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In the realm of security research, there are always three protagonists: Alice always wants to get connected with Bob. Eve, the jealous bystander, wants to get in their way. Hence, Alice and Bob have to communicate in code.
Currently, standard encryption techniques work very well, but Alice lives in fear of Eve developing a usable quantum computer. To counter this, Alice and Bob have been sold a new quantum key distribution (QKD) system. These systems guarantee, based on the very laws of physics, that their codes will be unbreakable. Unfortunately, Eve has turned out to be as clever as the physicists who developed QKD, meaning there's a new security battleground rather than the promised security nirvana. But a new development, based on something called entanglement swapping, closes off the loopholes that allowed Eve in.
Is the key alive or dead?
QKD relies on the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics to generate a common secret key between two parties. The basic idea is that Alice generates photons with polarizationstates chosen at random from a fixed set. Bob then makes a polarization measurement on that photon. But a quantum measurement is really a question of the "are you X polarization?" sort, and he can only ask once. So, Bob chooses a polarization at random from the same set as Alice and asks his question.
To generate the key, Alice and Bob share (through a classical communications channel) a record of their instrument settings. From the record, they choose those instances where they happened, by chance, to choose the same polarization settings. We then have two random number generators coming together to produce a common sequence of bits that form a shared secret key.
Eve cannot determine the key from the classical communications between the Alice and Bob. The quantum signal consists of single photons—if she intercepts them, no key will be generated. Indeed, even if she intercepts the quantum signal and then re-sends a new signal, this will, in principle, be detected by Alice and Bob, because Eve modifies the statistics of the key generation process.
Was that a principle I heard shattering against reality?
That phrase, "in principle," should be banned. What it really means is "we would love it to be so, but it really isn't." In this case, the principle fails because quantum measurements are always converted to a classical signal. This process is vulnerable to manipulation, and a number of attacks have been shown to work against QKD through this weakness.
The problem is that Alice and/or Bob have to expose one of their detectors to Eve, so she has the potential to intercept the single photons and then fake the detectors into thinking they are measuring a quantum state when, in fact, they are just spitting out the numbers that Eve wants them to get.
Quantum entanglement
Quantum entanglement is one of the most misused concepts around. Entanglement is delicate, rare, and short-lived. At its heart, quantum entanglement is nothing more or less than a correlation between two apparently separate quantum objects. Having discovered that, you might ask "so what is all the fuss about?" The answer lies deep in quantum mechanics.Read more…
Letting Eve do the work for you
A pair of researchers from the UK have proposed a new scheme that keeps the detectors from being exposed to Eve and, even better, uses Eve to inadvertently generate the key for you. The physics behind this scheme is called entanglement swapping. How does swapping entanglement help? Well, Alice and Bob both generate a pair of entangled photons. They each keep one photon and send the other out into the wide world to seek fame, fortune, and another like-minded photon. At this point, Alice and Bob do not share any common quantum states with which to generate a key, though.
Somewhere in the middle of their journey, the photons enter the realm of an untrusted third party—who, in the worst case, is Eve. Eve takes the two photons and, according to the paper, does something quantum to them. In fact, the specific quantum operation doesn't matter as long as it mixes the two photons to create a new entangled state. A simple example is that Eve passes them simultaneously through a beamsplitter (a partially reflective mirror, for instance). Each photon can either reflect off the mirror or be transmitted by the mirror, and we don't know which did what. In any case, after passing through the beamsplitter, the two independent photons now have a single entangled state.
Eve then takes a measurement of her photons. She controls what quantum operation she does and she controls what measurement she makes. She does have to report the results of her measurements to Alice and Bob, but she doesn't have to be honest about it—she can do so in a way that would let her manipulate a standard QKD system.
So, how do Alice and Bob get a shared key from this?
Well, the simple fact of reporting the measurements tells Alice and Bob that they have a shared entangled source. The act of Eve's measurements limit the potential results from Alice and Bob's measurements. Once enough measurements are made, they figure out what the range of potential correlated results are.
Remember, the secret key is generated from the correlations between Alice and Bob's photons. The key is generated, as before, by sharing the details of how they made their measurements.
So, what if Eve lies about the results of her measurements? The more outrageously Eve lies, the smaller the correlations between Alice and Bob. Since Alice and Bob know their own systems, they know what the optimum correlations are and will know that Eve is playing them. If Eve tries to be subtle, and only modifies her results a small amount, she only extends the time it takes for Alice and Bob to generate a shared key. Indeed, the best that Eve can do is prevent the generation of a key.
The big improvement over standard QKD schemes is that neither Alice nor Bob need to expose any of their classical detectors to the outside world, so Eve cannot fake them out. The downside is that the photons from Alice and Bob have to be synchronously manipulated by Eve. That could be troublesome to implement outside the laboratory.
Physical Review Letters, 2012, DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.130502


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New York Times reporter Michael Shear filed a "Political Memo" Thursday on the return of former Virginia Sen. George Allen, who lost in 2006 after the media and the Washington Post in particular harped on a daily basis after Allen referred to opponent's opposition research person as "macaca." Shear felt the need to kneecap Allen out of the starting gate by injecting all the old controversies and rumors of racism into the current news cycle for "A Comeback in Virginia, Shadowed by a Stumble."
Political redemption, it seems, is almost never completely out of reach.
Six years ago, after losing his Virginia Senate seat and handing control of the chamber to Democrats, George Allen hinted that he could see a day when the bitterness and embarrassment of his defeat would no longer loom so large.
Shear suggested attention to Allen's controversial "macaca" comment wasn't the only thing that cost Allen his Senate seat; "it was much more than that," Shear assured his readers.
Mr. Allen was once a national star in the Republican Party with White House ambitions. But he became the political victim of a viral Internet video when, at a campaign stop, he called a young man of Indian descent a "macaca," a term that can refer to monkeys. Mr. Webb's campaign eagerly pointed out the remark, and the furor over what Mr. Allen meant lasted for weeks.
Mr. Allen and his team fumbled the response, alternately accusing the media of a witch hunt and apologizing for any offense. Longtime supporters stuck by him, but had long since given the maximum they could contribute for Mr. Allen's presidential hopes. His fund-raising dried up amid questions about ethnic insensitivities.
But while the political history of Mr. Allen's 2006 loss is often attributed simply to that one phrase, it was much more than that.
Questions about Mr. Allen's relationship to the black community were given new life by the controversy over his remarks. Stories about the Confederate flag he embraced in high school were written again. He once again had to defend the noose he had displayed in his law office -- a Western lasso, he said, not a hateful symbol.
Even more damaging were accusations -- suddenly public -- that Mr. Allen had used racial epithets against African-Americans while he was in college. At one point, Mr. Allen gathered a group of African-American ministers behind him for a news conference at which he angrily denied using the epithets.
And in the midst of it all was the odd revelation of Mr. Allen's Jewish heritage, the knowledge of which Mr. Allen discovered from his elderly mother after reporters pressed for more information about his background.
Asked about his Jewish ancestry at a debate, Mr. Allen angrily accused the reporter of "making aspersions." But a few days earlier, his mother had finally revealed the truth she had been hiding from her children for decades: that she was brought up Jewish in North Africa after World War II and hid the fact when she moved back to the United States.
"We sat across the table and he said, 'Mom, there's a rumor that Pop-pop and Mom-mom were Jewish and so were you,'" Henrietta Allen recalled her son asking. Having received her answer, Mr. Allen later issued a statement acknowledging and embracing his Jewish roots.

subset: commoncrawl


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In pilot-speak "Crabbing" refers to angling the nose of a plane in order to compensate for a crosswind, as can be seen in this video of an extraordinarily high wind landing in Calgary this weekend. We'll just call it opposite lock for planes.
The plane you're looking at is a Lufthansa Airbus A340-300 executing what looks like the most hoontastic landing imaginable. In fact, this is proper landing technique for heavy crosswinds, which either makes this video somewhat banal, or planes just that much more awesome.
Hat tip to: mz3nb!


