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NEW YORK -- There were no acrobatics, backup dancers or special effects when P!nk took the stage to perform "Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken" at the Grammy Awards. All it took for the 38-year-old songstress to bring down the house was a white T-shirt and jeans, a sign language interpreter, her voice and a powerfully timely song.
Her performance of "Wild Hearts" spoke directly to the resilience of the Time's Up movement and the broader cultural reckoning with gender issues, sexual misconduct and inclusivity.
"There's not enough rope to tie me down. There's not enough tape to shut this mouth," the chorus begins. "The stones you throw can make me bleed, but I won't stop until we're free. Wild hearts can't be broken."
In stark contrast to her other celebrated Grammys performances (think "Glitter in the Air" in 2010), P!nk stayed firmly on the ground and at her microphone for the entire performance, using only her voice and her message to wow the audience into a standing ovation.
She was accompanied by sign language interpreter Jenese Portee, also clad in matching jeans in a white T-shirt.
P!nk's performance was just a part of the larger conversation surrounding equality and opportunity during the show. In an homage to their film peers decked out in black at the Golden Globes, many artists wore white roses to the show in support of Time's Up.
Critics also viewed this year's nominations as giving rap artists overdue recognition. Kendrick Lamar had picked up five awards by the end of the telecast's first hour and is still up for record of the year alongside colleagues Childish Gambino and Jay-Z.
While accepting her award for best new artist, winner Alessia Cara discussed the importance of creating equal opportunities for all regardless of "popularity contests" and politics.
"Thank you to my parents and my brother for believing in me," she said, urging the crowd to "support real music and real artists because everyone deserves the same shot."

subset: commoncrawl


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PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A woman charged with abducting a 5-year-old Philadelphia girl from school and sexually assaulting her was temporarily suspended at the time from her job at the day care center the child attended, her former employer testified Tuesday.
Christina Regusters, 21, is the only person charged in the brutal January 2013 attack. Her DNA was found on a T-shirt the shivering girl had on when she was found before dawn the next morning on a playground, prosecutors said in opening statements Monday. The defense has said that other people were involved and that Regusters does not match the initial witness descriptions of the woman who took the girl from her kindergarten classroom.
'She was a good employee,' day care owner April Walker said Tuesday.
Regusters, then 19, worked well with the children, Walker said, but was suspended for three days on Friday, Jan. 11, 2013, because of issues with poor attendance. The girl went missing from her nearby public school kindergarten the following Monday.
Police believe Regusters donned Muslim garb to pose as the child's mother and remove her from her class at Bryant Elementary School in west Philadelphia, telling a substitute teacher she was taking her out for breakfast.
Walker said Regusters had limited contact with the girl at the day care center, occasionally being assigned to pick her and other charges up at the elementary school to walk them to the nearby after-school program.
However, Regusters helped in the girl's 18-month-old brother's classroom, and knew their mother.
Walker said she was unaware of any child-related complaints about Regusters during her year on the job.
However, prosecutors said in opening statements Monday that she molested a young female relative, and cut off the girl's braids when she threatened to tell.
In his openings, defense lawyer W. Fred Harrison Jr. disclosed that Regusters had been physically assaulted by her father, and raped by a stranger in 2012.
The victim, now 7, expected to testify this week.


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Testify in Support of Safer Streets, Better Legal Protection
WABA needs your help to make a compelling case to the DC Council that more effort is needed to improve bicyclist safety. In February, WABA–along with many of you–testified before the DC Council's Committee on the Judiciary regarding the need for better enforcement of traffic laws to protect bicyclists. The stories told that day were compelling and, in some cases heartbreaking, and led Councilmember Mendelson to refer the issue to the Office of Police Complaints for investigation. Earlier this month, the Office of Police Complaints released its reports verifying our claims and finding that, indeed, the DC Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) is in need of improvements to its crash reporting and response systems and training regarding bicyclists. Now, on November 2nd, we have the opportunity to appear before the Committee on the Judiciary again on the issue of bicyclist safety with this report in-hand to demand on-the-ground improvements and accountability and better protection of bicyclists on the District's roadways. This November 2 hearing gives cyclists who ride in the District the opportunity to address two separate, but deeply related, safety issues: (1) overall bicycle safety enforcement by DC MPD, and (2) the proposed Protection of Bicyclists from Assault bill that will help provide a civil cause of action allowing cyclists to fight back against those who intentionally attack and harass us on the roadways. If you have a story to tell about either issue and want to help ensure that cyclists are protected on DC's streets, we need you to come and tell that story to the Committee on the Judiciary on November 2nd. We have put in many hundreds of hours of work to get this far, with a report officially stating that the police need to do more and a bill introduced by over half of the members of the Council. But without a strong showing at the hearing, that progress can come to a hault. The report can be filed on the shelf with others from the past. Bills can die in committee. If you want better enforcement, or if you want a better civil cause of action for assaulted cyclists, we need you to join us in saying so. Those wishing to testify in person should contact Jessica Jacobs, either by telephone (202.724.8038) or via email (firstname.lastname@example.com). Written testimony can also be submitted until November 16–though in-person testimony is likely to be more impactful and effective. Full details for providing in-person or written testimony are available HERE. If you do plan to provide testimony, we would appreciate your taking a moment (in addition to contacting Jessica at the Committee Office) to let us know by CLICKING HERE so that we have a sense of the likely turnout of bicyclists. And finally, for those who would like to testify but would appreciate assistance in telling their stories more clearly and within the rules and time limits of the Council, WABA will be holding open-house sessions to help cyclists to testify more effectively. Please email us at firstname.lastname@example.com to let us know if you would like our assistance in crafting your testimony. The sessions will be scheduled once we have a better sense of the number of cyclists seeking this support.


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'Fat dude' from Georgia's 'redneck,' fatherly advice to Ariana Grande goes viral
Patrick Millsaps' letter touches hearts around world
Patrick Millsaps' letter touches hearts around world
A man who describes himself as a "fat dude in Georgia who loves his daughters" wrote an open letter to Ariana Grande after the deadly bombing at her concert, and the letter has gone viral.
Patrick Millsaps' Twitter page says he's been a preacher, a lawyer and "accidentally ran a presidential campaign." It says, "Now I'm in show business -- the most honest career I've ever had because it says 'BS' on the door."
The page says, "I raise goats, chicken and children. Occasionally, I'll make a movie or TV show."
This is the full unedited text of Millsaps' letter to the performer:
"Dear Miss Grande,
"I am the father of three daughters - ages 13, 12 and 12. So, you have been a part of our family for years. On occasion, your songs may have stayed on the radio AFTER I have dropped the girls off at school. I will neither confirm nor deny that I have personally seen every episode of 'Sam & Kat'.
"Since you are a part of our family and after reading a tweet you posted on the Twitter the other night; I'm afraid I need to set you straight girl. So listen up and receive some redneck love from a daddy of daughters.
"#1. You don't have a dadgum thing to apologise for. If some jackass had gotten drunk and killed someone with his car next to your hotel in Manchester, would you feel responsible? If the night before your concert, a tornado had hit Manchester and tragically killed several people who were going to go to your concert, would you feel the need to apologise? You see, you are no more responsible for the actions of an insane coward who committed an evil act in your proximity than you would be for a devastating natural disaster or morons near your hotel. Your text was stinkin' thinkin' in that regard.
"#2. In your line of work, you have so many experts who are now 'strategising' what you should do next. I used to be one of those 'experts' when I managed talent. Tell them ALL to go take a powder, give them the month off, and tell them that if they call you within the next 30 days, they are fired! These 'experts' don't have a freaking clue what you are processing right now. Spend time with your God, your family and your friends who will give you space and support when you need it. Hell, go lick as many freaking donuts as you want. Girl, you deserve it!
"#3. When and only when you are ready, on behalf of all dads who love your… um… whose daughters love your music. SING AGAIN. Music is the international language of peace. Every time you open your mouth and share that incredible God-given gift with the world, you make this crappy world a little less crappy.
"So there you go my dear. Unsolicited advice from a fat dude in Georgia who loves his daughters and appreciate that there are people like you in the world. Take care of you first. Your fans aren't going anywhere.
Morgan, Alison and Kendall's Daddy"
A tweet in response to the letter said, "Someone give this man an award. (And he lives in Georgia, He deserves it even more.)," to which he responded, "No awards for me. Just love and compassion for the dad who lost their little girls and the Manchester first responders and law enforcement."


