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Events: FONZ Photo Club, Portraits Alive, an African Art Drawing Session and More!
Monday, August 2: ExplorAsia: A Drop-in Art Adventure for Families
Come on down to Freer Gallery 5 and immerse yourself in the art of elaborately-decorated folding screens which will transport you back to 17th and 18th century Japan. Discover what life was like in the city and the country, act out what you see in the scenes on the screens, write a poem and get to know what tools the artists used to create these pieces. This event is perfect for family members of all ages. Free. Freer, 2:00-4:00 PM.
Tuesday, August 3: FONZ Photo Club
If you're a shutterbug with a penchant for snapping shots of critters, come on out to the National Zoo and participate in the FONZ (that's Friends Of the National Zoo for those of you who were thinking Henry Winkler) photo club's monthly meeting. Share your photos, hear from speakers and learn about new techniques that may help you capture that picture perfect moment. You must already be a FONZ member to participate. For more information on the FONZ photo club and how to participate, check out its website. National Zoo, 7:00 PM
Wednesday, August 4: Come Draw with Us!
A classic way to engage with works of art is to sit, study and draw what you see on the walls. (And in this summer heat, it's also a terrific way to pass an afternoon.) Educator Deborah Stokes will get you going on your artistic endeavors—and since all supplies are provided, there's really no reason for you not to come out. Free, but reservations are required. To make a reservation, call 202-633-4632. African Art Museum, 1:00-3:00 PM.
Thursday, August 5: Portraits Alive!
It's back! By grace of DC Mayor Adrian Fenty's 2010 Summer Youth Employment Program, a troupe of teens scattered throughout the Portrait Gallery bring the art on the walls to life though short, biographical sketches. Not able to make it out today? Worry not. Portraits Alive repeats throughout the summer. Check goSmithsonian.com for a full listing of dates. Free. Portrait Gallery, 2:15 PM
Friday, August 6: Made in Hong Kong Film Festival: The Pye Dog
In this poignant crime drama, fate intertwines the lives of three strangers—a boy who refuses to speak, a gangster posing as a school janitor and a substitute teacher. This film is presented in Cantonese with English subtitles. Free. Freer, 7:00 PM.
For updates on all exhibitions and events, visit our companion site goSmithsonian.com


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On second thought: Why being wrong can be a good thing [1]
News From:
When politicians change their minds, they're often lambasted for flip-flopping by other politicians, the media and the public. When scientists change their minds, their fellow scientists eventually see it as progress, integral to the self-correcting discipline of their vocation.
Unfortunately the public usually notices only a marginal subset of this phenomenon: how the futurists and short-term forecasters so often get it wrong.
After all, where is the paperless office? Or the Jetsons' flying car? And remember how hurricane forecasters used computer models to predict – wrongly – that the last two seasons would be monsters?
For a spectacularly bad computer projection, look at the mid-1970s, when a study from the Club of Rome warned that the world would run out of many essential minerals before the end of the century. Skeptical researchers picked apart the naïve assumptions of "The Limits to Growth," but not before world leaders, including Pierre Elliott Trudeau, had jetted off to an Austrian castle for a summit.
Yet the truly important self-corrections of science often escape public attention because they escape the media's attention. That's mainly because journalism exists on the time scale of mayflies while scientific consensus evolves over elephantine decades.
A personal example: When I was squeaking through university science in the mid-1960s, we were taught that the adult brain does not make new neurons.
But even then, unbeknown to us, a few researchers were arguing that the adult brain did continue to manufacture neurons. But they were dismissed as crackpots, just as Alfred Wegener was in 1915 when he proposed that the continents drifted. Or as Mario Molina and F. Sherwood Rowland were in 1974 when they warned that CFCs were destroying the ozone layer.
Molina and Rowland were vindicated in just a few years and went on to win the Nobel Prize in chemistry. But it wasn't until the 1950s that continental drift was accepted as the consensus theory.
The neuron "crackpots" were finally declared correct by their fellow brain scientists in the 1990s, and today adult neurogenesis – the fancy name for making new neurons – is a burgeoning field of study for people such as Stanford neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky, who originally dismissed the idea.
Sapolsky is one of 130-plus scientists and "thinkers" who have contributed highly personal revelations to What Have You Changed Your Mind About?, due next month.
Book marketing seems to demand sensational subtitles, but Today's Leading Minds Rethink Everything turns out to be an accurate guide to the content. In almost 400 pages, the contributors cover frontier aspects of all three scientific arenas: physical, biomedical and social.
It should come with a warning: "Reading this book may be dangerous to your cherished myths and perceptions." For example:
- Helena Cronin says it's not primarily bias and barriers that give men the top positions and prizes. After analyzing the statistical evidence, the philosopher at the London School of Economics has come to accept that there will be (as she puts it) more dumbbells and more Nobels among males because there's a much greater variance in ability among men as a group than among women, even though both are similar on average.
- There is probably no intelligent life elsewhere in the universe because we would have detected a stray electromagnetic signal by now, argues technologist Ray Kurzweil, who wanted to believe in E.T.
- Until a few years ago, neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux thought that a memory is something stored in the brain into which we could tap again and again. Then a researcher in his lab at New York University did an experiment that convinced LeDoux – and is convincing others – that each time a memory is used, it has to be stored again in the brain as a new memory to be accessible later. This concept of memory "reconsolidation" is now being tested in treating drug addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder.
- Danish science writer Tor Nørretranders changed his mind about his body, which he now considers closer to software than hardware. It's been known for decades that 98 per cent of the atoms in the human body are replaced every year, but only recently was Nørretranders able to come up with the concept of permanent reincarnation, like music moving from vinyl LPs to audio tapes to CDs and now iPods.
Many other contributors challenge conventional wisdom to write about, among other things, a finite universe; the brain creating a soul; and the Internet as a powerful tool for centralized state control.
Nor do all these deep thinkers agree. Computer scientist Rudy Rucker has come around to thinking that a computer program will be able to emulate the human mind so that self-aware robots could even believe in God. But computer scientist Roger Schank, who once said he would see machines as smart as humans within his lifetime, now believes that won't happen within the lifetime of his grandchildren.
The book's most important contribution, however, is to drive home the lesson that in science being wrong occasionally is a good thing, not least because it renews curiosity and reminds the scientists that they don't know everything.
As Discover magazine columnist Jaron Lanier writes in the book, "Being aware of being wrong once in a while keeps you young."
And since admitting they've been wrong and changing their minds works well for rational decision-making by scientists, perhaps politicians, the media and others might give it a try.

subset: commoncrawl


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Paul Weisenfeld, Assistant to the Administrator, Bureau for Food Security
In the eastern Horn of Africa, a massive drought has left over 11 million people vulnerable to severe food insecurity and in need of emergency assistance. USAID is working with the international community to ensure that critical assistance is mobilized to support those in need. But emergency assistance alone cannot solve the underlying causes of food insecurity in the Horn of Africa. Severe food insecurity in this part of the world is driven by cyclical drought, poor land management practices, limited availability of animal health services, food inflation, conflict over land and water, poor hygiene practices, and lack of dietary diversity. This is why my colleagues and I are so passionate about supporting Feed the Future, the U.S. government initiative to address the root causes of hunger and poverty.
In July, I visited the region and areas in Kenya where Feed the Future is focusing investments to sustainably address these challenges in the long term. As I traveled though the North Eastern province of Kenya, I met with local families, farmers, and livestock dealers; it was clear that they are facing serious threats to their livelihoods. One family from the Mwingi region reported that it has not rained since last year and that there has not been a harvest since 2009. They fortunately have a water source so they aren't extremely food insecure—yet. If the drought continues, this region is in danger of becoming severely food insecure, with dire consequences for its people.
With the frequency of droughts increasing over the last decade, it's become increasingly difficult for people to recover from one shock before another one strikes. Such shocks drive conflict over land and water, disrupt economic activity, and leave young men vulnerable to unemployment and recruitment into extremist groups, like al-Shabaab. In such volatile conditions, food insecurity looms as an ever-present threat. Yet even under severe circumstances, there are clear signs of the population's resilience and determination. I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Asha Adan Khalif, a mango producer and one of several women serving on a leadership committee for a communal farm in the North Eastern province. The farm consists mostly of former livestock herders (pastoralists) who were forced to "drop out" of pastoralism after their livestock perished in prior droughts. Since then, they have successfully converted to farming, with many of them exporting produce to the Middle East. A third of the households on this farm are headed by women (who are the ones most often acutely affected by food insecurity) and the community includes a broad mix of families from different ethnic groups. It was heartening to see how women's leadership on this communal farm has contributed to diversity, security, and productivity among those families most vulnerable to the drought.
Our efforts through Feed the Future will be critical in the coming years to achieve sustainable food security for families like those I met in Kenya. In particular, Feed the Future's work on developing drought-tolerant crops and promoting more efficient water management in Kenya will directly and positively impact incomes in the region and help to build household resiliency. Other long term efforts to strengthen Kenya's livestock market, improve livestock management, expand economic access and alternative livelihoods for women, and improve nutrition are just some of the ways in which Feed the Future can contribute to regional stability and support sustainable food security. Already there are key interventions taking place on the ground, such as the Kenya Drylands Livestock Development Program, which is enhancing productivity and market competitiveness of livestock in Kenya to increase production for local consumption and marketing, and export trade.
As these kinds of programs become increasingly effective over time, USAID and its partners are striving to bring such interventions to scale, to ensure that Feed the Future has the greatest possible impact and increases resilience among vulnerable populations.


