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Thank you for your interest in our homepage and our company. This website is operated by:
Via Frattalunga 12, 31011 Casella d'Asolo (TV) Italy
Phone +39 0423 55641
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e-mail: info(at)dalbello.it
Information to be provided where personal data are collected from the data subject ART. 13 of the GDPR
For the use of the website, the delivery of goods or the provision of services, we collect various types of data, some of which are provided by you as a user and some of which are necessary for the use of the website or arise from the use of the website. Personal data are individual details about personal or professional circumstances of a specific or identifiable natural person, such as your name, your address, your telephone number, your date of birth, your payment data and your IP address. Your personal data will only be passed on or otherwise transferred to third parties if the transfer is necessary for the purpose of contract processing (for example for payment processing or sending goods via parcel service) or if you have given your express consent. The information is not used for any other purpose and no automatic decision processing will take place.
If we use contracted service providers for individual functions of our offers via this website or would like to use your data for advertising purposes, we will inform you in detail about the respective processes below. We also specify the defined criteria for the storage period.
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We protect your personal data by taking all reasonable and necessary technical and organizational possibilities so that they are not accessible to unauthorized third parties. Our website and other services offered through it therefore use appropriate encryption mechanisms for the provision of content and during the input and transmission of data. When communicating by e-mail, we also recommend the use of encryption for confidential information
Person responsible in the meaning of. Art. 4 Para. 7 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is CALZATURIFICIO DAL BELLO SRL I Via Frattalunga 12 I 31011 Casella d'Asolo (TV) I Italy (see also via "Imprint" at our Website).
You can contact the person responsible for data protection via e-mail at privacy(at)dalbello.it or via our postal address with the addition " Data Protection ".
Your personal data will only be passed on to third parties,
if the transfer is necessary for the fulfilment of contractual obligations pursuant to Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 b) GDPR;
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if the disclosure of the data is in the public interest within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 e) GDPR or;
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If you send us e-mail messages or other messages, in particular comments, or enter them directly on the Website, we will retain such messages in order to process the request, respond to questions and improve the Website, products and services. We delete the data arising in this context after the storage is no longer necessary or limit the processing if statutory retention obligations exist.
If you provide feedback (for example on the Website), we may use and disclose this feedback for any purpose, as long as we do not provide it with your personal data, i.e. anonymously or pseudonymously. The collection of data contained in such feedback and the handling of all personal data contained therein is in accordance with the data protection principles set out herein.
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In particular, you have the following rights towards us with regard to the personal data related to you:
Right to access information,
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right to limitation of processing,
right of withdrawal of the consent to processing,
Right to data transferability.
You also have the right to complain to a data protection supervisory authority about our processing of your personal data. You have the following individual rights:
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e) Right to object to the processing of your personal data pursuant to Art. 21 para. 2 GDPR (if the data are processed for the purpose of direct marketing) or pursuant to Art. 21 para. 1 GDPR (if the processing is carried out pursuant to Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 e) or f) GDPR, for reasons arising from your particular situation, unless we have compelling grounds for processing that outweigh your interests or the processing serves to assert, exercise or defend legal claims). Further information on the right of objection can be found in section 23 below;
f) Right to data transferability in accordance with Art. 20 GDPR, i.e. to receive the personal data concerning you that you have provided to us in a structured, current and machine-readable format or to transfer it to another person responsible;
g) Right to revoke consent granted at any time in accordance with Art. 7 para. 3 GDPR. The consequence of the revocation is that from the time of the revocation we may no longer carry out the data processing for the future.
h) Right of appeal to a supervisory authority pursuant to Art. 77 GDPR. The supervisory authority responsible for us can be found in section 4. above. The right of appeal is without prejudice to other administrative or judicial remedies.
i) Please contact the personal responsible for data protection via the contact details per Section 2 above to request information and for withdrawal as well as for notification of a request for deletion; the data protection officer will then provide the information immediately or confirm the execution of your request for deletion. A deletion requested by you will then be carried out subject to statutory retention obligations. If a deletion cannot take place completely due to legal storage obligations, we limit the processing of the data concerned and inform you accordingly.
7. Data that is provided actively by you as user of the website or services:
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b) If you register for our retailer platform, we will provide you the access data and store the necessary information to provide you the information placed in that specific platform. You may as a reseller also register directly via the link provided at our website. In such case, the data, which are necessary for the provision of information and services of such reseller platform is determined by the registration form. We will store and process such data only for the purposes of providing information and reseller services to you as a reseller. The legal basis is Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1 lit. b GDPR.
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We use the so-called double opt-in procedure for sending the newsletter. As part of this process, we first send the user an e-mail to the specified e-mail address. However, the user will not receive a newsletter by e-mail until the user clicks on the link received in the e-mail and has expressly confirmed to us that we should activate the newsletter service. After your confirmation we will save your e-mail address only for the purpose of sending you the newsletter. The legal basis is Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1 lit. a GDPR.
We would like to point out that we evaluate your user behaviour when sending the newsletter. For this analysis, the e-mails sent contain so-called web beacons or tracking pixels, which represent single-pixel image files stored on our website. For evaluation purposes, we link the above data and web beacons to your e-mail address and an individual ID. You can object to this tracking at any time by clicking on the separate link provided in each e-mail or by informing us by another contact method. The information is stored for as long as you have subscribed to the newsletter. After a cancellation we store the data purely statistically and anonymously.
If at any time you no longer wish to receive newsletters from us, you can object to the newsletter subscription at any time without incurring any costs other than the transmission costs according to the basic rates. A message in text form to the contact data specified in the imprint is sufficient for this. Of course, you will also find a unsubscribe link in every newsletter. If you unsubscribe, your e-mail address stored with our newsletter-provider will be deleted automatically.
d) The data created by users within the scope of using the website via a login or a newsletter registration are stored on servers operated in our name. Those service providers are contractually bound by an agreement as per Art. 28 GDPR. However, the server operators are subject to the same data protection standards as we are and are operated in the European Union.
e) To prevent unauthorized access to your personal data, our website is encrypted using HTTPS technology.
8. Data collected directly in the context of your use of the website:
While a purely informational use of the website, i.e. if you do not register or otherwise provide us with information, we only collect the personal data that your browser transmits to our server. If you wish to view our website, we collect the following data, which are technically necessary for us to display our website to you and to guarantee its stability and security (legal basis is Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1 lit. f GDPR):
IP address (stored shortened in accordance with data protection regulations)
date and time of the request
Time zone difference to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
Content of the request (specific page)
Access status/HTTP status code
the amount of data transferred in each case
Website from which the request originates
Browser name and version, language setting
b) When you visit our websiteand when using the services offered via the website, the server sends one or more cookies - small files containing a string of characters - to the user's computer or other data processing unit, which uniquely identifies the browser. We use cookies to improve the quality of the website, including to store usage preferences and track user trends.
Cookies can be set in one of the following types:
Transient cookies are automatically deleted when you close your browser. This includes in particular the session cookies. These store a so-called session ID, with which different requests of your browser can be assigned to the common session. This will allow your computer to be recognized when you return to our website. Session cookies are deleted when you log out or close your browser.
Persistent cookies are automatically deleted after a specified period, which may vary depending on the cookie. You can delete cookies at any time in the security settings of your browser.
Third-party cookies are cookies that are set by third parties and can be either transient or persistent cookies.
c) You can set your browser to notify you when a cookie is sent. This opens up the possibility of either accepting or rejecting a cookie. The information collected and analyzed is used to improve the services and the website, to personalize the web experience, and to allow easy login to permanently set login cookies.
d) We may use the services of third parties to evaluate the efficiency of the website and services and to determine how visitors use the website and or the services and, where appropriate, to provide a personalized user experience when evaluating cookies. The website may use web beacons (tracking pixels) and cookies provided by third parties for this purpose. The information collected by the provider includes the pages visited, navigation patterns and similar data. This data enables us to find out which product information is most interesting for users and which offers users prefer to view. Furthermore, we do not exclude the possibility that we transmit anonymous usage data for market research purposes. Although we may have commissioned third parties to log the data originating from our website, we have control over how this data may or may not be used. The cookie itself does not contain any personal data, but if you provide personal data when visiting the website and do not delete the cookie from your browser after providing this data, the provider collects the non-personal data stored in the cookie (such as the number of visits to the provider) and stores and processes this anonymously.
Data collected in the context of the use of the website by analysis tools (WebAnalytics) used by us with our website:
We use Google Analytics to analyse and regularly improve the use of our website. We can improve our offer and make it more interesting for you as a user. Google Analytics is a web analysis service of Google Inc. "("Google"), which uses cookies to analyse your use of the website.
The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is usually transferred to a Google server in the USA and stored there. However, by activating IP anonymisation by us on this website, Google will previously reduce your IP address within Member States of the European Union or in other states party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. For exceptional cases in which personal data may transferred to the USA, Google has submitted to the EU-US Privacy Shield, www.privacyshield.gov/EU-US-Framework. The legal basis for the use of Google Analytics is Art. 6 Par. 1 S. 1 lit. f GDPR.
