to previous evidence offered to the committee by the man in charge of the plan, Richard Alcock, whose official title is Director of the Communications Capability Directorate.
Lansman and Hutty also characterised the Home Office's proposed system as a "profiling engine" to be used by spooks and police but which would probably be maintained by private companies.
And, when quizzed, they both professed themselves to have no idea what the Home Office meant by saying that spooks and cops are currently unable to access 25 per cent of the online data they need to do their work.
Lansman said the figure must have been based on "best guesses", and Hutty added "25 per cent of what?"
Jimbo simply claimed that the number had been plucked out of "thin air".
What is now starkly obvious from the Westminster sessions The Register has attended is that the Home Office has so far failed to supply any real technical details on its desired Communications Capability to anyone in the UK internet industry. The bureaucrats of the ministry seem to have learned to be opaque after being carpet-bombed by privacy advocates when they first attempted to introduce the Capability under its old name, the Interception Modernisation Programme. ®


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Have every post delivered to your inbox and get access to hundreds of useful design freebies.
Here is the final image that we'll be creating:
Open up your background image. For this particular example I've chosen this lovely example of a mouldy wall.
Go to image > adjustments > desaturate to grayscale your image. Then go to adjustments > brightness/contrast and reduce the brightness to -100, and contrast to -90.
Now I want to add some text to the center of my document. An easy way to do this is to drag from one edge of your document to the other using the horizontal type tool. Then simple align any text that you're going to type to center. I've chosen a nice larger, bold Tahoma font, mostly because it matches my logo.
Next go to layer blending modes, and select an inner shadow, inner glow, and gradient overlay with the settings shown below. The outcome will look something like this:
Open up your original mould image again and paste it onto a new layer above your text layer. Make sure that you resize it to be roughly the same width as your text.
Now hide this new mould image layer to reveal the text underneath. Select your text layer. Use the magic wand selection tool to select around the text, and also the areas within the text (the gaps within the P, D and A). With your selection in place go back to your new mould image layer. Go to layer > add layer mask > hide selection. This will hide the area around your text, meaning that your mould image now is in the shape of your text.
Change your mould imagery layer blending mode to 'hard light' and reduce it's opacity to 50%.
I now want my finished text complete with effects/textures to be on one easy to edit layer. I can't merge layers down to achieve this as it will mess up some of my layer styles. Instead I simply hide my background layer and go to layer > merge visible.
Now duplicate your merged text layer. Move your duplicate layer beneath the original and use edit > transform resize to resize your duplicated text layer to about half the size of the original. Position this below the 'PSD' part of your original larger text. Duplicate the smaller text layer and position this about the 'FAN' part of the larger original. Resize a tiny bit where necessary to get it to fit nicely above the letters.
Repeat this resizing technique, positioning the smaller text below the PSD of the bottom text, and above the FAN of the top text.
Keep repeating this until you can't go any smaller. You will need to magnify in to work with the ultra small text after repeating this a few times. Finally go to layer > merge down and merge all of these text layers into one single layer.
Now create a new layer above your text layer and make a large custom shape that covers most of your text. It's important that the custom shape allows much of the text through, despite almost being the same size. I've made the shape pink in the example below just so that you can see it more clearly.
Rasterize your custom shape layer and select around the shape using the magic wand tool. Then hide the custom shape layer and go back to your merged text layer, selection still in place.
Then go to image > adjustments > hue/saturation. Make the hue -10, saturation +20 and lightness -10. The outcome should look like the example below:
Duplicate your text layer. Go back to the original layer underneath the duplicate and go to image > adjustments > brightness/contrast. Reduce brightness to -100 and up the contrast to +100. This will make the text completely black. Then using the arrow keys on your keyboard to move the layer down 2px and right 2px. Duplicate this layer and do the same. Keep repeating this until you have a kind of 3d shadow effect coming from the top text layer, which is still in tact. Finally merge all of these black text layers into one.
Now go to the layer blending options for this 'black text' layer and apply a white stroke, size=1, opacity=6%. You should get something like the outcome below:
Now paste onto a new layer an image of some sticky tape. Select the white background using the magic wand tool and delete it. Resize and move the tape to an appropriate place and reduce the layer's opacity to 25%.
I wanted to add a little something to the background of my image, so I grabbed an awesome image of a paint splatter. Credit goes to Didi90, and the original image can be found here: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/906249. I pasted this paint splatter onto a new layer below my text layers, but above my original mould background.
To blend the splatter image nicely I simply set the layer's blending mode to 'multiply'. I hope that you found this tutorial useful, and as always would love to see people recreate my work! Please click the image below if you would like to download the full sized version free!
Tom is the founder of PSDFAN. He loves writing tutorials, learning more about design and interacting with the community. On a more interesting note he can also play guitar hero drunk with his teeth.
nice tutorial Tom Thanx 4 sharing!
nicely done work, thank for sharing it came out pretty good.
nice man good tutorial
Thanks!!!!Nice work!! That's what I am looking for
[...] Awesome Grunge Text Effect [...]
wow! i really like the tut.. it's really cool man! \m/
but i wanna ask something Tom.. hope you won't mind.
how to make that signature below an image? or the signature of the person who does the tricks in the picture? any site you can suggest? thanks man! keep on posting cool tutorials!
hey, awesome tutorial.
but for some reason, it doesn't work for me.
i am using Adobe Photoshop CS2 and when i get to the part of the tutorial where i select the image, select the outside and create and hide the layer mask, the pattern does not show through the text. I hope someone can help me out.
imPoSSIBLE tO Do!!
im stuck… after you hide the selection after you selected psdfan, i still have that non-dark background image behind my words and on top of the dark background
Dude that is sweet.
