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This is a lesson about designing and building an effective sunshade for a model MESSENGER craft. Learners will build a model of MESSENGER. They will use a scientific approach to solve problems and work as a cooperative team. They will discover their... (View More) own strengths, and those of others, and will witness firsthand the importance of both successes and failures. This is activity 4 of 4 for the Pre-K - 4 range of "Staying Cool." (View Less)
Materials Cost: $1 - $5 per group of students
This is a design challenge about heat transfer and insulation. Learners will apply the scientific method to design and build a container that will keep items cool when placed in boiling water. They will practice collaboration in team-building and in... (View More) teamwork. This is lesson 4 of 4 at the Grade 9-12 range of the module, Staying Cool. (View Less)
Materials Cost: Over $20 per group of students
This is a lesson about infrared radiation. Learners will investigate invisible forms of light as they conduct William Herschel's experiment and subsequent discovery of infrared radiation. They will construct a device to measure the presence of... (View More) infrared radiation in sunlight, explain that visible light is only part of the electromagnetic spectrum of radiation emitted by the Sun, follow the path taken by Herschel through scientific discovery, explain why we would want to use infrared radiation to study Mercury and other planets, and explain how excess infrared radiation is a concern for the MESSENGER mission. This is activity 1 of 4 at the Grade 5-8 band of "Staying Cool." (View Less)
Materials Cost: $5 - $10 per group of students
This is a lesson about radiation and the use of the scientific method to solve problems of too much radiation. Learners will build snow goggles similar to those used by the Inuit (designed to block unwanted light, while increasing the viewer's... (View More) ability to see in a bright region) to understand some of the engineering challenges encountered while protecting the solar cells on the Mercury MESSENGER. This is Lesson 2 of 4 at the middle level in the module, Staying Cool. (View Less)
This is a activity about applying the scientific method to a design challenge. Learners will design and build a platform that will be placed on a heat source. The platform is expected to serve as an insulator for a cube of gelatin. The goal is to... (View More) keep the inside temperature of the gelatin cube as cool as possible. Materials cost will vary, depending on materials chosen by group (within budget set by the teacher). Ties are made to the Mercury MESSENGER mission. Note: the student guide starts on p. 17 of the PDF. (View Less)
Materials Cost: $1 - $5 per group of students
Students create a physical model illustrating soil water balance using drinking glasses to represent the soil column, and explain how the model can be used to interpret data and form predictions. Using data from the GLOBE Data Server, they calculate... (View More) the potential evapotranspiration, average monthly temperatures and precipitation for their model. This is a learning activity associated with the GLOBE hydrology investigations and is supported by the Hydrology chapter of the GLOBE Teacher's Guide. (View Less)
Materials Cost: $1 - $5 per group of students
The effects of volcanoes on both the environment and people are the focus of this investigation. Students are introduced to the term "buffer" and are tasked with creating a possible buffer zone around Mount St. Helens. Students begin by assigning 32... (View More) pre-written statements related to volcanoes into categories of cause, effect and human responses. The chart, along with true-color and false-color LandSat images from 1980 and 1999, are used to study the eruption of Mount St. Helens to determine that possible buffer zone. The URL opens to the investigation directory, with links to teacher and student materials, lesson extensions, resources, teaching tips, and assessment strategies. As the first investigation in this module entitled, "Volcanoes- Local Hazard, Global Issue," the teacher's guide will begin with a two-page module overview and list of all standards addressed. This is Investigation 1 of three found in the Grades 5-8 Module 1 of Mission Geography. The Mission Geography curriculum integrates data and images from NASA missions with the National Geography Standards. Each of the three investigations in Module 1, while related, can be done independently. (View Less)
In this activity, learners will investigate and try to explain various lunar anomalies. They will present hypotheses (both written and oral) and then debate the merits of each hypothesis, with no right or wrong answers. This activity is in Unit 2 of... (View More) the teachers guide, Exploring the Moon, which is designed for use especially, but not exclusively, with the Lunar Sample Disk program. (View Less)
Materials Cost: Free
Learners will build a biosphere that is a balanced, self-enclosed living system able to run efficiently over a long period of time. This activity is in Unit 3 of the Exploring the Moon teachers guide, which is designed for use especially, but not... (View More) exclusively, with the Lunar Sample Disk program. (View Less)
Materials Cost: $1 - $5 per group of students


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I never thought I'd say this, but I've had enough of winter. Could be that I had one week of REAL winter on the east coast (I know, I'm such an LA pansy). And of course, with better temperatures comes being outdoors! Mr. W has been looking for his first Spring garden project and I think I may have found his first one!
A vertical garden that can be attached to one of our exterior walls. Makes for easier urban foraging. Who has time for real foraging anyway? I'm not known to have the greenest thumb, but perhaps I can even do this (my mom would be so pleased).
Long vertical garden (with pockets!) from Terrain

subset: commoncrawl


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While the masses jump up and down in barely-contained anticipation for the release of the morning's new Lord of the Ring Online content, Dalmarus sits down to continue the tale of his journey within the lands of elves and dwarves (never mind the hobbits and humans). Bipedal locomotion isn't the only method of movement found within though. Pull up a chair and listen to his tales of roaming the Ettenmoors as a spider.
After respawning from the third ass-whipping my new goblin chieftain friend decided to hand out to me (oh, he *will* die one of these days), I decided what my Rune-Keeper really needed to do was take a break and get in touch with the land for some relaxation. What better way to do this than to do a little fishing?
To read the rest of Lord of the Rings Online: A Journey to Mount Doom (Part Two), click here!
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Lord of the Rings Online Game Page.


