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Provost Robin Forman is the Chief Academic Officer of the University. Collaborating with the Deans of the Colleges and Schools, as well as with the Deans of Libraries and Students, and working with an office cadre comprising faculty and staff colleagues, the Provost oversees the appointment, advancement, and retention of faculty; the articulation and deployment of all academic and research programs; and the development of strategic plans to secure the University's enduring excellence in research and scholarship, art-making and design, instruction and mentorship, professional service and leadership, and community engagement. Reporting directly to the President of the University, Provost Robin Forman is also a member of the President's Cabinet, joining with all the members of the senior leadership team in pursuit of broad-based institutional objectives and goals.
Tulane University is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU) and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). Tulane University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award associate, baccalaureate, masters, doctorate, and professional degrees. Contact the Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097 or call 404-679-4500 for questions about the accreditation of Tulane University.
Tulane University is committed to assisting all members of the community in providing for their own safety and security. The annual security and fire safety report is available on the TUPD website at publicsafety.tulane.edu. Click here for the full Jeanne Clery Act statement.


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State work office too far from bus stop, man says
One Rio Rancho man said his quest to find work is exponentially harder because of the location of the workforce solutions office.
When William Sewell of Rio Rancho showed up for work at a lawyer's office on Oct. 3, he was greeted by a locksmith and his boss's daughter. He was told his services were no longer needed, and to return his work office key.
Sewell has been combing through job listings ever since. He calls unemployment "a bottomless pit."
On Friday, he had an interview scheduled for a Santa Claus position.
"It takes out the Ho Ho out of the holidays when I'm doing this because I don't want me or anyone in my family unit to go hungry," said Sewell.
Sewell collects unemployment benefits, and admits that the checks will soon run out.
To collect those unemployment benefits, Sewell must attend mandatory meetings at the New Mexico Workforce Solutions office in Rio Rancho.
But ever since he's lost his job, Sewell has been unable to afford a car. To get around, he relies on the bus. The state employment office is on 661 Quantum Road, and the closest bus stop is nearly 3 miles away on Southern Boulevard.
"There is no way you can walk there from anywhere. It is in the middle of nowhere," Sewell said.
Luckily, Sewell has been relying on friends to give him a ride to the office.
"What if I didn't have that option, someone who is going to take me there? Am I supposed to spend $70 on a taxi? How am I going to do that? I can't even pay that! I'm getting evicted," he said.
A spokesperson for the Mid-Regional Council of Governments, Augusta Meyers, said the location of the office does pose a challenge for low-income people.
"When [that office's] lease expires, I'm sure there will be some consideration of a location that is more accessible," Meyers said.

subset: commoncrawl


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Contributed By: Tovah Paglaro, David Suzuki's Queen of Green
Since there are 1,001 uses for vinegar, you might think there's nothing it can't do. Not true. Vinegar cannot solve world hunger. Nor can it phone your grandmother every Sunday. Short of that, this super substance is practically unstoppable. Especially when it comes to cleaning!
The high acidity level makes vinegar effective for killing mould, bacteria and germs. Regular distilled white vinegar is more than sufficient for most jobs, but for really gross messes, get extra punch by increasing the acidity — pickling vinegar, for example, is seven per cent acidity instead of the average five per cent.
Vinegar in the kitchen
- Freshen sponges and dishrags by soaking them overnight in a 1/4 cup white distilled vinegar and just enough water to cover them. Throw them in the wash and they're as good as new!
- Remove soap buildup and odours from the dishwasher by running an empty machine with one cup of white distilled vinegar.
- Similarly, loosen grime and tackle microwave odour by bringing a bowl of vinegar and water solution to a rolling boil in the microwave for three minutes.
Vinegar in the bathroom
- Remove soap buildup with a non-toxic scouring solution. Mix one part salt to four parts white distilled vinegar and say goodbye to soap scum naturally.
- Deodorize the toilet bowl and leave it sparkling by soaking the basin with three cups white distilled vinegar for half an hour before scrubbing and flushing.
- When the bathroom's clean, apply vinegar's magic to your head! Fight dandruff naturally by massaging vinegar into your scalp. Results beat the store-bought shampoos, and they're cheaper and friendly for the earth.
Vinegar in the living room
- Enjoy crystal-clear windows with equal parts vinegar and water. The first time you try this, chemical residue from your old cleaner might leave streaks. Cut through the grime by spraying with undiluted vinegar.
- Restore bright colours to your carpet by brushing on a vinegar solution. Mix one cup white distilled vinegar to every four cups of water. (Best to spot test in an out-of-sight corner.)
Vinegar in the laundry room
- Reduce static without chemical-laden dryer sheets by adding half a cup of vinegar to to the rinse cycle of your washing machine. As an added benefit, this will preserve the colour of your clothes!
- Restore the white to stained socks and dull dishcloths by boiling them briefly in a large pot of water with one cup white distilled vinegar. Let them soak overnight and wash normally.
Vinegar in the kid's room
- To clean and disinfect kids' toys, add a good-sized splash of white distilled vinegar to soapy water.


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Toyo Tires, the famous Japanese tiremaker, has teamed up with Tesla customizer, Unplugged Performance, to create a vibrant Model X babe debuting at the SEMA... read more
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He hesitated. Above him, an ear-splitting screech. He looked up to see three enormous crows, perched on the bare branches of one of the few trees that had already dropped its leaves. They were all squawking at once, as if they were arguing about his next move. Directly beneath, in the midst of the stark and barren branches and at the base of a forked limb, a mud-brown leafy mass. A nest. Jesus.
Leo checked the time and started walking.
When Leo Plumb, 46, and very unhappily married, enjoying the benefits of booze, cocaine, and Welbutrin, picks up 19-year-old waitress, Matilda Rodriguez, at a wedding, it's business as usual. But the joys of the moment come to a crashing halt when the Porsche in which Leo is spiriting her away, the car in which she is putting her hand to good use, is T-boned by an SUV, and Matilda is seriously injured. It's gonna take mucho dinero to put the lid on this one.
I have good news and bad news. Which do you want first? Good news? OK. The good news, for Leo anyway, is that there is a considerable family inheritance left by his late father, which can be raided for emergencies. Staying out of jail counts, so how much should we make this check out for? The bad news is that the inheritance was intended for four siblings and Leo's indiscretion has slashed the total considerably. They are very interested in knowing when Leo is going to re-feather the nest he had just raided like a raccoon in the night.
Leo Tolstoy famously said All happy families resemble each other, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. The Plumb family is unhappy in diverse ways. Sweeney measures their depths. The family refers to their inheritance as The Nest, and their relationship to it, with Leo's raiding of it, constitutes the core around which this family tale is woven. His charm and skill at manipulation will not be enough to get Leo out of this mess. He may have bought his way out of a jail sentence, but he still needs to come up with some serious cash to make The Nest whole again. He hasn't exactly been working in the many years since he sold his on-line media business. And there is his bitch of a trophy wife to keep up. She is very fond of spending.
The Plumbs, despite their father's financial success, are not wildly wealthy. Melody, nearing 40, is a suburban housewife, struggling to make ends meet in a place where she is very much on the lower economic rungs. She has twin daughters on the verge of college and could really use the money she has been expecting. Beatrice had some success as a writer years ago, but it has been a long time since she produced any writing of quality. She lives in an Upper West Side apartment , a love nest given to her by a late lover, which ain't nuthin', especially in NYC, but it's not like she can sit home and clip coupons either. She has remained in a low-end job long after she should have grown to something more. Finally, Jack has been in a couple with Walter for many years. He runs an antiques shop that specializes in losing money. Walter is the breadwinner of the pair, but Jack would like to be depositing instead of constantly withdrawing. He is in debt up to his eyeballs. The potential absence of his bailout money from The Nest is a blow, so when a shady opportunity presents itself, he has to decide where he is willing to draw the line..
In this ensemble cast, we follow the siblings, along with a smattering of others, through their travails, and see them come to grips, or not, with the possible loss of a nest egg they had all been counting on for a long time. The issues they face are not merely how to cope with a cash flow shortfall. Sweeney has larger targets in her sights. The characters here are faced with moral choices. How would you have managed, given the situation? How would any of us? It is certainly the case, for all but the most blessed (and we hate them) that our hopes and dreams for this or that, whether a relationship, a career direction, parenthood, something, go all to hell. Sometimes, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. Which is nice if you are fond of aphorisms. Sometimes, what doesn't kill us leaves us frightened, damaged, and scarred. (I mean, they don't call it Post Traumatic Stress Improvement, do they?) Sometimes it can open a door to a new appreciation, offer a new path, uncover an unseen possibility. Or it closes all available doors, locks the windows and drops a match on a kerosene covered floor. I'm just sayin'. Two paths, at least for each of the sibs. Which will they take? What sorts of people do they want to be? And how will they emerge, battered or better?
In addition to the choices having to do with facing up to identity crises, and coping with losses real or theoretical, there are some other items here that are very well handled. Sweeney has painted a portrait of some elements of NYC at a particular place and time. These include a bit of a look at the local literary scene, whether one is doing well or struggling, in on the dot.com or killed by it, mean Glitterary Girl or faded sparkle. Authors, wannabes, publishers of paper and on-line magazines, trip through the pages. Some are more about appearance than substance.
She'd been hiding in a corner of Celia's enormous living room, pretending to examine the bookshelves, which were full of what she thought of as "fake" books—the books were real enough but if Celia Baxter had read Thomas Pynchon or Samuel Beckett or even all—any!—of the Philip Roths and Saul Bellows lined in a row, she'd eat her mittens. In a far upper corner of the bookcase, she noticed a lurid purple book spine, a celebrity weight-loss book. Ha. That was more like it. She stood on tiptoe, slid the book out, and examined the well-thumbed, stained pages. She returned it to shelf front and center, between Mythologies and Cloud Atlas.
There is a walk through several places in the city, each offering a taste. The Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station, a brownstone in Prospect Heights in Brooklyn, a bit of Central Park, a Westchester suburb. 9/11 is a part of the story as well, as is, although to a lesser degree, the insanity that is the NY real estate market.
The Nest is, ultimately, about stepping off the edge of safety into the air, and either finding out you can fly or flapping uselessly to a sudden end. And, of course, considering whether or not to simply hitch a ride on a passing pigeon.
None of it would mean a lick if the characters were merely raucous chicks, lobbying for the next worm. Sweeney has put together more of an aviary, with each main member of her ensemble fully feathered and flight-worthy. Even a teen-age twin must consider separating from the intense co-nesting of sisterhood, and finding her own flight path. While not all the main characters are people you would care to know, they are all fully realized. Hell, even some of the secondary characters are presented in 3D. Their motivations and actions make sense, whether you agree or not with their decisions. There is nuance and depth even to the more morally challenged. I expect that you will find situations and/or conditions in here that resonate with challenges and decisions you have faced in your own life. The economic downturn has hit many of us, even if we need not look to our own reckless personal behavior as a cause. No need to wonder how most of us will behave when faced with some of the problems raised here. We have already adjusted our expectations. But there is value in seeing how others react.
Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney's last book was slightly different from this one, Country Living Easy Transformations: Kitchen With this book. Sweeney takes a step into the open air of literary accomplishment. She has spread her wings and caught a rising thermal. The Nest has not only succeeded in feathering Sweeney's nest quite nicely, it offers a smart, funny, engaging, and insightful read that will accommodate your peepers quite nicely, and is sure to settle comfortably in many top ten
nests lists when those finally begin appearing.
Review posted – 11/27/15
Publication date – 3/22/15


