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Eurozone Bailout Deal: Hold the CheersWritten by Stephen Lendman Subject: Philosophy: Fascism
More debt agreed on exacerbates an out-of-control problem. Only its final resolution is delayed. The longer crisis conditions continue and grow, the worse they'll be when day of reckoning time arrives.
Nemesis, the goddess of vengeance and punisher of hubris and arrogance in Greek mythology, may have final say.
She's here among us, unseen, patiently stalking, and awaiting when she'll make her presence known. Wagner's Brunnhilde in Der Ring des Nibelungen collects heros, not fools and hypocrites. However, they both announce themselves the same way, saying "Only the doomed see me."
Predatory Wall Street and Eurozone bankers will feel their sting. It's just a matter of time. Rage across hundreds of US and European cities hastens their day of reckoning. Hopefully it's coming soon. Nemesis will decide, but won't announce it.
Pledging an "ambitious and comprehensive" debt crisis solution, Eurozone leaders sold out to bankers. Europe's debt problem is too great to solve. Throwing good money after bad compounds it.
Greece and other troubled countries owe up to $6 trillion. Germany, France, other donor countries, and the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) don't have enough resources to contribute without wrecking Eurozone economies.
As a result, doubts are being raised about optimistic assumptions, sketchy details, and important unanswered questions.
On October 28, the Wall Street Journal's Matthew Karnitschnig headlined, "Cheers and Skepticism Greet European Deal," saying:
Doubts remain about how the plan will work. "European leaders offered few details....signaling that it would take weeks, if not months, to work out the fine print."
As a result, many experts are skeptical. Speaking in Munich, Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann said:
"The envisaged leverage instruments are similar to those which were among the origins of the (2008) crisis, because they temporarily masked the risks."
RBC Dominion Securities currency strategist Stewart Hall believes funding the package "may prove a tough sell." Bond Vigilantes already expressed skepticism. More on that below.
Even if investors embrace the deal, bailing out out banks won't fix sick economies. As a result, economic weakness will deepen and remain protracted with no policy measure considered to boost growth.
Britain's Financial Times (FT) headlined, "Italy gives EU a post-party hangover," saying:
"Italy's borrowing costs have climbed to euro-era highs a day after European leaders agreed on a new plan to reverse the region's spiraling debt crisis, a worrying sign they have failed to regain the confidence of key financial markets."
Bond investors know that raising debt levels compounds an out-of-control problem. As a result, they responded negatively to the deal.
Because of its size, Italy's troubled economy threatens contagion if it needs a Greece-type bailout package as many expect.
Senior Italian financial officials warned Eurozone leaders that "plans to recapitalize banks have not been properly thought out and risk pushing Italy, and other economies, into recession, by forcing banks to withhold funding from businesses and consumers."
According to one unnamed official:
"This situation has not been fully considered and there is a severe risk that half (or more) of Europe ends up in recession."
Spain faces similar problems. As a result, bond yields jumped there as well to a deal investors believe falls short of resolution.
Germany's powerful constitutional court issued an injunction requiring full Bundestag approval for any urgent European Financial Stability Facility bond-buying operations.
Moreover, Eurozone finance ministers haven't agreed on ways to implement their announced leverage plan to provide around $1.3 trillion in bailout aid.
An end of November deadline was set to approve final details, but many experts doubt the viability of what's eventually announced. Moreover, some think months will pass before anything substantive is known.
On October 28, FT's Peter Spiegel headlined, "Deal widens Paris-Berlin divisions," saying:
Differences between the two countries run deep. During negotiations, they occasionally flared. An unnamed European official said:
"It is not about day-to-day things. There is a political and economic structure behind the two countries that is just too different."
As they go (along with Britain), so goes Europe. Since the crisis began, German officials "pushed for Greek bond investors to take losses on their holdings as a way to lance the boil of Greece's unsustainable debt levels."
Berlin worries about moral hazard risks. Germany finally got bondholders to take a 50% haircut, but not as announced. If enforced, it only applies to some Greek bonds.
Moreover, troubled banks in greater trouble from haircuts will get bailout help to compensate. In other words, taxpayers will bear most pain, not bankers responsible for today's crisis.
On October 28, New York Times writers Jack Ewing and David Jolly headlined, "Hitches Signal Further Difficulties for Euro Zone," saying:
Friday "(s)obriety displaced (Thursday's) euphoria," signaling a debt crisis far from resolved. Interest rates in troubled economies are rising, exacerbating conditions there. Bond vigilantes reacted negatively to a bad deal, even though details are unclear.
Investors lost confidence in Greece, Italy, Spain and other Eurozone countries. Fragile conditions signal trouble. Wednesday's deal solved nothing. According to UBS economist Martin Lueck:
"If you ask someone (in Germany), they'll say they want the Deutschemark back." Authorities already printed a supply just in case.
Regular Progressive Radio News Hour contributor Bob Chapman said "Europe doesn't know what to do and neither does the Fed and Bank of England." Their solutions exacerbate the mess they made, so they keep throwing money at it counterproductively instead of taking constructive resolution steps.
Conditions now are so out-of-control, "there are no solutions offered to solve the problem." Major US and European banks are insolvent. "Many carry two sets of books. Without a total audit one does not know the actual condition of these financial institutions. Market players and investors don't want the truth because they can't handle it. It means the game is over."
"Almost everywhere we look, problems are being extended and thrown into the future. How long it will take for the world monetary system to collapse no one knows, but it's inevitable."
Creating more of it can't solve debt problems. Economies are wrecked to save banks. Eventually, Greece will default. When it goes, so does Europe and America because financial systems in these countries are inter-connected.
A Final Comment
Kentwillard.com headlined "Euro Bailout Failure," saying:
"Have so many ever been so enthusiastic over a plan to beg, borrow, and steal $1.5 trillion?"
These type policies don't instill confidence. Most important, they don't work. At best, they buy time, creating a greater problem instead of solving current crisis conditions.
As explained above, the agreed Greek bond 50% haircut is far less than announced. Private investors were asked voluntarily to go along. Some will. Others won't. Moreover, default is certain.
Excluding German and French banks, others have to recapitalize. Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Irish, and Greek banks need lots of help. Where it's coming from isn't clear. Who'll buy their countries' depreciating debt? Who'll buy theirs?
Eurozone leaders want China and Japan to help. They have their own troubles to resolve. Neither will throw good money after bad without something in return. Moreover, no nation will guarantee another $1 trillion in debt, especially from troubled economies.
Out-of-control debt isn't resolved by more of it. So far, proposed solutions offer little else. In other words, years of failed policies are being repeated.
Nemesis will have final say on when culpable bankers and corrupted officials will be held accountable. Everyone, however, will share pain more severely than already. Expect hard times indeed to get harder.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.