You are freaking awesome : )
If only my imagination was as good as yours, hahah.
I would never think to try something like that.
Hey, could you send me the picture of the pink flower thing?
Also, I'm stuck on what "Rasterize" means, could you explain that step in detail?
(I'm using CS2)
I tried Google but nothing really.
I figured it out a different way though…
Change it to "Hue" then do the Hue/Saturation to -10, 20, -10.
Here's my finished version, nothing special, just followed the tut.
Wow, thanks!
That's what I was shooting towards.
I'll be sure to go over some of your other tutorials tomorrow and try them out!
Forgot to say,
I'm going to try and add an animation into it somewhere, I'll post the *.gif when I finish it.
Just added a slight animation, I didn't want to distract the user away from the symbol/logo of my name too too much.
I don't think I've ever used Flickr, but I'd be glad to check it out and share my works with people. I have a couple of pictures from my last years Communication Technology class I worked on, and I have some from this years class too.
Anyways, here's the gif:
Tell me what you think! =]
I found this tut's final product to be a very nice and fun image to make. Can you recommend your "most fun" tuts from the others on this site to me, and I'll do those ones first.
Or recommend me some you want to see other people's work from the most and I'll do them.
Also, you want the links to some other works I've completed on my own, they are nowhere near as good as your products, but I liked them nonetheless.
I'm going to try your grungy island tutorial next I think. I definitely did enjoy making this piece, maybe I could request of you to make more text based tutorials?
I'll be sure to send you a couple links to my pieces through Push Standards.
thanks again….cant help but wonder what i'dve done if i didnt find this
wow! impressive! but i like it more on white background! it seems with more power and personality! but awesome! … ah! and a little tip! if you click the little image preview on the layers palette holding down the command key (on mac … i dont know if crtl do it to on pc) photoshop will select al the visible things on that layer! try it its very cool!!! see ya soon! and again awesome tutorial!
Nice effect! thanks 4 sharing…!
Hi Tom, I'm a bit of an old dog always learning new tricks. I'd have done all this using an airbrush once! Thanx for the clear and very helpful instructions and for sharing your ideas to inspire others.
Here is my result lol http://i481.photobucket.com/albums/rr172/Alp1ne/Illusionsplash.jpg Not the same but still thx for the tut
PSD file please… =)
wow.. cool… great tutorial… perfect. thanks for share.
Awesome Tutorial i really enjoy it..
and i kinda changed somethings a little bit.
Thanks, I used this tutorial for the cover of a school project(with my minor own touch to it), turned out really cool.
hey heres mine http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=walletlh9.jpg
i changed it a little i am an aspiring designer and are a big fan of this site and your work
[...] Time for a Grungy Text Tutorial – The most popular tutorial of the 2 published at the end of June, receiving over 40 comments to date. It seems that people appreciate a good text tutorial. [...]
Hey, thanks for the excellent tutorial!
Thanx a lot………….
Great tutorial. My only problem is I can't get the 3d shadow effect to look proper.
Awesome tut. Thanks Tom. Why is it I can never get my fonts to render perfectly smooth – they always seem slightly more pixelated. Your font is render perfect – my edges looked a bit jaded. I am using a Windows machine.
great idea )
Thank you, you are inspiration to us
who are on our PSbeginnings.
I.m thinking on making PS related blog on my
mather language,
would you mind if I feature some of your tuts
translated in my language.
Of course I would post from where is original tut and link it to original post.
you are doing a great stuff.
dont stop.
I really do learn a lot in this tut. thanks for the good share. keep it up.
Thanks, nice and easy type treatment with great results
really cool tutorial, thanks
really very nice and easy to understand tutorial.
Very Nice…
Keep It Up!!!!
Superb tutorial. Very clear and simple to follow. The end result looks incredible. Thank you.
very inspire psd tutorial, thank you bro!
nice effect
awesome tutorial! … something I can actually do lol
Hi tom, i have some problems..the first one is…i cant set contrast to -90 and the first image doesnot look like yours..then another problem is with the text blending…when i fill it just like u, it doesnot looks like yours..its..mmm black&white…another and most interresting problem is: I dont know how to insert an image like a new layer…cause if i will just do it, then the inserted image will be just black&white…sorry for my english, int not my mother tongue so if u dont understand me then just write me a mail and i will record some movie and u will tell me where is the problem ok?
I CANT UNDERSTAND YOUR RULE 6!, ive been working for 2 hours!!;[
i cant understan rule 6!:( (working it for 2 hours)
me too! -___-" i'm already tired.
Very nice mate.
Changed mine up a bit, very new to photoshop but I enjoyed the final result. Kind of wish I didn't merge the text layers, so I could still fix them up =/
Heres what I came up with:
You are right, the grungy text effect is awesome. very easy to understand and practise.
nice tutorial
Really great tutorial. It takes time to prepare such wonderful easy to understand tutorial.
I like this TUT has a good grunge effx i'll try it tomorrow tho….post some more tuts like this
Step 6 doesn't work for me, I tried everything, but all I get is the plain white text, without the mould "printed" in the text.
Any idea why this happens? :l
Amazing! Thanks for sharing these
this was amazing tutorial, i practiced it step after step with a lot of attention and the results was different but just how i wanted them. u can check the final result in link bellow
thanks a lot
Great tutorial Tom! it's really simple and the result is awesome ! ))
Amazing. thanks for sharing.
I have a question. How do I make my image in 3D?
Great website I've found and very inspiring! Great job!!
Have a great day.
