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A while ago, a popular blogger, asked me to review his blog design for improvements. Just so you know, I do this for a living, and my review isn't cheap. 😉
I gave him my review, pointing out the flaws, misalignments between identity and design, and improvements that would not just help his page ranking but also help his readers navigate through the blog better. I told him to pass this on to his web designer as they would understand what I was talking about. Normally, I work in combination with the blog owner and designer, but in this case, it was only with the owner.
A month later, I got an email asking to review his blog's changes. I dropped by and screamed. It looked like he did the changes himself. I emailed back, "Did you do this yourself? Or is this the result of the web designer you hired? Is this what you want it to look like?"
He did it himself.
Which begs the question of if you should design your own blog, and when you should hire a professional to design your blog.
Should You Design Your Own Blog?
A blog's design is only as good as the blog designer.
That's the truth. Like it or not.
If you know what you are doing and have the experience to do it, then go for it, knowing your blog design will still be only as good as the blog designer, based upon your expertise with web design.
If you have the time and desire to learn by trial and error, you will get a blog design designed by trial and error, fixing it as you grow and learn.
Web design, especially blog design, is not about moving a sidebar to the left or right or changing your header art. It's not about making the background blue instead of green and adding pictures to the overall design.
Web design is about matching the design with the content, the design with the blogger, the design with the blog's purpose, the design with the audience, and about making the connections between all these pieces come together.
In its most simple element, a well-designed blog for a race car fan would not feature flowers and pink colors. It would feature race cars and race car design elements. Design matches content.
The more complex aspect of web design typically ignored by beginner to intermediate level designers, is the ability to match the design with the blog's identity and brand. Branding is a more subtle art form and every detail either supports it or not.
A blogger who specializes in presenting articles on life structure, organization, improvement, and "cleaning up your life" would not have their brand well represented with a cluttered web page design.
A blogger blogging on photography has a hard time getting the point across without some good photographs on their blog and blog design, incorporating the presentation of their images and content as if it was a gallery or magazine.
A blogger covering political and/or international news needs to have a "newsy" clean design so the words jump out with only a few eye catching images and a lot of links to categories and popular content deep within the blog and to other informative resources to support their point of view. Without it, it's just another blog.
A blogger blogging on web design better have the most lovely and well-built web design as a portfolio of their web design capabilities.
Seeing these connections between the blogger, blog purpose, blog identity, and blog branding, and the overall details of the blog design comes with a great detail of experience and education. It takes a comprehensive understanding of advertising, marketing, demographics, psychology, accessibility, web technologies, branding, and public relations in addition to a comprehensive and well tried and tested understanding of web page design.
There is another aspect to web and blog design easily overlooked by those who have blogs and websites and are designers. Proximity. When you are too close to the subject, too familiar, and lacking the perspective of distance, it's hard to view the site with a fresh point of view. It takes new eyes to see what you are standing too close to.
I know many web designers who rely upon other web designers to help them design their own blogs. This is also why there is a growing trend in blog reviews, with professionals volunteering or being paid to review blog designs, helping their owners put together all the pieces appropriately and professionally.
When Should You Hire a Professional Web Designer?
The time to hire a professional web designer is:
- You don't know how.
- You don't have the time to do it right.
- You understand your blog's brand and identity is critical to your blog's success.
- You want to focus on content, where your expertise lies, and let a web design expert do their job to improve your blog.
- You understand that you need a second pair of experienced and educated eyes to design your blog.
- You want it done right.
If the bottom line is your blog must help you make money and you want it done right, then hire a professional to do it right.
But who do you hire?
You do not hire your friend, neighbor, or family member unless they have 3-5 years of blog design expertise. You do not hire someone who volunteered web designs and has not been paid for blog design work. You do not hire someone based upon a recommendation unless you research their portfolio and talk to the blog owners.
You do hire someone with 3-5 years of graphic design, web design, and blog design expertise. If you go with less, you will get less. Remember, a blog design is only as good as the blog designer.
You hire someone who understand blogging and all of the intricacies therein. They must understand blog identity, branding, interactivity, communication, and relationships, and how to maximize your blog's design to accommodate all of these without cluttering up your blog.
They must be able to listen, and to really hear your concerns and ideas for your blog design.
They must have a history of meeting or beating deadlines and follow through. And most of all, they must commit to at least one year of technical support.
Most of all, you hire someone whose reputation, career, and roof over their head is dependent upon their ability to design your blog.
From there, it's a matter of negotiation details. You can negotiate for the ability to tweak and edit the design without permission, define the terms of their technical support including dramatic improvements or additional features you may need over the course of the contact, and other details.
If You Are Serious About Your Blog, You Hire a Web Consultant
If you are very serious about having your blog design be professional, understanding how much it plays into your identity, brand, and market value, you can hire a web consultant. A web consultant acts as the manager for the design and development of your blog. I think of a web consultant as the image consultant for your blog. She works directly with you to help you understand the purpose and presentation of your blog as your adviser and then coordinates your blog's design with a professional web designer.
A web consultant knows all the ins and outs of web design, but has the added experience and education of advertising, marketing, public relations, professional writing, and business communications.
There are two main reasons to hire a web consultant. One is to help you improve your blog overall, through the design, content, SEO, and marketing techniques. The other is that a good web consultant may have a stable of web designers to call upon, choosing the one or more who will best meet your needs, personally and professionally. If not, the web consultant will work directly with your web designer to ensure the follow through of the blog design and marketing plan.
Most bloggers are worried about their budget, not seeing the earning potential inherent in their blogs. But if you are one of the bloggers who do see beyond this year, into year five of your business, consider hiring a web consultant and not just a designer to work with you to build your blog and associated business.
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Site Search Tags: blog design, WordPress Themes, blog design tips, designing blogs, blog identity, blog marketing, web design, blog development, hiring web consultant, hiring blog consultant, blog consultant, web consultant, web designer, hiring web designer, web page design
Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, member of the 9Rules Network
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July 28, 2014 -- Two Americans working to help Ebola victims in the West African country of Liberia have themselves become infected, an aid organization said.
According to the Associated Press, Dr. Kent Brantly, 33, has tested positive for the highly contagious, often fatal viral disease and is currently being treated in a hospital in Monrovia, Liberia. The North Carolina-based aid agency Samaritan's Purse announced his illness in a news release issued Saturday, the AP said.
Brantly, who previously worked at a family practice in Fort Worth, Texas, has been working in Liberia since October of 2013 and is the medical director for Samaritan's Purse's case management center in Monrovia.
The second American stricken with Ebola is Nancy Writebol, a worker with a group called SIM (Serving in Mission) that is allied with Samaritan's Purse. She had been working as a hygienist focused on decontaminating people who entered and left the Monrovia Ebola care center, AP said.
Both Brantly and Writebol are in "stable and serious" condition, Samaritan's Purse vice-president Ken Isaacs told the AP Sunday.
Group spokeswoman Melissa Strickland said that Brantly's wife and children had been living with him in Africa but are currently back in the United States. They left last week, before Brantly began to feel ill. "They have absolutely shown no symptoms," she said.
The Ebola outbreak has killed more than 670 people across several West African nations so far this year, the AP said.

subset: commoncrawl


text: Welcome to our all new College Football Scoreboard! We took all of your favorite pages - College Football Scores, Odds, Team Stats & Public Betting Information and combined them into this all new mobile friendly page. See Who Covered, See if The Game Went Over or Under and See if the Public Was Right or Wrong


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Design submitted by Sam from Germany.
Sam says: Analog watches might be traditional, but they can look so cool. I liked what I did with an earlier design called Cypher. I continued playing around with circle based shapes for an analog watch. The result is Cypher's Little Brother.
The watch is almost completely made of matte black steel. The hour hand is a big half circle and the one end in clockwise direction indicates the hour. The minute hand is narrower and works similar. But it is below the hour hand, so it's mostly not seen completely. I like this interlocking – makes the watch look more complex. 50% of the time, the minute indicator is covered by the hour hand. In that case, just look at the free end of the minute hand and add 30 minutes. Little triangles on the hour and minute hand as well as some indicators at the dial bottom are a little help.
Second hands are fun, because they make the watch look busy. I made a colored ring that's moving like a second hand but doesn't actually tell the seconds. It appears as a size and color changing circle segment and gives the black watch a nice colorful accent.
In order to place the watch hands in the opposite order than normal but to use a traditional mechanism, this has been turned upside down. You change the battery at the top of the case! There is this screw-cap with a coin gap that makes the watch seem to be a little reactor or something else worth keeping locked.
The watch looks mechanical and futuristic, diversified but also strict and sober. I think fans of science (fiction or fact) and arts (minimalistic and geometrical) would like it.


