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A 10-page defamation notice sent by the legal advisors of The Indian Express to Open magazine, over an interview granted to the latter by Vinod Mehta, editorial chairman of Outlook* magazine, criticising the Express 'C' report, is now in the public domain.
The letter—on behalf of the Express, the paper's editor-in-chief Shekhar Gupta, its reporters Ritu Sarin, Pranab Samanta and Ajmer Singh—seeks the removal from Open's website of the offending interview and an apology from the magazine and its employees, failing which it threatens a Rs 500 crore lawsuit (Rs 100 crore for each).
The Open interview was conducted by Hartosh Singh Bal, and like in other Express lawsuits, even the web official who put up the interview online has been named.
"There are some things in life that we will perhaps never understand. Like how life came into being. Or the size of the universe. Or the fact that Fifty Shades of Grey and its two follow-ups are bestsellers.
"Or what possessed Shekhar Gupta of the Indian Express to not only sue Open magazine for publishing an interview with Vinod Mehta (in which he criticised Indian Express's story about a potential army coup), but to sue them for some $95 million."
Anant Rangaswami on First Post:
"The Indian Express, like all of us, including Firstpost, make such comments every day. As Mehta and Open magazine have done. If Mehta describes the original IE story as the mother of all mistakes, this legal notice might cause the Express the mother of all embarrassments."
"Rs 100 crore defamation notices are now par for the course. After Justice Sawant's suit against Arnab Goswami, and Times Now's legal notice for the same damages to The Hoot, we now have Shekhar Gupta and other authors of the Indian Express page one story on April 4 asking Vinod Mehta and Open magazine for Rs 100 crore (sic) in damages for defaming them."
"What is perhaps not so well known is the long acrimonious history between Vinod and Shekhar, with Outlook often taking pot-shots at the newspaper. All that bad blood has now come to a boil.
"While Open is examining legal options, Vinod, perhaps the only editor to keep this plaque in his office-Hard Work Never Killed Anyone, But Why Take The Risk-is characteristically mild-mannered. 'What's the fuss, he (Shekhar) is perfectly entitled to sue me if he wishes to.'
Sanjaya Baru on Facebook:
"Hartosh is a good journalist, but this interview was bad judgement, and giving the dubious Vinod Mehta free run was wrong editorial judgement. Vinod has no business saying what he has, but then what's new, he is like that only! Glad Shekhar has taken him to court."
"Vinod Mehta essentially said it was a planted story and it was a huge mistake to carry it. Considering that the first byline on the story was that of the chief editor, that is quite a statement to make. You are saying the chief editor and his colleague are susceptible to plants, thereby seriously questioning their credibility. So I guess the Express could hardly ignore it."
* Disclosures apply
Also read: Indian Express 'C' report: scoop, rehash or spin?
Indian Express stands by its 'C' report
How the media viewed the Indian Express 'C' report
Aditya Sinha tears into the Indian Express 'C' report


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A featherweight matchup between fan-favorite slugger Leonard Garcia (15-9-1 MMA, 2-5 UFC) and "The Ultimate Fighter 12" cast member Cody McKenzie (13-3 MMA, 2-3 UFC) will take place in December.
UFC officials today announced the contest has been booked for UFC 155.
UFC 155 takes place Dec. 29 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The main event is a heavyweight title fight rematch between champion Junior Dos Santos and ex-titleholder Cain Velasquez, which headlines the pay-per-view portion of the show.
UFC officials did not announce where the Garcia vs. McKenzie bout will reside on the evening's fight card, but it is expected to take place on the preliminary portion of the event.
Garcia comes into the bout in desperate need of a win after dropping three-straight fights under the UFC banner. The Team Jackson-Winkeljohn fighter has competed under the Zuffa banner since 2007 and has a penchant for exciting (even if not exactly technical) brawls from start to finish. In fact, four of Garcia's past seven fights have earned him a "Fight of the Night" bonus, and his 2010 tussle with Chan Sung Jung in the now-shuttered WEC promotion is widely considered that year's best fight.
Still, Garcia has just one win in his past five fights and could use a victory to stay in his bosses' good graces.
Meanwhile, McKenzie fights for the second time at 145 pounds after a three-fight UFC run at lightweight. His first trip to featherweight was not a success, as the submission ace suffered a knockout loss to Chad Mendes in just 31 seconds. While McKenzie is also no stranger to entertaining tussles, his 12 career submission wins are a clear indicator of where he'll likely hope to take this matchup.
With the latest addition to the card, the UFC 155 lineup now includes:
- Champ Junior Dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez – for heavyweight title
- Phil Davis vs. Forrest Griffin
- Tim Boetsch vs. Chris Weidman
- Joe Lauzon vs. Gray Maynard
- Alan Belcher vs. Yushin Okami
- Chris Leben vs. Karlos Vemola
- Brad Pickett vs. Eddie Wineland
- Phil De Fries vs. Matt Mitrione
- Michael Johnson vs. Myles Jury
- Leonard Garcia vs. Cody McKenzie
- Byron Bloodworth vs. Erik Perez
For more on UFC 155, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.
(Pictured: Leonard Garcia)

subset: commoncrawl


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This is the joint website for the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science.
The website includes the Ministry/the Department and the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science.
Phone: 3392 9700Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
P O Box 2135DK - 1015 Copenhagen K
Børsgade 4DK - 1215 Copenhagen K
Phone: 7231 7800Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Haraldsgade 53DK - 2100 Copenhagen Ø


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AUGUSTA — Gov. Paul Le- Page drew cheers as he spoke to more than 100 people who turned out for a gun-rights rally outside the State House despite Friday's snowstorm and bitterly cold temperatures.
"While I'm your governor, they will not infringe on your rights," LePage said. "The Constitution is very, very clear, and free people, law-abiding citizens, should have the ability to carry guns. That's what keeps us safe and free."
LePage followed several other speakers including conservative Republican activist and former congressional candidate John Frary. The Republican governor mingled with the crowd afterward and shook hands with many of those attending, despite the 5-degree temperature and a stiff wind that blew snow across the courtyard between the State House and State Office Building.
Rally participants held American flags and placards, one of which said: "Tyrants Fear Armed Free Men."
The rally was held two days after a coalition, formed in the wake of the Dec. 14 Connecticut school shootings, announced its support for state legislation to keep guns out of the hands of mentally ill people, limit magazine capacity, have universal background checks for gun purchases and promote gun safety.
One of the speakers at the rally, Rep. Deborah Sanderson, R-Chelsea, said people attended to show their concern over state as well as proposed federal legislation, which includes bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Sanderson said it's important to focus on mental health as a root cause of gun violence.
Similar rallies have been held in other state capitals, including Trenton, N.J., where 300 people and two legislators gathered Friday outside the Statehouse in opposition to New Jersey's gun-control laws, which are among the nation's toughest.
In Raleigh, N.C., about 300 people showed up outside the Legislative Building on Tuesday to show support for new state laws broadening access to guns and resisting proposed federal restrictions.
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Okaloosa gets $450,000 BP grant to study reefs
Okaloosa County has received $450,000 from BP to pay for a study of reef development in area waters.
The grant was funded from a $57 million Deepwater Horizon settlement established to promote the tourism and seafood industries in regions along the Gulf Coast affected by the April 2010 oil spill.
"The basic objective of the project is to get a general estimate of the biomass that exists on the public reefs offshore of Okaloosa County," said Scott Henson, who manages the county's artificial reef program. "We're looking at fish … particular species that are reef fish and pelagics."
Henson came up with the idea for the study while trying to figure out reef density in Northwest Florida waters.
The county applied for $450,000 each year for the next four years but so far has been approved for only the first year.
Henson said the study will help provide the state with "empirical data" on various fish populations on and around reefs in Northwest Florida.
"What we're trying to do is help the state verify the assumptions they're making about our reef systems," he said.
County Commissioner Dave Parisot said the study should provide the county with "valuable data" on the quantities and types of fish around the reefs.
"One of the big problems we've got right now is inaccurate counts of our fisheries," Parisot said.
In early 2013, the county will solicit proposals from companies to conduct the study.
"We will put a bid out for the work that needs to be done," Henson said. "It's very specialized, very technical."
The chosen company will use two primary forms of technology — side scan sonar and hydroacoustics — to study the reef populations.
The field work, which involves going out into the Gulf of Mexico and mapping out 600 square miles to study, likely will take a couple of months to complete, he said.
"After that field work, it goes into the data processing and that will take four to five months," Henson said. "When all the data's looking good and we've got it packaged, that's when we'll be able to go out on the Web and say, 'Here's what we've got.' "
Henson said the data will give the county another tool with which to understand the limitations on existing reef resources.
"If you think about it … artificial reefs and fishing are the reasons a lot of people come here," he said. "The more often that we get to do this, the better picture we have. This type of study is something that's needed to be done since people started putting reefs out there."


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Couple marries at fundraising walk
Walk raises money for cancer research
Hundreds of walkers were raising money for cancer research Friday evening after a couple brought together by the disease was married at the event.
The walkers were participating in the Relay for Life at Nashua North High School.
Among the participants were newlyweds Cathy Duso and Sean Roberson. They started their life together while raising money for the American Cancer Society, an organization that is close to their hearts.
"Cathy and I both have had experiences of losing our spouses to cancer," Roberson said.
After losing their spouses, Duso and Roberson ventured back into the dating world. They met online and quickly fell in love.
"We had a lot in common. It was great to have someone who also understood that we don't want to forget the people we lost. We want to celebrate their lives while moving on with our lives together," Duso said.
When the couple was planning their wedding, they knew the Relay for Life was the perfect place to celebrate their union.
In the middle of the Nashua North High School track, they said their vows.
The couple will spend its first night together walking alongside friends and family while raising money for the organization that brought them together and has met so much to them over the years.
"I'm going to get out of this dress, and we are going to walk," Duso said.
Instead of wedding gifts, the couple asked their friends and family to donate money to the American Cancer Society.
While they may have lost their spouses to the disease, Duso and Roberson said the research funded through events like the Relay for Life saves lives every day.
Roberson is also a cancer survivor.


