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Heartland Institute and ALEC Partner to Pollute Classroom Science
PolluterWatch: Greenpeace Investigates Heartland Institute Leaked Documents -- click to see investigation and ongoing updates.
UPDATE: After dropping support for ALEC, Pepsi distances itself from the Heartland Institute's climate denial.
Perhaps the most outrageous revelation of "Denialgate," the leak of internal Heartland Institute budget and fundraising documents detailing their 2012 work plan to obstruct global warming policy, is a project to develop school curricula to teach K-12 students that there is doubt over the causes and implications of global warming.
What hasn't been reported is the complementary role of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which has peddled laws written by corporate lobbyists through state legislatures that make it easy for its dirty energy members, such as Exxon, Koch Industries and Peabody coal, to influence how climate science is presented to students. The so-called "Environmental Literacy Improvement Act," which has been introduced in seven states and became law in at least three, would establish a state-level council to oversee all scientific material presented to students, allowing companies to smother classroom science with K street politics. This council would notably exclude anyone with environmental science credentials, instead composing itself in the following proportions:
Basically, it ensures that climatology will be underrepresented. Note that environmental science is interdisciplinary, open to a variety of natural science expertise in order to study complex natural systems that cannot be confined to a single topic of study. See our annotated version of the ALEC bill showing how ALEC's language can be used to peddle global warming denial in schools.
So where did this bill come from? We know that ALEC members include not only the Heartland Institute, but a who's who of dirty energy interests that stand to make money by denying climate change. More specifically, there appears to be a key industry operative who oversaw development of the ALEC bill. Her name is Sandy Liddy Bourne, the daughter of convicted Watergate criminal G. Gordon Liddy.
Alexandra "Sandy" Liddy Bourne runs an oil industry front group called the American Energy Freedom Center with former ExxonMobil lobbyist Randy Randol. Bourne is a longtime affiliate of both the Heartland Institute and ALEC,
currently formerly a Heartland senior fellow for environmental issues and formerly Heartland's vice president for policy and strategy. Prior to joining the Heartland Institute, Sandy Liddy Bourne was ALEC's Director of the Energy, Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Task Force for the from 1999-2004, before being promoted to Director of Legislation and Policy, where she oversaw all of ALEC's task forces and helped boost state enactment of ALEC's corporate bills from 11 percent to 20 percent. In Bourne's time directing ALEC's environmental task force, the "Environmental Literacy Improvement Act" was created and approved by ALEC's board in June, 2000.
While this ALEC bill was finalized, ALEC's Private Enterprise board chairman was Mike Morgan of Koch Industries. The Heartland Institute still promotes ALEC's "Environmental Literacy Improvement Act" on its website to this day.
Confused? Check out all the key players in this interactive ExxonSecrets map!
Heartland Payments to Federal Employee for Unscientific Climate Lesson Plan
The Heartland Institute repeatedly has shown it doesn't hold the scientific method in particularly high regard, even if their climate denial conferences are run under the banner "Restoring the Scientific Method." According to its 2012 fundraising document, Heartland is paying a US Department of Energy (DOE) official named David Wojick $5,000 a pop for modules teaching high school students that "whether humans are changing the climate is a major scientific controversy."
It's not. Regardless of whether David Wojick simply denies this reality or if he drank the Koch Industries Kool Aid, his climate credibility is zero.
The National Academy of Sciences found that 97% of actual climate researchers understand that global warming is happening and is primarily caused by humans burning fossil fuels. However, most K-12 students don't read the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. I certainly didn't--I relied upon my teachers to teach science with unbiased integrity.
Wojick has expertise not in climate science, but the philosophy of science. He has done contract work for the coal industry through the "Greening Earth Society," a fairy tale organization established to promote the absurd idea that more CO2 in our atmosphere, such as from burning coal and other fossil fuels, is unconditionally good for our planet. This fallacy is promoted by other notable non-experts, such as oil billionaire David Koch and junk scientist Craig Idso, who produced propaganda films for the Greening Earth Society (a coal industry front group). Idso presented "The Many Atmospheric Benefits of CO2" to ALEC's Energy and Environment task force at their August, 2011 meeting in New Orleans, where he told ALEC insiders that we "should let CO2 rise unrestricted, without government intervention" since "CO2 is definitely not a pollutant."
The coal industry clearly wishes this were true, Mr. Idso.
In addition to accepting fossil fuel propaganda money alongside Mr. Wojick at the Greening Earth Society, Craig Idso also consults for the Heartland Institute. Idso's $140,000 contract with Heartland this year is to coordinate the anti-scientific "Climate Change Reconsidered" reports, an admittedly "political" project that includes contracts to two federal workers and multiple university faculty members. These payments US Interior Department (DOI) contractor Indur Goklany, who is under investigation by the Interior Department's Inspector General's office at the request of US Representative Raul Grijalva of New Mexico.
While the Heartland Institute is doing its best to make this unraveling scandal disappear, mainly by vilifying scientist Peter Gleick for embarrassing the Institute, Greenpeace is pushing for more. We continue to seek answers from federal bodies and universities whose employees are taking money from the Heartland Institute to attack science and disrupt the democratic process on behalf of tobacco companies, industrial giants and billionaire ideologues like the Koch brothers. Visit PolluterWatch for ongoing results of Greenpeace's investigation of the Heartland Institute leaked documents.
Key References:
- Steve Horn, "ALEC Model Bill Behind Push To Require Climate Denial Instruction In Schools," DeSmogBlog, Jan. 26, 2012.
- Brad Johnson, "INTERNAL DOCUMENTS: The Secret, Corporate-Funded Plan To Teach Children That Climate Change Is A Hoax" ThinkProgress Green, Feb. 14, 2012.
- Brad Plumer, "Will your kids be taught that climate change is a hoax?" Washington Post Wonkblog, Feb. 23, 2012.
- Katherine Bagley, "Science Educators Troubled by Heartland's Climate Curriculum and Author's Credentials," InsideClimate News, Mar. 15, 2012.
- Evan Lehmann, "Heartland Institute is looking at 'every place' in grades K-12 for climate debate," ClimateWire, E&E Publishing, Mar. 15, 2012.


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On this website we recommend many pictures abaout World Map Showing Croatia that we have collected from various sites World Map, and of course what we recommend is the most excellent of picture for World Map Showing Croatia. If you like the picture on our website, please do not hesitate to visit again and get inspiration from our website.
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text: Amplified Speaker Packages OEM Speaker Replacement Kits Radio Replacement Kit 1997 Ford Thunderbird Car Audio Upgrades The Ford Motor Company (commonly referred to as simply Ford) is an American multinational automaker headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The Ford Thunderbird is an automobile that was manufactured by Ford in the United States over eleven model generations from 1955 through 2005. Here at HifiSoundConnection.com, we have a full selection of 1997 Ford Thunderbird Car Audio Upgrades and Packages that will suit your car audio needs. These products were made to its finest by the leading names in car audio products today. Feel free to browse at HifiSoundConnection.com and purchase your very own Car Audio Upgrades at its lowest prices ever!


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Just a quick note regarding the team at Klei Entertainment. As noted previously, everybody at Klei Entertainment is working from home due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Many of us have been working especially hard to help maintain operations as we all move out of the office and into our homes and with everything being done online, extra time must be spent in organizing conversations and trying to maintain communication. As some of you may know, we have a very open office and we are almost always in contact with each other as we go about our days. Some of us work across multiple teams and that work has become a bit more challenging for everybody.
That being said, at this time the transition has not caused any major disruption in our operations, but it would be overly optimistic to expect that we won't have any delays at all. We're going to have to be especially mindful about this in the coming weeks and make sure we don't take on too much work so we can keep things running smoothly.
We will let you know as we see how these changes affect our timelines.
The test yesterday went well. We got the whole office (mostly) to work from home without significant issue. As a result, Klei Staff that can work from home have been asked to do so until further notice.
This means that we will have to cancel the Rhymes with Play stream until we are all back in the office.
This shouldn't affect anything else at least in the short term, but if things change I will update you all here.
Original Post:
Hey everybody,
This Tuesday March 10th, 2020 the entire staff at Klei will be working remotely for 1 day in an effort to prepare the studio to work remotely for a little while if the need arises.
Klei is already set up pretty well to allow for working remotely, however we are going to have a one day "dry run" with the whole studio so that we can identify and avoid any issues or downtime that may arise should choose to implement a work from home policy due to COVID-19 outbreak concerns.
Unfortunately this does mean that we will be canceling the "Rhymes with Play" Art stream this coming Tuesday, however unless the situation changes we expect everything at the studio to be back to normal Wednesday and we'll continue our regular stream schedule Thursday March 12th. If the situation changes at all, we'll let you know. Thanks for your understanding.