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Safe (2012) (US - BD RA)
Gabe watches Jason Statham smash heads to rescue another MacGuffin kid...
Luke Wright (Statham) was living a normal life as a second-rate mixed martial arts cage fighter until screwing up a rigged fight. The Russian Mafia decides to make an example of him to prevent this from happening again and murders his family. With nothing to live for anymore, Wright wanders the streets of New York full of guilt and anger until he encounters Mei (Catherine Chan), a frightened 12-year-old Chinese girl. An orphaned math prodigy, Mei had been forced to work for the Triads as a counter and holds the key to a numerical code that could destroy them, the mob and corrupt cops within the NYPD. After discovering that the same gangsters who killed his family are pursuing her, Wright takes matters into his own hands to protect the innocent girl and seek revenge. (From the official Lionsgate synopsis)
I often wonder if Hollywood screenwriters live in such a vacuum that they don't know other movies even exist. I know there's a long tradition of mimicry, but certain movies have such a minute impact on culture and filmdom that you just have to assume no one would ever rip them off on purpose. Writer/director Boaz Yakin doesn't strike me as a person that would see Harold Becker's pseudo-flop Mercury Rising and decide he absolutely needed to remake it, but in not so vague terms he kind of has. It's not impossible to extend the benefit of the doubt either, but the super-special MacGuffin child trope has been so overused in action cinema recently that it's hard to extend him any other excuses for not paying attention. I have personally reviewed three movies in the last two years that feature generally indestructible tough guys protecting children from the bad guys that need them for nefarious purposes – Patrick Lussier's Drive Angry, Len Wiseman's Underworld: Awakening, and Neveldine/Taylor's Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (Lee Jeong-Beom's The Man From Nowhere comes awfully close). Michael Davis' Shoot 'Em Up and Kurt Wimmer's Ultraviolet were also widely released in American theaters within the last decade. It's almost as common as invading aliens and zombie apocalypses at this point.*
In Yakin's defense is a strong and eclectic filmography, including the urban crime drama Fresh (which also features a prodigy child at the center of its plot), the true-life sports drama Remember the Titans, and dopey teen-comedy Uptown Girls. There isn't a flashy, R-rated action flick in the mix. Often, when filmmakers approach a style of filmmaking they aren't particularly well versed in, they build the exercise around a common plot cliché, which they can then invert and/or ignore in favour of stylistic experimentation. See: Wayne Kramer's Running Scared, Joe Wright's Hanna or Steven Soderbergh's Haywire.
Safe isn't as experimental or strange as these films and as a first time straight action director Yakin makes some obvious rookie mistakes, but the overall action is impactful and the storytelling efficiency is impressive. The entire film appears to have been made for the director to play with really, really aggressive, yet consistent editing and camera techniques. The camerawork is a bit too incessantly tight and shaky for my taste, but it's rare that the rapid-fire cutting and crash-zooming makes for an utterly incomprehensible image. The camerawork is at its best when the camera itself is treated like an subjective bystander. The fact that these point-of-view shots don't belong to any onscreen character help propagate the illusion of audience participation. Sometimes, Yakin's jerky rhythms and random crash zooms are too aggressive, making for a confusing image, but every major action sequence is punctuated by a somewhat surreal touch that sets it apart from a saturated pack of interchangeable shoot 'em ups. The violence is brutal and efficient, though not particularly gory. Still, there's little sense of Yakin pulling his punches and Safe is a nice break from Statham's 'safer' (ha, pun!) PG-13 output. Beyond the MacGuffin kid trope, the screenplay snags a heavy dose of alternate clichés, but Yakin mostly uses them as story shorthand, which allows him to explore his aggressive montage editing without leaving the audience in the dust. The side effect of this is that it creates some problems during the handful of scenes that break from the pace, making them appear more like sudden stops in narrative, rather than breathers. The relentless action also slowly turns to numbing after about an hour, leaving us to notice how thin and even stupid the plot really is. I'm afraid I was done with the experience before the movie was over. Fortunately, the climatic 'boss fight' is worth the wait for the punch-line.
I've been building a theory over the last ten years that Jason Statham is the younger, cheaper, 100% more British version of Bruce Willis. The fact that Safe and Mercury Rising have so much in common is merely the tip of the iceberg. Willis practically made a career of 'protection' movies that fit under all genre headings, including Richard Donner's 16 Blocks, Luc Besson's The Fifth Element, and Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller's Sin City. Statham, who you have to admit more than slightly resembles Willis, started in particularly talkative rolls in Guy Ritchie movies, but his mainstream breakthrough was a trilogy of films where he's forced to protect VIPs despite his preference not to – the Luc Besson-produced Transporter series (let's just ignore how often this motif appears throughout Besson's career for the sake of brevity, all right?). Yakin's effectively uses both Statham's career and his similarities to Willis as part of his story-crafting shorthand. It works to a certain extent, but there's a sense of the director depending too much on his audience recognizing Statham and not enough on the actor's actual performance. This is especially sad, because Statham gives a particularly strong dramatic performance overall.
Side note: If you ever see Lawrence Bender's name on the credits of a film (outside of one directed by Quentin Tarantino), you can be sure that this 'failed' actor-turned-producer will give himself a cameo. In the case of Safe he's not only front and center, with a line and a death scene, he appeared in the freakin' trailer.
Shot on 35mm and then digitally graded to appear supernaturally colourful, Safe comes to Blu-ray with a strong 2.35:1, 1080p transfer. I'm actually pretty surprised the movie wasn't shot digitally, because the final product is so stylized and unnatural. Just when I think the whole Orange and Teal thing is on its way out, Safe swings around and slams me in the face with enough of the two hues to make my head spin. Though, if I'm fair, these 'orange' hues are closer to yellow most of the time. The only other colours aside from black and white are poppy red highlights and very occasional rich greens. The purity of these hues is downright creepy at times, even funny, as every piece of incidental background advertising/graphic design features, quite literally, exactly three colours, but this isn't a fault as far as the transfer is concerned. All five hues are plenty clean, featuring only minor noise artefacts and bleeding (bleeding occurs mostly along the edges of the redder hues). Aside from the weird colour quality, the basic image is usually clean and often even soft in a particularly digital way. There is enough black grain to verify the format, but the often unfocused backgrounds feature fine noise that appears much more digital. Contrast levels are stark, but there aren't many sharp edges throughout; rather, Yakin and cinematographer Stefan Czapsky aim for a more even flow of gradation. Fine detail and texture levels depend largely on lighting, but there is a basic consistency to things, assuming they appear in the foreground. The entire film is pretty dark, which is kind of bleak, but does lead to some wonderfully pure black levels and well represented pin-light details.
This DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track is a little quieter than expected, but overall quite lively and impressive when needed. The minor volume issues apply almost entirely to the centered dialogue and especially when the dialogue isn't covered by much in the way of other sound. The fact that the center channel is a bit on the quiet side stands in contrast to the hyperactive stereo and surround effects. The sound design is mostly designed to press the aggressive editing style and create a more dynamic difference between the quickly cut locations, even adding abstract stereophonic noise to represent the changeover. Of course, there's plenty of straight action and this features more in the way of directional movement, such as the rush of objects zooming over the subway car Statham is crawling on, cars zipping by as he drives the wrong way on a busy New York street, and, of course, a wide assortment of punchy bullets moving across the stage. The rear channels are punched up with extensive ambience (every location is alive with activity without drawing attention away from anything important) and a whole bunch of Mark Mothersbaugh (yes, that Mark Mothersbaugh) musical score. Mothersbaugh's name usually marks a score as something particularly unique, but, in this case, the former Devo songwriter sticks pretty close to the action movie usual, including just enough bounce and bombast to ensure we notice what he's doing. His end credit piece pleasantly recalls Alan Silvestri's '80s and '90s work.
The extras begin with a solid, informative, and entertaining solo audio commentary track with writer/director Yakin. The track begins with Yakin explaining his roots writing action films, the fact that this is his first straight action movie, and what precisely he wanted to do with the subject matter, which he admits has been overplayed throughout the past couple decades including Mercury Rising, which he says he learned about while writing and decided not to watch for fear that it would colour his film. Not surprisingly, it is the experiment of attaching Statham and Chan's characters through editing (rather than shared screentime) that really pressed him to make the film. From here the track really becomes a bit of a class in exactly how Yakin went about achieving his stylistic goals, and precisely which films and filmmakers inspired him (William Friedkin's French Connection and Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns are mentioned more than once). Yakin is also very good at patting his cast and crew on the back in context of the film and the rest of said cast or crew member's career. It's rare a director talks about how great his lead actor is without sounding like the head of a fan club. This track is honest and technical when needed as well.
Cracking Safe (11:40, HD) is the first of three elongated EPK featuring interviews with Yakin, producer Lawrence Bender, actor Jason Statham, stunt coordinators J.J. Perry and Chad Stahelski, along with behind the scenes footage and storyboards. This featurette covers similar ground to the commentary, but the stunt coordinators' P.O.V. helps add another dimension to the discussion. Criminal Battleground (8:00, HD) continues to cover stuff already covered in the commentary with a more specific focus on New York movies and the film's top-notch character actors. The Art of a Gunfight (10:16, HD) covers more stunt coordination, specifically that of the film's club shootout, including footage from the stunt team's previz footage. The extras end with trailers for other Lionsgate releases.
Safe has its strengths and they're almost entirely stylistic, but this style doesn't quite extend the length of the film. Eventually, the seams start to show and split, leaving the audience with merely a 'better than average,' nearly arthouse action movie. Still, it's the best Jason Statham-brand film in some time. Lionsgate's Blu-ray features a strong, uncannily consistent HD transfer and a very lively DTS-HD MA 7.1 soundtrack, along with a very solid director's commentary track.
* More on the subject of the 'MacGuffin child' genre phenomenon that doesn't really fit with my review above: The quest to find more of these films became a bit of a Facebook game while I was prepping this review. Other obvious genre fits include James Cameron's Terminator 2, which continued the themes of the first Terminator with a kid-centric slant, Michael Ritchie's The Golden Child, and Kevin Reynolds' Waterworld. There's a similar 'protect the kid' subgenre, which includes a bevy of action films like Leon: The Professional, Man on Fire, and The Long Kiss Goodnight, but here the child protagonist isn't such an obvious plot device. There's another similar motif following witness/VIP protection throughout action fiction as well, including films like Witness, Midnight Run, and Chuck Russell's Eraser, but this subgenre doesn't require a specific age – it only requires a relatively powerless character to be protected by an obviously more powerful one. A list of these films could easily go on for ten more pages.
** Note: The images on this page are not representative of the Blu-ray image quality.
Review by Gabriel Powers
David Blackwell Senior Member Join Date: February 2004 Location: United States Posts: 2,835
I enjoyed Safe and the way it did try to do some twists to the usual Jason Statham movie while satisfying fans of the Statham movies. I enjoyed your review.
Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian
Disc Details
Release Date: 4th September 2012
Discs: 1
Disc Type: Blu-ray Disc
RCE: No
Video: 1080p
Aspect: 2.35:1
Anamorphic: No
Colour: Yes
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 English
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Extras: Director's Commentary, Cracking Safe, Criminal Battleground, The Art of the Gunfight, Digital Copy, UltraViolet Copy
Easter Egg: No
Feature Details
Director: Boaz Yakin
Cast: Jason Statham, Catherine Chan, Reggie Lee, Robert John Burke, Anson Mount, James Hong, Chris Sarandon
Genre: Action and Thriller
Length: 95 minutes
6Review Guide
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Bradley Cooper to star in Spielberg's American Sniper
- Bang Showbiz
- 3 May 2013
Bradley Cooper is reportedly set to star in Steven Spielberg's 'American Sniper', based on the autobiographical book by Chris Kyle, Scott McEwan and Jim DeFelice
Bradley Cooper is to star in Steven Spielberg's 'American Sniper'.
The 'Silver Linings Playbook' actor has signed up to the 'Lincoln' director's next project based on the book 'American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in US Military History' by Chris Kyle, Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice, TheWrap.com reports.
The book follows the story of Kyle and his journey from being a Texas rodeo cowboy to a Navy SEAL chief, earning the title of the highest number of sniper kills in US military history with 160 deadly shots.
Cooper's production company 22nd & Indiana Pictures optioned the rights to the paperback in 2012 and production has now been fast-tracked following the death of Kyle in February, who was shot and killed at a shooting range in Texas.
'Paranoia' screenwriter Jason Hall penned the script and Cooper will produce the feature with Spielberg, Andrew Lazar and Peter Morgan. DreamWorks' Kristie Macosko Krieger and Adam Somner will co-produce, with Sheroum Kim overseeing on behalf of 22nd and Jon Berg participating for Warner Bros.
Spielberg initially planned for his next project to be 'Robopocalypse' following the success of his award-winning 'Lincoln', however the project was postponed until further notice earlier this year.
Cooper - who recently dropped out of 'Jane Got a Gun' - can next be seen in 'The Hangover Part III' alongside Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms, Justin Bartha and Ken Jeong, released later this month.