Thanks and regards,
This rungy text effect is amazing, Not easy to reproduce i guess, but following the steps should make it easier.
Thanks for sharing
I've just begun a very successful thanks to the photoshop program.
Tom, you are simply the best and your tutorial is better than the best.
Thanks for sharing..
Nice tutorial…i like it….
hey, great tut dude, your the man! :b
could you just tell me what is the fonts name pls?
cya ;D
on Step 6…
paste the mould picture on the top of the text then hide it.. after hiding select your text using magic wand…. Reveal the mould picture then go to the layer's panel (right bottom of the screen where the layers are placed)… under the layer's panel… click the layer mask icon..
then that's it!! u can proceed to step 7.. XD
how to hide the layer??
Hi guys, whoever wants to help me can reply … When you have to add a layer mask and select hide selection, nothing happens. I followed everything 100% correctly, is there maybe a setting i can go take a look at and see if that is the problem? Please i need this urgently!
have you clicked on the new image that should be over the text ???
it's beautiful .like it v ~
I used everything in this tutorial to make an image that is going to potentially be my Acoustic/Alternative album cover.
Check it out…. what do you think?
This is a very good post! Keep them comming!
Wow this is really good post. Very informative
Thanks this is my first time to try makin a graphic art and this is very useful..:)
Really nice text effect, would look really nice on a poster.. thanks for sharing..
This is a great post, very useful and the end results look great!
wow this is great… It's just what I needed. Is it ok if I use this style in a project I'm working on for school?
yes supper boxes next day to desing
for step 13, it's not letting me rasterizing the layer… what do i do?
nice tutorial i like it
How to hide the mould image? Please answer.
Please, can you send me your shape? Thank you
Excellent it will be helpfull me Thank You
nice and inspiring tutorial, gonna apply this somewhere later
awesome tutorial!!! thx
this is an awesome tutorial here..thank you for sharing such a wonderful post
thanks for the tutorial man, keep on progressing in ps!!!thx a lot
Nice tutorial.. thanks for sharing.
I have a little trouble in step 6. For which layer do I have to add the layer mask, the text layer or the mouldy layer? PLease help, I cant get further with this! :O
how do u align the text ?
Very cool Collection. Thanks for this. Keep up the good work.
It's very informative and helpful.
Wow this tutorial is amazing. I like the picture included in the step 18 best. Great work. Looking forward to see some of your new works soon.
Thanks for great tutorial. keep going like this
Hi. Thank you. I was making this tutorial at school. I just have Adobe PhotoShop CS2. It is working too for it.
I dont get it. From step 12. Tsk
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"To Be, or Not to Be," on Stage or Backstage
Our Theater program helps you discover and express your creativity while enhancing your teamwork and leadership skills. You will learn how to perform scenes and monologues; create characters; improvise during performances; understand and demonstrate basic principles, techniques and styles of body movement and dance; read and write about significant dramatic literature; design costumes; build, design, paint and light stage scenery; operate stage lighting; serve as a stage manager; and rehearse and present a play. As a Theater student, you will also develop skills beneficial to your educational and professional careers, such as public speaking, verbal and written communication, project management, and teamwork.


text:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The crash landing of a South Korean airliner in San Francisco has revived concerns that airline pilots get so little opportunity these days to fly without the aid of sophisticated automation that their stick-and-rudder skills are eroding.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the accident, is a long way from reaching a conclusion as to its probable cause. While the focus of their investigation could still shift, information released by the board thus far appears to point to pilot error.
What is known is that Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed short of its target runway Saturday at San Francisco International Airport in broad daylight under near ideal weather conditions. The Boeing 777's engines are still being examined, but they appear to have been receiving power normally. And the flight's pilots didn't report any mechanical issues or other problems.
But the plane was traveling far too slowly in the last half-minute before the crash, slow enough to trigger an automated warning of an impending aerodynamic stall.
The wide-bodied jet should have been traveling at 158 mph as it crossed the runway threshold. Instead, the speed dropped to as low as 118 mph before the plane struck a rocky seawall short of the runway. The plane careened briefly and then pancaked down. Two of the 307 people on board were killed, and dozens more injured.
The pilot, Lee Gang-guk, had a lot of flying experience but was still new to the plane, having clocked only 43 hours at the controls. He was supposed to be flying under the supervision of another experienced pilot. There were two more pilots on board the Seoul-to-San Francisco flight, as is typical on long flights during which two pilots rest while two fly, and then swap out.
Lee was also flying without the aid of the airport's instrument landing system, which provides pilots with a glide slope to follow so that the plane isn't too high or low, too far to the right or left. He was also new to the airport, having never landed there before.
And he was manually flying the plane with the autopilot shut off, which other pilots said is not unusual in the last stage of a landing, although some airlines prefer that their pilots use automated landing systems. Still unclear is whether the auto throttle, which regulates power to the engines to control speed, was shut off or perhaps unintentionally left in an idle mode. That might account for the slow speed, but it wouldn't explain why the pilots didn't recognize their peril and act in time to avoid the crash, pilots and aviation safety experts said.
Investigators have started interviewing the flight's four pilots, and hope to wrap up those interviews Tuesday. Procedures at most airlines would require all four pilots be present in the cockpit during the landing, which is the most critical phase of flight, pilots said. The NTSB hasn't disclosed whether all four were present.
"It sounds like they let the airplane get slow and it came out from under them," said John Cox, a former Air Line Pilots Association air crash investigator. "When airplanes are very slow like that, even if they are not stalled, they can develop a sink rate that it takes a lot of power to arrest."
Rory Kay, a training captain for a major airline who flies internationally, said, "We're all wondering the same thing — why no reaction?"