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A is for Ashlie Atkinson, the Arkansas native who has won serious acclaim onstage (she won the 2005 Theater World Award for Breakthrough Performance for her role as Helen in Neil Labute's "Fat Pig") and has taken on numerous roles of all stripes on the big screen ("Inside Man," "Compliance," Martin Scorsese's forthcoming "The Wolf of Wall Street") and the small ("Law & Order," "30 Rock," "Louie"). She had a major role in Fox's "Us and Them" (a Yankee remake of the U.K. hit "Gavin and Stacey"). The pilot and six episodes of the original 13-episode order were filmed earlier this year, though the order was cut back and the remaining six episodes weren't filmed. The seven episodes in the can will be aired most likely in March, according to a representative for Atkinson. If the response to the show is strongly positive, there's a possibility that the show could be put back into production. Atkinson commented via Facebook that "no bullshit, this was the funniest, loveliest, most professional group of folks I have ever had the pleasure of working with on television. I miss it already, but I know what I learned is going to serve me well throughout my life and career."
B is for The Body, whose new album "Christs, Redeemers," was met with near universal acclaim. PopMatters gave the album an 8/10, noting that "The Body makes difficult music, and 'Christs, Redeemers' is that difficulty at its most masterful and controlled, even as it seems at every turn unruly, deeply and truly dangerous." A Pitchfork review said that the album "finds The Body at the apogee of their brutality." The duo, Little Rock natives Chip King and Lee Buford, is headed across the pond in April to play at the prestigious Roadburn Festival in the Netherlands.
C is for Cruelty, such as that exhibited toward Colonial Wine & Spirits manager Paul Lewis by his underlings, Jake Dell and J.T. Jumonville, who played a brutal prank on their boss. The two cruel subordinates set up a hidden video camera in the stockroom, which caught Jumonville leaping out of a huge box and scaring the everloving crapola out of Lewis. Granted, Lewis's terrified, arm-waving reaction was subjectively hilarious, which is probably why the video was a huge hit on YouTube (where it is mysteriously no longer available). Back in October, late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel played the video on his show and interviewed the three about the in-store chicanery. "We've been scaring Paul for about five years now," Dell admitted. Lewis was a good sport about it all though, even if when frightened he does look, in Kimmel's words, "like a baby pterodactyl being born."
D is for Downtown Music Hall. The venue closed its doors in December after several years of providing a home to the metal, hip-hop and dance music scenes in Central Arkansas. Owner Samantha Allen posted on Facebook that she will be "taking a very small break to focus on getting my health on track and then I will be back doing what I love more than anything in the world ... booking shows, promoting bands and trying my best to build the best local music community in the world!"
E is for effortless, which is how the Razorback football team made it look all season long on their march to 12-0, an SEC title and a spot in the BCS National Championship Game. Psych! Just kidding! Wasn't that hilarious? No, it wasn't, and neither was the Hogs dispiriting 3-9, first-ever-winless-in-the-conference inaugural season under head coach Bret Bielema. No need for another full autopsy on Hogpocalypse 2013 though; let's just hope things get better next year and move on to F.
F is for festivals (again). There were several of note this year, including perennial favorites and newer entries. Riverfest is the biggest of the bunch of course, and this year as in all years there was plenty of bellyaching about the lineup from the usual collection of wet blankets and Debbie Downers. But odds are thousands of folks enjoyed music from Florida Georgia Line, Darius Rucker, Kelly Rowland, Peter Frampton, Lupe Fiasco and the other acts. Up on Mulberry Mountain, there was a wet and muddy Wakarusa, with music from Widespread Panic, Snoop Lion, The Black Crowes, Gogol Bordello and Of Monsters and Men, among others. The very next weekend saw the birth of Waka's boot-scootin', whiskey-shootin' little brother festival Thunder on the Mountain, which had Toby Keith, Luke Bryan, Big and Rich and plenty more big-time country artists. The Yonder Mountain Harvest Festival in October was a hit, with Tedeschi Trucks Band headlining alongside many more folk, Americana and bluegrass bands. King Biscuit boasted Robert Cray, Marcia Ball and Gregg Allman as headliners. There was also the Fayetteville Roots Festival, which featured Arkansas-born folk fave Iris Dement. The Johnny Cash Music Festival got a little more traditional this year with Vince Gill, Larry Gatlin and The Gatlin Brothers and Jimmy Fortune, along with Tommy Cash and Joanne Cash Yates. The Butler Center's Arkansas Sounds festival was back with a great lineup for its second year, including Collin Raye, Tav Falco and Panther Burns, Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks and many more. Down in Hot Springs, you had Valley of the Vapors in the spring and Hot Water Hills in the fall to bookend your summer. And of course Eureka Springs hosted its long-running annual blues, jazz, folk and bluegrass festivals.
G is for glowing, which describes reviews of the Sundance Channel series "Rectify," created, produced and directed by Ray McKinnon (an Oscar-winning director, actor and former Little Rock resident) and which counts former Times columnist Graham Gordy as one of its writers. The show centers on Daniel Holden (played by Aden Young), as a man just released from a long prison sentence after DNA evidence vacates his conviction in the rape and murder of his girlfriend. He's free, but many in the small hometown he returns to aren't so sure he's innocent. The L.A. Times' Mary McNamara wrote of the show that "it isn't just good TV, it's revelatory TV," describing the series as "mesmerizing." Ellen Gray of the Philadelphia Daily News called "Rectify" "a beautiful and disturbing new drama" that's "the best new show of the season." The New York Times' Mike Hale wasn't quite as taken (calling it a "slow and tepid bummer") but he seems to be an outlier. In May, the Sundance Channel announced it had ordered 10 more episodes.
H is for Hal Needham, the Arkansas-bred stuntman extraordinaire who passed away in October at 82. Needham spent the '60s practically reinventing the profession, then later he got on the less dangerous side of the camera as director of car-chase movies such as "Smokey and The Bandit," "The Cannonball Run," "Stroker Ace" (all of which starred his buddy Burt Reynolds) and the '80s cult classic (though critically reviled) BMX flick "Rad." Needham was awarded an honorary Oscar this year, only the second stunt performer or coordinator to earn one.
I is for Iron Tongue. The Little Rock outfit released its debut long-player "The Dogs Have Barked, The Birds Have Flown" this year on Neurot Recordings. Writing for PopMatters, novelist and critic David Maine praised the album as "a fuzzhead's dream: layers of bluesy, sinewy guitars piled on more sinewy guitars, full-throated anthemic vocals and an overwhelming sense of fighting against the encroaching doom. Rock and roll redemption, indeed." In New Noise Magazine, Brandon Ringo wrote that "it's refreshing to hear a band try to mix classic rock and doom metal and not actually rip off Black Sabbath or anyone else for that matter, something that makes this band even more worth listening to."
J is for Justin Moore. The native of Poyen has found success in Nashville in chart-topping singles, a No. 1 album and sold-out shows if not necessarily in industry awards and the little statues that come with them. When Moore was snubbed by the CMAs this year, he took to Twitter to clear the air with a few tweets: "For all you loyal, wonderful fans of mine. you keep askin why you never see me on awards shows. I feel like I owe you a response. thruth is ... I have no idea. I would love for you to have the opportunity to see me on that stage. And be on that stage. As of yet, I've not been asked ... Nonetheless, you have given me a blessed life and career, which I'm thankful for. I owe that to you guys and COUNTRY RADIO! ... If awards come to me down the road, great. If not, that's fine too. No matter what, I have you all. I have those sold out arenas on the road ... I have the opportunity to play my music across the country for a living thanks to country music. Thank you for your passion. I love you all ... Plus, my 4 year old just told me I'm her entertainer of the year. That's better than any trophy...:) See y'all #offthebeatenpath..God bless ... Also, congrats to all the winners tonight." And there you have it. As many of us tell ourselves about the Razorback football team, there's always next year.
K is for "King of the Cocktail Party," John Willis's excellent EP of sophisticated pop songcraft, which he released back in August. I wrote of the record that Willis' musical influences (Motown, '70s singer/songwriters, gospel) "certainly shine through on his new EP, especially on the title track, with its range of sounds: a gentle Brazilian lilt here, a jaunty chorus of background singers, what sounds like a harmonium in the distance, and wry observations throughout. Opener "The Ladder" is a bouncy, piano-led number with rich, gorgeous vocal harmonies and an ending that recalls Harry Nilsson in his prime." Willis also recorded an episode of AETN's On the Front Row, which aired recently.
L is for loss, which is what many in the area's musical communities understandably felt when Jeffrey "Bushy" Hudnall and Mason Mauldin passed away. Hudnall, a concert promoter and pioneer of Arkansas's electronic music scene, died in his sleep on Jan. 3 at age 38. He was one of the founders of Cybertribe and brought in some of the biggest names in EDM to the area. Mauldin played in numerous Little Rock bands, including Sugar and the Raw and Big Boots, and was also a pilot for Central Flying Service. He died at age 31 in a plane crash in Louisiana.