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A private sector worker would have to retire with a 401(k) balance of $768,940 to match the retirement income of an average career state government employee.
That is one of the key findings of a new study by Andrew Biggs, a pension and Social Security expert at the American Enterprise Institute, a free-market-oriented think tank.
The study compared total retirement income for full-career state employees, including both pensions and Social Security income (where applicable) among the 50 states, but more critically in relation to career private-sector workers, and found an inequitable distribution of income in favor of government employees.
"Full-career public employees retiring today […] receive pension benefits that place them among the highest-income retirees in their states," Biggs wrote.
A second inequity Biggs found was between state employees of varying career lengths, with benefits calculated in a way that heavily advantages career state employees.
As a result of policies such as lengthy vesting periods, "shorter-term public employees greatly subsidize the generous benefits received by full-career government workers," he wrote.
But the focus of Biggs' study is the gap between state workers and the private-sector workers who, directly or indirectly, fund their generous retirement income benefits.
That gap was considerable in that Biggs found that "an average full-career state government employee has a combined pension and Social Security income higher than 72% of full-time employees working in that state"—based on the most recent data and for the average state.
Those numbers skew much higher for states like Oregon, where state employee benefits exceed that of 90% of non-government workers. West Virginia, California and Nevada were close behind in the high retirement-income percentile inhabited by state employees.
Biggs emphasized that his estimates are conservatively calculated because they exclude potential sources of additional income for government workers, such as retiree health coverage. He noted, for example, that California's own Department of Human Resources advertises employees can expect a half-million dollars in health benefits over retirement.
Calculating a present value of lifetime retirement benefits, the pension expert found that average career employees in eight states were pension "millionaires." Nevada led the pack with its average full-career employee receiving more than $1.3 million in retirement benefits, with Alaska, California, Colorado and Oregon state workers exceeding $1.2 million.
"A wealthy, high-cost state such as Connecticut offers a typical full-career employee more than $1 million in lifetime benefits," he wrote, "but so does a relatively low-cost state such as West Virginia."
Biggs labeled as "false" claims by government employee unions like AFSCME that its average member receives a pension of just $19,000 annually, saying the average career state employee receives roughly twice that amount but that partial-career workers are treated particularly inequitably.
The pension analyst does not claim that public retirees are "so well off, but that other retirees are barely getting by."
He performed an analysis favored by financial advisors, who typically recommend a level of retirement income equal to about 70% of preretirement income in order to "smooth consumption from work years through retirement."
Again state government workers do exceedingly well, with the average career public employee enjoying a replacement income of 87% of final earnings.
Indeed, employees of 14 states wind up in the 90% to 100% range, three (Oregon, California and Texas) in the 100% to 110% range, while New Mexico and West Virginia public retirees enjoy far higher standards of living than in their working years—with replacement incomes of 113% and 115%, respectively.
Biggs briefly touched on possible reforms, including more transparent valuations of defined benefit pensions or a shift to the same defined contribution plans that private sector workers typically get.
While noting that higher pensions in some cases compensate state employees for lower pay, "it appears that in a number of states, more generous pension benefits are sufficient to push overall public-sector compensation well above private-sector levels."
Ultimately, Biggs asserted the pension gap is a matter of fairness.
"Public employees should be willing to accept—and private-sector workers to demand—more equity in the generosity of their pension plans," he concluded.


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Morph wrote:Richard Adams, author of Watership Down, dies aged 96.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment ... ce=twitter
Awwww beautiful,beautiful book.. every child should read it.l
Watership Down author dies, aged 96Like a good read? You're not the only one! Talk about it here!!!
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text: The cultural policies of the left-wing government of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela in the new millennium saw a shift back to funding and patronage of the arts after years of defunding and commodification of cultural production. However, despite leading to a renaissance of cultural activity, Chavista cultural policy also retained a modernist rationality that treated cultural production as objects to be classified and quantified. Official cultural policy in Venezuela has historically developed alongside popular-cultural formations that draw on alternative conceptions of culture that stem from everyday life. The official and the everyday have developed in tandem and, sometimes, at cross-purposes. Many scholars look to policies and states as the producers of change, but it is at the level of the everyday that we can see the emerging possibilities that define cultural movements in search of social change.


