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"Sing through me, put a hole in me, put it up there at the very top of the stairs."
It's a gray, dull Thursday afternoon in the Institute of Contemporary Art's Barbara Lee Family Theater, and Anthony Trecek-King, the artistic director of the Boston Children's Chorus, is encouraging his charges to "be very aggressive." The chorus, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, is rehearsing at the ICA in preparation for concerts there on May 31 and June 1 that will feature the world premiere of "A Boy Called King."
The multimedia piece was commissioned by the BCC and the ICA from Haitian-American composer Daniel Roumain, whose works include "Voodoo Violin Concerto No. 1" and "Hip-Hop Essay for Orchestra." The libretto is by poet, playwright, and performance artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph, who presented his multimedia show "red, black & GREEN: a blues" at the ICA last year. The dance component is by the San Francisco–based choreographer Amy Seiwert.
The BCC isn't actually rehearsing "A Boy Called King" today. For one thing, Roumain is still working on the music. But, Trecek-King explains, "It's good for us to get into the space ahead of time. We'll be asking the kids, 'How do you feel?,' we'll be experimenting with how they stand, and I'll do crazy things like having them stand way at the top."
Not only does Trecek-King spread the chorus members around the theater in various configurations, he himself sprints to row J to hear how they sound from there. Otherwise he conducts standing on a wooden box, with rehearsal pianist Sarah Koonce playing a portable keyboard in front of him. He treats his singers like professionals. They discuss the ambience of the theater, which he characterizes as dry, and how well they can hear one another.
The mission of the BCC, he says, "is integrative, music as a catalyst to create social change. Our idea is to bring different communities together, knowing Boston's history of being divisive." Funding, he adds, comes from "family foundations, foundation support, individual giving, some corporate support, and, of course, very very little government support. There are actually 12 choruses. We have 450 kids in 12 different choruses in five locations, South Boston, Dorchester, South End, downtown, and Allston-Brighton. But those 450 singers come from as far away as Worcester and Andover and New Bedford. We do between 30 and 40 performances a year."
The ICA appearance came about, he says, because "I think that when people hear Boston Children's Chorus or children's chorus, they think it's going to be like a school concert. So I wanted to do something at the end of the 10th anniversary that was really big and significant in the world of arts. And the location was very important to me."
David Henry, the ICA's director of public programs, chimes in. "I met Anthony about three years ago and was impressed by his vision of bringing some of the best contemporary composers to do work with the Children's Choir."
That led to the idea of a joint commission. "I didn't know Marc or Amy," says Trecek-King, "and I didn't know Daniel, either, but I was aware of his work. And David enlightened us about the work Daniel was doing."
"Daniel did one of the first performances we did here at the ICA," Henry recalls.
As to the subject matter of the piece, says Trecek-King, "It was sort of a turn these guys loose." He says he and Roumain did discuss what the BCC is about and his wanting the commission to connect with the chorus's mission. "And when we talked with Daniel," Trecek-King goes on, "he said, 'You know, Marc and Amy would be great. I just did a project with them.' "
That would be "Home and 7," for Atlanta Ballet. Joseph, over the phone from his home in Oakland, Calif., says, "Daniel and I were backstage at Atlanta Ballet, and he talked about the King Kong myth as a parable for racial justice in the United States. The libretto for the piece came out of Daniel's concept."
"A Boy Called King" has to do with a boy who's rejected by an older woman. "Maybe it's a lover," says Joseph, "maybe it's a teacher, maybe it's a mother. But the idea is that this woman, for whatever reason, has turned her back on this boy." And his libretto, he says, "plays with Martin Luther King's iconic 'I have a dream' speech and also the iconic mythology of King Kong and really mashes them up together to tell this story of isolation from a young boy's perspective."
"A Boy Called King" won't be the only world premiere on the ICA program. There's also, says Trecek-King, a set of four Arabic-English pieces by Seattle composer Eric Banks to verses by the celebrated Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani. There'll be a piece from Venezuela and one from India.
The BCC will have a busy spring leading up to the ICA appearance. Sunday, April 7, it'll join the Boston Saengerfest Men's Chorus, whose mean age is 69, in "Boyz to Men," a multigenerational festival of male voices at Wellesley Village Church. On April 23, it'll take part in Big Sing East 2013, a gathering of choirs at St. Cecilia's Parish in Boston. It'll present its "All Choir Season Finale" at the Strand Theatre in Dorchester on May 20.
And after the ICA concerts, says Trecek-King, "We're heading off to Vietnam and Cambodia in late June. I think it's 16-day trip. About 65 kids, and then the adults that go along. We'll have about an hour and a half worth of music, basically our whole season distilled down. I think when we travel, particularly outside of this continent, bringing our stuff to them is really great, and then bringing back music from those specific areas is really cool."
More information on performances:
"Big Sing East 2013"
At: St. Cecilia's Parish, Boston, April 23. Tickets: $2. www.bostonchildrenschorus.org
"All Choir Season Finale"
At: Strand Theatre, Boston,
May 20. Free performance. www.bostonchildrenschorus.org
"A Boy Called King"
At: Institute of Contemporary Art, May 31-June 1. Tickets: $27-$30. 617-478-3103, www.icaboston.org
Jeffrey Gantz can be reached at jeffrey


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subset: commoncrawl


text: Rob Thorn wrote:Sorry if this has been covered somewhere, but where in the world can you change your password at? I've looked everywhere in the User Control Panel, but still haven't located it. I have an auto-generated password, but I want to change it to something I can actually remember. Thanks in advance.


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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — House Republican leaders on Thursday offered President Barack Obama what they called a "good faith" proposal to temporarily increase the nation's debt ceiling and negotiate a budget deal, with the government remaining shuttered for a tenth straight day.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said the Republican debt-limit plan was "encouraging." Obama would likely sign a short-term bill if it is "clean," Carney said, meaning free of Republican policy prescriptions. But he added that the White House has seen no bill from House Republicans. He said that Obama "strongly prefers" a long-term increase in the borrowing limit.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting of the Republican caucus, House Speaker John Boehner said he hoped Obama would view the idea for a six-week extension as an attempt to meet him halfway.
The Republicans' offer would not reopen the government. Boehner said that would be discussed at a White House meeting with Obama Thursday afternoon. Republicans made no comments when they left the roughly 90-minute White House meeting.
"What we want to do is offer the president today the ability to move," the Ohio Republican said after the caucus meeting. "A temporary increase in the debt ceiling [and] an agreement to go to conference on the budget, for his willingness to sit down and discuss with us a way forward to reopen the government."
The plan would prohibit the Treasury from using so-called "extraordinary measures" to avoid default, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing aides. The Treasury has used such moves — such as temporarily halting issuance of securities to state and local governments — to stay under the borrowing limit. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew reiterated Thursday that the deadline for raising the borrowing limit is Oct. 17, when the government runs out of borrowing authority.
Carney also dug in on Obama's position that he wouldn't negotiate on Republican demands on the budget or other issues until the government re-opened. Obama has urged Congress to pass a clean debt-limit increase and a so-called continuing resolution to reopen the federal government. But he has indicated willingness to consider short-term agreements.
Republicans "should do both," Carney said about funding the government and raising the borrowing limit.
Obama has asked Senate Republicans to attend a White House meeting on Friday morning.
Conservative group Heritage Action said it opposes a short-term debt-limit increase, but, significantly, said it won't lobby against it so House leaders can have "flexibility" to refocus the debate on Obama's health-care law.
Lew pressed Congress for a long-term increase in the debt limit in testimony on Thursday before the Senate Finance Committee. But he said that Obama would accept a short-term extension.
"The longer the period of time is, the better for the economy," Lew said. Read recap of live blog of Lew's testimony.
U.S. stock markets
Treasury prices slipped, sending yields higher — except for the Treasury bill maturing Nov. 29. See Bond Report.
Wall Street liked the movement in Washington. But the head of the New York Stock Exchange's parent company was underwhelmed.
"I don't think we should allow them to feel that that solves the problem," said Duncan Niederauer. "All that does is kick the can down the road for six weeks." Read more on Capitol Report.
In his testimony, Lew harshly criticized the idea of "prioritizing" payments the government makes. That idea would just be "default by another name," he said.
Senate Democrats are preparing this weekend to begin voting on a bill that would extend the debt ceiling through 2014. A senior Senate Democratic aide told the Hill newspaper "don't assume" that Majority Leader Harry Reid will accept a six-week extension.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, left the door open to backing the Republican proposal. She said she wants to see details, though she prefers a longer extension.


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A few days ago we put an offer on a house (our first ever), for which the payments would stretch us fairly thin during the six months until I start work post fellowship.
I've signed a job contract that I had planned to mail yesterday. Just before dropping it off, I received one email and one text message, both in regards to two different job opportunities. I have one week before this contract is due and, even though the other two leads might be better fits for me and my family, the contract I have now is not sometime I would want to walk away from. One of the leads is in another state, further complicating that home offer we made.
It's a strange week when patient care is the least stressful part of my day.