On behalf of the operator of this website, Google will use this information to evaluate your use of the website, to compile reports on website activity and to provide the Internet use.
You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. You can also prevent Google from collecting the data generated by the cookie and relating to your use of the website (including your IP address) and from processing this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available under the following link: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en.
Social-Media-Links and Third-Party Services
We use only a https-link to the relevant site. This means that when you visit our site, no personal data is initially passed on to the providers of the Social Media. You can recognize the provider of the Social Media Provider by the logo shown and/or the additional text information.
b) We have included YouTube videos in our website, which are stored on www.YouTube.com and can be played directly from our website. These are all integrated in the "extended data protection mode", i.e. no data about you as a user will be transmitted to YouTube if you do not play the videos. Only when you play the videos will the above data be transmitted. We have no influence on this data transmission.
c) We have Vimeo for the hosting of videos in our website, which are stored by Vimeo and can be played directly from our website. When you play the videos, Vimeo may receive the following data: IP address, your browser type and language, access times, the content of any undeleted cookies that your browser previously accepted from Vimeo and the referring website address. We have no influence on this data transmission.
d) On this website we use the offer of Google Maps. This allows us to display interactive maps directly on the website and enables you to conveniently use the map function.
e) A dealer search can be carried out via the website. This uses your input, e.g. a postcode, as a basis for an interactive map that uses Google Maps to show you dealers matching your search query. The entry is only used to display the matching search result and is not saved.
f) For uniform representation of fonts, this page uses web fonts provided by Google. When you open a page, your browser loads the required web fonts into your browser cache to display texts and fonts correctly.


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April 27th, 2011
Beer-only fast ends with bacon smoothie
By Eric Marrapodi, CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor
(CNN) - J. Wilson has survived his 46-day beer-only fast and found some unexpected spiritual insights.
Wilson, who lives outside Des Moines, Iowa, was emulating a Lenten tradition carried out by German monks hundreds of years ago. In keeping with tradition he ate his last solid food on Ash Wednesday and broke his fast on Easter Sunday.
"I made a bacon smoothie and that's what I broke the fast with," Wilson said.
He slurped down the smoothie after midnight on the morning of Easter Sunday. He was up late for an interview with the BBC in London for their Easter Sunday broadcast
Wilson undertook the fast with medical advice from his doctor and spiritual advice from his pastor, after he conducted lengthy research into extended fasts.
In his research he found that smoothies were the best way to ease back into food. The plan was to go three days on smoothies before eating any solid foods.
"I planned on focusing on some foods that would help specifically my liver and my kidneys, which I had been beating up on for a couple of weeks –- so foods like cabbage and broccoli and cauliflower," he said. But it didn't quite work out that way.
"I had no idea my wife was going to buy my two boys a ham for Easter," he said. After he made a gravy with the drippings from the ham, he helped himself to two servings of mashed potatoes and gravy and some ham as well.
Wilson is an avid home brewer, blogger, and Christian, and his beer-only quest merged these passions.
For Lent, Christians often give up something to remember the sacrifice they believe Jesus made for them on the cross. Wilson decided to give up all food and drink except beer.
At the beginning of the fast Wilson drank four beers a day during the week and five a day on weekends. Toward the end of the fast, he increased his beer intake to five a day during the week to maintain his strength.
His drink of choice: 12 ounces of Illuminator Doppelbock, a recipe he developed and brewed with the help of Eric Sorensen, the senior brewer at Rock Bottom Brewery in Des Moines, Iowa.
Wilson kept one keg at home and one at the office at the Adams County Free Press newspaper, where he's the editor. He spread the beers out through out the day and said he only felt tipsy three times over the 46 days.
He checked in with CNN's Carol Costello on the 31st day of the fast, and kept a running blog, the Diary of a Part-time Monk, documenting his quest and offering spiritual insights along the way.
Wilson said the spiritual takeaway was threefold:
From a health standpoint, Wilson seems no worse the wear. He began the fast at 160 pounds and finished up at 135. He saw his doctor Wednesday morning and was told everything looked good for now, pending the results of blood tests.
If you're wondering if Wilson will ever drink beer again after living on nothing but beer for 46 days, he said he'll probably take a break from doppelbock, but on Easter Sunday he brewed 10 more gallons of a different recipe.
soundoff (138 Responses)
About this blog
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.

subset: commoncrawl


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Phuket Gazette World News: Crimeans vote over 90 percent to quit Ukraine for Russia
PHUKET: Russian state media said Crimeans voted overwhelmingly to break with Ukraine and join Russia on Sunday, as Kiev accused Moscow of pouring forces into the peninsula and warned separatist leaders "the ground will burn under their feet".
With over half the votes counted, 95.5 percent had chosen the option of annexation by Moscow, the head of the referendum commission, Mikhail Malyshev, said two hours after polls closed. Turnout was 83 percent, he added – a high figure given that many who opposed the move had said they would boycott the vote.
Western powers and leaders in Kiev denounced it as a sham.
Underlining how Moscow's military takeover of the peninsula two weeks ago has driven Russia and the West into a crisis with echoes of the Cold War, Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama spoke by telephone and, according to the Kremlin, the Russian and U.S. presidents agreed on a need to cooperate to stabilise Ukraine.
"This referendum is contrary to Ukraine's constitution," a White House spokesman said. "The international community will not recognise the results of a poll administered under threats of violence and intimidation from a Russian military intervention that violates international law."
The Kremlin said Putin told Obama the referendum was legitimate and he expressed concern about the Ukrainian government's failure to stamp out violence against Russian speakers in the country.
"Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin drew attention to the inability and unwillingness of the present authorities in Kiev to curb rampant violence by ultra-nationalist and radical groups that destabilise the situation and terrorise civilians, including the Russian-speaking population," the Kremlin said.
It said Putin suggested European monitors should be sent to all parts of Ukraine because of the violence.
Kiev said Moscow's build-up of forces in the Black Sea peninsula was in "crude violation" of an international treaty, and announced plans to arm and train 20,000 members of a newly-created National Guard.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told Moscow that Washington would not accept the outcome of the vote in the region, which has an ethnic Russian majority and was transferred to Ukraine by Soviet rulers only 60 years ago.
The White House also warned Moscow to expect sanctions while foreign ministers from the European Union, which has major trade ties with Russia, will decide on possible similar action in Brussels on Monday.
But Putin rejected Western accusations that the referendum was illegal, saying it respected the will of the Crimean people, while his foreign ministry said it had agreed with the United States to seek a solution to the crisis through constitutional reform.
Ukrainian anger
In Kiev, Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk threatened dire consequences for the Crimean politicians who had called the vote, saying separatist "ringleaders" wanted to destroy Ukrainian independence "under the cover of Russian troops".
"We will find all of them – if it takes one year, two years – and bring them to justice and try them in Ukrainian and international courts. The ground will burn under their feet," he told a cabinet meeting.
Yatseniuk had just returned from a U.S. trip where he won expressions of moral support but no offers of weapons. Kiev's pro-European rulers, who took power after last month's fall of Moscow-backed President Viktor Yanukovich to popular unrest, have been as powerless as Western governments to prevent the referendum or buildup of Russian forces on Ukrainian territory.
At a polling booth at a school in Simferopol, the Crimean regional capital, dozens of people lined up outside to cast their ballots early.
"I have voted for Russia," said Svetlana Vasilyeva, 27, a veterinary nurse. "This is what we have been waiting for. We are one family and we want to live with our brothers."
Vasilyeva voiced fears common among some of Ukraine's native Russian-speakers about the consequences of Yanukovich's exit after protests in which over 100 people were killed. "We want to leave Ukraine because Ukrainians told us that we are people of a lower kind. How can you stay in such a country?" she said.
But ethnic Tatars – Sunni Muslims who make up 12 percent of Crimea's population – said they would boycott the vote despite promises by the regional authorities to give them financial aid and proper land rights.
"This is my land. This is the land of my ancestors. Who asked me if I want it or not? Who asked me?" said Shevkaye Assanova, a Crimean Tatar in her 40s. "For the rest of my life I will be cursing those who brought these people here. I don't recognise this at all. I curse all of them."
Two options
Crimea's 1.5 million voters had two options: union with Russia or giving their region, which is controlled by pro-Kremlin politicians, the broad right to determine its own path and choose relations with whom it wants – including Moscow.
A local Tatar television channel broadcast the count at one small polling station. It took just a few minutes for officials to stack up the papers, virtually in a single pile. One gave the result as: "166 for, 2 against, 1 spoiled". By "for" she clearly meant the first option on the paper, for union with Russia.
Russia has the right to keep forces on the Black Sea peninsula, including at its naval base in the port of Sevastopol, under a treaty signed after Ukraine gained independence from the wreckage of the Soviet Union in 1991.
