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A hoax most cruel: How a caller duped McDonald's managers into strip-searching a worker
Editor's note: The Courier Journal published this story Oct. 9, 2005. It is being republished after the original online file became corrupted. The story is based in part on depositions and other court documents filed in a Bullitt Circuit Court lawsuit, as well as interviews and police reports, court records and news accounts from more than five-dozen jurisdictions. The victim in the Bullitt County case agreed to be identified.
Warning: This story contains graphic language that could upset some readers.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — She was a high school senior who had just turned 18 — a churchgoing former Girl Scout who hadn't received a single admonition in her four months working at the McDonald's in Mount Washington, Kentucky.
But when a man calling himself "Officer Scott" called the store on April 9, 2004, and said an employee had been accused of stealing a purse, Louise Ogborn became the suspect.
"He gave me a description of the girl, and Louise was the one who fit it to the T," assistant manager Donna Jean Summers said.
Identifying himself as a police officer, the caller issued an ultimatum: Ogborn could be searched at the store or be arrested, taken to jail and searched there.
'Don't Pick Up the Phone':New Netflix docuseries delves into infamous McDonalds hoax calls
"I was bawling my eyes out and literally begging them to take me to the police station because I didn't do anything wrong," Ogborn said later in a deposition. She had taken the $6.35-an-hour position after her mother lost her job. "I couldn't steal — I'm too honest. I stole a pencil one time from a teacher, and I gave it back."
Summers, 51, conceded later she had never known Ogborn to do a dishonest thing. But she nonetheless led Ogborn to the restaurant's small office, locked the door, and — following the caller's instructions — ordered her to remove one item of clothing at a time, until she was naked.
"She was crying," recalled Kim Dockery, 40, another assistant manager, who stood by watching. "A little young girl standing there naked wasn't a pretty sight."
Summers said later that "Officer Scott," who stayed on the telephone, giving his orders, sounded authentic. He said he had "McDonald's corporate" on the line, as well as the store manager, whom he mentioned by name.
And she thought she could hear police radios in the background.
Summers shook each garment, placed it in a bag and took the bag away.
"I did exactly what he said to do," Summers said of her caller.
It was just after 5 p.m., and for Ogborn, hours of degradation and abuse were just beginning.
And she wasn't the first.
A scam that was hard to believe
The first report of such a call came in 1995, in Devil's Lake, North Dakota; another came later that year in Fallon, Nevada.
The caller, usually pretending to be a police officer investigating a crime, targeted stores in small towns and rural communities — areas where managers were more likely to be trusting.
Most were fast-food restaurants, where the male and female victims were young and inexperienced, and assistant managers were likely to be working without supervision.
At first, nobody believed store managers when they insisted after the fact they had just done what they were told to by someone they believed to be police.
"Did the manager tell a whopper?" a newspaper headline in Fargo, North Dakota, asked after the manager of a Burger King there insisted he thought it was a police officer who had told him over the phone on Jan. 20, 1999, to slap a 17-year-old employee on her naked buttocks.
"It's just not conceivable to me that there's any reasonable justification for what happened," a North Dakota judge said as she sentenced the manager to 30 days in jail for disorderly conduct.
Restaurant owners and police often said they assumed the caller and victims were in cahoots in a bizarre scam to extract settlements from individual franchises.
But the hoaxes continued — by the end of 2000, there were more than a dozen. By the end of 2003, there were nearly 60.
Detectives eventually would conclude the calls were the work of one man because the methods of operation were practically identical, with only slight deviations:
- On Nov. 30, 2000, the caller persuaded the manager at a McDonald's in Leitchfield, Kentucky, to remove her own clothes in front of a customer whom the caller said was suspected of sex offenses. The caller promised that undercover officers would burst in and arrest the customer the moment he attempted to molest her, said Detective Lt. Gary Troutman of the Leitchfield Police Department. "We asked her why she hadn't called local police, and she said she thought it was local police who had called her," Troutman said.
- On May 29, 2002, a girl celebrating her 18th birthday — in her first hour of her first day on the job at the McDonald's in Roosevelt, Iowa — was forced to strip, jog naked and assume a series of embarrassing poses, all at the direction of a caller on the phone, according to court and news accounts.
- On Jan. 26, 2003, according to a police report in Davenport, Iowa, an assistant manager at an Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar conducted a degrading 90-minute search of a waitress at the behest of a caller who said he was a regional manager — even though the man had called collect, and despite the fact the assistant manager had read a company memo warning about hoax calls just a month earlier. He later told police he'd forgotten about the memo.
- On June 3, 2003, according to a city police spokesman in Juneau, Alaska, a caller to a Taco Bell there said he was working with the company to investigate drug abuse at the store, and had a manager pick out a 14-year-old customer — and then strip her and force her to perform lewd acts.
Kentucky employees say they never were warned about hoax calls
By the time the caller telephoned the company-owned McDonald's in Mount Washington in April 2004, supervisors had been duped in at least 68 stores in 32 states, including Kentucky and Indiana.
The targets included a dozen restaurant chains.
By that time, managers of at least 17 McDonald's stores around the nation had been conned, and the company already was defending itself in at least four lawsuits stemming from such hoaxes.
But Summers, who had worked for the McDonald's 25 miles southeast of Louisville for about eight months, said she had never heard a thing about the hoaxes.
Neither had Dockery, or the store's manager, or McDonald's area manager, according to court depositions they gave later.
Company executives had sent out memos to owners and operators about the hoaxes, but as global security director Michael Peaster acknowledged in one of them in 2003, "It appears the information is not reaching our restaurant staff."
So, unwarned, Summers said she did the bidding of the man she thought was a cop.
As Ogborn tried to cover herself with an apron, Summers took her clothes to her car; "Officer Scott" said police would arrive shortly to pick them up.
At one point, Summers said later in a court deposition, she asked herself why it was taking so long for police to show up — the Mount Washington department was less than a mile away.
But "when I asked him questions about why," she said, "he always had an answer."
At the caller's instructions, she refused to tell Dockery, the other assistant manager, what was going on.
Dockery hugged Ogborn and tried to console her, and Jason Bradley, 27, a cook who Summers at one point called in to watch Ogborn, refused to go along with the caller's instructions to remove her apron and describe her.
But neither of them called the police, nor demanded the search be aborted.
By now, Ogborn had been detained for an hour. Her car keys had been taken away, and she was naked, except for the apron. She would later testify she thought she couldn't leave.
"I was scared because they were a higher authority to me," she said. "I was scared for my own safety because I thought I was in trouble with the law."
Summers then told the caller she had to get back to the counter, and the caller asked if she had a husband who could watch Ogborn.
"She said no, I'm not married yet, but I intend to be," Bradley recalled in his deposition, adding that Summers "started laughing like she was talking to a friend." The caller told Summers to bring in her fiance, and at about 6 p.m., she called Walter Wes Nix Jr., at home.
"I asked if he would help," Summers said. "I said I had a situation."
Why authority can be so persuasive
Psychological experts say it is human nature to obey orders, no matter how evil they might seem — as was illustrated in one of the most famous and frightening human experiments of the 20th century.
Seeking to understand why so many Germans followed orders during the Holocaust, Stanley Milgram, a Yale University psychologist, took out a classified ad in 1960 and 1961, inviting residents of New Haven, Connecticut, to take part in what they were told was a study of the relationship between punishment and learning.
A man in a white lab coat introduced the participants to a student and told them to shock the student each time he made a mistake, increasing the voltage with each error.
In reality, the machine was a prop, and the student was an actor who wasn't shocked.
Yet nearly two-thirds of Milgram's subjects gave what they believed were paralyzing jolts to a pitifully protesting victim simply because an authority figure — the man in the white coat — had commanded them to do so.
"With numbing regularity, good people were seen to knuckle under the demands of authority and perform actions that were callous and severe," Milgram wrote of his results, which were later replicated in nine countries.
Milgram died in 1984, but his biographer and protege, Dr. Thomas Blass, said in an interview the behavior of the people duped in the strip-search hoaxes would not have surprised him.
"Once you accept another person's authority, you become a different person," Blass said. "You are concerned with how well you follow out your orders, rather than whether it is right or wrong."
Teen victim endured physical, emotional abuse during hoax
As his fiancee had requested, Nix showed up at the Mount Washington store.
"She told me there is a girl in the office who was caught stealing," Nix said in a court deposition.
Summers also advised him that "Officer Scott" had accused the girl of dealing drugs — that police at that very moment were searching her home in Taylorsville, Kentucky.
Nix, 42, a father of two and an exterminator by trade, attended church regularly and had coached youth baseball teams in Mount Washington.
He is a "great, super guy, a great community guy," his best friend, Terry Grigsby, said later in a deposition. "He was a great role model for kids. … I don't think he'd ever had a ticket."
Summers handed Nix the phone and left the office. The caller told Nix he was a detective. For the next two hours, Nix later told police, "He told me what to do."
And Nix did as instructed.
He pulled the apron away from Ogborn, leaving her nude again, and described her to the caller.
He ordered her to dance with her arms above her head, to see, the caller said, if anything "would shake out."
He made her do jumping jacks, deep knee bends, stand on a swivel chair, then a desk.
He made her sit on his lap and kiss him; the caller said that would allow Nix to smell anything that might be on her breath.
When Ogborn refused to obey the caller's instructions, Nix slapped her buttocks until they were red — just as the caller told him to do, Ogborn testified later.
Each time Summers unlocked the door and ducked back into the office, Nix handed Ogborn the apron back so she could cover herself — as instructed by the caller. When Summers left, the abuse began anew.
Ogborn said the caller sometimes would talk directly to her, demanding she do as she was told if she wanted to keep her job and avoid further punishment.
She said she believed she was trapped. Nix outweighed her by 145 pounds and stood nearly a foot taller.
"I was scared for my life," she said.
Hoax caller described as 'a freak who plays God'
The caller was unusually persuasive, according to workers across the country who talked with him.
He had mastered the police officer's calm but authoritative demeanor. He sprinkled law-enforcement jargon into every conversation. And he did his homework.
He researched the names of regional managers and local police officers in advance and mentioned them by name to bolster his credibility.
He called some restaurants in advance, somehow getting names and descriptions of victims so he could accurately describe them later.
Summers said "Officer Scott" in Mount Washington knew the color of Ogborn's hair, as well as her height and weight — about 90 pounds. He even described the tie she was wearing.
Around the country, many detectives initially assumed the caller had to be watching the stores from across the street with binoculars. But later, officials would say he simply was a master of deception and manipulation.
For example, when the 17-year-old victim at the Fargo Burger King started crying, the caller told her to "be a good actress" and "pretend like it doesn't bother you" so the manager wouldn't "feel so bad" about what he was having to do.
Allan Mathis, the manager of a Hardee's in Rapid City, South Dakota, who strip-searched an employee in June 2003, said in an interview: "I didn't want to be doing it. But it was like he was watching me."
Mathis spent 40 days in jail before he was acquitted on rape and kidnapping charges.
The caller wasn't always successful; phone records show he sometimes called as many as 10 stores before finding one where managers would take his bait.
Stanford University psychologist Philip Zimbardo, who conducted a renowned prison experiment in which college students assigned to play guards became so sadistic the experiment had to be aborted, said the caller was "was very skilled in human psychology — he may have even read about Milgram."
Zimbardo, who is a consultant to one of the restaurant chains targeted by the caller, described him in an interview as a "skilled confidence man."
The lawyer for Mathis, the Hardee's manager, told the Rapid City Journal that his client was a victim of "a freak who plays God."
Obedient employees are trained to think, 'Can I help you?'
In her book, "Making Fast Food: From the Frying Pan into the Fryer," Canadian sociologist Ester Reiter concludes that the most prized trait in fast-food workers is obedience.
"The assembly-line process very deliberately tries to take away any thought or discretion from workers," said Reiter, who teaches at Toronto's York University and who spent 10 months working at a Burger King as part of her research. "They are appendages to the machine."
Retired FBI Special Agent Dan Jablonski, a Wichita, Kansas, private detective who investigated hoaxes for Wendy's franchises in the Midwest, said: "You and I can sit here and judge these people and say they were blooming idiots. But they aren't trained to use common sense. They are trained to say and think, 'Can I help you?'"
Even supervisors at fast-food restaurants made ready targets, said Milton Prewitt, national editor of Nation's Restaurant News, a trade publication. "You dot your 'i's, cross your 't's' and push the buttons, and after a year of that," he said, "you might be an assistant manager."
Quick-serve restaurants — as they are known in the industry — also may have been vulnerable because managers are trained to cooperate with law enforcement, said Gene James, president of the National Food Service Security Council, an industry group.
Ultimately, of the 70 confirmed locations where the calls triggered strip searches, 53 were fast-food stores and nine were sit-down restaurants.
Sexual abuse escalates as some are eager to obey
Some managers cried as they carried out the caller's orders. But court documents show others performed with great zeal.
At a Burger King in Pendleton, Indiana, a supervisor was so intent on finishing a search of a 15-year-old girl in December 2001 that when the girl's father arrived to pick her up from work, he had to jump over the counter to end her humiliation.
And in Dover, Delaware, a Burger King manager who was strip-searching an 18-year-old employee in March 2003 fought off the worker's mother and boyfriend so strenuously that state police had to be called.
Court records also show that over time, the demands in the hoax calls grew more perverse.
At a McDonald's in Hinesville, Georgia, in February 2003, a 55-year-old janitor was told to put his finger in the vagina of a 19-year-old cashier, supposedly to look for contraband, according to court records.
In Joplin, Missouri, according to a police report, a caller in May 2004 persuaded a 16-year-old girl who was managing a Sonic restaurant to strip-search and perform oral sex on a 21-year-old male cook — and then got the cook to strip-search the manager.
'I have done something terribly bad,' a remorseful man says
Louise Ogborn had been in the back office for nearly 2½ hours when the caller said she should kneel on the brick floor in front of Nix and unbuckle his pants.
Ogborn cried and begged Nix to stop, she recounted in her deposition. "I said, 'No! I didn't do anything wrong. This is ridiculous."
But she said Nix told her he would hit her if she didn't fellate him, so she did.
