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Premier Pacific, environmentalists battle it out over Sonoma forest lands
Premier Pacific Vineyards, the big vineyard development company whose leaders include former Napa vintner William Hill, finds itself embroiled in a heated tussle with local environmentalists, including the Sierra Club and Friends of the Gualala River, over PPV's plan to develop 1,800 acres of vineyards in the high coastal hills near Annapolis, on the Sonoma Coast. According to a report published in th Santa Rosa Press Democrat, PPV purchased the land in 2004 for $28.5 million. Despite the company's promise to plant 1 million new trees, critics of the project worry that development will invariably harm the mountainous region's ecosystem and diversity.
It's always hard in a case like this to know who's right. I know from experience that some of the more extreme environmentalists in western Sonoma are basically against any development of the land at all, which seems to me to be an unrealistic attitude. Some years ago, Marimar Torres told me how eco-terrorists repeatedly struck in the middle of the night, vandalizing her property and spraypainting roadsigns, because she wanted to develop a beautiful, organic, highly progressive vineyard in the Green Valley.
But I also know that a big corporate entity can be insensitive and ride roughshod over the concerns of locals. PPV owns many thousands of acres of vineyard from Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino, on up to Oregon and Washington and down into the Santa Rita Hills. When PPV first began development down in Santa Barbara, some vintners there privately expressed their concern that the area's personality and natural infrastructure might be harmed. Yesterday I asked a friend of mine, who is a player in the Santa Rita Hills, what has been the local reaction to PPV, and he replied, "It is with no hesitation that I say that they have not been favorable shepherds of the land down here. I fear that a lot of their development has been irresponsible (and dangerous for crews down the road) and they are unscrupulous about taking crews away from other farming companies."
As I said, it's hard to know who's right. In the case of the Sonoma project, it's on hiatus until an EIR has been completed. And even that might not satisfy some of those involved.
P.S. Please check my final word on the Spectator issue at Wine Enthusiast's unreserved.
I love vineyards as much as trees, and I like hillside vineyards, but the devil's always in the details. Looking at what agriculture in general with its water appropriation and runoff has done to the steelhead in the Napa River over the last century would give anyone pause about the potential impacts or any type of agriculture on a pristine forested environment.
I always take these offsets (planting a million trees) with a grain of salt. Usually, on close examination you find that if there is a place where a million trees can be planted, they are going to be planted there one way of the other. Paying money to someone like Werhauser money to plant trees is not really an offset. More like a fee to develop.
A recent paper reviewed in Science showed that it takes 137 years of farming to recover the carbon released from a forest being converted to agriculture. Even with offsets, 1800 acres of forest cleared for vineyard with access roads, and water development will change the local ecology. Even if phased over a decade, the project is 180 acres a year.
The first vineyard developed by clearing forest by Bill Hill was on Diamond Mountain and it was an erosion disaster. The terraces were cut wrong, many slipped, runoff cut gullies down the slope. Mt. Veeder was a little better. It wasn't just Bill Hill, everyone was on the learning curve. The erosion disaster at Viader that fouled the Bell Canyon Reservior brought the Napa County, Fish and Game and others into it and requirements for erosion control plans and inspections before any development. It's more under control now, though some still cheat since there is little enforcement.
Rain water hitting established old forest runs off clear. Rainwater hitting a new vineyard even with the best of cover crop, erosion control, and silt fencing will have several years of brown silt laden runoff. This affects stream beds and spawning grounds. Even the best, most conscientious efforts are not without impacts. I lean toward leaving the forests as forest and putting vineyard somewhere they are now growing hay or grazing dairy cattle.
Morton: "I lean toward leaving the forests as forest and putting vineyard somewhere they are now growing hay or grazing dairy cattle." Then that would eliminate mountain vineyards?
As someone who appreciates wines from some pretty steep slopes around the world, I guess I could argue it both ways. It's just that some projects make more sense than others. It's one thing to take some steep rolling grass covered hills in Carneros that have been grazing dairy cattle and convert them to vineyard. You may even increase biodiversity. Or when in the 1800's clear cut forest was replanted in vineyard, well what's done is done and we should be thankful that those vineyards remain in the hands of thoughtful people.
But the development of 1800 acres of vineyard in rugged forested country is over ten times the size of the largest hillside project that I am aware. When you consider the ecosystem in that big area and how drastically it changes when every bit of vegetation and habitat is removed, every animal dislocated, the terrain re- contoured, the trenching for pipelines, the dust and noise, the reservoir construction, the road construction, the diversion of water, and then the immense effort to prevent erosion. And when you consider there are always mistakes.
On Diamond Mountain one of the repair projects for the original Bill Hill development (it was purchased and repaired by Sterling) was to build a sediment control basin. During one storm that basin filled, did what it was supposed to do, and effectively allowed that rainwater to drain into the ground. A half mile away down hill, a spring in that same storm exploded in a mass of mud and debris taking down trees and structures for about a mile down one canyon. An unintended consequence of repairing another problem created by the original development. One mistake like that could destroy habitat miles away in a stream bed.
Little dabs of hillside vineyard here and there developed over a century on terrain that is suitable, particularly where the vegetation and ecosystem wasn't that special to begin with, is one thing. Developing a few acres at a time on a property while carefully controlling impacts is possible. Razing 1800 acres of forest in a short time period in the name of wine is another.


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FilmDistrict has released a new international trailer and photos from director Taylor Hackford's Parker, opening in theaters on January 25. You can watch the trailer below and click here to view the photos.
Jason Statham and Jennifer Lopez team up to get their cut in the crime thriller, based on the series of bestselling novels by Donald E. Westlake.
Parker (Jason Statham) is a professional thief who lives by a personal code of ethics: Dont steal from people who cant afford it and dont hurt people who dont deserve it. But on his latest heist, his crew double crosses him, steals his stash, and leaves him for dead.
Determined to make sure they regret it, Parker tracks them to PalmBeach, playground of the rich and famous, where the crew is planning their biggest heist ever. Donning the disguise of a rich Texan, Parker takes on an unlikely partner, Leslie (Jennifer Lopez), a savvy insider, whos short on cash, but big on looks, smarts and ambition. Together, they devise a plan to hijack the score, take everyone down and get away clean.

subset: commoncrawl


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JVC is joining the race to thinner flat-panel TV and will unveil at this week's International Consumer Electronics Show a prototype 32-inch television that's just 7-millimeters thick.
The TV set is one of the thinnest yet developed and, like a similar prototype that Samsung Electronics will show in Las Vegas this week, benefits from the use of an LED backlight. The backlight sits behind the LCD panel and generates the light that shines through it to allow the image to be seen. Most LCD panels use thicker backlights that make use of fluorescent lights but LEDs are fast finding favor with TV makers for their thinness and better overall light.
The compact design has led to other benefits too, said JVC in a statement.
The prototype TV weighs 5 kilograms. JVC doesn't currently offer a comparable 32-inch set but models from Toshiba and Sharp weigh 13.5kgs and 15.5kgs respectively.
It can also be made using 10 percent fewer LCD module parts and 50 percent less material resources. The switch to an LED backlight from fluorescent lighting eliminates mercury.
The set will be unveiled at CES but it won't be on the show floor. JVC will display it at a private venue.


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This Week in Natural Disappearances
Should you care to hear about the vanishing of bats, islands that melt under the relentless hand of time, and the problems facing modern birds, then this is the week for you. I even managed to scrounge up a bit of cave-related news, although I should warn you now, it isn't very good news. I never promised you I would only bring you rosy-colored cave information; I only promised to talk about caves as much as I possibly could before someone at Gawker Headquarters got wise and fired me.
Scientists in Utah have announced that the mountains of Oahu are slowly dissolving from the inside out due to "the slow but inexorable onslaught of groundwater." The dissolving part comes as no surprise; the moment an island breaks through the surface of the water, free at least from the watery prison of an unforgiving sea, the forces of erosion have already set in motion a long con designed to exhaust it back underneath the waves.
This time, however, external erosion will not be what finally does the mountains in. They will be betrayed from within; the groundwater in the very soil has been carrying away the bulk of the mountains' mineral mass every year. There is perhaps another million and a half years left before the sea claims its next inevitable victory over land.
In one of this week's more poignant headlines, California songbirds are falling ill with a strain of salmonella that scientists believe is being spread through bird feeders. It is perhaps less notable than the imminent disappearance of entire mountain ranges, but it matters quite a lot to birds.
Sick birds commonly appear lethargic and, contrary to expectations, a little larger than usual, as their feathers are puffed up. They may also have red or irritated eyes.
These little finches have been driven south in search of food as pine cones, the mainstay of their diet, have become less readily available. If you can think of anything sadder than a sick and weary songbird, feathers puffed up from illness, too weary even to hum, looking desperately for a pine cone, keep it to yourself. I can't bear it.
Birds are dying abroad, too; South African Cape parrots have been reduced to less than a thousand in number after losing their primary food source to deforestation. Whatever food they manage to scrounge in its absence leaves them highly susceptible to beak-and-feather disease (There is a video, should you care to watch it, that shows a number of the sick and dying birds. I would not recommend such a thing to you were it not for the manly tears of conservationist Steve Boyes, who has nursed a number of the birds back to health and releases several of them into the wild toward the end of the clip).
Viewers looking to draw parallels between these events and the mass bird deaths of 2011 should bear in mind that "large mortality events in wildlife aren't that uncommon," according to the U.S. Geological Survey. They should also ask themselves what the U.S. Geological Survey might stand to gain by lulling us all into a sense of complacency about bird deaths, because a skeptical citizenry is the bulwark of our civilization.
The same article goes on to point out that nothing is wrong with birds, birds are fine, it's the bats we have to worry about:
In the past three years or so, more than one million bats in the U.S. have died from a fungal affliction called white nose syndrome.
The bats are important pollinators for several plant species, and "the mortality is astoundingly greater" than the blackbirds, says Mr. Slota. But public interest is meager.
There is an entire website dedicated to the study of this disease, which has grown so widespread that the Forest Service was forced to restrict cave access:
Regional Forester Daniel Jirón signed an extension to an emergency order today to restrict access to all caves and abandoned mines on National Forests and Grasslands in the Rocky Mountain Region of the U.S. Forest Service (Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas). The intent of the closure is to minimize the risk of the human spread of the fungus (Geomyces destructans) that causes White-nose Syndrome.
Nothing good can come of leaving abandoned caves and mines to their own devices. They have already shown themselves to be independent of the evolutionary process and there is no telling what subterranean race will heave itself up from the cold black riverbed and open unseeing eyes for the first time if we withdraw our presence from caves. We cannot leave them; we must not leave them.