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2014 Lexus ES 350
The last-generation Lincoln Continental. The ninth. That, a knowledgeable friend suggested to me, is the vehicle that the Lexus ES—now the ES 350—has effectively replaced in the market. Or, as he explained, people who might have otherwise purchased a Lincoln Continental in the late '90s (this vehicle had its run from model year '95 to '02) would now buy the ES. He was, of course, correcting for age, meaning that he wasn't suggesting that someone who would buy a Continental in, say, 1999 would be the same person who would be buying an ES 15 years later. (Nor would a person who might have purchased an ES in 1999—that would have been a third-generation car, the ES 300, possibly the Coach edition of the car—be likely to buy an ES 350—the 6th generation of the car today. The first gen, in case you are wondering, the 1990 ES 250, went on sale in the U.S. in September, 1989, and the second generation, the ES 300, showed up a mere two years later.)
What my friend was saying is that the ES 350, like the Continental, is a large, comfortable front-drive car. (I had thought that the Continental was a rear-drive car, as the Lincoln Town Car was; that car had three generations, rolling off into the sunset in 2011. Just to add a bit of confusion to things, there was another rear-drive Lincoln available from model year 2000 to 2006. There is a rear-drive Lexus that also happens to have the "LS" nomenclature.)
OK. Let's simply get back to the 2014 ES 350.
Featured Content
When you buy a four-door sedan nowadays, you sometimes discover that when you have someone open one of those second-row doors and climb in, you, if you are behind the wheel and a caring person, need to adjust your seat so far forward that you hope like mad that the airbag won't deploy because you'd find that it would probably bruise and suffocate you before it was fully inflated.
That is not an issue with the ES 350.
For this generation, the wheelbase was increased by 1.8 inches (to 111 inches) and that space pretty much went into the back seat. While the math may seem a bit bizarre, according to Lexus, the increase in rear leg room compared with the previous generation ES is 4.1 inches. Or what might be more meaningful: the front leg room is 41.9 inches and the rear is 40 inches, which is to say that there is sufficient room back there so that your backseat passenger is actually going to be comfortable while you are able to drive without getting overly intimate with the steering wheel. (Should, however, you like to move your driver's seat around, know that there 10-way powered seats are standard, and 12-way heated and ventilated powered front seats, which allow the front cushions to extend an additional 1.4 inches for those who have long legs and are interested in a bit more support, are available.)
The point is that the cabin is roomy and comfortable.
There are real knobs that can be used for things like adjusting the radio, as well as steering wheel-mounted controls. Assuming one opts for the navigation system (and it is hard to imagine that one would buy a car in this category without one), there is not only the obligatory 8-inch VGA screen in the center of the instrument panel, but also the "Remote Touch Interface," or a square knob that allows moving the cursor around the screen to select things like audio stations or for navi setup. While it may sound awkward, it really isn't, as there is an arm rest adjacent to the knob so that the knob comes readily to hand.
And while we're in this consumer electronics-type space, know that the car when equipped with navigation comes with Lexus Enform, which brings to bear all of the apps that you may find necessary should you need reservations, movie tickets, or even emergency help.
The car has a 3.5-liter V6 engine (3.5—ES 350: get it?) and a six-speed automatic. It propels the 3,549-pound car quite nicely. Lexus claims a 0 to 60 time of 7.1 seconds, which can be translated as: You can get off the freeway ramp onto the freeway without a problem.
The car has a another knob (this one is a nice big metallic one) that allows you to adjust the powertrain response and climate control setting to ECO or Sport (Normal is a default), with the first to eke out a bit more mileage from the fuel (and it is worth noting that the car operates on regular gas, not premium) and the Sport a bit more saucy.
It is rated at 21 city, 31 highway, and 24 mpg combined. I never saw anything close to 31, but the 24 figure was absolutely real.
Roomy, comfortable, responsive, handsomely styled. No, this is not the car that one would buy if they're looking for a premium marque and rear-drive performance. This is the car that one would buy if they're looking for something that is well executed and that will get them to where they need to go in an upscale manner.
The ES model has been a mainstay for Lexus from the start. And this current one simply underscores the fact that they really do pursue continuous improvement.
Selected specs
Engine: 3.5-liter V6
Horsepower: 268 @ 6,200 rpm
Torque: 248 lb-ft @ 4,700 rpm
Materials: Aluminum block and heads
Transmission: Six-speed, electronically controlled
Steering: Electric rack and pinion
Wheelbase: 111.0 in.
Length: 192.7 in.
Width: 71.7 in.
Height: 57.1 in.
Coefficient of drag: 0.27
Seating capacity: 5
EPA: mpg city/highway/combined: 21/31/24 mpg
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Kia Motors America COO and executive vice president says this crossover is "crafted for the urban pioneer." And it is designed and engineered for competing in one of the hottest segments in the overall auto market.
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The Society for Mathematical Psychology promotes the advancement and communication of research in mathematical psychology and related disciplines. Mathematical psychology is broadly defined to include work of a theoretical character that uses mathematical methods, formal logic, or computer simulation. The official journals of the society are Journal of Mathematical Psychology and Computational Brain & Behavior.
Facets of Duncan Luce's Research Career
Duncan Luce (1925-2012) was one of the pioneers in establishing mathematical psychology as a field of study. It is arguable that without Duncan's leadership, intellect, and scholarly skills, the field would not have existed. He was the main force behind the publication of the two readings volumes and the three handbook volumes in mathematical psychology edited by Luce, Robert Bush, and Eugene Galanter from 1963-65. These five books together served to define our field. Later, he played a crucial role in starting our flagship journal, the Journal of Mathematical Psychology, as well as our Society. While everyone in the Society for Mathematical Psychology knows about Duncan and some aspects of his work, there are facets of his work that many members may be unaware of. The main purpose of this note is to celebrate Duncan's work by focusing on a few of these facets.
Duncan received his PhD in Mathematics at M.I.T. in 1950. His thesis was titled "On Semigroups," an area in abstract algebra. His earliest work in the social and behavioral sciences was in the area now called social networks. In his very first paper, published in 1949 with A. D. Perry, he mathematically defined the concept of clique and exploited the idea of representing graphs in matrix form, where matrix manipulations could be used to reveal the structure in a graph. This approach to analyzing graphic structures has become standard in the field of computer science, an area that hardly existed at the time of Duncan's early work.
Duncan's first academic position was as co-director of a network laboratory at M.I.T. from 1950-53, and his first tenure track position was as an Assistant Professor of Mathematical Statistics and Sociology at Columbia University (1954-57). It was in this period that Duncan acquired his lifelong interest in decision theory, and his 1957 book with Howard Raiffa, Games and Decisions: Introduction and Critical Survey, has become a classic in the economic sciences.
Perhaps the earliest hint of his future interest in psychology is seen in a paper with L. S. Christie in 1956 titled "Decision structure and time relations in simple choice behavior." This paper foreshadowed the publication of Duncan's well-received book, Response Times, published 30 years later. Apart from this 1956 paper almost all his early work was in the areas of social structure and decision theory, areas well outside of psychology at that time.
In 1959 Duncan published a very influential book, Individual Choice Behavior: A Theoretical Analysis. It is in this small book with a red cover that Luce's choice axiom is proposed. One consequence of the choice axiom is the so-called ratio rule, namely if several possible choice alternatives have positive valued strengths, then the probability of any one of them being selected is its strength divided by the sum of the strengths of all the other available alternatives. The ratio rule has been employed by a number of cognitive modelers in moving from latent representations of response strengths into actual manifest responses. It is perhaps ironic that the ratio rule is only a small consequence of Luce's choice axiom, which also includes the case where one or more of the choice alternatives has zero strength in certain contexts. In fact, his book explores the consequences of the choice axiom in many areas including paired-comparison scaling, Fechnerian scaling, signal detection, utility theory, and learning theory.
The style of the 1959 book, like almost all of Duncan's work, is to proceed rationally with definitions, axioms, theorems, and proofs. The primary goal is to make progress by discovering the consequences of simple, non-trivial assumptions, rather than, say, inventing complex hypothetical structures with the primary goal of fitting data. Nevertheless, in all cases the aim of Duncan's work is to discover the testable consequences of one's assumptions. Duncan did not pose the choice axiom as the 'correct theory' of choice behavior. Instead, it was intentionally posed as an elegantly simple theory with many surprising consequences. Then when some choice phenomena is found not to satisfy the consequences of the choice axiom, it is often clear exactly what aspects of the axioms are in need of elaboration. Indeed, later work by others on choice theory has worked in the important concepts of item similarity, context effects, and time to respond that were intentionally missing from the choice axiom.
In 1959, Duncan published another classic work, "On the possible psychophysical laws." In it he shows that given only knowledge of the scale type (ratio, interval, etc.) of an independent and dependent variable, one can determine the possible functional forms relating the two variables that are invariant under permissible scale transformations. That paper was not without controversy, because in many scientific laws there are dimension-absorbing constants that free up possible functional forms and thus delimit the applicability of Duncan's results. Nevertheless, the 1959 paper was seminal in directing his interest to dimension analysis, an area associated at that time with mathematical physics. This interest in dimensional analysis was one of the strands that lead to Duncan's long-term interest in the foundations of measurement discussed later.
In addition to the axiomatic/theorem approach, the 1959 paper on psychophysical scales reveals another hallmark of Duncan's approach to formal theory. The idea is that a theory formulated by empirically motivated axioms can give rise to functional equations whose solution provides the possible functional relationships between theoretical and behavioral variables. The solutions to these equations can suggest experiments that have the potential to falsify the theory, and if falsified one can look at specific axioms for what went wrong and how to fix it. In Duncan's later efforts to exploit this approach to theory construction, others assisted him, including the mathematician János Aczél, perhaps the World's most respected solver of functional equations.
Foundations of measurement became a central topic of Duncan's research from the middle 1960s up to the publication of the second and third volumes of the Foundations of Measurement in 1990, with Patrick Suppes, David Krantz, and Amos Tversky. In addition to the co-authors of the three foundational volumes, other mathematically savvy colleagues such as Louis Narens, Jean-Claude Falmagne, and Tony Marley joined him in this monumental effort. The thrust of the work was more directed to philosophy of science rather than to psychology. For this reason, the approach was mostly concerned with finding proper axiomatic formulations in idealized, error free settings rather than in more realistic settings involving measurement error. Despite the lack of concern with measurement error, some of the axiomatic work in foundations has been very influential in psychology such as Duncan's 1964 paper with the statistician John Tukey on conjoint measurement. This paper has guided experimental psychologists to more carefully regard the hypothesis of an interaction between experimental variables.
Much of Duncan's more empirical work was in the areas of psychophysics, with a special interest in acoustics. This work started in the middle 1960s, and much of it was carried out with his close association with David M. Green. Green's active acoustics laboratory and Duncan's mathematical ideas gave rise to some influential theoretical papers such as his 1972 paper with Green, " A neural timing theory for response times and the psychophysics of intensity." Somewhat uncharacteristically for Duncan, he published an undergraduate text, "Sound and Hearing," in 1993, based on a course he developed at Harvard. I am certain many of us can understand how difficult it must have been for Duncan to find things to teach at the undergraduate level in an American university.
In his last ten years, Duncan published over fifty papers, and in these papers all the themes discussed above were represented many times over. Much of this work was coauthored with others mentioned earlier, and some of it was greatly assisted on the empirical side by his research association with Ragnar Steingrimsson.
William H. Batchelder
On behalf of The Society for Mathematical Psychology