Like the rest of her ordeal, it was captured on a surveillance camera, recorded to a DVD. And it continued until Summers returned to the office to get some gift certificates, and Nix had Ogborn cover herself again.
The caller told Nix then he could leave but Summers needed to find another man to replace him. She called in Thomas Simms, a 58-year-old maintenance man who did odd jobs at the store.
Simms would say in a deposition later he was shocked by what he saw — a young woman trying to cover herself with a small piece of cloth. Summers insisted it was OK for him to watch her, that "corporate" had approved it.
Nix left, drove a few blocks to his home and immediately called his best friend, Grigsby, who recalls Nix saying, "I have done something terribly bad."
'Something is not right,' 9th-grade dropout decides
It was Simms, the Mount Washington store's maintenance man and a ninth-grade dropout, who refused to play the caller's game.
He had stopped by the restaurant for dessert and coffee when Summers pulled him into the office and handed him the phone. The caller told Simms to have Ogborn drop the apron and to describe her.
Simms refused.
"He said, 'Something is not right about this,'" Summers recalled in her deposition.
And finally, she realized the same. She called her manager — Lisa Siddons — whom the caller had said was on the other line. Summers discovered Siddons had been home, sleeping.
"I knew then I had been had," Summers said. "I lost it.
"I begged Louise for forgiveness. I was almost hysterical."
The caller hung up.
Ogborn was so cold she was shaking and so stunned that, as Dockery wrapped her in a blanket, she asked if she had to show up for work the next morning.
Dockery told her no.
"Take as much time off as you want," she said.
Repercussions hit all of those involved
Summers watched the store video later the same night, saw what Nix had done, and called off their engagement.
She hasn't spoken with him since, according to her attorney.
She initially was suspended, then later fired, for violating a McDonald's rule barring nonemployees from entering the office.
A couple of weeks later, she was indicted on a charge of unlawful imprisonment, a misdemeanor. Nix was indicted on charges of sodomy and assault.
Dockery was transferred to another restaurant.
Ogborn never went back to work at the store.
She began suffering from panic attacks, severe insomnia and nightmares about "a guy attacking" her, according to a court deposition from her therapist, Jean Campbell.
Riddled with anxiety and depression, Ogborn was forced to switch from one antidepressant to a second, then a third and a fourth, before she finally found some relief.
"I can't trust anyone," she testified in a lawsuit she filed in August 2004 against McDonald's, alleging it failed to warn employees about the hoaxes. "I push people out of my life because I don't want them to know what happened."
She graduated from Spencer County High School but was too shaken to enroll at the University of Louisville, where she had planned to study pre-med, Campbell said.
"She was dealing with a lot of issues of shame, feeling contaminated, feeling dirty, questioning herself," Campbell said in her deposition. "When anything like this happens, it destroys our illusions."
Restaurant chains failed to act quickly, ex-agent says
Despite the mounting number of cases across the country, restaurant industry officials failed to act more quickly or decisively, Prewitt said, in part because "nobody could believe it, it was so weird."
Some of the strip searches weren't even reported to police, because embarrassed restaurant officials were reluctant to publicize them, said Jablonski, the ex-FBI agent. The fiercely competitive chains also initially were reluctant to talk to each other.
"For a variety of reasons, they were slow on the draw," he said.
James, the head of the industry's security group, said the quick-serve chains acted "appropriately and expeditiously," although the group's previous executive director, Terrie Dort, acknowledged last year to The Associated Press that it took until 2003 "for the pieces of the puzzle to come together and for everyone to start comparing notes and realizing the scope of the problem."
Many police departments filed their case away under "miscellaneous" because they couldn't figure out how to pursue the caller, Prewitt said, or had trouble figuring out what crime, if any, he had committed.
Several departments were able to trace the calls to phone booths in Panama City, Florida. But that was as far as any had gotten — until the Mount Washington hoax.
Lone detective presses Bullitt County case, gets help
The lone detective on the Mount Washington Police Department, Buddy Stump, had worked only a few weeks as an investigator when he got the call.
He had spent most of his career doing factory work and was home watching an "Andy Griffith" rerun when his deputy commander assigned him the case.
"I joked that I was watching my training films," Stump recalled.
He was furious when he saw the store surveillance video. "It burned me up that this had happened to an 18-year-old girl," he said.
He was able to track down the phone number the call had been made from, but it was listed to a nonexistent phone and turned out to have been made on a prepaid calling card.
"I figured we didn't have a chance to catch him," Stump said.
He eventually learned the call had originated in Panama City, and the largest seller of phone cards there was Wal-Mart. But that didn't help much — the largest seller of everything is Wal-Mart, and it has three stores in Panama City alone.
But a Panama City detective told Stump a bit of interesting news — an officer from West Bridgewater, Massachusetts, was hot on the same trail.
Detective Sgt. Vic Flaherty had been assigned to lead a task force investigating the crimes after the caller hit four Wendy's in the Boston suburbs on one night in February 2004.
Flaherty had traced a calling card used in some of the hoaxes to one of the Panama City Wal-Marts, but that store's surveillance video only captured customers entering and exiting, not at the registers.
After hearing about the Bullitt County call, however, he helped Stump trace that calling card to its source.
This time, they were in luck: It was purchased at 3:02 p.m. at another Wal-Mart in Panama City on April 9, 2004 — just hours before it was used to call the Mount Washington McDonald's.
The camera at that store was trained on the registers, and it showed the purchaser was a white man, about 35 to 40, with slicked-back black hair and glasses.
The same man could be seen on Flaherty's video entering the other Wal-Mart, where he was wearing a black jacket with small white lettering.
Flaherty and a colleague flew to Panama City on June 28, 2004, and local officers immediately identified the jacket as the uniform worn by officers of Corrections Corp. of America, a private prison company.
When they showed it to the warden at the company's Bay Correctional Facility, he identified the man as David R. Stewart, 38, a guard on the swing shift.
Stewart denied making the calls, but when confronted, he started to "sweat profusely and shake uncontrollably," Flaherty wrote in a report. Stewart also asked, "Was anybody hurt?" and said, "Amen, it's over," according to the report.
Stewart insisted he'd never bought a calling card, but when detectives searched his house, they found one that had been used to call nine restaurants in the past year, including the Idaho Falls Burger King on the day its manager was duped.
Police also found dozens of applications for police department jobs, hundreds of police magazines, police-type uniforms, guns and holsters.
"It was very apparent Dave Stewart wanted … to become a police officer," Flaherty said.
Mount Washington became the first department to charge Stewart.
Stump drove to Panama City to arrest him on June 30, 2004.
Stewart eventually was brought to Bullitt Circuit Court, where he pleaded not guilty to solicitation to commit sodomy and impersonating a police officer, both felonies, as well as soliciting sex abuse and unlawful imprisonment, both misdemeanors.
He was released on $100,000 bond pending his trial Dec. 13. His bond was posted by his brother, C.W. Stewart — a retired police officer from Cheektowaga, New York.
Suspect considers himself 'a victim as well,' letter says
Married 11 years and the father of five, Stewart had worked as a mall security guard, volunteered as an auxiliary sheriff's deputy, and driven a propane truck before taking the prison guard job.
He had worked there 11 months before his arrest; he was fired a week later.
His family has stood behind him — his mother said he is "a good boy" and another relative said he's well-liked in Cheektowaga, the Buffalo suburb where he grew up.
Stewart declined to be interviewed, but in a letter responding to Ogborn's suit in Bullitt Circuit Court, he said: "I received your notice but I'm in no way responsible. I feel bad for your loss because I am a victim as well. I lost my job, my home and my car all over something I did not do."
In fact, he deeded his residence, a $37,900 mobile home on a dirt road 20 miles north of Panama City, to his wife for $100, according to Florida property records.
His Louisville lawyer, Steve Romines, said his client is not bright enough to have pulled off the hoaxes.
"Based on numerous conversations with my client, I don't believe he is persuasive or eloquent enough to convince somebody to do these preposterous things," Romines said in an interview.
Stewart has been charged only in Bullitt County. Flaherty said prosecutors in Massachusetts are awaiting the outcome of the Kentucky case before deciding whether to proceed against him.
Detectives in other jurisdictions say they didn't press charges because the caller's crime would be a misdemeanor for which he could not be extradited.
There has not been a reported hoax call since Stewart's arrest, according to police and lawyers for the restaurant industry. Romines said there have been two, but he declined to say where, and none have been reported by news organizations.
Some see how hoax worked, others shocked
Across the United States, at least 13 people who executed strip searches ordered by the caller were charged with crimes, and seven were convicted.
But most of the duped managers were treated as victims — just like the people they searched and humiliated.
They all "fell under the spell of a voice on the telephone," wrote a judge in Zanesville, Ohio, in an order acquitting Scott Winsor, 35, who'd been charged with unlawfully restraining and imposing himself on two women who worked for him at a McDonald's.
Chicago lawyer Craig Annunziata, who has defended 30 franchises sued after hoaxes, said every manager he interviewed genuinely believed they were helping police.
"They weren't trying to get their own jollies," he said.
Many of the supervisors were fired and some were divorced by their spouses, Annunziata said. Others required counseling.
But the duped managers have been condemned by others.
"You don't have to be a Phi Beta Kappa to know not to strip-search a girl who is accused of stealing change," said Roger Hall, the lawyer for a woman who won $250,000 after being strip-searched at a McDonald's in Louisa, Kentucky.
A Fox-TV commentator asked how the managers who went along could be so "colossally stupid."
While the incidents were triggered by a "perverted miscreant," wrote a federal judge in Georgia, the managers "still had a responsibility to use common sense and avoid falling prey to such a scam."
Though the Milgram experiment may help explain why supervisors went along with the caller, even Milgram's disciples say it doesn't absolve them of responsibility.
Just as one-third of the participants in Milgram's study refused to shock the subject, some supervisors refused to go along, including a supervisor at McDonald's Hillview store, who hung up on the caller the very night of the Mount Washington hoax.
"Nobody held a gun to their heads," said Blass, whose book about Milgram is titled, "The Man Who Shocked the World."
"They had the critical ability to decide whether to carry out their orders."
Lawsuits target McDonald's in Mount Washington case
In her suit against the $19 billion McDonald's company, Ogborn contends it failed to warn Mount Washington employees about the hoaxes, even though the company and its franchises were already defending lawsuits in Georgia, Ohio, Utah and elsewhere in Kentucky.
"This suit is about failure to warn, failure to train, failure to supervise," said Louisville lawyer Steven Yater, who with William Boone Jr., is representing Ogborn.
Although a McDonald's security executive had sent a 10- to 15-second voice message to every store in the region about hoax calls about a week before the Mount Washington incident, Siddons, the manager there, said in her deposition it didn't mention strip searches.
The company also failed to execute a plan it had developed to send warning stickers to be placed on the headset and cradle of the phone in every store, Peaster, McDonald's global security director, said in a deposition.
Ogborn's suit, which is set for mediation Oct. 31 and trial March 30, also names Summers and Dockery as defendants, saying they "forced Louise to remain imprisoned, in the nude, for over four hours."
Dockery declined to be interviewed, although in court papers she denied wrongdoing and said Summers had kept her in the dark about what was going on.
Summers has filed her own claim against McDonald's, alleging the incident would not have occurred if she had been warned.
She declined to be interviewed, but in her deposition, she angrily asked how McDonald's "could have failed to spread the word."
"You've destroyed three lives," she said. "Hope you're happy."
McDonald's points fingers at others, including victim
McDonald's blamed what happened on Stewart and Nix, over whom it says it had no control. The company has sued both.
Its Louisville lawyer, W.R. "Pat" Patterson Jr., said McDonald's employee manual clearly noted its policy against strip searches.
"The employees didn't read it," Patterson said in an interview. "That is all I can say."
The company admits it knew of the earlier hoaxes, but Patterson said it reacted appropriately by sending memos to owners and franchisees. "McDonald's did what every quick-serve restaurant did — maybe more."
In a prepared statement, a spokesman for McDonald's USA, Bill Whitman, said, "We are keenly aware of these unfortunate incidents and will continue to take appropriate actions to safeguard customers and employees."
Asked what additional steps the company has taken since the Mount Washington incident, he said it would be "inappropriate to discuss in detail specific security and safety measures."
In court papers, McDonald's also has blamed Ogborn for what happened to her — saying that her injuries, "if any," were caused by her failure to realize the caller wasn't a real police officer.
Questioning Ogborn during a deposition, Patterson suggested that although she had no clothes, she could have walked out of the office, but she stayed voluntarily to clear her name.
"Did it ever occur to you to scream?" he asked.
Ogborn declined to be interviewed for this story on the advice of her lawyers, although she agreed to be identified by name.
Her therapist said she followed orders because her experience with adults "has been to do what she is told, because good girls do what they are told."
Lawyer wonders how each of us would react
Bullitt District Court Judge Rebecca Ward initially dismissed the charge against Summers, saying she "definitely exercised poor judgment … but was as much a victim as Miss Ogborn."
Ward later reversed herself and reinstated the charge. She set Summers' trial for Dec. 7.
Summers' lawyer, Wendi Wagner, said in an interview that "everybody agrees, in hindsight, `How the hell could you let this happen?' … But how many times did it happen over the past 10 years?"
In a brief interview, Nix insisted he — like Summers — thought he was following a policeman's orders.
Nix is scheduled for trial Tuesday. If convicted of sodomy, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison — twice the penalty that could be meted to Stewart, although his lawyer, Kathleen Schmidt, noted plea negotiations are underway.
"I can understand how people can question what he did," Schmidt said. "But they weren't in the same position. Maybe you and I wouldn't have done this, but how do we know?"
Andrew Wolfson: 502-582-7189; firstname.lastname@example.com; Twitter: @adwolfson.
Know your rights
Employers may conduct pat-down searches of employees suspected of theft in the workplace, as long as they are not done in an offensive way, employment lawyers say.
"Employers have a right to make you empty your pockets, take off your coat or pass through a metal detector," unless a union contract prohibits it, said Louisville lawyer Alton Priddy, who represents employees. But he and James U. Smith III, who represents employers, said they've never heard of an employer strip-searching a worker and it would be permissible only in the most limited settings, such as a defense plant entrusted with protecting military secrets.
Experts on employment law say companies should train every new employee that they don't have to submit to a strip search under any circumstance, regardless of who orders it.
Companies also should periodically inform operators and franchisees about strip-search hoaxes and other scams, said Atlanta lawyer Mary Ann Oakley, who defended McDonald's in a strip-search case and whose firm, Holland & Knight, publishes a newsletter for the hospitality industry.