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I can't help but think that there needs to be a test before one can call themself a skeptic. It's amazing how many people call themselves skeptics while having no critical thinking skills once so ever. This is the biggest reason I don't really identify as a skeptic.
Today I received a reply to a comment I wrote on YouTube. The person considered themself a skeptic, but they couldn't be bothered to supply any evidence to support their claim that masculinity and femininity are biological despite the fact that different cultures around the world hold to different ideas about what is masculine and what is feminine. Skeptics are supposed to be critical of all claims, and they are supposed to look at the evidence before they decide what is true, but so few actually do that. So many skeptics ignore the evidence and determine what they believe to be true on what society accepts, or who they hero-worship, or what they simply feel to be right. But that isn't being skeptical.
Skepticism is a fine line to walk. It isn't easy. But it also isn't that difficult. Somebody says the sky is blue? Look up. Does the sky look blue? If yes, then do you have any reason to believe you are being deceived? No? Then the sky is blue. Obviously not everything is this simple, but it follows the same pattern. Someone says god exists? Can you see god? No? Then what other ways can we know something using our senses? Can we feel god? No? Can we smell god? No? Can we taste god? No? Can we hear god? No? Then how else can we find out if this claim is true? What evidence does the person making the claim have to offer? Can that evidence be verified? If not, then what does this say about the claim? If you can't verify something using your own senses, and the evidence offered by the person making the claim isn't verifiable, then the person's claim can be dismissed.
But skeptics don't generally have an issue applying this method to gods. It's other things, more mundane things that skeptics want to be true, where they have difficulty applying their skepticism. But applying skepticism to one area does not a skeptic make. So where do skeptics fail?
Skeptics fail at applying skepticism to claims about sex and gender. It's widely accepted that men are stronger than women. But how do we know if this is true? Can you see a man lift something that a woman can't? Probably. But this is one man and one woman. So how do you turn the "this man can lift something that that woman can't" claim into a "men are stronger than women" claim? First you need a lot of men and a lot of women. Then you need to compensate for weight difference. What do the results show? Obviously the average person doesn't have time to do all of these experiments to determine what they should believe. Luckily scientists have done much of the research for us. So what have scientists found when they have done these studies? Are there studies that contradict each other? Does one debunk the other one? Are there meta-studies that explain why one is more accurate than the other? And are you sure your sources are good (ie. can you follow the source back to original research?)? Once you've done all that, you can be reasonably sure that your belief is accurate. However, to be a good skeptic, you can not say that you are a 100% certain that your belief is true. There is always a chance that you are wrong, and a true skeptic understands this. The problem with most so-called skeptics is they do not understand this.
So do you need to use the process given above to determine if your believes are true if you want to be a good skeptic? Yes. But it is not as daunting as it sounds. We all do the process to a certain degree, but most people don't look at both sides of an argument, and they aren't often open to changing their mind. The research doesn't have to be done all at once. It can be done over the course of months or years, but both sides need to be considered, and you need to be open to changing your mind. That's how we learn and grow.
So please, if you call yourself a skeptic, please make sure that you are as willing to apply your skepticism equally to all of your beliefs. And please make sure that you are willing to accept that you might be wrong. Because as soon as you say "I know x for certain" you cease being a skeptic. And as soon as you fail to apply the rigorous research needed to accept a belief you cease to be a good skeptic.


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Series BC Combination Brake Casters - 6 inch Diameter
Supplier: Hamilton Caster
FOB: Midwest Warehouse
- Swivel Construction — Cold formed top plate from 3/16" thick steel. Legs formed from 1/8" thick steel.
- Kingpin — 7/8" diameter bolt with separate lock nut.
- Main and Secondary Load Bearings — Two full rows of steel balls rotate in separate heat treated raceways.
- Axle — 1/2" diameter bolt with lock nut.
- Lubrication Fittings — In swivel assembly and in hubs of roller bearing wheels, except as noted.
- Top plate: 4" x 4-1/2", slotted bolt holes.
Featured Wheel Bearings:
- Precision Ball Bearings - double sealed, maintenance free, superior rollability aids manual applications, not recommended if shock loading is prevalent.
- Straight Roller Bearing - traditional anti-friction bearing, best for manual applications where shock loading (but no side thrust) is prevalent.
- Delrin Bearings - chemical and corrosion resistant plastic-type bearing
- Model Info


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Bike, mostly packed. Some clothes are packed into the case too.
Sunrise, Mt. St. Hood, and Mt. Adams(?) from the plane.
I found a cart, which was much easier on my back and arm- the case weighs 70lbs and has two wheels, so I end up shouldering most of the weight.
At the TGV terminal. Case is resting against a post.
The bigass case on a local train. Nowhere to put it, so I put it in the entryway and stayed nearby for the hourlong ride.
Got the peer-to-peer rental car, got my big bike case in the back. Whee!
Opened case. You can see how much "junk" is packed in there.
Pull out the wheels. They hide below the bike- a bit like a layer cake.
Bike is mounted on a repair stand. No wheels, pedals, seat. I've attached the bars.
It's almost assembled! I turned it around so I could access the deraillers.
Looking down through the village.
Another view from the village. We're up on the side of a mountain.
Waterfall on a mountainside.
Looking south from the La Grenoniere climb. Roughly speaking, the Alpe d'Huez climb is on the far mountain.
Looking up to Col d'Ordon. The road is visible; the last visible village is where I'm staying.
Panorama from the La Grenoniere view.
Rif Garcin waterfall from the La Grenoniere climb.
Off for a checkout ride! This is the chalet I'm staying at- King Of The Mountains. It's actually in an old schoolhouse.


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Northwest Flower and Garden Show 2013
By the time the Northwest Flower & Garden Show in Seattle rolls around in late February, Pacific Northwesterners are half-mad with spring fever.
Not that Portland's smaller but homier Yard, Garden & Patio Show, which took place two weekends ago, didn't whet the collective gardening appetite for spring. But the Seattle show is the second-largest garden show in the US and draws visitors from all over the country, particularly for its adventurous display gardens and top-notch free lectures.
Novice and experienced gardeners alike have been taking the trip up to Seattle for the five-day show since it was born in 1989. Whether you make it a day trip or a long weekend, plan on arriving early and staying late, if you can, to soak up maximum floral delight and inspiration.
Why Go?
* The largest roster of free horticultural seminars of any garden show in the world. Seriously great speakers this year include wickedly funny author and designer Thomas Hobbs on "transcendent plantings;" Therese Ciesinsky on women in the garden from Organic Gardening Magazine; NYT best-selling author of The Drunken Botanist, Amy Stewart (more on her book on this blog); the delightful Tovah Martin, author of books on houseplants and terrariums; and many many more. There is an especially rich group of speakers on vegetable and edible gardening including Barbara Damrosch, Teresa O'Connor, Erica Strauss, Marianne Binetti, Lorene Edwards-Forkner, cookbook author Diane Morgan and more.
* Hundreds of exhibitors offering gardening tools and accessories, hand-made garden-related art and crafts, specialty foods, garden furniture and organic products for the garden, as well as a huge plant market with nurseries from all over the Pacific Northwest including Tillandsia and orchid specialists, bulb and rare plant growers, and squidzillions of perennial, shrub and tree retailers
* Actually inspiring display gardens designed and executed by some of the PNW's top designers and landscape contractors.
WHAT: Northwest Flower & Garden Show 2013
WHEN: Wed February 20, 2013 to Sunday February 24, 2013. Hours: Wed to Sat 9 am to 8 pm and Sunday 9 am to 6 pm
WHERE: Washington State Convention Center, 800 Convention Place, Seattle, WA 98101Seattle, WA
COST/TICKETS: Early Bird, One-Day tickets purchased before February 20 (online, by phone or at retailer) will save you $4 per ticket ($16 for adult). Buy tickets here in advance or purchase at the door on show day for $20 (adult ticket). Multi-day, half-day, group and youth tickets and passes are also available. For more information, call 253-756-2121.