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Tool interface.
Up to now you have made you task globally available to the system by specifying an instance of that task within the
__init__.pyfile of your sub-system, e.g.:# __init__.py file compute = ComputeTask()To make your task appear in the "Tasks" view, you need to add the following lines:from herschel.ia.task.views import TaskToolRegistry toolRegistry = TaskToolRegistry.getInstance() toolRegistry.register(compute)For PACS users, this
__init__.pyfile is located at $install_dir/data/toolbox/your_sub_system. You can also specify that your task belongs to one or more
Category:from herschel.ia.gui.kernel.Tool import Category toolRegistry.register(compute, [Category.IMAGE, Category.PACS]))Your task will now be enabled whenever a session variable is selected which matches the type of the first input parameter within your task! Within your task, you can control which parameter signs-up to be the prime parameter (the one which reacts on a selected data variable) by the Task API:class ComputeTask extends Task { ComputeTask() { super("compute"); prime = new TaskParameter("spectrum", SpecificProduct.class) : getSignature().setPrimeInput(prime) } }Naming conventions for task when to be registered in Hipe should follow this example assuming that the task will perform the functionality named "reduce" :Name of the Class : ReduceTask Name of the Task (getName()) : reduce Name of the variable in Jython : reduce
The mechanism above makes you task to become a tool within the system and it appears whenever a variable of type
SpecificProduct(i.e. the type of the value of the Parameter) is selected. Sometimes this may not be enough, e.g. is certain situations your task will only run on a
SpecificProductif it contains certain contents. A typical situation would be when a SPIRE reduction operates on a ObservationContext: such a task should not be listed whenever a HIFI observation is selected... You can write a
ParameterValidatorto do just that:prime = new TaskParameter("spectrum", SpecificProduct.class) prime.setParameterValidator(new ParameterValidatorAdapter() { public void validate(Object value) throws ParameterValidationException { SpecificProduct s = (SpecificProduct)value; if (! (logic that would validate the contents of the value...)) { throw new ParameterValidationException(reason); } } });In other words, rather than writing this logic within the pre-amble or execution block of your task, we recommend you to move that logic into the parameter validation. This way we achieve two things:
- make the logic appear where it should be and therefore keeping the execution block of your task concentrated to the algorithm, and
- make your task appear as a tool within HIPE that can be ran against specific data.
The system generates a default input dialog for all registered tasks within the software. As the system does not know the intent of your task, it can only provide a dry-listing of all requested parameters; such a dialog may not be suitable for your purposes. The default dialog for the crop task:
As for instance you may want to have more control over how the input parameters are presented to the user:
To adapt to these scenarios and more, the system provides three ways for customizing you Task dialogs:
- you may only want to provide a sub-set of parameters (and leave the full-set to expert users on the command-line)
- you may want to organize your parameters by grouping them in tabs, or putting a border around a group of parameters
- you may want to have more informative tooltips, labels or even input fields that are more suitable for your task.
- Parameter Modifiers
- Signature Components
- Task Panels.
The system provides a default dialog displaying an input area for setting the values of the parameter based on a composition of Modifiers The input area for the crop task:
The composition of Modifiers is created based on the types of the values of the Task Parameters of the Task Signature. The Modifier for the first Parameter of the crop task:
Currently the system contains basic implementation for the simple types Integer, Float, Long, Double and few more, so there's still a lot of space for improvements and contribution. The following behaviours and limitations are present in the provided modifiers:
If your Task Parameter isn't one of the mentioned types, you could:
- If the value is unfilled or invalid (red) the parameter will not used (but see D'n'D). This has been retrofitted in a consistent manner after 1.0
- While you can always in Console write "SomeTask(param = null)", with a Panel you will get "Task()": for GUIs "null is not allowed". The task machinery will take nulls as if the parameter has been ignored by the user.
- Modifiers have no notion of the optionality of parameters: if they have a valid value they will return it. The task machinery will not generate a parameter assignment if the value equals the default.
- All Modifiers accept D'n'D of variables and if a variable is D'n'Ded and stored it takes precedence over the filled value: currently only the default modifier has visual feedback about it's D'n'D state.
- Speciallized modifiers:
- Will only store variables compatible with the type.
- They do not seem to accept variables set to None (to check)
- Once a variable has been accepted the value the user edits will forever be ignored
- Cannot forget the variable (default can't either but has no editor).
- JDefaultModifier: (D'n'D can block some Drops, but basically accepts any type)
- Initially they have no type
- They accept the type of the first variable D'n'Ded and remember it (of any type!)
- Now they only accept variables of the same type (or compatible)
- You can erase the type D'n'Ding a None
- Current floating point modifiers are incapable of parsing some special values like NaN, +-Infinite and -0, as parsing/checking is done via pure numeric patterns.
Alternatively, you could want to write your specific Modifier for one of the already available types. In that case, you could skip the registration, and just create your modifier in your Java code within a custom Signature Component. In package herschel.ia.gui.apps.modifier you can find the general available modifiers.
- Implement a Modifier
- Register it to the system.
The Modifier interface consists of two explicit contracts:
and two implicit contracts:
- Support the drag and drop features (the set/getVariableSelection)
- Support the inspection for Object (the set/getObject)
- Be JComponent
- If it is registered in the Extension Registry, have an empty constructor
The registration of the Modifier is done again in the
__init__.pyvia the Extension Registry with the usual syntax (please note the name of the factory: factory.modifier). Be aware that the registration is system wise so the registration overrides any other registered modifier for that type.REGISTRY.register(COMPONENT,Extension( "MyModifier", "herschel.ia.mymodifier.MyModifier", "factory.modifier", "herschel.ia.MyClass")In case the Modifier you have created is only applicable to a specific task or even to a specific parameter of a specific task you can simply assign it to the Task Parameter itself:// In your task constructor TaskParameter parameter = new TaskParameter("input", String.class); parameter.setModifier(new MyModifer());If a modifier is associated to a task parameter in the task constructor, like in the example above, it is instantiated during initialization, when the task is created. This means that the JComponents used for your Modifier may not have the same GUI theme than the application, because the GUI theme is set just after the initialization of the registry. In that case, you may consider to write a custom Signature Component instead, which would be instantiated after the theme is set.
In case the default input area based on Modifiers doesn't fit your needs you can just replace it by your own implementation. Rotate Alternative Signature:
If this is the case you need to:
- Implement a Task Signature Component
- Register it to the system.
Implement a Task Signature ComponentThe TaskSignatureComponent interface consists of four explicit contracts
and the two implicit contracts inherited by the Extension Registry
- Support the
setVariableSelectionfor initial assignment from the Tool Window
- Assign the Signature to display (
- Return a map of parameters and assigned values (in
Map<TaskParameter, VariableSelection> getParameters)
- Clear and check user inputs (used by the default buttons)
An easy way of implementing TaskSignatureComponent is by extending JTaskSignatureComponent and providing your own implementation for the
- Be JComponent
- Have an empty constructor
makeModifierMap()method. For example, if you want to use a custom Signature Component that just wants to use JFilePathModifier for a parameter aimed for a file name, you could do it like this:public class MySignatureComponent extends JTaskSignatureComponent { private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L; protected Map<TaskParameter, Modifier> makeModifierMap() { SignatureApi signature = getSignature(); Map<TaskParameter, Modifier> m = new LinkedHashMap<TaskParameter, Modifier>(); m.put(signature.getTaskParameter("file"), new JFilePathModifier(SAVE)); m.put(signature.getTaskParameter("number"), new JIntegerModifier()); return m; } }
Register a Task Signature ComponentThe registration of the Task Signature Component is done again in the
__init__.pyvia the Extension Registry with the usual syntax (please note the name of the factory: factory.editor.tool.task.signature).REGISTRY.register(COMPONENT,Extension( "Rotate Signature", "herschel.ia.task.example.RotateSignatureComponent", "factory.editor.tool.task.signature", "herschel.ia.image.Rotate"))See also the Extension Registry documentation for more details.
Custom Task DialogsEventually, if the above options still do not accommodate you needs you can replace the the default Task Panel with your own implementation If this is the case you need to:
- Implement a Task Panel
- Register it to the system.
Implement a Task PanelThe TaskPanel interface consists of three explicit contractsThe Rotate Panel example (herschel.ia.task.example.RotatePanel):
and the two implicit contracts inherited by the Extension Registry
- Support the setVariableSelection for initial assignment from the Tool Window
- Assign the Task to display ( the setTask)
- Notify request of executions to the framework by
- Allow for setting the Site Event handler for notifying request of execution (the setSiteEventHandler method )
- Notify the execution requests calling the trigger method of SiteEventHandler passing a CommandExecutionRequestEvent.
You can create this event through the TaskCommandExecutionEventFactory.
- Be JComponent
- Have an empty constructor
Register a Task PanelThe registration of the Task Panel Component is done again in the
__init__.pyvia the Extension Registry with the usual syntax (please note the name of the factory: factory.editor.tool.task.signature).REGISTRY.register(COMPONENT,Extension( "Rotate Task Panel", "herschel.ia.task.example.RotatePanel", "factory.editor.tool.task", "herschel.ia.image.Rotate"));See also the Extension Registry documentation for more details.
Task compliance
- Write user documentation (jtags)! That will be automatically picked up whenever a user asks the system for help on your task.
- The name of the task should be a legal variable name in the global name-space. For example your instance of
MyTaskshould report itself as e.g.: "myTask" and not "This is my task".
- If your prime parameter is not the first parameter in your task, specify the prime parameter using the
setPrimeInputmethod in the signature
- Write a parameter validator for your prime parameter if your task should be listed not only on prime data type but on prime data contents as well.
Recommendations for simple tasks and limitations
- Use a function that fully initializes TaskParameters: you avoid working with partially initialized data or data with non obvious defaults.
- Please take care to register your task properly: otherwise it may half-work, which is much worse than not working at all!
- Capture exceptions and check your params before trying to properly execute, if you want to provide better error reporting than the one provided by default.
- You should not do user interaction after you have started execute() (not on EDT).
- Validators: you cannot compare multiple parameters, order of execution is not specified, will be executed several times. So, if you need to validate dependent parameters, it should be done later.
- Once you are in execute() console has already been updated with the command : Although you can change the value of TaskParameters, this will not be properly reflected on the UI, so don't do it. So once you are on execute() you can check , possibly abort, and properly execute (nothing else).
Adding a Tool that is not a TaskIf you have an existing task and want to make it available in HIPE, you just need to follow the steps described in the above section. Now, a task has its limitations. It is somewhat an atomic operation for which you provide some inputs and expect some result.
Therefore, it is not expected for acting interactively with a user, and it is not meant for holding internal status either, that a user can modify during its execution. If you need more flexibility, you can write your own implementation of the
Besides, you would most probably need a viewer associated to your tool, for letting the user interact with it. This follows in some way the MVC pattern: your target data is the Model, your associated viewer is the View, and your tool is the Controller.
Tool ImplementationThe
Toolinterface is simple:public interface Tool { // Known categories to which a tool may belong to public enum Category { SPIRE, PACS, HIFI, GENERAL, IMAGE } // Get the tool name String getName(); // Get the actual object that does the work Object getToolObject(); // Set the actual object that does the work void setToolObject(Object o); // Get an array of categories to which this tool belongs to Category[] getCategories(); // Return the prime input parameter Parameter getPrimeInput(); }You provide the variable types you are interested in within the prime input: just return a ToolParameter initiated with the proper class of data you want to handle.The actual job to be done can be delegated to a third object (the "tool object"), or just be executed by the tool class itself.private ToolParameter _prime = new ToolParameter("data", MyTargetDataType.class); public Parameter getPrimeInput() { return _prime; }
In this latter case, the method
Object getToolObject()should return
this. Moreover, you may return the categories you think the tool is meaningful for, through the proper implementation of
Category[] getCategories().
Tool ViewerEvery tool has an associated viewer, which must implement EditorComponent (by extending AbstractEditorComponent or one of its subclasses).
Tool RegistryOnce you have your tool and the corresponding viewer, you need to register them like this:# Associate the tool with the viewer REGISTRY.register(COMPONENT,Extension( "My Tool", "herschel.path.to.MyToolComponent", "factory.editor.tool", "herschel.path.to.MyTool")) # Register the tool so it is automatically available for the proper variables in HIPE from herschel.ia.gui.kernel import ToolRegistry from herschel.path.to import MyTool ToolRegistry.getInstance().register(MyTool())
Communicating Tool & ViewerIn the viewer, you can access the tool and the selected data within the
makeEditorContentmethod provided by
At this point, you can let the tool know about the viewer as well, if you want:protected boolean makeEditorContent() { // Get the tool and the selected data ToolSelection selection = getSelection(); Tool tool = selection.getTool(); Object data = selection.getSelection().getValue(); // Optional - you would need to provide a setViewer method ((MyTool)tool).setViewer(this); // Build the editor contents ... }
Simple sampleThis simple reproducible example wraps up the just explained steps altogether.
It is just a button whose label is changed by the tool when the user clicks on it: 1. The tool class2. The viewer classpublic class ButtonTool implements Tool { private Category[] _categories = { Category.GENERAL }; private ToolParameter _prime = new ToolParameter("data", ArrayData.class); private ArrayData _data; private boolean _flag = true; public Category[] getCategories() { return _categories; } public String getName() { return "Button Tool"; } public Parameter getPrimeInput() { return _prime; } public Object getToolObject() { return this; } public void setToolObject(Object o) { // do nothing } public void setData(ArrayData data) { _data = data; } void updateLabel(JButton button) { int size = _data.getSize(); int rank = _data.getRank(); button.setText("Data has " + (_flag? "size " + size : "rank " + rank)); _flag = !_flag; } }3. The registrationpublic class ButtonToolComponent extends AbstractEditorComponent<ToolSelection> { private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L; private static int _counter = 1; private ButtonTool _tool; public ButtonToolComponent() { super(new BorderLayout()); } protected Class<ToolSelection> getSelectionType() { return ToolSelection.class; } protected boolean makeEditorContent() { final JButton button = new JButton(); setName("Button Tool " + _counter++); _tool = (ButtonTool)getSelection().getTool(); _tool.setData((ArrayData)getSelection().getSelection().getValue()); _tool.updateLabel(button); button.addActionListener(new ActionListener() { public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) { _tool.updateLabel(button); } }); add(button); return true; } public Icon getComponentIcon() { return IconLibrary.VARIABLE; } }4. Executing the exampleREGISTRY.register(COMPONENT,Extension( "Button Tool", "herschel.your.package.ButtonToolComponent", "factory.editor.tool", "herschel.your.package.ButtonTool")) from herschel.ia.gui.kernel import ToolRegistry from herschel.your.package import ButtonTool ToolRegistry().getInstance().register(ButtonTool())For executing this simple tool, just include it in a package owned by you, open the workbench in HIPE, and execute the following in the console:x = Int1d.range(12) y = Double2d([[1,2,3],[4,5,6]])Then open the x and y variables with the Button Tool and click the button: its label is updated by the tool.
Triggering EventsFor a full detailed section about triggering events have a look at DpHipeCommonUtilities.
|2008-02-15 - 10:21