Overall, automation has also been a boon to aviation safety, providing a consistent precision that humans can't duplicate. But pilots and safety officials have expressed concern in recent years that pilots' "automation addiction" has eroded their flying skills to the point that they sometimes don't know how to recover from stalls and other problems. Dozens of accidents in which planes stalled in flight or got into unusual positions from which pilots were unable to recover have occurred in recent years.
"If your last dozen landings were autopilot landings and here you are faced with nothing but visual (cues) to deal with, your rust factor would be greater," said Cass Howell, a former military pilot and human factors expert at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla. "Too much automation can undermine your flying skills."


text:
Kate Moss said ex-boyfriend Johnny Depp advised her to 'never complain, never explain' - but now she's telling all about heroin chic, heartbreak and her teenage nervous breakdown.
Kate Moss suffered a nervous breakdown due to the pressures of modelling and cried for "years and years" after splitting up with Johnny Depp, she has admitted in her most revealing interview.
The usually reticent Moss opened up to Vanity Fair magazine about her struggles to cope with life in the industry.
IN PICTURES: Kate Moss's career highs and lows
Scouted at 14, she made her breakthrough with a Corinne Day shoot for The Face but found the whole thing excruciating.
"I see a 16-year-old now, and to ask her to take her clothes off would feel really weird. But they were like, 'If you don't do it, then we're not going to book you again'. So I'd lock myself in the toilet and cry and then come out and do it," she said.
Moss became a global star in 1992 when she appeared with Mark Wahlberg in a Calvin Klein campaign shot by Herb Ritts, but the experience pushed her over the edge.
"I had a nervous breakdown when I was 17 or 18, when I had to go and work with Marky Mark and Herb Ritts," Moss said.
"It didn't feel like me at all. I felt really bad straddling this buff guy. I didn't like it.
IN PICTURES: Kate Moss's greatest style hits
"I couldn't get out of bed for two weeks. I thought I was going to die. I went to the doctor and he said, 'I'll give you some Valium,' and Francesca Sorrenti [Moss's friend and mother of Mario Sorrenti], thank God, said, 'You're not taking that'.
"It was just anxiety. Nobody takes care of you mentally. There's a massive pressure to do what you have to do.
"I was really little, and I was going to work with Steven Meisel. It was just really weird - a stretch limo coming to pick you up from work. I didn't like it. But it was work and I had to do it."
READ: Kate Moss, I'd like to be Lady Kate
Moss said she felt secure only when she met Hollywood actor Johnny Depp. The couple got together in 1994 but split in 1998, and Moss was left heartbroken.
She told the magazine: "There's nobody that's ever really been able to take care of me. Johnny did for a bit. I believed what he said. Like if I said, 'What do I do?' - he'd tell me. And that's what I missed when I left. I really lost that gauge of somebody I could trust.
"Nightmare. Years and years of crying. Oh, the tears..."
Moss, 38, became the poster girl for 'heroin chic' in the 1990s, a tag she struggled to shift.
She denied ever taking the drug and said her waif-like appearance was down to a lack of food. "At that time I was staying at a B&B in Milan, and you'd get home from work and there was no food. You'd get to work in the morning, there was no food.
"Nobody took you out for lunch when I started. Carla Bruni took me out for lunch once. She was really nice. Otherwise, you don't get fed."
READ: Kate Moss smokes on Louis Vuitton catwalk
Her reputation as a party girl has endured, but Moss insisted she has calmed down and now enjoys quiet nights in with her husband Jamie Hince and daughter Lila.
She said: "I don't really go to clubs any more. I'm actually quite settled. Living in Highgate with my dog and my husband and daughter. I'm not a hell-raiser."
The interview coincides with publication of Kate: The Kate Moss Book , a retrospective of her career in which she is quoted as saying: "I was lucky to be with Johnny... he taught me a lot about fame.
WATCH: Kate Moss falls for giant rabbit
"He told me 'never complain, never explain'. That's why I don't use Twitter and things like that. I don't want people to know what is true all the time and that's what keeps the mystery."
Moss also reveals how the constant paparazzi culture has defined her style, which sees her mainly opt for grey or black clothes. "If you do a different look every day, they're going to be waiting for the next look, and then it's a paparazzi shot. Whereas if you just wear the same thing, then they get bored and leave you alone."
The full interview is in the December issue of
Vanity Fair
, out on Friday


text:
September is my most favorite month, it always brings the best weather and two special dates too. I celebrate both my anniversary and my birthday this month and I'm soaking up every lovely moment as the sun gets softer and the autumn breezes usher in the beautiful fall season. Can you feel it in the air?
For your Sunday reading, there are a few new articles over at my Better Homes & Gardens blog, just click the buttons below to get caught up!
Also, a reminder that the four Fall Link parties start Tuesday, September 18th and run through September 27th, we hope you'll join us by getting creative and sharing your autumn projects!
Today, we're finishing up the bathroom remodel over at the Alma Project house, hope to have pics to share tomorrow.
Enjoy your Sunday!


text:
Forum encourages Smokies tourism players to band together for the greater good
Niche marketing and regional cooperation were the reoccurring topics of this year's Smoky Mountain Host meeting held in Cherokee last week, an annual forum that brings together the major tourism players of the Smoky Mountain region.
"Our greatest customers are our neighbors," said Mary Jaegar-Gale, general manager of Chimney Rock State Park, during a panel discussion at the stakeholder's meeting.
Matthew Pegg, head of the Cherokee Chamber of Commerce, agreed that Western North Carolina businesses should work together to attract people who live in the region to be tourists in their own backyards.
