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State Capitol Q&A: Senators hear wiretapped conversations
The 59 state senators who will decide whether Gov. Rod Blagojevich gets to keep his job finally heard some of the wiretapped conversations that federal authorities collected as part of their criminal investigation of the governor.
Attorney David Ellis, the lead prosecutor in Blagojevich's impeachment trial, played the four recordings on Tuesday, the second trial day. Here's a closer look at the tapes.
Q: What was in the recordings?
A: The brief recordings capture a variety of conversations, not all of them directly involving the governor. Federal authorities have said they concern a piece of legislation, related to the horseracing industry, that Blagojevich was planning to sign in exchange for a campaign contribution.
Here's a synopsis:
_ In a recording made Nov. 13, 2008, Blagojevich is talking with his brother, Robert.
Robert Blagojevich says he "talked to Lon. And, uh, he says Johnny Johnston is good for it."
The governor says OK and then adds later: "Right - before the end of the year, though, right?"
_ In a recording from Dec. 3, 2008, "Lobbyist 1" calls horseracing track executive John Johnston. "Lobbyist 1" has been identified as former Blagojevich chief of staff Lon Monk, and he refers to himself as Lon during the conversation.
He asks Johnston whether he can come to see him.
_ In a recording made Dec. 3, less than two hours after the previous one, "Lobbyist 1" calls Blagojevich. He tells the governor he's just left a meeting with someone, where he discussed the other person's "commitment" and the possible "skittishness" that could arise because of the timing of the commitment and a bill-signing.
"Good," Blagojevich says.
_ In a Dec. 4 recording, Lobbyist 1 suggests to Blagojevich that he call John Johnston "just to say hello, um, you know, I'm working on the timing of this thing, but it's gonna get done."
Blagojevich says he'll make the call and tell Johnston "we want to do an event" downstate.
Q: Are these the only secret recordings the feds have of Blagojevich?
A: No. But they're the only ones that have been disclosed to the public. Written excerpts of some of the other tapes appeared in the federal government's criminal complaint.
Q: Why were these recordings played, and not others, such as the one in which Blagojevich is said to have described his power to appoint a new U.S. senator as "[expletive] golden"?
A: The short answer is that's what U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald wanted.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Walsh of Fitzgerald's office sat beside FBI agent Daniel Cain as senators' questions to Cain were read aloud on Tuesday afternoon. Cain signed the affidavit that described Blagojevich's wiretapped phone calls.
One senator wanted to know why these particular four recordings were disclosed to the public.
Walsh said it was a decision made by the U.S. attorney in an effort to protect the criminal investigation of Blagojevich.
Q: What's the possible relevance of these four recordings?
A: Ultimately, each senator will have to decide on that for him or herself.
But House prosecutors, who want the Senate to remove Blagojevich from office, view the recordings as part of the evidence showing how the governor repeatedly abused his powers.
Blagojevich, who isn't attending his impeachment trial, has contended in various TV interviews recently that the recordings are being taken out of context. He says once people get the full picture, they'll agree with him that he's done nothing wrong.
Q: Did the recordings that were played on Tuesday include foul language?
A: No.
According to transcripts, certain portions of the recordings were redacted - or edited out - before they were played in the Senate. We don't know what words got removed in that process.
Q: Can I listen to the recordings for myself, and can I read transcripts of them?
A: Yes.
The recordings and transcripts are posted on the Illinois General Assembly's Web site: www.ilga.gov.
From there, look beneath the heading, "Senate," and click on "Audio Recording of Intercepted Communications."
Adriana Colindres can be reached at (217) 782-6292 firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Derrick Waddell created a Facebook template for historical figures. This template, available through the Google Docs public template gallery, asks students to complete a Facebook profile for famous people throughout history. The template has a place for pictures, an "about me" section, a friends column, and a map to plot the travels of historical figures. Please note, this template will not result in an actual Facebook account being created. Check out Derrick Waddell's blog Teach the Cloud where he has shared a video tutorial on using the Historical Facebook Template among other useful Google tutorials. The video is embedded below.
The Wall Machine allows users to generate a series of fake Facebook updates. You can add pictures to the fake profiles you create using The Wall Machine. The downside to The Wall Machine is that you have to sign in using your real Facebook account. So if Facebook is blocked in your school, The Wall Machine probably won't work for you. Watch the short video below for an overview of The Wall Machine.
The Wall Machine - Demo from kais on Vimeo.

subset: commoncrawl


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Movie review: 'The Other Woman' is too predictable and outrageous
Let's pretend that I didn't actually see this movie, that I only heard about it. And let's say that what I heard is that it has some very funny parts, and that every actor plays his or her character for all it's worth. Just that little bit of information would get me interested.
OK, I did indeed see it, and those factors are true. Too bad that I didn't also hear about the story's unrelenting implausibility, the unnecessarily long running time, and the preponderance of … oh, my, what's the best way to put this … poop jokes.
"The Other Woman" which, for reasons that will be explained shortly, should be called "The Other Women," is a far-too-calculated, fairly surprise-free, supposedly outrageous comedy that throws together characters who in real life would never give each other the time of day. The film asks us to go on their journey of bliss turned to deception turned to revenge, but its makers don't seem very concerned that none of it makes any sense.
Kate (Leslie Mann) and Mark (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau – "Game of Thrones" fans know him as the King Slayer), have a happy, well-off New York life. But Mark, who makes scads of dough by investing in fake startup companies, is also having a happy and wild fling with high-powered lawyer Carly (Cameron Diaz). Kate has no clue of the affair. Carly doesn't know that he's married. Kate is sweet and ditzy and clueless to the ways of the world. Carly is tough and sharp and, for once, content with dating just one guy. Mark is a total cad. He's also sloppy. I mean, why would his mistress know his home address, where she can just pop up one day in the skimpiest of outfits, and have the door answered by his wife?
Cut to the premise: Both women find out they've been lied to. Both decide, after an extended, overplayed scenario in which they morph from rivals to friends, to get even with the guy. Both discover that – and here's why the title is inaccurate – there's a third woman: the buxom and brainless Carly (Kate Upton). Yeah, the guy is cheating on his wife and on his mistress. So this all turns into a three-on-one revenge story.
The funny moments are almost exclusively due to Leslie Mann's gift for being able to spew out bursts of wildly up and down emotional dialogue along with a dose of physical comedy – and Diaz shows that she knows how to take a convincing pratfall or two, as does Coster-Waldau.
But there's so much that doesn't work, starting with the script having the feeling that it's being stretched out, that entire scenes and characters could be eliminated without affecting the story. We really don't need another movie with diarrhea jokes. Any yucks that come from the presence of a great Dane that just keeps getting in the way are marginal at best. Carly has an assistant in her office (Nicki Minaj) who dresses to kill but is only around to make wisecracks that are disguised as good advice, but only drag things down. And there's Don Johnson, playing Carly's rich and randy dad, whose purpose in the film doesn't go beyond being there so audience members who are old enough will point at the screen and say, "Look! Don Johnson!"
Not distracting enough? The pop songs on the soundtrack should do the trick. When our heroines start spying on Mark and his activities, we get the theme from "Mission: Impossible." When the trio gets into juvenile revenge mode, they do so to "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." When the action sweeps out into the streets of Manhattan, Sinatra is belting out "New York, New York." Really, how blatantly obvious can you get?
In the end, there's comeuppance, in the exact form that anyone who's seen any film even somewhat similar to this one will be expecting … OK, with a little additional slapstick. But despite all of the movie's errant ways, credit's got to go to whoever came up with the nonsensical but funny line of dialogue uttered by one of the characters: "When I get this feeling I'm usually always right."
Ed Symkus covers movies for More Content Now.
THE OTHER WOMAN Written by Melissa Stack; directed by Nick Cassavetes With Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Kate Upton, Don Johnson Rated PG-13


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Researchers from North Carolina State Univ. have discovered a new phase of solid carbon, called Q-carbon, which is distinct from the known phases of graphite and diamond. They have also developed a technique for using Q-carbon to make diamond-related structures at room temperature and at ambient atmospheric pressure in air.
Phases are distinct forms of the same material. Graphite is one of the solid phases of carbon; diamond is another.
"We've now created a third solid phase of carbon," says Jay Narayan, the John C. Fan Distinguished Chair Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at NC State and lead author of three papers describing the work. "The only place it may be found in the natural world would be possibly in the core of some planets."
Q-carbon has some unusual characteristics. For one thing, it is ferromagnetic—which other solid forms of carbon are not.
"We didn't even think that was possible," Narayan says.
In addition, Q-carbon is harder than diamond, and glows when exposed to even low levels of energy.
"Q-carbon's strength and low work-function – its willingness to release electrons—make it very promising for developing new electronic display technologies," Narayan says.
But Q-carbon can also be used to create a variety of single-crystal diamond objects. To understand that, you have to understand the process for creating Q-carbon.
Researchers start with a substrate, such as such as sapphire, glass or a plastic polymer. The substrate is then coated with amorphous carbon—elemental carbon that, unlike graphite or diamond, does not have a regular, well-defined crystalline structure. The carbon is then hit with a single laser pulse lasting approximately 200 nsec. During this pulse, the temperature of the carbon is raised to 4,000 K (or around 3,727 C) and then rapidly cooled. This operation takes place at one atmosphere—the same pressure as the surrounding air.
The end result is a film of Q-carbon, and researchers can control the process to make films between 20 nm and 500 nm thick.
By using different substrates and changing the duration of the laser pulse, the researchers can also control how quickly the carbon cools. By changing the rate of cooling, they are able to create diamond structures within the Q-carbon.
"We can create diamond nanoneedles or microneedles, nanodots or large-area diamond films, with applications for drug delivery, industrial processes and for creating high-temperature switches and power electronics," Narayan says. "These diamond objects have a single-crystalline structure, making them stronger than polycrystalline materials. And it is all done at room temperature and at ambient atmosphere—we're basically using a laser like the ones used for laser eye surgery. So, not only does this allow us to develop new applications, but the process itself is relatively inexpensive."
And, if researchers want to convert more of the Q-carbon to diamond, they can simply repeat the laser-pulse/cooling process.
If Q-carbon is harder than diamond, why would someone want to make diamond nanodots instead of Q-carbon ones? Because we still have a lot to learn about this new material.
"We can make Q-carbon films, and we're learning its properties, but we are still in the early stages of understanding how to manipulate it," Narayan says. "We know a lot about diamond, so we can make diamond nanodots. We don't yet know how to make Q-carbon nanodots or microneedles. That's something we're working on."
NC State has filed two provisional patents on the Q-carbon and diamond creation techniques.
Source: North Carolina State Univ.