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|Charge Beverages Corporation
|Illegal Food Additive/Adulteration
|Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
|Nov. 17, 2010
Not Issued
|Archive Code:
Department of Health and Human Services
Public Health Service
Food and Drug Administration
|College Park, MD 20740
Via FAX and OVERNIGHT MAIL via UPS
Mr. Tim Baggs
Charge Beverages Corporation
4260 South Shore Boulevard
Lake Oswego, OR 97035
Re: 134052
Dear Mr. Baggs:
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reviewed the regulatory status of the ingredients declared on the label of your products, "Core High Gravity HG Green," "Core High Gravity HG Orange," and "Lemon Lime Core Spiked," each of which contains caffeine that has been directly added to an alcoholic beverage and packaged in combined caffeine and alcohol form. As it is used in your products, caffeine is an unsafe food additive, and therefore your products are adulterated under section 402(a)(2)(C) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) [21 U.S.C. §342(a)(2)(C)]. Regulations on the general provisions for food additives are located in Title 21, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 170 (21 CFR 170). You may find copies of the Act and these regulations through links in FDA's Internet home page at http://www.fda.gov .
As defined in section 201(s) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 321(s)], the term "food additive" refers to any substance the intended use of which results in its becoming a component of any food, unless the substance is the subject of a prior sanction or is generally recognized as safe (GRAS) among qualified experts under the conditions of its intended use. Under section 409 of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 348], a food additive is unsafe unless a regulation is in effect that prescribes the conditions under which the additive may be safely used, and the additive and its use or intended use are in conformity with that regulation. There is no food additive regulation authorizing the use of caffeine as a direct addition to alcoholic beverages, and we are not aware of any information to establish that caffeine added directly to alcoholic beverages is the subject of a prior sanction. Likewise, we are not aware of any basis to conclude that caffeine is GRAS under these conditions of use.
FDA's regulations in 21 CFR Part 170 describe the eligibility criteria for classification of a substance added to food as GRAS. Under 21 CFR 170.30(a)-(c), general recognition of safety must be based on the views ofqualified experts. The basis of such views may be either (1) scientific procedures or (2) in the case of a substance used in food prior to January 1,1958, through experience based on common
use in food. Further, general recognition of safety requires common knowledge about the substance throughout the scientific community knowledgeable about the safety of substances directly added to food.
FDA's regulations in 21 CFR Part 170 define "common use in food" and establish eligibility criteria for classification as GRAS through experience based on common use in food. Under 21 CFR 170.3(f), common use in food means "a substantial history of consumption of a substance for food use by a significant number of consumers." Under 21 CFR 170.30(c)(1), "[g]eneral recognition of safety through experience based on common use in food prior to January 1, 1958, shall be based solely on food use of the substance prior to January 1, 1958, and shall ordinarily be based upon generally available data and information." Importantly, however, the fact that a substance was added to food before 1958 does not, in itself, demonstrate that such use is safe, unless the pre-1958 use is sufficient to demonstrate to qualified experts that the substance is safe when added to food. See section 201(s) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 321(s)]; see also Fmali Herb, Inc. v. Heckler, 715 F.2d 1385, 1389-90 (9th Cir. 1983) ("Under the statute, 'common use in food' of an ingredient does not automatically exempt the substance from pretesting requirements. Instead, 'common use in food' merely describes one form of evidence that may be introduced by a proponent for the purpose of meeting the ultimate standard... ").
Similarly, FDA's regulations in 21 CFR Part 170 define "scientific procedures" and establish eligibility criteria for classification as GRAS through scientific procedures. Under 21 CFR 170.3(h), scientific procedures "include those human, animal, analytical, and other scientific studies, whether published or unpublished, appropriate to establish the safety of a substance." Under 21 CFR 170.30(b), general recognition of safety based upon scientific procedures "shall require the same quantity and quality of scientific evidence as is required to obtain approval of a food additive regulation for the ingredient." Section 170.30(b) further states that general recognition of safety through scientific procedures is ordinarily based upon published studies, which may be corroborated by unpublished studies and other data and information.
FDA's regulations in 21 CFR Part 170 also define "safe" and "safety." Under 21 CFR 170.3(i), "[s]afe or safety means that there is a reasonable certainty in the minds of competent scientists that the substance is not harmful under the intended conditions of use." The regulations identify factors to be considered in determining the safety of a substance added to food. 21 CFR 170.3(i).
By letter dated November 12, 2009, FDA requested that, within 30 days, your company provide evidence of the rationale, along with supporting data and information, for concluding that the use of caffeine in your products is GRAS or prior sanctioned. The letter informed your company that if FDA determined that the use of caffeine in your alcoholic beverages is neither GRAS nor the subject of a prior sanction, the agency would take appropriate action to ensure that these products are removed from the marketplace. FDA's letter also reiterated that it is the continuing responsibility of your company to ensure that the foods it markets are safe and in compliance with all applicable legal and regulatory requirements.
FDA is issuing this warning letter because your company did not respond to the November 12, 2009, letter, and the agency continues to have safety concerns about your caffeinated alcoholic beverage products.
To establish that the use of a substance in food is GRAS under its specific conditions of use (for example, the GRAS status of caffeine when directly added to an alcoholic beverage), there must be consensus among qualified experts that the substance is safe under its conditions of use, based on publicly available data and information. FDA is aware that, based on the publicly available literature, a number of qualified experts have concerns about the safety of caffeinated alcoholic beverages. Moreover, the agency is not aware of data or other information to establish the safety of the relevant conditions of use for your products. Therefore, the criteria for GRAS status have not been met for the caffeine in your beverages.
Based upon the publicly available literature, FDA has the following specific concerns about the safety of caffeine when used in the presence of alcohol. 1
• Reports in the scientific literature have described behavioral effects that may occur in young adults when energy drinks are consumed along with alcoholic beverages (O'Brien et al.,2008; Thombs et al., 2010; Miller, 2008).
• Studies suggest that the combined ingestion of caffeine and alcohol may lead to hazardous and life-threatening situations because caffeine counteracts some, but not all, of alcohol's adverse effects. In one study, a mixture of an energy drink and alcohol reduced subjects' subjective perception of intoxication but did not improve diminished motor coordination or slower visual reaction times using objective measures (Ferreira et al., 2006). In a dual-task model, subjects co-administered caffeine and alcohol reported reduced perception of intoxication but no reduction of alcohol-induced impairment of task accuracy (Marczinski and Fillmore, 2006).
• Because caffeine alters the perception of alcohol intoxication, the consumption of pre-mixed products containing added caffeine and alcohol may result in higher amounts of alcohol consumed per drinking occasion, a situation that is particularly dangerous for naive drinkers (Oteri et aI., 2007).
GRAS status is not an inherent property of a substance, but must be assessed in the context of the intended conditions of use of the substance (section 201(s) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 321(s)]). The assessment includes a consideration of the population that will consume the substance (21 CFR 170.30(b); section 409(b) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 348(b)]). Therefore, the scientific data and information that support a GRAS determination must consider the conditions under which the substance is safe for the use for which it is marketed. Reports in the scientific literature have raised concerns regarding the formulation and packaging of pre-mixed products containing added caffeine and alcohol. For example, these products, presented as fruity soft drinks in colorful single-serving packages, seemingly target the young adult user. Furthermore, the marketing of the caffeinated versions of this class of alcoholic beverage appears to be specifically directed to young adults (Bonnie and O'Connell, 2004). FDA is concerned that the young adults to whom these pre-mixed, added caffeine and alcohol products are marketed are especially vulnerable to the adverse behavioral effects associated with consuming caffeine added to alcohol, a concern reflected in the publicly available literature (O'Brien et aI., 2008; Simon and Mosher, 2007).
It is FDA's view that the caffeine content of your beverages could result in central nervous system effects if a consumer drank one or more containers of your product. Therefore, FDA believes that the consumption of your products, "Core High Gravity HG Green," "Core High Gravity HG Orange," and "Lemon Lime Core Spiked" may result in adverse behavioral outcomes because the caffeine is likely to counteract some, but not all, of the adverse effects of alcohol. The agency is unaware of any data that address the complex, potentially hazardous behaviors that have been identified in the scientific literature as associated with these beverages or that otherwise alleviate our concerns about the effects of consuming these pre-mixed caffeine and alcohol beverages. Moreover, FDA is not aware of any publicly available data to establish affirmatively safe conditions of use for caffeine added directly to alcoholic beverages and packaged in a combined form.
The agency is aware that your company received a Certification/Exemption of Label/Bottle Approval (COLA) from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (ITB) and that, as part of your application for the COLA, you informed TTB that your product would contain caffeine. A COLA does not constitute a food additive petition approval, a statement regarding GRAS status, or a prior sanction, and you are obligated to abide by the provisions of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
In light of the safety concerns identified above, the use of added caffeine in the alcoholic beverage products "Core High Gravity HG Green," "Core High Gravity HG Orange," and "Lemon Lime Core Spiked" does not satisfy the criteria for GRAS status outlined above. Further, FDA is aware of no other exemption from the food additive definition that would apply to caffeine when used as an ingredient in an alcoholic beverage product. Therefore, caffeine as used in your products is a food additive under section 201(s) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 321(s)] and is subject to the provisions of section 409 of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 348]. Under the latter, a food additive is required to be approved
by FDA for its proposed conditions of use prior to marketing. Because caffeine is not an approved food additive for its use in your products, "Core High Gravity HG Green," "Core High Gravity HG Orange," and "Lemon Lime Core Spiked," those products are adulterated within the meaning of section 402(a)(2)(C) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 342 (a)(2)(c)].
You should take prompt action to correct this violation and prevent its recurrence. Failure to do so may result in enforcement action without further notice. The Act authorizes the seizure of illegal products and injunctions and prosecutions against manufacturers and distributors of those products. Also, we want you to be aware that FDA did not conduct an all-inclusive review of your products, "Core High Gravity HG Green," "Core High Gravity HG Orange," and "Lemon Lime Core Spiked" or any other products that you may manufacture or distribute. Under the applicable law, it is your responsibility, as a manufacturer of these products, to ensure that the foods your firm markets are safe and otherwise in compliance with all applicable legal requirements.
Please advise this office in writing within fifteen (15) days from your receipt of this letter as to the specific steps you have taken to correct the violation identified above and to assure that similar violations do not occur. Your response should include any documentation necessary to show that correction has been achieved. If you cannot complete all corrections within the 15 days, please explain the reason for your delay and the date by which each such item will be corrected and documented.
Please send your reply to Seyra Hammond, Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Office of Compliance (HFS-605), 5100 Paint Branch Parkway, College Park, MD 20740.
Joann M. Given
Acting Director
Office of Compliance
Center for Food Safety
and Applied Nutrition
cc: Food and Drug Administration
Seattle District Office
Bonnie, R. and O'Connell, M., Editors, Reducing underage drinking: a collective responsibility. The National Academies Press, 2004.
Ferreira SE, de Mello MT, Pompeia S, and de Souza-Formigoni ML. Effects of energy drink ingestion on alcohol intoxication. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 30, 598--605, 2006.
Heckman, MA, Sherry, K., and Gonzalez de Mejia, E. Energy drinks: an assessment of their market size, consumer demographics, ingredient profile, functionality, and regulations in the United States. Compr Rev Food Sci Food Saf, 9, 303-317, 2010.
Marczinski, CA and Fillmore, MT. Clubgoers and their trendy cocktails: implications of mixing caffeine into alcohol on information processing and subjective reports of intoxication. Exp Clin Psychopharmacol,14,450-458,2006.
Miller, KE. Wired: energy drinks, jock identity, masculine norms, and risk taking. J Am College Health, 56,481-489,2008.
O'Brien, MC, McCoy, TP, Rhodes, SD, Wagoner, A, and Wolfson, M. Caffeinated cocktails: energy drink consumption, high-risk drinking, and alcohol-related consequences among college students. Acad Emerg Med 15, 453-460, 2008.
Oteri A, Salvo F, Caputi AP, and Calapai G. Intake of energy drinks in association with alcoholic beverages in a cohort of students of the School of Medicine of the University of Messina. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 31, 1677-1680,2007.
Simon M. and Mosher J. Alcohol, energy drinks, and youth: a dangerous mix. Marin Institute, 2007.
Thombs, DL, O'Mara, RJ, Tsukamoto, M, Rossheim, ME, Weiler, RM, Merves, ML, and Goldberger, BA. Event-level analysis of energy drink consumption and alcohol intoxication in bar patrons. Addict Behav 35, 325-330, 2010.
1 As used in the discussion below, the term "energy drink" identifies beverages that contain a significant amount of calories and caffeine as well as other ingredients, such as taurine, herbal extracts, or vitamins (Heckman et al.,2010).


