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29 Oct 2014 13:13:58 PM
Power-Ranking Michael Bisping's Grudge Matches, By Level of Anger
For Michael Bisping, every match is a grudge match. The TUF 3 winner never met a fellow fighter he couldn't take the piss out of in his 21-fight (!) UFC career, and to be totally honest, I'm kind of starting to love the dude for it.
Truly the silver-tongued, tea-sipping Diaz brother is his highness Count Bisping, who has found himself in yet another war of words with former Strikeforce middleweight champion Luke Rockhold heading into their Fight Night 55 headliner on November 7th. Ben Fowlkes attempted to get to the bottom of Bisping's seemingly endless dickishness in an interview published on MMAJunkie yesterday, and according to the Brit, pre-fight trash simply serves as his way of keeping the constant eat-train-sleep schedule from growing stale. According to Rockhold, however, Bisping is just "a prick that most people don't like." A regular Felix Unger and Oscar Madison these two are, I tells ya!
But as heated as Bisping vs. Rockhold has been thus far (see their "Counterpunch" segment above, their rooftop staredown, etc.), it doesn't hold a candle to Bisping's verbal sparring matches with Hollywood Henderson and that Bully Beatdown host guy whose life he destroyed. So it is through rage-filled, bloodshot eyes that we take a look back at Bisping's most heated rivalries and rank them on a scale of Berk to Arselicking Plonker.
#9 — Charles McCarthy
So the saying goes, "Opinions are like assholes, and Michael Bisping is one opinionated asshole." He's also a guy who was never shy on confidence, which Charles "Chainsaw" McCarthy took issue with heading into their fight back at UFC 83. Oddly enough, it was actually McCarthy who attacked Bisping first through the media, telling CBS Sports:
(He's) real arrogant, and, you know — not much else, really. He's gonna get choked out April 19.
I have very little regard for that guy. I can't wait to go in there and get my arm around his neck. It's going to be a cool experience. I hope to put him to sleep before he decides to tap.
Bisping was quick to respond via his blog, The Countdown, with the following shot at McCarthy's self-hyped BJJ credentials:
Next week's Countdown will be filed after I've come face-to-face with the reigning BJJ uber-master of the galaxy. If anyone wants me to ask him for an autograph for you, please e-mail me, but keep your requests down to six per person.
Whaddya think of that one, Kelso?
When it came time to put words aside, Bisping was simply too much for his fellow TUF alum, overwhelming McCarthy with a barrage of knees (that in fact broke McCarthy's arm) and forcing a stoppage inside of the first round. It was Bisping's first true grudge match in the UFC, and one that would set the precedent for years to come.Read More DIGG THIS

subset: commoncrawl


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The tape-mad will love this belt buckle from Honorable Mention.
Cassette tape wallet
I think I'm the only person in the world who still has any tapes, admittedly making compilations for friends is so much easier with cds but I used love carrying around my chunky walkman and rewinding the tapes with biros or pencils
Retro Karhu Bag
Whilst browsing for a neat new bag, I stumbled across this great little Karhu bag. Karhu are a Finnish sports company who have had a great line in retro trainers and apparel, this being one of the stand-out products. This Karhu Originals shoe bag was originally a golf shoe bag from the 1980s, but it has returned in with a …
French Connection tie
What a perfectly proportioned tie! Not too city trader wide, and not too trendoid indie kid thin this tie is exactly the kind of thing you should be looking for at the moment.
Top Five: Summer brights
Neon brights are in, but you don't have to make like a London clubkid and wear purple harem pants with orange juice cartons around your neck (methinks it's time for a UK version of Blue States Lose).
American Apparel sheer jersey scarf
What with layering being totally in sheer jersey is pretty hot right now, and this American Apparel scarf comes in thirty, yes thirty! different colours.
Top Five: High street sunglasses
If you still own a pair of wrap-around shades throw them on the floor, them stamp on them.
Paul Frank 'Big In Japan' watch
"I got the style but not the grace, I got the clothes but not the face, I got the bread but not the butter I got the winda but not the shutter" starts Tom Waits' great song 'Big In Japan'.
Top Five: bags
Manbags have come a long way from Kel from Kath and Kim's grey pleather pouch. There are many bags on the high street to choose from, starting with the bag that kicked off the whole trend.


