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Mike Huckabee RNC speech (text, video)
Remarks as Prepared for Delivery
I was so very honored to be asked to address one of this week's themes, "We can do better."
Then, I heard some folks backstage say that after hearing me speak, the delegates will say, "We sure can do better than Huckabee" and will nominate Mitt Romney to be the next President of the United States.
Tampa has been such a wonderful and hospitable city to us. The only hitch in an otherwise perfect week was the awful noise coming from the hotel room next door to mine. Turns out it was just Debbie Wasserman Schultz practicing her speech for the DNC in Charlotte next week. Bless her heart.
Four years ago, Mitt Romney and I were opponents. We still are, but we're not opposing each other.
We are mutual opponents of the miserably failed experiments that have put this country in a downward spiral.
Our country was in its origin an experiment, but an experiment in recognizing God-given individual liberty and creating a government in which no one is deemed better than another and all of us are equal.
Not equal in abilities, but in intrinsic worth and value. It is the essence of not just who we are, but what we are.
To those who question how once rivals can now be united, it's simple - we have Barack Obama to thank.
He said, "You didn't build it."
Translation: "It doesn't rightly belong to you!"
No small differences among us in our party approximate the vast differences between the liberty-limiting, radical left-wing, anti-business, reckless-spending, tax-hiking party of Barack Obama, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi, versus an energized America who knows that we can do better.
For four years, we've given a chance to a man with very limited experience in governing, no experience in business whatsoever, and since taking office, mostly an interest in campaigning, blaming, and aiming excuses at his predecessor, the Republicans, and people in business, or as Republicans like to call them, employers.
We've stagnated into an economy that has taken all that hope "down the slope" and left millions without jobs, forced out of their homes by foreclosure, and herded into dependency upon a government that promises us candy and gives us cavities.
Barack Obama seems intent on enrolling more people on food stamps. Mitt Romney's focus will be on generating more jobs that would make food stamps unnecessary for them.
We know full well that we can do better.
Mitt Romney turned around companies that were on the skids; turned around a scandal ridden Olympics that was deep in the red into a high point of profitable and patriotic pride; and turned around a very liberal state by erasing a deficit and replacing it with a surplus.
Barack Obama said if he couldn't turn things around in three years, it would be a one-term proposition. It's been almost four ... let's make him a proposition he can't refuse.
Let's vote him out!
The job of President is admittedly tougher than running a company, Olympic contest, or a commonwealth, but when one sees what even Bill Clinton noted was a sterling record of problem-solving that has marked the life of Mitt Romney, we are confident we WILL do better.
Mitt has been loyal to his wife, his sons, his country, his employees, and his church.
I'm sure the press will tell you he isn't perfect.
But for the past four years, we've tried the one the press thought was perfect, and that hasn't worked out so well for us.
We can do better!
The Founding Fathers of our great nation left taxation and tyranny seeking religious liberty and a society of meritocracy rather than aristocracy. They created a bold experiment in government, believing God gave us unalienable rights, and government's role is simply to make sure they are protected.
So fearful were they that government would grow beyond their intention that even after crafting our magnificent Constitution, they said, "We can do even better." They added amendments that we call the Bill of Rights that limit what the government can do and guarantee what "We the people" have the unimpeded right to do - whether to speak, assemble, worship, pray, publish, or even refuse intrusions into our homes.
Many of them died to pass on that heritage. They had lived under the boot of big government and said, "We can do better."
As a kid growing up in a household with a dad who never finished high school and a family in which no male upstream from me had ever finished high school, much less gone to college, I was taught that there was nothing I could do about what was behind me, but could change everything about what was in front of me.
My working-poor parents told me I could do better. They taught me that I was as good as anyone else. It never occurred to them to tell me that I could rest comfortably and wait for Uncle Sugar to feed me, lead me, and then bleed me.
They told me to get off my backside, work hard, take risks, and treat people honestly and honorably. And look what's happened - I have become as the press label me, "a failed candidate."
It's true; I have fallen from the high perch of politics and now wallow in the mud of the media, but I still know that as a country, we can do better, and with Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, we will.
Let me clear the air about whether guys like me would only support an evangelical. Of the four people on the two tickets, the only self-professed evangelical is Barack Obama, and he supports changing the definition of marriage, believes that human life is disposable and expendable at any time in the womb or even beyond the womb, and tells people of faith that they must bow their knees to the god of government and violate their faith and conscience in order to comply with what he calls health care.
Friends, I know we can do better!
The attack on my Catholic brothers and sisters is an attack on me. The Democrats have brought back the old dance the "Limbo" to see how low they can go in attempting to limit our ability to practice our faith.
This isn't a battle about contraceptives and Catholics, but of conscience and the Creator.
I care far less as to where Mitt Romney takes his family to church than I do about where he takes this country. Joe Biden said, "Show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value." Well, in the Senate, Joe's party hasn't produced a budget in three years.
What does that say about their values?
Speaking of budgets, Joe Biden's budget shows that while he wants to be generous with your money through higher taxes and government spending, for years he gave less than two-tenths of 1 percent of his money to charity.
He just wants you to give the government more so he and the Democrats can feel better about themselves. Mitt Romney has given over 16% of his income to his church and charity, and I'd feel better about having a leader who gives more of his own money instead of mine.
My concern is not Barack Obama's past; my concern is for the future - not his future, but the future of my grandchildren.
And under this President, we burdened each of them with tens of thousands of dollars of debt, and a system that will collapse upon itself because he thinks we can prosper by punishing productivity and rewarding reckless irresponsibility.
The Democrats say we ought to give Barack Obama credit for trying. That sounds like the nonsense of giving every kid a trophy for showing up.
Friends, we're talking about leading the country, not playing on a third-grade soccer team!
I realize this is the man who got a Nobel Peace Prize for what he would potentially do, but in the real world, you get the prize for producing something, not just promising it.
Sometimes, we're so close to the picture, we can't really see it clearly. I've worked with Bono for the past few years in the ONE campaign to fight AIDS and hunger and disease around the world.
He's an Irishman and a great humanitarian who told me of his admiration for America. He said we're more than a country; we're an idea.
He reminded me that we are an exceptional nation with an extraordinary history who owes it to the generations coming after us to leave them an extraordinary legacy.
If we don't change the direction of our nation now, our bequest will be nothing but an extraordinary shame.
But we can do better.
President Obama is out of gas; Americans are out of patience, and our great Republic is almost out of time. It's time we no longer lead from behind, but get off our behinds and leave something lasting for those who come after us instead of a mountain of debt and a pile of excuses.
Tonight, it's not because we're Republicans; it's because we're Americans that we proudly stand with Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan to say we will do better!


text: Meat Offering in Easton's Bible Dictionary (Heb. minhah), originally a gift of any kind. This Hebrew word came latterly to denote an "unbloody" sacrifice, as opposed to a "bloody" sacrifice. A "drink-offering" generally accompanied it. The law regarding it is given in Lev. 2, and 6:14-23. It was a recognition of the sovereignty of God and of his bounty in giving all earthly blessings (1 Chr. 29:10-14; Deut. 26:5-11). It was an offering which took for granted and was based on the offering for sin. It followed the sacrifice of blood. It was presented every day with the burnt-offering (Ex. 29:40, 41), and consisted of flour or of cakes prepared in a special way with oil and frankincense. Read More

