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Saturday, January 5, 2013
Tutorial: ribbonwork pansy
18 comments:
Oh, how I love pansies! And yours are so pretty! Thank you for he tutorial.ReplyDelete
These pansies are so lovely. Thank you for sharing!ReplyDelete
this is beautiful, thank you for showing usReplyDelete
Hi Marjolein...this post is more informative than you know. I googled Lacis.com and found it is merely about 3 hours from me and I have a friend who lives near this fabulous Lacis Museum and store. Thank you very much. Your little ribbon pansies are lovely. You make this look very doable. Creative Hearts are Happy Hearts...ReplyDelete
Very cool, Marjolein! I love how your pansies turned out!ReplyDelete
Another Great tutorial from Threads and Patches! Clear and instructive, and very inspirational. It always amazes me how a few pieces of ribbon, a bit of thread and a pinch of patience can turn into such realistic and charming blossoms. Well done!ReplyDelete
absolutely wonderful! I agree completely with what Queenie wrote :)ReplyDelete
Marjolein how I look forward to your posts and the knowledge and talent you share with us and I rally am going to have a go at the ribbon flowers today, watch out they might appear on one of my CQJP blocks with a bit of luck Googled the gauge, not available here yet but one day it will arrive,then I might just have to have one!!ReplyDelete
Beautiful pansy ang hanks for your tutorial!!ReplyDelete
Hugs and kisses.
Thank you for your tutorial, your pansies are so beautifulReplyDelete
Such pretty and beautifully made pansies. Thank you for the exellent tutorial and pictures!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJanuary 6, 2013 at 8:20 AM
Pansies are my favorite flower, and these are just darling!ReplyDelete
Love the flowers. Will need to make some for decorations and my GGD's headbands my granddaughter likes to put on her. Looking through your pages, i see you love to embroider. Embroidery is my first love of crafting, since i was 5.ReplyDelete
Thank you so much for taking the effort and writing this great tutorial. Must give these wonderful pansies a try!ReplyDelete
Your pansies are so cute! Thanks for sharing your tutorial.ReplyDelete
wery cool Marjolein!Thank you for sharing!ReplyDelete
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Detroit Sports:A year in review
This past year in Detroit Sports the team that had the most news happen to them was the Detroit Pistons. Last season they finished the regular season strong and stormed into the playoffs looking to win a NBA Championship. In the first round of the playoffs they beat the Milwaukee Bucks in 5 games. In the second round they faced the New Jersey Nets. New Jersey swept them in the Eastern Conference Finals the year before. The Pistons went into the series with revenge on their minds. They were down 3-2 in that series but they came back and won game 6 on the road and then won game 7 at home to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second straight year. In the Eastern Conference Finals they faced the Indiana Pacers. This series will be most remembered for Tayshaun Prince's block on Reggie Miller, as he tried to score on a layup, at the end of game 2 preserving the win for the Pistons. The Pistons finished off the Pacers in 6 games to move unto the NBA Finals to face the LA Lakers. A lot of people thought the Pistons would give the Lakers a decent fight but barely anyone thought they would actually win the series. The Pistons not only beat the Lakers to win the NBA Championship but they just plain destroyed them. They won the series in 5 games. It was their first championship since 1990, and it was Detroit's first championship since the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup in 1998. Even though the Pistons won the title, a few monthes later early into this season, they were involved in the biggest brawl in NBA history with the Indiana Pacers. People are still talking about it. It left a scar on Detroit and its fans. It was horrible and it never should have happened. Other than the brawl, the Pistons still had a great year. They won the title and during this past offseason they signed Antonio McDyess. Hopefully his signing will help them defend their title. They have started this season off slow but they have been picking it up of late. The Pistons should be a good team for years to come.
The Detroit Tigers finished last season with a 72-90 record. That would be a horrible record for most teams but for the Tigers it was great. The Tigers have not had a winning season in a long time. Before this past season the Tigers finally spent some money. They signed Ivan Rodriguez and some other good players. Rodriguez was one of their biggest signings ever. He brought some much needed leadership to the team. He made the allstar team and won another Gold Glove as a catcher. The Tigers also traded for Carlos Guillen during the offseason. Before this past season, Guillen was just an average shortstop with average stats. In his first year with the Tigers he was awesome. He had a career numbers in almost every major catagory. He hit .318 and drove in 97 runs. He was even an alterate on the all-star team....The Tigers look to be getting even better. They have a young pitching staff that could be very good. They have some players who can hit and field. They can only get better in 2005. This offseason they signed Troy Percival. They have went after a lot more players but everyone has turned them down. They still have a shot at signing Kevin Millwood, Derek Lowe, Carlos Beltran, and a few others. Even if the Tigers don't sign any more players; I still think they will be even better this upcoming year. Their younger players should continue to develop and Percival will help the bullpen. They should be fun to watch in 2005 and beyond.
It is hard to tell if the Detroit Lions are in another downfall or, for once, an upside. They are currently 6-9 and are about to end another losing season against the Titans this weekend. The NFC is very weak this season, and if the Lions would have won maybe 2 more games then they probably would have made the playoffs. They lost a lot of very close games that they should have won. The biggest losses that stick out in my mind are both the games against the Vikings and the game in Green Bay against the Packers. The Lions really underachieved this season. They should have been at least 500 with the young talent that they have. Although the Lions did not play up to their potential, they showed us some hope for the future. We saw Roy Williams and Kevin Jones have awesome rookie seasons. Williams has ended the season weak(mostly due to injury) but he still has 7 touchdowns and he is already the Lions best receiver. Kevin Jones started the season bad but he ended it awesome. He has over 1000 yards rushing and 6 total touchdowns(5 rushing, 1 receiving). He is going to be an alternate in the Pro Bowl. Both of these players will be awesome for years to come....The main story of the Lions season was the play of Joey Harrington. Harrington starting the season very good but he rapidly went down hill after the Lions great 4-2 start. In the last few games he has picked it up a little but there are still a lot of doubters in this guy. I said before this season that it was his do or die year but actually I now think that this upcoming season will be his time to do or die. The success of the Lions rests mainly on his shoulders. If he comes back with a strong season then the Lions should be able to sneak into the wild card spot. His numbers have gotten better each season that he has been in the NFL and that trend should hopefully continue next season.
The Detroit Red Wings had the least happen to them this year because of the NHL lockout. Last season, before the lockout, the Wings were knocked out of the playoffs by the Calgary Flames in 6 games. It was tough to see them lose but they have been Detroit's best sports team in the last 10 years. They won 3 Stanley Cups in 6 years and we can not complain. Hopefully the NHL will resolve this mess and have the players play at least next season. If they do come back next season; the Wings will have to rebuild. They are an older team and they must get some younger players. However, the future of the the Detroit Red Wings and the NHL is unknown.
The Michigan Wolverine football team had a much better season than people probably expected them to have. Coming into this season they were without John Navarre, Chris Perry, and others(all seniors). They started freshman quarterback Chad Henne all season and freshman running back Mike Hart for most of the season. Henne and Hart were awesome all year. Both of them led the Wolverines on offense. We have them for at least 2 more years each and it will be very exciting to watch them get even better. Michigan finished the season with a 9-2 record. They lost to Ohio State in the final game of the season but they still were Big Ten champs. They play 5th ranked Texas in the Rose Bowl on the 1st of January. Michigan is ranked 12th but they still should give Texas a great battle. Look for Michigan to compete for the championship next season or the one after that.
There you have it, that is my take on the year in Detroit Sports. If you have any thoughts on 2004 then leave a comment or email me. It was an up and down year for Detroit Sports but it was an exciting year still the same. I have been writing on this site for almost a year and I hope to run it for years to come. It should be even more fun to cover Detroit Sports in 2005. Happy New Year everyone!

subset: commoncrawl


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Polarisreached a major milestone with production of the one-millionth model of its Sportsman ATV this year. The Sportsman with its automatic transmission first hit ATV dealerships 15 years ago.
The company completely redesigned the popular model for 2009. The Sportsman now comes in a 550 XP (shown) and 850 XP model, loaded with power, conveniences and comfort. While the new Sportsmans are geared to work, owners can still expect to enjoy a great ride.