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Originally Published on Techdirt.
For a while now, we have been highlighting many stories about the successful crowdfunding of movies, music, books and games. This new source of funding for creative content has been an exciting time for indie artists and those wanting to break free of traditional funding models. However, this funding model is not without its risks, something that Kickstarter has recognized with a change in the way projects are presented.
So what exactly happens when a successfully funded project fails to meet its completion goals? Well, reader Marcus Wellby sent along a story about one successfully funded game project that has hit some major roadblocks to completion. Haunts: The Manse Macabre, although successfully funded, has run out of money and programmers and was in danger of never being completed.
Haunts sought $25,000 (£15,590) from Kickstarter but the project proved popular and meant the game's developers got $28,739 (£17,895) to fund completion of the game. Prior to the funding appeal, Haunts creator Mob Rules Games had spent about $42,500 getting the basics of the title completed.
The end result was supposed to be a haunted house horror game in which players could take on the role of the house's inhabitants or intruders investigating what lived within it.
Now Mob Rules Games boss Rick Dakan has revealed that the game's development has prematurely halted.
"The principal cause for our dire condition is that there are no longer any programmers working on the game," said Mr Dakan in a blogpost updating backers.
You can see Rick's full explanation of the problems the game has had over at Kickstarter. With all the cash and programming problems, Rick felt so bad about letting down the backers that he was willing to refund, out of his own pocket, anyone who wanted their money back. While most companies will silently kill off projects that do not meet expectations, his forthcoming post about the state of affairs actually had a positive effect on the project's future.
The next day, Rick posted the following update.
I've had a lot of interested emails from programmers offering their help. Thank you all very much! There's a lot to sift through and I'm not sure what the best way to proceed will be, but I am very encouraged by these offers and want to try and figure out the best way to take advantage of this opportunity. I've reached out to a good friend of mine who's an expert in collaborative open source development, and he and I will talk soon. I also want to discuss this exciting development with Blue Mammoth and get their take on it.
By being open about the problems he was having completing the game, the community came in to offer their help. Granted, this is a unique circumstance, but having such a dedicated fan base is wonderful. Had he let the game fester with no updates for longer than he had, he might have been met with more hostility than encouragement. That would have made it far more difficult to find any kind of solution.
Finally, in the most recent update, Rick announced that after considering the situation and the best way to move forward, he will be open sourcing the game with over thirty programmers offering their help to complete it.
We're going to finish developing Haunts: The Manse Macabre as an Open Source project. The source code has been open from the beginning, but now we're going to fully embrace open development model and making the game entirely open source. We've had about thirty programmers from a variety of backgrounds, including many proficient in Go, who have stepped forward and offered to help finish the game. We're still in the process of setting up the infrastructure for issue tracking, source control, documentation wikis, and other tools necessary before we can begin in earnest, but we hope to have that all up and running within the next week or two.
While this story is far from over, it is a great lesson in the risks of any project whether crowdfunded or not. Projects can fail, they can have problems, they can be shuttered. The key takeaways from this story, however, are (1) being transparent (rather than hiding) with supporters can do wonders and (2) being flexible and willing to change course can help. Rick notes that there's been plenty of press coverage about the supposed "failure," but much less about what happened after…
We've gotten a lot of press coverage, most of it in the general vein of, "Look, see, Kickstarter projects can go bad, so be careful!" I think that's a fair and useful point to make. But we're committed to being the follow-up story. You know, the underdog who comes back from the brink of collapse and proves a resounding success!
Yes, this is a story that highlights the risk in any kind of crowdfunding endeavor. Backers may be out the money they put in with nothing to show for it. However, if those who run these projects will be open and honest through the whole process, stumbles and falls included, even if the project never comes to fruition, then the potential that such a failure will damage their reputation and future projects can be mitigated. And heck, maybe you will be struck with a miracle and your project will come back to life.


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EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT! An extra special post is coming out today, May 11th, for an extra special author. The man who started to ball rolling for FIRST, Chris Well, has a new book out and we have decided to give him an extra plug.
So, give all your attention to:
and his book:
Chris Well is founder of FIRST. He is an acclaimed novelist and award–winning magazine editor and has previously written the "laugh–out–loud Christian thrillers" Deliver Us from Evelyn and Forgiving Solomon Long(one of Booklist's Top 10 Christian Novels of 2005). He has also contributed to 7ball, Infuze, and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. Chris and his wife live in Tennessee, where he is hard at work on his next novel.
I might as well just tell you right now, I killed Reverend Daniel Glory. Back there at the church, in his study.
But this is my story. Don't let anyone tell you different. My dad always said we all write our own story. Of course, I guess that's why it worked out so well for him.
Why did I kill Reverend Daniel Glory? Sure, it was an accident. More or less. At least, I think it was.
I don't know, we were arguing about the Rapture and it kind of got out of hand and then I just --
Wait. Wait. I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me back up.
This all started about three months ago, when Reverend Daniel Glory told us we needed to do our Tribulation House earlier than --
Oh. Wait.
Okay, I guess this actually started last year when Marvin Dobbs left the church. Our church. The Last Church of God's Imminent Will.
A year ago last summer, Marvin left with some of the other families to start a new church, and he took his Armageddon House" multimedia show with him.
You do know about Armageddon House, right? Every Halloween for the past three or four years, Marvin and our team put together a special multimedia presentation explaining the Great Tribulation, which ends with the Battle of Armageddon.
Wait -- you don't know about the Great Tribulation? It's that seven-year period between the Rapture and the Triumphant Return of Jesus Christ, as described in the prophecies of Daniel and Ezekiel and the Apostles Paul and John. After the Lord Jesus takes His Bride home, there are going to be seven years of horrible judgment inflicted on those who are left b --
What? The murder of Reverend Glory? I'm getting to that.
Well, anyway, when Marvin left to form his little offshoot splinter group, we discovered he had actually trademarked the name "Armageddon House." Imagine that.
When the board at church met to discuss the matter, we considered doing Armageddon House anyway without him. Just reconstruct it from memory and copy or use materials from previous years. Use the same name, business as usual. Just ignore the cease-and-desist letter, let God and His angels work that out.
But we decided we didn't want to be associated with Armageddon House anymore. I mean, if Marvin and his new "fellowship" planned to stage their own Armageddon House, the risk of confusion in the marketplace was enough to rebuild ours as a brand-new event.
Which is how we ended up with Tribulation House. It was an opportunity for a new beginning. We went through a whole list of potential names -- I came up with Kingdom Come, but was voted down -- before we settled on Tribulation House.
We sat down and worked through the whole grid. Instead of imagining how to simply explain or show a picture of each bowl of wrath and each trumpet of judgment, we created an entire theatrical event.
Yeah, we could have set up the charts and graphs and the overhead projector. But today's audience, this last generation, they're kind of jaded about flannel graph presentations, know what I mean?
These kids today, with their Spongebob Squarepants and their American Bandstand and their Buffy The Vampire Slayer, they need the bells and whistles and the like.
The kids don't need a lot of explanation. They need a demonstration.
You see, that was the challenge, wasn't it? It's one thing to say "the moon was blackened" or "the waters turned to blood" or "men were stung by enormous flying scorpions" -- but how do you make it happen right here, right before their eyes?
In the end, we created Tribulation House: A full-sensory immersive interactive dramatic theatrical evangelistic event that simulates what it will actually be like to live through the events of the Great Tribulation. An entire full-service prophetic experience.
You'd be surprised how much of it we accomplished with sound and light. We developed the various rooms throughout the church basement. Some college kids created soundscapes for each event. We wrote up a full script for the actors; they played everything from people caught up in the events, to the world armies fighting the Most Holy, to the father of lies himself, bound and thrown into the pit for a millennium.
The murder of Reverend Daniel Glory? I'm getting to that.
So we were working out the blueprints for creating Tribulation House as a major theatrical evangelistic full-sensory ministry outreach. We had debated the merits of various slogans for the event -- the leading contenders were WE'LL SCARE THE HELL OUT OF YOU; GET RIGHT OR GET LEFT; and THE TIME IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK. While the first slogan was a favorite of several board members, for its bracing, truthful stance, in the end we worried that the neighbors would misunderstand. So we went with the second slogan, for its simple, instructional message.
And I remember that our chief carpenter, Bill Broadstreet, was giving us his estimate for the physical construction to be done on the project. Suddenly, Reverend Daniel Glory burst in with some news.
"Friends!" There was a glow on the Reverend's face unlike we had seen before. The man stood there in the doorway to the church basement, leaning against the doorframe, wheezing to catch his breath. "Jesus is coming back!"
The room was silent. We all stared. At first, we wondered why he was saying this right then. After all, he preached on this topic every week. But then he dropped this bomb: "And I know when!"
Okay, that was a new one. Collectively, everyone in the room gasped. One of us, I don't even remember who it was, asked, "When, Reverend?"
"October 17."
Five months.
"5:51 a.m." Reverend Daniel Glory waved the papers clutched in his hand. Later, I would wonder what he was waving at us. His Bible study? His calculations? All I know is he grinned ear to ear and said, "The Rapture is going to happen at 5:51 a.m. on October 17."
Everyone around the meeting table reacted differently. Some were stunned into silence, others screamed with joy. One noisy woman loudly sobbed and clapped.
Reverend Daniel Glory came into room, face aglow with thrill and exhaustion, and dragged a chair from the wall over to our table. He sat, waiting until everyone was silent again. "I now have incontrovertible proof that the Rapture takes place this coming October."
I'm sure I grinned bigger than anyone in the room. "What reason do you have to say that?"
Reverend Daniel Glory looked at me and winked. "Why stop with one reason, boy? I got one hundred and seven of 'em!"
Of course, you know what this meant. We were going to have to step up the production of Tribulation House.
(I still can't believe it's not Kingdom Come.)
Chris Well's laugh–out–loud Christian thrillers appeal to the millions of readers who gobble up the rollicking crime fiction of Janet Evanovich and Elmore Leonard. TRIBULATION HOUSE does not disappoint!