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MERIDA, Mexico — Doomsday hour is here, at least in much of the world, and so still are we. According to legend, the ancient Mayans' long-count calendar ended at midnight Thursday, ushering in the end of the world. Didn't happen. "This is not the end of the world. This is the beginning of the new world," Star Johnsen-Moser, an American seer, said at a gathering of hundreds of spiritualists at a convention center in the Yucatan city of Merida, an hour and a half from the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza. "It is most important that we hold a positive, beautiful reality for ourselves and our planet … Fear is out of place." As the appointed time came and went in several parts of the world, there was no sign of the apocalypse. Indeed, the social network Imgur posted photos of clocks turning midnight in the Asia-Pacific region with messages such as: "The world has not ended. Sincerely, New Zealand." In Merida, the celebration of the cosmic dawn opened inauspiciously, with a fumbling of the sacred fire meant to honor the calendar's conclusion. Gabriel Lemus, the white-haired guardian of the flame, burned his finger on the kindling and later had to scoop up a burning log that fell from the ceremonial brazier onto the stage. Still, Lemus was convinced that it was a good start, as he was joined by about 1,000 other shamans, seers, stargazers, crystal enthusiasts, yogis, sufis and swamis. "It is a cosmic dawn," Lemus declared. "We will recover the ability to communicate telepathically and levitate objects … like our ancestors did." Celebrants later held their arms in the air in a salute to the Thursday morning sun. "The galactic bridge has been established," intoned spiritual leader Alberto Arribalzaga. "At this moment, spirals of light are entering the center of your head … generating powerful vortexes that cover the planet." Despite all the ritual and banter, few here actually believed the world would end Friday; the summit was scheduled to run through Sunday. Instead, participants said they were here to celebrate the birth of a new age. A Mexican Indian seer who calls himself Ac Tah, and who has traveled around Mexico erecting small pyramids he calls "neurological circuits," said he holds high hopes for Friday. "We are preparing ourselves to receive a huge magnetic field straight from the center of the galaxy," he said. Terry Kvasnik, 32, a stunt man from Manchester, England, said his motto for the day was "be in love, don't be in fear." As to which ceremony he would attend on Friday, he said with a smile, "I'm going to be in the happiest place I can." At dozens of booths set up in the convention hall, visitors could have their auras photographed with "Chi" light, get a shamanic cleansing or buy sandals, herbs and whole-grain baked goods. Cleansing usually involves having copal incense waved around one's body. Visitors could also learn the art of "healing drumming" with a Mexican Otomi Indian master, Dabadi Thaayroyadi, who said his slender hand-held drums are made with prayers embedded inside. The drums emit "an intelligent energy" that can heal emotional, physical and social ailments, he said. During the opening ceremony, participants chanted mantras to the blazing Yucatan sun, which quickly burned the fair-skinned crowd. Violeta Simarro, a secretary from Perpignan, France, taking shelter under an awning, noted that the new age won't necessarily be easy. "It will be a little difficult at first, because the world will need a complete 'nettoyage' (cleansing), because there are so many bad things," she said. Not all seers endorsed the celebration. Mexico's self-styled "brujo mayor," or chief soothsayer, Antonio Vazquez Alba, warned followers to stay away from gatherings on Friday. "We have to beware of mass psychosis" that could lead to stampedes or "mass suicides, of the kind we've seen before," he said. "If you get 1,000 people in one spot and somebody yells 'Fire!' watch out," Vazquez Alba said. "The best thing is to stay at home, at work, in school, and at some point do a relaxation exercise." Others saw the gathering as a model for the coming age. Participants from Asian, North American, South American and European shamanistic traditions mingled amiably with the Mexican hosts. "This is the beginning of a change in priorities and perceptions. We are all one," said Esther Romo, a Mexico City businesswoman who works in art promotion and galleries. "No limits, no boundaries, no nationalities, just fusion." Gabriel Romero, a Los-Angeles based practitioner of crystal skull channeling, was so sure it wasn't the end of the world that he planned a welcome ceremony for the new age at dawn on Saturday, when he would erect a stele, a stone monument used by the Mayans to commemorate important dates or events. The Maya, who invented an amazingly accurate calendar almost 2,000 years ago, measured time in 394-year periods known as baktuns. Some anthropologists believe the 13th baktun ends Dec. 21. Still, archaeologists have uncovered Mayan glyphs that refer to dates far, far in the future, long beyond Dec. 21. Yucatan Gov. Rolando Zapata, whose state is home to Mexico's largest Mayan population and has benefited from a boom in tourism, said he, too, felt the good vibes. "We believe that the beginning of a new baktun means the beginning of a new era, and we're receiving it with great optimism," Zapata said. He said thousands of tourists and spiritualists are expected for Friday's once-in-5,125-years event. "All the flights to the city are completely full," Zapata said. The Yucatan state government has even invited a scientist to speak about the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, to debunk the idea it could produce world-ending rogue particles, a concept popularized by author Steve Alten in his recent book "Phobos, Mayan Fear." Alten suggests the rogue particles — "tiny black holes" — could unleash earthquakes that might cause a huge tsunami, but acknowledges that linking such events to Dec. 21 "is author's license." "It's science fiction theory, I'm a science fiction writer," he told The Associated Press. The European Organization for Nuclear Research, however, has listed a number of odd subatomic phenomena — "magnetic monopoles," "vacuum bubbles" and "strangelets" — that could play a role in the next apocalypse scare. All of it amused Deyanira de Alvarez, a tourist from Mexico City, as she snapped a photo of the countdown clock mounted in the Merida international airport showing just over two days left to "the galactic alignment." "My grandmother says that people have been talking about (the world ending) ever since she was a little girl," De Alvarez said. "And look, grandma is still here."
New agers hope Dec. 21 brings new era
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Did you know that you are more likely to encounter sexual harassment at your job than on the internet? NOW on PBS isteaming upyou
with the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University to bring you a never seen before look into teen sexual harassment in the workplace. This Friday, February 20th, at 8:30 p.m. E.T. you can watch as abused teenagers share their real life stories and talk about how can report sexual abuse and recognize when your own boss crosses the line.
The show's host, Maria Hinojosa, says that "While sexual harassment is something many American women experience in the workplace, it goes mostly unreported. We hear stories about protecting our kids from sexual predators on the Internet and teach our daughters and sons to be wary of strangers. There are programs in high schools that deal with bullies, and programs that deal with sexual harassment in school. Yet, there's never been a national conversation about sexual harassment of teen girls on the job, until now."
If you miss the show on PBS, you can watch it for free starting February 23rd at www.nowonpbs.org.
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Now that you've recovered from the trauma of filing last year's tax return, your impulse is probably to forget about taxes for a good long while. Bad idea. Now is actually the best time to plan ahead for future tax savings. Any missteps you made last year are still fresh in your mind, plus you're still up to speed on the current rules. So Brothers and Sisters I beseech you to commit to being a more tax-smart person for the rest of 2014. First, promise not to repeat those tax sins that nobody else knows about (so far). Then promise to adhere to the righteous path outlined in this column.
Resolve to get on the Roth IRA bandwagon
You've been hearing for years about the wonderfulness of Roth IRAs. But have you done anything about it? If not, please get on the bandwagon this year, because Roth IRAs have two huge advantages over other tax-favored retirement accounts.
- You can take federal-income-tax-free Roth withdrawals after reaching age 59½ as long as you've had at least one Roth account open for more than five years. If you die, your heirs can dip into an inherited Roth account without owing any federal income tax, as long as the account has been open for more than five years. So open a Roth account now to start the five-year clock ticking. If federal income-tax rates go up in the future (a distinct possibility especially for high-income folks), funds in your Roth IRA will be blissfully unaffected. Think of your Roth IRA as insurance against future tax rate increases.
- Roth IRAs set up in your name are exempt from the required minimum distribution (RMD) rules, which force you to start taking taxable withdrawals from other types of tax-favored retirement accounts, including traditional IRAs, after reaching age 70½. If you fail to withdraw the proper RMD amount for a year, you owe a 50% penalty on the difference between the amount you should have taken out and what you actually took out (if anything). Ouch! In contrast, you can leave Roth IRA balances untouched for as long as you wish and continue earning federal-income-tax-free income and gains. When you die, your remaining Roth IRA balances can be left to your heirs who can then take out the money federal-income-tax-free.
There are two ways to get money into a Roth account
- Start making annual contributions of up to $5,500 or $6,500 if you are age 50 or older. If you are married, your spouse can join the fun. The catches: you must have earned income at least equal to what you contribute, and the contribution privilege is phased out at higher income levels.
- Convert a traditional IRA into a Roth account. A conversion is treated as a taxable distribution from the traditional account with the money going into the new Roth account. So it will trigger a bigger federal income tax bill (and maybe a bigger state income tax bill too). However, the two positive factors mentioned earlier may greatly outweigh the one-time tax hit.
You don't need any earned income to do a Roth conversion, and there's no income restriction either. So retired billionaires can do Roth conversions.
Resolve to take advantage of tax-saving deals at work
Salary-reduction contributions to tax-favored employee benefit programs reduce your taxable salary and your federal and state income tax bills. For 2014, the maximum salary-reduction contribution to a company 401(k) plan is $17,500 or $23,000 if you will be age 50 or older as of year-end.
You may also be able to make salary-reduction contributions to your company's cafeteria benefit plan, which may include flexible spending accounts (FSAs) to cover: (1) up to $2,500 of out-of-pocket family medical costs and (2) up to $5,000 of expenses to care for your under-age-13 children so you can work (or if you are married, so both you and your spouse can work). The tax savings from participating in FSA plans are permanent rather than temporary, so failing to sign up is like leaving cash on the table. Don't do that!
Resolve to do year-end tax planning this year
Lots of people talk about year-end tax planning, but not that many actually follow through. Put this date in your planner right now: Saturday, Nov. 29. Thanksgiving will be over, and you don't want to be out and about on that weekend anyway, because you'll get crushed by all the holiday shoppers. And by then, you should have a solid fix on your 2014 tax situation. You can consider selling some loser stocks and mutual fund shares held in taxable accounts to offset your earlier gains, giving some appreciated securities to your favorite charity, and so forth. Of course, you should also check back here for additional year-end tax-saving tips.
Resolve to get your estate plan in order
What estate plan, you ask? Exactly. People don't like to think about this subject, but you need to think about it in fairness to your heirs.
- At a minimum, you should have a will — even if you are young, incredibly healthy, and don't have enough assets to be even remotely worried about estate taxes. Without a will, state law decides who gets all your stuff and who raises your kids in the event of your unanticipated demise. I don't have that much faith in my beloved state legislature, and you probably don't either.
- Quite possibly, you do have enough assets to be exposed to estate taxes, but you don't know it. Consider this: for tax purposes, your estate includes your house, furnishings, cars, retirement plan assets, investments, equity in employer stock options, baseball card collection, and everything else you own. Here's the kicker: it also includes any proceeds from insurance on your own life unless you take planning steps to prevent this (such as setting up an irrevocable life insurance trust). In my experience, it is usually life insurance that causes unexpected estate tax exposure. Right now, your taxable estate must exceed $5.34 million for you to be exposed to the federal estate tax. But 19 states impose their own death taxes, and some kick in at much lower wealth levels. For example, the New Jersey tax hits estates worth over $675,000. Bottom line: you may need to make some estate-tax-reduction moves after all, just because of where you live.
Also see: The worst U.S. states to die in
Resolve to consult your tax pro before major transactions
Obviously, you cannot plan your whole life around taxes. That said, most big life events have significant tax consequences. And from a tax perspective, there is often a right way and a wrong way to do things — whether it's selling your home, transferring funds from one retirement account into another, getting divorced, whatever. To make sure you do things the right way instead of the wrong way, consult your tax pro before the deal is done. Take it from me: the Internal Revenue Code is riddled with traps for the unwary, and the tax savings from obtaining competent professional advice will dwarf the fees over the long haul.
Also see:
10 tax breaks enjoyed by the rich