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Warren Grant "Maggie" Magnuson (April 12, 1905–May 20, 1989) represented the state of Washington in the United States Senate from 1944 until 1981. When he left the Senate he was the most senior member of the body.
His connections to the City of Seattle included, secretary of the Seattle Municipal League from 1930-31; special prosecuting attorney for King County in 1931. His political career began as a member of the Washington State House of Representatives from 1933-1934. This was followed by serving as a United States district attorney in 1934 and then again as a prosecuting attorney for King County from 1934-1936. During the Second World War he served in the United States Navy and attained the rank of lieutenant commander and served for almost one year on the USS Enterprise. Magnuson served as a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing the Washington's 1st congressional district from 1937 to 1944.
Senator Magnuson introduced several bills to the U.S. Congress that would have increased the significance of naval activities on the Sand Point peninsula. In 1938, he unsuccessfully backed a bill to establish a second Naval Academy on Puget Sound. In 1940 and 1945 he attempted to make NAS Seattle an upper division academy for the west coast. These proposals were also not carried forward. In May 1950, it was reported that Senator Magnuson along with Representative Henry M. Jackson, met with the Naval Air Station Civic Development Association to discuss ways to keep the station open. However, it was also reported that Senator Magnuson was "quietly working with the University of Washington" to develop the framework for transferring the station to the university for an expanded campus
In 1976, the City Council authorized the initial development of Sand Point Park (CB 97246) in the eastern portion of former Naval Air Station, Seattle. In May 1977, Sand Point Park was renamed for Senator Magnuson, who helped to secure federal funding for developing the park.
Historic Park Features
The Freedom Tree – This tree, a now 60-foot deodar cedar, is located at the northwest corner of N.E. 74th Street and 62nd Avenue N.E. It was dedicated in 1972 "to the sons of Washington and all prisoners of war and missing in action."
Historic District – History and architecture buffs will be interested in the historic, former Navy buildings in Warren G. Magnuson Park's Community Campus. This historic district is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. The property is historically significant based on the role it played in the U.S. Navy's expansion and development in the Puget Sound region, and on the architecture of many of its buildings. The buildings include brick and metal structures from the 1930s and 1940s in Art Deco and Colonial Revival styles. These structures were the core of Navy activities at Sand Point. A complementary horticultural plan was defined in and around these historic structures.
Art Deco - The Art Deco style began in Europe and became very popular in the United States between World War I and World War II. Art Deco is characterized by streamlined, rhythmic machine forms, exotic imagery, and the use of materials to give a feeling of motion. Ornamentation usually consists of low-relief geometrical design, which could be parallel straight lines, zigzags, chevrons and stylized floral patterns. Another common element is the decorative treatment of building entrances.
Good examples of Art Deco at Warren G. Magnuson Park are the Recreation Center (Building 47), Building 30 (6310 N.E. 74th Street), the nearby Building 25 (owned by the University of Washington) and Building 29 (just north of the N.E. 74th Street entrance to the park).
Colonial Revival - The Colonial Revival architectural style first became common at the end of the 19th Century and became very popular in the first decades of the 20th. The style is based on colonial-era architecture in the eastern United States. Buildings of this style generally have a symmetrical look, sash windows, and gabled dormers projecting from the sloped roof. A typical color scheme is red with white trim.
The finest example of Colonial Revival style at Warren G. Magnuson Park is Building 9 (owned by the University of Washington). It is located on 62nd Ave. N.E., and is south of the N.E. 74th Street entrance to the park. The building is composed of a series of large pavilions connected by smaller links, and is in red brick with white trim. The windows have decorative keystones of cast concrete. The north and south wings have gabled dormers on the third floor.
To see the Historic Properties Reuse and Protection Plan (1998) and other park planning documents, consult the collection at the Seattle Public Library's North East Branch, 6801 35th Ave. N.E., (206) 684-7539.
World Flight Monument – The World Flight Monument commemorates the first around-the-world flight in 1924. This flight originated and ended at Sand Point. The 30,000-mile flight took five months to complete—from April to September. This monument is located at the N.E. 74th Street entrance to Warren G. Magnuson Park and includes sculptures by Alonzo Victor Lewis. He was known at one time as "Washington's Sculptor Laureate."

