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Linear Algebra for Dummies (Paperback)
Available to ship within 1-5 days
Learn to:
- Solve linear algebra equations in several ways
- Put data in order with matrices
- Determine values with determinants
- Work with eigenvalues and eigenvectors
Your hands-on guide to real-world applications of linear algebra
Does linear algebra leave you feeling lost? No worries --this easy-to-follow guide explains the how and the why of solving linear algebra problems in plain English. From matrices to vector spaces to linear transformations, you'll understand the key concepts and see how they relate to everything from genetics to nutrition to spotted owl extinction.
- Line up the basics -- discover several different approaches to organizing numbers and equations, and solve systems of equations algebraically or with matrices
- Relate vectors and linear transformations -- link vectors and matrices with linear combinations and seek solutions of homogeneous systems
- Evaluate determinants -- see how to perform the determinant function on different sizes of matrices and take advantage of Cramer's rule
- Hone your skills with vector spaces -- determine the properties of vector spaces and their subspaces and see linear transformation in action
- Tackle eigenvalues and eigenvectors -- define and solve for eigenvalues and eigenvectors and understand how they interact with specific matrices
Open the book and find:
- Theoretical and practical ways of solving linear algebra problems
- Definitions of terms throughout and in the glossary
- New ways of looking at operations
- How linear algebra ties together vectors, matrices, determinants, and linear transformations
- Ten common mathematical representations of Greek letters
- Real-world applications of matrices and determinants
About the Author
Mary Jane Sterling is the author of numerous For Dummies books. She is a lecturer at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, where she has taught courses in algebra, calculus, and other mathematics topics for almost 30 years.


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With summer coming I need to do something in our backyard so that we can enjoy sitting outside this year. As our house faces north, the sun is so hot and brutal in the afternoon, especially in August, that we can't stay back there at all. Yes, we have an umbrella for our table, but it isn't big enough to offer much protection, so I need to find another solution soon.
I've researched various options and have narrowed it down to either putting up an awning or building a trellis. While the awning would give us complete coverage from the elements and fold up when we don't need it, a trellis can give our backyard some architectural depth and add to the overall feeling of the space.
If I install an awning, I'll choose a Sunsetter which has earned the Good Housekeeping Seal and am estimating that it will cost us between $1,500 and $2,000, for a 14-footer. My husband and I, who as you know are avid DIY'ers, would opt to install it ourselves, which would probably take us a couple of hours. On the other hand, if we opt for a trellis, my husband will build it so it will cost us about $1,500 for the lumber but require two full weekends of my husband's time.
I'm torn as to which way to go. While I think I'll really like the look of a trellis, the thought of being able to sit outside in the rain and enjoy a meal is very appealing. What do you have in your backyard and how do you like it? I'd love to hear from you and have you help me make my decision.
More From Good Housekeeping
Be sure to check out GH's other articles on outdoor living: Patio Parties: Throw a Backyard Party, How to Care for Patio Furniture and Best Patio Furniture Cleaners. And if you're going to be in the New York City area, make sure to take a tour of the Good Housekeeping Research Institute labs.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Table of Contents
Students Censored, Free Speech Under Quarantine at University of Central Florida
ORLANDO, Fla., December 4, 2006—The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is calling on the University of Central Florida (UCF) to repeal its unlawful and unfair "free speech zone" policy. This policy quarantines free speech at UCF to four areas covering only a small percentage of its campus.
"It is simply unacceptable for UCF to transform the vast majority of its campus into a censorship area," FIRE President Greg Lukianoff said. "The current policy is unconstitutional and must be repealed."
UCF's Free Assembly Areas policy states that only "four areas shall be deemed free assembly areas for the conduct of political activity and other exercises of free speech." This policy has recently been used to stop at least two student organizations from holding protests. Last March, members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and UCF Campus Peace Action gathered to protest the Iraq war in front of the student center, a heavily-trafficked area that lies outside the "free speech zones." As the protest got underway, campus police forced the students to vacate the area. A similar situation occurred in April, when campus police ordered students holding a teach-in about Iran outside the "free speech zones" to disband
This fall, UCF student Patrick DeCarlo, a member of SDS, appealed to FIRE to contest the existence of "free speech zones" at UCF. On November 1, FIRE wrote to UCF President John C. Hitt to inform him that "free speech zones" are unconstitutional, as the law "does not support the transformation of public institutions of higher education into places where constitutional protections are the exception rather than the rule." On November 17, UCF's Associate General Counsel Youndy Cook responded obliquely to FIRE's concerns by suggesting that instead of focusing on the Free Assembly Areas policy, FIRE should take "all of [UCF's] regulations governing expressive activities on campus" into account.
"That's exactly the problem at UCF—the university pretends to guarantee free expression with some of its rules and then denies free expression with others," Lukianoff said. "FIRE will continue to petition UCF until it makes all of its policies consistent with the First Amendment and opens its entire campus to free speech."
Just last Tuesday, FIRE announced that its efforts had led Clemson University to abandon its "free speech zone" policy. FIRE has also had success in fighting "free speech zones" at West Virginia University, Texas Tech, Citrus College, the University of Nevada at Reno, and the University of North Carolina–Greensboro.
This is the second case in which FIRE has intervened to protect free expression at UCF. Last year, UCF charged a student with harassment through "personal abuse" for calling another student a "jerk and a fool" on Facebook.com. After FIRE became involved in that case, UCF found the student "not in violation" of the harassment policy.
FIRE is a nonprofit educational foundation that unites civil rights and civil liberties leaders, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals from across the political and ideological spectrum on behalf of individual rights, due process, freedom of expression, academic freedom, and rights of conscience at our nation's colleges and universities. FIRE's efforts to preserve liberty at the University of Central Florida can be viewed at thefire.org/ucf.
Greg Lukianoff, President, FIRE: 215-717-3473; email@example.com
John C. Hitt, President, University of Central Florida: 407-823-1823; firstname.lastname@example.com
Recent Articles
FIRE's award-winning Newsdesk covers the free speech news you need to stay informed.