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Concerned Citizens for B.C. present a misleading image of themselves
Former corporate CEO Jim Shepard is fronting a shadowy group that's running attack ads on NDP Leader Adrian Dix.
I went to the website of Concerned Citizens for B.C. to find out more about a group that's spending $1 million to try to influence the next election.
Under the "about us" section, I found a group of absurdly happy people alongside these words:
We're a group of concerned citizens. Mothers, fathers, retirees, employers and employees.
We come from all parts of BC. We love this province and its hard-won prosperity, and considering what's going on in the rest of the world we're concerned about its future.
Then I went to one of the world's most popular image banks, iStock, and punched in the words "happy people". Lo and behold, the same photo popped up.
You would think with all that money, Shepard's group could have hired some local models and created jobs for B.C.
Why did Concerned Citizens of B.C. feel it was necessary to go to an image bank to identify themselves? Maybe because they have something to hide.
In case you're wondering, Shepard is a former adviser to Premier Christy Clark.
Here's what he looks like. Kinda corporate.
56 Comments
Feb 8, 2013 at 7:12pm
Perhaps they have something to hide, but my guess is that they're just lazy and cheap, which is even worse.
Feb 8, 2013 at 7:12pm
I too had noticed the stock photo on their website as well. We use I-stock for my work, and the images are so very similar - very canned looking. I find Shepard quite vile, he was tied up in BC Rail up to his ears, and now is spewing such hatred towards Dix. He is now Clark's puppet.
He was interviewed by Jas Johal on Global, and came across as only mindly coherent - he truly needs to be put out to pasture. I found what he said about Dix quite unsettling, and I believe it speaks more to his own character ( or lack thereof ) than Dix's.
kevin barker
Feb 8, 2013 at 7:28pm
hilarious, I love it...
Feb 8, 2013 at 8:11pm
Means - Fundraising amongst Albertan Oil Barons at $10,000 a head
Motive - NDP has guaranteed a public inquiry into the sale of BC Rail. Jim Shepard was a director of BC Rail when it was sold.
Opportunity - Three months before an election, time is right, but running out.
Feb 8, 2013 at 11:29pm
Jim Shepard and his group are nasty. I think British Columbians have had enough of that...
Richard Hughes
Feb 8, 2013 at 11:56pm
Well done Charlie!
Feb 9, 2013 at 8:11am
Had to use a stock photo because they couldn't find that large a group that could lie with a straight face?
Feb 9, 2013 at 8:19am
Attack ads just make the Liberals and their supporters even more desperate!
I would expect nothing less from you lying Liberals!
Feb 9, 2013 at 8:55am
everyday there is another reason to detest these sleazy no good corrupt bastard liberals, gawd i hate them!!
Feb 9, 2013 at 8:59am
3 months to go Mr Shepard; til then, don't worry, be happy.


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This image provided by the Seminole County Sheriff`s Office shows former neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman after he was arrested Monday, Nov. 18, 2013, in Apopka, Fla. Zimmerman was charged with assault Monday after his girlfriend called deputies to the home where they were living and claimed he pointed a shotgun at her during an argument, authorities said. (AP Photo/Seminole County Sheriff's Office)
SANFORD, Fla. (AP) — George Zimmerman's girlfriend said he tried to choke her about a week ago during an altercation that wasn't initially reported to police, a prosecutor told a judge Tuesday during his first court appearance on domestic violence-related charges.
Assistant State Attorney Lymary Munoz said Zimmerman's girlfriend, Samantha Scheibe, feared for her life because Zimmerman mentioned suicide and said he "had nothing to lose." Zimmerman's public defenders said after the hearing that he didn't appear to be suicidal.
Judge Frederic Schott set Zimmerman's bond at $9,000 and ordered that Zimmerman stay away from Scheibe's house, wear a monitoring device and refrain from contact with her. The judge says he can't possess guns or ammunition or travel outside of Florida.
Zimmerman has been charged with aggravated assault, a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison if convicted. He also has been charged with battery and criminal mischief, both misdemeanors. An arraignment was scheduled for Jan. 7.
Schott said that Zimmerman's previous brushes with the law weren't a factor in the conditions he was imposing, but he did cite the new allegation of choking as a reason for the bond amount. Zimmerman was acquitted of all charges earlier this year in the fatal shooting of teenager Trayvon Martin in a case that drew worldwide attention.
Zimmerman wore gray jail garments and handcuffs during the hearing and spoke only when answering yes or no to the judge.
Defense attorneys said after the hearing that they expect him to be out of jail on Wednesday, and they're confident he'll eventually be acquitted.
Public defender Jeff Dowdy said Zimmerman's family has been supporting him.
"I would think it would be difficult for George Zimmerman to get a job in central Florida," Dowdy said.
Dowdy and another public defender, Daniel Megaro, said Zimmerman wasn't suicidal despite what the prosecutor said.
"He doesn't appear to be a danger to himself or a danger to anybody else," Megaro said.
Zimmerman has previously used a website to raise money for his legal and living expenses, including $95,000 spent on bail in the Trayvon Martin case. The site also says tens of thousands of dollars were spent on living expenses and security.
The most recent posting on the fund's website, weeks before Zimmerman's acquittal, said that the fund ran out of money in late May but raised tens of thousands more after public requests for help.
A link to donate via PayPal didn't appear to be working on Tuesday.
In this latest scuffle, both Zimmerman and Scheibe called 911 and provided dueling descriptions to police dispatchers about the argument.
Scheibe accused him in the emergency call of pointing a gun at her, smashing a coffee table and then pushing her outside. Zimmerman also called dispatchers, flatly denying pointing a gun at her and blaming her for the broken table.
Scheibe told deputies the ordeal started with a verbal argument and that she asked Zimmerman to leave the house. Her account in the arrest report says he began packing his belongings, including a shotgun and an assault rifle. She says she began putting his things in the living room and outside the house, and he became upset. At that point, the report says, he took the shotgun out of its case.
Zimmerman told his girlfriend to leave and smashed a pair of her sunglasses as she walked toward the front door, the report says. Scheibe told deputies he pushed her out of the house when she got close to the door.
"You point your gun at my fricking face," Scheibe is heard telling Zimmerman on a 911 call. "Get out of my house. Do not push me out of my house. Please get out of my house."
Seconds later, she told the dispatcher, "You kidding me? He pushed me out of my house and locked me out. ... He knows how to do this. He knows how to play this game."
Moments later, Zimmerman called 911 from inside house to tell his side of the story.
"I have a girlfriend, who for lack of a better word, has gone crazy on me," Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman then said he never pulled a gun on his girlfriend and that it was she who smashed a table at the home they shared. He also told the dispatcher that Scheibe was pregnant with their child and that she had decided she would raise the child on her own. When Zimmerman started to leave, "she got mad," he said.
Seminole County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Dennis Lemma said at a news conference that Scheibe wasn't pregnant. He also said Zimmerman was compliant and unarmed when deputies came to the house.
On Tuesday, Dowdy said he couldn't confirm whether the girlfriend was pregnant.
The arrest on Monday was the latest legal problem for Zimmerman since he was acquitted last summer of criminal charges in the fatal shooting of Martin. Zimmerman, 30, who identifies himself as Hispanic, has said he shot the 17-year-old to defend himself during a fight in February 2012 inside a gated community in Sanford, just outside Orlando. Federal authorities are now reviewing the case the see if Martin's civil rights were violated.
Relatives of the black 17-year-old, who was unarmed, accused Zimmerman of racially profiling the teen and instigating a fight. Zimmerman said he shot the teen in self-defense. That case sparked nationwide debates about race and self-defense laws.
In September, just roughly months after his acquittal, Zimmerman was accused by his estranged wife of smashing an iPad during an argument at the home they had shared. Shellie Zimmerman initially told a dispatcher her husband had a gun, though she later said he was not armed. No charges were ever filed against either person because of a lack of evidence. The dispute occurred days after Shellie Zimmerman filed divorce papers.
Zimmerman has also been pulled over three times for traffic stops since his acquittal. He was ticketed for doing 60 mph in a 45 mph zone in Lake Mary, Fla., in September and was given a warning by a state trooper along Interstate 95 for having a tag cover and windows that were too darkly tinted. He was also stopped near Dallas in July and given a warning for speeding.
In 2005, Zimmerman had to take anger management courses after he was accused of attacking an undercover officer who was trying to arrest Zimmerman's friend.
Later that year, Zimmerman's former fiancee filed for a restraining order against him, alleging domestic violence. Zimmerman responded by requesting a restraining order against her. Both requests were granted. No criminal charges were filed.