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It has recently come to my attention that organizations such as the Weeden Foundation are attempting to garner support for the anti-immigration movement by utilizing a contrived connection between illegal immigrants in the United States and an increase in pollution. The "logic" behind this suggests that when illegal immigrants cross into the U.S they adopt a more Americanized lifestyle and therefore tend to pollute more than if they stayed in their countries of birth and live in poverty.
"Impoverished people tend to pollute less, so let's keep 'em that way"–fake slogan of groups suggesting connection between illegal immigration and environmental catastrophes.
The culprit is not illegal immigrants as these groups are implying, but American society and the way in which it functions. We are taught from an early age in the United States that consuming products we do not need is not only a luxury to be indulged in once in a while, but an ideology to live our day-to-day lives by. Bigger and better have become almost interchangeable in the American lexicon.
Green washing a human rights issue is not acceptable. You can not argue that immigrants, legal or otherwise, are of concern because of their being a detriment to the environment, if that logic were acceptable one could argue that abortions are eco-friendly because they keep the world's population down, (before anyone gets in a tizzy, I am simply using that as an example of the irrelevance of connecting two unrelated issues in order to gather support for your movement of choice.)
Suggesting that the opposition to illegal immigration is an issue born out of a need to achieve environmental friendliness seems to be a thinly veiled attempt to allure to the more left-minded members of society to support this particular movement. This thinking ignores the fact that the eco-friendly movement is one the encompasses a compassion for the human rights of all people. While illegal immigration is a complicated issue that must be addressed in some capacity, suggesting that families seeking a slice of the American dream are a detriment to the environment as a means to convince people that immigration should be done away with is unfair, heavy-handed and unnecessary.
We need to take a long, hard look at the American dream and revise its antiquated definition. As a society we owe it to ourselves, mother Earth and any future citizens of our country, to no longer glamorize the idea that living in an inconvenient suburb where one has to drive to the nearest drive through to obtain their flash fried supper to return home to their oversized mc-mansion is the idea lifestyle. A more eco-friendly version of this dream–think more bicycles and less Hummers— is one we need to cultivate if we are to continue to thrive not only a country but as healthy planet.
It is hypocritical to sit around and judge immigrants from the seats of our gas guzzling SUVS; thinking that we as Americans have the to use and abuse the environment and that nobody else does is down right repulsive.
"Hey, only U.S citizens have the right to litter and eat puppies…if everyone else does not do it, then we are golden!"–Some sick guy who eats puppies while littering. (What a turd.)
As a nation of legal citizens we need to stop being so turd-like ourselves and start focusing on the real issues that we as one of the top polluting nations on this glorious planet of Earth are causing by our over indulgent way of life.
In the age-old notion of whoever smelt it dealt it, we are the ones sniffing out the problem and trying to lay blame on the innocent guy standing next to us.
Not cool, anti-immigration movement. Not cool at all.
-Meghan Hurley


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Janet Jackson Nixes Rumor About 'X Factor' Judging Position
Although she has played coy about the topic in the past, Janet Jackson has squashed rumors about her becoming a judge on the forthcoming season of 'X Factor.'
According to The Insider, the R&B star said she is "very flattered that 'X Factor' let me know that I was being considered for next season, but it just wouldn't be possible." Jackson cited her Number Ones Up Close and Personal tour, which resumes this summer, and a commitment with Lionsgate as reasons why the endeavor would be "unrealistic" at this time.
Her team also added, "There have been absolutely no meetings between Janet and anyone with regard to 'X Factor.'" However, during a recent interview with Anderson Cooper, Jackson raised eyebrows with her response to the talk show host's questions about her involvement in the show.
"Oh my God. No, I'm not a judge on 'The X Factor,'" she said, adding, "… But that's all I really think I should say."
Many stars are reportedly in contention to replace ousted judges Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger, but no one has been confirmed. Simon Cowell is expected to make an announcement about the show in the next few weeks.


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Michael Hartnett, Bank of America's Chief Global Equity Strategist, recently published a masive report title The Longest Pictures. It includes tons of charts with some of the most obscure data out there, mostly sourced from Global Financial Data.
One cool chart that everyone should be able to understand is that of the 10-year Treasury note yield.
Hartnett notes that since 1902, Treasuries have followed distinct long-term bull and bear markets. From his report:
- 1790-1902: erratic yield fluctuations and then a sustained decline in yields to below 3%.
- 1902-1920: the First Bear Bond Market, yields rise from 3% to 5-6%.
- 1920-1946: the Great Bull Bond Market, yields decline from 5-6% to below 2%.
- 1946-1981: the Second Bear Bond Market, yields soar from 2% to above 15% during 1981.
- 1981-today: the Greatest Bull Bond Market, as yields tumble from 15% to 1.5% today.
Here's the chart from Hartnett's report.


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During the sixteenth century, a French apothecary named Nostradamus scripted cataclysmic predictions for planet Earth such as: the Balkan Wars, World War III, and the release of the iPhone. Unfortunately, Nostradamus' vague quatrains require intense hindsight and lack the ability to predict the future. As a result, Nostradamus' literature can be found in the Fiction aisle of the public library.
Nostradamus' work is a stark contrast to the blog entries of Fahradamus: a strapping, young, Fisher MBA student. In recent blog posts, Fahradamus accurately predicted a curse on the MBA basketball team. The day after the entry was posted; I took an elbow to the cheek while playing basketball which resulted in a humiliating black eye. Perhaps you are thinking that one accurate prediction is just luck. If this is the case, keep reading.
Last week, Fahradamus posted a blog that stated he was planning to play softball for the Fisher MBA intramural team. In this entry he stated, "Although softball might seem relatively safe, I am quite sure that one of my classmates (probably me) will either get a black-eye or sustain some other serious injury while attempting to relive our glory days." What happened next is probably obvious… In my very first softball game, I sustained a black-eye and required eight stitches above my eyebrow to stop the bleeding after I collided with a guy on the base path. Go figure.
Going forward, Fahradamus will only predict straight-A's, high paying job offers, and success in safe recreational sports such as golf.


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Monday, April 1, 2013
2 Karuizawas for Taiwan: 40yo & 45yo
The colour (dark mahogany – the 45yo with a slight 'candy apple red' shade) and consistency (incredibly thick, syrupy and oily) would lead you to believe they're very similar, but with well-aged Karuizawas you'll find that instead of smoothing out differences, time has a way of bringing out and developing individual quirks in the whiskies.
On the nose, the 40yo offers walnut bread, toasted almond flakes, marzipan, pumpkin seed scones, golden raisins, dry sherry, maraschino cherries, orange peel and subtle hints of grilled zucchini, white asparagus and rosemary focaccia. The 45yo is very different. Here we have aged balsamico, figs, old leather-bound books and old chapels, but also plum jam, prune chutney, stewed berries and a gorgeous mimolette cheese note. If you really give it time, you may even find something akin to bacon-wrapped parmesan-stuffed dates. Incredibly voluptuous.
The 45yo doesn't need any water at all, but with the 40yo, a few drops enhance the sweetness, both on the nose and the palate. They're both exceptional malts, but the 45yo is really in a league of its own. You can spend hours with a dram of this and feel like the luckiest person on earth – no question about it. If you see this – and chances are slim because people in Taiwan love their old sherried malts – this is one bottle worth breaking the bank for.
Read more about Karuizawa Distillery here.
6 comments:
- Unknown said...
where in taiwan will this be sold?
- April 1, 2013 at 9:08 PM
- Stefan said...
I'm pretty sure they're both sold out already. With these sort of Karuizawas, you have to be really quick. But maybe some of our readers in Taiwan can confirm this.
- April 1, 2013 at 9:29 PM
One available on whisky auction... for 1900€
When Nonjatta will release a new Karuizawa bottle ? ^^
- April 3, 2013 at 5:23 PM
- Stefan said...
Good question... but I can't say too much at this point. Before we release another Karuizawa, we want to release a few bottles from different distilleries. Keep following us (especially on Facebook) where we like to advertise these sort of things first! Thanks for the interest.
- April 3, 2013 at 5:26 PM
No spoiler, but any clue of what distillery will be the next one ?
Really good work with the Karui by the way, I enjoy my bottle !
- April 3, 2013 at 5:37 PM
- wt wong said...
The 40YO one has been sold out for sure. The 45YO one was first pre-sale in the last Taipei Whisky Live, and officially released back in Jan/Feb 2013.
Btw, am from Hong Kong and a big fan of Karuizawa/Hanyu/Kawasaki whiskies. :-)
- April 3, 2013 at 5:41 PM


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Biostatistics 101: Understanding Data
David Etzioni, MD, MSHS; Maher A Abbas, MD, FACS, FASCRS
Summer 2009 - Volume 13 Number 3
The Permanente Journal advances knowledge in scientific research, clinical medicine and innovative health care delivery. It is a peer-reviewed journal of medical science, social science in medicine, and medical humanities.
The Permanente Press
The Permanente Press publishes The Permanente Journal and books related to health care. For information about subscriptions, missing issues, billing, subscription renewal, and back issues, Email: firstname.lastname@example.com.
27,000 print readers per quarter, 15,350 eTOC readers, and in 2018, 2 million page views of TPJ articles in PubMed from a broad international readership.
The Kaiser Permanente National CME Program designates this journal-based CME activity for 4 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
All Rights Reserved.