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Custom Classic Trucks - Goodguys West Coast Nationals 2005
Pleasanton Was A Roasting Experience . . . Roast! Roast! Roast!
The general characteristics of the Goodguys West Coast Nationals are somewhat predictable. The editorial clich of bigger and better is a given. The fairgrounds will be crowded and shade will be protected like a mama hen herding her newborn baby chicks. The warmer August temperatures in Pleasanton are also expected-with more than a little perspiration anticipated. We hope you'll forgive us, but the Goodguys West Coast Nationals 2005 was all of these things and more.
What was the more, you ask? We've been kicking off our enjoyable West Coast Nationals experience with the Danville Dukes car club for the past decade. Thursday we arrive in Danville around noon to visit the train museum and several dozen of the quaint shops lining Main Street. Around 2:30 p.m. we grab some late lunch on the street and watch with amusement as the forgetful locals moan and gripe about the parking citations they find on their windshields. Soon thereafter, several hundred street rods and custom creations cruise down Danville's main corridor and park face-out from the curb. For hours we wander up and down Main Street examining a neat variety of vintage iron from as far North as British Columbia and as far South as the Land of LA.
Friday is a busy work/play day; we get to the Alameda County fairgrounds a bit excited to see what's new and unusual. We're looking for good magazine feature material, and for the first time this year, to select 10 vintage trucks for Custom Classic's Top Ten Trucks awards. It was a distinct pleasure to meet each of the owners we selected for an award. One neat pleasure was seeing the red '33 Ford roadster pickup from Oregon that was a Street Rodder magazine project from 1982. Now owned by Brad and Tamera Miller of Springfield, Oregon, the smooth red roadster pickup was originally built by Bob Schoonoven and his friends. Seeing this pickup was like seeing a high school classmate that you were (and still are) fond of.
Saturday the fairgrounds were jumping. Did I see a Buick-like smile on the Goodguys face? Even the Alameda fairgrounds become a little crowded when thousands of spectators begin ooohing and aaahing over the colorful field of modified vehicles. Lots of vintage rock 'n' roll music was pumped out over the decidedly mature crowd. On the positive side, we're encouraged to have witnessed plenty of younger car lovers who'll undoubtedly carry on our passion for vintage tin.
At the host hotel Saturday evening, my wife and I joined several hundred of Andy Brizio's faithful friends for dinner and to roast Andy. Brizios' buddies partied as they enjoyed an evening of humorous anecdotes on the subject of growing up a Brizio and topless traveling with "The Rodfather." Andy is limiting his cross-country touring only slightly for 2006, but is still happy to jump in his famous flamed roadster and attend street rod events anywhere in America. To join Andy, simply provide him a valid credit card number and he'll gladly serve as tour host, making all the travel and hotel arrangements.
Sunday morning the fairgrounds were still buzzing with activity, but there were slightly fewer spectators and more space to park as a number of vehicles returned home to avoid traveling in the midday heat. As we'd completed most of our editorial tasks, we took the opportunity to examine the 70-plus award winners and later joined them at the 2:30 drive-through awards ceremony (the winners drive through).
With so much to do and see, the Goodguys West Coast Nationals was 10 pounds of fun packed in a five-pound weekend. Hope to see you all there again in 2006. Here are some of the sights we caught in our viewfinder.
Trending Pages
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The Smaller Jeep Cherokee Is Officially Dead Following Plant Shutdown
2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 First Look: A Wicked Quick, 1,025-HP Hell Yeah!
What Is the Optimum Engine Oil Temperature?


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Show your Polysexual pride with our Poly & Proud design hoodie!
- 80% ringspun cotton/20% polyester.
- Drop shoulder style.
- Soft cotton faced fabric.
- Double fabric hood with self colour drawcord.
- Front pouch pocket with small hidden opening for ear phone cord feed.
- Ribbed cuffs and hem.
- Twin needle stitching.
- WRAP Certified Production.
For sizing, please see the sizing guide in the product images. Garment sizes are approximate and for guidance only.


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It has been a long while since I posted. Let's see what I remember.
Worked on a new gnome-session. XSMP is one step closer to the curb. Mostly worked to make the logout handling more reasonable. See http://live.gnome.org/SessionManagement/GnomeSession and http://www.gnome.org/~mccann/gnome-session/docs/gnome-session.html for more information. Hope to consolidate the various session inhibit APIs for 2.26.
Used this new, rather generic, session framework to manage the GDM greeter session. This makes it possible to trivially support sharing functionality with the normal user sessions. Things like gnome-power-manager, orca, metacity, etc. just work. This is important because it ensures that a user will have a consistent experience – and it makes the software easier to maintain and support.
GUADEC was great. A beautiful city and lots of interesting people to talk to. Enjoyed trying tripe. Sad to have missed the Boat Party because I preparing to give my talk first thing the next morning. Slides are available (evince seems to have trouble with them).
Finally moved (more or less) to the Boston area.
Attended the first Linux Plumbers Conference in Portland, Oregon. Thanks to the Linux Foundation for sponsoring me. Overall a really great conference (except for David almost falling off a cliff). It is important for us to build a solid platform. I gave a short talk in the D-Bus/Desktop miniconf. Slides are available.
Recently participated in the GNOME User Experience Hackfest. I worked in the GNOME shell brainstorming group. It was really awesome. Everyone was positive, energetic, and focused on moving things forward. We should really do more of these along the way to GNOME 3.0. I feel really good about what we were able to accomplish in just a few days time. I plan to write more about this in the next few posts.


text: Back A Primer for Preschooler Safety Your little ones can learn a lot about safety if you take some time to teach them. Keep your lessons simple, say the experts, and even very young children can learn how to stay clear of danger. Here's an ABC rule that you and your children can recite together. 'A': Always ride in a car safety seat Automobile accidents are the number one cause of death for preschoolers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Teach your child to get into his or her safety seat. Always make sure your child sits in the back seat of the car, even if you're only driving to the nearest convenience store, the American Academy of Pediatrics says. 'B': Beware of fire Children playing with fire cause hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries each year, according to the National Fire Protection Association. Of course, you should always keep matches and lighters out of reach. Teach your child never to touch them and to tell you or another responsible adult immediately if someone is playing with matches. Make sure children know that if their clothes catch on fire, they should "stop, drop and roll." Young children may take the safety slogans literally and roll only one revolution. So practice rolling with them to extinguish mock flames. Devise a family escape route, and crawl with them on the floor to practice getting safely out of the house. Make sure they know what your home's smoke alarms sound like. 'C': Call for help with the telephone Even very young children can learn to call for help by dialing 911 or your local emergency number. Practice dialing the number either on a pretend phone or a disconnected one and stress that the number is used only for emergencies. Tell them not to hang up as that is a key connection that helps emergency services find them. You want them to stay on the line, because if they hang up, the connection is gone.