But Ukrainian acting defence minister Ihor Tenyukh accused Moscow of going far beyond an agreed limit on servicemen – which he said was 12,500 for 2014.
"Unfortunately, in a very short period of time, this 12,500 has grown to 22,000. This is a crude violation of the bilateral agreements and is proof that Russia has unlawfully brought its troops onto the territory of Crimea," he said.
This figure had risen from 18,400 on Friday. "Let me say once again that this is our land and we will not be leaving it," he told Interfax news agency.
Tenyukh later said that the defence ministries in Kiev and Moscow had declared a truce until March 21 during which Russian forces, who have been arriving by boat and helicopter, would leave Ukrainian military facilities untouched.
Many Crimeans hope union with Russia will bring better pay and make them citizens of a country capable of asserting itself on the world stage. But others saw the referendum as a land grab by the Kremlin from Ukraine, whose new rulers want to move the country towards the European Union and away from Russia's sway.
Putin defended the vote in a phone call on Sunday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, saying it complied with international law, including Article 1 of the U.N. Charter which states the principle of self-determination of peoples. "It was emphasized that Russia will respect the choice of the Crimean people," a Kremlin statement said.
Putin has said he must protect the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine from "fascists" in Kiev who ousted Yanukovich. Western powers largely dismiss his characterisation of the new authorities as successors of Nazi-allied Ukrainian forces which fought the Red Army in World War Two.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged Kerry on Sunday to encourage authorities in Kiev to stop what he called "massive lawlessness" against the Russian-speaking population.
In their second phone conversation in two days, Lavrov and Kerry agreed to seek a solution to the crisis by pushing for constitutional reforms in Ukraine, Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement.
However, Kerry told Lavrov that the United States would not accept the referendum result and said Russia must pull back its forces to their bases, a senior State Department official said.
The White House also warned Putin
— Phuket Gazette Editors
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A Wisconsin firm shut down after making and distributing contaminated alcohol wipes and other medical products blamed for infections and deaths has hired a new chief operating officer as officials work to reopen the company.
H&P Industries of Hartland, Wis., has hired Eamonn Vize, a former Abbott Laboratories Inc. executive with 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, officials said in a press release Tuesday.
The company has been shuttered since June, when federal officials, at the urging of the Food and Drug Administration, issued a permanent injunction barring the firm from making or distributing products until it could prove quality control standards were in place to prevent microbial contamination.
Vize would appear to replace the company's former chief operating officer, David Haertle, one of three siblings who run the firm and its sister company, the Triad Group Inc. Eric Haertle, the company's president, praised the new hire.
"Eamonn's experience in dealing with the FDA while at Abbott and his strong operational skills will provide tremendous value to our company as we continue our road to recovery," Eric Haertle said in the release.
The move comes a week after H&P Industries issued its latest recall of povidone iodine products, including swabs, scrubs, gels and solutions used to prevent infections during medical procedures. The company issued the recall at the urging of the FDA, which released a safety alert saying that the products had been produced without systems in place to prevent objectionable microorganisms.
That recall followed a global recall of widely used alcohol prep products and another recall of povidone iodine products earlier this year because of bacterial contamination.
At least eight lawsuits nationwide claim that products contaminated with Bacillus cereus, a rare bacterium, led to infections and death. The first suit was filed by the family of a 2-year-old Houston boy whose parents blame the wipes for their child's deadly bacterial meningitis infection caused by Bacillus cereus.
H&P officials have posted a $4 million penal bond and delivered a so-called "reconditioning plan" detailing how they hope to restart the 30-year-old family business.
H&P officials declined an msnbc.com request to interview Vize or other company leaders and referred questions about possible reopening to the FDA. FDA officials have said that H&P Industries is complying with terms of a consent decree, but declined to speculate about a possible date when the firm could reopen.


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As global food costs rise, are biofuels to blame?
Converting corn and soybeans into fuels is contributing to higher food prices. The dispute is how much.
The biofuels industry plans on producing record amounts of ethanol this year to meet a mandate of the new US energy law – and will need a lot of corn to do it. At the same time, global food prices are at near-peak levels. The question is, how big is the connection between those two developments?
It's a topic getting more scrutiny as the world enters 2008 with the lowest grain stockpiles on record, near-record grain prices, and prospects for even tighter supplies as global demand rises for food and fuel.
Political instability over higher food prices is a key concern. Last year saw tortilla demonstrations in Mexico, pasta protests in Italy, and unrest in Pakistan over bread prices. Soybean prices, meanwhile, prompted demonstrations in front of Indonesia's presidential palace. Food inflation in China is a major problem.
But the connection between the expansion of biofuels and higher global food prices is not clear cut, with the biofuels industry saying its impact is relatively small and biofuel critics saying that ethanol plants are driving up the price of corn and biodiesel producers are taking a bite out of the soybean crop.
"The United States, in a misguided effort to reduce its oil insecurity by converting grain into fuel for cars, is generating global food insecurity on a scale never seen before," says Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute (EPI), an environmental think tank in Washington. World population growth will require food for an additional 70 million people this year, the EPI said in a report last week.
Driven mostly by population growth, world grain consumption rose an average of 21 million tons per year from 1990 to 2005, the US Department of Agriculture reported this month. Demand for grain to make ethanol soared by 27 million tons last year, USDA reported.
"Putting [corn-ethanol] land back into food use would have a profound effect on the price of corn," says Bruce Babcock, an economist at Iowa State University's Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute. This year, he estimates, the US will produce about 8 billion gallons of ethanol. To do that, nearly one-fifth of the 80 million acres now devoted to corn will go to make ethanol.
That demand is helping to boost feed prices for cattle, as well as for crops like peas and beans because less land is devoted to growing them, he says.
In a counterpoint study last month by corn growers and the biofuels industry, higher corn prices were found to be only a small element in rising food costs overall – although higher energy costs for fuel to transport crops and grow them were a larger factor.
"This analysis puts to bed the argument that a growing domestic ethanol industry is solely responsible for rising consumer food prices," Bruce Scherr, CEO of Informa Economics, a food and agriculture research and consulting firm based in Memphis, Tenn., said in a statement.
The "farm value" of commodity raw materials used in foods accounts for 19 percent of total US food costs, down from 37 percent in the 1973. Higher costs for labor, packaging, transportation, and energy were a "key driver" behind higher food costs, the report said.
While higher corn prices cause lower profit margins for livestock and poultry producers, "the statistical evidence does not support a conclusion that there is a strict 'food-versus-fuel' trade-off" driving consumer food prices higher, the study said.
Whatever the reason, prices for grains such as corn and soybeans are up. Despite a record US corn crop in fall 2007, corn prices are near a record high of about $5 a bushel in mid-January.
Because corn is feedstock, higher corn prices can affect food prices. The average price of milk rose 29 percent last year, for instance, and eggs 36 percent.
"More people are coming to the conclusion that there is a food-fuel link," says Siwa Msangi of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), a Washington food-security research organization. "The historic pattern of the past, where food prices were in a long-term decline, could be at an end."
But the major reason grain prices are spiking, he and others note, is fast-rising demand for higher-quality food like meat, poultry, and dairy products by the increasingly affluent people of China and India.
Still, biofuels play a role in higher grain prices, says Dr. Babcock.
His findings are bolstered by a study last month in which Mr. Msangi's IFPRI estimated that future biofuel expansion could increase international corn prices between 26 and 72 percent by 2020, depending on how aggressive the expansion turns out to be.
Under two scenarios IFPRI examined, "the increase in crop prices resulting from expanded biofuel production was accompanied by a net decrease in the availability of ... food" for the world's poor, the study found.
As prices rise, of course, producers worldwide have incentive to grow more corn – or other crops, such as wheat, that might be in demand instead of corn.
But that's not happening yet. In an apparent effort to moderate food prices and quell social unrest – which in turn curbs growers' incentive to produce more – Russia this month is expected to place a 40 percent export tax on wheat. Argentina, too, has limited its wheat exports.
"The price of corn, soybeans, and livestock feed is not going to go down," Babcock says. America's new energy bill "pretty much guarantees that feed costs and land rent are going to stay high."