subset: commoncrawl


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Rahmstorf (2011): Robust or Just Busted (Part 5): Why a paper about "robustness"September 29, 2012
This is part 5 of a multi-part series about "Testing the robustness of semi-empirical sea level projections," Rahmstorf, et. al., Climate Dynamics, 2011. You can see an index of all parts here. I frequently refer to this paper as R2011.
I will refer to Stefan Rahmstorf's "Testing the robustness of semi-empirical sea level projections" as R2011 [1].
What does R2011 mean by "robust?"
What does Rahmstorf mean when he says his model linking sea level to temperature is "robust?" Simply this: when the inputs that he deems acceptable are inserted into his model, he gets the results he likes.
How does he decide which inputs are acceptable? Easy – if they yield the results he likes, then they are acceptable. It is a very simple and efficient system of logic!
Why a paper about "robustness?"
Rahmstorf and his associates have a pressing need to defend their sea level rise projections. I have presented a host of reasons why his model is bogus. One of the most embarrassing is that one of his fit parameters, that he expected to be positive, is in fact negative for every combination of input tried. This leads to all kinds of bizarre results (see here, here and here , for example). The other is that his sea level projections dropped dramatically when his preferred source of 20th century historical input data updated their data set.
This "robustness" paper (R2011) is a stumbling attempt to dismiss the revised sea level data from the source that he had previously enthusiastically used.
A quick recap
Rahmstorf's model, which I will refer to as the VR2009[2] model, attempts to relate global sea level rise to global temperature through the following formula…
where H is sea level and T is temperature. Insert historical data for H and T, and solve to a, b, and To. Then insert projected temperatures for the 21st century and calculate projected sea level rises for the 21st century. The VR2009 model and approach have an amazing number of problems and the list just keeps getting longer. There is a whole family of realistic temperature scenarios for the 21st century that cause this model to yield ridiculous results (see here). The root of most of these problems comes from the fact that every set of historical sea level inputs and temperatures that Rahmstorf and associates have tried result in a negative b. That includes every set of input data considered in R2011 (see figure 1, below).
Model inputs and projections in R2011
(click to enlarge) …
I have circled the results R2011 likes. As you can see, nothing involving the Church's and White's 2011 sea level data (CW11)[4] meets R2011's quality standard. R2011 has determined that Church's and White's 2006 sea level data (CW06)[5] is better than Church's and White's 2011 data, despite the fact that Church and White obviously think their updated 2011 data is better.
It comes down to To
Why does R2011 think the 2006 sea level data is better than the improved 2011 sea level data? Well, I have already explained that – the 2006 Church and White sea level data gives the results that R2011 wants – higher sea level rise projections for the 21st century!
But they can't really say that. Instead they say that the 2011 Church and White data leads to a baseline temperature, To, that they insist is too low. To is the steady-state temperature deviation from the 1950-1980 average temperature at which Rahmstorf's model says the sea level would be unchanging.
Look at the right side of figure 1. It shows the baseline temperature that R2011 derived with the various sets of input data. The values of To that meet with R2011's approval average out to about -0.43 degrees. But those based on CW11 average out to about -0.62 degrees C. A difference of less than two tenths of a degree.
If you were to ask the authors of R2011 what other evidence do they have that To must be about -0.43 degrees, they will refer you to "Climate related sea-level variations over the past two millennia[6]," which used evidence from two salt marshes in North Carolina to corroborate this global value. And they have great confidence in this independent confirmation (because two out of three of the R2011 authors were also authors on this paper). Hmmm.
I will have more to say about R2011's preference for To in a later post.
A few input combinations that R2011 did not show you
R2011 implies that it has tried some vast universe of input sea level and temperature data combinations in their model. They say "We then compare projections of all these different model versions (over 30)…" Wow! Count them – over 30!
But there are many more possible combinations than that. R2011 has picked a few cherries from a very prolific tree.
In figures 2 and 3, below, I have run several temperature and sea level input data sets in my implementation of Rahmstorf's model. In some cases my input combinations are the same as some found in figure 1. In some cases they are different. I have arranged the input combinations in chronological order, with older versions of input data on the bottom. Notice a trend? Figure 2 and figure 3 give projections based on the RCP45 and RCP85 emission scenarios, respectively.
As you can see, newer sea level data (whether it is actually sea level (CW06 vs CH11, or reservoir storage (RS) or ground water depletion (GWD) modifiers) tends to lead to lower 21st century projections when inserted into Rahmstorf's model.
Which projection do I endorse? None of them. Make no mistake – the Rahmstorf model is bogus, no matter what the inputs are. I am just playing games with it. The Rahmstorf model is an illusion that hooks you with a simple truth: It is a pretty good bet that higher temperatures lead to higher sea levels. But the Rahmstorf model is not much better than a Ouija board for quantifying how much.
There is much to be said about the results in figures 2 and 3. The 48 files below give the long story that is summarized in figures 2 and 3.
Much more to come in later posts
Sea level data: Church and White 2006
Reservoir storage: Chao 2oo8
Ground water depletion: none
Result files…
Summary: vr-summary-120923-091214.doc
Inputs: vr-input-image-120923-091214.png
Fit: vr-fit-image-120923-091214.png
Projections: vr-projections-image-120923-091214.png
Sea level data: Church and White 2006
Reservoir storage: Chao 2oo8
Ground water depletion: Wada 2010 extrapolated to 1880
Result files…
Summary: vr-summary-120923-091326.doc
Inputs: vr-input-image-120923-091326.png
Fit: vr-fit-image-120923-091326.png
Projections: vr-projections-image-120923-091326.png
Sea level data: Church and White 2006
Reservoir storage: Chao 2oo8
Ground water depletion: Wada 2010
Result files…
Summary: vr-summary-120923-091413.doc
Inputs: vr-input-image-120923-091413.png
Fit: vr-fit-image-120923-091413.png
Projections: vr-projections-image-120923-091413.png
Sea level data: Church and White 2006
Reservoir storage: Chao 2oo8
Ground water depletion: Wada 2012
Result files…
Summary: vr-summary-120923-091517.doc
Inputs: vr-input-image-120923-091517.png
Fit: vr-fit-image-120923-091517.png
Projections: vr-projections-image-120923-091517.png
Sea level data: Church and White 2006
Reservoir storage: Pokhrel 2012 extrapolated back to 1900
Ground water depletion: Pokhrel 2012 extrapolated back to 1900
Result files…
Summary: vr-summary-120923-091643.doc
Inputs: vr-input-image-120923-091643.png
Fit: vr-fit-image-120923-091643.png
Projections: vr-projections-image-120923-091643.png
Sea level data: Church and White 2006
Reservoir storage: Pokhrel 2012
Ground water depletion: Pokhrel 2012
Result files…
Summary: vr-summary-120923-091727.doc
Inputs: vr-input-image-120923-091727.png
Fit: vr-fit-image-120923-091727.png
Projections: vr-projections-image-120923-091727.png
Sea level data: Church and White 2011
Reservoir storage: Chao 2008
Ground water depletion: none
Result files…
Summary: vr-summary-120923-091904.doc
Inputs: vr-input-image-120923-091904.png
Fit: vr-fit-image-120923-091904.png
Projections: vr-projections-image-120923-091904.png
Sea level data: Church and White 2011
Reservoir storage: Chao 2008
Ground water depletion: Wada 2010 extrapolated to 1880
Result files…
Summary: vr-summary-120923-091956.doc
Inputs: vr-input-image-120923-091956.png
Fit: vr-fit-image-120923-091956.png
Projections: vr-projections-image-120923-091956.png
Sea level data: Church and White 2011
Reservoir storage: Chao 2008
Ground water depletion: Wada 2010
Result files…
Summary: vr-summary-120923-092105.doc
Inputs: vr-input-image-120923-092105.png
Fit: vr-fit-image-120923-092105.png
Projections: vr-projections-image-120923-092105.png
Sea level data: Church and White 2011
Reservoir storage: Chao 2008
Ground water depletion: Wada 2012
Result files…
Summary: vr-summary-120923-092202.doc
Inputs: vr-input-image-120923-092202.png
Fit: vr-fit-image-120923-092202.png
Projections: vr-projections-image-120923-092202.png
Sea level data: Church and White 2011
Reservoir storage: Pokhrel 2012 extrapolated to 1900
Ground water depletion: Pokhrel 2012 extrapolated to 1900
Result files…
Summary: vr-summary-120923-092330.doc
Inputs: vr-input-image-120923-092330.png
Fit: vr-fit-image-120923-092330.png
Projections: vr-projections-image-120923-092330.png
Sea level data: Church and White 2011
Reservoir storage: Pokhrel 2012
Ground water depletion: Pokhrel 2012
Result files…
Summary: vr-summary-120923-094501.doc
Inputs: vr-input-image-120923-094501.png
Fit: vr-fit-image-120923-094501.png
Projections: vr-projections-image-120923-094501.png
[1] Rahmstorf, S., Perrette, M., and Vermeer, M., "Testing the robustness of semi-empirical sea level projections" Climate Dynamics, 2011
[2] Vermeer, M., Rahmstorf, S., "Global sea level linked to global temperature," PNAS, 2009
[3] Moss, et. al., "The next generation of scenarios for climate change research and assessment," Nature, 463, 2010
[4] Church, J. A. and N.J. White, "Sea-level rise from the late 19th to the early 21st Century", Surveys in Geophysics, 2011
[5] Church, J. A., and N. J. White, "A 20th century acceleration in global sea-level rise", Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, 2006
[6] Kemp, Horton, Donnelly, Mann, Vermeer & Rahmstorf, "Climate related sea-level variations over the past two millennia," PNAS, 2011