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Washington Post: "Iran has responded to the toughening of sanctions by speeding up its work on a bomb, not slowing it down," says Jean-David Levitte, former French ambassador to Washington and, until May, then-President Nicolas Sarkozy's diplomatic adviser.
The Washington Post
By Jim Hoagland
Syria's Alawite regime collapses from within and without. High-level defections march in step with rebel gains through the Sunni heartland. The Obama administration's signature regional strategy — described in a Freudian slip by a French career diplomat here as "waiting from behind" — now badly trails events.
That would not constitute a disaster for Washington if the fate of Bashar al-Assad's clan-dictated rule was an isolated affair. But there are moments when timing is everything in statecraft. Syria's impending implosion is coming to a head just as President Obama runs out of time on his promise to keep nuclear weapons out of Iran's hands.
His last best hope may now lie in linking the two crises in bargaining with Russia and Iran, Assad's two most important foreign backers. They risk losing everything they have invested in that country by continuing to bet that Assad — and the Syrian state — can survive this war. That gives Obama leverage to use in countering Iran's accelerating nuclear enrichment program.
"Iran has responded to the toughening of sanctions by speeding up its work on a bomb, not slowing it down," says Jean-David Levitte, former French ambassador to Washington and, until May, then-President Nicolas Sarkozy's diplomatic adviser. "We now have only a relatively few months to act before Iran's nuclear effort becomes irreversible."
Levitte believes that the six powers conducting nuclear negotiations with Iran have to make a final comprehensive offer. Failing Tehran's quick agreement to such a proposal, the only courses left open will be acceptance of an Iranian bomb or military action to prevent it, he argues.
This is where Syria comes in. It is stomach-churning for me to suggest that Americans should work to salvage any part of Assad's regime, which has slaughtered tens of thousands of Syrians. But the least bad option available may be for all powers to pursue two overriding, interlocking goals: Syria's descent into a total bloodbath must be stopped. And Iran must agree to live up to its nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty obligations by forswearing atomic weapons.
This does not mean protecting Assad and those close to him. They have to go. But there are generals and other officials from Assad's Alawite minority who could credibly stay on in a transitional government. U.N. officials have identified a number of them in private contacts with the U.S., French, Russian and other governments, diplomatic sources tell me.
A Syrian coalition that provides physical and political protection for the Alawites and Syria's other minorities, while reflecting the Sunni majority's new power, could convince Russia and Iran that they could maintain some influence — however reduced that influence should and would be. (Paradoxically, such a coalition might also quiet Israel's apprehensions about the strong presence of Islamic jihadists in the rebel movement and exert moderating influence on Egypt's growing derogation of minority rights.)
These are substantial, if difficult to achieve, carrots. But the alternatives are extraordinarily grim, as Levitte pointed out when he went public with his negotiating proposal this month here at the World Policy Conference, an annual gathering of foreign policy officials, scholars and other experts organized by IFRI, a leading French think tank.
Levitte suggests that the international community must now go either/or on Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: Iran finally agrees to restrict nuclear enrichment to 5 percent or less and exports its stockpile of higher-grade enriched uranium. Or the United States, having made this high-profile final effort, will gain broader international acceptance of an American-led military strike to destroy Iran's nuclear capability at some point in 2013.
Since Levitte spoke, Iran's accelerated enrichment program and the sharp deterioration in Syria have convinced me that time is rapidly running out for a constructive settlement in either nation. They must be treated together if they are to be treated at all. Until recently, I had been relatively comfortable with Obama's assertions that there is time to reach a peaceful resolution with Iran.
But the president's other, more menacing statements on Iran weigh more heavily now. He has declared an Iranian bomb "unacceptable" and said that he was prepared to use military force as a last resort to stop it. Bibi Netanyahu's likely reelection as prime minister of Israel on Jan. 22 adds additional urgency to Levitte's last-ditch effort to avoid military strikes that threaten disastrous political and economic consequences for the world.
Levitte, now retired, made clear that he was not speaking for President Francois Hollande's government. But under Hollande and Sarkozy, France has manifested its grave concern over Iran and Syria. Obama can count on active French support in making a high-profile negotiating effort. But U.S. leadership is necessary if such an effort is to have any chance to succeed.