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text: Montana Conservation Projects Montana ranks third in duck production in the lower 48 states. When the glaciers melted, they left millions of natural depressions—these are the prairie potholes. Just fill these potholes with snowmelt and rainfall, mix with Montana sunshine and the ducks will come. For many ducks, Montana lies at the northern end of the annual migration route that takes ducks thousands of miles through the food-rich interior of the United States to the wetlands of the Mississippi Alluvial Valley, Gulf Coast and Central Valley of California. Unfortunately, nearly one-half of Montana's wetlands have been drained or filled, reducing the capacity of the region to attract and sustain breeding ducks. An immediate threat is the continuing loss of grassland nesting habitat. Less grass means fewer nest sites that are safe from predators and a mix of predatory mammals that are decidedly "duck unfriendly." Fortunately, our conservation investments are paying off. DU has restored, enhanced and protected 257,937 acres in the state. Most of Montana's wildlife refuges, waterfowl production areas and state wildlife management areas have felt the helping hand of a DU project. DU continues to innovate with land purchases that protect critical habitats, and conservation easements that enable our conservation partners and us to sustain habitat cost effectively while maintaining it in private ownership. Montana is part of the Preserve Our Prairies and the Peaks to Prairies initiatives. This vital work is only possible because of your involvement with Ducks Unlimited. View the 2020 Montana state conservation report. Montana Projects ()


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After the kohlrabi seeds sprout, thin the seedlings so that they are 4″ or 5″ apart. Mulch to help keep moisture in and weeds down, and water regularly.
Kohlrabi Diseases
As long as kohlrabi gets the nutrients and water needed to grow quickly, diseases and pests are rarely a big problem.
You may see cabbage worms on the plants, but you can handpick and remove them. In some climates, small flea beetles may eat holes in the leaves. Since kohlrabi is grown for its edible stem and not for its leaves, a bit of leaf damage is usually nothing to worry about. Where large infestations might be a problem, however, you can keep the intruders at bay by using floating row covers.
Row Cover
Kohlrabi globes are ready to eat as soon they get 2″ or 3″ wide.
To put down a row cover, secure wire hoops down the length of the row, spacing them about 3′ or 4′ apart. Then stretch a lightweight row cover over the hoops, anchoring both sides of the cover with bricks. Applied early in the season, lightweight fabric covers are a pesticide-free way to keep flea beetles, cabbage-root maggots, caterpillars, leafhoppers and other insects away from your crop. The covers can be easily lifted whenever you need access to the plants.
To harvest them, use a serrated knife to cut them off at the base. You can cut off the leaves and discard them, but don't peel the globe. The skin is supposed to be the tastiest part.
Kohlrabi is delicious raw. Rinse it off, cut it in strips and put the slices into a bowl of lemon juice. After it's marinated for 20 or 30 minutes, it's great to munch on. Kohlrabi is also good cooked, steamed and served with a butter sauce.
Yardlong Beans
When the seedlings first come up, thin them so that there are two to three vines per pole.
Keep the area clear of weeds by hand-pulling them when they first appear. Mulch and water regularly. A month and a half after planting, the vines should reach the top of the tepee, and bean pods will appear. Inspect the beans nearly every day, keeping an eye out for any curled or discolored leaves that might indicate a wilt or fungal disease.
One key to a disease-free garden is never to touch a plant's foliage when it is wet. Diseases easily spread on the film of water that coats wet leaves and stems.
Yardlong Beans Pests
The number-one pest on bean crops is the Mexican bean beetle.
A rounded gold-colored beetle with black spots on its back, it eats the leaves, stems and bean pods. Fortunately, in a home garden there is rarely any need to resort to chemical sprays. Handpicking the beetles off the leaves when you see them will minimize any damage.
Most people like to harvest the beans when the pods reach 12″ to 15″ long, when they are still young and tender. Check the vines every day or two, harvesting as you go along. Young beans are eaten like green beans and are good steamed, stir-fried or sautéed.
Yardlong Beans Harvesting
If you let them, the beans will grow to nearly 30″ long.
When the older pods begin to turn yellow, harvest them and use them as shelling beans. Split the pods open to shell the beans, and cook them as you would any type of dried bean. They taste like black-eyed peas but with a delicious nutty flavor.
Dry Some Beans
You can save a few of the mature beans so that you can plant yardlong beans again next summer.
Let the pods dry on the vine, turning completely yellow and leathery. Shuck the beans into a basket, and let them air-dry in a warm, dry spot. Place the dried beans in an envelope and set them aside in a cool, dry place until you're ready to plant again next year.
Bean Protection
Protect your beans from inclement weather.
If rainy weather approaches when you're trying to let beans dry on the vine, simply pull up the vines, root and all, and hang them upside down in your garage.
Eggplant is a warm-weather crop that sulks in chilly weather.
It can be hit hard or killed by frosts, so plant it well after the last frost-free date in your area.
Eggplant grows best when it has constant moisture and the soil is not allowed to dry out between waterings. To keep an eye on the situation, use a moisture meter to monitor the soil. Set the probe of the meter about 6″ into the soil to give a good indication of the moisture level at the eggplant's root. Whenever the meter veers towards low, water thoroughly. A moisture meter costs only a few dollars and will save you a lot in the long run, since you won't be tempted to overwater and thus waste time and money.
Eggplant Pests
Eggplant often plays host to insect pests.
Tiny flea beetles are a common predator that can zap the vitality of your plants.
Flea beetles are very small, about 1/10″ long. Just like the fleas they are named after, they'll jump around when they're disturbed. The adult beetles chew lots of small holes in the leaves of plants and sometimes spread viral diseases as they move from plant to plant. To control flea beetles, you can use row covers just like we did with the kohlrabi, or you can spray with an insecticide recommended by your local extension agent.
Eggplant Harvesting
Eggplants are usually best if harvested when they are only one-third to one-half of their mature size, since those that stay on the shrub too long can get bitter.
To test whether they're ready for harvest, press the skin with your finger. If the spot stays indented and doesn't spring right back, the eggplant is perfect for picking.
Once the eggplant is ready, harvest by cutting the fruit off the plant with garden shears. Since the plants have sharp spines, it's a good idea to wear garden gloves so that you don't get scraped. You can store eggplant in the refrigerator for a week to 10 days before cooking. It's great in ratatouille, sliced and grilled over a fire or made into baba ghanoush, a classic Middle Eastern dish.


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Dems Rake in Special Interest Dollars
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has sworn off special-interest money to pay for his re-election bid. But it turns out those dollars are fair game for congressional Democrats -- to the tune of millions.
An Associated Press analysis of campaign fundraising found that Democrats who are trying to regain control of the House next fall have raked in more than $15 million from political action committees this year, raising money from special interests even as Obama, the Democratic standard bearer, promotes his ban on such funds.
More than $1 million of that money flowed to the re-election committees of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and the Democratic National Committee chairwoman, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.
Democratic leaders gloss over all that when they pressure the GOP presidential candidates to disclose their top donors, and even go so far as to trumpet the fact that Obama's campaign and the DNC don't take money from registered federal lobbyists and political action committees.
"The refusal to accept donations from federal lobbyists and PACs is critical to limiting the influence of special interests in the political process," Wasserman Schultz said in a recent conference call with reporters. "Unfortunately, every single Republican candidate for president today happily accepts donations from lobbyists and PACs."
Yet the checks still flowed to congressional Democrats, AP's analysis found, at roughly the same pace as they did in the last election cycle two years ago. And dozens of House Democrats even raised more interest-group money than they did during first six months in 2009, the most recent comparable period, when adjusted for inflation.
"Democrats have broadly supported campaign finance reform and disclosure for outside groups, while Republicans continue to oppose them," DNC spokesman Alec Gerlach said in statement responding to the AP's questions. "The DNC has refused PAC and lobbyist money since President Obama was elected, and Wasserman Schultz has refused it as well since she was elected DNC chair" in May.
The AP's analysis, drawing upon campaign records from the Federal Election Commission, found donations to House Democrats this year included big checks from unions, sugar producers and defense contractors -- all PACs that filed notices with the FEC stating they were active in lobbying.
Indeed, it's a bipartisan money game, with top Republicans also cashing checks from special interests in 2011. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has pulled in more than $500,000 from PACs since Jan. 1, as has his deputy, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.
But Democrats have been on the offensive across the country, criticizing streams of cash flowing into federal elections following the 2010 Supreme Court ruling that lifted a ban on corporate donations in political campaigns.
"There is an army of lobbyists and lawyers right now working to water down the protections and the reforms that we passed," Obama said July 18 in White House Rose Garden, announcing the head of a new consumer-protection bureau.
Sheila Krumholz, president of the watchdog group Center for Responsive Politics, said: "It's easy for presidential candidates to reject PAC contributions because they make up such minuscule portions of what the candidates need to raise. They can reject PAC money and take the high road all the way to the bank."
Obama's campaign has emphasized the president's decision to forgo contributions from registered lobbyists and political action committees. They note that President George W. Bush and 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain released their lists of "bundlers" -- large-dollar donors who raise $50,000 or more among their networks of contacts -- but no one in the current Republican presidential has done the same.
"President Bush disclosed his bundlers, but the current GOP field has not followed suit, raising questions about the extent to which special interests are funding their campaigns," Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said. "More than 552,000 Americans have funded ours."
Yet, even some of Obama's bundlers have lobbying ties. Michael Kempner, who is president of MWW Group, a public affairs company with a Washington lobbying practice, raised at least $500,000. Other bundlers have worked as lobbyists in the past but are no longer registered, or they have lobbied state and local governments.