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Icahn nominates himself, 11 others for Dell posts
Carl Icahn is nominating himself and 11 other candidates for spots on the Dell Inc. board of directors.
The billionaire investor and Southeastern Asset Management own a combined 13 percent of the computer maker's shares. They want to keep Dell public, and oppose a $24.4 billion offer from an investment group led by company founder and Chairman Michael Dell.
According to a form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the nominees are Icahn, Matthew Jones, Bernard Lanigan, Jr., Rahul Merchant, Peter van Oppen, Howard Silver and David Willmott, Harry Debes, Rajendra Singh, Gary Meyers, Daniel Ninivaggi, and Jonathan Christodoro to the board.
Ninivaggi is CEO of Icahn Enterprises and Christodoro is managing director of Icahn Capital LP. Van Oppen is a partner at investment firm Trilogy Equity Partners, while Merchant is commissioner of New York City's Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications and chief information and innovation officer. Willmott is president and chief operating officer of yard-care equipment maker Blount International Inc.
An investment group led by Michael Dell offered to take the Round Rock, Texas, company private for $13.65 per share earlier this year. Dell shareholders will vote on the buyout offer in the next few months.
Icahn and Southeastern say they would let shareholders keep their stake in the slumping PC maker so they could benefit from any Dell rebound. Icahn and Southeastern plan to pay for their offer with existing cash from the company and about $5.2 billion in debt.
A special committee of Dell directors said Monday that it wants to hear more details on the Icahn-Southeastern proposal.
Dell shares rose 7 cents to close at $13.52.
© 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.


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Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (11.2011)
Not Russia, but... the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan has long been tied to Russia, having been ceded to Tsarist Russia in a treaty with China in 1876. It was a republic during Soviet rule and became an independent country in December 1991. A poor, land-locked, mountainous country of just over 5,000,000 people, Kyrgyzstan is one of the world's six independent Turkic states. Although the country is historically Muslim, it has long been a secular state, though it is now faced with an increasingly active Islamic community and influx of Muslim missionaries. Both Russia and the U.S. have military bases in Kyrgyzstan with the U.S. base supporting U.S. military operations in Afghanistan.Read More


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The SARA CE (Scanning And Reading Appliance, Camera Edition) is the next-generation self-contained scanning and reading appliance for the blind and those with low vision. Just place a printed page under the camera, and the SARA CE instantly starts reading it to you with RealSpeak human-sounding speech. No computer experience is needed. You don't even need to push a button to read almost any printed material – books, magazines, mail, and more. The camera automatically senses when a new page is presented and snaps an image and begins reading whenever you turn a page.
Pause reading, move forward and backward, or hear a word spelled out. Change the reading speed and volume. Select a different voice. Scan and read in one of 18 languages. Change the scanning mode to capture bound books, and save them on the 160GB hard drive or a USB thumb drive. The SARA CE talks you through each step with audible menus. There is even built-in Help and an audible onboard user manual.
Connect a monitor to access the customizable low vision features. Increase the text size. Change text and background colors. Add more space between letters, and highlight words as they are spoken.
- Built-in keypad with brightly-colored tactile keys
- Save files to hard drive or USB thumb drive
- Connect to Braille display
- Read audio books, including DAISY format
- 160GB hard drive for onboard storage
- Comes with a classic literature starter library of over 200 books


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The Superior Board of Trustees approved an agreement Tuesday night with Boulder Racing that will once again give the event company the job of running the Superior Morgul Cycling Race.
Next year's race is scheduled for May 17-19.
The partnership, which will cost Superior $30,000, gives Boulder Racing the duties of hosting and organizing the three-day event. The Boulder firm ran the Morgul for the first time this year.
Changes planned for 2013 include expanding Saturday's Rocky Mountain Bike Festival to incorporate more youth and community activities during the Summit Criterium; adding a potential running race on Sunday; and using a professional firm to coordinate parking in and around Community Park.


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An exploration of pizza in and around Rochester, NY, one pizzeria at a time
Thursday, April 16, 2009
TV Alert: "Food Detectives" looks into NYC pizza
This was hardly conclusive evidence of anything, scientifically speaking I guess, but it was intriguing. Unfortunately they didn't provide any information about how, chemically, the tap water in NYC differs from that in Chicago or L.A., nor did they offer any theories about why it makes a difference. It also made me wonder how our water stacks up against the Big Apple's. If I'm really bored some day I may see if I can find a water quality report for NYC and try to compare it to the Monroe County Water Quality Table.
Anyway, if you'd like to see the show, it will be repeated this Sunday, April 19 at 4:00 p.m. on the Food Network.
5 comments:
Speaking of NYC pizza, you should review Main Street Pizza in Brockport (if you're ever out this far). I feel that it will be worth your while.ReplyDelete
I have been there, I've had mixed experiences there, but I will be back.ReplyDelete
I saw that episode. I was very annoyed with the way they dismissed Chicago pizza. I'm from the Chicago area, and there are several different styles that have been served in the city for decades. I grew up eating a very thin crust, which is my personal favorite. There are the deep dish pan pizzas, like Gino's East, which is what people mistakenly think is the only Chicago pizza. There are also pizzas with a shortbread-type crust, like Lou Malnati's. All are delicious and better than any of the pizzas I've had in NYC.ReplyDelete
I've heard that Chicago has its own style of thin-crust pizza, but for better or worse say "Chicago pizza" and 99% of people outside of Chicago will think Uno's or something like it. Certainly the show was skewed in favor of NY pizza, and it would've been interesting to have a non-NYer or two among the judges, but what was interesting nonethelss was that it did suggest that (1) the water makes a noticeable difference in the finished pizza and (2) if you're trying to make "authentic" NY (or Chicago, or wherever) pizza it might be difficult to do if the water you're using doesn't have a chemically similar profile to the water in that city.ReplyDelete
While I'm on the subject, check out the Chicago Pizza Club link on my "Links" list for a look at the diverse world of Chicago pizza.ReplyDelete


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April 25th, 2013
Minaret destroyed at 12th-century Syrian mosque on World Heritage list
By Michael Martinez and Hamdi Alkhshali , CNN
(CNN) - Both sides in Syria's civil war were in rare agreement Wednesday: The minaret at a 12th-century mosque in Aleppo has been obliterated.
Unclear, however, was who destroyed the tower at the Great Umayyad Mosque, which has witnessed the march of nine centuries. It was just last month that a United Nations official expressed concern about the two-year war possibly damaging the mosque, a World Heritage site.
An opposition group blamed the government.
"Regime forces have committed today a new crime against human and cultural heritage by targeting the minaret of the mosque and completely destroying it," the Local Coordination Committees said. The group released a photograph of the mosque without its signature minaret, apparently reduced to rubble.
The Syrian Coalition also blamed President Bashar al-Assad's regime.FULL STORY
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About this blog
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.