text:
Cost of a Data Breach Report highlights
USD 3.92 million
Average total cost of a data breach
United States
Most expensive country: USD 8.19 million
Most expensive industry: USD 6.45 million
25,575 records
Average size of a data breach
2019 Cost of a Data Breach Report
Data breaches can cause devastating financial losses and affect an organization's reputation for years. From lost business to regulatory fines and remediation costs, data breaches have far reaching consequences.
The annual Cost of a Data Breach Report, conducted by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by IBM Security, analyzes data breach costs reported by 507 organizations across 16 geographies and 17 industries. Read the report to discover all the factors that influence?the cost of a data breach and which security measures can help organizations reduce the financial impact.
Next steps
Discover how you can prevent a data breach.
Build a secure enterprise with increased visibility.
Automate and orchestrate your response.
Remediate and recover after a breach.
Looking for past reports? Find them here.
2018 Cost of a Data Breach Report
2017 Cost of a Data Breach Report
Discover more research reports
IBM X-Force research
Thought leadership from IBM Security's threat intelligence experts
Cloud Security Landscape Report
The latest cloud threats and best practices to defend against those threats.
2020 Cost of Insider Threats report
An independent study on how security leaders can mitigate insider breaches


text:
Reward Group established in 1994 is a diversified company with three industries of home care chemical, food and real estate, which has been certified as a high-tech company for more than consecutive years since 2002, and it is the key enterprise in Beijing, national civilized unit and the pace-setter of capital civilized units. Reward Group's industrial cluster have been extend to the resource industries, and formed another independent economic entity in parallel with Reward group-Zitong Mining.
This is a photo can make Reward's people shout collectively, and this photo will be collected permanently! Pay our respect to our dear Prime Minister Li! You smiled and waved, Reward's people feel supreme honor and we are motivated!
In Reward, everyone can get others respect. If you want to continuously improve your talent, please join us. Everyone in Reward has his own dream, and this dream is the same with Reward's big goals for creating worldwide famous brand.
During Reward Group's rapid development, we actively participate in the glorious career and social public welfare activities. In November 2009, Hu Keqin, Chairman of Reward Group, was awarded Chinese characteristics and excellent builders of socialist.
快乐赛车彩运网Reward Chemical
REWARD Science and Technology Venture Park is a core production R&D base of Reward homecare chemical to form R&D partner with many colleges and universities, multinational companies and research institutes.
REWARD homecare chemical has vigorously developed independent intellectual property rights. Currently, it has obtained 30 patents. A variety of products fill the domestic gap. A number of projects have been listed in Torch Program. And it has participated in the development of a number of national and industry standards.
REWARD group established in 1995 is a diversified company with three industries of home care chemical, dairy and real estate, which has been certified as a high-tech company


text:
Everything was fine UNTIL her little brother, Marvin, came along. When Lizzie tried to tell a story before breakfast, her mother said, "Not now, dear. Marvin has a dirty diaper." When she tried to tell her father a story after dinner, he said, "Maybe later, Lizzie. It's time for Marvin's bath."
Once Upon a Baby Brother by Sarah Sullivan, illustrated by Tricia Tusa. Farrar Straus Giroux (June 2010); ISBN 9780374346355; 32 pages; Ages 5-8
(Book Source: F&G Review copy from publisher, images used with permission)
Author Sarah Sullivan gives the classic sibling rivalry theme a comical and story-filled slant in her newest children's book about a big sister/little brother relationship. Lizzie, a young storyteller, loves to entertain everyone with her imaginative stories. When Marvin (her little brother) is born she continues telling stories but her parents are often too busy to listen. Lucky for her, she begins second-grade and her teacher, Miss Pennyroyal, encourages all the kids in her class to write stories. Lizzie ends up coping with her pesky brother by writing stories that star Marvin as an unpleasant character -- he's an ugly prince, a Marvinosaurus and even a nasty pirate. Lizzie uses her special Princess Merriweather pencil and her creative stories starring Marvin flow forth onto the pages. Then one fateful week Lizzie can't think of a single idea for her new school assignment. A hero eventually emerges and Lizzie realizes that having a sometimes annoying baby brother isn't necessarily a bad thing.
This amusing tale not only helps children appreciate their siblings but it also may inspire a new generation of writers. I was expecting a book about siblings but I wasn't expecting the amazingly creative ways Sullivan manages to make writing sound exciting for children. Seriously, where can we get our very own Princess Merriweather pencil topper like Lizzie's? Teachers and parents will find this book useful in helping children overcome writer's block by encouraging kids to write like Lizzie and describe their own personal experiences. Tricia Tusa happens to be one of my favorite illustrators and has a talent for bringing creative children characters to life (see my reviews of In a Blue Room or The Magic Hat). Her familiar, whimsical illustrations work perfectly in this story, and I especially love how she realistically includes multi-racial characters, even a minority teacher, in Lizzie's class. All of Lizzie's facial expressions are fantastic, especially those showing her exasperation and frustration with her brother. And once again I must mention Tusa's awesome illustrations of the Princess Merriweather pencil topper -- quirky perfection!
Like Lizzie, my daughter also loves to write and illustrate her own stories. Sometimes her stories include her brother, but I don't think she's ever turned him into a nasty character. I could see the wheels spinning in her head though as I read Sullivan's story aloud. I know she gets impatient with her little brother every once and awhile. She connected more deeply with this picture book than many others and it has already inspired her! Immediately after we read the story together, she grabbed a marker and some paper and set to work on her own book. While it didn't include her brother, she did say if she writes a story about her brother he'll be a great character. Awww, it just pulls at my heart strings! Lizzie, the main character in Once Upon a Baby Brother, is obviously is a good role model. However, I do think that a better title for this story would be "Once Upon a Little Brother" because the little brother in the story is more young toddler-aged than baby. Little brothers do indeed know exactly what buttons to push to aggravate their big sisters!
We couldn't resist making our own Princess Merriweather pencil topper! It's always more fun to write when you have a fun writing instrument. My daughter went simple with this craft and drew her own princess (a ballerina version) on some card stock, then we taped the princess to a Number 2 pencil. Super cute, super easy and ready for some novel writing adventures!
Related Links:
Sarah Sullivan - Author Website
Mountain View - Sarah Sullivan's blog
Sarah Sullivan's printable bookmarks
Scholastic article - "Help your child overcome writer's block"
JKSCommunications has kindly offered to giveaway one copy of Once Upon a Baby Brother to a Brimful Curiosities reader.
To enter, leave a comment relevant to this post or share a sibling rivalry memory.
• For contact purposes, if you are a non-blogger or your email is not accessible in your blog profile, please leave a valid email address within the comment section.Three ways to gain extra entries (Maximum total entries is 4; please leave a separate comment for each entry):
• Contest is open to US/Canada
• Contest ends on Monday, June 21st, 2010 at 11:59 PM CST.
• Winner will be chosen at random and sent an email notification.
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3rd extra entry: Follow Me! or subscribe by email or RSS reader
I am an Amazon affiliate and may receive a very small commission for products purchased through my Amazon links. (View my full disclosure statement for more information about my reviews.)


text:
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DigiTemp (DS9097U and DS9097 Adapters) 3.3.2
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text:
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Today is a list day
Things I will do tonight:
1. Yoga class
2. Laundry
3. Soak ankle in Epsom salt
4. Call my parents
5. Dishes
6. Watch a few episodes of Grey's Anatomy on DVD
Places on my body where I have bruises:
1. Right knee
2. Left knee
3. Left foot
4. Right shin
5. Right quad
6. Left big toenail
7. Left ankle
8. Left second toenail
I'm looking forward to:
1. Las Vegas, July 4-7
2. Payday
3. Sleeping in tomorrow morning
4. Getting a new job
Two cute things Colin has done this week:
1. Panicked on my behalf, because he (mistakenly) thought my soccer game didn't have referees scheduled.
2. Called me at work just because, pretending it was to invite me out on his boat even though I obviously couldn't spend the day on his boat because I was working and he knew I was working because he called me at work.
Chores I have been neglecting:
1. Getting my car, Stella, washed
2. Filing the nasty stack of bills that is growing on the floor next to my bed
3. Taking a trip to the dry cleaners
4. Putting away the stack of clean clothes on top of my dishwasher
5. Bringing my figure skates to be sharpened
6. Getting my hair trimmed
7. Calling in my prescription to be refilled
8. Vacuuming
Books I need to buy:
1. Love is a Mix Tape, Rob Sheffield
2. MVP: a novel, James Boice
3. Evening, Susan Minot
4. You Shall Know Our Velocity, Dave Eggers
Posted by A at 4:01 PM
Labels: the random
1 comments:
Can you call my parents, too? I never call them enough.
Are you re-watching Grey's episodes or first time? I recently watched the first 2 seasons for the first time. When's season 3 coming out on dvd??! Love it!
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Donald Turner
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Sex tapes… drug busts… what would MTV's resident therapist say?
Well, when that "therapist" is Dr. Drew Pinsky, not a whole lot. Dr. Drew's reaction to the deplorable choices made by Farrah Abraham and Jenelle Evans as of late comes across as less "Woah! Let's get these girls some help!" and more "Woe is me! Nobody listens to me!"
"If she would have called me for advice, I would have told her not to do this," Dr. Drew said about Farrah's sex tape. "But she is not my patient, she is not my kid."
News Flash, Dr. Drew: Advice is for imperfect people, Farrah is faultless.