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Club Development
Volleyball England has created the club development pages to assist clubs in carrying out certain activities within their club. The pages help to give a clearer indication of where your clubs development needs are, to plan your club's development for future growth or identify gaps in your club's current activities.
Sport England Club Leaders
Club Matters
Club Matters, the essential one-stop-shop for sports clubs, provides support, learning and guidance on all aspects of running a club whether it is large, small, formal or informal. Club Matters offers free, simple and bitesize support to all clubs.
Club Matters can help you to improve your club with…
Online Support – A range of support available including online toolkits, quick reference guides and e-learning modules.
Workshops – Club Matters workshops are free, short training sessions delivered across the country by experts in a range of specific areas.
Mentoring – Whether you want long term support, or just a short call to sound out your ideas, our Club Matters mentors can help. Our flexible mentoring scheme will offer more personal support to you and your club.
Club Improvement Plan – An online health check for clubs of all sizes and at all stages of their development, to establish where they are performing well and whether they can develop. This will provide your club with a tailored development plan.
Club Views - A club review tool allowing you to ask your members and volunteers what they think about your club.
Clubmark – The universally acknowledged cross sport accreditation scheme for community sports clubs .To find out more about Clubmark click here.
To access the main Club Matters website, click here and find all the resources you need.
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Remembering the Titanic (UPDATED)
This week marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. The event continues to capture our imagination in film, histories, fiction, and documentaries.
Part of the allure of this horrific disaster was the novelty of its communication to the world. A revolution in news transmission played a significant role in disaster relief and journalistic coverage. One newspaper marveled at the "magnificent exemplification of wireless telegraphy" that enabled the ship to send an S.O.S. message as it was sinking.
Wireless telegraphy also brought news of the disaster to a "shocked" public as it unfolded, a precursor to our real-time, 24-hour cycle. Thanks to Chronicling America, the online database of digital historic newspapers jointly sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress, the original coverage from newspapers across the country is now on line. A sample of the articles curated by the Library of Congress is available, and much more can be found by using the following search terms: Titanic, Carpathia, Captain Smith, Bruce Ismay, White Star Line.
Earlier coverage of the construction of the Titanic portrayed the ship as "unsinkable."
As coverage of the 100th anniversary continues to spread, other instances of the use of Chronicling America content are appearing. The Library of Virginia has updated its online exhibit page "R.M.S. Titanic: 100 Years Later" with several links to Virginia newspapers.
In addition, one of NEH's other state Digital Newspaper Projects awardees, Oregon Humanities, has produced an exhibit on its blog called "Titanic Centennial."
The Ohio Historical Society has also produced an account of how local newspapers tracked the construction and sinking of the Titanic in its piece "When the Great Ship Went Down (link no longer active)."
The Library of Congress has been featuring stories and materials across several of its blogs, including this story titled "An Unsinkable Legacy: Remembering the Titanic." Included among the historic materials found by the Library staff is a recording of "Nearer My God To Thee," a hymn that was played by the ship's orchestra as it was sinking on April 15th 100 years ago. The hymn can be heard on the National Jukebox; NEH has supported the development of the Encyclopedic Discography of Victor Recordings used by the Jukebox.
NEH would love to hear from others who have used Titanic-related content on Chronicling America. Email @email .