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PotterCast 136: Conversations with Paul
Jan 29, 2008
The newest episode of our Harry Potter podcast, PotterCast, is now online and includes an extended conversation with Harry and the Potter's singer Paul DeGeorge. Paul joins Melissa, Sue, and John this week to discuss the Harry Potter EP of the Month Club, which has just opened up for subscriptions, as well as much more about wizard rock and charity in this new year. This episode also marks the return of the Phoenix Files and Bit by Bit segments. In Phoenix Files, we talk about moments from the OotP including: the fireside chat with Sirius and the Hog's Head meeting, while Bit by Bit delves into the sixth chapter of "Deathly Hallows." In the news this week, we bring you the latest "Half-Blood Prince" filming and casting news, the possible Wizarding World of Harry Potter opening in December of 2009, as well as Dan Radcliffe's new role as journalist Dan Eldon in an upcoming film about his life. To listen, just hit the "Play" button on the right side of the page (
–>), or use iTunes, or direct download.
"Conversations with Paul"
– Big Filming News.
– Melissa thinks "No Funeral."
– New Wizard Rock EP of the Month Club.
– Talk about the Harry Potter Alliance.
– "Makes me wanna throw my shirt off!"
– Hip Hop Wizard Rock.
– Part One of Chapter 6 "The Ghoul in Pajamas" in Bit by Bit.
– Trio's fireside chat with Sirius ' he's not a blob this time!
– More public service announcements from Harry and the Potters coming soon?
Editor: Jeff Gregory
Podcast Alley
Terminus 2008
Harry Potter EP of the Month Club
Direct download (44 MB).
Direct download low-bandwidth (9 MB).
Remember you don't need an iPod to listen. Listen easily on iTunes, which you can download and install here, by clicking here to listen, or you can just use the streaming Flash player at PotterCast.com or just on the right side of this page. Discussion of the PotterCast is right here. Enjoy!


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I have been very absent here of late, after this quilt took on a life of its own and I very much feared I would never meet today's deadline on the theme of Change/ Transformation. I hope to post more about it soon but some of my thinking behind this piece and and the quilts of my fellow Endeavourers are being revealed today on The Endeavourers blog so please visit to see all the different interpretations.
In the meantime, I wish you a very Happy May Day!
Janine @ Rainbow Hare :)
Here is the full post, first published on The Endeavourers blog on May 1st 2018:
Happy Beltane, May Day or what you will!
This is my offering for today's reveal on the theme of 'Change/Transformation' and I hope it captures a little of the spirit of topsy-turvy celebration and carnival :)
I actually thought I started this challenge in good time but it took so much longer than I expected I came perilously close to missing today's deadline. So I will just give an outline of my thinking here and put a more detailed post on myblog when I am not so short of time.
My quilt involves three variations on the idea of change.
1. Content – a change to a Nursery Rhyme
I based my quilt on this on this rhyme:
Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been?
I've been to London to visit the Queen.
Pussy cat, pussy cat, what did you there?
I frightened a little mouse under her chair.
I continually changed my mind about what to make for this challenge and I eventually settled upon using a silly rhyme, that popped into my head when the Trial and Error cats were rummaging in the vintage linens, in which the last line of the Nursery Rhyme, Pussy cat, pussy cat where have you been? changed to I found a trunk full of fine gowns to wear. I am hoping that the original rhyme is so well known the change will stand out for anyone reading it.
2. Materials – and another rhyme!
Pondering the idea of 'change' kept bringing to my mind some lines from 'The Jervis Bay' by Michael Thwaites:
"So many a ship of peaceful purpose was called to the tasks of war,
Was manned and armed and made anew for work unguessed before,
Came quietly into the dockyard and, converted, slipped away,
Yacht, trawler, ferry, liner, tramp. So came the Jervis Bay."
So, focussing particularly on 'made anew for work unguessed before', I decided to make this quilt using textiles that were originally designed and made for other purposes.
These included part of a small quilt I made some years ago and never found a use for, a vintage tray cloth, scraps from old clothes, the corner of a handkerchief and embroidered pansies from a torn and much stained vintage table cloth.
3. Technique.
I wanted to make a piece that was reminiscent of the hand drawn illustrations in vintage Nursery Rhyme books and my go-to techniques for these types of quilt are applique and some straight line machine quilting or a little had stitching, which function to hold all the layers together but don't have much to do with the subject of the quilt. So, for a complete change, I thought I would try to use the quilting as an integral part of the picture.
I wildly underestimated the density of stitching that would be necessary to make the picture show up properly and I ended up stitching over stitches and filling gaps with straight stitches to the extent that it barely looks like stitching, let alone quilting, but, apart from the verse, all the stitches go through all the layers and are literally (and excessively) quilting the piece together. This did nothing for the stitches themselves and I think if I do something like this again I will embroider first and quilt selectively. And, perhaps I'll also use a single layer of batting, rather than patchwork/batting/backing/linen…
Ideally, I would have liked to have a neater finish but, were it not for the deadline, I'm sure I would have given up on this and the end result certainly looks a lot better than any of the individual areas did whilst it was in progress so I'm glad I persevered. I also have lots of ideas for incorporating elements of this into future projects – though probably not all together! And I have a new found joy in the thought of embroidering on a single piece of fabric :)
I'm very much looking forward to seeing what everyone else has made.
Janine :)


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Women critically hurt in two-car crash in Worcester
Two women were critically injured Monday night in a two-car crash at Belmont and Shrewsbury streets.
Police said that around 7:30 p.m. they went to the busy, wide intersection, where a 2003 Toyota Camry and 2011 Ford Flex had collided. Based on preliminary investigation, police said the Camry was traveling west on Belmont Street and attempted to make a left onto Shrewsbury Street. At the same time, the driver of the Flex was traveling straight on Belmont, heading east.
A 36-year-old woman in the rear of the Camry and a 41-year-old woman in the front passenger seat were both taken to a local hospital in critical condition, police said. The 33-year-old man driving the Camry was also taken to a local hospital and was listed in good condition. The 35-year-old man driving the Ford was treated at the hospital and released, police said.
The accident reconstruction team was activated, and both vehicles were towed to police headquarters for further inspection.
Earlier that afternoon, officers from the Traffic Division investigated a four-car accident in the Greendale Mall parking lot. A Saturn L200 was traveling east and struck two parked vehicles. One of those vehicles hit yet another parked vehicle.
Two people were in the Saturn; the parked cars were unoccupied, police said. The passenger in the Saturn was taken to a local hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.


