text:
"I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter." — Walt Disney
Later this week, Hulu's content will no longer be available through Boxee. While we never had a formal relationship with Boxee, we are under no illusions about the likely Boxee user response from this move. This has weighed heavily on the Hulu team, and we know it will weigh even more so on Boxee users.
Our content providers requested that we turn off access to our content via the Boxee product, and we are respecting their wishes. While we stubbornly believe in this brave new world of media convergence — bumps and all — we are also steadfast in our belief that the best way to achieve our ambitious, never-ending mission of making media easier for users is to work hand in hand with content owners. Without their content, none of what Hulu does would be possible, including providing you content via Hulu.com and our many distribution partner websites.
Our mission to make media dramatically easier and more user-focused has not changed and will not change. We will not stop until we achieve it and we are sober in our assessment that we have such a long way to go.
The maddening part of writing this blog entry is that we realize that there is no immediate win here for users. Please know that we take very seriously our role of representing users such that we are able to provide more and more content in more and more ways over time. We embrace this activity in ways that respect content owners' — and even the entire industry's — challenges to create great content that users love. Yes, it's a complex matter. A tough mission, and a never-ending one, but one we are passionately committed to.
For those Boxee users reading this post, we understand and appreciate that you're likely to tell us that we're nuts. Please know that we do share the same interests and won't stop innovating in support of the bigger mission.
Jason Kilar (),
CEO, Hulu


text:
Thank you for subscribing to inapub
Subscribe to our newsletter today to receive exclusive offers and early access to our monthly competitions.
* You must be over 18 to join our mailing list
A pub in Wilmington.
618 N Union Street, Wilmington, Delaware, DE 19805, United States
View Map
0302 6527737
© Copyright Inapub Ltd 2018. All rights reserved. Inapub endorses responsible drinking. 5.2.001
This is an alert
Are you sure?

subset: commoncrawl


text:
January 28, 2014
In a 12-year span, estimated HIV incidence (the amount of new infections) among gay men in Poland rose 13.5-fold, with numbers in the capital city of Warsaw looking even worse, according to a study published in Eurosurveillance, an open-access journal. The study shows that Poland's numbers are among a trend throughout Western Europe and North America that indicates a rising incidence rate among gay men, especially young gay men.
Between the years 2000 and 2011, there were 9,286 new HIV diagnoses in Poland, the study reports. Twenty-four percent of those cases were designated as "men who have sex with men" (MSM) transmissions. However, 60.5% -- or 5,615 of the people diagnosed -- did not have a transmission category indicated.
The rate of new HIV diagnoses among MSM increased from 2.5 per million men in 2000 to 33.8 per million men in 2011, according to the study. In the Mazowieckie region, which includes Warsaw, the number increased almost 40-fold, from 2.2 to 88.8 per million men.
Researchers pointed to a number of factors that could explain the precipitous rise in new infections, including greater access to testing. "There were no systematic changes in the surveillance system or testing policy during the study period," said the researchers. "Additionally, the number of voluntary testing and counseling sites offering free-of-charge, anonymous testing increased; such sites were mentioned as the last test setting by 45% of MSM in Poland in 2010."
The researchers also pointed to previous studies done in 2004 and 2005 that showed a large proportion of HIV infections may have been previously undiagnosed. "Although this increase alone would not fully explain the notification trend, it indicates that an upsurge of new HIV infections may also play a role."
For more information, including findings and limitations of the study, you can read the entire study at Eurosurveillance. The study's findings were also recently reported by Mark Mascolini for the International AIDS Society.
Mathew Rodriguez is the editorial project manager for TheBody.com and TheBodyPRO.com.
Follow Mathew on Twitter: @mathewrodriguez.
|HIV Prevention, Young Gay Men of Color and the Fourth Wave of HIV Activism
|A New Law Silences HIV Outreach in Russia
|TheBody.com's HIV/AIDS Resource Center for Gay Men
Reader Comments:
The content on this page is free of advertiser influence and was produced by our editorial team. See our content and advertising policies.


text:
Today, we're thrilled to open the public beta for two new Squarespace apps for Android: Squarespace Blog and Squarespace Note. Our Mobile team built these apps from the ground up, and they represent a major new step for us on the Android platform.
We've always been committed to providing a rich mobile experience to our customers who use Android devices. We would love to hear your thoughts as these apps make their way into production.
Each app has a separate Google+ Community page, linked below. To begin, please join the Community by clicking on the red "Ask to Join" button on the Community page for each app you'd like to test:
Please refer to the Community page for detailed instructions on how to install the beta releases. If you have any issues getting started in the beta program, please contact our Customer Care team.
To send us feedback about your experience, please use the "Leave Feedback" option in the apps. Alternatively, you can visit the feedback form for the app located here. If you have a quick comment or would like to upload screenshots, please use the Google+ Community page.
While the final release will cover a broader range of platforms, please note that the beta program is optimized for devices running Android Jellybean (v4.2+) or higher. Please ensure that you log into the same Google account in Google Chrome and Google Play you used when joining the Community.
We look forward to hearing your thoughts!


text:
posted by Thom Holwerda on Tue 19th Feb 2008 13:24 UTC, submitted by wakeupneo
Toshiba said Tuesday it will no longer manufacture HD-DVDs, effectively ending the long-running battle with the rival Blu-ray for a dominant high-definition format. Toshiba said it made the decision to cease developing, manufacturing, and marketing HD-DVDs after 'recent major changes in the market'. It promised to continue offering support and service for all 1.3+ million Toshiba HD-DVDs sold so far.


text:
BOSTON—A federal judge has ruled in favor of Massachusetts in a lawsuit filed by a child advocacy group that alleged thousands of children in the state's foster care system were being abused and neglected.
A judge ruled Monday against Children's Rights, a New York-based group that alleged in a 2010 lawsuit that the state Department of Children and Families had violated the constitutional rights of children by placing them in unstable and sometimes dangerous situations.
Olga Roche, the acting commissioner of the agency, said the ruling reflects the work the state has done in recent years to expand kinship placements, increase adoptions, enhance foster care supports and lower caseloads for staff.
"This ruling is not only a victory for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, but also for the children and families we serve," Roche said in a statement.
A lawyer for Children's Rights said the group is disappointed but hopes the state will act to improve problems.
"We brought the suit because there were several well-documented and well-known failings within the system," said Sara Bartosz, lead counsel for Children's Rights. "We thought it important to not only shine a really bright light on those issues, but to ask for the protection of the court to make sure these were remedied."
She cited excessive caseloads for social workers, the need for improvements in training programs for staff and a lack of appropriate placements leading to children being put in numerous foster homes.
U.S. District Judge William Young issued the order and said he would release his written opinion later.


text:
Every great ski resort or mountain has its own beautiful series of skiing trails. Bear Mountain is no exception as it is one of the best places for skiing in USA to check out. If you've been out to Bear Mountain for a fun skiing trip then you deserve to see what our Bear Mountain ski trail map poster designs look like. Each of our prints is an ideal skier gift with a modern art look that stands out from anything else on your wall.
Each of these ski art prints is prepared on a white backing with a series of multi-colored lines all around. These lines are organized based on their approximate locations at ski resort in USA. This gift makes for a great poster to display anywhere in your home. It especially reminds you of the many fun trails at Bear Mountain that you might have been on. It could also inspire you to go after many of the toughest trails around in the future.
*The print comes in a tube without a frame or matte. Please select your size and color from the drop down menu and then click Add to Cart to order
We ship worldwide!
It generally takes 3-5 days to print, package, and ship your order and then another 3-5 days to ship to the USA, 5-12 days to Canada, and 10-20 business days elsewhere in the world. Tracking information is included.


text:
Remembering a departed friend
Graeme Burk is a freelance writer, wit, bon vivant and man about town. He is the author of the ECW Press book, Who is the Doctor. Over the past ten years he has written for (and edited) a number of small press magazines and websites. He has had short stories published by the BBC and has been a finalist for a Writers Guild of Canada award for new screenwriters.
This site is devoted to Graeme's writing and includes his column, which is published on an occasional basis.
February 20, 2009
Page 1 of 1 pages


text:
The world's number 1 terrorist, the Islamist mass-murderer Osama bin Laden, has been killed in Pakistan.
At last.
Now the world community is finally free to concentrate its efforts on his heirs: Hizbollah's Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon, Hamas's Khaled Meshal currently in hiding in Syria, and the President of Syria himself, Bashar al Assad, who has killed more of his own citizens in the past week than Libya's mad dictator Gaddafi did in a month before NATO forces started their regime-change operation. An operation they are flatly refusing to repeat in Syria.


text:
After about six months of looking, Richard Mallek and his wife, Susan, are ready to close on their first home, a three-bedroom sanctuary with old Florida charm in Boynton Beach, Fla.
Before the couple began their search last summer, they paged through "The Insider's Guide to Home Buying," a book written by the Zuckerman family, which owns a Coconut Creek, Fla.-based real estate company.
"It opened our eyes about what we were getting into," said Richard Mallek, 32. "We found out the closing costs could be just as much as the down payment. So we buckled down, cutting back on going out to dinner and for drinks."
First-time buyers like the Malleks gradually are playing a larger role in rejuvenating the housing market. First-timers boost demand, which allows existing homeowners to sell and move up to bigger properties.
For the 12-month period ending in June 2012, 39 percent of sales nationwide involved first-time buyers, compared with 37 percent a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Five years ago, in the middle of the housing bust, first-time buyers had a glut of properties to choose from, little competition and plenty of leverage when submitting offers.
Now, the housing inventory is down sharply, investors are pouring money back into real estate and
sellers are eager to accept those
cash deals.
Brokers insist that buyers get pre-approved for a specific amount of money before starting their search. When a home in their price range hits the market, they should plan to see it that day – on their lunch break, if necessary – and offer full price or above in many cases.
Here are other strategies that first-time buyers can use to their advantage:
Broaden the search, even just a little. Many first-time buyers target a specific city, but the lack of inventory limits options. Buyers "have to be flexible and compromise," Broward County, Fla., agent Chip Rowand said.
Don't automatically settle for a Federal Housing Administration mortgage. Many first-time buyers lean toward FHA loans because of the low down payments – just 3.5 percent of the purchase price.
But in today's market, sellers fielding multiple offers prefer cash or conventional loans, which usually don't have as many restrictions as FHA, said Stephen B. McWilliam, president of Greater Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Realtors.
For clients who need financing, he recommends conventional loans that require just 5 percent down. They'll be viewed by sellers as more financially stable and even save money on mortgage insurance costs, he said.
Seek a lender that can process the loan quickly. McWilliam said some big banks won't sign off on mortgages for eight to 12 weeks – too long for most impatient sellers. Consider working with a community bank or a local mortgage banker, which typically don't have as much bureaucracy.
"If we have to do it in eight business days, we will," said Jim Flood, regional manager of Supreme Lending in Plantation, Fla.