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How to Spend 3 Days in Sedona
A full Sedona experience can be had in three days if you plan an itinerary with activities that highlight the natural beauty, history, and outdoor opportunities of central Arizona. Here are our top ideas for how to spend a nature-filled 72 hours.
Day 1: Top Sights
Get acquainted with scenic Sedona on a short tour that introduces you to natural and man-made attractions like Oak Creek Canyon and Chapel of the Holy Cross. Or, take advantage of the early morning light on a photography tour where you'll receive advice on capturing the scenery. Spend the afternoon in the rugged countryside to discover the natural landmarks for which Sedona is known. Depending on your interests, choose a tour that includes Native American sites and ancient rock art; check out Cathedral Rock; or follow in the footsteps of cowboys in Dry Creek Basin.
When evening rolls around, visit Blazin' M Ranch in nearby Cottonwood for a barbecue dinner, live music, and Western-themed activities like roping. If living history isn't your thing, learn about the dead on a ghost tour of Jerome, an old mining town past Cottonwood.
Day 2: Alternative Activities
Splurge on a helicopter tour to begin the day up in the air, looking down on Sedona and its high desert scenery. Afterward, discover a different side of the area on a Jeep tour that combines a tour of the desert with a visit to an Arizona winery for wine tastings. If you prefer to stay in town, opt for a Segway tour to explore Jordan Road or see the Sedona Heritage Museum.
In the evening, head out on a safari for the chance to spot local wildlife, such as elk or foxes, and enjoy the sunset in this tranquil environment. For a more mystical take on the landscape, take a sunset vortex tour to learn about this mysterious element of Sedona.
Day 3: Day Trip
Sedona's proximity to the Grand Canyon's South Rim and the Utah border—both are two to three hours's drive, respectively—offers several day trip options for those who want to see some of the geological wonders of the American southwest.
The Grand Canyon is understandably the most popular, but Antelope Canyon is a good alternative, with its sandstone slot canyon accessible only with a guided tour. If you'd like to get on the water in this desert region, consider a Colorado River rafting tour that includes floating around Horseshoe Bend. Or, see the otherworldly buttes of Monument Valley, accessible on a day trip to Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. Many day trips from Sedona include visiting the Navajo Nation or learning about the region from a Navajo guide.


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UFC interim bantamweight champion Renan Barao had a single goal in mind, but in a flash, that was all taken away.
After winning the interim belt at July's UFC 149 event, Barao (29-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) had hoped to book a fight with division champion Dominick Cruz (19-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) in an effort to unify the two belts.
Now that Cruz is back on the shelf, Barao said he's happy to take on any of the bantamweight division's top contenders, including the name that seems to be mentioned the most: Michael McDonald (15-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC).
"I was OK with the news because a lot of people were already speculating that I wasn't going to face Cruz," Barao told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) through a translator. "I wasn't that focused on him. I'll be prepared for whoever they put against me."
Cruz hasn't fought since an October 2011 title-defense victory over Demetrious Johnson. He was slated to face former WEC champ Urijah Faber this summer before a torn ACL forced him out of the bout. After surgery, Cruz was targeting a return to the octagon in early 2013. However, his body recently rejected the cadaver ligament he was given during his ACL surgery, and he was forced to endure a second procedure.
Barao had intended to wait for a fight with Cruz, but the second surgery now makes that impossible.
"My goal was to fight him because I wanted to unify the belts, but unfortunately he isn't in any condition for that," Barao said.
Cruz's injury would seem to clear the way for Barao to face McDonald, an opponent UFC President Dana White casually mentioned in recent weeks as a likely contender for the interim belt.
Barao admits he was already anticipating a potential fight with "Mayday" even before the news of Cruz's second procedure surfaced.
"I already had it in my mind that I could fight McDonald," Barao said. "He's coming off of good wins and good knockouts. It makes sense."
McDonald fought most recently at April's UFC 145 event, where he scored an impressive first-round knockout of former WEC champ Miguel Torres. The once-beaten McDonald is 5-0 under the Zuffa banner and at just 21 years old appears to be one of the division's brightest prospects.
McDonald's layoff was also due to injury after he underwent surgery to repair ligaments in his hand. However, he recently told MMAjunkie.com that he's resumed full training and would like to fight in early 2013.
UFC officials have yet to make an official announcement, but Barao said with the Cruz fight now an impossibility, he's happy to take on anyone the promotion wants to put in front of him.
"I really wanted to face Cruz, but this injury doesn't affect me in any way," Barao said. "I never stop training, and I'm here to fight anyone. I will always give it my best."
For more on the UFC's upcoming schedule, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.
(Pictured: Renan Barao)


text: Indian Arts and Culture Buddhism The Diamond Sutra, a Jewel of Mahayana Buddhism Share Flipboard Email Print Buddhist monks display a scroll that is a calligraphy work of the Diamond Sutra. Corbis via Getty Images / Getty Images Buddhism Origins and Developments Figures and Texts Becoming A Buddhist Tibetan and Vajrayana Buddhism By Barbara O'Brien Barbara O'Brien Zen Buddhism Expert B.J., Journalism, University of Missouri Barbara O'Brien is a Zen Buddhist practitioner who studied at Zen Mountain Monastery. She is the author of "Rethinking Religion" and has covered religion for The Guardian, Tricycle.org, and other outlets. Learn about our Editorial Process Updated on June 25, 2019 The Diamond Sutra is one of the most revered texts of Mahayana Buddhism and a jewel of the world's religious literature. The Diamond Sutra is a brief text. A typical English translation contains about 6,000 words, and an average reader could finish it in less than 30 minutes, easily. But if you were to ask ten dharma teachers what it is about, you might get ten different answers, because the Diamond defies literal interpretation. The sutra's title in Sanskrit, Vajracchedika Prajnaparamita Sutra, could be very roughly translated as the "diamond-cutting perfection of wisdom sutra." Thich Nhat Hanh says the title means "the diamond that cuts through afflictions, ignorance, illusion, or delusion." It is also sometimes called the Diamond Cutter Sutra, or the Vajra Sutra. The Prajnaparamita Sutras The Diamond is part a large canon of early Mahayana sutras called the Prajnaparamita Sutras. Prajnaparamita means "perfection of wisdom." In Mahayana Buddhism, the perfection of wisdom is the realization or direct experience of sunyata (emptiness). The Heart Sutra also is one of the Prajnaparamita Sutras. Sometimes these sutras are referred to as the "prajna" or "wisdom" literature. Mahayana Buddhist legend says that the Prajnaparamita Sutras were dictated by the historical Buddha to various disciples. They were then hidden for about 500 years and only discovered when people were ready to learn from them. However, scholars believe they were written in India beginning in the 1st century BCE and continuing for a few more centuries. For the most part, the oldest surviving versions of these texts are Chinese translations that date from the early first millennium CE. The several texts of the Prajnaparamita Sutras vary from very long to very short and are often named according to the number of lines it takes to write them. So, one is the Perfection of Wisdom in 25,000 Lines. Another is the Perfection of Wisdom in 20,000 Lines, and then 8,000 lines, and so on. The Diamond is The Perfection of Wisdom in 300 Lines. It is often taught within Buddhism that the shorter Prajnaparamita sutras are distillations of the longer ones and that the brief and highly distilled Diamond and Heart sutras were written last. But many scholars suspect the shorter sutras are the older ones, and the longer sutras are elaborations. History of the Diamond Sutra Scholars believe the original text of the Diamond Sutra was written in India some time in the 2nd century CE. Kumarajiva is believed to have made the first translation into Chinese in 401 CE, and the Kumarajiva text seems to be the one most often translated into English. Prince Chao-Ming (501-531), a son of Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty, divided the Diamond Sutra into 32 chapters and gave each chapter a title. This chapter division has been preserved to this day, although translators do not always use Prince Chao-Ming's titles. The Diamond Sutra played an important role in the life of Huineng (638-713), the Sixth Patriarch of Chan (Zen). It is recorded in Huineng's autobiography that when he was an adolescent selling firewood in a marketplace, he heard someone reciting the Diamond Sutra and immediately became enlightened. It is believed the Diamond Sutra was translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan in the late 8th or early 9th century. The translation is attributed to a disciple of Padmasambhava named Yeshe De and an Indian scholar named Silendrabodhi. An even older manuscript of the Diamond Sutra was discovered in the ruins of a Buddhist monastery in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, written in a language of Gandhara. The World's Oldest Dated Book A complete woodblock printed scroll of the Diamond Sutra, dated 868 CE, was among several texts preserved in a sealed cave near Dunhuang, in Gansu Province, China. In 1900 a Chinese monk, Abbot Wang Yuanlu, discovered the sealed door to the cave, and in 1907 a Hungarian-British explorer named Marc Aurel Stein was allowed to see inside the cave. Stein chose some scrolls randomly and purchased them from Abbot Wang. Eventually, these scrolls were taken to London and given to the British Library. It would be a few years before European scholars recognized the significance of the Diamond Sutra scroll and realized how old it was. It was printed nearly 600 years before Gutenberg printed his first Bible. What the Sutra Is About The text describes the Buddha dwelling in Anathapindika's grove with 1,250 monks. Most of the text takes the form of a dialogue between the Buddha and a disciple named Subhuti. There is a common view that the Diamond Sutra primarily is about impermanence. This is because of a short verse in the last chapter that seems to be about impermanence and which often is mistaken as an explanation of the 31 enigmatic chapters that preceded it. To say that the Diamond Sutra is only about impermanence, however, does not do it justice. The verses in the Diamond Sutra address the nature of reality and the activity of bodhisattvas. Throughout the sutra, the Buddha instructs us to not be bound by concepts, even concepts of "Buddha" and "dharma." This is a deep and subtle text, not meant to be read like a textbook or instruction manual. Although Huineng may have realized enlightenment when he first heard the sutra, other great teachers have said the text revealed itself to them slowly. The late John Daido Loori Roshi said that when he first tried to read the Diamond Sutra, "It drove me crazy. Then I started to read it the way the translator suggested it, a little at a time, not trying to understand it, just reading it. I did that for about two years. Every night before I went to bed I would read one section. It was so boring it would put me right to sleep. But after a while, it started to make sense." However, the "sense" was not intellectual or conceptual. If you want to explore the Diamond Sutra, the guidance of a teacher is recommended. You can find a number of translations of varying quality online. For a more in-depth look at the Diamond Sutra, see "The Diamond That Cuts Through Illusion" by Thich Nhat Hanh; and "The Diamond Sutra" by Red Pine. Cite this Article Format mla apa chicago Your Citation O'Brien, Barbara. "The Diamond Sutra, a Jewel of Mahayana Buddhism." Learn Religions, Aug. 27, 2020, learnreligions.com/the-diamond-sutra-450100. O'Brien, Barbara. (2020, August 27). The Diamond Sutra, a Jewel of Mahayana Buddhism. Retrieved from https://www.learnreligions.com/the-diamond-sutra-450100 O'Brien, Barbara. "The Diamond Sutra, a Jewel of Mahayana Buddhism." Learn Religions. https://www.learnreligions.com/the-diamond-sutra-450100 (accessed March 20, 2023). copy citation