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NJ woman thanks Boca Raton man 49 years after he saved her from drowning
Edith Rothstein's son used Google to track down FAU surgery professor Dr. Larry Brickman
A New Jersey woman has thanked a Florida doctor who saved her from drowning nearly 49 years ago in New York.
Newsday said Edith Rothstein, of Franklin Lakes, N.J., recently contacted Dr. Larry Brickman. He moved from Long Island in 2005 to teach surgery at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.
Rothstein left a voice mail asking if Brickman was the man who saved her life on Long Island's Lido Beach in September 1964.
He was, indeed.
Brickman had a summer lifeguard job there while attending Michigan State. He said he vividly remembers giving 5-year-old Edie mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
"I jumped in and when I looked at her, her eyes were open," Brickman recalled. "She wasn't breathing."
Brickman also said lifeguards of that era were not trained in the technique, so he had to act mostly on intuition.
"An ambulance came with a gurney and they put her on the gurney and I never saw her again," Brickman said.
Newsday wrote about the rescue the next day. Rothstein decided to reach out after looking at an old scrapbook. Her son used Google to find Brickman.
Brickman replayed the voice mail for WPBF 25 News. He said that was the day he decided to become a doctor.
"We just got very lucky, both of us, that day," he said.


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AmenitiesHi-speed internet, Phone, Air Conditioning, Cable TV, Full Kitchen, Microwave, Dishwasher, Refrigerator, Ice Maker, Cooking utensils, and linens provided, Washer, Dryer, No Smoking, No Pets.
Accommodations 3 Bedrooms + Convertible bed(s) 2 Full Baths Sleeps 8
Rates (in US Dollars)
Low Season....May, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec for $125/night
High Season.....Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, Jun, Jul for $135/night
Holiday Season....Thanksgiving, Easter, Christmas, New Years for $165/night
$85 Cleaning fee applies.
12.5% tax is applied to every reservation.
Monthly Rates and Multiple Weeks Discounts Available....Please Inquire!
Check-in is 4:00 pmCheck-out is 10:00 am SHARP


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(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
Contact us for information about using this image.
This steatite vessel was made and used by Native Americans in Deerfield between 6,000 and 3,000 years ago. It is made from a soft stone that was carved and shaped into bowls, kettles, cups, and other eating/storage/cooking utensils. Native Americans used stone containers to prepare and cook soups and stews. The stone would harden when it was heated. Stone containers were replaced when Native people in New England began to make pottery vessels out of clay starting about 3,000 years ago.
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What better way to learn about the ocean's depths than plastering this contraption on a wild seal's head? This guy and 56 of his friends are gathering information about the seafloor to help scientists model the ocean's reaction to climate change.
The 57 elephant seals, which have an electronic tag (which looks more like a small camera and an antenna) affixed to their skulls, are the first sea creatures to be used to collect data about the seafloor's topography, called bathymetry. Whales, seals, and other large sea mammals have been used to track ocean temperatures and salinity levels in the past.
The tags record data every few seconds while the animals swim. This is sent to scientists via satellite when they visit the surface. Seals hunt for food along the seafloor about 30% of the time, and after a combined 200,000 dives, researchers have a pretty good idea of the lay of the oceanland. One important discovery the seals have made is a channel of warm water cutting across the Western edge of Antarctica.
The use of seals is a far less costly option than the tens of thousands that would otherwise be spent sending ships into Antarctic waters to collect this information. [Wired]