text:
Welcome! I'm Nila
Your State Community Support Coordinator. Here you will find helpful resources in your area.
On Tuesday, April 12th, first lady Michelle Obama announced "Joining Forces," an initiative to support the unique challenges faced by troops and military Families. At Army OneSource, we are thrilled that our on-going work in the local community aligns with this essential national effort. Part of the goal of the "Joining Forces" initiative is to energize the private sector to effectively reach out and support the military.
Give me a call today, and Join Forces with Army OneSource to strengthen your support of Soldiers and Families in our local community.
Here you will find a frequently updated list of events and activities that are taking place in your local area. Check this area frequently to see if there's something of interest to you.
Healthy Families make strong Soldiers. Strong Soldiers make a successful Army. And that's what Army OneSource is all about.
Army OneSource is enhancing unit readiness by addressing needs of Soldiers and their Family Members by providing them with the necessary information and resources needed, regardless of location.
Our Goal
Army OneSource's goal is to enable Soldiers and their Family Members to be strong, healthy and capable, by providing a full range of information and services made available to Soldiers and Family Members 24/7 – promoting resiliency and stability, during war and peace.
Our Customers
Army OneSource serves all Soldiers and Family Members of the Active Army, National Guard and Reserve, deployed Department of Defense civilian employees and their Family Members, as well as anyone else who supports the U.S. Army.
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text:
The Deneva colony was one of the oldest Earth colonies, established prior to the 2150s on Deneva Prime as a freighting line base for mining in the sector's asteroid belt. In 2153, the ECS Horizon was en route to Deneva Station. (ENT: "Horizon")
In the 2260s, the planet had a population of just under a million, with over 100,000 people in the capital city alone.
In 2267, the colony was infested by flying parasites, killing several colonists, including George Samuel Kirk. The USS Enterprise investigated the situation, and Captain James T. Kirk was forced to consider destroying the colony to stop the parasites' spread. However, a better solution was found; satellites were placed around the planet bathing it in ultraviolet light, destroying only the parasites. (TOS: "Operation -- Annihilate!")


text:
How cheerful, wholesome, and all-around adorable is this card? Send the cutest spouse (or partner!) you know the Falling for You Happy Anniversary card. The photo card shows a young man hiding a bouquet of balloons behind his back to surprise the cute woman who has her eyes covered. The card will reassure your beloved that you find yourself falling for them more and more every single day.
Anniversary cards don't get any sweeter than this! Two mugs, complete with smiley faces, are filled with soft, mushy, heart-shaped marshmallows. The words are sentimental, with a little fun mixed in, making this a very romantic way to wish the one you love another year of warmth and happiness.
It's no secret how you feel about the one you love...and you'd be nuts to let this year's anniversary go by without letting them know! This anniversary card is humorous and heartfelt, and will have them blushing until next year!
For the special someone in your life, you can't go wrong with this anniversary card. If you have a hard time expressing how you feel, this anniversary card is a great choice to make sure they know you care. The design is beautiful, and the words are heartfelt.
For anyone celebrating a 25th anniversary, you can't go wrong with this bright, exciting anniversary card. The string of hearts with celebratory balloons is tons of fun, while the general nature of the card allows you to customize it for any parents, friends, or family members you're celebrating.
If you haven't found the perfect card for your girlfriend or wife, look no further. This anniversary card offers a nice touch of class, with the wooden backdrop and beautiful roses. The special girl in your life is more than your significant other; she's your best friend. This anniversary card offers that sentiment, and more!
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Peanut company tied to salmonella outbreak to resume operations
PORTALES, N.M. Sunland Inc., the New Mexico peanut butter company that was shuttered after a nationwide salmonella outbreak, is scheduled to resume peanut processing on Tuesday.
Company spokeswoman Katalin Coburn says officials are eager to begin shelling and processing this year's crop, which is about 98 percent harvested.
She says the company hopes to resume making peanut butter by the end of the year.
- FDA says peanut company tied to salmonella outbreak knowingly shipped tainted products
- FDA saw subpar conditions at peanut butter plant
- US peanut butter recall expands to more stores including Whole Foods, Target
Sunland, the country's largest organic peanut butter processor, closed its operations in Portales and began a top-to-bottom scrubbing in late September after salmonella was found in peanut butter it made for Trader Joe's. Forty-one illnesses in 20 states were linked to the peanut butter.
After recalling Trader Joe's Creamy Salted Valencia Peanut Butter, the company issued subsequent recalls of hundreds of products, including cashew and almond butters, raw nuts and other products made with Sunland ingredients such as cookies and ice cream.
A full list of recalled products can be found on the FDA's website.
Earlier in November, a report from the Food and Drug Administration that was released following an investigation into the plant found samples of salmonella tied to the outbreak, in addition to evidence of improper handling of products and other potentially unsafe practices.
The FDA also said Sunland knowingly shipped portions of lots that the company's own tests found may have been contaminated with salmonella, a charge Sunland denied.
"At no time in its twenty-four year history has Sunland, Inc. released for distribution any products that it knew to be potentially contaminated with harmful microorganisms," a company spokesperson said at the time.


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April 17, 2001
Related PoliciesUAB Equal Opportunity and Discriminatory Harassment PolicySection 3.7, Nepotism, in the Faculty HandbookSection 4.18, Nepotism, in the You & UAB HandbookHR Policy 123 - Nepotism
Whether the relationship is student/teacher or employee/employer, the work or academic relationship must be, and must remain, professional at all times. Romantic or sexual relationships between supervisors and subordinates may create an appearance of impropriety which is contrary to the interests of UAB. Even though a relationship may have been entirely consensual at its inception, a significant power differential exists when one party to the relationship has the authority to influence the academic progress or employment of the other party. Such relationships are particularly vulnerable to exploitation as well as to claims of exploitation.
For purposes of this policy, the term supervisor includes any employee, faculty member, or other person in a position to supervise, grade, evaluate, or influence the academic progress or employment of a student or employee. The term subordinate refers to any employee (including faculty), student, or other person who is supervised, graded, or evaluated by another person.
This policy does not apply to employees who are married to each other or who are living in the same household; those situations are addressed by the Nepotism Policy.
Policy Statement
It is the policy of the University of Alabama at Birmingham that employees (including faculty) may not engage in consensual romantic or sexual relationships when one party to the relationship is a supervisor who supervises, evaluates, or grades the other party.
Compliance and Disciplinary Action
It is the responsibility of the parties involved in such a consensual romantic or sexual relationship to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure immediate compliance with this policy. Compliance may be achieved in a number of ways including, but not limited to, (1) voluntary transfer or reassignment of one party so that the supervisor/subordinate relationship or the student/teacher relationship no longer exists or (2) termination of the romantic relationship.
Failure to comply with this policy will result in the taking of disciplinary action appropriate to the circumstances up to, and including, discharge or termination for cause for faculty employees.
The Vice President for Financial Affairs and Administration is responsible for implementation of this policy as it relates to the workplace. The Provost is responsible for implementation of this policy as it relates to the instructional setting.


text: Oh, dearies, it was another week of fuckery in the world. Between Rolling Stone throwing a source under the bus when inconsistencies rose in her story (cue gloating from the "false accusations!!1!" crowd), a misguided storyline on The Newsroom, and the usual assortment of random awfulness, it's hard to see the good news. Of which there's a little bit, partially in the form of Legos. (As usual, trigger warnings for pretty much everything apply.) Read More This Week in Misogyny