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If Borg ships have vermin on them, they look exactly like a project researchers at North Carolina State University are working on.
These intrepid scientists have taken a lightweight chip with a wireless receiver and transmitter and attached it to a cockroach like a little backpack. For the record, large Madagascar hissing cockroaches are the roach of choice.
A microcontroller is connected to the roach's antennae and cerci (rear sensory organs). Small charges from the wires to the cerci trick the roach into moving in response to a perceived threat. Charges sent to the antennae make the roach think it's bumped into something. Between the two, you have a fairly sophisticated method of cockroach steering.
The researchers imagine using this cyborg cockroach technology to send the little beasties into tight spaces to search for survivors after disasters.
I imagine using this cyborg cockroach technology to scare the bejesus out of unsuspecting friends and for reenacting "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episodes with cockroach actors.


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June 23 2016
Funko to bring out 'Vampire Buffy and Vampire Angel' Pop! pack for Comic-Con. This is an limited edition item for Toy Tokyo. The video announcement can be found here.
March 30 2016
Humble Bundle: Buffy and Angel comics. Humble Bundle have a large selection of Buffy and Angel comics available as bundles. Good if you don't already have them. Offer expires in a little under 2 weeks.
October 13 2014
Amazon's Gold Box Deal of the Day - Buffy and Angel Complete Series on DVD. The site is also doing a Joss Whedon Deal of the Week. There's offers on Dollhouse and Firefly DVDs and Blu-rays.
August 11 2014
Two days left for charity memorabilia auction by New Melbourne Browncoats. Please check the link for details. More...
July 16 2014
Titan Merchandise announces Buffy the Vampire Slayer line of vinyl collectibles. This is part of their Welcome to the Hellmouth collection with 20th Century Fox set to arrive in December of 2014. More...
June 06 2014
Bid for a pink boxing glove signed by Joss Whedon and the Firefly cast. And when we say cast - we mean Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Alan Tudyk, Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin, Gina Torres, Sean Maher, Summer Glau, Ron Glass and Mark Sheppard. All proceeds (after fees and costs) go to the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer and the auction ends on June 14th.
May 20 2014
Own a piece of Buffy history! There is a screen used prop from "Once More With Feeling" being sold.
February 16 2014
First Look at Buffy and Firefly Funko POP! Figures. Buffy and Firefly get the cute vinyl treatment in these first images from ToyFair 2014. More...
February 14 2014
First Look at Buffy and Firefly ReAction Figures. The 80s inspired ReAction Figures are now available for pre-order. More...
December 21 2013
Woot! offers a big shiny framed poster! Online discount/deal website Woot! is offering a collection of framed movie posters for more than half off the source company's sticker price! More...
December 20 2013
Rittenhouse: New Buffy Trading Card Set: Sarah Michelle Gellar to sign. Rittenhouse announced a new Buffy the Vampire Slayer trading card set today AND that SMG has agreed to sign autograph cards!
December 17 2013
Funko announces Buffy Pop Figures and Re-Action Figures. The Scooby Gang is getting the cute vinyl treatment!
October 20 2013
Bid for more teddy bears signed by Whedonverse stars. The Project Teddy Bear auctions have returned and there's bears and pics signed by the likes of Gina Torres, Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, Summer Glau and Nick Brendon. There's also a signed pic of James Marsters. All proceeds from the auctions (after fees and costs) go to the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.
September 18 2013
Melbourne CSTS Auction. The New Melbourne Browncoats have launched their auctions in support of this years Can't Stop The Serenity event. They have many great items available from many Whedon properties including Firefly/Serenity, Dollhouse & Cabin In The Woods. So head on over and take a look, and remember: Bid Early, Bid Often!
August 30 2013
Quantum Mechanix presents 1:6 Scale Malcolm Reynolds Prototype. The figure, sculpted by Trevor Grove, depicts a younger Malcolm Reynolds at the battle at Serenity Valley. There's no release date or price yet.
August 12 2013
TVLine's Ausiello auctions off tv memorabilia. Amongst the goodies are VHS review copies for 'Hush', 'Once More With Feeling' and 'Not Fade Away'. And the highly collectible Dollhouse Echo action figure (more pics of that here) and a Dollhouse promotional tshirt are up for grabs as well. All proceeds go to the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary.
July 14 2013
Firefly by Phil Noto. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund will be putting this artwork (signed by some of the Firefly cast) up for auction on the 20th. Angel artwork by Franco Urru will also be auctioned.
June 20 2013
A review of the Agent Coulson action figure (featuring Clark Gregg). A truly wonderful thing to watch.
May 11 2013
QMx is now selling the Browncoats' flag and Mal's dog tags. The dog tags can be found here.
December 08 2012
Lego Firefly Serenity playset now an (unofficial) reality. The set that was originally a huge success on Cuusoo, but rejected by Lego can now be ordered as an unofficial set.
December 01 2012
Original concept art from Firefly, Angel, Dr. Horrible and The Cabin in the Woods up for auction. These are by Shawna Trpcic and provide a unique insight into the shows and the movie (especially the drawing of Joss as Badger).
November 27 2012
Juliet Landau signs items for charity. The Sophie Lancaster Foundation (the auction's beneficiary)combats bullying and violence.
November 23 2012
QMx's Black Friday sale kicks off. There's a fair number of licensed Whedonverse items that have been discounted.
November 20 2012
Twenty-five great gifts for Joss Whedon fans. How many of these items do you own already?
November 18 2012
Firefly's one-time official blogger selling rare crew jacket. Kelly Wheeler -- she of the official Firefly blog in 2002 and your Blue Sun cola spokesmodel -- is selling one on eBay: "Crew Jacket given to the FIREFLY crew by the wonderful/generous/good-looking Writers/Producers (yes, that means Joss & Tim)."
November 16 2012
Agent Phil Coulson collectible figurine announced. Look at the attention to detail on the face.
November 07 2012
Best Buy's Black Friday sale will feature some Whedon titles. Both the Firefly DVD box set and the BluRay of Cabin in the Woods will be available at Best Buy for only $7.99 each on Black Friday if you are one of the brave that participate in this. More...
November 03 2012
Bid for unique Whedonverse collectibles. Can't Stop The Serenity's latest auction to help Equality Now has some really nice collector's items. There's a Shindig script signed by Jane Espenson, a Firefly crew gift from Gina Torres, a Jaynestown tshirt and poster signed by Adam Baldwin, a Buffy cast and crew belt bag from Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alyson Hannigan and lots, lots more.
October 31 2012
QMX reveals Firefly dog tags. Sergeant Malcolm Reynolds' dog tags will be available during the first half of 2013.
August 22 2012
Quantum Mechanix Inc. releases Firefly 10th anniversary celebration art print. The 27" x 40" lithograph was created by graphic designer Jeff Halsey and features Serenity's silhouette in front of a moon, as well as a quote.
August 17 2012
Digital Buffyverse Weekend Sale on Dark Horse. Selected issues for 99c each.
July 12 2012
Pictures from QMX booth at SDCC including "Little Damn Heroes" cartoony statues of Book and Inara, Penny from Dr. Horrible and a more realistic version of Felicia Day as Codex in the Guild, and a "cut-away" model Serenity where you can lift off the roof and see into the dining room.
June 27 2012
See Nathan Fillion as you've definitely never seen him before. QMx brings a t-shirt and poster of the cap'n and a strategically placed gun holster.
June 23 2012
Cliff Chiang's original Joss Whedon GQ article art up for sale. It'll set you back $2500. Alternatively you can buy an art print from the artist's site for $40. More...
June 22 2012
Equality Now UK auctions Joss signed and designed shirts. There's not long left to grab a rare treat - one of the shirts Joss designed for Equality Now signed by the man himself! Update: Auctions are currently only open to UK bidders :(
June 11 2012
QMx reveals Inara Collectible Maquette. Next up in the Little Damn Heroes line is the Big Damn Companion herself, coming Q3.
May 20 2012
First Look: The Avengers Action Figures. They're looking absolutely lifelike. Article also contains links on how to win some.
May 15 2012
QMx reveals Shepherd Book Collectible Maquette. Everyone's favourite preacher with a past gets the Little Damn Hero treatment: debuting this Comic-Con as an exclusive, and available to pre-order if you get on the waiting list.
March 31 2012
Shawna Trpcic auction of many pieces of Whedonverse history. Items from the shows, including concept art for Firefly and Dollhouse. For hilarity check out Bad Horse and Badger.
March 10 2012
Rocket Launcher Buffy Premium Format. Another superb Buffy premium format custom statue as created by Buffy fan artist Willowswarlock. More...
February 11 2012
(SPOILER) Can this artist see into the future? Look at the date it was posted(although it was first posted on the site Oct 29). And notice the season 9 spoiler-ish features of this custom figure. Creepy, huh? More...
January 31 2012
Buffy and Angel complete DVD boxsets for sale on Amazon. The Angel set can be found here here.
January 04 2012
Donate to St Jude Children's Research Hospital and you could win a prize! The Supernatural fansite Winchester Bros have set up a fundraising page in honour of Jared and Genevieve Padalecki's new baby. If you donate, you could win some rather exclusive items which include a Dark Willow figure signed by Alexis, a signed pic of SMG and David Boreanaz and a book signed by the Buffy cast and Joss.
January 03 2012
Buffy & the Scoobies - "Chosen". From the creator of River Tam & the Fireflies comes...Buffy & the Scoobies! More...
December 30 2011
QMx unveils the Malcolm Reynolds Metal-Plated Pistol. You can pre-order it next year and it will set you back $79.95. More...
November 24 2011
Quantum Mechanix Black Friday sale includes some Whedony goodness. Starting at midnight, Quantum Mechanix will be selling the River BDH Maquette, Mule Replica, Fruity Oaty Bar girls, Penny Animated Maquette and a couple T-Shirts for at least 50% off. More...
November 23 2011
Nandi's dress from Heart of Gold up for sale again. Elonwy, the gal who currently owns Nandi's midriff dress from Heart of Gold is looking to sell it before she moves across the globe to Australia. Are you its next owner? More...
November 22 2011
November 15 2011
Five Art Nouveau Posters of the Men of The Verse. Artist Megan Lara has designed for Quantum Mechanix 5 new poster featuring Mal, Wash, Jayne, Simon and Book, Art Nouveau style. More...
November 04 2011
Signed Jo Chen Prints for CSTS on eBay. These are signed by Jo Chen, Joss Whedon and Alyson Hannigan. The second one is here. More...
October 25 2011
New Angel Sideshow statue up for pre-order. There's also a regular version available, without the extra vampire head. More...