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Dr. James McGrath has an excellent post on the importance of accepting the basic scientific principle of human evolution through natural selection, especially for Christians.
If one allows that one may argue from evidence of design to a designer, then one opens up the possibility of arguing from shortcomings in design to an incompetent designer.
If you are a religious believer, and you refuse to accept evolution, then you have little choice but to blame God for the shortcomings seen in nature. You have little choice but to conclude that God wanted to leave us open to death by choking, when he made the routes for food and air converge on the same passage. And that is but one more of a very long list of examples of things that make good sense when considered the result of the slow adaptive processes of evolution, but which look ridiculous or even malevolent if considered the direct design of a divine Engineer.
Essentially, there are anatomical and physiological elements in every species that demonstrate vestigial anatomy and functionality. That is, there are things in our bodies that would never be a part of any "from scratch" blueprint of an intelligent designer. I've mentioned fingernails and the appendix and the optic disc (blind spot) before. Richard Dawkins discusses the laryngeal nerve as evidence of historical legacy in human anatomy.
Dawkins sums up:
A designer, an engineer, can go back to the drawing board, throw away the old design and start afresh with what looks more sensible. A designer has foresight. Evolution can't go back to the drawing board; evolution has no foresight.
Thus, if a part of our anatomy appears vestigial and inefficient (like our appendix or blind spot or our laryngeal nerve), it probably is. It is the result of small changes over time. It cannot "go back to the drawing board" and start over like a designer. The fact that our laryngeal nerves descend into our thorax and then back up to our larynx is evidence that it was not designed (at least not intelligently) that way, but evolved that way (however inefficient it may be).
McGrath continues:
So don't be surprised if other fellow religious believers, better informed about both science and theology, insist that you are demeaning rather than glorifying God through your refusal to accept evolution.
You are making God out to be an incompetent, not an intelligent, Designer.
Filed under: religion, science | Tagged: creation, creator, evolution, exploring our matrix, giraffe, intelligent design, james mcgrath, natural selection, richard dawkins | 70 Comments »


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The signal problems caused by the iPhone 4's antenna design generated a lot of press, but what affect did the issue have on sales? That's the question that Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster attempted to answer with a survey that he shared in a recent research note. His conclusion: the "antennagate" problem impacted potential sales as much as 20 percent, but that's nothing compared to sales lost because the iPhone is locked exclusively to AT&T.
The survey was conducted on 258 random cell phone users in Minneapolis. Though limiting responses from just one urban area means there could be some bias towards a particular carrier, the respondents were spread across the four major carriers. Among those surveyed, about 30 percent each already used an iPhone, BlackBerry, or "other" phone, while about 10 percent used an Android phone.
Of those surveyed, 69 percent said they were aware of the problems with the iPhone 4 antenna design. That's not surprising given that the issue was widely publicized immediately after the device launched, eventually necessitating a special press conference from Apple to address the problem. However, only 20 percent of those aware of the problem said it negatively impacted their decision to buy one.
A bigger issue, noted Munster, is three times as many respondents brought up the issue that the iPhone isn't available on Verizon—without prompting from the surveyors. "The antenna issue is removing upside potential for iPhone units, but Verizon is actually the most significant factor limiting demand," he wrote.
Though the survey population is somewhat limited, this jibes with what we have heard in and around the Orbiting HQ. When people see me using my iPhone 4 in public, the most common question is, "What is the reception like? I heard the antenna is bad." After discussing the issue, however, the most common conclusion tends to be, "Yeah, I'll probably end up getting one anyway."
In a recent Ars reader poll about Verizon iPhone availability, more than half the respondents that are current AT&T iPhone users would switch to Verizon if the iPhone was available on that carrier. Nearly half the respondents were current Verizon customers that would get an iPhone if it were available. Clearly, breaking free of AT&T's exclusivity could tap a large potential market for new iPhone users.


