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NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale lightweights, whose varsity eight recently won the IRA national championship, have elected David Walker as their captain for the 2011-2012 season. Walker, who rowed in the six-seat of the varsity eight this spring, called his election an "honor."
"I look forward to continuing our positive momentum into next season," said Walker. "I know that this position comes with great responsibility and I look forward to stepping up to the challenge next year with the help of my teammates."
Walker added that he intends to use the 2010-2011 captaincy of Andrew Hakanson as a guide during his tenure. "I am particularly grateful for the strong example of leadership set by [Hakanson]," said Walker. "He passionately led the team to a great racing season and I look forward to following in his footsteps."
After a successful rowing career at Deerfield Academy, Walker began his career at Yale as a member of the class of 2011. As a freshman, the Greenwich, Conn., native was the 2-seat of the undefeated first freshman eight, which captured the Kilpatrick Cup at Eastern Sprints with a two-second victory over Georgetown. As a sophomore, Walker completed another undefeated regular season as the bow seat of the third varsity before finishing third at Eastern Sprints.
In 2009, Walker took the year off from school and rowing, serving as the Director of Marketing at yourenew.com, a New Haven-based startup founded by former lightweights Rich Littlehale '10 and Bob Casey '11. Walker credits his year off with giving him a newfound commitment to rowing, and he returned as a member of the Y150 for the 2010-2011 season, earning a seat in the varsity eight in the fall. In the spring, Walker sat in the six-seat of the varsity, finishing third at Eastern Sprints and winning the IRA national championship.
Walker's captaincy will officially begin after the varsity eight's trip to Henley-on-Thames, England, for the Henley Royal Regatta. Yale will race in the Temple Challenge Cup, an event for student eights last won by the Bulldogs in 2000, from June 29 to July 3.
Report Filed by Yale Sports Publicity


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subset: commoncrawl


text:
NVIDIA Untethers Gaming with Project SHIELD
In a surprise announcement at CES, NVIDIA today announced Project SHIELD, a gaming portable for open platforms. With the form factor of a full-sized game controller, a flip-out 5" 720p retinal display, and powered by the new Tegra 4 processor, SHIELD is a new device category that works with both Android and PC.
SHIELD has two faces; on one hand, it's a full-fledged Android gaming portable, on the other it's a wireless client to a GeForce GTX PC. In both cases it uses existing, open ecosystems with a vast selection of titles.
"Project SHIELD was created by NVIDIA engineers who love to game and imagined a new way to play," said Jen-Hsun Huang, co-founder and CEO of NVIDIA. "We were inspired by a vision that the rise of mobile and cloud technologies will free us from our boxes, letting us game anywhere, on any screen. We imagined a device that would do for games what the iPod and Kindle have done for music and books, letting us play in a cool new way. We hope other gamers love SHIELD as much as we do."
One of largest gaming platforms today is Android. While touchscreen controls works great for some titles, many games, especially first person titles, can be frustrating and imprecise to control. Many accessory makers have created dongles to link game controllers to Android phones and tablets. Clearly people love playing games on Android but touchscreen alone isn't meeting gamers' needs.
With the goal of building an ideal Android gaming device, SHIELD integrates a full-sized game controller with a high-resolution touchscreen. By leveraging the Android platform, SHIELD works with a vast catalogue of games from day one and offers both touch and physical controls.
An Android device with full controls, however, is only half the story. With the Kepler architecture, NVIDIA engineers had perfected an ultra-fast H.264 hardware encoder designed for real time streaming. HD gameplay can be captured, encoded, and streamed with very low latency. This new streaming capability is the foundation for the second face of SHIELD: a wireless handheld counterpart to a GeForce GTX PC.
Most PC gamers own a fairly sizable game library. But unlike music and video which can be streamed freely around the house, playing PC games requires sitting in front of a PC. Even if the picture could be streamed, where would it stream to and how would one interact with it? SHIELD elegantly solves both problems. With a 5" 1280x720 screen and a full sized controller, it is capable of not only displaying a PC game in its full glory, it lets you play it too. And because the rendering is done on the PC and the picture is streamed as video, you get GeForce GTX class graphics and long battery life. It's kind of like having a GeForce GTX PC in the palm of your hand combined with the battery life of a Tegra device.
Tegra 4 Processor
Naturally, NVIDIA put its latest and greatest processor into its first gaming portable. At the heart of SHIELD is the new Tegra 4, the world's fastest mobile processor. It is powered by a quad core ARM Cortex-A15 CPU and 72 custom GPU cores – 6x the GPU horsepower of its predecessor. Through its second-generation battery saver core and PRISM 2 Display technology, Tegra 4 provides hours of gameplay on a single charge.
Console-Grade Controller
PC gamers play to win and nothing is more frustrating than inadequate controls. SHIELD provides a full console-grade controller with 2 joysticks, a D-pad, ABXY buttons, left/right bumpers, left/right analog triggers, Start/Back/Home/Volume buttons, and a multi-function NVIDIA/Power button.
5" Retinal Display
SHIELD flips open to an integrated 5" 1280x720 HD multi-touch display. With 294 dpi and 921,600 pixels, SHIELD has the highest resolution and pixel density of any handheld gaming device. In addition, Tegra 4's Direct Touch technology gives SHIELD touch response three times faster than other touch devices.
Ported Speaker System
Speakers on gaming handhelds have been mediocre at best. Not so with SHIELD. SHIELD's speakers are custom designed to take advantage of the controller's deep body. In addition to left and right speakers, two tuned ports provide exceptional bass response. The resulting sound is full and rich, a step above even many high-end laptops.
Availability and Final Words
SHIELD is expected to ship in Q2 of 2013. It will first launch in the US and Canada, with a worldwide rollout to follow. Pricing and final specs will be unveiled closer to availability. You can sign up here to be notified for the release.
SHIELD is perhaps NVIDIA's most ambitious gaming project to date. On the one hand, it's the most powerful and full-fledged Android gaming portable, on the other, it's a pocket version of a GeForce GTX PC. What excites you most about SHIELD? Share your thoughts with us below.


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Fact Sheet
January 7, 2014
What Is Marijuana?
Marijuana or Cannabis sativa is an herb. It grows in many places around the world. It is also called hemp, reefer, or cannabis. It has had many uses in different cultures. These include reducing pain and increasing appetite. Marijuana contains chemicals called cannabinoids. The best known is tetrahydrocannabinol or THC. The marijuana "high" is mainly due to THC.
Marijuana was used medically in the U.S. until the late 1930s. Then there were claims of "reefer madness." Supposedly, marijuana caused crime, violence, insanity, and death. In 1970, U.S. drug law classified marijuana as having a high potential for abuse and no medical use.
Marijuana was later found to have other health benefits. It can lower pressure within the eye. This helps treat glaucoma, an eye disease which can cause blindness. Marijuana also reduces nausea and vomiting in patients taking chemotherapy treatment for cancer. It reduces muscle spasms in people with nerve problems like multiple sclerosis and can help treat some types of pain. These uses led to the development of the drug dronabinol (Marinol), a synthetic version of THC.
NOTE: Federal and state laws generally forbid the sale or possession of marijuana. Twenty states and the District of Columbia have passed "medical marijuana" laws that permit limited use for health reasons. In 2009, the US government announced that federal agents will not arrest medical marijuana patients or providers who comply with state law. More information on state medical marijuana laws is available at www.mpp.org/.
Why Do People With HIV Use Marijuana?
People with HIV use marijuana to stimulate appetite and to reduce nausea. Many people with HIV have low appetite. This can be due to fatigue or drug side effects. Low appetite can lead to AIDS wasting (see Fact Sheet 519). Marijuana stimulates the appetite, preventing these problems.
Some people with HIV get nauseated when they take antiretroviral medications (ARVs). This can make it difficult to take all scheduled doses. Marijuana can help control the nausea.
It may also relieve the pain of peripheral neuropathy (see Fact Sheet 555). A recent study confirmed it is useful for that purpose.
How Is Marijuana Used?
Normally, dried marijuana leaves and flowers are smoked or baked into food. Health care providers can legally prescribe Marinol. Some people get the same effects from Marinol as from smoked marijuana. Others prefer to smoke marijuana. They can use just the amount they need without bad effects from higher doses.
What Are the Side Effects?
Smoking marijuana can cause some of the same health problems as smoking tobacco, including bronchitis. However, it has not been clearly linked to lung cancer.
Smoked or eaten marijuana can disrupt balance, physical coordination and visual perception. This can make it dangerous to drive a car or operate machinery. Some people feel stoned (very disoriented or dizzy) when using marijuana. This effect can be stronger when marijuana is eaten than when it is smoked.
Some users develop a tolerance to marijuana. This means they need higher and higher doses to get the same effect. Users can also become dependent on marijuana. They may have mild withdrawal symptoms when they stop using it.
How Does It Interact With Other Therapies?
There are no known interactions between marijuana and medications or other herbs. However, very few interactions between herbs and medications have been studied. Tell your health care provider if you are using any herbs or supplements.
A research study found that smoking marijuana does not increase HIV viral load or reduce CD4 cell counts.
How Do We Know It Works?
Many scientific studies document marijuana's ability to reduce nausea, increase appetite, and decrease pressure in the eye.
The Bottom Line
Marijuana is an herb that is smoked or baked into food. It has been used for health purposes for thousands of years. It was legal in the United States until the 1930s. It stimulates the appetite, reduces nausea and some types of pain, and reduces pressure inside the eye.
U.S. drug policy made marijuana illegal in 1970. However, health care providers can prescribe Marinol. It is a synthetic version of THC, an active substance in marijuana. Not everyone gets the same results from Marinol as from marijuana.
Some people with AIDS use marijuana to stimulate their appetites or to avoid nausea when taking their ARVs. A few states have passed medical marijuana laws that permit limited use for health purposes.
For more information:
This article was provided by AIDS InfoNet. Visit AIDS InfoNet's website to find out more about their activities and publications.
Add Your Comment:
(Please note: Your name and comment will be public, and may even show up in
Internet search results. Be careful when providing personal information! Before
adding your comment, please read TheBody.com's Comment Policy.)