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The Board voted to pass a tax levy of .5 mill on each $1 of property. The Board decided, with the advice of the City Attorney, not to allow meetings and events that would require the erection of booths, tents or buildings in the parks. However, they approved a series of summer concerts for the Park Blocks, City Park, and Holladay Park, featuring a military band; the Board provided no funding for these events. They asked the Police Commission to provide one or two officers to patrol City Park on Sundays in the summer and to enforce the Park Board order that boys not play baseball or football in the Park Blocks.
Although they desired to purchase Hawthorne Park (no longer existing) located between SE Taylor & Hawthorne Blvd and SE 9th & 12th Avenues, the Board was forced to merely lease the property from the Hawthorne Estate for $100 per month provided they would keep the sidewalks clean, gravel the walks, and employ a watchman to keep undesirables out of the park.
Thomas Eliot presented a report on the parks of various eastern cities, most notably those of Boston, and on his meeting with Olmsted Brothers, Landscape Architects. The Board voted to have Eliot's report printed in the daily newspapers. After the accidental death of Park Superintendent C. M. Myers on December 21, the Board gave $100 to the widow for funeral expenses and acted as honorary pallbearers.
The Board resolved to levy a tax of .25 mill on each $1 of taxable property and appointed Mr. Herman Lowitz as the new park superintendent. The Board also authorized a maximum of $1,000 to hire a landscape architect to analyze Portland's park potential and prepare a report. They hired a watchman for Macleay Park to prevent vandalism, especially the shooting of birds, and a special police officer to patrol the parks and remove "all persons who loaf . . . or sleep there, or occupy unseemly positions." Despite earlier decisions against allowing tents to be erected in the parks, the Board approved the City Commissioners' request to erect a tent in the Plaza Blocks for an election booth for one day. In similar cases, they opted not to allow a candy peddler to sell candy in the parks and denied a request to build and operate a miniature railway in City Park.
Peninsular Park was cleared out and its name was changed to Columbia Park. Citizens of the area requested a baseball ground on the cleared area, and the Board allowed a temporary ground only in the area of the park cut off by the car line. Workers completed the system of diagonal walks in the Park Blocks as well as a trail from Macleay Park to City Park. The Board accepted several gifts, including some land from Governor Pennoyer. They also agreed to cooperate with the directors of the Lewis and Clark Centennial Fair, hoping that any land used for the Fair would be improved and used as park space in the future.
In January, the Board created a Constitution which allowed women to serve on the board, charged the mayor with appointing members (2 on a 2-year term and 2 on a 4-year term), created a Park Fund for donations, and required Board permission for the display of any artwork in the parks. Mayor Williams appointed Rev. Eliot and J.D. Meyer for 2-year terms and Col. Hawkins and Ion Lewis for 4-year terms. All employees except the park superintendent would now be hired under Civil Service rules.
The Board approved the purchase of 1,000 rose bushes, provided $1,000 for the summer concerts, acquired uniforms for the park policemen, renewed the lease on Hawthorne Park, hired the landscape architecture firm of Olmsted Brothers, from Brookline, MA, to visit and prepare a report (John Charles Olmsted, the nephew and adopted son of Frederick Law Olmsted, spent the month of May in Portland), and installed a new fountain in Holladay Park. They resolved that the Board would have complete control over all grounds of public buildings, parks, and plazas, including sidewalks and all trees. No trees could be removed without the Board's permission.
The Lombard, Ladd, and Pittock families donated 30 acres of land in its wild state asking only that it be called Fulton Park. Proposals for donations of several monuments came before the Board. For the Plaza Blocks, a monument to soldiers of the Second Oregon U.S. Volunteer Infantry (part of the first group of American soldiers sent overseas to fight in the Spanish-American War) and $20,000 for a monumental fountain were offered. The heirs of David P. Thompson donated a bronze monument entitled The Coming of the White Man by H.A. McNeil to be placed in City Park. The Lewis & Clark Centennial and American Pacific Exposition & Oriental Fair proposed to erect a monument in City Park, featuring four tablets representing Oregon, Montana, Idaho, and Washington, to be unveiled in 1905 in the presence of the Governors of the four states as well as the President of the United States. The cornerstone of the monument was laid by President Theodore Roosevelt on May 21, 1903. The Park Board accepted all donations.
The Olmsted Report was received in December and made several suggestions for the best way to develop a park system in Portland. The report emphasized the importance of a comprehensive and balanced system of individualized parks connected by parkways which would take advantage of natural scenery - all of which should be improved by specially trained men regularly and according to a General Plan. The system should be managed independently of the City Council so it would meet public rather than political needs. Additionally, the report maintained that the parks should be governed by a board of unpaid and qualified officials. It was recommended that the Board hire Emanuel Tillman Mische, a long-time employee of Olmsted Brothers, to supervise the implementation of their plan and to act as the new park superintendent.
The Olmsted Report also outlined several different park and parkway developments, such as a formal square for Union Station, a number of waterfront squares, and parks which we now call Forest Park, Sellwood Park, Mt Tabor Park, Rocky Butte Natural Area, and Ross and Swan Islands, as well as a systems of parkways to connect parks around the city, such as Terwilliger Parkway and the 40-Mile Loop. Many of the recommendations for specific parks were never achieved; others, such as Forest Park, were only begun many years later.
In August, the Board received a complaint that women felt unable to use the Plaza Blocks because men bothered women who came to the park. Citizens requested that the Board designate one of the Plaza Blocks for use by women, children, and their escorts only; the Board approved the request and set aside the South Plaza Block for this purpose. The Second Oregon Volunteers Memorial located in the center of the North Plaza Block was completed and featured a soldier charging with a bayonet.
The Coming of the White Man, erected in City Park in October, consisted of two bronze Native Americans "of heroic size" presumably at the time Lewis and Clark reached the Columbia River. At the presentation ceremony, the mayor said of the statue, "The historic significance of this group is the white man's invasion of the wilderness, home of the Indians. This monument will probably stand here when the race of people whom it represents has become extinct, and will then describe . . . better than any book the form, features, and chief characteristics of the original inhabitants of this country."
The Park Board received several petitions and letters of concern and complaint throughout the year regarding children playing in the parks, most specifically in the Park Blocks. Detractors objected mostly to the playing of baseball - errant balls made conditions unsafe for passersby and for nearby residents who wished to sit on their porches. Petitioners also complained that children playing in the parks were noisy, ruined the grass, and used obscene or vulgar language. Yet other adults asserted that the children needed a place to play that was not only safe, but wholesome. A large group of boys even submitted a petition requesting to use one of the North Park Blocks for playing baseball, promising to "allow no boy or boys using the grounds with us to indulge in profane or obscene language; neither will we tolerate quarreling, bullying, fighting or other indecent conduct." The Board was unconvinced and ordered the Blocks in question to be improved with diagonal walks, making ball-playing practically impossible.
In May, Lafe Pence, who owned land near Macleay Park, proposed to build a flume through the park to divert water from Balch Creek to fill Guild Lake and, in the process, wash down land between Macleay Park and Willamette Heights in preparation for developing residential and industrial sites in the area. After receiving many protests and petitions against the flume at their regular June meeting, the Board called a special meeting to discuss the matter. All arguments were weighed, and the Board voted to deny permission to build the flume. Pence built a 4-foot-wide flume through the park anyway, but it was not brought to the Board's attention until Pence augmented his plan by clearing 900 feet of land without permission for an additional flume on land owned by the Ibex Land Company, of which Board member Col. Lester Leander "L.L." Hawkins was part owner.
Col. Hawkins alerted the Board to Pence's flume in February, and a special meeting was held, resulting in the demolition of a large section of the flume by a group of policemen with sledgehammers under the direction of Mayor Lane on February 25. Pence petitioned the Park Board the next day to allow him to continue his operations, claiming his plan would benefit Portland. The Board approved it (Hawkins dissenting) under Park Board supervision for one year only as long as it would not destroy property or divert water between May and October. Despite a report that the water in Hawthorne Park was diseased, the Board began to consider purchasing the land and, by November, was drafting an amendment to put before the voters to purchase Hawthorne Park. In December, a city health officer recommended the park be closed because people had contracted typhoid fever from the springs there.
A committee was assigned to investigate building playgrounds in the parks, and their report was approved in July. The plan was to build playgrounds in the North Park Blocks between Davis & Flanders Streets and to build a baseball ground in the Beech Street Park Block. In December, the playgrounds were completed. One area for girls and small children contained sandboxes, swings, and seesaws; the area designated for boys featured parallel bars, horizontal bars, a climbing rope, and more. Almost immediately, it was deemed necessary to construct a fence around the boys' playground to keep away men who were found setting up boxing matches and betting and having a generally "pernicious influence."
In August, the Park Board fired Superintendent Lowitz for lying about the amount and quality of work accomplished as well as for swearing at board member Ion Lewis. The following month, the Board appointed as the new superintendent Arthur Monteith, whose first recommendation was to prohibit smoking during work except at the lunch hour. His first official report, submitted in December, contained a variety of suggestions: a shelter and telephone for the caretaker in Macleay Park, a separate zoo fund, salary increases, more laborers, and more stringent rules for the use of the parks, especially a prohibition on firearms.
At the end of the year, the Board submitted its proposal for a bond measure of between $500,000 and $1,000,000 for the purchase of park property. This was the first attempt to acquire funds for the implementation of the Olmsted Plan.
A January ice storm created significant damage in the parks, which required a near doubling of the park work force. In April, the Board appointed M. W. Gorman as custodian of the Forestry Building. In May, the Park Board finally gave up the use of Hawthorne Park and gave in to the demand to set aside a block in the North Park Blocks for a baseball field. The playgrounds in the North Park Blocks were officially opened in May with a children's festival. For three months during the summer, a paid supervisor would run playground activities, including basket weaving courses and a baseball league, under the auspices of the People's Institute Club. The Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce was granted permission to hold a Rose Show in the Forestry Building, but The Oregonian's request to plant roses in the Park Blocks was denied. The Queens Walk, comprised of bronze markers signed by each Rose Festival queen, was constructed in the Rose Garden.
In August, the Board admonished Superintendent Monteith, after a long string of events leading up to an official inquiry, for "using City teams for hauling outside material; for using so much time of City employees' in keeping his own residence; and for keeping so many people in the residence." The home was a perquisite that came with the job, however, the Board discovered they must set limits to its use.
The Board decided to use the Olmsted Plan to decide upon expansion allowed by the passage of Initiative One Hundred. The development would be separated into three main parts: 1) a boulevard encircling the city; 2) several larger outlying parks; and 3) a system of smaller internal park squares and neighborhood parks. The Olmsted Brothers firm was invited to provide an update of its original report. The new report arrived in December and noted that land had nearly doubled in price. It also stressed that the most important purchase to be made was the land west of City Park, the area now known as Forest Park, yet that property would not be acquired until 1948.
In April, Emanuel Tillman Mische from Madison, Wisconsin officially replaced Arthur Monteith as Superintendent of Parks. Mische had worked for the Olmsted Brothers firm for many years; he was recommended to the Board originally to help oversee the implementation of their 1903 Plan. Although he held the position of superintendent only until 1914, he would eventually be considered one of the most influential leaders in the history of Portland Parks & Recreation, partially because of his excellent abilities as a landscape architect.
The Board had voted in January to sell $500,000 worth of bonds approved by Initiative One Hundred to extend the park system and purchase lands. The Board and the City Attorney spent much of the year trying to figure out how the Board could legally purchase lands, deciding finally that they could only acquire land by asking the city council to start condemnation or purchase proceedings. By October, they were looking at the area that is now Sellwood Park as their first major purchase. The issue of naming came up, and the Board approved Superintendent Mische's suggestion to use numbers until proper naming could be decided on: "This would tend to prevent coming into common use names which are crude, uncouth, or corrupt and often repugnant and even suggestive of horror."
The zoo buildings were removed to a group along the western end of City Park. In Macleay Park, a police officer/keeper was hired to guide women and children through the park and to keep an eye out for mischief-makers. The keeper confiscated two revolvers in May. A private association had been operating the public baths in the Willamette River for six years and turned them over to the Park Board in 1908. Unfortunately, they were deemed unsafe because they were located near a sewer opening. The Board debated about where to move them and whether it was financially feasible to maintain the baths. The following year, they decided the baths would need to be sold and new ones built. The debate over who controlled street trees, which would last years, began this year. The Park Board officially had control over plantings on sidewalks throughout the city although the City Council had the power to prevent or abate obstructions. The City engineer and electrician also had some control over street trees. The Park Board struggled for years trying to gain complete control over the planting, maintenance, and removal of street trees since they were considered an enormous contribution to creating a beautiful Portland, one of the Park Board's main goals.
In February, certain name changes were adopted, including the Plaza Blocks renamed as Lownsdale and Chapman Squares. An article in The Oregonian in March, which indicted zoos as inhumane, set off a flurry of letters to the Park Board demanding the zoo be shut down. The Wildwood Trail began its life in September when Superintendent Mische was assigned the task of finding a suitable path between Macleay Park and the Forestry Building. The heirs of James Terwilliger donated 19.24 acres of land as a right-of-way through their property to aid in the development of the main parkway suggested by the Olmsted Plan. Once called South Hillside Parkway, it is now known as Terwilliger Parkway. City Park was renamed Washington Park.
