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Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Ask a policeman, "You ever shoot anybody with that thing?"Wait a minute, I can top that one.
The cop who recovered my stolen car with my gun thankfully still in it (here in California we can't carry our guns on us) asked me in a hostile voice: "What do you have a GUN for????"
What else could I say, as I gave him a "how dumb are you?" look:
In case I need to shoot somebody.I pretty much expect a policeman to understand that the first duty of citizenship is to be prepared to defend oneself and others. After all, this is what they have chosen for their life's work. But surround them with a department that is bent on achieving a monopoly on force and some will succumb to that mindset.
Taxi ride to retrieve your stolen car, $40. A chance to rib an anti-gun COP, priceless.
Not that I really advise it.
I did thank him for being so quick to track down my vehicle, and I found out the upside to having to leave your gun in your car.
If you ever get your car stolen in California, don't forget to mention that it has your gun in it. They found mine in an hour. They must have put out an APB! Awesome.
Anti-gun folks: don't try to take advantage of this gun-owner's perk. If you say you have a gun in your car when you do not, you are guilty of filing a false police report.
Were McCarthy and Plame behind the CIA's June 2003 retreat on Iraq-Niger intelligence?
Waas claims that work on the CIA memo was instigated White House uproar over the Nicholas Kristof article in the New York Times in May 2003 where Wilson, in anonymous third person, passed on the story of an envoy, sent to Niger in February of 2002, who was claiming to have at that time identified the documents behind the CIA's Iraq-Niger intel as forgeries.
The International Atomic Energy Agency had announced in March 2003 that some Iraq-Niger documents it received from U.S. intelligence had proved to be forgeries. This was awkward, given that in January President Bush had cited Saddam's attempts to buy uranium in Africa in his State of the Union address. Now here was Wilson, claiming that the IAEA's forged documents were the basis of the U.S. intelligence claims, and claiming that the administration knew the intelligence was phony a year before the President's speech.
The 2004 Report on Prewar Intelligence by the Senate Select Committee (SSCI) would later reveal that Wilson was attempting a treasonous gambit. He could not have identified the forged documents as forged in February 2002 because they did not come into U.S. possession until October of 2002. (Search "misspoken".)
In May of 2003, the public did not know who the unnamed envoy to Niger in Kristof's article was, but the CIA certainly did, and they knew he was lying. Thus the CIA memo should have nabbed Wilson, identifying him as a traitor who had been caught spreading malicious disinformation about classified intelligence in an attempt to smear the President and undermine America's war effort. Not only had Wilson not debunked the President's suggestion that Saddam had tried to buy uranium in Africa, but as CIA Director George Tenet made public a month later, he had brought back supporting evidence:
He reported back to us that one of the former Nigerian officials he met stated that he was unaware of any contract being signed between Niger and rogue states for the sale of uranium during his tenure in office.It is interesting, then, that the CIA's June memo does not seem to have exposed Wilson as a liar. On the contrary, the bits that Waas reports seem to present clear disinformation in support of Wilson's lies. Here is the section of Waas' article that describe the content of the memo (the full memo is not available):
The same former official also said that in June 1999 a businessman approached him and insisted that the former official meet with an Iraqi delegation to discuss "expanding commercial relations" between Iraq and Niger.
The former official interpreted the overture as an attempt to discuss uranium sales.
In the memo, the CIA analysts wrote: "Since learning that the Iraqi-Niger uranium deal was based on false documents earlier this spring, we no longer believe that there is sufficient other reporting to conclude that Iraq purchased uranium from abroad."The truth is that Wilson's Niger trip was not prompted by forged documents, and that he found evidence that supported the intel he was investigating, yet instead of exposing Wilson's lies, the memo backs Wilson's story: that the Niger Intel was based on forged documents, and that without the forged documents, there was no grounds for thinking Saddam had tried to buy uranium in Niger.
The memo also related that there had been other, earlier claims that Saddam's regime had attempted to purchase uranium from private interests in Somalia and Benin; these claims predated the Niger allegations. It was that past intelligence that had led CIA analysts, in part, to consider the Niger claims as plausible.
But the memo said that after a thorough review of those earlier reports, the CIA had concluded that they were no longer credible. Indeed, the previous intelligence reports citing those claims had long since been "recalled" -- meaning that the CIA had formally repudiated them.
The memo's findings were considered so significant that they were not only quickly shared with Cheney and Libby but also with Congress, albeit on a classified basis, according to government records and interviews.
Look at the precise wording. The references to "other reporting" do not mention any other reporting on an Iraq-Niger link. The first mention of "other reporting" is not specific to Niger:
… we no longer believe that there is sufficient other reporting to conclude that Iraq purchased uranium from abroad.Then the specific mentions of "other reporting" do not include Niger:
… earlier claims that Saddam's regime had attempted to purchase uranium from private interests in Somalia and Benin.This in spite of the fact that Wilson himself had brought back evidence of that Saddam had sought uranium in Niger.
The imputation is that the Niger intel was based entirely on the forged documents: the exact gambit that Wilson himself was trying to pull off. Instead of exposing Wilson as a traitor, as an investigation into Kristof's article should have done, the CIA memo misrepresented the facts in a way that abetted Wilson's treason. That CAN'T have been a mistake.
The only logical conclusion is that the internal CIA memo was a carefully crafted bit of disinformation, calculated and timed to support Wilson's public disinformation. It certainly had this effect. On June 7th 2003, the day after Wilson's NYT op-ed, Ari Fleisher defended the President's general claim that Saddam had sought uranium in Africa, but he conceded, incorrectly, that the forgeries had been the basis for U.S. estimates that Saddam had tried to buy uranium from Niger:
MR. FLEISCHER: … But specifically on the yellow cake, the yellow cake for Niger, we've acknowledged that that information did turn out to be a forgery.Fleisher was wrong here. According to Stephen Hayes:
The White House had not, in fact, stated that all of the Niger reporting was wrong, only that the documents delivered to the U.S. Embassy in Rome in October 2002 had been forgeries.But Fleisher's statement did consist with the widely-circulated internal CIA memo, which was probably what he was following.
Tenet too seems to have been tied in knots by the memo, leading to the downright weird combination of exposing Wilson as a liar (describing how his trip to Niger had actually produced evidence that Saddam HAD tried to buy uranium from Niger) at the same time as he announced that the agency was retreating from the position that Saddam had tried to buy uranium from Niger (presumably on the basis of the June memo).
The evidence is that an anti-Bush cabal at CIA actually succeeded in infiltrating the White House with their disinformation.
These cabals have been known about for a long time, but are only just beginning to be exposed. Still, there are two obvious people to suspect of planting disinformation in the 2003 CIA memo. One is Wilson's wife, CIA agent Valerie Plame, who recommended Wilson for the Niger trip. The other is the recently outed leaker Mary McCarthy.
Both were tasked in the right areas to contribute to the memo. Plame was working in WMD counter-proliferation. That would include attempts to buy uranium, which is how she was in a position to recommend her husband for the Niger trip in the first place. McCarthy was working in the CIA's Inspector General's office when she was recently fired. The IG is charged with tracking down moles, leaks and disinformation, like the forged Iraq-Niger documents. Did she have similar access in 2003? (I'll update later when I can get around to this sitting-on-my-ass "legwork.")
Did Plame or McCarthy contribute to the 2003 memo? If so, that would be a good piece of information to declassify, and maybe even a "good leak," if the saboteurs at CIA have enough influence to keep it from coming out through proper channels. If the authors of the memo were some as yet unidentified conspirators, let's just hope the good guy are on it.
Related post:
60 Minutes of lies: Drumheller needs to answer some questions.
60 Minutes of lies: Drumheller needs to answer some questions.
Wilson spent eight days in Niger looking for signs of a secret deal to send yellowcake to Iraq. He spoke to government officials who would have known about such a transaction. No one did. There had been a meeting between Iraqis and Nigerians in 1999, but Wilson was told uranium had never been discussed. He also found no evidence that Iraq had even been interested in buying uranium.This actually one up's Joe Wilson's dishonesty. Wilson never said that he found no evidence that Iraq had even been interested in buying uranium. He only implied it, claiming that what he learned on his trip to Niger gave the lie to President Bush's 2003 State of the Union reference to Iraqi attempts to buy uranium in Africa: "[T]hat information was erroneous and … they knew … it" said Wilson in July of 2003.
Five days later, CIA Director George Tenet exposed Wilson as a liar:
He reported back to us that one of the former Nigerian officials he met stated that he was unaware of any contract being signed between Niger and rogue states for the sale of uranium during his tenure in office.ABC repeats Wilson's lie, and makes it even balder. But this is not sloppy work on ABC's part. The full report is carefully crafted to give credence to another even bolder Wilson lie.
The same former official also said that in June 1999 a businessman approached him and insisted that the former official meet with an Iraqi delegation to discuss "expanding commercial relations" between Iraq and Niger.
The former official interpreted the overture as an attempt to discuss uranium sales.
The forgeries
When the IAEA revealed in March of 2003 that the U.S. was in possession of forged documents pertaining to Niger uranium sales to Iraq, Wilson told several reporters that the phony documents were behind the CIA's sending him to Niger, and that during his trip he had identified the documents as forgeries. He peddled this tale to Kristof at the New York Times, Pincus at the Washington Post, and to Judis and Ackerman at The New Republic.Wilson's claim to having expose the phony document was itself exposed as phony by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's 2004 Report on Pre-War Intelligence, which noted that the forged documents had not come into U.S. hands until October of 2002, eight months after Wilson's Niger trip. (SSCI report, part II, section B, Search "misspoken".)
Wilson was caught committing blatant treason, spreading malicious disinformation about classified intelligence in an attempt to undermine America's war effort. I don't know why he hasn't been put to death yet. The British executed "Lord Haw Haw" after World War II simply for spreading obvious enemy propaganda, never mind the much greater crime of spreading maliciously disguised disinformation about classified intelligence. Wilson should at best be universally reviled. Instead he is abetted by the very people who are most aware of his treason: the reporters who have covered his story.
[UPDATE--INTERJECTION: I realize it is not comfortable to remind people of the traditional and appropriate punishment for treason. The problem with talking about punishment is that what we are facing today is an orgy of lying about lying. The nature of Wilson's treason is the use of lies to accuse other people of treason, and millions of Americans believe it, including not just radical leftists, but ordinary people who are duped by trash like 60 Minutes. If we start talking about executing people for treason, doesn't that just inflame the divide, and get more people on the other side thinking of executing who they believe are the traitors?
I agree, there is a national divide that needs to be managed. There clearly is derangement on the left, and care must be taken about inflaming deranged people. We face the exact same problem with the jihadists and their near-jihadist bretheren: how far should we go to avoid inflaming Islamic sensibilities? If we go too far, then we have just become dhimmis. We have submitted to the crazy person's demands.
Similarly with our crazy Democrat-left. We can't just say that because they are lying about lying (accusing loyal patriots of being traitors) we can't talk about punishing treason. That just lets them get away with treason.
The left's whole gambit is to deny that there is such a thing as truth. They look away from Wilson's proven lies (or in the case of 60 Minutes, as we will see, they fabricate dishonest new ways to revive and support Wilson's proven lies). They figure that if they are just relentlessly dishonest enough, then their claims about what is true can still win the day. Part of fighting against that truth-denying ideology is to insist on the consequences of truth, including punishment.
That said, there are concession that should be made to the derangement of the left. When faced with a volatile crazy person, it makes sense think of avoiding setting the crazy person off. No one acts around a violent crazy person the same way he acts around a sane person.
I'm probably crossing the line when I ask why Wilson hasn't been put to death yet. Yes, in a fully sane world, he would already have been tried for treason, found guilty beyond any trace of doubt, and put to death, but so long as half the country believes that he is the truth-teller, executing him would indeed be counterproductive, however right.
Talking about it, on the other hand, should be okay. END UPDATE--INTERJECTION]
What is diabolical about the 60 Minutes hit-piece is the measures it takes to revive and support Wilson's claims that U.S. intelligence about Saddam seeking uranium in Niger was based on the phony documents, and that the intel was known to be bogus before the President's State of the Untion speech. To build this case, 60 minutes enlists the aid of ex-CIA agent Tyler Drumheller, who has his own axe to grind.
Drumheller and "single-sourcing"
Drumheller was able to obtain a pre-war interview with Naji Sabra, Iraq's foreign minister at the time, from "a very high inner circle of Saddam Hussein."According to Drumheller: "[Sabra] told us that they had no active weapons of mass destruction program," after which "The group that was dealing with preparation for the Iraq war came back and said they're no longer interested…. [T]hey said, 'Well, this isn't about intel anymore. This is about regime change.'"
That is a good thing for the "all about WMD" crowd to remember. The official priority of the United States was and is the so-called "Bush Doctrine" of regime-change for regimes that harbor terrorists. But that doesn't means intel is unimportant. Secretary of State Rice explained to Tim Russert last month why the Sabra intel was not given more credence:
SEC'Y RICE: Of course, Tim, this was a single source among multiple sources, and the problem was that Saddam Hussein was unwilling, after multiple resolutions in Security Council, to account for his weapons programs. We all remember that the accounting of the U.N. mission that was supposed—the weapons inspection mission that was supposed to look into its weapons programs could not account for large stockpiles. We all thought that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.To grind his axe, Drumheller attacks Rice's "single source" explanation as a double standard, claiming that the Iraq-Niger uranium-purchase intel was only from a "single source" as well, but that since it provided justification for going to war with Iraq, "single source" was sufficient in that case:
Drumheller: They certainly took information that came from single sources on uranium, on the yellowcake story and on several other stories with no corroboration at all and so you can't say you only listen to one source, because on many issues they only listened to one source.So the Niger-yellowcake story was "Single source" was it? And what source might that be? The only source for the yellowcake story that Drumheller mentions is the forged-documents story:
Bradley: Drumheller says the CIA station chief in Rome, who worked for him, told him he didn't believe it.Thus Drumheller leaves the implication that the forged documents were behind the U.S. intel that Saddam had tried to buy uranium from Niger. Not only is he falsely claiming that the forged documents were used as supporting evidence instead of as a possible contra-indication, he is saying that they were the ONLY evidence, just as Joe Wilson had charged back in 2003: that he was sent to Niger on the basis of these documents that turned out to be forged.
Drumheller: He said, 'It's not true. It's not; this isn't real.'
Carefully crafted
The whole 60 Minutes report is carefully set up to support the bogus Wilson storyline. The first segment repeats Wilson's lie that his trip to Niger debunked rather than evidenced an Iraq-Niger uranium link. Bradley then proceeds as if the Iraq-Niger link had been dismissed at that point, and was only taken seriously again after the forged documents were received by U.S. intelligence:Bradley: A few weeks after Sabri told the CIA that Iraq had no active nuclear program, the Niger uranium story seemed to get a new life: Documents that supposedly could prove that Saddam had purchased uranium from Africa suddenly surfaced in Rome.Thus the appearance of the Iraq-Africa-uranium link in the State of the Union speech gets blamed on the forged documents.
But this story about the forged documents raising the Iraq-Niger link from the dead is directly contradicted by the SSCI report, which notes, as ABC does not, that thanks in part to Wilson's own finding that Saddam had tried to buy uranium in Iraq, the Iraq-Niger-uranium link was very much alive before the forged docs arrived:
Conclusion 12. Until October 2002 when the Intelligence Community obtained the forged foreign language documents on the Iraq-Niger uranium deal, it was reasonable for analysts to assess that Iraq may have been seeking uranium from Africa based on Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reporting and other available intelligence.The State Department was not swayed by Wilson's findings, but the CIA was. It had reason to believe Saddam was trying to buy uranium from various parts of Africa, including Niger. Thus the forged documents were not a single source on the Niger story, and it seems highly unlikely that they were treated as a source of supporting evidence at all.
Conclusion 13. The report on the former ambassador's trip to Niger, disseminated in March 2002, did not change any analysts' assessments of the Iraq-Niger uranium deal. For most analysts, the information in the report lent more credibility to the original Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reports on the uranium deal, but State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) analysts believed that the report supported their assessment that Niger was unlikely to be willing or able to sell uranium to Iraq.SSCI report on prewar intelligence, Part II section K.
Drumheller cited the CIA chief in Rome attaching a caveat to the fishy looking documents. The SSCI notes other caveats that were added later. The expectation in such a circumstance is that the fishy looking documents would be looked at as possibly tainting the earlier intel, rather than as supporting evidence for it. It is only Drumheller's errant assumption that the Niger-Iraq link was single-source that allows him to conclude that the documents were being embraced as supporting evidence (since the summary assessment was positive), rather than weighed as contra-indications.
More generally, the evidence that Iraq had sought uranium in Africa was not single source, came from several sources:
The CIA analyst said he assessed at the time that the intelligence showed both that Iraq may have been trying to procure uranium in Africa and that it was possible Niger could supply it. He said his assessment was bolstered by several other intelligence reports on Iraqi interest in uranium from other countries in Africa.Nevertheless, the accusation of single sourcing is used in the 60 Minutes report to attack President Bush's claim that Iraq was seeking uranium in Africa. The report concludes with Wilson, who repeats his original "Bush lied" accusations.
The report described the intelligence on the Iraq-Niger uranium deal and several other intelligence reports on Iraqi efforts to acquire uranium from Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Part II, section C of the SSCI report
Drumheller a dupe?
Given how the whole 60 Minutes piece is so carefully constructed to support Wilson's original fabrication about the forgeries being behind the State of the Union speech, it seems clear that none of this is innocent. One would have to know the facts in order to pick out such an artfully misleading array. The question is to what extent Drumheller was complicit in the larger story that 60 minutes was putting together.It is possible that Ed Bradley duped him. Drumheller IS ex-CIA after all. It could be that the only reason he was calling the Iraq-Niger intel "single sourced" was to have a way to justify his pet-peeve: that nobody paid much attention to his big Sabra scoop, just because it was "single sourced." Sabra was a member of Saddam's "inner circle" for pete's sake. Drumheller should have been a star. Deny a time-server his fifteen minutes of fame and maybe that is enough motivation to phony-up a "single source" double-standard and get himself a different fifteen minutes of fame.
Or maybe Drumheller is complicit all the way. Maybe he knows exactly how Wilson lied about having exposed the phony documents on his trip to Niger in order to try to claim that they were behind the State of the Union speech. Maybe Drumheller understands exactly how his "single source" charge about the Iraq-Niger intel is another way to claim that the President's State of the Union claims were knowing lies (treating intel that was full of caveats as supporting evidence, and sole supporting evidence at that). It would be a gambit hardly less dishonest than Wilson's. Is that what Drumheller is guilty of? Or is he just a dunce?
No such ambiguity in the case of Ed Bradley: he is taking a highly calculated second stab at Wilson's original treason.
The CIA memo
The loose end here is a tidbit that was not mentioned by 60 Minutes, but which, if taken at face value, does tend to support their "single-source" story line. In June of 2003, the CIA circulated an internal memo that backtracked on its earlier Iraq-Niger intel. In contradiction to the SSCI report, the CIA memo seems to suggest that that the forged documents were the sole source of the CIA's earlier assessment that Saddam had tried to buy uranium from Niger:Since learning that the Iraqi-Niger uranium deal was based on false documents earlier this spring, we no longer believe that there is sufficient other reporting to conclude that Iraq purchased uranium from abroad.The full memo is not available, and it could be that this is a misleading snippet. It could be that "the Iraqi-Niger uranium deal" reference here is only a reference to the particular deal described in the forged documents, not the other possible Iraqi-Niger uranium deals and attempted deals that were evidenced by earlier intel. On the other hand, this looks like a summary statement, leaving the impression that there was no other intel behind the Iraqi-Niger uranium link. Yet we know from the SSCI report that there was other intel behind the Iraqi-Niger uranium link, including the evidence brought back by Wilson from his trip to Niger. What explains this disjoint?
Murray Waas reported in February that the CIA memo was prompted by the publication of Wilson's tall tales in Kristof's May 2003 New York Times article, where an unnamed envoy to Niger was said to have discovered that the documents behind the CIA's Iraq-Niger intel were forgeries.
The public may not have known who this anonymous envoy was, but the CIA certainly did. Thus a memo investigating Kristof's column should have explained the disinformation that was being passed through Kristof: that Wilson had never seen the forged documents, which would not come into U.S. possession until well after his trip; and that Wilson's trip had actually supported the President's State of the Union claims, not belied them, as Wilson was claiming.
The actual memo did the opposite. Instead of exposing Wilson's treasonous lies, it misrepresented the facts in a way that supported Wilson's treason. That CANNOT have been accidental. The only logical conclusion is that the memo was influenced by the anti-Bush cabal in the CIA that has been leaking crucial national security secrets for the last three years in an attempt to undermine America's war on Islamic terrorism.
My full analysis of the fishy CIA memo here:
Were McCarthy and Plame behind the CIA's June 2003 retreat on Iraq-Niger intelligence?