text:
You're viewing a comment by Nathan Rice and its responses.
Hi Peter,
I've used this library for a variety of things so I thought I would just pop in and say thanks for providing something that works well is easy to use.
I just started writing a replacement google library for my company's internal use. Like chad, I am also a huge fan of lxml for a variety of reasons. I also would like to make the library a bit more "pythonic" in general by adding smart generators so that you can iterate over results without worrying about what page they are on. I wrap your SearchResults objects already so I will probably provide a class/function hook in the constructor so can yield() instances of WhateverClass.
balcon: that 503 error is 99% likely to mean that you tried to scrape google too quickly. Bare minimum time between searches is about 10 seconds if you're doing more than 5-6 requests.


text:
View large image
Boost the look of your hair with Viviscal Hair Thickening Fibres for Women, an easy-to-use, volumising treatment that adds instant fullness to your hair.
Working to boost volume and thickness whilst hiding first signs of grey, a host of naturally coloured, microscopic and electrostatically charged fibres fuse with your hair to create an instantly volumised, thicker appearance. The fibres withstand wind and rain and can easily be washed out with shampoo. Complete with a unique applicator for easy use,
Suitable for all hair types.
1. Remove the applicator and the bottle from the carton.
2. Remove the seal from the bottle.
3. Clip the applicator with the comb on to the bottle.
4. Move lock from 0 to I to open so the fibres can come out through the comb.
5. Shake and gently squeeze where it says 'Gently Squeeze Me'.
6. Comb through the desired areas of your hair.
Use as often as you require.
Caution: Use only as directed. For external use only. Avoid contact with the eyes. Discontinue use if any irritation occurs. Avoid contact with eyes. If contact occurs, wash out eyes with cold water. Store away from humidity. Keep out of reach of children.
This product has no reviews. Be the first to write a review and you couldWIN A $100 VOUCHER
Please check the stock availability notice on your item when placing your order. This item is:
In stock | Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Please remember to add postal time (2-3 working days) to obtain a complete estimate of delivery to your door.
You will receive an email to confirm when your item has been sent.
You can also check the status of your order and individual items by accessing My Account details and following the prompts.
Please allow 10 working days from dispatch of your order before notifying us of any late deliveries.
It may be advisable to check with your neighbours to see if a parcel has been left with them, check any outhouses you might have where it may be left if it cannot fit through your letterbox and contact your local sorting office to see if the item has been returned to the depot as undelivered and awaiting collection.
Please see our
returns policy.
Add to Bag
In stock
Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Average connection time 25 secs
Please see our returns policy.
Viviscal Hair Thickening Fibres for Women - Light Brown
Select image


text:
Friday, December 16, 2011 - XMas Wank Party 2011 Part 1
Latest Sets at MaleFeet4U.com
Our previews from malefeet4u.com today are two great looking guys, Rudy Bodlak and Lukas Maslo. Both guys look very good. You can see their full shoots at www.malefeet4u.com .
Also, thanks for the photo and video suggestions for foot fetish shoots. Please keep them coming by writing email@example.com
|Rudy Bodlak
Open Rudy Bodlak MaleFeet4U.com Set
More about Rudy Bodlak - MaleFeet4U.com ...
|Lukas Maslo
Open Lukas Maslo MaleFeet4U.com Set
More about Lukas Maslo - MaleFeet4U.com ...
The End of William Higgins Newsletter


text:
Skip over navigation
Contact Us
Support Us
About Us
The Garden
Plan your Visit
What's On
Friends of CUBG
Looking good now
Graceful grasses
University Botanic Garden
1 Brookside
01223 336265
« Back
Arid Lands
Water is always scarce in arid lands. Some places get small amounts of rain every year. In others, it may not rain at all for decades. It can also be scorching hot, up to 50 ºC in the daytime. The nights, however, can be freezing cold. These extreme conditions support an amazing variety of extraordinary plants, a selection of which is displayed in Arid Lands.
The Arid Lands House, with African plants in the left hand bed, and new-world species displayed opposite to illustrate convergent evolution.
The recent re-landscaping of the most easterly house in the Range was inspired by the vision of a dry river bed studded with boulders; a paved path leads through a desert landscape, inviting a comparison between African plants on one side and 'new world' plants of the Americas on the other.
Arid land plants show a variety of mechanisms to cope with low water supplies. Some, like Cacti, are succulent and store water in fleshy leaves or swollen stems and many are globe-shaped, a shape which maximises the stem's water storing capacity, while minimising the surface area through which water evaporates. Leaves, if they are present at all, are often very small or reduced to spines. Still other plants, such as the Ocotillo (
Fouquieria splendens
), only grow leaves after it rains, and then shed them quickly when water again becomes scarce.
Comparing the plants in the African bed to those from the American deserts reveals a phenomenon called 'convergent evolution'. Plants in both these areas have experienced the same problems of limited water supply and high temperatures. Independently, they have evolved similar survival mechanisms, so that the succulent
Euphorbia horrida
from Africa resembles cacti from the Americas such as
Gymnocalycium monvillei subsp. horridispinum
, although they are entirely unrelated. Both these plants exhibit fleshy stems with ridges that allow expansion to store water, and each ridge is armed with ferocious spines that deter grazers. Similarly, whorled leaf arrangements, that direct rainfall to the roots, occur in many Agaves of America and many Aloes from Africa in another example of convergent evolution.
Neochilenia chilensis var. albidiflora
Echinopsis oxygona. The luminous, richly-scented flowers open at night and attract moth pollinators
The cacti plantings of the Arid Lands house: column and globe shapes predominate.
Many cacti are heavily armoured
Use this map to position the marker. Click on the position you want on the map, then click the save button above.
Privacy Policy
Terms and Conditions
Web Site by Stride Design
© University Botanic Garden 1 Brookside Cambridge CB2 1JE 01223 336265


text:
Let's start with the accusation that Hotz sabotaged the evidence - namely, hard drives - that had to be handed over to Sony. Ars spoke with one of Hotz' lawyers, Stewart Kellar, and he was pretty clear. "SCEA's lawyers are using intentionally ambiguous language so that the public, and the Court, might assume the worst. The 'components' SCEA is talking about are hard drives' controller cards. The neutral [third party examining the drives] subsequently had to explain to SCEA the form and function of hard drive controller cards," Kellar explained to Ars, "It is a stock part that can be purchased at any electronics hardware store. Those controller cards have since been provided to the neutral so the point is moot."
The idea that Hotz had fled the country is even crazier, as Hotz himself detailed in a short statement on his website. As it turns out, Hotz is visiting a friend in South America, a vacation that was planned and paid for in November 2010, even before Sony sued Hotz. "I mean, it is Spring break; hacking isn't my life," Hotz wrote, "Rest assured that not a dime of legal defense money would ever go toward something like this. And of course Townsend loves the idea of painting me as an international fugitive. I have been in contact with my lawyers almost every day; I would not let the case suffer. That said, I also won't let this ridiculous lawsuit run my life either. Then the fearmongerers win."
That part about the defense money is also important: it was said that Hotz was using money donated for his legal costs to travel, but this is utter nonsense both Hotz and Kellar claim. "It should be noted that the donation money George has received is being used exclusively for his legal defense," Kellar told Ars, "If there are any funds left after the lawsuit, George is planning to donate the money to the EFF."
Hotz is planning to return to the US soon, because, as he notes, "it's hard to come by the Xperia Play down here".
All the things mentioned by Hotz and Kellar are easy enough to prove with receipts, so hopefully, this will go down well during this court case. Of course, so far, the magistrate handling this matter has sided squarely with Sony, so I'm not keeping my hopes up.


text:
Popovers are tender, eggy, airy and slightly hollow on the inside with a crusty outside. In Britain they are known as Yorkshire Puddings and are typically made with beef fat and served with roasts. The batter is thin and simple, made of flour, eggs and milk. Because steam causes them to rise it is important not to open the oven while they're baking.
They sometimes deflate after being taken out of the oven, but I discovered a secret that will make that a thing of the past. Once the popovers are cooked, I turn off the oven, leave them in there and allow them to 'set' for 15-20 minutes. Then I sit on my hands, because at this point the smell has driven me crazy and I'm finding it hard to restrain myself from tearing into them. But the anticipation makes eating them all the more glorious. The popovers will still be warm and won't sink in on themselves.
The strawberry compound butter is made by beating strawberries into softened butter. It can be eaten as is with the natural flavor of the strawberries as a sweetener or sugar can be added. If you don't have strawberrries (fresh or frozen, thawed) strawberry jam can be substituted. The strawberry butter adds an extra special touch and is also delicious on pancakes, waffles, biscuits, bagels or toast. This technique can also be used with cream cheese.
These are best eaten warm straight from the oven with a smear of irresistible strawberry butter melting over them. And they are so easy to make, I'm almost certain you have everything in your pantry right now. Go forth and bake!
Popovers adapted from Jaime Oliver
*Strawberry jam can be used in place of fresh strawberries. Start with 2 tablespoons, taste and add more if needed.
foodie_views_link_url = 'BLOG_POST_URL';


text: Welcome to Kelkoo's category for GMC Lawn Mowers. Here you will find a wide selection of GMC Lawn Mowers from various online stores. Getting the perfect looking lawn is one of the most difficult gardening tasks to achieve. If you have the right lawn mower, however, you are halfway to getting the perfect looking garden. There are many different types of lawn mowers, from traditional cylindrical ones, that simply need to be pushed along to operate, to newer rotary hover mowers that effortlessly glide over the grass surface making mowing easy. But which one to choose? A larger ride-on lawn mower will be able to cut a greater area of grass in a shorter time span, whereas a small hover mower may be all you are looking for if you only have a few square meters of lawn surface. If you want to save yourself the work, you can invest in a robot lawn mower, which automatically mows the lawn within a defined area. When choosing a mower, make sure you can alter the cutting height as appropriate; the first cut of the year should always be on a high setting so you don t stress the grass.