In its 1909 annual report, the Park Board encouraged people to donate land for parks, claiming it would increase land value and was therefore profitable to landowners. They had spent half of the funds from Initiative One Hundred's $1,000,000 bond to purchase Sellwood, Kenilworth, Peninsula, Ladd (now known as Laurelhurst), and parts of Mt Tabor Parks, about 200 acres total. When they were unable to conclude sales, the City Council would initiate condemnation proceedings to determine a fair price for the land, usually not too far off of the negotiated prices. Assorted neighborhood associations began sending in requests for parks to be built in their neighborhoods. But, before buying more parkland, the Board planned to focus on the construction and development of current parks and parkways, and to extend existing playgrounds as well as develop new ones. Portland's first public playground at NW 6th & Hoyt, organized by the People's Institute in 1906 and under the direction of Bertha Davis, was turned over to the Park Board in 1909.
New playgrounds were constructed at City, Sellwood, Peninsula, and Columbia Parks, one was underway in Brooklyn Park, and those in the North Park Blocks were updated with new equipment. Playgrounds were still segregated by gender. The playgrounds would be supervised during school vacations mostly by male physical education specialists under the direction of George Cellars (P.E. director of the YMCA) and a committee of four women: Valentine Pritchard, Mrs. H.L. Corbett, Mary Failing, and Mrs. W.B. Ayer. A new swimming tank was built in Sellwood for approximately $7,500 to replace the unhygienic public baths in the Willamette River. There was no charge to use the pool and one swimming instructor was hired for the first summer. E.F. Lawrence, a prominent Oregon architect and dean of the University of Oregon School of Architecture, was hired to design an assembly building for Sellwood Park and its pool as well as some comfort stations for Columbia Park.
Mrs. Laura Gammans and Dr. Thomas Eliot donated land between N. Burrage and Wilbur & Buffalo Streets for Gammans Park. The City purchased 2.84 acres for the Terwilliger Parkway and work began on grading the portion between Slavin and Hamilton Roads. There were a number of complaints about animal noise from the zoo, but Superintendent Mische reported that it was not financially feasible to move the zoo any time soon. The path in Macleay Park was widened and extended to Cornell Road, resulting in complaints of too many felled trees and the destruction of the natural look of the park.
Public opinion expressed through letters or petitions largely influenced the actions taken by the Park Board in these early years. One good example from 1910 is their response to a letter from a woman who signed herself simply, "A Working Girl." She requested, like the women in 1904, that two Park Blocks be set aside for women only. She claimed that men greedily occupied all the benches in the parks so that working women had nowhere to sit on their lunch breaks or in the evenings when they got off work and wanted to relax in the park. The Board immediately granted her request.
This year brought several changes for park employees and the Board. Workers were finally able to make disability claims for injuries received on the job. Each property was assigned a foreman directly responsible to the public. The Board hired 26 playground instructors, more than double the amount hired in 1910.
All Board members attended a lecture given by the field secretary for the American Playground Association, and then decided to create a committee to plan "a more satisfactory system of playgrounds" in conjunction with the Board of Education. This would mark the first major interaction between the schools and the Park Board. Playgrounds and recreation were becoming a key issue in the U.S.; they were considered conducive to health, education, and morality.
The Board received a petition from the Riverside Driving Club requesting a speedway and stadium with a track for horses and an athletic ground. A letter from the Women's Club suggested a recreation center in Peninsula Park, claiming it would lessen the need for jails and reformatories. Plans for a new swimming tank and assembly hall in Peninsula Park were already underway. Meanwhile, the Portland Rose Festival Association wanted Peninsula Park set aside as a rose garden. All of these plans eventually came to fruition.
Lafe Pence's flume was finally removed from Macleay Park. An ongoing problem with baseballs hitting passers-by in the North Park Blocks required the Board to have the backstop removed. More than half the playground instructors hired this year were women, and the Board decided that new instructors required some sort of training. The Board assumed responsibility for the maintenance of the 20 newly installed Benson fountains. Portland's first rose garden, the sunken garden designed by Superintendent Mische, opened at Peninsula Park, and the squares in Ladd's Circle were planted with roses. The Board expressed a desire for an arboretum, similar to the Arnold Arboretum near Boston, claiming it would benefit citizens, science, and Portland's reputation. The name of Ladd Park was changed to Laurelhurst Park, and Williams Park to Mt Tabor Park.
In May, the Park Board issued a set of sixteen rules and regulations for the use of parks, parkways, and driveways, most regarding destruction of property and where to drive vehicles or animals. Conduct was also a consideration, however, as Rule 4 states, "No person shall solicit the acquaintance of or annoy another person, or utter profane, threatening, abusive or indecent language or loud outcry . . . or preach, or pray aloud, or make an oration or harangue, or any political or other canvass . . . or play any musical instrument except by written authority from said Park Board."
A $2,000,000 bond measure was defeated, which was due, Superintendent Mische reported, to a lack of information since there had been no annual report issued since 1907. He suggested the Board put out an extensive report covering the years 1908-1912, complete with photographs and charts and information detailing the importance of parks. The report the Board decided to publish is both thorough and political. A long essay at the end details plans and possibilities for the future of Portland parks, including comparative maps and charts to show Portland lagging far behind other U.S. cities in park acreage per person. Another focus was the existence of parks as an inducement to morality and thus an aid to crime prevention. Money spent on parks would eventually be less than money spent on police, jails, the judiciary, and other costs involved in handling criminals.
In May, the Park Board sent a letter to all the local pastors requesting they mention the importance of parks in their sermons and to recommend that their congregations vote in June for the parks bond measure. Despite such efforts, the measure failed.
Work continued in the various parks, specifically on the drives in Mt Tabor Park and on comfort stations around the city. The Board created rules and regulations for the use of the new comfort stations, including no spitting, urinating or blowing mucus on the floors. Attendants were assigned the duties of keeping the stations clean and wiping the seats with germicide (the pay toilets were cleaned four times more often than the free ones). The Peninsula Park Recreation Building was completed in July and was open year-round with three instructors and two gyms (one for each gender). The School Board conducted the training program for playground instructors, and by October 1, three instructors were assigned to conduct activities at six schools: Failing, Mt Tabor, Ockley Green, Peninsula, Creston, and Richmond.
Just a few weeks after the completion of the Peninsula Park Recreation Building, the Park Board was dissolved when the City of Portland changed to a commission form of government. Work continued as usual with Superintendent Mische in charge of the Bureau of Parks and Public Recreation, but he now reported to an elected Commissioner (initially the Commissioner of Public Works, William L. Brewster) rather than an appointed Board. Mische complained in the annual report that the new form of government, slow in taking shape, lacked a general plan and a harmonious body governing that plan, spelling failure for the Bureau. Yet, work progressed, and plans continued to be made.
In December, the Reverend George Schooner began writing letters to city officials in an attempt to create a Botanical Rose Garden in Portland. He first asked for 200 acres, but quickly acknowledged that 10 acres would do to start. In Reverend Schooner's reformist opinion, not only was the rose important for perfumes, landscaping, art, and decor, it also offered remarkable heretofore unrecognized benefits: "Learn [sic] children to love flowers, they will learn to know God in His secrets and mysteries of nature. We will have less socialists, less anarchists, less hobos, less criminals. We will have loving people with a working spirit. This is the mission of the rose for the social uplift for all that is good and beautiful."
An effort to plant more street trees to beautify the city in the vein of Paris' tree-lined boulevards began with three miles of street trees planted in 1913 in the Peninsula neighborhood and continued throughout 1914. Mische's plan divided the city into three sections: the northeast would be planted with North American trees, the southeast would feature trees of European origin, and the west would be filled with Asian trees. Each section would then be "subdivided into districts wherein all the suitable representatives of a particular genus is to be planted" covering 850 to 900 miles of city streets. In addition, Professor C.S. Sargent, a noted botanist at Harvard's Arnold Arboretum, donated approximately 200 new plants from Asia as well as new species of rhododendrons, roses, and evergreens.
In April, the Bureau started a fruiticetum in Mt Tabor Park, hoping eventually for a full representation of Northwest shrubs and trees. Laurelhurst Park was completed. The official dedication of Terwilliger Parkway was celebrated on August 4 by people driving along the scenic, electrically lighted, 4-mile, unpaved road in their automobiles. The Bureau had spent $300,000 to complete the parkway.
Superintendent Mische made a month-long tour of various cities in the United States and Canada in August to evaluate their park systems and learn about new techniques, equipment, rules, and botanical features. He longed for a more efficient and up-to-date park system. Another concern for Mische was the Forestry Building. Constructed mostly of Douglas fir in 1904 and 1905, and housing specimens of almost all 94 varieties of Northwest trees, it had begun to decay. Unfortunately, limited information and resources were available to help restore it. This was Mische's last year as superintendent; he was succeeded by James O. Conville.
One of the old Lewis & Clark Centennial buildings near the Forestry Building was destroyed by fire. Luckily, the Forestry Building was saved. The owners of nearby buildings tore them down and donated the 18 acres of land to the Bureau; immediate plans were made for a park and playground to be constructed near the Forestry Building. An elm leaf beetle infestation hit the eastside. Tennis courts built in Kenilworth Park proved to be very popular. Laurelhurst Park's walks were paved and lit, and a concert in the park attracted 32,000 people, the largest crowd ever gathered for such an event in Portland.
The Bureau finally developed plans to renovate or rebuild the zoo, but it would cost $12,000. Simon Benson donated Benson Park, 400 acres in the Columbia River Gorge featuring two waterfalls and 3/4 mile of river beach, but the Bureau had no money to develop it properly. The annual report pointed out, "Three times the City of Portland has been asked for greater funds for park purposes, and three times bond issues have been refused." Progress in development according to the revised Olmsted Plan had been stalled for several years because of this failure to raise money after the passage of Initiative One Hundred in 1907. In response, the new Superintendent recommended a bill for a millage tax for park purposes because it seemed to serve the great neighborhood-based demand for parks, especially playground parks.
Park employees helped clean up the city streets after heavy snowstorms the last week of January. The budget for 1916 was incredibly tight and supported maintenance only. A severe increase in unemployment, however, brought the extra funds to hire men to pave Mt Tabor Park's roadways as well as a new stretch in Washington Park, and to dig a lake in Laurelhurst Park. Playgrounds at schools were discontinued because they lacked restrooms and drinking fountains and early summer rains shortened the playground season. Very cold summer weather also lowered attendance at the swimming pools. Four costly sprayings were necessary to rid Portland's 20,000 elm trees of the elm leaf beetle. The summer concert program continued featuring the Municipal Band and drew a total of 58,600 spectators for 31 concerts. The Ladd Estate donated a tract of land in Eastmoreland for the establishment of a golf course.
Charles Paul Keyser, perhaps the most well-known superintendent in Portland Parks & Recreation's history, officially took over the position in 1917. The public voted for an annual tax for the purchase and construction of playground parks. People expressed more interest in "systemized play for all ages and classes" than in extending parks or boulevards. The Bureau responded. Community House work was extended to include school gyms for night-time use, Sellwood YMCA was converted into Sellwood Community Center, and new tennis courts were constructed in Peninsula and Washington Parks. An 18-hole golf course designed by H. Chandler Egan was begun in Eastmoreland on 151 acres.
Much debate surrounded the paving of Terwilliger Parkway as it had begun to deteriorate. It had become a popular route, and those who wished to open it to commercial traffic expressed particularly strong desires to have it paved. Local landowners, whose property the road passed through, threatened to reclaim their rights-of-way if it were not paved because they had donated the land with the intent that it be used to create a road to benefit the public. Although the City claimed to not have the money to resurface the road, with all the uproar, they managed to pave the road within a year.
This year also saw the establishment of the International Rose Test Garden, "national and international in its scope, for the scientific testing outdoors of new roses and the cultivation and development in the open of existing varieties." The annual show organized by the Portland Rose Festival Association celebrated the opening of the new garden, and although exhibitors were scarce due to the war, excitement was high.
Progress on the Eastmoreland Golf Links was hampered by the war. To address the new popularity of automobile travel, the Parks Bureau established an auto campground near the Forestry Building at NW 28th & Vaughan, featuring comfort stations and wood camp stoves. Acting Mayor Bigelow decided to loan the South Park Block between Madison and Jefferson for Saturday night entertainments for soldiers during the summer. Several complaints of people stealing park flowers and of groups of young men gathering and singing loudly in the parks after 10:00 PM spurred the Bureau to request a special police detail to patrol the parks. Because of the war economy, several zoo animals, particularly bear, elk, and buffalo, were sold. In addition, the zoo tender position was eliminated, and the City Park foreman now had charge of the zoo. A rat infestation at the zoo was solved by means of a virus that killed the rats and somehow made them leave the vicinity before they died.
Play began at Eastmoreland Golf Links. Representatives from the Multnomah Athletic Club, Waverly Country Club, Portland Golf Club, and Tualatin Golf Club established the course and ran it in trust until the City could gain title to the property. Two bond issues passed in the June election: $500,000 for land acquisition, and $527,000 for improvements. Eight sites were proposed, but the Bureau faced many delays in purchasing these sites mainly because landowners were asking prices much higher than the assessed value of the land. In the case of the Belmont land (now part of Colonel Summers Park) the asking price was twice the assessed value. Other properties were more easily obtained and at fairly good prices thanks to the war.
The Bureau finally purchased the Buckman tract at a fair price, but the City Council had to initiate condemnation proceedings against the owner of the Belmont tract before they could purchase it at a rate close to its assessed value. The Goldsmith tract, 200x455 feet (now part of Wallace Park), was also purchased this year. The City had to abandon its auto campground because it did not own the land. In the summer, the Walnut Park and Piedmont districts experienced an alarming earwig infestation. The Bureau's resources were dried up in the continuing battle against the elm leaf beetle. Superintendent Keyser received vials of a deadly (to rats) virus from Pasteur Laboratories in France to deal with the rat infestation at the incinerator; it was the same method used to kill the rats at the zoo in 1918.