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The European: You are currently involved in the Rosetta Project which aims to preserve the world's dying languages. Has society become too eager to discard things and ideas?
Brand: Interesting, I never thought of it that way. I think we have become too shortsighted. Everything is moving faster, everybody is multitasking. Investments are made for short-term returns, democracies run on short-term election cycles. Speedy progress is great, but it is also chancy. When everything is moving fast, the future looks like it is next week. But what really counts is the future ten or hundred years from now. And we should also bear in mind that the history that matters is not only yesterday's news but events from a decade or a century or a millennium ago. To balance that, we want to look at the long term: the last ten thousand years, the next ten thousand years.
The European: A big picture approach to issues like climate change and cultural transformation?
Brand: We're bearing in mind the big picture. Let me give you an example of how that approach might play out: When NASA released the first photographs of the earth from space in the 1960s, people changed their frame of reference. We began to think differently about the earth, about our environment, about humanity.
The European: Did the idea of the "Blue Planet" even exist before those photographs became public?
Brand: There had been many drawings of the earth from space, just like people made images of cities from above before we had hot-air balloons. But they were all wrong. Usually, images of the earth did not include any clouds, no weather, no climate. They also tended to neglect the shadow that much of the earth is usually in. From most angles, the earth appears as a crescent. Only when the sun is directly behind you would you see the whole planet brightly illuminated against the blackness of space.
The European: So the arguments we make about politics or about the environment are very intimately tied to our perceptions, and to our emotional reactions to those perceptions?
Brand: I think there is always the question of framing: How do we look at things? The first photos of the earth changed the frame. We began to talk more about "humans" and less about Germans or Americans. We began to start talking about the planet as a whole. That, in a way, gave us the ability to think about global problems like climate change. We did not have the idea of a global solution before. Climate Change is a century-sized problem. Never before has humanity tried to tackle something on such a long temporal scale. Both the large scale and the long timeframe have to be taken seriously.
The European: Do you believe in something like a human identity?
Brand: In a way, the ideal breakthrough would be to discover alien life. That would give us a clear sense of our humanity. But even without that, we have done pretty well in stepping outside our usual frame of reference and looking at the planet and at the human race from the outside. That's nice. I would prefer if we didn't encounter alien intelligence for a while.
The European: One framing issue that comes to mind is the question of the extinction of species. The current rate of extinction is many times higher than the evolutionary average. Yet few people would probably argue that we are living through a critical period of the earth's history.
Brand: Geologists are making very persuasive arguments about the effects that our behavior has on the scale of tens of thousands of years. We have become part of the geological record. As a biologist, I would say that the rate of extinction is problematic but not as bad as we used to think. But what I am more interested in is the recreation of extinct species using DNA samples. If we can bring back the mammoth, it could replace the Tundra with the old Mammoth grasslands, which fixes much more carbon.
The European: What is the value of reviving extinct species? Evolution progresses, species die and new ones arise. Why do you want to tamper with that process?
Brand: It sends a message of hope. We can rectify past mistakes, we can undo damage and harm. It would give people the sense that if we can fix something as profound as the extinction of a species, what else could we do for biodiversity? Instead of just complaining about problems, we would move towards fixing problems.
The European: Speaking of mistakes: You have defended nuclear power as a green source of energy. Has Fukushima led you to revise your position?
Brand: Not at all. Climate change has forced me to look at alternative sources of energy that reduce carbon emissions on a large scale. Gas is better than coal. Wind and solar power are better than coal, but they are expensive and thus far haven't made a significant contribution to our energy mix. I think that large solar farms in Northern Africa could eventually power Europe, but that's in the distant future. So we need to look elsewhere. Nuclear power can reduce greenhouse gases. Once I began to take that idea seriously, I found that my fellow environmentalists tend to greatly exaggerate the dangers of nuclear power. I think nuclear fusion would be a swell option, but for now we have to work with what we have. Nuclear technology has been widely implemented, and the technology is advancing every year.
The European: The German government is fairly confident that we can abandon nuclear energy by 2023 if we focus on gas, on renewables and on a decentralization of the power grid. Is that not a realistic goal?
Brand: I don't think Germany is even remotely able to do that. You turn off your power plants, and then you eventually have to import nuclear power from the neighboring countries. Germany should shut down its coal plants instead, just like France did a few years ago. But I am not sure whether democracies can really provide good answers to these questions that have very long-term impacts. The question is: If democracies cannot do it, what can? China has done a lot to expand carbon-neutral energy sources like nuclear power or water power. But China is no democracy.
The European: So you are saying that the model of representative democracy has reached its historical peak and that we should open up to the idea of more authoritarian regimes? To me, a bright future looks decidedly different.
Brand: No, I don't believe in authoritarian rule. But we have to face the problem that long-term solutions are often incompatible with our current political and economic arrangements. Many who worried about the population bomb were quite sympathetic to China's One-Child-Policy. But we have since seen that childbirths decline with urbanization and technological progress, so over-population is less dangerous that we used to think. When you empower women and give them control over family planning, family sizes decline. The current UN predictions of ten billion people by 2100 are simply misleading and not supported by reality.
The European: So we have to improve the extrapolations and predictions that we make based on present data sets? Brand: Steven Pinker is currently working on a book about the decline of violence through human history. We like to think that we are living in a very violent time, that the future looks dark. But the data says that violence has declined every millennium, every century, every decade. The reduction in cruelty is just astounding. So we should not focus too much on the violence that has marked the twentieth century. The interesting question is how we can continue that trend of decreasing violence into the future. What options are open to us to make the world more peaceful? Those are data-based questions.
The European: It is hard to see that positive trend when the violence and injustice that we experience on a daily basis demands our attention and demands to be rectified.
Brand: And people get angry at Steven Pinker for pointing out these positive trends. But why would you be angry about good news?
The European: I would respond that it is problematic to focus on the good news while neglecting the present problems. Too much optimism leads to complacency, right? That's the flipside of the idea of security – sans curitas, without concern –, it leads us to focus on a distant future while neglecting our immediate surroundings.
Brand: That's a very German strain that has been influential ever since the Romantics were surprised by the violent aftermath of the French Revolution. Nietzsche is full of cultural pessimism, of heroic despair. Today, we see many environmentalists embracing the idea that the earth is headed for doom. The problem with that is that it begins to celebrate and elevate the apocalypse as inevitable, rather than think about ways to make things better. Just look at the idea that nuclear power is going to destroy us all. There is no rational basis for that fear.
The European: What motivates that apocalyptic rhetoric?
Brand: It's tied to the Christian experience of rapture, to the coming of Christ in the end times of the world, when only the Christians will be gathered to meet him in heaven. Remember that there was an apocalyptic enthusiasm even in the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s. Many of the communes were survivalist, planning to outlive a dying civilization and then reinvent it. They all failed. They are great fun and very educational, primarily because the world did not end. I put this challenge to anyone who desires the apocalypse: Go to an island and pretend that civilization has destroyed itself. And then build something that is better than the world we know today.
The European: I would still say that the quest is not to remake society but to make it the best it can be. And that requires an awareness of the some of the problems that you have already mentioned. We need a certain sense of urgency to prevent apathy.
Brand: The term that I would object to is urgency. What if there is plenty of time to address the basic problems? What if what we need is persistence and patience? That is quite different from urgency. I grant you that there are immediate problems that require immediate attention. But for larger issues like climate change, our actions are important, not urgent. We must pursue incremental change, we must be open to experimentation, we must be persistent.
The European: I want to go back to the idea of framing. More information than ever before is available to us through technological innovation. How can we tame that jungle of knowledge and make it useful and digestible?
Brand: It strikes me that the internet has already been tamed. Google or Wikipedia give us the ability to rank things, to organize central hubs of information, to search all of human knowledge. The quality of books is increasing, because we can now find information and fact-check as we write. The depth of knowledge on the internet is surprisingly manageable.
The European: When you started to publish the Whole Earth Catalogue in 1968, you said that you wanted to create a database so that "anyone on Earth can pick up a telephone and find out the complete information on anything." Is that the idea of the internet, before the internet?
Brand: Right, I had forgotten about that quote. Isn't it nice that I didn't have to go through the work of collecting that information, it just happened organically. Some people say to me that I should revive the catalogue and my answer is: The internet is better than any catalogue or encyclopedia could ever be.
The European: You have been involved in some of the early discussions about the internet that were still characterized by a certain spirit of counterculturalism: John Perry Barlow, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the memories of the Grateful Dead. Have those discussions been overtaken by a more mainstream discourse?
Brand: There are pockets like edge.org, where I and some others hang out to keep track of things and of each other. There's a real rigor and a focus on science in that project. So there are many enclaves for critical discussion all over the internet. We talk a lot over listservs. Today's young generation might not even know them anymore, I don't know. They are basically long group email chains. I wouldn't be surprised if this persisted off the mainstream. In a way, even the Facebook chat is a continuation of the bulletin boards of the 1980s that were user-driven online discussions. What I find particularly interesting right now is the embrace of those discussions in the developing world. It might happen in the form of text messages or on Twitter. I don't think the form determines the triviality of information or the level of discussion. By having much more opportunities and much lower costs of online participation, we are in a position to really expand and improve those discourses.
The European: So the impact of technological progress has been overwhelmingly positive?
Brand: The answer is yes. When Nicholas Negroponte said a few years ago that every child in the world needed a laptop computer, he was right. Many people were skeptical of his idea, but they have been proven wrong. When you give internet access to people in the developing world, they immediately start forming educational networks. They expand their horizons, children teach their parents how to read and write.
The European: If we assume that Moore's Law is reasonably accurate, we would have computing power by the end of the decade that is 32 times faster than today. Do we have any idea of how to put that processing power to good use? Have we thought about what technological innovations are good innovations, about what path we should follow?
Brand: I usually don't frame questions that way. Usually when we theorize about technological progress, we tend to over-emphasize the harmful consequences and under-emphasize the positive consequences. We are generally surprised and amazed by the benefits that arise. That has happened enough times that I am skeptical about pessimistic assessments of technological progress.
The European: You mentioned the idea of surprise and amazement. On the back cover of the 1974 Whole Earth Catalogue, it said something similar: "Stay hungry, stay foolish". Why?
Brand: It proposes that a beginner's mind is the way to look at new things. We need a combination of confidence and of curiosity. It is a form of deep-seated opportunism that goes to the core of our nature and is very optimistic. I haven't been killed by my foolishness yet, so let's keep going, let's take chances. The phrase expresses that our knowledge is always incomplete, and that we have to be willing to act on imperfect knowledge. That allows you to open your mind and explore. It means putting aside the explanations provided by social constructs and ideologies. I really enjoyed your interview with Wade Davis. He makes a persuasive case for allowing native cultures to keep their cultures intact. That's the idea behind the Rosetta Project as well. Most Americans are limited by the fact that they only speak one language. Being multilingual is a first step to being more aware of different perspectives on the world. We should expand our cognitive reach. I think there are many ways to do that: Embrace the internet. Embrace science. Travel a lot. Learn about people who are unlike yourself. I spent much of my twenties with Native American tribes, for example. You miss a lot of important stuff if you only follow the beaten path. If you look at the world through the eyes of a fool, you will see more. But I probably hadn't thought about all of this back in 1974. It was a very countercultural move.
The European: In politics, we often talk about policies that supposedly have no rational alternative. Is that a sign of the stifling effects of ideology?
Brand: Ideologies are stories we like to tell ourselves. That's fine, as long as we remember that they are stories and not accurate representations of the world. When the story gets in the way of doing the right thing, there is something wrong with the story. Many ideologies involve the idea of evil: Evil people, evil institutions, et cetera. Marvin Minsky has once said to me that the only real evil is the idea of evil. Once you let that go, the problems become manageable. The idea of pragmatism is that you go with the things that work and cast aside lovely and lofty theories. No theory can be coherent and comprehensive enough to provide a direct blueprint for practical actions. That's the idea of foolishness again: You work with imperfect theories, but you don't base your life on them.
The European: So "good" is defined in terms of a pragmatic assessment of "what works"?
Brand: Good is what creates more life and more options. That's a useful frame. The opposite of that would not be evil, but less life and fewer options.