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3 Fold Black Wrought Iron Large Fireplace Screen
If you are in need of a larger fireplace screen to fit your fireplace you may want to take a look at this Black Wrought Iron Fireplace Screen. It comes in four sizes to fit large fireplaces to protect your room from flying embers while letting the heat from the fireplace enter the room. A handle on each side panel makes this fireplace screen easy to move. And the black wrought iron goes with many fireplace tool sets. To find a fireplace tool to go with this screen check out our extensive Black Fireplace Tools and Wrought Iron Fireplace Tools collection.
Free shipping saves you up to $38.00 when you purchase this fireplace screen from ToolsForFireplaces.com.
• Finish: Black Wrought Iron
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ How to Select Your Fireplace Screen Size: Measure the height and the width of your fireplace opening. For Single Panel Fireplace Screen - Add 1-2 inches to the height and length measurements to determine screen size. For Folding Panel Fireplace Screens - Add 10-12 inches to the width and 1-3 inches to the height measurements to determine screen size. For Additional Screen Sizing Information Click Here
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For Your Kombucha-Addicted Friend: A Make-Your-Own Kombucha Kit
People who like kombucha really like kombucha! We probably all have at least one friend who can't seem to get through a day without downing a bottle. This holiday season, give them the gift that truly keeps on giving: a kit to brew batch after batch of their very own kombucha.
What to Get:
Scoby: This is a round, flat, creamy-colored disk that does the actual job of fermenting the tea. You only need one — the same scoby can be used to brew batch after batch of kombucha.
Tea: For a starter kit, pick a nice black tea or a blend of black and green tea. Looseleaf or bagged teas are fine.
Sugar: Your gift recipient will probably have their own sugar in the cupboard, but a small bag of nice organic sugar can round out this gift quite nicely.
1-Gallon Glass Jar: Most recipes call for brewing a gallon of kombucha, which makes a 1-gallon glass jar the ideal brewing vessel. It's also handy for packaging up everything for the kit!
Cheesecloth: Add a square of cheesecloth for covering the mouth of the gallon jug.
Bottles: I love bottling the finished kombucha in swing-top bottle. They're pretty and the kombucha gets really fizzy in the bottle. You can usually find these jars in 16-ounce and 32-ounce sizes.
A Copy of the Recipe: Last but not least, include instructions on making the kombucha:
Where to Buy:
• Kombucha Brooklyn: You can buy a basic starter kit with 1-gallon jar, tea, and scoby ($49.95) as well as fun teas, flavorings, growlers for storing the finished kombucha, and other kombucha accesories.
• Cultures for Health: A great resource for everything from the scoby to swing-top bottles.
Related: My First Experience Brewing Kombucha
(Images: all images by Emma Christensen, except 1-gallon jar via Kombucha Brooklyn)


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Crème brûlée
Is there anything better than a creamy, scrumptious dessert that mixes all the best ingredients to make something to savor? :-) Crème brûlée is my favorite French dessert, which also happens to be one of the easiest ones to make, in a way. It's a perfect solution for leftover yolks (after making Swiss meringue or Italian meringue buttercream)—one batch of the buttercream allows making 4-6 mini bowls of the dessert!
To prepare the crusty shell on top, you will need a blowtorch—you can get a small one at some convenience stores, and however some recipes out there suggest using a broiler instead, this method is faster, easier, and allows you to control the amount of browned caramel on top.
Easy: 7 steps, 32 minutes
August 02, 2016 by Paul


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Hey y'all! Welcome to the series Weekly Eating.
Here is where I'll talk about the week's meal plan versus reality, what we ate for the week, and how we did budget-wise. I hope it gives readers a behind-the-scenes look into our life through the lens of food, and it's also a way to keep us on track with meal planning and grocery budgeting.
Feel free to share your wins and lessons in the comments below!
This weekend I was on my A-game with meal prepping.
Bell peppers were on sale for 0.99/each, which usually only happens in the height of summer. So naturally I planned on making a batch of stuffed peppers. I'd also been hankering for hummus, so I whipped up a half batch in the blender, and at the last minute decided "why not throw in some turmeric too?" It came out a lovely vibrant yellow! I even used real tahini rather than my usual cheap-o peanut butter.
With the other half can of chickpeas I made a Greek tabbouli type salad with cucumber, tomato, couscous, and red onion. (CRAP! I should've added kalamata olives too… ah, next time.) Bags of pre-cut cauliflower were cheaper per pound than buying a whole head, so I roasted a bag of that and added buffalo sauce for funzies. And a big ol pan of enchiladas, mostly pork for the boy with two black bean and mushroom vegetarian ones for myself.
Blueberries were also on sale this week, so I portioned out a few small containers. Whew! Now, on to the week!
Breakfast – a piece of fruitcake from the holiday Food Swap! I had never had fruitcake, since it has such a sterling reputation, but y'all. This lady's recipe was amaaaaaazing! It was dense and moist cake, and was just bursting with huge chunks of mango, apricot, papaya, and whole nuts. It was seriously addictive. I'm so bummed it is a super secret family recipe, she legit won't share it!
Lunch – Lentil & couscous stuffed pepper. This is so simple, just cook 1 cup couscous, rice, or quinoa. Mix with 1 cup cooked lentils, black beans, or pinto beans. Add 1 can diced tomatoes, and stuff into 3-4 bell peppers. Bake for 350 about 25-30 minutes until soft.
Dinner – Stir Fry! I used some veggies from the fridge and some from the freezer, plus the tofu from the sale a few weeks ago, to whip up tonight's batch of stir fry.
Note to self: when oven-baking tofu, don't use the pre-chunked kind! The pieces are just too small and stick to the pan something awful. It was still super tasty though.
Snack – blueberries
Breakfast – I made some oatmeal with dates, but forgot to take a photo, oops! It was tasty and warm, and very filling.
Lunch – Tabbouli. I like this type of meal because it's totally fine at room temperature and very portable. I didn't even need a lunch bag I just threw it in my work bag and went.
Snack – I had got some protein bars on super sale (like 90 cents) and tried one today. It was horrid. It was hard but chewy, and tasted like basically a caramel with protein powder. And also had chunks of raw coconut. Gag. I swallowed the one small bite and tossed the rest. I hate wasting money 🙁
Dinner – White Bean & Barley Soup – this was a crossover between my Ham & Barley Soup and my White Bean Soup. I didn't have a lot of ham, just a tiny bag of a few frozen cubes left over from who knows when that we found in the freezer. So I figured, add a can of white beans to bulk it up, and dang, it was a great combo! This might be my new go-to.
Breakfast – loaded baked sweet potato. I zapped it in the microwave covered in a wet paper towel for 10 minutes, then piled on some black beans, salsa, purple sauerkraut & avocado. Mind blowingly good, and I nommed the whole thing!
Lunch – Black bean & mushroom enchilada, buffalo cauliflower, and blueberries
Dinner – Black bean veggie burger with Green Goddess, sauerkaurt, freezer mac n cheese, and veggies on the side. Yes, I know I had black beans at every meal today, and yes I'm quite proud of that fact.
Making our way further into the freezer, I pulled out a box of Aldi black bean patties and an old pre-made mac n cheese, plus some frozen edamame and corn on the side for a colorful, healthy, and super filling dinner.
Snack – tea and a Stroopwafel. GUYS. Have you had a Stroopwafel?? It is as much fun to eat as it is to say! It's a thin, crispy waffel, well, two of them, with a layer of sweet salty caramel in between. It is absolute heaven with a cup of hot green tea.
Breakfast – Homemade yogurt with blueberries and tropical granola
Lunch – Stuffed Pepper & a banana
Dinner – The famous One-pan Buffalo Potato Bake, with previously cooked & frozen pulled pork. Have I mentioned my love of freezer meals enough yet?
Snack – blueberries and a Sesame bite from Puerto Rico!
Breakfast – PBJ sandwich thin
Lunch – lentil & couscous stuffed pepper & blueberries
Dinner – Masoor Dal, or red lentils, over black 'forbidden rice'
I want to cook more ethnic dishes this year, so I'm easing into it with a super simple dish. Lentils are insanely good for you, and insanely cheap too. Plus all the spices in typical curry are also highly rated on the health-o-meter.
Snack – Turmeric hummus and veggies. How could you not love the neon yellow color?!? I know I did.
The Weekend
This is another chill weekend, as the boy is still not feeling 100%. I'm planning to head over to Spice Bazaar and pick up some more delish Indian foods and spices, and while I'm on that side of town I'll hit the ALDI as well. We are running a little low on produce.
Food Total: $41.23
|1lb turkey
|Yogurts 11
|Flatout Wraps 2 6pk
|Bananas 12
|seltzer 12 pack
|Avocado 2
|chopped cauliflower
|bell peppers 4
|1 cucumber
|pint mushrooms
|blueberry pints 2
|Dry prunes 18oz
Eating healthfully does not have to be expensive!
I mean, look at the enchiladas. $1.99 for 10 tortillas, $1.25 for a can of sauce, $1.99 for pint of mushrooms (I used half), $0.25 for a can of black beans = $5.48 total and you can make 8 enchiladas, so 0.68 per serving! With 2 tortillas left over for a PB, banana, & honey snack or turkey pinwheels.
What about the stuffed peppers? $3.96 for 4 peppers, maybe 0.50 worth of lentils and another 0.50 of couscous (or rice), 1 can of diced tomatoes at 0.25 = $5.21 total so $1.30 per serving. And if you don't have a big appetite one huge pepper can be 2 different meals. They also freeze pretty well for later.
Lessons Learned
Meal prepping is such a great time saver! I enjoy cooking too much to make enough for lunches and dinners, I would get bored quickly. But for lunches, it is really nice to already have meal options cooked and packed and ready to go, you just grab the container you want that day. Same thing for healthy snacks.