text:
The Farlex Free Dictionary decrees that Monday is "the second day of the week, and the first day of the working week." That latter part means that for most of us, it is a ridiculously depressing day of hellish tasks and grumpy peers.
So why not add a dash of excitement with these pictures from the August 2008 issue of Dazed & Confused. From the title editorial, itself entitled 'Dark Magic,' I present to you Luke Worrall in high heels and other pieces of woman's clothing.


text:
Client Login
About NMI
Corporate Info/Background
Key Team Members
Managing Partners
Management Team
Clients & Industries
2018 Tradeshow & Speaking Calendar
What We Do
Overview of Services
NMI is Strategic Consulting
NMI Knows Consumers
NMI Knows Health and Wellness
NMI Knows Sustainability
NMI knows Healthy Aging
NMI Speaking Events
Expo East 2018
NUTRITION 2018 Annual Meeting
Expo West 2018
IPA World Congress + Probiota 2018
2017 ICAA Conference & Trade Show
Expo East 2017
SupplySide West 2017
VitaFoods 2017
2017 Boomer Summit
2017 Ingredient Marketplace
Expo West 2017
The State of the Industry: How We Will Fuel Growth & Change the World
Navigating Sustainable Packaging - Climate, Toxicity & End of Life Impact
The Mexican 2017 Healthy Products Summit
2018 Webinars
Leading Trends in Health & Wellness for 2018
Top 5 Sustainability LOHAS Trends for 2018
News & Publications
Consumer Insights and Trends
PR/eNews Wire
Case Studies
Custom Research
Foresight™ Predictive Analytics
lens™ Custom Qualitative Research Services
lens™ Custom Quantitative Research Services
Concept Testing
Brand Equity, A&U, Trackers
Product & Packaging
Custom Segmentation
Customer Satisfaction/Brand Health
Innovation and Growth
INNOV8 Innovation Sessions
Consumer Segmentation
Syndicated Data
NMI's Proprietary Databases
Databases Overview
Health and Wellness Trends US and Global Databases™
Supplements/OTC/Rx Trends Database™
Sustainability Trends US & Global Database™
Healthy Aging Trends Database™
Segmentation Algorithms & Panels
Nielsen Collaboration
Health & Wellness
Nielsen Collaboration
NMI Knows Food and Beverage Consumers
NMI Knows Consumer Packaging
NMI Knows Dairy Consumers
NMI Knows Millennial Consumers
NMI Knows Personal Care Consumers
NMI Knows Supplement Consumers
NMI Knows Consumer Sweetness
Nielsen Collaboration
NMI Knows Sustainability Consumers
Nielsen Collaboration
Healthy Aging (18+)
Nielsen Collaboration
Data Mining & Custom Analysis
Health & Sustainability Consumer Database Subscriptions
2018 NMI Consumer Tracker Studies
20th Annual Health & Wellness in America
17th Annual LOHAS Sustainability in America
2018 Global Supplements/OTC/Rx
8th Edition Global Health & Sustainability
2019 Tracker Studies
2019 The Future of Plant Based Product Opportunities Study
Research Reports
Health & Wellness Reports
19th Annual Consumer Report 2018 HEALTH & WELLNESS TRENDS IN AMERICA
New 7th Edition USA Report 2018 Supplements/OTC/RX Consumer Insights & Trends
18th Annual Consumer Report 2017 Health & Wellness Trends in America
17th Annual Consumer Report 2016 Health and Wellness Trends In America
2016 Supplements/OTC/ Rx 6th Edition Consumer Report
16th Annual Report 2015 Trends in Healthy Living
Gluten Free 2015
2015 Growing the Organic Industry, Strategies for Brand Success
The Health & Wellness Compendium 14 Years of Trended Insight
2014 GMO Consumer Insight Report
Healthy Aging Reports
12 Edition Consumer Report 2016 Healthy Aging Across Generations
Sustainability Reports
New 2018 State of Sustainability in America 16th Annual Consumer Insights & Trends Report
2017 State of Sustainability In America®
14th Annual Consumer Report 2016 State of Sustainability In America®
United Kingdom - Consumers and Sustainability 2014
China - Consumers and Sustainability 2014
Japan - Consumers and Sustainability 2014
Germany - Consumers and Sustainability 2014
South Africa - Consumers and Sustainability 2014
Russia - Consumers and Sustainability 2014
India - Consumers and Sustainability 2014
Brazil - Consumers and Sustainability 2014
Contact NMI
Contact Us
Sign up for FREE Consumer Trend eNewsletters
Syndicated Data
NMI's Proprietary Databases
Sustainability Trends US & Global Database™
Sustainability Trends US & Global Database™
© 2011-2018 NMI, All Rights Reserved
Login Form
Remember Me
Forgot your password?
Forgot your username?
Create an account


text:
Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Georgia
An email I received yesterday from a publisher who I signed with 10 years has got me searching the 'net for some answers.
First a little background so that my questions are in context. 10 years ago I signed a contract with Publish America to publish my book. Of course I have since learned that what they're all about is selling you promotional packages for your book, selling "opportunities" to market your book, making you pay if you need the slightest thing changed about your book, et cetera. Probably the easiest way to illustrate this is to point you to their own website where they sell these "services" in a catalog format, or you can just Google "Publish America scam" or "complaints against Publish America" and get more information. http://www.publishamerica.net/service/
The email I was sent is below (identifying info removed.)
"Dear [NAME]:
Your book [TITLE], has shown no sales for longer than a year.
At this time you may want to have your book's publishing rights reverted back to you.
We can arrange that.
Go to http://www.publishamerica.net/service/term-rights.html and instruct us to return the rights to you. In the Ordering Instructions box, write your name and the title of your book. You will receive the termination documents by mail. There are no strings attached to this termination except the $149 processing fee that covers our administration costs and our de-listing obligations to vendors and/or wholesalers. You must choose a shipping option to activate your rights return instruction.
Thank you for having been a PublishAmerica author, or for sticking around if that's what you prefer!
PublishAmerica Support
I know I was incredibly stupid at the time to sign the contract, even though I did have (an apparently crappy) attorney look at it first. I wrote off the book long ago as a bad judgement call on my part, however this email, even though I know it's just a moneygrab, made me curious enough to dig out my old contract and look at it again. The wording implies that they have the rights to my book for the entire copyright period, which I believe is longer than my life. Again, I can forget about recovering the one book if I have to, but what I didn't remember was the clause in the contract that specifies that the publisher gets "first rights of refusal" on the next book.
Now, I don't have a next book. I lost it in a computer meltdown a long time ago and never bothered again, but that clause is bothering me since I may be looking at trying to get into some creative opportunities in the future.
What I am trying to discover is basically what this "first rights of refusal" means. I've been checking other boards more closely related to the topic but they haven't seen new posts in awhile. From what I've read of the old posts, some think it means that this publisher gets dibs on the next book no matter what, others say I'd just have to submit it to them and then refuse whatever is offered. Still others say I can demand something outrageous or submit fluff that would then force them to refuse. I would prefer to just never deal with these slime balls again even if it means my first book is the sacrifice.
I suppose the exact wording of this portion of the contract would be helpful.
"28. The Author grants and assigns to the Publisher the exclusive right to publish or first refuse Author's first next work under terms to be determined through good faith negotiations that will take place within a reasonable period of time after the Author has submitted for consideration his first next work to the Publisher."
I am aware that's pretty vague. The entire contract is like that. What I want is to wash my hands of this company and not have to worry about them trying to lay claim to any future works. I am not sure that taking their buyout offer would accomplish this. If not it would be a waste of money.
Thank you for reading.
1 Answer from Attorneys
The online publishers are mostly scams to take your money. Why would you send them money to lose your rights to future works? Real publishers pay you, not charge you.
You may want to sit down with an attorney with your first contract to know what rights you previously signed away.


text:
March 13. 2014 11:43PM
Two officers pinpointed in Weare shooting
By MARK HAYWARD
New Hamsphire Union Leader
A New Hampshire State police cruiser guards a crash scene, the site of a police-involved shooting Wednesday night (Pat Grossmith/Union Leader)
— Weare Police Department payroll records give a clear indication of which two Weare officers were put on administrative leave after the August police shooting of an alleged Manchester drug dealer.
The two officers — Sgt. Kenneth Cox and Officer Nicolas Nadeau — saw their overtime drop to zero for the next three months, a time when the two officers who fired their weapons were on paid administrative leave and not allowed to perform police work.
Weare police provided the payroll information after the New Hampshire Union Leader filed a request under the right-to-know law. Police Chief John Velleca said he could not provide any comment or interpretation.
"You know I can't confirm any of this," Velleca said Thursday. He said the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office is in charge of the investigation, and referred questions to the office.
The prosecutor overseeing the case, Senior Assistant Attorney General Susan Morrell, would not address questions about Cox and Nadeau. To identify subjects of an open investigation is to subject them to rank speculation, she said.
"We're in the middle of an ongoing criminal investigation," she said. "Until that investigation is complete, we're not prepared to identify the individuals who are the subject of the investigation."
Authorities have said that two officers fired their weapons in the Aug. 14 killing of Alex Cora DeJesus, 35, at Lanctot's Plaza on Route 114. Authorities have said the shooting took place during a botched undercover drug operation.
DeJesus' father subsequently said his son, who has a record of drug crimes, was unarmed and had no drugs in his possession at the time of his death.
Immediately after the shooting, authorities placed the two officers who fired their weapons on leave but would not identify them. Early last month, prosecutors from the Attorney General's Office named all five officers who participated in the undercover drug operation.
Cox and Nadeau were the only two of the five who saw their overtime drop to zero, starting with their Aug. 29 paycheck. Telephone messages left for them at the Weare Police Department on Thursday were not returned.
The other three identified by the attorney general last month continued to receive overtime after the August shooting, a clear indication they remained on the job.
Earlier this year, Velleca said overtime has ballooned in his department; he brought the two officers back for administrative work starting in November. The two are sent on calls in case of emergencies, the chief said.
Overtime resumed for Cox in his Dec. 5 paycheck, and he has received it weekly until early February, which ends the time frame of the Union Leader's request.
Nadeau first saw overtime on his Dec. 26 paycheck and has received it sporadically since then.
Velleca said he couldn't discuss job assignments for the officers identified in the attorney general's report. To do so would identify those who are on administrative duty, he said.