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Skip to comments.Nazism is Socialism
Posted on 01/30/2004 12:42:48 AM PST by GeronL
Nazism is Socialism
Adam Young
By the standards of the Left, Adolf Hitler would have been deemed a "great statesman," had he died before he started the war (or if he had won it). That's because the left tends to measure greatness by the amount of land and number of people under one man's thumb. By that standard, Hitler was a great socialist-which is precisely what he and his part aspired to become.
The problem began in the Weimar Republic. In order to counterbalance the Reichstag, the president of Germany was given broad powers: he was directly elected, could make treaties and alliances, was supreme commander of the armed forces, could dissolve the Reichstag and submit any of its laws to a referendum, and, under the infamous Article 48, had the power to suspend civil and political liberties "in case of emergency."
This was done in 1933 and remained the basis of Hitler's "legality" throughout the Nazi period when he succeeded Hindenburg as president in 1934. Hitler occupied both the presidency and the chancellorship, and their powers were combined into the "office" of führer. The Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, which transferred to the cabinet the Reichstag's legislative functions.
Decrees abolished the states' parliaments or diets, abolished their flags and symbols, and reduced them to provincial status and mere administrative divisions of the central government. With the stabilization of the regime came the sprawling tentacles of the state octopus- an alphabet-soup of executive administrative agencies, forty-two in all (which, by the way, as of 1992, the United States government has fifty-two such executive agencies). And in addition to these forty-two agencies were the regular Cabinet, the Secret Cabinet Council, the Reich Defense Council and its many working committees, the Ministry of Education, the Office of the Deputy Führer, the Office of the Plenipotentiary of War Economy, the Office of the Plenipotentiary of Administration, the Office of the Delegate for the Four Year Plan, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economics, and so on.
In 1933 Germany had an estimated six million unemployed. Like his contemporaries in the capitals and governments of the world-and like so many politicians today-Hitler had little interest in economics and, in fact, was totally ignorant of economic theory. Although economic centralization had to wait until political opponents and organized opposition was suppressed or liquidated, the Nazis' "new deal" began almost immediately.
For instance, in October 1933, Hitler declared that "the ruin of the German peasant will be the ruin of the German people." New farm programs were instated, along with propaganda about Blut und Bloden. Hitler appointed as head of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture Walther Darre, who in 1929 published a book, The Peasantry as the Life Source of the Nordic Race.
Darre wished to "reform" the production and marketing of food and to raise prices for farmers. Darre's entire program was designed with one objective in mind: to insulate the peasant farmer from the market. To this end, Darre issued the Hereditary Farm Law in 1933, which had the purpose of preventing foreclosure on or the sale of farmland-at the expense of the peasant farmers` liberty. This "law" established that only Aryan Germans who could prove the purity of their bloodline back to 1800 could own a farm.
Every farm up to 308 acres was declared a hereditary estate-it could not be sold, divided, mortgaged or foreclosed on for debt. With the death of its owner, it would pass to his nearest male relative, who in turn was obligated to provide an income and education for his relatives. The peasant farmer was called a bauer or peasant, an "honored title" that he forfeited if he broke the "peasant honor code"-that is, if he stopped farming.
To compliment this the Reich Food Estate was established to regulate the conditions and production of the farmers. Its vast bureaucracy enforced regulations that touched all areas of the farmer's life and his food production, processing, and marketing. It was headed by Darre himself as "Reich Peasant Leader."
The Reich Food Estate had two goals: to jack up agricultural prices, and to make Germany "self-sufficient in food." Darre arbitrarily fixed the prices of agricultural products: within the first two years of the regime, wholesale prices rose 20 percent, and for cattle, vegetables, and dairy products, the rise was even steeper. But the farming sector was not exempt; the additional costs of these artificial prices were passed on to all consumers.
For its first year, the regime concentrated on a program of government grants of loan credit; stimulus bills for public works, such as road-building and forestation; and it "targeted tax cuts" to enterprises that increased capital expenditure and increased their number of employees. But from 1934 onward, the implementation of the Wehrwirtschaft, or war economy, became the model to which business and labor were subordinated and which was designed to function, not just in time of war, but in the period before war began.
The economy of total war was based on rearmament-the construction and maintenance of an enormous war machine to which all of society was subordinated. To do this the regime resorted to inflation. Hjalmar Schacht, the minister of economics, printed Reichmarks, and manipulated their official exchange value so that, at one time, they were estimated to have 237 different official values. He arranged barter deals with foreign governments and invented financial instruments that were issued by the central bank and "guaranteed" by the government, and that were kept "off-budget" to pay for rearmament. German banks were required to accept them, and they were discounted by the central bank. The minister of finance explained to Hitler that these were "merely a way of printing money."
In 1936, Göring's Four Year Plan was inaugurated. This made Göring, who was almost as ignorant about economics as Hitler, Germany's economic dictator. In the drive for a total war economy, protectionism was decreed and autarchy the desire-the so-called "Battle of Production." Consumer imports were nearly eliminated, price and wage controls were enacted, and vast state projects were built to manufacture raw materials.
The bureaucratization of the economy necessarily followed suit. Walther Funk, who replaced Walther Schacht as minister of economics in 1937, admitted that "official communications now make up more than one half of a German Manufacturer's entire correspondence" and that "Germany's export trade involves 40,000 separate transactions daily; yet for a single transaction as many as forty different forms must be filled out."
Businessmen and entrepreneurs were smothered by red tape, were told by the state what they could produce and how much and at what price, burdened by taxation, and were forced to make "special contributions" to the party. Corporations below a capitalization of $40,000 were dissolved and the founding of any below a capitalization of $2,000,000 was forbidden, which wiped out a fifth of all German businesses.
The cartelization of industry-which began before the Nazi regime-was made compulsory, and the Ministry of Economics was empowered to form new compulsory cartels or to force firms to join existing ones. The maze of business and trade associations created to lobby the Weimar Republic for various considerations in the law were nationalized and made compulsory for all businesses.
The Reich Economic Chamber was established on top of all these associations. It consisted of seven national economic groups, twenty-three economic chambers, seventy chambers of handicrafts, and one hundred chambers of industry and commerce. From these bureaucracies and the numerous offices and agencies of the Ministry of Economics and the Office of the Four Year Plan rained down a flood of decrees and laws, which in turn created for businesses the need on the one hand for lawyers and a legal department to understand these rules, and on the other, for a systematic regime of bribing officials.
Then, in February 1935 all employment came under the exclusive control of government employment offices which determined who would work where and for how much. And on June 22, 1938, the Office of the Four Year Plan instituted guaranteed employment by conscripting labor. Every German worker was assigned a position from which he could not be released by the employer, nor could he switch jobs, without permission of the government employment office. Worker absenteeism was met with fines or imprisonment-all in the name of job security. A popular Nazi slogan at the time was "the Common Interest before Self"!
And in his foreword to the 1936 German language edition of his General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, John Maynard Keynes wrote: "The theory of aggregate production, which is the point of the following book, nevertheless can be much easier adapted to the conditions of a totalitarian state than the theory of production and distribution put forth under conditions of free competition and a large degree of laissez-faire."
Social life too, was centralized by the Reich. Under the organization "Strength through Joy," the leisure time of the people was regimented. No organized social, sport or recreational groups-from chess and soccer clubs to bird-watching, to adult education, to the theatre, opera, and music concerts-were allowed to function without the oversight of the state. Besides the social costs of not trusting people to be able to look after themselves, there were the enormous costs of this vast bureaucracy that policed the private activities of the citizens.
Local traditions were attacked and eliminated, private firearms were outlawed and confiscated, and the amalgamation of the various Christian churches and the elimination of Christian symbols from public places and schools was attempted. Education, too, came under central control under the Reich Minister of Education, which designed the curriculum, rewrote textbooks, and licensed teachers.
Last but not least, and perhaps the Nazis' true unspoken legacy, is their doctrine of collective guilt which is now so fashionable to deploy not only against the Germans themselves, but also against Catholics, Palestinians, Jews, Muslims, and so many others; which is the basis for the claim of reparations for black slavery; and which has been most recently used against the Serbs as well as the Chinese. Collective guilt has returned as central-state policy in relation to official victims' groups and their alleged victimizers and has become the central feature of political ethics debates today.
In Germany, Britain, France, and the United States, among so many others, we still hear the same old calls for protectionism, for national development and "national policies," for price controls and wage and farm subsidies, for greater central control over and funding for education, for wealth redistributionism schemes and moral justifications, and for the resolute maintenance of a war economy in peacetime. We see that all these so_called progressive causes lead to is social waste, grief and mounting anger.
Ludwig von Mises reminded us in Human Action that the Nazis used "Jewish" as a synonym for "capitalist." What these 46 percent of Germans-and, indeed, vast majorities in all nations-don't see is that these very same so-called good policies inevitably result in the drive to war and total control. The latter necessitates the former as the inevitable proposed remedy for economic decline and impending collapse. It is unfortunate that so many who believe that it is necessary to learn from the past have not learned the true lessons.
Adam Young is studying computer science in Ontario, Canada (firstname.lastname@example.com). Further Reading: William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany, vol. 2: Triumph and Consolidation, chap. 8: "Life in the Third Reich: 1933-1937.
This should be sent to all the talk show hosts...
Interesting stuff
Production ends, people starve.
Hey, FR has been mentioned in several newspaper articles lately, I just did a google search...
Thanks for posting it!!!!
Just damn.
If you want on the list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...
. . . It is high time to discard, once and for all, these most harmful illusions about the possibility of unity or peace with the Dittmanns and the Crispiens, with the Right wing of the German Independent Social-Democratic Party, the British Independent Labour Party, the French Socialist Party, etc. It is high time for all revolutionary workers to purge their parties of these trends, and form genuinely united Communist parties of the proletariat.. . . which makes clear that Lennin applied the term "right wing" to other socialists who were not sufficently militant.
N. Lenin
September 24, 1920
Letter To
The German and the French Workers
And as Hayek bemoans in a preface to later editions of his classic The Road to Serfdom, American usage of the word "liberal" means "very nearly the opposite" of what Hayek meant, writing in Britain. That, to my understanding, is because the brand name "socialism" didn't sell in America as it did in Europe, so the socialists rebranded themselves "liberals"--thereby taking from those of us whom Americans now call "conservatives" what Hayek called "a nearly indispensible word."
"Liberal" socialists and "conservative" advocates of freedom to change are really a singular American confusion. And the confusion of "right wing" versions of socialism with--of all things--American traditions of freedom, is of a piece with that. And no accident. Indeed the very root "social" in "socialism" is deceitful; socialists systematically conflate "society" with "government." They do so because "society" is a nice, cooperative word whereas "government"--their actual intent--is coersion. And they do it so unremittingly that we have learned to check our wallets whenever we hear the word "social." Notwithstanding the fact that social interaction--e.g., free markets--is what we stand for. But they have essentially evicerated the word.
Such systematic confusion betrays the existence of a systematic effort to control the language and thus to control thought--that is, Newspeak. The natural question is, "How could Newspeak possibly be instituted in free America?" I believe that I am converging on the answer in this FR thread. A sort of conspiracy, actually driven by obvious commercial incentives, operates in plain sight in journalism. Anyone with one eye open has seen it, but (surprise!) it is hard to give it a name.
This "law" established that only Aryan Germans who could prove the purity of their bloodline back to 1800 could own a farm.The Old Testament can I believe be used to suport the idea of, as law of the founding era put it, holding property "in fee tail." Precisely how the feudal estates were held together--the oldest son inherited the entire real estate of his father with the proviso that he had to pass the entire real estate down to his oldest son. Which of course excludes the idea of using the property as collateral for a loan; it would be illegal to relinquish ownership of it.
Every farm up to 308 acres was declared a hereditary estate-it could not be sold, divided, mortgaged or foreclosed on for debt. With the death of its owner, it would pass to his nearest male relative, who in turn was obligated to provide an income and education for his relatives. The peasant farmer was called a bauer or peasant, an "honored title" that he forfeited if he broke the "peasant honor code"-that is, if he stopped farming.
The inheritor of such land might easily be "property poor," and (according to Dumas Malone's biography of Jefferson) it was common for members of the House of Burgess of Virginia to get a law passed which allowed a member to sell a particular parcel of land to escape the problem. But Jefferson, when he fell into the clutches of that trap, cut the Gordian Knot--he pushed through the House of Burgess the following law:
Problem solved. Not evaded, but abolished.
The irony of Hitler's version is that it pretty clearly turns the landowner into a de facto serf.
Under 'pure' socialism, production stops and people stave, experiment over.
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I am looking to relocate to the Richmond VA/VCU area within the next 2-3 months. I have solid 6 months installing Carrier, Trane, and Amaana AC units, heat pumps, and air handlers. I have my own tools, I'm not certified yet. I have valid DL.
Results 1 to 3 of 3
Thread: Expierienced Installer


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My bad! I may have the wrong film but I doubt such a slip-up would result in a look that miserable from Robert DeNiro? Might it be that he's fed up with films? Maybe he (okay, clearly he) couldn't be bothered to make the effort to dress up but my bet is that it's standing next to Al Pacino who, as well as being an arguably equal competitor on the greatest actor front, actually look pretty good!
Read on for pictures including 50 Cent and other major stars as well as info about this cult-to-be film.