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Dan Lewis at Amazin' Avenue makes sense of the Mets' finances so you don't have to. Essentially, they're fucked independent of Bernie Madoff, and everything the team could conceivably sell is mortgaged. Makes you yearn for a couple months ago, when the team was a fuzz less fucked, but still fucked. [READ »]
More from Deadspin


text:
120 E 16th St, Scottsbluff, NE 69361
Own or work here? Claim Now! Claim Now!
By claiming your business, you'll be able to edit and add the information about your business. Adding more listing details helps people find you easier.
"Claimed" badge appears on your listing to verify your information is accurate.
Allows you to edit your listing, add photos, add hours, etc.
Increases your visibility on the Ag Service Finder.
Enabled advanced features, such as ad campaigns.
It's free to claim your listing!
B & W Inc Livestock Hauling is a livestock hauler located near Gering, NE
Your review recommended to be at least 140 characters long :)


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Sucking is usually a bad thing—unless of course you're playing Kirby.
The newest Kirby game, Kirby: Triple Deluxe, came out in Japan on the 3DS earlier this month. It is full of all the goodness you've come to expect when platforming. As everyone's favorite pink puffball, you float around, suck in enemies, copy their powers, and leave a path of gluttonous destruction in your wake.
Of course, there are plenty of new things, too—like new copy abilities, a new story, and level design built around moving between the foreground and background.
To see how it all looks in action, check out the video above.
Kirby: Triple Deluxe was released on January 11, 2014, in Japan for the Nintendo 3DS. It is scheduled for a Western release sometime in 2014.
Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.
To contact the author of this post, write to email@example.com or find him on Twitter @BiggestinJapan.


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Who would have thought that after I discredited it as a clothes shop devoid of any style, that I'd find myself stocking up?
A new Uniqlo has recently just opened up a few days ago on the west side of Shinjuku station opposite the Bic Camera/Odakyu store, where once was a mobile phone shop.
On Sunday it was packed out with shoppers looking for opening sale bargains.
My only purchase was a red plain t-shirt that I plan to screen-print something interesting you might see in a later post if it's a success or not. For only 790 yen, it was small change.
I found a pink polo that I took a liking to. (Yes, pink)
Unfortunately they didn't have my size, so we went to the other Uniqlo to find out though they DID have my size, it wasn't the 990 yen sale price. And NO, they wouldn't match that price.
Today I found a loophole.
I bought the medium size exact same shirt from the sale store, and trundled across to the other store to exchange for the "right" size. I wish they would have saved me this exercise and just matched the Goddamn price!
Feeling pretty pleased, I got myself an orange with white stripes polo as well that I thought would look really good with jeans in a Weezer kind of way.
Another fun day going to shoppingu.
Monday, 27 April 2009
A New Uniqlo
Who would have thought that after I discredited it as a clothes shop devoid of any style, that I'd find myself stocking up?
Posted by Jimmy In Japan at 11:59 pm 0 comments
Saturday, 25 April 2009
You Lookin' At Me?
I used to think that diaries were meant to be read to learn something interesting from other people, and maybe even give advice to others.
In hindsight, I learn now that the only ones that can totally speak their mind are posthumously, where being dead, the writer won't care too much about what's been said.
I'm getting a little sick of the spies turning my own words against me on my own, private, yet public blog. In turn it's making me feel like a spy for them.
So.. I am going to try to keep my thoughts to myself, and build back up that wall I had to before, to keep myself from getting hurt.
It doesn't mean that I won't write anymore (maybe), just that if I do write anything, it'll be more about my inane and trivial meanderings, rather than anything that opens me up to criticism I don't want, or need.
Any comments? No.. ok then.
Our little group went out tonight to Mike's Tex Mex in Higashi Rinkan. This time there were a few more invitees that ensured a night I can safely say was enjoyed by all.
In keeping with what I said at the beginning of this post, here is what I want to share with everyone.
No, it's not water, but my shot of tequila that did a good job of helping me forget any of the negatives in my life. Muchos Gracias!
I had time to kill before going to the restaurant, so it was as good a time as any to visit one of my favourite recycle shops, the Treasure Factory.
You never know what you might find.
This was a "blast from the past".
We used to have one of these Rubik's snakes.
There were three of them here in vintage (ie. old and faded) condition, but for 1,500 yen I passed on them, although it would have been fun to play with them for say, five minutes to re-live a bit of nostalgia.
This was just bizarre.
It's some kind of Ronald McDonald torch, perfect for creepy seances to awaken the angry spirits of former customers .
I think it was 1,000 yen or so. There was no way I was going to buy it. As much as I like hoarding useless junk, this is even too useless for me.
It's hard to miss all these funny signs.
I think this one was meant to read, "logistics room".
Those Japanese crack me up.
It's a good "pick-me-up" when I need it the most.
Posted by Jimmy In Japan at 11:44 pm 0 comments
Friday, 24 April 2009
Laughter Is The Best Medicine
This is just a time-out to show a few amusing pictures I took this week.
As usual I didn't have my SLR with me so the quality is so-so from my iPhone.
This is an office supplies shop not so far from the apartment here in Yotsuya.
I wish more places had "a" staff that spoke English. It would definitely give me less of a headache. Maybe I should learn me some Japanese.
I know...
Even printing a few photos out from the many photo booths in Bic or Yodobashi Camera can provide moments of mirth.
"Note a forgetting of prints to take".
This one is just disturbing.
This week we put station beers on hold to go to a cheap 300 yen izakaya for some beer and light food.
In the bathroom there was this figure above the toliet.
It is clearly a male torso, and the last thing I want to see while I'm doing my "business".
Posted by Jimmy In Japan at 8:55 pm 0 comments
Sunday, 19 April 2009
Coffee Gone!
The Merlo coffee I brought from Australia has finished today.
Looks like it's back to the Ethiopian blend that's been waiting the last, almost four months to be used. I'm sure it won't be as good as what we've been having.
It will be some time before the cheese is gone though. Five kilos takes quite a bit of eating to get through. Surprisingly it's holding up pretty good. It still looks and tastes like cheese.
Long live provelone!
Posted by Jimmy In Japan at 9:43 pm 0 comments
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Boss GT-10 Review
It feels like Christmas when I get that knock on the door at 9:20am this morning to find the courier man smiling with a large bubble-wrapped package containing my anticipated new toy.
He wasn't smiling. I made that part up, but yes I like getting "presents" even if it happens to be bought by me.
Here we have the Boss GT-10, multi-effect processor.
I had mixed feeling about this one. My first try was through a Roland JC-120 (It's a VERY common test amp here in Japan). I was actually quite unimpressed at that time.
My second try was comparing it against the Line 6 M13 stompbox multi, that initially I preferred more.
This time the winner was the Boss. Presets are really not a good way to test out Boss effects. I stripped out some effects to hear the "real" sound, and I think the GT-10 feels more versatile. The M13 seems like you have to do more of a tap dance to change sounds not unlike having separate stomp boxes in front of you.
So anyway. I plugged it directly in through the front of my Mesa and just like in the shop it sounded quite nice. I thought I'd have to use the 4CM method to plug it up, but it sounds fine to me this way.
I think the valves actually warm up the sound a bit. If there's a weakness it's in the distorted tones. There is a "Boss" sound that is slightly metallic, and at it's worst sounds nasally, like a wah left on in a mid position, but having said that for my style of music the tones I found were more than useable.
I had considered previously to get a Digitech Whammy and a delay pedal that would have easily cost as much or more than this unit. This baby has that, and much more. An added bonus to all the great effects is a direct to PC USB interface, and a nice little looper for cool solo jams and testing out sound patches.
It has noise suppressors which make my amp virtually silent compared to my amp's internal overdrive. I didn't get to turn it up to give a full impression of it's sound. (Japanese apartments aren't really the best place to test out guitar amplifiers), but I'm happy with this.
For those interested, useful information can be found here and some excellent Youtube videos here.
It's a nice piece of kit, that's for sure.
Posted by Jimmy In Japan at 11:05 pm 0 comments
Sunday, 12 April 2009
Wired For More Sound
I have to stop doing this.. I got some more music gear.
This time it's a Boss GT-10 Multi Effect unit.
About two weeks ago the Rock Inn had a one day sale which had the above processor for 39,800 yen. I contemplated whether I really wanted, or needed it, and in the end I let it go.
The next day I decided that I did want it, and tried just two days later to see if they could still do that price. Being in Japan I was not surprised that they flatly rejected doing it.
Yesterday I saw an online ad from Musicland Key in Osaka doing the same one day price for today. Naturally I thought it'd be no problem to go to the SAME shop in Shinjuku and ask if they can do the same price.
No, of course not. I DID get a free pack of strings from them so I won't hate on them too much.
I received an email from the Ishibashi store that their "best" price (non discounted at all!) was 49,800 yen.
"Many apologies for inconvenience this may cause you. Please let us know if you any concern!"
No inconvenience at all, I'll just shop elsewhere! Great, quick response to my email though. Kudos to that.
I thought to go back to Rock Inn but I didn't really think they deserved a second chance. I bought a cheap taiwanese guitar cable for 300 yen at TC Gakki and on the way back I thought I'd go to Shimamura Music in the Pepe building in Kabukicho.
I spoke to Tomomi who REALLY bent over backwards to make the sale. At first she tried to bring it down to 43,900 yen with a guitar cable. It didn't sway me. Next she noticed it was in Osaka, so I said I had a friend there who could get it for me.
She asked for Musicland's number in Osaka to confirm they had them in stock and came back to me to say they would do that price.
To be sure, I asked her if I could try it out before going through with the sale. They have a Mesa Boogie Express combo similar to mine so it was the perfect opportunity to test it with a comparable amp. The store was a little noisy, but I think it sounded pretty good.
It's refreshing to find a store that actually CARES about selling their products. To the other companies, let it be a lesson to you. You just lost a genuine sale. I highly recommend Shimamura Music. Even if you check elsewhere come here last, they actually care to match a price.
They didn't have the actual unit in the store, so they're posting it to me to arrive on Tuesday morning. I hope I got my address written right! Stay tuned for the low-down on this new piece of sweetness.
G.A.S. be damned.
Posted by Jimmy In Japan at 9:33 pm 0 comments
Friday, 10 April 2009
Signing With The Devil
I've sold my soul to the evil that is Softbank for another two years.
Previously having bought my iPhone outright, I was free to leave my contract at any time without penalty. If I leave within this time now, I have to pay a 9,975 yen cancellation fee. Am I nuts?
The bone they threw me was a monthly discount on the "unlimited" internet usage from 5,985 to 4,410 yen.
The promotion is called "iPhone for Everybody" where they give the 8 gig for "free", and the 16 gig for a little more. The catch is actually paying it off throughout the contract with the phone cost discounting (in the case of the former, to zero).
I was a little peeved they discounted the actual handsets, but hey, Softbank are evil like I said although, I have to say the girls on the English help line sound kind of cute.
I'm sure with the new, possibly 32 gig iPhone, Softbank will think of another way to screw their current customers.
Customer Service.. *sigh*
Speaking of.. Last night I bought a secondhand Artec Se-Adl analog delay for 4,480 yen to use with my tube amp from Ishibashi.
I tried it at home and felt a little disappointed. It was definitely sucking tone and making my amp sound weak, noticeably with the internal tube overdrive. Also with gain, the pedal added another layer of noise that at volume would be quite undesirable.
I was running it directly in front instead of the fx loop, so I'm sure this would've made a big difference, but I didn't have any other cables to test this. In contrast my Crybaby still rocks my world.
Anyway, I decided to return it for a refund, before they'd have the excuse that I had it for longer than 24 hours. As usual the process was like pulling teeth, but luckily playing the dumb gaijin, they relented and gave me my yen back.
I said it before, don't buy anything in Japan that you might ever consider asking to refund. It's a lesson I'm still yet to learn.
In other news, today's three and a half hour adult class went surprisingly (to me) really well.
Three cheers for me!
Posted by Jimmy In Japan at 10:50 pm 0 comments
Monday, 6 April 2009
Hello Kitty's Town
Today was my first day of kindergarden lessons at Tama Center.
Tama Center is mostly known as being the home of Sanrio Puroland (or more succinctly the home of "Hello Kitty").
I arrived more than a half hour early so I took the opportunity for a little stroll around the area. I can't say that this place does much for me. Apart from this "attraction" I don't see there being that much else to do here. From the amount of people coming out of the station I was under the impression they were all going to work there in Hello Kitty Land.
Having said that though, I thought these sculptures were pretty cool.
I had to catch a bus from the station to the kindergarden. The thought running through my mind was that they were going to drive me nuts like they did to Arnie in Kindergarden Cop.
At first they were a little stunned to be in my presence. With a little improvisation, I got them mostly on my side. Save for the one kid I can only describe as a little too "clingy".
Anyway I survived my first day of TWO long kindergarden classes. Let them always be nice children to me please.
Posted by Jimmy In Japan at 11:56 pm 2 comments
Sunday, 5 April 2009
Cherry Blossoms Part II
Although after Kanamara Matsuri we were so tired, we made a big effort to have a mini hanami once again around the Yasukuni shrine near the Budokan.
We arrived earlier than last year, so I had the opportunity to take pictures during the day this time as well as at night.
We came prepared with bentos and peach shochu from Hanamasa. It wasn't the best bento I ever had.
Actually, it was quite ordinary, but it has to be done.
Drinking and eating under the sakura is quite nice.
I had a lot of looks from passers-by. You'd think they'd never seen a gaijin eating before. I think they secretly wanted to do the same thing too.
Of course there were lots of people taking photos of the cherry blossoms even with their mobile phone cameras.
There were quite a few people in hired blue boats admiring the sakura from the water. I'd love to have done it but neither of us had the energy to row, so we gave it a miss.
At night, the cherry blossoms look even more beautiful.
It seems that beautiful things are too good to last forever.
This is the weekend of the full bloom. By another week or so, the flowers will be gone for another year.
Maybe we value things more knowing they aren't meant to last.
Posted by Jimmy In Japan at 11:59 pm 2 comments
Kawasaki Penis Festival
I wasn't going to miss it this year. No way!
On this special day, the first Sunday in April is the Kanamara Matsuri in Kawasaki Daishi.
It's better known (at least to foreigners) as the "Penis Festival". Everywhere you look, it's there in not so subtle detail.
Carved out of radishes.
It was eaten as candy. She looks like she's really enjoying this.
It was getting really crowded once they sent that big pink phallus on it's merry way down the street at midday. Strangely it seems guys were taking most of the photos today. Penis envy?
There were also a few wooden penises (penii?) around that almost no one could resist for that perfect photo op.
This truly was for all ages. Grannies were climbing on board. Even parents were putting their little kids on for a ride. Great to see those fricken surgical masks on too. The whole family!
I couldn't wait to get on that wooden phallus myself. We're going this way!
A couple of randoms posing for this one. It didn't take much persuasion either. Thanks guys!
There's not a whole lot of information about getting there and times. If you're thinking of going, the easiest way is catching the Keikyu line to Kawasaki, where you change trains to the Keikyu-Daishi Line and get off at the Kawasaki Daishi station (3rd stop). You'd want to get there by the midday procession down the street.
Would I go again next year? Not telling..
Posted by Jimmy In Japan at 12:30 pm 0 comments
Labels: Kawasaki