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Ever since the blogosphere blew up and every imbecile with a PC gained access to the Interwebs, outrage has been the go to emotion for amateur critics worldwide. According to these vicious culture vultures, Game of Thrones is inauthentic, Boardwalk Empire is boring, and Mad Men is past its prime.
But if there's one small screen outrage that perpetually has these bloggers reaching for their smelling salts, it's "unbelievable" television couples. Don't believe us? Just Google "Patrick Wilson Girls backlash," and wait for the hateful, Lena Dunham-bashing vitriol to bombard your screen. The World Wide Web would have us believe that Patrick Wilson is just too darn attractive to look poor pear-shaped Hannah Horvath in the eye, let alone deign to sleep with her—this isn't the fantastical world of Westeros, after all! Everyone knows that in this reality, chubby girls aren't allowed to get laid!
The question of "appropriate" show biz pairings is a natural extension of the horribly skewed, superficial world we live in. Schlubby "everyman" types are all the rage in film comedies (see any Seth Rogen movie, ever), and always manage to score the hottest girls. The unfairness here isn't just that chubby men are allowed to get with beautiful women, while we don't tolerate the reverse; it's the implication that no one in their right mind would even consider casting a "normal" woman to play a leading role in one of these stoner comedies. While men have shattered the glass ceiling of desirability, show biz bigwigs refuse to let go of the archaic notion that we, the average-sized consumers, would run for the hills if our leading ladies wore anything bigger than a size toddler large.
This pervasive media deification of the anorexic actress, presented in tandem with the somehow-desirable, mildly overweight man, has serious ramifications, as does the implication that chubby women don't deserve screen time, let alone sex or human affection. In short, it perpetuates insanely unrealistic standards of female beauty, and has a punishing effect on the lived experiences of real women who, more often than not, will never look like Katherine Heigl.
This is the backdrop for last night's episode of Louie, "So Did the Fat Lady," in which Louis C.K. did something extraordinary—namely, made some really powerful points about gender, media, and American standards of beauty, all while avoiding the common traps of stereotyping or mansplaining. Oh, and did we mention that he managed this all in a 23-minute-long comedy?
The premise of the episode is essentially watching Louie come to terms with his own fat, white guy privilege—the realization that, despite his inability to date every gorgeous woman he lusts after, or successfully start a diet, he actually has it pretty good. Louie's revelation comes in the form of Vanessa (the incredible Sarah Baker), a waitress at the Comedy Cellar where he performs. Vanessa is smart and funny—we watch Louie laugh at her repartee with customers from afar, and are clearly meant to note his admiration.
And yet, Louie doesn't ask for her number, or try to find out where she's off to after his set. Instead, we see Vanessa hit on Louie over and over again, with underwhelming results. Vanessa is actively wooing Louie and, despite the character's series-long gripe about his inability to successfully woo women, he appears unflattered and unenthusiastic. What accounts for this gender role reversal, in which Vanessa pursues and Louie demurs? The simple fact that Vanessa is a "fat girl." She's more similar in size to Louie than to the thin women he's accustomed to dating.
After turning her down multiple times, Louie finally takes Vanessa out on a coffee date (though we're led to believe that his invitation is inspired by guilt, not attraction). The date goes remarkably well—on top of their similar body types, Vanessa and Louie are wildly compatible, and genuinely enjoy one another's company. But, like any good episode of Louie, the good feels are simply a sheen, barely concealing an ugly truth—the uncomfortable fact of Louie's lack of romantic interest in Vanessa is just waiting to rise to the surface. When it finally crescendos, it's in the form of Vanessa's monologue for fat girls everywhere—a speech that, despite its premise, remarkably manages to be neither simple-minded nor condescending.
Vanessa's main complaint about "dating in your early 30s as a fat girl"? Mainly that "it really sucks." She's waited tables during countless comedy sets, and she knows how often Louie complains about his inability to lose weight, and his subsequent difficulty landing ladies. Imagine how Vanessa feels, then, looking up from an even lower level on the sexual totem pole. Men like Louie, she explains, won't even consider dating her. Sure, they'll sleep with her—but they are loath to consider the social ramifications of actually dating a fat girl, despite their own less-than-enviable physiques. To add insult to injury, Louie gets to complain about his weight all day. Meanwhile, Vanessa laments, fat girls aren't even allowed to mention their weight-related hardships, as it's seen as embarrassing—instead, they're expected to suffer in shameful silence.
Louis C.K. isn't just alluding to double standards in the media; for Vanessa and the women she is speaking up for, every day is a constant struggle to prove their worth within a weight-obsessed culture that paints them as unbeautiful blights. After attacking Louie and his male cohorts for being ashamed to romantically value women like her, Vanessa dares to wonder:
"Look, I really like you, you're truly a good guy, I think," she says. "I'm so sorry. I'm picking you. On behalf of all the fat girls, I'm making you represent all the guys. Why do you hate us so much? What is it about the basics of human happiness, feeling attractive, feeling loved, having guys chase after us, that's just not in the cards for us? Nope. Not for us. How is that fair? And why am I supposed to just accept it?"
For her, hate is not too strong a word—it's appropriate for these men who insinuate, time and time again, that she does not deserve to be loved and cherished, simply due to her weight. That she is somehow lesser because of her gender—since, after all, a "fat" man like Louie doesn't find himself in so dire a predicament. Vanessa is reacting to a societal aesthetic so punishing and so pervasive that it renders her not only undesirable, but practically un-human.
In a culture where we are told that so much of a woman's happiness is predicated on her beauty and sexual appeal, lack of access to these arbitrary attributes renders one entirely underserving of romantic satisfaction. Vanessa's argument is that men, even Louie, her cookie-cutter counterpart, do not see her, and do not understand her struggle. And, as this episode so potently illustrates, our misogynistic media culture is partly to blame. Flipping through the channels, one thing becomes shockingly clear—women like Vanessa are hardly seen, or heard, at all.