text:
Could you please tell me the difference between two options in the following question?
" So, are you coming along, after all?"
" Well, I don't know. What time .............?"
A. you're leaving
B. will you be leaving ( this is the correct item to the key)
C. will you leave
D. do you leave
Now what is the difference between "What time will you leave" and "What time will you be leaving"?
Speakers do in fact use C., but B. is the better answer because it shares a progressive/continuous verb form with the Question. That is, the question and the answer both have "be -ing" / "are -ing", like this,Originally Posted by dmt_mst
Q: Are you coming along?
A: What time will you be leaving?
A: What time are you leaving?
All the best, :D


text:
Opinion: Faith
Meeting the War Wearied with Christ
"eternally scourged…" Plate 3 Miserere et Guerre—Georges Rouault (1871-1958) One day last week I stood in front of St. Stephen Martyr Church in D.C. with a young religious sister and the pastor of the parish. The scene would have made for a typical beginning to a joke, "A priest, a nun, and a friar, were…" We were talking, laughing,… READ MORE >
Magazine: Life
The Christian religion is only for one who needs infinite help. That is, only for one who feels infinite anguish. The whole earth can suffer no greater torment that a single soul. The Christian faith—as I see it—is one's refuge in this ultimate torment. Anyone to whom it is given in this anguish to open his heart, instead of contracting… READ MORE >
Page 1 of 1 pages


text:
Palm Bay PD: Would-be Walgreens robber shot
Robbery suspect rushed to hospital
Palm Bay PD: Would-be Walgreens robber shot
Robbery suspect rushed to hospital
PALM BAY, Fla. —
A Palm Bay Police Department police officer, responding to the report of an armed robbery in progress, shot and wounded a suspect at a Walgreens store.
Investigators said multiple 911 calls tipped them off to the robbery at the Malabar Road store late Tuesday night.
Officers said 20-year-old Kenneth Kirwan held a pharmacist at gunpoint and demanded prescription painkillers.
As Kirwan fled, officers say shots were fired and he was wounded. Customers looked on as emergency crews rushed Kirwan to a hospital.
Officer Josh Taylor fired the shot; he's described as a 10-year veteran with an outstanding record, but automatically on paid leave.
Kirwan was reported in critical condition Wednesday afternoon.


text:
The Suggestion
The Modern Language Association hasn't made up all the new rules yet to govern how one blogger should reverence, er, reference another in their blog posts. But they should! Let's get that ball rolling for them.
I'm not exactly sure who started this format, but it's my favorite. When writing a blog post in which you mention another person's blog, let's do it like this:
"blogger name (blog_hyperlink | twitter_hyperlink)"
So, we might read a blog post by my friend Kimberly Tripp (blog | twitter) that might look something like this:
"...the Scottish Terrier was so well known in early American society that as recently as the 1910's, Manhattanite nannies instructed their young charges to be good else the "Scottish Terrier" would eat them, after a lengthy session of slobbery nuzzling and years of canine devotion. It is for this very reason that I've given my Scots/English husband, Paul Randal (blog |twitter), several variations of the nickname "Scottish terrier", "scotty", "snotty", and "scotsnots" until such a time as needed for me to roll up the newspaper, give him a good spanking, and stick his nose in ..."
Well, you get the point. And didja notice that I worked in not just one, but TWO entire examples of the blog-reference syntax?!? I can hardly believe my own craftiness. I went to university for four years to learn that y'know - and to learn how to funnel beer - but I digress.
The Call To Action
One thing I love about the SQL Server community is our very community-ness. (I also like the fact that you'll let me invent stupid words on the fly without too much criticism.) So, let's make the glob, {ah! damned dyslexia!} , blog reference business even easier by having you (yes, YOU) post your own blog & twitter links as a comment here.
I repeat - post a comment here containing your name, blog (with embedded hyperlink to your blog), and twitter (with embedded hyperlink to my twitter, er, YOUR twitter account).
I'll then repost a brand new shiny article with a full compendium to everyone's blog & twitter hyperlinks (except Brent Ozar's (blog | twitter) ) which you can save to some obscure cranny of Outlook or WordPerfect to call up at a moments notice when the urge to both blog and reference other bloggers strikes you.
Thanks and looking forward to seeing your blog reference soon!
-Twitter @kekline


text:
Mary E. (Gargulinski) Burzenski, 96, of 243 Worcester Road, died Sunday, Feb. 17, in Clinton Hospital, after an illness.
She is survived by four sons, William J. Burzenski and Paul J. Burzenski, both of Sterling, Ronald E. Burzenski of Boylston and Stephen H. Burzenski of Maryland; a daughter, Mary Ann Stevens of Florida; seven grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; nieces and nephews.
She was predeceased by her husband of 54 years, William E. Burzenski, who died in 1993, and their daughter, Joan Burzenski, who died in 1971. Nine brothers also predeceased her.
Mrs. Burzenski was born and raised in Sterling, daughter of Joseph and Alexandria (Naumowicz) Gargulinski, and was a lifelong resident. She was a graduate of Sterling High School, and a 1938 graduate of Fitchburg State College.
For 25 years before her retirement, she taught first grade at Butterick Elementary School, Sterling.
She was a founding member of St. Richard of Chichester Church.
Mrs. Burzenski�s funeral will be held on Saturday, Feb. 23, from McNally and Watson Funeral Home, 304 Church St., Clinton, with a Mass at 10 a.m. in St. Richard of Chichester Church, 4 Bridge St., Sterling. Burial will follow in St. John�s Cemetery, Lancaster. Relatives and friends are invited to attend calling hours at the funeral home on Friday, Feb. 22, from 5 to 8 p.m.
To leave an online condolence, visit www.mcnallywatson.com.


text:
Aside from the Stimulus Package, the Liberals in Congress have something else
up their sleeve on their agenda. It is known as the "Employee Free Choice Act", but names can be misleading. The premise of this bill is to "establish stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiation." However, the danger of this bill is laid out in Section 2: [Emphasis mine]
If the Board finds that a majority of the employees in a unit appropriate for bargaining has signed valid authorizations designating the individual or labor organization specified in the petition as their bargaining representative and that no other individual or labor organizations currently certified or recognizing as the exclusive representative of any of the employees in the unit, the Board shall not direct an election but shall certify the individual or labor organization as the representative in the subsection.
What this means is that as long as a simple majority (50%+1) of authorized signatures, they will forgo elections by a secret ballot. Much has been said on this blog about the Employee Free Choice Act. But yesterday, the Center for Union Facts released a poll that stated that 82% of non-unionized workers do not want to be unionized.
The fact remains that the current system is not broken, it is just that people don't want to be in unions. Only 12% of salaried workers were unionized in 2008. What does this mean? Well, Big Labor would like you to believe that it is because of unfair labor practices. If that is the case, why then, would they still want to get rid of the secret ballot. If a worker has the right to vote in a secret ballot on who they want to be the next American Idol, should not they also have the right to vote in a secret ballot whether or not they are unionized?
George McGovern has been an outspoken critic of The "Employee Free Choice Act" specifically because of the provision I highlighted. The simple formula is that Big Labor wants more members to get more people to pay union dues. The left wants more union dues because Unions contribute to liberal politicians. So is getting an employee to join a union, without an election, and forcing said employee to pay dues to a cause they may, or may not, agree with really free choice?


text:
Chis Ford breaking new ground on Pembroke Academy squadBy ROGER BROWN
New Hampshire Union Leader
June 26. 2013 10:32PM
EXETER — Chris Ford is unique among Pembroke Academy football players.
Because he's the only Pembroke player ever selected to play in a postseason high school all-star game. Ford, an offensive and defensive lineman, will represent the East in Saturday's CHaD East-West All-Star Game at the University of New Hampshire.
"Ever since he was selected to play in this game he's been working hard to prove he belongs," Pembroke Academy coach Brian Gridley said. "He was our best player on both sides of the ball. The opposing coach would come over and shake his hand before he would shake mine after the game — that's the kind of kid we're talking about."
Ford, who's listed at 5-10 and 255 pounds, was a two-way starter for Pembroke for three years. He even lined up at fullback at times last season. According to East head coach Bob Camirand, Ford will play primarily defensive tackle Saturday.
"I love defense," Ford said. "I would say I'm significantly better on defense than I am offense."
Ford said he felt "overwhelmed" when he found out he was selected to play in the CHaD game, which features recently graduated high school players from throughout the state. The game, which benefits Children's Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, was played for the first time last summer.
"I remember hearing about it last year and I really wanted to be a part of it," Ford said. "It's an excellent cause. I didn't want to jinx myself, but I definitely had a feeling I was in the running for it. When I found out that I had been picked I was on top of the world."Camirand said Ford has been one of the hardest-working players during training camp. He called Ford an old-school football player."Some of these lower-division kids (Pembroke competed in Division III last season) don't get a lot of press, so they show up and feel like they have something to prove," Camirand said. "He's a well-mannered player — a hard-working kid who's really coachable. He's one of those kids you love to be involved with. He'll be an asset for us Saturday."
Ford's football career won't end with the CHaD game. He was selected to play for New Hampshire when it faces Vermont in the Shine Maple Sugar Bowl in August. After that he'll play Division III college football for Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, Maine.
"When I opened that letter (the invitation to play in the Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl) that was like Christmas morning to me," Ford said. "No one from my school has ever been invited. I remember being a freshman saying I wanted to be that guy.
"My school has been real supportive about fundraising and stuff. They're real excited that I'm playing in both of them."
Saturday's kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. The gates will open at noon.
"I've been so excited for this," Ford said. "I've been chomping at the bit to put on pads and get started. I'm excited to see the West lose."
` email@example.com