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Student or Learner
Hi guys, I am new in this Forum, but I read already many of your threads about Letter of motivation and the were quite usefull, so thanks already.
I would also submit my letter of motivation to the NHH university (Norway),
hoping that someone will be able to give me some tip!
The letter should be just one page, so I must cut something off..but I dunno what!
So please help me... :)
This is the Mater course I am applying for: "Mater of Science in Business Administration - Energy, Natural resources and the Environment"
here is the letter:
To whom it may concern,
I would like to express my desire to study at the Norges Handelshøyskole during the autumn semester of 2010 and to explicit my great interest in applying for the Master's Program in in Energy, Natural Resources and the Environment.
I am an Italian undergraduate student with a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration at University of Palermo. I feel very motivated for obtaining this degree and I believe my strong academic background in Business Administration combined with my work experience will fulfill your requirements. In the year 2009 I embraced the opportunity to do an internship in a TQM Consulting Group. During this period, I have been involved in a Bachelor's thesis project which allowed me to deepen academic matters such as ethics, corporate social responsibility and has increased my interest, my knowledge and my analytical skills in the field of Business Sustainability and Environmental Governance Systems. I enjoy change and am able to assimilate quickly into new places and I adapt to people easily. Thus, while studying for my three years Business Administration degree I took the opportunity to study one year abroad as an Erasmus student, experience that formed good knowledge in how to face an international and multicultural environment and that provided me both fluent speaking and writing skills in English and Spanish.
My career aspirations after graduating are to obtain employment as an Innovation manager with a multinational corporation or with a government agency in Europe in the field of renewable energy and natural resources management. Studying in Norway will further strengthen my ability and flexibility to adapt, tolerate and deal with other cultures as well as aid me in dealing with foreign affairs in the future. Additionally, living in this country will facilitate my future integration into any organization and permit for easier communication as well as give me the confidence to work with people of diverse backgrounds. The more international exposure I have forces me to look at situations from different perspectives with an objective and unbiased point of view and this will help me be a successful professional in this global economy.
Managing Energy and natural resources is a field that always fascinates me and I believe that this Master Program will contribute to the evolution of my career as it suits perfectly with my future goals. It also would allow me to develop my skills in energy and natural resource markets analysis and understanding, providing me the ability to evaluate environmental impact of business and natural resource value chain. From my studies at NHH I expect to gain knowledge on the Norwegian way of working and I am sure that studying the courses included in this Master Program will let me better understand how to take strategic decisions and how to provide competitive responses to energy and natural resource markets.
I believe that a background in Business Administration and a strong motivation to pursue an International carrier in the field of Energy and Natural Resources Management make me a strong candidate for your Master Program. I am looking forward to the opportunity to study at NHH at Bergen and immerse myself in my studies and the Norwegian culture and language thereby increasing my cultural awareness. My time spent in The Netherlands will bring enduring transformations in all aspects of my life that will assist me in attaining my academic, personal and career goals in the global arena.


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Thousands of Tunisians denounce Islamist extremism
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) -- More than 8,000 Tunisians marched Saturday through the capital denouncing violence committed by ultraconservative Islamist groups in recent months.
Since the fall of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's secular dictatorship in a popular uprising a year ago, small groups of ultraconservative Muslims known as Salafists have risen in Tunisia calling for greater piety, attacking unveiled women and secular intellectuals and occupying universities.
Organized by two leftist opposition parties, the demonstration was one of the largest marches in the country since a moderate Islamist party swept elections last year. Not far away, several hundred Islamists held a counter-protest.
"Make a common front against fanaticism," read one of the posters carried by demonstrators in the main rally, many of whom were women. "We got rid of totalitarianism, and we don't want it back," read another banner.
Tunisia's long-oppressed moderate Islamist party, Ennahda, won October's elections and formed a government with two secular parties. Ennahda has taken pains to calm the fears of Tunisia's secular elite that it would turn the country into an Islamic state.
The party has been repeatedly embarrassed by the actions of the Salafists, who appear to be justifying the warnings of secular parties such as the Progressive Democratic Party that radical Islamists are trying to change the country.
PDP leader Maya Jribi attended the demonstration and called for a "tolerant and pluralistic Tunisia where the citizens are respected in face of the death threats we hear these days."
Critics of the government say it is not doing enough in the face of the Salafi actions, which included occupying a university and preventing students from taking exams because of the institution's policy against the religious face veil.
"I came to denounce the violence and say that the government has to take responsibility for applying the law against those who are violent," said demonstrator Aicha Naboltane, 29.
The incident that appeared to have really galvanized people was an attack on secular intellectual Hamadi Rendissi and newspaper editor Zied Krichen by Salafis outside a courthouse Monday.
The two men were attending a civil trial against a television station owner for airing the award-winning Iranian animated film Persepolis on charges he "violated sacred values."
The three-kilometer long march passed through Avenue Bourguiba in the heart of Tunis, where demonstrators brought down the dictatorship a year earlier.


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(Reuters) - Chesapeake Energy Corp (CHK.N), the U.S. oil and gas company battling a governance crisis and financial strain, said on Monday its chief executive officer, Aubrey McClendon, will not receive a bonus for 2012.
The board, in a filing to regulators, said it made several changes to the company's corporate governance structure and executive pay. The company said McClendon recommended he not receive a bonus.
Other actions taken include deep cuts to incentive pay, a ban on personal jet travel for top executives other than McClendon, and measures to increase shareholder influence.
Last year was rough for Chesapeake and McClendon. The company faced both a liquidity crisis brought on by low natural gas prices and heavy spending and a governance crisis that resulted in big shareholders effectively taking control of the board of directors in June.
McClendon is under scrutiny from federal regulators and his board for blurring the line between his personal dealings and that of the company. He was stripped of his title as chairman of the company he co-founded in 1989 last year.
A Reuters investigation published in April found that McClendon had arranged to personally borrow more than $1 billion from EIG Global Energy Partners, a firm that also is a big investor in Chesapeake.
The loans, arranged through McClendon's personal shell companies, were secured by his interest in company wells. McClendon is allowed to take a 2.5 percent stake in every single well Chesapeake drills under a controversial program called the Founders Well Participation Program (FWPP).
He must also shoulder the same percentage of the wells' costs. After the Reuters report on McClendon's personal loans, the company's board, at the urging of major shareholders, said in May it would end the well program 18 months early in June 2014.
The FWPP has also come under the scrutiny of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Internal Revenue Service and Chesapeake's board.
Other Reuters investigations found McClendon ran a $200 million hedge fund that traded in the same commodities the company produced and plotted with a competitor to suppress prices of oil and gas acreage in Michigan.
The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Chesapeake's land deals in Michigan.
In each of the prior three years, McClendon received a bonus of nearly $2 million.
Shareholders, who delivered a stringing rebuke of the executive and board in June at the company's annual meeting, have demanded change.
As part of the its efforts to shore up governance, McClendon will also reimburse the company for his personal use of company aircraft in excess of $250,000. Previously that amount was $500,000, according to a filing.
Chesapeake said it will also make deep cuts to other executive's incentive compensation and eliminate their personal use of company jets, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Oklahoma City, Oklahoma company also pledged to implement a shareholder proposal passed in June that would eliminate the staggered election of its board of directors.
Chesapeake originally lobbied for the Oklahoma statute mandating classified boards but said it will now seek to have all of its directors elected on a annual basis, beginning in 2013.
Among other changes, Chesapeake said will adopt a proxy access measure, action New York City Comptroller John Liu said will give shareholders a much stronger voice at the table. New York City pension funds hold 1.6 million Chesapeake shares.
Chesapeake also put in place a clawback provision on executive incentive compensation that can be exercised "in the event that the company is required to restate any financial statements ..."
Some viewed the changes as relatively minor. Mark Hanson, oil analyst at Morningstar said investors are more keenly focused on the outcome of the company's probe into the FWPP and McClendon's personal loans, as well as the 2013 budget and outlook.
"Cutting overhead and slashing bonuses won't do much for a company that's facing another potential multi-billion funding shortfall in 2013," Hanson said.
Shares of Chesapeake edged lower after the close of regular trading. The stock fell to $17.58 from its New York Stock Exchange close of $17.62.
Reporting By Anna Driver; Editing by Bernard Orr


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Formerly of Crookston, his funeral will be Monday, Jan. 7 in Crookston.
Donald Lyle Braaten, age 72, LaPorte (formerly Crookston), died Monday, December 31, 2012 at LaPorte, MN.
Donald was born on July 31, 1940 in McVille, ND, son of Theodore and Cleo Braaten. He grew up at Tolna, ND and attended schools there and in McVille. He served in the US Army in Maine and in Korea, following the Korean Conflict. He worked at Campbell Farms in Grand Forks, a turkey farm at Staples and then with JR Simplot as a mechanic. He lived in Wadena, East Grand Forks and then Crookston, before moving to Thief River Falls, where he spent four years and then to LaPorte, where he has lived the past six years.
He is survived by: his significant other: Lois Raymond; three daughters: Mavis Braaten of Crookston, Dorie Anderson of Fisher, Teresa Braaten of Crookston; four grandchildren: Shane, Shawna & Amanda Goulet, and Michael Anderson; three great-grandchildren: Ethan Boe, Madison Vanyo and Kira Gatica; siblings: Judy Kirchoffner of Grand Forks, Loretta Gothberg of Grand Forks, Sharon Eaves of Cando, Linda Duray in Arizona, Vicky Seaberg of Cando, Beverly Egstad of Grand Forks, Larry Braaten of Cando, Dennis Braaten of Baudette, Thomas Braaten of Grand Forks, Betty Fontaine of Grand Forks, Barbara Fiesx in Arizona and Douglas Braaten of Cando.
He was preceded in death by his parents: Ted & Cleo Braaten; sister: Sonia Johnson and granddaughter: Lorie Goulet.
The funeral for Donald Lyle Braaten will be at 1 PM, Monday, January 7th, 2013 at the Stenshoel-Houske Funeral Home, Crookston. Visitation will be from 5 to 7 PM, Sunday and for one hour before services on Monday at the funeral home. A Prayer Service will be held at 7 PM, Sunday at the funeral home. Burial will be at Oakdale Cemetery, Crookston.
Online guestbook at www.stenshoelhouske.com