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« Disease, Population, and Economic Progress | Main | Response to Comments on "AIDS, Population, and Policy"--Posner »
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"A larger population may put more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, but it also provides a larger market for new technologies that help control the output of CO2 and other gases."
As we've seen in the past 60 years, a larger population has created enormously more nuclear waste, and also created a much larger market to help control the production of nuclear waste. But the nuclear waste problem is still largely unaddressed.
"In addition, a larger population also increases the number of potential inventors who might help solve warming and other challenges."
And the number of potential inventors of solutions to the nuclear waste problem has also increased greatly, but there still is no solution in sight to the growing problem of nuclear waste.
Hand waving about "larger" is all fine and good, but unless you can (a) show that one "larger" is larger than another "larger" and (b) show that there are no external obstacles in economics or politics, it sounds as if you're engaging in pollyanna speculation.
Relying on technology to meet the needs of a expanding population has considerable historical and theoretical support, however, I am still worried about much of the third world, particularly in Africa. To rely on innovation to provide for expanding populations and other new challenges, there must be a functioning free market.
Nations with stable political structures and healthy free market forces can most likely adjust to any number of challenges through the development and implementation of new technologies. Nations that lack these requisite attributes, however, seem likely to continue to struggle.
Africa's agricultural productivity has decreased steadily the last 40 years. If we can always count on technology to save the day, why does Africa struggle so?
How did Europe and those who escaped its clutches succeed in developing? Part of the answer seems exceptionless: By radically violating approved free market doctrine. That conclusion holds from England to the East Asian growth area today, surely including the United States, "the mother country and bastion of modern protectionism," economic historian Paul Bairoch observes in his recent study of myths concerning economic development. The most extraordinary of these, he concludes, is the belief that protectionism impedes growth: "It is difficult to find another case where the facts so contradict a dominant theory," a conclusion supported by many other studies... Putting the details aside, it seems fairly clear that one reason for the sharp divide between today's First and Third World is that much of the latter was subjected to "experiments" that rammed free market doctrine down their throats, while today's developed countries were able to resist such measures.
Noam Chomsky, "Old wine in new bottles: A bitter taste"
In Britain again, as elsewhere, industrial promotion also took the form of defense against outside competition. The later record of British commitment to free trade (more or less nid-nineteenth century to 1930) has tended to obscure the earlier and much longer practice of economic nationalism, whether by tariff protection or discriminatory shipping rules (navigation acts). Economic theorists have argued forcibly, even passionately, that such interferences with the market hurt everyone. The fact remains that history's strongest advocates of free trade -- Victorian Britain, post-World War II United States -- were strongly protectionist during their own growing stage. Don't do as I did; do as I can afford to do now. The advice does not always sit well.
David S. Landes, "The Wealth And Poverty Of Nations" pg. 265
Commenter Mike Huben implies (quoting no other than Noam Chomsky!!!) that developing countries would be better served by protectionist policies. My question is simply, protect what? Most developing countries have underdeveloped internal markets to sell their goods. In the absence of free trade, they will receive little or no foreign investment, and lack the necessary domestic demand to maintain current employment levels.
I can, at times, have some sympathy for arguments that developed countries may be better off with limited protectionism (to slow structural changes), but arguing developing countries are actually hurt by free trade seems to me a difficult task.
There's a big storm on the web about the quality of Posner's writing, namely the blog about war on Dec. 5, '04.
I'm reminded of Henry Miller's "Advice to a Young Writer."
As a poet, my favorite excerpt is: "If you can't make words fuck, don't masturbate them! / When you speak of Cunt put hair on it! / Try to forget everything you learned in college."
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Hi. Our patience will achieve more than our force.
I am from Iran and learning to speak English, give please true I wrote the following sentence: "In principle within two hours, you could have the money you need fast."
With love 8-), Giacinta.
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Thanks, keep up the good work.
I am from Cape and too poorly know English, give true I wrote the following sentence: "Female pheromone perfumes give women an unfair advantage whenever it comes to attracting men."
With respect :P, Kathy.
Hi. One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say.
I am from Luxembourg and learning to read in English, tell me right I wrote the following sentence: "Blueair air purifiers air pollution has become a major health problem.Not only are ozone air purifiers ineffective at dealing with indoor air pollution, they are actually dangerous and can serious health consequences."
Regards :P Devon.
Thank you, you always get to all new and used
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So, I had thought we were in the clear from the old 2010 Search Center branding disaster. For the most part custom branding applies pretty easily to search sites in SharePoint 2013 thanks to the fact that it just uses the default Seattle.master for search branding. However there is a gotcha, specifically related to the Basic Search Center template. I think the problem is only this one template, but maybe there are other areas affected. I tested the Enterprise Search Center and the default search and neither had issues.
Basically what happens is when you are creating your custom branding, chances are you will be applying a customized master page (one that is edited with a mapped drive or SharePoint Designer), and the Basic Search Center uses a snippet of code block to try to hide the ribbon when the Web Part management panel is up (I have no idea why this was so important but I digress). Okay, "so what" you might think… well code blocks are not permitted to run by default in customized master pages. They will work just fine in a custom master page deployed with a farm solution (according to comments below a sandbox solution will not fix the problem) but they will fail miserably in a customized master page like this:
So, how do you fix this problem. Well, easiest solution is to package your custom master page into a farm solution and apply it to the site. The error should go away immediately. That doesn't really help if you are still iterating in development or if you are using SharePoint Online (farm solutions are not allowed there). Another option is to edit the aspx files on the Basic Search Site. From a mapped drive or from SPD you can edit default.aspx and results.aspx removing this StyleBlock section:
<% WebPartManager webPartManager = SPWebPartManager.GetCurrentWebPartManager(this.Page); if (webPartManager != null && webPartManager.DisplayMode == SPWebPartManager.BrowseDisplayMode) { %>#s4-ribbonrow
display: none;
<% } %>
Note: one gotcha you may run into with this method is sometimes the search web parts will error on the page when you refresh it. You can fix this by removing the old web parts and re-adding them. I'm not sure why you have to do this sometimes, but it's a relatively painless fix.
For some of you, editing these search files won't be an acceptable solution. I'm hopeful someone will create a nice sandbox solution to fix the problem like we had in 2010… Nik Hadlee I'm looking at you 🙂


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Great Golf Ball Drop to be held July 18
ROCKFORD — The eighth annual Great Golf Ball Drop will be held at 6:13 p.m. July 18 at the Aldeen Golf Club, 1902 Reid Farm Road.
Numbered golf balls will be dropped over the golf course and the owner of the first golf ball in the hole, or closest to the hole, will win $3,000.
Tickets can be purchased through July 14 at Aldeen Golf Club; Elliot Golf Course, 888 S. Lyford Road, Cherry Valley; Ingersoll Golf Course, 101 Daisyfield Road; Sandy Hollow Golf Course, 2500 Sandy Hollow Road; Sinnissippi Golf Course, 1401 N. Second St.; Rockford Park District customer service locations, 401 S. Main St. and 4150 N. Perryville Road, Loves Park; and online at rockfordparkdistrict.org/gbdrop.
The club also will continue to sell tickets until 5 p.m. July 18.
Cost: $5, one ball; $20, five balls; $40, 10 balls.
For information: rockfordparkdistrict.org.


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Ailsa's travel photo theme this week is 'Oceans', in honour or World Ocean day which was on June 8th. The five oceans of the earth are the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Arctic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and the Antarctic Ocean, which is also called the Southern Ocean.
My home in South Africa is just a few yards from the Indian Ocean, which stretches from the east coast of Africa across to the west coast of Australia, including the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. I can see it when I look out of my bedroom window. Sometimes it's grey and foreboding,
but today it's blue and enticing.
We often go walking along the ocean front, past the new pier,
and the lighthouse, which has been around since 1954.
Whilst on a cruise of the Great Barrier Reef, we went snorkelling in the Coral Sea, which is right on the edge of the Pacific Ocean.
A few years ago, as our plane flew into Bora Bora in French Polynesia, we could look down and see the beautiful blues of yet another part of the Pacific Ocean, the largest ocean on earth, which stretches from the western side of North and South America across to Asia and north to south from the Arctic to the Antarctic.
Here is a photo taken next to the north Atlantic Ocean when we visited Casablanca, Morocco, a few years ago.
This same blonde woman who often pops up in hubby's photos, (I'll have to ask him who she is), 😉 is standing next to the south Atlantic Ocean at Copacabana Beach in Rio. You can see Sugarloaf Mountain in the background.
The Arctic and Antarctic oceans will probably never be on our 'to visit' list. I think we'd find them a bit too cold for our liking.
Have a great weekend everyone, wherever you are. Chat again soon.


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"It's rough. It's been rough on that food. It's different eating here than it is at the house. Ain't got no sweet tea, and ain't got no fried chicken."
—Boo Weekley, PGA golfer from Milton, Fla., interviewed by the BBC on Day 2 of the British Open, 7/20/2007
You can't blame Boo Weekley for not knowing—before last month, the man had never left North America. And there are some fairly major associations between Great Britain and tea. But poor Weekley had the same awful realization most of us have when we leave Dixie: When you order sweet tea, you probably aren't going to get it. And even if you're lucky enough to find something bearing its name, it's probably not quite the same.
Drinking sweet tea is one of the oldest and most exceptional Southern traditions. As Dolly Parton's character in Steel Magnolias puts it, it's the "house wine of the South"—a clear, orange-to-red tinted tea brewed from six or seven Lipton or Luzianne tea bags, poured hot onto a cup or more of sugar or a pool of simple syrup, and then diluted into a gallon pitcher in the fridge. It's served over a mound of ice in a huge glass—so cold that you can watch your napkin drown in a puddle of condensation.
By "sweet tea," we mean "sweet." As one food technologist told me, some of the sweetest glasses can hit 22 Brix of sugar. That means that 22 percent of the liquid consists of dissolved sugar solids, or, to put it in more meaningful terms: close to twice what you'd find in a can of Coke. Still, there's a balance to the flavor—the tea is brewed long and strong, so it gets an astringency that can only be countered by lots of the sweet stuff.
Southerners, of course, have a taste for sugar that is demonstrably stronger than what you find up North. We like our pecan pie and pralines sweet enough to make the dentist cringe. All of the major soda companies—the Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo, Dr Pepper—started in the South. Bourbon, that sweetest of whiskies, is from Kentucky. A mint julep, that classic Southern cocktail, is basically a whiskey'd up sweet tea, with mint, ice, simple syrup, and booze.
One chef I spoke with—Scott Peacock, who spent eight years bunking and writing with the Grand Dame of Southern cooking, the late Edna Lewis—suggested that Dixie's taste for sweet may have evolved from the use of sugar as a preservative. Peacock's dad grew up in a small Alabama town where they didn't have much refined sugar. In towns like that, he said, they grew cane, milled it, and put it in jars. People anticipated the crystallization of the cane sugar with great excitement, eager to stir it into their tea.
Sugar worship might account for much of sweet tea's popularity, but I think its appeal lies in the ice. Southerners seem to have a particular fascination with ice. This may stem, most obviously, from the fact that the Southern climate is often steamier than a Rat Pack schvitz. In an early essay about Southern cuisine published by the American Philosophical Society called Hog Meat and Cornpone: Food Habits in the Ante-Bellum South, Sam Hilliard wrote that a container of cool—not even cold—water, pulled from a nearby spring, was a delicacy at the table. Tea was mostly a drink for the upper class, and early on, it was the rich who had access to the ice that came down on ships or in wagons, at least until icehouses were built in cities (Southern farmers had to wait for the arrival of the Model T). If ice was a luxury, then putting out a pitcher of ice-cold tea must have been quite a bit of hospitality. One historian, Joe Gray Taylor, wrote in Eating, Drinking, and Visiting in the South: An Informal History that the rural electrification—and, consequently, refrigeration—wrought by the Tennessee Valley Authority in the 1930s was "probably more appreciated for the ice cubes it provided … than for any of its other services."
Offering up a glass of sweet tea on a hot day in the South is as welcoming a gesture as passing the doobie at a Phish show. It's so ingrained in the Southern DNA—Marion Cabell Tyree included the recipe in a cookbook called Housekeeping in Old Virginia as early as 1879—that people now post videos online of their infants sampling the stuff. It's a frequent menu item for the condemned, as well as a centerpiece at church suppers. As an April Fools' Day prank in 2003, Georgia State Rep. John Noel introduced a bill that would have made it a misdemeanor for a restaurant owner not to include sweet tea on the menu. Most Southerners can easily tell the difference between fresh sweet tea and the stuff from concentrate—and unless their sugar jones is too strong that day, chances are they'll send the latter back.
It's a refreshing combination of sweet and cold, sure, but how does something that's simply tasty become the unofficial beverage for an entire region? Well, there's this: The South reveres its traditions, and sweet tea is one of them. Dixie has had some embarrassments in its time: There's that whole Civil War thing, the whole Judge Roy Moore thing, that whole Naples, Fla., Swamp Buggy Queen thing, to name a few. Getting your nose rubbed in your own traditions too many times makes you cling to those that aren't, well, illegal. And you revere them as much because they have proven resistant to change as you do for their particular qualities.
For me, personally—and I suspect I'm not alone—sweet tea is a primal link to my own Southern past. I grew up a Jewish kid in Atlanta, with a mom from Brooklyn, N.Y., and a dad from Cleveland. To assimilate with my classmates, I quickly learned to say y'all, talk about Herschel Walker, put honey on my biscuits, and enjoy sweet tea. While my parents made us drink an unsweetened mint tea blend at home, I strong-armed them into stopping by Po Folks on the way home from baseball practice. A middling Southern-style chain (we didn't know enough to eat at Mary Mac's), known for horrible phonetic misspellings, heavily larded chicken, and, most importantly, sweet tea served in Mason Jars, it was practically the only place I could get hooked up properly—at least, that is, until I began raiding the always-full homemade pitchers in my friends' refrigerators.
I may live in Massachusetts now, but I still consider myself Southern at heart. In the fall, I ask the bartender to let me watch the Bulldogs game. In the spring, I feel a potentially suicidal need to stop wearing a coat. And in the summer, I still look for sweet tea. Even on the rare occasion I can find someplace that has it on the menu, it's often slightly off. Maybe it isn't sweet enough. Maybe it's the lack of free refills. Whatever it is, it chills me.