subset: commoncrawl


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Notable Persons Interred at Swan Point Cemetery
A walk through Swan Point evokes memories of the past and provides a history of some of Rhode Island's most prominent citizens.
Civil War Veterans interred at Swan Point Cemetery
This is only a partial listing. There are over six hundred persons interred here who served their country in which many of their epitaphs call "The Great Rebellion." Some of these men gave the ultimate sacrifice for "The noble cause of vindicating the constitution and laws of this country." (Charles M. Read: fell at Antetiam, 1862)
Congressional Medal of Honor Recipients
|Benjamin Ham Child
|Edwin Gordon Potter
|George Warren Potter
|Edward Parsons Tobie
Union Brevet Brigadier Generals Interred at Swan Point Cemetery
|William Ames
|Born: Providence, RI 05/15/1842
Died: 03/03/1914
|Lt. Col., 3rd Rhode Island
Bvt. Bg, Usv 03/13/1865
|Richard Arnold
|Born: Providence, RI 04/12/1828
Died: Governors Island, NY
|Joseph Pope Balch
|Born: Providence, RI 08/09/1822
Died: Providence, RI
|Major – 1st Rhode Island Det Mi, Bvt. Bg, Usv 03/13/1865
|Charles Ray Brayton
|Born: Apponaug, RI 08/16/1840
Died: Providence, RI
|Col., 3rd Rhode Island Hvy
Arty, Bvt. Bg, Usv 03/13/1865
|Ambrose Everett Burnside
|Born: Liberty Union County, IN 05/23/1824
Died: Bristol, RI
|John Gardner Hazard
|Born: Exeter, RI 04/15/1832
Died: Providence, RI 05/15/1895
|Col., 5th Us Veteran Vols.
Bvt. Bg, Usv 03/13/1865
|Herbert Lefavour
|Born: Pawtucket, RI 05/03/1837
Died: Pawtucket, RI 02/25/1878
|Col., 22nd Michigan Infantry
Bvt. Bg, Usv 03/13/1865
|Horatio Rogers, Jr.
|Born: Providence, RI 05/18/1836
Died: Providence, RI 11/12/1904
|Col., 2nd Rhode Island
Infantry, Bvt. Bg, Usv 03/13/1865
|David Hammond Vinton
|Born: Providence, RI 05/04/1803
Died: Stamford, CT 02/21/1873
|Lt. Col., Deputy Qm
Bvt. Bg, Usa 03/13/1865
|Francis Laurens Vinton
|Born: Fort Preble, ME 06/01/1835
Died: Leadville, CO 10/06/1879
Governors of Rhode Island Interred in Swan Point Cemetery
|William Jones
|Lemuel Hastings Arnold
|William Sprague
|Thomas Wilson Dorr
|Henry Bowen Anthony
|William Warner Hoppin
|Elisha Dyer
|William Sprague 2nd
|James Young Smith
|Ambrose Everett Burnside
|Seth Padelford
|Henry Lippitt
|Alfred Henry Littlefield
|Augustus Osborn Bourn
|Royal Chapin Taft
|Herbert Warren Ladd
|Daniel Russell Brown
|Charles Warren Lippitt
|Elisha Dyer, Jr.
|Charles Dean Kimball
|Lucius Fayette Clark Garvin
|Norman Stanley Case
|Theodore Francis Green
Other Notable Persons Interred at Swan Point
William Sprague III (1799-1856)
Industrialist and 14th Governor of Rhode Island, he was also a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator.
Thomas Coles Hartshorn (1800-1854)
The founder of Swan Point Cemetery, he was a preceptor at a private classical school in Providence. He spent the last few years before his death as a clerk at Swan Point.
James C. Bucklin (1801-1890)
A gifted architect who contributed a great deal to Providence's finest building projects including the Arcade, the Beneficent Congregational Church, Manning Chapel at Brown University and the Rhode Island Historical Society Cabinet.
Thomas Wilson Dorr (1805-1854)
Politician, attorney and reformer, Dorr's family owned the Bernon Mills, a textile mill in Woonsocket. Dorr was best known for his role in The People's Convention, a group pushing for a new state constitution, and the Dorr Rebellion, a short-lived movement (1841-1843) led by Dorr to abolish property requirements for the right to vote. In 1843, after an unsuccessful attempt to change the constitution by an armed insurrection, Dorr was arrested, tried for treason and sentenced to life in prison with hard labor. After serving 20 months, he was pardoned and released. His civil rights were restored in 1851.
Elizabeth Buffum Chace (1806-1899)
A daughter of abolitionist Arnold Buffum, her home in Central Falls was one of Rhode Island's few documented stops along the underground railroad. After the Civil War, she was very involved with temperance, women's voting rights and higher education. She was active in securing admission of women to Brown University.
Joseph R. Brown (1810-1876)
Founder and creative genius of the country's most important precision tool company, Brown and Sharpe.
William Grosvenor (1810-1888)
Providence physician, textile mill owner, and member of the Rhode Island State Senate.
Elisha Dyer (1811-1890)
The 25th Governor of Rhode Island, he was a graduate of Brown University, a member of the Providence School Committee and President and Director of the Exchange Bank. He was a member of the U.S. Agricultural Society, the Rhode Island Art Association and an active member of the Freemasons. After his administration, Dyer captained a company of Rhode Island volunteers for the Civil War.
Henry Lippitt (1816-1881)
A textile manufacturer, he served as governor of Rhode Island from 1875-1877.
Mary Ann Balch Lippitt (1823-1889)
Henry's wife, she became an advocate of the deaf following their daughter Jeanie's affliction during a bout of scarlet fever at the age of four.
George H. Corliss (1817-1888)
One of the most important industrialists of the nineteenth century, Corliss developed and manufactured the world's most powerful and almost universally employed steam engines.
Ambrose E. Burnside (1824-1881)
Burnside was a politician, a soldier, an inventor and an industrialist. Rhode Island's 30th Governor, he served as a U.S. Senator and was a Union General in the Civil War. His distinctive style of hair is now known as sideburns, derived from his last name.
Colonel John Stanton Slocum (1824-1861)
Active abolitionist and attorney, Slocum was a well-respected veteran of the War with Mexico and led the Second Rhode Island Regiment in the Battle of Bull Run where he fell on July 21, 1861.
Thomas Alexander Tefft (1826-1859)
A gifted architect and graduate of Brown University, Tefft was the architect most associated with the Swan Point's early years.
Jesse Metcalf (1827-1899)
Founder of Wanskuck Mills, he was one of Rhode Island's leading industrialists.
Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf (1830-1895)
Jesse Metcalf's wife, she founded the Rhode Island School of Design. She was praised as a benefactor of the poor, even extending generosity to striking workers at her husband's company.
Descendants of the Metcalfs include a United States Senator and publishers of the Providence Journal.
Sarah Elizabeth Doyle (1830-1922)
Longtime schoolteacher and principal, she was a charter member of the corporation of the Rhode Island School of Design, leader of the Rhode Island Society for the Collegiate Education of Women, which sponsored the establishment of Pembroke College at Brown University, and an ardent, early supporter of women's suffrage.
William Sprague IV (1830-1915)
Industrialist and 27th Governor of Rhode Island, and a U.S. Senator, he participated in the First Battle of Bull Run in the Civil War.
Jerothmul B. Barnaby (1830-1889)
A highly successful dry goods merchant, he served on the Providence City Council from 1870-1879 and served in the Rhode Island legislature for one year.
Alfred E. Stone (1834-1908)
Providence architect and founding partner of the Stone, Carpenter and Willson architectural firm, he designed many prominent Providence area buildings including the Providence Public Library, Union Station and several buildings on the Brown University campus. Stone had a keen interest in land use issues and played a key role in guiding Swan Point Cemetery's late nineteenth century expansion, continuing the precepts of the original design. Stone served as the cemetery Director and the last 12 years as President, from 1876 until his death in 1908.
Robert H.I. Goddard (1837-1916)
A prominent banker, industrialist, U.S. Army officer, state senator and philanthropist, Robert Hale Ives Goddard was the son of Professor William Giles Goddard and Charlotte Rhoda Ives Goddard. Born in Providence, he was a graduate of Brown University. After leaving Brown, he began his business career with the Goddard Brothers, a Lonsdale, R.I. textile manufacturing firm. Goddard served with distinction in the Union Army in the Civil War, attaining the rank of Colonel. In 1865 at the end of the war, he resigned from the army and served as a military aide to four governors from 1874-1883. In 1870, Goddard married Rebekah Burnet Groesbeck of Cincinnati, Ohio. Together they had two sons and a daughter. Goddard served in the RI Senate from 1907-1908 as a member of the finance committee and as chairman of the education committee. He was a director of the RI Hospital Trust Company and owned a controlling interest in the Providence and Worcester Railroad. In 1927, Goddard's family deeded his 489-acre estate in Warwick, RI to the state of RI. It is now the grounds of the Goddard Memorial State Park.
Nelson W. Aldrich (1845-1917)
Regarded as one of the most influential politicians of his time, Aldrich was a businessman, investor, and U.S. senator from 1881-1911 and served as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. He also served as President of the Providence City Council and Speaker of the Rhode Island House of Representatives.
Isaac Comstock Bates (1843-1913)
A wealthy meat provisioner who played a significant role in Providence's art community, he was a Director of Rhode Island School of Design and President of RISD from 1910-1913.
Timothy McCarthy (1846-1911)
Founding organizer and President of the New England Cemetery Association, he served as Swan Point Cemetery's third superintendent for 35 years.
Engelhart Cornelius Ostby (1847-1912)
Co-founder of Ostby and Barton Jewelers of Providence, Ostby was born in 1847 in Oslo, Norway, where he worked as a successful jeweler. In 1869, he emigrated to America and settled in Providence. In addition to being recognized as a successful businessman (Ostby and Barton became the world's largest producer of gold rings), Ostby was well-known in Providence for his charitable acts. He was also a director of the High Street Bank and the Industrial Trust Company and a trustee of Citizens Savings Bank. Ostby and his wife Lizzy Macy (Webster) Ostby had 4 sons and a daughter. After his wife's death at age 45, Ostby raised his youngest children with the help of his mother. In January 1912, Ostby and his 22 year-old daughter Helene traveled to Europe to take a vacation and survey the European jewelry markets. While in France, they boarded the Titanic as first-class passengers to make their journey back to America. After the ship collided with an iceberg, Ostby went back to his room to get warmer clothes for himself and his daughter. In the meantime, Helene was forced to board a lifeboat and survived. Her father's body was subsequently recovered and identified in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was buried at Swan Point Cemetery on May 11, 1912. When Helene died in 1978 at the age of 89, she was buried close to her father.
Marsden J. Perry (1850-1935)
Financier, utilities and transportation magnate, and art collector, he lived in the John Brown House from 1902 to 1935. Marsden's tomb at Swan Point reproduces, full-scale, the principal entrance of the John Brown House.
Sydney Richmond Burleigh (1853-1931)
Burleigh was an artist known for his watercolors, oil paintings, illustrations and building and furniture designs. He was the founder of the Providence Art Club, taught at Rhode Island School of Design and served on the school's board of directors and trustees.
Lucy Truman Aldrich (1869-1955)
A philanthropist and art collector, she was the eldest child of Rhode Island U.S. Senator Nelson Aldrich. Having traveled extensively throughout Europe and Asia, she was a major collector of Orientalia. She donated most of her collection to the Rhode Island School of Design Museum.
Edgar John Lownes (1870-1924)
A Providence industrialist, philanthropist, and supporter of educational institutions, Lownes founded the American Silk Spinning Company. He was involved in a number of fraternal organizations and community enterprises including the Providence Music League, the Visiting Committee of Brown University and the Textile Committee of Rhode Island School of Design. He served as Director of the Providence Institution for Savings, the Industrial Trust Company, the Narragansett Puritan Life Insurance Company, the Church House of Providence, the Narragansett Pier Improvement Society and the Shannon Copper Corporation.
Alice Winsor Hunt (1872-1968)
In an era where few women enjoyed higher education, Hunt was a graduate of Classical High School and Wellesley College. After ten years of teaching, she dedicated her life to reform. Her pet project was children's welfare and the results of her efforts brought about child labor laws and the state juvenile court system.
William T. Aldrich (1880-1966)
One of the best and often overlooked architects of the early twentieth century, Aldrich was a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He had a thriving practice in country house design and also designed museums, government buildings and academic buildings on college campuses including the Rhode Island School of Design, and Harvard University.
Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937)
Often credited as H.P. Lovecraft, Howard Phillips Lovecraft was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction. Born in Providence in 1890, the son of Winfield Scott Lovecraft and Sarah Susan Phillips Lovecraft, he is regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th century. Lovecraft died in 1937 at the age of 46 and was laid to rest in the Phillips family lot at Swan Point Cemetery. Lovecraft, along with his parents, is listed on the Phillips family monument. In 1977, a group of loyal Lovecraft fans raised money to buy him a headstone of his own on which they had inscribed Lovecraft's name, the dates of his birth and death, and the phrase "I AM PROVIDENCE," a line from one of his personal letters.
Barnaby Keeney (1914-1980)
A descendant of Jerothmul Barnaby, he was President of Brown University from 1955-1966.
Paul Krot (1919-1992)
Founder of Sprint Systems of Photography, he was an applied chemist, an inventor and a legendary photography instructor at Rhode Island School of Design.