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Get the Paraworld Multiplayer demo off WP (886mb)
In this 3D real-time strategy game players command their troops from dizzying heights, enthroned upon the heads of mighty dinosaurs and other tremendous beasts. Players command their troops both with and against dinosaurs in a prehistoric setting as incredibly dangerous as it is beautiful.
The 3D real-time strategy title ParaWorld explodes the boundaries of the imaginable, putting you under the spell of a completely new and exciting world.
Enthroned a dizzying height above the ground upon the heads of powerful fighting dinosaurs your warriors command them through a prehistoric world as breathtakingly beautiful as it is dangerous.
Armed with devastating weapons and covered in fearsome warpaint you go to battle – leading your people in a fight to save this world.
- Prehistoric parallel world with more than 20 playable maps and 5 different climatic zones: Northlands, Jungle, Savannah, Ice Wastes and Lava
- Comprehensive solo campaigns with 3 completely different tribes and 3 playable heroes
- 3 different LAN and Internet multi-player modes for up to 8 players with 9 playable heroes
- Over 50 different types of animals including 40 incredibly detailed dinosaurs
- Gigantic combat units
- Heroes allow the construction unique buildings, develop new abilities and collect and use different items
- Units have their own special and finishing moves
- Revolutionary unit management
More articles about Paraworld


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Drew Barrymore launched a beauty line for Wal-Mart, which is appropriately named Flower to echo her bohemian style. {Grazia Daily}
While not much has been released about the deal, it appears that Gap and Intermix may be partnering up soon. {WWD}
More From ELLE
Not only was Alexander McQueen designer Sarah Burton given The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire honor for her fashion services, but she also said she hopes to design maternity clothes for Kate Middleton. {Fashionista}
Hedi Slimane's latest Saint Laurent Paris concept store debuted on U.S. soil in Florida. {WWD}
We don't know when it will happen, but Instagram will eventually feature advertisements. {Racked}


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Many women continue taking prescription medications while pregnant -- to manage chronic conditions such as migraines, depression, or seizures -- and a growing body of research suggests that some of these drugs could increase their unborn baby's chances of developing autism.
A worrisome study published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that women who took the anti-seizure drug valproate during pregnancy had nearly triple the risk of giving birth to a child who later developed autism compared with those who didn't take the drug.
Valproate, which has long been known to cause birth defects such as cleft palates and spine abnormalities, is one of the most powerful drugs to control seizures related to epilepsy. But nearly 80 percent of the 1 million women who are prescribed the drug every year take it to treat conditions other than epilepsy, such as migraines, chronic pain, or bipolar disorder.
"I've seen children born to mothers who were treated with this drug who have autism, usually a more severe form that involves cognitive problems along with social difficulties," said Dr. Kimford Meador, a pediatric neurologist at Emory University who wrote an editorial that accompanied the study. "It looks like it's one cause of autism, but it certainly doesn't explain all of the autism we see."
The rate of autism in the general population of Danish children studied was 1.5 percent. It was 4.4 percent in the Danish children born to mothers who took valproate during pregnancy. The researchers didn't find any increased autism risk in children whose mothers took other anti-seizure drugs.
The research raises larger concerns about the effects of an ever growing array of drugs -- designed to treat mental or neurological illnesses -- on the brain of a growing fetus.
Another study published last week in the British Medical Journal found that antidepressant use to manage depression during pregnancy was also associated with a three times greater risk of autism, echoing results of a review study conducted by Boston researchers last year.
Note that these are all population studies that make statistical associations and can't conclude definitively that the drugs led to the heightened autism risk; conducting controlled trials that compare a drug against a placebo in pregnant women would be unethical so researchers rely on making observations in women who chose to take the drugs during pregnancy.
"The system of proper brain development in a fetus relies on chemicals to work in a finely orchestrated system," said Dr. Adam Urato, chair of obstetrics-gynecology at Metrowest Medical Center in Framingham, Mass, who co-authored the review study on antidepressant use in pregnancy. "There's obvious concern that using drugs that change the adult brain chemistry will also change the brain chemistry of the fetus."
While the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists warns against the use of antidepressants during pregnancy except in severe cases of depression, many women accidentally become pregnant while taking the drugs; they may remain on them until their first prenatal visit several weeks after conception. The same occurs with valproate and other medications.
Fetal medicine specialists consider the first 12 weeks of pregnancy to be the most vulnerable time for the fetus, when organs are forming. That's why it's a good idea for women to have a preconception visit with their doctor to determine which medications they should discontinue before trying to become pregnant.
Even beyond 12 weeks, drugs can interfere with the programming of certain fetal genes, which occurs throughout the entire pregnancy.
Complicating matters are all the drugs women take that haven't been well studied for fetal health risks. These include Ritalin and Adderall, which more women are taking beyond their teens to help manage attention deficit disorder. "They're coming under increasing scrutiny for their safety of use during pregnancy," Urato said, "but right now they're a huge unknown."
He said he's worried that these stimulant drugs could raise a baby's autism risk or cause more subtle mental health effects such as developmental delays or learning disabilities later in life.
Meador recently led a study that found 6-year-old children who were exposed to valproate in the womb had IQs that were, on average, 7 to 10 points lower than in children who were exposed to other anti-seizure medications.
"It's very concerning that we still see a great deal of valproate being prescribed to young women of childbearing age who can do just as well on other drugs," Meador said. Topiramate and gabapentin, for example, can be used to treat both seizures and chronic migraines. (Topirmate has also been associated with birth defects, but the risks are smaller than with valproate.)
"Alternatives should certainly be considered first," Meador added. And when doctors do have to prescribe valproate, they should ensure that women take the proper precautions to avoid getting pregnant.
Deborah Kotz can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow her on Twitter @debkotz2.


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Dr. David Talley
With varied ministry experiences, including student development, counseling, pastoring, and teaching psychology and Old Testament studies, Dr. Talley brings a blend of scholarship and practical application to his classroom instruction. He co-pastors a local church, and enjoys research in the areas of Old Testament theology, the Pentateuch, and the prophets. His dissertation research on the judgment of pain in Genesis 3 continues to be a focus in his research as he formulates a perspective on godly living in a difficult world. Dr. Talley is passionate about understanding and teaching the truths of God's Word, discipling and equipping others, and "passing on the faith" to the next generation. In 2013, he completed a survey book on the Old Testament, which seeks to focus on both the information of the biblical text and the transformation of the heart. His work has also been published in The New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, Journal of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and the Christian Research Journal. Dr. Talley travels extensively with the goal of partnering with the international church and training leaders, especially with a focus on impacting Muslim nations with the gospel. He has traveled to South Korea, Kenya, Thailand, Armenia, Russia, Ukraine, Brazil, Honduras, Dominica, Nigeria, Mexico, and the Congo to equip believers.


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If you use protected posts on your WordPress blog you may have noticed that WP-Cache doesn't cache those password protected posts properly. I didn't know this, but James Farmer did so I went looking and found a fix.
In the plugins/wp-cache/ directory, open wp-cache-phase1.php in your favourite text editor and look for the following line:
if (preg_match("/^wordpress|^comment_author_email_/", $key)) {
Replace that line with this one:
if (preg_match("/^wp-postpass|^wordpress|^comment_author_email_/", $key)) {
Save and upload the file if necessary and clear your cache. Password protect posts should be cached properly now!
Ironically, this post wasn't being cached by WP-Cache because the url contains the string "wp-". Here's how to fix that bug. Open wp-cache-phase2.php and look for the following line:
if (strlen($expr) > 0 && strstr($uri, $expr))
Change it to read:
if (strlen($expr) > 0 && substr( $uri, 1, strlen($expr) ) == $expr )
Phew. This post is now cached.


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Browse all Cyprus content
- Method/ToolResearch
- ResourceEmployment
Final Evaluation Report: Evaluation of the effectiveness of interventions of the Operational Programs "Sustainable Development and Competitiveness," "Employment, Human Capital and Social Cohesion" on
- Good practiceEntrepreneurship
A women's co-operative founds a bank
- ResourceCulture
The article examines the usage of professions in their female form in Cypriot newspapers articles (2009-2011).
- ResourceResearch
The paper reviews gender equality legislation and policy developments in Cyprus in six key thematic areas including economic independence, the reconciliation of private and professional life, equal re
- ResourceCulture
The aim of the paper is to present the results of a research study on the gender profile in public (economic, professional and political) life as it has been broadcast by the Cyprus TV and compare it
- ResourceResearch
The key conclusions of the Equality Summit 2012 provide evidence that equality and accessibility policies can help support growth, economic development and prosperity.
- ResourceResearch
The publication portrays the past and current status of women in Cypriot society by presenting statistical information on a wide range of topics.
- ResourceResearch
The 76/207/EEC and 2002/73/EC European Directives, replaced by 2006/54/EC Directive, have been transposed into the Republic of Cyprus' legal order through the Equal Treatment Between Men and Women in
- ResourceResearch
The Parliamentary Committee on Equal Opportunities for Men and Women discussed the implementation of the objectives of the National Action Plan for Equality of Men and Women 2007-2013.<br />The
- ResourceCulture
This is Cyprus' first participation in the Global Media Monitoring Project 2010 (GMMP) by monitoring 157 news stories during one day (10/11/2009) in the Cypriot television, radio and print media, whic
- ResourceCulture
The Mass Media Guidelines against Racism, Xenophobia and Discrimination were prepared for the Office of the Ombudsman.