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This superior waterproof marine glue is formulated specifically for the boatbuilder, whether amateur or professional. POXY-GRIP is easy to use, requiring equal parts of resin and hardener (1:1 ratio). Use on all types of wood, most metals, and some plastics. It is completely compatible with the GLEN-L Epoxy Encapsulation System.
POXY-GRIP cures below 40° F (although more slowly), and is suitable for high humidity or on woods with relatively high moisture content since it does not absorb moisture during cure. The resin component is nearly water clear, while the polyamide hardener is amber color. Cured joints are clear, becoming virtually invisible. Ideal for use under clear finishes.
Bond strength remains high even when bridging reasonable gaps. Heavy clamping pressure and fillers are not required. Just hold the mating parts stationary until cure takes place. The product does not run. Pot life, in a container with a large surface area, is about 30 - 40 minutes at 70° F. Partial cure in 6 to 8 hours, full strength in about 24 hours at 70° F. POXY-GRIP is also ideal for automotive, aircraft, and hobby use. Comes in plastic containers and is free of noxious odors. We recommend the following quantities:


text: The Counting Game is very fun way for kids to learn counting in sequences (skip counting). - First pick a number you want to count by, from 1 to 10. - The first 3 numbers in a sequence are shown at the bottom. You must tap on the next number in the sequence. Tap 10 numbers to complete the round. - Each round has a time limit, starting with 1 minute and each round is 5 seconds shorter than the previous. Use the time left at the end of a round to earn bonus points! You must think fast to get a better score. - Save and view other people's scores using Game Center leaderboards. - Only .99 cents for iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad - universal app that you can share across devices - See also Jungle Math Bingo, Jungle ABC Bingo, Sight Word Bingo, and Counting Fish in our educational series of apps. For more fun and games visit www.RockingPocketGames.com


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What J-Fed Says?
yes I admit it, I am an administrative "desk bitch" at 35th street. But before you make fun, I have 20 years on this job and I did do my time on the street (010, 011, SOG). Even though me eye sight is going it seems like my hearing is getting better. I know it doesn't seem like you working coppers who "stopped" working aren't getting under J-Fed's skin....but YOU ARE. So much that J-Fed has been holding "secret" meetings EVERY week since first week in July. I have recently seen "Big bird" and "inspector Brown" attend a few of these "secret meetings"
J-Fed is FUMING that police officer's have stopped producing...I have heard him screaming these word for word excerpts in the past few weeks from his office:
*"It's like they are all on strike! What can we do to make these people do there f*cking job"
*They don't want to work for me because I'm a federal agent then F*ck them all...I will fire EVERYONE on this god-damn department and bring on people that will work!
*(meeting with Inspector's) "These officer's don't want to work then I want you to start hammering the shit out of all of them district to district...they will get the picture then"
*"If I have to fire every last one of them before they get the picture ..then I will"
I think everyone is getting the picture...KEEP UP THE good...I MEAN NO WORK!! The plan IS working and I have seen it first hand. Now Daley is TRYING to fuck with us with this mandatory 3 day NO PAY bullshit....Believe me when Shitcago turns into the next Detroit and we DON'T get the Olympics...then we will have VICTORY. "NO WORK" does NOT mean not backing up fellow officer's so watch each others back and let the City burn.......and Daley and F-fed will be responsible!!!
.....and for you asshats that are still "PRODUCING" numbers and giving the city REVENUE you are total IDIOTS. And any TRU-TARD that is bringing in the "MANDATORY" (1) head a day are in my book a "puppet". They are making your elite Unit a "make -up" squad for numbers. TRU..(AKA: J-Feds little bitches, AKA: Daley's Cronies) But feeding your heads that you guys are the BEST and the next SOS...and the funny thing is your are believing that B.S.
"May you live in interesting times" is an old Chinese saying. We're certainly seeing those recently.
UPDATE: post updated at the insistence of our Chinese translators.
Labels: department issues, new super, rumors


text: YE1/60 - Yale Essential Series Indoor Brass Standard Shackle Padlock 60mm Essential Brass Series offer basic security performances for indoor and general daily application. They comes with comprehensive body and shackle sizes. Features and Benefits - Body material: Solid Brass - Shackle material: Chrome-plated Hardened Steel - No of keys: 3 - Anti-pull double locking latch (sizes of 30mm or above) - Suitable for locker, cabinet, luggage and entrance Available Body Width: 20, 25, 30, 40, 50 and 60mm Complete range of 11 various shackle sizes: 1) Standard Shackle YE1/20/111/1, YE1/25/113/1, YE1/30/115/1, YE1/40/122/1, YE1/50/126/1, YE1/60/132/1 2) Long Shackle YE1/30/132/1, YE1/40/140/1, YE1/50/166/1 3) Extra-long Shackle YE1/30/147/1, YE1/40/152/1 Y110/40/123 - Yale Classic Series Outdoor Solid Brass Padlock 40mm with Multi-pack Y110C/30/115 - Yale Classic Series Outdoor Solid Brass Closed Shackle Padlock 30mm YE1/40 - Yale Essential Series Indoor Brass Standard/Long/Extra Long Shackle Padlock 40mm


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Measuring 21" x 11" x 9.5", the Ignitor Backpack has a 300D ripstop polyester body with a 840D nylon base to ensure long-lasting performance. The backpack features a top-loading main compartment, dual zippered side storage compartments, and a stuff-it pocket to provide ample storage space for supplies.
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Special discounts may apply for high volume sales.
Contact our Bids & Quotes department for more information.