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Microsoft today revealed some of the changes in Windows 8 due to reach customers in a month, but didn't address what analysts called the biggest barrier to the OS's success.
That would be Windows 8 apps, dubbed "Modern" apps, or if one sticks to Microsoft's original but now discarded moniker, "Metro" apps.
"The bottom line is that there is not a Modern app that does anything for me," said Michael Cherry of Directions on Microsoft, a Kirkland, Wash. research firm that focuses only on Microsoft. "And the real danger [with the changes in Windows 8.1] is that developers start to think, 'I might as well stay with an old-style, Win32 app.'"
Among the changes Microsoft will debut June 26 when it rolls out a public preview of Windows 8.1 is an optional boot-to-desktop that will let users bypass the tile-style Start screen, and at least superficially, make Windows 8.1 look and work like Windows 7.
Other changes include the return of a Start button -- although Microsoft refused to call it such, instead referring to it as a Start "tip" -- and a new "Apps view" that acts very much like a full-screen, customizable Start menu, which has not been restored.
Cherry's worries relate to the premise that Microsoft promoted last year to app developers, and how Windows 8.1 partially invalidates that premise.
"Last year, Microsoft told developers, 'The reason why you should write apps is that there's so many people running Windows and they're going to quickly migrate to Windows 8,'" said Cherry. "We now know that's not true. Microsoft can't just stand there and say, 'Some day the millions will come.' They now know they need the apps to bring the millions over [to Windows 8]."
Microsoft's original premise was based on requiring customers to use the Start screen, or at least move through it, before reaching the "classic" desktop that closely resembles Windows 7. With boot-to-desktop and the new App view, however, exposure to the Start screen and apps has been diminished.
Developers may use the boot-to-desktop option as an excuse not to write top-notch apps for the Modern user interface (UI), Cherry said -- a disastrous turn for Microsoft.
But neither Cherry or Wes Miller, also of Directions on Microsoft, was ready to write off or even dismiss Windows 8 because of 8.1's changes.
"I'm not ready to say whether [8.1] is a mulligan or a U-turn until after I see what they do at BUILD," said Cherry, referring to the June 26-28 developer conference in San Francisco. "But there they need to give a more compelling story than they have now about why to develop for Metro."
Miller concurred. "What we got today was a lot about the user, and user-focused buzz," said Miller. "It was the same thing we got about the Xbox One last week. Game developers will hear more at E3 [the game conference slated for June 11-13 in Los Angeles]. Windows developers will hear more about apps at BUILD."
What must Microsoft show at BUILD? "They have to talk about what they're going do for developers to make it easier to build great apps," Miller said. "And a real advocacy for how to build business apps in the Windows Store world."
Cherry and Miller contended that Microsoft has yet to do either, and that without a much-improved app ecosystem with more high-quality apps, Windows 8 is destined to disappoint Microsoft, enterprise customers and consumers.
"But I don't see this as a mulligan at all," said Miller, referring to the golfing term for a do-over. "I see this as Microsoft betting the farm on Windows Store, and still doing that, but then cautiously retooling what they built for Windows 8 on the desktop.
"Microsoft's saying, 'You don't have to be a second-class citizen with a mouse and keyboard,' and that's really important to people like me who spend most of their time on the desktop and don't have a touch PC," Miller added.
Microsoft and analysts alike have put some of the blame for Windows 8's poor performance on shortages of touch-enabled personal computers, and on the high prices of those that have been available.
On the bright side, said Miller, Windows 8.1's changes could be the tipping point for businesses -- assuming Microsoft solves the app issues.
"It will ... possibly help corporations or businesses that may have hesitated," said Miller. "It may be enough for some to skip Windows 7 and upgrade straight to Windows 8. It may be enough of a change that they look at that. If so, it would be a huge win for Microsoft."
Miller described the revealed changes in Windows 8.1 as Microsoft "slowly putting back what it took out," but both he and Cherry cautioned against coming to conclusions too quickly. Microsoft, they noted, has promised to divulge more information about the update's contents between now and BUILD.
"They're teasing us," said Cherry. "They learned from Apple how to stir up the [news] cycle. They're chumming the waters before BUILD. But none of the changes I've seen [in Windows 8.1] is a fix for a blocker. Microsoft has yet to tell enterprises how people are going to be more productive with Windows 8, or Windows 8.1."
And like everything else, that comes down to apps.
Windows 8.1 will ship in final form later this year and will be a free update for current Windows 8 and Windows RT customers.
This article, Hey, Microsoft: It's the apps, stupid, was originally published at Computerworld.com.
Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer, on Google+ or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed. His email address is email@example.com.
See more by Gregg Keizer on Computerworld.com.
Read more about app development in Computerworld's App Development Topic Center.


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In meteorology, an updraft is a small-scale current of rising air, often within a cloud.[1]
Localized regions of warm or cool air will exhibit vertical movement. A mass of warm air will typically be less dense than the surrounding region, and so will rise until it reaches air that is either warmer or less dense than itself. The converse will occur for a mass of cool air, and is known as subsidence. This movement of large volumes of air, especially when regions of hot, wet air rise, can create large clouds, and is the central source of thunderstorms. Drafts can also be conceived by low or high pressure regions. A low pressure region will attract air from the surrounding area, which will move towards the center and then rise, creating an updraft. A high pressure region will attract air from the surrounding area, which will move towards the center and sink, spawning a downdraft.
Updrafts and downdrafts, along with wind shear in general, are a major contributor to airplane crashes during takeoff and landing in a thunderstorm. Extreme cases, known as downbursts and microbursts can be deadly and difficult to predict or observe. The crash of Delta Air Lines Flight 191 on its final approach before landing at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in 1985 was presumably caused by a microburst, and prompted the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to research and deploy new storm detection radar stations at some of the major airports, notably the ones in the South, Midwest, and Northeast United States where wind shear affects air safety. Downbursts can cause extensive localized damage, similar to that caused by tornadoes. Downburst damage can be differentiated from that of a tornado because the resulting destruction is circular and radiates away from the center. Tornado damage radiates inward, towards the center of the damage.
The term downdraft can also refer to a type of backdraft which occurs through chimneys which have fireplaces on the lowermost levels (such as basements) of multi-level buildings. It involves cold air coming down the chimney due to low air pressure, and makes it hard to light fires, and can push soot and carbon monoxide into domiciles.
See alsoEdit
- Terminal Doppler Weather Radar, a 5 cm Doppler radar design to detect wind shear near major airports in the U.S. (FAA) and abroad
- NEXRAD, a 10 cm radar in the U.S. that detects wind shear, but to a specific extent. (NOAA's National Weather Service)
- Low level windshear alert system
- Atmospheric thermodynamics
- Lee waves
- New Zealand National Airways Corporation Flight 441 — airplane crash linked to severe downdraft
- Rear flank downdraft and forward flank downdraft
- Thermal
- ^ Park, Chris (2007). A Dictionary of Environment and Conservation (1 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780198609957.001.0001. ISBN 9780198609957. Retrieved 14 August 2014.


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Kate Bosworth Chic Ponytail
Kate Bosworth's voluminous ponytail is a perfect choice for your next party. What to do: 1. Tease the top of your hair, starting at your crown and working forward. When you've gotten the height you want, smooth the top layer over.2. Pull your hair back into a low ponytail and mist with hairspray to finish.


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Country Roads: A tall order
There are some things over which we have absolutely no control. Our height is one of them.
I come from a line of tall people. My great uncle Klaas was 6'6" and weighed 300 pounds in his prime. In the early years of the 20th century Uncle Klaas was a giant. Some of the older farmers for whom I worked in the '60s remembered Uncle Klaas and his remarkable strength. At 6'7" and more than 300 pounds, I am a present-day Uncle Klaas, minus the remarkable strength.
In sales my size was an asset; people tend to remember large folks. In many other areas, my size has been a liability.
I can't buy clothing off the rack in department or discount stores. Omar the Tentmaker and other big and tall clothiers by necessity charge more for their wares. My only choice of a non-truck motor vehicle is a mini-van. If cars and minivans keep getting smaller, my next vehicle will be a dump truck.
Airplanes – don't even go there. My legs are too long and my butt is too wide.
I share this mind-numbing trivia to help you understand a little accident that occurred earlier this month.
One of the door's in my fiancée's basement is lower than normal; about 6'3" high. Even though I have pretty good low clearance radar, I had already scraped my head a couple of times on this door.
While working in the basement recently I was in a hurry and, as a result, my radar malfunctioned altogether. As I walked on a long-legged trot, my head struck the door frame with such force my larger-than-normal body dropped to the concrete floor and up against a set of wooden shelves. The tools I was carrying scattered across the floor. My head throbbed and my hip hurt from the fall.
After taking inventory to be sure I was still alive, I pulled myself up from the floor and touched the top of my head. It was bleeding.
Slowly, I made my way upstairs to the bathroom where I applied a cold washcloth to the wound which, after several minutes, stopped bleeding. With my odd size and lack of coordination, I have long been a chiropractic patient. It takes a lot to keep this frame in alignment. As I sat with a cold washcloth on my head I could feel that the door frame strike and the fall to the concrete had knocked my frame out of alignment. I called my chiropractor right away for an appointment. Dr. Amy observed that I had done a real number on my skeletal system and got me realigned. I am now ducking for anything less than 7' high.
The incident has caused me to reevaluate this height situation. In the movies, women talk about preferring men who are tall, dark and handsome. One out of three just doesn't cut it.
When I purchased long term care insurance several years ago I was told that if I were any taller I could not buy a policy. No reason was given. I am left to assume that I would take up too much room in a nursing home.
I know I am an unwelcome vision-blocker. Some years ago I overhead a group of little old ladies sitting behind me in church grumbling. "Can you see?" "No, I can't see a thing." I wanted to say, "Ladies, I was here first. Did you think I was transparent?" Instead, I sat elsewhere on subsequent Sundays. Nowadays, I look for a far back pew so as not to block the vision of others.
As I said, there is nothing we can do about our height. I try to make the best of it with humor.
At an industry meeting several years ago we were asked to introduce ourselves by giving our name, our current position and what we did before getting into the fundraising business.
When it was my turn, I stated my name and current position. Then I said, "And prior to that I was a jockey at Prairie Meadows race track."
It took a few seconds but when the crowd envisioned a 6'7" heavy-set jockey they began laughing… heartily.
As with many things for which we have no control, laughter can keep us from despair.


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Sunday School – Currently Cancelled
June 13, 2021 @ 10:00 am - 11:00 am
|Recurring Event (See all)
An event every week that begins at 10:00 am on Sunday, repeating until July 10, 2022
Due to COVID19 restrictions Sunday School is currently cancelled. Please join us at 11:00 for our outdoor church service. Check back for updates – we hope to resume Sunday School soon.