text:
I do not know how old I was when I learned to play chess. I could not have been older than 8, because I still have a chess board on whose side my father inscribed, with a soldering iron, "Saša Hemon 1972." I loved the board more than chess — it was one of the first things I owned. Its materiality was enchanting to me: the smell of burnt wood that lingered long after my father had branded it; the rattle of the thickly varnished pieces inside, the smacking sound they made when I set them down, the board's hollow wooden echo. I can even recall the taste — the queen's tip was pleasantly suckable; the pawns' round heads, not unlike nipples, were sweet. The board is at our old place in Sarajevo, and, even if I haven't played a game on it in decades, it is still my most cherished possession, providing incontrovertible evidence that there once lived a boy who used to be me.
The branded board was the one Father and I always played on. It would be my job to set up the pieces, after he offered me the choice of one of his fists, enclosing a black or a white pawn. More often than not, I'd choose the hand with the black piece, whereupon Father would dismiss my attempt to negotiate. We'd play and I'd lose, each and every time. My mother objected to his never letting me win, as she believed that children needed to experience the joy of victory to succeed. Father, on the other hand, was ruthlessly firm in his conviction that everything in life had to be earned and that wanting victory always helped achieve it. As an engineer who had faith in unsentimental reasoning, he believed in the hard benefits of knowledge acquired by trying and failing — even if, as in my case, it was exclusively failing.
This piece first ran in Printers Row Journal, delivered to Printers Row members with the Sunday Chicago Tribune and by digital edition via email. Click here to learn about joining Printers Row.
I would not have admitted it then, but I did crave his furtive encouragement; that is, I wanted Father to let me win, but I didn't want to know that. I was not capable of thinking more than one or two moves in advance (my preferred activities were always soccer and skiing, where you make decisions improvising inside a vanishing moment). I regularly blundered, leaving my king hopelessly isolated or not spotting the imminent execution of the queen. I reliably fell into all of my father's traps and was much too quick to resign so as to spare myself further humiliation. But more of it was inevitable, as Father would force me to retrace all of the missteps leading to my demise. He prodded me to think about chess in a focused manner — and, by extension, to think thoroughly about everything else: life, physics, family, homework. He gave me a chess textbook (by, of all people, Isidora's father) and, move by move, we analyzed the games played by the great grandmasters such as Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Tal, Spassky, Fischer et cetera. Patient though Father was with me, I could seldom see all the glorious possibilities of a wise opening or a clever sacrifice. He was trying to take me to a far-too-distant horizon, with all the mysterious comforts of chess architecture, as far as I was concerned, deferred into a dubious future. Going over the grandmasterly games felt too much like school — occasionally interesting, often straining my mind in unpleasant ways. Even so, when alone, I'd try to study chess, hoping that I could glean a simple trick or two before the next game and catch my father by surprise. Instead, I constantly and quickly hit the low ceiling of my abstract-thinking abilities. It didn't help that grandmasters such as Capablanca, Alekhine, and Fischer appeared to be obsessive hermits; I was not a writer yet and could not appreciate the devout artist producing painfully inapplicable art. And the world around me was nothing if not an infinity of distractions: cute girls, novels and comic books, my budding record collection, neighborhood boys whistling from the playground under my window, beckoning me to a soccer game.
Compared to the other kids my age, however, I was not all that bad at chess. The games I played with my friends mainly consisted of blunders and oversights, but I often won them. We played chess the way we played all the other childhood games: heedlessly pursuing the rush of an arbitrary victory, already invested in the next thing to do. I much preferred winning to thinking and I didn't like losing at all. I'd managed to acquire a repertoire of standard openings and attack strategies and was thus capable of committing fewer blunders and outlasting my opponents. I sought opponents who eagerly fell into my textbook traps and subsequently submitted themselves to a wholesale destruction. Trash-talking had far more value to me than the highfalutin beauty of brilliant combinations.
When I was in fourth grade, a teacher was assigned to organize an in-school tournament in order to assemble a chess team for an intraschool competition. I signed up. I wanted to challenge myself and go it all alone, but I foolishly told my father about it, so that when I went to play, one Saturday morning, he insisted on accompanying me. He coerced the teacher, who really did not care that much about chess, into letting him rearrange the desks, set up the boards, and design the score chart. Not only was he much too involved, he was the only parent involved. In the fourth-grade classroom, furnished with the little desks and chairs, he stood out like a giant. Everyone knew whose father he was.
It is highly possible that I would've done better in that tournament had my father's chess shadow not loomed over me as he watched at my shoulder. I kept staring at the board, envisioning all the errors and possibilities from his point of view, but I saw nothing. One's good fortune is often in the failings of others, so I managed to win some games. It is likely that my father simply distracted the other kids more than me, intimidating them with his silent, coaching presence.
Whatever might have happened, I made it onto the chess team, and a couple of weeks later we took a bus to play against a blind children's team at their school in Ned¿arici — a neighborhood so far off for me at that time it was practically a different city. I went as the fifth of eight boards, but it turned out that only four boards were needed, so I spent the day loitering in the depressing hallways of the ramshackle school for the blind and occassionally witnessing the blind kids tearing my teammates to humbled shreds. I had passionately wanted to play, but, watching the slaughter, I was glad to be spared. The blind kids frowned and shook their heads over the boards, clutching a piece with spikes on the underside, then palpating the squares for the holes to fit them in.
I tried to picture a mental space within which the game existed for them, an interiority where all the combinations, all the lines of advance and defensive positions, were — evidently — sharply outlined. But what I saw instead — and what, I thought, they had no way of seeing — was the banal solidity of non-negotiable physical reality, the ineluctable modality of the visible, past which I could see nothing. A 10-year old boy, I happily operated in exteriority, retreating inside only when I was reading. The world in all its hackneyed, stubborn concreteness could never be fully suspended for me so that I could think inside the abstract space of the game. When I played with my father, for instance, his very corporal presence was a terrible distraction. I could never separate the game from our relationship and everything surrounding it: his knee jumped at a rapid speed, jerked by his compulsive foot; his big hands with flat, wide thumbs moved the pieces with defeating confidence; he nodded as he discovered opportunities fully invisible to me; the smell of food floated from the kitchen; my mother lingered on the horizon, imploring my father, yet again, not to checkmate me. Whereupon he would checkmate me.
Naturally, I reached the point of always declining his invitation to play — I claimed I was still training, learning, getting ready. But when he played against cika-¿arko, his college friend, I'd kibitz and listen to their trash-talking. Somewhat guiltily, I'd root against my father. I wanted to witness his defeat, so that he could understand how I might have felt when we played. While he wanted to teach me what he knew, I wanted him to see what it all looked like for me — perhaps love is a process of finding a common vision of reality. I wanted us to share the sense that the number of wrong moves far exceeds the number of good moves, to share the frightening instability of the correct decision, to bond in being confounded. These days, of course, I remember neither his defeats nor his victories; nor do I remember enjoying his being humbled. On the screen of my memory, he is perpetually pouting over the pieces, jerking his foot at a speed commensurate with his difficult position on the board. He loves being inside himself, I imagine; he loves solving problems in the laboratory of his engineering mind; he loves the space in which reason and logic rule. He loves me.
In high school, I was in an advanced class. My classmates and I had about 12 hours a week of math and physics, all at the expense of the humanities and natural sciences. We pored over differential calculus and imaginary numbers, struggled with quantum physics and complex functions, while our equivalents in "normal" classes, who had a hard time grasping basic fractions, roamed the sunny, fertile fields of art, music, and biology, learning what all high school kids are good at learning — nothing in particular.
I'd decided to enroll in the math-major class because I'd developed a fascination with the theory of relativity. Having read a number of popular-science articles on Einstein's theory and its flabbergasting implications (spacetime! black holes! dark matter!), I'd concluded that the work of a theoretical physicist consisted of staring at the stars and imagining alternative universes, which seemed to me like something I could do for a living. But soon after I'd started high school I was forced to recognize that all I could hope for in the domain of mathematical thinking was to wing it, and from thereon in I was winging it.
My class was a geek-rich environment, with a tragically low number of young ladies interested in random snuggling. Other classes had a lot more women, all of whom were beyond our reach, permanently repelled by the dark matter of nerdiness we were emitting. Soon we were known in our high school by a derogatory name: the grocers, as calculating grocery expenses seemed to be the only application of math other high school kids could imagine.
There were quite a few considerably talented mathematicians in my class and at least one certifiable genius. His name was Mladen and he was decidedly uncool — he wore V-neck sweaters and pants with an ironed crease; his hair was blown and parted into a pompadour; he paid attention in class, did not curse or speak in slang, had no interest in rock 'n' roll or soccer, and was an unabashedly nice guy, forgoing all the adolescent male posturing. The math problems we grappled with were baby food to him; he lived comfortably inside the bright and arid space of mathematics. Once, as we were jogging in circles next to each other in our PE class, he told me, out of the blue, "Your trajectory is longer than mine," and I had no idea what he was talking about until he explained that, because he was on the inside, my circles were wider than his. Before the end of our freshman year, he won a gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad in Washington, D.C., while my accomplishments included reading The Catcher in the Rye, becoming a smoker, and transitioning from Led Zeppelin to XTC, as well as resigning myself to academic mediocrity.
Given that we had no access to high-school girls and their bodies, we played a lot of chess. Often we organized entire tournaments. We played during class time, while our teachers were completely oblivious to it all. The score chart was pasted to the classroom wall, Mladen always at the top of it, head and shoulders better than any of us. He was so good, in fact, that he could play blindfold games on multiple boards, sometimes against as many as six, all the while paying close attention to the teacher and studiously copying from the chalkboard. We would risk reprimand, hiding our chessboards under our desks, fully ignoring the learning going on. Upon analyzing the position at hand, each of us would send him a note, reading, for example, "Ke2 to e4." Without losing the thread of the teacher's explanation, he would quickly respond with a move. We could instantly see the brilliance of his thinking and recognize we were being demolished. In revenge, we would mock the way in which he wiped the chalkboard clean, sticking his butt out while pulling down the sponge in straight, parallel lines.
The only one who could even begin to compete with Mladen was Ljubo. I'd known him in elementary school. Back then, when I'd pretended to be the George in a Beatles cover band, he'd taken a crack at being the Ringo. By high school, however, Ljubo lost interest in rock 'n' roll and indeed in the most things outside the realm of mathematics and chess. Unlike the neat, disciplined, well-groomed Mladen, Ljubo was relentlessly sloppy, fully compliant with the stereotype of an absentminded mathematician. His handwriting was so illegible that he sometimes received low grades in math tests simply because the teacher could not decode his brilliant solutions to difficult equations. Contaminated by the neoromantic myths of unconventionality (Bukowski! Sex Pistols! Warhol!), I thought that his inability to function within the reality everyone else was confined by was a mark of true genius — he, I thought, could end up being the great one among us.
In our junior year, Mladen decided that he was done playing blindfold games with patzers and explaining complex-function graphs to buffoons like me. Within a few months, he passed all the necessary exams, graduated from high school, enrolled in college, and disappeared into the netherland of responsible life. The rest of the grocer patzers had to jump through the hoops of baccalaureate exams before graduation, only to serve in the military for a mandatory year of conscription.
Ljubo, who was too slovenly and disorganized to do what Mladen did and thus avoid serving in the Army, had a dreadful time as a conscript. He came back from the army terribly distraught, in spite of which he passed all the difficult math exams in his first year of college. The only exam he had problems with was in geometry, because he had to draw graphs and keep them neat. He would come to the exam unshaven and bepimpled, his unwashed shirt untucked, a broken ruler and a single blunt pencil in hand. The graphs he had to draw for the exam seemed to represent his complexly muddled mind far more than the simple euclidian space.
Soon he was enmeshed in full-fledged schizophrenia. A couple of times he was locked up in Jagomir, a grim funhouse close to the city zoo on the outskirts of Sarajevo. I never went to visit him there, but a few of my classmates did. They came back with the dreadful stories of small rooms packed with patients serving imaginary coffee in imaginary pots to imaginary guests or huddling in the corners, howling in unreal pain. For his visitors, Ljubo unfurled long and elaborate tales of intricate conspiracies, scoffing at his classmates for failing to see the obvious connections between remote possibilities. Unlike Ljubo, they had no voices to guide them through his chaotic interiority and they listened to him, helplessly, bemused.
Once, after Ljubo returned to his parents' home from Jagomir, his mother called us up and suggested that we come over to talk to him and cheer him up. The seven of us, his high-school friends, rang the bell sheepishly, giggling with discomfort, and offered our chocolate-bonbon presents to his distressed mother. She served us soft drinks and snacks, as if we were at a birthday party, and then left us alone, no doubt to press her ear against the door. We babbled awkwardly, because Ljubo was not well at all and we didn't know what to say. He was listless and slow, affected by strong antipsychotic medication. Then we listened in stunned silence as he spun his schizo-narratives. This time, he divulged to us the true story of Alekhine, who, in Ljubo's rendition, descended directly from God himself and therefore partook in some sort of destiny-control mechanism, plainly visible to those who analyzed his games correctly. Somehow, Alekhine's divinity had been transferred to Ljubo, who was thus in direct communication with God. We had no idea, he told us, about the things that were happening as we spoke, we had no way to grasp the magnitude of his still-unused powers. The Alekhine yarn was then threaded into his claim that the truly great grandmasters — those of Alekhine's divine caliber — all eventually quit playing the game. Because the number of various positions in chess, however immense, was finite, the true grandmasters eventually played their way through all the possible combinations, thereby reaching the outer limits of chess. At that point, they got bored, as there were no more games they could play. We listened to him, rapt. He continued: once the great grandmasters were done with chess, they'd switch to inverse chess, where the goal was to lose quickly — whoever lost first, won the game. This game of inverse chess was called bujrum, which in Bosnian means something like "serve yourself" and is used to offer food at the table. Thus you offered your pieces to the other player, trying to lose as many as possible as soon as possible and then put yourself in a checkmate position. I'd played bujrum as a kid, oblivious to the possibility of treading upon divine turf. All the greatest grandmasters, Ljubo said, were now playing bujrum, Bobby Fischer included. Many of the greatest bujrum players were un-heard of. Karpov and Kasparov (furiously involved at the time in a rivalry over the world champion title) were actually just pathetic patzers, not able to cross the bujrum border to the other side of chess.
His troubled conviction was so strong that the story made sense for a moment — we had to snap out of it to dismiss it, still saying nothing. We knew no way of responding to his ramblings, nor could we come up with a counterargument that could even begin to weaken his psychotic faith. We sat brooding, until his mother came in with more pretzels and Coke. We quickly went for the snacks, grasping at the junk food straws, stuffing our mouths to avoid saying anything. We were hoping that we could be released now, but Ljubo's mother wanted to keep the party going, so she suggested to Ljubo that he play something on the accordion for us. Acquiescently, he fetched his instrument. We waited as he adjusted the straps at a glacial speed. We recognized the first bars of "Ode to Joy"; none of us expected him to play Beethoven on his discordant accordion. Slowly stretching and squeezing it, he produced notes and wheezes perfectly devoid of any semblance of joy. To this day, Ljubo's interpretation of the last movement of Beethoven's Ninth is the saddest piece of music — indeed the saddest humanly generated sound — I have ever heard. What he played for us was to music what bujrum was to chess: his rendition was absolutely the opposite of the "Ode to Joy." We were paralyzed by the frightening possibilities implied by his antimusic and antichess. Beyond our life there was antilife and he was living it; we had not known it, until we heard the anti-"Ode to Joy." We idiotically applauded, guzzled down our fizzless Coke, thanked his mother, and went home to try to live without the fear of antimatter and darkness.
In the early '90s, after I'd moved from Ukrainian Village to Edgewater, I played chess at a place in Rogers Park, called the Atomic Cafe. It was a few blocks away from the Artists in Residence building, where I was renting a tiny studio. The cafe was next door to the 400 Movie Theater, where one could watch second-run movies for a couple of bucks and which reeked of stale popcorn and permanently clogged toilet. In the summer, people played chess in a fenced-off outdoor seating area; the rest of the year, the cafe was full of students from the nearby Loyola University, with a corner always occupied by chess enthusiasts. North Side players convened every day to play at the cafe; on weekends, one could easily play for 12 hours straight. The first I time I wandered in, some time in the early summer of 1993, I kibitzed for a while before going off for a movie. The following day, I returned to the cafe hoping to play a game. After sheepishly watching, I summoned enough confidence to accept a challenge by an older man who introduced himself as Peter. He looked shabby: gray hair peeking in tufts out of his ears, a flannel shirt on the verge of snapping open at his potbelly, envelopes sticking halfway out of his chest pocket. For some reason, he exuded a strong smell of perfume. But he appeared very wise to me as he narrowed his brows to examine the position on the board. Much like one can tell a good soccer player from the way he or she touches the ball with his or her foot, I could tell Peter was serious about chess from the way he sank deep into himself to contemplate the next move and all the possibilities beyond it.
I don't remember how the first game against Peter went down, but I'm confident I lost it — it had been a while since I'd played a demanding game. But I kept going back to the cafe, playing more and more, often with Peter, who never seemed to get bored with beating me. I played with others, too, and even began winning against some respectable regulars. Pretty soon, I was spending weekends at the cafe, breaking up the long chess hours only to see a movie next door.
It turned out the Atomic Cafe was rife with all kinds of characters obsessed with chess. Between the games I would hang out with the idle players, small-talking, asking them a lot of questions, ever eager to extract bits of other people's lives. There was a Vietnam vet, for instance, who had been on disability at least since the fall of Saigon. His knee often jerked rapidly and he was proud of having helped stop the advance of Communism in Southeast Asia. He played chess, took drugs, and did little else. Once, he described to me putting his face, high on acid, under a stream of water to examine the oncoming water drops — their molecular beauty goddamn blew his goddamn mind. There was Marvin the Master, the size and shape of a football player, who would occasionally stop by the cafe to play speed-chess games, disposing of the patzers at such speed and with such brilliance that no one in the admiring crowd could see what was happening. There was a brilliant Indian computer programmer who, in the few years I frequented the place, lost a number of jobs because of his chess obsession. He promised his wife at least once he would quit, but he could not help thinking of chess incessantly. Failing to stay clean of chess, he still came to the cafe, but declined all invitations to play, wasting just as much time kibitzing. Predictably, he ended up getting divorced. He told me so himself, the last time I saw him. He was driving a cab at the time, which he parked in front of the cafe to play all day, happily off the wagon and thoroughly uninterested in catching fares. All my chess friends seemed to be lonely men, continuously struggling to reproduce the painfully evanescent beauty of the game, never getting within a sight of the bujrum border.
Then there was Peter. Playing against him, I would attack from all sides, and he would patiently defend, waiting for me to make a mistake. Inescapably, I would make one, and he would enter the endgame with an extra pawn, inexorably advancing toward becoming a queen. Soon I would be forced to acknowledge defeat, whereupon he would jokingly demand my resignation in writing. We didn't talk much while playing, but would chitchat between the games, exchanging basic information and finding things in common. He lived in and owned a perfume shop in the neighborhood, which explained his rich, ever-changing flowery scent, heretofore incongruous with his shabby-old-man appearance. We both came from elsewhere: I told him I was born and raised in Sarajevo, Bosnia, to which he said: "I'm sorry." He, on the other hand was Assyrian, but born in Belgrade. Walking home after a long day of playing, I asked him how come he'd been born in Belgrade. After a groan of reluctance, in a subdued voice of discomfort, he told me that his parents had escaped from Turkey in 1917 or so, at the time when the Turks had been busy exterminating Armenians, but could still spare, while they were at it, some time and bullets to exterminate a few Assyrians. His parents ended up in Belgrade, so he was born there. A few years later, following a properly unpredictable refugee trajectory, they found themselves in Iraq around the time it became independent, and that was where he'd grown up. But then, in his 20s, he had to leave Iraq because he had a run-in with the prime minister's son (he offered no details or explanation); his life was at risk, so he fled to Iran. He got married, had a son, and, in 1979, was living in Tehran, employed at the American Embassy, arguably the worst imaginable place of employment in case of a local Islamic revolution. During the chaotic upheaval his only son, conspicuously clad in denim, was stopped and searched on the street by the revolutionaries. He had some pot and they shot him on the spot.
So here was an Assyrian named Peter, selling knock-off Eternity for Men in Chicago, beating me at chess without any particular pleasure; here was a man whose life contained more suffering than I could begin to imagine. The story of Peter's life was narrated to me along the few blocks we walked before we parted, in five minutes or less. There is always a story, I learned on that walk, more heartbreaking and compelling than yours. And I understood why I was so drawn to Peter: we belonged to the same displaced tribe. I picked him out of the crowd, because I recognized the kinship.
I remembered how, a few weeks before, he had gone off at a couple of Loyola students who were babbling at the next table, copiously abusing the word like, barely slowing down to take a breath. I'd been annoyed by the incessant vacuousness of their exchange, the idiotic frequency of the likes, and I couldn't stop listening precisely because I'd had no idea what they were talking about. But I just put up with it, always liable to distraction. Peter, however, suddenly exploded: "Why are you talking so much?" he yelled at them. "You've been talking for an hour, saying nothing. Shut up! Shut up!" The students shut up, terrified. Peter's outburst, shocking though it may have been, made perfect sense to me — not only did he deplore the waste of words, he detested the moral lassitude with which they were wasted. To him, in whose throat the bone of displacement was forever stuck, it was wrong to talk about nothing when there was a perpetual shortage of words for all the horrible things that happened in the world. It was better to be silent than to say what didn't matter. One had to protect from the onslaught of wasted words the silent place deep inside oneself, where all the pieces could be arranged in a logical manner, where the opponents abided by the rules, where even if you ran out of possibilities there might be a way to turn defeat into victory. The students, of course, could not begin to comprehend the painful infinity of Peter's interior space. Inoculated against speechlessness, they had no access to the unspeakable. They could not see us, even though we were there, as we were nowhere and everywhere. So they shut up and sat in wordless oblivion; then they got up and left. Peter and I arranged the pieces for another game of chess.
After a couple of years of regular playing at the Atomic Cafe, I became pretty good for a patzer. To go beyond that, to have a crack at being a truly good player, I would've had to go back to analyzing the great games. That was not going to happen: not only was I too old and lazy, I had no time for studying chess either, as I had to earn the money to feed and clothe the body that sheathed the inner space. Moreover, after a few years of feeling stuck between my mother tongue and my DP language and being incapable of writing in either of them, I began writing in English. In doing so, I delimited a new space, where I could process experience and generate stories. Writing was another way to organize my interiority so that I could retreat into it and populate it with words. My need for chess was dissipating, as it was being fulfilled by writing.
Now it seems to me that the last game I ever played was against my father, though that is almost certainly not true — it just the last one that mattered. I was visiting my parents in Hamilton, Ont., sometime in 1995, and I challenged Father to a game. Having settled in Canada, my parents were at the nadir of their refugee trajectory, and, it seemed at that time, at the end their rope. Tormented by the brutal Canadian climate, uncomfortable in the language they were forced to live in, short on friends and family, they were prone to devastating nostalgia and hopelessness.
I was not capable of helping them in any way. During my visits we argued much too often: their despair annoyed me, because it exactly matched mine and prevented them from offering comfort to me — I suppose I still wanted to be their child. We argued over the smallest things, hurtfully remembering and bringing up the unresolved fights and unforgotten insults from before the war, only to make up a few minutes later. We missed each other, even while we were together, because the decaying elephant in the room was the loss of our previous life — absolutely nothing was the way it used to be. Everything we did together in Canada reminded us of what we used to do together in Bosnia. Hence we didn't like doing any of it, but had nothing else to do. I spent entire days on the parental sofa (donated by a kind Canadian), watching re-runs of Law and Order. I would snap out of my TV coma with the urge to scream at somebody, akin to what had driven Peter to terrify the hapless Loyola students.
One of those hopeless days, I challenged my father to a game. I admit I was burning to beat him; having gone through the Atomic Cafe boot camp, I was ready to discard his shadow after a few decades of not playing against him. I could now redress the long-lasting imbalance between us by winning and putting him in a position to feel what I felt as a boy. I offered him my fists, each clenched around a pawn, to choose; he picked the black one. We set up the pieces on a tiny magnetic board; we played; I won; I found no pleasure in it. Neither did he. It is possible that he finally let me win. If he did, I didn't notice it. We shook hands in silence, like true grandmasters, and never again played against each other.
Aleksandar Hemon is the author of "The Question of Bruno," "Nowhere Man," "The Lazarus Project" and "Love and Obstacles." He lives in Chicago.
© 2013 by Aleksandar Hemon. This story will appear in "The Book of My Lives," a story collection by Hemon due out this month from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.