subset: commoncrawl


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BEREA, Ohio -- The Cleveland Browns won't know for a few more days whether rookie quarterback Brandon Weeden will play in Oakland.
Week 13 Waiver Wire
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Weeden sustained a concussion in the closing minutes of Sunday's 20-14 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, just Cleveland's second against its biggest rival in 18 games. Weeden was falling following an incompletion when his head struck the leg of teammate Joe Thomas.
The 29-year-old left the field and received medical attention on the sideline before he was taken to the locker room. He was replaced for two series by backup Colt McCoy, who will start against the Raiders if Weeden isn't cleared.
Browns coach Pat Shurmur said Weeden was at the team's facility on Monday. He is being treated under the NFL's "strict concussion protocol" and his status for Sunday's game remains uncertain.
"We'll go through the process and we'll know way more on Wednesday," Shurmur said, who would not speculate if Weeden will face the Raiders. "I'm not making any predictions at this point."
Shurmur would not comment when asked if Weeden did any physical activity. Typically, players are prohibited from exercising on the first day after a concussion is diagnosed and encouraged to rest. It's not known if Weeden sustained a serious head injury. He didn't appear to take a hard hit, but that's not always a definitive indicator of an injury's severity.
The Browns are ultra-sensitive to head injuries and their treatment. Last season, the mishandling of McCoy's concussion against the Steelers prompted the league to make changes in its policies on concussion examinations. There is a now a certified athletic trainer at games to monitor play and provide medical staffs with information to assist their treatment of injured players.
Shurmur knew Weeden wanted to stay in the game and close out the win. Browns rookie running back Trent Richardson said trainers had to hide the QB's helmet so he couldn't re-enter.
"I don't think anybody wants to leave the game," Shurmur said. "Especially a game that's in the balance like that one was. So I think that's typical of what I see and feel from guys that are on the sideline. Of course, we know there's protocol. We're well aware of that, right?"
Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press