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4:30 pm
Cyberchase "Team Spirit" Interest is lagging in the annual Mount Olympus Games, attendance is sagging, and Zeus is not happy. How can he restore the spirit of competition? With lightning bolt speed, he pits Team Motherboard, coached by Digit, against Team Hacker, coached by Wicked, The teams have to compete in the Triadditon, a relay-type race made up of an obstacle course, a swim race, and a foot race where each competitor does one event and tags their teammate to do the next. Bragging rights and hero worship go to the winners. D
5:00 pm
Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman "A Whole Flock of Cheese" Chet has gone on a cheese craze, replacing everything in the doghouse (including the furniture) with cheese-inspiring Ruff to send Emmie on a cheese-themed challenge. Meanwhile, Ruff is searching for his long-lost parents and decides to employ the help of a carrier pigeon. He sends Jay and Rubye out to learn about carrier pigeons and then compete in a race against one!. D
5:30 pm
Nightly Business Report President Obama tells Congress we're not a deadbeat nation and that they need to raise the debt ceiling now. NBR's Washington Bureau Chief has the latest on what is shaping up to be the latest battle between The White House and Congressional Republicans. A sour day for Apple investors as the stock tumbles to 11-month lows over new worries about waning demand for the iPhone 5. D
5:56 pm
NewsHour Promo NULL
6:00 pm
PBS NewsHour NULL
7:00 pm
Antiques Roadshow "Corpus Christi, Hour Two" The show first investigates vintage flash art at a local tattoo parlor. A guest brings in John Lennon's signature from a memorable meeting with the Beatles. Another guest brings a book inscribed by Salvador Dali that is valued up to $15,000. Part 2 of 3G
8:00 pm
Market Warriors "Antiquing In Chicago, Il" The pickers look for something from the 1970s at the Randolph Street Market. Pickers also try to sell items bought at a previous flea market. Notable finds include a pair of mid-century fiberglass chairs, a modern coffee table and an Aunt Jemima clock.G
9:00 pm
Globe Trekker "London City Guide 1" Jonathan begins his exploration of the city on a double-decker bus tour of famous sites.G
10:00 pm
Independent Lens "Soul Food Junkies" When filmmaker Byron Hurt's father refuses to give up a high-fat, calorie-rich soul-food diet, Hurt wants to know more about the culinary tradition and its part in the black culture. He puts this tradition under the microscope to examine the positive and negative consequences as he meets with cooks, historians, scholars, doctors and everyday people.G
11:00 pm
Charlie Rose NULL


text: Hi guys, lately I updated my IPSCOnfig to the most recent version, with the effect I was generally aware of, but finally forogt about it, that it backups but recreates some config files. In my special case, the main.cf, where I added some RBL filters, changed the TLS certificate files and some others. And I also made this file a bit more human readable with some tabs and linebreaks So the final question is, what is seen from the upgrade archtitecture a possible solution to detect differences between the current and the new file and e.g. prompt for action, like aptitude does. I am aware of that things might get complicated it there was a change in the "native" config file ispconfig3 provided between a current and the upated version, when a parameter was additionally extended by an admin. So my idea woul be to ask the user for what to do, then save the old file as backup, and explicitly NOT restarting the particular service. After the installation the admin gets presented a list with services not startet and config changes that need a manual review. This would ensure that service do not start with a "broken" configuration, and to manually crawl through the diffs. Any better suggestions?


text:
The big winner in Italy's election was populist leader Beppe Grillo, but young Florence mayor Matteo Renzi is emerging as a less obvious beneficiary of a huge protest vote that threatens to destroy the old political system.
Renzi, a telegenic, 38-year-old American-style politician who toured Italy in a camper van before Grillo did the same in his campaign, is the opposite of colorless center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani, the election's biggest loser.
Whereas Bersani's oratory can leave an audience yawning, Renzi is an electric, fast-talking and articulate performer who paces the stage in his shirt sleeves pushing just the right buttons to whip up a crowd.
He has already demonstrated an acid wit in poking fun at Grillo, a shaggy-haired comedian more than 20 years his senior who mobilized public rage against Italy's discredited politicians to make his party Italy's biggest in the vote.
Bersani's drab campaign threw away a 10-point opinion poll lead to just scrape victory in the lower house of parliament ahead of Silvio Berlusconi's center-right, but fall short of controlling the Senate - essential for government. No other party has a majority either.
Now Renzi is waiting for his moment as Bersani fights for survival, desperately trying to reach an agreement with Grillo that will allow him to form a minority government with backing from the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement.
With Grillo pouring insults on Bersani at every opportunity, the 61-year-old center left leader looks to have only a tiny chance of success, despite near unanimous backing from his Democratic Party (PD) leadership this week.
The market-friendly Renzi challenged Bersani in party primaries back in November, threatening to "scrap" Italy's old leadership.
He was roundly beaten as the party machine mobilised PD cadres to support the leader. But Bersani's terrible election campaign has opened the way for a comeback.
"To me it seems impossible that Bersani can succeed in forming a government and so frankly I think this attempt is an error which has no chance of seeing the light," a PD member of parliament close to Renzi's group told Reuters.
"Since there is a problem of relegitimizing the party leadership, either we must confirm Bersani or replace him which many think is inevitable," said the parliamentarian, asking not to be named.
Cautious Game
But Renzi is playing a cautious game, aware that if he jumps too soon he could blow his chances of both winning the party leadership and leading the center-left to victory in another election that could be only months away - something which many pundits think is fully possible given his campaigning skills and appeal for even conservative voters.
So far he has insisted he is not challenging Bersani and expressed loyalty to his continuing leadership, but he has more and more openly attacked the party's failed election strategy and said the PD must be transformed.
"I tore my hair out after the election," Renzi said in a television interview this week. "We missed a penalty."
In an interview with Rome's il Messaggero daily on Thursday, Renzi said that his arguments during the primary election against Bersani last year had been proved right.
"The (national) election result showed that with some of my ideas, starting with the willingness to talk to disillusioned centre-right voters...perhaps we would have won the election."
Renzi's problem is that he is more popular among general voters than he is inside the party, where the traditional left wing with its roots in the old communist party views him with suspicion and sees him as too far to the right.
So timing is crucial.
"He is not going to jump now and risk getting burned before Bersani is really cooked," said Professor James Walston of the American University in Rome. He said Renzi would wait for Bersani to fail to form a government before making his play. "Renzi has the luxury of choosing his own time and not be forced," Walston said. "Bersani is not cooked yet."
Professor Gianfranco Pasquino of Bologna University said choosing Renzi would be a "fantastic move" for the PD.
But he added: "It depends if Renzi is willing to play this game which is very difficult. He may not want to burn himself at this point."
President Giorgio Napolitano, who has the task of trying to extract a viable government from the impasse, will start the process on March 19.
As leader of the biggest group in parliament, Bersani expects to get the first shot, but is widely expected to fail, leaving himself vulnerable to a party challenge.
The PD lawmaker said Renzi must make his bid at that point. "He cannot not be a candidate," he said.
He expected the party to call a congress to elect a new leader with the traditional leadership and left wing "Young Turks" backing Bersani or a younger left wing candidate, but many rank and file members supporting Renzi.
New Election
Whoever wins would take the center-left into a new election which most politicians expect as early as June but no later than a year from now.
Grillo sees another election as the way to complete the total destruction of the old political order and Renzi may be the center-left's only chance of survival.
The Florence mayor is popular with old as well as younger voters - Grillo's biggest constituency - and is mobbed by well wishers everywhere he goes.
Renzi launched his bid for the centre-left leadership in 2011 at a slick U.S. style convention in Florence which he called the Big Bang. He is recognizable all over the country and at a recent Vatican concert dozens of elderly nuns and pensioners pushed forward to shake his hand as he walked past in his mayoral sash.
Much of his platform is close to Grillo's, including the removal of public financing from the political parties, which Bersani opposes, the abolition of parliamentarians' extravagant privileges and speeding up technological innovation in which Italy lags many other developed countries.
Like most everybody else he wants to change the electoral law which is one of the main reasons for the current mess, and pursue policies to revive the stagnant Italian economy.
Renzi is as outspoken against the political "caste" as Grillo and says the center-left must appeal to a much broader group of voters than its core leftist backers.
He also shows much greater skill in attacking Grillo and his newly-elected 5-Star lawmakers than Bersani, who like many traditional politicians did not see how much of a threat the Genoese comic posed to the established order.
Renzi has mocked the 64-year-old comedian's stunt of dressing up in a hood and oversize aviator sunglasses to avoid talking to the press last weekend and has also poked fun at the embarrassingly eccentric ideas of some of his lawmakers.
"We need to talk about serious things, and instead we are all chasing the masked man," he said this week.


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Brownbag Book Club
Library Director James McCloskey invites the Wilmington University Community to join in a conversation about this work of fiction, by a local author, set in Wilmington in the 1950s. Copies of the book are available through the Bookstore or the Library. Don't forget to bring your lunch!
|Tuesday, April 17
12:00 pm
Room 122
|Book of the Month
|The Saint of Lost Things
by Christopher Castellani
|From Publishers Weekly
Castellani explores the lives of Italian-American immigrants in this eloquent, leisurely tale about dreams and disappointments, a follow-up
Don't miss author Christopher Castellani's appearance during National Library Week: Thursday, April 19th at 5:30 pm in the ACC Auditorium at Wilmington University! Refreshments will be served, and a book signing will follow Castellani's talk.


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Travis McCoy Public Service Announcement: Co-Signing Upcoming Singer "David Correy" [Label Submitted]
"Travie McCoy's Public Service Announcement, Co-Signing The Next Big Singing Superstar "David Correy." Download David's debut project, "Urban Rock" The Mixtape Vol. 1 at www.davidcorrey.com & call David personally at 301.980.0880"
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posted by Thom Holwerda on Mon 31st Oct 2011 12:25 UTC
"Red Hat, Canonical and the Linux Foundation have laid out a set of recommendations for hardware vendors in hopes of preserving the ability to install Linux on Windows 8 machines. Windows 8 machines should ship in a setup mode giving users more control right off the bat, the groups argue." Group hug-cheer combo for Red Hat, Canonical, and the Linux Foundation please.