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Story highlights
"Shadow economies" are defined as areas that fall beyond the reach of the taxman
They include self-employed and family businesses, which tend to deal in cash and pay little tax
For Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal, they represent sizable portions of the GDP
"Wherever the olive tree grows, you won't find much tax being collected," the mayor of a small town in southern Spain told me a few years ago. He shrugged; such was life.
He probably had no idea that some high-powered academics were about to come up with the same conclusion. When they analyzed Europe's "shadow economies" – defined as areas that fall beyond the reach of the taxman – those of Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal were much larger (relatively) than those in northern Europe.
That is partly because of the higher number of self-employed and family businesses, which tend to deal in cash and pay little tax. But to many economic commentators, tax evasion is also a national pastime in much of southern Europe, and a significant factor in the region's burgeoning financial crisis.
According to a 2007 paper by Austrian economist Friedrich Schneider, the shadow economy in Italy accounted for 22.3% of gross domestic product (GDP), that of Spain 19.3%; Portugal 19.2% and Greece a staggering 25.1%. By comparison, the U.S. shadow economy was 7.2% of GDP. A recent European Union report came up with similar figures.
Silvio Berlusconi mused several years ago that high tax rates in Italy made evasion a "natural right" for many. And the evidence does suggest that wherever tax rates and social security contributions are high, the shadow economy is larger.
The U.S. ambassador in Rome noted in a 2009 diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks that Italy was "addicted both to profligate social welfare spending and to tax evasion." And this year, Industry Minister Paolo Romani estimated "phantom" or undeclared income in Italy at a monstrous $320 billion.
The Italian state – whose debt has measured more than 100% of GDP every year since 1992 – is perennially poor, in a country of individual wealth that's well hidden from the authorities. Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti recently told a conference that fewer than 800 people in Italy – which is the world's seventh-richest country – had declared incomes of more than 1 million euros ($1.4 million) in 2010. That means the salaried middle class end up paying more.
Tremonti is aiming to more than double the amount recovered from tax evasion within the next two years. A recently unveiled series of television commercials attacks the "parassita della societa" – the parasites evading taxes, comparing them with malarial mosquitoes.
Even so, the European Commission is not optimistic that Italy's "heavy reliance" on tackling tax evasion will be enough to balance the budget within two years.
Greek PM optimistic about referendum
Until 2006, national and local taxes in Italy were collected by banks and other private institutions. It was only five years ago that a single agency – Equitalia –was created to modernize tax collection.
Not that Italians have taken the agency to their hearts, with effigies of Equitalia sometimes hanged at public protests.
The Italian media and activist groups say the agency has gone after the lower middle-class taxpayers for small tax debts, often forcing people into foreclosure, while tax evasion among the wealthy remains rampant.
Taxation in Italy also is a cumbersome business. For example, there are six different levels of taxation on diesel fuel – from fishing boats to taxis and ambulances. And there are multiple agencies involved in tax assessment that are not famous for cooperating.
But the price of not improving the government's tax take may be high.
Until now Italy has been able to service its debt with relative comfort, but higher interest rates on its bonds may imperil that. The yield on Italian debt now exceeds 6%.
Greece is renowned for its history of tax evasion, estimated last year as worth 4% of GDP – $11 billion. It may be much more: the Federation of Greek Industries has estimated that the government may be losing as much as $30 billion a year to tax evasion.
A report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development on Greece last year concluded that "to fight widespread tax evasion, a sustained and major effort to strengthen tax administration is necessary. Particular emphasis should be placed on enforcement to ensure that those in the informal economy are brought into the tax net."
That apparently includes some prominent doctors in an up-market part of Athens, who declared incomes of less that $45,000 but had kids at private schools, and owned swimming pools, yachts and other visible signs of wealth. Their names were published last year as part of a populist campaign by Prime Minister George Papandreou to get tough with tax evaders.
More embarrassment came when Professor Herakles Polemarchakis – former head of the prime minister's economic department – found that the farming town of Larisa in Greece had more Porsche Cayenne SUVs per capita than any other city in the world. In an article, Polemarchakis noted: "The proliferation of Cayennes is a curiosity, given that farming is not a flourishing sector in Greece" and that declared incomes in Larisa were very modest.
Greece has revived an "Economic Crimes Enforcement Agency" and tried to improve tax collection as part of a multi-pronged initiative to cut the budget deficit. But collecting more taxes in the teeth of a savage recession is not easy. The opposition New Democracy party has argued for lower tax rates combined with more effective action in tackling tax evasion.
The influential London Business School says in a recent paper that the Greek tax system is hopelessly broken.
"Tax and customs and excise evasion must be addressed head-on," it says, while noting that former senior officials at the Ministry of Finance had forecast "astonishingly, that even if all the tax-collecting authorities were shut down, state revenues would not suffer noticeably." The London Business School report says many officials had simply refused to carry out audits demanded by the Finance Ministry and concluded that the current tax authorities were "beyond salvation."
Spain has done more than most to tackle tax evasion, according to analysts, taking more tax cheats to court and gathering more data from bills and credit card records to pursue tax evaders. Authorities have tracked down an estimated 200,000 individuals who had not declared income from rental properties, previously a massive source of tax evasion.
Five years ago the Spanish Ministry of Finance also launched an investigation to find out why a quarter of all high-denomination 500-euro notes circulating in Europe were in Spain.
The answer – they were handy for organized crime and as a way of evading taxes in Spain's booming (but now busted) construction industry. Spaniards began calling the 500-euro note the 'bin Laden' – everyone knew what it stood for and what it looked like, but no one ever saw it. (Italian investigators have warned that the bank note was becoming popular with the mafia and adding to the problem of tax evasion.)
The Spanish government reaped more than $13 billion last year by clamping down on evasion – 23% more than in 2009. Spain's tax authorities have established special units to monitor the "offshoring" of revenues by companies and fraud in the real estate market. But groups like the Corporate Social Responsibility Observatory say 80% of Spain's largest firms continue to harbor profits in tax havens.
Better tax collection is not going to solve the myriad of economic problems confronting the Mediterranean countries, where extravagant state spending, inflexible labor markets, distorted competition policy and inefficient state enterprises have all contributed to the current crisis.
But at a time when investors and lenders want to see "fiscal rectitude," going after tax evaders is one of the easier ways of demonstrating intent.


text:
Nov. 29, 2010 (Chicago) -- Contrary to what's been taught, you can run through pain.
So say researchers who used a 45-ton mobile MRI unit to follow runners for two months along a 2,800-mile course to study how their bodies responded to the high-stress conditions of an ultra-long-distance race.
"The rule that 'if there is pain, you should stop running' is not always correct," says study leader Uwe Schutz, MD, a specialist in orthopaedics and trauma surgery at the University Hospital of Ulm in Germany.
If your pain is caused by muscle inflammation, it may be possible to continue running without risk of further tissue damage, he tells WebMD.
But if you have a stress fracture, the pain may not go away and you may be at risk for further damage, Schutz says.
Andreas Falk, of Sweden, who ran in the ultra-race, is a case in point. After suffering a muscle injury, he tells WebMD he had to walk instead of run for five days, literally crying four to five hours on the first few days due to the pain.
"But I just kept going; I could feel the pain decreasing each day," says Falk, who is fine today.
The problem, Schutz says, is it's not easy to distinguish between the pain of a stress fracture and that of severe muscle or tendon inflammation. That may require a trip to the doctor.
Loss of Visceral Fat
Use of the mobile MRI allowed the researchers to acquire huge amounts of unique data regarding how endurance running affects the body's muscle and body fat, Schutz says.
He's not suggesting you need to run 2,800 miles -- the equivalent of over 106 marathons -- to benefit. "Much of what we have learned so far can also be applied to the average runner," Schutz says.
The TransEurope-FootRace 2009 took place from April 19 to June 21, 2009. It started in southern Italy and traversed through the Alps, across the water to Sweden, finally winding down in the North Cape in Norway.
Forty-four runners agreed to participate in the study; 22 underwent a whole-body MRI exam every three or four days, totaling 15 to 17 exams over a period of 64 days. Urine and blood samples were collected regularly.
Results showed that runners lost an average of 5.4% body volume during the course of the race, most during the first half. Loss of body volume correlates with loss of body weight, says RSNA spokesman David Levin, MD, of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. He was not involved with the study.
The runners lost about 11 pounds of fat and 2 1/2 pounds of muscle. Importantly, loss of "bad" visceral fat loss occurred much earlier in the run than expected, Schutz says.
Visceral fat is linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, Levin says. "Running is a great way to lose body fat," he tells WebMD.
One surprising finding was that despite the daily running, the leg muscles of the athletes actually degenerated because of the immense energy consumption, Schutz says.
This study was presented at a medical conference. The findings should be considered preliminary as they have not yet undergone the "peer review" process, in which outside experts scrutinize the data prior to publication in a medical journal.


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Cly & Darcie at the Italian pavillion in EPCOT
We got to see the new Lights Motors Action show at Hollywood Studios. It was spectacular!
Cly bought one of those oysters with a pearl in it for Julia
It wasn't a bad size - Cly got it set in a half moon setting
Illuminations was spectacular as usual but this time we happened to be in the 'smoke zone' which was interesting. We didn't see the fireworks clearly but saw cool colors.
We enjoyed a few boat rides at EPCOT on our last full day in Florida
We were lucky to be able to stay at the Marriott Cypress Harbour resort through a friend from Cly's work.
Darcie cooling off in one of the pools at Cypress Harbour
We visited the Kennedy Space Center (our 2nd time). Here's Darcie on the LC 39 Observation Gantry with the space shuttle Atlantis in the background.
Space shuttle Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center
Huge Saturn V rocket at the Apollo/Saturn V Center
Darcie touches the moon rock
Darcie and her Mom
Darcie in the food place at Kennedy Space center
The grounds were nice at the Space Center
We're at Cocoa Beach, a short drive from Kennedy Space Center
Cocoa Beach pier
Darcie and her Mom fed the dolphins
We spent a day at Seaworld (Cly's first visit)
swimming penguins
We saw a cute show with cats, dogs, birds, a pig, and a rat at Seaworld. All the performing animals had been rescued from shelters.
Darcie's Mom and Dad looking at Shamu
We dined with Shamu and got to see him up close
whale trainer riding a spinning whale
Finale at the 'Believe' whale show
We visited the Orlando temple
Cly and Donald at Disney Hollywood Studios
Darcie relaxing at the resort
Indiana Jones stunt show
Some surfer trying to be like Darcie
Darcie always wanted to surf
Lots of fun things to try at the Space Center.