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Top 5 Kitchen Tools for Cooking Healthy
These days, it seems like there is a kitchen gadget for just about everything -- so which tools are must haves for making a healthy meal? Here are five I'd be lost without.
These hand-held graters are perfect for citrus, hard cheeses, garlic, ginger, nutmeg and chocolate. A small amount of any of these ingredients can add tremendous taste without a lot of calories. Citrus zest adds flavor, essential oils and specs of color –- add orange zest to a vinaigrette or lemon zest to cupcake frosting. Make a gremalata for roasted potatoes. Grate hard cheeses such as Parmesan or Romano over pasta or bruschetta. There is nothing like the smell of freshly grated nutmeg –- add it to creamy sauces and or baked fruit dishes. For a low calorie treat, sprinkle dark chocolate shavings in your coffee or hot chocolate.
I used to think I needed to chop everything by hand and only resorted to the clunky food processor for large jobs -- then I discovered the mini chopper. It's the perfect size for small ingredients such as garlic, ginger and fresh herbs. Some models even come with an adjustable blade for grinding spices. Chop up some cilantro, garlic, ginger, serrano chili and scallion, add to a bowl with some lime juice, honey and canola oil, and you have a healthy and flavorful marinade for chicken, fish or vegetables.
Toby makes fun of me but I am a huge fan of the reamer! Get all the juice out of your winter citrus with this simple hand-held tool. A citrus press is also wonderful for this. Add vitamin C and bright citrus flavor to sweet and savory dishes. Liven up dips. Juice lemons, limes, grapefruit, blood oranges -- whatever!
Measuring cups and spoons are a healthy cook's must-haves. You don't have to measure everything you eat, but take the time to measure high-calorie ingredients such as oils, nuts and cheeses. A good looking scale is gorgeous on any kitchen counter and will come in handy too.
It's not always easy to tell if meat is cooked properly. The easiest solution? A meat thermometer, which also works well for poultry and fish too.
Try your tools out with these recipes:


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International Collaboration
ISUCT is developing broad international contacts with universities and educational institutions of many countries of the world including Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, The USA, China, Mongolia, Korea, Japan and others.
Recently our scientists have become the winners of various competitions and now they are carrying out joint research in the frameworks of a number of international programmes and projects both of scientific and educational nature.
According to the Collaboration Agreements students, post-graduates, and faculty members exchange is being carried out and textbooks with foreign co-authors are published. The main results of the joint researches are usually discussed at the international scientific conferences both in Russia and abroad.
Training leading to postgraduate and doctorate degrees is also accomplished.
The best students of the University prepare their diploma projects and take their practical course abroad.
Many times the students and post-graduate students from ISUCT were the winners of the all-Russian competition and obtained grants and special awards.


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Our Mission is... Safety First!
Klein ISD is dedicated to the belief that safety is of primary importance in our educational mission. We are committed to providing a safe environment that promotes the well-being of every student and employee.
Fire Marshal Checklist
Asbestos Management
The district conducts six-month surveillances, as well as three-year re-inspections of building materials that contain asbestos in compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Code of Federal Regulations. These tests have confirmed that all Klein ISD buildings are in compliance and that the district provides a safe environment for staff and students. Reports are on file in the Klein ISD Safety Office. For questions, call 832.249.4746.
Services Provided:
Important Downloads
Safety Training in KISD
Hazard Communication Program
For More Information:
Safety & Risk Management
Klein Central Office
7200 Spring Cypress Rd.
Klein, TX 77379


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With massive dinosaurs towering above, tiny female insects called thrips had just dusted themselves with hundreds of pollen grains from a gingko tree more than 100 million years ago when they perished, only to be preserved in tree resin called amber.
The discovery, detailed this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the oldest known record of insect pollination.
(Pollination occurs when either the wind or an animal, mostly insects, deliver pollen from a plant's male reproductive organ to the female parts either on the same plant or another one.)
During the lower Cretaceous Period when the newly discovered thrips lived, flowering plants would have just started to diversify, eventually replacing conifers as the dominant species, the researchers said.
"This is the oldest direct evidence for pollination, and the only one from the age of the dinosaurs," study researcher Carmen Soriano said in a statement. "The co-evolution of flowering plants and insects, thanks to pollination, is a great evolutionary success story."
Soriano and an international team of scientists studying the two pieces of amber, which were discovered in what is now northern Spain, say the specimens date back between 110 million and 105 million years ago. [Photos of the Ancient Pollinators]
They found six female thrips, also called thysanopterans, enclosed in the amber, with hundreds of pollen grains attached to their tiny bodies — the insects are just 2 millimeters long. The thrips, the researchers found, belong to a new genus now named Gymnopollisthrips, with two new species, G. minor and G. major.
After the amber pieces' initial discovery, they were then kept in a collection of the Museo de Ciencias Naturales de Álava in Spain.
To get a closer look at the pollination event frozen in time, the team used synchrotron X-ray tomography at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), focusing on the most representative of the amber-encapsulated thrips. In synchrotron X-ray tomography, charged particles are sent speeding through magnetic fields; these particles release high-energy light that can then pierce opaque materials to reveal three-dimensional, high-resolution images.
The images revealed various features of the pollen grains, together suggesting the grains came from a kind of cycad, or gingko, tree, the researchers said. Gingkos have separate male and female trees, with males producing small pollen cones and females bearing ovules at the ends of stalks that develop into seeds after pollination.
The researchers wondered what these pollen transporters would've gotten in return for their services so long ago. The benefit must have been the opportunity to pick up pollen food for the thrips' larvae, said the researchers, adding that this benefit would have nudged the emergence of the ringed hairs specialized for pollen transport.
"Thrips might indeed turn out to be one of the first pollinator groups in geological history, long before evolution turned some of them into flower pollinators," Soriano said.
Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.


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A garage sale, all for a good cause!
Two years ago, Ekta Mittal, co-founder, Maraa and Yashaswini Raghunandan, a film maker and artist started working on their film "Behind the Tin Sheets", a production that documents the lives of workers involved in building the Bangalore Metro.
Here is a synopsis of the film from their website: "There is no simple meaning to the film, it sets out to locate and map multiple meanings from the migrating world(s) of the worker – at home in the city, at work on the Metro, in his dailyness – the mundane and the magic – he emerges as the storyteller. In search of the workers stories, philosophies and fantasies, the film will blend magical elements from their stories within the realistic environment that they inhabit."
A fellowship from the Centre for Media and Culture Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences supported the making of the film to a certain extent. But the duo need another lakh of rupees to finish the post production including the sound, editing etc.
To help complete the film and mobilize finances, a garage sale is being organised in the premises of Variety Book House on Church Street, from 4-8 pm on Saturday, March 26.
There will be books, trinkets, paintings, Cds/DVDs, t-shirts and other knick knacks contributed by people, available for purchase. You can participate by either donating items, buying items available during the sale or sending money directly to Ekta and Yahas.
For more details, email Ekta at forekta at gmail.com and Zainab Bawa on bawazainab79 at gmail.com.


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Background on Engage:
- BRICUP's guest Bongani Masuku falls foul of Human Rights Commission
- BRICUP meeting Leeds – Bongani Masuku no longer speaking?
- UCU holding a secret boycott strategy conference. Bongani Masuku to be a guest of UCU
The British Commission for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP) with the University and College Union (UCU), plan to host a speaker, Bongani Masuku, who has been under investigation by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) for a complaint of hate speech lodged by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) on March 26th 2009. The SAHRC recently ruled to uphold the complaint, finding that statements Bongani Masuku had made did amount to hate speech.
Copied to the SAJBD, here is the ruling of the South African Human Rights Commission.
From it:
"21. On the day in question Mr Masuku was speaking to students who included both Jewish Zionists and Palestinian supporters. There appeared to already have been noted tension between these two groups. Therefore by Mr Masuku making those remarks he surely intended to incite violence and hatred that was already potentially imminent amongst these two groups. COSATU members of Palestinian supporters present at this rally could easily have been incited to hate, and even attack their Jewish counterparts. This is exactly what Section 16(2) of the Constitution seeks to prevent.
22. Mr Masuku's heated statements made amidst an already tense audience appeared to advocate hatred against Jews and all other supporters of Israel. This is inciting violence based on religion, an area which freedom of expression does not protect.
23. Mr Masuku in his response to the allegations put to him by the South African Human Rights Commission, states that he was heckled by what he refers to "as a particular section of the audience – most of whom seemed to be members of the South African Union of Jewish Students". This statement leave little doubt that the references made by him referred to Jews.
24. The statement that "it will be hell" for any group of students, taken in its proper context is intimidatory and threatening. It is conveyed as a warning to the effect that should one support Israel, one would suffer harm. Harm for the purposes of Section 16(2), as confirmed in the Freedom Front decision is wider than mere physical harm.
25. In responding to the allegations relating to the emails sent by him, Mr Masuku fails to deal with the context in which he used the words "…whether Jew or whomsoever does so, must not just be encouraged but forced to leave…" These words in effect come across that unless South Africans agree with his views they should be forced to leave South Africa.
26. In view of the content of the speech made and emails sent by Mr Masuku it is clear that the expressions amount to the advocacy of hatred and thus would not fall under the protection of Section 16(1) of the Constitution.
27. The comments and statements made are of an extreme nature that advocate and imply that the Jewish and Israeli community are to be despised, scorned, ridiculed and thus subjecting them to ill-treatment on the basis of their religious affiliation. A prima facie case of hate speech is clearly established as the statements and comments by Mr. Masuku are offensive and unpalatable to society.
28. In light of the above, the Commission hereby finds that the statements made by Mr. Bongani Masuku amounts to hate speech."
The University and College Union is willing to sacrifice its anti-racist credibility to welcome and host a person who unashamedly, as an anti-racist and without a trace of irony, demands that his country's Jews be menaced. This is a perversion of the necessary and valid campaign for Palestinian rights and a perversion of anti-racism.
Update: Harry's Place – Bongani Masuku's claimed constitutional right to hate speech. South Africa's Palestine Solidarity Committee alleges gullibility on the part of their country's Human Rights Commission, accuse it of issuing "a pack of lies", accuse South Africa's organised Jewish community of "constant, frivolous, and false accusations of 'anti-Semitism'", and declare their intention to appeal against the ruling above.