Employees at Washington's most active lobbying firms also have given tens of thousands to top Democrats in the House, AP's analysis found. That included $7,000 in contributions to South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn from executives at the Podesta Group, and $5,000 to Pelosi from Quinn Gillespie & Associates.
The AP measured contributions from industry PACs to lawmakers' election committees, but more potential conflicts could arise in money given to political leadership committees.
Washington has been awash in special-interest money during the past two years, particularly surrounding Democrats' signature issues, the Center for Responsive Politics found. In that time, more than two dozen corporations, trade associations and interest groups spent at least $20 million on lobbying for changes to health care and financial regulations and on economic stimulus funding.


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AKA John Forbes Kerry
Born: 11-Dec-1943Birthplace: Denver, CO
Gender: MaleReligion: Roman CatholicRace or Ethnicity: WhiteSexual orientation: StraightOccupation: PoliticianParty Affiliation: Democratic
Nationality: United StatesExecutive summary: US Secretary of State, 2013-17
Military service: US Navy (1966-69)
Decorated war veteran and U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, and after a surprising win in the Iowa caucuses, the Democratic nominee in the 2004 Presidential race.
Lost a 1972 election for the 5th District of Massachusetts seat in the House of Representatives to Republican Paul Cronin. Lost a 2004 election for President of the United States to Republican incumbent George W. Bush.
Father: Richard KerryMother: Rosemary Forbes KerrySister: Peggy (works at United Nations, b. 11-Nov-1941)Brother: Cameron KerrySister: Diana (b. 16-Apr-1947)Wife: Julie Stimson Thorne (m. 23-May-1970, sep. 1982, div. 1988, annulled 1997, d. 2006)Daughter: Alexandra (b. 1973)Daughter: Vanessa (b. 1976)Wife: Teresa Heinz (heiress to part of Heinz fortune, m. 26-May-1995)Son: John (stepson)Son: Andre (stepson)Son: Christopher (stepson)Girlfriend: Emma Gilbey (dated 1980s, ex-, dated David Gilmour, now m. to Bill Keller)Girlfriend: Lee Whitnum (dated 1990s for 20 months, according to her)Girlfriend: Catherine Oxenberg (dated 1989)Girlfriend: Morgan Fairchild
High School: St. Paul's School, Concord, NH (1962) University: BA, Yale University (1966) Law School: Boston College (1976)
US Secretary of State (2013-17) US Senator, Massachusetts (1985-2013) Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts (1983-85) America Abroad Media Advisory Board American Security Project Board of Directors Close Up Foundation Board of Advisors Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee John Kerry for President Progressive Policy Institute Vietnam Veterans Against the War Young Democrats Skull and Bones Society Bronze Star National Defense Service Medal Purple Heart 3 times Presidential Unit Citation Silver Star Shrapnel Injury (Dec-1968) Shrapnel Injury (13-Mar-1969) Trespassing Lexington, MA (30-May-1971) Prostate Surgery Johns Hopkins Hospital (Feb-2003) Secret Service Codename Minuteman Roast: Don Imus (1999) Funeral: Katharine Graham (2001) Funeral: Ronald Reagan (2004) Funeral: Hunter S. Thompson (2005) Funeral: Ted Kennedy (2009) Audience with the Pope 2002, Jun-2004 Hip Replacement Surgery right (Aug-2008) Hip Replacement Surgery left (Aug-2009) New Democrat Movement Senate New Democrat Coalition Forbes Family by birth (mother) Winthrop Family by marriage (maternal grandmother) Jewish Ancestry paternal grandfather Frederick A. Kerry (born Fritz Kohn)
Risk Factors: Prostate Cancer
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR Before the Flood (9-Sep-2016) · Himself Tanner on Tanner (5-Oct-2004) · Himself Last Party 2000 (2-Nov-2001) · Himself The Last Party (27-Aug-1993) · Himself Winter Soldier (27-Jan-1972) · Himself
Official Website:http://www.johnkerry.com/
Rotten Library Page:John Kerry
Appears on the cover of:
The Economist, 31-Jan-2004, DETAILS: The Man to beat Bush?
Time, 9-Feb-2004, DETAILS: What Kind of President would John Kerry be? (black and white photo by David Burnett)
US News and World Report, 16-Feb-2004, DETAILS: His to Lose -- Can Kerry go the distance? (photo by Charlie Archambault)
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I'm going to begin by saying that I Am Not A Patent Lawyer. But to anyone with, let's just say, "functioning eyes," it's easy to see that the Nissan Zeod RC's design looks to be a copy of the original Deltawing. And the original Deltawing team is really, really pissed off about that. Still.
In case you haven't been following this whole mess, this is the second ad revolving around the Deltawing controversy. Nissan supplied the engine, and paid a bunch of money for the naming rights to the original Deltawing back in 2012. The rest of the Deltawing (i.e., the car) was built by Dan Gurney's All American Racers team, financed by Chip Ganassi, and developed by Don Panoz and his crew.
And it was all designed by a guy named Ben Bowlby, as RACER magazine's excellent breakdown points out:
The Delta Wing concept was created by renowned racecar designer Ben Bowlby (BELOW, pic: NISMO) while working for the Ganassi Racing Indy car team, and was originally presented by Ganassi Racing to the IndyCar Series as a potential successor to the ageing Dallara IR03/07 Indy car in 2010. A coupe version was also designed by Bowlby, but the concept pitched to IndyCar involved the open-top option.
With the contract being awarded to Dallara, Ganassi's Delta Wing, LLC offshoot continued into 2011 as he sought new alternative uses for the car. A deal was struck with Panoz, who spearheaded the Delta Wing's shift from open-wheel to sports car racing.
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After the 2012 season was all said and done, Nissan decided that they didn't want to run their engine, with their sponsorship, in the Deltawing anymore. So they pulled out of the project. And on the way out, they made sure Ben Bowlby came with them.
And then when Bowlby left, Nissan came out with the ZEOD RC, which looks a whole bunch like the Deltawing. But on the outside, everything seemed good at first, and the ZEOD RC looked like a continuation of the Deltawing. Panoz wasn't making too many noises publicly.
It's a little unclear what went on behind the scenes with Nissan and the Deltawing team, but at some point, blood began to boil. The two teams completely split, with Nissan forging ahead with the ZEOD RC, and the Deltawing continuing on with its original car.
And here's where a big crux of the complaint lies: The Deltawing team said that they owned the intellectual property and the rights to the race car's design. Furthermore, they said that Bowlby was supposed to sign a contract promising that he wouldn't divulge any secrets of the program to other teams, especially if he left.
Bowlby supposedly agreed with the contract, giving reassurances that he'd get around to signing it, all while the Deltawing team had already started paying him for his work. But he never did get around to signing it:
No mention is made within the complaint as to why the Delta Wing group paid Bowlby without a signed employment and non-disclosure agreement in place, but the document does state: Mr. Panoz and others at DWP56 [the Deltawing team] approached Mr. Bowlby on several occasions asking him to execute the Employment Agreement. Mr. Bowlby represented that he agreed with the terms of the Employment Agreement and that he would execute the agreement.
Despite his numerous promises to sign the Employment Agreement, and his verbal ratification of the terms of the agreement, Mr. Bowlby never formally executed the Employment Agreement, and he continued to access DWP56's confidential information while making assurances that he would execute the Employment Agreement.
The Deltawing team feels that they still own the rights to the overall design, and that Bowlby's verbal agreements not to go around designing other Deltawings should be binding. They filed a lawsuit, and started taking out ads in the Tennessean, the local newspaper where Nissan's North American headquarters are based, rhetorically questioning why they would steal the DeltaWing design:
The case had mostly gone quiet since then, as lawyers gathered evidence and depositions, and presumably tried to work out a settlement. But in this new ad, published this week, no punches are pulled. It's accusatory, right from the beginning. "It's Still Our Design," it begins.
Ouch. As Panoz points out, Nissan's only response at the time was that it was going to be fought out in court.
But now, Nissan's taking a different tack. As one of their spokespeople told Automotive News:
"We believe that his claims have no merit," a spokesman wrote. "We will continue to fight his claims in court, but we choose not to address through the media his smears against us. The issues will be resolved in due course."
Saying that the claim has "no merit" is an interesting one. And because this case is so complicated, and appears to hinge not on the design of the car, but on which verbal agreements were binding, and which piece of paper was or was not signed, it can get a whole lot more complicated.


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1997 Ford SVT Mustang Cobra - A Quest For 20
He Did The Go Thing. Now, He Does The Show Thing. Notably, He's On ...
By his own account, Bruce Kolb has been interested in cars "since I was about three." Around that time, this son of a Marine MP began building model cars, in spite of his father's preference for scale trains and aircraft. Each tried to get the other to switch and, in the end, the son won out. Building improved and unique features into his model cars led the young Bruce to shows for model car builders. That exposure, needless to say, created a drive to excel that hasn't taken a back seat for more than 42 years.