text:
network specialist
Presupuesto $250-750 USD
We are looking to outsource our network maintenance.
27 freelancers están ofertando el promedio de $407 para este trabajo
Dear Sirs, I would like to introduce myself to you and tell you why I'm the right system administrator for your project. My name is Christian Hoffmeister, I am a certified Microsoft and Linux system administrator a Más
Hi, I will be pleased to join your project as i possessed the required skills and experience. I have excellent skills on networking, security, technical/report writing, Linux, penetration testing and am confidant to ex Más
Hello Sir, Greeting for the day, Hope you are doing well We are Group of professional having more than 8 years' experience in Windows/Linux Server administration , Website Hosting migration, Mail server configurati Más
Hello can you PM and discuss in detail ? I am a network engineer with 10 years experience skills in Windows server exchange and Cisco network ing cheers
I work for a consultancy company and we maintain networks for companies internationally. If you are interested please send more specifications on what you need supporting and any works that you need.
Greeting Im workign as network and security specialist for many year's, think, i will be helpfully to you can you provide more details?
Hi there, I am certified Engineer along with 9+ years of experience into Network & Security Domain. I should be able to configure/troubleshoot any issue. Please let me know if you would like to have quick call or Más
hi im working as a network administrator and i have a team including 8 people , all network experts. so tell me the details thank you :)
Microsoft resources Available 24x7x365 available Available with additional support on other OS related issues
Hello Sir, We are an Indian development company here. we have checked your posted details here and want more clarification in it, so message us to discuss on it more then we will able to move on it. Thanks
I am a Network, Security and System Consultant Working in the industry of Data Communication since 2003, During my experience i have worked a lot of Cisco and Juniper Routers, Switches, Firewalls and various Networking Más
Hello, I would like to work on this , I have similar work experience of 7 years. If you can provide more details on project that would be helpful to analyse and plan for project.