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That's oh-be-GUY-n, not oh-be-GIN, as some (primarily people from Texas) would like to refer to my chosen profession. Although, working in this field can sometimes cause one to develop a penchant for gin...hmmm.
Friday, September 01, 2006
Same due dates, different philosophies
I returned home to a frantic phone call from one of the L&D nurses. "Thank goodness, you're back!" she exclaimed. When I left, we knew that OlderMom's infant was measuring large for gestational age, a common complication with gestational diabetes. She had attempted to undergo amniocentesis for diagnosis of fetal lung maturity, but backed out at the last minute (fear of needles). The plan when I left was to induce her labor at 39 weeks, upon my return from vacation. While I was away, OlderMom saw OtherDoc for a prenatal visit. He ordered an ultrasound which showed fetal macrosomia (surprise) but he decided to schedule my patient for a PRIMARY C-SECTION the day I returned from vacation. My patient had 3 previously successful vaginal deliveries. Her largest baby was nearly 9 pounds. She had a very proven pelvis, and I was shocked that my partner would make such a decision in my absence. Luckily, the nurse that was doing her surgery intake realized my patient's reluctance to have a primary section and called me. I spoke with the patient, and she very much desired a vaginal delivery (of course?) so we settled on induction of labor. It turns out that induction really wasn't necessary, she was 4 cm dilated and contracting fairly well on her own. I observed her overnight, and once she was comfortable with her epidural early in the morning, we started a small amount of pitocin to increase the frequency of her contractions. She progressed from 4 cm to 10 cm in about 4 hours. They called me in from the office for delivery around lunchtime. OlderMom's poise amazed me as she sat upright in the bed, barely hurting and serene, with the baby's crown visible as I sprinted into the delivery room. I dressed and gloved for the delivery with my new 3rd year med student in tow. It was a textbook delivery. She should have been the Lamaze birthing video model! As soon as I was dressed and ready, OlderMom began to push. She pushed exactly one time and the head slowly delivered, crowning and controlled. The second push yielded a very large anterior shoulder (and an internal sigh of relief from me) followed by the posterior shoulder. The infant's body was delivered, as if in slow motion, and the cord clamped and cut by a tearful father. The nearly 9 pound baby was placed on OlderMom's bare belly, his cries heralding his arrival to the world. It was one of the smoothest deliveries I have done. She had but a small perineal laceration that required no stitches. A triumphant failed C-section, and I was so happy to have arrived back in town when I did.
YoungerMom sat in my examining room on the self-same day that OlderMom delivered, debating her course of delivery. Her first pregnancy was delivered as an emergent cesarean section for prolonged second stage and fetal distress. She was asleep for the birth of her first baby, and didn't get to hold the baby for 5 hours after the surgery. This was an experience she was not anxious to repeat. As I have mentioned before, I am one of the few docs around here that will staff an attempted VBAC. I have fairly strict guidelines to which I adhere, in order to have the best possible outcome. One of these guidelines is that I do everything I can *not* to induce women desiring VBAC. Not only do induction agents increase certain risks associated with VBAC such as uterine rupture, I truly feel that a natural onset of labor is one of the best case scenarios for a successful VBAC. This logic boggled YoungerMom's mind. She wanted a baby before her due date, because her older child was starting school. She wanted to VBAC, but on her own schedule. I was firm in not allowing an induction at her current dilation and desire for VBAC, so she settled on the predictable choice, repeat cesarean section. This struck me as an oddity, because women who are committed to VBAC will usually do anything to enhance their chances of a vaginal delivery. We proceeded to a repeat cesarean section. The surgery was easy. The infant cried even before the body was delivered. Mom was able to see the baby as soon as she was delivered from the womb. The baby scored a perfect 10 on the APGAR (a rarity in this hospital). Unfortunately, she developed a fever and was kept under strict supervision for the next few days. YoungerMom (another patient with the grating habit of calling me by my first name) said repeatedly as the surgery concluded, "That was so much easier than my last C-section! All I wanted was to see the baby when she was born."
Different delivery outcomes, different delivery methods, different women altogether, tied together by the common bond of motherhood. As different as these two deliveries were, I saw them as the same. Two mothers, wanting to glimpse their child's first breath of the world, to share in the wonder that is birth. I am so lucky and blessed that I get to help these women share these moments, however they are attained, with their newborn children, and I hope that I never become too bitter or overworked to remember why I chose this profession.
3 comments:
Older mom is lucky you are her doc. How scary how close she came to an unneccessary section. Glad both babies are healthy, that is the important thing--obviously.
- dr. whoo? said...
I am so glad that OtherDoc didn't operate while I was away. He usually isn't so blade-happy, I'm not sure what was happening there! Yes, both babies are doing great and home with their respective families, thank goodness.
I call my ob/gyn "Dr X", but I feel weird about this because she's younger than me and I have as high a level of education as she does (but my degrees are not in medicine). I call work colleagues by their first names and I call personal friends who are MDs by their first named. Why does this bother you? Do you call your doctors "Dr x"?


text: I own a 1960 atrium model Eichler in Sunnyvale. The electric door release stopped working, and my electrician has determined that the transformer needs to be replaced, but is unable to find it. It is not in the boiler room where the doorbell one is, and he suspects that it is in the garage on the wall that is adjacent to the atrium. The problem here is that a prior owner drywalled that wall clearly covered it when doing so. My electrician wants to take an educated guess and break through drywall to find it, but I thought I would also ask here. ~1960 Eichler owners, where are your transformers for your door release button?


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There is a phrase in the book of Acts – "cloven tongues of fire" – that describes an experience of great power. The context of the phrase is day of Pentecost. During this great outpouring of the Spirit of the Lord, many great sights were seen, many great sounds were heard, and many great feelings were felt. We read, "And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." (Acts 2:2-4).
I started thinking about the term "cloven tongues of fire". What does that phrase mean? How it is phrased in Acts makes it seem like those present saw flames around them. This might be the case but we get clarification of what this phrase means in the Doctrine and Covenants, part of the canon of scripture for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We read: "Let it be fulfilled upon them, as upon those on the day of Pentecost; let the gift of tongues be poured out upon thy people, even cloven tongues as of fire, and the interpretation thereof." (D&C 109:36).
Cloven means split. Cloven tongues are like the tongues of snakes. But in this instance, the cloven tongues refer to speaking in tongues. This is a gift from the Holy Ghost. There are at least two ways of looking at these cloven tongues of fire.
- On the day of Pentecost, some people spoke in tongues – plural. They said something in one language but other people heard it in another. We know this is the case: "The multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilæans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?" (Acts 2:6-8). Thus, these cloven tongues are really just that – speaking in tongues (multiple) at the same time.
- Another interpretation (pun intended) is that tongues are cloven because there is the message of the spoken words and the message of the Holy Ghost. These two things are not always the same thing. What is said and what the Spirit teaches us can be different. Both interpretations are correct.
What's important to keep in mind is that speaking in tongues is only effective if there is someone who can understand it or interpret it. Generally, it is not the case that the Holy Ghost will bless someone with the gift of tongues in order for them to speak some unknown language without an interpreter. That's why people speaking gibberish purportedly under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost are not really given the gift of tongues. This is not to say that people cannot speak in an unknown language – such as Adam's "pure and undefiled" language (see Moses 6:5-6:46) – but again, when this occurs there will almost always be someone who is able to understand and/or translate it by the same power of the Holy Ghost.
The gift of tongues – even cloven tongues of fire – is evident in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today as are the other miraculous events of the day of Pentecost. We have missionaries who learn languages quickly, who teach the gospel filled with the fire of God. There have been cases where missionaries or apostles have said things they didn't know how to say in another language or that those listening understood what was being said even though they did not understand the words.
What about someone like myself who served as a missionary in the United States, speaking my native English? The cloven tongues of fire is only one gift of many from the Holy Ghost. Still, there were many times when I spoke and the tongue of the Spirit spoke too – it was a fire that burned brightly within others and myself. Additionally, because of the blessings of the Holy Ghost, my command of English improved. This is not usually how we think of the gift of tongues but it can, and often is, the case that your own language skills will improve so that you can improve teaching the gospel.
"Cloven tongues of fire" is a phrase that provides powerful imagery. The most important implication of it is that it is a gift of the Holy Ghost. When the power of God rests upon us we can know, feel, and do great things. This is a power that touches many but was largely lost from the earth until the Priesthood and ordinances of God were restored to Joseph Smith. The gift (not just influence) of the Holy Ghost is one of the greatest and most important components of the Restoration.
In closing, Pres. Packer gave a great talk on this topic in the April 2000 General Conference. Pres. Packer said:
"In every language, the Spirit of God—the Holy Ghost—guides, or can guide, every member of the Church. Everyone is invited to come and repent and be baptized and receive of this sacred gift. Despite opposition, the Church will flourish; and despite persecution, it will grow. Joseph Smith was asked, 'How does your religion differ from other religions?' He replied, 'All other considerations were contained in the gift of the Holy Ghost.'"
The power of the Holy Ghost is real. When with us, we can receive great blessings so that we are better able to share the gospel with others and bless the lives of others. The flaming fire of the Spirit is a call to responsibility; it is a call to be lights on hills to others who are lost in the darkness of disbelief. It is a call to speak with the power of God so that others might bask in His light and love.