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A Guide to Tuesday's Primary Elections
Voters cast ballots Tuesday in primary elections in five states, plus a runoff in Arkansas. Here are some highlights:
In a stunning upset, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia lost his Republican primary to a little-known and underfunded tea party challenger, economics professor Dave Brat, who has never held public office and has raised only a fraction of Cantor's haul from donors. Brat enlisted conservative activists to power his uphill battle against the No. 2 Republican in the House.
Cantor spent more than $1 million in April and May in his ultimately unsuccessful effort beat back Brat's campaign, which raised just $200,000 total.
A tea party challenge failed against South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who was once considered vulnerable to a challenge from the right. Graham defeated six opponents and avoided a runoff by getting more than 50 percent of the vote. Some conservatives loathe him for his support of immigration reform and other issues, but none of his challengers could gain traction or match Graham's fundraising.
The odds favor Graham winning a third term in the U.S. Senate in November against Democratic State Sen. Brad Hutto and Libertarian Victor Kocher in the deeply conservative state.
Tuesday's elections shouldn't have an impact on the race for control of the Senate, where Democrats are defending a six-seat majority.
Graham and incumbent South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, a fellow Republican appointed to the seat vacated by Jim DeMint, are viewed as easy general election winners. Both won their primaries Tuesday.
In Maine, GOP Sen. Susan Collins is not expected to face a Democratic threat this fall.
Ed Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee chairman, last weekend captured the GOP nomination for the Senate in Virginia. He will face incumbent Sen. Mark Warner, a popular Democrat in Virginia.
The race to replace Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud in Maine's vast rural north illustrated the deep divisions among Republicans and Democrats alike.
Tea party favorite Bruce Poliquin won the Republican primary over Kevin Raye, a former state Senate president and a favorite of establishment-minded Republicans.
Poliquin, who campaigned on a pledge to never raise taxes and his deep Catholic faith, unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2010 and for the Senate in 2012. He made his opposition to abortion rights a central issue in the race.
Social conservatives distrusted Raye because he supports abortion rights and because he was a chief of staff to former Sen. Olympia Snowe, a moderate Republican.
State Sen. Emily Cain won the Democratic nomination, campaigning as a dealmaker who would work with Republicans. She defeated Troy Jackson, a logger who campaigned as a champion for the working class.
Tuesday's election will set up a familiar scenario for Maine's combative Republican Gov. Paul LePage: a three-way race with a Democrat and an independent splitting votes on the left. LePage is unopposed for re-nomination, and will face Michaud and independent Eliot Cutler, whom he beat in in 2010 to become the state's first Republican governor in 16 years.
Voters in Nevada picked Robert Goodman, a retired state economic development commissioner, as the Democratic nominee to face popular Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval. They also endorsed state Sen. Mark Hutchison, who had Sandoval's backing, as the GOP nominee for lieutenant governor over one-time U.S. Senate hopeful Sue Lowden.
In North Dakota, voters decided to give elections officials more time to review signatures on petitions trying to force ballot measures. North Dakota currently allows ballot measures to be filed 90 days from an election, but that will now expand that to a 120-day window.
Voters in Colorado, Maryland, New York, Oklahoma, Utah and the District of Columbia vote on June 24. Voters in Mississippi also cast ballots that day in the GOP runoff between Sen. Thad Cochran and tea party challenger Chris McDaniel. If Graham fails to win 50 percent of the vote on Tuesday, he, too, will have a runoff on June 24.


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Our sellers welcome serious interest from adults. Most will want to speak with an experienced horseman about your rider's suitability for this horse. We highly recommend inexperienced buyers enlist the help of a quality professional in their search. If you have any trouble getting in touch with a seller just send us an email.
Kit Thomas
Cobblestone Farm 604-455-0456
Horses listed with The Exchange are offered for sale by their owners, trainers and/or agents, and not by The Exchange. Advertising copy is created by The Exchange from descriptions given by sellers: It is not verified by The Exchange nor is The Exchange responsible for any erroneous or misleading information. As with any equine purchase the Buyer is ultimately responsible for verifying claims made by the Seller, determining suitability of the animal for their needs, and ensuring proper health & soundness. A PrePurchase Veterinary Exam is strongly recommended for all equine purchases.
Someone will be in contact with you shortly. Be sure to let us know if you have any trouble reaching a seller.
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View our Privacy Policy ~ All Content Copyright Eohippus, LLC 2023
Current Exchange clients can quickly add new horses to Premium or Sale Barn Accounts here.


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Actually no intention to blog that soon, as I am really shortage of time. I am juggling between busy work schedule and children, and of course the daily visiting to the hospital, and now community hospital that my fil has recently transferred to for his rehab. For such long period I didn't blog, not even have time to surf net, no cooking and no baking as well. The new kitchen mixer that I bought sometimes ago, still sitting in the storeroom waiting for me to unpack lol.
Irene of 最爱的。。。。told me about the posting of her Penang trip to meet our blogger friends, the 5 Penang Flowers. I have missed out joining this trip, of course cannot miss the post. While I was scrolling through my blog reading list for this post, I happened to notice that the current Bake-Along theme is Marble Butter Cake. I remember my pool of backlog posts, one of them is marble butter cake that I baked quite sometimes ago, good time for me to join in the event!
The recipe adapted from the famous Mrs NgSK butter cake, one of my favourite cake.
Ingredient : (for 8" square cake pan)
230g salted butter, soften in room temperature
4 eggs or 200g without shell
50g + 125g sugar
180g self raising flour, sifted
20g cocoa powder
60ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Method :
1. Preheat oven at 180C. Prepare a 8" square pan. Line the base and grease the sides (greasing helps the cake's sides to rise)
2. Separate the eggs, and place the whites into a medium sized bowl. Beat egg whites until soft peaks, gradually add 50g sugar and and beat until stiff. Set aside.
3. Cream butter and 125g sugar until pale and fluffy. Add in vanilla extract and and beat for a while. Put in egg yolks one by one and beat well after each addition.
4. Put in half the flour and mix on low speed until incorporated. Put in milk in 2 additions and mix until well incorporated. Mix in balance of flour.
5. Put half the egg whites in and mix on low speed. Pour the balance of egg whites in and FOLD until well mixed.
6. Separate batter into 2 portions. In one portion, add in the cocoa powder and mix well.
7. Then spoon the plain and chocolate batter into the cake pan alternately until finish and use a satay stick to swirl the batter.
8. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. Remove from oven and invert to cool completely before unmoulding.
The cake is so soft, fluffy and moist, just like I want my butter cake texture to be. The sweetness is just nice for me, for sweet tooth may have to add in more sugar. Yum Yum!
I'm linking this post to Bake Along hosted by Lena, Joyce and Zoe.


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Something about me
The Malagasy people have profoundly changed and inspired me. They live in one of the most unique and wonderful places on earth. Against great challenges they are fighting everyday to secure the future of their spiny forest. The current generation of children may prove to be the most potent driving force yet. With their determination and the ongoing support and guidance of the WWF the spiny forest will flourish again. My hope is to be able to return to see it.


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MORE Grow Your Own!
by Sean Croxton & Kirk Hensler
The Underground Wellness Garden is soaking up these hot San Diego sun rays. And in a few weeks, we'll be able to harvest our spinach, squash, and tomatoes. Super jazzed about growing (and eating) my own food!
I'm a little behind with bringing you the latest installments of our Grow Your Own series. So, below you will find episodes 2 through 4.
In Episode 2, Kirk Hensler of Hale Holistic and I show you how to put together you own grow box. Pretty easy peezy!
In Episode 3, Kirk shows us how to plant our starters.
And in the fourth episode, we sow our seeds.
Be on the lookout for the fifth installment later this week. Watering plants is pretty easy, BUT you want to be sure that you're not feeding your plants toxic water. We'll give you the scoop!
I'll be headed back to Hale on Friday. Our seeds are sprouting. My babies are here!!!
Thanks for tuning in!
Follow Us on Facebook!
Sean Croxton
Author, The Dark Side of Fat Loss


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Comic Book 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Decides to Slay Her Child
The entertainment industry has begun to exhibit an increasingly pro-abortion agenda. A Feb. 8 USA Today article examined the latest example of a member of the entertainment industry promoting abortion. In season 9 of the comic book series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," the main character, Buffy, decides to have an abortion.
The USA Today piece examined the circumstances behind Buffy's decision with startling frankness: "Season 9 finds the character in her early 20s with no idea of what she's doing with her life and in free-fall while everyone around her seeks to me maturing… …Buffy learns she is pregnant – with the unknown father possibly one of the guests at a wild party at her place – and in the new Issue 6, she confides in the heroic anti-vamp Spike of her decision to have an abortion."
"Possibly one of the guests" is the father? In other words, for Buffy, abortion is a convenient way of cleaning up a mess, created by a lack of self-control.
The article noted that Joss Whedon, the executive producer of the comic, "concedes that there's a bit of a political jab in the Buffy story line." Whedon huffed: "It offends me that people who purport to be discussing a decision that is as crucial and painful as any a young woman has to make won't even say something that they think is going to make people angry."
But pro-life advocates see abortion as child-killing. Of course child-murder is going to anger those who believe that an unborn child is human.
However, Whedon tried to claim some measure of neutrality, noting that they made sure that Buffy thought about keeping her child before killing him or her. The article quotes Whedon: "It's not that women should be on one side or the other," he says, "but that people have to make this decision and talk about it."
But by publishing a comic where a woman gets an abortion, the creator of the comic has effectively taken the side of abortion. If abortion is the taking of an innocent human life, then abortion should be banned. If it is not the taking of an innocent life, then abortion is perfectly acceptable.
In another interview with Entertainment Weekly, Whedon admitted that his desire in publishing the abortion story was to strike a blow for "women's rights," declaring: "I don't think Buffy should have a baby. I don't think Buffy can take care of a baby. I agree with Buffy. It's a very difficult decision for her, but she made a decision that so many people make and it's such a hot button issue with Planned Parenthood under constant threat and attack right now. A woman's right to choose is under attack as much as it's ever been, and that's a terrible and dangerous thing for this country. I don't usually get soap box-y with this, but the thing about Buffy is all she's going through is what women go through, and what nobody making a speech, holding up a placard, or making a movie is willing to say."
Buffy's abortion decision is merely the latest in a recent spate of pro-abortion propaganda in the entertainment industry.
Grey's Anatomy, which is produced by a Shonda Rhimes, board
member of the Los Angeles Planned Parenthood, inserted a pro-abortion
message into a September 2011 episode, by positively
depicting one of the doctors killing her baby. Private Practice, also
produced by Rhimes, was
even more overt in supporting abortion in a May 2011 episode, featuring a
"pro-life" doctor who admitted to an abortion doctor who had just performed a
partial-birth abortion that "you helped that woman." Friday Night Lights also
featured a pro-abortion
message in a July 2010 episode, with the moral counselor of the show counseling
a young woman to "think
about her life, think about what's important to her and what she wants."
Comic book writers have actively supporting liberal causes such as the Occupy movement through their writings. It is hardly surprising that a comic writer would attempt to peddle abortion in his works as well – as his counterparts in television have done.