text:
We offer a full list of Indian baby names with names that you may be familiar with, as well as other more exotic or traditional Indian names. Find the perfect name for your boy or girl, whether it be a name that's been adapted more for American culture, or something with long standing tradition in India.
6 results found for "Indian baby names starting with n"
And you'll see personalized content just for you whenever you click the My Feed .
SheKnows is making some changes!
b e h e a r d !
Welcome to the new SheKnows Community,
where you can share your stories, ideas
and CONNECT with millions of women.Get Started


text:
Khloe Kardashian slams Kim's estranged husband Kris Humphries as "gross," "delusional," and "fame hungry," while Penelope Cruz prepares to give birth to her second child with Javier Bardem: See Us Weekly's top stories from Friday, Feb. 1 in the roundup!
1. Khloe Kardashian: Kris Humphries Is "Gross," "Delusional," "Fame Hungry"
Tell Us how you really feel, Khloe! Khloe Kardashian didn't mince words when she sat down to chat with Bravo's Andy Cohen about her sister Kim's estranged husband, basketball player Kris Humphries. "I just think everything he's doing is so — it's just gross to me," she sniped.
2. Penelope Cruz Is Pregnant, Expecting Second Child With Husband Javier Bardem
Hollywood's baby boom just got a little bigger, thanks to Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem. The couple are set to welcome a sibling for 2-year-old son Leonardo later this year.
3. Lady Gaga Blasts Former Assistant Jennifer O'Neill Under Oath: She's a "Disgusting Human Being"
Mother Monster's claws are out. Lady Gaga couldn't hide her rage when she testified against former personal assistant Jennifer O'Neill, who is taking the "Born This Way" singer to court over unpaid overtime she claims she's owed. "[Jennifer] is a f–king hood rat," Gaga says in her deposition.
4. CaCee Cobb Pregnant, Debuts Baby Bump in Bikini
Best friend babymoon! Jessica Simpson's BFF announced her pregnancy on Jan. 31, but new photos from the mom-to-be's Hawaiian vacation with Simpson (who is also pregnant) show that she was rocking a baby bump as early as December.
5. Bethenny Frankel, Jason Hoppy Split: "He Wants to Make Her Pay"
Happily never after is more like it. Sources tell Us Weekly that Bethenny Frankel's soon-to-be ex-husband, Jason Hoppy, is "livid" with his wife's behavior in the aftermath of their December split. "He wants to make her pay," an insider says.
Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics and more delivered straight to your inbox!
Want stories like these delivered straight to your phone? Download the Us Weekly iPhone app now!


text:
Spain moves to curb its universal justice powers
MADRID (AP) — Spain's Parliament has approved a ruling party proposal that will severely curb the powers of the country's courts to pursue cases of genocide and other crimes against humanity committed abroad.
The universal jurisdiction reform includes a clause to halt current probes, including one in which arrest warrants have been issued for several former Chinese leaders for alleged genocide in Tibet.
The government announced plans for the reform after China expressed anger over the probe and hinted it could damage relations.
International human rights and pro-Tibetan groups have accused China of using oppressive policies in Tibetan regions, especially against people opposing Beijing's rule.
The conservative Popular Party proposal was approved late Tuesday and the government is expected to write it into law in the coming weeks.
Opposition groups accused the government of bowing to pressure from China, but Popular Party spokesman Alfonso Alonso said the reform was necessary to avoid "useless disputes that only generate diplomatic conflicts."
Under the bill, Spanish judges will be able to prosecute crimes against humanity committed abroad only if the suspect is Spanish, a foreign resident in Spain or a foreigner whose extradition has been denied by Spain.
Spain has long been seen as a leading proponent of universal jurisdiction, with former National Court judge Baltasar Garzon using it in attempts to prosecute al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.
In practice, very few probes have seen people brought to trial in Spain. The investigations irked some countries and led to accusations that Spain was behaving like a global policeman.
Human Rights Watch and other groups issued a statement this week saying the bill "would close the doors of Spanish courts to the victims of grave human rights violations who are unlikely otherwise to be able to obtain justice, particularly within their own jurisdictions."
Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.