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ahoy everyone,
i dropped a bottle of dark soy sauce in the kitchen, of course it broke and splattered everything, including my pants! my normal detergent doesn't get soy sauce stains out (i know that from my kitchen towels).
are there any grandmother tricks for getting rid of soy sauce stains in textiles, like with red wine or grass?
if not, i'll just have to buy some kind of commercial oxi-wash product, i guess..
any ideas? i can't bleach these pants..
There's a program in Japan called Nihonjin Test with lots of great household tips, unfortunately my husband wasn't with me at the time this question came up so I could only get a basic grasp of what was going on (I don't speak Japanese).
Anyway, I found a mention of this program and shoyu stains on the internet
What this says is that you dissolve two teaspoons of sugar in one litre of water. Put the stained item onto a towel and apply the sugar water onto the stain with a wet sponge. Keep patting at the stain and it should transfer onto the towel.
However, this isn't what I remember... I recall something to do with soy sauce stains and direct sunlight. If anyone knows more about this tip I'd love to have my curiosity about it finally sated!
If all else fails, try this if you can get it where you are. It's pretty good at most stains.
Also, see http://housekeeping.about.com/od/stainremoval/a/stains_soysauce.htm
My blog is Food and Shoes
I have seen all kinds of suggestions for removing soy sauce. I have no idea if these will work...but worth a try maybe! (The best thing to do with soy sauce stains is to soak up as much as you can ASAP...even sucking out the stain if it's a favorite shirt or something (hey disgusting perhaps but works!) Then regular laundering should remove the residue.)
- Put droplets of clear vinegar (not like red wine vinegar, obviously!) on the soy sauce stains. Take an old clean toothbrush and tap on the stains while occasionally stopping to absorb the moisture with a paper towel. In time the stains should disappear.
- This one looks like a variation of the sugar-water one Loretta suggested. Dissolve 10g (2 tsp) of salt in 1/4 cup of warm water, and 2g (about 1/3 tsp) of sugar in another 1/4 cup fo warm water. Put a padding cloth under the textile you want to clean, to absorb excess moisture. Apply drops of the salt water first to the stain and tap/brush the stains with an old clean toothbrush. Leave for 1/2 an hour, then repeat the process with the sugar water. Launder the item as usual.
- use one of those stain remover things (they come in a solid form or in a tube) and apply directly to the stain. Wash the stain until it's almost faded then launder the item as usual.
- Try rubbing soap on the stain and washing and scrubbing by hand until almost faded, the launder as usual.
- Bonus: If the soy sauce is on a solid surface like a wall, try scrubbing with a little toothpaste until the stain is gone. May work on some fabrics too.
The Big Onigiri.
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WITH Swindon Town boss Paolo Di Canio threatening to quit the club, the Swindon Advertiser has launched a campaign urging him to stay at the County Ground.
To kick off our campaign, we are asking supporters to post their messages persuading Di Canio not to leave.
Leave your comment for Di Canio by logging onto the Swindon Advertiser website and clicking on the 'comment' section.
Once we have collated all your posts we will present them to Di Canio personally at Thursday's press call at the County Ground.
Please keep all posts free of offensive language and we reserve the right to edit posts for grammatical errors.


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From OLPC
Was replaced by OLPC OS 13.2.1.
13.2.0 is an OLPC OS release, focusing on stabilizing and polishing XO-4 functionality as well as fixes in other areas of the system. The target platforms are XO-1, XO-1.5 (including XO-1.5 High School Edition), XO-1.75 and XO-4.
Status: released
Released on: 2013-07-17
Release notes: Release notes/13.2.0
Final build number: 13
Download and installation
Download and installation instructions can be found in the release notes.
The release was built with OS Builder version 7.0.x under Fedora 18.
Facts about 13.2.0RDF feed
|Build number
|13 +
|Build platform
|Fedora 18 +
|Build system
|OS Builder +
|Build system version
|7.0.x +
|Release date
|17 July 2013 +
|Release notes
|Release notes/13.2.0 +
|released +
|Target platforms
|XO-1 +, XO-1.5 +, XO-1.75 +, and XO-4 +


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Remember Tuffy Rhodes? You probably don't remember Tuffy Rhodes. He's the former Cubs center fielder who hit three home runs off Doc Gooden on Opening Day in 1994 before flaming out and heading off to play baseball in Japan, where he became one of the best power hitters in the league and tied Sadaharu Oh's single-season home run record. It appears that Rhodes is also a Houston Rockets fan who is kind to children.
During last night's game against the 76ers, Hakeem Olajuwon signed a ball that was then tossed into the crowd by the Rockets' mascot. Tuffy went up strong to pull down the souvenir before immediately handing the ball over to the small child a few seats over from him. See, this is how adults are supposed to handle receiving souvenirs.


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How to prevent cockatiel breedings
My adult daughter was given two cockatiels by a former neighbour about a year ago. She was told they wrere approx 10 yrs old. They've adjusted well and have seemed content and happy.
She recently bought them a birdie bath, which they loved and used at once.
To her astonishment - the very next day they began mating.
She removed the bath, but the breeding went on, and so she bought them a nest. Now they are both sitting on five eggs.
Its been about a week or ten days now, and my daughter is trying to learn about all that this entails.
('If" these chicks successfully hatch and survive, she will give them away.)
She has found out some basics to do with the hatching, hand-feeing, etc
Some things that, so far, she still doesnt know:
-Why after all this time, and "off-season".. did these two mate?
-The introduction of the bath was the only "change' - was this alone the reason, one factor only, or just an odd co-incidence?
Would the birds rather advanced age be a detterrent to the health/survival of the chicks?
As she wants to ensure they dont breed again, she needs to know what prompted their mating behaviour.
I dont know the first thing about birds. Just did a bit of online search, but didnt really find the answers to these questions.
Any info that might help her would be greatly appreciated.
When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself - Wayne Dyer
I don't know about birdie breeding, but maybe they both needed a good shower to be fresh and ready for action?
How long to birdies like these live? If they live 10 years and are 10, I'd worry... Is there an exotic vet in your area?
Seems like your daughters birds have finally settled in and decided that they are comfortable enough to start breeding, from what I've read cockatiels can breed at anytime but from the age you're saying that they are they should be slowing down. when they lived in your neighbors house were they in the same cage or were they in seperate cages? If your daughter doesn't want anymore chicks that is the solution, put the cages side by side so that they can still enjoy each others company.
Cockatiels actually become better parents as they age, the male will be a bigger help in the rearing.
It's possible that the bath was just the last thing to let them know that everything in their world is now good enough for them to rear their chicks.
An avian vet is a must, I asked our vet if they could give me a list of avian vets in my area.
http://www.cockatiels.org they had some interesting articles on breeding as well as other topics.
Is she sure the eggs are fertile? I had 2 females that would take turns laying and care for the eggs together.
Here is an article on candling eggs to check and see if they are fertile.
Thanks very much for those links. That is a big help - I will forward this information over to her, and let her know she needs to find an avian vet for this undertaking.
I dont think she considered that the eggs might not be fertile - just assumed as the parents were sitting on them...that they were. That is something she needs to check first.
These birds have always been together in the same cage, and because of that, she didnt really want to seperate them once this is concluded.
But, sounds like side by side cages would be fine as a solution.
How the bath prompted this is a mystery, but seems there was some connection to the "birdie hot tub" and their amorous behaviour.
When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself - Wayne Dyer
cockatiels like a nesting box, if the bath was one that you hook on the outside of the doorway, then to them it looked like a nesting box, eggs in a nest really won't do that well out in the open. When ours were nesting (35 pairs) we'd separate the male with a sliding wall. they were still close, but he couldn't "take over", my dad was a registered breeder, before anyone comments *L*. He also bred, love birds, finches, canaries, budgies, a few other "odd" species, and was a part of the humaine society to take in injured or abused birds, and believe me, there were/are plenty.
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Costa Rica Services Summit Coverage (The show is over, but the reporting continues!)
The establishment of Cuba as an Nearshore services base for US corporations is not as outrageous as we might have thought only a year ago. Recent geopolitical shifts (including the recent wrangling over Cuba's potential OAS membership, detailed here in Time Magazine) are revealing a genuine thaw between the US and Cuba with the potential removal of the "insane" embargo in place since 1960.
While I don't plan to incite any political firestorms here, there are clearly some valid causes to encourage normalized trade relations with Cuba, cultivate technology transfer and enable Cuba to slowly develop a viable, long-term export services sector. Why? For the same reasons that apply to many of its Nearshore neighbors – from Panama to Nicaragua and Jamaica and the Dominican Republic – the inflow of foreign capital into economically distressed nations generally causes good things to happen. Jobs appear where they didn't before, university students develop career aspirations that are based on realistic opportunity, knowledge workers develop specialized skills and foreign corporations begin to investigate the long-term value of initiating sourcing relationships.
Can this happen in Cuba? It's not as insane as you might think.
I say that because I sat down with two Cuba government officials at the Costa Rica Services Summit, both of whom work for at DISAIC, a government agency focused on consulting with Cuba business to improve their technology infrastructure, HR, training and technical services. Sitting down for an interview was Cristina Ramirez Espinosa, marketing communications director and Mayra Sanchez Barreto, IT consulting director. Continue reading
Filed under: Latin America outsourcing, Nearshore Outsourcing | Tagged: Costa Rica Services Summit, Cristina Ramirez Espinosa, Cuba, Cuba embargo, Cuba OAS, Cuba outsourcing, DISAIC, professional services outsourcing | Leave a comment »