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Those who read our case reviews know that we can be quite particular when it comes to selecting the right chassis for the job. In the past, we have been very skeptical of models priced over $200 as they often represent a terrible value. For example, the $400 NZXT Khaos weighs more than steel behemoths like the Thermaltake Armor+ while costing twice as much. Moreover, it is poorly designed, lacking many features present on sub-$200 cases.
There are currently plenty of fantastic options in the $100+ range, such as the Cooler Master HAF 932, which quickly became our favorite case of 2008. But as remarkable as the HAF 932 is for its price, it's in a totally different class than the beast recently unleashed by Thermaltake and that we are taking a look at today.
First shown as a prototype at CeBIT 2009, the "Level 10" immediately captured our attention and we couldn't wait until it hit the consumer market. That time has come.
Manufactured and marketed by Thermaltake, the Level 10 was actually designed by BMW Group DesignworksUSA, a subsidiary of the BMW Group. In addition to engineering yachts, trains, aircraft, lifestyle and IT products, the three studios in Munich, California and Singapore also create design concepts that transform visions into reality. The Level 10 happens to be one of those concepts and is easily one of the most iconic computer cases ever created.
We've never seen a chassis that looks remotely like the Thermaltake Level 10. It's not the kind of case you walk by without noticing, and when you do see it, resisting the urge to move in for a closer look is impossible. Simply put, the Level 10 is a piece of art. However, like most fine works, the Level 10 comes at an exorbitant fee and users can expect to pay somewhere in the vicinity of $700 for this PC enclosure.
With an asking price that would otherwise buy you a 3-way GeForce GTX 460 SLI setup (with money to spare), or an entire gaming system for that matter, we have to ask the obvious: is the Level 10 worth your cash?
We get the feeling there is no objective answer to that question, as its value is largely based on your appreciation of its design. Still, we are interested in seeing if there is more to the Level 10 than its eye-catching appearance, so read on as we dissect Thermaltake's new flagship offering.


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"This is a fight I have wanted for a long time. In order to be the best, you've got to beat the best. This guy is one of the best, and that's what I'm looking to do." - Brian Stann
Brian Stann was supposed to be the one to welcome Hector Lombard to the UFC. Fresh off an impressive first-round stoppage win over Alessio Sakara in April, the hard-hitting middleweight was tabbed to be the first to step into the Octagon with the organization's latest acquisition.
Lombard stood as another "How good is he really?" mystery; a fighter carrying a 25-fight unbeaten streak into this debut on the biggest stage in the sport. With a great deal of intrigue in the pairing and a strong likelihood that it would produce an explosive encounter, the 185-pound competitors were tabbed to headline UFC on FOX 4 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on August 4.
It was a quality opponent and opportunity for the 31-year-old Stann, but it wasn't meant to be. A shoulder injury forced him to withdraw from the contest, and Lombard was eventually selected to replace Michael Bisping opposite Tim Boetsch at UFC 149 in Calgary, Alberta. Having lined up their opponents to square off while they recovered, it only made sense for the UFC to have Bisping and Stann meet once they were fully healed and ready to return to action.
"I was very excited; I didn't expect it," says Stann of the opportunity to face Bisping this weekend at UFC 152. "I thought I missed out on a major opportunity getting injured. I thought I was going to have to fight somebody who was more of an up-and-comer or a lower ranked opponent, and work towards getting a fight with some real significance.
"I got lucky – I got lucky with the timing, and now I'm fighting a guy who is ranked above me. This is a fight I have wanted for a long time. In order to be the best, you've got to beat the best. This guy is one of the best, and that's what I'm looking to do."
The last year has brought a great deal of change to how and where Stann prepares for his bouts. After making routine trips to work with Greg Jackson, Mike Winkeljohn and the tremendous collection of fighters assembled in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the 31-year-old Marine made the decision last December to prepare at home in Atlanta instead.
In a sport where egos and opportunities can drive a wedge between teammates, and fracture working relationships, drama didn't prompt Stann to relocate; tragedy did. After the sudden death of his brother-in-law two days before Christmas, the decision to leave his family to prepare no longer made sense for the 12-4 former WEC light heavyweight champion.
"For me, this is born more out of tragedy and circumstance, and I had to do it. At the same time that this has happened, my kids are also getting older; my kids are in school full-time. Daddy can't spend six months of the year in a completely different city across the country; that's just not feasible. There's a lot of great talent here in Atlanta that used to exit to do their training camps, and we'd train in between fights together – a lot of guys went to ATT, I went to Jackson's, some guys would go up to New York, other guys would go to California. Now everybody is training together, and we've brought together some coaches, and it's been a pretty incredible environment.
"The shift has gone great. When I'm here in Atlanta, I've got an extremely great group of guys – I brought in a great group of guys. There's a lot of focus, there's a lot of eyes on every single round I'm putting in. There's a tremendous focus on drilling and practicing technique every day; it's an environment that I found where I'm improving in every area faster than I was previously."
After a stretch where it seemed like all the top fighters in each division were migrating to a small number of "super camps" around the country, Stann believes we'll see more elite athletes choosing to downsize in the future, opting to receive more focused, individualized training, rather than competing for attention and coaching alongside other title hopefuls and titleholders.
"Fighters, when they get to certain levels, it's difficult to train for a big fight when you're in a gym where there are 15 other guys training for a big fight. Sometimes you can get lost in there, and there's not enough individual attention on what you need to accomplish technically in order to prepare for your fight.
"It's impossible for someone to decide to train somewhere else unless there is some big drama," Stann laughs, crediting reality TV with our craving for changes to be born out of scandal, not real life circumstances. "Your life changes as you get older, you get in a different situation – some guys start building around home, some guys still travel to train. I just choose not to (travel) as I get closer to my fight, and focus more here – bring people in to here so I can be with my family more often. It has nothing to do with any drama or anything I wasn't getting."
While this will be Stann's tenth appearance inside the Octagon – and 17th fight overall – there isn't a great deal of tape for his opponents to dissect. Just three of his previous 16 contests have gone to the scorecards, with all five of his middleweight matches to date ending inside the distance.
What complicates things even more for his opponents is that the majority of his wins all look the same. They showcase the athletic ability that made him a standout linebacker at Navy long before he stepped into the cage, and the punching power that has produced nine stoppages, eight of which have come in the first round. His most recent setbacks look alike as well, all three of his UFC defeats coming as a result of opponents attacking with takedowns, nullifying his power by putting him on his back.
Still developing as a fighter, Stann knows that the relatively short amount of time he's spent inside the Octagon plays to his advantage, and that the fighter who steps into the cage Saturday night in Toronto will be better than the one who stopped Sakara five months ago in Sweden.
"It's difficult for people to only evaluate me on tape because they're not seeing my entire skill set, and so you can still surprise people at times. I'm still getting better every day. For this camp, a gentleman by the name of Raymond Jordan moved in with me; he's been training with me every day, and he's an elite level wrestler.
"I've been focusing on different areas of my game for a long time now, and improving on them, like heading up to train with Chael (Sonnen), training with different elite level black belts to refine my technique and build on my skill set. Everything I do is deliberate. I don't just show up to the gym everyday and whatever the coaches feel like teaching I do it – for me, there is always a deliberate plan in place. For these next three weeks, I'm focusing on these techniques because this is where I need to get better. For these weeks, I'm focusing on these techniques. There is always a plan in place for me."
Heading into this weekend's meeting with Bisping, Stann's plan can be summed up in a single word: win.
"Of course you're always thinking about finishing the fight, but for me, I'm just focused on winning; I'm focused on going out there, fighting hard, and winning. If you go into the Octagon just looking for the knockout, you can sometimes find yourself very far behind on the scorecards, and that's a mistake someone can make.
"You've got to go in there and fight; you've got to attack, you've got to execute your game, and the knockout will come. It's like hitting a home run – if you try to hit the home run, you're going to strike out. Just let it happen – that's what I do when I strike. I'm very powerful even when I don't throw my hardest punches."
While some fighters use their pre-fight interviews to make bold predictions about quick victories or diminish their opponent's chances, Stann keeps things pretty realistic. Where Bisping has been his talkative, boisterous self in the build-up to Saturday night's contest, "The All-American" offers a far more level assessment of what fans should expect at the Air Canada Centre this weekend.
"It's who executes better, and there is always some degree of chance. Either one of us, at any given time, you get clipped and the fight could be over, and that's one of the beauties of MMA, but whoever executes better is going to win.
"It's going to be more than just a kickboxing bout – there's going to be a lot of wrestling taking place, there's going to be a lot of setups, a lot of chess going on. Who executes better along the cage, on the ground – all these factors are going to play into it. There's probably going to be some momentum shifts throughout the fight. We're both professionals – I'm in the best shape of my life, and he's probably going to come in in the best shape of his life, and both of us want to win, and that's what makes for great fights. Neither will is going to be broken. We're going to get after it in there, and I really think it will come down to who fights best that night."
Jamahal Hill Talks UFC 300 Main Event
Hall Of Fame