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Although it's been many moons since Stifler's mom in American Pie, played by consummate genius Jennifer Coolidge, the legacy of the MILF lives on.
Not only was Mrs. Robinson from The Graduate the original MILF (before the shorthand was even coined), the acronym appears on America's top three most-searched porn terms along with "teen" and "college."
But there's even more of a breakdown than the USA as a whole. As reported by BetaBeat yesterday, the infographic developed by adult search engine PornMD displays the smutty predilections of each our 50 great states, as well as other countries.
More From Cosmopolitan
Some of them are unprintable here—hey, even us Professional Sexytime Journalists have a breaking point—but let us just say that Europe's more than slightly kinkier than we are stateside.
That said, there's a serious lack of acronyms geared towards us ladies and the guys we lust after (or don't). Here are some suggestions for a new abridged sex craze.
DINTD – Date I Need to Ditch
DWDHJ – Date Who Doesn't Have a Job
BWLAOJ – Boss Who Laughs at Own Jokes
DMWBUBIM – Dream Man Who Buys Us Bagels In the Morning <3
DWSoHFGC – Date Who Sleeps on His Friend's Gross Couch
DILFAWF – Dad I'd Like to F*** At Whole Foods
DISBFIPA – Dude I Should Not Be Following Into the Produce Aisle
HMMBDHB – Help Me, My Blind Date Has Braces
Follow Anna on Twitter at @annabreslaw.
image via Getty Images


text: Insurance What is Underwriting? Underwriting[uhn-der-rahyt-ing]noun1.Underwriting is the process by which insurance companies evaluate the Risk of a car, home, or other property or individual to be insured. This process takes place when you submit your application, and is done by an Underwriter from an insurance company. Share | Have A Question About This Topic? Name Email Address Question Thank you! Oops!


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Last week I had the privilege to attend a conference on risk science in New Orleans, and hold a roundtable together with neuroscientist Alison Bernstein from SciMoms. We were kindly invited to talk about our approach to risk communication by Center for Food Integrity.
This was awesome! Not only did I and Alison finally get to meet face to face, we also got to present what we had learned about messages that work on social media (see our series: Risk In Perspective), as well as ones that don't. In between many interesting sessions, on everything from food fears to radiological risk to supplements and climate change mitigation, Alison also introduced me to fresh beignets, fried green tomatoes and other New Orleans essentials.
For our presentation, one of the things we talked about was the varied success of our infographics for the piece Measures of Toxicity. In the article, we underlined the distinction that acute toxicity info (like LD50) is mostly relevant to accidents, murders and suicides, whereas what the public is often most concerned about are the gradual chronic effects. These are more appropriately reflected by the chronic intake limits, which are set in a way to try hard to avoid such effects.
We talked about what these metrics can and can't tell us. We stressed that they themselves tell us nothing about the risks to consumer, because you have to consider actual exposures relative to these limits to assess risk.
We made tables of toxicity measures to go with the article, keeping in mind that social media heavily favours visual posts. With the infographics we wanted to make the point that any substance can cause great harm if the dose is high enough, and similarly, will have levels at which we expect there to be virtually no impact.
Now, always when you post an infographic, you know there will be a lot of people who will not read the accompanying article, so we have to try to make them cogent and clear enough to stand on their own. These tables evoked a lot of discussion, which might be their strongest point, and many appreciated and shared them. But it is also questionable whether they actually work well on their own, and people's reactions to them taught me several things, some of which I want to discuss here.
First, people love their coffee! They will not take kindly to anything suggesting coffee could have risks. (No, the table values do not suggest we should give up coffee – or that we should take up a habit of drinking lead or hydrogen cyanide instead 😉 )
Secondly, how the regulatory intake limits (used in the chronic table) relate to consumer risk is not very clear to many people. When we think of the word 'acceptable' in everyday sense, it sounds rather like a mediocre test score, not a value hundred or thousand times below levels where minor harm might occur.
Considering that these limits are referred to in health-related news as well, this is a potentially a very large point of misunderstanding. Hearing there is an 'acceptable' limit for a substance, people quickly assume that crossing that limit must land us in dangerous territory.
That it takes a thousandfold level of caffeine to achieve the effects many of us do want to have, and that such doses are not actually threatening to most people's health, is a good demonstration of how conservative these 'acceptable limits' can be. Their purpose is to define a level where particularly at-risk populations (such as children, pregnant women) are very unlikely to experience any unwanted effects, even if the intake is constant throughout life.
The power of visuals
Having realized how elusive the nature of these acceptable limits can be, I was struck by a very simple graph I saw on a slide during an excellent presentation at the risk conference on intuitive toxicology and irrational food fears by Dr. Angela Bearth. Her research has reached heartening conclusions such as in her paper on Informing Consumers About the Scientific Risk Assessment of Food Additives:
it appears that informing consumers about complex food safety topics, such as the scientific risk assessment of food additives, is possible, and using a carefully developed information video is a successful strategy for informing consumers.
… and that video (in German) included a graph on finding the No Adverse Effects Level (NOAEL) of aspartame. Next to the NOAEL was a bar for the acceptable limit – hundred times lower. So simple, so elegant. Why hadn't I thought about it? A simple visual approach would make the information more intuitive. Being a bit short on video-making skills, I decided to go at it with an infographic.
While setting the limit, factors like the speed of breakdown (the potential for accumulation), what foods it is found on, and how much of those foods people tend to eat, are taken into account. For a detailed account of how the safety margins are determined, please see Alison's piece where she uses coffee and glyphosate limits as the examples, or the EPA's page on how pesticide tolerance limits are set, and similar guides for the OECD countries. Note that depending on region and class of substances, the names of the limits vary (common ones include Acceptable Daily Intake, Reference Dose, and Tolerable Daily Intake) – more about that in our piece Measures of Toxicity.
Regulatory limits vs reality?
In addition to the limit level, I decided to look at some real world data on what kind of trace levels are actually found. I chose pesticides residues, because they are a prime suspect for inflated sense of risk: they tick the boxes of being unfamiliar, manmade, and imposed, so we are biased to view them with exaggerated caution. As a result, many consumers worry about pesticide residues out of proportion.
One way to look at this are to consider various food-stuffs and their typical residue levels – as Steve Savage does here, looking at the annual USDA pesticide residue database. Detailed information is also available on the Californian pesticide testing regimen, which samples thousands of food items every year. They tend to find that about 40 % of foods tested have no detectable residues at all, and that in the remaining portion the residues tend to fall much below 10 % of the limit. (The limit which is already 100-1000 times below a level where we still would expect no effects.)
Added: Similarly for Europe, as analysed by EFSA, yearly tests find about half of the samples to be free of residues, and more than 96 % to fall below the Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs), which are often set at even lower levels than the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI), taking into consideration that farmers are often able to use the pesticides at levels where residues remain far lower.
A few percent of cases in Europe, as well as those in California, do have either levels above the limit, or an unapproved kind of pesticide residue present. Both regulators note that majority of the time, this does not indicate a health concern – with rare exceptions, like in 2013, when cactus pads imported to California from Mexico were found with potentially harmful levels of organophosphates. (They were subsequently removed from sales and imports monitored.)
Looking at how much above the acceptable limit we need to go before we even expect effects, this lack of health concern is not all that surprising. I wanted to try to make this information more intuitive as well, and I think the most relevant approach would be to look at our actual average exposures – how much do we end up taking in through our diet?
I know of at least two studies that have made these kinds of estimates, a Danish one looking at cumulative pesticide exposures from earlier this year, and one from US from 2011. These studies looked at 25 and ten most commonly detected residues, respectively. Neither found consumer exposures to exceed the acceptable limit. The scientist in me did not feel comfortable without allowing for at least some uncertainty, however, so I chose to go with "more than 99.9 % of the time our exposures are below the acceptable limit." This infographic is much more cluttered compared to the first one… but it's a start.
Both studies found that the highest exposures were around 2 % of the limit, and that majority were even below 0.5 % – in fact, the US study found that in almost half of the cases, we are exposed to less than 0.001 % of the acceptable limits. Even with a combined assessment, assuming that these residues could together amount to more risk, the Danish paper finds that consumers cumulatively reach about 16 % of the acceptable intake limit.
UPDATE: I couldn't stop thinking about wanting to improve the residue-graphic, and decided to try a different approach, here:
Using areas, it is easier to keep all the different levels visible (the visual comparison of areas instead of heights may underestimate the values somewhat for the viewer, but I think here it is useful nevertheless, because the differences are still huge, but it brings the levels to a form that is more easily viewable at a glance.
I am still digesting the insights and extra materials I accumulated from the risk conference, and I hope that they can make me better at communicating risk. When I think of how much anxiety goes into many areas that pose very tiny risks, it really makes me wish that I could find a way to make the information tangible in a way that would take away needless fear and help empower the public.
I want parents, grandparents, and all worried or health-conscious consumers to know that they are in control of their well-being: there are no invisible threats to eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, which, along with regular exercise, is the single most effective secret to living long and healthy lives.
For more about some common concerns over substances in agriculture and medicine, you can find articles under Farming and GMOs and Vaccines and Health.
If you would like to have a discussion in the comments below, please take note of my Commenting policy. In a nutshell:
- Be respectful.
- Back up your claims with evidence.