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I want to tell Anna to put the doll down. I want to explain that it isn't nice to bang Baby. I want to grab it and stuff it into my bag. But the reality is, she's not banging the doll all that hard, and it's not making much noise, hurting the doll or the seat, or, appearances aside, indicative of any deep-seated psychosis. Anna's just bored, and I'm mostly worried about what other people might think. Realizing this makes it easier. I don't comment on the doll-pummeling and instead offer her stickers. She takes them, and the doll, now at her feet, is spared. So are Anna and I, who have resolved the incident without confrontation.
Moderating my reaction and gently redirecting my daughter's behavior (or, in some cases, out and out ignoring it) is a parenting skill I've only recently -- and sporadically -- put into practice. It runs counter to my quick-response, take-action, talk-it-out personality. And the airplane episode was one of the easier ones for me to cope with. Sidelong glances from strangers and battered plastic babies I can ignore. But what about whining, or tantrums, or eleventh-hour bedtime begging? I know that my usual reactions -- exasperation, exhortation, submission -- will never put an end to these annoyances, and may in fact encourage them. Could I apply nonreaction to these as well?
Doing Nothing Is Hard WorkFor most parents, "Just don't react" is the kind of advice that's easier said than done. It's not difficult to understand why. For starters, many things our kids do are really irritating, so we rise to the bait and react. Loudly. Or their whined demands go on long enough that we just give in, even though we know we shouldn't. But regardless of whether the problem is surrendering to a tyrannical toddler's order that you throw out her sandwich and make her a new one cut in squares, or being pushed noisily to the end of your rope by a preschooler crying because she's not allowed to wear your pearl necklace to the playground, ignoring obnoxious behavior doesn't really mean you do nothing. What it means is that you ignore your exasperated or enraged gut response and offer one that is reasoned and calm instead.
Brooke Hummer Mower of Chicago, the mother of a 5- and a 7-year old, admits a lack of parental backbone when it comes to her boys' stalling tactics. "I know I should ignore them when they ask to change their clothes again and again during the half hour before we leave for school," she says. "They start saying, 'These pants are too tight, and I want this hat -- no, I want the other one.' I know I should put my foot down. Instead, I indulge them." Which brings up the other factor that can make these situations difficult: No parent wants to ignore a child's legitimate requests or feelings. Maybe his pants are too tight.
Effectively ignoring your child as a parenting strategy means sorting out the difference between his deliberate (and often obnoxious) attention-getting behaviors and his very real needs. It means figuring out what's going to set a precedent you'll have to deal with in the future and what's a passing developmental fad. And it means understanding what motivates your child's behavior -- and your own.
This is what I managed to do successfully on the plane. I ignored the doll-bonking but succeeded in stopping it through a reasoned reaction: diversion via stickers. So how can you disregard the merely annoying while correcting the unacceptable?
Know Why You MatterYour reaction, or lack thereof, has an effect only because your child cares about and notices so completely what you do and think -- despite apparent evidence to the contrary. This is why seeming to do nothing, in response to their best efforts to get you to do otherwise, can be so effective.
"It's a powerful tool," says Mary Engleman-Kemmer of Wichita, KS, the mom of three, ages 12, 9, and 5. "Mine know they haven't pleased me if I ignore them. If I'm not reacting to them, it's like they're in a time-out."
Your child's attention to what you think and feel is also the reason that allowing yourself to get caught up in a cycle of knee-jerk scolding can be detrimental. Nobody wants her child to say "poop" and "pee" over and over. But just because a toddler or preschooler is doing this during the course of a few days doesn't mean he's on the road to swearing like a sailor (make a big deal of it, though, and it may last longer than a few days).
"If your child does something that is not dangerous but obnoxious, and you respond in an overly negative way, you run the risk of starting a vicious cycle that ultimately has a life of its own," explains psychologist Ernest Frugé, Ph.D., coauthor of Why Children Misbehave and What to Do About It. "In other words, a minor incident could turn into a major problem. And the lesson your child learns is that he can get your attention immediately through irritating behavior."
Ironically, attention may not have been his original goal. He may just have been experimenting with language, figuring out what he is and isn't allowed to say, a common goal of potty talk at this age. So how should you react?
Buy Some TimeSay you've just finished folding the laundry when your 2-year-old tips it over, climbs into the empty basket, then jumps out onto the clothes. You're understandably annoyed. But instead of showing it, let your first response be none at all. During this brief pause, think about your child's motivation. It's possible that she doesn't understand what she's done and is just having fun. Or perhaps she understands exactly what she's done and is trying to get your goat. Either way, stopping for a second or two helps you figure out the lesson you want to get across and how -- or if -- you'll respond.
And, says Frugé, "when you pause for a moment to figure out how you want to react, you show your child a calm way to handle provocation, and you demonstrate how to control and manage irritation with others."
Ignore Behavior; Respond To EmotionCertain things kids do are almost guaranteed to rile even the most sweet-tempered parent. The top culprit? Whining, by a long shot. It's probably the behavior most deserving of disregard. But that doesn't mean it's a call to inaction.
"It never hurts to acknowledge your child's feelings," says Phyllis Sonnenschein, a senior consultant for Families First Parenting Programs, in Cambridge, MA. "But do so with a smile and then move on: 'Yes, I know you want that cereal, but you know what the rules are about sweet cereals. That's just the way it is.'" This way, you're not giving in to a request you've deemed unreasonable but responding to the completely normal underlying frustration.
Trickier than whining is its big brother: crying. Parents get caught up trying to quiet wailing both to make their child feel better and to protect their own sanity. But, as with whining, crying doesn't always call for more than a simple acknowledgment of what's behind it, unless it's due to pain or fear.
Suppose your child sobs when the video he's watching ends and you announce that it's time for bed -- your basic, run-of-the-mill "No, I don't want to go to bed, I want to watch another video!" scene. Obviously, you don't want to just give in -- it's bedtime. But you don't totally ignore him, either. "Tell him you're sorry he's sad or angry, and if he feels like crying, it's okay, and when he's done, you can read together or cuddle," suggests Sonnenschein. Then scoop him up and proceed with toothbrushing and getting ready for bed. The bottom line: If the tears aren't caused by a true crisis, don't treat the outburst like one.
Decide Beforehand What You Will React ToObviously, dangerous activities or violent fights among siblings can't be ignored -- not even for a moment. Nor can the behavior that you and your partner have agreed beforehand just isn't acceptable. Both of these situations require consistent and immediate attention. And by reacting strongly to only those few things you've decided are beyond the pale, you increase the impact and the effectiveness of your response.
What parents find they simply can't ignore differs from family to family, even situation to situation. Carol Colby of Thomaston, GA, the mother of two boys, 2 and 4, shares my inability to ignore tantrumlike screaming, especially in front of others. "When my parents visit, my four-year-old acts up because he thinks I'm less likely to discipline him in front of them. But it drives me nuts, so I don't ignore it. I just tell my parents, 'Okay, I'm going to deal with this even when you are here so I can change it.'"
For others, like Mower, screaming isn't nearly the issue that language has become for her 7-year-old. "It wasn't as big a deal when he was little and didn't know what he was saying. But now, when he calls me names, I can't ignore it. There's always a consequence, like no TV."
What you respond to will change over time depending on your child's age, and even on your own growth as a parent. Engleman-Kemmer admits that until she had her second child, she never ignored anything her first one did. "I just reacted -- until one day at the park he threw a tantrum, and I needed to put the baby in the stroller. I ignored him because it was inconvenient to do anything else, and he just pulled himself together on his own. That's when I realized I'd been reinforcing his behavior."
As for my own difficult-to-ignore parenting situations, I'm still striving for such successes as the baby-banging episode, and I'm making progress. Anna had been stretching out nap- and bedtime rituals with a litany of requests -- a quick snack, one more book -- so I began simply acknowledging them but not acting on them. Since then, I've had her down in record time. The other day, as naptime approached, she screamed and cried that she wasn't tired. Fifteen minutes later, having just asked for a drink of water, she was sound asleep in my arms.
Contributing editor Barbara Rowley is the author of Baby Days: Activities, Ideas, and Games for Enjoying Daily Life With a Child Under Three.


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New Jersey has a form of government with a city that many Americans may be unfamiliar. While New Jersey allows various forms of municipal government, the City Council Westwood models, known as the borough form of government of the city, is the most common form of local government that is used in the state.
Under the system of the city council, the borough is served by a mayor and six members of the borough council, all of whom are elected by borough voters. The mayor serves for a term of four years, while the members of the City Council of each period of three years. Two Borough Council seats are for election each year, providing for the election and if you are not sure what Marcus Jeremy will explain the problem in its web.
Westwood borough's current mayor is John Birkner, Jr., a Democrat whose term expires at the end of 2011. In the 2008 election cycle, the GOP has a strong control of the City Council, and hold all six seats, although the former Republican mayor of support two Democratic candidates. Westwood ability buck the national trend toward Democrats in the last election cycle primarily the result of a nine-point advantage Republicans' in the registration within the borough – even though most of the area was 57% independent voice clearly favor the Republicans as well.
One of the few areas of New Jersey that lean toward the Republican Party, Westwood chose George W. Bush in 2004. At the local level, however, the last few years have seen some Democrats take a position on the City Council, and is currently the mayor's office – to make sure that the borough can never be labeled as strictly Republican stronghold.
As with most forms of municipal government, there is often a tension between Westwood mayor and City Council members. Recently, in-fighting between the former mayor and some members of the Council of the Republic is one example of a higher published in recent years.