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A couple of pics were all I managed at this event. The lighting was not good for photos, although being so dark Stu did get to fondle Todd's goods (Hey - his words, not mine).
The first is a CD-1 obviously, which I got so excited about I immediately ordered one. The second is a meeting between the old and new Subs. On the right is my Sub C, and on the left is some random dude's '68.
Australian watch week
Discussion of Ægir watches.
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Nice Tony, thanks
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Good stuff, Tony. Glad to hear you were smitten with the CD-1.
You give respect, you'll get respect - you just don't know your place.
RIP Rocky (8/15/05-11/25/16)
RIP Rocky (8/15/05-11/25/16)
Re: Australian watch week
My Snaps from the event
poor shot but notice the "angled" dial
poor shot but notice the "angled" dial
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Whats that with the 12oclock crown??
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Re: Australian watch week
He was an interesting guy actually.amckiwi wrote:Bausele
Very dark room though, so not many pictures turning up. Time and Tide took a few, so hopefully theirs turn out.
Rome wasn't built in a day, but i wasn't on that job!
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SPECIAL NOTE: For multiplayer gameplay, each player must use a Game Boy Advance system and Game Link cable. The GBA screen will display important information unique to each player, allowing for advanced multiplayer action.
Square Enix brings us Crystal Chronicles, a Final Fantasy adventure with a new otherworldly look and innovative co-operative gameplay. In a world ravaged by a poisonous cloud, your people depend on a protective crystal that needs Mirula Droplets to sustain its healing energy. But these crystal droplets can only be found in a far away dungeon deep under the earth. As part of the Crystal Caravan you will journey across dangerous lands, fight fell monsters, and brave a dark underworld. Crystal Chronicles supports single-player and multiplayer gameplay.


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A big change for the better is coming Oct. 16 for Lancaster County Libraries and library users. On that day, the library system will "go live" with the SC Lends Consortium.
The change is essentially a merger with the records of 16 other libraries in the state.
For the user, it will mean immediate access to more than 3 million titles held by those member libraries. At the click of a button, library patrons can choose a book and have it sent by courier to their branch library in Indian Land, Lancaster or Kershaw.
If you currently subscribe or have subscribed in the past to the The Lancaster News, then simply find your account number on your mailing label and enter it below.
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Autonomous cars are the future. Connected cars are also the future. The future makes me want to hurl.
Here we have a car that Renault calls the Next Two. It's their vision of what a connected autonomous car can do in the future. That includes parking for you and driving along at a brisk 30 km/h while you read some documents with your coworker.
But it can also read signs. Like a sign for an upcoming concert. And then it'll see if you want to buy tickets for it. And because you have absolutely no reason to pay attention to the road at all, you can do just that, and laugh with your coworker about all the fun you'll have at the Of Monsters And Foster Of Leon concert.
Yes, I know, not everyone is interested in driving like we are. But there's a point when a car starts doing everything and then you lose the skill entirely. And then if something were to fail on the car and you have to step in to work it, you'll have no idea of what to do.
That's where we're heading folks. Into my nightmares.


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Or the energy for a full blog post.
Guess I am just letting you all know that I am still alive.... I think.
I will have a new blog up this weekend with all the shenanigans that I have been up to. In the meantime I thought this was funny.
Or the energy for a full blog post.
Guess I am just letting you all know that I am still alive.... I think.
I will have a new blog up this weekend with all the shenanigans that I have been up to. In the meantime I thought this was funny.
So after a couple of unsuccessful attemtps at adding a video to the site, I resorted to youtube. Because I am HK like that.
But first, a little update... and I mean little because I got a foot tattoo. Of a penguin. Because Penguins are awesome.
^^Dwaine my awesome tattoo artist from Electric Eye setting up
^^We have a head
^^taking more of a penguin
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Yes, I am going to spam. And nag and tell all of you wonderful cretins to go to an awesome site called UO Comics and spend money on only the most awesome comics ever!
If you were at comic con, you may have come across Gofu... or not. I dunno. If you were unfortunate and didn't come across Gofu, then I highly recomend you...
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I would like to interrupt my quiet patch with a special broadcast to an amazing friend with the most amount of sexy.
Happy birthday @arroia ! Hope you have a day as magnificent and as amazing as you are!
So yes, if you (everyone who is not the gorgeous birthday girl) would be so kind as to pop over and give her some birthday love, ass...
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So, despite that @missy and @rambo are keen to know our Summer plans... I unfortunately have another two months to go before it starts to warm up here.
So my middle of winter plans are to join Camp NaNoWriMo July 2014 and write a novel in a month. I am going to do it. I will do it.
I am hoping to write the first
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One day I will write a blog full of adventure and treasure. Maybe a love story fraught with horrendous obstacles. A blog so epic that all who read it will automatically shine with awesome and go out and make the world a better place just by standing there looking suave and incredible.
Until such a day arives, I will stick to @rambo and @missy 's...
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Okay, lets keep in mind that I was 14.
Possibly younger.
Still new and fresh at Durban, my friends were all into punk. Okay, that isn't so bad. Until you factor in that the ultimate band at that time was Tweak. Yes, that is right. My first concert was in a church hall (no lies) with a local band called Tweak as the main...
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and 181 Awesome comments.
Thank you all for your support on my set So I Play
Also, a huge thank you to @talamia who is responsible for the awesome photography and of course making me look good.
@arroia and @lumo for being the most supportive friends a girl could have.
@pyke for trying her best to get me to look moody (all the laughing photo...
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Naturally, when I read this homework assignment (as given by the gorgeous @rambo and the awesome @missy ) my first thought was:
And then I realized that I am spending way to much time playing with lego. Not that it is a bad thing. Although it would be cool having everyone dressed up as Minifigurines and play around with soft bricks (which are the uber...
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So, in terms of churning out sets I have not exactly been the best.
In fact, as I have only done two sets in the past (the one has been taken down because I really did not like it as much), I would say that I have not done much in the whole modelling department. Instead I have been living vicariously through @arroia and @lumo...
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FDA Approval of NAT for Detection of HIV-2, HIV-1 Groups O and M, and Hepatitis B and C
On December 30, 2008, FDA approved the first nucleic acid test (NAT) that screens for the presence of two divergent types of HIV in donated blood plasma and human tissue. Nucleic acid is the term commonly used to refer to the chemical compounds that make up the genetic material in the virus. The new FDA-approved test detects nucleic acid from HIV-2 and from HIV-1 Group O. HIV-2 infections and HIV-1 Group O infections are predominantly found on the African continent. Some cases of infection with these two types of viruses have also been detected in the United States.
The new test, called cobas TaqScreen MPX Test, will allow blood donor testing laboratories to use nucleic acid technology to screen for additional the HIV strains, further assuring that donated blood and tissue are free from infection and providing better protection for patients. However, FDA is not requiring screening with the new test at this time.
In addition to HIV-2 and HIV-1 Group O, the MPX test simultaneously detects nucleic acid from the most common form of HIV, HIV-1 Group M, as well as the Hepatitis C Virus and the Hepatitis B Virus.
The MPX test is designed for use with plasma specimens from human donors of whole blood and blood components, but not for testing donated source plasma, which is collected specifically for further processing and manufacturing.
The test is also intended for screening tissue specimens obtained from living donors whose heart is still beating. It is not intended for use on specimens from donors whose heart is no longer beating.
The cobas TaqScreen MPX Test runs on the fully-automated cobas s 201 System. It is manufactured by Roche Molecular Systems Inc., Pleasanton, Calif.