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Dick's Sporting Goods stood out among a slew of retailers reporting disappointing numbers on Tuesday — and the state of golf has to shoulder perhaps the biggest blame.
Dick's /quotes/zigman/310940/delayed /quotes/nls/dks DKS stock slumped 18% after the company's disappointing first-quarter results reflected a high-single-digit comparable sales decline in the golf business at its namesake chain and a 10.4% drop at its Golf Galaxy stores. The company also saw lower gun sales following a period of panic buying that began in late 2012 spurred by concerns about gun control legislation.
While the company expects the decline of gun sales to moderate, Chief Executive Edward Stack repeatedly warned he doesn't know "where the bottom is" for golf, which varies from 10% of the company's total business in the fourth quarter to about 25% in the second quarter, the category's most important selling period for Dick's. The percentage of golf-related same-store sales so far this quarter is down in the low teens, he said.
"The more concerning and unpredictable issue is the golf business," he said on the call. "We anticipated softness,
but instead we saw significant decline. We underestimated how significant a decline this would be. We now expect this trend could continue for the balance of the year."
Stack said there are three big problems hurting golf sales. For one, there's a "glut of inventory" at both the wholesale and retail level because of "the lackluster sales over the past 15 months." That has led suppliers to aggressively cut prices to clear merchandise. He gave the example of the retailer selling $99 drivers this spring that cost $299 just 20 months ago. The average retail price of men's drivers at Dick's dropped 16% in the first quarter, even though units sold were down only 2%, he said.
The second issue, he said, is that the core golfer doesn't seem to understand or has not yet fully embraced the new club technology introduced by suppliers such as Adidas' /quotes/zigman/619210/realtime DE:ADS TaylorMade, which hurts replacement sales.
"The (new) technology and game improvement possibilities, especially in drivers, are fantastic, but since it's not yet completely understood or embraced, the core golfer has not replaced his equipment and the more casual player has elected to buy closed out products at a lower price," he said, adding that fewer rounds of golf played is the third issue.
"This industry has some very big issues in the golf business per se," he said, adding the decline isn't because of any online competition.
Dick's, which said it will cut its space dedicated to golf, wasn't alone in golf trouble. Adidas said earlier this month its first-quarter profit plunged 34% in part due to double-digit sales declines at TaylorMade. Callaway Golf /quotes/zigman/221187/delayed /quotes/nls/ely ELY in late April warned that high inventory levels industry-wide and a "heavy promotional environment" could hurt its profits.
According to the latest data from National Sporting Goods Association, the golf participation rate has declined each year from $23.2 million in 2008 to $20.9 million in 2011 before rebounding slightly to 21.1 million in 2012.
"Recession hurt rounds played, (and golf) never recovered," SportsOneSource analyst Matt Powell told MarketWatch, adding golf equipment sales so far this year are down "in the mid-teens" percentage. Golf, with clubs, balls, and course fees, is "too expensive and time consuming for millennials."
A separate Sports and Fitness Industry Association report, citing a Physical Activity Council study, said golf participate rate dropped 2.5% last year to 24.7 million players on a golf course, and has seen an average annual decline of 2.8% the past five years.
Joe Beditz, president and CEO of the National Golf Foundation, said while there's been a gradual decline in the number of golfers, it's consistent with the declines in other sports and said the number is "essentially within the sampling error."
"Interest in the game continues to remain high with 2 to 3 million approaching the game each year," he said in an interview. He said the number of "avid golfers" stays the same with declines coming from "occasional players" and "millennials."
"Equipment sales are related a lot to weather and rounds played," he said. "Last year was a very bad year. Weather has a big impact, which directly affects golf (related) sales." He said per capita consumption of golf clubs is actually flat or higher.
For its part, he said the industry has unveiled programs such as "Get Golf Ready" for new adult players and a new PGA junior golf league to attract young players.
The outlook on golf "is steady or favorable," he told MarketWatch.
More must-reads from MarketWatch:
Retailers slammed as industry outlook remains glum
Retailers' top worries in 2014
E-commerce, small stores are Wal-Mart's bright spots in an otherwise ugly report


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Page content
Imperfect Freedom
The period after the Civil War known as Reconstruction lasted from 1865 to 1877. It was a time of rebuilding and reunifying the war-ravaged country as more inclusive and without slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 freed slaves in rebelling states only. It was not until the Thirteenth Amendment was added to the constitution that slavery was made illegal. It was soon followed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, which clarified the meaning of "citizen" and the protections citizenship conferred. The former Confederate states were required to accept these amendments as a condition of their readmission to the Union. Though each state did so, both state governments and individuals still found ways to deny African Americans their rights as citizens. In this lesson, students compare the hopes and expectations created by the Emancipation Proclamation and Reconstruction amendments to the realities of discrimination after slavery.
In this lesson, students:
- Identify the effects of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments
- Consider the perspectives of newly freed people
- List problems encountered by freed people
- Reflect on why discrimination persisted after slavery came to an end in the United States
- Imperfect Freedom Chart
- Imperfect Freedom Answer Key
- Glossary
Download Lesson Materials (PDF)
- Review with students the steps taken to abolish slavery in the United States. Emphasize what each step accomplished and what it did not do.
- Although the Emancipation Proclamation freed enslaved people in some areas, it did not make slavery illegal. (The red areas are those in which enslaved people were declared free; slavery was allowed to remain in the blue areas.)
- The Thirteenth Amendment made slavery illegal throughout the United States, but did not say anything about how freed people should be treated.
- The Fourteenth Amendment clarified that anyone born or naturalized in the United States was a citizen and should have equal protection under the lawmeaning freed people were citizens.
- The Fifteenth Amendment recognized the right of African American men to vote.
- Distribute the Early Days of Freedom Chart. Model the first row for the class. Explain that for the first box, students should pretend they are an enslaved person hearing about the Emancipation Proclamation. What would they hope the Proclamation means? In the second box, write what actually happened. Refer to the Early Days of Freedom Chart Answer Key.
- Give each student a Glossary. Walk students through the definitions, clarifying and/or adding information as appropriate. Tell students they will use this Glossary as a word bank to fill in the third column of the chart.
- Allow time for students to complete the remainder of the chart individually or in small groups.
- Ask students to share their answers in a teacher-guided class discussion. Refer to the Teacher Answer Key for guidance. Accept any answers students can defend.
- Have students answer the reflection question on a separate sheet of paper. If desired, lead a class discussion on possible answers to the question. Some points of discussion could be:
- whites seeking to keep political and economic power
- fear of change; allure of "traditional" social structure
- white southerners trying to recreate a kind of slavery
- the idea of racial superiority
Lesson Extension
Give students a list of the amendments to the Constitution (there may be one in their textbook). Review with students why amendments are added to the Constitution. Have students individually or in groups come up with an amendment they would like to see added to the Constitution. Students should then write a persuasive paper, give a persuasive speech, or design a TV or print advertisement advocating their amendment.
This lesson was written by Dee Besl, Cincinnati, OH, and Sharon Sobierajski, Buffalo, NY.


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Finally, entertainment and communication go hand in hand. The future of TV connectivity is calling, and the 46 inch Samsung UN46D7000 LED TV is the answer with the power of WiFi and Skype built right into the set. Making video calls in real time is a breeze, and both audio and video quality are crystal-clear. Samsung widens your view of what a TV can do, with advanced online connectivity known as Smart TV enhanced web access and a wide range of apps. To top it all off, Samsung 3D technology immerses you in another world with a depth and clarity from 3D movies titles and TV programming that you have to see to believe. It?s all wrapped up in an ultra slim Samsung One Design .2 inch bezel, for a more screen appearance.
-Auto Motion Plus 240Hz with Clear Motion Rate
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-One Design (0.2 inch bezel)
-Exceeds ENERGY STAR standards
-Samsung Smart TV - Smart Hub - Search All - Your Video - Samsung Apps - Web Browser
-Micro Dimming Technology
-Skype on Samsung TV
-Built-in WiFi
-AllShare DLNA networking
-ConnectShare Movie
-Ultra Clear Panel
-Wide Color Enhancer Plus
-Eco Sensor
-Swivel stand
-Anynet+ (HDMI-CEC)
-Dolby Digital Plus
-SRS TheaterSound HD
-10W x 2
NET DIMENSIONS (WxHxD)
TV without stand: 41.3" x 23.9" x 1.2"
TV with stand: 41.3" x 26.9" x 10.9"


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Jobs & careers
Brilliant career opportunities at one of the world's leading companies in the machine tool industry.
Tradition and progress are no empty phrases at INDEX and TRAUB. They are the basis of our companies that, in the their long corporate history, have been able to maintain their position at the top of the German and international machine tool industry with innovative solutions for the production of turned parts. Constantly improving, developing visions, recognizing and implementing market requirements early on – these are the goals of our company. In dialog with our customers, some 2,200 employees worldwide are constantly improving and developing our product program further.
One of our company's strengths is its employees. At INDEX and TRAUB, this statement is our mission. Also in the future, we count on qualified management potentials and experienced specialist and management personnel, people who want to be active in an international company. Those who are motivated to be successful through teamwork and are looking for the challenge of working in a leading company will find brilliant opportunities at our company.