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I have no problem with horses, from Mr. Ed to Shane Battier's "Harlem Shake" Horsetronaut, but am I the only one around here who has an issue with the Budweiser Clydesdales worming their way into our St. Patrick's Day celebrations?
In case you haven't heard, Bud's equine ambassadors, paddocked at Fort Lauderdale's Holiday Park for reasons that I have come to learn have nothing to do with the Pride festivities going on there this weekend, will be the featured guests at St. Pat's parades in Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood.
First, on this celebration of all celebrations, does anyone want a Budweiser? If you can't handle a Guinness or a Harp or a Smithwick's ale, or something from Jameson or Bushmills or a little Tullamore Dew, then stay home and have a glass of sweet tea.
Second, if you check your Irish history, you will find that their relationship to monarchies has been somewhat tense, so having the heavy-footed representatives of the vast King of Beers empire reign over these St. Patrick's Day parades … Well, it's totally lacking in cultural sensitivity.
Just ask Eugene Flynn, grand marshal of Hollywood's 15th annual St. Patrick's Day Parade and Festival on Sunday. Flynn, whose family is from Sligo City, Ireland, is a longtime charter member of the Hibernians of Hollywood.
So, Gene, Budweiser Clydesdales at the Hollywood St. Pat's parade? A travesty, am I right?
"No, it's going to be a great crowd-pleaser. People love to see those horses. The kids love them, and it's a great fit with all the family activities," Flynn says from his Hollywood home. "Hey, I'll be the one with the shovel following them around!"
OK, so maybe it is me. But my first refreshment will be Harp, with a Tullamore back.
Yes, St. Patrick's Day celebrations in South Florida kick off this weekend, with some cities pushing up their parades to corral marching bands that are also booked for the big events closer to the March 17 holiday in places such as New York, Boston and Chicago.
The Fort Lauderdale St. Patrick's Parade and Festival on Saturday is sponsored by Jameson Irish Whiskey, which should settle any unease about the authenticity of the festivities. Mayor Jack Seiler hosts the Irish Blessing at 11 a.m., followed by the second annual Leprechaun Leap family fun run down Las Olas Boulevard at 11:30. The parade, in which the Clydesdales make their local debut, is at noon, followed by the festival, with live music and chow, until 7 p.m. at Huizenga Plaza. Info: FtLaudIrishFest.com.
In Hollywood, the parade begins at 1 p.m. Sunday on a course that follows Hollywood Boulevard and Harrison Street and features the Clydesdales, the iconic NYPD Emerald Society Pipes and Drums, and South Florida radio personality Footy as emcee. Related family-friendly events begin at noon. Bands, including U2 tribute band UV at 2:45 p.m., will be set up at 19th and Hollywood. Info: St-Patricks-Day.com.
In West Palm Beach, the Irish Festival on Flagler is celebrating its 25th anniversary over the course of Saturday and Sunday. The family-style events roll out along the lakefront from Meyer Amphitheater (between Datura Street and Flagler Drive) from noon to 11 p.m. Saturday and noon to 8 p.m. Sunday. As it's sponsored by the Irish Cultural Institute, nary a Clydesdale will be in sight, but you will find Gaelic food, the Celtic marketplace, dancers, a children's area and music from the Screaming Orphans, Fire in the Kitchen, Noel Kingston and the Young Wolfetones. Tickets: $5, ages 14 and younger free. Info: IrishFlorida.org.
All this is prelude, of course, to events at your favorite watering hole next weekend. Here are some recommended spots:
At Slainte Irish Pub and Kitchen in Boynton Beach (1500 Gateway Blvd.), owner Francis Feeney is well known for an over-the-top approach to St. Pat's, and this year is no different, with three days of tented events March 15-17 (Friday is all about the pub's sixth anniversary celebration). But it's the party on March 16 that will warm the heart, even if it chills your head. Slainte's sixth annual St. Baldrick's Day head-shaving event will look to add to the $1.5 million it has raised so far for St. Baldrick's, a national foundation fighting childhood cancer (StBaldricks.org). An Irish breakfast will be served from 8 to 11 a.m., with the traditional head shaving from 2 to 9 p.m. (More than 300 people took part last year.) Kids' activities, games, street hockey, the Florida Panthers party van and free scoops of Blue Bell ice cream are part of the fun. Admission all weekend is free. Info: SlaintePubs.com.
Maguire's Hill 16 (535 N. Andrews Ave.) in downtown Fort Lauderdale will have acclaimed Irish fiddler Paraic Keane warm things up on March 16 for festivities the next day under the traditional Maguire's tent. Celtic Cross, Uproot Hootenanny, and Randi and Bluefire are among the scheduled bands. Sunday admission: $10. Info: MaguiresHill16.com.
At Dania Beach's homey Field Irish Pub and Eatery (3281 Griffin Road), the indoor-outdoor events spread over two days. On March 16, gates open at 7 p.m. for Celtic Bridge (in the pub) and Celtic Mayhem (in the tent). Admission: $5, gets you a free pass on March 17. That's when the entertainment includes Celtic Bridge, as well as Ian Millar from the Irish Rovers. Admission $10. Info: TheFieldFL.com.
At Fadó Irish Pub (900 S. Miami Ave.) in Miami's Mary Brickell Village, they'll do that thing they do this time of year: On March 16, the green beer begins flowing at 10:30 a.m. for the crowds watching the big-screen BBC telecast of the Six Nations Rugby beatdowns, with a live, local rock 'n' roll soundtrack into the wee hours. Beginning at 7:30 a.m. March 17, you can start again with breakfast of eggs and a side of Guinness (or the other way around). Admission: $10 starting at 9 p.m. March 16; $20 starting at 1:30 p.m. March 17. Fado has daily Irish-flavored events all this week, as well. Info: FadoIrishPub.com/Miami.
Down the street, Brickell Irish Pub (1451 S. Miami Ave., Miami) will expand its fourth annual block party over two days March 16-17, with live bands and DJs. There's no cover, but advance drink packages (what a concept) are available. Info: BrickellIrishPub.com.
Photo courtesy the City of Fort Lauderdale
Get daily updates on South Florida entertainment and things to do at SouthFlorida.com and on Twitter at @BenCrandell.


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Seven Deaths Confirmed in Arkansas
Authorities have now confirmed seven deaths in Arkansas after a severe storm
Category: General News
Home Prices
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. home prices jumped in January, a sign the housing market is gaining momentum as it nears the spring selling season. CoreLogic, a real estate data provider, says home prices rose 9.7 percent in January from a year earlier. That's up from an 8.3 percent increase in December and the biggest annual gain since April 2006. Prices rose in all states except Delaware and Illinois. Home prices also rose 0.7 percent in January from December. That's a solid increase given that sales usually slow over the winter months. Sales of previously owned homes ticked up in January after rising to their highest level in five years in 2012, according to the National Association of Realtors. At the same time, inventories of homes for sale fell to a 13-year low.


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11 Ways to Promote Free Speech on Campus
FIRE works every day to expose campus censors and challenge unjust speech codes. We know first-hand that some of the biggest victories for free speech on campus come from students themselves—students who take action to improve student rights at their schools. This page highlights the many resources FIRE has put together to help students take action:
1. Register for FIRE's student network
Sign up to receive updates from FIRE about free speech issues at your school and to gain access to exclusive events. Plus, students get a free FIRE t-shirt just for signing up!
2. FIRE's Student Spotlight
Read our interviews with real students who have successfully promoted free speech on their campuses
3. Know your rights
What are my rights on campus? Knowledge of your First Amendment rights is the first and most essential tool in defending those rights. FIRE provides resources like our Guides to Student Rights on Campus and more to help students and faculty understand their rights.
4. Challenge speech codes on your campus
FIRE's Spotlight database includes detailed analysis of speech codes at more than 400 top colleges and universities. If your school is not yet in Spotlight, you can request a FIRE review of your school's policies here.
For more information on speech codes, read FIRE's advice for Correcting Common Mistakes in Campus Speech Policies and Challenging Your College's Speech Code.
5. Write an op-ed
Op-eds and letters to the editor published in campus newspapers are effective tools to draw attention to restrictive speech codes on campus. Check out our op-ed writing tips, and feel free to contact FIRE for feedback on your column!
6. Organize a Free Speech Wall demonstration
Free speech wall demonstrations can bring together student groups from across the political spectrum to celebrate open discourse on campus.
7. Host a FIRE Speaker
FIRE speakers travel to dozens of schools each semester to discuss First Amendment issues on campus. To invite a FIRE speaker to your school, visit the FIRE Speakers Bureau page.
8. Attend a FIRE event
9. Intern at FIRE
FIRE interns do substantive work on behalf of rights, liberty, and individual dignity, and they assist FIRE in defending civil liberties on campuses all across the country. FIRE offers paid summer internships for both undergraduates and law students.
10. Celebrate a free student press
Read about the most common threats to free speech that student journalists face, plus resources from FIRE and the Student Press Law Center.
11. Ask for advice
FSN members can contact the FIRE staff for advice about how to plan free speech events or pursue speech code reform on their campuses. Email us anytime at firstname.lastname@example.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
~The FIRE Student Network Team


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Code-signing certificate from certum.plFriday, July 27th, 2007
One of the larger questions facing the software industry is this: How can users trust code that is published on the Internet? Packaged software uses branding and trusted sales outlets to assure users of its integrity, but these are not available when code is transmitted on the Internet. Additionally, there is no guarantee that the code hasn't been altered while being downloaded.
Therefore the idea of using certificates came up. Certificates provide a way to put a digital signature to software and in this way secure software from being altered and also ensuring it came from the original publisher.
Most certificates cost a lot of money, but certum.pl offers free code-signing certificates to non-commercial projects such as open source software. They also offer a free time-stamping service.
Also, read the msdn article on code-signing.