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Joseph LeDoux
New York UniversityMarch 28, 2011
Speakers: Joseph LeDoux
Run Time: 55 minutes
Joseph LeDoux talks with Roger Bingham about his "heavy mental" band, the Amygdaloids, which plays all original songs about mind and brain...
Daniela Schiller
Mount Sinai School of MedicineMarch 31, 2011
Speakers: Daniela Schiller
Run Time: 30 minutes
Daniela Schiller talks to Roger Bingham about how she got into science and reviews research, including her own, on modifying fear memories. Daniela...
For over a decade, TSN has been delivering the stories of science told by the world's leading thinkers. What are they exploring and why? Why did they become scientists? How do they see science as part of the larger culture? And what lies ahead?
Our new podcast, Talking Science on TSN brings you their conversations with Roger Bingham from the TSN archive and fresh from the bench.
Find the podcast on your favorite podcast app, Soundcloud, iTunes, Stitcher, and RSS.
The Science Network has been available free of charge and without advertising for the past decade.
Gifts from Patrons, Benefactors - and people like you - have made this possible.
As we celebrate TSN@10, we acknowledge past and present donors, including:
Diane and Rob Zeps
Mary Jane and Robert Engman
The National Science Foundation
The Glenn Foundation
The Dana Foundation
The Kavli Foundation
The ResMed Foundation
The Swartz Foundation
Richard C. Atkinson
Shalom M. Blitz
Peter Farrell
Ernest W. Moody
Jennifer A. Moores
Gerry Ohrstrom
Andrew and Erna Viterbi
Leaning In with Sheryl Sandburg
A conversation about digital culture and women in science and technology
How Neurons are Born
Fred 'Rusty' Gage


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New Jersey State Coppers
by Roger S. Siboni, John L. Howes, and A. Buell Ish
Hardcover: 492 pages
List price: $235 (plus S&H)
Member price: $165 (plus S&H)
As William Sheldon eloquently put it in Penny Whimsy,
Old copper, like beauty, appears to possess a certain intrinsic quality or charm... [with] an almost living warmth and personality not encountered in any other metal.... You see rich shades of green, red, brown, yellow, and even deep ebony: together not elsewhere matched in nature save perhaps in autumn leaves....
Early coppers are rich in die varieties, cracked dies, imperfect and unusual planchets, misstruck coins and other minor variations. ...It is therefore not surprising that to some extent the different die varieties are recognizable by characteristic color and surface texture, as well as by die breaks, peculiarities of the planchet and so on.
New Jersey State Coppers shows that never were these words more true than in the case of the coins struck for New Jersey by Thomas Goasby, Albion Cox, Walter Mould, and Matthias Ogden from 1786 until as late as 1790. By way of introduction, the authors fully discuss the often tumultuous history of the New Jersey copper coinage and its creators alongside the equally compelling story of the men, like Dr. Edward Maris, who first appreciated the "living warmth and personality" of the coins and formed the great collections of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Every known New Jersey die variety is presented in minute detail with lavish enlarged full-color illustrations, condition censuses, as well as commentary on die states and other notable features.
The authors also include such supplementary material as the original documents related to the eighteenth- century coining venture, imitations created for the collector market in the nineteenth century, as well as suggestions for developing a personal collection. New Jersey State Coppers will surely become the primary tool for the study of this coinage and the basis for deepening the understanding and appreciation of its charm as old copper.
To pre-order, see:
Wayne Homren, Editor


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Why is it so difficult to find good quality stock photography at an affordable price?! So much of it is just downright cheesy. And, it can be very time consuming to dig up. That's why I love Death To The Stock Photo so much.
Sign up and each month you will receive a link to download a bundle of free, high quality photos that you can use to illustrate blog posts, client projects, mockups and more. I've been a subscriber for a few months now and each pack is solid — no primary colored backdrops, creepy smiles or corporate handshakes in sight! You can get a good idea of the quality from the newest spring-themed pack above. Beautiful, right?
One of the most common questions we get from students at The Blogcademy is where they can find high quality images to illustrate their blog posts if they don't have the means to take their own photos. Well, here's your holy grail.
And, if you're a designer mocking up projects and need some good general background images, they work great as well. I actually just used a few in the Chutzpah Creative post!
What are you waiting for? Sign up now and say goodbye to questionable stock photography forever.
All photos: Death To The Stock Photo
Check out even more Tools Of The Trade posts here.


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American actress (Love Addict), erotic model, singer, reality TV star Courtney Stodden nude touches and licks her big bobs (2017)
Courtney Alexis Stodden (born August 29, 1994) is an American reality show contestant, actress, model, recording artist and a national spokesperson for PETA, the animal rights activist organization.
After competing in beauty pageants in her home state of Washington, then 16-year-old Stodden came to international attention when she married then 50-year-old actor Doug Hutchison in 2011. The media attention surrounding Stodden and her marriage led to her appearing in numerous reality television series, including Couples Therapy (with Hutchison) and Celebrity Big Brother.
Courtney Alexis Stodden was born on August 29, 1994, in Tacoma, Washington, to Alex Stodden and Krista Keller. She has two older sisters, Ashley and Brittany. Stodden describes her childhood as "beautiful and fun," stating that she was "extremely spoiled, in a good way." She was raised in Ocean Shores, Washington.
In 2011 Stodden said that she dropped out of high school because she was bullied over "the way she looks", and continued her education by being home schooled through an online private Christian academy.


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The World Next Year: 2013 Edition
Bob McMahon and I typically use our weekly podcast to discuss major foreign policy issues likely to be in the news in the coming week. In honor of the approaching New Year, we decided to change things up and examine the issues likely to dominate world politics in 2013. We discussed a sluggish global economy; the fiscal crisis in the United States; power struggles in the Middle East; the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan; sovereignty disputes in east Asia; and the battle over Internet freedom. Paul Stares, director of CFR's Center for Preventive Action (CPA), joined our conversation to talk about CPA's newly released Preventive Priorities Survey, which assesses the likelihood and consequences of potential conflicts in 2013.
The highlights:
Global economic growth slowed in 2012, averaging only slightly more than 2 percent. Most economic forecasts predict that global growth is likely to stay sluggish in 2013. Economic troubles aren't evident just in the mature economies of Europe (which is back in recession) or the United States (which is experiencing an anemic economic recovery).
- Economic troubles are also evident in many of the emerging economies that only two years ago were crowing because they had avoided the financial crash of 2008-2009. The risk in 2013 is that these economic troubles could be mutually reinforcing, thereby making current economic projections look optimistic in retrospect.
- One issue that could strain the struggling global economy is the approaching fiscal cliff in the United States. The White House and the U.S. House of Representatives still have time to cut a deal to avert the cliff. But if they don't, the result would be to put considerable downward pressure, to borrow the bloodless language of economists, on the U.S. economy, and in turn the global economy. And even if Washington avoids going over the fiscal cliff, it is unlikely to solve its fiscal problems entirely.
- Turmoil continues to rock the Middle East. Syria will likely dominate the headlines early in 2013 as its civil war intensifies and fears grow that the Assad government will use chemical weapons in a last ditch effort to hold onto power or that jihadists will capture those chemical weapons. Egypt continues to struggle to craft a new political order and to jump start its economy. And Iran is pressing ahead with its nuclear program, raising the prospect that sometime in 2013 it will breach the red lines that the United States and Israel have drawn.
- Two things are clear about Afghanistan in 2013. The number of NATO troops will continue to decline, and the Taliban will continue to fight. The Obama administration is discussing how fast the U.S. troop drawdown will proceed, how large the residual force will be at the end of 2014, and what precisely those troops will do. In all, it is hard to be optimistic about Afghanistan's future.
- Territorial disputes in east Asia have the potential to explode in 2013. Profits and patriotism are fueling the tensions. How the lines are drawn in the East China and South China seas will determine who benefits from exploiting potentially vast offshore oil and mineral deposits. Meanwhile, nationalism makes it difficult for Asian leaders, many of whom will be new to the job in 2013, to concede claims to regional rivals. U.S. diplomats have the tough task of reassuring America's allies that the United States stands with them, but doing so in a way that doesn't encourage them to act recklessly. Moral hazards are never easy.
- Tensions are growing not just in the physical world, but also in the virtual world. Internet users, and especially social media users, have grown accustomed to using the Internet to say what they think. Many authoritarian countries find that freedom threatening and have sought to assert greater control over the Internet and even to use technology to identify and punish their critics.The United States, Canada, and many European countries take the opposite side in the Internet freedom debate, which is why they rejected a proposed treaty earlier this month governing international communications. That dispute isn't going away.
- Bob's Figure of the Year is 37 percent. My Figure of the Year is Mohammed Morsi. As always, you'll have to listen to the podcast to find out why.
Of course, December is the time for "best of" and "top ten" lists. My CFR colleagues have been busy compiling theirs. Isobel Coleman names five development innovations to watch in 2013. Robert Danin identifies the ten most significant events in the Middle East in 2012. Michael Levi lists the five most influential energy and climate studies of 2012. Adam Segal has five trends to watch for in Chinese cybersecurity in 2013.
Outside of CFR, Time has the top ten everything of 2012. Yahoo picks the topnews stories of 2012. Booz Allen identifies what it sees as the top ten cyber security trends for financial services. The Institute for Human Rights and Business has its top ten business and human rights issues. The New York Times Book Review names the top ten books of 2012. Slate has the best movies of 2012 and the Atlantic lists 2012′s greatest moments in sports. Lonely Planet has its top ten travel destinations for 2013, only two of which I have visited. I need to get out more.
Bob and I are taking a break next week from podcast duties. We will be back in January. In the meantime, we wish you and yours a safe and happy holidays.