M is for move, which the Arkansas Music Pavilion will be making next year, leaving Fayetteville for Rogers. The outdoor venue, which opened in 2005 and was originally located at the Northwest Arkansas Mall, was purchased by the Walton Arts Center in 2011 and moved to the Washington County Fairgrounds for the 2012 and 2013 seasons. In May, the WAC announced that the AMP would be moved to a new, permanent location just up I-540 near Pinnacle Hills. The move caused some consternation among music-lovers in Fayetteville, but it's tough to argue with 91 percent of the $11 million budget (including the land) being donated by billionaire Johnelle Hunt. As I noted back in May however, "You gotta wonder what the reaction might be from the tony gated communities of Pinnacle Hills to hearing Ted Nugent or whoever playing at top volume at 11 p.m. on a Thursday night."
N is for Nate Powell. The North Little Rock native had a big year with the publication of "March," the first in a trilogy of graphic novels about the life of legendary activist and U.S. Rep. John Lewis. Lewis and Andrew Aydin wrote the book and Powell illustrated it, working closely with the Civil Rights icon. Powell, who since 2009 has been making his living from his art, also began work this year on a graphic novel spinoff of "Percy Jackson and the Olympians," a hugely popular YA fantasy series by author Rick Riordan.
O is for overhaul — a $68.6 million overhaul to be precise, which is what voters in Little Rock approved earlier this month for Robinson Center Music Hall. The Depression-era venue hasn't seen any major renovations since it was built in 1939, and while the redo looks impressive, with a huge glass wall facing north, it isn't an expansion. There will be slightly more space, with an addition of about 4,500 square feet, but there will actually be fewer seats (though they'll be more comfortable) and the stage will be lowered to accommodate the bigger productions of today's big-time Broadway shows. Funding will come from bonds issued and paid for with the city's 2 percent hospitality tax, similar to how the Statehouse Convention Center was paid for. Construction is set to begin in July and be finished in September 2016.
P is for premiere, as in the two world-premiere musicals the Arkansas Repertory Theatre produced this year — "Treasure Island" and "Because of Winn Dixie." The first was a reimagining of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale of buried loot and Jim Hawkins' quest to survive mutiny and crazed pirates and make it off of the island alive. It was a fun and funny family show with an impressive cast and evocative set design and costumes. The other world premiere was the "Because of Winn Dixie" (running through Dec. 29), based on Kate DiCamillo's popular children's book of the same name. As my colleague David Ramsey noted, it's "the first pre-Broadway musical to star a live dog in a leading role." It brought together an all-star creative team: music from Duncan Sheik (Tony and Grammy Award winner for "'Spring Awakening"), lyrics and book by Nell Benjamin (Tony nominee for "Legally Blonde") and direction by John Tartaglia (Tony nominee for "Avenue Q"). If that wasn't enough star wattage, the Rep also staged the well-received first production of a newly reimagined version of the Rodgers and Hart musical "Pal Joey," directed by Peter Schneider, the Tony Award-winning producer of "The Lion King."
Q is for question, as in, "Can you please put that in the form of a question?" This wasn't the first time someone from the Natural State was on the popular quiz show Jeopardy, of course, but this year there were two who were on the show. First up was the totally awesome Little Rock high school senior Leonard Cooper, who won Teen Jeopardy (and $75,000) in stylish fashion in February and who was included in our annual Academic All-Stars issue (he was also on the cover, natch). Conway native Brock Thompson, author of "The Un-Natural State: Arkansas and the Queer South," was on the show earlier this month. He's also a veteran of the cover of the Times; we printed an excerpt of his book back in 2010. As if that weren't enough Arkansas reppin' on Jeopardy, Little Rock radiologist Shane Whitlock earned a spot on the upcoming "Battle of the Decades" tournament. Whitlock won the College Championship in 1996 and was featured on the Tournament of Champions that year and the Ultimate Tournament of Champions in 2005. He'll compete on '90s week, March 3-7.
R is for Rothko and Rockwell. Our fine-arts critic Leslie Newell Peacock was impressed with the Arkansas Arts Center's Rothko exhibit. The show "will renew your faith, if it had been lagging, that non-representational art can provoke a deep visceral response," she wrote. "Go sit in the final room of the exhibit, in the Winthrop Rockefeller Gallery, and be quiet with the work and be convinced that Rothko's application and placement of color were not random or decorative gestures, but nearly narrative expressions of emotion." Crystal Bridges in Bentonville brought in a Rockwell show that drew more than 121,000 people, more than saw the show at any of the 12 museums that hosted the show prior.
S is for solvent, which the Hot Springs Documentary Film Institute became this year after selling the historic Malco Theater to pay off the organization's debt. Susan Altrui, chair of the HSDFI board, told the Times in June that the transaction "removes all debt owed on the theater and its related property by HSDFI and places it in the hands of an individual committed to renovating the building and making it available for future public use." The festival itself also had a great year with many excellent sports documentaries, including "The Big Shootout," about the 1969 "Game of the Century" between No. 1 Texas and No. 2 Arkansas, and "Jose Canseco: The Truth Hurts."
T is for tasty, which our first annual Heritage Hog Roast undoubtedly was, featuring slow-roasted whole pigs from several of the region's most creative cooks. This also could've fit in the C category, as in colder than a well-digger's ass. Yes, it was unseasonably frigid for the first weekend in May in Arkansas (it snowed several inches in Northwest Arkansas that weekend). But the cold/nasty weather didn't stop the inaugural celebration of all things porcine, slow-cooked. Eat Arkansas's Michael Roberts noted that there were fewer than two points separating the first and third place teams. Ultimately, the Country Club of Little Rock won out with the judges, but as Roberts wrote, "there wasn't a bad bite of food to be had at the event."
U is for Undercroft, one of Little Rock's newest venues housed in one of its older establishments, Christ Episcopal Church, formed in 1839. Christ Episcopal started hosting concerts and arrived on the live music landscape with a bang, announcing shows with legendary soul diva Mavis Staples, acclaimed vocal group Cantus (each of which were staged in the church's large sanctuary) and synth-heavy singer/songwriter Nedelle Torrisi (held in the more intimate Undercroft space).
V is for victorious, which is what The Sound of the Mountain was at this year's Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase. The Russellville quartet won on the strength of cinematic, sweeping instrumental post-rock realized with impressive chops from every member.
W is for William Harrison, the author of several novels and short-story collections and the co-founder of the University of Arkansas's renowned Creative Writing program, who died this year. Harrison was widely known as the screenwriter of "Rollerball," the dystopian '70s sci-fi film based on his short story "Roller Ball Murder," which was published in Esquire in 1973. But his other works were critically praised and he earned many grants and fellowships over the course of his career. Harrison was a native of Dallas, but lived in Fayetteville from the mid-'60s until his death in October.
X is for "XX," the debut from Little Rock's long-running garage rock reanimators The Bloodless Cooties on Thick Syrup Records. The band first formed two decades ago (the album title being the Roman numerals for 20). I wrote on Rock Candy that "the Cooties mostly play cover tunes, ranging from '60s pop hits to '50s country weepers to rockabilly rave-ups to garage-psych classics to obscure numbers from the oddest of oddball outsiders. While it took 20 years to arrive, this album-release show will no doubt prove to have been worth the wait. Oh yeah, the cover art for the album was created by none other than Raymond Pettibon, who created some of the most iconic punk album covers ever for the likes of Black Flag, Minutemen and Sonic Youth."
Y is for yes, as in, "Is it a good idea for the Little Rock Film Festival to move downtown? Will people really walk from venue to venue in the summertime?" The answer was a resounding "yes!" to those questions. About 25,000 people watched more than 80 films at the 7th annual LRFF. Taking top honors with the Golden Rock awards were "Short Term 12" for narrative film and "Dirty Wars" for documentary. "This year's festival demonstrated that a winning formula could be improved," Times editor Lindsey Millar wrote. "The two main theaters, Argenta Community Theater and The Rep, could comfortably accommodate far greater crowds than the largest primary theaters of festivals past and, since they and other venues screened one film or program at a time, lines were manageable and rare." And next year, there will be the addition of the 325-seat theater at the newly opened Arcade Building in the River Market along with ACT and The Rep.
Z is for zany, which could certainly describe 21c, Bentonville's new hotel/restaurant/boundary-pushing art gallery. It's part of a chain based in Louisville, Ky., that has locations in Louisville and Cincinnati, with others planned for Lexington, Ky., and Durham, N.C. Times contributor Katherine Wyrick went to the opening and found "the space itself is airy and light-filled, welcoming and beguiling. A serpentine vintage Italian couch winds its way through the lobby, behind which hang the arresting photographs of South African artist Pieter Hugo. (They all linger in the mind, but there's one particularly stirring image of a child atop a chained hyena that still haunts me.) A striking photograph of a bison (as large as an actual bison) hangs behind the front desk; a sparkling pile of crystal encrusted antlers twinkle in the hallway; an interactive sculpture of whirring fans sits outside the elevators. It's a full-immersion experience into the world of 21st century art, where no place is out-of-bounds — from bathrooms to the boardroom and gym." Oh yeah, and then there are the penguins —giant, green plastic penguins that are moved throughout the building during the day. The Cincinnati location has yellow penguins, Louisville has red ones. Wyrick found their presence to be "both playful and disorienting in a pleasant sort of way." Sounds zany.Note: An earlier version of this story misstated the status of the Fox show "Us and Them." It has been corrected.