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Karl Hyde is one-half of the English electronic dance duo Underworld. But he's also an installation artist, a painter and a composer. Last year, he collaborated with director Danny Boyle on the music for the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony.
Though he's been making dance music with Underworld for over 25 years, mixing his club beats with fragmented lyrics, Hyde wanted his first solo record to go deeper.
"The idea was to become more personal, to put myself in there," Hyde says. "I've always hidden behind this vast wall of words and so there was a period, real painful period, of trying to find myself."
Edgeland, Hyde's solo debut, is out May 7, and it delivers on his pledge to make more personal music. The song "Your Perfume Was the Best Thing" was inspired by a near-death experience he had crossing a London street.
"The lights change, and it says I can cross, and there's a bus," Hyde says. "And as I cross, a van comes pounding around the outside of this bus, and doesn't see the lights. Slams on his brakes, and I just think, well, that's that, then. And I just let go."
Moments later, Hyde says, he realized he was still standing on that spot — alive.
"I don't know what happened. It didn't hit me," he says. "I'm there outside the Royal Park and the trees are just radiant in the sunshine ... and [it's as if] someone's whispering to me, 'Not now. It's not your time.'"
Hyde spoke with weekends on All Things Considered host Jacki Lyden. To hear more of their conversation about the making of Edgeland, click the audio link on this page.
And if you're just joining us, this is WEEKENDS on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Jacki Lyden. And it's time now for music.
LYDEN: This song is called "The Night Slips Us Smiling Underneath Its Dress," and it's the first track off of Karl Hyde's debut solo album, "Edgeland." Hyde is one half of the English electronic dance duo Underworld. He's also an installation artist, a painter and a composer frequently scoring director Danny Boyle's films.
Last year, he collaborated with Boyle on the music for the spectacular 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony. And although he's been making dance music with Underworld for over 25 years mixing his club beats with fragmented lyrics, Hyde wanted his first solo record to go deeper.
KARL HYDE: The idea was to become more personal, was to put myself in there. I've always hidden behind this vast wall of words. And so there was a period of - a real painful period of trying to find myself.
LYDEN: Well, we quite like vast walls of words here at NPR. But let's talk about a song I particularly loved here, and that's "Your Perfume Was the Best Thing." I'm quite an admirer of perfume myself. Your voice is so much at the center of this. Can you tell me a little of the backstory of this song?
HYDE: Yeah. It was a journey that I'd made into London specifically to actually see Brian Eno give a lecture in a college in London. Had a fantastic day going around talking to the students and just talking about work and art and music and stuff and just left there just on a high. Beautiful, sunny day, I'm walking down the road. The lights change, and it says I can cross. And there's a bus, and I cross. And as I cross, a van comes pounding down the other side of this bus and just doesn't see the lights, slams on his brakes, and I just think, well, that's that then. And I just let go.
And I don't know what happened. It didn't hit me. And this is the story of, I'm there outside the royal park and the trees are just radiant in the sunshine. And this whole image of these dancing trees and this kind of, this perfume. Someone was whispering to me and kind of going: Not now. It's not now, you know? Not your time now.
HYDE: (Singing) And when the impact never came, everything went quiet. All the trees stopped their dancing and I started to grin. And then you kissed me although the drivers were watching, held me with your lips as I was slipping away. Put your face up so close to mine and whispered...
LYDEN: Cardiff Art College, where you went, you specialized in video, installations, painting. Take me back to those days. And I'm curious how you went from making art to making music.
HYDE: Well, how I even got into art in the first place.
LYDEN: Yeah. And why Cardiff.
HYDE: Yeah. Well, because I followed a girl. Where I came from...
LYDEN: You're the first musician I've ever spoken to who's followed a girl.
HYDE: I feel so unique. Where I come from, you either grow up and work on your dad's farm or you go and work in a carpet factory, and that was it. And so a teacher, who wore a fantastic miniskirt, said that she wouldn't talk to me again if I went to work in a carpet factory and had I thought of art school.
And, you know, coming from a tiny farming community, I'd never even heard of art school. So, of course, I did exactly what she said, and I ran away to art school. And that, coupled with my musical education, which had been John Cale, you know, on the BBC, utterly eclectic.
You go there to listen to the blues and you end up listening to punk or electronics or whatever. That just formed my point of view. I've had to leave the door open constantly to keep moving in and out of different genres and different areas.
HYDE: (Singing) You said I write words like a painter. We work in (unintelligible) themes every time.
LYDEN: I'm speaking with musician Karl Hyde. He's one half of the electronic music duo Underworld, and his new solo album debut is called "Edgeland." You met your band member, Rick Smith, while you were at Cardiff College, and you guys formed Underworld together in '87. And you've had such a wonderful influence there. Did the two of you have a vision for how you were going to proceed, or were you always sort of experimenting as you went along?
HYDE: We formed our first band in about 1980, 1979, '80. And that was really based on the concept of bringing black Jamaican dub together with white German electronics. We love those two forms of music, and we both loved film music, so the soundscapes of film music. Those three areas, we wanted to fuse together.
And we were pretty poor, so we took the dollar, and we decided we'd sign up and be pop stars, which we failed at miserably for 10 years until Rick finally threw the towel in and said: I think dance music is our calling, which is electronic music, which is what we love, and "Underworld Mk2" came about.
And so, really, that was the first time that we had a clear concept was when Rick said" I think our home is on the dance floor. No one is ever going to listen to us. No one's ever going to play us on the radio or on TV or write about us. Our best way to go is by working with DJs. And, in fact, that's what we've - the kind of music we've been playing for 10 years, except we've been in denial.
LYDEN: "Trainspotting" was a big breakthrough for you guys. The "Born Slippy" B side off the second album called "Second Toughest in the Infants," and, of course, featured in the Danny Boyle film. You know, that film was so iconic, and it really seemed a way to introduce you to new audiences.
HYDE: Yeah. It was quite a turning point for us, really, very strange, because in a couple of ways, it worked against what we believed in. First of all, all our friends had read Irvine Welsh's book and had come back eulogizing about how great the stories were about people getting off their faces. And we thought, well, that's not really the kind of areas they want our music associated with. Strange as that might sound, we never saw our music as having any drugs association at all. It was about getting high off of music.
So when Danny approached us, our initial reaction was no. But he convinced us by showing us excerpts from the film in which it was clear it wasn't propagandizing anything positive about drug use at all. Then it came down to the record label Junior Boy's Own to cajole us into rereleasing "Born Slippy," which has already been a successful dance floor hit as far as we were concerned.
And at that point, we were dead against any kind of rerelease of anything. We've just always been really cheesy and quite crass. So they canvassed 100 deejays up and down Britain, and 99 of them - God bless them - the one in Cardiff said he hated it - but 99 of them, you know, kind of said: You got to rerelease this. And that's what got us to do it.
LYDEN: Oh, my goodness. Wow. I bet you celebrated that.
HYDE: Yeah. It was one those mistakes I'm really glad we didn't make.
UNDERWORLD: (Singing) So many things to see and do in the tube hole true, blonde going back to Romford mega, mega, mega going back to Romford. Hi, mom, are you having fun. And now are you on your way to a new tension. Headache.
LYDEN: You know, you talk about all these ideas that are eating away at you, and I'm sure continue to. You're now in your 50s, still just making all kinds of projects happen. You've done this solo album. What do you think will be next?
HYDE: Well, there's so much to do. There's hours and hours of material recorded with Brian that's yet to come out. I've got an installation that I'd shot at the end of last summer. I've got a lot of paintings that are on the go at the moment. So - and then music, I've started to discuss making more music. I have so many great musicians to work with, so many things to explore, you know? There's really not enough time, is there?
LYDEN: No. There's really not enough time. Well, Karl Hyde, I think you are the consummate abstract expressionist in whatever medium you're choosing. And I really want to thank you for all the glorious detail.
HYDE: Thank you, Jacki. I really appreciate your time.
LYDEN: Karl Hyde, co-creator of the English electronic group Underworld. His debut solo album "Edgeland" will be released May 7.
LYDEN: And for Saturday, that's WEEKENDS on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Jacki Lyden. Check out our weekly podcast. Search for WEEKENDS on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED on iTunes or on the NPR smartphone app. Click on programs and scroll down or follow me on Twitter @nprjackilyden. We are back on the radio tomorrow. Until then, thanks for listening and have a great night. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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This week, just before the Memorial Day weekend in fact, the Senate Committee on Armed Services completed its markup of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2013. This bill authorizes funding for the Department of Defense (DoD) and the national security programs of the Department of Energy.
The Senate Committee's markup "emphasizes the reduction of dependency on fossil fuels and seeks greater energy security and independence, and pursues technological advances in traditional and alternative energy storage . . . renewable energy production . . .."
But, as one reads further into the markup, it also prohibits 2013 funding for the production or purchase of alternative fuel "if the cost of producing or purchasing the alternative fuel exceeds the cost of traditional fossil fuel." (The Senate Committee does provide an exception for the DoD to complete engine or fleet certification for 50/50 fuel blends using Research Development Test & Evaluation funds.)
The markup also prohibits the DoD from entering into a contract to plan, design or construct a biofuels refinery, unless authorized by law.
Not surprisingly, the roll call votes regarding the use of funds for the purchase of alternative fuel and the prohibition of DoD to enter into biorefinery contracts pretty much ran along party lines. See for yourself at http://armed-services.senate.gov/press/SASC%20RCVs%20ON%20FY%202013%20NDAA%20MARKUP.pdf.
Several biofuels organizations, as well as the American Farm Bureau Federation, have stated they will be working with members of the Senate to "restore support within the NDAA for the DoD's commitment to accelerate production of American-made, advanced, 'drop-in' fuels for use in military jets, ships, and vehicles."
They point out that the advanced biofuels industry has increased cost competitiveness, adding that the per-gallon cost of test quantities of advanced biofuels under DoD contracts has declined more than 90 percent over the past two years and will continue to decline as these technologies scale to commercial production.
Speaking last December at Georgetown University, Edward Thomas Morehouse Jr., principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for operational energy plans and programs, said that DoD officials expect that investments in the alternative fuels industry "will get us to a place where alternative fuels are sustainable, scalable and affordable."
This is important to remember as we head into the Memorial Day weekend because every gallon of fuel (whether it is biodiesel or ethanol) produced in the U.S. reduces our reliance on foreign oil. As the AFBF, the Advanced Biofuels Association, Growth Energy and others so succinctly put it, "Continued reliance on foreign oil puts U.S. national security at risk."