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FREEHOLD, N.J. - Dan Barkalow did not think twice before stopping by the side of the road near Freehold, New Jersey, to help out a stranded fellow biker.
Then he noticed the guy looked familiar. It was none other than Bruce Springsteen.
"It's a day I probably won't forget for a while," Dan Barkalow, 54, told CNN. "The moment I got off the bike I saw it was him, and he was a real nice, down-to-earth guy."
Barkalow was leading a group of bikers, the Freehold American Legion Riders, back from a Veteran's Day ceremony Friday at the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Holmdel, New Jersey, when he saw the broken-down bike and pulled over.
Barkalow said he was "a little starstruck" upon recognizing Springsteen but immediately tried to assist the rocker, a Freehold native who still lives nearby.
When the dead battery on Springsteen's bike wouldn't charge, the group gave him a ride to a nearby restaurant.
Barkalow said Springsteen, who has just published a best-selling memoir titled "Born to Run," stayed for 45 minutes until his ride picked him up. The musician invited Barkalow and his buddies for a round of drinks and chatted about motorcycles and "good old Freehold."
Biker Ryan Bailey added that Springsteen took the group's names and numbers. "He said, 'If I'm ever in the area I'll get you tickets for the show.' It was pretty neat," Bailey said.
There was no discussion of politics, according to both Bailey and Barkalow, despite the left-leaning singer's vocal support for Hillary Clinton during the bitter presidential campaign.
After sharing their brush with Jersey royalty on the Facebook page for the Freehold American Legion - Monmouth Post 54, however, the bikers said they experienced an unexpected backlash.
"What started out as a story of interest posted to our American Legion Facebook page has devolved into a nauseating political altercation full of vitriol and insults, none of which are from our members," said a statement on the page. " If we are to survive as a nation both sides have to stop the hate."
"It's pretty disgusting," Barkalow said later of the nasty comments. "All I know is, I'm a pretty humble guy. I just stopped to help someone out."


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Support Local Salt
Over the past decade, Portland's food scene has lead the movement of sourcing local ingredients and supporting local businesses, but the best chefs became used to buying gourmet salts from across the pond because a local option didn't exist.
Since Ben Jacobsen began processing sea salt from Oregon seawater at Portland's KitchenCru last year, his delicately-flaked Jacobsen Salt Co. salt has appeared in dozens of professional kitchens around town, topping salads, steaks, soups, and seasonal vegetables. Each batch is carefully produced over the course of 40 hours, and the result is simply unbeatable. Chefs and home cooks alike are hooked on Jacobsen's products, but schlepping barrels of sea water from the coast to Portland isn't the most efficient way to keep up with growing demand.
With the help of a Kickstarter campaign launched this week, Jacobsen hopes to raise $25,000 to open Oregon's first salt harvesting facility on the Oregon coast, increasing the availability of local sea salt, cutting down on transport costs, and creating jobs where they're sorely needed.
Contributors to the Kickstarter fundraiser will receive a pocket-sized tin on sea salt, Jacobsen Salt swag, and limited edition flavored salts—including lemon zest, vanilla bean, and a special collaboration with Grochau Cellers. These wine barrel-aged salts were cured for several months in pinot noir and pinot blanc barrels, infusing the flakes with delicate colors, aromas, and flavors that you just won't find anywhere else. Jacobsen's wine salts are only available through the Kickstarter campaign. Other thank-you prizes include a special lunch from Jason French of Ned Ludd, and a day of salt making at the new salt facility once the project is completed.
Want to get your hands on some local salt for your kitchen? Donate to the cause today or head to these local retailers: Barbur World Food, Elephants Deli, Food Front Co-Op, Foster & Dobb's, Made in Oregon, New Season's Markets, Pastaworks, Red Ridge Farms, Salt & Straw, The Meadow, and The Woodsman Market.


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The U.S. Attorney's Office in Indianapolis has been without a presidentially appointed U.S. attorney for more than two years—an extraordinarily long stretch for a position that usually can be filled in half that time.
Political watchers point to President Obama's taking longer than his past two predecessors to fill the nation's top 93 federal prosecutor appointments. But in Indianapolis, another factor is contributing to the delay.
Sources said high-profile trial lawyer Linda Pence in October withdrew her candidacy, which was fronted by Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh, several months into the routine, yet extensive, vetting process.
Now the frontrunner for the post is Joe Hogsett, another Indianapolis lawyer, according to sources including Ed Treacy, chairman of the Marion County Democratic Party.
Neither Pence nor Hogsett would discuss details of their nominations, which they refused to even acknowledge.
Pence, who practices at the local office of Cincinnati-based Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, is a veteran white-collar criminal litigator. Her credentials include working at the Department of Justice from 1974 to 1983.
Hogsett, a partner at Indianapolis-based Bingham McHale LLP, served as Indiana secretary of state from 1989 to 1994, and was chief of staff for then-Gov. Bayh from 1995 to 1997.
"I think either one of them would make an excellent U.S. attorney," Treacy said. "Hopefully, they can get something done soon."
Because Bayh is foregoing an attempt at re-election in November, Treacy and other political insiders think a new U.S. attorney in Indianapolis could be named before he leaves office. Bayh gets to submit a candidate to the president because he's Indiana's senior senator belonging to the party occupying the White House. Phone calls to Sen. Bayh's office in Washington, D.C., were not returned.
After Obama's first year in office, just a third of his nominations had been confirmed by Congress, compared with more than half at roughly the same time under former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
"One might expect things to move more quickly, but this president has been slower to nominate U.S. attorney positions," said David Orentlicher, a former state representative and professor at the Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis.
Both Orentlicher and Treacy attributed some of the cause for the delay to partisan politics.
"Because of the difficulty of the Republicans in the Senate holding everything up, that it would take such a long time to get done, [Pence] withdrew her name from being considered," Treacy said.
Senate-confirmed appointments to Department of Justice offices, particularly U.S. attorneys, are political in nature. They serve under the direction of the Attorney General and conduct most of the trial work in which the United States is involved. That includes the prosecution of criminal cases brought by the federal government, and the prosecution and defense of civil suits. Yet they really don't set policy but follow the strategies deemed important by the new administration, former U.S. Attorney Susan Brooks said.
In Indianapolis, the U.S. attorney manages a staff of about 80, including roughly 30 lawyers.
Federal court in Indianapolis has been without a presidentially appointed U.S. attorney since Brooks left in October 2007, about a year before Obama was elected president. Given the short time remaining before the election, political experts said it wouldn't have made much sense for Bush to nominate a successor.
Brooks, now general counsel and vice president of work force and economic development at Ivy Tech Community College, can appreciate what Pence endured.
Background checks conducted by the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation are quite extensive and typically comb through a candidate's past dating to his or her college years.
Criminal, political and financial histories are explored, as well as even the views expressed in written documents, said Brooks, whose nomination took 10 months to get confirmed in October 2001.
Brooks doesn't fault former President Bush for failing to recommend a replacement for her. But the time that has elapsed without a permanent U.S. attorney is "what's getting long now," she said.
Such an extended period of time without a permanent replacement can create uncertainties, said John Maley, a partner at Indianapolis-based Barnes & Thornburg LLP, who has a large federal practice.
"It's not something that you would want to leave open indefinitely," he said, "just in terms of continuity and expectations and those types of things."
Moreover, having an interim U.S. attorney likely means the staff is short one lawyer, who is filling the position, Maley said.
In Indianapolis, that person would be Tim Morrison, a 20-year veteran of the Department of Justice, who has served as interim U.S. attorney twice before—in October 1993, and from February 2000 to October 2001.
Morrison, who declined to specify a political slant, said he's not interested in being nominated for the job.
"Politics has nothing to do with it," he said. "It's because I want to stay."
U.S. attorneys are prevented from working in any position in the offices after they have finished serving.
Morrison, like many of the lawyers on staff, boasts several years of federal legal experience. Newly appointed U.S. attorneys typically are prohibited from replacing staff, making turnover rare despite the enticements of a more lucrative private practice.
"They stay there because they love the work," Brooks said. "I think they love the fact that their client is the United States of America."