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Hugo Chavez's body brought 'home' to military academy
They filed past all night and into the morning, a line of mourners a mile (more than a kilometer) long hoping for one final glimpse of Hugo Chavez. While Venezuela remains deeply divided over the country's future, the multitudes weeping and crossing themselves as they reached the president's coffin early Thursday were united in grief and admiration for a man many considered a father figure.
Cannon boomed a salute each hour, the only interruption to what seemed an endless procession as hundreds of thousands filed past, with countless more still to come.
"I waited 10 hours to see him, but I am very happy, proud to have seen my comandante," said 46-year-old Yudeth Hurtado, who was sobbing. "He is planted in our heart."
In a nod to the insecurity that plagues this country, mourners had to submit to a pat down, pass through a metal detector and remove the batteries from their mobile phones upon entering the military academy where Chavez is lying in state until his funeral Friday.
Several Latin American leaders have already arrived for the funeral, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has announced he, too, will attend.
At the military academy, Chavez lay in a glass-covered coffin wearing his olive-green military uniform and red beret.
As they reached the coffin, many placed a hand on their heart or saluted. Some held up children so they could see Chavez's face.
Ricardo Tria, a social worker, said he waited nearly four hours to pass by the casket. Chavez looked "asleep, quiet, serious," he said.
As a band played the anthem of his first battalion, Chavez's coffin was displayed at the academy after an emotion-drenched procession through Caracas on Wednesday. Generations of Venezuelans, many dressed in the red of Chavez's socialist party, filled the capital's streets to remember the man who dominated their country for 14 years before succumbing Tuesday afternoon after a fight with cancer.
The coffin was carried through the crowds atop an open hearse on an eight-kilometer (five-mile) journey that wound through the city's north and southeast, into many of the poorer neighborhoods where Chavez drew his political strength.
At the academy, Chavez's family and close advisers, as well as the presidents of Argentina, Bolivia and Uruguay, attended a funeral Mass around the casket.
The head of Venezuela's presidential guard, Gen. Jose Ornella, told The Associated Press late Wednesday that Chavez died of a massive heart attack after great suffering.
"He couldn't speak but he said it with his lips ... 'I don't want to die. Please don't let me die,' because he loved his country, he sacrificed himself for his country," said Ornella, who said he was with the socialist president at the moment of his death Tuesday.
Set against the outpouring of grief was near-total official silence on where Venezuela is heading next, including when the election will take place. Even the exact time and place of Chavez's funeral Friday had not been announced, nor where he will be laid to rest.
While much of this country was immersed in collective grief, millions who bitterly opposed Chavez's take-no-prisoners brand of socialism were staying away from the mourning crowds, quietly hoping Chavez's death would usher in a less confrontational, more business-friendly era in this major oil-producing country.
Opponents already have been stepping up criticism of the government's questionable moves after Chavez's death, including naming Vice President Nicolas Maduro, Chavez's hand-picked successor, as acting president in apparent violation of the constitution.
The 1999 constitution that Chavez himself pushed through mandates that an election be called within 30 days to replace a president, but Chavez's top lieutenants have often applied a flexible interpretation of that law.
The charter states that the speaker of the National Assembly, in this case Diosdado Cabello, should become interim president if a head of state is forced to leave office within three years of his election. Chavez was re-elected only in October.
But Chavez anointed Maduro for that role, and the vice president has assumed the mantle even as the government has named him as the ruling socialist party's candidate in the presidential vote.
The military also appears to be showing firm support for Maduro despite a constitutional mandate that it play no role in politics. In a tweet late Tuesday, state television said the defense minister, Adm. Diego Molero, had pledged military support for Maduro's candidacy against likely opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, raising concern among critics about the fairness of the vote.
Capriles, the 40-year-old governor of Miranda state who lost to Chavez in October, was conciliatory in a televised address after the president's death, but other opposition leaders were more critical of the military stance.
Ramon Guillermo Aveledo, executive secretary of the opposition coalition, called the defense minister's declarations "unacceptable" as well as "false, unconstitutional."
Cynthia Arnson, director of the Latin American Program at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said Maduro should win the upcoming presidential vote, even if he won't be able to harness Chavez's charisma.
"There's really no one who can step into those shoes," she said.
In addition to spiraling crime and shortages of basic goods, the next administration must also control a public debt that has quadrupled to $102 billion since Chavez took office in 1999, despite Venezuela's booming oil exports
Maduro's Jekyll-and-Hyde-like behavior Tuesday has stoked worries about a future government.
He used a speech just before Chavez's death to lash out at the United States and internal opponents he accused of plotting to destabilize the government. He pointed to shadowy forces as being behind the president's cancer and expelled two American military attaches he charged with spying.
Then, in a televised appearance to announce the death, a shaken and somber Maduro called for peace, love and reconciliation among all Venezuelans.
Venezuela and the United States have a complicated relationship, with Chavez's enemy to the north remaining the top buyer of Venezuelan oil. But Chavez's inner circle has long claimed the United States was behind a failed 2002 attempt to overthrow him, and he has frequently used anti-American rhetoric to stir up support. Venezuela has been without a U.S. ambassador since July 2010 and expelled a U.S. military officer in 2006.
In Washington, senior Obama administration officials said Wednesday they hoped to rebuild the U.S.-Venezuelan relationship, but acknowledged that a quick rapprochement was unlikely given the Latin American country's impending presidential election.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly on the matter, expressed displeasure with the expulsion of the two U.S. military officials by Venezuela and Maduro's accusations that the U.S. was somehow responsible for Chavez's cancer.
"Yesterday's first press conference was not encouraging," a senior official said. "It disappointed us."
Associated Press writers Christopher Toothaker, Jorge Rueda and Fabiola Sanchez in Caracas and Bradley Klapper in Salt Lake City, Utah, contributed to this report.
Paul Haven on Twitter: www.twitter.com/paulhaven


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Hola, amigos! Guess what? I just celebrated my 40th birthday. Whoa! Yes, I'm not kidding. Am I freaking out? No, not really. When I was 20 years old, the thought of turning 40 terrified me, but now I think this is the best age there is. And honestly, I'm not just trying to make myself feel better. You see, at this age, I've come to feel proud of everything I've learned and accomplished, which is a lot. I have plenty of reasons to celebrate! These are just some of them.
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They say life begins at 40, and I don't know yet if that's true, but I do know that life is definitely better at 40. You see, when I turned 20, I began a new adult life, full of dreams and hopes, but without any experience or wisdom whatsoever. Now I've turned 40, I'm starting another phase in life, full of hopes and dreams too. Only this time, I also have plenty of wisdom and experience. Awesome, right?
The lessons I've learned in 40 years have given me knowledge that is more valuable than gold, and these are just a few of them.
12 Awesome Reasons Why I Love Turning 40
1. I have confidence in my own decisions
I remember a time when making a simple decision was agony. And if it was an important decision, I would usually just freeze. Sometimes, I would think about it for hours, days or even weeks, unable to make a choice. I believe that was due to my fear of making a mistake that could screw up my whole life. Silly me! Now that I'm 40, I can make any decision without so much drama, even if it's something important. The thing is, I've learned that the only way you can make a mistake is by being scared of making one.
2. I've learned to trust my instincts
When I was 20, I never paid attention to that annoying little voice inside my head. But you know what? I always regretted it. The little voice inside my head is my intuition, and I've learned to pay close attention to it. Sometimes, the little voice tells me to do exactly the opposite of what everyone keeps telling me to do, but you know what I do now? I listen to it instead of taking the advice of anyone who is obviously not qualified to know anything about me. I've learned that the only one who knows what's best for me is me. You do you, right?
3. I no longer care what other people think
Twenty years ago, I was sure I didn't care what other people thought about me. But I was wrong. Very wrong! The truth was I did care about my friends' opinions, about my mother's opinions, about complete strangers' opinions. That was such a waste of my energy! Now that I'm 40, I've learned that the people who truly care about me will still love me no matter what. Therefore, there is absolutely no point in caring about other people's opinion. I've also stopped trying to fit in. I'm way too cool for that!
4. I know just how strong I am
I'm not going to tell you a thousand sob stories because that would take too long. I just need to say that I've survived them all, and now I'm stronger for it. After facing some brutal life tests, I've found it's really true that whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. That doesn't mean I am not afraid of anything. It just means that I'm not going to chicken out when it's time for the next life test. Besides, another thing I've learned is that nothing lasts forever, neither the good nor the bad. This too shall pass, so enjoy the ride!
5. I can say yes or no without feeling guilty
One too many times, I let other people talk me into doing something I didn't really feel like doing. Or maybe into not doing something I was dying to do. And you know what? I always ended up thinking about what could've been. Nowadays, I no longer let people talk me into or out of stuff. I make a conscious decision or go with my own instincts, and I don't look back. It's strange how something so simple can be so difficult to learn!
6. I'm wiser
Don't laugh! I'm truly a lot wiser now than when I was 20 years old. This wisdom is the result of a thousand good and bad things that I've been through and the lessons they taught me. The other day, I overheard a couple of twentysomethings agonizing over their problems, and I smiled because I've seen that movie and I know how it ends. I'm grateful that my hard-earned wisdom will prevent me from making the same mistakes again, although I can't promise I won't make new ones. I'm ready to acquire some more wisdom!
7. I can control my thoughts
I read once that thoughts are like clothes because you decide which ones to put on in the morning. If you decide to wear your negative thoughts, you'll have a bad day for sure. On the other hand, if you decide to wear positive thoughts, you'll have an amazing day no matter what. I no longer let circumstances or the morning news ruin my day. I decide how it's going to go and I don't let anything or anyone stand in my way.
8. I no longer stress over every little thing
Sometimes, I get surprised when I think about the sort of things I used to care deeply about. For example, the other day I went grocery shopping without a drop of makeup, something my 20-year-old self would have never done. But who am I trying to impress? I'm just going out for some milk, that's all. Also, I'm not a member of the whatsapp class parents group. It stresses me out, so I'm not in it. But what if there's some important announcement and I miss it? That hasn't happened, but if it does, then it wasn't really that important. I only care about the meaningful things now, not about the stuff that will only give me worry lines.
9. I've learned to take care of myself
I believe this is one of the most important life lessons I've learned so far. If you don't take care of yourself, nobody else will do it for you. I've learned to listen to my body to know what it needs. I no longer eat when I'm not hungry, or starve myself to death. I take a break when I'm tired and go to bed when I'm sick. I workout and eat right so I can be strong and healthy, not skinny. I know what's bad for me and what makes me feel good. Loving and respecting my body has put me in better shape than when I was 20. It's incredible, but it's true!
10. I no longer want to change myself
I used to dream about being taller and thinner. I also wanted to have lighter hair and a smaller nose. Now, I wouldn't change anything about myself. I finally feel at home in my own skin, and that is priceless. It took me 40 years to look this good, people! I have laugh lines and wrinkles on the corners of my eyes because I've cried hard and laughed harder. I have a scar on my belly because I've had three wonderful kids. My breasts are saggy because I've breastfed my beautiful babies. I have stretch marks because I've wrestled with my body and now I've learned to love it. Every line is a victory, and I wouldn't change a single one.
11. I know how to dress myself
I don't own designer clothes, but I don't need them. I know what looks good on me and what doesn't, and I no longer feel the need to chase the latest, must-have styles. Believe it or not, that used to be one huge concern of mine! I'd rather have classic, good quality pieces that I can wear for many seasons so I don't have to shop for a new wardrobe every six months. I prefer to open my wallet to create meaningful experiences instead of buying expensive clothes that I'm never going to wear. Not that I don't dream of a huge, walk-in closet!
12. I'm not young anymore
And you know what? That's actually a really good thing. Gone are the days when nobody would take me seriously. Gone are the days when I would run away from commitment and responsibilities. Gone are the days when I was trying to find myself. Gone are the days when I kept trying to impress someone else. All of it is gone! Now, I finally feel free to live my life however I want to, and I don't need to explain myself to anyone. True, I have big responsibilities on my shoulders, but that doesn't keep me from living my life. Quite the opposite! I've also learned to enjoy the good times and treasure life's little moments of joy. Best of all, now I know who I am, and I know what I'm capable of. That is one of the best things that has ever happened to me.
I never thought that I would love turning 40, but it's true!