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Breast Cancer More Lethal in Blacks, Reason Unknown
It is still a mystery why black women are more likely to die from breast cancer than whites, according to a new study that shows the racial disparity can't be chalked up to obesity differences.
As a group, black women in the U.S. tend to be heavier than whites and researchers had thought that might explain why only 78 percent survive five years after diagnosis, compared to 90 percent of white women.
"This has been an important question," said Susan M. Gapstur of the American Cancer Society, who wasn't involved in the new work.
Several studies have tied obesity to poorer survival after breast cancer, but only a few small ones have tested whether that relationship varies by race.
The new study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, is the most detailed and well-designed so far, Gapstur told Reuters Health.
Yani Lu of City of Hope in Duarte, California, and colleagues used data collected for an earlier breast cancer study on more than 4,500 women living in major American cities.
About a third of the women were black and the rest were white, and all were between 35 and 64 years old when they were diagnosed with breast cancer.
After more than eight years, 14 percent of the white women and a quarter of the black women had died of breast cancer.
The women had been interviewed about their weight five years before their cancer diagnosis and more than twice as many black women as white were obese (27 percent versus 12 percent).
Obese white women had a 46-percent higher chance of dying of breast cancer than their normal-weight white peers and the increased risk remained after taking other diseases and education into account.
But there was no such link for blacks.
The researchers did find a hint that extra poundage might be related to cancer death in black women with advanced disease, but Gapstur said those results would need to be replicated by additional studies in other groups.
"It was surprising that this study shows a positive relationship between obesity and breast cancer mortality in white women and not in black women," she said. "It raises important questions about other possible reasons."
While there aren't any bulletproof answers yet, researchers believe differences in tumor biology as well as health care access could be at play.
Last year, for instance, one study found that black and Hispanic women wait longer to get drug treatment after breast cancer surgery than whites.
Previous research has also found that black women are more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancers at later stages than white women.
"We don't yet have a clear picture," Gapstur said.
Still, she added, the message to black breast cancer survivors is not that they shouldn't worry about their weight.
"It is always important to maintain a healthy weight, for a variety of reasons," she told Reuters Health.


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Technology has great potential for the individual. Problems occur when attempts are made to force the individual to be part of the mass. At that moment, individual power is surrendered. This isn't where technology is going – all manner of reports are telling us that. The era of standard operating environments and institutional dependence are challenged by individual agency using smartphones, 3G networks and tablets.
The technology student's are given and how they are allowed to use it is an aggregate of what someone believes is good for the mass. We are no where near thinking about personalised technology planning. This is the legacy of Skinner, who still dominates so much of the classroom experience. Eventually we comply, because we are tricked into believing we face a win/lose scenarios constantly, and the various conditioning that is required for civic-function. But this is increasingly short-lived. People are figuring out that they can get a better job by being better connected, and that a better grade does not have as much value as a better network. These are the tomorrow people. What is more, these people are telling other people how to do it – and some of those people are students and teachers.
Change won't be delivered in a truck. Nor will it be in the English written language. We have to interpret it, to decide as individuals where out tipping point is. I reject the borad idea that connected teachers are better than non-connected or that online is better than off-line on the basis it reinforces moral-panic, though it puts some people in positions of authority and wealth by attempting to diminish others. Secondly, it assumes that learning in the classroom is best facilitated though augmentation of English language tools rather than anything else (also diminished). I am obviously interested in what games are and how they can be used – but this puts me in a minority – and find it irritating that 90% of what people are told is 'better' isn't a different language or medium, merely an adaptation of the very things that support their view – and validates their work. They are one individual using mass-effect to influence others, despite the uniqueness of every child and classroom. This isn't to say all classrooms and kids would benefit from game-based-learning, but we could say that of any technology. But that isn't how conferences, books and consulting cartels function.
To be healthy, I do not need everyone around me to be sick. There are enhancements that benefit us regardless of whether or not others have more or less. Intelligence is not reduced by having intelligent peers, but amplified. This will never be on an equal basis. No matter what context, kids benefit from being more intelligent. That is, they benefit from being more creative, more analytical, and more articulate, more imaginative, better social-peer interactions.


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Gardner's Comparative Heights of Mountains and Rivers, 1823
When I was a young, baby-faced graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I had the good fortune of attending a series of lectures by Simon Schama on his new book Landscape and Memory. Schama presented a cultural history of landscape in Europe (mountains, rivers, forests). He was compelling as a lecturer, impressive in his arguments. But man, did he have good slides. I had already begun to settle into the history of exploration as my thesis area. But I had always imagined that I would approaching this material from the world of text: logs, journals, scientific monographs, etc. As Schama delivered his lectures (they took place over three days), his slides were more than eye-candy, they were arguments. This may sound silly, but I never thought about the visual artifacts of exploration as evidence until that moment. In any event, I am always on the lookout for good expeditionary photos, engravings, etc. Over the next few posts, I hope to share some sites with good pickings for those of you who are visually inclined.
David Rumsey started digitalizing his map collection twenty years ago. He now has over 17,000 of them scanned, online, free of access to all. There are some amazing maps here, authored by Lewis and Clark, James Cook, and Alexander von Humboldt among others. You will need to download one of the specialized browsers on his site, but once this is set up you can view thousands of exploration maps in all of their hi-def grandeur and download them too. One of the best features is the document notes available with each map. Sometimes these offer secondary source notes useful for explaining context, etc.
Have fun: http://www.davidrumsey.com/


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DENVER – Democrats make up more than half of the 155 suspected noncitizen voters that Secretary of State Scott Gessler is referring to prosecutors, according to figures released by his office Friday.
The party affiliation breakdown shows that 88 of the voters are Democrats, 49 are unaffiliated and 13 are Republicans. Five others are from minor parties, according to numbers provided by Gessler's office to The Associated Press.
No charges have been filed yet against the voters, which Gessler said Monday are being referred to prosecutors. It's the latest chapter in a heated debate that Gessler, a Republican, has helped drive since taking office in 2011, repeatedly saying noncitizens on voter rolls are vulnerability in the system. He said this week that officials "can no longer turn a blind eye" to it.
But Democrats and voting-rights groups have questioned Gessler's findings and have argued that the data does not back up his claims.
"I think that he has chased this boogeyman for so long, he can't let go of it," said Ellen Dumm, a communications consultant for voter-rights groups.
The voters sent to prosecutors are among 4,201 people who have received letters from Gessler since last August, asking them to affirm their citizenship or voluntarily remove themselves from the voting rolls. More than 500 have responded affirming their citizenship, and at least 1,000 had moved with no forwarding address.
The 155 voters under scrutiny did not respond to the letters, and have voted in one or more elections, Gessler's office said.
Like the latest party-affiliation breakdown, most who have received letters are Democrats or unaffiliated voters. According to a breakdown from August, when the letter tally was at 3,903, registered Democrats received 1,566 letters and 1,794 went to unaffiliated voters. Another 486 letters were sent to registered Republicans, and the remaining voters who were questioned belonged to minor parties.
Gessler's office has said it doesn't use party registration as an identifier when searching for suspected noncitizen voters.
"Any implication of a partisan motive is reckless and factually incorrect," said Rich Coolidge, a Gessler spokesman.
The letters have been sent to people who once showed proof of noncitizenship, such as a green card, when getting a driver's license and then later appeared on voter rolls. Gessler is also using a federal immigration database, which has historically been used to track who is a legal resident eligible to receive government benefits. Critics have argued it's not error-free and doesn't immediately update when someone becomes naturalized.
Denver District Attorney spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough said that as of mid-week, her office had not received any names from Gessler. She said once they get the names, they'll review and determine, "based on the evidence submitted, whether sufficient credible evidence is present to pursue the case for criminal investigation."
Coolidge said prosecutors are expected to get referral packets Friday and today.