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Every year, it's easy to come up with a long list of the year's worst science fiction and fantasy movies. Reels and reels of garbage arrive in cinemas with shocking regularity. But it's a good year when you can think of half a dozen great genre films off the top of your head. By that standard, 2011 was a good year.
Hollywood's box office was down, the biggest films were mostly sequels, and nothing really blew moviegoers' minds. But there amongst some outstanding atrocities, there were some real joyful discoveries. Here are our picks for the 10 best and 10 worst science fiction and fantasy movies of 2011. Let the debate begin!
Top image via Comic Book Movie, artist unknown.
10. Fright Night
We didn't expect that much from a remake of a cult 1980s vampire comedy, but Fright Night surprised us. Fast-paced, witty and genuinely exciting, this film packs enough surprises and clever character moments to keep you guessing. It's a great summer bubblegum flick. And amazingly, David Tennant doesn't steal the movie.
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9. Midnight in Paris
Woody Allen's first venture into the fantastical in ages, Midnight in Paris is another one that caught us by surprise. Owen Wilson is a frustrated writer in Paris, who discovers a portal to the 1920s, where he meets Cole Porter, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein. And then he discovers the truth about these culture heroes, in a funny twist that we won't give away here. Allen packs a lot of warmth and charm into what could have been a gimmicky time travel narrative.
8. Drive Angry
Okay, I know what you're thinking. But this movie is the reason Nic Cage exists. If you love drive-in movies and pants-in-the-air craziness, then this movie is like an instant all-time classic. You can choose to think of it as a straight-up comedy if you prefer — it's actually intentionally funny a lot of the time. Cage plays John Milton, a dead guy who drives out of Hell to save his daughter from Satanists, and that premise is the least crazy thing about this movie.
7. Melancholia
There were a lot of weird "cowering from the apocalypse" movies this year, from Vanishing on 7th Street to Take Shelter. But Melancholia was in a class of its own, combining stunning imagery with can't-look-away discomfort to make a portrait of one messed-up family facing the end of days. Somehow, a disastrous wedding and the destruction of our planet both manage to be equally horrifying and transfixing. This might be the most nihilistic movie about the end of the world ever made, but it's also amazingly funny and lovely.
6. Hanna
This movie's premise could easily have lent itself to schlock: Saoirse Ronan is a super-assassin who has been trained to kill by her "father" (Eric Bana) but has never learned about music or art or love, or the joy of painting your toenails. Instead, Hanna is both a brilliant action movie and a lovely look at what it means to be a person. I liked this film when I saw it, but since then it's grown on me, mostly thanks to the beautiful imagery and the moment where Eric Bana explains to Cate Blanchett what fatherhood actually means to him. This film has stuck in my mind.
5. Thor
There were a brace of superhero movies this year, but only this one really stuck to our ribs. (We might have included James Gunn's Super on this list, but it's not really SF/fantasy enough.) Thor was about Norse gods, but managed to work in a lot of actual science and cosmic wonder along the way, thanks to Natalie Portman's obsession with finding an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. This film takes an age-old character arc — arrogant whelp learns responsibility and real honor — and sells the hell out of it, because it takes the time to develop its characters. Oh, and it makes you believe in both Asgard and New Mexico as real places. Best superhero movie in ages.
4. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Another huge surprise — who would have thought that after Tim Burton's attempt to resurrect the Apes series, we would all be raving about another journey to ape-world? And yet, thanks to a masterful performance by Andy Serkis as the super-smart ape Caesar, this movie became one of our favorites. Within its B-movie premise, Rise asks real questions about the future of humanity and the ethics of experimenting on animals... and doesn't take any easy answers.
3. Limitless
There were a few book adaptations this year that tried to bring the whole "mind-bending thriller" thing to the big screen — like the underwhelming Adjustment Bureau. But Limitless actually did make us think and keep us guessing. Bradley Cooper is surprisingly engaging as a guy who talks a mile a minute on a wonder drug, and the whole thing becomes a great metaphor for Wall Street's "smartest guy in the room" culture.
2. TrollHunter
This film came out in Norway in 2010, but was only released in the U.S. this year, so we're including it here. Mostly because we didn't list it among last year's best movies, and it deserves a primo spot. You might expect this to be just another sardonic foreign monster movie — but actually, this story of a government agency that keeps trolls down is a perfect blend of Norse mythology and government conspiracies. Well worth hunting down, if you haven't seen it yet.
1. Attack the Block
And speaking of great foreign monster movies... there was really never any doubt about 2011's best science fiction/fantasy movie. Like Melancholia, Attack the Block takes a small disaster (a nurse gets mugged) and then contrasts it against a huge one (a swarm of alien beasties arrive and start killing everyone in sight). Attack the Block is a fun, stylish action movie, but it also keeps circling back to that mugging, and doesn't ever let the teenage muggers off the hook, even as they become our heroes. And — miracle of miracles — the aliens have a real reason for being here, and the aliens actually wind up making sense, in a way that sets up the film's triumphant ending. Amazing.
10. The Change-Up
I loathed this film when I first saw it, but then I was on an airplane recently and the person sitting directly in front of me was watching it on his little built-in screen. It was hard to avoid seeing chunks of this film, and being reminded of just how dreadful it really waA lazy, dull comedy about two best friends (Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman) trading bodies, The Change-Up goes for the dumb joke over the interesting choice every time. (Example: Reynolds is a wealthy stoner who does nothing but have sex and goof off all the time — but then Bateman discovers Reynold's life actually sucks, because he has sex with pregnant women. What?) This movie is like the brain-damaged, ether-sniffing cousin of The Hangover.
9. Beastly
Hollywood's new flavor of the month is apparently "dark fairy tale retellings," but let's hope this isn't a representative sample. Alex Pettyfer plays an arrogant jackass whose catchphrase is "Embrace the Suck." (It's almost too easy.) Because he's such a jerkwad, he gets cursed by a gothy witch to spend a year being tattooed and pierced — and if he doesn't find someone to love him, then he's stuck like this forever. Luckily, the girl he likes has a dad who's in trouble with gangsters or drug dealers or something, so Pettyfer convinces the dad to send the girl to live as his virtual prisoner. Even Neil Patrick Harris as Pettyfer's blind tutor can't rescue this stew of teen angst and creepy stalkerness.
8. Dream House
We're still debating whether this was an actual ghost story, or just a psychological thriller where it's all in Daniel Craig's head. The film tries for ambiguity, but stumbles over into "who gives a crap." Craig is a guy who moves into a nice new house with his family, except that a horrible murder happened there and... the twist is given away in the trailers, and it's actually dumber than it looks at first. Once you realize the truth about Craig and the house, it just spirals downwards into idiocy. It's like a terrible, sexless episode of American Horror Story.
7. The Darkest Hour
In a year of alien invasion stories, Darkest Hour still managed to stand out as the worst of the bunch. Unappealing characters, awful attempts at "funny" dialogue, shoddy editing, poor continuity, crappy special effects, horrendously bad science... this film pretty much has it all. You end up rooting for the aliens, because this film is proof that humanity deserves to die.
6. Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1
I had only seen one Twilight movie before this one — the one with the evil Seattle hipster vampires who come to the boonies to mess with our dysfunctional were-vamp-waif triangle. And it was actually an okay film. So when all-time-great director Bill Condon tackled the final book, expectations were reasonably high — and wow. This film really was supernaturally turgid — probably, the decision to split the fourth Twilight book into two movies was a bit of a mistake, since it means treacly pacing, and an endless fascination with Bella's emaciation and monster pregnancy. And you're stuck with a climax to this film in which a horde of attacking werewolves... don't. Kind of a letdown.
5. Transformers 3
We've all been letting this film off the hook because it was better than Transformers 2. You know what else is better than Transformers 2? Group sex with Tetsuo the Iron Man and Mickey Rourke's Russian electro-whip fetishist from Iron Man 2. Michael Bay set out to redeem himself with one more trip to the morphing-robots well, and wound up giving us Shia LaBoeuf's whiniest performance yet. Plus some really ill-considered "funny bits" featuring Ken Jeong and John Malkovich bringing more camp than a dozen Occupy Wall Streets. Oh, and the "plot"? Even more nonsensical than the last one.
4. I Am Number Four
There seems to be a common theme uniting many of this year's worst genre films, and that theme is "whiny angst." And nobody embodied that theme more this year than Alex Pettyfer — this time around, he's an alien kid who's being hunted down by monsters who have to kill him and his comrades in numerical order. The monsters are really, really OCD. There are about five minutes of Teresa Palmer kicking ass in this film. The rest of the time, it's Pettyfer whining about how he wants a real life, and being such an all-around dick that you want that gothy witch to come back and give him a mullet this time.
3. The Smurfs
Every year, there are several ill-considered attempts to monetize an old media property that someone somewhere thinks is cute. You have the silly jokes, the cutesy references to random bits of the source material, the sentimental crassness, and the scenes where everybody dances around to pop hits. This worked out surprisingly well in The Muppets, but in The Smurfs, it turns into a cold, calculated CG soul vortex in which Neil Patrick Harris actually becomes a computer-generated mascot. (Not really.) Harris plays a marketer, who learns about marketing from the Smurfs, who are there to market toys. That's what this film is about. Oh, and Hank Azaria wants to turn the Smurfs into cosmetic products, which is clearly the correct choice.
2. Green Lantern
Why did this film suck so much? Was it the total lack of plot logic? The lack of any meaningful character progression for its hero, Hal Jordan? The CG overload, which reduces Ryan Reynolds to a human head floating in a sea of cheese? No, actually — the real problem with Green Lantern is that it has no story to tell. The makers of this film made a bold choice, to throw away the traditional "superhero movie origin story" paradigm in favor of something more ambitious. And unfortunately, they showed why the "origin story" formula works so well, and why it's so hard to find alternatives. Also, they went overboard trying to stuff as many elements into the comics into one film as possible, instead of taking a scalpel to the overgrown GL mythos. They aimed to please the hardcore fans of the property, and wound up pleasing nobody.
1. Sucker Punch
In a year where there were so many awful corporate productions and money-grubbing attempts to create the next Twilight or Star Wars, the year's worst genre film was... a personal, quirky passion project. This was Zack Snyder's Inception. He wanted to make a weird genre piece in which someone travels down into layers upon layer of dream — or is it real? — in between making two huge superhero films. Unfortunately, some great visuals couldn't rescue this lobotomy fantasy from feeling, well, like a drill in the head. The over-reliance on fetishy sleaze, and the weird ways this movie tries to make its hapless characters seem empowered, aren't the real problem. The main problem? This film drags on and on, becoming ever more boring, until you realize that none of this stuff really matters.
Thanks to Annalee, Meredith and Cyriaque for the suggestions!