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June 06, 2018
'... President El Sisi "emphasized Egypt's keenness on continuing engagement with all segments of American society so as to enhance the joint understanding and intensify consultations on ways to address the challenges facing the Middle East, primarily terrorism and extremist thought." President El Sisi also "underscored the significance of the decades-old strategic relations between Egypt and the U.S., stressing Egypt's commitment to strengthening and further advancing these ties."
The meeting also touched on the latest regional and international developments. President El Sisi "discussed efforts to push forward the peace process and confirmed Egypt's support for international efforts and initiatives aimed at reaching a just and comprehensive solution for the Palestinian cause."'
JINSA Egypt meetings are sighted in publications below (click logos to view).
The Benjamin Gettler Annual International Policy Trip is enabled by a grant from the Gettler Family Foundation in Cincinnati, Ohio to bring a high-level delegation of retired senior military officers and civilian national security experts to a country that is important to U.S. national security and/or the U.S.-Israel relationship. Upon completion of each trip, the group will share its findings and recommendations with policymakers and opinion leaders in Washington, D.C. and across the country. Benjamin Gettler previously served as Chairman of JINSA, and he was one of the organization's most active and influential leaders for many years.


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- From Precarity to Planetarity: Cecilia Vicuña's Kon Kon
- The Global South
- Indiana University Press
- Volume 7, Number 2, Fall 2014
- pp. 134-152
- Article
- View Citation
- Additional Information
This essay situates Chilean poet and artist Cecilia Vicuña's 2010 film Kon Kon within its postdictatorship context in order to explore the relationship between performance, cultural memory, and neoliberal erasure. Returning to the coastal landscape of Concón, where she created her first precarios, or fragile installations, Vicuña documents how the privatization and deregulation of Chile's natural resources—as a result of policies initiated under the Pinochet dictatorship but pursued into the present—has negatively impacted "the way of feeling for the land that is a memory of place." Vicuña's formally innovative film refigures precarity, as the fragility of life and culture under conditions of neoliberal globalization, into planetarity. Composed of both ritualized re-enactments of the artist's oeuvre and documentary footage of the disappearing culture of the dunes, the film presents the dissonant flute-playing orchestras of the local indigenous fishermen as both threatened by, and performing an alternative to, the destructive forces of globalization. In turning to the bailes chinos of the fisherman, Vicuña—like Gayatri Spivak, whose theorization of planetarity is mobilized to elucidate this conjuncture—looks to precapitalist cultures to imagine a planetary future that collapses the distinction between nature and culture. At stake in both the bailes chinos and site-specific installations the film documents is the transmission of planetary forms of cultural memory that predate the neoliberal turn.
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- This event has passed.
Mike Maddux & the Headliners
February 14, 2018 @ 8:30 pm - 11:00 pm
Event Navigation
Join us for a special Valentine's Day Show! Bring your sweetie for live music and award-winning BBQ!
With his current band Mike and the Headliners, Mike brings the best in traditional and modern bluegrass flatpicking combined with the outstanding fiddle playing of Jim Christian, percussion of Dick Cunico, and bass work with Mike Vunovich.