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"I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me"
Jeremiah 33:8
(image of the prophet Jeremiah by Michelangelo, the Sistine Chapel)
Despite the distress of our time, we have lost touch with this prophetic spirit.
In fact, the inmost nature of prophecy has become an enigma to us.
We no longer grasp its primary source anymore.
Eberhard Arnold
Where are the voices…
those strong, confident and defiant voices that portend the fate of man?
Those ancient distant voices which proclaimed, declared, lamented, warned and foretold…
Those quixotic ones, from the days of old, whose words spoke of both power and truth …
In this oh so modernly smug time of man, believers are left to silently wonder,
as the non believer ridicules and scoffs.
Taunting the faithful while arrogantly puffing their chests.
For modern man has declared himself his own deity and god.
As Eberhard Arnold pragamatically observes, we have lost touch with that part
within ourselves which allowed us to hear those prophetic voices.
We have grown cold to our spiritual nature…
As we have distanced ourselves to the point of total disregard,
For that innate piece of the Divine that was once very attuned…
Allowing rather the void to be filled by our haughty sense of self.
Those voices however have never been silenced…
Never stopped or cut short over the windswept history of time…
they have not grown cold as the hard stones of earth…
but rather it is man who has grown cold, having lost his ability to hear them.
For man has turned a deaf ear to the apocalyptical.
Yet it is in that same breath of disheartened resignation that
Arnold offers us a bit of hope…
"The attitude is [still] possible only when a different heart beats within us,
different from that which has been in us so far, and when God's spirit dwells in us,
as Ezekiel promises for these last days (Ezek.11:19).
If the earth is to be filled with the glory of God,
then the triune Spirit must fill and pervade the people who dwell on it.
Only when the Spirit gains influence over us, a sovereignty thus
far completely unknown,
can we expect the social and moral transformation that Mary sings about…"
My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his offspring forever."
The Magnificat
Luke 1:46-55
"Maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always"
Hosea 12:6


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Site News
Welcome to our redesigned site
The redesign was done to make the web experience more user friendly, as well as to make the mobile and desktop versions more compatible. We hope you find the site an improved experience. We always welcome your input, so let us know what you think. Play ball!
Los Angeles Angels at Seattle Mariners on May 15, 2016 . '
Click the button below to listen to the audio play-by-play.
If the player above doesn't work for you, please check to make sure that your speakers are not muted, especially if your device has a hardware "silence switch".
If that does not resolve the issue, please download the MP3 file below to play the game audio directly.


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Quilt Mercantile
Preserving the Original
The Celeste, Texas, building that houses Quilt Mercantile was once a Model T dealership. Now it's a flourishing quilt shop that takes uses the building's high ceilings and exposed rafters to display countless quilt samples and a wide selection of fabric and patterns.
Meet the Staff
Seated, from left
: Jennifer Tenney (co-owner) and Vickey Dees (co-owner); standing: Bettie Hammock, Nancy Nall, Jackie Brown, Lynda Gatliff, Sarah Francis, Lynda Lindstrom, and Alice Wilhoit.
Quilting Together
Quilt Mercantile shoppers enjoy classes lead by experienced teachers. They also now can benefit from a 4,700-square-foot retreat center with space for 24 quilters to sew, sleep, and enjoy each other's company. Shop owners Jennifer Tenney and Vickey Dees, a mother-daughter team, had the new building constructed right next door to the shop.
Continual Christmas
Quilt Mercantile celebrates Christmas year-round. With an entire room devoted to the winter holiday, including projects such as Lone Star Quick Kit from Quiltsmart, shop owners Jennifer and Vickey encourage quilters to stay festive no matter the month.
Fresh Air
Quilt Mercantile owners Vickey Dees and Jennifer Tenney designed Fresh Air for Quilt Sampler® Spring/Summer 2011 magazine.
Machine-Quilting Details
Jackie Brown machine-quilted the center of each Snowball block in Fresh Air with a feathered circle around a center grid. In each Nine-Patch block she stitched a grid in the center square and pairs of straight lines in the remaining squares to create movement. In the outer border, she used rickrack as the spine of machine-quilted feathers, with piano-key-style stitching in the background.
Fresh Air Color Option
Quilt tester Laura Boehnke Fabrics used a combination of red, white, and blue prints to create a patriotic version of Fresh Air. She reduced the number of Snowball and Nine-Patch blocks and simplified the borders by omitting the yo-yo flowers and rickrack. Fabrics are from the American Valor collection for Timeless Treasures Fabrics.
Out and About
When you're visiting Quilt Mercantile, take the time to check out these other local attractions.
Ernie's Pit Barbecue, 8707 Wesley St., Greenville, TX 75402; 903/455-4730. Slow-cooked Texas BBQ located about 17 miles from Celeste.
Historic Downtown Greenville, Friends of Main Street, 3216 Washington St., Greenville, TX 75401. Antiques shops, boutiques, and more.
Mama Muriel's Doll Museum, 5285 F.M. 1553, Leonard, TX 75452; 903/587-3655. Thousands of dolls in period costumes.
Mary of Puddin Hill, 201 Interstate 30 E, Greenville, TX 75402; 903/455-6931. An array of fruitcakes and sweets.
The Audie Murphy/American Cotton Museum, 600 Interstate 30 E, Greenville, TX 75403; 903/450-4502. Includes a military wing.
Contact Quilt Mercantile to purchase a copy of the Spring/Summer 2011 issue of Quilt Sampler magazine. Issues are also available at your local quilt shop, on newsstands, and online.


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State Map for
Chemical Plant & System Operators
Looking to move? Some states have more opportunities for this type of work than others.
Orange states have an above average share of this career in their workforce.
Blue states have a below average share of this career in their workforce.
For detailed state-by-state info, see employment and wages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
National Outlook
Nationwide, new job opportunities for chemical plant and system operators are less likely in the future.


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I am thinking that this month might be the time to concentrate on the closets a bit. There isn't any snow accumulation, to speak of, distracting us to the mountain but it's certainly cold enough that I am very content to be indoors for a while.
The holiday decorations are returned to their respectful places and the house is cleaned and tidied so the logical focal point right now is the closets.
A fun way to make this chore less a bore and a tad more exciting is to revitalize your wardrobe while you organize. The vast holiday sales seem to have lingered as my inbox is filled to the brim with emails, coupons, discounts and deep sale prices so this reenforces my choice of my next to-do item.
Take a notepad with you to your closet as you set out to declutter and reorganize. The best technique is to completely remove the entire content of your closet. Daunting but a good idea as things get squeezed, squashed and generally do a disappearing act in the darkest corners. I personally take my closet one section at a time, not a complete emptying because I have a built in closet system. Feel free to do the same if you do as well — otherwise, pull out all the stops!
The clothing is the majority of my closet, although the shoes are a very close second, in close competition with the handbags. The shoe cleanup I would save for another day. Pull out every piece and begin to sort. There are surely items that haven't been worn in quite a while so begin by making four piles. You will create a keep pile, a donate pile, a toss pile and possibly a consignment pile.
I like to give a two-year shelf life to pieces. Some stylists recommend one year because many lines are designed to be multi-seasonal but if you haven't worn something in two complete turns of the globe then it's time to find it a new home. Make the decision and stick with it, don't be wishy washy or sentimental. Especially if the tag is still attached. Obviously this was an impulse buy that you really didn't need. This type of clothing item would definitely be a good consignment piece. The consignment shops are a great place for gently used clothing but they are extremely finicky about what they accept because with the economic downturn consigning has become uber trendy and therefore they can be picky. Items with tags will bring a decent return for your donation.
Items that don't work for you, don't fit or have seen their usefulness are good items for a donation center or new start organization. You might also try a home clothing swap with your friends and neighbors to stretch your dollar and give old pieces new life in a friends' closet. There should be a pile of beloved pieces that have surely seen their last wearing so don't be afraid to say goodbye and toss.
You are then left with the keepers. At this point organize and hang by item; skirts, pants, tops and also be category; work, casual, evening. If you don't have a built-in organizing closet system create one by hanging like items with like items. Color coordinate the hangers as per each category and delineate shelves/racks/sections to each style.
Next, look at what you are keeping and think about how you might make these pieces more versatile. Can it cross day to night, season to season? What does it need to accomplish that goal? A wrap, a cardigan, a trendy belt?
This is where the notepad comes in handy. Group the items and then cross reference them to see how many uses you might find for a particular piece. This requires a little more time on your part but will certainly make your closet more useful and actually avoid the issue of pieces with tags never getting worn.
Be realistic and don't be too eager to overspend, realizing what is logical for your lifestyle. Don't purchase uselessly trying to complete a look that you will never wear.
Once you have your list (and this should be grouped according to season, color, purpose as well) then hit the stores and fill in the blanks. What a great feeling to find what you need to create or complete a great outfit at an awesome sale price! And when you give new life to a look it's as if you have an entirely new wardrobe.
You'll want to hurry, swimsuits will be on the racks any day now so don't drag your heels. You will be so glad you got up off the couch and tackled this task. Also, I should mention the exact same technique can be applied to the kids' closets, just use a slightly scaled down approach which should be less time consuming as well. Also think about how something slightly worn or almost outgrown can be moved to another child's closet for a second life. Just don't call it hand-me-downs,my boys are happy to see something new, even if it is gently worn by a brother.
Good luck! Happy shopping and joyful organizing to you!
Miriam S. Cash is the owner of Equilibrium Design and Consulting of East Goshen. More information is available at www.designsbyequilibrium.com.