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Chasing thundersnow could lead to more accurate forecasts
(PhysOrg.com) -- The job of one University of Missouri researcher could chill to the bone, but his research could make weather predicting more accurate. Patrick Market, associate professor of atmospheric science in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, is chasing storms in the dead of winter in order to release weather balloons that will produce data about the little-known phenomenon of thundersnow.
"One of the things we don't understand is how the cloud becomes electrified," Market said. "We hope to determine how the atmosphere is becoming unstable."
Market and his storm-chasing students are searching for winter storms in order to release weather balloons into the storm every 90 minutes over a 24-hour period. The balloons carry boxes with a barometer to measure pressure, a thermometer to measure temperature, and a hydrometer to measure humidity. Market uses a GPS to monitor wind speed and direction of the balloons. This information covers the five things that are most important for a meteorologist to know for accurate predictions, according to Market.
"It has been decades since a detailed study with modern weather balloons has been done to see how the atmosphere destabilizes for summer thunderstorms, much less the winter storms," Market said. "So we are taking this tried-and-true tool of the meteorology trade and applying it to the very specific instance of heavy snowfall in the winter."
Once the weather balloons are launched, they provide detailed readings of every layer of the atmosphere. More detailed readings and data provide better and more accurate forecasting.
"We get thunderstorms in all seasons. That means something is making the atmosphere unstable," Market said. "Thunderstorms are often associated with heavy rainfall or heavy snowfall. It's just as important to get it right in the spring, summer or winter."
The phenomenon known as thundersnow is not understood very well. It is defined as a snowstorm with thunder and lightning that can bring heavy snowfalls of 8 to 12 inches. Tracking such storms can be quite a challenge.
"Often, these winter storms cause us to travel through inclement weather in order to get to the area where the weather balloons should be launched," Market said. "During travel, the heater in the vehicle cannot be on because the instruments need to be kept cold."
Provided by University of Missouri-Columbia


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There are three straightforward and rather obvious lessons from the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings five years ago: The financial crisis was devastating. We haven't ended the problems associated with 'too big to fail' financial institutions. We must force the biggest banks to break up – or risk dire consequences.
The crisis had huge costs, in both economic and human terms. Almost every official and politician understates these costs, though fortunately Tyler Atkinson, David Luttrell and Harvey Rosenblum of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas have produced a definitive accounting.
I would begin with their measures of lost output. Their crucial point is that this recession recovery wasn't V-shaped, but rather something much more protracted. Lost output – goods and services that we shall never see – was at least 40 percent of 2007 gross domestic product and probably considerably more. Add other costs, including the human damage caused by long-term unemployment, and the shortfall easily reaches at least one year's output – say, $15 trillion in round numbers.
Any claims that the crisis wasn't so bad, or that the government ended up making money on bailouts, or that the banks only received short-term liquidity loans, completely fail to understand the way financial crises wreak havoc. The crisis had a huge cost, even though large financial institutions (after Lehman) were prevented from failing through generous government support.
The hard question isn't what we would do the next time a Lehman fails or is on the brink of failure. We would still want to save the world from financial collapse, and there are many creative ways for a government or a central bank to provide support to troubled institutions.
We don't want to reach any such point again, so the much tougher question is: How do we prevent any financial institution from becoming so big and so complex that its distress – even without outright failure and losses for creditors – could contribute to a panic that depresses real output and threatens to bring the global financial system to its knees?
The Dodd-Frank Act didn't end 'too big to fail.' The legislation was intended to reduce – and hopefully eliminate – the implicit and explicit government support that, post-Lehman, could reasonably be presumed to buttress large financial institutions.
Too big to fail will end only when regulators properly implement the financial-reform measure. Title I of the law authorizes the Fed to force financial companies to change their activities – including their scale and scope – when it is determined that the institutions couldn't be resolved in an orderly fashion through the standard bankruptcy process.
Looking at the costs, both direct and indirect, of the Lehman collapse, it's clear that running any of our big leveraged financial companies through bankruptcy would cause major economic turmoil.
Unfortunately, the Fed's Board of Governors has been unwilling to apply the law in a full and fair manner. Banks that submitted inadequate living wills were simply asked to provide new ones, without any discernible consequences. This game probably will go on until the next major crisis.
Title II of Dodd-Frank creates a resolution mechanism known as orderly liquidation that would be administered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. But this takes effect only if determinations under Title I turn out to be inaccurate – that is, if the Fed allows a company to operate and it is later discovered that its distress cannot be handled through bankruptcy, at least not without catastrophic consequences.
I support the efforts of the FDIC to design an approach to resolution that reduces taxpayer risks and limits the disruption to credit markets when a big financial institution gets into trouble. (I'm on the FDIC's Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee, but I wasn't involved in the design of this mechanism.)
The FDIC procedure is designed to impose losses on creditors of bank holding companies while protecting creditors to operating subsidiaries. As a consequence, private lending to a holding company should carry a premium interest rate relative to loans to an operating subsidiary, which involves less risk. This approach will work only if the Fed – and, again, the Board of Governors in particular – requires banks to have enough equity and long-term debt issued by the holding company to absorb potential losses. So far, the signs from the Fed about their thinking on this issue haven't been encouraging.
The upshot is the simplest lesson of all: We must do more. The largest U.S. financial institutions need to become small enough and simple enough to fail without bringing down the global system.
This is the only credible way to threaten the banks – and their executives – with potential failure if they take on and mismanage excessive risk. Everything else is ultimately a bluff that will be called.
– Simon Johnson, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, is co-author of 'White House Burning: The Founding Fathers, Our National Debt, and Why It Matters to You.'