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photo 1 of 49
UFC Fight Night: Brown vs Silva Weigh-in Gallery
Mai 09, 2014
49 Photos
The UFC Fight Night Brown vs Silva weigh-in event at the U.S. Bank Arena on May 9, 2014 in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photos by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
Getty Images reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this image or clip. If you violate our intellectual property you may be liable for: actual damages, loss of income, and profits you derive from the use of this image or clip, and, where appropriate, the costs of collection and/or statutory damages up to $150,000 (USD).


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Tiny round cells of the alga Phaeocystis are only a few micrometers in diameter, but they form large colonies of hundreds of individual cells held together with a gel-like substance. Here, in a rare view, are single cells, doublets, and the beginnings of colony formation.[ MORE ]
Colony-forming cells are getting a start by attaching to two cells of a larger algae species, Thalassiosira. [ LESS ]
Probably the chain-forming diatom Thalassiosira. Cylindrical cells (seen here on edge) are linked by a central spine that looks like a very faint line. Other long spines protrude from the cells.[ MORE ]
Two chains of the diatom Chaetoceros socialis curve toward each other. Long spines come from each cell's four corners and intertwine to attach it to its neighbor cells' spines. One spine at each end of a cell is longer than the other, and these intertwine with the long spines of other cells, forming three-dimensional ball-like clusters of chains—hence the name 'socialis', for this 'social' behavior.[ MORE ]
Not all floating algae cells are round. This is a pennate (wing-shaped) diatom called Pseudonitzschia, each cell about 70 micrometers long. They form chains, but the chains aren't necessarily linear.[ MORE ]
They were found in brine channels inside the sea ice.[ LESS ]
Another pennate diatom, Pleurosigma, tapers elegantly at either end. Small clumps of material inside the cell are the chlorophyll-containing chloroplasts, the organelles where photosynthesis takes place.[ MORE ]
This strawberry-shaped cell, bearing a crown of hair-like cilia, is not part of the phytoplankton, but instead a single-celled predator on other cells in the bloom. It is a ciliate, part of the group sometimes called protozoa.[ MORE ]
Diatom cells have hard inner and outer covers, like larger and smaller lids. They reproduce by both asexual cell division and a sexual form of reproduction. The Thalassiosira cell on the right has undergone sexual reproduction, leaving behind the "lid" of the parent cell—visible as the thin bracket-shaped object on the far right.[ MORE ]
Two pairs of Thalassiosira diatoms 'caught in the act' of asexual reproduction. The pair on the left has just finished binary cell division, their usual, asexual form of reproduction. The thin gap between these two daughter cells indicates that division is complete and these are two independent individuals.[ MORE ]
The pair on the right is still dividing—still building, WHOI biologist Sam Laney says, the new cell walls and "exterior siding" that will separate them.[ LESS ]
Something different—a delicate fan-shaped colony of a golden-colored algae, called Dinobryon. The three-dimensional structure means that some cells are in focus, while others are not.
This diatom chain, says Laney, is not healthy. The cells are more or less empty shells, not packed with cytoplasm as in the earlier Thalassiosira images. "The shriveled cells here are a clear indicator that environmental conditions have taken a turn for the worse," he said, "presumably at the end of the bloom when the nutrients are all used up.[ MORE ]
Scientists have discovered a massive bloom of phytoplankton beneath ice-covered Arctic waters. Until now, sea ice was thought to block sunlight and limit the growth of microscopic marine plants living under the ice.
The amount of phytoplankton growing in this under-ice bloom was four times greater than the amount found in neighboring ice-free waters. The bloom extended laterally more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) underneath the ice pack, where ocean and ice physics combined to create a phenomenon that scientists had never seen before.
Reporting in the June 8, 2012 edition of the journal Science, a multi-institutional team of scientists concluded that ice melting in summer forms pools of water that act like transient skylights and magnifying lenses. These pools focused sunlight through the ice and into waters above the continental shelf north of Alaska, where currents steer nutrient-rich deep waters up toward the surface. Phytoplankton under the ice were primed to take advantage of this narrow window of light and nutrients.
"Way more production is happening under the ice than we previously thought, in a manner that's very different than we expected," said Sam Laney, a biologist from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Just as a rainstorm in the desert can cause the landscape to explode with wildflowers, this research shows that events like pooling melt water can happen on very short timescales in the Arctic yet have major effects on the ecosystem. "If you don't catch these ephemeral events, you're missing a big part of the picture."
Laney was part of the team that made the unexpected discovery on a 2011 expedition led by chief scientist Kevin Arrigo of Stanford University aboard the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy. It was part of the NASA-funded ICESCAPE program to investigate the impact of climate change in the polar Chukchi and Beaufort seas.
The scientists found themselves in the right place at the right time in early July of 2011, as the Healy made its way above the Arctic Circle and into year-old ice. Atop the meter-thick ice, pools of sky-blue melt water were accumulating as the Arctic summer progressed.
It was Laney's second summer aboard the Healy studying microscopic plankton in this cold, ice-covered region. MIT/WHOI Joint Program graduate student, Emily Brownlee, was also aboard on her first oceanographic research cruise. From her work station deep within the ship, she was being introduced to the scary grinding sounds of hull breaking ice. The scientific party expected that, as in years past, the waters beneath the ice would have minimal amounts of chlorophyll, the fluorescing hallmark of photosynthetic marine plants. Instead, they observed the opposite: as the ship broke further into the ice, chlorophyll in the dark waters below shot up to levels rarely observed even in the most productive ocean regions. It became evident that there was a phytoplankton bloom of astonishing magnitude happening under the ice.
Optical measurements showed that four times as much light penetrated ice covered by meltwater ponds than ice covered by snow. "Although the under-ice light field was less intense than in ice-free waters, it was sufficient to support the blooms of under-ice phytoplankton, which grew twice as fast at low light as their open ocean counterparts," the scientists wrote in Science.
The ship conducted transects into the ice pack to determine how far and deep the bloom extended. Measurements of biomass showed the largest part of the bloom occurred far away from the open ocean, under thick ice and close to water upwelling at the continental shelf break, where the shallow coastal shelf plunges steeply into deeper water.
Another member of the ICESCAPE team, WHOI physical oceanographer Bob Pickart, showed that easterly winds churned out by monster storm systems along the Aleutian Islands can reverse the current along the shelf break. The change in circulation drives cold, nutrient-rich water up from the abyss and refreshes the supply of nutrients available to phytoplankton growing near the surface.
"Without a doubt the bloom was enhanced at the shelf break," he said. As the melt pools introduced light through the ice, phytoplankton in shelf break waters likely experienced something akin to an all-you-can-eat buffet.
What types of organisms participated in the bloom? Laney caught them on camera with an instrument he had brought to sea, the Imaging FlowCytobot, an automated microscopic imaging system invented at WHOI and built by Laney and Imaging FlowCytobot co-developer Rob Olson. (See slideshow.)
Since their return, Laney and MIT/WHOI Joint Program graduate student Emily Brownlee have been working with the Imaging FlowCytobot's other co-developer and ICESCAPE team member, WHOI biologist Heidi Sosik, to sort through and classify organisms in the millions of images collected by the instrument and unravel intricacies of the under-ice bloom. The images showed that the bloom was not caused by fallout from algae growing on the ice, but rather it contained different organisms that seized the confluence of currents, light, and nutrients.
The Imaging FlowCytobot offers tantalizing insights into the microbial dynamics and food web of this dramatic Arctic algal boom. For example, the images consistently showed some phytoplankton in the bloom in a half-munched state, offering clues to the planktonic grazers that might be eating them.
Discovering the under-ice bloom "was very serendipitous," Pickart said, but the difficulty of exploring the harsh, remote region also leaves the Arctic wide open for surprises.
Amid the fascinating new questions emerging from images, Brownlee has already reached a solid conclusion from the whole experience: "It made me realize that I really want to keep going to sea."


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Don't be like that, Dorkly! Dan Forden sounds like a great guy to hang out at T.G.I. Friday's with on a Monday.
Dan Forden, one of the four programmers that initially began working on the original Mortal Kombat, along with Ed Boon, John Tobias and John Vogel, is better known to the world at large as the Toasty Guy. He was the sound guy for the game, so it makes perfect sense that his dulcet tones show up to salute a particularly brutal maneuver.
Or a great deal on appetizers.
For more sick and twisted video game comedy, follow the link to Dorkly.com.


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With no body, North Dakota farmer's death remains a mystery as man convicted is released
BISMARCK, N.D. – A man who pleaded guilty to killing his North Dakota neighbor in 1999 over a water drainage dispute will leave prison without ever telling authorities where he dumped the body.
Steve Thomas, a 48-year-old former Marine with a criminal past, pleaded guilty in 2006 to manslaughter in the death of 82-year-old Norman Limesand, of Marion, and sentenced in 2007 to the maximum 10 years in prison. Thomas' plea agreement called for him to face a murder charge if he was uncooperative in finding the body.
Thomas, who was released from prison Saturday, has participated in air and land searches — even hypnosis to jog his memory, authorities say. But he still can't remember where he hid Limesand's body.
"It's unfortunate and I wish there had been a better outcome," said the state's Assistant Attorney General Jon Byers, who helped prosecute the case. "I honestly think he gave a good-faith effort."
But Limesand's family believes Thomas got away with murder.
"He was supposed to tell us where he put the body," said Milton Limesand, taking a break Friday from planting soybeans near his father's home. "I can't believe someone could do something like that and not know."
Thomas refused a request for an interview. After a stint in the military, Thomas worked as a taxi driver in California and was convicted in 1995 on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon after stabbing a coworker's boyfriend in a dispute. He served a year in prison.
After his probation ended, Thomas moved back to North Dakota in 1999 to live with his mother. Shortly thereafter, Limesand was dead.
Thomas said at his sentencing that he accidentally shot Norman Limesand in the face while hunting rabbits on his mother's property.
"I should have been paying more attention to what was going on around me," Thomas said in court.
But the Limesand family says it was a cold-blooded killing regarding a dispute about a drainage ditch.
Limesand, who had farmed in the area since 1947, also was a township officer for more than 30 years and took his job seriously, his family said. Part of his job was to manage culverts in the county, making sure they were clear of obstructions so roads would not flood.
Thomas' mother, Bonnie Rosland, owned a farm near Limesand's property. Her land had a problem with a clogged culvert.
Milton Limesand said he and his father visited Thomas the day before Norman Limesand disappeared and offered to help Thomas clean out the culvert. Thomas declined.
The family believes Norman Limesand went back the following day, Nov. 12, 1999. He was never seen again. Limesand's bloodstained truck was found abandoned in Moorhead, Minnesota, on Nov. 16. Thomas was charged with murder three years later.
At the 2007 sentencing, Thomas told Judge James Bekken that he put Limesand's body in the pickup and drove around before dumping the body in a dry slough.
Bekken, now deceased, said Thomas and Limesand were the only ones to know what really happened, and ordered Thomas help find the body so that the man's family could have closure.
Milton Limesand said he and his seven siblings were split over the plea agreement with prosecutors.
"They said they were 50-50 whether he would be convicted of murder because they didn't feel that they had enough evidence," he said.
Marjorie Limesand, 91, said at sentencing that she did not believe her husband's death was an accident. She is in declining health and the topic upsets her, Milton Limesand said.
"She's getting older and we don't like bringing it up to her," he said. "But she has always said there was no reason for it to happen."
Norman Limesand was declared dead in 2002. An empty grave is placed near where he tended cattle and raised crops.
"It's just a stone there," Milton Limesand said. "We were always hoping to put him in there."