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text: Beginning with the concept of developing a no-frills typeface with as little historical ballast as possible, Daniel Utz designed FF Netto. He reduced the letterforms to their characteristic basic shapes and removed all dispensable details. He adjusted the stroke weight unobtrusively, keeping the geometric construction principle and so optimizing the legibility and balance of the design. His approach was recognized with a Certificate of Excellence at the ISTD Awards in 2009. In addition to the alphabet, Daniel designed a full range of icons and arrows – very useful for information and wayfinding systems. Weights and sizes are rigorously adjusted to be good for combining with the text faces. By utilizing the border components you have lots of choices in organizing and arranging the pictograms. In 2012, Daniel Utz revamped the whole of FF Netto. He increased spacing and revised some curves and connections. Two new extreme weights – Thin and Black – were released, as well as new italics for all weights, with Pro language support throughout.


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Swim kickboards are an essential tool for any swim team that wants to train their swimmers to be more powerful in the water. When swimmers use these kickboards, they are able to focus on strengthening their kick and their lower body muscles so they can work less in the water without losing forward propulsion. Whether you need to replace your older kickboards or you've never had any, the Swim Stuff Kickboard 2.0 is an incredible option for your team.
Perfect for Swim Training
The swim kickboard is one of the most important tools swim team coaches can use to train their swimmers. The kickboards available from Swim Stuff are the perfect size for both adults and children, making it a versatile tool to have in your arsenal. Instead of having two sets to ensure you have the right size, you only need one. With rounded edges for a comfortable grip and a streamlined design, this tool allows swimmers to work on their performance without slowing them down in the water.
Enhance Your Training Regimen
As a swim coach, it is essential to provide a wide variety of training tools. Each of your swimmers will need to use each of these tools at some point. Different swimmers will require different tools at different times, though. This is why having a large number of the same training tool can be helpful. The Swim Stuff swim training tools are some of the most affordable tools on the market.
Available in a Wide Range of Colors
The Swim Stuff Kickboard 2.0 is available in a full rainbow of colors so you can easily find one that matches your swim team's colors. Some of the incredible colors that are available include Kelly green, red, blue, purple, yellow, pink and orange. Choose a combination of colors, pick one for each swimmer in your team or buy all the same color to provide a better sense of team spirit.
Having a good kickboard can be the perfect tool for helping swimmers to strengthen their technique in the water and thus perform better. The Swim Stuff Kickboard 2.0 is a cost-effective tool with plenty of color options so you can choose the ones that best suit y9our team's sense of style. When you have a set of these kickboards on hand, you will always have the right tools when your swimmers need them.


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Download CGTerm to view it in PETSCII!
New: If all else fails, go to the listing on bbsnexus.com and be immediately connected!
Way back before the internet was the thing, bulletin board systems (BBS) were the thing. Someone had a computer hooked up to a phone via a modulator-demodulator (modem) and was running a BBS, which you could call with your computer, using some terminal software and a modem of your own. You could read people's messages and leave your own, upload and download files, chat with the system operator (SysOp), or play a game.
In the early days (up to the early 1990s), people had to use phone lines, but since then, calling up certain boards through different means are possible. Anyone with a Windows or Mac computer can connect to many telnet BBSes these days, for example. The standard for characters (or 'font', if you will) is ASCII (and, in most cases, the more colorful ANSI), but some BBSes run on systems with different types of characters, such as Commodore 64 BBSes, which run on PETSCII (also known as CBM ASCII). These boards can be visited using special software, although some of them support ASCII and/or ANSI.
BBSes were very popular during the 1980s, although connections were slow, and BBSes usually supported only one caller at a time. Downloads could be interrupted with bad phone connections, and unlucky Europeans, who had to pay per minute during a call, would pay a lot, especially when calling American BBSes.
So why would people still bother connecting to a BBS? Isn't the internet way better? Well, yes. The internet is way better, faster, and easier. People still run BBSes and people still connect to them, purely for nostalgic reasons and purely for fun.
I'm currently running a BBS of my own, imaginatively named Scorp's Portal. It's running on a software package called Color 64 running on WinVICE (courtesy of Retrograde), which is running under Windows XP installed in VMWare v10.0 on my Windows 8 laptop. And it's real easy to connect to it! In most cases, this link will simply open the necessary software on your computer: telnet://scorp.us.to
But in case it doesn't, you can do the following, if you're a Windows user:
- Press Start and choose 'Run...'. Windows 8 users right-click on the bottom-left of their screen. You can also just hold Windows-key and press R.
- Type: telnet scorp.us.to
- Click OK
Mac users should look here.
If you can't connect, it's probably because of one of the following reasons:
- Someone's already connected. Try again in a few minutes.
- The server is saving log files. Just try again.
- I'm carrying my laptop with me (most likely). Try again later.
Also, please note that I'm very new at this BBS setup stuff, and I'm still in the process of figuring out everything. But you can definitely connect to it, and you can read and leave messages! Just be patient - the BBS is running on four virtual 1581 drives, so sometimes loading just takes a while...
Since it's a Commodore 64 BBS, the best way to get the most out of the BBS is to connect to it using a real Commodore 64, but who has the time these days. Luckily there is CGTerm, a terminal program for Windows/Mac designed to connect to BBSes using PETSCII. You should go here and download it!


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I think that sportscaster Bob Costas pretty much got it right. He was on comedian Bill Maher's 'Real Time' a few weeks ago, and the subject turned to the concussion crisis in the National Football League. A number of retired football players are suing the league for an alleged failure to protect them from the long-term consequences of the repeated blows to the head that professional players accumulate by the many thousands.
The NFL and colleges have made belated and half-hearted efforts to deal with the issue. But ultimately, Costas said, not much is going to change because, well, the fans just don't care.
Weigh an autumn without football against the damage to the brains of young players – which is mostly out of sight, anyway – and football will win every time. The game is just too exciting to abandon or to allow for remedies that might diminish the violence in any significant way. It's not that fans are choosing football over the health of the players; rather, they're conveniently ignoring the fact that there's any choice to be made at all.
But this column isn't about concussions. Our attitude toward the carnage in football exemplifies our enormous capacity for denial in the face of unpleasant realities.
Consider our American way of life, the result of a fortuitous confluence of abundant resources, enlightened ingenuity and human energy. For many of us, it's the most pleasant, satisfying, comfortable and amusing existence that civilization — anywhere or anytime — has been able to produce. Our self-satisfaction and complacency have given rise to a remarkable politics of denial, which is being played out tellingly in the current presidential campaign.
In the final presidential debate, the candidates were asked about the greatest threat that America faces. President Barack Obama referred to the threat from Islamic jihadists. Gov. Mitt Romney said our greatest threat is a nuclear-armed Iran. I'm not the first to point out that the threat of climate change was unmentioned in any of the presidential debates and virtually absent from the campaign.
Allow me to assert the short version of the proposition that virtually all serious climate scientists support, that the greenhouse gases that are being increasingly pumped into our atmosphere are pushing our warming earth toward, at best, extreme discomfort and, at worst, catastrophe. At present, almost nothing is being done in response.
The Republicans accommodate the full-blown climate-change deniers, who believe, despite the science, that the earth is undergoing ordinary, benign temperature fluctuations. Or if the earth really is getting hotter, humanity has nothing to do with it. Or if humanity is responsible, there's nothing that can be done about it anyway. Romney's position on this issue, as with many others, has evolved away from pure denial, but nothing indicates that he takes climate change very seriously.
The Democrats, on the other hand, perform somewhat better on this issue. They express more interest in green energy and automobile mileage standards. But the fact is, these are half-measures, and neither party can afford to say much about climate change because the solutions – if there are any – will be painful, difficult and expensive. The pleasures, comforts and amusements of modern life depend on the extensive use of hydrocarbons, and no one is looking very seriously at finding ways to wean ourselves away from them.
So we've driven both parties into a politics of denial. Our way of life – let's call it the 'Hydrocarbon Bubble' – is so good that it prevents us from even considering an existence without the comforts and amusements that we currently enjoy in abundance.
And the result? Bob Dylan said that a hard rain's a-gonna fall, but Bob Costas said that the game is so much fun that most of us just don't care.
John M. Crisp teaches in the English Department at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas. Email jcrispdelmar.edu