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Between Amazon, iPods and various external hard drives, my music collection is spread far and wide over my digital footprint. But it doesn't really matter where the media is coming from, the Pioneer Music Tap will play it.
Designed for use as either a table top stereo or as a smaller satellite player to accompany a primary A/V receiver, the Music Tap system features built-in Wi-Fi access for using AirPlay to push media from an iTunes playlist, as well as DLNA 1.5 and vTuner Internet radio. In addition, the system has inputs for USB, FM tuning, Bluetooth (though the less expensive Pioneer version requires an external BT receiver). It's even got a slide-out iPod/Phone dock and component Video Out if you feel the need.
Much like the VSX-1021, the Music Tap runs Pioneer's proprietary AirJam app for iOS devices, which lets groups share a common playlist with music from their personal collections. Its 2.5-inch colour LCD screen displays album art and metadata from whatever is currently playing.
The Music Tap system is available now and comes in two varieties: the Pioneer Music Tap retails for $US399 and the Elite version — with built-in Bluetooth — runs $US479. [Pioneer]


text:
Clermont Co. meningitis case brings Ohio total to 18
Elderly woman among 430 cases nationwide
Health officials say an 85-year-old Clermont County woman's fungal meningitis case marks Ohio's 18th illness linked to a larger outbreak and recalled steroid injections for back pain.
The case is Clermont County's third, with other cases in Crawford, Franklin, Hamilton, Marion, Morrow, Union and Warren counties, as well as a Kentucky woman who got an injection in Ohio. All are adults and none have died.
Officials previously removed one woman from the list because the case no longer met the federal definition of this type of meningitis.
Federal officials report more than 430 illnesses and 32 deaths in the outbreak linked to a specialty pharmacy that recalled its products.
Officials say dozens of Ohio facilities received the products, while four Ohio clinics got the potentially contaminated steroids.