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For weeks now I've attempted to absorb myself in the art of the short story. Not just to read lots of new ones and re-read old ones, but to look closely at their composition, compare their merits and work out why it was that these fleeting snapshots of life seemed so much more like art than their beefier cousin, the novel.
At the end of my blitz of numerous tales I feel at once wiser and just as ignorant. The fact that my study of these stories has been so intense, the fact that it was indeed a solitary blitz, meant I had much less time than I would have liked to dissect, contrast and concoct thoughtful, satisfactory points and conclusions. This mini task within the greater, rushed whole of Reading and Writing Month has certainly not proved to be the magic pill I might have hoped for; I have not morphed into a masterful writer myself simply by consuming such a renowned, diverse range. But I am glad I was ambitious and wide ranging. I feel as if I've discovered intriguing examples I'll be able to return to again and again as an inspirational template and model for my own work. Or works I'll re-read simply to marvel at and endlessly reinterpret and enjoy.
Even prior to this challenge I found that a certain type of short story would leave me baffled. It would feel as if I'd barely read what could be called a "story" at all. Ernest Hemingway was one of the particular authors that could simultaneously make me feel cold and unmoved and fascinated. At A-Level I studied Cat in the Rain and for this challenge I read other tales from Hemingway's "First Forty-Nine Stories" collection, including Homage to Switzerland and One Reader Writes. One Reader Writes is barely two pages long and feels as though it were lifted straight from an experiment in a creative writing class, as the narrator, clearly barely literate, attempts to write a letter about her husband's syphilis. Homage to Switzerland presents three almost identical but also very different conversations at a railway station in Switzerland.
This last story is more typically Hemingway. He simply paints the picture of a scene to the reader; who watches. It takes the rule of "show don't tell" in storytelling to the extreme. It points towards any number of possible truths about the characters, just as the famous Cat in the Rain does. The reader is left to interpret, as if watching a scene from a play. Indeed the quote from The Guardian on the back of my Hemingway collection sums up, what in the end, is his subtle brilliance:
"The author's exceptional gift of narrative quality gives the excitement of a well-told tale to what is, in fact, a simple description of a scene" (my emphasis)
Here then is the first vague, hardly groundbreaking truth I began to comprehend better about short stories; that they can show us the many, differing qualities of a specific scene, much like a play. They can have as much or little drama as the reader (or the audience) chooses them to. Their brevity and focus also means that short stories encompassing a substantial sweep in time become harder to write. They're also more likely to succeed if they contain dialogue. I do not say light-heartedly that dialogue is easy to write, but simply that good short stories rest on their ability to show us things in flashes, like a play. This is easier to do with well written dialogue. The professional looking winners, submitted by amateurs, to last year's writing competitions, for Summer and Halloween in The Guardian and Telegraph respectively, mostly contained convincing dialogue, from which the reader can infer.
Chekhov was of course a playwright and this might explain his aptitude for the short story. In an insightful and enlightening introduction to a collection of Chekhov stories, Richard Ford makes a number of points about the merits of Chekhov's writing that can also be applied across the board to short stories. Firstly he highlights how teachers were always telling him it was the sheer economy of Chekhov's writing that others tried to replicate. As he concludes though, whilst this was evidence of accomplished craftsmanship it was hardly remarkable. What Chekhov did to elevate his writing, what made them art, was to expose universal, everlasting truths of the human condition still relevant today. His stories, the most famous of which being The Lady with the Dog, went against convention by taking established forms and zooming in on their less explored aspects. Like poetry, or a well executed play, Chekhov slowly makes us accept facts of existence we knew to be true all along; he simply crafted the circumstances and phrases to express them.
And yet short stories don't all have to be masterfully subtle scenes, open to endless interpretation. The subtlety helps and it certainly doesn't do any harm to have the fine focus of a scene. But they can also be the seeds of future novels, as Haruki Murakami's Firefly became Norwegian Wood or symbolic essays on ideas. If I had to categorise the stories I have read, and I don't think it would be wise to, I would divide them between these focused scenes and explorations of a particular idea. Fiction, in this condensed form, can be a far better, fuller examination of any idea than a hard written essay. Short stories can also better express something, without all the trappings and requirements of a novel.
In a refreshingly frank and interesting introduction to the collection Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, Murakami talks about the difference for him, as a writer, between short stories and the novel. As always I find his distinctive Japanese symbolism captivating, even when he's not crafting anything creative:
"To put it in the simplest possible terms, I find writing novels a challenge, writing short stories a joy. If writing novels is like planting a forest, then writing short stories is more like planting a garden. The two processes complement each other…"
Certainly there is substantial crossover in style and themes from Murakami's novels to his short stories. Like his most celebrated novels, these tales are often heavy with nostalgia, sentiment and emotion. I mentioned ideas, but Murakami is a writer more interested in feelings and moods. His short stories allow him to explore these moods in isolation, touchingly and with symbolism. Many of his stories are symbolic and for me at least, irresistibly enthused with ingredients like adolescence, love and Japan. He is also an old fashioned storyteller in the sense that his short stories are often told by a character, or have happened to a friend of the narrator. Stories are currency to be passed around and retold, often based on perplexing coincidence that cast life in light or shadow.
Among my favourites from his collection Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman was A Poor Aunt Story, apparently one of his youthful, inexpert creations. This was a story with a symbolic idea at its heart, as opposed to someone's emotional journey; the narrator wanted to write a story about a poor aunt, only for one to appear stuck to his back for the world to see. It seemed to me a wonderfully poetic way to make a point about the forgotten members of society, the pieces in the background.
Murakami also has the knack for the occasional, sensational and fantastical funny tale. A perfect day for Kangaroos, Dabchick and The Rise and Fall of Sharpie Cakes were all witty and amusing. Other personal favourites from the collection included: Hanalei Bay, Where I'm Likely to Find it (wonderfully mysterious), The Seventh Man, Hunting Knife and Birthday Girl.
Like Murakami, Kazuo Ishiguro is a writer excellent at moods, and I thoroughly enjoyed his atmospheric collection "Nocturnes". This was five stories of music, love, nightfall and heartbreak. Here we find another string to the short story bow; loosely connected stories, that are quite separate but as a whole unite to portray one emotion, one truth or experience.
So finally then, to ideas. Whether they are sci-fi musings such as the poetically described automated house, with all its rhythm and life, in There Will Come Soft Rains from Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, to Thomas Mann's more intellectual and philosophical ponderings via his protagonist in Death in Venice, the short story can properly showcase them all. Mann's masterpiece is a superbly written meditation on obsession, love, beauty, youth, art, ageing, inspiration and everything in between. It's also just a damn good story, with an impressive sense of place, created from very little, compared to the time devoted to beauty and reflection.
Stories need not replicate the sweep of Mann's success to be brilliant of course; I've already praised the narrow focus of the genre. They can deal with aspects and ideas within a grander theme. From the collection of love stories, My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead, The Hitchhiking Game by Milan Kundera and Lovers of their Time by William Trevor, stand out. Kundera's story for its exploration of role-play and the need for a balance between meaning and fun in a relationship; what he calls "lightheartedness and seriousness" (reminded me of his unique philosophical novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being). And Trevor's for its portrayal of the decay of love over time.
My three favourites from my fleeting trawl through the form then: The Hitchhiking Game, Death in Venice and Murakami's Where I'm Likely to Find it.
Thus concludes my inadequate summary of the art of the short story. But as I say, I do feel enlightened and extremely excited to have reignited the joys of reading and writing.


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Moved by anonymous apology, man hopes to return 'grass cutting money' to sender
An Illinois business owner is hoping to find the person who sent him an anonymous apology, complete with cash, concerning a truck they thought they had damaged.
"Mister, I want to say I'm sorry. My friends and I were running across the street where your truck was parked, and my friend pushed me into your truck and I scratched your truck with my skateboard," the letter said.
The letter, along with $40, was sent to John Zelnio's construction business without a return address.
"I am sending you my grass cutting money for the insurance. My dad said his had a hundred dollar payment for things like this," the letter read.
The writer adds they will "send some more next week when I finish some more yards."
However, Zelnio says the truck was not damaged, and he hopes to return the money to the well-intentioned skateboarder.
"It is awesome. It made me feel good people are trying to do the right thing," Zelnio said.


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Icecream pudding
1. Melt a 4 litre tub of vanilla icecream in a large saucepan.
2. Dice two large Mars Bars, Cherry Ripes, Crunchies and Turkish Delight bars. You can chop them as finely as you like, but it's best when they're nice and chunky.
3. Heap the chocolate bits into the saucepan with the icecream and stir until consistent.
4. Carefully pour the whole mixture into a large bowl lined with Gladwrap (to make getting it out easier later on) and smooth flat on top. Put the bowl in the freezer and let it sit. Upend onto a very large plate, and serve in slices. Voila – icecream pudding, an awesome Christmas treat for climates where Christmas day often approaches 40 degrees celcius.