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Lawless [Movie Trailer]
Set in the Depression-era Franklin County, Virginia, a bootlegging gang is threatened by authorities who want a cut of their profits.
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I got a great offer from a kite store on a LW prototype board. It was build as part of the 2004 design, its hand made all carbon. The question is, is it safe to buy? I was part of a kite test once and the proto kites, well some of them really sucked. I think some testers were pretty shocked that this stuff even comes out for testing. They were also not built so well because they are not supposed to last.
The guy in the shop is trying to push it hard and itís a good deal (they probably get those for free during testing). Dave has a reputation and getting a LW cheap sounds good.
What do you think? Worth the risk (probably less than 300$)?


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Blake Shelton and Kelly Clarkson Sing 'Don't You Wanna Stay' at Ohio Concert
Last night, Blake Shelton surprised his Toledo, Ohio audience by performing Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson's duet 'Don't You Wanna Stay,' and of course he couldn't do it alone. As heard in the fan video below, Shelton launched into Aldean's part and left the audience wondering just how he was going to cover the female vocal for the duet.
But they didn't have to wait long. As soon as the male part faded out, Clarkson came out from backstage and added her harmonies to the first chorus.
"Kelly Clarkson, everybody!" Blake shouted, and then Clarkson took on the second verse as the audience all at once sang along (in their own key) and screamed their approval at the surprise. Late last night after the show, Shelton tweeted his thanks for his impromptu duet partner, saying, "Thank you @kelly_clarkson for singing with me tonight!!!! I. LOVE. YOU!!!!!!!!"
Seeming to have enjoyed the experience herself, Clarkson also hit Twitter last night, saying, "I got to see @blakeshelton show tonight and wow so great!! Y'all have to go see it!! Fun night!!" Clarkson didn't mention her little cameo in the set, but we're sure Twitter was blowing up with excited fans spilling the news.
Shelton is continuing on his 2012 Well Lit and Amplified Tour, making a stop in St. Louis tonight before heading out to Nebraska for tomorrow night's show. Meanwhile, Clarkson will be in Mashantucket, Conn. tonight and making her way to Atlantic City, N.J. for her Sunday show. Shelton and Clarkson may be continuing their collaborative work as Clarkson plans to help Shelton's team in the upcoming season of 'The Voice.'
Listen to Blake Shelton and Kelly Clarkson Sing 'Don't You Wanna Stay'


text: Mochino is an form of albinism that is an allelic trait between Clark Strain Albino and Mocha. This means that you can breed a Mochino to one of your Clark Strain Albino (White, Lavender, and Purple) retics and you will produce half Mochinos and the half Albinos in the clutch. This is a really amazing gene that has produced some of the best looking Albino combinations we've seen!


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…is not that it will cost too much, or even that it will worsen our medical care, although both of those things are true. The real problem with socialized medicine–the eventual establishment of which is the purpose of Obamacare, according to Barack Obama–is that it will destroy our freedom. Mark Steyn has written that government medicine alters forever the relationship between state and citizen: once you are dependent on the government for your health care, you are no longer a freeborn citizen. You are the subject of an all-powerful state.
So Michael Ramirez hits the nail on the head: the trouble with Obamacare is that it will destroy our freedom, perhaps forever:


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Break free and defeat the machine menace with Shatter. Supercharged brick-breaking action mixed with modern presentation and features includes:
Innovative controls, physics effects, power-ups, special attacks, and boss battles which combine to provide an experience that is always interactive
Multiple game modes enhanced with leaderboards and trophies
Vibrant 3D style presented across 10 distinct worlds in 4xAA 60fps HD
A fully scored soundtrack featuring over 90 minutes of original music
" Copyright © 2009 Prodigy Design Limited. Shatter, Stencil and Sidhe are trademarks or registered trademarks of Prodigy Design Limited. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners. All rights reserved.
Purchase or use of this item is subject to the PlayStation®Network Terms of Service and User Agreement. This item has been sublicensed to you by Sony Computer Entertainment America.
Pro Price


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2005 FULLY REBUILT, PRISITNE SPORTFISH 55' HATTERAS THAT IS TURNKEY. LOAD YOUR LUGGAGE AND GO SAILING. Deep See Fishing! Great Opportunity Boat for Sale with Charter Business.
Hatteras 55' from 1981, The Strongest Ever built by the Factory in her history were the 1980 & 1981 so no need to be afraid from the Age. She Has Always Been Properly Maintained, Been Used by Her Owner & His Private Captain. The boat had a Total Refit in 2005 by that owner till we sold her in 2007; Her New Buyer wants to sell Her Again; It's a Longterm Client with Harel Yachts, This is the 3rd Boat we sold him, Starting With Sailing Boats Buyer is a Longterm Client
Very Clean, Fully Equipped TURNKEY - Great Opportunity, Operating Charter Part Time to take over in the Caribbean COME AND SEE THE BOAT YOURSELF, YOU WILL BE MORE THEN SATISFIED
IGY Simpson Bay Marina
Plaza del Lago Bldg
Simpson Bay
St. Maarten/St. Martin


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Acclaimed Afro-Cuban jazz singer Venissa Santi will perform next Wednesday, July 11, on Pastorius Park's outdoor stage. The show will begin at 7:30 p.m.
Santi's performance is the latest act in the ongoing Pastorius Park Summer Concert Series. The series is organized every year by the Chestnut Hill Community Association and is made possible by grants from Chestnut Hill Hospital and the Chestnut Hill Community Fund.
Santi moved to Philadelphia after high school to attend the University of the Arts and majored in jazz vocal performance.
It was here that she reconnected with her Cuban roots and began immersing herself in the local Latin music scene. After graduation, she began working as a vocal instructor at Asociación de Músicos Latino Americanos and performed with a number of Latin, jazz and other world groups.
Now a wife and mother, Santi won a prestigious Pew Fellowship, for Folk and Traditional Arts in 2008. In 2009, she released a solo record, "Bienvenida" on Sunnyside Records. That album earned her the attention and praise of noted Latin jazz musicians, such as Ruben Blades and pianist Danilo Perez, who called her treatment of the classic tune, "Como Fue," "audacious."
In a review of "Beinvenida" in All About Jazz, Raul d'Gama Rose raved about Santi's talents.
"On the face of it Santi is a Latin artist who reaches across diverse universes to pluck idioms from Afro-Cuban and Afro-Caribbean music, swishing them across and melding them with blues and jazz," he wrote. "The musicians rise above themselves for this session. A debut record? How about a musical miracle?"
All concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. The rain location for all concertswill be at the lower school auditorium of Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, 8000 Cherokee St.
Decisions to move the concerts will be made after 6 p.m. Call 215-248-8810 to check on the day of the concert.
The next concert in the series will be the Celtic band Runa on Wednesday, July 18.