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While Brad Pitt was in Toronto supporting 12 Years A Slave this weekend, Angelina Jolie had all the kids with her in Sydney while working on her new film. She took 5 of them to the aquarium. Maddox was missing, evidently needing a break from his younger siblings and their noise. Can you blame him? But I wish I could wear a pair of cargo pants as well as the young Chosen One Shiloh. Little Knox's shoes appear to be on the proper feet this time. Flip-flops are so much easier to figure out, it's true.
As for why the Jolie did not give us any Pitt Porn at TIFF – this is a long campaign season, and there's a lot of time for that in the coming months. There is NO DOUBT that 12 Years A Slave will factor in the race, probably even lead it. So, aside from the fact that she's in production for her own film, they need to pace their campaign strategy. You can blow it out too quickly. These two know the game. They know exactly how to roll it out. First, you see how hard you have to push. Given the critical momentum of 12 Years right now, they might not have to push too hard. They might not even have to get married if the momentum carries them all the way to the Kodak. And if that's the case, they can save that play for another time, another year, another award, or Maleficent.
What Brad did at TIFF – coming up.


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Clubs join move to end anti-gay discrimination
LONDON (AP) — Manchester United and Chelsea have joined a national campaign to combat anti-gay discrimination in football that aims to win the support of at least half of England's professional clubs.
Eleven Premier League clubs including Arsenal and Manchester City have joined the "Football vs. Homophobia" program so far, pledging to speak out against anti-gay discrimination and to support the campaign's activities.
West Ham captain Kevin Nolan says the month-long campaign, which is backed by Sports Minister Helen Grant, "sends out a message that there is no place for discrimination in football, nor in any sport."
Last month, retired player Thomas Hitzlsperger became the biggest name in football to come out as gay. Former English player Justin Fashanu was the first to go public, in 1990. He committed suicide eight years later.


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John Esposito says accusations against Secretary Clinton's aide Huma Abedin indicate a larger problem in the country. Five Republican legislators have asked for an investigation into her ties with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Post by: Anderson Cooper
Filed under: Dana Bash • Islam
Why do we have Moslems here in America? It is a cult, not a religious religion of freedom that can coexists with the other states in America. Other Moslems that immigrated to America converted or no longer worship the Koran in America, with the new immigrants that are not being educated in American history are disrespecting our culture and violating our Laws. The Moslems purposely misinterprets the Constitution on Freedom of Religion between the states in America, the Islamic religion is not a religion in any state in America. Most had hopes that these new immigrants would get educated in this country's history that has welcomes others from other countries and religions to be assimilate as one nation with one language.
There is also a anti-Jewish movement, anti-Christian movement, anti-Mormon movement. Plug in any religion after "anti-" and there is no difference between either "anti". It all depends on what religion you are in or not in.
Dale, you may be right except when the anti any religion or targeted minority is driven by elected officials at the highest levels then it becomes very concerning and very disturbing.
I believe the Muslims in the US or abroad make for easy target simply because they do not have the powerfull legal support organizations that others enjoy like the Jewish or AFRICAN AMERICANS do. The media or politicians are exceptionaly cautious when a matter of Jewish association is brought up. However, when it comes to Muslims anything can be advertised, said, stereotyped & falsely accused by the media & politicians without accountability. They know they can get away with it, Muslims do not yet have the means to sue.
Anderson Cooper goes beyond the headlines to tell stories from many points of view, so you can make up your own mind about the news. Tune in weeknights at 8 and 10 ET on CNN.
Questions or comments? Send an email
Want to know more? Go behind the scenes with AC361°


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Amazon.com's Kindle e-reader has dominated the competition in Japan since its launch last year, according to new research, showing the company's low pricing and powerful brand may have overcome its late entrance into the market.
The Kindle accounted for 38.3 percent of the e-reader market in Japan in the 12-month period through March, market data firm MM Research said. That compared to a 33 percent share for Rakuten's Kobo and a 25.5 percent share for Sony's Reader device.
The Kindle was officially launched in November of last year, meaning the figures represent only its first five months of sales. By contrast, Rakuten acquired Kobo and launched in Japan from July, while Sony launched its first model in 2004.
The Kindle launch was seen in Japan as the official start of the long-stagnant electronic book market in the country. Amazon is a household name among consumers in Japan, especially for books, and negotiations with publishers before the launch were closely followed.
Amazon cut the price of its Kindles just two weeks after its initial announcement, before they started shipping, to match those of the Kobo. The company's basic Kindle Paperwhite device currently costs ¥7,980 ($80) in Japan, while the cheapest model costs $119 in the U.S. Some have speculated that anticipation for the Kindle launch and its popularity overseas gave it an initial sales boost, the effects of which will wear off as time goes on.
MM Research said that the total e-reader market in Japan was 470,000 units during the period, and it expects the market to grow to 520,000 units during the current year through March 2014. The figures for Japan from MM Research do not include tablets or other multi-function devices, such as Amazon's Fire or Sony's tablet lineup.
Japan is still a small market compared to other countries. The global e-reader market in 2012 was estimated to be 19.9 million units by market research firm IDC, with the bulk of those in the U.S. IDC has said that number is falling as other mobile devices like tablets gain in popularity.
MM Research said they include devices with screens from 5 to 7 inches that use e-paper and serve as dedicated e-readers. The company said it computed the numbers from interviews with companies and user surveys.