Being around at the time the Mustang was introduced in 1964, the original pony car has left a lasting impression on this owner. Though not bought new, Bruce keeps a 1965 K-Code Mustang fastback in the stable and shows it regularly. In fact, when we spoke with him for this feature, he had just returned from a SAAC show and brought home a Class award in spite of being up against more than 30 other 1965 Mustangs. We asked him what it was about the Mustang that was so attractive when it was first announced back in the day. He told us, "It was economical, sporty-looking and affordable."
Another notable Ford vehicle that passed through Bruce's life was a 1970 Maverick. In his 20s, just out of the service and looking to get married soon, Bruce knew that crazy choices were likely not the best ones to make at that time. He'd got a competition bug and done his research, finally settling on three potential rides. One was a brand new 1970 Chevy Nova that, when fitted with a 307-cid V8, qualified at the top of the J/Stock drag racing class. The next candidate, whether wishful thinking or not, was a 428 Torino that would run credibly in the Super Stock class. The third and final choice was the Maverick. In order to have it competitive and not mired in the gaggle of also-rans, this particular competitor came equipped with the 200-cid straight six-cylinder engine. That placed it at the top of the T/Stock class.
Good Times
Living in Louisville at the time, he raced on four local tracks - all of which were eighth-mile versions and suited the output curve of the tractor engine. After carefully going through the class rules to see what was allowed and what could be more liberally interpreted, the Maverick mods began. The straight swap of an axle assembly from a Ford Econoline provided a set of 4.11:1 rear gears. Porting the cylinder head and a few other tricks turned the grocery getter into a class winner and undefeated in a full year of competition at the Ohio Valley Drag Strip. That car was later bored out to 306-cid, fitted with a header and three dual carbs, then moved into H/Modified Production duty. The car was making an estimated 400 horsepower, when it was returned to street duty. Bruce tells an amusing story about the owner of a new Pontiac Trans Am not being able to understand why he had the doors shut on him by a 6-cylinder car. The Maverick was subsequently converted into a show car.
As we fast forward the timeline, late 1996 saw Bruce doing a killer deal on a new Mustang GT. With this particular car, his streak of luck got a bit tarnished though. Overheating issues plagued their relationship and on a visit to the dealer's service bay a year later, the 1997 Rio Red SVT Cobra you see in these pages was spotted. "I have always wanted a Cobra or Shelby since I was a kid. When the opportunity came up, I bought this car with the intention of showing it." A similar, year-end deal was made to switch the '96 GT out and replace it with the 1997 Cobra. Within a couple of weeks, with nothing more than a good clean and detail session under its belt, the Cobra rewarded its new owner with a class win at its first show.
The two became constant show companions, racking up the hardware most places they went. The return from one show, however, was less triumphant than most. Heading back to his home town of Indianapolis from Michigan, the engine began losing oil and pressure. The toasted rear main seal was eventually blamed on a bent crankshaft - itself a mystery, since the car had less than 21K miles and had never been stood on hard. Past experience led Bruce to Mueller's Automotive and Performance in Indianapolis. Like so many of us, they saw an equipment failure as a new opportunity to upgrade the Snake. All forged internals were used, including a stroker crankshaft, to push the engine's displacement out to 5.0-liters. To keep the motor rev-happy, a lightened flywheel was installed and the heads were ported for improved flow. Engine compression was dropped by a point and a half to 8.5, in anticipation of the polished Vortech blower that would be added.
Rampant Chromicity
While the engine was apart, Kolb took the opportunity to get the cam covers and the plug covers polished. The cam covers on a four-valve engine are massive, so laying some bling down on them affects an impressive portion of the underhood real estate. As the engine build continued, all the important goodies were added to the mix, including a RAM clutch, 42-lb injectors and MSD ignition controller. These all contributed to a stout result that hasn't emitted a hiccup since. Careful preparation or replacement of other pieces under the hood, including a Kenny Brown chromed strut tower brace and custom-chromed alternator, leave the impression of a burning star under the hood on a sunny day. That approach has seen Bruce take home numerous Best Engine awards, not just for show quality presentation, but for the estimated 500 horsepower tucked underneath all that glitter.
The hardtop's structure has also been substantially beefed up from the installation of Kenny Brown's subframe connectors and a six-point roll bar. A Pro 5.0 short throw shifter and Auto Meter gauges for fuel and boost pressure complete the interior upgrades. A similarly restrained approach on the outside of the Cobra delivers an understated but notable look. The addition of a Steeda rear wing sets the car apart from any siblings that might appear, while the Rio Red paint has had orange pin stripe flames added along the car's flanks. The effect is subtle in some light conditions and startling in others. Rolling stock for this snake has been upgraded to argent painted, 17 x 9-inch Cobra R rims all around, with BF Goodrich Comp T/A radials installed - 245/40-17 in front and 275/40-17 out back.
All of these modifications add up to a car that isn't destined to do well at NOPI shows, but make it entirely suitable for Mustang Club of America 'Modified' class competition. Bruce was truly pleased when the car was awarded 1st Place at the Youngstown MCA Grand National Show, a while back. Other Best in Show awards and a Top Five award from the Nashville 40th Anniversary shindig have added to the car's show pedigree. To date, the Cobra has accumulated 14 MCA 'points' from judging at National and Grand National shows. Bruce has an objective of hitting 20 points, so that the car will receive an MCA grille badge. "The next two shows should do it," he told us.
Sometime after hitting that particular milestone, this Cobra is likely to shed its skin for a new look. A new round of custom paint is in the cards, after molding in and smoothing out a number of exterior details, such as the side scoops and hood vents. Before that can happen, Bruce Kolb must finish his quest - a quest for 20 MCA show points that is.
Bruce and Jeanie Kolb's 1997 SVT Mustang Cobra
Ford Aluminum 4.6-liter DOHC V8
Engine Modifications
Forged steel stroker crank, ported cylinder heads, Joe Hooker lightened flywheel, forged pistons (displacement now 5.0 liters, with 8.5:1 compression ratio), polished cam and coil covers, Vortech supercharger, downpipe, Flowmaster mufflers, MSD ignition controller
Pro 5.0 short throw shifter. RAM clutch
500 RWHP, 500 RWTQ (est.)
Optima battery, relocated to trunk, Kenny Brown subframe connectors, chromed strut tower brace
Steeda fiberglass rear wing with end plates, Original Rio Red paint cut, buffed and pin stripe flames added by Li'l Bill, Indianapolis, IN
Kenny Brown 6-point roll bar, Auto Meter fuel pressure, boost pressure gauges
Wheels And Tires
Cobra R wheels, 17 x 9" all around, fitted with BF Goodrich tires, 225/40-17 front and 275/40-17 rear
I would like to personally thank Kirt Mueller of Mueller's Automotive & Performance, since basically he and I are the only ones who have touched this car since it was new. I would also like to thank my wife for being there and helping clean the car. She is super! Thanks to the MCA for getting me excited about showing the car. Also, as a member of South Side Mustangs of Indy, I would like to thank them. About four years ago, I had a stroke right before the local ISCA Show and the whole club came over to detail and get the car ready to show, while I was recovering. What a super bunch of guys!
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A man was arrested for beating up three Disney employees at the Epcot Theme Park in Orlando, the Orange County Sheriff's Office said.
Austin De Van Hill, 24, faces charges of aggravated battery, battery and felony battery after his Sunday night arrest. He was released from jail on a $3,750 bond, a jail official said.
Deputies were called to the park after they got reports that Hill was hitting one of the employees with a metal pipe, the arrest report said.
Hill, who deputies say was drunk, was being held on the ground by park employees when deputies arrived. He was bleeding from the knees, wrists and hands, the sheriff's office said.
As the deputies attempted to take him to the security office, he was "yelling and continuing to cause a disturbance," his arrest report said.
"Hill's resistive actions made it possible for him to break free of our control for a short period," the Orange County Sheriff's Office said. "Hill's subsequent movements caused him to fall to the concrete and injure his chin and jaw."
Hill was taken to Celebration hospital, where he got stitches on his chin for the injury caused during his fall.
Michael Connelly was the first Disney employee to be punched in the park, deputies said. He was punched in the head and had to be transported to Celebration hospital, where he was treated for a large gash across his forehead, the report said.
- Florida Woman Who Sought Daughter-in-Law's Murder Told Undercover Detective He Could Take Expensive Jewelry From Her Body: Authorities
Timothy Beltley, another Disney employee, was also punched in the face and complained of neck pain. He was transported to Celebration hospital non-emergency, the sheriff's office said.
Jessica Brown was hit in her face and neck with a plastic PVC pipe, authorities said. She had small swelling and was not transported to the hospital, authorities said.
It wasn't immediately known if he had an attorney.