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10 Reasons to Read 'Beer Lover's Oregon'
Logan Thompson's new beer guide offers top picks from scores of Oregon breweries—and a great game of "Beer Roulette."
Logan Thompson—beer fiend and native of the Pacific Northwest— took on the enviable task of traveling around our beautiful state for his new Beer Lover's Oregon, an exploration of local breweries from Widmer to Draper Brewing. Here are ten reasons why you should seek out this beer book among a sea of others:
- The book is in-depth, to say the least. Thompson takes us from Barley Brown in Baker City to Bridgeport in Portland, from Walkabout Medford to…well…whatever's in Southeastern Oregon. (Just kidding, we love you Beer Valley Brewing in Ontario.)
- Each brewery and brewpub profile includes all the information you'll need. Readers have access to the founders' bios, photos, flagship beers, future projects, twitter handles, and intel on which beers are available year-round or seasonally.
- The "Beer Lover's Pick" feature gives you a vetted beer to try without playing "Beer Book Roulette" (unless you're into that sort of thing; see number 10).
- The book speaks a language any beer lover can understand. While many beer books can get a bit technical, Thompson beer shouldn't be complicated—in the end, it's still beer.
- It's a book worthy of your coffee table, whether it is in the living room or basement beer cave. With 68 breweries reviewed (in addition to his reviews of brewpubs and bars), it's a great way to pass the time while you're sipping some suds.
- Thompson isn't focused only on the here and now of the beer world, but gives due attention to individual brewers' origins via solid history sections for each location.
- All Oregon breweries get equal spotlight. Thompson doesn't leave out the little guys, whether they be hand-crafters or gluten-free.
- It makes you T-H-I-R-S-T-Y. Don't crack this tome open mid-way through the workday—you may suddenly "come down with something" right around happy hour.
- If you're planning to visit another part of the state, you can take the guesswork out of finding a good beer. Breweries, brewpubs, and beer bars are listed by region, so you'll be set from border to border.
- It makes for a great game of "Beer Roulette." For the uninitiated this game entails grabbing a book or catalog of beers and finding a way to randomize your selection for the evening (we've done everything from putting beer menus on dart boards to grabbing random bottle caps from bottle shop collections—nothing is off-limits). Flip through the book and stop on a random page, then head over to Belmont Station and grab the destined brew. Cheers!
Find Beer Lover's Oregon at Powell's bookstores and online at www.powells.com.
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Dyno Cell: Tune-4-Traction
Make Your Ride A Rolling Dyno
In Part 1 of our Blitz Power Meter series, we provided a brief description of how the Blitz Power Meter can assist with the fine-tuning process. You may recall that the Power Meter is a companion component to the Blitz SBC i-D boost controller we tested in the April 2001 Dyno Cell. In Part 2 of the Power Meter series, we will delve into how the two units work together and illustrate their datalogging capabilities and ability to communicate via infrared signaling, which means no wiring is needed to join the two units. Our focus will be on horsepower datalogging (on-board dyno) and how to use this info to improve traction (boost programming).
The Power Meter's main job is to operate the SBC i-D's "Speed Map" option. The Speed Map function is a powerful tool when it comes to tuning the boost curve in vehicles that experience excessive wheelspin. We all know boosted front-wheel drives are the leading culprits, but super-tuned rear drives can granulate the Goodyears as well. The Speed Map allows the user to tune boost by vehicle speed. This comes in handy when setting up the car for gear changes. An example would be a car that needs to launch at low boost for traction reasons, then switch to high boost when traction isn't a problem.
Since the Speed Map requires the factory speed sensor and the Power Meter utilizes it to calculate horsepower, all the vehicle speed info is transferred to the SBC via infrared.
Even if wheelspin is present, the datalogging system built into the units can help provide information to better calculate shift points. Let's say in first and second gear we want to run 13 psi, 15 psi in third and 18 psi in fourth and fifth. Our goal would be to figure out each gear's ending mph at each of the required boost levels. Since we want to run first and second at 13 psi, the user has the ability to datalog the peak mph in both gears. Once the info is logged, the information can be used to predict when the user wants to kick in higher boost for the next gear. Say the engine is revved out of second gear at 50 mph, we can set Channel 1 boost setting to 13 psi and have the Speed Map kick in this level of boost from 0 to 50 mph. After 50 mph, we can then have the unit switch to Channel 2 for third gear. The datalogged information can be used to figure out each gear's shift point.
In Speed Map mode, vehicle speed is represented in a 16-bar graph with each bar accounting for 12.5 mph. The user has the ability to select four of the 16 bars and designate each for one channel of boost. In our example, the fourth bar (50 mph) would be tuned to Channel 1, which is programmed at 13 psi, Channel 2 (15 psi) would be programmed at the bar that corresponds with the datalogging for third gear, ditto for the remaining channels.
Our test car is a 1993 Toyota Supra equipped with a GReddy front-mount chiller, HKS VPC, HKS exhaust, GReddy Airinx air filter and SP Engineering downpipe. Since the JZA is equipped with a fuel-tuning computer, we decided to set the max boost pressure to 19 psi, keeping it on the safe side. Our first test was to analyze the accuracy of the Power Meter's chassis dyno function against a Dynojet. Our second series of tests would use the data gleaned from the dyno mode to determine the optimum boost and our shifting points by using the Speed Map option on the SBC i-D.
Power Meter Dyno Mode
When we first heard about the Blitz Power Meter, we figured it must have been a gimmick, but once we reviewed what the meter is based on, we realized that it functions in the same manner as a chassis dyno. Analyzing the function of our favorite test tool, the Dynojet dynamometer, horsepower is measured by the rate of time a vehicle takes to spin a roller, based on the roller's weight and speed. A Dynojet is equipped with a magnetic pick-up that mounts to the roller's shaft, which used to generate the necessary data. Using this same concept, Blitz allows the user to plug in a vehicle's weight with driver to represent a dyno's roller weight. The Power Meter also replaces the Dynojet's roller magnetic pick up with the car's vehicle speed sensor. The result is an on-board dyno that can calculate horsepower and (if the unit is run through the proper set-up procedure), can be calculated at the drive wheels rather than at the flywheel. Just like a Dynojet, the Blitz unit cannot calculate for wheelspin, so all test runs should be done in a gear that doesn't encounter wheelspin. To ensure the most accurate reading, one should calculate the weight of the gas and any other items in/on the car. Gasoline is a changing variable, so we calculated that a full tank of gas weighs in at 111 lbs (18 gallons in the Supra), which comes out to about 14 lbs per eighth tank. Fuel weighs 6.2 lbs per gallon, so calculate your own eighth of a tank appropriately. The numbers were programmed into the Power Meter and it was time to test. It should be noted that the weight can be updated on the meter by going into weight/power loss mode.
Power Meter Speed Map
Since the Power Meter data records horsepower and mph, this information can also be used to help set up the initial Speed Map portion in the SBC i-D.
The Speed Map can be calibrated to compensate for excessive wheelspin. With the Supra, we decided to set up the vehicle to run 13 psi in first and second, then jump up to 15 psi in third and onto 19 psi in fourth and fifth. With the first two gears at the same boost level, we logged the mph using the line graph mode and replaying the recorded information. The vehicle speed information was then logged into the Speed Map. Logging third and fourth in the desired boost levels followed the same procedure.
To illustrate the quality of the Speed Map, we decided to run the car in fourth gear, but modify the graph to kick in different levels of boost at designated vehicle speeds.
We set the boost level at 13 psi from 0 to 70 mph, after 70, the boost pressure was set to 15 psi up until 90 mph, where it switched to 18 psi. When we compared the graph vs. a normal 16 psi run (Dyno 2), a noticeable fluctuation in the two graphs gives a good demonstration on the accuracy of the Speed Meter. By making two mph changes and three different boost settings in the same gear, you can tell that the Blitz set-up can be accurately tuned for gear changes as power fluctuations are clearly evident.
Getting the hang of the units by themselves is a challenging experience. Once we had the two units interacting together, the task of understanding how they worked together was even more time-consuming. After a day of playing with the two, we became much more familiar with their functions and how to use these tuning weapons to maximize performance.
With the ability to datalog boost response, mph and horsepower, the Power Meter is a powerful tuning tool.
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What are you doing this semester? If it includes working on a project or research covering topics that potentially span multiple disciplines, We'd love to hear about it. You can get in touch by emailing email@example.com.
What is MiddLab?
MiddLab will be a new section of our website that helps push information about scholarly and service work up to the top. We know that there are a lot of great academic resources built by people at Middlebury and many ongoing projects and activities that not everyone hears about or gets to see. The purpose of MiddLab is to:
- Tell people about this great work.
- See how it all ties together.
- Let people contribute to the discussion.
What do you want to know?
We're very interested in hearing about the project work you're doing this semester. This includes research projects, service learning projects, student organization work, entrepreneurial ventures, presentations, conferences, seminars and symposiums. This can be work done for any Middlebury or MIIS program or an independent project conducted by a member of one of those institutions.
Because we want to tell people about this work on the web, the project should produce some type of artifact that can be shown on the web: papers, posters, slideshows, videos, a website, a database, a blog. Don't worry if your project doesn't have many of these. We're happy to do the work of converting what you have for the web.
If you don't have a full project, but do maintain an existing online database or resource, let us know about that too. We'll aggregate the information into MiddLab to increase the use and visibility or your resource.
What do I need to do?
We don't want to add to your work, especially in the middle of a semester. To get involved, just submit the online form, or send an email to email@example.com. We'll need to meet to discuss your project a couple times and you'll need to help me a bit in handing off materials and checking the final product. More involvement is welcome, but we want this to be available to everyone, from the professor who lives online to the student who thinks a whiteboard is a bit too much new technology for the classroom.
What's the timeline?
We'd like to hear about your projects this month and get together a couple times during March and April with the intention of having most of the information about the project compiled by the end of the semester. Over the summer, we will work on MiddLab to build out the site with all of the projects collected in this initial phase and host an "open beta" of the site where you can see it coming together. During the next fall semester, we hope to have MiddLab fully operational and allow direct submission and build-out of projects through the site, while continuing this organic process as well.
Thanks for your attention. We're looking forward to hearing about your work.