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Once again, a surprisingly difficult pose for me to mimic. I think it has something to do with the whole chest-up-ladies-out-chin-down combination that I'm struggling with. I have no idea how Bettie makes it look so natural.
One of my favorite things about seeing the variety of Bettie poses is you can really tell how athletic and muscular she was. Models of that era really strike me as having the dancer's physique. As opposed to now, where slim, slim, slim with little to no muscular definition is in. Bettie looks like she's going to step off this platform and go do a backflip.
cardigan – Gap, belt – Doubledutch Boutique, shirt/skirt – H&M, shoes – Steve Madden


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The 8th IEEE Workshop on Embedded Computer Vision
June 16 2012
Providence, RI, USA
(held in conjunction with CVPR 2012)
Ballroom B
Call for Papers: (pdf)
Workshop program: (pdf)
Submission site: (click here)
08h30 Welcome Message
Ahmed Nabil Belbachir, General Chair
S1: Keynote Talk (08h35 – 09h20)
Keynote: Trends, Challenges and Opportunities in Embedded Vision
Jeff Bier (President of BDTI and founder of the Embedded Vision Alliance)
Chair: Ahmed Nabil Belbachir (AIT Austrian Institute of Technology)
Thanks to powerful, energy efficient and inexpensive processors and sensors, computer vision can now be implemented in a wide array of cost-sensitive applications that were impractical just a few years ago. As a result, embedded vision is rapidly proliferating, and is poised to become a ubiquitous technology that enhances peoples' lives every day. In this presentation we will examine the trends that are enabling embedded vision, with particular attention to developments in processors. We will also highlight some of the major commercial opportunities for embedded vision, and we will explore key challenges that must be addressed for embedded vision to reach its full potential.
S2: Smart Cameras (0920–1000)
Chair: Sek Chai (SRI International Sarnoff)
09h20 Single-view obstacle detection for smart back-up camera systems, Jeff Lalonde, Robert Laganière, Luc Martel
09h40 High-Speed Line-Scan Camera with Multi-Line CMOS Color Sensor, Ernst Bodenstorfer, Ylber Hasani, Johannes Fürtler, Jörg Brodersen, Konrad Mayer
10h00 Morning Break
S3: Reconfigurable Computing for Computer Vision (10h30–11h10)
Chair: Boaz Super (Motorola Solutions)
10h30 Stereo Vision Embedded System for Augmented Reality, Eduardo Gudis, Gooitzen van der Wal, Sujit Kuthirummal, Sek Chai, Supun Samarasekera, Rakesh Kumar, Vlad Branzoi
10h50 Feature detection and matching on an SIMD/MIMD hybrid embedded processor, Alejandro Nieto, David López Vilariño, Víctor Brea
S4: Detecting and Tracking Humans (1110–1230)
Chair: Fridtjof Stein (Daimler)
11h10 Head-tracking virtual 3-D display for mobile devices, Miguel Bordallo López, Jari Hannuksela, Olli Silvén, Lixin Fan
11h30 Spatiotemporal Multiple Persons Tracking Using Dynamic Vision Sensor, Ewa Piatkowska, Ahmed Nabil Belbachir, Stephan Schraml, Margrit Gelautz
11h50 SURF Cascade Face Detection Acceleration on Sandy Bridge Processor, Eric Li, Liu Yang, Bin Wang, Jianguo Li, Ya-ti Peng
12h10 Real-time Body Motion Analysis for Dance Pattern Recognition, Bernhard Kohn, Aneta Nowakowska, Ahmed Nabil Belbachir
12h30 Lunch Break
S5: Embedded Vision for Safety and Security (1330–1445)
Chair: Margrit Gelautz (Vienna University of Technology)
13h30 Embedded Smart Sensor for Outdoor Parking Lot Lighting Control, Zhong Zhang, Amit Mistry, Weihong Yin, Peter Venetianer
13h50 Embedded Fall Detection with a Neural Network and Bio-Inspired Stereo Vision, Martin Humenberger, Stephan Schraml, Christoph Sulzbachner, Ahmed Nabil Belbachir, Ágoston Srp, Ferenc Vajda
S6: Poster Session: Technologies and Applications (1410–1500)
Chair: Andrew Hunter (University of Lincoln)
– A GPU Accelerated Fast Directional Chamfer Matching Algorithm and a Detailed Comparison with a Highly Optimized CPU Implementation, Michael Rauter, David Schreiber
– Event-driven Embodied System for Feature Extraction and Object Recognition in Robotic Applications, Georg Wiesmann, Stephan Schraml, Martin Litzenberger, Ahmed Nabil Belbachir, Chiara Bartolozzi, Michael Hofstätter
– A CPU-GPU Hybrid People Counting System for Real-World Airport Scenarios using Arbitrary Oblique View Cameras, David Schreiber, Michael Rauter
15h00 Afternoon Break
S7: Invited Talks 1: Vision Technology and Programs (1530–1640)
Chair: Andrew Hunter (University of Lincoln)
15h30 Vision Processing in Extreme Low Light and High Motion Environments, Sek Chai (SRI)
16h05 DARPA's Mind's Eye Program: The Way Ahead for Visual Intelligence, James Donlon (DARPA)
S8: Invited Talks 2: Automotive Safety and Challenges (1640–1750)
Chair: Branislav Kisačanin (Texas Instruments)
16h40 Embedded Computer Vision for Safety and Security: an FPGA-based Perspective, Vittorio Murino (Italian Institute of Technology)
17h15 The Challenge of Putting Vision Algorithms into a Car, Fridtjof Stein (Daimler)
17h50 Paper Award & Closing Remarks
Best Paper Award
The Best Paper Award for EVW 2012 is sponsored by:
The Embedded Computer Vision project, which is under the COMET program of the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG).
Jeff Bier is founder of the Embedded Vision Alliance (www.Embedded-Vision.com). The Embedded Vision Alliance is an industry partnership formed to enable the market for embedded vision technology by inspiring and empowering design engineers to create more capable and responsive products through integration of vision capabilities. The Alliance provides training videos, tutorial articles, code examples, and an array of other resources (all free of charge) on its web site, http://www.Embedded-Vision.com. Jeff is also co-founder and president of Berkeley Design Technology, Inc. (www.BDTI.com), a trusted resource for independent analysis and specialized engineering services in the realm of embedded digital signal processing applications. Jeff oversees BDTI's benchmarking and analysis of chips, tools, and other technology. Jeff is also a key contributor to BDTI's consulting services, which focus on product-development, marketing, and strategic advice for companies using and developing embedded audio, video, wireless and vision technologies.
James J. Donlon is a Program Manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, VA. He is the program manager for the "Mind's Eye" program, which is focused on achieving new capabilities in activity recognition for ground-level, full-motion video. The Mind's Eye initiative has led to the active new multidisciplinary field of "visual intelligence". Mr. Donlon is also program manager for DARPA's "Computer Science Study Group" program. Through this program, DARPA supports 72 computer science professors in applying their research projects to the needs of national defense. Through this program Mr. Donlon introduces these academic researchers to dozens of military and intelligence organizations, leading to collaborative applied research aimed at solving contemporary defense challenges. Mr. Donlons' other DARPA research programs include "Software Producibility" and "Application Communities". Prior to joining DARPA, Jim was an active-duty Army officer, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2008. His previous positions include Director of the Knowledge Engineering Group at the U.S. Army Center for Strategic Leadership; Chief of Technical Support and Operations Officer of the Korea Battle Simulation Center in Seoul, Korea; and most recently as Executive Officer of ICTM in NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
Fridtjof Stein received a Diploma degree in Computer Science from the Karlsruhe Technical University in 1988, and a PhD from the University of Southern California in 1992. Since 1992, he has been a Senior Research Scientist at the Daimler Research Group in Boeblingen, Germany. From 1992 to 1994 he was responsible for the software integration at the EU Commission's Prometheus project, where for the first time autonomous driving in public traffic based on computer vision was demonstrated. Since then Mr. Stein is working on several vision related projects at Daimler with the focus on embedded systems. His research interests include real-time vision especially in the fields of stereo vision, optical flow, object detection, and ground modeling in the automotive domain.
Vittorio Murino is full professor at the University of Verona, Italy, and director of the PAVIS (Pattern Analysis and Computer Vision) department at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia. He took the Laurea degree in Electronic Engineering in 1989 and the Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering and Computer Science in 1993 at the University of Genova, Italy. He held a post-doctoral position from 1993 to 1995, working in the Signal Processing and Understanding Group of the Dept. of Biophysical and Electronic Engineering of the University of Genova as supervisor of research activities on image processing for object recognition and pattern classification in underwater environments. From 1995 to 1998, he was assistant professor at the Dept. of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Udine, Italy, and since 1998 he works at the University of Verona. He was chairman of the Department of Computer Science from 2001, year of foundation, to 2007. Prof. Murino is scientific responsible of several national and European projects and evaluator of EU project proposals related to several frameworks and programs. Currently, he is working at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Genova, Italy, to set up and lead the PAVIS department involved in computer vision, machine learning, and image analysis issues. His main research interests include: computer vision and pattern recognition/machine learning, in particular, probabilistic techniques for image and video processing, with applications on video surveillance, biomedical image analysis and bioinformatics. Prof. Murino has co-authored ~250 papers in refereed journals and international conferences, and has been a guest co-editor of special issues in relevant scientific journals. He is a member of the editorial board of Pattern Recognition, Pattern Analysis and Applications, and Machine Vision & Applications journals, as well as of the IEEE Transactions on Systems Man, and Cybernetics – Part B: Cybernetics. Prof. Murino is a senior member of the IEEE and Fellow of the IAPR.
Sek Chai is an R&D technical manager and researcher at SRI International, where he leads a team focused on advanced embedded computing. He is currently working on low-power, high performance systems with applications in robotics, surveillance and intelligence. Prior to joining SRI, Dr. Chai developed imaging and video solutions for next generation mobile devices and home broadband products at Motorola Labs. He co-founded ComputerVisionCentral.com, a leading on-line community for computer vision and related technologies. He oversees the Embedded Vision Workshop series, now in its eighth year. He co-edited a book on Embedded Computer Vision, and contributed a chapter on computer vision for camera phones. He was also a guest editor for a CVIU special issue on embedded vision. He is a senior member of IEEE and ACM. He holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech. One of his goals is to bridge the gap between academia and industry in the computer vision.
Call For Participation
Recent years have witnessed a significant increase in the use of embedded systems for vision. Applications range from accurate, performance-centric systems to high volume, low-cost, light weight and energy efficient consumer devices. Computer vision has been deployed in many applications, for example, in video search and annotation, surveillance, computer-aided surgery, for gesture and body movement detection in video games, to assist drivers in automotive safety and for in-home monitoring of vulnerable persons. Embedded computer vision is part of a growing trend towards developing low-cost "smart sensors" that use local "analytics" to interpret data, passing on relatively high level alerts or summary information via network connectivity.
Embedded vision applications are built upon advances in vision algorithms, embedded processing architectures, advanced circuit technologies, and new electronic system design methodologies. They are implemented on embedded processing devices and platforms such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable digital signal processors (DSPs), graphics processing units (GPUs), and various kinds of heterogeneous multi-core devices. They are developed under significant resource constraints of processing, memory, power, size, and communication bandwidth that pose significant challenges to attaining required levels of performance and speed, and frequently exploit the inherent parallelism of the specialized platforms to address these challenges. Given the heterogeneous and specialized nature of these platforms, efficient development methods are an important issue.
The Embedded Vision Workshop (EVW) aims to bring together researchers working on vision problems that share embedded system characteristics. Research papers are solicited in, but not limited to, the following topics:
- Analysis of vision problems specific to embedded systems.
- Analysis of embedded systems problems specific to computer vision.
- Embedded computer vision for robotics
- New trends in programmable processors and their computational models.
- Applications of and algorithms for embedded vision on standard parallelized platforms such as GPUs (PC, embedded and mobile).
- Applications of and algorithms for embedded vision on reconfigurable platforms such as FPGAs.
- Applications of and algorithms for embedded computer vision on programmable platforms DSPs and multicore SoC such as the Cell Processor.
- Applications of embedded computer vision on mobile devices including phones.
- Biologically-inspired vision and embedded systems
- Computer vision applications distributed between embedded devices and servers
- Social networking embedded computer vision applications
- Educational methods for embedded computer vision
- User interface designs and CAD tools for embedded computer vision applications
- Hardware enhancements (lens, imager, processor) that impact computer vision applications
- Software enhancements (OS, middleware, vision libraries, development tools) that impact embedded computer vision application
- Methods for standardization and measurement of computer vision functionality as they impact embedded computer vision
- Performance metrics for evaluating embedded systems performance.
- Hybrid embedded systems combining vision and other sensor modalities
Six of the previous Workshops on Embedded Computer Vision (ECVW) were held in conjunction with CVPR from 2005 to 2011, except for the fifth which was held in conjunction with ICCV2009. These events were very successful. Selected papers workshops have been published in a special issue of the EURASIP Journal on Embedded Systems and in a book on Embedded Computer Vision. The Workshop is now renamed Embedded Vision (EVW) to reflect changes in the field.
Important Dates
- Paper submission: March 16, 2012 (New date)
- Notification to the authors: April 9, 2012
- Camera ready copy: April 30, 2012
- Workshop: June 16, 2012
Submission Process / Information
Papers are limited to 6 pages +up to 2 pages (with extra page charge). Please use the CVPR author kit to format the papers here: (http://www.cvpr2012.org/home/submission/author-guidelines). The workshop chairs reserve the right to reject papers violating the paper length and formatting instructions outright, without review.
The submission site is: (click here).
Organizing Committee
General Chair:
Andrew Hunter, University of Lincoln, UK
Ahmed Nabil Belbachir, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
Program Chair:
Margrit Gela
utz, Vienna University of Technology
Branislav Kisačanin, Texas Instruments
Steering Committee:
Sek Chai, SRI International Sarnoff
Boaz J. Super, Motorola Solutions
Abbes Amira, Qatar University
Nikolaos Bellas, University of Thessaly, Greece
Program Committee:
Senyo Apewokin, Texas Instruments
Kofi Appiah, University of Lincoln, UK
Sebastiano Battiato, Universita di Catania
Moshe Be
n-Ezra, Microsoft
Faycal Bensaali, University of Hertsfordshire, UK
Shuvra Bhattacharyya, University of Maryland
Terry Boult, University of Colorado
Xin Chen, Navteq
Rita Cucchiara, University of Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy
Goksel Dedeoglu, Texas Instruments
Orazio Gallo, Nvidia
Eduardo Gudis, SRI International
Antonio Haro, Navteq
Martin Humenberger, AIT
David Iistrup, Honda Research Institute
Masatoshi Ishikawa, University of Tokyo
Rongrong Ji, Columbia University
Kihwan Kim, Nvidia
Kevin Koeser, ETH Zurich
Zhu Li, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Abelardo Lopez-Lagunas, ITESM-Toluca, Mexico
Larry Matthies, JPL
Darnell Moore, Texas Instruments
Andre Morin, Lyrtech
Vitorrio Murino, Istituto Italia di Technico
Rajesh Narashimha, Texas Instruments
Zoran Nikolic, Texas Instruments
Burak Ozer, Verificon Corporation
Hassan Rabah, Nancy University
Bernhard Rin
ner, Klagenfurt University of Austria
Sankalita Saha, NASA
Mainak Sen, Cisco Systems
Vinay Sharma, Texas Instruments
Salvatore Vitabile,
University of Palermo
Linda Wills, Georgia Tech
Ruiyang Yang, University of Kentucky, USA
Previous Embedded Computer Vision Workshops (ECVW)


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In conjunction with the release of Issue 4 of The Exposure Project Book, we have decided to post an image every couple of days from a different artist in the book. The first photograph is Bradley Peters' "Untitled (mother and son with shopping cart)", which is also available as an editioned print for anyone who purchases a Special Edition of the book.
"Untitled (mother and son with shopping cart)"
© Bradley Peters
For general information on both editions of the book click here. To view all the available print choices for the Special Edition click here.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Special Edition Prints: Bradley Peters
Posted by The Exposure Project at 8:41 AM
Labels: The Exposure Project Book


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My friend Lucy is running a project about 'what the sea means to you'...and I thought I'd use this space to try and get my thoughts some bit straight on the subject; it's something that I've been mulling over in my mind since she first mentioned the book project a few months ago.
For me, as a beach comber rather than, say, a diver or sailor, the sea is full of conflicting thoughts. It can bring precious treasures - such as all these sea beans (seeds carried on the gulf stream from the tropics). Each one has been measured, photographed and documented and will be on the Irish records.
At the same time, the very same storms and currents that bring treasure also bring marine litter - mostly plastic based and sometimes from the other side of the world too.
I think it's my nature, as a beach comber, to try and find the interesting, the intriguing and the mysterious in amongst the plastic junk that comes to these shores.
At times it is over-whelming: especially when faced with a scene like this...
Last winter I collected over 150 bags of rubbish from the local beaches! It really is a never ending battle as each tide brings in yet more rubbish but as long as I am physically able I am determined to do my bit and collect it up.
Something that has ended up in the ocean off the US/Canadian coast can wash up on the coast here in Waterville and through the wonders of social media and the internet, I can trace it right back to the company who made it or in some cases, the fishermen who lost their gear in storms.