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IT Foresight needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 133 designs submitted by 39 freelance designers.
The logo, or lack thereof, we have been using is history --- We need a logo, as described in the brief, and we need it now. We are ready to quickly take the winning logo and create the rest of our brand and company marketing materials. Winner will have priority opportunity to design these!
IT Foresight
We need a professional clean logo designed for our technology business. This logo will be the symbol of our company and brand!
Our target customers are small business owners and our logo needs to reflect an energetic forward thinking yet professional company which our customers can place their trust into.
Winner will have priority opportunity to design the many other items we will need -- e.g. business cards, stationery, brochures, marketing material, etc. We will need these ASAP.
Reflect an energetic forward thinking yet professional company which our customers can place their trust into
Clever and creative concepts
Modern and memorable
Clean and crisp
Icon/Symbol plus name
Exclusive look.
Needs to work on all backgrounds and B&W
Deliverables must include Adobe Illustrator (.ai) vector format, Adobe Photoshop vector format, eps, jpg, png and gif.
Functional/usable - effective in color, b&w, greyscale and smaller sizes
A logo you would be proud to have as your own identity
Must translate well to web, embroidery, animation, video, print including business cards, stationery, banners, marketing materials, etc
Any artwork you did not create yourself
Clip Art or detailed images.
Plain outdated work.
Anything too cartoonish, cheesy, gaudy or amateurish.
Busy design or fonts.
Washed out colors
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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By Kevin Murphy
Kansas City, Missouri (Reuters) - A violent Halloween storm from the U.S. Gulf Coast to the eastern Great Lakes killed at least three people, two in Texas and one in Tennessee, and contributed to the overturning of a school bus in a rain-swollen creek in Kansas.
Strong winds and heavy rains swept through the region and wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour were still forecast for Friday afternoon in some regions.
The National Weather Service said it received 230 reports of high winds across 12 states from Louisiana to Pennsylvania, and reports of tornadoes in Louisiana, Texas, Kentucky and Illinois, although none did major damage.
In Nashville, a 9-year-old boy was electrocuted by a downed power line, according to Metro Nashville Police.
"It has not been determined exactly how he contacted the wire, which was knocked down by a large tree limb during high winds," police said in a statement. Local television stations reported he was on his bike when he made contact with the wire.
Fallen power lines littered Tennessee in the wake of 40 to 50 mph winds, said Scott Unger of the National Weather Service in Nashville. Thousands lost power, officials said.
Another death in Tennessee was not related to the weather. A 4-year-old boy in White Pine, Tennessee, was killed by the family van while out trick-or-treating, according to local media reports. He apparently jumped from the open side door of the van and was run over by a back wheel.
Many towns and cities in the path of the storm had postponed trick-or-treating.
Two people died in Texas from the storm, officials said. One man's body was found in a swollen creek in southeast Austin, said Travis County Sheriff's spokesman Roger Wade. Another man in the more rural nearby Caldwell County died after being caught in high water in his car, officials said.
"We have crews out searching for a couple of missing persons - a 32-year-old woman and her 8-month-old child, but we haven't found them yet," Wade said early Friday.
In rural south central Kansas, a school bus slid off a road and into a creek and flipped on its side, requiring the rescue of ten children and the driver, said Chris Davis, 911 director for Butler County. Water from the creek was over the low-lying road after heavy rain earlier Thursday, Davis said Friday.
Ten elementary school-age children climbed out the windows onto the side of the bus and were rescued by boats in fast-moving water, Davis said. One child was taken to the hospital with minor injures while the driver was hospitalized after suffering a back injury and hypothermia, Davis said.
"The water was about halfway up the side of the bus," Davis said.
Winds moving through the Ohio Valley brought gust up to 50 mph in some areas overnight, felling power line and toppling trees. More than 25,000 residents in Cincinnati, Columbus and other Ohio communities lost power.
By midmorning on Friday, FirstEnergy, a major power provider in the region, reported 3,900 customers out in Ohio, 27,000 out in Pennsylvania, 10,000 in New Jersey and 12,000 out in West Virginia.
(Additional reporting by Timothy Ghianni in Nashville, Karen Brooks in Austin, Texas, Kim Palmer in Cleveland, Kathy Finn in New Orleans, Carey Gillam in Kansas City, and Scott DiSavino in New York; Writing by Kevin Murphy; editing by Andrew Hay)


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IAM Meditation Training at Fairhaven Auditorium at WWU
May 2, 2012 from 7pm to 9:30pm
Meditation and yoga have been found to be effective tools in re-establishing inner balance, clarity and peace of mind. Don't miss this opportunity to experience a powerful meditation technique as taught by Amma, an internationally recognized humanitarian and spiritual teacher (www.amma.org). The IAM meditation technique offers an integration of gentle relaxation exercises with an effective and easy-to-practice meditation technique that can be…See More


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Erica is a wife and new-mom-in-training with a desire to cook delicious food for her husband Reuben (AKA love of her life). She loves to experiment and adapt recipes to be a tad healthier and shares her culinary successes on her blog, Buttered Side Up. She also writes about life as a mom and shares hair style and simple DIY tutorials over on Simple Days.
I'm Katie, author of GoodLife Eats.
Great recipes, family memories, adventures, good reads, and anything else that I love is what you will discover here.
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It's a passion we experience everyday with western boots and
footwear made for your life. Comfortable. Durable. Functional. We are Double-H,
and We Live Western! Strength and toughness emanate from this boot's unmatched
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This is epic cinematic music track that brings feeling of excitement and anxiety. Perfectly combines orchestral instruments and effects, big drums. This dark music can be used in trailers and films, teasers and video games, battle or action scenes, epic projects, etc.
Included 2 versions with different endngs:
01. Epic Action Opener 01 (01:27)
02. Epic Action Opener 02 (01:23)
Please rate this track if you like it
If you use my music, I'd really love to see what you've done with it! Just email me using contact form on my profile page. Thank you!
To all VideoHive authors:
You are more than welcome to use preview of my tracks for your projects, provided you give a link to my music in the description. Also, please send me an email to let me know about your item so I can add links to your item in my item descriptions to help promote your project. Thank you!


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February 10, 2004
Get directions to Wabash College Fine Arts Center
Wabash College's Visiting Artists Series will present a performance by lutenist Paul O'Dette on Friday, February 27 in Salter Concert Hall in the Fine Arts Center. The performance starts at 8 p.m.
There is perhaps no lute performer in the world who better knows his instrument and its history than the award winning musician, Paul O'Dette. An avid researcher, writer, director, and performer, O'Dette has been called "the clearest case of genius ever to touch his instrument," and has made more than 100 recordings, many of which have been nominated for Gramophone's "Record of the Year" award. O'Dette has performed at virtually every major international early music festival, and has been featured on the BBC, CBC, NPR, and CBS television, to name only a few. His performance at Wabash will provide a unique opportunity to hear the lute performed as it was meant to be by a virtuoso scholar of early music.
In celebration of the arts at Wabash, admission to all Visiting Artists Series events are free. However, you must obtain your free tickets at the Fine Arts Box Office before attending Visiting Artists Series productions. Tickets are available from the Fine Arts Box Office Monday through Friday—8:30 a.m. to 12 noon and 1:30 to 4:00 p.m. The Box Office will open 90 minutes before curtain time for VAS events. Tickets may be obtained from the Fine Arts Center Box Office by email: firstname.lastname@example.com; phone: 765-361-6411; or by mail: Fine Arts Center Box Office, Wabash College, PO Box 352, Crawfordsville IN 47933-0352.
For more information on Paul O'Dette, visit the web site: http://harmoniamundi.com/featured_artist.asp?Artist=35


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"We have a significant mismatch between demand and supply," said Gillian K. Hadfield, professor of law and economics at the University of Southern California. "It's not a problem of producing too many lawyers. Actually, we have an exploding demand for both ordinary folk lawyers and big corporate ones."The only thing exploding in this sentence is my brain. "Ordinary folk lawyers"! Is an ordinary folk lawyer an ordinary person who practices folk law? Does he practice ordinary folk law, as against extraordinary folk law? On behalf of ordinary folks, as against extraordinary ones? Is he an ordinary folk himself?
In the 1990s, I recall "folks" as a term primarily used to refer casually to one's parents, as in "my folks took my Tamagochi away and now I have nothing to do but watch re-runs on the WB." Of course, it has always been a term for "people," but that usage had the same mainstream status as "ain't." Then, in the 2000s, folks underwent some kind of perverse transformation into a mainstream populist propaganda term for identity groups, and was used by both insiders and outsiders to forge patronizing solidarity with the downtrodden. "Folks" has that sense of personal familiarity held over from its use to denote actual family that's perfect for pretending that people who are not your family and whom you wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole are actually near and dear to your heart, or expunging your guilt that they're not. For example, Boston's mayor on his important future-embracing move of bringing no-credit online courses to Boston "community centers":
"I'm very excited. [The partnership] brings technology into the neighborhoods of Boston. That's so, so important. I think there are a lot of folks out there who could use that program.""A lot of folks," none of whom happen to be Thomas Menino or his folks, of course. But he sees his common humanity with them there folks, and how important neighborhood technology is for that common humanity. Politician folk are major traffickers in the language of folk, and Obama is a strategic folk-master:
With 30 hours a week split between fieldwork and organizing members of the College Democrats, Thompson's role is nearly a full-time job, and his vocabulary, too, has come to reflect this. "Whenever I am knocking on doors or calling people or anything like that, I always use 'folks,'" he says, laughing. When calling voters in other states, "folks" is frequently thrown around by those working for the Obama campaign. "It plays really well up in Maine and then, when you're calling in Virginia, it plays perfectly," Thompson says.I think that earlier iterations of this folk transformation were introduced by activist folks who were less interested in appearing to be in touch with ordinary folks themselves than with changing ordinary folks' perceptions of certain groups of folks who were previously stigmatized by using a familiarizing term that would make them seem more like ordinary folks - hence, "LGBT folks" and "transgender folks." (Look these folks up and you'll get thousands of instances.) They're not weirdos, they're just plan folks. In this way, identity groups of all kinds became folks, just like all the rest of us folks. We're all just folks, and just because some folks are dark-skinned folks and other folks love folks of their own gender while yet other folks don't believe that Jesus came to save their folks but maybe he still came to save your folks, all us folks can all fit on this here creaky backwoods porch and sing us some folk ditties. What d'ye say, folks? This land is your land, this land is my land, from Californyaaaa, to the New York Islaaand... (See, elitist New York folks can join right in! Populism is for everyone.)
Do you wonder, perhaps, whatever happened to the perfectly good and politically neutral term "people" to cover this? Possibly as the formulation "the Xs" (the Jews, the blacks, the gays) fell out of favor and a referential vacuum appeared, we had that option. Jewish people, black people, gay people - not so bad, and still used by the straightforward and unsentimental. But "people" seems to have been identified with some sort of antiseptic, clinical enterprise that made it synonymous with "specimens" - a social-scientific category to be studied in aggregate. For example, during the Iraq War, I never heard Iraqis being referred to as "Iraqi folks"; they were always "the Iraqi people," if they were viewed as a coherent entity at all. (But perhaps that will soon change, since Obama has begun to transnationalize folkdom - there were illegal immigrant folks in his speech this week, and the infamous Libyan terrorist folks, although we can know that terrorist folks are not our folks because he called them those folks rather than these folks.) But on the domestic front, it was all folks all the time, the corny brotherhood of man, from which no one should be excluded and no one can escape.
The problem with folks, however, is the problem of all populism. "Folks" is, after all, a country term, carrying with it all the resonances of hayseed naivete along with the familial connotation sought by its users. Folks, however endearing and lovable they may be, are always a bit stupid, a bit vulgar and clumsy, trailing behind the leading edge of society and unaware of or unable to enact their own best interests. Little, ordinary folks need bigger, more extraordinary folks (let's call them "ordinary folk lawyers") to articulate their interests against those folks (also known as "big corporate lawyers") who would subvert them. So even if we're all folks rather than folks and not-folks, there are still always these folks and those folks, and even folk lawyers are distinct from the folks who aren't lawyers but need folk-lawyering assistance.
So, individualist folks, please remember that we can still rescue the term "people" from the oblivion to which populist folks have apparently consigned it. That backcountry porch of colloquial brotherhood was not built to support the weight of 300 million people.