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Watch CBSN Live
Russian firefighters and security personnel inspect a destroyed trolleybus in Volgograd, Russia, Dec. 30, 2013.
Ten people were killed in a bombing that destroyed a packed trolleybus in the southern Russian city of Volgograd, the second attack in the city in two days after a suicide strike on its main train station, officials said.
Credit: AFP/Getty Images
Investigators work at the site of an explosion at the entrance to a train station in Volgograd, Dec. 29, 2013.
A female suicide bomber blew herself up in the entrance hall of the Russian train station on Sunday, killing at least 13 people in the deadly attack.
Credit: Sergei Karpov/Reuters
Credit: Denis Tyrin/AP


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WOW! The Mystery Quilt 2013 Quilt Along is growing with over 378 members! Part 2 is here and ready to download for this eager, chatty, and supportive group to enjoy. Be sure to check out the Photo Pages under Discussions below to see pictures of the members' progress.
Views: 5119
How many Mystery Quilts do you do in a year? looking forward to joining in on some quilt alongs.
is part nbr four out for the mystery quilt i'm trying to get a copy mary
Simple sample, click on the back arrow on the top of this page and find part 1.
Hi, I just found this & don't know where to get part 1. Any help out there.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A flier calling for the Hollywood sign to be torn down is a joke, but residents of hillside neighborhoods below the landmark said the frustration they feel over growing crowds of sightseers is real.
Signs have gone up in the upscale areas of Beachwood Canyon and Hollywoodland, some reading "Warning — Tourist-Free Zone" and "Tourists Go Away," the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.
Residents say they are bothered by the traffic but most concerned about safety issues because the curving, narrow roads in the area were not designed for so many vehicles and pedestrians.
"We live in the middle of an area that is very attractive to people all over the globe," said Fran Reichenbach, president of the Beachwood Canyon Neighborhood Association. "We knew that when we moved here, but in the last few years it's really gotten out of hand."
Just a few years ago there were only a few operators offering Hollywood sign viewing tours. Now, the newspaper says, there are more than 40 companies running buses and vans in and out of the canyon.
And tourists are increasingly using GPS devices on their cars and phones to map out the best views and routes through the neighborhoods.
Over the summer, the city tested the use of road checkpoints where tourists were warned of parking restrictions in the area and directed to a vista point above the Hollywood Reservoir where they could see the sign.
In 2011, the city began weighing tour buses as they entered Hollywoodland to strictly enforce a 6,000-pound vehicle limit on the small streets.
At a forum two years ago, residents proposed several ideas for easing traffic, including erecting gates across some streets and even building an aerial tram connecting the nearby Travel Town Museum in Griffith Park to a ridge next to the Hollywood sign. Neither of those ideas panned out, the Times said.
Now, residents are demanding that the city keep roads clear for emergency vehicles. They're also calling for permit parking restrictions to prevent tourists from stopping on residential streets.
Los Angeles Councilman Tom LaBonge, who represents the area, believes the problems would eased if the tour company vehicles would park at Griffith Observatory to view the sign.
"I absolutely do support people visiting here from around the world," LaBonge told the newspaper. "But the impact on the neighborhood has been great."


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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_vloWVgf0o]
I enjoyed watching this time-lapse video of a MakerBot Replicator printing a Yoda bust, from BusyBotz. Time-lapse is a great way to capture the magic of a 3D printer on camera. I like the specs at the beginning of the video, presented in the original Star Wars opening crawl style, as well as the fun and interesting facts sprinkled throughout the video ("This is a good example of a 10% honey comb infill"). The same printout done in .1mm layer height and .2mm layer height are compared side-by-side, so you can see the difference.
It's funny that I came across this video today, because yesterday MAKE intern Eric showed me that he had printed out the same Yoda Thingiverse file, using the same color filament!


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Updated, 7/2, 3:16 p.m.
Andrew Hamilton, GS '13, who had been heavily involved in the Philolexian Society and various on-campus theater groups, died in New York City on June 24, according to the New York City Medical Examiner's office. He was 26.
Friends remembered the neuroscience and behavior major as supportive, ambitious, and having extremely diverse interests.
While at Columbia, he was involved in groups ranging from the King's Crown Shakespeare Troupe and the Philolexian Society to the Columbia Political Review and the Columbia Atheists and Agnostics.
"He had a huge personality. He had all these sorts of interests," Halley Hair, CC '11 and a close friend of Hamilton, said. "No matter what you were interested in, he wanted to know why, what you were doing with your life, where you were going, what your new project in life was."
He also served as vice president of the 3333 Broadway Tenants' Association from 2010 to 2014, and worked as a research fellow with the Harriman Institute.
"He was sort of a master of ceremonies in that way. He delighted in bringing together the friends he had that he had met through different communities," Sam Reisman, CC '10, who met Hamilton through KCST's 2010 production of Measure for Measure, said. "To anyone he considered a friend, he was a great friend."
Hamilton and his family immigrated in 1994 to Princeton, New Jersey, from Russia. After graduating from high school in 2006, Hamilton worked briefly as a banker at Bank of America before moving to Boise, Idaho, in 2007. There, he worked at Behavior Imaging Solutions and volunteered with Rep. Walt Minnick's 2008 congressional campaign.
Hamilton returned to the East Coast in the fall of 2009, when he moved to New York to attend the School of General Studies. According to friends, Hamilton quickly settled in and made a wide array of friends at and beyond the University.
"I can't tell you when I met him, because literally from the moment I met him to about a week ago when I last talked to him he was just so himself so open in a way that people aren't with strangers but he was," Jacob Rice, CC '12 and a close friend of Hamilton, said.
"He was so good at building relationships between all of the things he did and all of the people he met," Reisman said.
Reisman said that Hamilton's diverse interests can be seen in the variety of campus publications he contributed to—ranging from an article on affordable housing in New York for the Columbia Political Review to a research paper on binding memory in the Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal.
Politics—and with it, patriotism—was another one of Hamilton's many passions. Though he only gained U.S. citizenship in 2009, Reisman said that friends considered Hamilton "more proud to be an American" than any American they had met.
"I know very few people who are more proud of their American citizenship than Andrew," Fred Jennings, one of Hamilton's close friends, said. "He had a sense of respectful patriotism that is very rarely seen these days."
In 2012, Hamilton spent his summer interning at the White House. The next year, he premiered "The Russian Soul," a full-length documentary he produced with the Harriman Institute about democracy and politics in Russia.
"He was hoping to go into politics in some way, shape, or form," Hair said.
Yet all the while, Hamilton never overlooked his ever-growing group of friends. Hair said that while she and Hamilton would often get invited to dozens of events, parties, or performances by friends every weekend, Hamilton felt so bad about turning anybody down that the two would spend hours planning out exactly how to hit every event, every night.
"He wanted to support them as much as possible," Hair said. "He was a very involved friend. We spent a lot of nights, staying up all night, watching the sunrise, having crazy conversations."
Reisman said that even after he left Columbia, it was difficult not to stay in touch with Hamilton.
"Andrew was almost tenacious in the enthusiasm with which he kept in touch with his friends," he said. "He made it very much of his mission to be involved and active with his friends."
A friends' memorial service is planned for 7 p.m. on July 1 at St. Luke's Theatre at 308 W. 46th Street. A public memorial is also planned for July 19 on Columbia's campus.
Maia Bix contributed reporting.