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Google is planning to launch its Groupon rival, Google Offers, in New York City and San Francisco, and will be fighting the Chicago competitor with all its Google might -- promising retailers a truck billboard and Google-bought samples passed out from the truck on the day of their offer, according to reports.
The information was given in a flyer to merchants in both the San Francisco and New York areas in an effort "to butter them up," according to Business Insider. The report said that as well as highlighting the staged events Google would hold on an offer day, the search giant would also donate branded napkins, cups, shopping bags and decor as well as "premium" coffee thermoses on the merchant's redemption day. The clincher? Google will also provide extra staffing for customer assistance. Yes, Google is paying for extra employees.
Google has reasons for trying to destroy Groupon -- aside from spurning Google's $6 billion offer last year, and its possible $20 billion IPO -- it's muscling in on Google's online ad territory. We're also repeating our standard argument about how Groupon is a terrible investment because it's a company that has never made a profit (it incurred $389 million in losses in 2010), is easily duplicated and has no proprietary software.
Something's going to kill off the Chicago startup, so it might as well be a company that has the money to do it quickly and painlessly..


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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Darren Savino is joining UCLA coach Mick Cronin in Westwood as the Bruins' associate head coach.
He most recently worked under Cronin at Cincinnati for nine years, where the Bearcats advanced to the NCAA Tournament each year. Last season, he served as associate head coach.
Cronin said last week that if Savino wasn't hired to succeed him at Cincinnati he would add him to his UCLA staff.
Savino also worked on Cronin's staff for two seasons at Murray State. Savino also had coaching stints at Rutgers, Quinnipiac, New Mexico, East Carolina and St. John's.
He and Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley were teammates at St. Anthony High in Jersey City, New Jersey.


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U.S. consumers barely increased their spending in July after their income grew more slowly, held back by steep government spending cuts that reduced federal workers' salaries.
The Commerce Department says consumer spending rose just 0.1 percent in July from the previous month. That's slower than June's 0.6 percent increase.
Consumers cut their spending on long-lasting manufactured goods, such as cars and appliances, while spending on services was unchanged.
Income rose a slight 0.1 percent in July following a 0.3 percent June gain. Government wages were reduced $7.7 billion in July at an annual rate, largely because of forced furloughs of government employees to meet the spending cuts.
The tepid July gains in spending and income suggest the economy started the July-September quarter growing at weak pace. Consumer spending drives roughly 70 percent of economic activity.
The economy grew at a 2.5 percent annual rate from April through June, the government estimated Thursday. That was more than twice the growth rate in the first quarter and far above an initial estimate of a 1.7 percent rate for April through June.
Analysts are hopeful that the economy will grow at an annual rate of around 2.5 percent in the second half of the year. But that expectation is based in part on continued job gains and modest wage increases, which should fuel more consumer spending and faster growth. Slower spending in July could alter those forecasts.
Economists also worry that rising interest rates could dampen consumer spending, particularly on homes and cars. Mortgage rates have already risen more than a full percentage point since May.
Interest rates could rise even further if the Federal Reserve decides to reduce its $85 billion a month in bond purchases at its September meeting. The Fed will consider the consumer spending and income data, along with Thursday's sharp revision in second-quarter growth, when making a decision next month. The bond purchases have helped keep long-term borrowing rates low.
But the most critical factor that the Fed will weigh is the August employment report, which will be released next Friday. It's the final jobs report before the Fed meets.
In July, the savings rate was unchanged at 4.4 percent of after-tax income. That was the smallest since the rate had been 4.3 percent in March.
The small rise in spending was driven by a 0.8 percent gain in purchases of nondurable goods, such as clothing. Purchases of durable goods such as autos fell 0.2 percent and purchases of services such as utilities and doctor's visits were unchanged in July.
A price gauge tied to consumer spending was up a small 0.1 percent in July compared to June. Prices excluding volatile food and energy are up just 1.4 percent compared to a year ago, significantly below the Federal Reserve's 2 percent target for inflation.


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Intense budgetary pressures are changing the federal government IT environment from one in which individual agencies buy products and services to one in which agencies must work with one another, as well as with contractors and other partners, in new and innovative ways. This new approach will fundamentally change how agencies architect their networks. It will also likely change the career path for many government IT professionals.
The demand for next-generation networks gained new momentum last year when the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released the Digital Government Strategy, tasking all agencies "to unlock their data sets and services to the public" and function more like data service providers. Since then, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Department of Homeland Security, the Defense Department and other agencies have been developing new ways -- and new network architectures -- to make their data accessible to the public, industry and other agencies.
The Digital Government Strategy in particular requires agencies to ultimately separate their data from their presentation layers.
For example, CMS supports all Medicare and Medicaid services for 98 million beneficiaries. The initiative to separate the presentation and data layers led the agency to develop a business rules engine that's shared by developers within CMS and industry partners. By implementing a set of business rules as a service, separate from the data, CMS system users can access a single source of truth rather than different permutations. That common rules engine also makes it easier to develop applications.
Implementing such a business rules shared service completely changes the way the network must be structured. The bifurcation of the presentation and data requires a bifurcation of the network as well.
For instance, a network architected to handle client and server communications, where the business logic resides within the application, requires a much different architecture than a network where every application is requesting data from a central core business rules engine. The latter will transmit many thousands -- or millions, potentially -- of small, simple requests across the network from almost any endpoint (contractor, partner or secondary data center). Scale is important. CMS expects to process about 700 TB of claims data by 2015, data accessed via requests from many different end users who can be anywhere within or outside CMS's networks.
Gone are the days of a single network with hub-and-spoke architecture and a single core. The next-generation network is split into two: core and business. We'll discuss business networks later.
But start thinking of dedicated networks using software-defined networking (SDN) and "network functions virtualization," which is the term used for describing the collapsing of switches and routers into virtualized switches and routers.
OMB's Shared Services Strategy, and the follow-on document titled "Common Approach To Enterprise Architecture," requires agencies to separate line-of-business systems (e.g., for financial management) from core mission systems. It also tasks agencies to further separate commodity IT (such as infrastructure and email). That requirement will move agencies more toward virtualized applications, platforms and infrastructure. But it also means that government networks must be easy to modify based on changing directives, interfacing agencies and end user demands. The essence of the new federal architecture is agility.
Because the core network supports many stakeholders, it must be secure, scalable, high bandwidth and reliable while meeting compliance requirements. It's likely to stay somewhat physical, as it will link a variety of third parties: partners, contractors and remote locations. It will require custom processors and code to perform high-efficiency routing and switching.
download the July 2013 issue of InformationWeek Government.


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Who is eligible for hospice care services?
The hospice benefit is intended primarily for any individual with a terminal illness whose life expectancy is six months or less should the illness run its usual course. However, the Medicare program recognizes that not all terminal illnesses have a predictable course; therefore, the benefit is available for extended periods of time beyond 6 months.
Isn't all hospice care the same?
Not exactly, even within the same community, hospice may vary in the quality of care provided. Ask questions and seek the advice of friends or healthcare providers you trust to help you choose the hospice agency that is right for you.
Can patients receive curative treatments while on hospice care service?
While the Medicare Hospice Benefit (MHB) requires beneficiaries to forgo curative treatments, some hospices will assist in placing patients into a palliative home health program until the patient is ready for hospice.
Does entering hospice mean you've given up hope?
Quite the contrary. Hospice and hospice care workers help patients to focus on what they hope and wish for in terms of comfort and quality of life. Along with their family members, a hospice patient has a lead role in their plan of care and their level of comfort. Hospice neither hastens nor prevents death. As studies have shown, hospice patients live 29 days longer on average than those without the benefit of hospice care.
Does hospice care rely on heavy-duty pain medications to control patient comfort?
Hospice care is designed to provide not only medical care but also social, psychological, and spiritual support delivered by an interdisciplinary team that includes a nurse, social worker, spiritual counselor, and other professionals. While pain medications can be a part of a patient's overall plan of care, many other forms of pain and stress relief are included such as music and even pet therapy.
Will there be someone with me 24/7?
Hospice care is available "on call" after the administrative offices have closed, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. However, a hospice worker will not be with you 24/7 unless you are in crisis and care will then be provided until your condition is stabilized.
Can I still receive hospice care if I reside in a nursing facility or other type of long-term facility?
Hospice services can be provided to the terminally ill patient wherever they live. This means a patient living in a nursing facility or long-term care facility can receive specialized visits from hospice staff. The hospice and the nursing home will have a written agreement in place in order for hospice to serve residents of the facility.
What if my physician doesn't know about or refer me to hospice?
Most physicians know about hospice. However, if your physician does not, or would like to receive more information about the program, it is available by calling our hospice agency, the National Hospice Palliative Care Association (800-658-8898), and/or the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service Hospice Center (www.cms.hhs.gov/centerhospice.asp).
Can I keep my personal physician if I choose hospice?
Yes. You may keep your personal physician while under the care of hospice. Hospice reinforces the primary care physician/patient relationship and considers the bond to be a high priority.
Can a hospice patient who shows signs of recovery be returned to regular medical treatment?
Yes. If a patient's condition improves or the disease goes into remission, the patient can be discharged from hospice and returned to regular medical treatment such as home health. Likewise, should the patient ever need to return to hospice in the future, these services can be resumed at the patient's request.
Is hospice only for cancer patients?
No, it is available for anyone who has a terminal or life-limiting diagnosis with a life expectancy of 6 months or less if the disease runs its normal course.
Are hospice care services expensive?
In general, hospice costs less than hospital or nursing home care and saves significant money for Medicare. Medicare and many other private insurance plans cover the costs of hospice services. Also, the cost of medications related to the hospice diagnosis is covered by the hospice benefit at no charge to the patient.