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Sports Briefs: Baseball and kickboxing
Rock Solid 11U Red team won the championship May 4 at the Triple Crown, Border Wars tournament. Rock Solid Red went into Sunday as the 19th seed out of 33 teams. In working their way to the championship game, they played game after game after game, from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Five Rock Solid teams, traveled to the event, from ages 9 to 13. The big annual tournament, featuring over 170 teams from North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia and Georgia,… Read More »


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RSnake needed a new other design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 60 designs submitted by 9 freelance designers.
Detecting Malice
I'm an author of an eBook on detecting online fraud. My bio is located at http://www.sectheory.com/bio.htm
Primarily this will need to be attractive and compelling to webmasters, security experts, security product managers and people who generally care about detecting crime before it happens against their web applications.
The book cover graphic must include the following text:
Title: Detecting Malice
Sub-Title: How you can tune your system to detect online fraud
Author: Robert Hansen
Preferably this cover should include an evil looking eye or something very similar, like http://courtneytuttle.com/images/angry-eye.jpg
Something that denotes some amount of fear about the unknown. Please do not make it overly whimsical or include any cheezy matrix fonts.
I'd like this in illustrator or photoshop formats and unflattened so I can modify them. I have no preference on color schemes but I have a feeling the book will be best received if it is black. Wow me!


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(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
Contact us for information about using this image.
Mary Willard was the daughter of the prominent Unitarian minister Samuel Willard (1776-1859) of Deerfield. Her father was an avid abolitionist who chose to ignore the 1850 Fugitive Slave law that promised to imprison anyone for helping slaves escape north. He wrote "I will perform towards the fugitive slaves all the acts of kindness that I should do if there were no prohibition against it; and I will quietly endure the consequences though enormous fines -should deprive me of my last cent, and though I be thrown into prison- all the residue of my life." Willard's daughter, Mary was also an ardent abolitionist. She did not marry and lived in her father's household in Deerfield until the time of his death in 1859. Mary wrote "Anecdotes and Reminiscences" of her life at home in Deerfield and memories of her family for her niece. The pages selected here focus on her memories of African-Americans and her father's anti-slavery sentiments.
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See Also...
Reverend Samuel Willard (1776-1859)
"The American Anti-Slavery Almanac for 1838"
"County Anti-Slavery Meeting" article from Gazette and Mercury newspaper
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Beadlock Assist Device - DOT Compliant BeadlocksPosted in Product Reviews on January 8, 2014
Picking the right wheel for your rig often comes down to personal preference, price, and performance expectations. For someone spending serious time off-road, a beadlock wheel is typically one of the best investments they can make. A beadlock wheel works by "locking" one or both of the tire's beads to the wheel via some sort of mechanical clamp or locking element. By locking the bead to the wheel, it reduces the chance of you losing the bead when running lower air pressure off-road. The advantage of running single-digit pressures are tremendous and can significantly increase the traction, performance, and ride quality of your rig. On a traditional beadlock wheel, this locking action is accomplished by placing the outer bead of the tire between an external ring that is bolted to the wheel.
This style of beadlock is very effective, but does have a few drawbacks. The first issue with the aforementioned style of beadlock is that most fall outside of the DOT (Department of Transportation) wheel testing standards. This means the wheels cannot receive a DOT stamp of approval, making it a product that is often sold with the marker of "off-road only." Sure, there are plenty of items listed as off-road only that are common on a typical street-driven 4x4, but a non-DOT-compliant wheel could come back to haunt you if you are ever in an on-road accident.
Another issue is that the beadlock's external mounting ring bolts from the outside of the wheel, which puts the mounting hardware at risk for damage. Like anything with a bolt, a beadlock wheel's hardware also requires routine maintenance. Failure to tighten and check the beadlock's locking ring can result in extreme damage to the tire, wheel, or worse, to you. Fortunately, there are beadlock options for those looking to stay with a DOT-compliant wheel.
One of the newest DOT-compliant beadlocks on the market comes from Beadlock Assist Device Wheels, or B.A.D. Wheels as they are commonly known. The American-made Eklipse 17 is the company's first beadlock offering and is currently available in a 17x10-inch cast-aluminum version. Instead of using an external locking ring, the Eklipse 17 clamps the outer bead from the inside of the wheel. This is achieved by three locking elements that attach to six anchor bolts inside of the air chamber.
To get a better idea for how the B.A.D. Wheels worked (and how challenging the set may be to install), we loaded up our 37-inch Mickey Thompson MTZ tires and headed down to Vic's Tire & Auto Service in Gaffney, South Carolina, to assemble one of the company's first sets. Using our relatively-modified '97 Jeep Wrangler, we spent nearly a year thoroughly testing the wheels and tires from the Coastal Carolina plains to the red rock climbs in Moab, Utah. So, did the rims keep our beads in place or leave us flat on all fours? Read on to find out.
At A Glance
Size (in): 17x10
Material type: Cast aluminum
Locking mechanism: Internal
Weight (lb): 38 w/out hardware, 45.5 w/hardware, 50.5 w/hardware & ½-inch rock ring
Capacity (lb): 3,000 (5&6-lug), 3,500 (8-lug)
Backspacing (in): 3.5
Approved tire size (in): 37 as tested (rated up-to 42)
Lug pattern(s): 5-on-4.5, 5-on-5, 5-on-5.5, 6-on-5.5, 6-on-6.5, 8-on-6.5, 8-on-170
Bead Between the Lines
The Mickey Thompson MTZ's heavy-duty load range D sidewall is typical for most 17-inch tires these days, which makes running beadlocks on a lightweight rig such as our Jeep Wrangler TJ that much more important. Single digit (3-8 psi) air pressure is where our tires lived most of the time and how the tires performed best. While we won't say that we were intentionally trying to lose a bead, we were definitely less than kind to the wheels on multiple occasions (as is very evident by the trail scars on the sacrificial rock rings).
To date, we haven't had any slow leaks, flats, or lost a bead. Weighing in close to 50 pounds each, the Eklipse 17 is not lightweight, but still in the ballpark for a typical DOT-compliant aluminum beadlock wheel. Our 5-on-4½-inch bolt pattern wheel came with the standard 3.5 inches of backspacing, which worked great to space the wheels correctly and away from our frame and suspension components. With a weight capacity of 3,000 pounds, the wheels were also more than strong enough to handle our lightweight Jeep.
Oftentimes when it comes to testing a wheel, it either works or doesn't, and looks are simply way too subjective these days. Even if the internal locking elements came loose, the wheel would essentially default to a standard non-beadlock wheel, which is kind of a nice safety feature for owners who are not the most mechanically astute. While the installation portion is a little unconventional, it's a worthwhile inconvenience for those looking to have the performance advantages of a beadlock wheel that is DOT-compliant. Overall, we are glad to see innovation and safety coming together, as a beadlock is a great tool to help unlock the wheeling potential of daily drivers and trail beaters alike.


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By now you've heard about Karen Klein, a 68-year old bus monitor who became an Internet celebrity last week after video surfaced of her being bullied to tears by a group of kids.
Someone set up a fundraiser on IndieGoGo, hoping to raise $5,000 to buy her a vacation. Now with close to $700,000 in donations (and 26 days left), what should Karen do with all that cash?
Certified financial planner Cathy Curtis weighs in:
To help her avoid the pitfalls of sudden wealth (hello, in-ground pool) and make sure her windfall lasts, Karen should think about three things: liquidity(access to cash), stability (keeping ahead of inflation) and income (investments that generate interest and dividends).
The goal is to live on about 4% of her nest egg per year. That plus Karen's likely annual Social Security income of $9,600 gives her about $37,000—and protects the bulk of her assets (which she'll need for health expenses as she ages).
Cash: Karen should keep $30,000 in a savings account linked to checking, for easy access, and another $70,000 in a high-yield account. This gives her a three-year cushion, says Curtis.
Stability: If Karen invests $250,000 in a couple of conservative bond funds, the estimated 5% yield will provide some growth and protection against inflation, without market volatility.
Income: The remaining $350,000 should go into a diverse portfolio of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) focused on dividends rather than aggressive growth.
Meanwhile, Curtis recommends that Karen open a Mint.com account to help Karen track her spending. A 246% income increase can derail even the most carefully-laid budget.
A good problem to have. What do you think about people's outpouring of cash to Karen Klein?


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Colorado native who grew up with politics join's Pawlenty's presidential team
Presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty has hired a Colorado native with an impressive political pedigree to work on his finance team.
Katie McBreen is serving as deputy finance director for Pawlenty, governor of Minnesota, and one of several Republicans who have expressed an interest in the 2012 presidential race.
McBreen, who was raised in Aurora and attended Smoky Hill High School, grew up surrounded by politics. Her late grandfather, Don McBreen, was a World War II pilot who joined the State Patrol and was put in charge of state aircraft by Democratic Gov. Dick Lamm. McBreen was a die-hard conservative.
"Some of his best stories and fondest memories were of flying Gov. Lamm — likely because they had the most to disagree on and thus the most to talk about," McBreen said.
Her aunt and uncle also served as political inspiration. It seemed to McBreen when she was growing up that everyone knew Susan and Dick Wadhams. "We felt like they were local celebrities," McBreen said.