text:
By JOHN MILLER
Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- Idaho's renewable energy landscape is strewn with failed projects, but more casualties may soon be added to the list after Idaho Power Co. demanded state regulators cancel the utility's contracts to buy electricity from two proposed dairy manure digesters.
Idaho Power says Boise-based Exergy Development Group's two biogas-to-power projects near Twin Falls have missed or will miss deadlines to deliver electricity to the state's biggest utility, according to filings with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission.
Exergy counters that circumstances beyond its control -- in this case, pending rules governing small renewable projects still being hammered out by the IPUC -- have scared off its financiers, making such developments impossible.
Among other things, Idaho Power is asking the Idaho Public Utilities Commission for permission to pursue Exergy for undisclosed damages for not delivering electricity when it said it would.
"We're just looking at enforcing the terms of the contract," Brad Bowlin, an Idaho Power spokesman, said Tuesday.
Once one of Idaho's biggest renewable energy developers, Exergy has been beset by bad news for months.
The Boise-based company suspended $323 million in Idaho wind projects in August. It's also embroiled in federal lawsuits, one over wind turbines in Pennsylvania Exergy wanted but didn't pay for, and the other over control of a Minnesota wind farm. Earlier this month, Exergy relinquished ownership claims to the Minnesota project.
Now, its proposed digesters -- at the Double B Dairy in Murtaugh and Swager Farms, in Buhl -- appear to be in jeopardy.
Just three months ago, Exergy CEO James Carkulis said they were on schedule.
"We will commence construction of two dairy digesters in Twin Falls County later this year," Carkulis said in August, in a statement stressing Exergy's financial health despite a wave of sour news.
On Tuesday, however, Carkulis blamed Idaho Power's efforts to convince the Idaho Public Utilities Commission to tighten its rules on renewable developments for his difficulties finding backers for these latest projects, which would to turn methane gas from cow manure into electricity.
"Idaho Power, by submitting a flurry of legal complaints to the PUC, has made it all but impossible to secure financing for renewable projects, exacerbating the problem," Carkulis said. "These digesters are becoming collateral damage in this campaign against renewable energy in Idaho."
The PUC held contentious hearings over the summer, on issues including whether developers like Exergy or utilities like Idaho Power should own valuable environmental credits generated by renewable projects.
The three-member commission isn't likely to publish its new rules until mid-December.
Idaho Power disputes that Carkulis' financing woes and regulatory uncertainty constitute a so-called "force majeure" -- an earthquake, for instance, or civil strife -- that should allow Exergy out of its contracts.
"The claimed events do not excuse (Exergy) from meeting the operational requirements," utility lawyers wrote.
At least initially, it will be up to the regulators to decide which side is right, though the dispute could end up in state court.
"The commission will determine whether that really is a valid reason for accepting a delay in the contract," commission spokesman Gene Fadness said of Exergy's claims.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.


text:
This is the second installment of a series of articles titled "Fall Fishing Festival" profiling the productive fishing on Kentucky's lakes, rivers and streams in fall.
FRANKFORT, Ky. – In early November several years ago, a then 14-year-old Montgomery County High School freshman named Sarah Terry fished for muskellunge on Cave Run Lake with her Dad on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon. They fished hard without a single bite to show for their efforts.
Late in the afternoon, Terry's stepdad, Scott Salchli, said they needed to get home soon. She negotiated for 15 more casts before they would call it quits for the day.
She worked a purple and silver Double Cowgirl in-line spinner along a weedline near the Claylick Boat Ramp about half way through her allotted casts. Four and one-half feet of muskellunge followed the bait to the boat.
Employing the old figure 8 move with her inline spinner, the muskellunge came from under the boat and struck on the second pass. After a short, but fierce, struggle, the 47-pound state record came to hand with her lure bent into an "L" shape and missing a hook.
The next six weeks are one of the best times of year to catch muskellunge from Cave Run, Green River and Buckhorn lakes. Another state record could succumb to a well placed in-line spinner, jerkbait or crankbait.
This past week, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources stocked Cave Run Lake, Green River Lake and Buckhorn Lake with 13-inch long muskellunge at the rate of about one fish per three acres of water. Stocking maintains these highly productive muskie fisheries.
Muskellunge are in the back of creeks right now at Cave Run Lake. Mike Hardin, assistant director of fisheries for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife, witnessed several nice fish caught around him on a recent trip and had several follows.
"Smaller lures, such as a #5 Mepps in-line spinner or a 00 A.C. Shiner, are working better right now," Hardin said. He explained that as the water cools into the low 70s, jerkbaits such as Suicks and larger, slower spinnerbaits and in-line spinners work better.
"They will soon move out onto the main lake weedbeds," Hardin explained. "You can catch them in 8 feet of water or less on those lures."
Buckhorn Lake in Perry and Leslie counties has one of the highest catch rates for muskellunge in the upper South. Fall is one of the best times of the year to fish the lake. As of this week, some water is flowing through Buckhorn Lake Dam, but the lake remains almost at summer pool.
Weedbeds on flats next to submerged channels are high percentage spots to throw in-line spinners such as the Grim Reaper Model 600 in the sucker color or the Double Cowgirl in the Purple Cisco color. The orange-hued sucker-colored lures work best in the creeks while lures with shades of silver, purple or chartreuse work best on the main lake.
Leatherwood Creek is a top fall creek for muskellunge on Buckhorn Lake. The heavy drawdown in fall on Buckhorn Lake keeps the tailwater area just below the dam full of muskellunge, providing outstanding fishing. Bank fishing is available, but there is no boat ramp. Anglers may carry down a fishing kayak, canoe or small johnboat and take out at the KY 28 Bridge downstream on the Middle Fork of Kentucky River.
Green River Lake boasts some of the fattest, healthiest muskellunge found anywhere in the country. Fisheries biologists with Kentucky Fish and Wildlife routinely find muskellunge in excess of 40 inches long during population sampling on Green River Lake.
Finding the shad is the key to success for Green River Lake muskies. In fall, shad congregate on flats that extend well out into the lake. The Robinson Creek arm of the lake boasts many of these flats. Work these areas with a Swim Whizz crankbait in the golden shad color.
Windy days improve fall fishing on Green River Lake. Fishing slides on main lake bluffs with crankbaits such the 00 A.C. Shiner in the shad color is an effective presentation on gusty fall days.
The good fishing on Green River Lake lasts past Thanksgiving after the drawdown to winter pool. In early December, large muskellunge strike crankbaits and jerkbaits fished slowly by periodically allowing these lures to float all the way to the surface on the retrieve. Muskies often hit as the lure breaks the surface.
Get out this fall and enjoy some of the best muskellunge fishing in the United States. These three lakes hold national reputations for high strike and catch rates on one of the most difficult fish to catch in nature.
Author Lee McClellan is an award-winning associate editor for Kentucky Afield magazine, the official publication of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. He is a life-long hunter and angler, with a passion for smallmouth bass fishing.
The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources manages, regulates, enforces and promotes responsible use of all fish and wildlife species, their habitats, public wildlife areas and waterways for the benefit of those resources and for public enjoyment. Kentucky Fish and Wildlife is an agency of the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet. For more information on the department, visit our website at fw.ky.gov.


text:
AASL's National Longitudinal Survey
of School Library Programs
In 2007, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) initiated an annual survey of school library programs. The development of this longitudinal survey project was mandated by the AASL Board and advocated by the division's Research and Statistics Committee and Independent Schools Section. The survey was promoted via a wide variety of venues, including: AASL events at ALA Midwinter Meetings and Annual Conferences, AASL e-mail lists, AASL chapters and affiliates, and member/participant postings (blogs, listservs, etc.)
The annual report summarizes the overall results, the results by school level and enrollment, and more detailed results, when statistically significant relationships between the results and selected other factors are found. These other factors include: region, a school's poverty status, locale (metropolitan versus non-metropolitan), and whether a school is public or private. While the data on the latter characteristic was based on respondents' reports, data on poverty status and locale were obtained from the National Center for Education Statistics, which is also the source of the public school universe file for this project.
Respondents to the AASL survey were self-selected. For this reason, it is not possible to generate national totals. Instead, for each statistic, this report presents three percentiles: the 50th, the 75th, and the 95th. The purpose of reporting these three figures is to describe the better half of responding school libraries. The 50th percentile, or median, is the figure that divides the respondents in half—half reported this figure or above, half a lower figure. The 75th percentile is the figure below which three-quarters of the respondents fall and one-quarter above. Finally, the 95th percentile is the figure at or above which only five percent of the respondents fall.
To ask questions, make suggestions or comments, or volunteer to assist in promoting the 2012 survey, contact Allison Cline, AASL Deputy Director, firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
Do you still like Chris Brown? Of course you don't, but you're about to like him even less because Frank Ocean says that Brown jumped him. Brown's version of the events, according to TMZ, indicate that Ocean and his crew blocked Brown from leaving a recording studio in L.A. Ocean took to Twitter to say that Brown jumped him and now his finger is cut and he won't be able to play with two hands at the Grammys.
Frank Ocean stuck around and spoke to cops after the incident, but Brown didn't. Witnesses told investigators that Brown threw the first punch.


text:
Why do people put such a low price limit when jeans shopping? Don't give me the price nonsense either. If you spend £50 on jeans which develop holes after 3 months, then you'll need to replace them. Do this 3 or 4 times a year and you'll spend £150-200 on the same awful pair of jeans. So why not save that money up and get these Acne Jeans?
Sure, at £177 you could get cheaper jeans but why put yourself through that ordeal? It would be the equivalent of watching Lead Balloon instead of Curb Your Enthusiasm. The Bill instead of The Wire. Dane Cook instead of Bill Hicks. Taxi Driver instead of….you get my drift. It would be a bad choice.