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Jumper's Knee (Patellar Tendonitis)
Please Note: By clicking a link to any resource listed on this page, you will be leaving the KidsHealth site.
American Physical Therapy Association
This organization provides information on physical therapy, from therapists in each state to current research.
American College of Sports Medicine
This site has tips on staying safe while playing sports and exercising.
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS)
The AAOS provides information for the public on sports safety, and bone, joint, muscle, ligament and tendon injuries or conditions.


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You can't beat a system you can't understand
Concerned readers have been asking an important question for quite some time that must be resolved. How are the space guys going to be treated when they officially land? I believe it should be a mandatory question for every presidential candidate.
Are we going to treat them as illegal aliens? Will we demand that they return to their planet of origin where they will be required to apply for a visa before landing on earth? Or will that just apply to the United States?
I can hear the present administration discussing the problem now:
George: We shoulda been prepared for this. We knew it was gonna happen sooner or later. How are we gonna deal with these creatures/ The last thing we need is a new kind of alien.
Advisor #1: Some of them are green. We had a hard enough time getting the blacks, whites, browns and reds to get along. How is green going to fit into the mix?
Advisor #2: What about the Venusians? I understand some of them are purple. Do we really want purple constituents? That would clash with the colors of the flag.
Advisor #3: Why don't we see what they have to offer? We can do what we do now and give preferential treatment to those who can do us some good.
George: Be careful when you set up trade agreements. We don't want to start a tourist business to other planets. That could mean more American dollars leaving the country. What am I talking about? They would be leaving the planet.
Advisor #1: Do they accept American dollars on Jupiter?
Advisor #2: It would make sense to convert to Euros, since they're worth more.
Advisor #3: Anything's worth more.
George: Maybe we could send them all to Wyoming. Hardly anybody lives there. They need a bigger population.
Advisor #1: What if they got together and started demanding federal subsidies?
Advisor #2: What if they start taking work away from our labor force? Some of those creatures have four arms, and if they're willing to work an honest eight hours, they could be twice as productive for half the price.
Advisor #3: Yeah. I agree. After all - they're not union.
George: Now you shouldn't be thinking that way. More productive labor at a cheaper price is exactly what this country needs. Maybe foreign contracts will start coming our way instead of constantly leaving.
Advisor #1: That's a nice thought. But we don't even know if the green ones get along with the purple ones. Do you really think they can work together?
Advisor #2: I cannot imagine doing business with anything purple or green.
Advisor #3: Don't let the press hear you say that. The liberals will be all over you.
George: It would be a good idea to allow them in. Set an example for the rest of the world. Diversity is what America is about. Make them citizens and we'll have entire planets as allies, not just a few blood-sucking countries that want our money.
Advisor #1: If they don't get along with each other, we could have an interplanetary war on our hands. They would be using earth as a battlefield - specifically, our part of the earth.
Advisor #2: Maybe we should make a deal with the Martians. From what I hear, they have the best technology. With them as allies, the others could be kept in line.
George: There you go spending money again. You don't think the Martians are actually going to share that technology for free do you? More money will be leaving the planet - our money.
Advisor #3: Not everybody thinks like we do, George. But if we can make a deal with the Martians, we could be the middleman and resell their technology to the Third World. We just have to be careful how we word the contracts.
Advisor #1: How do you know the Martians have the best technology? We haven't actually seen it.
Advisor #2: Be serious. My kids got that information off the Internet. Everybody knows more about it than we do.
George: Maybe we could charge an alien visitation tax. They don't know anything about our economic system. We might make enough money to actually finance social security.
Advisor #1: That's what you're doing with the earthling alien immigrants now and it's not working. The entire country's up in arms about it.
Advisor #2: What do you care about social security anyway? You're not going to be in office when the money runs out.
Advisor #3: What are they going to pay us with- space bucks? For all we know, they might not want to do business with any of us.
Knock on door: Rap! Rap!
George: Answer the door. If it's the press, tell them we'll make a statement tomorrow.
Advisor #1: It's an intern.
George: See what he wants.
Advisor #1: It's a she and she has a note addressed to you.
George: Give it here.
Advisor #2: What's it say?
George: It's a note from the aliens on the White House lawn. They've left. It says: "Thank you for your hospitality, but we prefer not to be involved with a system we can't understand."


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Reds top Pirates, tie for wild-card lead
Pittsburgh's magic number for playoffs is 2
Reds top Pirates, tie for wild-card lead
Pittsburgh's magic number for playoffs is 2
Rookie Billy Hamilton got three hits and stole two more bases, and the Cincinnati Reds routed Pittsburgh 11-3 Sunday to tie the Pirates for the NL wild-card lead.
The Reds and Pirates each have a magic number of two to close out Washington and clinch a playoff spot. Cincinnati and Pittsburgh trail NL Central leader St. Louis by 2 1/2 games, pending the Cardinals' night game at Milwaukee.
Jay Bruce hit a three-run double and Todd Frazier followed with a homer that capped a five-run burst in the first inning. Bronson Arroyo (14-11) made it stand up, lasting five innings to win for the first time in nearly a month.
Neil Walker hit his 13th homer of the season, but Pittsburgh stumbled in its home finale.


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Official says 'management issue,' but nothing 'inappropriate,' was reason for Manchester Central principal's resignationBy PAUL FEELY and MICHAEL COUSINEAU
New Hampshire Union Leader
February 15. 2014 10:56PM
MANCHESTER - A "management issue" led Manchester High School Central Principal Ronald Mailhot to retire abruptly in the middle of the school year, according to a school official Saturday.
"It had more to do with actions in his role in the management of the building, but it was not criminal activity," said the official, who didn't want to be identified. "This has nothing to do with any inappropriate behavior with any one student or staff."
The school official, who was familiar with the situation, said it was "a management issue that was resolved by his retiring."
Superintendent Debra Livingston confirmed Friday that Mailhot, who submitted his retirement to the district last week, is on paid leave until March 1, the day his retirement takes effect. He is currently being paid $104,566 annually, according to Livingston.
Mailhot will receive a payment of just over $41,000, plus insurance and other benefits due a principal with at least 15 years of service in the Queen City school district, she said.
The New Hampshire Union Leader filed a right-to-know request Thursday after school officials initially declined to provide financial details regarding Mailhot's pending departure and his work record.
Mayor Ted Gatsas, who serves as chairman of the Board of School Committee, referred questions about the retirement to Livingston, who would not elaborate on the reasons behind Mailhot's decision.
"I cannot comment on a personnel matter," Livingston said.
Messages left at Mailhot's home were not returned Friday and Saturday.
Two years ago, another city principal stopped working for the school district without any public explanation given. MaryEllen McGorry was suspended from her post as principal at Manchester High School West in 2011, eventually leaving after a lengthy investigation. No reason has ever been given for her departure.
Livingston, when asked whether there were any concerns among school administrators regarding Mailhot's job performance or conduct, said: "The Manchester School District cannot provide performance or discipline information."
Livingston said a rumor that Mailhot was escorted out of Central High School was "absolutely false."
"That never happened," said Livingston. "It's unfortunate that when someone announces their departure from a job like this, the stories that begin to circulate. The reasons behind someone retiring are personal and can be as simple as wanting to have more time with family members, or a sudden sickness in themselves or a loved one. But the reasons are their own. We appreciate everything Ron has done for the district over his long career here. We're sorry to lose him, but we are going to honor his request."
According to district records, Mailhot was hired on Sept. 3, 1991, as a French and Latin teacher at Central, a position he held until the end of the 2000-01 school year. He served as assistant principal at Central from July 1, 2001, until June 30, 2012, when he was made principal.
According to Livingston, Mailhot had unused accrued sick leave totaling $41,641.20 at the time of his retirement, which will be paid to him in a lump sum. She also said Mailhot will remain on the city health insurance plan until March 31, at which time he will be given the option to enroll in the retirees' insurance program at the full premium.
Livingston said Central Assistant Principal Joe O'Neil is serving as acting principal until an interim school head is chosen.
"We will be starting the search for a new principal immediately," said Livingston. "In the meantime, we will be naming an interim principal. It might be Joe, it might not. Right now, that hasn't been determined."
An interim principal is expected to be announced March 3.
Livingston said a memo went out to school district office staff on Thursday announcing Mailhot's decision to retire. She said school board members were notified the same day.
At-large school board member Kathy Staub called Mailhot's retirement sudden.
"I think the superintendent is going to manage his departure (in a way) that is in the best interests of the students, staff and the community," Staub said.
"We have to find a way to manage until we find a permanent replacement. We're going to focus on finding the best principal we can for Central High School," she said.
Ben Dick, president of the Manchester teachers union, said last week that Mailhot was easy to work with and gave a lot of his time to the district. Teachers seemed to get along with him, he said.
"Whenever something like this happens, there are a lot of stories that start going around," Dick said. "I'm not sure anyone beyond the administration and Ron know the reason why. All I know is teachers seemed to get along with him."