"There are a lot of people here who don't know what we have," Pegg said.
Throughout the meeting, David Huskins, the head of Smoky Mountain Host, encouraged those in the room to stop competing against each other for tourists and instead band together to help brand the Smokies region as a destination, in turn benefiting all the tourism in the region. By pooling their money for advertising, tourism attractions can get more bang for their buck, Huskins said.
Several panel participants discussed creating a map of activities or an a-la-carte itinerary that helps visitors pick and choose what they want to see and do.
Related Items
"It is very important to get information into their hands before they plan their trip," said Ed Phillips, executive director of the Burke County Tourism Development Authority.
An itinerary or regional events are a couple of ways in which businesses, towns and tourism authorities could work together to appeal to niche markets, including fishing and motorcycling.
Cherokee alone hosts six fishing tournaments. But, a regional fishing tour could keep visitors in the area, spending money at local businesses, for three or four days, Pegg said.
Speaker Berkley Young, a tourism marketing specialist, emphasized that towns should focus on their niche experiences to draw in tourists rather than trying to offer something for everyone.
People need to ditch their "build it and they will come" mentality and focus on unique experiences, said Young, president of Young Strategies, a tourism research and strategic planning firm based in Charlotte.
While "uncertain" has been the buzzword used to describe travel and the economy during the past few years, businesses are expected to see moderate, 1 to 3 percent, growth in 2012, Young said, and people have not stopped traveling or spending.
The need to get away will always trump other considerations, such as the price of gas, he said. People are taking shorter trips, closer to home and are participating in fewer but more engaging activities.
By promoting unique opportunities, regions are more likely to draw in those vacationers.
Businesses must also get back to the basics of hospitality.
The first words out of a hotel employee's mouth should not be 'Do you have a reservation," Young said. A simple 'Welcome! We're glad you are here' can improve the experience of a visitor, who is likely tired and annoyed from traveling, and increase the chance that they will return, he said.


text:
Fmoc-AA-TentaGel® S TRT resin
Fmoc protected amino acids linked to TentaGel® S TRT
TentaGel® resins are grafted copolymers consisting of a low crosslinked polystyrene matrix on which polyethylene glycol (PEG or POE) is grafted. The PEG spacer is attached to the matrix via an ethyl ether group which increases stability towards acid treatment and minimizes PEG-leaching. As PEG is a "chameleon type" polymer with hydrophobic and hydrophilic properties, the graft copolymer shows modified physico chemical properties which are highly dominated by the PEG moiety (and no longer by the polystyrene matrix). These graft copolymers are pressure stable and can be used in batch processes as well as under continuous flow conditions. The PEG spacer is in the range of MW 3000 Da.
L 4, L 5, L 6, L 7, L 24, L 25, L 39; see also: General Information.
Residues which are sensitive to racemisation during esterification reactions like His and Cys can be attached to the resin without racemisation. Due to the bulkiness of the trityl group, diketopiperazine formation is suppressed which makes this linker ideal for peptides with C-terminal Pro. This resin is recommended for synthesis of standard peptides up to 40 residues in length.
The sensitivity towards TFA is comparable to the 2-CT linker. Cleavage can be achieved with 50% AcOH in CH₂Cl₂ to liberate protected peptides. For free peptides 95% TFA is afforded.


text: For over a quarter of a century Usinatech has been finding the answers to high quality, high volume, highly complex precision machining challenges. Working closely with OEMs and Tier 1 companies Usinatech has special strengths in critical drive train and transmission components like gears and shafts. Usinatech provides engineering, precision machining, forming, heat treating, finishing and assembly for OEMs and their suppliers:


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This article is more than 1 year old
Vonage works around Verizon patents
But customers stay away
Vonage is still smarting from that legal tete-a-tete with Verizon, but after throwing together a trio of patent workarounds, it's confident that a full recovery is on the way.
Today, during an earnings call with inventors and industry analysts, the pioneering voice over IP company said that, thanks to its ongoing patent battle with the nation's second largest telco, it stomached $6m in litigation costs during the second quarter and struggled to attract new customers.
Of course, CEO Jeffrey Citron believes there's light at the end of the tunnel.
"I am very excited about our accomplishments this quarter and am confident we are taking the appropriate steps to turn our business around," he said. "The second quarter was one of transition for us, and I believe that we are turning the corner on one of the most difficult periods in Vonage's history."
In March, after a federal jury ruled that Vonage was infringing on a trio of Verizon patents, Judge Claude Hilton ordered the company to pay $58m in damages and slapped it with a permanent injunction preventing it from using the three Verizon technologies.
But the permanent injunction wasn't all that permanent. Vonage appealed, and the ruling was put on hold - though the VOIP maven still had to pay Verizon a 5.5 per cent per customer royalty on the patents as it waited for a new ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals.
With today's call, Citron was pleased to tell analysts that the company has developed workarounds for all three of the offending technologies, and that two are already in place.
"The company has taken steps to ensure that the workarounds do not infringe on the Verizon patents as construed by the court," he said. "The deployment of the workarounds is a significant step toward moving ahead with our business in the wake of the Verizon litigation."
But this doesn't mean Vonage expects the Court of Appeals to side with Verizon. "While having the workarounds in place mitigates the impact of a potential negative verdict from the court, we look forward to the court's ultimate ruling and remain confident in the strength of our appeal."