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Critius krĭsh´əs [key], or Kritioskrĭt´ēōs [key], and Nesiotesnēshēō´tēz [key], fl. 5th cent. BC, Greek sculptors, in the time of the Persian Wars. They made statues of the Tyrannicides, Harmodius and Aristogiton, who slew the tyrant Hipparchus. The works replaced a group by Antenor taken from Athens by Xerxes and later returned. The originals have disappeared, but a number of Roman reproductions survive. The most complete marble copies are those in the national museum at Naples. Critius, probably a pupil of Antenor, established a school of sculpture at Athens.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: European Art to 1599: Biographies


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Opting In: Did You Really Get Permission to Send Them Email?Carly Brantz
All great email programs start with one thing – an active email list. However building a highly engaged subscriber list can be a challenge causing frustrated senders to use tactics that may be less than desirable. When trying to increase your subscriber base there is one question you should always ask yourself – did I get PERMISSION to send this subscriber email.
The answer to that question lies in your data collection practices. And this is the area of email deliverability over which you have the most control. To start, reevaluate how people opt-in for your email program. Do they enter their email address and hit the subscribe button? Do they have to uncheck a box in order NOT to be added to your list, or do you simply add them to multiple types of email communication even though they signed up for a specific event, like a webinar?
The art and science of building a great email list is to fill it with permission based subscribers. These people have said "Yes, send me this type of email." While each of the above methods has pros and cons, the latter choices leave you more vulnerable to complaints and email delivery problems. Don't assume that because they signed up for your newsletter that they want every other email communication your company produces.
Instead of guessing and potentially ticking of your subscriber, ask them! Here are a few tips.
- Set up a preference center. Let them choose the type of email they wish to receive and the frequency at which they want to hear from you. By putting them in control of their inbox, you will avoid deliverability problems and gain subscribers that will happily engage with your product or service.
- Use double opt-in to confirm the subscription. By sending an email that requires the subscriber to activate their subscription, you can affirm the relationship with the subscriber.
- Send a welcome email once the subscription is active. This reminds the subscriber of the benefit of receiving messages from you.
- Eliminate non-responders. If people are clicking on your messages, remove them from your list or send a win back promotion. If they fail to respond at that point, they are essentially confirming that they are no longer interested in hearing from you. For current customers, this is something you can easily do using the Event API.
To learn more about email deliverability best practices, download the SendGrid Deliverability Guide. It has everything you need to know about delivering email through your application.


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Finally decided to leave MySpace behind once and for all? You girlfriend's friend's band is very sad to see you go. But not nearly as sad as MySpace itself, which makes leaving almost as unbearable as, well, staying.
A reader encountered this terrifically unwieldy instruction list of how to shuffle off this MySpace coil just yesterday. They don't make it easy! Especially since however annoying the deactivation process is, that last line, that baleful look back in the rearview—that's almost enough to send me running back into MySpace's arms. If I'd ever been there in the first place. [Thanks, Eugene!]


text: humblefish 0 Posted February 27, 2013 My father and I are travelling to Austrailia in late April. Diving the GBR is on his bucket list and we want to do this right. That being said, I know he is weary of a live aboard because he has never spent that much time out on the ocean nor dove that much in such a short time. My father does have multiple vertebral fusions. We always have done day trips wherever we dive. Is it possible to experience the reef on a day trip? If so does anyone know a good charter out of Cairns or Port Douglas? If liveaboards are the way to go I have heard that Mike Ball and Spirit of Freedom are good companies to use. Anything else anyone can add? Coral Sea vs Cod Hole, which is better, etc.? Thank you. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


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4K gaming is coming to PS4… at some stage
Rejoice! Crazy-resolution gaming and video are on the cards for the PlayStation 4. We just don't know when we'll get them yet.
Speaking at a roundtable interview session in New York this morning, Sony's Senior VP Worldwide Studios Europe Michael Denny confirmed that 4K gaming is possible with the PS4. "We're not looking at 4K gaming initially, we are looking at 4K video and stills images. [4K gaming] is something we will look at in future".
Also known as UltraHD, 4K provides a video resolution four times that of 1080p HD – 3840×2160 pixels. With a TV that supports that resolution, the result is staggeringly life-like detail and picture clarity. It would mean a leap in games graphics quality the equivalent of the jump from SD to HD, although you need a big screen TV to fully appreciate the improvement.
Right now you also need very deep pockets. The tech is in its early stages, and 4K TVs start at around £7000. Sony's own 84in KD-84X9005 costs £25,000.
When we probed about whether 4K movies and TV shows could be delivered via the PS4's on-demand streaming services, Denny replied, "Possibly, yes, yeah – you know the other Sony services we have for music and video – absolutely."
Although Denny flatly refused to answer questions about Sony's wider strategy with the PS4, it seems likely that the company will use the console's 4K capabilities to drive the adoption of new TVs, just as it did with Blu-ray and 3D in the PS3. Better-than-1080p graphics would certainly make us lust after a new telly.
During the discussion we also picked up a few nuggets about the Gaikai-powered PlayStation Cloud. Denny seemed genuinely excited by the possibilities, not ruling out PlayStation gaming on smart TVs or other connected devices – but it looks like Remote Play of PS4 titles over mobile networks won't be a launch feature.
"What you saw last night with Remote Play was about the ambition to have as many PS4 games as possible being experienced via Wi-Fi on [the PS Vita]." Note the emphasis on 'via Wi-Fi'.
And although Denny didn't rule out the possibility completely, playing your PS4 games on devices other than the Vita is similarly unlikely: "In terms of what experiences you're going to get on second screen with tablets and smartphones, that can vary massively.
"In DriveClub for example you could have a top-down view of the race, see where your friends are – it's a way to spectate, perhaps. With other games it's a way to navigate worlds, perhaps. So, maybe not the full experience, but experiences that do help bring friends in as well."
As for the thorny issue of backwards compatibility with PS1, 2 and 3 games, Denny was understandably vague. "There's a lot of expense in that. And you have to make decisions of what's really important in terms of the gaming community.
"Maybe there's other ways to achieve some of those wishes as we've talked about via cloud game services, but backwards compatibility was not in terms of value proposition something we wanted to take too much further".
So, we still don't know when you'll be able to play your old games on the new system, or how you'll be able to do so without paying for the privilege of streaming them – although if Sony's attitude to second-hand games is anything to go by, paying again for titles you already own seems unlikely.
Inevitably, a brave European journalist enquired as to the styling of the PS4's box, and predictably Mr Denny replied, "I have nothing to announce on the hardware". Spoilsport.
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The shoulder is made up of bones, muscles, ligaments, and tendons. They work together so you can reach, swing, and lift in comfort. Learning about the parts of the shoulder joint will help you to understand your shoulder problem.
The shoulder joint is where the humerus (upper arm bone) meets the scapula (shoulder blade):
Muscles and ligaments help make up the joint. They attach to the shoulder blade and upper arm bone.
At the top of the shoulder blade are two bony knobs called the acromion and coracoid process.
The subacromial space is between the top of the humerus and the acromion. This space is filled with tendons, muscles, and the subacromial bursa.
The bursa is a sac of fluid that cushions shoulder parts as they move.
The supraspinatus muscle and tendon are located in the subacromial space. They help form the rotator cuff and are commonly injured in a rotator cuff tear.