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It was just another visit to a cigar store in Havana. The newly constructed shop in the Comodoro hotel, one of the city's premier hotels, was overseen by two people, who guided their guests into the humidor to show off the selection of top Havana brands. Off in the corner, a middle-aged man worked diligently rolling cigars.
At first glance, he seemed like just another roller who supplies freshly rolled cigars to passing tourists. Within a few minutes, it was clear that this man with an inviting smile and sure hands was more than just a simple roller. He was, in fact, one of the key figures involved in creating Cohiba and Davidoff cigars and the former personal cigar roller for Fidel Castro.
"I was both director and a roller at the El Laguito factory, from its beginning in 1963 to 1970," says Eduardo Rivera Irizarri, 54, as he rolls a torpedo-shaped cigar. "You understand that Fidel was the most threatened leader in the world, that there were a lot of assassination attempts against him, all the attempts made by the CIA. So, I was put in charge of making cigars for him. It was all very secretive."
Castro himself said that Cohiba, his favorite cigar, was invented by a friend of one of his bodyguards. That friend was Rivera. Rivera says it happened by chance in the early 1960s when his friend gave one of his cigars to Fidel. It was shaped like today's Cohiba Lancero, and Castro was interested in the cigar's elegant shape. He was even more impressed with the cigar after smoking it. "From that time on," Rivera says, "Fidel smoked nothing else, and I made cigars for him."
At the time, Rivera was working at the La Corona factory in downtown Havana, near the capitol building. He sourced his tobacco there and made a few cigars a day according to a personal blend, which became the basis for Cohiba and, later, Davidoff. "I was a roller of the first rank," he says proudly. "I had been a tobacco man since I was a little boy. After I started making the cigars for Fidel, I rolled them in my house, and for a while I did it in La Corona, only for Fidel."
Government officials quickly decided to give Rivera carte blanche to make Castro's cigars, which soon became a coveted diplomatic gift as well. Rivera says that Castro was the only one with the authority to give the cigars away. He soon began working closely with one of Castro's secretaries, Celia Sanchez, to create an official brand for Castro.
"We decided on Cohiba," he recalls, pointing out that the brand was first used in 1966; until then they were given away unbranded. It wasn't until the early 1980s that Cohiba was actually commercialized. "Our native peoples called the tobacco plant 'Cohiba.' It was also used to describe something that was done with a lot of care. In its production, the tobacco was carefully selected for [its] aromatic and flavor characteristics. The farms we used were the finest in the country."
El Laguito, the factory where most Cohibas are still produced, is located in the suburbs of Havana. It was started as a rolling school for women, but Rivera, who was involved at every level, remembers having about 20 rollers at the beginning to make cigars. Production began at about 650,000 cigars. "Within a few years, we realized that we had enough production to commercialize something," he says. "So we contacted Zino Davidoff and asked him to discuss such a project."
Davidoff visited in 1969, and Rivera spent three days with him,trying different blends and discussing every aspect of producing Davidoff cigars in Havana. About a year later, the first Davidoffs left the doors of El Laguito. "I met with Davidoff, talked with him and exchanged the first impressions with him," Rivera recalls. "We conducted some negotiations to put the brand name on our cigars. At that time, he wanted to buy the factory, but that was against the policy of the government."
The last Davidoff Havana was made in 1990, after the Cubans and the Swiss company severed their relationship. Rivera says that the blends for Davidoff were slightly different than those for Cohiba, but that the sizes were the same until Davidoff began making the chateau series cigars (Margaux, Latour and others) at La Corona.
In 1970, Rivera decided to leave El Laguito, and Avelino Lara, who retired last year, became the new director. "Things changed, so I left," Rivera says. "I believed that things had to be done optimally, or I wouldn't do it. I went back to the farm to work a piece of property that I owned, and I forgot all about cigars."
Rivera wouldn't elaborate further about his departure, but it must have been a difficult time for a man who began rolling cigars at the Por Larrañaga factory in 1957. Since 1970, he hadn't had a thing to do with cigars until he began rolling cigars at the Comodoro earlier this year. He was filling in for a friend who was on a trip to Hong Kong.
"I just came in to help the man out," Rivera says. "But I am really happy to be back with cigars."


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The following day Sand checked the police computer files to quell his curiosity. Jules Eckberg was denied parole in the autumn of 2008. In the spring of the following year he had been killed in a prison riot. The mugshot of Eckberg, slightly older and thinner, a dead look in his eyes but still the killer Sand remembered, brought back sickening images of his young lover, Bjarne. The computer file included photographs. Sand skipped past them and closed the programme, satisfied that any link between the murder and the mutilation of Mrs. Moen's cat did not exist.
The file from Håkon sat on his desk. It required his signature to officially hand the case over to the Animal Protection Alliance. He flicked through to find the last page. Sand froze staring at it. Had he just seen that? He leafed back through the slim file until he found what had caught his eye. The dead cat's name was Bjarne.
The ping from his computer announcing an incoming email broke the moment of stillness. Sand looked at it. An unknown sender and no subject title, probably junk. The message was open in his preview browser. He glanced at the first lines, preparing to delete it.
'Dear Anders,' it read. 'I do hope this finds you well. What luck that it was you that was sent to see poor Bjarne yesterday. I had thought it would take a little longer before you would uncover my work. As it is, this means the real fun can begin much sooner.'
There was no signature or name attached, just a graphic of a small Easter egg at the end of the text. Sand looked round the office. Gabi Henriksen, his young partner, saw him looking round.
'What's up?' she asked.
'Nothing. Just a strange message.' Sand pointed at his screen. Gabi wheeled her chair over to his desk and scanned the email.
'Bjarne? The dead cat?'
'The same.'
'What does the message mean?' Sand shrugged. Gabi pointed at the small graphic. 'Look, it's got an actual Easter egg. You know what an Easter egg is in an email or programme?'
'Of course I do. I'm not that old,' Sand said. Gabi was fifteen years younger than him and tech-savvy. His stone age attitude to new technology was a running joke between them. The difference in their approaches was what made them a good partnership.
'Click on it then,' Gabi said.
'Yes, boss,' said Sand, clicking on the Easter egg. The sound of the loud drumming crashed through the office. Heads popped up from behind partitions. Sand scrambled to reduce the volume on his computer. Then he stopped. He listened to the drumming.
Pedersen emerged from his room and shouted above the ongoing din. 'Sand, turn that racket off.'
Sand stood still. The drumming was him. It was his drumming from last night. Someone had recorded it in his house. The noise stopped. On Sand's computer screen a graphic appeared. It showed a cat being sliced open and decapitated. The words 'Remember Bjarne' flashed up in blood red, accompanied by a loud, evil cackle.
'Is this some sick joke?' Gabi said.
'I thought it was, until now,' Sand answered her.
A disguised voice, a male one, but run through some electronic synthesiser spoke from the computer. 'Welcome to the game, Anders Sand. See you at the park. Midday. Don't be late, we wouldn't want you to miss the fun.'
The computer screen went black.
'What's this about a park, Anders?' Gabi asked.
Sand looked at the time. It was just after ten. 'Come on. We need to talk to Pedersen.'
This is part five of my A to Z Challenge 2017. More information on the challenge, and other stories and blogs taking part in it, can be found HERE.
Throughout April I hope to publish a section a day, relating to a letter of the alphabet, which in the end will make up a continuous story, all based round the objects found in this children's jigsaw:
Other entries in the challenge, and a version of the final complete, joined up story can be found here: A TO Z CHALLENGE 2017.


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Patent attorney Linda Kennedy has seen her fair share of patent trials, though never one at the magnitude of Apple vs. Samsung. To be fair, no one has.
Kennedy, a shareholder at the Detroit-based Butzel Long P.C. law firm, has represented clients dealing in intellectual property cases, copyright law and trade secret litigation for products ranging from industrial polymers to cosmetics.
In a case with billions of dollars at stake, verdict-deciding evidence exclusions, and a jury tasked with filtering complex issues and 109 pages of instructions, we had a few questions for the counselor.
Kennedy was kind enough to breakdown the biggest patent trial in history, telling us why a jury's the best mechanism to decide a fair verdict, who's going to win and why no one stays on top forever.
TechRadar: Is there anything particularly unique about this patent case that makes it stand out?
Linda Kennedy: It's unusual for patent cases to get this much press. That has to do with the fact that it hits where people live - most people have one or the other of the phones [iPhone, Galaxy S, etc.] at issue.
The other thing that's interesting is the evidentiary rulings. Samsung's lawyers would certainly say the exclusion of certain evidence will have an impact on the outcome.
TR: What evidence are you referring to?
LK: There was a suppression of alleged prior art [an iPhone prototype inspired by Sony designs] that was not allowed. Usually excluded evidence is one of pages and pages, so it doesn't seem like the end of the world when it's taken out. But in this case it may be key to the ruling.
TR: This case is full of complex issues and the stakes are high. Plus, the jury's got hundreds of questions to answer and instructions to follow. I wouldn't even know where to start.