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U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Dina Habib Powell led the first ever high-profile delegation of U.S. college and university presidents to Japan, Korea, and China during International Education Week (November 10-18, 2006).
Below are speeches, travel log entries, and other information.
Beijing, China (Nov 16-17)
Seoul, Korea (Nov 14 -15)
Tokyo, Japan (Nov 13 -14)
Secretary Leads Delegation of University Presidents to Asia (Nov 8)
International Education Week (Nov 10- 18)
Last Modified: 03/23/2007


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Join us below to follow Spanish Grand Prix Free Practice 3 live.
Useful links
Launch the F1 Fanatic Live blog in a new window by clicking here
Use this button on the Live Blog panel to turn off auto scrolling so you can read earlier messages.
Please remember this is a live blog not live chat – comments are moderated before going live and not every comment is published because we get so many!
Keep an eye on the rolling text at the bottom of the live blog window for details like where to find video or what the weather is at the track.
Twitter feeds
The following Twitter feeds are integrated into this live blog:
- f1fanatic_co_uk – The F1 Fanatic Twitter feed
- F1 teams -The teams' Twitter feeds
2010 Spanish Grand Prix
- 2010 Spanish Grand Prix – the complete F1 Fanatic race weekend review
- Whitmarsh: Rim failure put Hamilton out
- Hamilton denies Webber a perfect result (Spanish Grand Prix facts and stats)
- Spanish Grand Prix in pictures
- Super start helps Alguersuari to points finish (Spanish Grand Prix analysis)
- Spanish Grand Prix fastest laps
- Webber dominates as Hamilton crashes out of second
- Spanish Grand Prix result
- Championship points after Spain
- Rate the race – Spain


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NokiaEurope - Mobile Phones and Internet Packages in Europe
|Nokia Europe - Find mobile phones, packages, prices and stores. Guide with cell phone companies and internet services. Phone numbers and local information in Europe
|Nokia Phones. Find packages and prices in mobile companies and tech stores. Best smartphones of the year 2023.
|Nokia Prepaid or Billing Plan. Buy packages with internet, whatsapp and SMS. Online payments.
|Nokia Europe Phones
| Find Nokia Phones Europe
Nokia Lumia with Windows ! General Review.
|Nokia 9 with 5 cameras
|Nokia in Europe Nokia Lumia - Windows Phone !
|Nokia International Web Site


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Americans have difficulty paying for costly vehicle repairs and are driving older cars longer, according to a survey released by AAA.
One quarter of American drivers said they would be unable to pay for repairs to their vehicle of more than $2,000, and one in eight said they would be unable to pay for repairs of more than $1,000, the survey said.
More than half of drivers said they are still driving an older vehicle "because they do not want the financial burden of a new one," the survey said. And 25 percent of drivers said they have put off repairs in the past year because the repairs would cost too much.
By neglecting repairs, drivers increase the odds that they will need a costly repair, Marshall Doney, AAA vice president of automotive and financial services, said in a statement.
"Economic conditions have taken their toll on many Americans resulting in them neglecting their cars and leaving them at increased risk for very expensive repair bills," Doney said. "Many Americans rely on their cars for their livelihood, and losing access to them could be financially devastating during an already troubling economic time."
This is the first time AAA has commissioned such a survey, spokeswoman Christie Hyde said.
A recent J.D. Power and Associates study showed that consumers are spending less on repairs.
In 2005, the average driver spent $181 on maintenance and repairs. This year, the total has dropped to $169.
And while drivers are spending less, they're driving more, auto service consultant Lloyd Schiller said. In late 2008, cars going to dealership service departments had an average of 61,000 miles on the odometer. Early this year, the average climbed to 78,000 miles.
Still, it's important for drivers to have a plan in case they need to pay for emergency vehicle repairs, Doney said.
Thirty-eight percent of the AAA survey respondents said they would pay for $2,000 in repairs with money from their savings account, but 20 percent said they would pay with a credit card.
Another 11 percent said they would have to borrow money to pay for a $2,000 bill, according to the survey.
The figures were somewhat higher for a hypothetical $1,000 repair bill: 46 percent of Americans would pay with savings, 22 percent with a credit card and 14 percent said they would need to take out a loan.
Typically, according to AAA, transmission repairs can cost between $2,000 and $4,000, engine repairs are likely to top $5,000 and the cost to fix a set of brakes can be between $350 and $1,000.


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Lamborghini kicked off its 10-day Aventador LP700-4 Roadster media launch and dealer-education program on Monday, and it started off with a bang. Actually, with a roar.
Five new Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 Roadsters took to the south runway of one of the busiest United States airports for a photo shoot, some video and some fun.
The marque received special authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration and a go-ahead from Miami-Dade County. The Bulls exceeded the passenger-jet takeoff speed, which on a runway is 150-180 mph. The Lambos clocked 210 mph.
The company was quick to point out in its press release that "due to integrated planning on behalf of Miami-Dade officials and the FAA, there was no impact on flight arrivals and departures."
Personally, we'd taxi on a plane all day if the runway festivities included watching five Aventadors play on the tarmac.
The cars also posed for a photo shoot in front of a Boeing 777.
The party began with an unveiling at Lummus Park in Miami Beach, then the ceremonies continued with a 50-vehicle parade down Collins Avenue before heading to the airstrip.
"It has been a great pleasure to work with the Miami-Dade Aviation Department and South Beach teams on today's amazing demonstrations. I have never seen something similar at a Lamborghini event," said Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann. "The Aventador Roadster is our most exciting production car ever, and I can think of no better place to celebrate its launch than here in Miami."
The Aventador was revealed in Geneva in 2011. It uses 700-hp V12 for motivation, achieving a top speed of 217 mph. We drove the car last year and found it to be stunning, to say the least.


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Screen Repair for Samsung Galaxy J7 (J737)
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- Cracked Samsung Galaxy SM-J737 Repair.
- Do you see lines in your screen? Screen blacked out? Can't touch your screen?
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Out-of-state customers that wish to mail the device in for repair, please print & fill out the mail-in repair form. Mail your device with the form after purchasing this service. Please contact us for questions or assistance.
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North Carolina Teachers Legacy Hall
The North Carolina Teachers Legacy Hall includes ten niches depicting multiple facets of education in North Carolina: teaching tools, one-room schoolhouse, school bus, awards, teachers and principals of the year, historical timeline/current events, school desks, films that teach, and the battleship.
The tenth niche is reserved to honor donors to Legacy Hall. In addition, Legacy Hall features a bust of North Carolina educator Jay Robinson and a scale model of the U.S.S. North Carolina.
< Honorees
Teachers of the Year and Principals of the Year are recognized in Legacy Hall on an annual basis. These educators are the "best of the best," giving their all each day to further the education of North Carolina students.
Films That Teach >
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The trouble started on Nov. 2, when a Missouri Air National Guard F-15C crashed during an exercise. The incident quickly blossomed into a temporary, global shutdown of all F-15 flights, so that the planes--including those owned by overseas customers in countries such as Israel, Saudi Arabia and Japan--could be examined. This was the fourth crash involving an F-15 model this year. "First, only noncritical flights in the U.S. were grounded," says Guy Ben-Ari, a research fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Then it was broadened to include all noncritical flights in combat operations. Then it was broadened to all flights. That doesn't happen very often." Equally rare is the fact that international customers of the airplane followed the United States' lead in grounding their F-15s. "Makes you wonder what information they are receiving," he says.
Most media reports have emphasized the age of the aircraft, which debuted in 1975. However, newer variants--particularly the F-15E Strike Eagle--have also been grounded, and the last F-15 went into service in 2004. Now, comments from military officials to Popular Mechanics concerning the examination of structural parts common to all variants hint at a potentially serious problem with the airplane's structural integrity.
Inspecting America's 700 F-15s is a massive undertaking that involves thousands of maintenance crews around the world. In what is called an Immediate Action Time Compliance Technical Order, a list of detailed instructions was handed down to those maintainers whose daily duty is to keep the complex planes flying. "This is done at the base level," says Maj. Tom Crosson, spokesman for Air Combat Command. "The average wrench-turner goes through the checklist."
More From Popular Mechanics
How the Inspections Work
According to those involved, 13 hours worth of testing is required per airplane before it can pass inspection, with results reported back to Air Force headquarters. Each bolt to be twisted, every panel to be removed and each line to be checked is listed in detail. In the case of the F-15 investigation, Crosson says, specific attention is being paid to the hydraulic system lines, environmental control systems that regulate the cockpit, and structural frames called longerons. Longerons are metal strips that run along the length of the airplane's fuselage and transfer aerodynamic loads from the skin of the airplane to internal frame--not a place where you want to see signs of weakness.
The longerons require four hours to examine after the jet has been prepared by removing panels to gain access, according to Lt. Col. Al Porter, deputy maintenance group commander for the 366th Fighter Wing. "The maintainers are looking for any cracks in the upper and lower longerons or any other structural deficiency, including any problems around fastener holes or the fasteners themselves," he says.
Part of the inspection uses a non-invasive surface scan that can detect cracks that may be invisible to the naked eye. Electricity is passed through a tightly wound coil, creating a current that will be interrupted by any anomalies, according to Porter. Any suspected cracks are followed up by placing dye in the suspect area and viewed with an ultraviolet light that will confirm a crack. "We have detected no cracks in our inspections so far," Porter says. "The longerons that we are inspecting now are not part of the current phase inspection work cards. It is too early to know if this will become part of future phase inspections."
When maintenance problems arise in airplanes, fingers quickly point at the operational tempo of operations: In other words, the more hours a plane flies, the more likely it is to develop problems. With a military aircraft, however, the pace is less important than where it's flying and what it's called on to do.
During combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, sand and large differences between day and nighttime temperatures can take their toll on an airplane. On the other hand, the missions are relatively easy on F-15s. "These aircraft were designed for superior maneuverability and acceleration while dogfighting," Ben-Ari says. "[In Iraq and Afghanistan] there are no enemy fighter jets or anti-aircraft missiles to outmaneuver." Instead, the planes are logging many flight hours simply loitering in circles, waiting for information on where to drop bombs to help ground forces.
Debunking a Conspiracy Theory
It may seem logical to ground airplanes after a series of crashes, but there is another explanation for why the Pentagon has been keeping many of its F-15s on the ground. Skeptical analysts and defense watchers on Web boards have speculated that what's really at stake isn't safety, but future budget fights.
The 2008 defense bill passed last week by Congress designates $3.15 billion to purchase an additional 20 F-22 Raptor jets, , a successor to the F-15, from Lockheed Martin. Over the next several years, the Air Force wants to maintain or even step up spending on both Raptors and the F-35 Lightning II (aka the Joint Strike Fighter). But some in Congress have been pushing to limit Air Force spending in order to beef up ground forces. According to the online rumor mill, the well-publicized shutdown of F-15s is meant to provide the Air Force with some leverage when the bean counters come knocking.
So is there any credence to the idea that the Air Force was eager to prove a point by shutting down their fighters? Not really. "The F-22 [consideration] was a side effect," says military analyst and author Jim Dunnigan. "An idea like that would not withstand scrutiny by engineers or historians."
Ben-Ari agrees that the "conspiracies don't hold water." He points out that the Pentagon's operational need for F-22s is well known, and would not likely change based on a stunt that crash investigators could refute. Besides, why try manipulating thousands of savvy engineers and mechanics, when Congress is such a soft target? Traditional lobbying is easier and more effective, Ben-Ari maintains. "I am hoping there is no mix of safety and politics," he says.
Joe Pappalardo is a contributing writer at Popular Mechanics and author of the new book, Spaceport Earth: The Reinvention of Spaceflight.