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My brother and I were discussing the other day how it's hard to pay attention to baseball in August, when half the teams are out of the playoff hunt already but the really meaningful division deciding games are still a few weeks off. This week a selection of MLB starters took it upon themselves to call our attention back from NFL training camp, impending fantasy football drafts, and Usain Bolt. Three days in awesome pitching, after the jump.
I know our Ladies… stats experts will tell me wins and ERA are not the most accurate measure of a pitcher's performance (more on this later) but Cliff Lee is 5-0 with a 0.68 ERA in his five starts since joining the Phillies. His fifth win, which I was lucky enough to see in person at Citi Field, got off to a rough start when Chase Utley made two errors on the first at-bat of the game and allowed Angel Pagan to round the bases and score on what should have been an easy out. (The other run the Mets scored in this game was unearned as well.) It was one of those sneaky good kind of performances where you look up in the 7th inning and realize a pitcher's thrown 90 something pitches, 60 of them for strikes. Nothing too flashy, just getting the job done.
Also, although my family didn't realize it at the time, we witnessed Billy Wagner's last inning as a Met — and he looked pretty well recovered from his latest DL stint, at least for four batters. So don't panic yet, Red Sox fans. About this, anyway.
You may have heard about this one. Or maybe not, since it happened in Kansas City and against Cleveland, but it was still awesome. Zack Greinke set a new Royals franchise record by striking out 15 batters en route to a 6-2 win, blowing past his previous personal best of 11. (The previous franchise record was 14, set in 1988, and if you can name the pitcher without looking him up you are …Minda, probably.) Greinke has 38 strikeouts against Cleveland in 4 starts this year, and it's worth it to read the MLB game summary if only for the dazed comments from the Indians players.
I do love a good pitcher's duel — especially when my favorite team is the victor. Facing our pitching nemesis, Wandy Rodriguez (seriously, even Albert has trouble hitting this guy), Adam Wainwright threw eight innings of three-hit shut-out ball, with five strikeouts and no walks, to beat the Astros 1-0. After a shaky start to the season, Wainwright has quietly reeled off a string of impressive starts, and along with Chris Carpenter, is one of the main reasons the Cardinals have steadily increased their lead in the NL Central. (Well, and Albert and Matt Holliday, but this is a post about pitching.)
Yesterday was an object lesson in why wins aren't great stats to measure a pitcher's effectiveness, as both Cole Hamels and Scott Kazmir had excellent starts, only to be denied the win because their bullpen allowed the other team to tie the game. (Both the Phillies and the Rays ended up winning in the 10th inning.) Hamel threw eight scoreless innings after struggling much of the season, and Kazmir struck out 10 batters and allowed just 1 run on 4 hits. But you get a picture of Kazmir because I've already put one Phillie in this post.
I've had one eye on the games and the other on my fantasy football magazine all week (last night I had a very weird dream about Brian Westbrook), so I'm sure I've missed someone. Who's been calling your attention back to baseball this week?


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Picture Perfect Puzzles
Picture Perfect Puzzles are a great gift for the puzzle fanatic and lover of folk art. They feature a high quality giclée print that is mounted on wood. Each Puzzle comes with a frame and easel for display. Discover the world through the eyes of renowned folk artist Eric Dowdle, known for his gift of capturing the character and traditions of each place he visits. Experience the personality and charm of these historic and scenic places with a one-of-a-kind wooden puzzle.
Picture Perfect Puzzles: Please allow 2-4 weeks for production and delivery.


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The ritual of sitting down at night to watch a nationally televised beauty pageant is becoming a relic in American culture, usurped by the ritual of sitting down the morning after to watch the video of the pageant contestant who gave the dumbest answer the night before. This year's Miss USA winner of the unofficial Derpiest Beauty Queen prize goes to Miss Utah, who metaphorically face-planted when asked to register an opinion about the coming lady apocalypse of female breadwinners.
Judge NeNe Leakes asked Miss Utah, whose real name is Marissa Powell, "A recent report shows that in 40 percent of American families with children, women are the primary earners, yet they continue to earn less than men. What does this say about society?"* Powell answered:
I think we can relate this back to education, and how we are … continuing to try to strive to … … … figure out how to create jobs right now. That is the biggest problem. And I think, especially the men are … um … seen as the leaders of this, and so we need to try to figure out how to create education better so we can solve this problem. Thank you.
This ritualized rooting out of the biggest bimbo at the beauty pageant is tough to reconcile. On one hand, it's kind of a cultural protest against the fact that beauty pageants, which feminists famously protested more than 40 years ago, continue to stick around in all their sexist glory. On the other hand, cackling at bimbos is not exactly progressive either. Hard to say which urge any random person is expressing when they pass along these videos.
Of course, the real problem here is that the question-and-answer period at beauty pageants is set up so the contestants really can't win. As ever, pageant contestants know they have to project an image of bland inoffensiveness, which precludes having political opinions beyond a moderate support for sunshine and, in this case, education. (At least until conservatives manage to make the latter controversial, too.) Powell was put in an untenable situation here. On one hand, she really can't go full Fox News and denounce those evil salary-earning women without both offending large numbers of people and also causing the audience to wonder if she aspires for nothing more than trophy-wife status. On the other hand, if she applauds sisters doing it for themselves, the relatively conservative audience for beauty pageants will turn on her. You try coming up with a coherent 30-second sound bite while your brain frantically processes the no-win situation you're in. It's harder than it looks.
Then again, all that empathy just went out to a woman who participates and supports the beauty pageant industry, so maybe it's misplaced. What a dilemma! Clearly, the only solution here is to bring an end to this sordid practice of both beauty pageants and the Monday morning stupidity quarterbacking of them. Try forwarding a cat video instead. No one cares if it does something stupid.
Correction, June 17, 2013: This post originally misspelled NeNe Leakes' first name.


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If you're reading this while your boss thinks you're hammering away on some code or updating that Excel spreadsheet, then you're likely one of the workers that spend about 25 percent of their work time doing personal stuff online. And chances are that your boss doesn't even know it.
Network security consultant firm Voco says that CEOs and CIOs of companies are often completely unaware of what employees are doing online during work hours, allowing them (especially the tech-savvy ones) to get away with all sorts of online goofing off. Employees tend to spend work time browsing eBay auctions, using online dating or social networking sites, chatting over IM, and more, and they do it for just over a quarter of the time they spend at work.
Sometimes, employees also make use of company resources to engage in nefarious activities, like downloading movies and music over P2P. According to Voco's data, for example, many of the prerelease downloads of Hellboy: The Golden Army were over corporate networks. Not only does this consume bandwidth meant for business, it also opens up corporate networks to spyware, adware, and other challenges for network security. And, of course, it could pose a legal issue for the company in question as well. "If investigators were tracking who was downloading, then the company address would turn up and the company would be the one facing legal implications," Voco consultant Paul Hortop said in a statement.
At the same time, not all "personal" Internet use is necessarily bad. Hortop points out that sometimes it can be a challenge to determine exactly what kind of use is inappropriate. "Is it more time-efficient to let staff do their banking online than having them leave the office for half an hour?" he asks. Additionally, workers spending time on social networking sites could actually help the company, given their increased importance to businesses.
Of course, surfing at work isn't exactly a new phenomenon. In a survey conducted in 2005, 93 percent of all US employees admitted to using their employer's Internet access for personal reasons as well as business ones, and 52 percent said they would rather give up coffee than their Internet connections at work. How much that personal Internet use actually impacts businesses is up in the air, however. Websense claims that such behavior costs American corporations nearly $200 billion per year, although given the tiny sample used when drawing that conclusion, the actual number may be quite a bit different.
Regardless of how much it's costing companies, what's important is to make sure you're actually getting your work done while you're not checking your friends' status updates in Facebook or overbidding on an eBay auction. Now, get back to work!
Further reading:
- Found via Slashdot: Quarter of Workers' Time Online Is Personal


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(CNN) -- Barack Obama's inauguration as the 44th U.S. President has been accompanied by celebrations around the world.
People celebrate in Kisumu, Kenya, following President Obama's inauguration
In Kogelo, Kenya, the birthplace of Obama's father, villagers danced and sang in praise of the man they call "Our Son" with the many tourists, local and national, who had traveled to be there for the event.
From London, England to Seoul, South Korea, U.S. expats and local citizens watched live streams of the ceremony in bars, restaurants and community halls.
Troops in Forward Operating Base Kalsu, south of Baghdad, gathered in the dining hall to watch the proceedings. U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Beverlee Burton of Cleveland, Ohio, cried and applauded as President Obama was inaugurated.
In Japan, people partied in the city of Obama, and in Paris, France, expats gathered at a bar to watch the historic inauguration.
But in Iran, the atmosphere was muted: local media have remained silent on the inauguration itself.