LK: Not only would most people not know where to start, they wouldn't even be interested.
All patent cases can be heard by a jury. The issues seem esoteric but they involve people. Juries are very good at assessing who's telling the truth, who's leveling with them and at accessing the credibility of witnesses.
Juries use their common sense, too. The question becomes, 'Does the story that party A is telling me make sense or does party B make sense?'
It really is a jury of peers, even if it seems as if those peers should be PhDs, but a jury of peers is the best way to reach the right result.
TR: How long do you expect it will take to reach a verdict?
LK: That's hard to say. The real trick for the jury will be to sort through the evidence and to figure out factually what happened and to follow the rules that've been laid out for them.
They have to come out with a result and put their emotions to the side. Depending on the group dynamic, they'll probably reach a verdict in the next several days.
TR: Could we expect a verdict sometime next week?
LK: It's interesting because we're coming up on a Friday. Are nine human beings going to sign up for that much time with each other?
It depends on the level of consensus in the group and if there's a certain amount of confusion. If it goes on for several days, then we know there's a level of meaningful descent going on.
The good news for the jurors is that their obligation is almost up. It must be fun in a way. They have to sense they're on to something big and important and are going to want to do what's right.
TR: Who do you think is going to win?
LK: It's hard to say exactly without having seen all the evidence myself, but both parties could win since they're asserting different rights against each other. It's hard to access what exactly will come from this, but we know it will be significant.
TR: What affect will the outcome, no matter what, have on the tech industry?
LK: This case has become so aggressive, the next round of innovators may seek to do a deeper study of what patents are out there before they producing to avoid future lawsuits.


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Editor's Note: Vince Warren is the executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a nonprofit legal and educational organization that works to protect rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. CCR represented clients in two Guantanamo Supreme Court cases and coordinates the work of hundreds of pro bono attorneys representing prisoners there.
Story highlights
Vince Warren: Another Gitmo anniversary, the 11th, comes with vows to close it unmet
Warren: Hundreds of locked up men have lost years of their lives; nine have died
86 were cleared for release in 2009 but languish there as Obama does nothing, he says
Warren: 48 are under unjust, illegal policy of indefinite detention without charge or trial
Today is the 11th anniversary of the opening of the prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, and like the past three anniversaries, it comes with President Barack Obama's campaign promises to close it unmet.
From Day 1, the story of Guantanamo, or Gitmo as it came to be called, has been one of injustice and illegality, the violation of human rights and a stain on America's global reputation. Locked within its walls are the stories of hundreds of men who have lost years – and, for nine of those men, their lives.
In 2013, the story of Guantanamo is not just one of the failure to close the prison after so much time but also one of pragmatic failure of missed opportunities to take available, practical steps to reduce the prison's population.
Eighty-six of the men still languishing at Guantanamo were cleared for release in 2009 by an interagency task force created by the Obama administration. They remain there because Obama chooses, at every turn, to acquiesce to an intransigent Congress that is bent on keeping Guantanamo open for its own cynical political purposes.
This is particularly tragic because several countries have plans to help former Guantanamo prisoners reintegrate into society and have asked that their citizens be returned. For those prisoners who cannot go home because they face persecution or torture, there are third-party countries in Europe, the Americas and the Middle East that have volunteered to accept former Guantanamo prisoners for resettlement.
Many of the 86 men cleared for release are ideal candidates for these repatriation or resettlement options.
Among them is Center for Constitutional Rights client Djamel Ameziane – cleared for transfer by Presidents George W. Bush and Obama. He is educated, speaks four languages and has lived and worked legally in Austria and Canada. Inexplicably, the U.S. has refused offers from foreign governments to resettle him or to take other similar opportunities to reduce the prison population.
One of the biggest obstacles to closing Guantanamo is one the president created himself: a blanket refusal to transfer any prisoner to Yemen because of the "unsettled situation" there.
Apart from the fact that detention based on citizenship is discriminatory and illegal, concerns about returning people to unsettled countries does not explain why cleared Yemenis at Guantanamo cannot be temporarily resettled in third countries. More fundamentally, birthplace is not an indicator of criminal proclivity.
If they were treated rationally, as individuals, rather maligned as a group, the government would surely concede at least some men at Guantanamo could go home to Yemen and not become threats to the U.S. – not least of all because most of these men, according to leaked U.S. documents, were never involved in hostilities of any kind, and more than half have long been deemed suitable for transfer by every relevant U.S. national security agency.
This collective punishment is particularly troublesome given the stakes.
In September 2012, Adnan Latif, who was cleared for release, died in his cell. According to conversations with dozens of other Guantanamo attorneys, there are many other detainees at the prison who are gravely ill. How many more will live out their remaining days behinds bars merely because Obama has deemed Yemen an unsuitable place?
The Center for Constitutional Rights represents several clients who we hope will be spared such a fate. Tariq Ba Odah has maintained a hunger strike to protest his unjust detention since 2007 and is force-fed by the military through his nose. Mohammed Al-Hamiri and Ghaleb Al-Bihani are suffering the inevitable psychological and physical effects of more than a decade of indefinite detention. None of these three men has ever been charged.
Finally, Obama has made no effort toward solving the central, inherent Guantanamo problem: indefinite detention. In addition to the dozens of men subject to de facto indefinite detention, 46 are officially slated to that fate. Two of the initial 48 have died. According to the president, the U.S. can neither charge and try the 46 men, nor can they be released.
Such a category violates the most fundamental principles of due process, summarily depriving people of their freedom by way of executive fiat. Obama has created this category without any plan for how to move men out of it. We are simply warehousing them. Do we plan to operate a prison at Guantanamo for the next several decades, holding these men as they age and die, outlasting the logistical problem even as we ignore – and worsen – the moral and constitutional one?
What the president lacks is not the political power to act, but the political will.
Interim steps are critical to closing the prison. Indeed, without them, it is hard to see how his promise to close it can ever be achieved – and even more difficult to believe that Obama is truly committed to a world without Guantanamo.
As Obama stands again to take the presidential oath to protect and defend the Constitution, looming behind him will be his institutionalized policy of indefinite detention without charge or trial – a policy that has no place in a democratic society. Unless and until he uses the political power of his office to end this shameful chapter in American history, the story of Guantanamo will be one with no end in sight.
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The opinions in this commentary are solely those of Vince Warren.


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WASHINGTON (AP) — A rise in food and gas costs drove a measure of wholesale prices up sharply in May. But outside those volatile categories, inflation was mild.
The Labor Department said Friday that the producer price index rose 0.5 percent in May from April. Gas prices rose 1.5 percent last month, and food costs increased 0.6 percent.
The increase last month followed a 0.7 percent decline in April and a 0.6 percent drop in March, both of which were driven by steep declines in gas prices.
Core prices, which exclude the food and energy, rose just 0.1 percent in May. That matches the April increase.
The index measures price changes before they reach the consumer.
"There really is not much inflationary pressure in the economy," Paul Dales, an economist at Capital Economics, said in a note to clients.
Aside from sharp swings in gas prices, consumer and wholesale inflation has increased very slowly in the past year. Both the overall and core indexes have risen just 1.7 percent in the 12 months ending in May. That's below the Federal Reserve's 2 percent inflation target, allowing the Fed more latitude to pursue its aggressive policies to spur greater economic growth.
The combination of modest economic growth and high unemployment has kept wages from rising quickly. That's made it harder for retailers and other firms to raise prices.
Most of the May increase in food costs stemmed from a 41.6 percent jump in the cost of eggs, the biggest on record. The jump reflected soaring demand in the U.S. and overseas. The Memorial Day and Mother's Day holidays, popular occasions for brunch, spurred more demand in the U.S., a department spokesman said. And Mexico imported more U.S. eggs in response to a bird flu epidemic.
Nearly two-thirds of the 0.1 percent increase in core prices occurred because of a 0.4 percent rise in the wholesale cost of pickup trucks. The housing recovery has created more business for landscapers and contractors, who have bought more trucks.
The Fed has said it plans to keep the short-term interest rate it controls at a record low near zero until the unemployment rate falls below 6.5 percent, provided inflation remains under control. The unemployment rate ticked up in May to 7.6 percent.
The Fed is also purchasing $85 billion a month in bonds to keep longer-term interest rates down. That's intended to encourage more borrowing and spending, which drives economic growth. The Fed says it will continue to buy bonds until the job market improves substantially.
Employers are adding jobs at a steady pace and consumers are spending more, despite an increase in Social Security taxes at the beginning of the year. That's fueled intense speculation that the Fed may soon start reducing the pace of its monthly bond purchases.
Many economists expect they will do so by the end of the year, particularly if hiring stays healthy. But tame inflation means they face less pressure to taper their purchases. If prices were rising more quickly, the Fed could be forced to end its bond-buying program and raise interest rates.
The Fed's next policymaking meeting will take place next week, June 18-19.