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DO work on your signature. Mine is the worst ever and I can't go back now. Signed copies of The It Girl are doomed to a scrawl that looks like a two-year old had their first go at writing on the inside cover. And I know I'm not being modest because my dad said to my brother, "she needs to work on it, it's just awful" right in front of me last weekend.
DO stock up on snacks when you need to write. It has been scientifically proven that Rolo yoghurts improve mental stimulation. No, really, I'm serious. Ok, FINE, maybe not proven as such…
DO invest in a good laptop. Mine whirrs. Is it meant to whirr? I kind of find it comforting now but most likely won't when it collapses and dies in the middle of an unsaved chapter and I become so stressed at the situation that I cry out "WHY GOD, WHY?!" and then do something stupid like throw my laptop out the window and end up in prison.
DO go wild with herbal teas. Good Lord there are so many flavours out there I've had to dedicate an entire kitchen cupboard to my selection. I don't even drink that much herbal tea, I just open my cupboard every so often and proudly admire such a collection. Sometimes I do that when friends come round and then I force them to have one just so I get to show them the incredible variety
DON'T announce during your first author talk that a spider bit your eye-lid and that's why it's red and sore. You will draw more attention to it when most people probably didn't notice in the first place. And then you will encourage more questions about the spider biting your eye than about your book that you spent the last two years of your life working on.
DON'T go into a bookshop when it first comes out, see your book and then just stand there and stare with your mouth open. It looks weird.
DON'T ask your friends for character advice. Suggestions will all be along the lines of: "you should definitely have a character named [insert name of whoever is talking here] who, like, goes out and saves the world with a flame-thrower. You are welcome, my author friend, you are welcome."
DON'T listen to your uncle when he says you should give up that writing nonsense and do something useful like becoming a plumber. True story. That ACTUALLY happened to me. Look who's laughing now! Mwahahaha! IN YOUR FACE.
DON'T gloat in your uncle's face. He will say a clever retort that you won't understand and then you'll be like, "yeah, well, you know, yeah" and look like an idiot.
DON'T watch a Marvel film and then come out of the cinema determined to find your superpowers. You will end up just staring at objects for hours, trying to move them with your mind. This is time that you could be spending writing because you are a sophisticated author now and not the kind of person who just stares at pencils. RIGHT? *puts pencil away*
DO keep writing! There's no better way to spend your time (except maybe training to be one of those agility dog trainers because then you can run around all day with a dog and watch it do cool things like jump through a ring of fire)
The It Girl by Katy Birchall (Egmont Publishing, £6.99) is out now.
About the author: Katy Birchall is the debut author of The It Girl series. She also works at Country Life magazine as their Deputy Features Editor. Katy won the 24/7 Theatre Festival Award in 2011 for Most Promising New Comedy Writer with her very serious play about a ninja monkey at a dinner party. Her four pet Labradors are the loves of her life, she is mildly obsessed with Jane Austen and one day she hopes to wake up as an elf in The Lord of the Rings. She grew up in Essex and currently lives in Brixton.


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[Editor's note: Neat idea, but not as detailed (street level) as the Flickr effort, post up next.]
Republished from Info is Beautiful.
Great places-to-avoid heatmap using distribution of photos on Panoramio. Nice idea! By BlueMoon.ee
World map color-coded by level of touristiness, based on analysis of photos on Panoramio. Yellow indicates high touristiness, red medium touristiness, and blue low touristiness. Areas having no Panoramio photos at all are grey.


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INGLEWOOD >> When Bob Baffert looked out at the giant tote board in the Betfair Hollywood Park infield Saturday before the 33rd and final running of the $500,000 Hollywood Starlet, he could barely believe his eyes.
Streaming, which had been supplemented to the Grade I race for 2-year-old fillies at a cost of $10,000, was an overlay at 14-1 about five minutes before post time. Baffert's other entrant, Be Proud, was 33-1. Baffert horses are not supposed to go postward at such long odds, especially in stakes races.
"When I saw her at 14-1, I told (co-owner) John (Sikura) that when you supplement you're supposed to be 8-5, not 14-1," Baffert said.
But Streaming, a daughter of Smart Strike who is out of Rags to Riches' sister Teeming, had raced only once going into the Starlet. She beat maiden special weights at Hollywood Park by 1 1/2 lengths on Nov. 15 and Baffert felt he might have something special in his barn.
"You're always hoping they'll run like they train and how they're bred, and she's bred to go a mile and an eighth, a mile and a quarter," he said. "I had her pretty fit the first time I ran her. We've really been high on this filly.
"It was too late to get a race into her before the Breeders' Cup. I wasn't sure if I was going to run her here because I hadn't nominated her. Her last two works, she's really shown she can sit off a horse."
Which she did in the Starlet, tracking pacesetter and 5-2 second choice Taste Like Candy from second through much of the race until the stretch, when she took the lead and drew off to win by 1 1/2 lengths under Martin Garcia at 10-1. She ran the 1 1/16 miles on Cushion Track in 1:44.96.
Taste Like Candy finished second after setting splits of 23.83, 47.85 and 1:12.82. The daughter of Candy Ride, who also was racing for only the second time after beating maiden special weights by 6 1/2 lengths on Oct. 20 at Santa Anita, was 1 1/4 lengths clear of Untapable. Rosalind, the 8-5 favorite, was a nose farther back in fourth.
"My filly was really sharp," Garcia said. "I just let her break and was able to get a good position. I held my position outside and when I asked her to go she gave me more. She was very impressive."
Said Baffert: "She's really special. I think we saw something special today."
Rafael Bejarano, aboard the runner-up, was surprised to find himself on the lead.
"My filly broke really sharp and when I saw that nobody wanted to go, I just went to the lead," he said. "It was a real strong pace rounding the first turn, but I tried to relax my filly. The winner was right behind me and chasing me and was always running real strong."
Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, who rebounded two races later to win the $150,000 Grade II Bayakoa Stakes with 7-1 outsider Broken Sword, was pleased by Taste Like Candy's effort.
"I thought she ran even better than she did last time, but we were second best," he said. "We're happy with this effort."
Joe Talamo rode Untapable, eased in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita last month after a troubled trip. She closed from sixth in the eight-horse field but never seriously threatened the winner.
"I thought I had a perfect shot to win it at the top of the lane, but the two horses in front of me just kept going," Talamo said.
The victory improved Streaming's earnings to $287,000 and gave Baffert his third career Starlet victory. He also won with Habibti in 2001 and Excellent Meeting in 1998.
For Broken Sword, a 4 1/4-length winner of the Bayakoa who went into the race for fillies and mares off a 5 1/2-length victory in an optional claimer at Golden Gate Fields on Nov. 10, it was the third victory in eight starts for the 3-year-old Broken Vow filly.
She ran the 1 1/16 miles on Cushion Track in 1:42.98 while going gate to wire under Joel Rosario. Fiftyshadesofhay, trained by Baffert, finished second as the even-money favorite and Warren's Veneda was third.
Follow Art Wilson on Twitter at @Sham73