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This is a love story, a paean to ten extraordinary women. This is a story of lives well lived, roads well run and miles well shared. Individually, these women are exceptional and unique; together, they are like hundreds of other groups in cities and towns across the country. This is my group. These are the women who define my running life and a good part of the rest of my life as well.
At 5:30 a.m., on any given morning in the small Maine town of Cape Elizabeth, you will find a surprising number of women leaving their cars in the library parking lot and heading for "Joanie." We gather around a life sized bronze statue of the town's most well known native, Joan Benoit Samuelson, memorialized for forging her Olympic dreams on the roads, hills and beaches of this picture-postcard New England village. The runners are there no matter what the time of year, no matter what the weather. Inky black mornings do not stop us, nor does snow or ice. These morning runs are a cherished ritual that give rhythm and structure to ten diverse and complicated lives. The group will occasionally include a man or two; men given honorary "girl" status by virtue of their willingness to join in the intimate conversations that inevitably take place. But the heart and the soul of this group are the women who gather year in and year out to share their lives as they run.
Where Everybody Knows Your Name
Kim Moody Roberts is a Ph.D., a college professor, a mother of 11 year old twins and an accomplished ultra-runner. A Maine native, Kim has lived as far away as Seattle, but eventually settled not far from where she grew up.
More From Runner's World
"It's hard to put into words what these women mean to me," Kim says. "When I lived out west I mostly ran alone. Since I came back to Maine, I value the closeness and sharing of this group. We all have different backgrounds and very different lives, but when we run together, our similarities surface. Though we don't often race together, we share our accomplishments, both on and off the road. What is important to me is that we take care of each other and, yes, that we really love each other."
Kim's neighbor, Carrie Croft shares a deep affection for the group. Carrie, the mother of a toddler and a 4th grader, is a former preschool teacher. She is struck by the luxury of consistently spending time with thoughtful, giving running companions.
"Our runs offer a perfect environment for opening up," states Croft. "It is an amazing atmosphere in which to experience nature and each other. That environment is somehow conducive to conversations that probably wouldn't take place over a cup of tea in our kitchens. I'm not sure if it has something to do with being outdoors—feeling connected both to each other and to something greater." Croft continues, "Sometimes I'm struck by the fact that before 7 o'clock in the morning I've already had an incredible experience in my day. It sets the tone for everything that follows. I'm physically and mentally better prepared for what's to come."
Perhaps it is the combination of physical exertion and mental engagement that allows groups like this one to bond in a unique fashion. Running creates a certain rhythm and pace that influences more than just how we run. It also influences how we relate to one another. A grueling track workout will spawn a different conversation than a long, slow weekend run.
Martha Kelley, former attorney, law professor and mother of three young boys can attest to the importance and unique benefits of running with the group. For the last several weeks she has been unable to join us in the mornings due to a knee injury.
"Nothing else works," laments Kelley, who has been swimming to compensate for her inability to run. "I miss the physical and the mental aspects of running. Most of all I miss that long Sunday group run. We laugh, we help each other with kids' problems, we're just there for each other. This injury has made me appreciate everything that running and this group gives me. I'll never again take it for granted."
Both Jennifer DeSena and Laurie Harvey, two of our faster runners, are thrilled to be part of a group that has inadvertently set a very positive example for Harvey's two daughters and DeSena's three. "This is the kind of support I hope my daughters will have in their lives as they get older," says DeSena. "And I hope they also understand the value of the effort we put into our running." Evidently DeSena's point has been well-made. Her 14 year old daughter, Whitney, recently finished second in a local 5K. Harvey's girls, though too young to run, still absorb group activity as they play on the infield of the high school track and watch their mom go through her paces.
In addition to keeping each other's secrets and sharing what is in our hearts, there is also a real emphasis on fun. Running together keeps us in touch with our younger selves. There is a real aspect of playfulness to our time together that solidifies and defines our friendships. We're not always solving the problems of the world. "When I picture this group in my head, I picture us laughing…at jokes, at each other, at life," says Croft.
Founder's Fortieth Fitness Frenzy
Although no one can remember an exact time or date, we all credit personal fitness trainer Sarah MacColl with the genesis of the group. In what we lovingly call her "Fortieth Fitness Frenzy," MacColl decided to commemorate that momentous birthday by completing both a popular local two mile swim and running her first marathon. She impressed a couple of friends into running servitude to keep her company on her long runs, requiring they meet her "at Joanie" at 5:30 a.m. She chose the location because it's a convenient spot with many options for challenging mileage and scenery. She chose the time because her services are in demand from early morning until late at night, and because her husband and two children would still be asleep at that hour. No one was surprised when Sarah qualified for Boston in her first marathon attempt. Because she did, however, she felt compelled to keep up her marathon training during the winter, requiring that she round up more runners to guarantee that she would always have fresh training partners.
"Every time I show up, I'm sure I'm welcome," says MacColl, the group's funniest and most vocal member; the one we count on not only for sound training advice, but for quality dirty jokes as well. MacColl's own summation speaks for all of us. "I feel as if I could pour my heart out about a problem to any woman in the group and come away with the promise of great support, practical suggestions, a sense of reality and a smile. I feel I could arrive with a cockamamie idea and get accurate feedback. I know I could walk away with hundreds of dollars if I explained why I needed it and that I could never pay it back. I can also get any recipes I need and an honest assessment of a new haircut. And that's just the beginning."
Experts All Around
MacColl deserves considerable credit for the success (and, yes, we use a very broad definition of the word success in this group) we have at road races. In addition to dispensing a broad range of knowledge and expertise in the field of fitness, MacColl has addressed various members' specific dilemmas, such as post-partum recovery or pre-menopausal coping methods. If she doesn't have a valid and specific response to our questions, she will tirelessly research the matter until she finds the answer that gets to the heart of the specific topic.
MacColl's effectiveness has been enhanced by a more recent addition to the group. Mary Ann Doss is a mother and the coach of the State Champion Cape Elizabeth High School Girls' track team. Doss is the voice of encouragement, experience and constant positive reinforcement, which she uses to great advantage. We all wonder where she gets the energy at 5:30 a.m. to lead 800 repeats and whoop and holler all the while.
In addition to MacColl's training expertise, we rely heavily on group member Jane Hanley's extensive background in nutrition. Professionally, Hanley has her own advertising and marketing business. But her interest in nutrition benefits not only her husband and three children; her running partners are also on the receiving end of her expertise. When asked what the group means to her, Hanley's reply is the most direct. "I run with these women because they put a smile in my heart every time we are together."
Our newest member came to us from Vancouver, BC. Keri Hanlon and her husband, Glen, the new head coach of the Portland Pirates hockey team, moved here in the dead of Maine's winter. Hanlon had been a middle school teacher in Vancouver, but because of her immigration status, couldn't work in the United States. She knew "not a soul" in her new town, but on the advice of a stranger, she drove "to Joanie" at an ungodly hour on a frigid morning, and changed her life.
"I needed to make a connection with someone and I hit the jackpot when I met this group," say Hanlon. "These women have been my lifeline and I'm grateful everyday for meeting such a diverse group of individuals who welcomed me with open arms. My only concern happened the first day. The pace on that first run was so fast that I barely made it back to my truck. I asked one of the women if they usually ran at that pace and she told me that they usually ran faster. My first day was almost my last!" That memory is rather ironic, as Hanlon is now often lovingly referred to as "Hammerhead Hanlon" for her ability to lead the pack under almost any conditions.
Strength, Stability and Success
Hanlon's seamless incorporation into the group illustrates why I believe we are such a successful little running unit. The very act of gathering together to run gives us structure and balance. It begins our day. Running allows us to stay fit and healthy. Through our running we are positive examples for our children and our families. But more importantly, this group—this unique assemblage of women who run—is stronger together than we are apart. As a unit we solidify each other's individual positions in our families, in our communities and especially within ourselves.
Like any good love story, this one has a happy ending. I joined this group over three years ago. Just as I was settling into a rhythm, my life started to change dramatically, both personally and professionally. Very little felt solid or secure. But the one thing that didn't change, that remained true day in and day out, was this extraordinary group of women. They kept my spirits up and my outlook optimistic.
And in this difficult time, they even helped me become a better runner. As I write, I am recovering from running Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota. It was my seventeenth marathon, a distance for which my times have gotten consistently slower over the last five years. In spite of personal turmoil, and the very real demands of a new job, to my amazement I ran a P.R. I give all the credit to the group, which was with me every step of the way.