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© 2023 MJH Life Sciences™ and Infection Control Today. All rights reserved.
Doctors frequently misuse antibiotics when treating patients hospitalized with respiratory tract infections (RTIs), according to a study to be published in the November issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.
The study, which tracked patients in two Pennsylvania hospitals, found that doctors often use antibiotics to treat patients whose infections are known to be caused by viruses. The findings are alarming because antibiotics are not effective against viruses, and antibiotic overuse has been linked to the development of resistant bacterial strains.
"[T]hese data demonstrate at least one area where antibiotics are commonly used in hospitalized patients without clear reason," write the studys authors, Kevin T. Shiley, Ebbing Lautenbach and Ingi Lee, all from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. "Recognition of this may be helpful in developing interventions to limit inappropriate antibiotic use in the future."
In recent years, new diagnostic tests have been developed to distinguish infections caused by viruses from those caused by bacteria. In theory, more definitive diagnoses should reduce the inappropriate use of antibiotics in patients with viral infections. But that does not appear to be happening, according to Shiley and his colleagues.
The researchers looked at data on RTI patients admitted to two hospitals over a two-year period. Of 196 patients who were diagnosed with viral infections, 125 remained on antibiotics after their diagnoses. It would be understandable to keep a patient on antibiotics if an abnormal chest X-ray suggests a concurrent bacterial infection, the researchers said. However, only 37 percent of these patients had abnormal chest X-rays. "It is less clear why the remaining 63 percent of patients with normal chest imaging were prescribed antibiotics," Shiley and his colleagues write.
Patients in the study who remained on antibiotics did not benefit from the treatment, the researchers found. In fact, antibiotics may have led to harm in some cases. For example, a significant number of antibiotic patients developed Clostridium difficile diarrhea, a condition linked with antibiotic use.
On average, the antibiotic group had longer hospital stays and higher mortality rates than the non-antibiotic group. While those poorer outcomes cannot be attributed directly to antibiotic treatment, they do suggest that there was no clinical benefit, the researchers say.
"This study highlights the crucial role of antimicrobial stewardship in improving patient care," said Neil O. Fishman, M.D. at the University of Pennsylvania and president of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA). "Appropriate use of antibiotics is not only essential to limiting emergence of resistance, but also may help improve clinical outcomes."
Reference: Shiley KT, Lautenbach E, and Lee I. The Use of Antimicrobial Agents after the Diagnosis of Viral Respiratory Tract Infections in Hospitalized Adults: Antibiotics or Anxiolytics?" Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology 31:11 (November 2010).


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This past year was a landmark one for sexual assault activists on campus: the Title IX network helped sexual assault survivors file federal complaints against eleven schools for mishandling and underreporting rape on campus; legislators and activists collaborated on bills meant to make reporting rape to law enforcement more easy (but, crucially, not mandatory); and now, at long last, the issue of campus rape has received serious attention from the White House.
On January 22, the White House Council on Women and Girls released a report titled "Rape and Sexual Assault: A Renewed Call to Action," in which the seriousness of sexual assault as a far-too-prevalent social ill was outlined and affirmed: according to its analysis, 1 in 5 women and 1 in 17 men have been raped in their lifetime. The report characterizes sexual assault on colleges campuses "a particular problem," noting that colleges tend to be plagued by abysmally low reporting rates — on average, only 12% of victims report their assaults to law enforcement — and arguing that "the dynamics of college life appear to fuel the [sexual assault] problem." Very admirably, it manages to conclude that drinking on campus increases the likelihood of assault without even engaging in victim-blaming! Good for you, U.S. government.
As the report indicated he would, later that day President Obama signed a memorandum ordering the creation of a task force focused on campus sexual assault. In his preliminary remarks, he contextualized the task force as part of a necessary government move to eradicate all forms of brutality against women, noting that his administration has also strengthened the Violence Against Women Act and cracked down on sexual assault in the military. "I want to make sure we're doing everything we can to spare another American the trauma of sexual assault," said Obama.
The President also mentioned the IX network directly: "We have seen progress, including an inspiring wave of student-led activism and a growing number of students who found the courage to come forward and report attacks. That's exactly what we want them to do. We owe all these young people an extraordinary debt of gratitude." But, Obama noted, the government mustn't rely on students to protect themselves from sexual assault and metastasized institutional negligence:
But we cannot stop there. There's obviously more that we have to do to keep our students safe. And that's why here today, I will sign a presidential memorandum creating the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault. And we're going to work with colleges and universities and educational institutions of all kinds across America to help them come up with better ways to prevent and respond to sexual assault on their campuses. And then we'll help them put those ideas into practice.
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According to the memorandum, the Task Force to Protect Students From Sexual Assault will be co-chaired by designees of the Office of the Vice President and the White House Council on Women and Girls; its other members include the Attorney General, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Education, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Police, the Director of the Domestic Council, the Cabinet Secretary, and the heads of other agencies or offices, as designated by the Co-Chairs. So — that's four women and three men, three of whom are people of color, on the Task Force so far. A committee comprised mostly of women debating something that affects women's bodily autonomy? In my government? Unheard of!
The Task Force will function only in an advisory capacity; it has 90 days to develop and submit proposals on the President on how to provide "instructions, policies, and proposals for institutions" on how to prevent, respond to, investigate and punish sexual assault — as well as how to properly train students, staff and faculty. The Task Force will also be responsible for finding a way to measure the success of sexual assault prevention and response programs and for increasing transparency around institutions' responses to reports of sexual assault. In order to accomplish this, the Task Force will "consult with external stakeholders, including institution officials, student groups, parents, athletic and educational associations, local rape crisis centers, and law enforcement agencies." There's no way of knowing how much the Task Force will collaborate with students and survivors — but, as Tracey Vitchers of Students Active for Ending Rape told ThinkProgress, "For the task force to be effective, it must involve the voices of current college students and recent college graduates."
The question of how to prevent rape on campus is immensely overwhelming; it's not something that anyone can easily take on or comprehend, especially if they're not familiar with the current climate on campuses — which is why student and activist input is essential. In part, campus rape prevention a question of how to reverse the insidious, ubiquitous logic of rape culture. That's something Obama seems to understand well, at least in theory: in his remarks, he noted the importance of bystander intervention as well as the need to radically change the way in which we teach young men to conceptualize sex and treat the women around them:
We've got to keep teaching young men in particular to show women the respect they deserve and to recognize sexual violence and be outraged by it, and to do their part to stop it from happening in the first place. During our discussion earlier today, we talked about I want every young man in America to feel some strong peer pressure in terms of how they are supposed to behave and treat women. And that starts before they get to college...
[W]e can do more to make sure that every young man out there — whether they're in junior high or high school or college or beyond — understand what's expected of them and what it means to be a man, and to intervene if they see somebody else acting inappropriately. We're going to need to encourage young people, men and women, to realize that sexual assault is simply unacceptable. And they're going to have to summon the bravery to stand up and say so, especially when the social pressure to keep quiet or to go along can be very intense.
What, exactly, that will look like — an educational initiative or some kind of public service campaign — is unclear so far. What is clear is that college administrations can no longer willfully ignore that sexual assault is a serious, prevalent and preventable problem.
At the closing of his speech, President Obama said, "You can judge a nation, and how successful it will be, based on how it treats its women and its girls. Those nations that are successful, they're successful in part because women and girls are valued. And I'm determined that, by that measure, the United States of America will be the global leader." The malignant attitudes that cause those in power to undervalue women and ignore the unique threats they face certainly won't dissolve overnight — but this is a hugely significant and quite powerful step in the right direction.
Image via AP.