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Opening this weekend is director Anthony Hemingway's World War II action-drama Red Tails. Produced by George Lucas and Rick McCallum, the movie is based on the real-life story of the first all African-American squadron and their fight to defend our country. They were given second-hand planes and the most dangerous missions, and it makes their story all the more incredible. Red Tails stars Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., Bryan Cranston, Brandon T. Jackson, Nate Parker, David Oyelowo, Ne-Yo, Elijah Kelly, Tristan Wilds, Cliff Smith, Rick Otto, Daniela Ruah, and Michael B. Jordan.
Last week I did an exclusive phone interview with McCallum. During our wide ranging conversation we talked about LucasFilm's two decade quest to make Red Tails, how advances in technology helped make the film possible, the 11.1 sound mix, and what being a producer really means. In addition, with McCallum producing the live-action Star Wars TV series (Star Wars: Underworld), he talked about what fans can look forward to, why it's still not filming, and revealed "It's Empire on steroids." Finally, we also talked about Lucas' future as a director, what props he owns, whether or not the 3D release of The Phantom Menace is the same cut that's on the Blu-ray, if we'll ever see the original trilogy on Blu-ray without any corrections, and so much more. Hit the jump to either read or listen to what he had to say.
As usual, I'm offering two ways to get the interview: you can either click here for the audio or the full transcript is below. Red Tails opens this weekend.
Collider: You talked a little bit about Star Wars yesterday. Are you surprised how many sites pick it up, or is this par for the course for you?
Rick McCallum: It's par for the course. The thing is, producers don't really publicize movies, do you know what I mean? The only reason that I have any chance of doing that with Red Tails is probably because of the Star Wars association, and I kind of understand what the rules are so I get it.
One of the things that fascinated me when reading about the movie is that you guys are doing this Auro 3D 11.1 mix. Can you talk about this mix and how it's different from previous sound mixes?
McCallum: Well what it does is it adds additional speakers up in the ceiling and it kind of refines the surround sound system to take advantage of, in our case, aerial combat. It's a system that Barco is actually helping us do—we did the mix about three or four weeks ago just before Christmas in Brussels. Our sound supervisor supervised it with Barco and I think people are gonna be blown away. Unfortunately right now there's only four cinemas in the United States, but I'm hoping by the 20th there'll be either 12 or 13. There are certain kinds of films that this is absolutely a natural for, you know not all films, but in terms of—for us I would say sound is even more than 50% of the movie, it's probably like 55% because we're obsessed with it. There's such a particular, peculiar, interesting subliminal sound to the P-51 that any pilot, anyone who loves aviation understands. In order to hear that kind of shrill whistle of the plane, you actually hear it in 11.1. That was one of the reasons, they came to us and said "Look we think we can get a couple of theaters, are you interested?" We tested it and it was just fantastic for our film.
You mentioned four theaters, are any of them in New York or L.A.?
McCallum: No, they're mostly in the south. But if you give me a day I can get you a list of what I hope will be the theaters, cause they're working on them right now.
Yeah I would personally wanna see it in 11.1. This is one of these projects that I've heard about for so long. How many years have you been on this project?
McCallum: Well I've been on it for about 20, George [Lucas] has been on it for 23. When I say I've been on it, George first told me about it in 1990. We were starting to get a group of fantastic writers on Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and about 1992-1993 we decided we'd ask one of our writers to give it a go. I don't know if you know the whole history, but one of the biggest problems was that everybody wanted to do the full story, which is the Tuskegee airbase, the training, the racism, everything they went through which is a movie in itself, and then when they went to Africa, how they got to Africa from Italy, that period of the war when America and Britain were losing 50-60 bombers a day which is like 500-600 kids a day, and when finally the army realized that they had no other choice but to use these guys because they were like the only qualified pilots left. That's a film in itself, and then of course once they went back and had to deal with the segregation and racism after having served their country. So you have these three big films, and of course everybody wants to do the Lawrence of Arabia version. They wanna do the Martin Luther King version, you wanna do the whole story, the big 3-4 hour epic, but it just became too unwieldy, too different stylistically.
What happened is when you struggle for that—you know of course every director wants it to be the biggest film of all time—so you're always struggling to try everything, and then everything gets shortchanged. So finally after we finished Episode III in 2005 we were developing a live-action Star Wars TV show with a lot of great writers and we just said, "Nope." George said, it's kind of like what he had to deal with on his own with Star Wars, he did this whole backstory, knew everything, and he said, "No, I'm gonna take the middle section because that's the one I know I can make and it's the cheapest and most cost efficient that I can do the effects on," and that's basically what we said, "Let's just do the dogfight part. Let's do the action-adventure film and then we'll do a huge documentary that explains the history of who these guys were, the story of what they went through in Tuskegee, what happened when they came back to the states, and just stick with the entertainment film which is the middle section." Believe it or not it just takes a long time, and plus we had this little thing called Star Wars in the middle of it all. So even though we were thinking about it, talking about it, it wasn't until we were really free from Star Wars that we said, "Oh yeah let's get back into this."
How did the advances in technology in the past few years possibly help or shift the telling of this story?
McCallum: Well I wouldn't say there was anything revolutionary in terms of technology except for the cost per shot ratio. Had we done this 10 or 15 years ago, we would've been locked into ILM only being able to do this. What happened at this point is, by serendipity happening not until 2010-2011, what we were able to see were a number of visual effects houses, a number of a new generation of artists that had entered the workplace all around the world. While we were shooting the Czech Republic we met a company called UPP, they have about 100-120 artists, and they were starting to do astonishing work for television and some major breakthrough in 3D matte paintings. They had never done a film of this size, and they couldn't do a film of our size—cause we have over 1600 visual effects shots—but we felt confident that they could do somewhere between 400 and 550 shots.
There was another company called Pixomondo in Germany and they had done a World War I German film called The Red Baron. They had done a huge experimentation in cloud manipulation—all digital—that we thought was really, really interesting and unbelievably cheap, so they came onboard. They hit another benchmark altogether, they did more shots than anybody; they ended up doing about 575 shots. There's a wonderful company in Mexico and Canada and a company we've always wanted to work with in Austria called Rising Sun when we were doing Star Wars. They had all, during the last four or five years, found a level of talent and manage their companies well enough that they're starting to be major players. It's like when you saw Inception, that was done by a relatively small house in London at the time, but [it was] astonishing work. Normally if you had seen that you'd have said, "No, there's only three companies that could've done that. Weta, Sony ImageWorks, or Industrial Light and Magic."
That's what happening now, there's a worldwide group of people—still limited, because it's such a particularly difficult thing that you're asking, you're asking for an engineer to be an artist. You're dealing with a guy who understands physics, science, and math at a level that's incompatible with a normal person, but at the same time who's gotta be an artist. He's gotta have a sense of painting, of history and what things do, of images. It's very hard to find that kind of person, but now there's so many different schools, there's so many people that are interested in film and especially in terms of the technology side of film, that suddenly the fruits of everybody's labor is really starting to manifest itself all across the planet. I mean China, we had about 35 full shots done out of Pixomondo's offices in China. Very, very promising. They're probably five, seven years behind but they're gonna get there and it's gonna happen unbelievably quickly.
The reason for all of that is how do you drive the cost down? How do you get a writer to be able to sit down with a producer and director and write anything that's in his imagination? Or a director to allow him to be unlimited in the size and scope of what he wants to do, and find a way in which you can utilize the resources around the world to make it happen in a more cost efficient way. That's the whole game plan. And one of the problems we had too at the particular time—which forced us into this position—was ILM was completely filled up. It was booked for two and a half years. They were doing Pirates and Transformers and every big film, so we had no other choice but to look around the rest world.
Which is kind of funny when you think about it, that you guys had to go somewhere else.
McCallum: Well what we did is, in order to make it work we knew we needed a full—not a trim down—but we needed a full team at ILM to be able to supervise all seven visual effects houses, and also to do the much more complicated shots. So ILM did about 100 of the most really complicated, computer-intensive shots, and they were able to work so closely with everybody that it's seamless in terms of each sequence in relationship to how all the shots look. It's still not at the level that we would yearn to be at, which is absolute total photorealism, but that's not there for anybody yet. That's still another 3, 4, 5 years away. Right now you can get very, very close, closer to what we could if you wanna spend 2, 3, or 4 times the amount of money; we didn't have that as a more modest budgeted film. That's what the dream is for everybody, how do we get absolute total photorealism at a cost that's kind of commensurate with some kind of fiscal reality that makes it work for everybody?
You've obviously worked on a lot of movies, what props do you actually have in your home?
McCallum: None. The only way I can stop people from stealing is also not to steal myself, and it's one of the most difficult things. I have certain kind of things that are built, like set pieces, but I have nothing from Star Wars, I really wanted to be pure about that. I have a lot of merchandise from Star Wars, but I have not kept anything prop-wise. Once you open that little bag, it's a really hard one because there's so many people who yearn for just a small little piece. It's like moon rock. I have a piece of a P-51 which is really meaningful to me, and I've got a piece of a B-17 that my father didn't fly—he was a B-17 pilot—that I was able to get in England when we were shooting. But those are the only real things that have serious meaning to me. I mean all my Star Wars merchandise, the best pieces, I love, but nothing from the films.
What is, do you think, the prized possession of the merchandise that you have?
McCallum: My two favorite things are an R2D2 paper basket which I have in my office and my office at home, and my Star Wars Mr. Potato Head. Those are my two favorite, but I have a lot of stuff. Those are my two favorite things, I have no idea why.
Episode I recently came out on Blu-ray, and you guys are getting ready to do a 3D re-release. Obviously I'm a fan of you guys, I'm a fan of Star Wars and I know that George likes to tinker and change. Is the 3D re-release any different than what just came out on Blu-ray or is it the same movie just in 3D?
McCallum: It's the same movie in 3D.
Do you think we'll ever get the original trilogy and the prequels without any changes on Blu-ray, or is it never gonna happen?
McCallum: I would have to answer that officially it's never gonna happen, but you never know with George. It's one of the constant things that—let's put it this way, it changes always. You never know.
Yeah I mean personally, as I've said many times on the site I have no problems with George changing the films, I just think it would be great if he would release the originals and that way everyone could have it, but that's just me.
McCallum: I know, but I understand that completely. It's just a question I can't answer. Obviously I have my own personally feelings, I hope that he does it, but I don't have major arguments with him about it. I think that's a decision he has to come to on his own as time comes by.
I totally get it, it's up to him. It's his thing. You were a Naboo courier in Episode I, yet no cameos were made in Episode II or III. I have to ask why.
McCallum: Well I was so humiliated by my performance in Episode I that I only allowed them to use certain body parts in Episode II and Episode III. In Episode III at the very beginning of the film, there's a clone that's actually killed and ILM had an enormous amount of pleasure keeping me up on the wires. I'm flying through space screaming, and that's me. In Episode II, my arm and my ankles and my feet were in the film. That was the extent of my body that I was willing to give up (laughs). I'm credited too, sadly.
I definitely wanna ask you a little bit about the live-action show. You mentioned yesterday that the idea is to get down to $5 million per episode, and I know you guys must be working on the budget now. How close have you guys been able to bring the budget down, or are you still so far apart that it just can't happen yet?
McCallum: It's so far apart, this is the best way to put it into perspective: we did Episode III—which is one of the larger of all the Star Wars films in relation to set construction, visual effects, the amount of visual effects and everything else—and that was made for $100 million which was unheard of even five years ago, because had it been made by any studio or anywhere in the United States it would have been easily double that price. So imagine an hour's episode with more digital animation and more visual effects and more complicated in terms of set design and costume design than a two- hour movie that takes us three years to make, and we have to do that every week and we only have $5 million to do it. That's our challenge. It's not a challenge that I think can be dealt with in the next year or two years, I think it's gonna be a little bit more longer term goal.
He's come up with so many extraordinary digital characters that are onscreen for 30-40 minutes, well most people who love movies and kind of understand the process realize that if you do a character like Gollum or Jar Jar or any major digital character, that costs twice as much as having Tom Cruise in a movie. You get 150 people working for two years on a 40 minute performance and they all make serious money, you just add it up; that's gonna be a serious $20-30 million character. That's our problem, how do we get that down? How do we push everybody to get to another level?
Also, digital 3D matte paintings, how do we cut the time from 2-3 weeks to 2-3 days? On a television budget, on television screens it doesn't have to be film res, but each one of these are major challenges for us. How do we get virtual set software? Because we can't build any of this stuff. I mean we could do it if we did it in a traditional format where we have one set with all the characters, but George doesn't work that way. We have 40-50 set pieces per hour, every minute and a half to two minutes there's another set. Well we can't build that and do that every week, that's virtually impossible, so we have to come up with virtual set software and an environment that allows us to be able to do that on blue and green screen and be able to turn those backgrounds around really, really fast. We're getting there, but it's not perfect yet and it's still too expensive.