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ABC, CBS trying to take down Brian Williams with 2 different approaches
Evening newscasts on ABC and CBS are both gaining ground on market leader Brian Williams of NBC News, but that's one of the few things they have in common.
Behind Diane Sawyer, second-place ABC is making strides with a sleek "World News" that emphasizes the American family, news that hits home and the cultural zeitgeist. Scott Pelley has revealed himself to be a traditionalist at "CBS Evening News," leading a show weighty with significant national and international events.
NBC's "Nightly News" remains in first place, where it has generally been since the late 1990s except for a brief run by Charles Gibson at ABC. The Nielsen company said NBC's viewership is down from last year while ABC and CBS are up, with ABC in July winning a week among the key 25-to-54-year-old demographic for the first time since 2008.
Despite decades-long prophecies of doom, network evening newscasts remain a vital part of television's landscape, collectively reaching more than 22 million people each weeknight. Often, Williams' newscast is more popular than NBC's prime-time programming.
Now there's a creative push to distinguish broadcasts that once seemed interchangeable.
"We recognize the environment has changed very significantly," said James Goldston, ABC's senior vice president of news. "The days when an evening newscast can act as a digest of the day's news are gone."
What's happening in the evening is similar to the morning, in terms of content. ABC's "Good Morning America" has swept past NBC's "Today" with a breezy show on the tip of pop culture and hosts that ooze chemistry. CBS remains in third, but has gained ground since it stopped trying to imitate its rivals.
The most visible recent sign of the different approaches came not in the evening but a few hours before. On July 22, when Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton became parents for the first time, ABC cut away from regular afternoon programming for more than an hour to talk about the birth, coverage that featured Barbara Walters.
CBS didn't bother with a special report, a judgment that stood out more because NBC did the same as ABC. Pelley reported the story on the evening news.
CBS News President David Rhodes quipped that "it wasn't the Second Coming."
"We tried to not completely lose our minds covering it," Rhodes said. "I don't think we were making a statement. I think the others were making a statement about themselves by doing it."
Goldston is fine with that. ABC has stayed on the story, airing a "World News" report last Wednesday featuring Prince William talking about the experience of being a new dad.
"Millions and millions of people in America were interested in the birth of the royal baby," he said. "It's news. We just report the news."
Day-to-day, the differences are more muted. In 13 of 23 weekdays in July, the two evening newscasts led with the same story, according to news consultant Andrew Tyndall. On some of the days they diverged, ABC picked stories with more populist appeal. One day, ABC led with weather and forest fires, while CBS started with Egyptian politics. ABC led another day when the women kept imprisoned in a Cleveland home released a video message; CBS had a follow-up report on the San Francisco plane crash. On July 24, CBS began its broadcast with economic news, while ABC opened by reporting the name of William and Kate's baby.
Getting beyond the day's obvious headlines is where different priorities emerge.
ABC frequently airs detailed reports by Paula Faris that give concrete advice on how families can find savings; she recently talked about trimming fees included in home sales and costs related to sending someone off to college. The "Real Money" series is less "news" than practical advice.
Sawyer's daily "Instant Index" has voiceovers on stories like a study on successful marriages and soda companies defending the use of sugar substitutes. She's shown YouTube-worthy clips of a panda bear mom welcoming back her baby and a confused grandmother throwing her drink at a bride instead of confetti.
"At the end of the broadcast, people not only feel empowered, smarter and enlightened, they know some of the things going on in the world that are interesting, that people are talking about," said Michael Corn, "World News" executive producer.
At CBS, "we like to have news all the way through the broadcast," said Patricia Shevlin, executive producer. That doesn't mean all protein and no garnish: the panda clip ran on CBS, too. Yet while ABC played up a tearful Jennifer Garner and Halle Berry testifying in favor of a California law restricting paparazzi, CBS ignored the celebrities.
Tyndall's content analysis also illustrates priorities. For instance, ABC spent twice as much time as CBS on winter weather stories and liked tales of lottery winners. CBS has given roughly four times the airtime to stories on gun control than ABC, with more than twice the coverage of Syria. CBS spent 47 minutes on federal budget squabbles and the sequester to ABC's 18 minutes.
"I don't think people watch CBS News because of cooking and concerts and royal updates," Rhodes said. "They do watch us for Washington news, international coverage, health and science."
CBS' viewership is up 7 percent this year to 6.4 million people per episode, Nielsen said. CBS is down 2 percent, however, among that 25-to-54-year-old demographic. That indicates "CBS Evening News" is winning back many traditional viewers — the people who once watched Walter Cronkite, not just read about him — more than gaining new ones.
ABC's audience is up 3 percent to 7.6 million, while NBC is down 2 percent to 8.4 million.
Goldston said ABC works under the assumption that most viewers know the headlines when they tune in and are looking for something new. ABC emphasizes its own exclusives, leading "World News" last month when Robin Roberts interviewed a juror in the George Zimmerman trial and last week shuffling the broadcast at the last minute for a Brian Ross report on drone strikes in Yemen.
Shevlin said CBS hopes vivid reporting can take viewers inside the news of the day — sometimes literally, as Pelley hits the road on big stories.
"We have more than 140 characters," she said.


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Are Nicolas Cage and John Travolta Undead?
There were those who laughed off a recent eBay listing claiming to offer a Civil War-era photograph of Nicolas Cage (he went by Jack Mord back then, but that was probably just an anagram) for the cool asking price of $1 million. "Personally," the seller wrote, "I believe it's him and that he is some sort of walking undead/vampire, etcetera, who quickens/reinvents himself once every 75 years or so."
"Photoshop!" they said. "Smoke and mirrors trickery!" Yeah? Well, get a load of Old Timey Travolta. Who's laughing now, hm?
Available on eBay for a comparatively reasonable $50,000, this ambrotype was taken "around 1850," the description states, and features the image of a young man who bears a striking resemblance to middle-aged John Travolta. The seller eschews vampire lore, however, postulating instead that the actor might perhaps be a wormhole-hopping captain of the S.S. Xenuprise:
For those of you who don't know, John Travolta is a Scientologist and many Scientologists believe in a type of reincarnation. Of course Time travel can't be ruled out as well.
True, it can't. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to hop into my own time machine, set it to a few years ago, and kill whoever greenlit Old Dogs and Season of the Witch. [eBay, images via eBay]


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Panel Discussion Looks Back On AIDS 2012, Explores Possible Topics For AIDS 2014
Devex reports on a panel discussion held in Washington, D.C. Wednesday during which experts "looked back at the main surprises of the just-concluded [XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012)], and offered predictions on what the 2014 follow-up [in Melbourne, Australia] will focus on." The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Kaiser Family Foundation convened the panel, which discussed, among other things, the so-called "cure agenda" and how it might feature in Melbourne, according to Devex. Chris Beyrer, president-elect of the International AIDS Society, which organizes the biannual event, noted that AIDS 2014 might place more focus on human rights and governance issues, according to the news service, which adds Greg Millet, senior policy adviser in the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, pointed out that HIV prevalence among men is higher in countries that criminalize homosexuality. "Holding the conference in Australia should increase participation by Asian countries, said J. Stephen Morrison, senior vice president and director of the Global Health Policy Center" at CSIS, Devex writes (Brookland, 8/2). Jennifer Kates, director of global health and HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, and David Brown, staff writer at the Washington Post, also participated as panelists, according to the CSIS event page (8/3).
The KFF Daily Global Health Policy Report summarized news and information on global health policy from hundreds of sources, from May 2009 through December 2020. All summaries are archived and available via search.


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Story by
Anna Heim
Anna Heim is the founder of MonoLibre and a freelance writer for various tech and startup publications. She is a polyglot French news junkie Anna Heim is the founder of MonoLibre and a freelance writer for various tech and startup publications. She is a polyglot French news junkie with a love for technology.
Food delivery website Pedidos Ya now operates in Peru and in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte, Brazilian blog Webholic reports. Following its expansion, the Uruguayan startup is now operating in seven Latin American territories – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Puerto Rico and Uruguay.
Pedidos Ya currently boasts a database of over 4,000 restaurants, including 200 in Peru. According to its marketing director, Alvaro Garcia, the country is a welcome addition to its offering:
"The Peruvian cuisine is well recognized in Latin America – so much than there are many restaurants specialized in this type of food in the main cities of the countries in which we operates. In addition, the country has a strong delivery culture, so it is part of our goals to be present in Peru and seize the many opportunities it represents for us."
Peru aside, the startup is also pursuing its expansion in Brazil, where it is known as Pedidos Já. Belo Horizonte is the country's third largest metropolitan area, which makes it a strategic target for the company as competition is stirring up.
As we reported, the food delivery space is heating up in Latin America. While Pedidos Ya is backed by London-based VC fund Atomico and by Kaszek Ventures, it will have to compete against Brazil's Peixe Urbano.
As you may remember, the company is expanding its scope beyond daily deals, and bought a food delivery startup which now operates as Peixe Urbano Delivery in Rio de Janeiro, Campinas and São Paulo.
Image credit: Pond5
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