October 18 2011
Buffy and Angel Complete Series Boxsets get (Twilightesque?) makeover in the UK. Gaze upon the new artwork for the Buffy and Angel boxets at Play.com.
September 28 2011
The Guild S5 poster signed by Nathan Fillion, for charity. Also signed (naturally) by Felicia Day and the cast of The Guild, proceeds from the auction of this poster and photo will support Child's Play, which "enables the gamer community to make a positive difference in the lives of children and young adults". More...
July 12 2011
July 11 2011
Kaylee's Strawberry Delight. QMX just announced their latest shiny statue. More...
New Spike statue from Sideshow Collectables. Here's the latest in the new line from Sideshow collectables. *ETA* Video footage added. More...
July 06 2011
Once More With Feeling songbook signed by Sarah Michelle Gellar now on eBay. CSTS Vancouver is auctioning off a rare, even unique, item on ebay but it is up for only 1 week. SMG doesn't sign much so this is sure to be popular. Proceeds from this sale will go in to the CSTS Vancouver totals for Equality Now, and BC Women's Hospital & Health Centre Foundation.
June 30 2011
Buffy memorabilia to be auctioned off at the end of the month. Premiere Prop's Hollywood Auction Extravaganza 2 will feature teleplays from 'Showtime' and 'Get It Done', a blouse worn by Sarah, a jacket worn by Michelle, jeans worn by Charisma and zombie hands! More...
June 22 2011
Custom made 12" Faith statue. Buffy fan Willowsworlock has made a Faith statue using the original Sideshow 12" figure that was released a few years back as its base. More...
June 18 2011
Buffy 1.6th scale Library set. A WIP 1.6th scale Sunnydale library set made by a fan to go with their Sideshow 12" figures. More...
June 02 2011
Sideshow's Faith statue up for pre-order. Also, this exclusive version with interchangable arm. More...
April 17 2011
Get your River Tam & The Fireflies t-shirt. One day only, gone 24 hours from the time of this post. The design first discussed here last July is now a t-shirt.
February 03 2011
Great Whedon show memorabilia from Ausiello. Michael Ausiello is auctioning off a bunch of TV memorabelia he has collected over the years, including things from Angel, Buffy, and Firefly. All proceeds go to support the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. More...
October 14 2010
Amazing BtVS/Ats prop replicas on this site (and some originals). Look at this replica of the Shanshu scroll and case.
October 02 2010
Charity ebay auctions with Whedon merchandise. It's for the SickKids Foundation. They're selling a sideshow statue, signed books, props, CDs...
September 26 2010
Mal Maquette prototype signed by Nathan Fillion. "Kids Need to Read has a VERY special auction that commemorates a scene from the Firefly episode called "Trash". We have an exceptionally rare prototype maquette of Nathan Fillion as Malcolm Reynolds, sitting on a rock in all his "glory"."
September 21 2010
Bid for teddy bears signed by Whedonverse stars. This year's Project Teddy Bear auctions has bears signed by the likes of Morena Baccarin, Summer Glau, Michael Hogan, Clare Kramer, Sean Maher, James Marsters and Camdem Toy. All proceeds go to The Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. More...
September 15 2010
Complete Serenity crew peg people. I keep finding the crew cunningly crafted in various ways.
August 04 2010
Newly Repackaged Angel and Buffy Complete Series. In case you don't already own these... ;). Buffy link: here.
July 24 2010
First look at Tonner's Jayne Cobb doll. Plastic and Plush has posted photos from the Tonner Doll Company booth at this year's Comic-Con, including a look at Tonner's prototype Jayne doll in a tiny cunning hat. There's also another photo of the Mal doll (browncoat not included). More...
July 23 2010
Buffy Soda is finally available to order on the Jones site. Just thought people might like to know.
July 12 2010
QMx "Inevitable Betrayal" Wash Little Damn Hero Maquette Sneak Peak. In advance of the upcoming SDCC.
July 03 2010
'Ultimate' Spike Available for pre-order. Latest release from the Tooned Up series. More...
June 14 2010
Vampire Paper Dolls. Dover released a set of Vampire Paper Dolls which includes Buffy, Angel and Spike (as well as True Blood and Twilight figures). I got mine in the grocery store children's books section. More...
May 11 2010
Artisan replica of Mal's Holster announced by QMX. Preorders begin on May 14th.
April 23 2010
Buffy Once More With Feeling Metal Art. It looks like those guys at Avitech Graphics are at it again. More...
April 14 2010
More Dollhouse props & costumes up for auction. This weeks items include Echo's leather jacket from "Ghost", Echo's "Omega" costume, Victor's medical file and wedge, Ivy and Dr Saunder's lab coats, Echo's book and note for the storm, and serial killer brain scan and file. More...
April 12 2010
Twitter contest for Buffy complete DVD series. Hercules over at Ain't It Cool News is having a Twitter contest for the complete DVD series today between noon and 5pm Pacific time. Open to U.S. residents only.
April 09 2010
New Dollhouse items up for auction. Fox continues its auctions of Dollhouse props and costumes. This weeks items include Echo's long leather coat (from the opening credits), Echo & Whiskey's gold dresses from their flashback scene in "Vows", Alpha's remote wipe device from "A Love Supreme", Ballard's "Keep looking" photo of Caroline, medical files for Caroline, Echo and Victor, and more. Lots of bargains to be had!
Inara's reaver-fightin' Bow and Arrow set from Serenity is on the auction block. Looking for the perfect weapon to defend yourself in the event of a zombie apocalypse? This might just be the ticket! The auction ends on April 12. More...
April 02 2010
New look for the German Buffy and Angel DVDs. Rest of Europe to follow? For a better look at the boxart, check the trailers for the Buffy and Angel DVDs on YouTube. Or go to the respective Buffy and Angel listings on Amazon.de.
March 30 2010
Fandom Charities auctioning off signed Whedonverse items. Two Dr Horrible posters, a Once More With Feeling poster, and a book by PJ Haarsma are up for grabs. They're signed by the likes of Joss, Nathan, Felicia, Alan and Amber. More...
March 03 2010
Zen and The Art of Mule Maintenance. QMx reveals their new project: The MF-813 Flying Mule.
March 01 2010
Charity auction for a Codex staff made by Felicia Day. The Guild prop master Greg Aronowitz made a tutorial video, showing how to make your own Codex staff (part 1, part 2, part 3). Now the staff that Felicia Day made in the video is up for charity auction, supporting the Red Cross.
Rare Buffy action figure up for auction to benefit Haiti Relief. Maureen Ryan's auction continues with tons of TV promo items. More...
February 22 2010
TFAW "Winter Steals" Sale Now Offering 70% off Serenity, Buffy, and Angel Tchotchkes. You can page through 15 pages of 70% off stuff or Search Serenity or Search Buffy .
February 09 2010
Wooden Echo Doll auctioned for Haiti relief charity. Another cool Dollhouse item in TV journalist Maureen Ryan's continuing auction of TV promo items per previous post.
February 03 2010
The Haiti charity auction for Watch Us Care includes a few Whedonverse items. Including this Dollhouse/Firefly/Buffy package and several Battlestar Galactica items. More...
January 21 2010
Tooned up Buffy, Willow & Glory figures and original sketches auctioned for a good cause. The National Cartoonists Society Foundation is holding an auction on eBay to raise money to help the family of cartoonist, Tim Hodges. More...
January 19 2010
Fan auctions Firefly DVD signed by Joss and 15 cast members for Haiti. A UK based Firefly fan is auctioning a Firefly DVD cover with 15 autographs including Joss. 100% of the proceeds to be donated to Hollywood Unites for Haiti. The DVD cover is signed by Nathan Fillion, Morena Baccarin, Jewel Staite, Sean Maher, Adam Baldwin, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Summer Glau, Ron Glass, Michael Fairman, Christina Hendricks, Richard Brooks, Jonathan Woodward, Mark Sheppard and Joss Whedon.
January 14 2010
Throne of the Slayer Maquette available for pre-order. The exclusive has an extra scythe.
January 07 2010
Official Dollhouse auctions begin. 20th Century Fox are selling off the props. At the moment you can bid for Adelle's shoes, Echo's boots, pendant and earrings and an outfit worn by Mellie. More...
January 01 2010
Jo Chen (Buffy season 8 cover artist) art book. A bit pricey, but a must have if you're a Jo Chen fan. More...
Limited Dr. Horrible laser etched "plates". Buy all three (that form a triptych) or just one(check the seller's store). More...
December 28 2009
Sideshow Collectibles talks about new Buffy line. We'll get Buffy, and most likely Faith (whose sketch looks like Jo Chen's first Faith cover) and Willow. More...
December 26 2009
Pre-order the Dr. Horrible maquette from QMx. "It seems only fitting," says QMx, "that the first authorized and fully-licensed Dr. Horrible Animated Maquette is of the man with the PhD in Horribleness himself." First in a series of limited-edition maquettes.
December 21 2009
Buffy Season Eight #23 Signed by Tom Lenk for Charity. Buffy Season Eight #23 signed by Tom Lenk. Benefits go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. More...
December 12 2009
TFAW's Christmas Sale includes Serenity Items. Things From Another World has Serenity Items priced from 20-50% off for Christmas. Some really Shiny bargains listed on the site. More...
December 09 2009
Bid for a highly collectible Dark Horse Fun Pack. The Portland Mercury is auctioning off a big old comic package for charity. The pack includes a lithograph signed by Joss Whedon, a Dr Horrible comic book signed by Zack Whedon and Joëlle Jones and a page of original artwork from that one-shot. More...
December 08 2009
Bid for a Captain Mal Reynold's holster prop replica. This special one of a kind auction is being organised by the California Brownooats and all proceeds will go to The ALS Association. ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed.
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Suri Cruise Cheers On Katie Holmes As She Judges Contestants On 'So You Think You Can Dance!'
Suri held up a sign that read, 'We Love You Katie!' as she took in the live dance performances at the finale of the hit FOX show! So sweet!
Suri Cruise had one exciting Hollywood night out last night, August 10, as she sat in the audience of the live finale of So You Think You Can Dance, where her mom Katie Holmes guest judged the top four dancers' performances! How awesome is that?
Dressed in a little black dress sporting a side braid with a purple ribbon, the 5-year-old was treated like a princess, of course, seated with three other kids, two nannies and a bodyguard. (And, her big brother Connor Cruise was sitting in a nearby row with friends, cheering on his step mom as well!)
But, the cutest thing of all was that Suri reportedly held up a sign reading, 'We Love You Katie,' as her mom kept a close eye on her from the judges panel.
According to E! Online, at every commercial break, Katie turned around in her chair to blow kisses and wave at Suri. And in between the first hour and second hour of show, Katie ran out to check on her daughter and make sure was set up with a gigantic cookie to munch on as the final performances dwindled down.
How amazing is this? Suri must have had a blast!
–Leigh Blickley
More Suri Cruise:


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StumbleUpon Helps Coordinate a Marriage Proposal
Many women have been surprised by a marriage proposal, but Marquita Arguello is the first woman to StumbleUpon one.
Arguello, a 23-year-old dental hygiene student, and her boyfriend, Tyrel Hartman, don't own a television, so they often Stumble through the web together for entertainment. While killing time before a date last Friday, the recommendation engine became more personalized than expected when Arguello stumbled upon a photo of Hartman.
Scrolling down the page, she read signs that he was holding in each of 11 photos. Together the signs said:
"To my best friend ... Whom I love, you are so amazing, and so smart, even more beautiful. So on this day, I want to ask you: Will you marry me?"
StumbleUpon might "take you to great stuff based on your interests," but its algorithms are still unlikely to pinpoint the Tumblr blog that your boyfriend created. Needless to say, there was some scheming involved.
Hartman, 26, had the idea for the proposal in August. In what he assumed was a long shot, he sent an email to the StumbleUpon Support Team: "I'm exploring ways to propose to my beautiful girlfriend and I think I have finally thought of something worth while," he wrote.
StumbleUpon surprised him by agreeing to rig his girlfriend's account so that it would recommend his proposal site at an exact time. Hartman picked pages that he wanted Arguello to find leading up to the proposal, like a series of zombie wedding photos, a video of a dog saying "I love you" and a graphic with the words "Say yes!"
Technical difficulties delayed the proposal for about half an hour, but Hartman — nervously checking his phone — managed to keep them both Stumbling until it finally showed up. Arguello accepted, and they've since spent a lot of time explaining the elaborate setup.
"We live in Wyoming, and nobody knows what StumbleUpon is," Hartman says. "The first thing we did was post it on Facebook so that we wouldn't have to sit there for 20 minutes and explain what it was."


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Despite familiarity with popular technologies, they still need training, SPAWAR commander says
The face of the modern sailor is one that is changing, as today's young recruits arrive fluent in technology, but that doesn't mean they don't need the demanding military training of previous generations.
"Having an ipad or iphone doesn't make [young sailors] experts," said Rear Adm. Patrick Brady, commander of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command. "They still need the training and rigor of operations."
Still, the incoming sailors – digital natives who have grown up with the high-technology that's defining the next generation – do bring to the service something different and valuable, Brady said Jan. 25 while speaking at the AFCEA West 2011 conference in San Diego.
"We're starting with interns and recent grads, and they're bringing new ideas and perspectives," Brady said.
The employment of modern technology isn't limited to what's popular with today's fresh-faced sailors. Brady said the Navy is experimenting with technology, including teaming with the Army and the 10th Fleet/Navy Cyber Command to explore possibilities in cloud computing.
Putting those new technologies to work, though, is still a function of acquisition – a process that is coming under increasing pressure in an era of budgetary scrutiny and tough efficiency measures across the broader Defense Department.
Brady said top considerations for acquiring and procuring new Navy technologies must include whether the new capabilities really bring something important and innovative to the table, are reliable and truly operational.
"Is this something the sailor can actually maintain, operate and understand?" Brady said. "If [the capability] fails in any of the three areas, it fails overall."
About the Author
Amber Corrin is a former staff writer for FCW and Defense Systems.
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Thanks to robotic process automation, the time it takes Army contracting professionals to determine whether prospective vendors should receive a contract has been cut from an hour to just five minutes.
A Russian state-sponsored advanced persistent threat actor targeting state, local, territorial and tribal government networks exfiltrated data from at least two victims.
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Meet Lesley
Lesley Paterson is a five-time world champion triathlete, professional mountain biker, coach, motivational speaker, reluctant fitness model, and foul-mouthed Scotts lassie. Growing up in Scotland, Lesley was the only girl who played rugby on an all-boys team. When boobs appeared she was banned from playing with the boys so she started competing in running and triathlon. Lesley went on to become a national champion in cross country and an international triathlete. With her husband, Dr. Simon Marshall, an international expert in mental toughness and exercise behavior change, Lesley owns Braveheart Coaching – a San Diego-based company that trains endurance athletes to be faster and happier.


text: Enjoy DVI Supported Playback of HD DVD and Blu-ray Discs - The first integrated VGA MB supports Playback of HD DVD and Blu-ray Discs with HDCP compliant- Support Dual-VGA output(DVI-D&RGB) and SurroundView- Support AMD Socket AM2+/AM2 CPU - AMD 690G Chipset- Integrated ATI Radeon X1250-based graphics- PCI Express architecture- Gb LAN- DDR2 800- 4 x SATA 3Gb/s RAID 0,RAID 1, RAID10 Shop Modal header Supports AMD Socket AM2+/AM2 for Phenom FX/Phenom/ Athlon 64 X2 / Athlon 64 FX / Athlon 64 / Sempron The motherboard supports AMD socket AM2+/AM2 for Phenom FX/Phenom/Athlon 64/ Sempron/Athlon 64 X2/ Athlon 64 FX/ processors with 2MB / 1MB / 512KB L2 cache, which is based on 64-bit architecture.It features 2000 MT/s HyperTransport1.0 Bus, dual-channel un-buffered DDR2 1066 (AM2+) and DDR2 800 (AM2) memories support and AMD Cool ´n´ Quiet! Technology. 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Preposterous presidential playboy Nicolas Sarkozy is not amused by a voodoo doll of himself for sale in French bookshops, and has demanded the pernicious pin-based product is pulled from the shelves, er, post-haste.
The dolls, according to the Times (which displays a lovely picture), are being sold along with a handy set of pins and an amusing guide to slapping a curse on the president. 20,000 are available at the moment. Sarko, who now has time and funds on his hands having solved all of France's social and financial problems and personally given every citizen a biscuit, is threatening to sue the product publishers K&B for unauthorised use of his image.
The stack-heeled statesman has been busily flinging around expensive legal bitchslaps for some time in the name of protecting his image, with the inevitable result that even more mischievous souls feel the urge to rip the proverbial out of the silly man, and the whole idiotic circle of bad pointlessness begins again. One Yaël Rolognese, a "witchcraft specialist" (ie a bloke with a clever idea) is responsible for the latest abomination, which is intended to be satirical (what's the French for "duhhh"?).
Similarly humourless is Sarko's hair-swishingly glamorous one-time opponent Ségolène Royal, who has also been immortalised in voodoo poppet form and is considering legal action too. K&B is having none of it though, and despite the presidential order to get that crap out of circulation sharpish is standing its ground, considering it "totally disproportionate given the humorous aspect of the project and the fact that Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal are political, public figures".
You could pick up your very own Sarko-doll here, but if you feel others are more deserving of your cursing, you could always hex the politician or other hate figure of your choice with this handy voodoo-mail deelie. In other news, a UK publisher has jumped on the bandwagon with a realistic voodoo doll of Peter Mandelson. "We've already sold out in pre-order," enthused a spokesperson. "One buyer seemed keen to get as many as he could, 'just in case'. We're still not sure what he meant." ®