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Madison County commissioners agreed 4-1 last week to provide a $2,545 annual supplement to incoming district attorney Parks White's office to offset the salary of a new incoming chief assistant district attorney.
The supplement represents Madison County's population portion of the five-county district, which also includes, Elbert, Oglethorpe, Hart and Franklin.
White submitted a letter to the BOC saying that he wants to hire Geoffrey L. Fogus from the Augusta DA's office in order to help him handle the "overwhelming backlog" of court cases in the district.
"As I am sure you are aware, the office has been left in a state of deep neglect for many years," White wrote. "As my predecessor departs, two of his assistant district attorneys, including the chief assistant DA are departing with him."
Commissioner Mike Youngblood provided the lone "no" vote on the matter, saying he did not feel it was fair to provide for a "raise" for an out-of-county employee when county employees have not received a raise for a number of years.
"Are we prepared to give the rest of the county employees a raise?" he asked. "If we will agree to that I will (vote for the supplement), if not, I won't."
But commissioner John Pethel disagreed, saying he thinks providing the DA's office the requested supplement will be a good investment for the county and will help recoup court and jail costs incurred by the current backlog of criminal cases in the court system.
Chairman Anthony Dove noted that White had been voted in by a large margin and that his chief assistant would still be making $18,000 less per year than the outgoing assistant DA.
BOC approves DA's office supplement
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Hello, Dear Ones! I hope your week was a great one and you have amazing weekend and week ahead! I so appreciate each of you and love that you stop by each week. You have the most amazing recipes, ideas and inspirations! I can't wait to see what you have this week. Love and HugS, Sweetums!
Here are some of the fantastic links shared last week. I wish I could feature all of them!
Y'all know I love beautiful Joan of Chocolate, Chocolate and More! Please follow her here on facebook and her blog. You'll be so happy you did! Don't forget to check out the features to see if you are there.
Have you met lovely Christie of Food Done Light? She is amazing and I know you will love her, her blog and her facebook page, too. Please go over and follow her on both and see if you are featured on her blog.
Have you met lovely Christie of Food Done Light? She is amazing and I know you will love her, her blog and her facebook page, too. Please go over and follow her on both and see if you are featured on her blog.
Link to your original recipe, craft or tip and photo directly, not your blog.
Don't forget to link back to my post, or blog, with either a text link or our new button, directly on your post or party page. We are sorry but without a link back, you cannot be featured.
Please follow my blog, facebook, pinterest, twitter, e-mail, rss...you get it. Whatever is your favorite way to follow to stay up to date. Please do the same with my lovely co-hosts, Joan and Christie. By linking up to this party you are giving permission for us to use your photo on facebook, Google+ and other social media to promote Thursday's Treasures and you, with proper link credit given. Please make sure all photos you link up are your own.Share as many recipes as you like just as long as you haven't shared them here before. The party is open all week.
Please visit others...they appreciate it as much as we do.
Leave a comment, I love when you stop by.
Y'all have a beautiful week. Be good to yourselves and each other.
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Week's 1-29 can be found Here


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The Clerk of the Board's Office is a division of the office of the County Administrator. It provides staff support for all Board of Supervisors and Assessment Appeals Board meetings; accepts and processes property abatement requests; prepares, posts, publishes and archives records; receives and processes claims against the County; researches and copies current and historical records maintained by Clerk of the Board; posts vacancy notices for and keeps records of appointments to Boards, Commissions and Committees; processes legal publications, postings and notices; administers oaths of office for various appointed officials and Board/Commission members; acts as filing officer/official for Statement of Economic Interest forms; updates the County's Administrative and General Ordinance Codes; provides required training to advisory body members and staff to those bodies, and maintains the Board of Supervisors' public review file.
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- Stacey Boyd, Deputy Clerk
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If you're interested in serving on a county advisory board, there are many different openings where you can make a difference. Find out more by viewing the report of the current vacancies.
To search and view Board of Supervisors' records, click here.
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For more information on filing a claim, please click here.


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Cattle manure from a ranch in California's Salinas Valley carries E. coli bacteria that match the strain that killed three Americans and sickened 200, U.S. health officials said Thursday.
WASHINGTON -- Cattle manure from a ranch in California's Salinas Valley carries E. coli bacteria that match the strain that killed three Americans and sickened 200, U.S. health officials said Thursday.
Samples taken from three cattle at a ranch precisely match the strain of E. coli 0157:H7 taken from patients and from bags of spinach linked to the outbreak, Dr. Kevin Reilly, deputy director of the Prevention Services Division at the California Department of Health told reporters.
"This is a significant finding and it is the first time that we have linked a ... E. coli 0157:H7 outbreak to a specific ranch in the Salinas Valley," Reilly said.
Reilly said the outbreak had been traced to four farms in San Benito and Monterey counties in central California.
"Not all of them have both livestock and production of fresh spinach or produce right there right next to each other. This particular ranch that we just talked about does have that."
He said cattle were between a mile and half a mile from the spinach fields on the ranch.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which is leading the investigation into the outbreak, has been expressing concern for weeks that cattle were close to spinach, lettuce and other vegetable fields on some of the farms.
Escherichia coli is a usually harmless bacteria normally resident in the guts of animals, including humans. A new and pathogenic strain called E. coli O157:H7 was identified in 1982 and now causes an estimated 73,000 cases of infection and 60 deaths in the United States each year.
Most illness has been associated with undercooked, contaminated ground beef. But if contaminated manure gets into irrigation water or is used in fertilizer, it can get onto fresh produce or the water supply.
The FDA and California health officials have been looking at irrigation practices, whether E. coli was seeping into the groundwater and the possibility animals or people may have spread the bacteria onto the produce.
It was also possible the spinach was contaminated at the packing plant, the FDA has said.
"We continue to try to determine the connection between this finding and how the spinach on the field might have been contaminated," Reilly said.
"We do not have a smoking cow at this point now," he said.
Wild pigs are common in the area and move around the fields, Reilly said. He said there was no evidence the cattle had walked through the spinach fields.
Reilly and an FDA official said tests were ongoing to see if the deadly E. coli strain could be found at the other three farms under investigation.
Source: Reuters
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In most Karate schools a set of warm-up exercises are done before basics, kata, and other forms of training. The set done in Matsubayashi-Ryu are pretty standard and are similar to those done in other systems.
Originally, most Karate warm-up exercises came from the Japanese military, which in turn got them from European military advisers in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
So here is my point -- the warm-up exercises often have very little to do with Karate. In particular, with respect to our style (Kishaba Juku), the traditional warm-up exercises were not designed with koshi or koshi dynamics in mind -- they were not designed to improve the student's koshi.
This is important, at least to me. One of the important aspects of training in Kishaba Juku is reshaping the body to be optimized for koshi/core driven mechanics. Working the arms and legs is a very good thing, but working the core is also important. And working the connections between the upper and lower body, and core and extremities, is essential.
The military advisers to the Japanese army over 100 years ago were not thinking about this. We can.
I have been reformulating our warm-up exercises to help in the body reshaping process for our students. I am still working on it. I get this funny feeling that the exercises will make us more like Goju-Ryu and Uechi-Ryu students -- more alike physically and in posture.
And personally, once a student can do warm-up exercises properly, I would prefer that he warm up on his own so that we can get right into kata and training. Kata is a preferable way to warm up, at least to me. Why do warm up before doing kata? Why not just do kata to warm up?
But if we are going to teach warm-up exercises, it would be nice if the exercises could help us with body reshaping and body dynamics.
Charles C. Goodin
Warm-Up Exercises and Koshi
In most Karate schools a set of warm-up exercises are done before basics, kata, and other forms of training. The set done in Matsubayashi-Ryu are pretty standard and are similar to those done in other systems.
Posted by Charles C. Goodin on Wednesday, September 26, 2012


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Story highlights
- The Internet of Things market in China is expected to hit $80.3 billion in 2015
- Beijing has earmarked $800 million for IoT investment by 2015
- China has created state-funded zones like Chengdu Internet of Things Technology Institute
- Beijing aims to become a global leader in setting IoT global standards
When architect James Law looks in the mirror each morning his reflection is not all that greets him -- he can also see the weather report, e-mail messages and his heart rate.
"The biggest game changer of the past 25 years has been the Internet," said Law, whose Cybertecture Mirror is an offshoot of his Hong Kong architectural firm's focus on integrating technology in design.
"In buildings, the Internet has become ubiquitous but it hasn't caught up in the products that inhabit buildings -- chairs, doors, tables and mirrors."
Law's company -- and a raft of new government-funded projects in mainland China -- is looking to change that. Law's $5,000 mirror began as product his firm designed for a high-tech residential building in Dubai. "The Internet of Things began to become more real for us as a project," Law said. "We started to take these things out of our building designs to make them independent products, and try to impregnate them with as much technology as we can."
If there's a race to lead the Internet of Things (IoT), China aims to set the pace. Since Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao identified IoT as an "emerging strategic industry" in an interview on state media, Beijing has focused on developing technology by which devices can communicate via infrared sensor, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and other Machine-to-Machine (M2M) technology.
Beijing plans to invest 5 billion yuan ($800 million) in the IoT industry by 2015. The Ministry of Information and Technology estimates China's IoT market will hit 500 billion yuan ($80.3 billion) by 2015, then double to 1 trillion yuan ($166 billion) by 2020.
The government has established state-owned enterprise zones such as the Chengdu Internet of Things Technology Institute in Sichuan province, which is developing a health care system in which rural villagers can step into a telephone booth-sized "health capsule" to get a diagnosis and prescription from a doctor in a distant hospital.
"With the capsules and clinics, people do low-cost checkups and choose an online doctor for further diagnosis, then print prescription and purchase medicine from the capsule," boasts the program's web site.
The larger goal of China's focus in IoT, analysts say, is to win a fight Beijing has long been losing -- setting international standards for new technology.
After leading losing fights to use Chinese standards in 3G technology and wireless mobile standards, China is trying to get out front early on IoT. "In technology China has come from a position of follower, adopting foreign standards on which it has to pay royalties," said Mark Natkin, director of Marbridge, a technology consulting firm in Beijing.
"China is very interested in turning that model around, and create the standards by which other countries are paying it royalties," he said. "It's a new area, and as such, a place where China can be at the starting line or ahead of the starting line."
Law sees three other factors at play in China's IoT thrust. "China is in a position to invest more than other economies in the world at this period of time," Law said. "And China still has a internalized, walled Internet because it's trying to monitor, control and censor -- so it's in its own interest to develop these kind of products.
"But I think the third thing is China has matured to a point where it is no longer a low cost center of labor ... in cutting edge businesses, it wants to really develop its own brand and its own next generation of technology, to walk into the fight with your own swords by investing in the next Google, the next Apple," Law said.
"From a state perspective, there is everything to gain in nurturing their own brands ... the country wants to define the market rather than play catch-up," Law added.
Law's company has sold 500 of the Cybertecture Mirrors and is now developing a chair that recognizes the user and records individual health data. "I really feel that the next paradigm for product design will be changed by the Internet and the new range of materials we now have," he said. "We shouldn't be building things in the same way as the past."