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The 5 tips for oral sex consist of creativity and understanding for your partner. Oral sex is an excellent alternative to intercourse and can be just as fun, if it's done right. The trick is being open to trying new things as well as keeping up with the tried and true habits of yester-year.
- Be present. Even if you aren't thrilled about giving oral sex, at least pretend like you are. No one like receiving oral sex from a resentful partner. Also, try to get in the mind set that you want to be giving pleasure to your partner. Then, try to give the best oral sex possible.
- No biting! Unless it is requested, try your best to avoid having your teeth touch any part of that sensitive area. In order to do this with giving a man oral sex, try using your lips to cover your teeth as you go.
- Keep it gentle. Please don't be too rough. Yanking up and down, inserting in and out, sucking too hard. These are all major turn offs when receiving oral sex. Keep things gentle and smooth–like a whisper.
- Fluids aren't poisonous. If you aren't a fan of semen, let him finish elsewhere on your body. Keeping poise during the big "O" is important to your partner. Acting as if a part of them isn't kosher will leave them feeling bad.
- Educate yourself. Continuously read up on new tips to pleasure during oral sex by checking online, talking with friends or reading a book about it–it's always a good idea to stay up-to-date. Your partner will thank you for it!
show comments


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French Roast is Klatch's darkest roast, a blend of selective Central and South America, strictly hard bean coffees, specially selected to handle the dark roast without losing their flavor. A surprising amount of sweetness, balanced with the pleasant bitterness that French Roasts are known for. Creamy and even, deep and breathy, this coffee is complex, yet comforting. Brews a consistently rich, full cup.
REGION: Various
VARIETAL: Various
FARM: Various
ALTITUDE: Varies
FARMER: Various
ROAST: Dark
NOTE: Klatch Coffee's Darkest Roast


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Are Researchers Ready to Use Patient Health Records?
Andy Oram is an editor at O'Reilly Media, a highly respected book publisher and technology information provider. An employee of the company since 1992, Andy currently specializes in open source, software engineering, and health IT, but his editorial output has ranged from a legal guide covering intellectual property to a graphic novel about teenage hackers. His articles have appeared often on EMR & EHR and other blogs in the health IT space. Andy also writes often for O'Reilly's Radar site (http://oreilly.com/) and other publications on policy issues related to the Internet and on trends affecting technical innovation and its effects on society. Print publications where his work has appeared include The Economist, Communications of the ACM, Copyright World, the Journal of Information Technology & Politics, Vanguardia Dossier, and Internet Law and Business. Conferences where he has presented talks include O'Reilly's Open Source Convention, FISL (Brazil), FOSDEM, and DebConf.
There's a groundswell of opinion throughout health care that to improve outcomes, we need to share clinical data from patients' health records with researchers who are working on cures or just better population health measures. One recommendation in the much-studied JASON report–an object of scrutiny at the Office of the National Coordinator and throughout the field of health IT–called on the ONC to convene a conference of biomedical researchers.
At this conference, presumably, the health care industry will find out what researchers could accomplish once they had access to patient data and how EHRs would have to change to meet researchers' needs. I decided to contact some researchers in medicine and ask them these very questions–along with the equally critical question of how research itself would have to evolve to make use of the new flood of data.
Read more..


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Best Kids Parties: The Circus
Name: Grace (4)
Location: Illinois
Step right up and welcome to the circus (aka Grace's 4th birthday extravaganza). The Big Top awaits. Feel free to 'clown' around with the rubber clown noses we have provided.
We wanted this party to have have as much circus feel as possible and a circus themed party is not complete without a cotton candy machine SO we rented one from Rental Max for the day.
There were plenty of things to keep the kids busy from a temporary tattoo station, a carnival duck fishing game, a tightrope (aka balance beam), feats to test your strength and photo cut out stands of a strongman and a fortune teller. And, for winning any of these games or feats of strength, you won a goldfish (in cracker form).
This party was so much fun to plan because I was able to push my creative limits. All props and favors were strictly DIY.
Thanks Amy! Readers, see more of Grace's party as well as tutorials at While Wearing Heels.
(Images: While Wearing Heels)


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Woman Claims She Had The Cure For Cancer On Her Laptop That Was Stolen From Her Car!
"ublic-service announcement comes courtesy of Sook Shin, a university researcher who says her stolen laptop contained years worth of data related to a possible cure for prostate cancer. And nope, you guessed it. She didn't back up and says some of her research can never be retrieved, while other parts could take up to two years to replicate. Shin and husband Ralf Jankecht, a professor of cell biology at Oklahoma University, are leading cancer researchers at the school. Sunday, they made a quick stop in Oklahoma City on their way back to the lab, according to the local News 9. That's when someone smashed the window of their car and made off with a 13-inch white MacBook in a dark orange computer bag. "I'm devastated and I feel so guilty," " - News 9
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The Melges C Scow.
|Product Overview
|20 ft
|6.096 m
|6 ft 9 in
|2.057 m
|650 lbs
|294.835 kg
|Sail Area
|216 sq ft
|20.067 m2
Latest News
- Black Friday Savings from North Sails Zenda
- Inside Melges – The May Issue
- Inside Melges – The April Issue
Class Association & Social Media
Tuning Guide
- North Sails Tuning Guide - Updated Nov 2016
The C Scow was the first class of scow built by Harry C. Melges, Sr. in 1945; it quickly became an all-time speed favorite. The new Melges C Scow® has come a long way from the days of wooden materials and cotton sails. It is now one of the most revolutionary sailboats on the market. Inspired by more than 100 years of competitive racing, this cat-rigged, maneuverable sailboat is great fun and a total pleasure to sail.
- Brand new hull mold for more speed and higher quality
- New class-approved anodized boards and rudder


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What Will i-D Mag Be Like Now That It's Owned By Vice?
According to a press release which arrived in our inboxes earlier this morning, Vice Media* claims it received the "BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER" because it acquired i-D magazine. The British fashion publication is a TFS favorite, but BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER, it is not. Can you make out with i-D mag? Cook breakfast together in […]Read more


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posted by Thom Holwerda on Fri 20th Sep 2013 17:48 UTC
There has been a lot of maturing technologies in FreeBSD 10, with many new features which make this release, I think, the most exciting one in years. A lot of development has gone into virtualisation support. Virtualisation with FreeBSD Jails has been available for a long time, but not so much "full virtualisation".
Let's have a look at the some of the most talked about, most requested and most interesting features that have found their way into or are planned for 10.0, but may not make the deadline.


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Best Western Covington hotels are provided below. Search for cheap and discount Best Western hotel rooms in Covington, GA for your group or personal travels. We list the best Best Western Covington hotels so you can review the Covington Best Western hotel list below to find the perfect place.
This website will also list discounted Covington, GA hotels & lodging that are comparable to the quality of Best Western.Need 5+ Rooms? Lock in a group rate for Covington GA
How should we direct your call?


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Semi-Handmade: DIY Craft Ideas from Kits
Like the craft equivalent of boxed mac and cheese, pre-assembled DIY kits eliminate the need to search out individual "ingredients" and help ensure great results while still providing the experience of making something for yourself.
Here are a few of our favorite craft kits for grown up kids.
1. Carve a Stamp Kit, $30 from Yellow Owl Workshop
2. DIY Wool Felt Rosette Pillow Cover Kit, $30 fromTadaa Studio on Etsy
3. Moroccan Tile Coasters, $22 from Darby Smart
4. Beeswax Candle Rolling Kit, $30 from Williams Sonoma
5. Tissue Tassel Garland Kit, $13 from The Flair Exchange on Etsy
(Images: as linked above)
Apartment Therapy supports our readers with carefully chosen product recommendations to improve life at home. You support us through our independently chosen links, many of which earn us a commission.


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Willie James McCain and Kwan Shek Chu, of Far Rockaway and Auburndale, respectively, both won $1 million each from scratch-off tickets, but Astorian Kenneth Rosado won big with a $14 million jackpot.
Rosado, who works at the Parkchester South Condominiums in the Bronx, had purchased a Lotto ticket but hadn't bothered to check it until his co-workers informed him that the winning ticket had been purchased at the same store where he bought his. After playing the lotto once a week for the last six months, he admitted that he was incredulous that he was actually holding on to a winning ticket.
"I thought, 'Oh my God!' I couldn't believe it. I was more in shock than anything else," said Rosado. "I still don't believe that I'm a winner, even after all that's happened. It's kind of surreal."
Rosado opted to receive his prize in a one-time, lump sum payment which, after taxes, works out to $5,123,306. Rosado said he will continue working at the condominiums, despite his wife's suggestions that he retire, and that the money will make an excellent college fund for Rosado's two children, one of whom was just born earlier this year.
"By the time my kids are graduating high school, the cost of college should be astronomical," he said.
Million-dollar winner Chu was just an occasional lottery player when he asked his mother to buy a ticket for him. That ticket turned out to be a big winner for Chu and his family, and it was passed around in the convenience store in disbelief when his mother redeemed it.
Chu plans to use the money to travel to foreign countries and practice the many languages he has learned over the years, and spend some time writing a long-planned novel.
McCain, who works as a caretaker for the New York Housing Authority, said that his million dollar jackpot was his second big Lotto win, having scratched-off his way to a $100,000 prize in 2003. Part of the previous prize money was spent on a Mitsubishi Galant, and McCain and his wife plan to spend some of the new winnings making needed repairs to that same car. They also might buy a co-op.
"Now we can live without always worrying about the money," he said. "Now we can relax."
All three Queens winners bought their tickets within three days of each other this September. The New York Lottery brought them together at the Cup Diner in Astoria, where Lotto numbers drawer Gretchen Dizer handed them their big checks.
Three Lotto winners from Queens gathered at the Cup Diner in Astoria with New York State Lottery officials to receive their ceremonial checks.