Meanwhile, the company added only 57,000 customers in the second quarter, compared with 166,000 in the first. Folks may have been turned off by the Verizon row - the district court originally ruled that Vonage wasn't allowed to add new customers while infringing technologies were still in place - but the company was also forced to slash its marketing budget in Q2, from $91m to $68m. ®


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UIA proceeds from absolute apolitical, is guided exclusively by the security component and adjusts the flight schedule in accordance with flight safety requirements assessing the risks of flights to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict zone. Currently UIA decided to cancel the only flight to Yerevan, which was to be operated on September 28, 2020 at 17UTC.
Further decisions on each individual flight (the next flights to Yerevan on October 1 and 2 this year, as well as the first scheduled flight to Baku on October 4) will be made in accordance with the determination of the level of risks for flights 28 hours before departure.
Follow the information on our website and on social networks.
UIA is expecting on the official explanations of the Ukrainian aviation authorities on the safety of flights in the conflict zone, which are mandatory for all Ukrainian air carriers, as well as on the recommendations of EASA.
Due to the escalation of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Risk Management Center of Ukraine International Airlines has decided to temporarily cancel flights to Yerevan.
The relevant decision was made by UIA specialists after a risk analysis during an evening briefing. The need for a precautionary measure is due to the imposition of martial law and mobilization in Armenia.
"Within the company we assessed all possible risks and decided that it is impossible to operate flights to Yerevan till the time our further actions will be explained by the aviation authorities of Ukraine and the official position of Baku and Yerevan to ensure the security of the airspace in the sky over Azerbaijan and Armenia," noted Eugene Dykhne, CEO UIA.
The UIA flight to Yerevan was scheduled for September 28, at UTC 5:00 p.m.
Representatives of the airline will ensure the necessary communication with the passengers of this flight and provide them with all the necessary support.
The airline applied for information to the State Aviation Administration of Ukraine. Further flights to Yerevan and Baku are planned to be operated according to the schedule, taking into account the information received from the aviation authorities.
The safety of passengers and crew is a constant priority for UIA.


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trendMe.net is fashion social network that connects people around the world through fashion, entertainment, creativity and shopping. It aims to encourage artistic and fashion creativity with a goal to connect like-minded people through creation of fashion combination, presentation of their own style and their own creative preferences.
Thanks to the specificity of its services as well as the competence of its employees trendMe takes its place as the leader in the online fashion industry.
trendMe began its activity in January 2009. The trendMe site was started and developed using top software and design
resources as well as the best advisors in the fields of social networking, marketing and fashion.


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There are few absolute rules in the world and the following is by now means universal, but when it comes to weddings, the bride usually chooses and values the wedding photographer. Despite this fact, don't forget the groom for he also plays a role.
What does this mean for your marketing plan? Your pictures should appeal to the bride. Men and women often find different stories appealing. This fact is evidenced by the numerous movies that are marketed primarily to women and those marketed primarily to men. If the industry thought the movie would appeal to swaths of both genders, in its own self-interest it would have marketed to both. A wedding photographer needs to follow the example of the movie industry and produce contact information that strongly appeal to the bride.
What is an example of how this can be implemented? Find out what is the age range in which most women in your area get married and get feedback on your pictures from those women on which of your pictures are the most compelling. Create a web gallery of the 20 pictures YOU find the most compelling. Send out a link to the gallery to friends or family who are in that age range and ask them to pick the two pictures which most strike a cord in them. You will begin to see a pattern arise of which pictures get most highly ranked. Put those pictures on your website and other promotional material. A comment on the type of pictures that will likely win out in this selection process: Brides want to see pictures that make the bride look beautiful. Usually the bride looking beautiful is important to the groom as well. How good the man looks, while important to a bride, is not as important as how the man is interacting with the bride. He should be looking deeply into her eyes or admiring her from a far. A chemistry between the two should be readily apparent. These types of pictures, from my experience, most often appeal to the bride.
When meeting with couples sell your work to the bride but don't forget the groom. After all, with any luck, a significant chunk of change from their assets are going to be paid to you for your service. Help him to see the value he will be receiving by investing in photography. Help him to see that the wedding photos is (at least for this particular couple) a once in a lifetime experience – one that can never be replicated. It is important that he see the value in your work. More than one groom has vetoed the bride's choice of photographers because he didn't see the value in the service. Helping him come on board with the bride's choice is one way to prevent a potential conflict between the couple and capturing marital harmony is after all what the service of wedding photographers is all about!


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Bulletin News
Like many Americans, SUNY Cortland senior Peter Rakowsky wants to know what's behind the recent political turmoil and violence in Ukraine.
What's different is that Rakowsky, who graduates on Saturday with dual degrees in international studies and political science, will pack his bags and board a plane to explore in the coming year whether Ukrainians' destiny lies with the European Union (EU) or Russia.
Recently, Rakowsky was awarded a prestigious Fulbright Student Study/Research Grant that will pay for his trip to Ukraine, his travel inside the country, and his living expenses and research costs while he is being hosted by Ukrainian Catholic University for the 2014-15 academic year.
There the Clifton Park, N.Y., resident — who learned fluent Ukrainian from his parents — will interview about 60 relatives as well as economists and politicians in Ukraine and with the EU. He'll pore over others' research at universities and chat with ordinary people on the street.
"It's like a dream come true, actually," said Rakowsky, who aspires to a career in international politics serving the United States. "Ever since I could speak I've wanted to go back, and my parents have videos of me saying I wanted to be president of Ukraine."
Sponsored by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, this particular Fulbright supports study or research in both academic and arts fields in approximately 140 countries. As a recipient, Rakowsky has designed his own project, titled "A Quest to the West, European Neighborhood Policy and Ukrainian Integration," and will work with advisers at foreign universities and in government.