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Please note: You are viewing an archived Bucknell University news story. It is possible that information found on this page has become outdated or inaccurate, and links and images contained within are not guaranteed to function correctly.
By Andy Hirsch
LEWISBURG, Pa. — As both a chemistry professor and the dean of Bucknell's College of Arts and Sciences, George Shields has seen the spark in the eyes of student researchers on the brink of discovery.
"It's really an exciting thing to experience," Shields said. "Students become so committed to doing their research because they realize they are on the forefront of finding out something that no one else has figured out before."
But Shields also knows how critical the first year of college can be for students majoring in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM). Students who chose to leave a STEM major often make that decision prior to the start of their sophomore year.
"The reality is, majoring in a STEM field is challenging. Our K-12 educational system is mostly structured around memorizing, so students get to college and they think being a good student means being good at memorizing the material," Shields explained. "The critical thinking and communications skills they gain through actually doing the research is very transformative."
Shields has created a program designed to make that transition easier at Bucknell, and to increase retention rates in STEM fields. The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently awarded him $450,000 to launch the Bucknell STEM Scholars program. During each of the next five summers, the program will bring 19 incoming first-year Bucknell students to campus for five weeks of hands-on experience. They'll work on undergraduate research projects alongside faculty and upperclassman. Each group of students will spend an additional 10 weeks on campus during a subsequent summer. The students will be paid and provided housing.
"We want to build up their confidence and show these students that they can do the work, that they belong here at Bucknell," said Mathematics Professor Lynn Breyfogle, an associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences and a co-investigator on the grant. "Then, when they come back to start the semester, they have this amazing research experience to build upon."
"We're trying to get these students started in research, to begin to think like a scientist," added Chemistry Professor Dee Casteel, associate dean of faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences and co-investigator on the grant. "But there's also a social aspect to this. These students will know their way around campus, they'll have already formed relationships with other students, they'll know some of the faculty."
While the Bucknell STEM Scholars program will primarily focus on retaining STEM students overall, it will place an emphasis on recruiting and retaining women and underrepresented students, including students from low-income families, ethnic and racial minority students, first-generation college students and students with disabilities.
"We know that, for a variety of reasons, those are the students who are most likely to switch out of a STEM major," Shields said. "We want to look at them specifically, to make sure we're doing what we can to help them succeed."
Shields also believes the initiative will increase interest in the STEM fields at Bucknell overall, even for students who aren't part of the new program. His conclusion is based on experience; Shields has had success starting similar programs at two other institutions prior to coming to Bucknell, and has now received more than $1 million in NSF funding for those programs alone.
"In my experience with similar programs at other colleges, its mere existence attracted more students. I suspect we'll see the same thing happen here," said Shields, "because it demonstrates the commitment we're making to undergraduate research."


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In many environments, DBAs and SQL Server administrators need to keep a close eye on server connectivity. That's the case where I work. We try to minimize LAN downtime as much as possible so that our extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) processes run undisturbed.
Related: Troubleshooting Common SQL Server Performance Problems
Although regularly monitoring server connectivity is important, it can be time-consuming. For this reason, I developed a flexible and easy-to-implement SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) package that uses the Ping command to check the connectivity of each host in my company's IP network. The SSIS package not only finds servers that are unresponsive but also flags servers that aren't responding to pings as often as we'd like, which can help identify potential problems.
The SSIS package executes three stored procedures to ping each host and retrieve the output. I'll show you how to create this package. But first you need to create the stored procedures and the database and tables they use.
Creating the Database, Tables, and Stored Procedures
The first step is to create the database, two tables, and three stored procedures. The database, which is named PingNotification, will hold two tables: ServerList and PingOutput.
The ServerList table will contain a list of the hosts that the SSIS package needs to ping during each run. It has the following columns:
- ServerName. This column contains the names or IP addresses of the hosts.
- ServerFileName. If desired, you can use this column to store the pathname of a text file in which you can store the ping results. I won't be using this field for this example.
- NumberOfPings. This column contains the number of echoes (pings) requested for each host. The default value is 1, but you can specify a different number if desired.
- ThresholdAvailable. This column contains the threshold value for a host to be considered active. The default value is 100, but you can change that value.
The PingOutput table will store the output from each ping. It has the following columns:
- ServerName. This column contains the names or IP addresses of the hosts.
- PingDate. This column stores the date and time of the echo requests.
- PingAvailability. For each host, this column provides a percentage indicating how many echo requests received replies compared with how many were sent out. When the host isn't found, the value is 0.
- PingStatus. This column can contain one of three string values. "Normal Response" indicates that the host met or exceeded the value specified in the ThresholdAvailable column of the ServerList table. "Weak or No Response" indicates that the host hasn't replied at all or the number of echoes returned is less than the value specified in the ThresholdAvailable column. "Host Not Found" indicates that the remote server doesn't exist.
I wrote the script PingNotification_CREATE_DATABASE_PROCEDURE.sql to demonstrate how to create the database and tables. This script also populates the tables with sample data in case you want to follow along with the example I'm presenting.
Besides creating the database and tables, the script creates three T-SQL stored procedures:
- PingListOfServers. This stored procedure executes the Ping command against the servers listed in the ServerName column of the ServerList table. The Ping command's -n switch is used with the value in the NumberOfPings column of the ServerList table to indicate the number of echo requests to send. You can modify this stored procedure by adding other Ping switches. For example, you might want to add the -w switch to set a timeout period.
- ResultOfPingFailures. This stored procedure determines how many servers didn't exist ("Host Not Found") and how many servers had a lower number of successful echoes than requested ("Weak or No Response"), based on the data in the PingStatus column of the PingOutput table.
- ResultOfPingForEmail. This stored procedure constructs an email message about any servers that didn't exist, had a weak response, or had no response. Besides the server names, the email message includes the date and time of each ping.
Note that PingListOfServers uses the xp_cmdshell system stored procedure to execute the Ping commands. So, prior to executing PingListOfServers, xp_cmdshell must be enabled on local host. You can enable it by running the command
EXEC sp_configure 'xp_cmdshell', 1; GO RECONFIGURE; GO
When xp_cmdshell is enabled, the PingListOfServers stored procedure uses the Ping command to send echo requests to the servers, as the code in Listing 1 shows.
SET @sql = 'EXECUTE XP_CMDSHELL ''ping ' + LTRIM(RTRIM(@ServerName)) + ' -n ' + CAST(@NofPings AS VARCHAR(10))+ '''' CREATE TABLE #pingtemp ( ID INT IDENTITY(1,1) ,line VARCHAR(2000) ) INSERT INTO #pingtemp(line) EXECUTE SP_EXECUTESQL @sql
PingListOfServers stores the results in a temporary table, which it creates with an identity column for easier tracking of rows. Figure 1 shows sample Ping command output with the row (i.e., line) numbers added.
Figure 1: Sample Ping Command Output with Line Numbers Added
In the output of each Ping command, the needed result always starts with line 4. When line 4 starts with Reply from, the echo request is successful. When line 4 starts with Request timed out, the echo request failed.
Because the output is set up this way, PingListOfServers uses the code in Listing 2 to capture the information it needs to determine the @ActualAvailability value. This value is important because it's used to determine the values for the PingAvailability and PingStatus columns in the PingOutput table.
@ActualAvailability = SUM(x.Val_)/@NofPings*100 FROM ( SELECT id ,line ,CASE WHEN line LIKE 'Reply%' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END AS Val_ FROM #pingTemp WHERE -- BEGIN CALLOUT A id > 3 AND id < @NofPings+3 -- END CALLOUT A -- BEGIN CALLOUT B AND EXISTS (SELECT * FROM #pingtemp WHERE id = 1 AND (line IS NULL OR LEN(LINE) = 0)) -- END CALLOUT B ) AS X
The @ActualAvailability value is a percentage indicating how many pings received replies compared with how many were sent out. The number of pings sent (@NofPings) is already known. It's the value in the NumberOfPings column in the ServerList table. So, you just need to know how many replies were received. You can find out by searching the output in the temporary table for the text Reply. If a line (i.e., row) has the word Reply, it's counted as 1. Otherwise, it's 0. However, before you do this, you need to filter the output.
The code at callout A selects only those lines that need to be checked to see whether they contain the word Reply. The statement id > 3 is used to ignore the first three lines because they have nothing to do with the replies. The statement AND id < @NofPings+3 is used to ignore the lines after the replies. In this statement, you need to add 3 to the number in @NofPings because the first three lines are ignored. So, for example, if the number of pings requested is 3, the code at callout A will select lines 4 through 6.
The code at callout B filters out any output indicating that a host didn't exist. When a host doesn't exist, the Ping command returns the message Ping request could not find host in the first line. When a hosts exists, the first line can be null or an empty string, so the code
WHERE id = 1 AND (line IS NULL OR LEN(LINE) = 0))
is used.
If you'd like to see how the rest of PingListOfServers (or the other two stored procedures) works, check out the comments in PingNotification_CREATE_DATABASE_PROCEDURE.sql. You can download this script (and the SSIS package) by clicking the Download button. I've tested the script on several different Windows environments, including Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows 7, Windows XP, and Windows 2000. For this article, I used Windows 7 and SQL Server 2008 R2. Both are set to English as the native language. If your systems are set to a different language, slight changes need to be made to the PingListOfServers stored procedure. For more information, see the ChangingLanguageSettings.txt file that accompanies the script.
Creating the SSIS Package
As Figure 2 shows, the SSIS package contains four tasks:
Figure 2: SSIS packages Four Tasks
Run Stored Procedure PingListOfServers. This Execute SQL task executes PingListOfServers, which populates the PingOutput table with ping results for each host.
Check for Not Pinging Servers. This Execute SQL task executes the ResultOfPingFailures stored procedure, which determines how many servers didn't exist and how many servers had a lower number of successful echoes than requested. When creating this task, you need to create a variable named User::Failed_Yes and initialize it to zero, as shown in Figure 3. The stored procedure's result is passed to this variable, which is checked by the precedence constraint that's connecting second and third tasks. This constraint contains the simple expression @Failed_Yes >= 1. When the User::Failed_Yes variable equals 0, the SSIS package will stop executing (indicating success). When the variable is greater than 0, the flow continues to the next task.
Figure 3: Creation of the User::Failed_Yes Variable
Run Stored Procedure ResultOfPingForEmail. This Execute SQL task executes the ResultOfPingForEmail stored procedure, which constructs the email message about the ping results. When creating this task, you need to create a variable named User::Failed_Message, as shown in Figure 4. This variable will contain the constructed message.
Figure 4: Creation of the User::Failed_Message Variable
Send Mail on PingFailures. This Send Mail task sends the email message. As Figure 5 shows, you need to specify Variable for the MessageSourceType property and User::Failed_Message for the MessageSource property. You also need to specify the SMTP connection, sender, recipients, and Subject line.
Figure 5: Configuration of the Send Mail Task
Using the SSIS Package
As you've seen, you can use the Ping command in a standalone SSIS package to notify you when there's a problem with connections between computers. For example, I've scheduled a job to run this package every minute to check the LAN connection between my local host and a remote server. If I get a notification email, I can act immediately. In case it happens during non-working hours, we have an SMS notification system that sends an SMS notification to our DBA for immediate action. This simple SSIS package can also be used to check connections in failover scenarios, backup processes, ETL processes, and more.
Learn more: Using an SSIS Script Component to Import Data to a Wide Table