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On Sunday, the sit-com Modern Family won a well-deserved five Emmy awards, including one for best comedy series. I'm a fan of the show, but can't help thinking that it is a double-edged sword.
The show depicts three inter-connected families who reflect a rich, 21st century American reality: a gay couple with an adopted Asian-American daughter, a spring/autumn marriage between a Colombian immigrant with a son and her much older Anglo husband, and a white heterosexual couple with three very different kids. Part of the brilliance of the situation, of course, is that they are really just one family; the older husband is the grandfather of the Asian-American daughter, the step-father of the Latino son, and so on.
And the beauty of the show, beyond its smart writing and inspired acting, is that it largely portrays the family's diversity as unremarkable. They are mutually flawed and hilariously dysfunctional, but their problems and misadventures are mostly universal ones. Mostly.
When he accepted his award, the show's producer, Steve Levitan, told of being approached by a real-life gay couple who wanted to say thanks. "You're not just making people laugh," they said, "you're making them more tolerant."
This is profoundly true. Television has the power to bring new people into our homes and lives, to make us know and even love characters and situations that may have seemed foreign or frightening. It has the power to make the "other" part of "us."
Over the past decade or so, Hollywood has begun to do so with LGBT characters and situations in ways that are creative, heartwarming, and important. And there is little doubt that the dramatic rise in public support for LGBT human rights, and particularly marriage equality, is attributable in part to these depictions.
This change was the result of struggle. In particular, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has worked tirelessly to hold Hollywood accountable for bigoted, stereotypical depictions, while applauding it for positive ones. Insiders note, also, that the progress of LGBT writers, producers, and actors in Hollywood has meant a presence and an authentic voice for characters who might have been written as offensive caricatures in past decades.
Which brings me to the other side of Modern Family. Gloria, the Colombian immigrant wife on the show, played by Sofía Vergara, did increasingly become a caricature last season, and sometimes offensively so. There is the increasing ridiculing of her accent and misinterpretation of English idioms that I thought went out with Ricky Ricardo. But more troubling are the repeated implications that, as a Colombian, she devalues life, is accustomed to mayhem, and may be dangerous herself. These are not so much perceptions that other characters have about her, but stereotypes that her character reaffirms through word and deed.
Modern Family has sometimes satirized racism as expertly as All in the Family ever did. But when the writers repeatedly put in Gloria's mouth lines about knowing how to use a knife or how to kill because she's Colombian, they are feeding stereotypes, not roasting them. And when Gloria responds to an ethnic slight from her husband by saying "Ah, here we go…Because, in Colombia, we trip over goats and we kill people in the street. Do you know how offensive that is? Like we're Peruvians!" they are saying, perhaps unintentionally, that stereotyping is OK because, hey, even the immigrants do it. It's a stark contrast to the show's smarter moments, when it mocks bigotry instead of riding on its back.
On balance, Modern Family is likely doing more to advance inter-ethnic understanding than to undermine it, particularly in its clever portrayal of Gloria's son, Manny, played by Rico Rodriguez. Nor should we expect any sit-com to make audience enlightenment its prime objective, Norman Lear notwithstanding. But if Steve Levitan and his colleagues are going to take credit for "making people more tolerant," they must also take responsibility for the stereotypes and intolerance they may be sewing, particularly at a time when America is debating the future of millions of immigrants in our modern American family.


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Leo DiCaprio Left A Pre-Oscar Party Followed By Three Girls — And No Bar Refaeli!
Will Leonardo DiCaprio and Bar Refaeli ever decide if they are on or off? One minute they are lounging in Cabo together, and the next, Leo is off flirting with groups of girls in L.A. in the days leading up to the Oscars!
According to Page Six, "Leonardo DiCaprio flirted with a string of pretty blondes at a party" at The Chateau Marmont in Hollywood, where Gerard Butler was also spotted picking up phone numbers.
A source said, "Leo was surrounded by a gaggle of girls all night. At one point, the threw his arms around a tall blonde and chatted with her and her friends." And to make it all the more suspicious: "There was no sign" of Bar!
Leo and his guy friend even left the party with three ladies in tow at 3 a.m. If he wasn't split with Bar before that, he probably is now! Honestly, how can anyone keep track of this fickle couple?