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Lawyers' Group to Vote on 'Gay Panic' Defense
Members of the American Bar Association will vote on a proposal to take an official stance on gay and trans panic defenses next week as the lawyers' group holds its annual convention in San Francisco.
Resolution 113A "urges governments to take legislative action to curtail the availability and effectiveness of the 'gay panic' and 'trans panic' defenses, which seek to partially or completely excuse crimes on the grounds that the victim's sexual orientation or gender identity is to blame for the defendant's violent reaction," the lawyers' association's website says. If the resolution passes, it will become ABA policy.
The ABA's House of Delegates, which is the organization's policymaking body, will meet August 12-13 to vote on resolutions and discuss other matters.
"In every situation where there is a gay panic defense, it gives the lawyers facing that the power of the ABA to indicate we don't believe this is a viable defense," ABA President Laurel Bellows said in an interview Tuesday, August 6.
The organization could use the policy to encourage courts to instruct jurors not to allow the sexual orientation or gender identity of victims, witnesses, or others to bias their decisions. Bellows said no opposition to the resolution had been presented yet, but "we encourage debate."
The proposal needs a simple majority - 50 percent plus one vote - to pass. There are 560 total members in the ABA House of Delegates, so for 113A to pass, it will need at least 281 votes. The resolution's primary sponsor is the ABA's Criminal Justice Section.
Locally, the 2002 murder of transgender teen Gwen Araujo, 17, brought attention to trans panic defense tactics. Araujo reportedly engaged in anal and/or oral sex with Michael Magidson, Jose Merel, and his brother Paul Merel, who didn't participate in the killing. Magidson and Merel claimed that the discovery of Araujo's birth gender had threatened their sexualities and self-images.
Family members, the prosecution, and supporters spent countless hours over numerous months combating the transphobic rhetoric and blame-the-victim mentality that was allowed in court.
Even as the coroner's office was testifying about the multiple causes of Araujo's death and her bruised and bloodied body, defense attorney Tony Serra's questions remained focused on the length of Araujo's skirt. (As of October, Magidson and Merel were both serving prison sentences of 15 years to life after being convicted of second-degree murder in the case, in which others were also charged.)
In July 2006, state Attorney General Kamala Harris, who was then San Francisco's district attorney, convened a national conference on combating gay and transgender panic defense strategies.
Months later, Assembly Bill 1160, which was known as the Gwen Araujo Justice for Victims Act, became law in California. The law allows a judge to instruct jurors not to consider their own anti-LGBT biases during their deliberations.
In response to emailed questions this week, out lesbian attorney D'Arcy Kemnitz said, "As the executive director of the National LGBT Bar Association, I'm not only a strong supporter of the resolution, but had the honor of helping to draft the language." Kemnitz said she'd be presenting the resolution for a vote to the House of Delegates.
She said that she and other LGBT bar members expect "that the resolution will receive overwhelming support among the House of Delegates because this is an issue that impacts not just LGBT people, but our family and friends as well. 'Gay panic' and 'trans panic' defenses have a shameful history. They were used as excuses in the trials of those who murdered Matthew Shepard and Gwen Araujo."
Shepard, a gay Wyoming teen, was murdered in 1998.
"We expect it may become an issue in the upcoming trial of Lawrence Reed," who's accused in the killing of openly gay Clarksdale, Mississippi mayoral candidate Marco McMillian, said Kemnitz.
She said she's "confident" 113A will win approval, "sending a strong message to state legislatures, and our courts, that the legal profession wants to see a swift end to the practice of using bias and hate as an excuse for violence and murder."
Among other noteworthy events, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who will accept the ABA Medal, the association's highest honor, is set to speak August 12.
Like other conference events, Clinton's speech is not open to the public. The annual meeting runs from Thursday, August 8 through Tuesday, August 13.
Related Story


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I had always pictured my bridesmaids wearing floor length dresses, but after we decided on a July date I felt like tea length dresses would be more appropriate.
I had originally wanted my wedding colors to be brown and green with some pink, but after I found these dresses with the perfect color of pink it ended up becoming brown and pink with some green.
For the pink in my wedding I didn't want just one pink, I wanted to incorporate all pinks, bright, light pastel, etc. I love the light pink of the sash on the bridesmaid dresses.
Girls with their bouquets:
I love this shot of the bridesmaids, peeking into the sanctuary to watch a video that Luke and I played before the ceremony got started.
My favorite picture of the whole wedding party: My bouquet: So beautiful!I love this picture, it shows how bright and vibrant my bouquet was and how Luke's boutonniere matches and the rose petals in the aisle. I just love it. Thanks for looking!


text:
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Browse By Title:
Stratosphere Cheats & Hints
Cheat Codes:
In a mission, press Enter to bring up the message window and type:
@MISTER FREEZE SAYS STOP - Computer Forts Halted
@SHOW ME THE RESOURCE - All floatstone increased by 50000
@GIVE ME THE ROCK - Rock increased by 50000
@MORE ORE FOR LESS - Ore increased by 50000
@MORE GREEN FOR ME - Crystal increased by 50000
@TALL TOWERS - Command Center size raised
@TECNO FREAKS - Tech Level raised
@I GOT MY XRAY SPELLS - Radar line of sight
@I GOTTA SEE MORE - Radar zoomed out
@GIVE ME A CLOSEUP - Radar zoomed in
@WEASEL WEASEL WEASEL - Win mission
@I WANT TO LOSE NOW - Lose mission
@WAS THAT A MOUNTAIN - Super mountain armor
@BOMBS MAY FALL - Super projectile armor
@OTHER FORTS MAY RAM - Super fort armor
@ROCKETS RED GLARE - Super projectile damage
@BAA RAM EUE - Super fort damage
@ELECTRONS ARE FLOWING - Super energy
@BAM BAM BAM - Super shooting
@WHOOSH BY THEM ALL - Super movement
@BANDAGE ME QUICK - Super repair
@BUILD ME A SHAKE - Super build time
@ARMORED BLUE - Super shields
@NOW YOU SEE ME - Super cloak
@NO ONE CAN TOUCH ME - Super cacoon
@SILVER BULLET - Super quicksilver
@LOCK ON TARGET - Super targeting station
@HOME ON THE RANGE - Super range booster
@I CAN SEE FOR MILES AND MILES - Super observatory
@WHERE'S THE BEEF? - Super cow
Playing Tips:
Hold down the firing button, don't tap it. Constantly adjust your aim. This
way, you get a maximum firing rate.
Adjust your camera to suit your fortress. Ballistic weapons are best viewed
from a high vantage point that just barely covers the weapon's max range.
Flat shooting weapons benefit from a horizon view that lets you send shots
beyond your firing arcs.
Use mines off the back of your ship for a protection during retreat.Use the
macro assignment (CTRL-1-9) to group weapons and make special units easily
selectable. By cycling through your macros, you can separately aim weapons
on the left and right sides of your fort.... very effective with weapons
that have a long recharge time (e.g. Doom Cannon).
If you're too slow but can't add thrusters, try removing some less vital
structures and reducing your fort's footprint. Given the same engines, a
smaller fort will be faster than a larger one. Damage affects all units
efficiency (energy cost) and effectiveness (action rate), so be sure to
repair whenever possible. In a pinch, use CTRL-A to select all units and
then 'R' to repair If your unit selection gets confused, just hit ESC to
de-select all.
Once you've seen an enemy, you can select their entry (denoted by their
fort's name) to get a compass tick mark showing their position relative
to yours.
Try building asymmetric forts. Take a look at the custom fort Sidewinder...
To use it effectively, rotate and lock your camera to align with the weapon
arcs. Then use your radar to navigate. This way, you always present a strafing
target that fouls the enemy's aim. While a focused strategy and lots of battle
experience will win most battles, a true master has to be able to change
strategies on the fly. If your fort design is susceptible to your opponent's
style, retreat and redesign. Many multiplayer levels have Floatstone deposits
that can give you the added resources to turn the battle in your favor.
Having Stratosphere codes we dont have yet?
Submit them through our form
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text:
— -- Nowhere is the country's racial divide more obvious, more blatant, than inside its houses of worship.
Every Sunday parishioners head to their respective churches, the vast majority of which are filled with worshippers predominately of one race. Only 7 percent of American churches are racially integrated, according to the Pew Center.
It's a harsh statistic for a nation that has its first viable minority candidate with a shot at the White House, and decades after the Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education knocked down the notion that "separate but equal" was constitutional.
"I don't think we segregate on purpose. Where you build a strong faith base in, you just kind of cling to that church," said African-American churchgoer Monica Boudouin.
"You go into a society that's all white, you're gonna typically have an all-white church, and vice-versa with other ethnicities as well," said white parishioner Jeff Thomas.
According to an ABC News/USA Today poll, only 11 percent of African-Americans believe racial equality has been achieved, while 44 percent of blacks doubt it will ever occur. Thirty-nine percent of whites said they believe America has racial equality.
But some are trying to break the racial barrier housed in so many churches. Ohio pastor Cliff Biggers takes his black congregation out of its comfort zone to a white church every fifth Sunday. Often times Biggers and his congregants are given a warm welcome, inviting visitors to meals and fellowship. But sometimes the response can be less than enthusiastic.
"I think people are a little put back, sure. You have people walking in that, number one, you don't know them; number two, they look different than you," Biggers said.
"We all have a need to cry. We all have a need to laugh. We all have hope for tomorrow," he added. "We're more alike than we are unalike."
Biggers' bold experiment highlights just how much race relations and religion are intertwined in America.
"The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and, yes, the bitterness and biases that make up the black experience in America," Barack Obama said in speech he gave in Philadelphia last March.
The first black churches were built by freed slaves and many of them where open to whites on principle, but Jim Crow laws brought fresh division and wounds.
"They had to sit in that last pew and if a white would come and families would come, even though they were in that pew they had to get up and give them their pew," said Sister Eva Regina Martin, mother superior at Holy Family Sisters in New Orleans.
The result: both races withdrew into their own spiritual harbors. The church became the only place where a black man and a voice and would give birth to the civil rights movement.
But churches have sought to mend their fractured past. Thirteen years ago the Southern Baptist Convention apologized for its history of racism.
"We apologized to our African-American brothers and sisters for the pain and the suffering that we have caused," said Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Now Southern Baptists claim 750,000 new members of color.
Voter results on Nov. 4 will determine if results mimic what occurs in America's churches on Sundays, but Martin has expressed hope.
"It'll take many years but I think as the years go by people will allow people just to be. And to allow them to I think that deep sense of respect has to always be there and the idea of forgiveness, you can't hold onto hatred. It'll just tear you apart," said Martin, who is the head of just one of three black orders of nuns.