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Making a healthy breakfast
7 Comments »
Oh my goodness these look great and oh so delicious.When our children were growing up we did the same thing. They didn't get sugar and they didn't miss it.We would get club soda and mix it with 100% juice and make what we called fruit spritzers instead of colas. They are both in their twenty's now and tell me they still prefer those.
Wow, They all look so delicious!
These look lovely. It's making me hungry. I could do with making more healthy recipes for breakfast.
they all look so lovely and bright. breakfast is the hardest meal to make appealing. ta!


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Watch The ::God Is Imaginary Videos On YouTube ::
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If aliens ever visit us, will they be atheists? Richard Dawkins is certain that they will and has tweeted as much: "If we ever talk to aliens, their civilisation will be far more advanced than ours (because of distances involved). They won't be religious!"Obviously, this is just another way to express the belief that religion is a delusion which we must outgrow to survive. But won't the aliens who visit us have some reason to do so? And won't their reasons come to them in the form of stories and hopes, reinforced by ritual?Even in Star Trek the strictly logical characters are the exception among a crew much given to ritual and myth. What else could make them boldly go?And if we have a choice, it would be better to be visited by aliens with a sense that the cosmos wanted them to explore it and to find new things, rather than those who knew exactly what they wanted from our planet: that – since they'd be so much more advanced than us – could only be raw materials.Do you believe aliens are atheists or otherwise?
<snip> Also, if they were actually more advanced and intelligent than us: they wouldn't come here, at all. Not because we'd kick their ass in a war but that it'd be sad if at least one of us, especially a religious nut, would influence them in any way.-Nam
True. I hope that a flawless explanation would sway fundies but, yeah, they're not open to new evidence unless it backs up their claim.Not sure whether they would get corrupted. If they had never experienced religion they would think it was clearly bollocks. If they had started as a religious culture maybe they would know the cure.
yup, there's every chance that they would be entirely unlike us so no real assumptions can be made.Including assumptions of their intentions. So we can't really say whether they would avoid us or if we were exactly what they were looking for.I looked at the radio wave link. Thanks for that. From what I gather, we cant even assume that anyone would be able hear us due to the inverse square law. So maybe they would come across us by accident or because they detected water in the earths atmosphere without even realising there were monkey people in residence.


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2018 Winterim
Geology 203
The course examines the processes that lead to different types of volcanic activities, role of volcanism on development of continents, oceans, and atomsphere, and its various impacts on the biosphere on planet earth. Volcanism on other planets and satellites within the solar system will also be explored. Special emphasis will be place on volcanoes as major economic resources and potential alternate energy sources.
Other Requirements: PREREQ: GEOLGY 100 OR GEOLGY 101
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Posted Mon November 26th, 2012 - 12:01 PM PST
Kendall Jenner covers the new issue of Australian Miss Vogue in a Zimmermann dress, and the 17-year-old reality star/model looks stunning in her spread for the mag!
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Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories
Lewiston to be set ablaze on Saturday
The third "Flames Through Lewiston" event will take place Saturday, Dec. 15, from 6:30 until 7 p.m. on Center Street. If you're planning to attend, here are some points to keep in mind.
•Center Street will be closed from Fourth Street to Fifth Street beginning at 4:30 p.m. to accommodate this free event.
•Bring your cameras and capture the dramatic music and firing muskets for all to see on YouTube. (Or watch the video on this website.)
•A wider safety zone will be in force this year, so spectators along the street will be required to stand behind the curb. Please observe this rule and encourage your fellow attendees to do the same.
•Local citizens of all ages are invited to join this re-enactment by dressing in period clothing and running down the street, portraying actual Lewistonians who ran for their lives from the British troops during the War of 1812. For more information or to register, contact Sarah at 716-210-8427 to get your name and email on her list. She will forward you details.
Don't worry about having "exact" period clothing - the Historical Association of Lewiston will send you ideas and guidelines. Plus, there will be prizes for best acting, best costume, etc.
•Support the Historical Association and show your 1812 pride by getting hats, stickers, books and 1812 flags. Commemorative items and the 2013 calendar will be available at Ashker's, directly across from the Frontier House.
•Dress warm and watch the Tuscarora heroes save dozens of lives! You are encouraged to participate to help bring history to life. If you have never seen this amazing and unusual event, this is your last chance to see an evening performance. Next year, on the actual bicentennial, the final performance will take place in the morning - just like when the British attack actually occurred.
"Flames Through Lewiston" commemorates the burning of Lewiston on Dec. 19, 1813, just a week before Christmas. After the silent nighttime capture of Fort Niagara, the British set their sights on Lewiston and destroyed the small village. Local citizens ran for their lives down Center Street and escaped down Ridge Road with the help of the Tuscarora Indians.