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Aid convoy returns to Russia; Merkel calls for cease-fire
Hundreds of trucks in a disputed Russian aid convoy to Ukraine crossed back into Russia on Saturday, helping to ease tensions in the region.
Paul Picard, head of the border observation mission for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said all vehicles that had crossed into Ukraine had returned to Russia by mid-afternoon. A Russian emergency official said 227 vehicles had taken part.
An Associated Press reporter on the Ukrainian side of the border was able to look inside about 40 of the white-tarpaulined tractor-trailers and confirmed they were empty. However, a spokesman for Ukraine's military, Col. Andriy Lysenko, said the trucks were loaded with military equipment before heading back to Russia, according to a report by The Washington Post.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel held talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Kiev on Saturday and promised 500 million euros ($660 million) in loan guarantees to support private investment in infrastructure and schools in war-struck areas.
Merkel urged a political solution to the crisis three days before Poroshenko will be meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Minsk in their first encounter since June. Merkel said she was looking forward to the outcome of those talks and expressed "hope that at least a step forward will be reached there."
"There must be two sides to be successful. You cannot achieve peace on your own. I hope the talks with Russia will lead to success," Merkel said at a Saturday news conference after meeting with Poroshenko. The German chancellor called for an agreement that would allow the border to be monitored by the OSCE, Reuters reported.
Poroshenko said that while Ukraine wants peace, it cannot be "at the price of sovereignty, territorial integrity and the independence of Ukraine."
The developments come after a tense day Friday, when the aid convoy carrying "humanitarian cargoes" defied the Ukrainian government and International Committee of the Red Cross by crossing the border and arriving in Luhansk, the separatists' stronghold in eastern Ukraine.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen condemned Russia for sending the unauthorized humanitarian aid convoy into Ukraine on Friday without the involvement of the International Committee of the Red Cross. On Saturday, the Russian foreign ministry called Rasmussen's statement "another lie," Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported.
The Kiev government had called the advance of the Russian trucks into Ukrainian territory on Friday a "direct invasion."
U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes warned Russia to remove the convoy from Ukraine or "face additional costs and consequences" from the United States and its allies.
The controversial Russian aid convoy left Moscow on Aug. 12 with 2,000 tons of humanitarian aid, including baby food, medicine, grain, sugar, sleeping bags and other items, Russia's government-run RIA Novosti reports. The vehicles, covered with white tarps, had been stuck at a border crossing in a dispute between Russia and Ukraine over inspection of the vehicles.
The Russian foreign ministry, in a statement on its website, said Russia took unilateral action to get the convoy moving and accused Ukraine of deliberately delaying the aid. "The Russian side has decided to act," the foreign ministry said.
Meanwhile, NATO officials said Friday that Moscow has sent Russian-manned artillery units into Ukraine in recent days and was using them to shell Ukrainian forces as part of a "major escalation" of Russian involvement in the disputed region.
"Russian artillery support — both cross-border and from within Ukraine — is being employed against the Ukrainian armed forces," Rasmussen said, adding large quantities of advanced weapons, including tanks, armored personnel carriers and artillery had been transferred recently to separatist groups in eastern Ukraine.
"Moreover, NATO is observing an alarming build-up of Russian ground and air forces in the vicinity of Ukraine," Rasmussen said.
Rhodes also condemned the firing of artillery from Russia into Ukraine and a "disturbing movement of Russian artillery and military equipment" into the country.
The warnings come as Ukrainian troops have begun to gain ground against Russian-backed separatists in their battles over the disputed area since April.
Contributing: Associated Press


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CHICAGO (Feb. 8) - Eighteen area charities tonight shared in more than $2 million raised by the 2013 Chicago Auto Show's benevolent event, First Look for Charity, and two attendees left with the keys to new vehicles.
The black-tie benefit, which is held the evening before the auto show opens its 10-day public run, raised $2,216,000, boosting its total to nearly $37 million over 22 years.
"First Look for Charity is a great instrument for the area's new-car dealers to show the positive impact they have on their community," said Michael Ettleson, chairman of this year's auto show. "All the benefiting charities are involved locally, so the money that's raised in Chicago stays in Chicago."
As the name of the event implies, those who attend First Look for Charity are part of the premier viewing of each year's Chicago Auto Show. Tickets to the fundraiser are $250 each, and purchasers can elect to have their proceeds equally benefit all participating charities, or any one charity for which they have an affinity. For the event, the auto show floor is replete with a variety of food and beverage stations.
A highlight of the evening was the drawing for the event's grand prizes, a 2013 Buick Encore and a 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport. Julie Becker of Wadsworth won the former and Dacien Barry of Barrington Hills won the latter.
The proceeds of Becker's ticket purchase benefited The Cradle Foundation; Barry's purchase was designated to benefit the 100 Club of Chicago. Other organizations involved in the 2013 First Look for Charity included Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago; Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago; and Catholic Charities, Diocese of Joliet.
Also, Clearbrook; Cystic Fibrosis Foundation; Franciscan Community Benefit Services; Franciscan St. James Health; the Ray Graham Association for People with Disabilities; JDRF; the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago (formerly Children's Memorial Hospital) and March of Dimes.
And, Misericordia; Respiratory Health Association; Special Olympics Illinois; Spina Bifida Association of Illinois; and the Jesse White Tumbling Team.
The Santa Fe Sport was provided compliments of Hyundai Motor America and Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana Hyundai Dealers. The Encore was provided compliments of Buick and Chicagoland Buick-GMC Dealers.