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Update and non-bread: Peach Buttermilk muffins
I know it's been awhile since I have done much on here, things have been crazy, I'm moving homes soon, and switching jobs, it's all been so hectic.
This post does relate to bread, I promise, getting there.
I recently got a job as one of the bakers at a small bakery that bakes and sells bagels and morning pastries to local cafes. This is my first job in the baking industry and I'm very happy to be working in such a small shop, where I'm looked to for say in recipes and product formulas.
The recipe of this post is reflective of my time at the bakery so far: at home, I was never able to duplicate that bakery-style muffin, you know, the type that looks like an overgrown boulte mushroom, with the top bigger than the base, coming to a nice crowned point.
Home recipes invariably tell you to quickly combine ingredients, fill tins 2/3 to 3/4 full, then bake as soon as humanly possible. For me this was frustrating, as it always ended up with stumpy muffin with no spill over, looking nothing like a muffin you'd buy in a cafe.
The first time I watched muffins being made in the bakery, I had my answers, and so I figure that I would share not only my favorite base muffin recipe, but a few tips on how to make them turn out like the ones you see in cafes.
Buttermilk Muffin Base recipe (makes 12 standard size muffins):
- 200g Butter (room temp)
- 180g Sugar
- 150g Egg (3 Large)
- 330g AP Flour
- 3.4g Baking Powder
- 2.3g Baking Soda
- 2.6g Salt
- 2.0g Flavor Extract (Vanilla or Almond)
- 220g Buttermilk
- Combine Flour, baking soda/powder and salt into a bowl, sift.
- Cream butter and sugar in separate large bowl until fluffy.
- Add eggs to butter/sugar mix and beat until combined.
- Alternate adding Buttermilk and flour mixture in three stages, continue until there is no flour clumps.
- Move batter into lidded container and place in fridge for at least 8 hours
- Stir in any additions, scoop into well greased/floured muffin pan
- Top with desired topping (we use sanding sugar or sugar in the raw)
- Bake in preheated 350F oven until a testing toothpick comes out clean (20 mins, give or take, depends on the oven)
The shown muffins used almond as the extract, and included a pinch of mace in the batter. Fruit stir-in was 100g diced peaches. One of the muffins displays a strudel topping.
- Cream sugar and butter very well
- Chilled batter makes shaping the pre-baked muffins easier, and helps them hold shape.
- Shape muffins with a domed top at least a half inch to an inch above surface of the tin. In the bakeshop we use an ice-cream scoop style 4oz portioner
- We make one batter in the bakeshop, stirring in all fruits/spices as we need them just before baking.
- Batter keeps in fridge for up to 3 days.


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The name "Miranda July" sounds like something a little girl might dream up in her room as she plays all the parts in a romance novel: Miranda, from Shakespeare's The Tempest, meaning admirable (with a hint of "wondrously strange"); July, which is like Tuesday or Wednesday (favorite fantasy girl names, I'm told), and is also suggestive of free-and-happy long days, hunting for seashells, and beach-house crushes. The Artist Known as Miranda July's debut film, Me and You and Everyone We Know (IFC Films), is, well, admirable and wondrously strange—as well as gorgeous, funny, dreamlike, mesmerizing, squirmy, and occasionally annoying, the way a borderline-precious solo performance can be. But if you get on the movie's wavelength, the annoying parts just melt into the ether.
July is, yes, a solo performance artist, and the whole script might have been written and acted out in her bedroom. That's how it begins: a slide on the wall of a man and woman on a beach, staring at a sunset, with July (as Christine) on her bed supplying the voices that pledge eternal love. When Christine meets and is instantly smitten with a newly single shoe salesman, Richard (John Hawkes), the father of two young boys, she stages other romantic bedroom dramas, one embodied by her two pink slippers, on which she has drawn the words "Me" and "You." (One slipper moves close and the other away, and vice versa.)
July is a beautiful young woman, a bit of a beanpole, with blue-gray eyes, pale skin, and a dazed, self-conscious delivery. Partly this is due to her voice, which is flutelike, with little in the way of chest tones—it all comes out of her head. Solo performers, who must be themselves to the nth degree, can have a hard time getting out of their own heads and living inside other people's—a prerequisite for writing drama. July has made the leap to dramatist by turning everyone in this ensemble comedy into a kind of solo performer, acting out in the desperate hope of connecting. The soloists meet and circle around each other. Every communication is tenuous—and when an exchange hits home, treasurable.
This solo-performer universe is not just central to July's style. It's also her vision of the human condition. Me and You and Everyone We Know is a meditation on the mediated life. It's set in an increasingly privatized culture, in which face-to-face encounters are extraordinarily fraught and people reach out through online chat rooms, performance art, or, failing at the above, retreat into fantasy. The female characters could be stand-ins for July at key stages of her life. There is a 10-year-old girl, Sylvie (Carlie Westerman), who nurses a hope chest in her room, in which she saves articles from her life to present to her future true love. And there are two giggly but anxious teenagers, Heather (Natasha Slayton) and Rebecca (Najarra Townsend), who egg each other on in their sexual experimentation, gleaning only from books and movies how they ought to "perform."
The male characters of Me and You and Everyone We Know aren't slighted: Their inner worlds are every bit as rich and weird. As Richard's wife (Jo Nelle Kennedy) packs her suitcases, he asks his boys, adolescent Peter (Miles Thompson) and 6-year-old Robby (Brandon Ratcliff), whether he looks (if they saw him on the street) like a man with kids and a family. The boys look at him blankly and go back to their computer screen. Richard's wife is black and these kids are caramel-skinned and breathtakingly beautiful: They might represent, for July, a triumphant synthesis, a reaching across a chasm that endures even when the bond that created them is broken. But Richard can't appreciate those fruits as his wife hits the road. He goes out to his lawn and sets fire to his hand—apparently a disastrously unsuccessful imitation of a trick his uncle used to do, but we only discover that later. What we see is a terrifying act of self-dramatization/immolation.
Richard's hand-scorching is as physically shocking as the film gets, but other scenes push the envelope: Richard's neighbor articulating smutty fantasies to the two teenage girls (in an extremely original, if not wholly credible manner); Richard's older boy receiving a sexual favor in return for completing a kind of survey; and the 6-year-old having cyber-sex (poop plays a breathtaking role). Although the kind of loneliness and acting out that July explores can lead (especially in teens) to anorexia or bulimia, self-mutilation, and even suicide, Me and You and Everyone We Know sustains the tone of a comic fairy tale in which despair is leavened by oddball humor—by the surprising things that pop out of stricken peoples' mouths. It's also lightened by Mike Andrews' music, with its plinking synthesizers and shimmery, organ-and-choir washes of sound. Along with the script, this score might have been written (and recorded) by someone fooling around in a bedroom.
Every scene of Me and You and Everyone We Know contributes to the theme. July even finds a place to go meta: Christine wants a tape of a bedroom performance piece to be shown in an exhibit on digital culture at the Institute of Contemporary Art. The director, Nancy (Tracy Wright), is a buttoned-up woman who refuses to accept Christine's tape face-to-face and can barely look her in the eye. But in one of the film's most delightful scenes, Christine gets through to her via video: the only time when, alone in her office at night, staring at a monitor, Nancy lets down her guard. (Well, there is one other time, but that's a surprise.)
The acting is marvelous, all the way down the line. As Richard, Hawkes looks a little like Vincent Gallo, only with much less sharp features—and he's way, way nicer. But the resemblance to indie cinema's most seething solipsist helps to give him an edge. He and July share my favorite scene in the movie, in which the two, who barely know each other, turn a block-long stroll into a metaphor for the journey of a couple through a relationship. It's as enchanting as anything in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (high praise). Just before that, Christine stares at John's bandaged hand and asks, "How did you do that?" and he says, "Do you want the long version or the short version?" and Christine replies, instantly, without missing a beat, "The long one." She later requests the short version, too, but that's for the sake of completeness. In the universe of Miranda July, love means never saying "the short version." … 2:37 p.m. PT