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Intel Arrandale: 32nm for Notebooks, Core i5 540M Reviewed
by Anand Lal Shimpi on January 4, 2010 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Clarkdale is the desktop processor, but Arrandale is strictly for my notebooks. The architecture is the same as Clarkdale. You've got a 32nm Westmere core and a 45nm chipset on the same package:
The two-chip solution does matter more for notebooks as it means that motherboards can shrink. Previously this feature was only available to OEMs who went with NVIDIA's ION platform (or GeForce 9400M as it was once known). This is the first incarnation of Intel's 32nm process so it's not quite as power optimized as we'd like. The first mainstream Arrandale CPUs are 35W TDP, compared to the 25W TDP of most thin and light notebooks based on mobile Core 2. Granted the 35W includes the graphics, but it's not always going to be lower total power consumption (more on this later).
The Arrandale lineup launching today is huge. Intel launched 7 Clarkdale CPUs, but we've got a 11 mobile Arrandale CPUs coming out today:
The architecture is similar to Clarkdale. You get private 256KB L2s (one per core) and a unified L3 cache for the CPU. The L3 is only 3MB (like the Pentium G9650) on the Core i5 and Core i3 processors, but it's 4MB (like the desktop Core i5/i3) on the mobile Core i7. Confused yet? I'll have to admit, Intel somehow took a potentially simple naming scheme and made it unnecessarily complex. We also get some low-voltage parts that have 18W TDPs. They run at low default clock speeds but can turbo up pretty high.
Turbo is hugely important here. While Clarkdale's Turbo isn't exactly useful, the TDPs are low enough in mobile that you can really ramp up clock speed if you aren't limited by cooling. Presumably this will allow you to have ultra high performance plugged-in modes where your CPU (and fans) can ramp up as high as possible to get great performance out of your notebook. Add an SSD and the difference between a desktop and a notebook just got even smaller.
Arrandale does have one trick that Clarkdale does not: graphics turbo.
GPU bound applications (e.g. games) can force the CPU part of Arrandale into a low power state, and the GPU can use the added thermal headroom to increase its clock speed. This is a mobile only feature but it's the start of what will ultimately be the answer to achieving a balanced system. Just gotta get those Larrabee cores on-die...
Chipsets are even more complicated on the mobile side:
38 Comments
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silverblue - Friday, January 8, 2010 - link
Hmm. -
silverblue - Friday, January 8, 2010 - link
Nope, it's just me (damned similar names)... however, the Clarkdale article has vanished from the front page. :| -
dnenciu - Thursday, January 7, 2010 - link
I don't know why are reviewers so happy about Arrandale.
You basically get 20% improvement compared to the same "clockspeed" c2d.
What about the fact that Arrandale only goes 2.53Ghz and 2.66 for the extreme edition.
C2D already goes to 3.33Ghz
Yes turbo boost increases the 2.53Ghz to 3.06 but that is only if one core is used and the laptop has proper cooling.
The c2d at 3.06 Ghz can run two cores at that speed.
So what we are seeing is last years performance and same battery life.
And also last years integrated GPU. That now you don't even have a choice to replace with a 9400m.
I really feel underwhelmed by this chip release.
Lets hope that they can improve it in the next release because for me this one is a big flop. :( -
iwodo - Monday, January 4, 2010 - link
I record CoreiX series was proved to be much more efficient then C2D in some previous Anand article. Now we are actually getting different results. So Westmere gets more performance by using more energy and transistors.
And this isn't an fair comparison either, C2D platform uses an 65nm of IGP and 45nm of CPU. While Westmere gets one process node improvement in both.
So in terms of pure Power / Peformance, it looks like C2D still has an edge. I would love Intel make an 32nm of C2D. ( Which would play well with ION2 and Apple would love it. )
I hope SandyBridge would come soon as an True successor to C2D. Nahamlem to me is just an CPU made for Server.
Side Notes - Intel GPU, although performance is fast enough in lowest settings, still gives worst Image Quality compare to other IGP. Which gains an unfair advantage. I hope some Internet review will point this out. -
JarredWalton - Monday, January 4, 2010 - link
On the desktop, Core i7 (and particularly Lynnfield) provided great idle power results. My testing of Core i7 notebooks on the other hand shows that the quad-core variant is a power guzzler. -
zicoz - Monday, January 4, 2010 - link
How does this compare to the Clarkdale on the HTPC front? Does it support LPCM and bitstreaming? I have this dream of building a HTPC from laptop parts, and if this supports the same stuff as the Clarkdale then this could be it. -
jasperjones - Monday, January 4, 2010 - link
Anand writes:
"The first mainstream Arrandale CPUs are 35W TDP, compared to the 25W TDP of most thin and light notebooks based on mobile Core 2. Granted the 35W includes the graphics, but it's not always going to be lower total power consumption."
From the benches shown here I infer: the 540M is substantially faster than the fastest available C2D. Which is to say, the T9900 (unless I forget some Core 2 Extreme model) whose TDP is 35W. There is no P-series C2D that provides the performance of the 540M. Thus, an apples-to-apples comparison is really vs. a T9900 (or Core 2 Extreme) which has 35W TDP and *no* integrated graphics.
And even if you aren't d'accord with my statement above: logically, you can't just compare the P8xxx/P9xxx models' TDP of 25W with Clarksfield's TDP of 35W. After all, Clarksfield includes essentially all Northbridge functionality. The Northbridge for Penryn is rated 12W TDP. So, really, 35W < 25W + 12W = 37W (or, 35W < 35W + 12W = 47W). -
jasperjones - Monday, January 4, 2010 - link
^^^ of course, I mean Arrandale, not Clarksfield. -
JarredWalton - Monday, January 4, 2010 - link
Even then, TDP ratings aren't actual power requirements. They're more like a limit on the thermal output, so you need 35W of cooling on a 35W CPU, even though at idle it probably uses only 5W.
As far as performance, Arrandale in most cases is about 20% faster. The T9900 is 3.06GHz compared to 2.53GHz on the P8700, which is a 20% performance boost. That would make the T9900 about equal to a 540M. At that level of performance, I would expect the battery life advantage to be more like 5-10% for Arrandale. (Despite the 35W vs. 25W TDP, my experience is that for typical battery life testing scenarios, the 35W TDP CPUs are not substantially worse than 25W CPUs.) -
Wolfpup - Monday, January 4, 2010 - link
I'm still surprised that we don't get 32nm quads yet, though I suppose from Intel's perspective it makes sense-probably make the most from their mid range "high end dual cores".
I'm glad to see there are some new chipsets with this too. PM55 has USB problems, that OEMs don't seem to be addressing super well. There's some talk that the newest drivers from Intel combined with a hotfix from Microsoft that isn't even for this chipset fixes it, but not 100% sure if it really does.


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8b. QUALIFIED MEDICAL CHILD SUPPORT ORDER (Q.M.C.S.O.) (Form UD-8b):
A certified copy of this signed order must be served on the employer of the person legally responsible to provide health insurance.
Fields 1-4: The court will fill in these sections.
Field 5: Print the Plaintiff's name.
Field 6: Insert the index number.
Field 7: Print the Defendant's name.
Field 8: Insert the name, date of birth, social security number and mailing address of each unemancipated child of the marriage.
Field 9: Insert the name of the party who must enroll the child(ren) in the health insurance plan available through his or her employment.
Field 10: Insert the name of the party that has custody of or is the legal guardian of the child(ren).
Field 11: Insert the name, address and identification number (if any) of the health plan.
Field 12: Insert the name and address of the administrator of the plan (if any).
Field 13: Describe the type of coverage provided by the plan. Give a detailed description.
Field 14: Leave this section unchanged.
Field 15: Insert the date the parties agree that coverage is to be effective. If not filled in, the court will enter the date the order is signed.
Field 16: The court will fill in this section.