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As of late yesterday afternoon, I had finally filed all of my grades for my fall term course: a late exam (December 18th) proved both a blessing (because I had time to finish up other things in the meantime) and a curse (because I couldn't wrap things up sooner even if I wanted to). I know that writing exams is very stressful, so I'm always touched when a student takes a precious minute or two to include a little "thank you" or "happy holidays" message to me at the end. There were several of those this year (and thank you, too, if any of you are reading this, and enjoy your well-earned break!), including the one quoted in the title to this post. As you can imagine, it gave me pause. "Odd yet interesting"? Of course, I'm glad it was interesting, but I wish I knew what was odd about it. Like the frequent comment on my course evaluations that I am "so organized," this one makes me wonder just what my colleagues are doing, which in turn makes me think about how hermetically sealed our classrooms are, at least to each other. I haven't had a colleague sit in on one of my own classes since I was compiling my tenure dossier nearly a decade ago; I've observed teaching demonstrations by job candidates and sat in once or twice at the request of a graduate student or junior colleague also working on his or her teaching dossier, but that's it. Although teaching is done in front of an audience, when I think about it it is a strangely isolating experience also: you prepare alone, by and large, you carry out your plans as best you can and measure your success, or not, against your own standards and intentions, then you shuffle back to your office and get ready to do it all over again. Inevitably, after you've been doing it for a while, you find strategies (and handouts, and assignments, and textbooks, and so on) that you like and because there aren't that many opportunities to compare what you are doing to what other people are doing, you start thinking of yourself as the norm–until you discover that, at least to someone, you seem "odd"! Actually, now that I think about it, last year I got a very nice card from a wonderful Honours student who also made a remark that made me wonder about myself: to paraphrase, she said that I had shown her that there were "other ways" of studying literature. Other than what?
Hazarding a guess, it has something to do with my attempts to talk about literature as something of personal and moral significance. I end my Victorian novel classes, for instance, after reviewing the historical and literary contexts we have studied and the major thematic and critical arcs of the specific texts, with a little speech about the conviction most Victorian novelists display that we, the readers, are where the real action has to go on: not only do they engage us in the novels, with strategies such as intrusive narration and direct address to us, the 'dear readers,' but they frequently point to public apathy, indifference, ignorance, or prejudice as the source of their characters' difficulties. Lydgate's failure? Dorothea's unhistoric life? We made it possible, with our pettiness and self-absorption. Jo's death? Well, aren't they "dying thus around us every day"? The whole of Vanity Fair? Isn't that where we live? I wrote a bit about these 'closing perorations' last year:
A further, and related, feature of these novels, and one that seems to me of increasing importance, is the imperative they communicate that we, as readers, have a lot of responsibilities: to read well, to judge carefully, and to think about our own role in the social worlds and institutions the novelists examine so imaginatively and often so critically—many of which have continuations or counterparts, after all, in modern society. At heart, this is the demand these novels make on us—to get involved, as readers—to acknowledge that the world they talk about is always, if not always literally, our own. When still an aspiring novelist herself, George Eliot remarked that "art is the nearest thing to life; it is a mode of amplifying experience and extending our contact with our fellow-men beyond the bounds of our personal lot." Right now, there is a lot of interest in fiction in this way, as a literary form that perhaps is specially suited to bringing about change in the world as well as in individuals. For example, Martha Nussbaum has published a book called Poetic Justice in which she holds up Dickens's Hard Times as exemplary of the potential role of the literary imagination in public life—holding up a vision of human flourishing that contrasts with the theories most at play in socio-economic theory today, and that she argues is best cultivated precisely through the form of the novel. This is part of a broader attempt on her part to get the novel as a genre recognized as a form of moral philosophy. I myself have published a paper arguing for the value of George Eliot's Middlemarch as an ethical text.
My general point is that the very qualities that make 19th-century novels problematic if your approach is formalist, aesthetic, or modernist can be those that make them matter if your approach is philosophical, activist, humanist, or communicative—why not, we might ask, use the powers of language and story-telling to get people thinking and talking about the way they live with other people, or about their ability to face themselves in the mirror in the morning? Yes, these novels are demanding in their length and complexity. But the greatest demand they place on us as readers is to be active, rather than passive, whether through the great moral "labour of choice" we experience vicariously in The Mill on the Floss or through the exercise of our sympathetic imagination and social conscience on behalf of those who need our help, as Bleak House might inspire us.
When I describe myself as a 'Victorianist' these days, I don't really mean 'someone who is immersed in scholarship about Victorian literature and culture' (in fact, I confess my interest in 'Victorian Studies' as a field has been steadily declining, to the point that for the first time in almost twenty years I have changed my settings for the VICTORIA listserv to "digest"–though I still consider this list exemplary for its wisdom, generosity, and collegiality, I'm just not engaged with the topics it covers). I mean something more like 'someone who embraces some key Victorian ideas about the novel in particular, and about literature more generally.' Maybe, again, just guessing, this is what seems 'odd' or different. But without knowing what other people do or say in the classroom, I can't be sure.
Otherwise, things have wrapped up without incident this term. The Victorian Sensations seminar picked up a lot of momentum towards the end, or so I thought. I had to put in some strenuous work for a while, especially when we turned our attention to contemporary criticism, but it seemed to pay off, and the discussions in our last couple of weeks showed that, despite what I thought was a stuttering start, everyone had accumulated a range of good critical strategies and contextual frameworks for discussing our primary texts, including the two I consider the most interpretively elusive, Aurora Floyd and East Lynne. And the Victorian novel class (odd though it may have been) seemed typical enough to me. I do think, though, that it might be time for me to re-imagine it, as I have been teaching the two 'halves' of it more or less the same since 2003. I enjoy both the Austen to Dickens and the Dickens to Hardy versions a lot; I vary the texts at least a little every time; and I have used a range of assignment structures. It's great to have notes and handouts ready to be tweaked and reused. But I think it's starting to make me a little intellectually lazy, knowing so well what I want to do or say with each novel, or at any rate each author. I have no idea how else to run the courses, but next year, for the first time since 2003, I'm not teaching either of them–in fact, we're hiring a sessional to cover them, as I'm on half-sabbatical starting in January and will be doing other teaching in the fall. So between now and September 2011, maybe I'll get some new ideas. Maybe I should sit in on some colleagues' classes, too, and see what they do. I bet in their own ways, they are odd too, but it would be nice–and probably instructive–to see what the difference is.