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Facebook billionaire Sean Parker's lavish, $10 million Big Sur wedding got even more expensive.
The California Coastal Commission and Parker said Monday they have reached a $2.5 million settlement to pay for coastal conservation programs after the Napster co-founder built a large movie-set-like wedding site in an ecologically sensitive area of Big Sur without proper permits.
The parties reached the agreement after officials were tipped that Parker had built a cottage, fake ruins, waterfalls, staircases and a huge dance floor near iconic redwoods and a stream with threatened steelhead trout.
The commission learned about the construction at a closed campground owned by Ventana Inn & Spa after a county investigation spurred by neighbor complaints. The Ventana is negotiating a separate settlement for allowing the construction to occur.
"Despite the continued unauthorized closure of the campground to the public, earlier this year, the property owner entered into an agreement giving Sean Parker exclusive use of the campground for several months to construct a sizeable wedding venue," the commission's staff wrote in a report.
Ventana spokesman Francisco Carrasco did not return a call or email seeking comment.
The Ventana is located within the coastal zone, an area regulated by the commission, an independent state agency that oversees coastal development. Any significant construction within the zone has to be permitted.
When staff inspected, they found the temporary structures had already been built, but they allowed the wedding to proceed anyway.
The commission started negotiating a settlement with Parker and his representatives instead of shutting the event down.
"Mr. Parker has been extremely cooperative and actively involved in working with Coastal Commission staff to reach this resolution which both addresses our Coastal Act concerns and will result in greater coastal access and conservation in the Big Sur and Monterey Peninsula areas," Charles Lester, the commission's executive director, said in a statement.
Parker, 33, the former president of Facebook Inc. who was portrayed by Justin Timberlake in the movie "The Social Network," married singer-songwriter Alexandra Lenas on Saturday in a ceremony with gowns and sets made by a designer for the "Lord of the Rings" films.
Rick Zbur, Parker's representative during negotiations with the commission, said Parker worked diligently to address the issue once it came to his attention.
"So as soon as he was made aware of the Coastal Commission's concerns, he immediately stepped forward to discuss how he could protect the coastal area and resolve these issues," Zbur said in an email.
Parker also asked his guests, many of them extremely wealthy entrepreneurs and celebrities, to donate to Save the Redwoods or the California League of Conservation Voters in lieu of giving gifts, according to a program.
Since Parker did not get permits for the construction, commission staff will oversee the breakdown of the vast set so no damage is done to the environment. The commission said no major damage had yet been done, but it wanted to reach a deal quickly so the violating structures could be removed safely.
"Normally (negotiations) happen over a couple of months, but because of the nature of the violations here we wanted to get it out as soon as possible so Mr. Parker could go ahead and do the work the way it should be done," said Lisa Haage, the commission's chief of enforcement.
Money from the agreement may be used to purchase public easements and hiking trails in the Big Sur area and as grants for nonprofits doing conservation projects.
Also, as part of the settlement, Parker offered to produce and distribute a public education video or create a mobile app aimed at helping to identify areas where the public can access the coast.
Haage said the commission is hopeful Parker's assistance will help it spread more information about California's coastal resources.
In a statement, Parker said he was delighted to help the commission achieve its conservation goals and to help Big Sur area businesses.
The commission will vote on the agreement at its next meeting scheduled June 14.


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Update as of Thursday, 7 a.m.:
- Cal Fire top priority today
- Mandatory evacuations for the areas of Questhaven, Harmony Grove and parts of Elfin Forest in San Marcos and neighboring unincorporated areas of the county.
- Evacuation shelter has been set up at Mission Hills High School at 1 Mission Hills Court.
- 0% containment as of 2:40 a.m.
- 700 acres
- 3 homes destroyed, one home damaged
- Next briefing 8:30 a.m.
- Road closures include: South Twin Oaks Valley Road at Hwy 78, Craven Road at Twin Oaks Valley Road, Village Drive at Twin Oaks Valley Road, San Elijo Road at Double Peak Road, Melrose Drive at Rancho Santa Fe Road, Melrose Drive at San Elijo Road, San Elijo Road at Rancho Santa Fe Road, Elfin Forest Road at Calistoga Way, Questhaven Road at City Limit, Coronado Hills Drive at Via Del Campo and Fallsview Road at San Elijo Road.
- Rancho Santa Fe Road will be open to both north and southbound traffic
At least three homes have been destroyed and one damaged in an erratic fire burning in San Marcos, just east of the Poinsettia Fire in Carlsbad, that has forced the evacuation of California State University, San Marcos and 21,600 homes.
Click here for a map of wildfire activity and open shelters
The Cocos Fire that started in Coronado Hills Wednesday afternoon, one of at least nine raging county-wide, continued its southward path Thursday morning. Despite planned air drops overnight by fire officials, the fire had spread to 700 acres by early Thursday morning, up from 450 acres the night before.
The flames spread down the hillside behind the CSUSM campus. Everyone there has been evacuated, and the school will remain closed through Saturday.
The university even decided to cancel its commencement ceremonies on Friday and Saturday because "the safety of our students, faculty, staff and families is our primary concern," according to CSUSM's website.
Evacuations are also in effect for these neighborhoods south of SR 78:
- North San Elijo Hills
- Discovery Hills
- Discovery Meadows
- Coronado Hills areas
- Lake San Marcos
- Elfin Forest
- Indian Ridge Road
- Crestwind Road
- Wilgen Drive
- Bresa De Loma Drive
At 4:35 p.m., officials ordered a mandatory evacuation for all neighborhoods south of San Marcos Blvd.
Twin Oaks Valley Road has been closed to drivers, as was the eastbound State Route 78 off-ramp to Twin Oaks Valley Road.
Mission Hills High School at 1 Mission Court has been set up as an evacuation point by the city, and a secondary center will be at San Marcos Middle School, 650 West Mission Road.
The New Vision Christian Ministries International church opened its doors to evacuees. It's located at 2117 Industrial Court in Vista, and pets are welcome.
Airbnb, a website used to find lodging rentals, organized a site where people can open up their homes for free to those in need.
Kaiser Permanente San Diego announced it will close its San Marcos location on Thursday due to the fire. If it gets under control, the facility will reopen Thursday afternoon.
Heavy black smoke was covering the city of San Marcos as sheriff's deputies and residents were forced to wear clothing or masks over their mouths to avoid inhaling ash and smoke.
NBC 7 cameras caught one of the homes engulfed in flames at Coronado Hills Drive at Cycad Drive.
Winds caused the flames to jump from hill to hill, even crossing roads. Fire officials call the fire behavior erratic, with lots of hot spots sparking ahead of the main fire.
San Marcos homeowner Howard Burgeson first saw the smoke over the ridge about half an hour before they were evacuated.
He said he and his family kept grabbing items from his home until his car was filled up and he was exhausted.
"By the time we left, and my guess is an hour and a half, the fire was literally at the top of the ridge, and we could see that it was right there. It was time to go," Burgeson said.
They had to abandon the home they've lived in for 23 years -- a home they've evacuated a number of times before in other fires, but none so close.
"We don't know what the morning's going to bring. We don't know what the night's going to bring," said Burgeson.
As the Burgesons and others fled the area, traffic was jammed in San Elijo Hills and other streets streaming from the burning hillside.
San Marcos couple Brian and Veronica said they were both at work when they heard about the flames climbing toward their home.
"I got a call from actually my president that said, 'You got to get home, and it's in your neighborhood,'" said Brian.
His first thought went to their cat Rusty locked inside. They were forced to park about a mile away, so they ran the rest of the way to their pet.
"You can replace homes and belongings, but you can't replace animals and humans. We were fortunate enough to get some hard drives [too]," said Brian.
Nevertheless, Veronica was shocked to see the devastation facing her.
"It's pretty sad because it's our nature, and it's gone," she said.
Fire crews will continue through the night, but they are concerned for the area of Cycad Drive and Coronado Hills Drive, where they fear the flames will swing around and threaten a home tucked into the hillside.
Officials worry that the fire may reach Lake San Marcos by Thursday.
Kindness Among the Chaos
But amid the devastation, resident Heather Stinger shared one heartwarming story through the NBC 7 San Diego Facebook page.
She and her boyfriend live in the Campana complex near CSUSM -- one of the many areas under evacuation. However, they did not learn about the fire threat until 6 p.m.
Stinger and her boyfriend rushed to the area to try to reach their dog inside their home, but they were stopped more than a mile away.
"My boyfriend ran the rest of the way in flip flops/bare foot trying to get to our house to rescue our dog," Stinger wrote.
But when they reached the home, they found a note stuck to their door with a phone number and a message that their dog was OK.
A neighbor who Stinger had only seen in passing heard the dog barking as the evacuations were ordered.
He drove his truck next to their complex, stood on the top of it and climbed onto Stinger's balcony to rescue the dog hiding under the bed.
Stinger said when they went to pick up their pup, the man introduced himself and humbly stated that he was simply a dog lover and couldn't leave the pet behind with the flames coming so close.
"This is a truly amazing neighbor, who deserves recognition. I will never be able to express my gratitude for his amazing act of kindness," Stinger wrote.
Check back for details on this breaking news story.
NBC Primetime is moving to COZI-TV. COZI-TV can be found on COX Cable at 807, Time Warner Cable at 253 and Over the Air at 39.2. Also, "Days of Our Lives" will air on NBC 7 at 3 a.m.