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Irrigation expert crosses religious, political lines to win World Food Prize
Daniel Hillel developed a system called micro-irrigation, which has opened up dry regions to farming, revolutionizing agriculture worldwide. The Israeli scientist has worked closely with Arab friends in Jordan, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates.
| DES MOINES, Iowa
An Israeli scientist who has reached across political and ethnic boundaries to help dozens of countries in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and South America improve agriculture with new methods of irrigation will receive the World Food Prize, the prize's foundation announced June 12.
Daniel Hillel, who is credited with developing drip irrigation methods that conserve water while allowing food to be grown in some of the world's driest climates, was named the winner of this year's $250,000 prize during a ceremony in Washington. He will officially receive the prize Oct. 18 during the annual World Food Prize Symposium in Des Moines, Iowa.
The system Hillel developed, called micro-irrigation, carries water through narrow plastic pipes to plants, where it drips or trickles onto the roots in a continuous way. It has revolutionized agricultural practices in more than 30 countries over the past 50 to 60 years, helping thousands of farmers, said World Food Prize Foundation president Kenneth Quinn, a former US ambassador.
Mr. Quinn, in announcing the award, talked not only about Hillel's research but the fact that an Israeli found a way to work with leaders in Arab nations to improve food production.
IN PICTURES: Food security in Africa
Hillel's work significantly improved agriculture in Jordan and Egypt, Quinn said. He also worked in Palestinian communities adjacent to Israel, making friends and improving lives.
"He's able to reach across the intercultural gap with this agricultural achievement in order to address that problem that they have in common about how to lift people out of poverty and reduce hunger by working together," Quinn said. "In an area of the world and in lands where the divides — whether they be ethnic, political, religious, or diplomatic — seem so great, here is a man who by devoting his life to this peaceful development has sought to bridge those gaps."
Quinn noted several of the letters supporting Hillel's nomination for the prize came from individuals and institutions in Egypt, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who delivered the keynote address at the Washington ceremony, spoke of the importance of getting the most out of every drop of water. In many regions of the world, water is either too scarce or too unpredictable to sustain an American style of agriculture, she said.
"For 40 years, Dr. Hillel has worked to solve this problem by bringing his micro-irrigation techniques to the driest and least hospitable growing climates on earth, from Israel to Pakistan to Sudan," she said. "Today, farmers using micro-irrigation produce high-yield, nutritious crops on more than 6 million hectares [23,000 square miles] worldwide. Dr. Hillel's work will become even more important as we grapple with how to feed the world's growing population."
Hillel told The Associated Press in a phone interview from Israel that managing natural resources, respecting ecosystems, and living in an environmentally sustainable manner transcends boundaries.
"I'm a great believer in international cooperation, and I've devoted much of my career to it," he said. "I believe in peace. I'm a passionate believer in peace rather than rivalry, enmity, and destruction."
Hillel, 81, was born in Los Angeles, but after his father died, he moved at age 1 in 1931 with his family to Palestine, a part of which became the state of Israel in 1948.
At age 9, he was sent to live in a rural, communal settlement known as a kibbutz, where he learned farming practices and gained a respect for the land and preservation of resources. After earning undergraduate and graduate degrees in the United States, he returned to Israel in 1951 and joined the Ministry of Agriculture, where he helped create the first map of the country's soil and water resources.
Within a year, however, he joined a group of settlers who were dedicated to creating a viable agricultural community in the Negev Desert highlands in southern Israel, where water was scarce. Working with those farmers, who were willing to set aside tradition and experiment with new methods, allowed him to develop and refine his ideas on micro-irrigation, he said.
For thousands of years in the Middle East, irrigation involved diverting large quantities of water from rivers, trapping it in basins, and using it to soak farmland. The soil would then gradually dry out. It was an inefficient method of growing crops, Hillel said.
The availability of inexpensive, small plastic pipes after World War II created the possibility of moving water to crops in a more continuous fashion. The pipes could be perforated to allow water to drip from small holes down to the roots of plants, Hillel said. In time, fertilizer was added to the water.
"With a little bit of water, you'd get a much better crop," Hillel said. "This was a great innovation. I was in on the ground floor of this. I can't say that I was the inventor of it, but I was very active on the early stages of it and developing the philosophy of it."
David Ben-Gurion, the founder and first prime minister of Israel, visited the farm and was so impressed he asked Hillel to take his ideas to Asia, Africa, and South America. Hillel said he's visited as many as 40 different countries during his career, teaching, experimenting, and learning more about crop production and water management.
In recent years, he's focused his studies and writing on the global climate, deforestation, and degradation of land, working with two institutes at Columbia University in New York City.
"We need to learn how to manage land so that it will not degrade and do it efficiently. At the same time, we must maintain natural ecosystems without encroaching upon them without excessive deforestation and destruction of biodiversity," he said. "All of that is a great concern to me, and I'm devoting my career to it."
Cynthia E. Rosenzweig, a scientist who heads the Climate Impacts Group at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia, works with Hillel on developing ways for agriculture to adapt in a changing climate.
"He is known as the father of sustainable water management," she said. "His work on water is so significant, but he didn't stop there. Sustainability and climate change are now the issues that are challenging agriculture today, and he has turned his attention to the current challenges, never forgetting the issues of water."
The World Food Prize, which honors efforts to fight global hunger, was created by Iowa native Norman Borlaug, the winner of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to increase food production in developing nations with the use of hybrid crops. He died in 2009.
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Improvements that Instantly Transform your Home
There comes a time when you want to change things up in your home. For most people, even though they would want to make simple improvements to their home, they are afraid because it is assumed that it is quite expensive and it takes a lot of work to complete such projects. However, that is not always the case because some improvements are actually quite affordable and simple. This article has some amazing tips that will go a long way as you make some upgrades in your home in a bid to transform it. These tips will make it easy to make great improvements to your home using simple tricks.
The first things that you should think about is repainting. When you repaint your home, it seems like you have a new home. When you paint the house yourself you will save a considerable amount of money which you can use in other projects. When repainting you can use that opportunity to change the colors in your home. If at all you do not want to paint yourself, you can look for a great painting company to take care of everything for you.
Also, changing the door to your home will significantly change the appearance of your home. Even though the door seems so small when compared to the size of the house, its appearance directly affects the aesthetic of the entire house. Therefore if you want to transforms your home in a big way using a simple trick then changing up your door would be great. If you are wondering how you can improve your door then you can start by changing its color, or design or installing a new door altogether, that makes a statement.
For an instant improvement of the aesthetic of your home, change the light fixtures. You do not have to spend a lot of money because you can get a great deal in shops that re-purpose light fixtures.
If you put new floors in your home you will significantly improve the appearance of your home. For example, if you have carpeted floors and you decide to strip the carpet and polish the hardwood floors underneath, the appearance of your home will significantly. Even though the cost implications are quite high, if you ever put your home on the market, the cost of the home will be high.
The last but not least improvement is changing the cabinets in the kitchen, laundry and bathroom. Changing the cabinets in your home makes the home look do new.
You can now confidently say that you know what tips to use when making simple improvements to your home.