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More than two years after dropping his UFC debut, things haven't exactly gone David Mitchell's way.
Injuries, surgery and rehabilitation have left Mitchell (11-2 MMA, 0-2 UFC) out of action for more than 15 months – a streak he had hoped to end earlier this month at UFC on FUEL TV 6 before his opponent was pulled from the card hours before weigh-ins.
Left without an opponent and some 7,000 miles from home, Mitchell admits it was a frustrating plight. Now he's aiming for a January return, and he's anxious to show the world what he can do when fighting at full strength.
"I've been training really well," Mitchell told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). "I've just been really motivated. I've been watching video and working on all my weaknesses. I just want to be a better fighter than I've ever been before.
"I still have the UFC contract. I still have that opportunity. I think they want to see what I can do, and I think anybody that's watched me fight in the past knows that I can bring more to the cage, and that's the plan."
Mitchell made his octagon debut in September 2010 at UFC Fight Night 22. He engaged in a back-and-forth grappling battle with T.J. Waldburger but eventually lost via decision. Injury then forced him out of a planned January 2011 bout with Mike Swick, so it was August of that year before he returned against Paulo Thiago.
He lost a decision there, as well.
Following the fight, Mitchell knew there was a serious problem that had to be addressed.
"I had an impinged nerve in my cervical spine," Mitchell said. "I had surgery in April, and the surgeon said that the nerve was 80 percent blocked. Basically, I fought Paulo and actually a couple of fights before that with basically no strength on my left side and a lot of atrophy of the muscles. He said the surgery was successful, and he opened up all the way back up to 100 percent by carving a little bone away. So I'm fixed, and it's been kind of a long rehabilitation trying to get back into shape.
"It definitely hurt my jiu-jitsu game. I didn't have the strength to do some of the stuff I wanted to do. It really affected my strength and speed on my left side. Now I'm finally ready to go, and then in the past couple of weeks, all this happened."
"All this," of course, really boils down to one major Hyun Gyu Lim faux pas. The 6-foot-2 Korean was expected to face Mitchell at UFC on FUEL TV 6 in Macau, but UFC officials ultimately declared him medically unfit when his weight cut went terribly wrong.
Mitchell said during his own weight cut, he actually caught a brief glimpse of Lim passed out on the sauna floor but didn't initially realize it was his opponent.
"I saw the guy the day before weigh-ins, and he didn't look too good," Mitchell said. "I actually thought it was Dong Hyun Kim because the guys around me were like, 'Oh, it's the guy on the poster.'"
It was only later when Mitchell received the bad news that he realized he had actually crossed paths with his intended foe.
"Unfortunately, they told me Friday morning that Mr. Lim was out for medical reasons," Mitchell said. "Obviously I put two and two together at that point. He looked like a really big guy. I saw him at the airport when we were leaving, too, and he looked like he should be fighting at 185 pounds. But I understand people trying to gain that advantage and drop a weight class and stuff like that.
"It's just unfortunate and kind of embarrassing. I want to fight. My friends and family were looking forward to seeing me fight and getting up early in the morning to watch, and then there was no fight."
Mitchell was especially disappointed that it was Lim who was pulled and not Kim since "Stun Gun" was actually slated to fight Thiago. "Daudi" thought he might potentially get a chance for a much-desired rematch with the Brazilian grappler.
"I actually thought maybe I'd get to go in there and fight Paulo Thiago again," Mitchell said. "I was actually pretty excited about that. I want that fight again."
Mitchell said he tapered off his weight cut but kept himself at the ready in case there were any more last-minute changes.
"I kind of just kept my weight low just in case something fell through at 170 or 185," Mitchell said. "I just tried to be there for the weigh-in and hang with all the guys and see it through, as tough as that was."
Once the remaining 18 fighters made their bouts officials, Mitchell knew his chance to fight was officially gone. At that point, he simply became the world's most unhappy tourist.
"On Saturday morning, me and my sister went for an open-top bus tour, so I got to see some of the sights in Macau and where they do the auto race," Mitchell said. "We went and checked out the market and bought some gifts for some folks back home.
"It was really a bummer to watch the fights that night and think, 'I should be fighting. I should be walking to the cage right now.' Instead, I was sitting there watching a bunch of other guys fight. That sucks. At least it turned out to be a pretty good card."
Fortunately, the UFC erased a little of the sting by paying Mitchell his show money. The 33-year-old then flew home after the fights and went straight back to the gym, where he remains focused on his next opportunity.
"I'm grateful to get a few bucks from the UFC. It will definitely help me with the next training camp. I'm just going to put that money toward superior nutrition and better training and just try and stay on track."
Mitchell hopes to fight as soon as January and said there is already some initial dialogue with the UFC about potential opponents. To the welterweight submission artist, the name hardly matters. Instead, it's more important to simply get back in the cage and prove to the world – and to himself – that he's capable of performing like the fighter that ran off 11-straight wins to open his career and not the one that went winless in his first two UFC appearances.
"A week before I went to Rio to fight Paulo, I was in so much pain they had to put Cortisone in there just to get me through it," Mitchell said. "I wasn't sparring. I didn't get a single round in that camp. I was just basically running and trying to keep my weight down.
"It was like a stinger every time I got touched. It was a very painful and discouraging injury, but now that it's behind me, I feel like I get a second chance, you know?"
Barring any more unforeseen hurdles, Mitchell said it's then he'll be able to perform at 100 percent.
"I think you're definitely going to see a better David Mitchell in my next fight," Mitchell said. "I just want to thank my team at NorCal Fighting Alliance, David Terrell, Tom Call and everybody that's helped me. They've really been there for me through thick and thin – and it's been awfully thin sometimes. I'm very, very grateful.
"I really feel like I'm back to the old Mitchell that used to kick some ass. I'm just looking forward to the next fight and getting the 'W.'"
For complete coverage of UFC 153, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.