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Stranded at O'Hare? Need a massage? No problem
Staff Writer
Journal Star
Air travelers might actually want to get stranded at O'Hare International Airport now that the Chicago airport has its first spa.
The international terminal's XpresSpa is offering massages, manicures, hot shaves and yoga.
Chicago aviation officials announced the opening Wednesday along with Italian restaurant Tocco and a coffee bar from Chicago-based roaster Kofe.
The new offerings are part of a $26.2 million overhaul of the food, retail and other concessions in Terminal 5 that began last year.
It's the first redevelopment project since the terminal opened in 1993. Officials are betting it will help lure travelers to the airport and generate more revenue.
Altogether there will be 18 new restaurants and shops.


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DIY Bird Feeder Wreath
Learn how to make a bird feeder from seed heads and a grapevine wreath. This DIY bird feeder project makes a great gift!
By Daisy Siskin
If you've ever been torn between the desire to tidy up the dead seed heads of spent summer blooms and leaving a good food source for birds, then this project is perfect. It will give you and the birds the best of both worlds! Just collect your spent blooms and turn them into an attractive DIY bird feeder.
- Screen
- Rope or twine
- Grapevine wreath
- Assorted seed heads
Step 1
You can use just about any kind of screen for this project as long as it provides good drainage and the holes aren't too big. (I used a spatter screen, but a window screen would work.) Cut to fit in the middle of your wreath and remove everything else that could potentially get in the way.
Step 2
Cut the twine or rope into three lengths, about 48 in. each. Tie at evenly spaced intervals around the wreath.
Step 3
Flip the wreath over on your work surface and place the screen on the back of the wreath. Thread a length of wire through the screen near the edge and then around a sturdy vine in the wreath, twisting the ends together to secure. Do this at three or four intervals or until screen is tight.
Step 4
Flip the wreath back onto its right side, and begin tucking the seed heads in among the vines. Continue until the wreath is covered. Fill the middle with your favorite birdseed and hang!
This article originally appeared on our sister site birdsandblooms.com.


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America's most exciting event Miss Russian California - Annual Beauty Pageant
Miss Russian California is an annual beauty pageant intended to help prominent young women of Slavic descent exemplify community leadership, educational achievements, and professional accomplishments. The winners get to attend official galas, chamber meetings, and community events as the Slavic Community Youth Ambassadors throughout the year following the pageant. The action is intended to promote cultural awareness, community involvement, and youth engagement.


text:
In a country as awash in bad faith and empty political posturing as ours, it's always fun to expose blatant hypocrisy. That's why the story of the St. Thomas More Hospital lawsuit is ripping through the Internet. It's a sad one, really: Lori Stodghill, seven months pregnant, was admitted to the hospital with a blocked artery that killed her and the two fetuses inside her. The plaintiff, her husband, Jeremy Stodghill, is claiming that because her doctor didn't answer his pages, the twins died unnecessarily and could have been rescued through an emergency C-section, even if Lori's life couldn't be saved. The hospital's defense, so far successful, is to claim that because the twins were fetuses and not people, this can't legally be viewed as a wrongful-death situation.
Of course, the problem is that the hospital is run by Catholic Health Initiatives—Catholic, as in that religion whose leadership routinely claims that not only are fetuses people, but so are embryos, zygotes, and fertilized eggs. That claim is used to turn women into sacrificial lambs for the faith, denying them not just elective abortions but telling them that it's not OK to terminate pregnancies where there's no chance of producing a live baby. Women who go to Catholic hospitals in these situations have been denied procedures to save their fertility or even their lives. But, as this lawsuit shows, the passionate belief that anything post-fertilization is a "person" evaporates the second it stops being useful as a way to oppress women (and the second it starts possibly costing the Catholic hospital money).
So, cries of hypocrisy are justified and outrage understandable. Still, anyone who really thought that proponents of the fetus-as-person line ever really cared about "life" was being incredibly naive. The church romanticizes needless suffering through pregnancy for women, offering sainthood to women who die rather than take a doctor's advice to stop getting pregnant. And if the church actually thought an embryo was the same thing as a person, it would demand free birth control for all in the interest of preventing murder. Instead it fights against contraception access.
Interestingly, this case reflects the more nuanced understanding that most people, especially pro-choice people, have regarding fetal development. While hardline religious anti-choicers use the "can it be used to oppress women?" measurement to determine if it's a person or not in there, ordinary people tend to agree with the justices in Roe v. Wade that it starts off as not-a-person and gradually becomes one over months, gaining more moral consideration in the later months of pregnancy. This is why 88 percent of abortions are in the first 12 weeks, a percentage that would be even higher if women weren't delayed by anti-choice laws and harassment from getting timelier abortions. Only 1.5 percent of abortions occur after 20 weeks, even though elective abortion is legal up to 24 weeks in much of the country.
Stodghill's pregnancy was seven months along, and despite anti-choice propaganda to the contrary, women at that stage of pregnancy don't suddenly wake up one day and decide to terminate. Most women, even super pro-choice women, feel much differently about a seven-month pregnancy than an eight-week pregnancy, even if the Catholic Church doesn't seem to see any difference at all.