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2006 Retiring President's Address
Reflections on a "Different" Year
Richard Peterson
In the Lake Woebegon dialect of my "edge of the prairie" home, it is well known that to encounter a situation and then proclaim, "that's different," is not normally a laudatory observation. Rather, it denotes an undesired perturbation from the status quo that is likely to bring a Scandinavian scowl, in somewhat the same tradition as the curse, "may you live in 'interesting' times."
This AAPT year has indeed been both interesting and different, yet reserved Minnesotans would still observe, with their twisted optimism, "you bet … and it could have been a lot worse."
Following 15 very effective years at the helm, Bernard "Bernie" Khoury announced early in the year his plans for retirement, and the Executive Board has worked with him in laying out a period of transition to a new Executive Officer. Our Executive Officer Search Committee began its work in mid-2005, and, at the time of this writing, is looking carefully at candidates for this crucial leadership position. We trust that by late spring of 2006 the new Executive Officer-designate will have been chosen and is preparing to work with Bernie and staff leaders during this year of transition.
And then there were the apparent medical risks for AAPT workers in 2005. Bernie Khoury had major surgery in early August and missed the Salt Lake meeting—AAPT's director of Programs, Maria Elena Khoury, called to a strong nurturing role, was also absent. A meeting without Bernie's leadership has been hard enough to imagine, but a meeting without Maria Elena's charisma and organizational skills is enough to really give one pause. Still, our very large summer meeting prospered through the gallant efforts of Associate Executive Officer Warren Hein, Director of Meetings and Exhibits Carol Heimpel, Director of Member Services Valerie Evans; and many, many others. Following surgery in July, AAPT Secretary Mary Beth Monroe was only able to participate in the meeting by phone, and Roxanne Muller (Khoury's executive assistant) and Sina Kniseley (former director of Communications/Publications) both missed the meeting due to six-months leave of absence following childbirth. John Roeder, board member, needed to skip the summer meeting due to earlier open-heart surgery, and later that year AAPT vice president and program chair Harvey Leff also had major surgery.
Those stressful times have confirmed that we have a strong and resilient team who will work well beyond the call of duty to keep this ship cruising nicely ahead. I should add that we are delighted that all of the folks mentioned above are doing very well indeed—including the Moms! But still, my family has observed that the AAPT Board has endured a 30 percent major surgery casualty rate—surely a dangerous occupation.
So What's Different?
In spite of the stresses and concerns of this year, I can report that it has been my most rewarding year of national AAPT work. We seem to be reaching out more visibly into the full breadth of the physics teaching community on several fronts, and, indeed, are fulfilling responsibilities that simply could not be accomplished by any other physics organization. The empowering strength of AAPT for 75 years has been members who not only enjoy physics, but who are also passionately committed to skillfully sharing that experience, knowledge, and deep sustaining beauty at all levels. In that context I can with great confidence pass the gavel to Ken Heller, associate head of the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota. He adds double meaning to the term "high energy" physicist. Heller is an energetic, true believer in the principle that the knowledge, spirit, and vision for excellence in physics teaching simply must be more broadly shared throughout the physics community. We all welcome Ken Heller to this position and commit ourselves to working with him in the very eventful year that lies ahead.


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Over 300 entries
This fascinating dictionary gives concise accounts of every officially recognized pope in history, from St Peter to Pope Francis, as well as all of their irregularly elected rivals, the so-called antipopes. Each pope and antipope's entry covers his family and social background and pre-papal career as well as his activities in office. Also, an appendix provides a detailed discussion and analysis of the tradition that there has been a female pope. This new edition reflects the very latest in papal research and contains additional information in the further reading sections of each entry, making this dictionary an even more useful starting place for research into specific pontiffs.
This is a continuous history of the papacy over almost 2,000 years. It reveals how, for much of that history, spiritual and temporal power have been inextricably mingled in the person of the pope. A fascinating read for students of theology and history, as well as the general reader with an interest in Christian history.
A Dictionary of the Bible (2 ed.) Quick reference
"Snappy entries elucidate hazy Biblical events." – Christopher Hirst, The Independent
A Dictionary of the Bible is the most acclaimed, accessible, and up-to-date dictionary of its kind. Containing over 2,000 authoritative entries it provides clear and concise information about all of the important places, people, themes, and doctrines of the Bible. Terms range from earthquakes and mice to martyrs and art, and new to this edition are entries on Act of God, Old Testament and New Testament theology, Hanukkah, the Koran, mysticism, and many more.
This dictionary features a detailed bibliography, biographies of Bible scholars, a conversion table of measures, weights, and values, a chronology of important dates in Biblical history, and historical maps (showing Israel in Canaan; the near east in the time of the Assyrian Empire; Palestine under the Herods; the background of the New Testament; Rome and the East).
With lively and informative A-Z entries and an array of useful supplementary material, this dictionary is essential for students and teachers of theology and religious education, and it is an absorbing reference work for all readers of the Bible.
Dictionary Plus Religion Quick reference
This dictionary comprises authoritative, highly accessible entries on faiths, people, institutions, and organizations relating to all areas of religion. These entries are supplementary to other religion titles in the Quick Reference collection, and are written by specialist authors. The dictionary is an ongoing project, and more entries will be added over time.
The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature Reference library
2005 ALA/RUSA Outstanding Reference Source
2005 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title
The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature is a landmark work in the burgeoning field of religion and nature. It covers a vast and interdisciplinary range of material, from ecology, theology, philosophy, and beyond. Entries cover major thinkers, religious traditions, and important events, with clarity and style. Widely praised by reviewers and the recipient of major awards, this is a must-have title for anyone interested in the manifold and fascinating links between religion and nature, in all their many senses.
The Encyclopedia critically explores the relationships among human beings, their environments, and the religious dimensions of life. This wide-ranging work, chronologically, geographically, and religiously, includes 1,000 entries from 520 international contributors. In addition to the standard, scholarly entry, this highly-accessible reference is creatively enriched through two unique, additional genres: scholarly perspectives articles wherein authors advance an argument or reflect on their own role in or views regarding the religion and nature field; and practitioner entries, which are written by well-known figures who have had an impact in the issues the encyclopedia engages.
"It will no doubt remain an essential reference source on the subject for many years to come." –Library Journal (starred review)
"This is a remarkable encyclopedia that explores our spiritual connections to nature in countless ways, and describes our ever more urgent efforts to create a more compassionate and environmentally sustainable world." –Jane Goodall, UN Messenger of Peace and DBE Founder – The Jane Goodall Institute
Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls Reference library
When Bedouin shepherds discovered the first of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, one of the most fascinating mysteries of ancient history was exposed. Embedded in the 850 manuscripts eventually uncovered were questions about everything from the Qumran community that produced the scrolls to their impact on our understanding of biblical studies. Why were the scrolls preserved in caves? What do they reveal about such contemporary events as the life and death of Jesus, the rise of Talmudic Judaism, and the flourishing of the Essenes, Pharisees, and other Second Temple groups?
These questions are identified and explored in Lawrence Schiffman and James VanderKam's groundbreaking Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Featuring 450 articles by an international community of 100 distinguished scholars, the Encyclopedia is the definitive account of what we know about the scrolls—their history, relevance, meaning, and the controversies that surround them. The works are viewed in historical, linguistic, and religious contexts, with archaeological evidence providing a clear basis for dating and preservation of the manuscripts.
The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture Reference library
The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture is the most comprehensive reference work in this complex and diverse area of art history. Built on the acclaimed scholarship of the Grove Dictionary of Art, this work offers over 1,600 up-to-date entries on Islamic art and architecture ranging from the Middle East to Central and South Asia, Africa, and Europe and spans over a thousand years of history. Recent changes in Islamic art in areas such as Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq are elucidated here by distinguished scholars. Entries provide in-depth art historical and cultural information about dynasties, art forms, artists, architecture, rulers, monuments, archaeological sites and stylistic developments. In addition, over 500 illustrations of sculpture, mosaic, painting, ceramics, architecture, metalwork and calligraphy illuminate the rich artistic tradition of the Islamic world. With the fundamental understanding that Islamic art is not limited to a particular region, or to a defined period of time, the Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture offers pathways into Islamic culture through its art.
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Manchester mayor downplays city bond rating downgrade over tax capBy TIM BUCKLAND
New Hampshire Union Leader
August 04. 2013 9:19PM
MANCHESTER — Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the city's credit ratings, partly blaming the imposition of the city's tax cap.
The city's general obligation rating was downgraded from Aa1, which is the credit rating company's second-highest grade, to Aa2; the city schools' revenue bonds went from Aa1 to Aa3.
The agency also factored in losses in the Recreation Fund, which it said includes operations from the McIntyre Ski Area, two ice arenas and the Derryfield golf course. The agency said the operations went from contributing to the city's general fund to running at deficits in fiscal year 2012.
"Current and future revenue growth (is) limited due to the city's local property tax cap, which limits the property tax levy increase to the three-year average of the consumer price index," Moody's wrote in an explanation letter that will be a topic of discussion at Tuesday's Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting.
Mayor Ted Gatsas said the downgrade does not affect the city's current loan obligations and would have a "miniscule" effect on future interest rates. He estimated that the impact on future borrowing could be about 10 basis points, which would mean that a loan that would have been given at 6 percent would instead have an interest rate of 6.1 percent.
According to Bankrate.com's loan amortization calculator, a 10-year, $100,000 loan at 6.1 percent would mean increased costs of $602.40 over the life of a loan compared to the same amount and term at 6 percent.
"I don't even know if I'd call this a bump in the road," Gatsas said of the downgrade. "It's not going to change the way we will run the city."
Despite the credit rating downgrade, the agency upgraded the city's outlook from negative to stable, taking note of budget surpluses from increased auto registrations and lower spending on snow plowing.
"The revision of the outlook to stable reflects our view that the city's financial position will remain adequate over the near term, and incorporates our expectation that the city will manage financial operations reasonably well within the limited flexibility afforded by the property tax cap," the agency's report said. "The stable outlook also factors our view that property values will remain stagnant over the next 12 to 18 months, with limited additional declines over the near term."
Gatsas said he believes the tax cap has not hindered the city's operations.
"Even with the tax cap in place for the last three years, we've operated the city at a surplus," he said. "I think, in running the city and managing the city, we're doing fine."