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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
Even though a residence may be vacant due to a seasonal change of homes or a pending sale, it is still the homeowner's responsibility to ensure that the property is properly maintained. The property shall be properly landscaped which includes:
Maintenance includes regular landscaping and removal of all trimming:
Property shall be maintained in a secure manner so as not to be accessible to unauthorized persons. Secure manner includes the closure and locking of all windows, doors, and gates.
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he exterior of a residential and commercial structure shall be maintained in good repair, structurally sound and sanitary so as not to pose a threat to the public health, safety, or welfare as outlined in the International Property Maintenance Code, 2015.
No recreational vehicles can be stored on any lot in a residential district except for in an enclosed garage, provided however that a recreational vehicle may be parked on a driveway or in the rear yard of a residential lot for a period not to exceed a total of twenty-four (24) hours during loading or unloading. Recreational vehicles are considered to be the following:
All exterior property and premises shall be free from any accumulation or storage of constructional materials such as but not limited to:
This is unless said materials are related to and necessary for lawful construction activities on the premises, the storage is neat and orderly and is limited in duration to the time reasonably necessary to incorporate the stored items into the construction on the premises.
No owner of any parcel of land within the city shall permit any growth of weeds, grass or other vegetation to a height no greater than seven (7) inches on the average, or any accumulation of dead weeds, grass, or brush.
Prior to May first in any year the city manager is authorized to notify the owner of any parcel of land or the agent of the owner to cut, destroy, and/or remove the material and vegetation and to keep it cut, destroyed and/or removed until October 15 of that year.
Use of off-street parking for the storage or repair of motor vehicles or for the parking of wrecked or junked vehicles is prohibited.
An individual parcel owner may remove the greater of 4 regulated trees or 10% of the regulated trees from their lot within a two-year period without a permit. If the owner elects to remove a percentage of the regulated trees on the parcel, they must adequately document the total number of regulated trees on the parcel. Anything over the above allotted number of trees requires a permit.
All exterior property areas are to be maintained in a clean, safe and sanitary condition, this includes the removal of trees or tree branches that have fallen.
Businesses at times use a "banner" type sign on the exterior of their property to advertise or celebrate an award or milestone. This type of sign is prohibited.
A "natural feature" is a wetland such as a lake, pond, river, stream, or creek.
There is a 25-foot setback from the boundary or edge of a wetland and no activity such as construction, landscaping, tree/brush removal can occur within the setback without approval from the city.


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On April 26, 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukraine exploded, precipitating the worst nuclear disaster in history. Nuclear fallout rained over Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, and the nearby town of Pripyat had to be completely evacuated.
In 2006, On The Earth Productions went to Chernobyl to see the sarcophagus that surrounds the plant and to speak to those affected by the disaster. One guide explains that Pripyat was built to "service" the nuclear plant, and that the town bore the brunt of the radioactive fallout. At the Chernobyl museum, a guide who was born in the area explains that the soldiers who worked so hard to clean up and stabilize the situation in the aftermath of the disaster were some of the first victims of the radiation.
But could the disaster of Chernobyl happen again? In a revealing segment that echoes the unfolding crisis at Japan's Fukushima plant, the museum guide explains that the plant was built on a fault line. It was not, she says, "so clever to build on unstable ground."
—Kevin Gosztola


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Casa del Jazz
Opening times
Cultural sites should respect the COVID containment measures.
For the opening times and guidelines please check the official website.
Today's events
Scheduled events
The Casa del Jazz is the result of an architectural and landscape conversion of the Villa Osio, built at the end of 1930s by Cesare Pascoletti, student of Piacentini.
The three-building complex, in the middle of a wonderful 25,000 sq. metre park, belonged to a famous mafia boss and was converted, after a series of administrative and operative measures and actions, into a multi-purpose music centre. The core of the complex is the main villa that hosts a multipurpose auditorium where lectures on the history of jazz take place, hold by the experts of the sector, guides to listening to music for non experts, press conferences, presentation of new releases and books, didactic activities organized by the best music schools of Rome, readings, festivals and live music, that can be recorded with an appropriate equipment. The same building hosts the library with an important multimedia archive that can be consulted in multimedia seats, a library and a bookstore.
Inside the park there are a sound studio available for beginners and professionals, and also a lodge for Italian and foreign artists that want to remain in the complex. An area with restaurant and coffee shop, as well as the green park full of trees, are at the disposal of the citizens, even out of hours and activities of the Casa del Jazz.
A unique place in Europe and moment of meetings for the great names of international jazz world, the Casa del Jazz is also for less known artists, above all Italians, that cross all the styles of this genre, from Dixieland to avant-garde. Its aim is to encourage and promote jazz in Italy and create meeting occasions between musicians, producers and critics and promoting activities for curious people and laymen.


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- Fuel Injectors
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Bosch Flow Matched Fuel Injector Set 2004 Mitsubishi 2.4 Lancer (4) HDA-305E
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The injectors have been ultrasonically cleaned, spray pattern/flow tested, pressure tested to ensure no leaks and then rebuilt with new Viton O-rings, micro filters and pintle caps.
These injectors will act brand new at cheaper price then buying them new. Injectors may have some cosmetic flaws such as discoloration and small scrapes on the body but it does not affect the function of the injector.
All injector sets are matched within 2% and flow at the stock flow rate unless otherwise noted. Injectors come with a 2 year warranty against all defects!
Professional instillation recommended, I am not responsible for incorrect instillation or improper handling of injectors. Make sure to properly lubricate o-rings before installing.


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(CNN) -- A six-month-old baby had a miraculous escape after his stroller rolled off a railway station platform and into the path of an incoming train.
The stroller rolling towards the edge of the platform.
The incident, which happened Thursday at Ashburton railway station in Melbourne, Australia, was captured by CCTV.
The footage shows the baby's mother momentarily letting go of the stroller, which then rolls over the edge of the platform. Second later, a train pulls in to the station.
The stroller and baby were dragged 30 meters (33 yards) further up the track before the train came to a halt.
John Rees, a spokesman for train operator Connex, told Australia's Channel 7 television station: "It's a miracle this baby wasn't killed. The baby managed to escape with just a cut to the forehead, I'm told. It's a complete miracle."
The baby boy was quickly reunited with his distraught mother. He was taken to Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital but was later discharged.
Channel 7 said the incident came just a day after the launch of a public awareness campaign warning of the dangers of strollers on platforms.
Victoria state police sergeant Michael Ferwerda told Channel 7: "Parents especially need to be vigilant especially with toddlers."


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The Canon EOS C300 Mark III and the Canon EOS C500 Mark II are Cinema EOS stablemates offering the latest technology to give stunning visual results. With large sensors for incredible low-light performance as well as a beautifully shallow depth of field, easy HDR workflows, a wide dynamic range, and internal and external RAW video capture, they make obvious choices for high-level productions across broadcast, commercial and documentary.
Industry-leading codecs, built-in image stabilisation supporting 5-axis camera shake correction and the advanced Dual Pixel CMOS AF are further commonalities, while each camera has its own distinct sensor technology – a 4K Super 35mm DGO sensor in the Canon EOS C300 Mark III and a 5.9K full-frame sensor in the Canon EOS C500 Mark II.
Director of photography and long-time Canon user Ben Sherlock has worked with both cameras since their release, gaining a deep understanding of their shooting strengths. Specialising in documentaries with a cinematic and adventurous edge, Ben has filmed in more than 70 countries, including extreme environments and conflict zones, and worked on TV programmes for BBC Studios and National Geographic. He recently used both camera bodies on a survival and bushcraft project, shooting in woodland in high contrast and low-light conditions. Here he shares his experiences with the two cinema cameras and explains how they match up in the field.


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An enormous Canadian flag flew high over Quadra Street near Christ Church Cathedral early Thursday afternoon as hundreds of law enforcement officers from across Greater Victoria and elsewhere in Canada and the U.S. marched underneath.
Dozens of onlookers lined Quadra to watch rows of police officers, firefighters and RCMP officers in full dress uniform march in a procession from the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre to the church to honour late Victoria police Const. Ian Jordan.
Jordan, who died in hospital on April 11 at age 66, spent more than 30 years in care after being seriously injured in a crash with another VicPD car while responding in his police cruiser to a potential break and enter on Fort Street. The two vehicles collided at the intersection of Douglas and Fisgard streets.
According to VicPD, the crash resulted in the creation of a "trauma team," which helps officers and staff who have experienced traumatic incidents, and also prompted a change in procedures for controlling traffic lights.
"Many colleagues use the phrase 'friend for life' when describing him," said Victoria Police Chief Del Manak during the public funeral. "We always remembered him … We talked about Ian's story. We visited him regularly. We kept the plaques in his room updated. We cared and we never let Ian forget he was one of us and that we had his back," Manak said.
Over the three decades Jordan was in hospital, Manak learned about the kind of officer, husband, father and friend he was. A man with witty humour that some believed could be chief one day.
"Even during his many years in hospital, Ian was a constant reminder of things that made us want to wear the uniform in the first place: integrity, dedication and service before self," Manak said.
"For me Ian's service didn't end on that night in 1987. On the contrary, he continues to serve as a source of Inspiration for all of us."
Manak noted how the family started a bursary in Ian Jordan's name in 1988 for law students balancing the demanding course study with family obligations.
"Even after leaving us Ian will be associated with higher learning, getting the most out of life and for having that internal drive to serve his community. Nothing we can do will bring Ian back, but we can and we will remember him as a fellow police officer, as a friend, as a father, a husband and a father.
Ian you have done your service you paid the ultimate price we will remember you and we will never forget. You are now one of our fallen heroes."
Mark Jordan thanks his mother during the funeral for father Const. Ian Jordan #ChristChurchCathedral @BlackPressMedia pic.twitter.com/t6zPNL3w6H
— Victoria News (@VictoriaNews) April 19, 2018


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The Fed has been mightily concerned about the deflation threat all year for just this very reason. That is why they have been so easy, and plan to remain very accommodative for quite some time, since it will likely take many months or even years before the economy fully recovers.
Monetarists and supply-siders, on the other hand, prefer to see inflation as a monetary phenomenon. Supply-siders in particular like to watch market-based indicators of how easy or how tight monetary policy is, and to use these as a guide to what inflation is likely to do. For most of this year, these indicators have been suggesting that inflation pressures are rising, not falling: the dollar has been very weak of late, commodity prices have been rising almost across the board, the yield curve is very steep, gold has risen to a new all-time high above $1000/oz., and interest rates are very low relative to measured inflation.