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From the 1st of July to the end of December 2015, Luxembourg holds the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. This includes responsibility for the activities in the European Union Public Administration Network.
For more information regarding the Luxembourgish Presidency, please visit the Luxembourgish Presidency website.
For the Luxembourgish EUPAN team and the planned activities in the EUPAN network, please see the various documents on the EUPAN website.


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The Doctor! Amy! Weeping freaking Angels! They're all in this just-released mini-episode, titled "Good as Gold," the winning entry in the Doctor Who Script-to-Screen competition. According to BBC One:
Back in January, BBC Learning in collaboration with Blue Peter announced this year's Script to Screen competition. Launched by the Doctor himself, the challenge was simple. Schoolchildren aged 9-11 should write a short Olympics-themed script full of the usual Doctor Who ingredients including humour, drama and a touch of magic!
There was a huge response to the competition and Doctor Who's Executive Producer, Caroline Skinner, praised the quality of the entries, saying: 'We loved reading all of the scripts from schools across the UK and the standard of entries was truly outstanding. It was a difficult, but a tremendously fun task to choose a winner and it was just brilliant to see so many children being creative in developing an adventure for the Doctor. We hope all fans enjoy this special one-off mini episode!'
The final call was ultimately made by Steven Moffat, and we think he chose wisely. (Though we do find the premise of a weeping angel that can chase somebody while being watched by thousands of Olympic Game spectators a little dubious...) [Doctor Who TV]


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You work hard for your money. You need to make sure your money's working hard for you. With these simple personal finance tips, you can save more, earn better returns, and make the most of whatever financial situation you find yourself in.
1. Get your credit card debt paid off pronto.
Most people who carry balances on their credit cards don't realize just how much money they're losing to interest charges each and every month. Yet with interest rates on many cards topping 20%, if you try to pay down your debt making just minimum payments, it'll take you decades to break free.
Instead, the simple tip is to use every tactic at your disposal to get rid of those charges. Transferring balances to lower-rate cards can be smart, although you have to watch out for transfer fees. If you can get a better rate on a different type of loan, using it to pay off credit cards can save you plenty -- as long as you don't just charge up your card balances again. If you carry credit card debt, the health of your personal finances depends on your going cold turkey.
2. Learn cost-cutting tricks.
With just about every expense, there are tricks you can learn to reduce the amount you spend. For instance, when you travel, taking advantage of mid-week deals can save you a bundle if you can structure your vacation accordingly. With grocery shopping, waiting to stock up when your store has items on sale beats paying full price regularly. And when you buy things online, doing a quick search for coupon codes and promotional offers can give you big savings with minimal effort.
Tricks like these are too numerous to count, but the Internet makes it easy to find out about them. If you get in the habit of looking every time you make a purchase, you can cut your spending substantially.
3. Don't accept zero.
Getting interest on your bank accounts has largely become a thing of the past. But don't let the banks keep your money for free. Even a little interest is better than nothing.
Nationally, a few online banks, including Sallie Mae (SLM 2.18%) and Barclays (BCS 2.67%), will still pay you 1% or more on your money. But select local banks may offer you better rates, with some deals in the 2% to 3% as long as you meet conditions like making a minimum number of debit-card payments or signing up for bill-paying services. Given how many people are keeping their hard-earned money in insured bank accounts rather than investing it, even a couple percentage points can make a big difference in your income.
4. Get with the investing program.
Even once you optimize your bank account, though, you can't afford to be completely risk-free with your personal finances. Getting into the investing game is essential for your long-term success.
The easiest way to get started is with a broker that offers you exchange-traded funds at no commission. With TD AMERITRADE (AMTD), Vanguard, Schwab (SCHW -4.78%), and Fidelity among the many brokers with lineups of commission-free ETFs, you can start with minimum amounts of money and make small contributions on a regular basis. And with low annual fees, you won't have to worry about Wall Street sabotaging your finances.
5. Prepare for your retirement.
A recent survey showed that a quarter of all baby boomers have absolutely nothing saved for their retirement years. With Social Security facing big financial problems and most employers no longer offering pensions to workers, not having retirement savings of your own is a recipe for disaster.
One smart tip for retirement saving is using tax-favored accounts like IRAs and 401(k)s. By doing so, you'll get valuable tax breaks that you can use to boost your savings further. Moreover, with many employers pitching in matching contributions for workers who put their own money toward their retirement, you owe it to yourself to grab that free money while you can.
Don't wait
These personal finance tips aren't complicated, but they can still save you a bunch of money. That's welcome news for just about everyone these days.


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I am creating a blog in sharepoint 2007 and i need to change the blue background that is standard on the masterpage. so far I have not been successful with this. I have read posts that say each individual class must be changed but that doesn't work. I would assume that it is one image in the background, does anybody know how I can go about doing this?
N.B. I am newbie to SharePoint and to programming in general.
Any help would be appreciated.


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What on earth are these pictures doing on a book blog? Welcome to Part Two of From Page to Stage, my version of the story of Queen Lear, a play by Eugene Stickland.
That striking young woman at the top left is Hanna Stickland, professional name Johanna, and the picture comes from her pages on the Supermodels site. She has been on the runway in New York, London, Paris and Milan — and absolutely none of that is relevant here (but it is an impressive picture). As you have probably guessed, she is the daughter of playwright Eugene Stickland and it was her part-time job of "running lines" that started Queen Lear in motion.
The cello, upper right, is the third character in this three-character play. Eugene likes to think it is the cellist (someone to play the instrument is required, after all) but we theatre-lovers prefer to think of the cello as the real character. Instrument or performer, it (she) is on stage for the entire play and as important as the two speaking performers.
The mature woman in the armchair is Joyce Doolittle in her role as Jane, an actress in her 70s who is rehearsing to play Lear in the Women's Theatre Collective, all-female version of King Lear. Joyce has been a part of the Calgary theatre community for more than 50 years. The Pumphouse Theatre (think of it as a Calgary version of Tate Modern, only about one one-hundreths as big — still, same brickwork, industrial memories, ideally suited for presenting modern art or drama) is in fact a former pumphouse and it has two theatres — the 70-seat house is called the Joyce Doolittle Theatre, so like Gielgud and Olivier, she has her claim to fame. (And the young actress in that picture is Georgina Beaty who played Heather, the character that Hanna inspired.)
Until a few weeks ago with the premiere of Queen Lear, Joyce had never performed in the theatre that bears her name. Were it not for Hanna (the running lines person, not the model) she might never have had the experience.
Playwright Stickland introduces it this way in the "Situation" for his play:
Jane was a well known actress in her day, but between a lack of roles for older women, and an increasing lack of confidence in her abilities — in particular, her memory — she has been in virtual retirement for several years.
Now she has been cast as Lear in an all female production of Shakespeare's King Lear. Yet she fears for her memory and needs someone to run lines with her. She hires Heather, whom she knows because Heather's father is an architect in the firm founded by Jane's late husband.
Recreate the situation: Hanna Stickland has just found a "job" running lines with one of the city's best-known actresses for $8 an hour. Her father drops her off and, as is his custom heads off for a coffee, notebook in hand. He muses about the experience and makes some notes — the creation of a wonderful play has begun.
Every city with a theatre community has its own version of Joyce Doolittle; someone who has been on stage for a very long time and done very good work, someone who still wants to work and someone who is getting frustrated, not by the loss of her own abilities, but by the lack of roles that are available to her. Those of us who are aging (male or female, and we don't have to be actors) have some understanding. And the prospect of working with someone a couple of generations younger and perhaps influencing them has an appeal all its own. The way that Jane and Heather develop their relationship is magnificently done — no matter how cynical you might be, it is touching.
One of Eugene's most daring tactics in this play is to cast Jane as Lear. It can be argued (comments and opinions are certainly welcome) that it is the most difficult of Shakespeare's roles — if you are really good, you get to do Hamlet as a youngish actor, move on to the king in the Scottish play (its title will be avoided here) and then maybe close out professional life with Lear. Heck, even Christopher Plummer welcomed the chance. One of the interesting things about Queen Lear is that the actress who plays Jane in her 70s actually also has to play aspects of Lear, including the howling, howling, howling. Even the most experienced female actors have not been trained for that.
What about the third character, the cello? We will let the playwright intoduce her: "The Cellist is a creative spirit who can't really be controlled, sometimes she gets in Jane's way, sometimes she helps her."
In fact, the play opens with an overture from the cello and the sound in Scene One consists only of cello music (Eugene suggests Bach's Sonatas, which were in the Calgary production, but leaves the choice open to director and cellist). It is only a minor spoiler on my part (but if you really hate spoilers, skip the next paragraph or two) to reveal the role of the cello, as articulated by Jane:
I hardly know what's coming out of my mouth. Just words. I open my mouth, words come out. Words I've read. Words I think I should be saying. But sometimes I reach for words but they're not there, there are no words at all, they're just gone, it's all a blank page. And then all I hear is music, all that comes out is music…"
There ends my argument about whether the cello or the cellist is the third character.
As Jane and Heather run their lines (and there are some wonderful laughs as they do — Eugene writes serious themes under the guise of comedy), a fourth presence — as opposed to character — enters the play in the form of Heather's deceased mother, an old friend and admirer of Jane's. If you look around most theatre halls, the audience will be between 30 and 70 — so by definition, it would seem, this play with its two central characters excludes most of the audience.
Not so fast, and this is where I think Eugene has achieved something quite unusual. Those of us in the book-blogging world have been debating reliable narrators and unreliable narrators recently — Stickland has created the absent narrator (although, of course, that is the playwright). As the play develops both Jane and Heather "use" the deceased mother — as an audience we are very aware that we are sitting in exactly that role. The fourth character is in the house seats. We all have older role models, like Joyce, who are perhaps (only perhaps) approaching the end of their careers. We all have younger friends, like Heather, who we hope to influence for the best. I can't remember another play that so completely engaged its audience as a member of the cast.
Okay. Major conflict of interest admission: I've already said Eugene is a close friend and so is Hanna. The premiere production of Queen Lear was done by Urban Curvz Theatre in Calgary, a company that my wife and I are proud to support, and we were producing sponsers of this production. It is a company founded on the premise that women too often get overlooked in the theatre community (not just on stage but back-stage as well) and devoted to creating opportunities for them. As is obvious, they aren't super dogmatic about that — there is quite a good line in Queen Lear about the Women's Theatre Collective being willing to overlook the fact that playwright Shakespeare was male.
That conflict involves no commercial interest on my part — Urban Curvz is a not-for-profit company and Eugene is an excellent example for theatre-lovers that the people who write the plays we love sacrifice a lot of normal human comfort to do that. A number of regular visitors to this blog are from the UK and I am sure at least one or two of them knows someone at the National Theatre — please, please could you get someone there to read this play. As a regular visitor to the Littleton, I can say this is exactly the kind of play that space was designed for. As I said earlier in this post, every community has a version of Joyce Doolittle — and. I am pretty sure that person would love to do this play.
Because few new plays get produced in books, buying a copy is actually quite hard. Log on to www.bhousepublications.com and send a message to the editor and they will be in touch. I don't get over-enthusiastic often about literary work, but I can't tell you how good I think this play is — if I haven't conveyed that already.