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Talented teenager Will Hughes should continue his development at Derby, according to Rams boss Nigel Clough.
The 17-year-old midfielder has been watched by scouts of all the top Barclays Premier League clubs this season, including champions Manchester City.
He got a taster of playing at the next level when he made his debut for the England Under-21 side on Tuesday night, becoming the second youngest player to represent the Young Lions, but Clough believes the best place to continue his development is with Derby.
"There are not too many 17-year-olds playing week in, week out with his ability in the Championship - or anywhere - and we think he is good enough to go to the next level," said Clough.
"Sometimes players leave for bigger clubs and get lost in the system, playing in reserve matches, which isn't the same, and they don't play first team football as often any more.
"But I think Will understands that as well. The best possible thing for him at the moment is to stay with us, get a season or two under his belt in the Championship and just keep learning and improving."
Clough added: "We have still got to be careful with Will because he has played only 16 or 17 games, so it is still very early in his career. It is important he keeps his feet on the ground and that he keeps performing week in, week out. But he is level-headed and intelligent enough to do that."


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The time from 6-8 is when most children will become true readers! Reading involves mapping the sound system (linguistic) onto the letter system (visual). To do this, good readers use both bottom-up and top-down learning processes. Bottom-up processes involve decoding letters and sounds to identify words. At the same time, skilled readers work in a top-down manner, deciphering chunks of text at a time, successfully applying contextual cues and creating meaningful units, thereby allowing inferences and other logic skills to help fill in the blanks for them. Things can go wrong if children struggle with discerning the sounds (phonemic awareness), the visual aspect (dyslexia), the chunking (comprehension) or any combination of the three. When children begin to write, motor skills are then layered on. No wonder learning to read and write is so challenging! To give your child some additional practice working on phonemic awareness, try these fun games.To support comprehension abilities, try out Childtopia or the fabulous interactive tools at Into the Book.
When everything goes as it should, most children this age can apply their understanding of how print works and use various strategies to decode unknown words. As long as your child is progressing and is at grade level, there is usually nothing to worry about. However, if your child is behind, now is the time to collect more information. Research shows that poor readers at the end of first grade will remain poor readers, unless they receive appropriate intervention early on. If your child is struggling with reading, see some of the resources you can use here. For a list of strategies and how to support your child when reading, see this article. There are many wonderful suggestions for how to foster a love of reading in Scholastic's Raise a Reader Guide.
Here are some simple but fun games to enhance early reading skills, with either phonetic words (cat, bug, frog) or sight words (said, to, laugh):
- Write words on the rims of plastic cups. Have your child throw ping pong balls in and read the word.
- Write words on star-shaped note cards stuck to the ceiling. Turn out the lights and have your child "discover" (and read) them with a flashlight.
- Get letter crackers, cookies, pastas, or Alpha-Bits® cereal. You could also have your child individually shape spaghetti noodles or pipe cleaners. Spell words!
- Play Go Fish with pairs of chosen words. Leave off picture cues for more challenge.
- Cut out fish shapes with words written on them. Attach a paper clip to the end and use a stick with magnet to really go fishing!
Across this time period, most children learn to read aloud with fluency (reading smoothly, with intonation and accuracy), demonstrating comprehension. Help this process along by finding "Just Right" books, to allow your child success in the reading process. Be aware that just because children can read at this age does not mean they will independently choose to do so. For many (even good readers), reading remains work. Encourage your child to read a variety of books (even easy ones) every day, and make reading fun! For ideas on how to do this, see the Activities article. It is more valuable for your child to develop confidence and enjoyment of reading, than to quickly progress to the next level book.
To support your child as he gains command of reading, explore a variety of texts (e.g., poems, stories, nonfiction, comics). There is wide variability in reading ability at this age. Some children will be ready for chapter books, although even some very good readers will prefer the visual support of more complicated picture books. Remember the value in talking about stories, characters, and themes, as opposed to focusing only on sight words and decoding skills. Read alouds are a wonderful way to expand your child's vocabulary and entice them to try different genres. Reading both fiction and nonfiction books that are beyond your child's reading level exposes her to more complex language, concepts, and sentence structures. For many great suggestions of books to read with this age, check popular series for 6-to-7-year-olds.
Between 6 and 8, metalinguistic ability also begins to come online, where children can talk and think about language, and use it as a tool, as opposed to only using it to communicate needs or wants. This ability will support your child's reading skills and is a fun way to engage them in language learning. For example, have your child discover how rhyming words can sound the same without begin spelled the same (e.g., sleigh, way), or how to isolate and manipulate sounds (e.g., turn pig into wig or fist into fast). You can help your child develop these skills in the car, or online at Professor Garfield.


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Ellen Pompeo has urged fans to stop being angry following the announcement that Jessica Capshaw and Sarah Drew are leaving "Grey's Anatomy".
It was revealed last week that the actresses, who both joined the cast of the medical drama in 2009 as doctors Arizona Robbins and April Kepner respectively, will not be returning for a potential 15th season next year.
Following the news, it was speculated that series star Ellen's $575,000-per-episode salary may have had something to do with the pair's departure, which the actress shot down on Twitter.
Grey's Anatomy boss Krista Vernoff also called any suggestion that Ellen's salary was linked to the actress' exits "wrong and hurtful and misguided", but Ellen returned to social media on Sunday night to once again address the claims.
"We R (sic) grateful all of you are so passionate but if you knew these two women the way I know them they would not approve of all this nastiness," she tweeted. "They both are super shiny happy people. I know you're angry but you're representation couldn't be further from who these women actually are (sic)."
One fan replied, "Aren't we allowed to be angry at this injustice, though? Going to be two impossible holes to fill," to which Ellen responded, "You are but spreading acceptance and love is our message with Greys and what all of the actors try to do with our performances on this show."
According to Deadline, producers made the casting decisions at the beginning of the current 14th season, and Jessica and Sarah are the only series regulars leaving.
Both took to social media to express their gratitude to the much-loved programme after their exits were announced.


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The Arkansas Legislature is back in session, and that's always reason for apprehension. This year's session will be unique in that Republican lawmakers hold majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives for the first time.
That should indicate we won't have much meddling with the laws of the state, but many members of the party of limited government seem to be intent on expanding the role of government in our lives. They just don't want to pay for it.
Medicaid is the issue that may dominate the session because the state is facing a shortfall of about $300 million in financing the program, which provides health care to the poor, the disabled and the elderly. The obvious solution — accepting more federal dollars in a Medicaid expansion — has some longterm risk and is viewed skeptically by Republicans, who don't really like the program anyway.
Gov. Mike Beebe proposes to continue reducing the sales tax on groceries, possibly getting rid of everything but the one-eighth percent tax for "environmental enhancement funds" that we passed as part of Amendment 75. GOP lawmakers are also talking about revisions to the income tax rates.
Beyond that, many members of the new majorities are reviving legislation they couldn't pass when the Democrats held the majorities so we're likely to see all kinds of weird proposals. Worse, some of them might become law.
In each regular session the General Assembly can also propose three constitutional amendments, plus one other to deal with the salaries of the state's constitutional officers and legislators.
We the people get a chance to vote on whatever the lawmakers propose, but we don't always have much choice. From the last session we got two bond proposals and a silly amendment guaranteeing the "right to hunt, fish, trap and harvest wildlife." Those of us who engage in other sports were left out. All three passed.
We can expect to see plenty of other silly ideas put forward. Our constitution is already much longer than the U.S. Constitution and is growing.
Nevertheless, some legislators from both parties seriously want to do good work for the state, and they should consider dealing with several constitutional issues.
• Reducing the number of state constitutional officers. We are required to have a governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor and attorney general. We don't need to elect a treasurer or auditor. Both of these positions have been used by career politicians to stay in office despite term limits, and people who run for the offices don't need to meet any minimum qualifications. But financing state government has become much too complex to trust to people who lack financial expertise, as shown by the current treasurer's problems with investments.
We should also pair the lieutenant governor and governor so that they are both elected from the same party. It isn't conducive to good government to have the No. 1 and No. 2 executive positions from different parties. While we're at it, make the lieutenant governor full-time and give that officer greater responsibilities, such as taking care of the Capitol building and grounds, now handled by the secretary of state.
• Change the term limits law for legislators. The current law has gutted the House of people with legislative experience and expertise, leaving it at the mercy of career bureaucrats. The limit is now three 2-year terms in the House and two 4-year terms in the Senate. By the time a representative learns "the ropes," he or she is running for the last time.
As a result, many lawmakers serve two or three terms in the House, then jump to the Senate — or vice versa. Either way, the Legislature loses expertise. Nobody in the "real world" discounts the value of experience in such a way.
State Rep. Butch Wilkins, D-Jonesboro, has an idea worth considering. Set a simple limit of 14 years in the Legislature. One person, for example, could serve all 14 in the House. That would maintain the total limit of legislative service we already have and yet also preserve seniority and knowledge of the processes.
While we're at it, propose a reasonable salary for all legislators and get rid of the shadowy process of expenses and reimbursements that can run more than $50,000 a year without accountability per legislator.
• Set term limits for elected county officials and give them 4-year terms. Most of them want the 4-year terms without term limits, but the trade-off may be necessary to get this passed. This might have to be a separate proposal.
• Fix the initiative and referendum process. Set up by Article 5 of the constitution and refined by Amendment 7, the law is fairly straightforward. But we've muddled it with implementing legislation such as a 1999 law that provides for early review of ballot measures. Last summer we had a fiasco with various petition drives, many depending heavily on groups that pay canvassers. We need to regulate such groups so that they don't make a mockery of the law, while allowing for voluntary citizens' groups to operate.
Whatever they do, legislators should remember that our constitution is already 160 pages long. We need to clarify and improve it, not necessarily to expand it.
Roy Ockert is editor emeritus of The Jonesboro Sun. He may be reached by e-mail at email@example.com.