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Most of our writers didn't enter the world sporting an @baseballprospectus.com address; with a few exceptions, they started out somewhere else. In an effort to up your reading pleasure while tipping our caps to some of the most illuminating work being done elsewhere on the internet, we'll be yielding the stage once a week to the best and brightest baseball writers, researchers and thinkers from outside of the BP umbrella. If you'd like to nominate a guest contributor (including yourself), please drop us a line.
Alex Speier covers the Red Sox for WEEI.com. His playing career reached its zenith when he started a game-winning rally by getting beaned. He rarely sleeps, has many questions, and ventures few answers, while demonstrating proclivities towards sesquipedalianism, circumlocution, and the unintentional misuse of foreign languages. Though he is terrified of 140-character communiques, you can follow him on Twitter @alexspeier.
Young Maxwell Speier, newly turned 3 years old, has discovered that a Nerf baseball bat and ball can capture his attention for approximately six to 10 flips. He displays a genetic predisposition to enthusiasm in the undertaking and echoes his father's characteristic proclivity to swing and miss (still enthusiastically!) in volume, considering it a minor triumph if, at the conclusion of an unfettered and ill-timed swing, the ball should bonk him in the chest or face.
"I hit it!" he shouts, leaping up and down with delight as the orb ricochets off his nose.
Yet as striking as those similarities to his father at a comparable age (or, for that matter, any other age) might appear, there is a distinction. Max seems inclined to wield his Lightning McQueen-decorated cudgel from the left side of the plate, in contrast to his father's ineffectual approach as a right-handed hitter.
And so, the unathletic father wonders: Will Max continue to drift towards left-handedness with a bat? Or at some point, might he reimagine his approach and hit from the opposite side of the plate? Or—more puzzlingly—will he join the subset of players who choose offensive ambidexterity, going down the strange and little-understood path known as switch-hitting?
Handedness remains something of a scientific mystery. Its precise roots and causes aren't known.
But there is a general consensus that the existence of a dominant hand in most undertakings is a useful evolutionary mechanism, helping to explain why it's been around for so damn long. There's evidence of the phenomenon in the fossil record dating to at least Homo heidelbergensis, a species that is at least 600,000 years old.
It's clear that our forebears selected one appendage as the primary one for throwing rocks and spears and bludgeoning enemies with clubs. There was no such thing as batting practice that would permit them to fend off saber-tooth tigers with equal aplomb by whacking them with the right or left hand, no Whitey Herzog school of ambidextrous woolly mammoth hunting.
Evolution resulted in handedness rather than widespread ambidexterity because it is efficient. The brain trains one hand or one side of the body to execute a task and execute it well.
Repeating that process for the other hand? In many tasks, that would represent a waste.
"Once you start getting into tasks that can be done discreetly by one hand or the other, it makes sense to focus on the one hand and train your brain to interact with your arm in one specific manner. It just simplifies and increases the efficiency of doing that task," said Dr. Neil Roach, a biological anthropologist at George Washington University. "If you just think about throwing, you have essentially the same arm controlled by the same brain on both sides. But your ability to throw incredibly quickly and do other things such as swing a bat with the same precision is really affected by your muscle memory.
"You can have pitchers that can throw a baseball with a dominant arm, let's say their right arm, at 90 mph, but if you force them to throw with their left hand, their performance is going to drop hugely. So this is a matter of muscle memory and training.
"The advantage of choosing one side over the other is that you train those muscles and use your training in an efficient way to get the best bang for your buck from one side of your body, training your brain to interact with the muscles on that side of the body to produce a specific action."
Switch-hitting, then, represents a conscious decision to defy the efficiency borne of evolution. Instead of committing all of one's time to developing, say, a right-handed swing that will yield success against pitchers of either handedness, players first must train themselves to hit from their non-dominant side and then must maintain and refine the skill of hitting from both sides of the plate.
In other words, they're not only trying to create a skill that they don't have, but they're also doing so at some cost (one would think) to the time they can invest in sustaining something they're already really good at. If practice time is zero-sum, then there may be a degree of robbing Peter to pay Paul—trying to cultivate a skill that comes unnaturally by sacrificing time spent nurturing an already-present talent.
"Individuals that can dexterously do multiple tasks in different hands are in good shape. It's just a question of, what is the cost of generating that ability to similar degrees of effectiveness?" said Roach. "I would suspect that there are a number of folks who could have some minor success switch-hitting but who never switch-hit because they wouldn't necessarily get a good bang for their buck for doing it. It's something you could train up on, but it's hard to say if you'd meet the performance thresholds in order to make that training worthwhile."
Viewed through another lens—the Red Sox went through a period a few years ago when they had three switch-hitting catchers: Jason Varitek, Victor Martinez, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia. All three seemed like they were in a perpetual state of having completed boot camp, drenched in omnipresent sweat before games, while fulfilling the seemingly endless requirements of their preparations.
(The three represented an interesting study in the nature of handedness: Varitek was a much better hitter right-handed than left-handed; Saltalamacchia has considerably better career splits as a left-handed batter; and on a career basis, Martinez exhibits an almost imperceptible distinction between his performance from the two sides of the plate.)
There are some sporting ventures where being able to use both hands serves a truly useful function. Combat sports come to mind, with the ability to deliver a surprise punch in the face having a useful role (indeed, the element of surprise introduced by a strong left in hand-to-hand fights is considered one potential reason why lefties did not become extinct). Tennis, where the skill of smashing a waffle iron against a ball with both the forehand and backhand whilst sprinting to different sides of the court, offers clear gain for those who can develop the skill.
But baseball? Really?
After all, it is intriguing to note that, whereas Bob "Death to Flying Things" Ferguson is believed to have introduced switch-hitting to baseball in 1870, cricket did not have its first documented switch-hitter until five years ago, in 2008. And even with its introduction, the controversial practice remains limited in usage.
But in baseball, hitting handedness continues to defy more general population patterns. This year, of the 469 position players with a plate appearance in the big leagues (through Wednesday), 54 percent were classified as right-handed, 33 percent as lefties, and a whopping 13 percent were switch-hitters.
That spits in the face of typical patterns, given that there's roughly a 90/10 split between righties and lefties in the broader population. Less than 1 percent of the population is ambidextrous.
So why does hitting defy evolution and broader patterns of behavior?
"Maybe this arena of baseball is such a contrived and unnatural setting anyway that potentially you could throw evolutionary logic out the window," suggested Red Sox reliever Craig Breslow, who studied molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale, but who acknowledges at least some conversational familiarity with evolutionary biology. "Once we've determined that we're working within the confines of an anti-evolutionary system, then we can no longer apply that logic or rationale to the behavior—I suppose."
Alternately, it may be that there are different evolutionary impulses at work within the contrived setting to which Breslow referred. Specifically, players may reach a point where they show a lack of aptitude with their natural hand, and so they try to spin around.
Natural selection—and the incentive to win playing time by overcoming a shortcoming— may be in play.
"I didn't like sliders from right-handers on my right side," Chili Davis, now the A's hitting instructor and one of the best switch-hitters of the '80s and '90s, once suggested of his decision to try switch-hitting in his first year of pro ball. "Anything that spun, from a righty to me hitting righty, I was running to the dugout. And I knew I could [switch-hit].
"But in order to teach yourself to hit on your opposite side, you should be ready to hit on one side," Davis—a natural right-handed hitter who suggests he ultimately felt more natural hitting from the left side—added. "If you can't hit on one side, there ain't no stinking way in this world that you're going to be able to switch-hit."
The desire not to have to chase breaking balls away and the opportunity to take advantage of speed by hitting from the left side both factor prominently in the decision to switch-hit. Still, the why doesn't really illuminate the matter of efficacy.
Perhaps it makes sense to introduce players to switch-hitting only when they've proven they cannot succeed just while hitting from one side. Rays manager Joe Maddon favors an alternate approach.
"Hitting from both sides, if you started with a kid who was young enough, you could get it done in a pretty efficient way," said Maddon. "But all Little League should have kids be required to hit from both sides—not throw from both sides. Then you find out who has that aptitude for it, and if he does, let him do it, and if he doesn't, keep him on that one side. Truly, down the road, if he's efficient, it's so valuable."
Yet there's an element of the unknowable. Does anyone doubt that Mickey Mantle's career would have been just as great had he simply stuck to one side of the plate? Are there not many players who struggle so desperately from one side that they would have been better off never having been introduced to switch-hitting?
Barring some horrifying experiment in eugenics and cloning (and at the risk of sounding callous, it seems that a study of the efficacy of switch-hitting is a poor reason to tinker with the very fabric of humanity), there's no way of performing a study to determine, truly, the efficiency of cultivating the skill of switch-hitting versus having players remain committed to their natural side. In Maddon's experimental universe, there is no control against which to test the value of the idea.
(As an aside—Is Maddon not the easiest manager in big league history for whom it is effortless to conjure an experimental universe? Would anyone be surprised to discover a subterranean particle accelerator at Tropicana Field, with a door guarded by Albert Camus and Alan Greenspan?)
And so, when it comes to switch-hitting, there is only curiosity and guesswork.
Or, at times, there is neither.
Max Speier offers an enthusiastic flail of Lightning McQueen and misses his intended target. As he retrieves the ball that ended up in the bushes behind him, he pronounces, "I was very close! Baseball is fun."
Good enough.
Thank you for reading
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There is a very profound message within this simple story.
[youtube] [/youtube]
There is a very profound message within this simple story.
[youtube] [/youtube]
Thank you Seiryu,
Remarkable teaching because once again it shows that a real teacher is not afraid of showing his or her vulnerability. True or not, that story shows how ridiculous the mind and the behaviour of an experienced sitter can be. Comforting for the teacher ? Depressing for the student? :?
You see, guys, the point is not to escape Samsara, to be clean of the daily junk, but to be able to let it fly and go as fast as it comes. And to develop a form of humour. Because it never ceases to come. Illusion is endless , so is the Buddhadharma.
Thanks for sharing this video, Seiryu.
Indeed, after death there is no hope for friendship.
Hi Seiryu,
Thanks for sharing this video. I've always liked and respected that feature of humbleness in him!
I really liked that. the dalai lama is a great teacher. he is incredibly humble and he is just a man. i think that being human is something a lot of people forget how to do.
Gassho, Dojin.
Maybe I misheard, but isn't he recounting a story from his childhood?Originally Posted by Taigu
I sometimes recount this story, but I was sitting near the front at a conference a few years ago in which the Dalai Lama was a participant. He suddenly let out an unexpected, booking sneeze that filled the auditorium in the middle of another speaker's presentation ... the Dalai's microphone having been accidently left on. The Dalai Lama just turned red in the face, laughing with ordinary human embarrassment. It was good to see.Originally Posted by Matto
Gassho, Jundo


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Two elderly northeast Kansas men have dropped a federal lawsuit challenging a state law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls.
Attorney Jim Lawing said Thursday that Arthur Spry and Charles Hamner asked to have the case dismissed because a trial wasn't set until next year and they found requests for personal information intrusive. The two men live in a retirement home in Overbrook.
U.S. District Judge Kathryn Vratil in Kansas City, Kan., granted their request Wednesday for a dismissal.
Spry and Hamner sued Secretary of State Kris Kobach after their votes in the November 2012 election weren't counted because they couldn't produce valid photo ID.
Kobach said Thursday it's unlikely the men would have prevailed because a photo ID requirement doesn't violate the state or U.S. constitutions.