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Jan 25 The central bank of West Africa's CFA-franc zone has signed an agreement with the private sector arm of the Islamic Development Bank to help finance small and medium-sized businesses through a $100 million Islamic fund.
The deal follows a debut 150 billion CFA francs ($247.5 million) Islamic bond issued by the Ivory Coast last month, the second such transaction in the eight-nation Economic and Monetary Union of West Africa (UEMOA).
The Jeddah-based Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) will commit an intial $30 million for the SME fund and would help seek additional investors to increase its size to $100 million, a joint statement said.
UEMOA comprises Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Niger and Togo. They share a regional central bank and the CFA franc currency, which is pegged to the euro.
Despite strong growth in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, Islamic finance has lagged in Africa, home to a quarter of the world's Muslims, presenting an opportunity for ICD which is exanding its activities across the region.
The Ivory Coast's sukuk, which was arranged by the ICD, saw a 38 percent allocation to investors from the Middle East region. In 2014, Senegal issued the region's first Islamic bond, a 100 billion CFA franc deal.
Niger has also signed up for a sukuk programme worth 150 billion CFA francs, although a timing has yet to be determined.
The central bank also committed to support SMEs by providing incentives to credit institutions, as well as developing complementary leasing and venture capital instruments.
(Reuters / 24 January 2016)---
Alfalah Consulting - Kuala Lumpur: www.alfalahconsulting.com
Consultant-Speaker-Motivator: www.ahmad-sanusi-husain.com
Islamic Investment Malaysia: www.islamic-invest-malaysia.com


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Back in the bad old days of Ma Bell's ascendancy, you couldn't attach anything to the monopoly's telephone network without express permission: not an answering machine, not an extension, not nothin'. Those days are long gone -- unless you or your users connect to the Internet via Comcast, the giant cable network that delivers television and broadband connectivity to millions of customers.
In a stunning display of arrogance, Comcast is stopping Zoom Telephonics from providing cable modems to its subscribers by imposing a ridiculous set of conditions. How ridiculous? In addition to meeting unrealistic standards about heat resistance and packaging, Zoom would be forced to pay business-class airfare and hotel accommodations for Comcast employees who journey to Asia to approve Zoom's modems, according to a complaint filed with the FCC [PDF].
[ Yes, the carriers are robber barons, but unlimited data usage is equally unrealistic. Here's a plan to get better wireless data service for all. | Get the key tech news of the day; sign up for InfoWorld's Tech Headlines Wrap-Up newsletter. ]
There's no mystery about why Comcast wants to stop its customers from buying Zoom cable modems. Comcast customers normally rent cable modems for $5 a month; a Zoom modem costs $55 to $75. The math isn't hard.
Both consumers and IT have a stake in this one. The principle of allowing "non-harmful" devices to be connected to the network has been settled law since the Supreme Court's Carterfone ruling of 1968. Can you imagine how obnoxious it would be to have some bozo bandwidth provider declaring that the firewall you just installed on your network was "harmful" and you'd better buy one from them?
The Carterfone ruling was the first in a series of steps that ended the stranglehold that AT&T then had on telecommunications, slowing innovation to a crawl. Comcast and the rest of the big cable providers and telcos would like nothing better than to get some of that power back.
No Netflix for consumers -- and maybe no Web apps for employees
In case you've forgotten, Comcast is on the verge of completing its buyout of NBC. There are many reasons to hope the feds block that move, and this week illustrated a bunch. Bear with me a bit, and you'll see why this matters to IT, not just consumers.
Consider Comcast's beef with Level 3, and by extension, Netflix: Level 3, a huge backbone provider, recently struck a deal to deliver streaming movies for Netflix. Comcast then demanded that Level 3 pay it a recurring fee for delivering that content to Comcast subscribers. When Level 3 balked, Comcast threatened to cut the cord by blocking the content Level 3 was supplying to Comcast subscribers. Level 3 paid.
There's been quite the war of words over this skirmish, with Level 3 and consumer advocates claiming that the real issue here is Net neutrality, the principle that broadband providers may not discriminate against different types of traffic moving over the networks that carry the Internet. I've made no secret of my support for Net neutrality, but the Comcast/Level 3 fight is not about that principle. It's about who controls access to the Internet itself.
In the very narrowest sense, Comcast is probably right in its Level 3 fight: It's a commercial dispute over a peering agreement. In a peering agreement, backbone providers generally agree that they may move traffic over each other's network at no charge. Usually, the assumption is that the volume of traffic will be roughly equally on both sides. Comcast and Level 3 have such a peering agreement.


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Sunday, 03 February 2013 09:25 AM EST
MUNICH, Germany — Syria's opposition leader flew back to his Cairo headquarters from Germany on Sunday to explain to sceptical allies his decision to talk with President Bashar al-Assad's main backers Russia and Iran, in hope of a breakthrough in the crisis.
The Russian and Iranian foreign ministers, and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, portrayed Syrian National Coalition leader Moaz Alkhatib's new willingness to talk with the Assad regime as a major step toward resolving the 2-year-old war.
"If we want to stop the bloodshed we cannot continue putting the blame on one side or the other," Iran's Ali Akbar Salehi said on Sunday, welcoming Alkhatib's overtures and adding that he was ready to keep talking to the opposition. Iran is Assad's main military backer together with Russia.
"This is a very important step. Especially because the coalition was created on the basis of categorical rejection of any talks with the regime," Lavrov was quoted as saying on Sunday by Russia's Itar Tass news agency.
Russia has blocked three U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at pushing Assad out or pressuring him to end a civil war in which more than 60,000 people have died. But Moscow has also tried to distance itself from Assad by saying it is not trying to prop him up and will not offer him asylum.
Syrian state media said Assad received a senior Iranian official and told him Syria could withstand "threats ... and aggression" like an air attack on a military base last week, which Damascus has blamed on Israel.
Politicians from the United States, Europe and the Middle East at the Munich Security Conference praised Alkhatib's "courage." But the moderate Islamist preacher was likely to face sharp criticism from the exiled leadership in Cairo.
Alkhatib has put his leadership on the line by saying he would be willing to talk to representatives of the Assad regime on condition they release 150,000 prisoners and issue passports to the tens of thousands of displaced people who have fled to neighboring countries but do not have documents.
"He has a created a political firestorm. Meeting the Iranian foreign minister was totally unnecessary because it is useless. Iran backs Assad to the hilt and he might as well have met with the Syrian foreign minister," said one of Alkhatib's colleagues on the 12-member politburo of the Syrian National Coalition.
Alkhatib, whose family are custodians of the Umayyad Mosque in the historic center of Damascus, is seen as a bulwark against Salafist forces who are a main player in the armed opposition.
He was chosen as the head of the Coalition in Qatar last year, with crucial backing from the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Syrian opposition member, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed to comments by Salehi and Lavrov on Sunday, a day after their meetings with Alkhatib, as evidence that they had not changed their positions and still backed Assad.
Salehi told the Munich conference that the solution was to hold elections in Syria — making no mention of Assad having to leave the country.
Firm opposition backers like Qatar's Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani and Republican Sen. John McCain voiced frustration in Munich at the international community's reluctance to intervene in the Syrian conflict.
"We consider the U.N. Security Council directly responsible for the continuing tragedy of the Syrian people, the thousands of lives that were lost, the blood that was spilled and is still flowing at the hands of the regime's forces," said al-Thani.
Moscow played down the significance of the discussions in Munich, with one diplomatic source calling the talks between Lavrov and Alkhatib "simply routine meetings."
"We have presented our views when Minister Lavrov meet Alkhatib, we have noted his comments that there is still a chance for dialogue with Syrian government. That is something we have called for," said the Russian source.
"To what extent is that realistic, that's a different matter and there are doubts about that," said the source.
One source in Khatib's delegation said the offer of dialogue would find an echo among Syrians opposed to Assad who have not taken up arms "and want to get rid of him with the minimum bloodshed."
Fawaz Tello, a veteran Syrian opposition campaigner based in Berlin, said Alkhatib had made "a calculated political maneuver to embarrass Assad."
"But it is an incomplete initiative and it will probably fizzle out," Tello told Reuters. "The Assad regime cannot implement any item in the series of initiatives we have seen lately because it would simply fall."
Russia and Iran were already beginning to use Alkhatib's initiative negatively, he said, while "the regime and its allies will only treat Alkhatib's meetings as an additional opportunity to smash the rebellion or weaken it".
Asked about the risk of his strategy being seen as a sign of weakness in the opposition or frustration at the Free Syrian Army's gains, Alkhatib told Reuters in Munich: "The fighters have high morale and they are making daily advances."
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I am an avid reader - I read anything - even when I am waiting to see the doctor or whatever, I must read something, whether its the newspaper, magazines or anything that I can lay my hands on.
I buy a lot of books - about 2-3 each month - and I have realised that these books which have been more expensive than any other parts of the world, are getting much more costlier these days.
Today I bought a book Meinkampf by Adolf Hitler at the MPH and it costs me MYR104.90! Its not even hardcover, its a paperback edition, for Godsake....
Even the book Blue Ocean Strategy, a hardcover, was MYR102! I checked and it was only SGD28.00 at Borders in Singapore.
What is going on? Is it high taxes and import duty or are the book and stationery retailers having a cartel of some sort and keep margins high?
How can we have a learned society if books are that costly? How can we encourage our people to read if they tax highly on books? Whats going on, anybody know?