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Google's personal assistant for its Android Jelly Bean mobile operating system is coming to the Internet search leader's Chrome browser.
The news about Google Now was disclosed in a developers' log posted to the Internet last Friday by the company.
According to the log entry, Google's engineers have created a "skeleton" to implement Google Now in Chrome that shows cards created by the service as notifications.
By hooking Google Now into its Chrome browser, the service has the potential to become a cross-platform offering, since Google makes versions of the browser for Windows, MacOS X and Apple iOS operating systems. That contrasts with Apple's personal digital assistant Siri, which only works on some Apple devices.
Google Now is designed to predict your information needs and display them as virtual cards. So when you turn on your phone at home in the morning, Google Now might push the latest weather forecast to you. As you get in your car to drive to work, it will push the latest traffic information on your route to you. It also has a Siri-like voice search function.
Although the idea behind Google Now may be creepy to many people who believe the search giant already knows too much about them, expanding the service to Chrome could be very fruitful for the company. That's because it will establish an over-arching mechanism for funneling eyeballs to Google's bread-and-butter services such as Google Maps, YouTube, Google Apps, Gmail and Google+.
When Google may flesh out its Google Now skeleton for Chrome is unknown.
Asked by The Next Web about the subject, a company spokesman replied, "We're always experimenting with new features in Chrome but have nothing to announce at this time."
Meanwhile, Google continues to pump up Google Now's versatility.
Last week, for example, Google added features to the service similar to those in Apple's Passbook app. Those features include the ability to scan your Gmail inbox for a boarding pass for United Airlines and automatically display a card with a QR code that can be used to check in for your flight.


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On Friday night [Feb 7, 2004], I was listening to Coast to Coast on Sunday Feb 08, 2004. Major Ed Dames said that Nibiru will be coming close to earth real soon maybe 2005 causing all the earth changes that Zeta's have been saying since 1995. He stated that he's been in denial for quite awhile.
On Saturday April 10, 2004 on C2C: Remote viewing teacher Major Ed Dames (website) shared his latest forecasts which included the identification of the key harbinger event that immediately precedes major cataclysms on our planet. The event he said to watch out for will be the early return of a Space Shuttle mission, due to heavy meteor showers. (Shuttle missions are scheduled to be revived beginning in 2005.)
On Saturday July 17, 2004 on C2C: During Saturday's show, the world's foremost remote viewing teacher, Major Ed Dames, discussed what he calls the "Killshot," a series of solar flares that he and his remote viewing research team believe will hit earth causing an extreme amount of destruction and death. According to Dames, the harbinger of this catastrophic event will be when the Space Shuttle program is grounded due to meteor showers. He said Earth's population will have only three months after this to get to designated survival zones. Dames revealed that survival zones are marked by crop circles, which he believes were created by an "alien agency." In North America, the most survivable areas are in Alberta and Saskatchewan, Dames concluded.
In October, 2004, per a report on GodlikeProduction Message Board A very large planet sized space body will pass by the Earth, not a comet or asteroid. It approaches from the south and electrically aligns itself between the Sun and the Earth shutting down our electric field. We will see it coming three to six months in advance. It will threaten twice, once on the way in and then on the way out. This will happen in the next several years. It will wobble the Earth. Oceans will slosh around. We will experience high winds 200 - 300 miles an hour for weeks at a time. The meteor shower and the large planet sized object could be related.
On Sep 30, 1998, per a record on Spritual Endeavors, Ed Dames predicted his famous 'killshot' from the Sun, which would wipe out all life on Earth not underground, to occur in 1999, the record stating: 'News of a massive gamma/X-ray burst striking Earth late last month, on August 27 specifically, comes over the news wire. Word reaches me that Psi-Tech's Ed Dames is claiming this was the so-called "precursor event", or "shot across the bow", he remote viewed last year -- an event predicted to occur in 1998, preceding a similar, but far deadlier, solar flare "kill shot" prophesied to wipe out up to 85% of life on the planet. The "kill shot" is predicted to hit in Spring 1999, possibly in April.'
Track record on Ed Dames predictions on:
Jan 1, 2005
On his last appearance on the show Ed promised to find gold treasure in California and bring it to Art Bell's house at Christmas. This didn't happen. He also has a new gold target near Carson City which is from an old stagecoach robbery. He will find this treasure and bring it to Art's house in the Spring.
There will be a 9+ earthquake near the northwest tip of New Guinea. This will happen in March. [An 8.7 happened at Ache, 2,000 miles to the West.] He didn't predict the tsunami in South East Asia because they were busy looking for the gold.
Dames claims there is no public record of his success rate. Hello, there is now and it is zero.
Osama Bin Laden is alive but was badly injured in an attack. He says he can find him within 72 hours but his team has better things to do. Previously he had said Osama Bin Laden was dead but he admits he was wrong about this.
Oct 9, 2004
A very large planet sized space body will pass by the Earth, not a comet or asteroid. It approaches from the south and electrically aligns itself between the Sun and the Earth shutting down our electric field. We will see it coming three to six months in advance. It will threaten twice, once on the way in and then on the way out. This will happen in the next several years. It will wobble the Earth. Oceans will slosh around. We will experience high winds 200 - 300 miles an hour for weeks at a time.
His second piece of proof is to find some 150 year old gold treasure. He will bring it to Art's house as proof. All this to happen in December 2004. Late 2005 will see large earthquakes in Japan causing damage to nuclear reactors. [Did not happen]
Jul 17, 2004
There won't be one mighty killshot from the Sun. There will be many smaller ones and they will gradually wear us down. The shot across the bow which happened 3rd November 2003 is close to the main killshot which will happen at the beginning of 2005. [Did not happen.]
Apr 10, 2004
According to reports the biggest solar flare ever almost shut down the entire Earth in November. Dames claims this is the shot across the bow before the kill shot. In October 2003 Dames predicted the Sun would go on a rampage. What he failed to mention is that in his very same prediction he said that the solar flare would signal the end of World War III and that the poles would shift 17 degrees.
Feb 8, 2004
Dames still maintains he predicted the large solar flares. Which he didn't. He also says he predicted the avian flu virus on his last show. I don't recall this or have an record of it.
Mad Cow disease will bring about the discontinuation of cattle as human food and also stop the use of cow's milk for human babies. We will see the start of this by the end of this year. [Did not happen.]
Nov 9, 2003
The solar activity that is happening at the moment is just the beginning of a series of large events on the Sun. The next large event will actually destroy satelites and damage some power grids in North America. This will happen within the next three weeks. Wrong. Nothing happened.
A huge earthquake will hit Japan in late Spring 2005. It will not cause a lot of damage to Tokyo but the Monju fast breeder reactor will be destroyed killing 17,000 people, Between 200,000 and 400,000 people will die later. [Has not happened.]
Oct 12, 2003
Next use of a nuclear weapon will definitely be on the Korean peninsula. No date given. North Korea will up the level of nuclear blackmail by testing a nuclear weapon. The test might be in open air and that may invoke a response that causes them to use a nuclear weapon against US forces on the peninsula.