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Bethenny Frankel
Author Voices
February 14, 2009My favorite time in my life was during grammar school when my life revolved around roller-skating. I went to a private Catholic school, and everyone was into classic rock and roll like The Rolling Stones and The Doors. I had no interest in that whatsoever, which began my alter ego of a disco bunny rollergirl.
My secret roller-skating life existed at Hot Skates, a roller rink in the next town over from mine. I would be dropped off there in the morning and I would do the 9 to 11:30 am, 12 to 2:30 pm and 5 to 7:30 pm sessions. During each session would be a couples skate, free skate and competitive races. I was always competitive and I would always... see more


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There's no more seductive image in astronomy than a picture of the night sky filled with stars and colorful glowing clouds of interstellar gas. You know, the kind you see in books and magazines. These images usually come from multimillion-dollar telescopes, not from simple astrophotography setups. But it doesn't take a mountaintop observatory to capture panoramic deep-sky vistas. They're within reach of anyone with modest stargazing equipment and access to dark, rural skies. The technique is called piggybacking photography, and today's high-speed color films and digital cameras have made the process easier than ever before.
Simple Astrophotography: What is Piggybacking?
The richest star fields in the sky are found along the Milky Way, formed by the spiral arms of our home galaxy and well-placed during late summer. The exposure times needed to record the Milky Way typically last a few minutes. For this, you'll need a camera with a B ("bulb") setting on the shutter to permit long exposures and a telescope capable of tracking stars as they move from east to west. But you don't shoot through the telescope itself — it's the mount you want, to serve as a stable, motorized platform. You attach your camera securely to the telescope's tube assembly. It then rides along, similar to piggybacking, as stars are recorded by the camera's lens.
Without motorized tracking, Earth's rotation would cause stars to trail across a camera frame, an effect noticeable with even a 30-second exposure. Star trails can make for great astrophotos, but for rich, star-studded time exposures, accurate tracking is the key.
The beauty of piggybacking is that if the mount is set up correctly and tracks well, all you need to do is lock the camera's shutter open and walk away. You don't need specialized and expensive guiding gear. While the camera and mount do their work unattended, you can sit back, relax, and enjoy the night sky.
The Power of Piggybacking
A camera with a wide-angle lens (18 to 35 mm in focal length) or a standard lens (50 to 55 mm, assuming a 35-mm-frame format) — the same one you use to take daytime landscape or family-vacation snapshots — is ideal for capturing large swaths of the summer Milky Way. These common lenses can reveal the glowing star clouds that traverse the constellation Cygnus and run down to the galaxy's dense central region in Sagittarius and Scorpius, which are prominent in July and August. While to the unaided eye the Milky Way looks like a dim, grayish band, a 5-minute exposure with off-the-shelf equipment will show that it's made up of countless stars laced with delicate wreaths of red nebulosity — the luminous clouds of hydrogen gas that old stars cast off into space and out of which new stars form. With the power of piggybacking photography you can create your own atlas of the Milky Way's bright clouds and dark dust lanes or compile a portfolio of constellation portraits.
Switching to a modest telephoto lens brings a new realm of targets within reach. You don't need very long focal lengths — something in the 85- to 135-mm range is ideal for framing large nebulas, bright star clusters, and the Milky Way star clouds. (Besides, that monster telephoto in your closet may be too heavy to mount securely on the telescope.) The North America Nebula in Cygnus, the Double Cluster in Perseus, the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus, and the Andromeda Galaxy are all suitable telephoto subjects. As a rule of thumb, any object you can see well in binoculars is a good target for a piggy-backed telephoto lens.
Drawbacks of Piggybacking
What piggyback photography can't handle are extreme close-ups of small "deep-sky" objects such as the Ring Nebula in Lyra, the Crab Nebula in Taurus, or the beautiful globular star cluster in Hercules. For these targets you'll need the light-gathering and magnifying power of a telescope (serving as your camera's lens) to obtain good views. That's beyond the scope of this article. Nevertheless, there's still a wide selection of subjects to capture with your simple piggy-back setup.
Film Versus Digital
Film isn't dead yet. In fact, piggyback photography is one area of the hobby where film still performs very well, producing first-class results. So if you've invested heavily in film cameras, use them! Film has the resolution and velvety smoothness for this type of photography that general-purpose consumer digicams can't yet quite match.
That said, for piggyback shooting many films produce disappointing results. During a 5- to 20-minute exposure most films pick up lots of stars but exhibit an objectionable greenish cast. They also fail to record the glowing red nebulas that make wide-field Milky Way scenes so attractive. Why? Because manufacturers purposely block films' red sensitivity to make them more suitable for taking people portraits. As of early 2005, the two best color films in the market for piggyback shooting were both slide films: Kodak's Ektachrome E200 Pro and Fuji's Provia 400F.
The film camera of choice is the traditional 35-mm SLR (single-lens reflex) model for simple astrophotography. If you've purchased such a camera in the last few years, chances are it uses battery power to keep the shutter open. Even a couple of 15-minute exposures in the cold night air can quickly drain the battery, shutting down the camera. In the past, astrophotographers opted for low-cost, no-frills SLRs with mechanical shutters that worked without batteries (for sky shooting you don't need the autoexposure and autofocus features). Classic mechanical models such as the Pentax K1000, Canon F-1, Nikon F2, Minolta SRT-101, and Olympus OM-1 are still available at used-camera stores and through online auctions such as eBay.
On the other hand, digicams are taking over just about every sector of celestial imaging. For piggybacking simple astrophotography, the best choices are today's digital SLRs. These "prosumer" cameras offer 6 to 11 million pixels (megapixels) of resolution and inter-changeable lenses, usually the same lenses that fit on older film SLRs. (Most compact point-and-shoot digicams, the kind with nonremovable lenses, generate too much electronic noise during exposures lasting more than a minute.) While they depend on batteries, digital SLRs can deliver one to two hours of long-exposure shooting before you need to recharge the battery.
Film die-hards scoff at digital SLRs — until they see the results appear on the camera's built-in LCD viewing screen as soon as the exposure is completed. Then they sell off their aging film gear. I know I did! Digicams are wonderful for on-the-spot checking of the framing, focusing, exposure time, and tracking. A lot can go wrong during even a 5-minute exposure. Having instant feedback allows instant fixes, thereby improving your best-to-blooper ratio. Admittedly, digital SLRs are still pricey (starting at $700 to $1,000), but their cost has been coming down steadily.
Getting Lined Up
Trailed stars are the number one flaw in piggybacked shots. This is caused by poor alignment of the telescope mount with the north celestial pole, the point in the sky near Polaris, the North Star, about which stars appear to rotate as Earth spins on its axis. To track stars accurately, you must use an equatorial-type mount and align it so that its polar axis aims as close to the celestial pole as possible.
While computerized "Go To" telescopes can also follow the stars, they do so by constantly moving two axes. Piggybacking a camera onto one of those scopes can result in badly trailed stars, since the field will rotate during the exposure. Optional wedges or tripods for popular Go To models, such as those from Meade and Celestron, allow them to be tipped over and polar aligned, which is essential for piggyback shooting.
How accurate does this polar alignment have to be for simple astrophotography? It depends on the focal length of the lens you're using. Simply aiming along the mount's polar axis by eye on Polaris, nearly 1° from the north celestial pole, might be good enough. Wide-angle lenses, which cover relatively large areas of the sky, can be forgiving of errors in polar alignment. Long telephoto lenses, on the other hand, magnify everything, including any tracking errors. So they demand greater accuracy when aligning the telescope's polar axis, to within a fraction of a degree of the true pole. Some equatorial mounts have polar-axis finderscopes built in, and these make accurate alignment much easier than with fork-mounted telescopes.
Even with precise polar alignment, however, stars can still appear to trail. The culprit here is the telescope's motor-drive mechanism, which might not be tracking smoothly or simply is not turning at the correct speed. In that case, the solution is to manually "guide" the telescope with the aid of a high-power eyepiece fitted with illuminated crosshairs. The trick is to select a moderately bright star to guide on and keep that star perfectly centered on the crosshairs throughout the exposure. Dual-axis drives (with a motor and push-button speed control on each telescope axis) greatly ease the guiding process and keep your shaky hands off the mount.
What Exposure Should You Use?
Piggybacking shots of the Milky Way demands dark, moonless skies. To record the most stars and nebulosity, the best exposure is usually the longest one you can take before skyglow from city lights starts to wash out the details. There's more to setting the exposure, however, than just opening the camera shutter. The lens's aperture (opening) also controls the amount of light reaching the film or digicam sensor. Opening the lens to its widest aperture (that is, the smallest f/number, typically f/2) lets in more light and keeps the exposure time to a minimum, while still picking up stars as faint and as numerous as your sky will allow. Opening the lens by one f/stop, from f/4 to f/2.8 or from f/2.8 to f/2, cuts your exposure time in half.
Another option for shortening exposure time is to use a "fast" (sensitive) film or to switch your digicam to a high ISO setting. A film rating or digicam setting of ISO 400 will require only half the exposure time of ISO 200. If you're shooting with slide film, you can request that your photo lab "push" the film when it's developed — for example, to ISO 800 if the film is ISO 400. This will increase the picture's contrast, but at the cost of a slight increase in grain (coarseness).
Short exposure times may record less detail, but they'll minimize the streaking of stars due to poor or imperfect tracking and avoid aircraft flying through your field of view. So is a high ISO and a wide-open lens the best combination? Not necessarily. Wide-open apertures can reveal optical flaws in the lens, producing bloated and distorted star images, especially at the corners of the frame. Stopping down the lens (decreasing its opening) by one full f/stop to f/2.8 or f/4 reduces lens flaws and sharpens star images, at the expense of longer exposures.
Faster ISO speeds also have their drawback. They introduce grain with film or electronic noise with digicams. Fuji's Provia 400F offers remarkably fine grain with fast speed and is my choice for all-around piggybacking film shoots. With digital cameras, try settings of ISO 400 or 800. Their electronic noise decreases if the ambient air temperature is chilly, such as on winter nights. It gets worse after the camera has been used to take several images and has warmed up, especially during summer. If that happens, turn off the camera for a few minutes to let it cool before resuming shooting.
Finally, film loses sensitivity over long exposures — a 20-minute exposure does not record twice as much light as a 10-minute exposure. By comparison, digicams maintain their full recording ability throughout an exposure. That's why a digital SLR can pick up in 3 minutes what it might take a film camera 9 to 12 minutes to record. That can make all the difference between images that are trailed and ones that aren't.
Secrets of Success
Don't be afraid to experiment with these simple astrophotography tips. Try a variety of exposure settings (a technique known as "bracketing"), and keep a record to help you determine the best combination of film or ISO rating, exposure time, and f/stop for your particular site.
Unlike shooting through a telescope, focusing a camera lens is usually easy — just turn the focus ring to the infinity setting. But many autofocus lenses can actually focus past infinity. Determining the lens's sharpest focus may be a trial-and-error process, involving shooting several frames at different focus settings. The instant feedback of digital cameras makes it easy to find the best focus, and it's worth taking the time to do so. I've found that even a slight shift of focus, by no more than the width of an index mark, can make the difference between stars appearing as pinpoints or as fuzzy blobs.
A lens aimed skyward for extended periods will likely have dew or frost form on its front surface. At home I use a small hair dryer to warm the lens and telescope. At remote sites, a 12-volt heater coil wrapped around the lens barrel (be careful it doesn't turn the focus or f/stop ring) provides enough constant warmth to ward off dew.
An open shutter seems to attract aircraft! Always have a dark cloth or opaque card handy to quickly cover the camera lens until the intruder flies away.
On warm summer nights you might find yourself shooting through a flickering swarm of fireflies. On cold nights batteries can lose power, shutting down your camera or telescope drive. Then there are the plain dumb mistakes, like tripping on the tripod leg, shooting the whole night with the lens stopped down to f/16, or shining a flashlight onto a lens to check for dew, only to realize in your late-night daze that the shutter is still open!
Don't get discouraged — getting it all right is part of the satisfaction of taking souvenir images of the night sky. Just beware: astrophotography can be addictive. But it can also be immensely rewarding.