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Canadian War Department drones on with summer splurge
| August 20, 2012
With student activists away for summer vacation, it was the perfect occasion in late July for Carleton University to celebrate a new $40-million war-training contract. In partnership with war manufacturer CAE, Carleton's Visualization and Simulation Centre will enable Canadian Forces to better practice, in the coarse but memorable phrase of former Canadian warlord Rick Hillier, the fine art of killing people.
In a moment that would have done Orwell proud, Carleton President Roseann O'Reilly Runte gushed: "This is about saving lives. This is about saving money." On hand for the announcement was Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, who boasted this war-training partnership will advance "Canada's security interests and…Canadian values around the world."
If such values are so great, one wonders why they need to come out of the barrel of a gun. But that's a non-issue in a national security state: when everything comes down to the rhetoric of "saving our way of life" from some unknown threat and protecting "our soldiers" from the threats we often arm to begin with, everything becomes justified, from transfers to torture to starving the poor of billions to pay for the War Department's high-tech toys.
Such announcements regularly occur on Canadian university campuses, but hopefully it will spur at Carleton the kind of protest that shut down similar attempts to exploit bright young minds for nefarious purposes (such victories occurred at OISE and the University of Toronto).
The Carleton University contract was one of numerous boondoggles announced during summer break by a Canadian War Department that's busily seeking out new enemies and new rationales to shield the lion's share of a $23-billion budget that is unquestioned by all major political parties. The military is so awash in funds, that last March their expenditures jumped 14 per cent and no one could explain why.
In May, Canada's Parliamentary budget watchdog remarked that the Harper government had deliberately misled the public on the costs of the F-35 stealth bombers (a deception built upon bureaucrats within the War Department also ignoring their own internal warnings that the bomber project was plagued by serious troubles).
Shortly after, we also learned that War Minister Peter MacKay had also low-balled government figures by almost seven times when he discussed how much it cost to drop bombs on the people of Libya (over $350 million at last count). Needless to say, the Libyan "mission," as it was delicately called, was an important benchmark for MacKay and the generals, who got to play with new equipment and push for new weapons programs as a result.
Meanwhile, the drawdown in Afghanistan — where Canadians fired off almost 5 million bullets in one 20-month period — is making some Canadian soldiers itchy. In one Ottawa Citizen interview, a Kingston sergeant explained that garrison life on the home base "really discourages a lot of guys. The question becomes, 'When do we go next?' Adrenalin is a drug and they need the heart-pumping excitement and that level of unknown to keep them happy now." Thus, war is an experience we must incessantly provide to those trained to be warriors, finding new enemies and places to bomb so we can keep our soldiers happy.
Some of the boys apparently got what they wanted when millions were wasted last month as a Canadian contingent of 1,400 soldiers were shipped off to Hawaii to take part in the U.S.-led Rim of the Pacific war exercises, an attempt to remind China of who's boss on the world stage (and perhaps to reassure Canadian mining firms that help is not far away when Asian locals agitate over poor working conditions, toxic spills, or the murder of their union leaders).
The irony here is that at the same time we are preparing for war — if necessary — with China — the busy Mr. Baird signed a deal to export increasing amounts of Canadian uranium to the nuclear weapons-holding government of Beijing, a slap in the face to nuclear non-proliferation.
And while the Pacific was being pounded with ordnance, we also learned the Canadian Forces are working to establish bases in the Caribbean, East Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia. This allows Canada's military to "project combat power/security assistance and Canadian influence rapidly and flexibly anywhere in the world," according to a memo signed by Canada's top soldier, Walter Natynczyk.
Part of that power projection will be done not so much with human beings who — despite thorough indoctrination in home-grown training camps to eliminate their sense of empathy with those they are commanded to kill or transfer to torture — remain vulnerable to the twinges of humanity that lead to afflictions like post-traumatic stress, depression, and suicide. Rather, the path forward is the remote control warfare that has become de rigueur over the past decade.
Indeed, the eagerness of War Minister Peter MacKay and his cronies to grab their joysticks and bomb from the safety of 5,000 miles away in Playstation fashion is clearly palpable. The U.S. and Israel have long dominated in the global use of drones (unmanned aerial vehicles), but now most countries are getting in on the act because of cost savings (especially relative to multi-billion contracts like the F-35 stealth bomber) and the relatively lower political costs (no troop deployments, no body bags from "our side," no embedded media who might step outside the boundaries and inspect the "collateral damage" on the ground).
And so we have also learned that Canada's poor will have to sacrifice an additional $1 billion so that armed Predator drones and their Hellfire missiles will be part of Canada's growing arsenal.
The drones are also touted as vehicles by which Canada somehow "saves lives," but this equation always leaves out the lives at risk on the ground. Over 3,000 souls have been slaughtered from the skies in the not-so-secret and clearly illegal drone war waged by Obama and his minions in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the rapidly evolving technology is also being used to prevent refugees from finding asylum and to target political demonstrations. Drones represent the ultimate tool in a 24/7 surveillance and punishment society: the forces of control can always monitor us and, when convenient, vaporize us, without any sense of transparency or accountability.
They've been used extensively by Obama in his targeted assassination program, and are increasingly privatized to take them out of the already limited loop that would provide any measure of accountability. Indeed, private mercenary firms like Blackwater are deeply involved in arming and conducting drone strikes, thus privatizing larger portions of what's known as the "kill chain." Ironically, by the rules the Pentagon plays, such use of private mercenaries creates a whole new army of "unlawful combatants" who, if captured by the Taliban, would have no rights under the Geneva Convention. But such a scenario is unlikely, since the Taliban cannot invade the safe sanctuaries in New York and Nevada in which drone "pilots" sit in air conditioned comfort and fire the missiles.
The usual rationale for anything military these days is being touted in the drone PR: it is to protect "our Arctic" (and the precious resources that we stole from First Nations) from anyone who'd steal them from us. But even the War Department knows this is a red herring, as an internal assessment revealed in late June concluded Russia poses no threat to the region.
But corporations like Northrup Grumman are not letting logic or the facts get in the way of a good profit, and so in June pitched the Canadian government at the annual Ottawa weapons bazaar, CANSEC. War merchants have until September 28 to submit their tenders to provide the Canadian War Department with a fleet of Hellfire-armed Predators.
In addition to the direct damage caused by drone strikes, they play a huge role in projecting psychological torture on those who live beneath them.
Last year, Pakistan's Foundation for Fundamental Rights, in conjunction with U.K. human rights group Reprieve, brought together 350 people to discuss the traumas of life under the drones, which many reported seeing 10 to 15 times a day. The anxiety of never knowing when the hovering drones will strike is unimaginable: war by drone is a form of torture, an indefinite death sentence hanging over the heads of villagers that can be executed at any time of the day and night. And the victims never know what hit them, as Hellfire missiles travel faster than the speed of sound. In addition, after a drone strike, villagers often face death squads who believe someone in the village provided targeting data. Kidnappings and torture ensue, a convenient extension of the "kill chain" that begins back in a Nevada bunker.
The social justice group Homes not Bombs has long protested at the site of Canada's largest drone profiteer, L-3 Wescam, located right next door to a private elementary school in Burlington, Ontario. The group conducted their first attempted weapons inspection of the plant in late 2002 and numerous direct actions have followed, but such challenges have not, unfortunately, slowed the relentless search for newer targeting systems (though one employee informed the group of a resignation, spurred to leave when s/he discovered the true nature of their work).
L-3 Wescam announced last month at the U.K.'s annual Farnborough weapons show the launch of its MX™-10D electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) imaging and designating turret, with their equipment showing, in the lifeless language of murder, "exceptional performance in all modes of flight throughout the HELLFIRE operational envelope."
Canadians concerned about remote control murder, the rights of refugees, and freedom to associate would do well to resist Canada's new generation of drone warfare: with this technology, the wars have truly come home.
Matthew Behrens is a freelance writer and social justice advocate who co-ordinates the Homes not Bombs non-violent direct action network. He has worked closely with the targets of Canadian and U.S. 'national security' profiling for many years.