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Do you know that sinking feeling when people tell you they are going to do something again and again and again—and then once more—but they never, ever do it? That's what I'm feeling right now with the Dreamliner:
The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) today announced that the first flight of the 787 Dreamliner is expected by the end of 2009 and first delivery is expected to occur in the fourth quarter of 2010.
The new schedule reflects the previously announced need to reinforce an area within the side-of-body section of the aircraft, along with the addition of several weeks of schedule margin to reduce flight test and certification risk. The company projects achieving a production rate of 10 airplanes per month in late 2013.
There you have it. According to their press release, the fabled Boeing 787 Dreamliner will finally take off by year's end. With their credibility completely gone, I don't know if I should laugh or cry. I think I will do both. [Boeing]


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Keep warm while training on those cooler days with the 3RUN Family beanies in orange with black logo.
Here at 3RUN we pride ourselves with top quality products and epic customer service. If you are not fully satisfied with your Parkour and Free Running apparel we offer a 30 day money back guarantee for peace of mind.
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So I missed the document last year from Forrester titled "Smart Process Applications Fill A Big Business Gap" but I have just read the Forrester Wave for Smart Process Apps. My overriding impression is one of the creation of another solution paradigm to confuse an already crowded marketplace. It is not that long ago that I blogged about the difference between ACM and DCM, just over two years to be precise, and the interesting thing is that the technology world in this space has evolved a little during that time but there certainly has not been change enough to warrant the creation of yet another term. I will go back to the document from August 2012 which passed me by but some of the content is reproduced in the Wave and I want to focus on the Key Attributes of a Smart Process App:
1. Imported or embedded awareness of data relevant to the business activity. So what we are saying here is that there must be data associated with the business activity which is captured at some stage of the business process, right? Anything new here?
2. Document capture, document output, and document management. So these are the basic capture, manage and output stages of Document Management.
3. Embedded analytical tools designed for the business activity. So this will provide the reporting and data analytics on the specific business activity which has been created.
4. A collaboration platform for people to create content needed for the activity. An interesting pattern here as it deviates a little from the first three which are slightly more prescriptive. This is much less predictable and much more aligned with the Adaptive Case Management pattern which I have previously described. A good example of a solution incorporating a collaboration platform could be Grants Management where the Grant application would be subjected to a number of reviews where the reviewers provide a number of comments and share opinions on the Grant application.
5. BPM tools for executing the steps involved in the activity. This would involve classic BPM including workflow, tasking and potentially a rules engine.
I look back at the posts on ACM and DCM, which were already addressing a confused market and review the features above and there is very little difference. In fact some of the products which address the DCM or ACM market will be the same for the Smart Process Apps, typically the likes of EMC, OpenText, Kofax and IBM.
One of the comments in a previous post was:
My advice, don't implement based on the label. Understand what you're trying to achieve and assess the solutions and options which are available to you. Its not rocket science!
I don't see any difference here. You need to understand the core business and technical capabilities which you need to address and evaluate the products which can help you achieve those. It is true that it is not rocket science but the sheer number of players in this space means it is getting harder as there is convergence. Two years ago we would not have been comparing Salesforce.com and EMC as players in this space but the products are moving closer. The one thing I would recommend, and it is something I will comment on more, is the growth of already built applications or accelerators within the products. Companies such as IBM and EMC are adding an increasing number of solutions to their portfolio, addressing problem domains in multiple industries such as Life Sciences and Energy and Utilities. These solutions provide much more predictable results for customers and the solution providers themselves.
So while there is a lot in the report which is confusing and repeated from previous reports there is an underlying message which is important and which is driving change in this area of technology. Solutions and Solution Accelerators are increasing, call them Case Management or Smart Process Apps, and there is an increasing amount of choice in the market. Ultimately this can only be a good thing for consumers and we should see an increase in successful projects based on these technologies as a result.


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Bitcoin ATM Jersey City – Coinhub
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Fox News. When they're not talking of celebrity chests, they're opining about Apple rumors! They got next week's event date wrong, but now they're quoting sources saying Apple "is in talks" with both Verizon and AT&T for the tablet.
Supposedly there'll be two versions of the tablet, one offered on CDMA with Verizon's and the other on AT&T's GSM network. Interestingly, they suggest that Apple is still having those discussions, with nothing tied down firmly yet—which could certainly add weight to the speculation that the tablet won't actually hit shelves until June. But hey, it's Fox News. How 'bout those celebrity chests, eh? [Fox News]


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using StackExchange.Redis;The connection to the Redis cache is managed by the
ConnectionMultiplexer class instance. This instance is designed to be shared and reused throughout your client application, and does not need to be created on a per operation basis.
To connect to an Azure Redis Cache and be returned an instance of a connected
ConnectionMultiplexer, call the static
Connect method and pass in the cache endpoint.
ConnectionMultiplexer connection = ConnectionMultiplexer.Connect("contoso5.redis.cache.windows.net,ssl=true,password=... ");Once the connection is established, return a reference to the Redis cache database, by calling the
ConnectionMultiplexer.GetDatabase method.
// connection refers to a previously configured ConnectionMultiplexer IDatabase cache = connection.GetDatabase();A Database in Redis is just a grouping of data and is typically helpful if the application needs to logically group related data. Items can be stored in and retrieved from a cache by using the
StringSet and
StringGet methods.
// If key1 exists, it is overwritten. cache.StringSet("key1", "value1"); string value = cache.StringGet("key1");When calling
StringGet, if the object exists, it is returned, and if it does not, null is returned. In this case you can retrieve the value from the desired data source and store it in the cache for subsequent use.
string value = cache.StringGet("key1"); if (value == null) { // The item keyed by "key1" is not in the cache. Obtain // it from the desired data source and add it to the cache. value = GetValueFromDataSource(); cache.StringSet("key1", value); }To specify the expiration of an item in the cache, use the
TimeSpan parameter of
cache.StringSet("key1", "value1", TimeSpan.FromMinutes(90));Azure Redis Cache can cache .NET objects as well as primitive data types, but before a .NET object can be cached it must be serialized. In StackExchange.Redis this is the responsibility of the application developer, as it gives the developer flexibility in the choice of serializer. For more information, see Work with .NET objects in the cache. We have now successfully connected to an Azure Redis Cache and performed a Set and Get operation against it. For an example of how to use Azure Redis Cache for storing ASP.NET Session State, please check out the Azure Redis Cache ASP.NET Session State Provider blog post. Microsoft Hosted Redis Cache Benefits Azure Redis Cache gives customers the ability to use a secure, dedicated Redis cache, managed by Microsoft. With this offer, you get to leverage the rich feature set and ecosystem provided by Redis, and reliable hosting and monitoring from Microsoft. Below, we will dig deeper into two key value adds on Microsoft Hosted Redis: - Turn-key replication support on Azure Redis Cache Standard SKUs. - Built in monitoring and alerting Replication The Redis cache engine supports master-slave replication, with very fast non-blocking first synchronization and auto-reconnection on net split. Azure Redis cache builds on top of this feature and offers replication on all standard tier caches. This helps greatly improve the availability of the cache; node failure recovery is fast, with zero (or minimal) data loss. Internally we provisions two nodes for each Standard SKU cache (master + slave) and use Redis replication to keep the two in sync. In addition, we maintain a heartbeat to the master, and as soon as we detect the master is down, we promote the slave to master. Typically, all the user of the cache notices is a small blip during which the cache will be unavailable, and then things are back to normal very quickly. Monitoring and Alerts Every Azure Redis cache has its key metrics monitored by default. In the initial Preview release we track Cache Hits, Cache Misses, Get/Set Commands, Evicted Keys, Expired Keys, Used Memory and Used CPU. Over the course of the next few months we will be adding to this set. The monitored data is displayed on the portal page for the cache instance, where the user can choose to view the data for the hour, day, week, or for a specific custom time range. In addition to viewing the data, users can also choose to set an alert when a certain metric crosses a user defined threshold during a user defined time interval. For example, an alert could notify the cache administrator when the cache is seeing evictions. Which in turn might signal that the cache is running hot and needs to be upgraded to a larger size. This concludes our quick lap around key Azure Redis Cache features. For a sample application using Redis Cache check - MVC Movie App with Azure Redis Cache in 15 minutes The section below lists additional Azure Cache resources. Happy Caching! Learn more For more information, visit the following links: · Channel 9 video: Look around Azure Redis Cache (Preview) · Azure Cache Home Page · Azure Cache Forum - For answers to all your Redis Cache questions


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Message Board
Rene Gutteridge Message Board
Talk about the novels, new and used books that Gutteridge has written!
Author Gutteridge's Book Reviews
My Life as a Doormat (in Three Acts)
Leah Townsend, a successful playwright, is a people pleaser � or, as the title puts it, a doormat. Leah hates conflict and will avoid it at all costs; she absolutely cannot stand up for herself. Her two year relationship with Edward, a physicist at Boston University, seems to be going nowhere, but Leah cannot bring herself to break up with him. She tells herself that it's because she still has feelings for Edward; in reality, it is more of the same old d...