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British physicist Stephen Hawking has lived longer and achieved more than most quadriplegics have, but he's not done yet: The 70-year-old theoretician is still waiting for experimental evidence to launch him toward a Nobel Prize.
Hawking used his Nobel aspirations as a punch line more than once during his Saturday-night talk at Seattle's Paramount Theater, during a Seattle Science Festival symposium that also featured systems biology pioneer Leroy Hood and paleontologist Jack Horner. The "Luminaries Series" presentation also featured evolutionary rap and modern dance, but Hawking was clearly the headliner.
Part of Hawking's appeal is that he just keeps going, and going, and going, despite his disability. He's lived for decades with a progressively paralyzing form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. His entourage includes a nurse practitioner and an aide who looks after the high-tech system that translates his cheek twitches into speech. (He and his team have been testing a more advanced system that can turn brain-wave patterns into words.)
All this work to overcome adversity wouldn't have taken Hawking so far, however, if it weren't for his crazy smarts and his sharp wit. Both were in evidence during Saturday's talk, titled "Brane New World." Hawking laid out his perspective on what he thinks could be the ultimate theory of the universe, known as M-theory.
"We have been searching for the Theory of Everything for the past 30 years, and now we think that we have found a candidate," he said.
M-theory is a "mother" theory that fuses together several strains of string theory, and allows for dimensions of space beyond the three we're familiar with. For a long time, Hawking was reluctant to accept the idea of unseen extra dimensions, but on Saturday he said everything else about M-theory made so much sense that he couldn't resist.
"I feel to ignore it would be like claiming that God put fossils in the rocks to trick Darwin into believing in evolution," Hawking said.
The big question is, why haven't we detected those darn dimensions? M-theory's proponents suggest that some forms of energy, such as light, are confined to our three-dimensional space (known as a "brane," as in membrane). Gravity, however, just might leak out of our brane — and that effect could be theoretically be detected.
The key word is "theoretically." Picking up evidence of the extradimensional effect would require high-resolution measurements of high-energy phenomena, such as the clash of binary pulsars in outer space or the smash of subatomic particles at velocities near the speed of light. No such evidence has yet come to light, despite the best efforts of gravitational-wave observatories in the U.S. and elsewhere, as well as the Large Hadron Collider on the French-Swiss border.
If astronomers were ever able to observe the behavior of black holes, that could point to the effect of extra dimensions, Hawking said. One of the biggest achievements of his career was to lay out the theory for how black holes can eventually fizzle out, due to a phenomenon known as Hawking radiation. If black holes emitted part of their energy into extra dimensions, in a form Hawking called "dark radiation," that could explain why astronomers have not yet seen the expected gamma-ray burst from a dying black hole. The alternative would be that low-mass black holes are so rare that virtually none of them have gotten small enough to die out.
"That would be a pity," he said, "because if a low-mass black hole were discovered, I would get a Nobel Prize." At that point, a giant image of the Nobel Prize medallion flashed above the stage.
It might also be possible to detect the leakage of energy into extra dimensions by creating microscopic black holes at the Large Hadron Collider, Hawking said. That phenomenon hasn't yet been observed at the LHC. Before the collider started up, there was a huge flap (and a federal court case) over fears that such micro-black holes, if created, might gobble up the planet. But Hawking said that would never happen.
"Instead, the black hole would disappear in a puff of Hawking radiation — and I would get a Nobel Prize," he said.
Before his talk, Hawking answered a few questions that were submitted by journalists (including yours truly) in advance. The topics covered some of the physicist's favorite topics, including time travel and the potential threat of an alien invasion. He also referred to his family life, which was a big part of his agenda in Seattle. One of his three children lives in the area, and over the past few days, Hawking and his family took in the King Tut exhibit at the Pacific Science Center, a boat cruise on Elliott Bay and a circus-dinner performance at Teatro Zinzanni. It all made for a great Father's Day visit to the Emerald City.
Here's the Q&A from the pre-talk press conference:
Q: What would it take to make time travel a reality, and how would that affect our present reality?
A: "We are all traveling forward in time anyway. We can fast-forward by going off in a rocket at high speed, and returning to find everyone on Earth much older or dead. Einstein's general theory of relativity seems to offer the possibility that we could warp space-time so much that we could travel back in time. However, it is likely that the warping would trigger a bolt of radiation that would destroy the spaceship, and maybe the space-time itself.
"I have experimental evidence that [backward] time travel is not possible. I gave a party for time travelers, but I didn't send out the invitation until after the party. I sat there a long time, but no one came."
Q: If M-theory is the only candidate for a complete theory of the universe, what's the best evidence that you think will be found to support the theory? Lacking that evidence, isn't M-theory merely another kind of religion?
A: "M-theory is the only theory that seems to have all the properties that we would expect of a complete and consistent theory of everything, but that may just reflect our lack of imagination. If M-theory is correct, it predicts that every particle should have a superpartner. So far we have not observed any superpartners, but the hope is that they will be found at the LHC. If they are discovered, that will be strong evidence for M-theory. On the other hand, if they are shown not to exist, that will be exciting, because then we'll learn something new."
Q: How would you describe your quality of life? What do you miss most from before the onset of ALS?
A: "Although I'm severely disabled and on a ventilator, my quality of life is pretty good. I have been very successful in my scientific work, and have become one of the best-known scientists in the world. I have three children, and three grandchildren so far. I travel widely, have been to Antarctica and have met the presidents of Korea, China, India, Ireland, Chile and the United States. I have been down in a submarine, and up in a zero-gravity flight in preparation for the flight into space that I'm hoping to make on Virgin Galactic.
"Despite my disability, I have managed to do most things I want. My main regret is that it has prevented me from playing with my children and grandchildren as fully as I want."
Q: John Gribbin recently argued that we are almost certainly the only intelligent life in the Milky Way – do you think he's right or wrong, and why? Also, SETI astronomer Seth Shostak argues that even if there are other intelligent civilizations out there, it's too late for us to keep quiet about our existence, because it's possible to pick up the signals we've sent out over the past 70 years. So isn't it too late for us to keep quiet, and shouldn't we be thinking about upgrading our defenses against the alien hordes?
A: "We think that life developed spontaneously on Earth, so it must be possible for life to develop on suitable planets elsewhere such as the Earth. But we don't know the probability that a planet develops life. If it is very low, we may well be the only intelligent life in the galaxy. Another frightening possibility is, intelligent life is fairly common, but that it destroys itself when it reaches the stage of advanced technology.
"Evidence that intelligent life is rare or short-lived is that we don't seem to have been visited by extraterrestrials.I am discounting claims that UFOs contain aliens. Why would they appear only to cranks and weirdos? Nor do I believe that there is some government conspiracy to conceal the evidence, and keep for themselves the advanced technologies the aliens have. If that were the case, they aren't making much use of it. Further evidence that there isn't any intelligent life within a few hundred light-years comes from the fact that SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, hasn't picked up their television quiz shows.
"It is true that we advertise our presence by our broadcasts. But given that we haven't been visited for 4 billion years, it is unlikely that aliens will come anytime soon."
Updates on the 'Chicken-saurus'
Hawking may have been the headliner, but he wasn't the only luminary at Saturday's "Luminaries Series" symposium on the theme of evolution. Jack Horner, who's based in Bozeman at Montana State University's Museum of the Rockies and has served as an adviser for the "Jurassic Park" movies and the "Terra Nova" TV series, brought the sellout crowd at the Paramount up to date on his quest to create a "Chicken-saurus."
"We're basically going to turn a chicken into a dinosaur," Horner said.
The idea is that the genetic code in chicken cells may still carry the instructions for producing traits that are associated with the dinosaurs from which they descended. "Birds are dinosaurs, so we don't have to 'make' a dinosaur — we already have them," Horner said. He and his colleagues are looking for ways to express those long-buried traits, known as atavisms. Even humans can express atavisms. For example, there have been cases of children born with tails.
"You don't have to do any magic," Horner told me. "You just have to find the atavisms in the genes."
Some researchers have already found the genes to produce chicken teeth, and Horner and his colleagues are methodically checking chicken embryos for avenues that could be used to create birds with long, dino-like tails or three-fingered claws like the ones sported by the velociraptors in "Jurassic Park." Horner told me that one of his students compared the effort to the Apollo moonshots.
"It's more than possible," Horner said. "It's just going to take a lot of money."
The future of medicine
In his talk, biologist Leroy Hood outlined his vision of the medical frontier. As the founder of Seattle's Institute for Systems Biology, Hood champions an approach to health care he calls P4 — predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory medicine. He said P4 medicine will arise from the convergence of revolutions in genetic analysis and data processing.
"Ten years in the future, each and every one of you will have your complete genome sequenced," Hood said. If quintillions of bytes' worth of genomic data can be used to nail down the linkages to disease factors as well as the factors that lead to wellness, it should be possible to get health care that's better as well as cheaper.
But getting the payoff from that promise depends on making the genomic data available to researchers, most likely on an anonymized basis, as well as developing the computational firepower to make sense out of a massive cloud of that data. "None of the IT companies have looked at this seriously," Hood said.
To get the ball rolling, Hood said he and his colleagues are talking with four small countries to implement P4 health-care programs in the next two or three years. Although Hood didn't name the countries, his institute already has a partnership with the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to work on P4 initiatives.
"I have thought about going to small countries because I think the health-care system in the U.S. is too fragmented and disjointed to have any coordinated kind of change, but if you see that another country has done it very well, then that will be quite convincing," he said.
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.


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"Free for All" is how Papp presented Shakespeare in Central Park and in mobile units that toured some of New York City's poorest, toughest neighborhoods. A free-for-all was the kind of battle he engaged in with anyone he thought stood in the way of making theater accessible to everyone.
And a free-for-all, the voices skillfully assembled in Kenneth Turan's text reveal, was frequently the atmosphere created by Papp's burning sense of mission and his intensely personal relationships with the artists he nurtured and infuriated during such groundbreaking productions as "Hair," "No Place to Be Somebody," "Short Eyes," "A Chorus Line," "for colored girls . . ." and "Runaways."
Turan, who signed a contract with Papp in 1986 to write this book, got a taste of the producer's volatility when he handed in the manuscript and Papp refused to allow its publication. Comments by estranged former collaborators upset Papp, and he had recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer, which led to his death in 1991.
With the permission of Papp's widow, Turan, now film critic for The Times and director of the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, revised the text in 2006. He chose not to conduct further interviews and to end in 1985 with the production of Wallace Shawn's scarifying "Aunt Dan and Lemon." "In a sense this book is a historical document," he writes, "and splicing in a facile updating, inserting new ideas from a radically different era, felt fatally anachronistic."
So "Free for All" is not a definitive history of the New York Shakespeare Festival and the Public Theater. Turan is a seasoned journalist but not a theater specialist; he doesn't offer his own analysis or attempt to reconcile conflicting accounts of controversial events. What he does brilliantly is bring to life a period of theatrical ferment and the charismatic man who set it bubbling.
The opening chapters sketch Papp's impoverished Depression-era childhood, encounters with anti-Semitism and experiences in the Young Communist League, which formed his lifelong conviction that "culture, by itself, was not significant. It had to be always doing something for the masses."
Shakespeare, he believed, was for the masses; they would fall in love with the Bard just as a poor boy from Brooklyn had -- if they weren't intimidated by ticket prices and snooty Broadway theaters.
The noisy, responsive crowds that flocked to his first summer season of free Shakespeare in 1956 bore him out. Half the Lower East Side seemed to have crossed FDR Drive to the East River Park Amphitheater, Papp remembered. They shouted, "Watch out, he's killing you!" during "Julius Caesar" and yelled, "Aw, give 'er a pillow!" when Colleen Dewhurst as Kate sank to her knees at the end of "Taming of the Shrew."
"I realized that theater is not an elitist art; theater is for the people," Dewhurst told Turan. "I could have gone through a whole career not having had that experience. I thought finally, 'This must be the way Shakespeare really was.' "
Papp fought for that vision after free Shakespeare moved to Central Park, handing powerful Parks Commissioner Robert Moses a rare defeat when he tried to force Papp to charge admission in 1959. The same vision inspired the Public Theater, launched in 1966 to present contemporary works. For his new theater's home, Papp rescued a derelict building in the grungy East Village; for its first production, he chose a play that reflected the ferment in the streets outside. "A tribal love-rock musical? Gimme a break," thought his sensible second-in-command Bernard Gersten. But Papp was right and "Hair" was a sensation. The Public Theater did not profit substantially from the subsequent Broadway production, but Papp didn't make the same mistake with an offbeat 1975 musical crafted from dancers' memories. "A Chorus Line's" 6,137 performances in its original run on Broadway poured an estimated $30 million into the Public's coffers.
Crafting a collage of 30 years of theater history from the participants' recollections, Turan vividly conveys the complex, chaotic nature of theatrical creation and Papp's amorphous but crucial role in it. He was primarily an institution builder, dedicated to providing a welcoming environment for artists and audiences neglected by mainstream commercial theater. Yet he always aspired to a broader market for the challenging works showcased at the Public, a desire that prompted his problematic deal with CBS to produce plays on television (canceled by Papp after the network dumped "Sticks and Bones," David Rabe's savage depiction of Vietnam's aftermath), an erratic four-year tenure at Lincoln Center and the disastrous New American Playwrights season at the Booth Theatre on Broadway, abandoned after one production. By the end of the 1970s, he had retrenched to focus on the Public and the Shakespeare Festival, still touching a nerve with plays like Larry Kramer's pioneering AIDS drama, "The Normal Heart."
The reminiscences of friends and colleagues make it plain that Papp, though often warm and generous, could be exceedingly difficult: relentless in getting what he wanted, ruthless in cutting his losses and moving on. The net effect of this layered portrait-by-collective, however, is to buttress Turan's conclusion that "what he achieved against truly impossible odds dwarfs everything else."
His monuments endure: permanent homes for free Shakespeare at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park and contemporary drama at the Public, which also stands as a model for sustaining innovation and experiment emulated by many other nonprofit groups. The American theater is more ambitious and more diverse because of Joe Papp, and Turan captures virtually every exciting moment of its transformation in the words of the creative and passionate people who lived the adventure with him.
Smith is the author of "Real Life Drama: The Group Theatre and America, 1931-1940."