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The citizen-soldiers who fought for the Confederacy personified the best qualities of America. The preservation of liberty and freedom was the motivating factor in the South's decision to fight the Second American Revolution. The tenacity with which Confederate soldiers fought underscored their belief in the rights guaranteed by the Constitution. These attributes are the underpinning of our democratic society and represent the foundation on which this nation was built.
Today, the Sons of Confederate Veterans is preserving the history and legacy of these heroes so that future generations can understand the motives that animated the Southern Cause.
The SCV is the direct heir of the United Confederate Veterans, and the oldest hereditary organization for male descendants of Confederate soldiers. Organized at Richmond, Virginia in 1896, the SCV continues to serve as a historical, patriotic, and non-political organization dedicated to ensuring that a true history of the 1861-1865 period is preserved.
Membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans is open to all male descendants of any veteran who served honorably in the Confederate armed forces.
Additional Links
Confederate Heritage Trust- "The CHT is an eleemosynary corporation whose purpose it is to engage in the preservation of Southern history and the protection of Confederate burial sites, battlefields, monuments, symbols and historic objects of the Confederate States of America."
SCV National - Sons of Confederate Veterans, Guardians of Confederate History and Heritage
SCV SC Division - South Carolina Division
27th South Carolina Infantry - an organization dedicated to preserving the lifestyles and history of the men and women who fought and lived during the War of Northern Aggression. We are open to anyone that wishes to join and meet the membership requirements.


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Pavelec, Peverley star in Thrashers' 3-0 win
By TOM SALADINO
ATLANTA (AP) -- The Atlanta Thrashers are making themselves right at home at Philips Arena.
Ondrej Pavelec made 25 saves for his second shutout in a week, Rich Peverley scored twice and the Thrashers beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-0 on Friday night for their season-high fourth straight victory -- all at home.
"I'm glad to see we can win in our building," Pavelec said after the Thrashers improved to 7-5-1 at Philips Arena.
Toby Enstrom added a goal and an assist for the Thrashers. Atlanta (11-9-3) has outscored its opponents 15-2 during the four games. The Thrashers last won four in a row from Nov. 25-30, 2009.
Pavelec, who has four career shutouts in 74 games, also blanked Washington 5-0 on Nov. 19. In his four-game win streak, he has stopped 114 of 116 shots (.983 per cent).
"It was a team effort. We have to keep rolling," Pavelec said.
"I think it starts with Pavs. He's been playing awesome for us," defenseman Zach Bogosian said. "It's definitely comfortable for a guy like myself playing against some top lines and he's behind you stopping a lot of pucks."
The Canadiens (14-8-1) have lost only three of their last nine, but have dropped two of their last three.
Peverley opend the scoring with 10 seconds left in the first period, knocking the puck past goalie Alex Auld. Niclas Bergfors and Enstrom drew assists on Peverley's fourth goal.
"We are playing a full 60 minutes. In the past we have had some lulls in the periods and I think we have done a good job of maintaining our consistency and focus," Peverley said.
Enstrom then got his third goal at 8:52 of the second period, a shot from near the blue line past an apparently screened Auld, who was making only his second start of the season.
Peverley then added a power-play goal at 15:35 of the second period, driving a perfect pass from Dustin Byfuglien past Auld for his fifth goal.
"The first one (goal) was a broken play. The puck just kept bouncing. It was a lucky bounce, it found the hole," Peverley said. "The second one, I just shot it, and it went in."
The Thrashers outshot the Canadiens 23-4 in the period and it could have been worse for Montreal had it not been for the outstanding play of Auld, who made at least a half-dozen excellent stops.
"The way we played in the second period was outstanding," Pavelec said.
"They're definitely on a roll. Their goalie's making saves. They're getting getting contributions from everyone. They're a solid team on the rise," Auld said.
"It was nice to get a lot of work," he said of the 47 shots by the Thrashers. "I was screened on a couple of them."
NOTES: The 23 second-period shots on goal by the Thrashers matched the second-highest in franchise history in a period. The most was 24 against Washington on Dec. 16, 2003. The Thrashers outshot the Canadiens 47-25. ... The most shots in a game by the Thrashers is 50 on Dec. 21, 2009 against the Canadiens. ... Canadiens D Roman Hamrik needs one point for 600 in his career. ... Byfuglien led defensemen with eight goals and was second in points with 20 entering the game. He had scored goals in three straight games prior to Friday night and had four winning goals, tied for the league lead.
Updated November 26, 2010