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Chris Messina is a community board member of the OpenID Foundation, long time advocate for citizens of the web, and prolific blogger on all things "open".
Today in collaboration with Vivek Kundra, the nation's first CIO, we are announcing a pilot program intended to enable individual citizens to login to government websites with their existing accounts — without revealing their password or personally identifying information — using OpenID and InfoCard technologies.
This is an important step in the Obama administration's commitment to open, transparent, and participatory government.
First, it acknowledges and embraces existing, open technologies, rather than inventing their own (or worse, hiring independent contractors to do the same).
Second, this comes at a critical time in the history of OpenID, of which there are now well over 500 million OpenID-capable accounts in the wild, (even if few people realize that they already have one!). Given the wide deployment of this technology, it only makes sense that the government should leverage this wide potential userbase to facilitate interaction with its citizens.
Third, it is critical for the government and government agencies to develop solutions and adopt technologies that make it easier for modern citizens to engage with them, to exist competently alongside other social networking websites.
In other words, by embracing OpenID (and InfoCard), the government is helping to further establish the value of owning one's own identity, and of having convenient, consistent, and privacy-protecting mechanisms in place to enhance and enable participation.
To make this more real, consider booking a campground on a state park's website: do you really want to create yet another account (that you'll probably never use again) just to reserve a campsite? Probably not.
To make this more personal: imagine searching the National Institute of Health's website for information for a loved one who was recently diagnosed with cancer. You'd want the technology to get out of the way and serve your goals — who'd want to register for a new account when you just want to save your search progress (say, from a library kiosk) and resume it later (i.e. from home)?
It's cases like this that begin to tease at the value of using existing accounts for low-security government interactions (at least to start). Like email, I expect to see this start with a slow, gradual adoption, and overtime, gain momentum and relevance.
To find out more about this pilot program, read the full press release and visit our OpenID for Government page.


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Attention, history buffs. The three-year renovation of the Windsor Historical Society's Strong-Howard House is complete, and the house re-opens Sunday, Oct. 4 from 1 to 4 p.m., with all tours free that day.
The society took a fresh, more hands-on approach to giving people a sense of how our forebears lived. Rather than fill the house with delicate antiques, the house is furnished with period-appropriate reproductions, many of them created by the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking.
Here's my earlier post about that: http://courantblogs.com/ct-digs/learn-more-its-all-about-connecticut-furniture/
And Steve Goode has the story about the re-opening: http://www.courant.com/community/windsor/hc-windsor-strong-howard-renovation-complete-0926-20150925-story.html
Congratulations to Executive Director Christine Ermenc, Curator Christina Vida, Bob Van Dyke and the artisans at the woodworking school, and everyone else involved.


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I've been reading GMG for a couple of years now. (maybe even three). I'm originally from Gloucester and only visit once in a while to visit my wife's relatives. She's a Scola. I listened today to your pod cast for the first time and almost fell on the floor laughing so hard. I loved it. In response to some of your themes I would like to give my opinion. I have an asshole so therefore I have an opinion. The comment that the blog is going soft may be true but so what if it is? It's your blog. If I don't like it (and I love it) I'll go somewhere else. I'm just an outside voyeur looking in on life from your point of view. You blog helps me keep in touch with the town I grew up in and love, Gloucester. I like how it changes from time to time and how it tends to meander based on what's going on in the lives of your contributors. I remember Toby form HS and also his brother Barry. It's nice to see people I used to know on your blog.
In regards to Donna or you posting pics of you kids and grandkids go for it and the hell with everyone else. It's your blog not mine or anyone else's like me who's too dam lazy to start their own. In fact I like seeing the up and personal family pics. The comment that Sista Felicia was "marketing" her own book provokes this response from me "duh!". Of course she has the right to do a bit of self-promoting on your blog. Do you know why? Because it's your blog! I like the recipes and will most likely be buying the book for my wife. On a side note Sista Felicia should be on one of those cable cooking channels with her own show. Maybe you should take the next step and get her a producer and do a pilot. There's no show out there that does Italian (Sicilian) cooking. I think it would be a hit.
The new format with the "read more" link to shorten the need to scroll is very nice though as you said it wasn't a big deal scrolling through the pages. Fred Bowden's pic of old time Gloucester is fantastic. I'd love to see more of them.
As a bit of constructive encouragement one thing I'd like to see is when you post pictures of people it would be nice to have their names. So many of us have changed in our appearance over the years it would help us who have been away from Gloucester put a name with a face. I know it can be done in all cases but if you could I and my wife would appreciate it. In the end keep doing what your hear tells you and to hell with the nay-sayers. It's easy to tear things apart. It takes hard work to build something good. Keep up the good work since you are my only real connection that I have to Gloucester.
Rick Anderson
Hampton, NH 03842
For those who haven't listened to the podcast you can subscribe and listen to it on iTunes or through the web


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This provides online delivery for data (~ 76,000 series) held in the National Oceanographic Database (NODB). The enhancements include:
- improved project searches — data linked to multiple projects as appropriate.
- cruise searches — search for data collected during a particular research cruise.
- repeat time series (fixed station) searches — find data from key locations, for example the Drake passage or the Ellett Line repeat sections.
- improved originator searching — allowing for organisational name changes.
'Shopping' for data ©
More about the download service
First released in 2009, the 'all data series' download facility encompasses physical, geophysical, chemical and biological measurements. Additional data, for example over two million discrete samples collected from water bottles, will eventually be available via this service. In the interim, please contact our Enquiries Officer for more information.
The 'all data series' facility offers
- 'anonymous' searching — search prior to registration or log in.
- 'online shopping' — add data to a basket and check out your request.
- a choice of data file formats.
- free auto-delivery of more than 55,000 data series to academic users, with around 30,500 freely available to everyone.
- free auto-delivery of restricted data series to users with the correct credentials.
- 'request' tracking and download facility.


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Watch The Life Changing Story of Bobby Hayden
Bobby Hayden is an "in-your-face" example of Jeremiah 29:10-12.
"I'll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out--plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I'll listen."
That's the message Bobby hopes to convey to those who are looking for a life change. God pulled him out of the pit and gave him a plan, and he'll do the same for you.
At the age of 8, Bobby was already getting national attention with his rich voice and mature stage presence. At 13, he signed with Ed Cummings with the Gerald Purcell Agency representing talent in Nashville, New York, and Hollywood. He appeared on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour, the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee and the Milton Berle Show. All of this is fairly standard these days with parents pursuing entertainment options for their gifted and talented children. However, it was not in 1963. Cummings quoted Mr. Berle who remarked that "he had never seen anything like this boy in his 50 years in show business." As years past, music was changing, and Bobby was becoming a teenager. Read More of Bobby's Story ...