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Second Calling: Making Peace With the Past - Part I
- Dale Hanson Bourke Author
- 2006 9 May
We know surprisingly little about Naomi's past. For all of the rich detail the Bible gives us about her situation, it seems strange that we would know so few specifics about her husband and sons. We don't know if they died suddenly or from long illnesses. We don't see any evidence of the circumstances causing Naomi to wonder what went wrong or if she could have done something different.
In that absence of information there seems to be a basic principle: Naomi didn't get stuck in the past. She didn't replay the good times or the bad. Chapters aren't devoted to what she might have done differently or how unjust it was that both sons were killed. She doesn't spend time holding a grudge, seeking revenge, or asking what might have been.
If Naomi had dwelled on such thoughts, she might have used up her time and energy getting even. She could have become critical of her daughters-in-law and angry with her late husband for bringing her to such a godforsaken land. She might have tried to attract another man or asked Ruth's family to take her in. She might have done any of those things, but she didn't.
Naomi was busy looking to God for her second calling. She didn't name it that or even imagine that God had anything special for her. But one of the most striking aspects of her story is how much it is rooted in the present and future and how little it relates to the past.
The Challenge of Releasing Our Past
Giving up the past may be the greatest challenge we face during our midlife. We want to hold on to so many of the good things – our looks, our energy, and our roles that once defined us. We also tend to hold on to the bad as well – the insults, betrayals, criticisms, and injustices.
On one hand, such tendencies are natural. We can even justify them by claiming to want to be as good as we can be. But unless we come to grips with the fact that being all we can be means something entirely different at this stage of life than it did when we were twenty, we will spend our days and years trying to become imitations of our former selves. Yes, we should take our health seriously and be aware that what we eat and how much exercise we get will have a very real impact on our ability to enjoy future years. But we should do such things not out of vanity or competition but because we want to live a quality life and not be a burden to others. There is nothing sadder than an aging woman living in denial.
We may especially mourn the loss of our children as they grow up and no longer need us. But if we don't let them go and encourage their independence, we are not fulfilling our rightful role in their lives. Many women who were terrific mothers of toddlers and early teens become negligent mothers of nearly adult children. Negligent may sound like a strange term, but I have learned that unless we give our children the skills and encouragement they need to leave us and live independently, we are creating an unhealthy dependence in them. If we don't create a new foundation for our relationship, we will miss out on the joy of adult friendships with our own children.
At first I loved that my son Chase would call me from college to ask advice or help him make a decision. But gradually I realized that such phone calls were not necessarily a sign of my success as a mother. I needed to learn to push Chase back toward independence if he was going to be a confident man. I needed to love him so much that I would let him fail on his own and make mistakes. I had to stop holding on to the past closeness I so enjoyed and move to a place that was painful for me but necessary for my son. As much as I loved our relationship as it was, I needed to make a change that might leave us both missing the familiar.
As we have worked at this, Chase and I have developed new patterns of respect for one another. I try to celebrate his decisions even when they aren't necessarily ones I might have made. He has learned to ask for my advice and then feel free to accept or disagree with my opinions. We now have a relationship that is less like the past but is large enough to embrace the future. It isn't always easy for either of us, but we know we are building a solid basis for our future relationship.
My friend Julie had a similar epiphany with her hair. She had worn the same style through most of her adult years, although now she had to cover the gray and work a bit harder to achieve the "natural" look. One day, she walked in to her hair salon and said, "Cut it." She was not only referring to her hair, but also to her ties to the past. She told me that she had looked at her family Christmas pictures and noticed how much everyone else in the family changed, yet she seemed to stay the same — with a few more wrinkles but always the same hairstyle.
It suddenly struck her that she was trying to hold on to "the Julie of Christmas past." She knew exactly how to style the haircut she had and knew that it was still flattering, even after all these years. But there was something about it that was too familiar. Julie's new, natural cut is short, spunky, and gray. It suits her and will certainly stand out in this year's picture. For her, it is symbolic of redefining herself not as someone clinging to the past, but as someone who is fully invested in the present and future.
Leaving good things behind can be hard. But leaving the pain of the past can be far more challenging. To some degree, we all have places in our hearts where the past is still gripping us. The pain of a loss can still bring tears, and the memory of betrayal can tighten our stomachs. We can replay scenes and rewind words over and over again.
The amount of time and energy we spend on the past robs us of time, space, and energy for the future. If you get nothing else out of this book, please, please take this warning seriously. You must let go of your past. It won't be easy. You may need help. But wiping the slate clean may be the most important work of this time in your life. If you hold on to past pain, you may spend the rest of your life as a bitter or defeated person. God will only be able to work in a small part of your soul because it will already be full of scar tissue.
The Slivers Beneath the Skin
One day, my Bible study group was listening to a sermon by pastor Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York. The sermon was on the topic of envy. At first, I couldn't really think of anyone I envied to the point of sin; nevertheless, I asked God to show me if there was something lurking in a corner of my heart that I was missing.
The name that came to mind was shocking. I couldn't even imagine why I had thought of her. She was a former business associate I had never particularly liked or admired. She seemed to me to have an overblown ego and poor work habits. But as I thought of her, I realized that she had gained the approval of someone I did admire. And there it was: envy. I resented this woman because, in my opinion, she had not "earned" the approval she received. And I resented our boss for not seeing the situation clearly.
That's when I began to get at the root of a deep problem in my life. I was an achiever who often tried to accomplish something in order to win approval. It was a characteristic that had driven me to achieve good grades, work hard for promotions, and even write articles that would win awards. As much as I pretended to be independent and unmoved by awards or honors, I realized how deeply I needed the approval of people I admired and how deeply I hurt when I was overlooked. And if someone received what I considered undeserved approval, I often reacted with resentment.
Getting to the Truth
I wrote down this discovery in my journal and began to ask God to purge me of envy, the cancer that had probably colored more relationships than I knew. A few days later, I was praying when the name of a friend came to mind. I hadn't thought of her for years, partially because even remembering her name brought pain. We had been very close, like sisters. I had been willing to do anything for her and had time and time again gone out of my way to support her, encourage her, and help her through tough times.
Then one day, without warning, she turned on me. She shut down, turned away, and didn't even return my telephone calls. It was a perplexing and painful situation. There had been no argument between us, and even our mutual friends were stunned by her coldness to me. I couldn't imagine what I had done wrong or what I might have done differently. All of our mutual friends agreed that her actions were harsh, shocking, and irrational. She woundedme deeply, and I kept thinking she'd eventually come around and apologize. But she never did. Weeks turned into months and months into years. My hope for reconciliationeventually died. Our friendship was simply a memory.
All this time later, the memory was still painful. In his book "Everything Belongs," Richard Rohr says that God often has a reason for pain, so "we dare not get rid of the pain before we have learned what it has to teach us."1 While I don't think God wants us stuck in the past, I do think he will show us if there is a reason that, after prayerful petitioning, we can't let something go. I was convinced that this situation was one of those times. So I prayed that God would show me what it was about this situation that still made it so painful. After all, if my friend had irrationally turned on me, why couldn't I just accept that it was her problem and really not about me at all? If that was the case, I had simply loved an irrational, unstable person. I'd done my best to be a good friend, but apparently she had needed more.
During this time, I came across a book called "Loving What Is" by Byron Katie. It's not a Christian book, and I don't agree with many of the things Katie has written and endorsed. But all truth is God's truth, and, in my opinion, the process that Katie outlines in this book is consistent with the Bible. The way the book came to me seemed more than coincidental, so I decided to try a method Katie calls "The Work."2 As a first step, she suggests that you take a situation that is causing pain and write down all of your thoughts and beliefs about it. She urges you to get downright petty. So with that encouragement, I did. I began to write all my feelings about this person, whom I'll call Mary.
Mary took but rarely gave back. Mary expected me to be there for her, but whenever I needed something she wasn't there for me. Mary used me. Mary expected me to clean up her problems. Mary was not honest with me. Mary borrowed things and never returned them. Mary didn't care how much she hurt me. Mary was never loyal to me. Mary called me late at night and never asked if she was bothering me. ...
Once I got the hang of it, I was amazed by how my feelings flowed. I did get downright petty. I was surprised by the specifics I could still remember and the anger I felt over all I had done for Mary and how little I deserved her treatment of me. I quickly filled a sheet of paper with my accusations, resentments, and hurts.
"What's so Christian about that?" you may wonder. I did, too, at first. But this step is such an important part of healing old wounds that I really searched Scripture for understanding. I think this is all part of coming clean with ourselves and God. Certainly, the Lord knows that we are holding on to all these nasty thoughts. Yet we delude ourselves so that we can believe we are good people. Trust me, when I looked at this page of whining and bitterness, I was astounded by how nasty I sounded. And in my mind, I wanted to believe that I was the good and worthy person in the relationship who had been hurt by mean old Mary.
In his book "The Lies We Believe," psychologist Chris Thurman says, "Most of our emotional struggles, relationship difficulties, and spiritual setbacks are caused by the lies we tell ourselves."4 These words are so true. Just think about how Jesus dealt with people who came to him for healing. The woman at the well dodged the truth about her marital status, and Jesus had to confront her with reality before he could heal her. The man at the pool of Bethesda whined about his inability to get to the water until Jesus asked him bluntly, "Do you want to get well?"
Human beings are masters of delusion. Without coming clean, it's hard to find healing. And after living a few decades, most of us have developed a pretty good ability to lie to ourselves. And it was beginning to dawn on me that I hadn't told myself the whole truth about my relationship with Mary.
1Richard Rohr, "Everything Belongs: The Gift o Contemplative Prayer (New York: Crossroad, 1999), 43.
2Byron Katie with Stephen Mitchell, "Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life" (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2003). This five-step process is not identified with any religion, Christian or otherwise; Katie's web site clarifies that she "developed The Work completely out of her own experiences. Any similarities to other systems [of belief] are purely coincidental." The author's personal experience with The Work does not constitute an endorsement of "Loving What Is," Byron Katie or her recommended resources.
4Chris Thurman, "The Lies We Believe" (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 5.
Taken from "Second Calling" © 2006 by Dale Hanson Bourke. Used with permission. Published by Integrity Publishers, a division of Integrity Media, Inc. 5250 Virginia Way, Suite 110 Brentwood, TN 37027. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other – except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.
A graduate of Wheaton College, Dale Hanson Bourke earned an MBA from the University of Maryland and formerly served as editor of Today's Christian Woman magazine and publisher of Religion News Service. She is now the president of PDI, a marketing and strategy consulting firm specializing in work with nonprofit ogranizations. Dale lives just outside Washington, DC, with her husband,Tom, and they are the parents of two sons. For more information, visit www.secondcalling.org.


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KC police chief reports progress in preventing homicides
Homicide rate at slowest pace in four years
Kansas City Police Chief Darryl Forte said violent crime rates in the city are falling and he credits his tactics to reduce homicides as playing a big role.
Forte said the latest statistics show homicides on the slowing pace in Kansas City since 2009.
"It's too early for any premature celebration," he said. "It's early, but it gives us hope we're headed in the right direction."
Forte wrote a post in his blog that said "We are making a positive difference."
"The message I'm trying to get out is that we're making some progress. We're not where we need to be, but we're making some progress," he said.
However, not all crime rates in the city are down. Statistics released Tuesday showed the category of crimes against persons rose in 2012 after a slight dip the year before. Crimes against property, including thefts and stolen cars, also showed a slight rise in 2012.
"I want the numbers to be up," Forte said. "Because now, people are reporting it now. Every time I talk to people I tell them, 'Tell us what's going on,' so we know where to put the resources."
He said there are ways to measure improvement outside of the statistics.
"We've had homicides before where hundreds of people were witnesses, and not a single person comes down to talk to us. And that's how you measure it. It's not always numbers," he said.
There have been two major shifts in tactics in recent months. Federal, state and local authorities have combined their efforts to crack down on crime, including indictments against more than 60 people last month. Forte said he is also concentrating on four specific violent crime hot spots and flooding those areas with additional officers.
"The hotspot policing always made sense to me," said Kansas City Councilman John Sharp. "In other words, you take the areas where the crime is, and that's where you put the cops."
Convincing the public that things are changing may take time.
"I think it's going to be tough to get a handle on it,' said Nina Tallman of Kansas City. "Because you're going to have to start at the bottom, where the crime starts."
"I believe that if we give these programs time, we'll see maybe the Chief is optimistic in advance of where the rest of us are, but in time, we'll see changes that we're going to notice," said Kansas City Mayor Sly James.