text: Q & A: Aimee Mann Sheryl Nields Once in love with AIMEE MANN\u2019s music, always in love with it\u2014or so it seems for listeners who can\u2019t get enough of the way she weds intricate yet accessible melodies with sometimes loving, sometimes lacerating, sometimes darkly comic lyrical observations. The good news: This spring, Mann, 51, will release her eighth solo album\u2014her first since 2008\u2019s @#%&*! Smilers\u2014and you can catch a preview Jan. 20, when she performs at the Ridgefield Playhouse\u00a0 (203\/438-5795; ridgefieldplayhouse.org) and Jan. 30, when she comes to Infinity Music Hall & Bistro (866\/666-6306; infinityhall.com). The latter show will be filmed by CPTV for the "Infinity Hall Live" series. Tell us about the new album you'll be releasing in the spring. I understand the central theme is "charm." Well, it's not a theme that runs through every song, but it is something that I'm interested in and ended up writing a lot about. I'm definitely fascinated by people who are charming\u2014of course, everyone loves them when they're attentive and funny and tell great stories. When you're watching each presidential candidate on the televised debates, you see a lot of charm on parade. You think, "Yeah, I can see how you got to this point." But after a while, it starts to get . . .you start to see cracks in the fa\u00e7ade; it has a darker underside. Then, of course, there's the type of charm that has a real dark underside, in which people use their charm to manipulate others. I find that particularly interesting. In your opinion, who specifically exemplifies easy charm? I'm assuming most people who come across really well on TV have it. When he was in the presidential race I was completely fascinated by Herman Cain, who's just wildly glib even in the midst of controversy\u2014he acts like, "I'm just going to go along as if nothing's happening. Nope, there's no problem. I haven't set a foot wrong." It's amazing to me, and I think a lot goes into it . . . like maybe real denial, or the person's belief that he can bullshit anyone. To me, that's like the credo of the kind of charmer you have to keep an eye out for. They create a persona for a reason, then they kind of get trapped in it. Will you have any special guests on this album? There won't be a ton of outside guests; I'd rather assemble and feature a band that works well together. But I did a duet with James Mercer of The Shins on one song, and we had Sara Watkins come in and play violin on another track. I also wrote a song with a friend of mine, Tim Heidecker, who's part of the show on Adult Swim, "Tim and Eric, Awesome Show, Great Job." He's out of his mind. He's been obsessed with Herman Cain, too, and wrote nine parody songs that are almost like cheerleading songs\u2014all together the result is called Cainthology: Songs in the Key of Cain, and it's available on iTunes, with proceeds going to charity. He does a lot of musical parody. So we wrote a song together, because I think he's got a nice melodic sense. One of the things that's always amazed me about your work is how easily you seem to hitch your lyrics to\u2014and I kind of hate this word\u2014melodies with great "hooks." If something is catchy or hooky, it's pure luck. The way I write songs is I start with the music. I find that the music sets the mood, and gets you thinking, "What kind of story goes with this?" It's like word association. One of the new songs, about charm in its darker form, is about a murder; it's called "Swanee River." It's written from the point of view of the murdered person, who's found at the bottom of the Swanee. The tone of the music just sounded so creepy to me, that this is what it made me think of. I think when you're in the mood of being open to the music, it's easier to have your brain relax and come up with words and images in a way that's much harder to do when you're just speaking. You need to be very self-possessed and unaffected by stress or anxiety in order to really formulate great sentences or paragraphs\u2014I find that very difficult. Getting back to the idea of "Swanee River" being about charm in its darker form: Would you say there are any lighter counterparts to that? I never get that light, just because I'm me. The tone of the record\u2014and maybe this is graded on a gloomy singer-songwriter scale\u2014is very poppy. I wrote about half the songs on the album, or more than half, right after I got off my last tour, the idea being to create the kind of songs I'd want to create live. Your early solo albums are very "first-person." More recently, it seems you've gotten away from that. I do a lot of second-person writing\u2014sometimes I switch back and forth between first and second person in the same song\u2014because there's the personal take, and then you start talking about yourself from an observational point of view. And by using a second-person voice in writing about other people, you can express your ability to relate to what they're going through more easily. I wanted to ask about your experience last May at the White House Poetry Night. That was so great. I loved that day, and that night, so much. We were there all day, because there was a workshop and a poetry seminar for high school students from all around the country. And the poets all talked about their process; it was really genuinely inspiring and exciting to hear from Billy Collins in particular. I was like, "I'm very glad to be asked to this event, but I'm not exactly sure why I'm here. But if someone feels my lyrics are a kind of poetry, I'll go along with that." Playing in a situation like that is quite novel and different from playing in a situation where you're thinking, "I hope the monitors work" or wondering if there's a place for the bass player to plug in. It's really exciting to see the White House think that art is important in a way that's not just . . . a thing you add on when everything else is in place. I admit I've thought of art and music in that way, as something "extra." I've started to think of it differently, as something that can be genuinely transformative in almost a religious way, that can have a real impact on your life\u2014not just as a fun, pretty thing to distract you. And obviously, it was a thrill to play for the Obamas. You could tell how genuinely excited Michelle Obama was to have us all there, and that was very sweet. As I recall, there was a lot of silly negative hoopla about Common being there . . . You can make something out of anything, twist the slimmest of facts into the grossest of distortions. He was heartfelt and inspired, and did this jazz-flavored rap about uplifting poor people. Of course, God forbid we try to uplift those less fortunate. Is President Obama a fan? I only had a couple of handshake moments with him. We all think of the president as being remote, on a pedestal. The feeling I get from himis that he's kind of a nerd, and probably a fan of things in that sort of way. He's got kind of a "Dad" vibe going, in the way you had to explain to your Dad who the Beatles were [laughs]. I'm just guessing about that, I don't know. I understand you've been working on a musical based on your solo album The Forgotten Arm. Someone had suggested I do that ages ago, and I was like, "eh, that sounds like a lot of work." Then, I was talking to my producer Paul Bryan, because I thought we could write some songs together. I wanted to write some new songs, because the kind of musicals I like are more traditional musicals, not rock musicals, and I wanted something to offset the rock aspect of the original album. I started going to musicals and taking notes. We had one book writer who didn't work out, but we have a new writer, David Henry Hwang [M. Butterfly, Chinglish], so we're creating a treatment and have a handful of newer songs that hopefully make sense in the context of the story. Are you thinking this could be a Broadway show? Actually, I've become very friendly with Oscar Eustis, artistic director of the Public Theater, so the show would definitely go there. What fascinates you about boxing? I'd met this character, a non-recovering drug addict\u2014my song "Freeway" is about him\u2014who had done some boxing, and I got interested through him, because he casually taught me some basic moves. I wanted to learn it when I was a kid, but back then, women were barely allowed to play softball. So I started taking boxing lessons, then through a friend I started going to the Wild Card Boxing Club in L.A., which is Freddie Roach's gym\u2014he's a very famous trainer, and he and I became good friends. For me boxing is interesting because it teaches you to keep your head, regardless of what's going on. And you can't react defensively, in anger. You have to stick to your plan and wait for your move, duck so the punch goes past you. To learn to keep your head in a panicked, adrenalized state\u2014to strategize when you're getting punched in the face\u2014is an interesting discipline. I did very little sparring, just enough to get a taste and see what it's about. There's very few people appropriate for me to spar with anyway. One gym I trained at had sparring class and I ended up sparring with guys who were 40 pounds heavier. It was kind of crazy. One last thing I wanted to mention: You seems to have a great affection for comedy. You've done a number of comic turns yourself onscreen, particularly in "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer" and "Portlandia." Ninety percent of my friends are comedians. It's a skill I really, really admire because of the wordplay involved. Comedy requires you to be articulate in a certain kind of way, to craft a joke that you make or break by the use of one perfect word. I'm really fascinated with what comedians do and how they do it; I think it's incredible. (This article was originally published on a different platform. Some formatting changes may have occurred.)


text:
Kim Peek was 58. His father, Fran, says Peek had a major heart attack Saturday morning and was pronounced dead at a hospital in the Salt Lake City suburb of Murray.
Peek was a savant with a remarkable memory and inspired writer Barry Morrow when he wrote "Rain Man," the 1988 movie that won four Academy Awards.
Fran Peek said his son met Morrow at a convention in the early 1980s and the writer was taken with Peek's knack for retaining everything he heard. Morrow wrote the script, and the movie went on to win Oscars for best film and best actor for Dustin Hoffman, whose repetitive rants about being an excellent driver and the "People's Court" about to start were a hit with moviegoers.
Although the character was technically fictional, Fran Peek said his son was every bit as amazing as Hoffman's portrayal of him. And Kim's true character showed when he toured the world, helping dispel misconceptions about mental disabilities.
"It was just unbelievable, all the things that he knew," Fran Peek said Monday. "He traveled 5,500 miles short of 3 million air miles and talked to nearly 60 million people - half have been students."
In his later years, Peek was classified as a "mega-savant" who was a genius in about 15 different subjects, from history and literature and geography to numbers, sports, music and dates. But his motor skills were limited; he couldn't perform some simple tasks like dressing himself.
NASA scientists had been studying Peek, hoping that technology used to study the effects of space travel on the brain would help explain his mental capabilities.
Fran Peek says the funeral will be next Tuesday in Taylorsville. Details were pending.