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Diverse Santas a Big Hit in LA
In many western cultures, Santa Claus is traditionally depicted as Caucasian man with a white beard in a red suit. But around the United States, this symbol of Christmas comes in many colors. Producer Deyane Moses visited one Los Angeles shopping mall where non-traditional Santas are a tradition. Mike O'Sullivan narrates.


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Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI), including responses that no criminal record exists, are confidential. Sections 11142 and 11143 of the Penal Code provide for criminal penalties for the release of this information to unauthorized individuals.
Article I, Section 1 of the California Constitution grants California citizens an absolute right to privacy. Individuals or agencies violating these privacy rights place themselves at both criminal and civil liability. The California right of privacy was created to curb, among other things, the over broad collection and retention of personal information by government agencies, the improper use of information properly obtained for a proper purpose, and the lack of a reasonable check on the accuracy of existing records. (White v. Davis (1975) 13 Cal.3d 75, 775.)
CORI shall be accessible only to the records custodian and/or hiring authority charged with determining the suitability for employment or licensing of an applicant. The information received shall be used by the requesting agency solely for the purpose for which it was requested and shall not be reproduced for secondary dissemination to any other employing or licensing agency.
The retention and sharing of information between employing and licensing agencies are strictly prohibited. The retention and sharing of information infringe upon the right of privacy and fails to meet the compelling state interest defined in Loder v. Municipal Court (1976) 17 Cal.3d 859. In addition, maintenance of redundant information separate from the information maintained by the California Department of Justice (DOJ) avoids the updates and makes it for DOJ to control dissemination of CORI as outlined in section 11105 of the Penal Code.


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After almost three decades working the counter at Capone Foods in Somerville's Union Square, Albert Capone has become a stranger in his own city. "It's gone from townies to hipsters," he said on a recent evening. "The hats, the tattoos, the tight skinny jeans — on the guys. It's like they're trying to out-hip each other."
He gazed out his window at the stylish Bloc 11 Cafe across Bow Street, and at the 20- and 30-somethings biking by, and noted that the grandmothers who used to buy his fresh mozzarella have largely yielded to single adults.
"I am the oldest man in Somerville," the 60-year-old said.
As the city seeks to reinvent itself — the mayor says his "branding experts" won't let him utter the word "Slummerville" — it has made such progress that a previously unimaginable situation is emerging: the city is now concerned about becoming too cool.
"We don't want to lose our soul," Mayor Joseph Curtatone said.
And yet, with Ana Sortun and other prominent chefs flocking to open new restaurants in Somerville, the pending opening of Green and Orange Line stations, a Yelp Wordmap showing frequent "hipster" mentions in reviews of Davis and Union Square establishments, the development of "luxury" apartments, events like decentralized music festival PorchFest, and the recent appearance of Brooklyn Boulders Somerville, a rock-climbing club, the scene has become so intense the hipsters themselves are worried.
"I'm part of the problem," K. Adam White, a 27-year-old wearing a plaid shirt, facial hair, and multiple ear piercings, said as he hung out in Union Square on a recent evening. "I'm even an engineer."
The precise definition of a "hipster" is hard to pin down. Cartoonist Dustin Glick's "theory of hipster relativity" holds that there is "no such thing as a hipster on its own. A hipster can only exist in comparison." In one of Glick's cartoons , the guy with tattoos and a bicycle considers the guy standing next to his own gin still to be a hipster, and that man in turn sees the musician Kyp, from the band "TV on the Radio," as a hipster, and so on.
But in general hipsters are known — and admired or mocked — for riding fixed-gear bikes, wearing suit vests and thick glasses frames, adopting hobbies like chicken raising, and affecting snobbery for microbrews and a general more-ironic-than-thou attitude.
Whatever they are, they're amassing in Somerville, which claims to be the only city in the country that conducts a happiness survey. The 2010 Census found that the city has the second-highest proportion of residents between the ages of 25 and 34 in the United States. That places Somerville right after Hoboken "but ahead of Cambridge," said Daniel Hadley, director of SomerStat, the mayor's data analysis team.
Take that, Cambridge.
Somerville's charms are luring high-end chefs, too.
Sortun, of Oleana and Sofra Bakery & Cafe in Cambridge, is planning to open Sarma, a meze restaurant, sometime after Labor Day. Tony Maws, of Cambridge's popular Craigie on Main, is planning to open The Kirkland Tap & Trotter in early September. Michael Krupp, of Kendall Square's Area Four, and his team just opened A4 Pizza in Union Square. Tim Wiechmann, the fine-dining chef from Cambridge's T.W. Food, and his wife recently opened Bronwyn, also in Union Square.
"Somerville presents a diverse community," Wiechmann said. "I'm not a mainstream chef. I wanted a place that would accept us. We have a German sausage restaurant."
At 4.2 square miles, Somerville is smaller than Cambridge's 6.3. Its official population is 77,000, although it's probably higher, Hadley said. In 2010, the estimated median household income was $61,241, up from $46,315 in 2000. Almost 26 percent of the residents have a bachelor's degree, 20 percent have a master's, and 6.3 percent have a doctorate, according to 2011 figures, all well above the statewide averages.
On a recent summer evening, Union Square felt like a hipster theme park. The craft beer and the men's long hair were flowing. The words "local," "house made," and "organic" called from almost every menu. Men in suit vests and beards biked alongside women carrying rolled-up yoga mats. The spirit of Brooklyn was in the air.
This is a city so forward-thinking that its food trucks already feel so last year. "We want to have a roving art truck," said Rachel Strutt of the Somerville Arts Council.
Sitting in a refurbished garage space off an alleyway, MaryCat Chaikin talked about her new center for urban agriculture, a place called Relish. It offers courses in learning to build your own worm bin, brew your own beer, and raise your own backyard chickens. It also sells small-batch candles. "They're made by local bees," Chaikin said.
Somerville has come so far that the derogatory nickname the mayor won't speak has developed a cachet: the Somerville Brewing Company Inc. has named a line of craft beers Slumbrew. Although some old-timers have groused, cofounder Jeff Leiter says, "The best way to put the old term behind us as a community is to juxtapose its historical sense with the exciting new future of Somerville."
The future doesn't come cheap. A survey done last year by a city intern found that the median advertised price for a one-bedroom apartment was $1,700. The city doesn't have a comparable study from years earlier, but Dana LeWinter, the city's director of housing, says her department is hearing a growing number of complaints about people having difficulty finding affordable apartments.
Hadley, the director of SomerStat, says the changes in Somerville actually started in the town next door. "To me, the story really starts in back when rent control was abolished in Cambridge, in 1995," he said. "That's when you suddenly see a lot of people fleeing Cambridge and coming over the border."
Dan Zevin, an author who moved to Somerville in 1984, a couple of years after the Davis Square Red Line station opened, recalled what the city was like before the immigration from Cambridge started. "All that was there was Barnaby's Tap, this old-man alcoholic bar with guys who would meet for their breakfast beer," he said.
Zevin spent 15 years in Somerville. "Little by little, Barnaby's became Redbones, the barbecue place, and then a coffee shop opened, and then the Somerville Theatre got revitalized, and suddenly this rundown theater became this cool indie theater."
How did Somerville become "Slummerville" in the first place? Mayor Curtatone, 47, who grew up in a Somerville filled with meat packing factories and brick manufacturing plants, said "bad decisions" made in the mid-20th-century contributed to the city's negative reputation.
"We had just short of 20 rail and trolley stops, and we abandoned those," he said. "I-93 came through Somerville and uprooted and displaced hundreds of families, the McCarthy Overpass was constructed, we brought in the Somerville waste transfer station — but we're knocking that down within the next 60 days. We had no land use policies, and there was political corruption."
The Cambridge-fication of some parts of Somerville may have reached a tipping point on a warm Thursday evening in mid-August in Union Square, when the city hosted a ribbon cutting for what was billed as possibly the world's smallest museum. The beautiful, tiny gallery sits in an indentation between a Subway sandwich shop and a bar selling craft beer and heirloom tomatoes.
As the crowd eagerly awaited the mayor and his tiny scissors, Steve Pomeroy, the outdoor gallery's engineer (and the boyfriend of its founding curator), explained its features, which include sustainability and accessibility.
"The whole system is solar powered," Pomeroy said, pointing to minuscule track lights that illuminated the art in the inaugural installation, "Invisible Cities."
"If someone works the night shift, they can still see the art," he said, careful not to step on a complementary installation on the sidewalk — a palm-sized parking spot, T stop, and, of course, bike rack.
A few moments later, the mayor was ready to cut the ribbon. An upbeat man in a neat blue suit, crisp white shirt, and light blue tie, he paused for a private moment before taking center stage and gave voice to a dream that may be the savior or the downfall of the city he loves. "I wish I were a hipster," he said.
Beth Teitell can be reached at email@example.com. Follow her on Twitter @bethteitell.


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