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The good news about Freeview HD just keeps on coming, with confirmation arriving that more than 20 terrestrial transmitters will be beaming out high-definition free-to-air pictures in time for the 2010 World Cup.
London has already joined Granada in getting Freeview HD this year, and Glasgow and Edinburgh (Black Hill), Durham and Teeside (Pontop Pike), Birmingham (Lichfield), and south Yorkshire (Emley Moor) were all scheduled for the first half of 2010.
And now, other regions have been given a firm time for Freeview HD to arrive before June 11th 2010 – and the timeline is much faster than previously anticipated.
Regional joy
West and Central Wales (Blaenplwyf transmitter), Swansea (Kilvey Hall), Cardiff and Newport (Wenvoe) and around the Winter Hill relays will all be up and running by March.
In April, Carmarthenshire (Carmel), Exeter and parts of Devon (Stockland Hill), Bristol, Somerset, Dorset Wiltshire and Gloucestershire (Mendip).
May sees Shetland (Bressay) and Orkney (Keelylang Hill) join the Freeview HD party and June brings North Wales (Long Mountain, Moel-y-parc, Presely), Caithness and North Sutherland (Rumster Forest).
Terrific step forward
It was What Satellite that broke the news about the other transmitters, and they quote Caroline Thomson, the BBC's Chief Operating Officer.
"This is a terrific step forward, and it's a great achievement that the BBC and its partners have been able to work together to overcome some really difficult technical challenges to bring HD to the Freeview platform through world-leading innovation.
"We're really excited about the prospect of seeing BBC HD and HD channels from the other public service broadcasters on Freeview next year."


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The U.N. High Level Meeting on Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases marks only the second time in history the UN has held a special meeting on a health issue: the first was for HIV/AIDS in 2001.
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) represent an urgent and growing global public health concern. In 2008, NCDs — diseases such as cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, cancer and diabetes — claimed the lives of more than 39 million people, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). And we know that the majority of poor people, the bottom billion, bear most of this burden in lower- and middle-income countries.
As the world's epidemiology evolves, preventing NCDs will help to prolong life expectancy, reduce disability and extend opportunity. A healthier lifestyle delivers the biggest dividend.
The Agency's significant investments in health systems strengthening (pdf, 3.15mb) underpin the foundation for integrated, country-led NCD prevention and control programs.
This means our current programs are building the foundation upon which future NCD efforts can be based. The same approaches that strengthen health workforces, ensure reliable supplies of vaccines and contraceptives, collect and analyze health information, and promote more effective governance, can also be adapted and applied to addressing NCDs.
President Obama's Global Health Initiative (GHI) is building on this legacy by addressing the unique realities of each country's health priorities and engaging appropriate parties in conversation. We are promoting prevention and control as part of a holistic approach to health by smartly integrating USG investments, focusing on innovation, discovery and new partnerships.
USAID is also identifying cost-effective interventions to address NCDs, the win-win interventions for both the MDGs and the NCDs such as integrating tobacco screening and counseling into antenatal care programs. Through GHI we are strategically integrating our program support for women and families including in family planning, maternal and child health, and nutrition programs.
We have a tremendous opportunity to guide the transformation of integrated, equitable health systems in countries we serve. But it does involve adjusting the way we work and how we position ourselves in the world of development and in the world of global health.
The Obama administration has prioritized saving lives among poor and vulnerable people, particularly mothers and children. Better access to health-care services, particularly for pregnant women and newborn babies, improved nutrition and more widespread coverage of immunization programs have led to major reductions in under-five deaths.
For mothers we are focusing on evidence-based best practices, innovations like Saving Lives at Birth, expanding access to services at the community level and via hospitals or better equipped health clinics, and re-focusing efforts on family planning. Taken together, these efforts will significantly impact maternal mortality and improve the lives of millions around the world.


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Cooked, the latest culinary concerto from good-food advocate Michael Pollan, grandly proposes that American society could take a giant step forward if its members would just step back into the kitchen. Home cooks, he argues, are thinner, healthier, happier (because their meals taste better and their conversational opportunities are more bountiful), and connected to the land in ways that elude eaters who fill up on fast-food cheeseburgers.
As critics have pointed out, Pollan's thesis reflects a staunchly upper-class perspective: "How blessed to be able to say, 'I feel like making six-hour slow barbecued shoulder of pork today,' " Bee Wilson wrote in her eloquent review for TheNew York Times Book Review, which also takes issue with Pollan's fuzzy nostalgia. "Not because you're pressed to cook by your status or household budget. Just because, as Pollan argues, it makes your world 'literally more wonderful.' "
And while Pollan makes clear his siren song is directed at both genders, some women who cherish their hard-won freedom from the stove are understandably skeptical of the life-affirming qualities Pollan attributes to culinary labor. Pickling and preserving don't strike the "I Hate to Cook" set as the panacea Pollan promises.
But what's been largely overlooked in critiques of Cooked is that its central storyline is based on flimsy history. Pollan is adamant that the nation's loss of interest in cooking is a thoroughly contemporary quirk. He refers to the present day as "the precise historical moment when Americans were abandoning the kitchen," and waxes sentimental about the cooking mores of his parents' generation. "Most of us have happy memories of watching our mothers in the kitchen," he asserts.
Pollan's already taken flack for ignoring the many mothers who weren't blessed with a kitchen or enough food to cook in it, but his argument's equally nonsensical in a middle-class context. For much of American history, servants did the cooking.
In the 1860s, "one woman who managed without a cook for just one week found herself 'broken down, sick & in bed,' " Daniel Sutherland wrote in his groundbreaking 1981 history of domestic service, Americans and Their Servants.
That image tracks with notions of upper-class living advanced by Downton Abbey, but there's no indication that the 19th-century letter-writer quoted by Sutherland was wowing anyone with her wealth. As Sutherland writes, "Nearly everybody who could afford a servant employed one during the 19th century." And in the years before labor was legislated and taxed, a startling number of Americans could afford to hire a young girl, recent immigrant, or African-American woman to handle kitchen chores.
Scholars haven't been able to determine precisely how many Americans employed servants, but Sutherland estimates there was one servant for every eight American families between 1800 and 1920. Later researchers have suggested an ever smaller ratio, since census-based calculations take the entire U.S. population into account, and it's highly unlikely maids employed other maids. Domestic service was also more widespread in cities: In San Francisco in 1870, there was one servant for every four families.
Although 1870 represented the pinnacle of the domestic-service industry, as measured by the percentage of working women employed by it, the national reliance on hired help hadn't faded decades later. In Domesticity and Dirt: Housewives and Domestic Servants in the United States, 1920–1945, Phyllis Palmer cites a 1937 Fortune survey showing "70 percent of the rich, 42 percent of the upper middle class, 14 percent of the lower middle class, and 6 percent of the poor reported" hiring help. In other words, one out of every 16 impoverished Americans paid someone to wash their dirty clothes or make dinner.
While servants were assigned various tasks depending on their employers' needs, preparing food was nearly always on the to-do list. As John T. Edge wrote in his history of Mrs. Wilkes' Dining Room, a Savannah boardinghouse where tourists line up for iconic Southern dishes, "The tasks of frying chicken, punching our biscuit dough, stripping collard leaves, and peeling potatoes have long been assigned to black women."
Southern whites were so dependent on their servants' culinary skills that at least one woman showed up at a Union refugee camp to beg Ulysses Grant for the return of her enslaved cook. In Cooking in Other Women's Kitchens: Domestic Workers in the South, 1865–1960, Rebecca Sharpless quotes the cook's telling of this story, recorded in dialect by a white worker from the North: "My ole missus . . . hel' out her han's and say, 'General, dese han's never was in dough—I never made a cake o' dough in my life.' "
According to Sharpless, it wasn't unusual for women to distance themselves so completely from cooking. Before the advent of the electrical stove, kitchens were dirty, smelly, and dangerous, which is why they were commonly located where their beneficiaries didn't have to see them, whether in rural outbuildings or urban basements. But even after technology made cooking more comfortable, women who could afford servants tended to avoid the realities of meal-making.
"Richmond housewife Martha Branch set the menu each morning with her cook, but she herself never cooked," Sharpless writes. "Fellow Richmondite Martha Valentine Cronly remembered that her mother ' "gave out" the provisions each day from the pantry; then they were put on the "dumb waiter" and pulled by a rope to the kitchen, which was in the basement.' "
The American habit of hiring cooks flagged in the early 20th century, a victim of Depression economics, growing privacy concerns, the modernized "servantless kitchen," and Progressive politics. The Seattle YWCA in 1936 released a study showing that working girls routinely worked 16 hours a day, fueling a fight which culminated with the passage of a state law limiting work weeks to 60 hours, a schedule incompatible with the live-in servant model.
Yet domestic service persisted in the South, where a lack of labor legislation and scant opportunities for black women conspired to prop up the family-cook tradition. In the 1940s, Southern households could hire a cook for about $5 a week, which is why many of Pollan's white peers who grew up below the Mason-Dixon don't remember "watching [their] mothers in the kitchen." They remember watching someone else's mother in the kitchen.
Pollan may be exactly right when he says cooking is an inherently worthwhile activity. But he's wrong when he writes, "What is new is the great number of people now relying for the preponderance of their meals on an industry willing to do everything for them save the heating and the eating." Processed foods may be a relatively recent invention. But there's nothing new about Americans relying on an industry to shield them from the rigors—and, in Pollan's view, rewards—of food preparation.
Michael Pollan will appear at Benaroya Hall on Monday, May 13.