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Meenakari- Kundan Necklace, Rajsathani jewelry, Sabyasachi wedding necklace
Meenakari- Kundan Necklace, Rajsathani jewelry, Sabyasachi wedding necklace
Handmade item
Materials: Copper
Jewellery type: Bracelet, Earrings, Necklace, Ring
Can be personalised
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Easy to wear, Light in weight & gives you a classy Look. It can be wear in festival occasion with matching salwar or saree. The fish hook is also attached at the top of earring for smooth wear and removal of earrings.
All colors Available in this bridal necklace set like Green, Mahroon, and White. U can castmaised it also
GIFT FOR HER , A perfect Valentine Gifts for Girlfriend / Wife or indulge yourself with these beauties.
Material: Gold Plated
Neckalce Set For : Women and Girls
Women love jewellery; specially artificial jewellery adore a women, They wear it on different occasion, They have special importance on ring ceremony, wedding and festive time, They can also wear it on regular basis , Make your moment memorable with this range, This jewellery features a unique one of a kind traditional embellish with antique finish
From the house of Fashion Empire, this bridal necklace add a hint of raw ethnic beauty to any look, Representing a classic fusion of exquisite craftsmanship and feminine elegance, this set will definitely be a treasured inclusion in every woman's jewellery collection, The gold finish further ensures a long-lasting shine, !!
I would love to see how you style your jewelry. Please tag


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Reporter's Note: President Obama would like to win the election. So would Mitt Romney. I would just like either one to give me a call.
Dear Mr. President,
Here is a warning that I would give to any president under these circumstances, and I think you may want to listen. Do not take this challenge from the opposition too lightly.
In case you have missed it, despite a little sturm and drang, Mitt Romney continues to steadily crawl toward the Republican nomination. He may not get it, but he is still leading the pack as of this weekend. And while many of your fellow Dems are hooting about disarray and infighting among the GOPers, you had better not bet your job on the notion that they won't get it together.
In a way, Hillary Clinton made a version of that mistake when she allowed you to swoop in from nowhere and grab the Dem nomination. By the time she realized it was happening, it was too late for her to stop it.
It can happen again. Make no mistake about that, or it could be the last mistake you'll make in office.
On other fronts, I at at my alma mater, Troy University, to help kick off their 125th anniversary. You should give them a call!
Filed under: Letters to the President • Opinion • President Barack Obama • T1 • Tom Foreman
Anderson Cooper goes beyond the headlines to tell stories from many points of view, so you can make up your own mind about the news. Tune in weeknights at 8 and 10 ET on CNN.
Questions or comments? Send an email
Want to know more? Go behind the scenes with AC361°


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A fuel leak forced a Boeing 787 Dreamliner operated by Japan Airlines to return to the gate at Boston's Logan International Airport Tuesday, canceling its scheduled takeoff. The second mishap in as many days with the new model helped send Boeing's stock price down Tuesday in heavy trading.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it sent two additional investigators to Boston and formed investigative groups to look at airworthiness and fire and airport emergency response to Monday's electrical fire.
The leak occurred Tuesday on a different plane than the one that experienced the fire at Logan, said Richard Walsh, a Massport spokesman. That plane also was operated by Japan Airlines.


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Milford fire displaces 2 families
3-alarm fire is under investigation
A three-alarm fire, likely caused by a space heater, broke out Sunday morning at a home in Milford.
The fire at an apartment building on 481 East Main St. displaced two families, including three children.
Firefighters said they were initially dispatched to 41 East Main St. all the way across town. But Milford Fire Chief John Touhey said that while it cost them several minutes, the old construction on the home likely means it would be a total loss, either way.
"This fire originated on the first floor, extended rapidly vertically through void spaces in the wall right up through the attic space," Touhey said. "We've got extensive damage, probably well over $100,000."
Bill Devitt and Rita Devitt live right next door to the blaze. They say the family on the first floor has three young girls. That was their first concern.
"The little girls were concerned about Christmas," Rita Devitt said. "They just decorated their tree and they were very upset about that."


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As a photo of the sun this doesn't look very impressive – until you realise it was taken using neutrinos!
And also that it was taken through the earth – when the sun was on the other side of the earth!
An exposure of 503 day was used and neutrinos detected using a 50 000-ton water pool located 1 km underground. Neutrinos have an extremely weak interaction with other matter. Most of them pass through the earth without interaction and the detection relies on Cherenkov radiation emitted during a rare interaction with an electron in the water.
Thanks to: The Sun seen through the Earth in "neutrino light"