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Vorinostat, Rituximab, Ifosfamide, Carboplatin, and Etoposide in Treating Patients With Relapsed or Refractory Lymphoma or Previously Untreated T-Cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma or Mantle Cell Lymphoma
|The safety and scientific validity of this study is the responsibility of the study sponsor and investigators. Listing a study does not mean it has been evaluated by the U.S. Federal Government. Read our disclaimer for details.
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00601718
Recruitment Status : Completed
First Posted : January 28, 2008
Results First Posted : May 25, 2017
Last Update Posted : May 25, 2017
- Study Details
- Tabular View
- Study Results
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
|Condition or disease
|Adult Nasal Type Extranodal NK/T-cell Lymphoma Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma Angioimmunoblastic T-cell Lymphoma Contiguous Stage II Mantle Cell Lymphoma Cutaneous B-cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Extranodal Marginal Zone B-cell Lymphoma of Mucosa-associated Lymphoid Tissue Nodal Marginal Zone B-cell Lymphoma Noncontiguous Stage II Mantle Cell Lymphoma Recurrent Adult Burkitt Lymphoma Recurrent Adult Diffuse Large Cell Lymphoma Recurrent Adult Diffuse Mixed Cell Lymphoma Recurrent Adult Diffuse Small Cleaved Cell Lymphoma Recurrent Adult Grade III Lymphomatoid Granulomatosis Recurrent Adult Hodgkin Lymphoma Recurrent Adult Immunoblastic Large Cell Lymphoma Recurrent Adult Lymphoblastic Lymphoma Recurrent Cutaneous T-cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Recurrent Grade 1 Follicular Lymphoma Recurrent Grade 2 Follicular Lymphoma Recurrent Grade 3 Follicular Lymphoma Recurrent Mantle Cell Lymphoma Recurrent Marginal Zone Lymphoma Recurrent Mycosis Fungoides/Sezary Syndrome Recurrent Small Lymphocytic Lymphoma Splenic Marginal Zone Lymphoma Stage I Cutaneous T-cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Stage I Mantle Cell Lymphoma Stage I Mycosis Fungoides/Sezary Syndrome Stage II Cutaneous T-cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Stage II Mycosis Fungoides/Sezary Syndrome Stage III Cutaneous T-cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Stage III Mantle Cell Lymphoma Stage III Mycosis Fungoides/Sezary Syndrome Stage IV Cutaneous T-cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Stage IV Mantle Cell Lymphoma Stage IV Mycosis Fungoides/Sezary Syndrome Waldenström Macroglobulinemia
|Drug: vorinostat Biological: rituximab Drug: ifosfamide Drug: carboplatin Drug: etoposide Other: pharmacological study Other: laboratory biomarker analysis Genetic: gene expression analysis
|Phase 1 Phase 2
I. To determine maximally tolerated dose of vorinostat that can be combined with RICE chemotherapy in patients with relapsed lymphoid malignancies.
II. To determine the safety and toxicity of the above regimen. III. To gain a preliminary assessment of the efficacy of the above regimen. IV. To determine the ability to proceed to peripheral blood stem cell collection following the above regimens (the impact of above regimen on stem cell reserve).
V. To describe vorinostat concentration attained at or near the MTD. VI. To evaluate the change of histone acetylation patterns and pro-apoptotic proteins of primary target (tumor) and non-target peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) cells following high-dose HDAC inhibition.
VII. To describe the gene expression profile changes of tumor and non-tumor cells following high-dose HDAC inhibition.
OUTLINE: This is a phase I/II dose-escalation study of vorinostat.
Patients receive vorinostat orally (PO) once daily (QD) on days 1-5, ifosfamide IV continuously over 24 hours and carboplatin IV over 1 hour on day 4, and etoposide IV over 1 hour on days 3-5. Patients who are CD20+ also receive rituximab IV once on day 3, 4, or 5. Treatment repeats every 21 days for 2 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.
After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up every 3 months for 1 year and then every 6 months for 4 years.
|Study Type :
|Interventional (Clinical Trial)
|Actual Enrollment :
|29 participants
|Intervention Model:
|Single Group Assignment
|None (Open Label)
|Primary Purpose:
|Official Title:
|A Phase I/II Study of Vorinostat Plus Rituximab, Ifosphamide, Carboplatin, and Etoposide for Patients With Relapsed or Refractory Lymphoid Malignancies or Untreated T- or Mantle Cell Lymphoma
|Study Start Date :
|December 2007
|Actual Primary Completion Date :
|June 2010
Experimental: Treatment (enzyme inhibitor, monoclonal antibody, chemotherapy
Patients receive vorinostat PO QD on days 1-5, ifosfamide IV continuously over 24 hours and carboplatin IV over 1 hour on day 4, and etoposide IV over 1 hour on days 3-5. Patients who are CD20+ also receive rituximab IV once on day 3, 4, or 5. Treatment repeats every 21 days for 2 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.
Drug: vorinostat
Given PO
Other Names:
Biological: rituximab
Given IV
Other Names:
Drug: ifosfamide
Given IV
Other Names:
Drug: carboplatin
Given IV
Other Names:
Drug: etoposide
Given IV
Other Names:
Other: pharmacological study
Correlative studies
Other Name: pharmacological studies
Other: laboratory biomarker analysis
Correlative studies
Genetic: gene expression analysis
Correlative studies
- Maximum Tolerated Dose of Vorinostat [ Time Frame: 28 days post last dose of study drug ]
- Safety and Toxicity According to CTCAE v3.0 [ Time Frame: 3-5 weeks post end of treatment ]Common dose limiting toxicities.
- Efficacy (Response Rate) of Vorinostat Combined With RICE Chemotherapy [ Time Frame: 3-5 weeks post end of treatment ]
- Ability to Proceed to Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Collection Following Treatment [ Time Frame: 1-3 weeks post end of treatment ]
Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contacts provided below. For general information, Learn About Clinical Studies.
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|18 Years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Inclusion Criteria:
- Patients must have relapsed or primary refractory lymphoid malignancy (including B-cell, T-cell, or Hodgkins disease), or untreated T-NHL or MCL
- Patients with other lymphomas that have not received any prior therapy and are not candidates for anthracycline-based therapies, are eligible with PI review and approval
- Revised European American classification (REAL), or World Health Organization (WHO) classification of patient's malignancies must be provided
- Patients must have measurable disease defined as lesions that can be accurately measured in two dimensions by computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), medical photograph (skin or oral lesion), plain x-ray, or other conventional technique and a greatest transverse diameter of 1 cm or greater; or palpable lesions with both diameters >= 2 cm
- Patients must have a bone marrow aspirate and biopsy within 28 days of enrollment and no intervening anticancer therapy
- Patients must have a CT of chest, abdomen, and pelvis within 28 days of enrollment; patients with evidence of adenopathy in the neck must have a CT of neck
- Patients should not have evidence of active central nervous system lymphoma
- Electrocardiogram (EKG) must be free of any arrhythmias (excluding sinus arrhythmia or infrequent premature ventricular contractions)
- Patients must have a Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) performance status of 0, 1, or 2
- Absolute neutrophil count (ANC) >= 1,500/mm^3
- Serum creatinine < 1.5 mg/dl or creatinine clearance greater than 60/ ml per minute by the following formula (all tests must be performed within 28 days prior to registration)
- Total bilirubin < 1.5 times upper limit of normal, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) < 5 times upper limit of normal
- Patients must have a serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) performed within 14 days prior to registration
- All patients must be informed of the investigational nature of this study and have given written consent in accordance with institutional and federal guidelines
- Patients must be anticipated to complete at least 2 cycles of chemotherapy
- Platelets >= 100,000/mm^3 (without transfusion)
Exclusion Criteria:
- Patients known to be human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive
- Pregnant or nursing women; men or women of reproductive potential may not participate unless they have agreed to use an effective contraceptive method
- Patients with other prior malignancies except for adequately treated basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma of the skin, cervical cancer in situ, or other cancer from which the patient has been disease free for 5 years or greater, unless approved by the protocol Chair or Co-Chair
- Patients that are refractory (i.e. not responded or progressed within 6 months) to a carboplatin, cisplatin, ifosfamide, or etoposide-based regimen-based regimen
- Patients that have other medical conditions that would contraindicate treatment with aggressive chemotherapy (including active infection, uncontrolled hypertension, congestive heart failure, unstable angina pectoris, or myocardial infarction within the past 6 months, or uncontrolled arrhythmia)
- Patients with a history of impaired cardiac status (including history of severe coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy, congestive heart failure or arrhythmia); if the patient's history is questionable, a measurement of left ventricular ejection fraction should be obtained within 42 days prior to registration; patients with left ventricular ejection fraction < 50% are not eligible
- Autologous or allogeneic transplantation within 12 months or radioimmunotherapy within 6 months of registration
- No concurrent treatment with valproic acid or on valproic acid within 2 weeks of study enrollment
- No prior treatment with histone deacetylase inhibitors
- No concurrent therapy for this malignancy
To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT00601718
|United States, Washington
|Puget Sound Oncology Consortium
|Seattle, Washington, United States, 98109
|Principal Investigator:
|Lihua Budde
|Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center/University of Washington Cancer Consortium
|Responsible Party:
|Ajay Gopal, Investigator, University of Washington
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|Other Study ID Numbers:
NCI-2010-00870 ( Registry Identifier: CTRP (Clinical Trial Reporting Program) )
|First Posted:
|January 28, 2008 Key Record Dates
|Results First Posted:
|May 25, 2017
|Last Update Posted:
|May 25, 2017
|Last Verified:
|April 2017
Burkitt Lymphoma
Lymphoma, Follicular
Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin
Lymphoma, B-Cell
Hodgkin Disease
Lymphoma, Mantle-Cell
Lymphoma, B-Cell, Marginal Zone
Lymphoma, T-Cell
Lymphoma, T-Cell, Peripheral
Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Chronic, B-Cell
Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma
Lymphoma, Large B-Cell, Diffuse
Lymphoma, Large-Cell, Immunoblastic
Plasmablastic Lymphoma
Mycosis Fungoides
Sezary Syndrome
Lymphoma, T-Cell, Cutaneous
Waldenstrom Macroglobulinemia
Lymphoma, Large-Cell, Anaplastic
Lymphomatoid Granulomatosis
Lymphoma, Extranodal NK-T-Cell
Immunoblastic Lymphadenopathy
Neoplasms by Histologic Type
Lymphoproliferative Disorders
Lymphatic Diseases


text:
Worcester EMS
Serving the Community for over 30 Years
The first organized 9-1-1 ambulance service in Worcester, MA was at first operated by the Worcester Police Department in the 1960's and early 1970's. In 1977, the Worcester City Hospital initiated the first "Worcester EMS", providing only one or two basic life support (BLS) ambulances per shift to cover the City. By the mid-1980's, the staff had transitioned to all-intermediate or paramedic, and the service has remained advanced life support (ALS) capable to this day. UMass Memorial EMS is contracted to provide emergency ambulance service to the City of Worcester and the Town of Shrewsbury. We also provide mutual aid support to surrounding communities.
In Worcester and Shrewsbury, 9-1-1 calls for emergency medical assistance are received first by the municipal police department or communications center, and then forwarded to our EMS Communications Center for prioritization and dispatch. All UMass Memorial EMS resources – including partner backup agencies – are controlled from the same EMS Communications Center at UMass Memorial Medical Center – University Campus. Worcester EMS can communicate via VHF, UHF, and 800 MHz radio to each of the public safety agencies with whom we work side by side.
Meet Our Professional EMS Providers "ON DUTY" in the Community
Watch the videos in our "ON DUTY" series to learn more about the men and women who make our service so special, and to learn more about what we do each and every day! this section to learn more about our professional paramedics, supervisors, and the work that we do for our Central Massachusetts communities! Click here to view our "ON DUTY" page and watch our people at work!
Browse the menu on the left to learn more about the 9-1-1 EMS system operated by Worcester EMS and the men and women who staff our service. And don't forget to "like" us on Facebook!