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Top latest Five the language of desire Urban news
This incredibly imaginative youngsters's hardcover ebook by bestselling authors Gary Chapman and Rick Osborne, that includes four-colour illustrations (with concealed information!
To give this a recreation-like effect, you ought to secretly publish over a bit of paper what you believe your son or daughter's really like language is (terms, touch, time, service, gifts). Do not let your son or daughter see your guess but tell her or him that you've prepared down your guess and will discover out at the end of the game if you guessed right.
I am carrying my coronary heart~I am carrying my rhythm~I am carrying my prayers~But you can't kill my spirit~It is soaring and strong (Paula Cole's Me Lyrics)***We're not human beings getting a spiritual knowledge.
You at the moment are able to introduce your child to "The Love Language Thriller Recreation." Once you click the button under, you will see a quick set of Recommendations that specify to your son or daughter how you can language of desire just take and rating the profile.
The use of 'tie indicators' are employed more typically by couples in the courting and courtship stages than amongst their married counterparts In line with Burgoon, Buller, and Woodall.[19]
How about yours? Have you ever at any time recited a poem in front of a group? I loved reciting a poem at school Once i was still in highschool. I have composed various Malay poems before this. I'll try to write down English poem up coming. Do you have any poem that may be originally composed by you?
This labour, by gradual prudence to produce moderate A rugged individuals, and thro' comfortable levels Subdue them into the helpful and The great. Most blameless is he, centred during the sphere Of popular responsibilities, respectable never to fail
Community contact can function a 'tie sign' that exhibits Other individuals that the spouse is "taken".[eighteen] When a pair is Keeping hands, Placing their arms all-around each other, this can be a 'tie signal' exhibiting Other people that they are collectively.
Countless mothers and fathers wonder with regards to their Kid's really like language, and admittedly, pinpointing the like language of the young child needs some educated guesswork. Why? Because youthful youngsters cannot yet verbalize their appreciate language.
According to your child's maturity level, he or she might be able to share their thoughts about the issue and more clarify his or her love language.


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I gotta admit, I'm in love with this outfit! I love the colors and the fun print on the skirt. I love the ruffles and I love that she's so comfortable in this that she actually WANTS to wear it. And who says you can't wear pretty clothes during the winter? Using the right materials, you could totally make a skirt or top that works for cold weather too!
I love the variety of snuggle flannel prints that Joann Fabric carries. K and I spotted this print and snatched it up right away. It was too cute to pass up! I may need to go back and pick up more prints when they go on sale again (you know- for future winter sewing because winters up here last for 8 months!)
And with this print, how could we not choose red to pair it with? I found some leftover yardage of red fleece and knew I wanted to make a ruffled bolero to go with a ruffle skirt.
I drafted the pattern for the bolero myself and then followed this easy-to-follow ruffle skirt tutorial from Made. I made K's skirt a little longer because she's growing tall pretty quick and this skirt should last another year at least!
The white shirt is actually the Bimaa top from LouBee Clothing. I did not attach a cowl to the neckline though because I wanted it to lie flat beneath the bolero. I used this pattern for day five's outfit too (with the cowl neck.) Wait til you see it- it's seriously adorable!
I just love how the ruffles frame her little face and gives it a very girly feel without being too frou-frou.
We have ourselves another winner! She told me she feels very pretty in this outfit so I know it'll be worn quite often. I'm a very satisfied mommy-seamstress! See you tomorrow for day five of the KCW challenge.


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4 Food Rules To Live By
Have you lost your good health as the years have past? If you're overweight, have low energy or get sick a lot, listen up. If you don't understand why you don't feel good, here's your answer.
The way you feel depends on every decision you make throughout your day. No one is forcing you to eat what you eat. No one is forcing you to be sedentary and skip exercising. Let's look at some ways you can choose good health today, right now.
1. Choose plant-based.
Choose plants over animals most of the time. If you do choose to consume animal products, know where they came from and how the animals were treated. Do a little research and find out how corporate animal farmers actually treat their animals. You'll be appalled. Choose not to be ignorant about how your animal products get on your plate. Choose fruits, vegetables, greens, beans, and whole grains most of the time. You don't have to be perfect, just choose plants 80-90% of the time.
2. Choose whole.
Choose whole foods most of the time, and prepare your own meals when you can. Stop ordering food for delivery and stop going to restaurants so much; increase what you know about the food you eat by preparing it yourself. There are super-simple, quick recipes you'll love and can make. Find them. Make up your own recipes from foods that you like.
3. Choose local.
Choose products that have been grown locally. Even if you can't find or afford organic produce, choose local produce. This will boost your local economy and at the same time reduce the income going to big business, GMO-filled, super-agricultural companies. We were meant to eat what's grown right around us!
This is the time of year to experiment. Try every locally grown fruit and vegetable you can find; join a community-supported agriculture (CSA) group and find out what you've been missing. REAL FOOD has super taste and so many more nutrients, vitamins and minerals than everything else. Experience it for yourself and you'll make new choices!
4. Choose what you know is the right thing to do.
You already know what the right thing to do is. Stop making poor choices for lazy or unconsciously self-sabotaging reasons. Decide today that you'll make good food choices. If you don't, you're choosing disease every time you make a poor choice. Your health is under your control.
Once you notice how much better you feel after making good choices, you'll see that it is easy to continue.
Ready to learn more about how to unlock the power of food to heal your body, prevent disease & achieve optimal health? Register now for our FREE Functional Nutrition Webinar with Kelly LeVeque.


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After several email exchanges with the good people at PERS, I now have an answer to the question posed in my previous post "Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye". Unfortunately for all the people retiring, the answer isn't the one they had hoped for, and I'm afraid that PERS is well-covered for what they do. I won't bother with the first of the messages since it is largely unnecessary relative to the followup email. From David Crosley, PERS' Communication Director:
"The IAP retirement application states: "IAP accounts are subject to earnings or losses. Your IAP disbursement is based on the account balance at the time PERS processes the payment, not the date you select to retire."
Tier One/Tier Two statute (Chapter 238) differs from IAP statute (Chapter 238A) regarding crediting.
For Tier One and Tier Two, Oregon Revised Statutes 238.300 states in part that interest is "credited at the time of retirement."
For the IAP, Oregon Revised Statutes 238A.350 states in part that "adjustments...shall continue until the account is distributed to the member or forfeited." "
Thus, the behavior PERS exhibits with regard to the distribution of the IAP account (however and to whom it is distributed) is entirely in conformance with the statute covering the IAP, written by the Legislature in 2003 and modified slightly in 2005. If people are unhappy with the way PERS does things, it will require legislative action to change. Like everything involved with the Legislature it is always wise to be careful what you wish for. Moreover, PERS cannot be charged with failing to tell people as the application itself contains the key sentence (above) that describes exactly what happens at the time the account is distributed.


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Luckily, CoolMomPicks gives some tips to help make party planning go smoothly. They mention that getting a co-host helps to make planning go smoothly, utilize apps to keep track of planning, and keep things digital by sending invites that way! They mention that party planning doesn't have to be stressful as long as a person keeps track of everything in a simple and easy manner.
Sometimes, people get stressed out easily with planning. That's where an event planning company can be helpful. Twenty Three Layers is a company that has a reputation for being one of the best event planners in New York. They can help with your big day whether it's a wedding, an anniversary, or anything else of the sort! They listen to exactly what you want and they take all the stress out of planning. They're known for being the best and planning events of celebrities and everyday people. The way they design events is elegant, sophisticated, yet still delicate. Everything looks glamorous from the decorations to the food.
Overall, if party planning is stressful then there is absolutely no shame in utilizing a party planning company, one that has trusted reviews like Twenty Three Layers. Sometimes it's best to leave the planning to the pros because they know how to take care of every small detail. They will make sure that absolutely nothing goes wrong; and therefore all that's left for you to do is sit back and enjoy the party that you're throwing! Gatherings are much more delightful when you're not the one that has to worry about keeping everyone happy and everything going smoothly.