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New York's fashion week in the depths of the Great Recession
IT WAS A splendid relic, this February's New York Fashion Week. Twice a year, in February and September, some 250 designers introduce their collections for the upcoming season. Most of the superstars stage runway shows beneath improbably glamorous temporary tents in Bryant Park, while the Next New Things and the famously edgy hold presentations in galleries and formerly grotty lofts in Chelsea and the Meatpacking District. To the natives, it's a semiannual rite to be endured: a constant stream of town cars and cabs cleaves the middle third of Manhattan, relaying models and editrixes, photographers and trust-fund interns, store buyers and fashion aficionados and their hangers-on (beauties with surly boyfriends, celebrities of various grades with somewhat dicey entourages). Hotel bars and neighborhood boîtes close for private parties, and block-long lines of Parsons/FIT/Pratt students, sartorial exhibitionists, and other species of the young and hip take over downtown sidewalks, emitting their Gauloise smoke and studious sullenness (the latter exacerbated when the fashion world's A-listers steadily breeze past them to the head of the queue).
The point of it all is hardly obvious. Decades ago, these presentations were hushed, semisecret affairs for a very limited audience made up of a designer's select group of private clients (the ladies who lunched at the Colony and Le Pavillon); buyers from Bonwit Teller, Bergdorf Goodman, Peck & Peck, and, probably at the top of the heap, Saks Fifth Avenue, who would place orders for the dresses they would sell to their ever so slightly less select clients; and the elite of the fashion press (actually, fashion being then so rarefied, there was hardly a non-elite fashion press)—the blue-rinsed Carmel Snow of Harper's Bazaar and the equally blue-rinsed Edna Woolman Chase of Vogue, along with their minions, "tall, cool Vassar graduates," as S. J. Perelman described them, all in their pillbox hats and white gloves. Fearing piracy of their upcoming designs, the handful of American fashion houses shunned publicity and prohibited even sketching.
Although small-scale and discreet, those old-fashioned shows clearly served a mercantile purpose. Fashion Week, on the other hand, was invented in the 1990s, at the height of New York's giddy, gilded age, as a pseudo-event to generate froth, a quality that may be priceless—or worthless. And all of the collections are now photographed and, in quite a few cases, filmed, so they're available, sometimes within minutes, on dozens of Web sites (most prominently, Style.com), where they can be studied in detail. In this environment, sketching is unnecessary, and fashion-besotted kids in Kankakee get a closer view of the sculptural seaming on Narciso Rodriguez's rigorously tailored, cropped khaki wool-twill jacket than do Suzy Menkes and Claire Danes in the front row. Which makes those blingy, Sex and the City–ish tent shows rather quaint. "Kind of like a Shriners' convention—people get together and wear funny outfits," the gimlet-eyed fashion critic Lynn Yaeger observed while filing into an unusually celebrity-engorged show.
The Colony closed in 1971, Le Pavillon in 1972, Peck & Peck in 1974, and Bonwit Teller in 1990; Saks, as we'll see, is another story. And though an elegiac mood suffused February's Fashion Week, few there cared a whit for the long-vanished world of fashion doyennes. Indeed, if today's standard-issue fashionistas have thought at all about that former era, it has only been to congratulate themselves on how much more "free," diverse, and glittery is their own new nexus of money, prestige, and fashion—an agglomeration of the wives, girlfriends, and aimless daughters of Manhattan's entertainment, media, and financial titans and mini-titans that forms the gelatin in which are suspended the candied fruit of Ivy-educated actresses, charismatic DJs, scenesters with great bone structure, and rap stars given to obscene gestures on the most unlikely occasions.
During this gray February week the nostalgia was, of course, for the gaudiest spree in New York's history—a binge that began sometime in the Reagan years, accelerated for two decades (despite brief and minor slowdowns at the end of 1987 and 2001, and what in retrospect was a trifling breather in 1990–91), and ended last year with breathtaking rapidity and finality. With one eye on the Dow and the other on the lonely stretches of Bergdorf's main floor, Yaeger marveled, "It's getting worse so fast." Sally Singer, Vogue's director of fashion news and features, who has the most sociologically and historically sophisticated antennae in fashion (honed by her fanatical childhood home sewing, her Berkeley-dropout stint as a beautician in Oakland, her graduate work in American studies at Yale, and her quasi-Marxian rigor as an editor at the London Review of Books), was noticing a new trend on Manhattan streets: cute young women putting skirts and little lace-up shoes together with the expensive suit jackets and crisp striped shirts their newly unemployed banker boyfriends no longer needed. "Great look," she allowed with a shrug.
Fashion's strange career and the city's boom years entwined. Not only was Fashion Week that era's creature; the period had essentially created that event's very locales. Before the boom, Bryant Park meant methadone addicts, Chelsea meant shabby gentility, and the Meatpacking District meant rough trade, transvestite prostitutes, and, well, meatpacking. By boom's end, all of Manhattan (and a good part of Brooklyn, and even some of Queens) had, it seemed, become one vast, hip neighborhood. This meant that soaring rents were eroding the traditional centers of garment manufacturing, but it also meant that talented young designers now had swaths of new territory in which to open their own boutiques and build an ever-growing fashion-conscious customer base.
The main store of Tracy Feith, for instance, one of the bevy of young designers Singer has nurtured and championed (Feith was relatively unknown outside fashion circles until Michelle Obama wore his dress at the National Prayer Service the morning after the Inauguration), moved last September from Mulberry Street, which was transformed in the 1990s from goombahville to a center of insouciant hipness, to Williamsburg—which was transformed in the early 2000s from a pool for poor immigrants to … a center of insouciant hipness. More generally, the relationship between fashion and the few who populated the boom-engendered scene under the tents, as well as between fashion and the vast army of boom-engendered fashion customers, was the same as the relationship between art and its rich, powerful, often unlovely patrons: all that money sloshing around led to excessive, vulgar creations and consumption, but it also created a fertile soil in which works of beauty and integrity could develop.
IN 1931 AND 1932, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote two essays, "Echoes of the Jazz Age" and "My Lost City," in which he described how in just two years New York's "vaunting pride" and "steady golden roar" born of "fantastic success" and fashionable, youthful free spending came to seem "as far away as the days before the War"—and how the reckless élan that characterized those vanished years had been replaced by a chastened awareness of dashed hopes and circumscribed ambition. Indirectly, Fitzgerald's pieces remind us that the Depression had insidiously but rather slowly worked its way into the life of New York. The October 1929 crash had been a jolt, but the Christmas shopping season following on its heels was a prosperous one. The market's precipitous drop seemed, if not a healthy correction, then at least, probably, a manageable one; indeed, Wall Street had recovered a good portion of the losses from the October crash in the mini-rally of early 1930, and the market wouldn't find its bottom until July 1932. It was really only in the autumn of 1930, perhaps even later, that it became clear to New Yorkers that what Fitzgerald called "the most expensive orgy in history" was irrevocably over.
The current collapse, universally labeled within the fashion world a depression, has struck with a vicious suddenness that can almost be dated to the week. Everything had been different just five months before, in September 2008, at the previous Fashion Week. True, by then everyone knew that some economizing lay ahead, even perhaps, worst-case scenario, something on the order of the 1991 recession. But spending on fashion—on uplift and fantasy—had proved recession-resistant. Saks, for instance, knew its customers and, like most stores of its kind, bet on their desires. At the beginning of 2008 it placed heavy orders on the New York collections and on the collections presented in succession in London, Milan, and Paris over the following months. But in October, in what Stephen Sadove, the CEO of Saks, told The Wall Street Journal was "as short a period of time as you can possibly imagine," fashion customers just stopped buying. By mid-November, Saks had cut its prices by 70 percent—well below the break-even point. This introduced the most economically ravaging period in the history of American fashion. Saks's competitors were forced to follow suit, which meant that designers got next to nothing for their fall collections. As Tracey Ross, who ran what was probably the best-curated boutique in Los Angeles (she was forced out of business after nearly 20 years, in December), put it, "I am like, 'Do the math. I sold your $800 shoes for $50.'"
New York fashion is mostly a lot of small businesses. Even household-name designers often lack backers, which means that they make twice-yearly gambles (on their fall and spring collections) requiring huge cash outlays—for the most part, fabrics have to be bought, patterns cut, garments sewn, and finishes applied before any money comes in. All of which makes the industry unusually vulnerable to the credit squeeze. Fashion is by far the largest manufacturing industry in New York, but it's mostly made up of piecework (for instance, Lyn Devon, a rising designer known for her well-cut, sexy renditions of classics, relies on four women in Queens to produce all her knitwear). Last season's sales, then, were "very, very destructive," as Singer says. "It might be cool to be able to find something for 80 percent off … but that means a lot of people aren't getting paid, and a lot of businesses are going to go under." Diane von Furstenberg, who serves as president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, declared with old-world imperiousness that the sales that had devastated the industry "cannot happen again."
But they're bound to. Days before Fashion Week, a friend in the fashion world ran into the fashion director of a tony Manhattan department store on the store's empty main sales floor. Surveying the unsold spring lines, the director said the clothes would sit at full price on the shelves until March (the conventional understanding, violated by Saks in the fall, holds that stores won't mark down prices for two months), and "then we slash." For their part, of course, the large retailers are also hemorrhaging: in January, Saks fired 1,100 people, including its director of women's fashion, Michael Fink, and Neiman's fired 375 (just after Fashion Week, Neiman's fired an additional 450 employees).
Given this cataclysmic reality, Fashion Week itself was, depending on one's point of view, a remnant of an age of gaudy excess or evidence of remarkable and unfounded pluck. A runway show in one of the tents can cost $800,000: the 40 or so outfits must be handmade, the space rented ($50,000), shoes and accessories (usually designed specifically for the collection) bought, and the stylist, lighting designer, hair and makeup artists, and 40-some models (top ones traditionally get $20,000 a show) paid. So the decision Rodriguez made to finance his own tent show (he lost his backer, Liz Claiborne Inc., in October) was gutsy. True, economizing was evident throughout Fashion Week: the models halved their catwalk fees, and a number of designers scaled back their presentations—Marc Jacobs, for instance, cut his guest list from 2,000 to 500, and decided to forgo his once de rigueur after-party. Still, Fashion Week's purpose is to shimmer, and there were more than enough dos. Their atmosphere did bring to mind Fitzgerald's description of post-crash cocktail parties in the first years of the 1930s:
A last hollow survival of the days of carnival [in which] a few childish wraiths still played to keep up the pretense that they were alive, betraying by their feverish voices and hectic cheeks the thinness of the masquerade.
Fashion, of course, draws far more than its share of such young and foolish creatures, but for every three fashionistas attracted to the glitzy and the trendy of Fashion Week, there was someone more seasoned, enticed by fashion's singular ability to marry aesthetics and psychology, formalism and eroticism. Those people were far more likely to be at certain presentations (say, L'Wren Scott's or Francisco Costa's for Calvin Klein) than at others (Proenza Schouler's, Alexander Wang's), and, being mostly of a certain age and leading very busy lives, would eschew those parties anyway. Hardly recreational shoppers, they'd probably been less excessive spenders than many well-off, fashion-minded Manhattanites; but their country's prevailing culture—and particularly their city's—had hardly been an ascetic one, and the boom had been long. As is true for most Americans, the period since … well, since the September Fashion Week has amounted to the great chastening experience of their lives. Outside Rodriguez's show, a woman much photographed by the fashion blogs for her stylish and eccentric dress carried a bag striking for its combination of whimsy and sophistication. The ornamentation, "rather Alice in Wonderland–ish," as she put it, seemed handmade. "Well, hand- applied," she explained, "though who really knows where or by whom." The irony turned to self-disgust as she volunteered that she'd bought it for a modest fortune on Labor Day—"just five months ago. It now just seems so obscene." She liked the bag, but she had enough bags.
Those given to introspection at Fashion Week were similarly dismayed, not just with themselves and fashion's readily apparent excesses but with the city's decades-long, dizzying spree—an attitude that echoed Fitzgerald's description of New Yorkers' sobering-up after a similarly immoderate era: "Now once more the belt is tight and we summon the proper expression of horror as we look back at our wasted youth."