text:
DCC Workforce Services serves employees and employers alike, as well as any other person who has an interest in increasing his or her technical or workforce skills. We also enthusiastically support economic development efforts in the Southside Virginia region. We offer credit and non-credit programs designed to meet occupational, professional, and personal interests and needs. These activities begin at various times throughout the year and vary in length according to need. Courses are designed to help clients upgrade technical skills, improve employability skills, acquire new skills, and meet educational requirements for job certification. Additional services include custom training programs that can be delivered on the job site to small or large groups of employees, as well as various other business services and outreach programs.
Workforce Services Main Switchboard: 434-797-6437 or 434-797-8430
Workforce Services Main Fax Number: 434-797-8583
DCC Main Switchboard: 434-797-2222
DCC Main Switchboard Toll Free: 800-560-4291
Regional Center for Advanced Technology & Training (RCATT)
121 Slayton Avenue
Danville, VA 24541
Danville Community College
Attn: Workforce Services
1008 South Main Street
Danville, Virginia 24541
For general questions, please email firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Homeric Hymns
Homeric Hymns hōmĕr´ĭk [key], name applied to a body of 34 hexameter poems falsely attributed to Homer by the ancients. Composed probably between 800 and 300 BC, they are complimentary verses addressed to the various gods, such as Aphrodite, Apollo, Demeter, and Hermes. Although sometimes of great beauty, they are important mainly as prime sources for information about Greek religion and cults. The Margites (7th or 6th cent. BC), a comic poem, and The Battle of the Frogs and Mice (5th–2d cent. BC), a mock epic, were also incorrectly attributed to Homer.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Classical Literature


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Fortinet Protects Operational Technology Deployed in the Harshest Environments
Broad Security Fabric Architecture Provides Integrated Security Across Environmentally Controlled and Non-Environmentally Controlled Enterprise Facilities
John Maddison, senior vice president of products and solutions at Fortinet
"Securing critical infrastructure against cyber attacks is an increasingly urgent priority as the adoption of smart cities and connected utility services drives the convergence of IT, OT and IoT networks. To successfully defend the scope of these converged networks, organizations need an architecture that scales the entire infrastructure for complete visibility, segmentation and integrated protection. Fortinet's latest OT solutions arm critical infrastructure organizations with a broad security solution that spans their traditional IT environments and also provides the advanced capabilities needed to defend critical OT infrastructure."
News Summary
Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT), the global leader in broad, integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions, today announced the availability of its Operational Technology (OT) Security solution for critical infrastructure and industrial organizations. The new solution integrates ruggedized firewall, switching, and wireless access point appliances with FortiGuard industrial threat intelligence to provide integrated cybersecurity protections for industrial control systems (ICS) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems deployed in the field and non-environmentally controlled facilities across an organization's OT infrastructure.
- The Fortinet Security Fabric enables critical infrastructure and industrial organizations to deliver advanced segmentation, access control, and malware protection needed to unify their security architecture and defend their OT networks regardless of the operating environment.
- Fortinet's ruggedized security products enable industrial organizations to protect their OT infrastructure and devices, even those deployed in harsh environments that would render other security devices inoperable.
- Fortinet's industrial-grade appliances leverage its recently announced FortiGuard Industrial Security Services, which delivers application control and defensive signatures specific to critical infrastructure and industrial sector organizations, including utility, oil and gas, transportation, and manufacturing.
The Convergence of OT and IT Demands Unified, Automated Security
Critical infrastructure is being increasingly targeted by cyber criminals, with a reported 51% of organizations experiencing a SCADA/ICS security breach within the past 12 months. The consequences of a successful attack can lead to the disruption, and even destruction of physical assets and essential services like water, electricity, and fuel.
As the utility, oil and gas, transportation, and manufacturing sectors increasingly adopt connected control systems and Industrial IoT devices, the attack surface is rapidly growing. The connected nature of these devices and systems poses serious challenges as they begin to utilize traditionally IT owned network infrastructure, wireless access points, and mobile networks. The specialized nature of OT infrastructure technologies means that most security and threat intelligence solutions don't have visibility into, let alone the ability to defend against attacks on critical infrastructures.
According to a 2014 Forrester report, "There are fundamental differences between traditional information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT)…S&R (security and risk) pros from IT and OT must respect and accept each other's differences and learn to work together."1
Fortinet's Operational Technology Security solution solves the unique security challenges specific to critical infrastructure and industrial organizations, while unifying the management and administration of both OT and traditional IT infrastructures through the Fortinet Security Fabric.
Security Fabric Protection Tailored for OT Infrastructure
Fortinet's rugged and outdoor products are industrially-hardened appliances that deliver enterprise-class connectivity and security for critical control systems facing malicious attacks, as well as extreme weather and other demanding physical environments.
- FortiGate Rugged Series are all-in-one firewalls that deliver specialized threat protection for securing critical industrial and control networks against malicious attacks.
- FortiSwitch Rugged Series deliver all the performance and security of Fortinet's trusted FortiSwitch line, but with added reinforcement that makes them ideal for deployments in harsh outdoor environments. Management by the FortiGate simplifies operation and extends security policies down to the switch ports.
- FortiAP Outdoor Series delivers secure, identity-driven WiFi access points with management provided by the integrated wireless controller functionality within the FortiGate. Combined with FortiSwitch, this provides for a truly unified access layer with common security policies.
- Fortinet's rugged and outdoor series devices are offered in various form factors with features like superior mean time between failure, electromagnetic interference protection, vibration tolerance, ingress protection waterproofing, wide thermal operating ranges, fanless cooling and power over ethernet.
These devices are controlled by Fortinet's FortiOS security operating system and are backed by FortiGuard Industrial Security Service to protect the most widely-used ICS and SCADA devices and applications. FortiGuard Industrial Security Service delivers OT-specific, real-time threat intelligence for vulnerability protection, deep visibility and granular control over proprietary ICS and SCADA protocols.
The Fortinet Fabric-Ready Partner Program also enables organizations to seamlessly integrate complementary, third-party OT security solutions with the Fortinet Security Fabric. These deep technical integrations are pre-validated to ensure consistent interoperability, ease of deployment, reduced complexity, and increased automation.
Supporting Quotes
"The energy industry is becoming increasingly digital and thus securely connecting vast numbers of renewable energy sources to critical grid control centers is a significant and growing challenge. We are excited to be working with Fortinet to develop security solutions for mission-critical utility communication infrastructures. The cooperation with Fortinet has resulted in the development of deep packet inspection capabilities needed to address our utility-specific requirements. This development has been crucial for us to reach the next level in security and visibility for our OT networks."
- Dr. Jürgen Tusch, Head of Telecommunications, Innogy SE
"Nozomi Networks is a leader in delivering innovative cybersecurity and operational visibility solutions for OT systems. Working with Fortinet through its Fabric-Ready program enables Nozomi to integrate our OT network monitoring and behavioral analytics to deliver real-time visibility and threat detection, while seamlessly enabling automated enforcement through Fortinet's FortiGate Rugged series firewalls. We are proud to partner with Fortinet to deliver a broad detection and remediation solution for the OT space."
- Chet Namboodri, VP, Alliances & Business Development, Nozomi Networks
Additional Resources
- Please visit the Fortinet Critical Infrastructure Security homepage for more details about Fortinet's security solutions for Operational Technology infrastructures.
- Follow Fortinet on Twitter and LinkedIn, and Facebook.
- Join the conversation on the Fortinet blog.
1 Forrester Brief: S&R Pros Can No Longer Ignore Threats To Critical Infrastructure, Rick Holland, Stephanie Balaouras, Katherine Williamson, July 2014
About Fortinet
Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT) secures the largest enterprise, service provider, and government organizations around the world. Fortinet empowers its customers with intelligent, seamless protection across the expanding attack surface and the power to take on ever-increasing performance requirements of the borderless network - today and into the future. Only the Fortinet Security Fabric architecture can deliver security without compromise to address the most critical security challenges, whether in networked, application, cloud, or mobile environments. Fortinet ranks #1 in the most security appliances shipped worldwide and more than 330,000 customers trust Fortinet to protect their businesses. Learn more at https://www.fortinet.com, the Fortinet Blog, or FortiGuard Labs.
Copyright © 2017 Fortinet, Inc. All rights reserved. The symbols ® and ™ denote respectively federally registered trademarks and common law trademarks of Fortinet, Inc., its subsidiaries and affiliates. Fortinet's trademarks include, but are not limited to, the following: Fortinet, FortiGate, FortiGuard, FortiCare, FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer, FortiOS, FortiASIC, FortiMail, FortiClient, FortiSIEM, FortiSandbox, FortiWiFi, FortiAP, FortiSwitch, FortiWeb, FortiADC, FortiWAN, and FortiCloud. Other trademarks belong to their respective owners. Fortinet has not independently verified statements or certifications herein attributed to third parties and Fortinet does not independently endorse such statements. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary herein, nothing herein constitutes a warranty, guarantee, contract, binding specification or other binding commitment by Fortinet or any indication of intent related to a binding commitment, and performance and other specification information herein may be unique to certain environments. This news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve uncertainties and assumptions, such as statements regarding technology releases among others. Changes of circumstances, product release delays, or other risks as stated in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, located at www.sec.gov, may cause results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in this press release. If the uncertainties materialize or the assumptions prove incorrect, results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. Fortinet assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, and expressly disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.


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Police search for suspect in 6-year-old's murder
Missing girl found dead in vacant Bentonville home Tuesday
Bentonville Police have launched a homicide investigation after finding the body of a 6-year-old Bentonville girl, said Police Chief Jon Simpson.
Neighbors said said the girl's name is Jersey Bridgeman.
Bentonville police said Jersey's father, David Bridgeman, 26, and stepmother, Jana Bridgeman, 29, remain in custody on felony charges of permitting the abuse of a minor, endangering the welfare of a minor in the first degree and false imprisonment in the first degree.
The couple, who were both sentenced after admitting to chaining the girl to a dresser, in their home.
Authorities said her father, David Bridgeman, told officers that they chained the girl to the dresser because she sleep walks and had gotten into chemicals in the kitchen.
Officers worked through the night Tuesday looking for clues and are waiting for a warrant to search the girl's home.
At 6:43 a.m. Tuesday the police received a call about a missing young girl, said Simpson.
Referencing the phone call Chief Simpson said, "We're not releasing any details right now of that phone call. But suffice it to say it was consistent with what you might expect if you awaken and find your child not in the home."
Police said the girl was reported missing from her home located at 608 Southeast A St. in Bentonville.
The Benton County coroner was seen entering a home a few doors down from where the girl was reported missing. Police said her body was found after a search of the neighborhood at the address, 704 SE A St.
Neighbors shared their concerns about the young girl's death and the impending investigation.
Brad Brown, a neighbor, said "You get worried because it's in your backyard, you know? I mean this is literally across the fence and across the street in my backyard. There's people around here that's by theirselves a lot, and there's lots of kids here. Who wouldn't worry about it?"
Records from the Benton County Assessor's office show both of the homes at 608 and 704 SE A St. are owned by the same couple. The couple's last known address is in Brooklyn, New York, according to county records.
Simpson said they plan to issue several search warrants to inspect the other homes in the area.
The Children's Advocacy Center of Benton County held a candlelight vigil and balloon release at the CAC memory garden Tuesday night.
The girl's body has been sent to the state crime lab in Little Rock.