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Major Areas of Research
- The multiple roles of the envelope glycoproteins during the flavivirus lifecycle
- Mechanisms of antibody-mediated neutralization of viruses
- Humoral immunity to flavivirus infection
Program Description
Flaviviruses are a group of RNA viruses responsible for considerable morbidity and mortality worldwide. Members of this genus with a significant impact on public health include dengue virus (DENV), yellow fever virus, Japanese encephalitis virus, tick-borne encephalitis virus, and West Nile virus (WNV). Flaviviruses are small spherical virions composed of a single copy of an ~11 kb genomic RNA of positive polarity, a capsid protein (C), a lipid envelope derived from the endoplasmic reticulum, and two envelope glycoproteins: envelope (E) and pre-membrane/membrane (prM/M). The E proteins are incorporated into virions as a dense symmetrical array that orchestrates the process of virus entry, assembly, and budding from infected cells. These proteins are also the primary targets of neutralizing antibodies elicited in vivo. The goal of our laboratory is to understand the function of flavivirus E proteins and their interactions with the host.
Above: The flavivirus lifecycle
Flaviviruses bind to cells via interactions between the envelope (E) proteins of the virion and a diverse group of cellular factors on the target cell. Cellular receptors/attachment factors absolutely required for infection have not yet been identified; molecules implicated in the entry of flaviviruses into cells include several lectins (DC-SIGN, DC-SIGNR, and mannose receptor), heparin sulfate, and molecules of the TIM/TAM family. Additionally, viruses may bind to and enter cells as an immune complex in a process called antibody-dependent enhancement of infection; this pathway may play a role in severe clinical manifestations of dengue virus infection. Once bound, flaviviruses are internalized into cells via clathrin-mediated endocytosis and traffic into a late endosomal compartment, in which viral membrane fusion occurs in a pH-dependent fashion. The positive-stranded genomic RNA is then released into the cytoplasm, in which translation occurs. Replication of the viral RNA occurs in the context of complex three-dimensional networks of membranes induced by the viral non-structural proteins. Virus assembly occurs on membranes derived from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Virions bud into the ER as immature virus particles that incorporate sixty trimeric spikes of the pre-membrane (prM) and E proteins. During egress, prM is cleaved by the cellular serine protease furin. A relatively smooth, infectious, mature virus particle is released into the extracellular space.
Understanding the molecular basis of antibody-mediated neutralization and enhancement of flavivirus infection
Humoral immunity is a critical aspect of host protection against flaviviruses; eliciting protective antibodies is a primary focus of ongoing vaccine development efforts for several of these viruses, including DENV. Complicating these efforts is the potential for antibodies elicited by natural infection or vaccination to modulate DENV pathogenesis and enhance disease. The ability of antibodies to enhance the efficiency of infection is called antibody-dependent enhancement of infection (ADE). The biochemical and functional properties of a protective antibody response are not known. A major focus of our laboratory is to understand the mechanisms of humoral immunity against flaviviruses in biochemical and structural detail. We are working to define the factors that govern the potency of neutralizing antibodies, their potential for ADE, and their mechanism of action using WNV and DENV as model systems. Using quantitative functional methods developed by our laboratory, we have defined the stoichiometric requirements for neutralization and ADE of WNV. This estimate of the number of antibodies required to neutralize and enhance WNV infection has provided a useful foundation to explore the genetic and biochemical complexity of factors that modulate antibody function. Our findings highlight the importance of the accessibility of epitopes on the virion as a key parameter that shapes the epitope occupancy requirements for neutralization. Ongoing studies are focused on how the structural dynamics of the virion (virus breathing) modulates antibody-mediated neutralization.
Investigating the impact of the structural heterogeneity and dynamics of the virion on the biology of flaviviruses
Insights into the biology of flaviviruses have been dramatically accelerated by advances in the structural biology of these viruses. Structures of the E protein and how they are arranged on the virus particle at multiple stages of the virus lifecycle have been reported. These have significantly influenced the development of our models of antibody-mediated neutralization. However, recent studies indicate that populations of flaviviruses are much more complex than suggested by existing structural models. Several lines of evidence suggest that the cleavage of prM during the virion maturation process can be quite inefficient, resulting the release of "partially mature" virus particles that incorporate uncleaved prM in unknown quantities. Our lab is investigating several aspects of the biology of partially mature virions, including how uncleaved prM markedly impacts the sensitivity of virions to neutralization by antibodies. Our understanding of the structure of the virion is complicated further by the fact that the E proteins on virions appear to sample an ensemble of conformations or arrangements at equilibrium. This presents a moving target for antibody recognition.
Investigating the functional complexity of the humoral response to flavivirus vaccination
Eliciting a protective neutralizing antibody response is a major goal of ongoing vaccine development efforts for DENV. Several tetravalent DENV vaccines are in clinical development. Flavivirus infection results in the production of antibodies that bind to a variety epitopes on the prM and E proteins. We are developing functional approaches to map the composition and dynamics of the polyclonal response to flavivirus infection, with the goal of identifying epitopes recognized by antibodies that are important for neutralization and protection.
Dr. Pierson received his Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2001. While training in the laboratory of Dr. Robert F. Siliciano, Dr. Pierson investigated the molecular biology of the pre-integration state of HIV-1 latency and the contribution of this relatively labile reservoir toward the persistence of HIV-1 in the face of aggressive antiretroviral therapy. After completing these studies, Dr. Pierson took a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Robert W. Doms in the department of microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania. While training there, Dr. Pierson initiated a new research program to study the cell biology of the envelope proteins of flaviviruses, with a focus on West Nile virus and dengue viruses. In 2005, Dr. Pierson was recruited to initiate the Viral Pathogenesis Section of the Laboratory of Viral Diseases and to continue his work on flaviviruses.
Research Group
Postdoctoral Fellows: Swati Mukherjee, Ph.D.; Kimberly Dowd, Ph.D.
Graduate Students: Christopher Obara, B.S.; Laura Vanblargan, B.S.
Post-Baccalaureate Fellow: Phong Lee, B.S.
Selected Publications
Lin TY, Dowd KA, Manhart CJ, Nelson S, Whitehead SS, Pierson TC. A novel approach for the rapid mutagenesis and directed evolution of the structural genes of west nile virus. J Virol. 2012 Apr;86(7):3501-12.
Mukherjee S, Lin TY, Dowd KA, Manhart CJ, Pierson TC. The infectivity of prM-containing partially mature West Nile virus does not require the activity of cellular furin-like proteases. J Virol. 2011 Nov;85(22):12067-72.
Dowd KA, Jost CA, Durbin AP, Whitehead SS, Pierson TC. A dynamic landscape for antibody binding modulates antibody-mediated neutralization of West Nile virus. PLoS Pathog. 2011 Jun;7(6):e1002111.
Dowd KA, Pierson TC. Antibody-mediated neutralization of flaviviruses: a reductionist view. Virology. 2011 Mar 15;411(2):306-15.
Mehlhop E, Nelson S, Jost CA, Gorlatov S, Johnson S, Fremont DH, Diamond MS, Pierson TC. Complement protein C1q reduces the stoichiometric threshold for antibody-mediated neutralization of West Nile virus. Cell Host Microbe. 2009 Oct 22;6(4):381-91.


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Movies get us to believe all sorts of malarkey. We'll suspend reality to a veil-thin spread and accept time travel, space travel, aliens, monsters, dodging bullets, impossible-to-build machines and on and on.
After all, it's fun to escape and go for a ride, isn't it?
Perhaps more revealing, though, is our tendency to buy into the idea that the "good guys" are always the good guys. It's easy as pie to fall victim to this trap, with the whole movie centered around that belief.
But clearer heads prevail, and now we can review five movies where the good guys aren't so good, after all. In fact, as we'll see, they are downright bad.
Up first: But they make such a nice couple ...
No. 5: "Entrapment" (1999)
There are a lot of examples of caper and heist films that build up the affections for the thief. "Entrapment" is a solid example of that.
Sean Connery plays a legendary art thief and Catherine Zeta-Jones is the insurance employee out to question him. However, she ends up joining in the fun and goes on a couple heists herself.
So we get this switcheroo action, some sexual tension, a little suspense and, of course, the brain-teaser methods they plan to pull off their heists.
There's a lot of intrigue here and, watching all this drama from the viewpoint of Connery and Zeta-Jones, we almost forget that we're watching a couple of thieves. (And, oh yeah, honest people are going to lose out big time because of their game.)
When it comes to our next selection, good is a relative term ...
No. 4: "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1966)
The wool being pulled over our eyes in this legendary spaghetti Western is pretty transparent.
Heck, right there in the title we are told to believe that Clint Eastwood's character is the one with, well, character. But no matter the title, the audience has no problem falling for Clint anyway. After all, as "The Man With No Name," he carries himself so well as he coolly makes his way through life, going about his business.
And his business?
Oh, you know, scamming law enforcement officers out of their reward money and killing other bounty hunters. But hey, maybe when he makes off with a small fortune at the end of the movie, he decides to change his ways -- building a shelter for runaway youth, perhaps?
Not likely; but no matter, it's sort of ingrained in the American male psyche that this idea of a lonesome, cool cowboy is an endearing one.
Next, we ask the question, "Is there really honor among thieves?"
No. 3: "The Italian Job" (2003)
This film tries pretty hard to glorify these likeable heisters, offering a gem of a scene where every partner-in-crime is introduced with a short biography.
The explosives guy is shown in an "aw shucks" fashion when, as a youngster, he makes a toilet explode. (Oh, look, he's all wet. Let's just forget about his choice to enter a life of theft.)
The leader of the gang is shown as a boy stealing a wallet from another classmate. Oh, but it's OK. In fact, it's honorable, because it happens to be from a bully picking on a kid that very moment. How convenient.
The one gal in the gang is there to do the honorable deed of avenging her father's death. He, however, was killed while committing robbery by the actual "bad" guy.
Our next selection shows that love can make it all better ...
No. 2: "The Music Man" (1962)
"The Music Man" is a unique tale, because it has its star try to make good on his con, but in doing so still manages to twist the idea of who is really good.
The music man, played by Robert Preston, wants to go straight after falling in love -- awwww. So the audience is quick to forgive his con-man ways. And oddly, when a co-conspirator comes a-walking into town threatening to reveal the con to the townspeople, and rescuing them from the scam, he's the one made out to be a bad guy.
Shirley Jones' librarian, the object of his affection, comes to his side to help him stay in the shadows, enabling his con. When the gig is finally up, the music man is saved by a miracle that legitimizes his con. No one was the wiser and deception prevails.
Lastly, handsome criminals can't be all bad, right?
No. 1: "Ocean's Eleven" (2001)
This film takes the cake because it's so well made and the characters are so, well, likeable. So it goes the furthest to make bad look good.
The movie itself was shot and edited in a style all its own, featuring swift cuts, dual-screen action, and flashy Vegas colors. Throw in a nice soundtrack and you have pure eye/ear candy for an hour and half!
It offers an all-star group of Hollywood hunks -- George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon -- to play the thieves. And it naturally paints the "good guy" -- the legitimate, hardworking casino owner -- as a "bad" fella.
Finally, it has the female lead show preference for the lead thief. But just because she fell for it, doesn't mean we have to.
These guys vandalize, con, and steal equipment, and then there's the millions of dollars that the casino's customers are going to have to absorb. Yeah, great guys.
Distributed by Internet Broadcasting. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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To watch the video, just click on the imageSource: The New York Times: Anosmia © 2012, Cristina Proano-Carrion, Aromandina LLC
Aromatherapy Article|Aromatherapy News
Anosmia – What happens when you can't smell
Posted: August 8, 2012 by
How do you call someone who can't see? —- Blind How do you call someone who can't hear? —- Deaf How do you call someone who can't smell? —- that's a tough question, isn't it? The answer is anosmic. What happens when someone can't smell? Lots of things. This fantastic video from the New York Times shows people who can't smell and the whole world they are missing.