TO PUT IT in very different terms, consumers of fashion are undergoing a "values correction," as the retail consultant Candace Corlett told Reuters. If that's so, a contingent of people at the heart of American fashion has for years been readying for post-crash style. The great figures in fashion need a kind of clairvoyance, for they have to show women what they want before they know that they want it. Critics given to a crude commercial determinism have long dismissed that as nothing more than the market dictating to hapless consumers what fripperies to buy. But in fact insight into what women want is born of emotional and psychological sympathy and an exquisite sensitivity to the faintest and most distant cultural and commercial tremors.
Fashion is both a form of self-expression and an outward means of defining and altering selfhood. (Indeed, fashion people largely agree that a woman's sense of style grows out of her youthful vision of the romance of adulthood.) It famously, complicatedly blends art and commerce, and perhaps the highest compliment one can pay a designer is to say that he or she understands the customer: a good part of the art lies in fathoming her mood, her desires, and her ambitions, and the ways these may shift from season to season and year to year and evolve as she ages. The best designers challenge those who wear their clothes—they want to guide and at times even push them, but they'll fail in every sense when they push in a direction the customer repudiates. Underlying the relationship between designer and customer are a handful of fashion editors and store fashion directors who themselves guide, prod, and educate the other parties. They discover and promote emerging talent, and help established designers refine and enlarge their aesthetic and commercial goals.
Two of the most influential of these matchmakers and tastemakers—Singer and Julie Gilhart, the senior vice president and fashion director of Barneys New York, a store that exercises the greatest sway of any in the country—extracted what substance there was to be had from Fashion Week. Singer, legendary for her work ethic and ferocious energy (and possessed of a near-Talmudic knowledge of the New York subway system), attended upward of 10 presentations a day, shuttling on Saturday, for instance, from Chelsea for the Ohne Titel show (biker/Rick Owens–inspired, lots of chain mail, but also some formfitting dresses and jackets) to far-west Midtown for the VPL show (innerwear as outerwear, dance-girl look), then crosstown to a private presentation by Koi Suwannagate (all cashmere), later to the Roseland ballroom for the show of the Next Huge Thing, Alexander Wang (cropped blazers and body-conscious dresses for what one observer called "the skinny hipster in the city"), and back to Chelsea to a hideously overcrowded loft (the fire marshals seem to look the other way during Fashion Week) for a presentation by the "fashion collective" Threeasfour, which featured geometric shapes and uncharacteristically sharp tailoring. Avoiding the parties, she capped off the evening at a buffet supper in solid, sleepy Cobble Hill, where the theme was a salute to Oregon and the entertainment was folk ballads performed by the hosts' children. Gilhart, impatient with the glut, jokingly told New York magazine that by Wednesday she was trying to escape Fashion Week. "I started looking for flights: 'How much would it cost to just fly away to the Dominican Republic? Would Turks and Caicos be cheaper?'" The whole scene "just got excessive." Though blasé, as she told me, about "runway shows with pretty clothes," Gilhart (who, when I first met her last summer, was wearing a sundress from Rogan Gregory's organic, sustainable line for Target, a black-lace Icelandic bracelet, and a gold surfer's pendant from Abraxas Rex) is surprisingly excited about what she believes the current crash will mean for the future of fashion. She has long maintained that women want—or should want—something different from what they've so far been offered by fashion. Now, by necessity, they are going to get it.
Singer and Gilhart have responded with sympathy to what their close friends the designers Ruben and Isabel Toledo call "the fashion plunge" (obviously, many people they love and admire are in financial jeopardy), but they don't yearn for a return to the fashion spree. Gilhart, who would be meeting with a charitable group in the South Bronx the next weekend, put things in perspective by describing what she sees there: "Now that's a catastrophe." Fashion, she said, "will have to take some hits," but the plunge "will lead us to a new era in fashion, and to a better place"—a place she and Singer have been trying to get to for years. "I'm quite optimistic," Singer told an audience at a "Conscientious Consumption" panel she helped organize at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles immediately after Fashion Week. This economy, Singer said, has made women think, "My God—why did I need all this stuff?" Gilhart adds that thanks to the recession, "the customer is just thinking more," which "is preparing the ground for a more conscious consumerism."
These women hope this new deliberation will benefit the savings rate, the environment, the workers of the world, animals, and—not least—fashion. Gilhart led Barneys' development of its own line of all-organic casual clothes, made by Loomstate, and has deployed her clout to persuade designers to make clothes from organic, recycled, and discarded materials. She used the store's powerful publicity machine (buzz-inducing Christmas window displays on the Upper East Side, in Chicago's Gold Coast, and in Beverly Hills) to push a tough though quirky environmental message on its customers. She has sought out designers and lines committed to high labor standards and economic development. Vogue's "View" section, which Singer oversees, inaugurated a monthly page on Style Ethics in March. It's a link Singer has been trying to make for years, as she has nudged fashion consumers and producers to rethink their stances toward not just animals and workers but, more generally, the nasty ethos that pervades the fashion world. She told Paper in 2000:
I think that there are a considerable number of people in this industry who think that to be cool and hip and to have "edge," it is essential to be cruel—to be a bitch, for lack of a better word … I think there's an idea in the fashion world that if you're humane and you're thoughtful … that you are somehow less hip … This posturing in the industry simply has to be done away with.
Within both women there's a tension between delight in fashion—a delight rooted simultaneously in their own refined aesthetic and girlish thrill ("Wearing clothes is fun," Singer says)—and an acute awareness that, in Singer's words, "the world does not need more things." Both have tried to reconcile that tension by urging "a sustainable frugality." The trend-driven, recreational shopping of the binge years (Singer terms it the "yo-yo dieting of clothes buying") enormously damaged fashion, because the development of a sense of style depends on discernment and discrimination—on the idea, long Singer's mantra, that women should "buy less, but buy better."
The stylish woman, she asserts, "carefully builds a wardrobe." Singer bought exactly one dress this season, at Barneys—a cocktail dress by Isabel Toledo (a designer who aims to "make a garment that lasts": "It's not just yours. It should be your daughter's eventually"). Singer's stylish woman "wears great things from five years ago, 10 years ago." On the first day of Fashion Week, Singer, whose own style her friend Kim Hastreiter, the editor of Paper magazine, calls "windswept chic," wore a jacket she had bought last year (Italian double-knit wool, from Marco Zanini's first and last collection for Halston) over a silk-and-cotton V-neck from J. Crew, whose Italian yarns, Singer says, display "obviously great sourcing" and whose sweaters form a staple of Michelle Obama's sensible-chic, workaday wardrobe. She put it over "an old Dosa shirt," Dosa being the line designed by her L.A.-based friend Christina Kim, who, years before green was the new black, was making all her clothes to what could be described as fanatically high ethical and environmental standards. Singer's pants were green velvet, from Vanessa Bruno; her shoes "very old pointy ballet flats," from Devi Kroell.
Obviously, this idea of buying so-called investment pieces resonates more deeply today than it did even six months ago. As Gilhart says, "If I were a consumer now, I'd really want to buy pieces that count, that last; the customer is in no hurry. She should be choosing these things with great care." (In an effort to guide the customer to focus on enduring design rather than the au courant, Gilhart is now working with the designer Stefano Pilati of Yves Saint Laurent, who is assembling a new line for Barneys to revive the best styles from the archives of that renowned French design house.) Part of that care, Singer maintains, means recognizing that "things that are very expensive can be very expensive for just the right reasons—because they were made beautifully by someone who really gave a lot of care to the design and by people who were fairly paid along the way to execute something that was rather difficult. Those prices that often seem high are fair prices."
If the consumer is expected to make conscientious choices based on an item's provenance (favoring, for instance, designers who use wool made from humanely raised sheep—hardly a frivolous concern given the conditions sheep routinely endure), both the retailer and the customer are in for a whole new layer of homework, on top of the Stakhanovite diligence many already apply to their study of such bibles as Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, and Elle. But even if a woman can figure out what's best for the Earth, she still has the eternal problem of choosing what's stylistically best for her.
In this responsible new world, a woman may be happy with the notion of buying one new, expensive-because-it-is-fairly-priced dress per year. But when it comes down to choosing which of those dresses will perennially look good on her, the pressure is intense. What woman hasn't made wardrobe mistakes? How to be sure—even if one scrupulously avoids gauchos and go-go boots—that one's daughter will not judge this year's purchase (when, in the fullness of time, it becomes hers) one of them? The cognoscenti of the fashion universe distinguish between fashion and style. A woman should just find her own personal style, they urge, and then she will always look great. Easy for them to say.
Thanks to American voters, the heralds of a new era in fashion now have an example to point to. It's nearly impossible to overstate the significance Michelle Obama holds for the world of American fashion generally and for these advocates of a newly conscious consumerism specifically. The designers Obama favors aren't the biggest names, nor are they the trendy ones. Rather, they're those whose creations are never tied to a "look" or a "moment." The point is not to copy Obama's style but rather to follow her approach. According to Singer, when Obama wears a dress by Toledo (whose clothes are expensive because they're exquisitely made and because she pays her cutters and sewers very well), women don't necessarily "want to buy a knock-off Toledo. They just see that Obama is a woman with style who buys interesting things—things that are different from what they've seen before—and wears them well, and they're inspired to do the same." Of course, she's a woman with not just a sense of style but the sense, and the ability, to choose stylish advisers.
DESPITE THE EVER-PRESENT frivolity and the new foreboding, a lot of the clothes that emerged from Fashion Week were unusually strong. Designers were trying to respond to the national mood—one that had darkened intensely just since they'd bought the fabrics last October for the clothes that would not be in the stores until August. True, some designers went defiantly, exuberantly over the top—Marc Jacobs most obviously, with his nostalgic, big-shouldered encomium to the 1980s, when the great splurge had begun. But for most, this wasn't a time to play around. Most of the better lines covered a spectrum: there were the pretty good, snap-to, grown-up, and wearable (Doo-Ri Chung, who "didn't feel bright colors," and Thakoon Panichgul, although in a clumsy effort at luxe he festooned his otherwise smart collection with a lot of fur hats, coats, and jackets); the very good, practical, and authoritative (Donna Karan and Michael Kors, though fur, always a cheap ploy, also vitiated Kors's collection, and shearling did Karan's); and the terrific, elegant, and adult (Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein, L'Wren Scott).
But the best collection to emerge, while entirely in keeping with the mood, wasn't responding to it: that of Matthew Ames, a 28-year-old Brooklyn-based designer who presented in New York for the first time (he'd shown in Paris the three previous years). If Gilhart is right that the economic upheaval will inaugurate a new era in fashion, then Ames is likely to be its first great designer. Marked by their pure, strong lines, his austere garments—beautiful, not pretty—in what he calls "a classic American palette" of camel, ecru, loden, tobacco, and blue denim, are sophisticated and even avant-garde but unfussy (no buttons, no linings), practical, and marked by an elegant ease and comfort. "I've always wanted to make pieces that are lasting," he said, "not pieces that will only excite people for the moment. People want to buy something that's not going to look old in six months."
Ames's pieces seem at once nearly medieval and from the future. They're not in fashion, and they won't go out of fashion. And they're versatile. For instance, one of his garments—a single piece of silk with one seam, an elastic waistband, and a long extension—can be worn five ways, so it can be worn by women of different ages, or by the same woman as she ages. They're enduring: his attention to the quality of his materials (woolens, denim, cashmere and cashmere-cotton blends, silk crepe) and to detail and craft is extreme. Prices are high but not loony-high: dresses retail for $800 to $1,500. A post-crash woman (at least one in the average Atlantic reader's income bracket) determined to defend the value of style through these dark times could make worse investments. Her daughter will probably thank her.