One of the great things about Red Tails is we've met a whole other group of people around the world who've never had the resources or the tools or the access to the kind of gear that American visual effects companies have and they've had to cope and survive, and so we're learning a lot from them also.
We'll get there, I'm just not sure if it's gonna be in the next couple of years.
What excites you most about the TV series? Also, a lot of fans are clamoring for something that's a little more adult, a little grittier; as you said, the underworld of Star Wars. Is it darker than the movies or is it like the movies?
McCallum: No, no. It's much darker. It's a much more adult series. I think, thematically, in terms of characters and what they go through, it will be…if we can ever get it together and George really wants to pursue it, it'll be the most awesome part of the whole franchise, personally.
Believe me, this is something I've been wanting to have happen for a very long time. I'm hoping that this all comes together.
McCallum: It's Empire on steroids.
That's what I want to hear! Did you see season one of Game of Thrones?
McCallum: Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
Obviously, I loved it, just like anyone else who's watched it. I haven't met anyone who didn't like it. I don't want to spoil it for anybody, but let's just say a lot of stuff happens that's not typical of a TV series. Is that something that you guys are thinking about doing, the way the arcs of characters were in that?
McCallum: Absolutely. Seriously, there were no holds barred, the writers went for it, George [R.R. Martin] set a standard. The original thing was, we kind of described it as "Deadwood in space." That's the kind of track we started heading for. Obviously, we changed it for where we couldn't go in terms of language. It was to be serious performances, very complicated relationships, unbelievable issues of power and corruption, greed, vanity, pride, ego manifesting itself at levels that only equal the world that we live in now, but, as I said, on steroids.
By the way, I appreciate you answering my questions. You guys mentioned that you did 50 scripts. When you wrote that, did you write it in such a way that each season was 13 episodes or 22 or 24?
McCallum: One of the reasons HBO succeeds so well is that two things happen: they're not 40-minute episodes, they're 50-minute episodes so you actually get the serious character arc. You really have the time to be able to express yourself and let characters be real. And second of all, when you're dealing at that kind of level like Game of Thrones, you're doing it at 13 because that's all you can do to make it really, really work well. When you're stuck, when you're forced into a 26 or 22 or 24, whatever the network bullshit is now, it's very, very hard to keep that kind of level of quality, especially when you're dealing with visual effects and fantasy. If you're doing a courtroom drama, yeah, you can go for it, but not with this kind of stuff. Not if you want to be unique, bold, daring, provocative and extraordinarily original. It's just too hard. It's too much pressure on the cast, directors, everybody. Thirteen is good because you're still doing, what we always try and do, like the networks force these guys to do this thing between eight and ten days, we need 15, 17, 18 days because we've got so many visual effects. You're still shooting for 30 weeks a year and you need to let people breathe, have their time off, be with their families because this is total commitment. This is 16, 17 hours a day by the time you leave and get home. This is a really major, major deal for a lot of people. It's like a Young Indy for us. Our goal was, how can we travel all around the world, make something that looks cinematic for the same price as Law and Order…not Law and Order, I can't remember what the series was, but do it on a television budget where they shoot around the world, use major film directors, but do them for the same money that a typical cop show costs.
Does that mean that when you guys were writing, you were thinking 10, 13 episodes for a season?
McCallum: One of the problems that we have and one of the areas that we got to, for me personally, I know George was very fascinated about network television because the audience reach is so much different but then it became clear to us about two or three years ago after the financial crisis that literally the world of television is imploding, because it's all based on smoke and mirrors. No one knows how to really judge who's watching what or how many, but nobody can give up the Nielsen's because without it, networks are going to fold completely, the advertisers will pull out. Everybody's been living on this idea that they think they know what people are watching in the United States and I don't think they have a clue. It's like Mad Men. It was only last year that over a million people would see Mad Men and yet look at the profound impact it's had on everything in television. Deadwood I don't think ever got beyond four million viewers.
You can't quantify how many people bought it on DVD or Blu-ray or downloaded it illegally on bit torrents and how many people passed on those files or those disks to their friends. It spreads.
McCallum: I know, and the thing is, no one has any clue. Let's put it this way, it's not that they're dumb; they do have a clue. But they can't deal with the reality of being really, truly clueless right now because if you do the whole system falls apart. The minute advertisers say, "Well, shit. There's only really a million people watching my network's show? But, Nielsen says it's fifteen million." Everybody's got to live to this game, because otherwise the whole thing falls apart.
If I were an advertiser, the only place I would put my money would be on football games because thirty to fifty million people are watching these things right now and they're not forwarding through the commercials.
McCallum: I know. Absolutely. And I don't know if you heard about the Alabama game yesterday?
I haven't heard the ratings yet.
McCallum: Oh, well, it was not just the ratings. What happened was, LSU decided that they would watch a film before the game and Alabama watched Red Tails and they used the mantra of, "We fight! We fight!" and they creamed them 21-0.
I did not know that.
McCallum: Yeah, we just found out today. I mean we knew that they were seeing the film. We knew the coach was using it to inspire the team and everything. I think LSU watched the Mark Wahlberg picture…
McCallum: Yeah, Contraband.
Yeah, that's very funny. I would think that Red Tails would have been the better choice.
McCallum: Absolutely and they lost! But Alabama won and I think they found it really inspiring so everybody was really jazzed and pumped yesterday, last night when they won.
You're absolutely right about these things, football and the next one is this influence of bit torrents, downloading, that's the real future of this. I feel sorry for the guys. I wouldn't want to be in the studio business now, I wouldn't want to be in the television business, because how do you deal with all of that?
I'm going to cite another example that's happening this week. In the UK, they're airing something called Sherlock which people absolutely love. I love it. It's not going to air in America until May. Many people don't want to wait until May to watch something that could be spoiled for them by millions of people watching it in the UK right now. The industry has to learn day-and-date releases across all platforms.
McCallum: I know. It's so amazing because we have two friends who just came in from London last week who have copies of Sherlock!
The new series, yeah.
McCallum: And they're showing it to their friends here. That's the trouble: once you take an individual and you give them the opportunity, but you take away the opportunity for him because you're being dictated by something that you don't believe, which again, there are issues of piracy and everything else, but everybody's been on the fence because they've been burned for so long and they're basically saying, "You know what? Fuck you! I'm going to show this to my best friend. This is cool." The only thing responsible people can do to stop that kind of piracy is to do day-and-date across the world.
I'm of the opinion that we're eventually going to get to the place where everyone understands that the smartest thing that a studio can do is day-and-date with obviously certain things, but with smaller budgeted movies, you do VOD, you do theatrical, you do TV, you do everything all at once for smaller things. For bigger things, you obviously just do theatrical.
McCallum: Yes. Absolutely.
Believe me, I see both sides of it. I write about this stuff every day. The day-and-date though, it has to happen. What is your typical week like on the job? That's something I'm interested in. Are you in meetings all day?
McCallum: There are two things that I've been able to do, thank God, because of the gift that George has given me the last twenty years is I don't do meetings. We have discussions usually while we're walking. I don't have to do emails, I don't have to protect myself about anything, I don't have any chain of command. My job is just to try and give everybody the tools that they need to express themselves. The average film has eight or ten producers on it. That is just in a world that would be unthinkable to me, because to me, to really be a producer of a film, you have to be a line producer. That's the person who's on the job every single minute, on the floor every minute giving the director and the crew all the tools that they need but doing it in a fiscally responsible way and being part of the actual day to day making of the film. Otherwise, it has absolutely no meaning to me to be an executive producer on a film that I have nothing to do with except come to the wrap party or the premiere on; it's just meaningless. It's also everything repugnant to me because I think it's also one of the biggest problems with films. Nobody sets out to make a bad film, but so many of those compromises are made and often they're made because of vanity, pride and ego.
I have heard so many horror stories from so many filmmakers off the record. Everyone wants to justify their job and why they have their name on a property. You have eight producers and everyone has an opinion and you water down something that started off strong.
McCallum: Absolutely and most of those people have no understanding of the actual process of day to day and the decision making that has to take place and the compromises that have to take place due to weather, money, anything. It's easy to be a backseat driver. It's even easier to be a backseat driver when you're not even in the same car and that's what the biggest problem is. Most of the people, when you see those credits, aren't even in the same car with the filmmakers. And then the poor guy who's the "line producer" who's making everything happen for his director is not even given a real credit; he's given a co-executive producer credit. Yes, you need somebody to have the idea, you need somebody who can deal with the studio and the normal things, but it's too different of a credit. That credit is usually given to the executive producer. It's not the producer. One of the great things is, you're never a producer unless you're making a movie. You know? You have to be producing to be able to be called a producer.
What other TV things are you possibly working for LucasFilm? What other stuff is coming together?
McCallum: Nothing right now because George is contemplating the idea of taking a little bit of time off right now. He's got Clone Wars which he's still doing, he's got another season or two seasons of Clone Wars and he's also working on an animated film which has nothing to do with Star Wars. So, he's got his plate kind of full, but he's going to take a little break after Red Tails and figure out what it is. I'm hoping that he will actually get back and start to do the more experimental, small, low-budget films that really is what he started off as. Star Wars was a curse and a blessing; a total blessing for him, but a curse to a lot of us who know him as a smaller filmmaker. I'm hoping he gets the opportunity to actually go back and do much more experimental work in the vein of not just THX, but pushing imagery, sound, music and telling different kinds of stories altogether. So, we'll just wait and see.
As a fan of his early work, and he's always talked about doing things like that, I've waited a long time to see him do stuff like that. How much are you whispering in his ears, "You know, George, it'd be cool to do that smaller indie movie you've been talking about for 30 years now. Hey, George, it'd be cool if you did this." You know? Or is it that you can only whisper a little bit, otherwise he gets mad?
McCallum: Well, no. He doesn't get mad. I'll tell you what happened. A long time ago, I was doing a film with Jospeh Losey, a wonderful American director who was blacklisted. It was the first time he was coming back to the United States to do this movie. Unfortunately, the investors wanted us to get rid of the leading actress, Vanessa Redgrave, because she had some comments about Palestinians at the Academy Awards; we refused to do it. I was with the investors and basically I was given an ultimatum, "get rid of her or we're not going to do the movie." I called Joe and I said, "What do you want to do?" and he said, "Let's go back home." Home for me at that point was England, because my first film, Pennies from Heaven, was the most unsuccessful film of that year; almost bankrupted MGM. So I needed to go to a place where failure was awarded and that happened to be England. As long as the movie was good, people would let you work again even if the picture didn't work. So I go back and I'm at Joe's house and it's the first time I've ever been up to his library, he was in a terraced house just off King's Road. He had this beautiful wraparound bookshelf and there were hundreds of scripts. And then there was a very special little section of leather-bound scripts, which was only about eight scripts. He was almost 72 then. I said, "What is this?" and he said, "Well, those are the films I have made." And then he looked and pointed all the way around and he turned as he did it and he said, "These are the films I still want to make." And with George, it's almost the opposite. Red Tails is the last of all the films that he ever said [he wanted to make]. He started 23 years ago on Red Tails and now he has fulfilled everything he set out to do, which no…very few filmmakers ever get an opportunity to do. He's done everything that he actually wanted and planned to do, including more American Graffiti, including the revised version of [THX]. He got to be able to do everything that he actually wanted to do. Now, with this completed, a little bit of rest, now I think he can set upon the next chapter of his life and figure out, "Okay, do I have a new set of films, a new kind of films that I want to do?" And that's what we hope and wait anxiously to hear from him on.
Yeah, [Francis Ford] Coppola is doing it right now, as well.
McCallum: Absolutely, absolutely. But he had to take a number of years off to actually say, "Wait a second, this is the world I want to live in. I don't want to be in a star-studded system anymore." And hopefully I'll make the films cheap enough that if they don't work, or if there's enough people…there's a great line in Citizen Kane when Orson Welles is up in his office and the accountant comes in and says, "My God, the way you're spending money, this is crazy! This is nuts! We're going to go bankrupt!" and he says, "Yeah, if we keep spending money like this, we can only last for the next 65 years." Both of them have an opportunity now to do the kind of work that they want to do. It's great to see Francis, I've never seen him so happy. He's been to Romania, he's been to Argentina, he's all over the place. He's working with young filmmakers who he loves and, whether you like the movies or not, it doesn't matter. You wake up, and this is a gift that George has also given me, no matter how you look at it, you wake up in the morning and you can't blame anybody else, that is the most perfect position you can be in the film business. That's what true independence is when you fuck up and you fuck up but it's only because of you and not because of an executive or system or thing made you make compromises you didn't want to make. When you can't blame anybody else, it's a totally different kind of job.