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Matthew E. White | 29/11/12
On January 21st, Domino will release Big Inner, the debut album by Virgina-based artist Matthew E. White.
Moving, redemptive and powerfully soulful, Big Inner is a timeless record told in seven songs that mingle memory with the rawness of any given human moment. The references — from the lyrics that echo the common conditions of love, death, seeking, and finding, to open tributes to artists like Washington Phillips, Allen Toussaint, Jorge Ben, Jimmy Cliff, and Randy Newman — are their own scavenger hunt through music history and through White's place in it.
Pitchfork have today premiered the video for Big Inner track "Will You Love Me." The panoramic promo, directed by Daniel Portrait, juxtaposes the scenic hills of Durham, North Carolina with the emotionally poignant song. Watch it now:
A gifted jazz arranger and exceptional guitarist, White's vision for Big Inner was realised with the help of bassist Cameron Ralston and drummer Pinson Chanselle,who make up the core of his Spacebomb House Band and then embellished with horns, strings, and a choir - all culled from and roused by the venerable landscape of Richmond, Virginia and recorded in the attic of White's house in the city.
To celebrate the release of 'Big Inner', White and the Spacebomb House Band will be performing in the United Kingdom for the first time in January 2013, playing the following intimate dates:
• Tuesday 22nd January – The Hope, Brighton
• Wednesday 23rd January – The Lexington, London
Big Inner will be released on Domino on 21 January. If you're hungry for more Matthew E. White, then you can listen to (and download!) album highlight "Big Love" now:


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Whether you sell goods online, via mobile or by phone, you'll likely have noticed an uptick in fraud attempts recently. In fact, the Global Fraud Attack Index™ found that in 2015, online fraud attacks rose by 215 percent — an astonishing amount. Fraudsters are also getting cleverer about how they attack, using technology to speed things up. The same study found that more than 80 percent of U.S. fraud attempts used botnets. In response, retailers are turning to a new generation of faster, smarter fraud prevention solutions.
The rise in fraud was anticipated by industry experts, who noted that EMV (microchip cards) adoption in other countries had helped stop card-present fraud, but also led to significant CNP fraud increases. Fraudsters don't give up just because one kind of fraud has become harder — they just shift to another channel.
At the same time, customer expectations are higher than ever. So the challenge for online retailers is to combine effective fraud prevention that protects their bottom line with great customer experience and high approvals, to increase sales. In this slideshow, Bill Zielke, CMO of Forter, explains some of the key things that e-commerce merchants should be thinking about to achieve the best of both worlds.
Related Topics : SharePoint, Web Video and Voice Conferencing, UK, MySpace, Intranets
With an historic shift toward e-commerce, it's more important than ever that retailers have the right pieces in place to successfully capture online traffic and drive conversions. ... More >>
Digital innovation is by far the biggest influencer, changing the way we do just about everything, from shopping to communication to running a business. ... More >>
In addition to posing a critical challenge to company branding, web scraping threatens sales, SEO rankings and can undermine the integrity of content that took resources to produce. ... More >>


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New Bern aldermen will tackle a full agenda Tuesday night that includes possible pawnbroker fees and opposing any attempt to move the city�s court facilities.
New Bern aldermen will tackle a full agenda Tuesday night that includes possible pawnbroker fees and opposing any attempt to move the city�s court facilities.
The board meets at 7 p.m.in City Hall where aldermen will consider adopting an amendment to the city ordinance that would require pawnbrokers and cash converters to be licensed and to report pawn transactions on an electronic system to the police department. Also, an application and criminal records check would be required.
In addition, the application would have to be reviewed by the Fire Department to determine compliance with fire safety codes and by code enforcement for compliance with zoning, building and development regulations, reports show.
�Upon approval and payment of a license fee, a pawnbroker license would then be issued and would require renewal on an annual basis,� a statement from city staff says. �In lieu of utilizing handwritten forms to document pawn transactions, the owner of pawn stores would input information into an electronic forum which can be easily searched by many different criteria.�
The electronic transactions would allow for a more timely investigation into stolen items, staff reports say.
The implementation of the electronic system would result in no associated cost to the store owner. However, the store owner would have to have access to a computer for daily input of their transactions, according to staff reports.
The cost of the software to the Police Department would be an annual fee of $4,528, with the remainder of the current fiscal year prorated at $2,264, according to reports.
An amendment to the city�s fee schedule would have to be made to include pawnbroker fees.
Fees would have to be established for a pawnbroker application and renewal license. The initial application fee would be $50, and the annual renewal fee $25, reports show.
The board also will consider a resolution opposing any attempt to move CravenCountycourt facilities to the new Craven County Jail and Sheriff�s offices in the Clarksarea of the county.
�The city feels such a relocation of court facilities would have a detrimental impact on many professional offices and establishments in downtown New Bern, as well as a negative impact upon the citizens and constituents of the City of New Bern since access to the facilities would be much more difficult,� a statement from city staff says.
Another resolution will be considered official intent to reimburse the future financing of the new meter reading system.
The first phase of the Advanced Metering Infrastructure/Demand Side Management System (AMI/DSM) pilot project will cost about $950,000.
A declaration of official intent to reimburse is needed so the city may pay itself back from loan proceeds for any purchases which are made prior to obtaining bank financing, according to city staff reports.
The board also will consider a resolution approving street light in the areas of East Pleasant Hill Driveand Meadows Street. Residents have requested additional street lighting in those areas, and it has been determined additional street lighting is necessary in order to meet the city�s standards, staff reports show.
A resolution will be considered to approve an agreement with LPS Developers of Long Leaf Pines Subdivision to accept the ownership and maintenance of the water, sewer and street infrastructure within the subdivision, phases 1-7. The developer will provide a 24-month warranty on all of the components, reports show.
The board will consider a resolution supporting the New Bern Police Department in an effort to apply for three grants through the 2014 N.C. Governor�s Highway Safety Program.
The first application would be for funds to buy a motorcycle with associated equipment, uniforms for a motorcycle officer and travel expenses for necessary training, staff reports show.
The projected cost associated with this application is $89,500 and would be funded entirely by the grant, reports show.
The second application is to purchase three pole-mounted speed display signs and 10 dual antenna radars. The projected cost of this equipment is $40,000 and it would also be entirely funded by the grant, according to the report.
The third application is to seek two light towers, a generator, 100 traffic cones and an equipment trailer. The cost is $31,500, of which 75 percent would be funded by the grant and 25 percent through matching funds from the city. The $10,000 needed for matching funds would be included in the Police Department�s budget for FY 2014-15, according to reports.
A resolution will be considered setting a public hearing for the 2009 Community Development Block Grant New Bern received for community revitalization.
The project area is Third Avenue between Broad and Elm Streets and is funded with $1,000,000 in CDBG funds, $50,000 in Powell Bill/N.C. Department of Transportation funds, $100,000 from Neuse River Community Development Corp. and $15,000 in local match as a contingency for the recreation activity, according to staff reports.
The grant program closes on March 18. Because of unforeseen circumstances, the project will not be completed by that date. In addition, the budget needs to be realigned to reflect projected budget amounts. For these reasons, a three-month extension is requested, staff reports say.
Another public hearing will be set to amend definitions of the city�s streets and sidewalks ordinance.
The amendment is an attempt to further define �improved street� and to require undeveloped lots to have access to an improved street prior to development, staff reports show.
The board will also consider the final subdivision plan for Hardee Farms, Phase One, Section B, a proposed 29-lot residential development located on 13.9 acres in an R-8 Residential District off Old Airport Road.
The average lot size is 8,418 square feet with approximately 1,516.5 linear feet of proposed new streets. The developer has submitted a cash bond for $133,530 to cover the cost of incomplete improvements, staff reports show.
The board will consider a resolution authorizing the mayor to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a New Bern Area Metropolitan Planning Organization.
The towns of River Bend, Trent Woods and Bridgeton, along with Craven County and New Bern want to create the New Bern Area Metropolitan Planning Organization.
The Memorandum of Understanding will establish the framework for the MPO, the roles and responsibilities for operating the MPO, voting structure, fee schedule, committee and subcommittee representation and other membership requirements, staff reports show.
A resolution will be presented to closestreets for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parade on Feb. 23 from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. One of the involved streets is Broad Street, which is still maintained and owned by DOT. Upon the city�s approval of the street closure, DOT would be required to agree to the closing as well, reports show.


text: I will visit USA with my family (my spouse and my son) since the 15 July 2006 to the 31st August 2007 with a J1 visa. I shall be there as an exchange researcher in Oak Ridge National Lab, Oak Ridge, TN. I would like to receive a quotation for a medical insurance for the whole family for the above mentioned period, with a deductible of c.a. 100 $ and fulfilling the conditions of a J1 visitor. Thank you,