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Want an Eco-Friendly Wedding? Here Are Some Tips
If you're looking into green weddings, you're not alone. As eco-friendly weddings become more popular, ideas and services to keep your big day environmentally oriented abound.
Here are some tips on how to keep some of your wedding basics green. These ideas, taken from eco brides and wedding planners, are a testament to the phrase "if there's a will, there's a way." Get creative and you'll easily find a way to make your wedding all you dreamed it would be, including gentle on our planet.
The most obvious option for eco friendly invitations is to use recycled paper, but many brides go beyond that first step. If being green is an aspect of your wedding theme and not just a goal during planning, consider sending a packet of seeds along with the invite.
Your invites are a perfect place to make any mentions of green-oriented plans you have for guests. Are you asking for only a certain kind of eco friendly gift? Is your dress silk free of animal rights concerns? Put a note in the invite so guests know that the environment is forefront in your wedding planning.
Wedding gifts are a great way to end up with way too many toasters as well as a lot of plastic products you'll never use. If you and your groom already have your household set up, consider asking for donations to a worthy cause in lieu of gifts. Or put an organization on your registry so guests have the option between a gift and a donation.
Another good way to green the gift aspect of your wedding is simply to create a registry at an eco-friendly store. Online stores are particularly good for this when there is no global or countrywide eco store all your guests can access.
Getaway … Bike?
If you're planning the classic getaway in a car bedecked with a "just married" banner, consider choosing a vehicle run on bio fuel instead of gas. If you don't know of anyone with one of these green cars, at least opt for a hybrid.
Of course, some brides get even more creative and are carried off on a horse or bike drawn carriage.
Similarly, ask your guests to find the greenest way possible to get to your wedding. Walking, biking, carpooling, public transit? Make it a game to see who created the least amount of pollution on their way to your big day, keeping the focus on your wedding and the environment at the same time.
Local, sustainable foods are at the forefront of the environmental movement. Find a caterer and a cake chef who either regularly use local foods or are able to do so for your wedding.
During the reception, put "know your farmer" cards on the tables so guests know their food is local. For foods or ingredients you can't find locally (sugar, coffee, etc.) choose organic and fair-trade products to stick with your green theme.
What are your guests eating on? Recycled paper products are one option, but paper plates and napkins can't be recycled once used.
The greenest option is to go for biodegradable dinnerware. Corn-based plates, utensils and cups come in a variety of colors and styles, look just like other disposable products, and will biodegrade naturally in the landfill or your compost heap.
The Ring
The wedding ring is an ancient symbol of the uniting of two hearts and lives. It's the defining moment of a wedding for many brides. When picking your wedding band out, look beyond style and material and find something that was humanely and greenly mined and produced.
Diamonds and gold in particular have a long history of polluting and inhumane production practices, so ask your jeweler for details about where your rings came from. Keep your focus on the planet by buying an environmentally and socially responsible ring to unite you and your beau for years to come.