text:
PRIVATE TRUCK COUNCIL OF AMERICA, INC. v. QUINN(1986)
On petition for writ of
certiorari to the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.
The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied.
Justice WHITE, with whom Justice BRENNAN and Justice O'CONNOR join, dissenting.
In this case, the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine held that an allegation that a State has violated the Commerce Clause is not cognizable in an action under 42 U.S.C. 1983. 503 A.2d 214 (1986). This decision, while supported by the weight of authority, see, e.g., Consolidated Freightways Corp. v. Kassel, 730 F.2d 1139 (CA8), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 834 (1984), conflicts with the holding in Kennecott Corp. v. Smith, 637 F.2d 181, 186, n. 5 (CA3 1980). I would grant certiorari to resolve this conflict.
This case also presents the question whether persons subjected to an unconstitutional tax, the nonpayment of which is a crime, may bring a refund action under the Fourteenth Amendment if no state refund procedure is available. The Supreme Judicial Court recognized that the Fourteenth Amendment may require a refund of unconstitutional taxes paid under compulsion. See Carpenter v. Shaw, 280 U.S. 363, 369 , 123 (1930); Ward v. Board of County Comm'rs, 253 U.S. 17, 24 , 422 (1920). However, the court rejected the " implied duress" theory of Atchison, T. & S.F. R. Co. v. O'Connor, 223 U.S. 280, 286 , 217 (1912), and held that petitioners have no right of recovery under the Fourteenth Amendment [476 U.S. 1129 , 1130] because they failed to present evidence that the State actually threatened them with arrest or seizure of personal property if they failed to pay the tax in question. Because this holding calls into question the continuing vitality of Atchison, I would grant certiorari on this issue as well.


text:
Monday, July 31, 2006
Howling at the Moon
The Colomb residence was raided after a confidential informant named Stevie Charlot purchased three rocks of crack from Ann and Edward Colomb in Ann's bedroom. Two police officers heard Ann and Stevie discussing the transaction over a transmitter they had placed in the informant's sock.
It got worse. During the March 2006 trial, a police officer testified that he had found crack cocaine in a car Sammy Davis and Edward Colomb were riding in back in 1993. Another officer reported that he had seen Danny Davis hand another drug dealer a rock of crack cocaine which was subsequently sold to a third party. That was in 1995. A third officer testified that he had purchased crack cocaine from Sammy Davis under the carport in front of the Colomb residence in 1999.
Then the coup de grace: thirty-one federal prison inmates prepared to testify that they sold members of the Colomb-Davis family over a ton of cocaine between 1993 and 1999. Defense counsel repeatedly emphasized that the prison snitches were cooperating with the government in exchange for time cuts. But there were so many snitches—could they all be lying? With so much smoke billowing from the Colomb's little FHA residence there was bound to be some fire. If nothing else, the government had the cookies in the dresser drawer.
The three facets of the government's case against the Colomb-Davis family were mutually reinforcing. Stevie Charlot was believable because two police officers corroborated his testimony. The police officers appeared credible because they were all singing the same tune. The jailhouse snitches were convincing because their testimony dovetailed perfectly with what the jury was hearing from the officers and the confidential informant.
To win this case defense counsel had to posit three overlapping conspiracies: a cop conspiracy, a conspiracy of snitches and a prosecutorial conspiracy perpetrated by a U.S. attorney using lying cops and lying snitches to win an easy conviction. Present one conspiracy theory and you look a bit sketchy; posit three overlapping conspiracies and the boys in the white uniforms come to take you away. You might as well be howling at the moon.
Why, jurors asked themselves, would so many people go to so much trouble to bring down a single family?
12 comments:
Ummm because they were criminal drug dealers that needed to go to jail? Because the prosecution was doing it's job and bringing forward the best case possible?
These kinds of cases are always interesting but this story is incomplete. What are the charges and possible sentence? What is the current status? Would you direct me to some sources?
- AlanBean said...
At the moment, a federal judge has called for new trials for all four defendants in this case. Two were looking at minimum sentences of ten years; and the other two were facing minimum twenty-year sentences. During the trial it became obvious that the inmate snitches were rehearsing their testimony together and sharing information. In future posts I will explain why the government's apparently convincing case is completely bankrupt.
- AlanBean said...
Anonymous: That is a natural, and fairly typical, assumption. Like you, the jury assumed the prosecution, the police officers and at least some of the inmate witnesses were acting in good faith. Future posts will demonstrate why none of these assumptions are warranted.
Ahh..cue the big conspiracy theories...
- Renees Take said...
Your story has me on the edge of my seat. Can't wait for the next post!
Anonymous said...
Ummm because they were criminal drug dealers that needed to go to jail? Because the prosecution was doing it's job and bringing forward the best case possible?
And in the last 80+ years and over a " TRILLION " dollars later with 1.6 million people locked up every year, untold numbers of INNOCENT Americans, from the elderly to infants being KILLED, YOU STILL SUPPORT THIS FAILURE????? And by doing so ensure that " ALL ASPECTS " of drugs will remain under the control of criminals, the purity, cost AND AGE LIMIT, etc...??? WHY??? So you believe those entrusted with GIVEING EVERY AMERICAN the right to justice, are doing so by threatening them with the maximum time " IF THEY REFUSE A PLEA BARGIN "???
""""Ahh..cue the big conspiracy theories...""""
The only way to bring down a corrupt system, IS TO OVERLOAD IT! Welcome to the NEW AMERICA you can have as many Freedoms and as much Justice AS YOU CAN AFFORD!!! Those who have manipulated our system for their own agendas and biases have sold out their religion and their souls and our country in doing so! Those that subjugate themselves to this "FEAR and CASH COW " do so at the cost of their Honor and the future of our young AND OUR COUNTRY!!!
There has got to be a better way!!!
Rusty White
Speaker www.leap.cc
"There has got to be a better way!!!"
Please enlighten me and tell me your ideas for making things better.
First off we end this known failure called the war on drugs. Redirect our resources to help our people instead of harming them. Take the " 69 BILLION DOLLARS " we throw down the rat hole every year and start facing the realities and facts instead manipulate fear and propaganda. Start holding people responsible for their actions not their personal choices. Take the excuse of drugs away from both the bad guys and the good guys! Stop letting people manipulate our laws with their own personal agendas and biases. Empty our jails , prisons and people ranches of all non-violent drug users. Remove the life time records from those who have harmed NO ONE! Start telling and teaching the truth, so our kids will be armed with the TRUTH and information that could save their lives. Use our law enforcement resources against REAL CRIMINALS, child molesters and killers, etc.. instead of non-violent people that make choices OTHERS DON'T LIKE, MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS. Stop turning neighbor against neighbor, kids against kids! End the policies that create second class citizens in our country, those with no hope, no future, who turn on our own people to survive!
I invite all to www.leap.cc watch the 12 minute video on our home page, and then see if you feel the same??? We don't have all the answers, but at least we are no longer denying the realities we live in! Also look at the links and educate yourself like those of the King County Bar Association. Look at those who support these new approaches, churches, Doctors, Nurses, Teachers, Pediatricians, Health organizations, Lawyers, Judges, present and former law enforcement officers, etc....
Rusty White
Speaker www.leap.cc
Anon, please read the archives here, or at many other anti-drug war sites. I suggest http://drugwarrant.com/ for a lucid and succinct discussion of why the drug war is wrong and what we can do about it. Asking for more information is commendable, but there is too much wrong with the drug war to address in a mere comment.
Without going into too much detail, I can briefly list some of the reasons we feel the way we do.
1) the 4th ammendment. The drug war has eroded our fourth ammendment rights against frivolous search and seizure. For instance, it is legal for the police to seize your property on the mere suspicion of drug possession. They do not even have to accuse you in a court of law, much less obtain a conviction.
2) This country spends billions of dollars fighting substances that cannot be eradicated. This is wasteful in the extreme. The government can't even keep drugs out of the prisons, to think they can get it off the streets is delusional.
3) The drug war has eroded our right against unreasonable detainment and incarceration. Is possessing a gram of some substance that is not a danger to anyone else really deserving of long time confinement? I think not.
4) The drug war is racist. Far more minorities are convicted of drug offences than are whites, even though whites use or abuse drugs at approximately the same rate as anybody else.
5) The drug war causes people who may have serious problems with drug abuse to go underground where they will not receive the help they need. This is institutionalized cruelty. To add to that, when these unfortunate souls do get arrested, they are sent to jail instead of treatment facilities, and still will not get the help they need.
WELL SAID! And you are correct, it is very difficult to address this issue in short responses. At least now the subject is no longer considered taboo or unacceptable to even entertain. I for one welcome any opportunity to discuss the issue, any time any place. I do so in the hopes of bringing the issue out in the open so we can find the answers our people and country so desperately need. Thank you having the heart to stand up and for being honest and trying to help. If we looked at the facts and realities of this issue there is little chance for anyone to honestly defend this failed policy, known as the war on drugs! Nor justify the harm it is doing.Together one day " AGAIN " common sense may be the bases for our laws and path of our country instead of manipulated fear,biases and agendas to continue this " CASH COW "!
Rusty White
Speaker www.leap.cc
- Unknown said...
During the World War II, Art Deco jewellery was ugg sale a very popular style among women. The females started ugg boots wearing short dresses and cut their hair short. And uggs such boyish style was accessorized with Art Deco jewellery. They used cheap ugg boots long dangling earrings and necklaces, multiple bracelets and bold ugg boots uk rings.Art Deco jewellery has harshly geometric and symmetrical theme instead disocunt ugg boots of free flowing curves and naturalistic motifs. Art Deco Jewelry buy ugg boots today displays designs that consist of arcs, circles, rectangles, squares, and ugg outlet triangles. Bracelets, earrings, necklaces and rings are added with long ugg boots outlet lines and curves.One example of Art Deco jewelry is the Art Deco ring. Art Deco rings have ugg mall sophisticated sparkle and bold styles. These rings are not intended for a subtle look, they are meant to be noticed. Hence, these are perfect for people with bold styles.