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Officials: Alleged cattle rustler surrenders
The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association announced Thursday a successful investigation ended this week with a man charged with third-degree felony livestock theft turning himself in.
Authorities allege Aaron Smith, 40, of Stratford, stole 22 head of cattle over a period of time from his employer. The cattle were worth about $20,000, according to a news release from the association.
Smith is out of jail on a $10,000 bond.
Smith drew the attention of law enforcement in March when he tried to sell 14 head of cattle at the Texoma Livestock Auction in Texhoma, Okla.
The auction's owner and workers noticed the cattle had fresh brands over older ones, said Ben Eggleston, a special ranger for the group. He traced the cattle to their owner because of original brands. They were returned.
"This case is a perfect example of why it is important to always brand your cattle and register that brand with TSCRA," Eggleston said.
Smith could face up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine if convicted.


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Anyone can create an exciting immersive experience in a 3d virtual world platform like Jibe.
It doesn't have to be complicated.
And it doesn't require loads of money and development time.
The trick is to follow a few simple design rules.
Every Friday I put aside some time to create something new. My goal today was to build a simple new experience in my Jibe world that was exciting and immersive.
Here are the 3 design rules I followed:
- Pick a fundamentally exciting immersive experience to simulate. If you pick a boring experience, no amount of work on your part will ever make it exciting. I decided to create a meteor shower. In my experience, hunks of rock falling from space and exploding around you are never boring.
- Spend quality time on sound design.Our lives are full of sounds. It's a critical way we perceive our surroundings, and thoughtful sound design is just as important as thoughtful visual design. I explored Freesound to find sound samples that I could pull into Audacity to modify and combine. In the end, I had a nice collection of sounds to simulate all the different parts of a meteor shower experience (explosions, falling sounds, air raid siren, etc.).
- Leverage what others have created.There's an amazing wealth of content out there for designers. Use what others have created as stepping stones to building your own unique experience. You'll save tons of time and money. I found a nice particle system on Unity's Asset Store that included a lot of Outer Space effects. From this starting point I was able to quickly create my own unique meteor effects. And Freesound provided all the core sound samples I needed.
Finally, I made a sign in my Jibe world and scripted it to start the shower when someone clicks it.
You can visit my Jibe world and try it for yourself.
Take care,
-John Lester


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Sandy's underwater sandscapes
UD researchers studying 'fingerprint' left on seafloor by Hurricane Sandy
11:05 a.m., Nov. 15, 2012--Beneath the 20-foot waves that crested off Delaware's coast during Hurricane Sandy, thrashing waters reshaped the floor of the ocean, churning up fine sand and digging deep ripples into the seabed. Fish, crustaceans and other marine life were blasted with sand as the storm sculpted new surfaces underwater.
UD scientists cued up their instruments to document the offshore conditions before, during and after Sandy's arrival to scrutinize the differences and better predict the environmental impact of future storms.
Research Stories
Chronic wounds
Prof. Heck's legacy
"Out here, we're trying to get the fingerprint of the storm," said Arthur Trembanis, associate professor of geological sciences and oceanography, aboard the research vessel Hugh R. Sharp.
Trembanis and his colleagues focused in on Redbird Reef, an artificial reef about 16 miles off the coast of the Indian River Inlet. The site contains old subway cars, boats and truck tires sunk over the past decade to provide habitat for sea creatures. The scientists have been studying the reef in recent years, among other "hard bottom" sites in this otherwise barren, sandy region, to examine the ecosystem found there and create detailed maps of the seafloor.
Besides improving scientists' understanding of the natural environment, the work has potential military applications: Shifting underwater sands and sediment can bury or uncover dangerous mines used to explode enemy vessels in conflict zones. Understanding how weather conditions can affect such objects on the bottom of the ocean could help the Navy, which funded this scientific cruise, identify and avoid the weapons.
In the peacetime waters off Mid-Atlantic shores, however, the manmade structures at the reef serve as research substitutes for mines. Two days before Hurricane Sandy hit, Trembanis' group set up a specialized buoy at the reef with three different types of equipment attached that rested on the seafloor to measure waves, currents and sand formations on the seafloor.
The researchers also used a multibeam sonar on the ship to generate images of the seafloor, complemented by side-scan sonar for a finer resolution images taken by an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) an unmanned, torpedo-shaped machine that darts through the ocean to collect data.
"We really can build a pretty complete picture of what happened on site," said oceanography graduate student Carter DuVal, who is basing his master's thesis in part on the information gathered.
The team repeated the sonar runs on Nov. 10, finding newly formed sand ripples, reshaped surfaces and exposed areas, with significant patches of "scouring" where erosion occurred due to rapidly flowing water. Currents raced at more than 3 knots during the Sandy's peak, capable of moving large stones and rotating the researchers' underwater equipment almost 50 degrees during the storm.
In analyzing the data collected, the scientists will link the geological markings on the seafloor to wave conditions and currents. Then they can develop models of how sediments move and predict whether areas might experience extensive scouring.
In addition to Navy use, the research could inform engineering decisions for offshore wind turbines, which have been considered in the vicinity of Redbird Reef.
The study is just one of several ways Trembanis tracked Sandy's geological imprint. He also took photographs and video during an airplane flyover of the coasts of Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia just days after the storm, recording what happened right at the land's edge for the Program for the Study of Developed Shoreline. He and his team also surveyed Broadkill Beach with high-resolution GPS to map its shape after the storm, finding it to be much more flat than usual for this time of year. They also used sonar to generate an image of a shipwreck near Cape Henlopen, which revealed a lot of sand had been swept off the wreck site.
Collecting pre- and post-storm metrics through a variety of means creates a valuable dataset, Trembanis said, though it was not easy to compile. Aboard the Sharp last weekend, the team was unsure whether the buoy survived the storm, eagerly anticipating its presence as the ship headed to the site.
While it remained in place to clearly indicate where the equipment was, not all data that they hoped to collect was there: a rotary sonar scheduled to record ripples at regular time intervals malfunctioned. That information would have helped separate conditions specific to Sandy from those of the northeaster that arrived a few days later. Instead, they will have to settle for a composite of the two.
Other signs pointed to how rough the conditions were, though. As the ship's crew raised the scientific equipment that rested on seafloor during the storm, a large piece of twisted metal arose that had been entangled in the rope possibly a window frame from a subway car.
Doug Miller, associate professor of oceanography in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment on board to collect biological samples, worried that the sharp debris would cut the line and sink the equipment. Thankfully, it did not.
"But that was a tense moment," Miller said.
Article by Teresa Messmore
Photos by Teresa Messmore
Sonar image by Arthur Trembanis


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|System: X360, PS3, PC
|Dev: Ubisoft Montreal
|Pub: Ubisoft
|Release: November 16, 2010
|Players: 1, 2-12
|Screen Resolution: 480p - 1080p
|Blood, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Violence
by Amanda L. Kondolojy
One of my favorite games of last year was Assassin's Creed II. The game featured an engaging story filled with plenty of historical and sci-fi tropes, and a twist ending that was definitely on par with its predecessor. Thankfully, we only had to wait a year for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, which is the direct sequel to Assassin's Creed II (not to be confused with the eventual Assassin's Creed III linear sequel). However, despite the quick turnaround, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is a worthy successor to last year's blockbuster title and improves upon the series' basic formula in many ways that fans will certainly appreciate.
The game starts similarly to other Assassin's Creed games. All seems to be right in the world, and despite a weird appearance by a "goddess," Ezio feels pretty confident in his current state. He's got a beautiful hometown, a family that is finally over their grief (Mrs. Auditore has stopped praying for the first time in ten years!), and plenty of adoring females waiting in the wings. However, things can't be nice for very long, and it isn't long before the picturesque town that you so lovingly upgraded and improved in Assassin's Creed II is quickly destroyed (along with all your stuff!) and you have to start again at the beginning in Rome.
Although Assassin's Creed II essentially put you on a tour of Italy, Brotherhood is unique in that it takes place in a single city. If you are the type that appreciated finding all the viewpoints in each new city and visiting all the local merchants, this aspect may be a little disappointing for you, but the centralized location does actually improve the game's structure in some surprising ways. First of all, the game's economy system works in a completely different way. Instead of upgrading shops and other infrastructural areas in a town far away, Brotherhood puts the local economy in your hands and you can upgrade what you see around you, which will not only put some investment money in your pocket but also help win over the people of Rome to your cause (which is to get rid of the menace posed by the Templars and Cesare Borgia, specifically).
Another interesting mechanic that pops up as a result of the game's single-city structure is the fight for control of the city. When you first arrive in Rome, it can be a pretty depressing scenario, as the Borgia influence in the city prevents you from shopping at local merchants or even being healed by a doctor. However, as you take down Borgia structures and assassinate leaders, you can gain the favor of the locals and become a bigger participant in the local economy. And, of course, unlock new weapons and armor for you.
But overthrowing Borgia has more than just economic benefits. Every time you overthrow a Borgia stronghold you'll gain a new apprentice assassin, and you'll be on your way to forming the titular brotherhood . Assassins need to be trained and as soon as you take one on, you'll need to outfit him with gear and send your budding assassins on missions so they can improve their skills and rankings. Once your assassins-in-training become proper assassins, you will be able to call on them in battle to do your bidding.
Of course, there are caveats to calling on the Brotherhood. You'll have to wait a certain amount of time before you call them, and their performance will be directly related to how much time you've spent improving them and what gear you've outfitted them with. Although there is plenty of minutia involved in building your ideal brotherhood of assassins, the interface is easy to use and never intrusive, which is great if you feel like spending hours working on your group of assassins. Of course, if you don't particularly care for this element of the gameplay, you don't have to build up an army; it is completely possible to take on even the game's most challenging targets solo. I just wouldn't recommend it.


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By Christine Todd Whitman
November 7, 2012
I am disappointed that Mitt Romney didn't win the presidency yesterday, particularly because I saw what a reasonable governor he was in Massachusetts. Unfortunately, that reasonable governor was not the candidate running for president. While this latest battle for the White House may be complete, the war for the direction of the Republican Party remains very much at hand. As my party wrestles over its course, we should not ignore that Romney might have won had he campaigned with the centrist mindset with which he governed.
Far-right Republicans woke up today claiming that we tried to win with a moderate and it didn't work, so the answer is to be more conservative in the future. But exit poll data shows that notion is simply false. 3.5 million more self-identified conservatives voted for McCain/Palin in 2008 than voted for Bush/Cheney in 2004, and the former still lost. The percentage of voters who identified as conservatives has only grown in the last 4 election cycles – from 29 percent in 2000 to 34 percent in 2004 and 2008, and 35 percent in 2012. Yet Romney still lost. Getting more conservatives is not the answer; getting the centrists is.
Further, imposing primary litmus tests on social issues risks alienating the majority of people who are not focused on those issues. In exit polls yesterday, 60 percent of those polled listed the economy as the most important issue. Health care was a distant second cited by 17 percent of voters, followed by 15 percent noting the deficit and 5 percent reporting foreign policy as key to their vote. We need to focus on the economic issues about which most Americans care, not the social issues that divide. If the American people are worried about economy and the deficit, Republicans have great solutions. But they won't turn to Republicans if we haven't assured them in both word and deed that we are the party laser-focused on sound management and fiscal restraint.
The primary system has become a trap for candidates from both parties. Candidates move to the extremes to gain the nomination and then have to claw their way back to the center in the general election. Romney did just that, but by the time the grueling GOP primary was over, the journey back to the middle was too far to stretch. And in this YouTube age, there's no escaping the extreme statements you make in the primary amplified with an onslaught of advertising dollars.