Rakowsky plans to interview professors from his host academy as well as Kyiv Mohyla Academy, Kharkhiv National University, Donetsk National University, Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, Odessa I.I. Mechnikov National University and the Uzhhorod National University. He also hopes to speak with Ukrainian politicians and EU officials in Brussells and Kyiv. Public libraries will provide him with data from a Ukrainian perspective and will include media sources such as news broadcasts and newspapers. He'll supplement this information by interviewing the country's journalists.
Ukraine, which is 233,062 square miles in size and has 45.4 million people, primarily of Ukrainian ethnicity, is the largest country entirely within Europe. The country borders Russia to the east and northeast, Belarus to the northwest, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west, Romania and Moldova to the southwest, and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south and southeast, respectively.
Ukraine first signed a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with the EU in 1998 and in Fall 2013, when Rakowsky applied to Fulbright, and the country appeared to be on the cusp of signing a new Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with its Northern European neighbors.
"I first decided that I wanted to do a Fulbright when I was having dinner with my (Ukrainian) uncle," in 2012, he said. "My uncle just broke down crying, that's how excited he was about the agreement with the EU."
Rakowsky, then studying for a semester at Ukrainian Catholic University, also felt inspired upon meeting a Fulbright scholar. Deeply moved at the time about the political aspirations expressed by Ukrainians he met, Rakowsky finds even more commitment to his goal in light of recent developments.
Viktor Yanukovych, the country's Russia-friendly president declined to form a pact with the EU and was toppled in February and replaced by a pro-west president. Violence has arisen in Ukraine as Russia subsequently annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and appears ready to claim two restive eastern regions containing majority ethnic Russian populations.
"With the crisis I'm now a couch warrior, reading every article that comes my way," Rakowsky said. "I just hope to gain a deeper understanding of Ukrainian people as a whole. They are the borderlands people, living in the country sandwiched between the European Union and the Russians. I want to find out how the Russians have influenced the people.
"Everyone has a certain bias but hearing stories that are first-hand accounts from friends and family are a lot better than hearing stories on Fox and CNN," he said.
His research results will form the basis of a master's degree or even a future doctorate, which Rakowsky plans to pursue in Germany or the Netherlands. Upon learning about his post-undergraduate Fulbright award, Rakowsky deferred the start of his graduate studies at a German university where he already was accepted, Jacobs University in Bremen.
"The Fulbright Award is one of the top academic awards available in the United States," noted Jerome O'Callaghan, SUNY Cortland's associate dean of arts and sciences and an associate professor of political science. "The level of competition is very high and the quality of the student submissions is first-class."
Rakowsky is perhaps the first SUNY Cortland student to capture the prestigious grant in more than 20 years, O'Callaghan noted.
"A student who wins a Fulbright is tapping into the power of international educational exchange to transform lives," O'Callaghan said. "The award is designed to help current and future leaders in developing their research. It's about sharing knowledge on a global scale, and making a commitment to international engagement."
Presently Ukraine would not be considered one of the safer choices for foreign travel.
"I'm not at all afraid of being in a hostile environment," Rakowsky said. "I'm one of those young people who just think I'm not going to die. And I don't necessarily need to go to major hotspots, although I do need to go to major universities near the hotspots."
As a Shenendehowa High School graduate, Rakowsky considered attending nearby University at Albany before choosing SUNY Cortland for its international studies and political science programs.
"I absolutely love all the people who I came across in those two departments," he said. "It's such a well-kept secret how wonderful both of those programs are."
This semester, Rakowsky completes an internship at the New York State Assembly in Albany, N.Y. At SUNY Cortland, he participated in the Political Science Association, the Model European Union and the International Awareness Club. A President's List and Dean's List honoree, he was inducted into two honor societies, Phi Beta Delta for international scholarship and Pi Sigma Alpha for American political science.
"Peter has a passion that lies at the intersection of international studies and political science," said Alexandru Balas, coordinator of international studies and director of the Clark Center for International Education.
"He wants to solve some of the world's problems, and he'll get the chance to have a front row seat and analyze the global conflict in Ukraine, while being in Ukraine for a year of research. I cannot think of a more worthy recipient of the U.S Fulbright Student Award for Ukraine."


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Records: Lakers 26-5 (1st in the West) Trailblazers 20-13 (7th in the West)
Offensive ratings: Lakers 112.7 (3rd in league) Trailblazers 113.4 (2nd in league)
Defensive ratings: Lakers 102.5 (4th in league) Trailblazers 109.5 (23rd in league)
Projected Starting Lineups: Lakers: Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant, Luke Walton, Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum
Trailblazers Rudy Fernandez, Blake, Bantum, Aldridge, Oden
Lakers notes: For fun today, from 82games.com, the win percentages of some common Lakers lineups (basically, how often they outplay the opposing fives on the floor):
Fisher-Bryant-Radmanovic-Gasol-Bynum: 47.1%
Fisher-Bryant-Walton-Gasol-Bynum: 46.1%
Farmar-Vujacic-Ariza-Odom-Bynum: 63.6%
Farmar-Vujacic-Ariza-Odom-Gasol: 52.9%
Fisher-Bryant-Ariza-Odom-Gasol: 70%
Bottom line, the starting fives the Lakers have are basically .500 against the opposing starters, but the key Lakers bench lineups win, and the closing group is very good. This points to a couple other things: How important that Laker depth is during the season and how much it matters who finishes games rather than who starts.
One other quick note: I have read Bynum taking some heat in some Lakers forums for not stepping up, not scoring enough lately. I think Craig W. summed up the Bynum situation well in the comments:
We all want Shaq to arrive this week and Phil wants Bynum to concentrate on defense and let his offense develop gradually. He already signed his contract so he should now do as the coach wants; not as the fans want. The all-star nomination may not arrive when he wants it, but the trophy might just be a good substitute.