text:
- For the Oxtails:
- 1 cup flour
- Salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 5 pounds beef oxtails, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 cups chopped onions
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 1 cup chopped carrots
- 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
- 2 dried bay leaves
- 2 quarts beef stock
- For the Pudding:
- 4 medium sweet potatoes, baked and peeled (about 2 pounds)
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 cup pecan pieces
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons Steen's 100% Pure Cane Syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons bourbon
- 1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) butter, softened
- For the Okra
- 1/4 cup buttermilk
- 2 tablespoons Crystal Hot Sauce
- 1 egg
- Salt, to taste
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
- Creole Seasoning, to taste
- Vegetable oil for frying
- 16 okra pods, washed and cut in half lengthwise
- Parsley, to garnish
- FOR TH3E OXTAILS: Season flour with salt and pepper. Dredge oxtails in flour. In a large Dutch oven, over medium heat, add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the oxtails, in batches, and brown for about 3 minutes on all sides. Remove from the pan and set aside. Add the onions, celery, and carrots. Season with salt and pepper. Sauté until the vegetables start to wilt, about 6 minutes. Stir in the garlic, bay leaves and stock. Scraping the bottom and sides of the pan to loosen the brown particles. Return the oxtails to the pot and cook, covered, until the sauce is stew-like and the meat starts to fall of the bone, about 2 hours. Baste the oxtails often during the cooking time. Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed.
- FOR THE PUDDING: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Mash the potatoes in a mixing bowl, until smooth. Add the eggs and milk and mix well.
- Add the nutmeg, cinnamon, 1/2 cup of the pecans, 1/2 cup of the brown sugar, syrup, salt, vanilla, and bourbon. Mix well. Pour the mixture into a 1 1/2 quart round baking dish.
- Combine the remaining 1/2 cup pecans and the remaining 1/2 cup brown sugar with the butter and mix well. Dot the top of the potato mixture with spoonfuls of the butter mixture. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until bubbly.
- FOR THE FRIED OKRA: In a mixing bowl, combine the buttermilk, hot sauce, and egg. Mix well. Add the okra, season with salt and turn to coat evenly. Let sit for 30 minutes. In another mixing bowl, combine the flour and cornmeal. Mix well and season with Creole seasoning.
- Heat the oil in a skillet. Dredge each of okra in the seasoned flour, coating completely. When the oil is hot, add the okra, split side down and fry, turning once, for about 2 minutes, or until lightly golden brown. Remove and drain on paper towels. Season with Creole seasoning.
- To serve, spoon some of the pudding in the center of each plate. Place some of the oxtails and gravy around the pudding. Pile the fried okra on top of the pudding. Garnish with parsley.
Recipe Details
- Source: Emeril Live EM1C74
- Dish Type: Entree
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