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What am I expecting to see at PhotoPlus?
I'm heading up to PhotoPlus in two weeks. It's a big photographic tradeshow/gathering held every Fall at the Javits Center in NYC. I've been thinking about the show and the huge and pervasive yawning sense of apathy that seems to have settled over the photography industry in the last few months. I think we're going to see a lot of re-hashed product, hear a lot of seminars about how to get ahead "in the new economy," and every once and a while we'll be surprised by an announcement we probably didn't see coming.
To start off with I think that Samsung will make big waves with their new Galaxy NX camera. It took me a while to understand the value proposition of its features but now I get it. I'm starting to see it through the lenses of younger generations. The camera is either getting better and better to shoot (could be firmware updates that happen automatically when the camera is in a wi-fi network) or I'm finally getting comfortable with the new ( to me ) control interface. The sensor is good, the lenses are good and, for people who need quick access to.....everything current sharing technology has to offer... it's the only game in town. I'll be demonstrating it along with Philadelphia photographer, Nick Kelsh and we won't just be shooting nice images of beautiful models----we'll be putting all of the connectivity features through the wringer. But it's certainly not the only game in town.
I'm especially interested in what Sony will be announcing. Those guys are nearly as fickle as I am! If the rumors on the web are true we'll be seeing the introduction of a Nex-styled, full frame camera for under $3,000. But this makes me a little bit nervous since I have a lot of resources tied up in what we've been calling "Alpha" stuff. I thought the product line was split between the DSLT's (Alphas) and the mirrorless offerings (Nex) but lately Sony's been slapping the Alpha signature on everything, including the little piece of cr*p camera they are calling the a3000. Does the introduction of a full frame Nex mark the incipient demise of the traditional camera line? Will my a99 be obsoleted and abandoned? Will the a850 become even more obsolete? Will we be howling in the wilderness looking for bodies to mate with our orphaned lenses? I guess we'll find out at the big show.
I hope someone at Sony has done their market research and not just taken notes over at the DPReview Sony Nex Forum....Even if they throw all their resources into the Nex style line of cameras and abandon our last century configurations I'm sure the Sony engineers have figured out how to make cute and expensive adapters for our full sized Sony and Zeiss lenses.... But, I'd rather have a choice and be able to get cameras that still have some real estate for my hands and enough build to hold big flashes up and big lenses in some sort of balance. Are you listening Sony?
Is anybody going to show any new studio flash products? Oh, I'm sure there's going to be some new cosmetic touches on existing technology but I sense that the high end studio lighting market ( focus on professional studio use) is falling through the basement floor and rapidly being replaced by more and more, small, light lithium battery powered options that allow flash anywhere. The focus on flash lighting that was aimed at perfectionists is being disrupted by the reality that so much of the market has moved from making art to making consumables. Not works meant for the test of time but images that have a "use by" date measured in hours and days instead of months and years. No one working for those markets (outside a small circle) really cares about that last 1% of UV light suppression or 1/10th of stop consistency on the 900th pop...
I'm sure we'll see lots and lots of cr*ppy LED lights that are rushed to market for low price points but I hope we'll see some really good, new stuff from Fiilex, Lowell, Arri and others. I am still a big proponent of LED lighting. I may have been a year ahead of everything I wanted coming to market when I wrote the LED book but when I look at my newly repaired crystal ball, five years from now, I'm seeing LEDs routing flash in many, many current applications. What am I looking for at this show? A fresnel, focusable spot LED with a whisper cooling fan for the electronics and enough oomph! to bounce into a big diffuser and give me enough shutter speed and f-stop to rock even a portrait with some movement in it. And, call me "crazy" but I'd like to get it into my studio for less than $1,000. Three in a nice case for $2,500? Keep the cheesy stands and just give me the good stuff....
What will Nikon and Canon show? Probably not much. This show is out of sync from their typical schedule of product announcements. Nikon seems to be flailing and I'm not sure the new D610 is a confidence builder. Rather than looking at DSLRs the real logic for Nikon is to do something great for their mirrorless line. The V cameras could use a new body that's aimed at enthusiasts. If Fuji can iterate three or four mirrorless bodies in the space of a year I would think that Nikon could pop out a rangefinder style variation of the V bodies with the updated sensor without breaking a sweat. If it's good and fun and priced right it might sell. As long as it doesn't spray oil all over the place....
I noticed that Canon withdrew their horrible EM mirrorless camera with very little fanfare. Apparently the critics did not appreciate its operational nuances. Wouldn't it be nice if they re-entered the space with a camera that could focus in fractions of a seconds instead of haltingly and in slow motion? That might sell too. And the prices that the camera finally sold for proved that every camera can be successful once the accurate value proposition is rationalized.
The company that once made the greatest compact camera ever (the Canonet QL 17) should be able to go toe to toe with Sony and their RX1 and if they could do a well designed product that competed for a much lower price they would doubtless have success in that market as well. Canon needs to launch a prime lens camera with a 35mm focal length and a full frame sensor that's as well designed as the old Canonet and nearly as accessible. Wouldn't it be great to see an f2.8 model for under a grand? And the heck with AF. If real rangefinders are good enough for Leica then they should be good enough for Canon.
I think the real news at the show is going to be in technology and sharing. One of the reasons the iPhone quickly became the most popular camera in the world is that it not only took reasonably good photographs but that the images could be worked on, in camera, and then shared instantly. Look for the market to reverse polarity and start pushing easy sharing right back up the camera hierarchy. There will be legions of "experienced" curmudgeons who will denounce any additional features in a camera. Look at the venom thrown at video implementations in DSLRs. People are fond of saying that the camera makers could have made the cameras cheaper if they made them without video, but from the camera makers' points of view the inclusion more than outweighed the sour grapes of last century enthusiasts by opening up a potentially huge new market of people who would have previously skipped still cameras altogether and just bought video cameras.
Adding wi-fi sharing or NFC sharing to a camera can't be that costly and if it attracts a whole new generation to consider a camera in lieu of a cellphone for their work then that's an enormous (if temporary) benefit to camera companies.
Finally, I expect to see a bunch of new monitors, screens and televisions aimed at the emerging 4K sector. Not just in video but also for photographic presentation. We'll be shooting images and showing them on large 4K TV's and we've been discussing the need to shoot at full res in order to utilize the full power of the screen resolution. We are at an inflection point where framed art on the walls of homes, businesses and stores is going to be replaced by large screens. The ability to go back and forth between motion and still, and at enormous resolutions (which give our images much better and richer tonality) is priceless: both from a marketer's point of view and also from the consumer's point of view. The experience will be enhanced and everyone's photos will look better (or worse) than ever before.
We're moving toward a ubiquitous screen experience. That's the real message I keep taking away.
Posted by Kirk, Photographer/Writer at 16:03 13 comments:
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Adobe recommends using the SPA Editor for projects that require single page application framework-based client-side rendering (e.g. React). Learn more.
The AEM PhoneGap Kitchen Sink Github repository provides developers with a functional AEM app that illustrates the use of a number of core Cordova APIs. When run on iOS or Android via the PhoneGap CLI, the app opens up into the following page which includes a link to each device API that it demonstrates:
The source code for each of these device API components is available on Github.
For more detail on the usage of each API, I recommend taking a look at the Cordova plugin documentation.
See Track App Performance with Adobe Mobile Analytics.


text: This gorgeous bouquet represents that no matter how hard life is , never leave hope and trust yourself. Make everyone know that by sending this arrangement.Items are hand-arranged by our Florist using (6) six flowers white stargazers with misty blue as fillers.Designed using two toned purple and gold korean wrappers. Comes with our signature ribbon design to add more elegance to the bouquet.


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Cooking Class: Pan-Frying
Pan-fried foods embody appealing qualities―crisp coatings, browned surfaces, and tender interiors. Think of the satisfying texture and taste of breaded chicken cutlets or browned potato latkes. This technique involves less oil than deep-frying, so it's less messy and more spatter-proof. It's easy to master once you learn a few tips.
Pan-frying, defined
This method entails cooking food in an uncovered pan in a moderate amount of fat. It's similar to sautéing but requires more fat and often lower temperatures.
Use a skillet or sauté pan―wide, with sloped or straight sides. Choose a heavy-bottomed pan for evenly distributed heat with no hot spots. We prefer nonstick skillets to help ensure the coatings stay on the food, not stuck in the pan. These pans also allow you to use less oil than traditional pan-fried recipes.
Many pan-fried dishes benefit from a coating of flour, breadcrumbs, cracker meal, or cornmeal. These coatings help both to create the desired crisp crust and insulate the food to prevent it from overcooking. Place each of the coating ingredients in a separate shallow dish, such as a pie plate, so there's enough room for the food to lie flat.
Most of our breaded recipes use a three-step approach: The food is first dusted in flour to help all the other coatings cling, then dipped into an egg wash to help the main coating adhere, and finally dredged in the main/heavier coating of panko or breadcrumbs, for example. You'll find it helpful to designate one hand as the dry hand (for handling the food as it goes into the dry ingredients) and the other as the wet hand (for dipping food into the egg wash). If you use the same hand or both hands for every step, you'll end up with a mess of flour-egg-breadcrumbs stuck to your skin. Don't let the food sit too long after it's breaded or it may become gummy.
Best bets for pan-frying
Fish fillets; thin, tender cuts such as pork chops or boneless, skinless chicken breast halves; and sturdy vegetables such as potatoes, green tomato slices, and onions are good choices. Juicy foods such as ripe tomatoes will be rendered mushy, and tougher cuts like brisket or pork shoulder won't cook long enough to become tender.
Breading amounts
As you prepare these recipes, you'll notice we call for more breading ingredients than will actually stick to the food. (You'll discard whatever is left over.) Having more than you need makes it easier to coat the food. Plus, it's hard―and messy―to add additional breadcrumbs or flour once you've started the process.
Although it has become our standard recipe style to call for flour as exact weight measurements, these recipes are an exception. For a cake recipe, using a little more or less flour than specified can mean a dry, tough result or a cake that doesn't rise. For breading, though, the exact amount matters less.
Fats for frying
Choose oil with a neutral flavor―such as canola oil, regular olive oil, or peanut oil―that can withstand moderately high heat. Flavorful oils such as extra-virgin olive oil or dark sesame oil may burn or create harsh flavors in the food. Butter may also burn at high temperatures but can work over medium-high heat for shorter cook times, or over medium heat for longer periods. To prevent food from sticking, heat the pan first and then add the oil or butter.
For the crunchiest texture, it helps to start many foods on medium-high heat to initiate browning, then reduce the heat to allow it to finish cooking more slowly. Other recipes will be successful using medium-high or medium heat for the entire cook time; follow the recipe's specific instructions.
Allow some breathing room
Take care not to overcrowd the pan, as doing so lowers the temperature and may cause food to stick. It may also hinder evaporation as the food cooks, creating steam in the bottom of the pan and ultimately a soggy crust.
Do not disturb
Be aware that the side you put down in the pan first will look the best, so place the food in the pan presentation side down. For chicken breasts, this means the rounded side; for fish fillets, it's the rounded rib side (not the skin side). To make sure the coatings stay on the food, turn it only once as it cooks. Disturbing it too soon may cause the breading to fall off or stick to the pan.
Serve immediately
Pan-fried offerings are best just after they're cooked, when they are hot and crunchy.
The bottom line
The three most important elements to remember about pan-frying:
1. Do not overcrowd the pan.
2 Cook the food shortly after applying the coatings.
3 Turn the food only once as it cooks.