The Trailblazers Coming In: Bad news for both the Blazers and all of us fans of good basketball — Brandon Roy is out tonight with a hamstring injury.
But it should be interesting because now Rudy Fernandez gets the start. And, according to Blazer homer Henry Abbott on TrueHoop, this will mean more minutes for Jerryd Bayless, the rookie out of Arizona, which Henry says is a good thing (despite the fact Bayless is shooting 27.4% eFG% and has a PER of 2.3 so far this season).
He said a big question for the Blazers tonight is which LaMarcus Aldridge shows up. For all of you that think Odom can be a mercurial player, he is loved in the locker room. Check out what Ric Bucher wrote about Aldridge in ESPN the Magazine:
BEING A Texan, Aldridge has a particular love of red meat. So it was especially wounding when he thought that Roy had left him out of a trip to a Brazilian barbecue joint in Memphis early last season. So that's how it is, he thought, and steered clear of Roy everywhere but on the court. It wasn't until the summer that Travis Outlaw convinced Aldridge that he had simply forgotten to tell him about the dinner. The issue is a memory now, but that kind of response to a perceived slight is what the Blazers work every day to avoid. They can't afford not to…
Aldridge is shooting 50% from the floor and scoring nearly 20 points a game the last month. The key to stopping him, by the way, is to not let him get hot from the midrange. Easier said than done, if he is on it is very difficult to stop. I personally believe less in streaky shooting than most, but because of the confidence issue with Aldridge, you need to not let him get rolling.
One other thing, you should go read the preview (and basically everything) at Blazers Edge, which is one of my three favorite NBA blogs (even though I have no love for the Blazers).
Previous Meeting: In the first game of the season, the Lakers new aggressive defense overwhelmed the Blazers from the start, and the Lakers looked dominant and they cruised to a 96-76 win. It will be interesting to see how Fernandez and Bayless deal with the defense, now that it is the second time around.
Keys To The Game: Things are pretty straight forward against the Trailblazers — they can score in bunches but do not defend all that well. The Lakers will get their points in this one, how easy the win is depends on how focused they are on defense.
That has to start on the defensive glass — the Trailblazers are the best offensive rebounding team in the league, grabbing 32.9% of their misses. They grab one third of their missed shots, which is a crazy good number. The Lakers are a pretty pedestrian defensive rebounding team, but Bynum and Gasol need to come focused tonight (same with Odom and really the whole team).
Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom have to be focused on defense on Aldridge, he is the one guy who can carry the Blazers if he gets hot. The Lakers have to keep him in check.
Along those same lines, Bynum has to outplay Greg Oden, he tends to get up for the other big centers in the league and he needs to tonight. Also, the Lakers cannot sleep on Joel Przybilla and Travis Outlaw. Particularly Outlaw — in crunch time they will go to him in isolation.
Where you can watch: Fox Sports in LA with a 6:30 tip off. Nationally, League Pass and thee other usual suspects.


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My period is late (or is it?)
Heather Corinna replies:I'm a week late for my period, a little tired, but other than that I'm fine. I've been having sex for a little while but my period has always come between the 17-20. It's now the 28th. I already took a test a few days ago and it was negative. I'm really worried. Please does anyone have answers?
It'd actually be pretty atypical for a regular period to fall on the same numeric dates for a long time. Let me explain why that is.
The number of days in each calendar month is not the same: it varies from month to month. Menstrual cycles, on the other hand, when they're regular, are a given number of days, give or take 2 or 3, and months are not the same number of days as many people's menstrual cycles, either.
So, it's pretty much going to be a given that unless your cycles are actually irregular, they're not going to fall on the same or similar dates each month for more than a couple to a few months at a time, and it's also likely that at least once a year, you'll probably have a period twice in a given month.
To show you what I mean, let's say you have the most average menstrual cycle, which is a period every 28 days.
Starting with January of this year, if you got your period on the 17th that month, the remaining months, with a 28-day cycle, would have your period appearing on: February 14th, March 14th, April 11th, May 9th, June 6th, July 4th, August 1st, and August 28th.
As you can see, for someone with a regular, average cycle, in just eight months, they've got a pretty big date span with their periods that jumps around a bit.
Now, it may be that you're basing your dates on only paying attention just recently to when your period comes, or it may be that your cycles are NOT regular, and just happen to keep falling on those dates. But if you want to have an accurate idea of when to expect your period, you need to chart your cycles by their whole number of days, not just by their start date, so that you know to expect a period every 28 (or 26, or 30, whatever it is for you, and again, usually given a standard deviation of at least 2-3 days) days, rather than on X date.
That given, you may not be late for your period at all right now.
If you have had a real pregnancy risk -- if you know you had intercourse without using a method of birth control, or know or suspect your method failed -- then it's sound to consider pregnancy a possibility. If your last risk was less than 10-14 days ago, it may be too soon to take a home pregnancy test and get an accurate result. If that's the case, you'll need to wait until it's been around two weeks since the risk and then retake that test.
But if you took your test when it had been that long since your risk, or didn't have a viable risk at all, then it's likely you have no cause for concern here.
Just in case, here is a piece to fill you in on other common causes for late cycles, if you are in fact late: M.I.A or, Dude, Where's My Period?.
(And obviously, if you are sexually active and engaging in sex with risks of pregnancy, and do not wish to become pregnant, then it's very important you only do so using a reliable method -- or combined methods -- of birth control, such as condoms and/or the birth control pill.)