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Clamboree Ticket
August 20th at 5:00pm at the Eastern Shore Yacht and Country Club. The Clamboree directly supports the work of Virginia Eastern Shorekeeper so that we can protect the coasts and waters of our region. The best part of the Clamboree is all you have to do is have a good time. Your ticket includes endless clams, live music, and beer sampling while enjoying a stunning view of the creek before heading inside for a delicious dinner. Our silent auction will be available for throughout the evening for your perusal as well. Thank you for your commitment to protecting Virginia's Waters.


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Einstein's and Sagan's "God"
1/15/2012 | Share this article: View CommentsBy DealDoctor ~
Leaving behind a childhood and teenage viewpoint on religion. Religion is a fact of life on this world and everyone religious or not encounters it just like they do McDonald's hamburger stores on almost every corner of life. Life is full of religious shit and we as ExChristians must deal with it like it or not because it is just there. We need to be grown up about it. Perhaps Albert Einstein and Carl Sagan, two people most of us ExChristians who respect reason and science admire can give us a balanced "grown up" view of religion from the perspective of reason and humanism. They certainly were not Christians.
Grown ups are rare. It seems that children are in total dependence upon their parents and they all but worship the big parents as "gods". It is so very bad when someone grows up with awful parents because so much of what they learn is wrong because their parents who are teaching them about reality are screwed up too. Some people never are able to move out from under the shadow of their parents and become little carbon copies of them when they are older throughout their own "adult" life. This is sad because it is as if they never grow up to become their own persons and only became poor copies of their screwed up parents who once again pass along the tradition of ignorance. It even seems to get worse like the old copy machines that ran copies but each copy made was just a little worse than the one right before it.
There are some people who decide they want to grow up and no longer be like little children. They decide to be different from their parents and the war of the teenager with their parents begins. It has its own kind of Declaration of Independence. At this point the parents look more like the Devil to the teenager than like the god they nce saw as a child a few years before. It is as if the teenager must still be connected to their parents or there will be no war of independence for them to fight and be the winning hero. Now it is if they are wedded to their parents in a game of war rather than a game of follow the leader. There is no true independence yet. The teenager is not really grown up and from a grown up perspective able to see some good and some bad in their parents who were always far from perfect but not quite otherworldly demons either but just flesh and blood human beings. Whereas the child saw only good in the parents as supernatural gods the teenager is often just as unbalanced and sees only evil in their parents like a supernatural devil.
It should be clear by now that both the child and the teenager are not grown up. They are both equally attached psychologically to their parent but from opposite sides. One sees the parent from the front and the other from the back and neither has a well rounded view of an adult perspective. The parent's brother or sister, their uncle or aunt, will usually see both some good and some bad in their sibling because they are two independent equals but the little child or teenager of the very same person who is their parent not their sibling will all but have an absolute , black and white, view of their parent as all good or all bad. What's new. That's life.
When someone really does grow up and become an adult and they look at their own parents they are able to have a more balanced view.seeing the good and the bad, the angelic and the demonic, the smart and the dumb in their own parents. Hey, they might even have become a parent themselves by this point. Forgiveness and compassion become an option at this point. The war is over and real independence has been won. America and England can life in the same world without always sending armies to kill one another's citizens. they are however totally sovereign states by this point, grown ups.
The stupid religious shit some parents or other authority figures can dump on someone can scar them emotionally for life if they remain in a childish or teenager mindset about it. Most do and it does. A dumb mean person can abuse someone and they can be traumatized for life. Others who are equally traumatized outgrow the real pain, scars and trauma of their abusers and go on to live lives of joy. That is not easy. It really does requires going beyond a stupid childlike embrace of obedience to or reactive guilt. It requires us to outgrow a constant teenage like argument and battle with the now obvious stupidity of Christianity. Enraged teenagers are usually not very happy and they game they play of always fighting with their parents is not as much fun as growing up and having real independence. Happiness only comes to those who leave childhood dominated by religious indoctrination and their teens dominated by war with religion, become fully independent adults who know what they do believe and it makes them happy even if there are stupid religious people on every corner. They can find peace. They know themselves what they do believe their own perspectives to be important and they act on their own values. They feel good. They are authentic adults. Kids and teenagers only seem to be playing one game or another with their parents. ExChristians really do need to move on beyond Christianity. They need to be more than the ex kids or ex teenagers of the Church. They need to be free, grown, independent and happy. The church, like bad parents will still be in the same world. Fact.
Albert Einstein had a view of "religion" and the dude was fully grown up. Carl Sagan had a view of "religion" and he was grown up too. Their view was not Christian, it was not war with Christian. it was awesome and it inspires. It will not leave you feeling like an abused child or an enraged teenager. It may make you feel like a grown up in an awesome grown up world. Watch these videos on Einstein's and Sagan's "religion" . It might be yours as well. Is there a religionless religion? WTF!
Scientist Carl Sagan's Larger Perspective
Filed Under: DealDoctor , Opinion


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I was 13 when my family spent our first summer in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. My father was a professor by school-year and a camp director by summer. Each summer we packed up our summer things, loaded the car, and all piled in (including the cat), and drove the 8 hours straight north to our little neck of the woods on Long Lake.
On the grounds of this camp I ran free, like I could never do in the suburbs back home. I would wave to my parents as I occasionally passed them on my way to catch bullfrogs in the cove, jump in the lake to layout on the swim raft, or bribe the boat driver to take me water skiing after hours.
At camp I did every job imaginable. Mostly I was on teen staff, where in theory we were to clean the cabins and the other buildings, however reality found us messing around and joy-riding in camp vehicles. I ran the craft shop one summer, another I painted, another I was a counselor, worked in the kitchen, and went on wilderness trips.
Camp was a place apart. My summers were a delightful giant pause in the regular flow of life where everything simplified and slowed down. In this slower pace of life relationship had the space to grow. A single symbolism of this phenomenon was the campfire with its quiet conversation.
With no TV or radio or distraction the campfire is just what we did. Evening would fall, and we would gather around the fire. As we sang praise songs to God I felt His warm presence envelope me like the darkness and smoke around. We gazed into the jumping, dancing flames and we talked.
Around these campfires we told our stories. The stories matured and grew more complex as I aged, but the theme remained the same; with the sharing of ourselves in this intimate circle of safety we learned about ourselves and our world. I heard many of the same stories told over and over, yet without fail new ideas would be presented. Whether it was a group of strangers on a wilderness trip, a group of 7th grade campers, or a bunch of friends sneaking off for the night, we would listen to one another, poke at the embers, and join in each other's journey.
In the telling of our stories around campfires I learned the gift of conversation. I began to understand, even before I could put words on it, that to know and be known happens in the telling of our stories. In authentic conversation.
Today I am blessed to have a cabin across the lake from the camp of my childhood. My children now have this sacred place as their summer playground. This past week a girlhood friend has been up enjoying the Northwoods. In the evenings we have built our campfire and settled in for conversation. Our circle has been small. Just the two of us. Yet, despite our age, our kids running amok around us, and the complications of life and love we find ourselves in today, the format is the same. As we give the gift of our unique stories to one another, we find how similar we are. Just as the fire organically moves and dances with ease, so does our conversation, and without even realizing exactly when it happened, we find that we received an even greater gift; we are known.
Flowing Tears - Sara Groves has a line in her song Going Home that says, "I'm confined by my senses." That's how I'm feeling these days. Tears don't seem adequate, I don...


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Until then, I thought it would be fun to share a few things off my ever growing Look Human Wishlist! The list is far (far) longer than just the few I'm sharing here, but these are some of my absolute favorites. If you like what you see and are interested in browsing for yourself, you can sign up for a Look Human account here! All it asks for is your email, and by using my referral link you'll get a $5 credit towards your first order!
I have to be honest; right now I pretty much want this tank top more than anything else in the world. I'm having Fairy Tail feelings this week.
Because Sailor Scouts have better things to do, okay?
Seriously, though. No one is safe.
If you want to get technical, I'm training to become Zero Suit Samus. Everytime I play Super Smash Bros I'm like damn. This could be me, but I'm playing. Step one: get in shape. Step two: kick boxing classes!
If you win, you live. If you lose, you die. You can only win if you fight.
Notice me, Levi Senpai.
Obviously I've been hanging around the fitspiration section quite a bit lately. What can I say? Nothing inspires me more than my favorite badass characters.
They have so much more than the few I've shown you here. They have a whole array of Disney shirts and accessories to choose from, and a ton more that I could never fit into one post. I do have one t-shirt from them that says "Introverts Unite We're Here We're Uncomfortable And We Want To Go Home." Is there a better shirt in existence? I think not. If nothing else it is a fun way to pass the time, and I'm willing to bet you'd find at least one thing you desperately need right this very second (that Fairy Tail tank top oh my god).
Don't forget to sign up using my link to get your $5 credit! And let me know what fun things you find! They add new stuff all the time, so every visit is a new adventure.