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(a) Licensing, regulatory, and administrative actions eligible for categorical exclusion shall meet the following criterion: The action belongs to a category of actions which the Commission, by rule or regulation, has declared to be a categorical exclusion, after first finding that the category of actions does not individually or cumulatively have a significant effect on the human environment.
(b) Except in special circumstances, as determined by the Commission upon its own initiative or upon request of any interested person, an environmental assessment or an environmental impact statement is not required for any action within a category of actions included in the list of categorical exclusions set out in paragraph (c) of this section. Special circumstances include the circumstance where the proposed action involves unresolved conflicts concerning alternative uses of available resources within the meaning of section 102(2)(E) of NEPA.
(c) The following categories of actions are categorical exclusions:
(1) Amendments to Parts 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 19, 21, 25, 26, 55, 75, 95, 110, 140, 150, 160, 170, or 171 of this chapter, and actions on petitions for rulemaking relating to Parts 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 21, 25, 26, 55, 75, 95, 110, 140, 150, 160, 170, or 171 of this chapter.
(2) Amendments to the regulations in this chapter which are corrective or of a minor or nonpolicy nature and do not substantially modify existing regulations, and actions on petitions for rulemaking relating to these amendments.
(3) Amendments to parts 20, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 39, 40, 50, 51, 52, 54, 60, 61, 63, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 81, and 100 of this chapter which relate to—
(i) Procedures for filing and reviewing applications for licenses or construction permits or early site permits or other forms of permission or for amendments to or renewals of licenses or construction permits or early site permits or other forms of permission;
(ii) Recordkeeping requirements;
(iii) Reporting requirements;
(iv) Education, training, experience, qualification or other employment suitability requirements or
(v) Actions on petitions for rulemaking relating to these amendments.
(4) Entrance into or amendment, suspension, or termination of all or part of an agreement with a State pursuant to section 274 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, providing for assumption by the State and discontinuance by the Commission of certain regulatory authority of the Commission.
(5) Procurement of general equipment and supplies.
(6) Procurement of technical assistance, confirmatory research provided that the confirmatory research does not involve any significant construction impacts, and personal services relating to the safe operation and protection of commercial reactors, other facilities, and materials subject to NRC licensing and regulation.
(7) Personnel actions.
(8) Issuance, amendment, or renewal of operators' licenses pursuant to part 55 of this chapter.
(9) Issuance of an amendment to a permit or license for a reactor under part 50 or part 52 of this chapter that changes a requirement or issuance of an exemption from a requirement, with respect to installation or use of a facility component located within the restricted area, as defined in part 20 of this chapter; or the issuance of an amendment to a permit or license for a reactor under part 50 or part 52 of this chapter that changes an inspection or a surveillance requirement; provided that:
(i) The amendment or exemption involves no significant hazards consideration;
(ii) There is no significant change in the types or significant increase in the amounts of any effluents that may be released offsite; and
(iii) There is no significant increase in individual or cumulative occupational radiation exposure.
(10) Issuance of an amendment to a permit or license issued under this chapter which—
(i) Changes surety, insurance and/or indemnity requirements;
(ii) Changes recordkeeping, reporting, or administrative procedures or requirements;
(iii) Changes the licensee's or permit holder's name, phone number, business or e-mail address;
(iv) Changes the name, position, or title of an officer of the licensee or permit holder, including but not limited to, the radiation safety officer or quality assurance manager; or
(v) Changes the format of the license or permit or otherwise makes editorial, corrective or other minor revisions, including the updating of NRC approved references.
(11) Issuance of amendments to licenses for fuel cycle plants and radioactive waste disposal sites and amendments to materials licenses identified in § 51.60(b)(1) which are administrative, organizational, or procedural in nature, or which result in a change in process operations or equipment, provided that (i) there is no significant change in the types or significant increase in the amounts of any effluents that may be released offsite, (ii) there is no significant increase in individual or cumulative occupational radiation exposure, (iii) there is no significant construction impact, and (iv) there is no significant increase in the potential for or consequences from radiological accidents.
(12) Issuance of an amendment to a license under parts 50, 52, 60, 61, 63, 70, 72, or 75 of this chapter relating solely to safeguards matters (i.e., protection against sabotage or loss or diversion of special nuclear material) or issuance of an approval of a safeguards plan submitted under parts 50, 52, 70, 72, and 73 of this chapter, provided that the amendment or approval does not involve any significant construction impacts. These amendments and approvals are confined to—
(i) Organizational and procedural matters;
(ii) Modifications to systems used for security and/or materials accountability;
(iii) Administrative changes; and
(iv) Review and approval of transportation routes pursuant to 10 CFR 73.37.
(13) Approval of package designs for packages to be used for the transportation of licensed materials.
(14) Issuance, amendment, or renewal of materials licenses issued pursuant to 10 CFR Parts 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 39, 40 or part 70 authorizing the following types of activities:
(i) Distribution of radioactive material and devices or products containing radioactive material to general licensees and to persons exempt from licensing.
(ii) Distribution of radiopharmaceuticals, generators, reagent kits and/or sealed sources to persons licensed pursuant to 10 CFR 35.18.
(iii) Nuclear pharmacies.
(iv) Medical and veterinary.
(v) Use of radioactive materials for research and development and for educational purposes.
(vi) Industrial radiography.
(vii) Irradiators.
(viii) Use of sealed sources and use of gauging devices, analytical instruments and other devices containing sealed sources.
(ix) Use of uranium as shielding material in containers or devices.
(x) Possession of radioactive material incident to performing services such as installation, maintenance, leak tests and calibration.
(xi) Use of sealed sources and/or radioactive tracers in well-logging procedures.
(xii) Acceptance of packaged radioactive wastes from others for transfer to licensed land burial facilities provided the interim storage period for any package does not exceed 180 days and the total possession limit for all packages held in interim storage at the same time does not exceed 50 curies.
(xiii) Manufacturing or processing of source, byproduct, or special nuclear materials for distribution to other licensees, except processing of source material for extraction of rare earth and other metals.
(xiv) Nuclear laundries.
(xv) Possession, manufacturing, processing, shipment, testing, or other use of depleted uranium military munitions.
(xvi) Any use of source, byproduct, or special nuclear material not listed above which involves quantities and forms of source, byproduct, or special nuclear material similar to those listed in paragraphs (c)(14) (i) through (xv) of this section.
(15) Issuance, amendment or renewal of licenses for import of nuclear facilities and materials pursuant to part 110 of this chapter, except for import of spent power reactor fuel.
(16) Issuance or amendment of guides for the implementation of regulations in this chapter, and issuance or amendment of other informational and procedural documents that do not impose any legal requirements.
(17) Issuance of an amendment to a permit or license under parts 30, 40, 50, 52, or part 70 of this chapter which deletes any limiting condition of operation or monitoring requirement based on or applicable to any matter subject to the provisions of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act.
(18) Issuance of amendments or orders authorizing licensees of production or utilization facilities to resume operation, provided the basis for the authorization rests solely on a determination or redetermination by the Commission that applicable emergency planning requirements are met.
(19) Issuance, amendment, modification, or renewal of a certificate of compliance of gaseous diffusion enrichment facilities pursuant to 10 CFR part 76.
(20) Decommissioning of sites where licensed operations have been limited to the use of—
(i) Small quantities of short-lived radioactive materials;
(ii) Radioactive materials in sealed sources, provided there is no evidence of leakage of radioactive material from these sealed sources; or
(iii) Radioactive materials in such a manner that a decommissioning plan is not required by 10 CFR 30.36(g)(1), 40.42(g)(1), or 70.38(g)(1), and the NRC has determined that the facility meets the radiological criteria for unrestricted use in 10 CFR 20.1402 without further remediation or analysis.
(21) Approvals of direct or indirect transfers of any license issued by NRC and any associated amendments of license required to reflect the approval of a direct or indirect transfer of an NRC license.
(22) Issuance of a standard design approval under part 52 of this chapter.
(23) The Commission finding for a combined license under § 52.103(g) of this chapter.
(24) Grants to institutions of higher education in the United States, to fund scholarships, fellowships, and stipends for the study of science, engineering, or another field of study that the NRC determines is in a critical skill area related to its regulatory mission, to support faculty and curricular development in such fields, and to support other domestic educational, technical assistance, or training programs (including those of trade schools) in such fields, except to the extent that such grants or programs include activities directly affecting the environment, such as:
(i) The construction of facilities;
(ii) A major disturbance brought about by blasting, drilling, excavating or other means;
(iii) Field work, except that which only involves noninvasive or non-harmful techniques such as taking water or soil samples or collecting non-protected species of flora and fauna; or (iv) The release of radioactive material.
(25) Granting of an exemption from the requirements of any regulation of this chapter, provided that—
(i) There is no significant hazards consideration;
(ii) There is no significant change in the types or significant increase in the amounts of any effluents that may be released offsite;
(iii) There is no significant increase in individual or cumulative public or occupational radiation exposure;
(iv) There is no significant construction impact;
(v) There is no significant increase in the potential for or consequences from radiological accidents; and
(vi) The requirements from which an exemption is sought involve:
(A) Recordkeeping requirements;
(B) Reporting requirements;
(C) Inspection or surveillance requirements;
(D) Equipment servicing or maintenance scheduling requirements;
(E) Education, training, experience, qualification, requalification or other employment suitability requirements;
(F) Safeguard plans, and materials control and accounting inventory scheduling requirements;
(G) Scheduling requirements;
(H) Surety, insurance or indemnity requirements; or
(I) Other requirements of an administrative, managerial, or organizational nature.
(d) In accordance with section 121 of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (42 U.S.C. 10141), the promulgation of technical requirements and criteria that the Commission will apply in approving or disapproving applications under part 60 or 63 of this chapter shall not require an environmental impact statement, an environmental assessment, or any environmental review under subparagraph (E) or (F) of section 102(2) of NEPA.
[49 FR 9381, Mar. 12, 1984, as amended at 51 FR 9766, Mar. 21, 1986; 51 FR 33231, Sept. 18, 1986; 52 FR 8241, Mar. 17, 1987; 54 FR 27870, July 3, 1989; 58 FR 7737, Feb. 9, 1993; 59 FR 48959, Sept. 23, 1994; 60 FR 22491, May 8, 1995; 61 FR 9902, Mar. 12, 1996; 62 FR 39091, July 21, 1997; 63 FR 66735, Dec. 3, 1998; 65 FR 54950, Sept. 12, 2000; 66 FR 55790, Nov. 2, 2001; 67 FR 78141, Dec. 23, 2002; 72 FR 49509, Aug. 28, 2007; 75 FR 20256, May 19, 2010; 78 FR 17021, Mar. 19, 2013; 78 FR 34249, Jun. 7, 2013; 85 FR 65663, Oct. 16, 2020]
Page Last Reviewed/Updated Friday, November 20, 2020


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Hi, it's Gini and I am so excited to tell you that I will be sharing technique videos with you for Hampton Art! I've had so much fun creating these, and I hope you will learn some great new techniques that you can use. If there are any specific tutorials you would like to see, just leave a comment here, and I will see what I can come up with.
Today's card is an easy to do mixed media card. We will be creating a stamped tissue paper background... So pull out your favorite Hampton Art stamps, and lets get going!
Thanks for stopping by! Have fun stamping.