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By Nan Jensen, Family and Consumer Sciences
As you gear up for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the holiday shopping season, we'd like to offer you some tips on how you can use your credit cards wisely to keep your spending in check.
Set up a holiday budget. Without a predetermined spending limit, you can easily max out your credit card or charge more than you can afford. Before you hit the mall or the computer, figure out how much you can reasonably spend and keep that amount in mind as you shop. Create a list of all the purchases you will make that are specific to the holidays. Think about who you will be buying for, contributions to holiday parties at work or your child's school and any extra entertaining you might do at home. You may tend to eat out more when you are shopping, or because you are busier around the holidays, so add those expenditures to your list. If you make charitable contributions around the holidays, add those to your list.
Make a list of people you need to buy things for. Try to think of what you have in mind for each person. If it is not a specific item, then you should think in terms of specific dollar limits. Without setting this in advance, it can be easy to overspend.
Beware of store credit cards that "save you money" on that purchase. Many stores typically offer enticing offers during the holidays by encouraging you to get a store card and save an extra 10% or more on purchases that day. This works only if you pay the balance charged back in a reasonable time frame. With the high interest rates (20%or more) you typically pay on the balances of those cards, that $50 savings on a $500 purchase may not be savings at all if you have to spread the payments out over time.
Don't max out your credit cards. If you max out your credit card during holiday shopping, this can impact your credit score. According to Fair Isaac, a credit scoring program widely used by credit bureaus, about one-third of your score depends upon your "utilization ratio," or how much of your available credit you actually use. Experts recommend that you keep your balance below 30%, or $300 for every $1000 of available credit.
Keep track of your holiday credit card spending. What good is a budget if you're not keeping up with it? Check your receipts to make sure you're not spending too much.
Don't fall for the "skip a payment" offer from your credit card company. Credit card issuers commonly make this offer around the holiday season. It can become a problem if you carry a balance on your card. The offer is designed to entice you to skip your payment but the interest would be applied to the full amount for that month. Skipping payments can get very expensive very quickly if your balance and interest rates are high.
Plan to pay off anything you charge on the holidays within 1-2 months at the longest. Considering the holidays come every year, you will never be able to get ahead if you are still paying off debt from last year when you begin holiday spending for this year.
Save those receipts. Make sure to keep them together in one location, as you may need them for returns and exchanges. Check credit and debit card sales and return receipts against your monthly bills and statements. Report any problems to the credit card issuer right away.
Keep an eye on your wallet. Don't flash any cash you might be carrying. Watch your credit or debit cards during transactions, and get them back as quickly as possible. If your cards are lost or stolen, report the loss or theft immediately to the card issuers. To report your credit card lost or stolen, call the customer service number on your billing statement.
Make a New Year's resolution. To avoid credit card use, begin setting aside a little money from each paycheck in January in a special account reserved for holiday expenses. Saving just $10 a week will give you a nearly $500 head start when December rolls around. Check to see if your bank or credit union offers special holiday savings accounts, or consider a direct deposit from your paycheck.
Here is a holiday budget sheet to get you started.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Protecting Your Credit During the Holidays
By Nan Jensen, Family and Consumer Sciences
Monday, November 16, 2009
The Truth About Payday Lending
By Karen Saley, Extension Specialist
With the holidays just around the corner and money being tight for many of us, you may be considering a short-term payday loan. Before you run out and borrow that money let's look at how these loans work.
You write a personal check payable to the payday lender for the amount you want to borrow, plus the fee you must pay for borrowing. The company gives you the amount of the check less the fee, and agrees to hold the check until the loan is due, usually your next payday. The fees on these loans can be a percentage of the borrowed amount — or they can be based on increments of money borrowed: say, a fee for every $50 or $100 borrowed.
So let's say you borrow $100.00 and the fee is $15.00. When you get your next paycheck you will need to give the payday lender $115.00. You may be saying to yourself, well that's not so bad; I borrowed this money at 15%, that's lower than the interest rate on my credit card. What you need to consider, however, is how long did you borrow the money? A week, two weeks? Then what happens if you can't pay back the original amount in that time period? You "rollover" the loan and now you have borrowed $115.00 with another $15.00 fee attached. You now owe $130.00 and it has cost you $30.00 to borrow $100.00.
So if you are considering one of these short-term loans to cover holiday expenses you may want to reconsider. Look at other ways to make your holidays special. If, however, you find yourself in a position of not being able to meet your living expenses here are some things to consider before visiting your local payday lender.
~Contact your creditors and discuss the possibility of adjusting your payment amount and/or schedule. Be sure to ask what type of fees may be involved in restructuring your account.
~Contact a reputable credit counseling agency to help you set up a debt repayment plan or help you create a spending plan that fits your circumstances.
~Shop around for a low-cost loan from your credit union or small bank. Remember to ask about interest rates and fees.
Contact www.consumercreditcounseling.net to speak with a financial counselor free of charge and for more information about payday lending visit www.ftc.org.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
By Nan Jensen, Families & Consumers Agent, Pinellas County Extension
Holidays can be stressful even under the best of circumstances. But because of the economy and the high rate of unemployment, holidays this year may be particularly trying. Loss can trigger depression during the holidays.
Here are some strategies to help you deal with the stress during this holiday season.
Focus on what you have rather than what you don't have.
~ Enjoy the little traditions that evoke positive memories for the holidays: songs, events, rituals, and more.Take care of yourself-both physically and emotionally.
~ Come up with new holiday traditions – ones that don't involve much money and that focus on family togetherness. Set aside time to create as a family new and inexpensive holiday decorations and gifts. Enjoy activities such as visiting displays, attending parades, viewing holiday lights or volunteering.
~ Spend your time with people you love and care about.
Your mental health is affected by your physical health, especially at holiday time.
~ Take care of yourself by getting enough sleep and making healthy food choices.Manage Your Time
~ If you drink alcohol, limit your daily consumption. The Dietary Guidelines recommend no more than one drink for women and two drinks for men. This will not only save you calories but can help you "manage your mood" as well. Too much alcohol can trigger depression.
~ Exercise is important, too. Walking reduces stress and helps ward off weight gain.
~ Practice relaxation exercises (i.e., stretching, deep breathing, yoga, meditation).
~ Schedule your activities in advance. Break projects into small steps so you won't feel overwhelmed.Watch what you spend.
~ Involve family members in getting the holiday chores done.
~ Don't accept every invitation. Chose the events you want to attend.
~ Don't over-schedule. Leave some time unplanned for you and your family to relax and just be at home with each other.
Overdoing it with credit cards and spending causes stress at the holidays. Try to keep spending under control.
~ Set spending limits for gifts for each person as well as for other items on your holiday list. Then search out the sales and specials to take advantage of the best buys.To help you control your holiday spending, join us on November 18 for a Solutions in 30 webinar entitled "Protect Your Credit during the Holiday Season".
~ Pay with cash and leave the credit cards at home. If you plan to use a credit card, select just one to use for your holiday spending. It's much easier to control your spending on one card than using several cards.
~ If your children ask for something nonessential such as a video game system that does not fit into your budget, be honest with them and tell them you can't afford it this year.
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Hi everyone,
I'm moving my site currently so I will not be posting as much as normal. My new site will be http://www.israelicanwin.com feel free to go their now and enter your email address so I can keep you updated with my site progress and let you know how it's going. There is also a free gift so why not.
Isaiah 40:31
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew [their] strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run, and not be weary;
[and] they shall walk, and not faint.


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|A winter's day
I am missing winter.
There - I've said it and you can pelt me with rotten apples if you want.
Today is cloudless, the sun is warm and the snowdrops are rushing out as if they'd missed the early train.
But I see daffodil leaves and bluebell shoots poking up too.
It is the 12th of January for heaven's sake.
What happened to 'due season'?
|Winter river
In place of winter we have monsoon and everything squelches beneath my feet, while new and unwelcome leaks have appeared in our house as tired old fabric gives way to the merciless onslaught of water.
For just one morning this week, we woke to the still silence of frost, a gentle shroud of thick winter mist. Our lovely, meagre trees were cocooned in soft white cloud, and a pearlescent ivory glow replaced the light of day.
But one morning is not enough.
|Moody river
I want the moody river, the intransigent earth and the sleeping garden. I want the sharp, cold knife of frost, and the forgiveness of snow.
I want winter.
I have posted this poem before, but, as I haven't been writing any poetry recently, here it is again.
After all, nothing has changed.


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style me pretty. My eyes were in heaven! The gorgeous floral garden designs in the hanging macrame planters as a centerpiece are exquisite. What a statement it makes. And I also have a slight obsession for vintage thonet chairs to top off that great tablescape :)
floral design by mckenziepowell photography by jasmine star photography
macrame floral design
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