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Parents turn in teen son after he admitted to school shooting plot
A 15-year-old boy in Michigan who allegedly planned a school shooting could be tried as an adult.
"He came to us and said that he's been really upset and said that he's been planning to do something bad," the boy's stepfather, who asked to remain unidentified, told WOOD-TV. "It was a big shock."
The teen, who is also not being identified because he is a minor, was arraigned Monday on firearms and explosives charges.
The boy's parents say their son had been bullied since starting school at Paw Paw High School, and that things escalated when a picture of the teen in his underwear began circulating.
"Since that point, it's just been relentless," the stepfather said, adding that bullies would push the boy into lockers and punch him in the throat.
Over the weekend, the boy told his parents he had stolen guns from his grandfather and planned to kill the students who had hurt him.
"He wanted to blow the school up on top of him," the stepfather said. "I was in shock. I just couldn't believe it. ... We couldn't think at that point. How'd this even get to this point?"
The parents took their son directly to the sheriff's department.
"He wanted to go. He knew that he needed help," the stepfather said. "He walked right into the lobby and was like, 'This is what I've been planning on doing.' He said, 'This is where you can find everything.'"
Authorities also found Molotov cocktails and materials to make pipe bombs in the teen's home.
"These parents did a good job and I hope the public sees that," Van Buren County Sheriff Daniel Abbott said.
Abbott called the situation a "very close call."
"I think it was going to happen (Monday) morning," he said. "There's no question in my mind there was going to be a terrorist act today. The guns were going to go inside a school along with the bombs and it was going to be a bad environment today."
The boy is being held in the Allegan County Juvenile Center and prosecutors want to try him as an adult due to the serious nature of the offense.
"He asked for help. He's been asking for help," his stepfather said. "I'm really worried that he might be made an example of."


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$GME Discussion for the weekend 07/16-07/18/2021(self)
Talk about the stock.
Pinned for the weekend while I figure things out.
Idk wtf I'm doing.
That is all.
Party it up bitches. HODL til phone numbers ✌
PSA- Beware: it's a jungle in here. No security settings yet. Shills will likely abound.
As always, stay vigilant with anything you read.
Edit: no hate for the other sub. You don't ever stop loving your old home town.
Edit 2: New user flairs available and yes you can edit them! And please read the other stickied post and share your input if you haven't already.
Hey berry


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The 2012 playoffs are finally here, with the 12 surviving teams -- the best of the best in the NFL -- set to fight it out for the Super Bowl XLVII title. The action kicks off this weekend with the wild-card round. To get you ready, let's take a closer look at all four games.
The setup
You want a perfect wild-card matchup? You want exciting offense? Intriguing star power? Rookie quarterbacks who are rewriting NFL history and running backs on each side who make the ground game as thrilling as the passing game? This is it. Robert Griffin III vs. Russell Wilson -- the first two rookies to finish a season with a passer rating of 100 or higher. Alfred Morris vs. Marshawn Lynch -- two of the NFL's top three rushers. The Redskins vs. the Seahawks -- two teams that have each won seven of their past eight games. Now, that's some wild stuff.
Player to watch
Alfred Morris, RB, Redskins: For much of the season, whenever the subject of rookie superlatives has been broached, Robert Griffin III has diverted the conversation toward an unlikely name: Alfred Morris. It might have been easy for observers on the national level to roll their eyes, believing Griffin was simply deflecting attention to a teammate. That is, until Week 17, when Morris' 200-yard game against the Dallas Cowboys changed the eye-rolling to eye-opening. Morris has rushed for 100 yards or more in each of his past three home games. As Griffin noted Sunday, teams that focus on stopping RG3 will regret ignoring Morris.
Under pressure
Redskins' secondary: It isn't so much that Seattle puts up a boatload of passing yards (they actually rank 27th in that category). Rather, their efficiency and ability to finish drives are what make them such a scary matchup for Washington's leaky defense. Nobody put up more points in the last five weeks of the season than the Seahawks. Wilson, meanwhile, has thrown 16 touchdown passes while getting picked off just twice in his past eight contests. If the Redskins want to give RG3 a chance to get it done on offense, they must be incredibly disciplined and consistent for all four quarters in their pass defense -- something they haven't done very well at times this season.
Matchup to watch
Richard Sherman vs. Robert Griffin III: Maybe the most underrated and impressive element of Griffin's success as a rookie has been his discipline in the passing game. He has thrown just five interceptions this season, tied for the lowest in the league among qualifying players. His interception percentage of 1.3 is the second-lowest in the league, trailing only Tom Brady. The only problem? On Sunday, he's up against one of the toughest cornerbacks in football. Sherman is tied for second in the NFL with eight interceptions.
Did you know?
Each of the Redskins' last two playoff games were against the Seahawks, and Seattle won both, in 2005 and 2007. ... RG3 has the most rushing yards for a rookie quarterback since at least 1950. Russell Wilson is fifth on that same list. ... Only the Denver Broncos have a longer active win streak (11 games) than the Redskins (seven). ... The Seahawks are 3-5 on the road this season. They lost five of their first six away games, but they also won their last two.
We all know both of these teams are capable of putting up big points, with each squad featuring a rookie quarterback who has been clutch in big moments and a running back who can change the momentum of a game. And although the Seahawks' defense is probably better suited for a game like this, there's another outlier that could also play a factor: coaching. This is going to be a fantastic game, but Mike Shanahan's experience in playoff football could give the Redskins a slight edge.


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George Rebane
The congressional Democrats have plumbed new depths of unabashed and sickening sleaze as they block the passage of the Senate bill to provide liquidity and relief to the nation's economy on the verge of depression. The multi-trillion dollar aid package is designed to prevent bankruptcies of countless companies that provide jobs to millions of Americans and are now attempting to rapidly retool to supply the medical needs to flatten the Wuhan virus infection curve, thereby saving untold families grief. (more here) Instead, led by Team Pelosi/Schumer, the Dems have attached a socialist wishlist of provisions to the bill that have NOTHING to do with fighting the virus and saving the economy.
Besides demogauging another one of their material Big Lies that the bill is a "slush fund" and a "bailout" of corporations, as if the corporations were the cause of the pandemic, these socialist sleazebags want to piggyback on this crisis to pass anti-capitalist provisions that they could never accomplish during normal times. The want to revise laws that will implement many of the Green New Deal provisions on corporate board memberships (unions, activists, and workers), and that henceforth the government will have a major say in how individual businesses are run. (more here)
One of their most onerous provisions is a permanent ban on corporate stock buybacks. It is clear that such buybacks should not be allowed during the time a company receives liquidity funding from the feds, but the Dems want to remove this important financial strategy forever. They are either ignorant of or just plain evil in denying such an important market strategy that benefits every participant in such buybacks, including the small investors and holders of retirement accounts. (more here)
Their aim is to finally start the real fundamental transformation of the country through a government 'rob-and-ruin' involvement in company operations. Since the Dems have no positive or productive policies for generating wealth and jobs, they continue to play the only cards they hold – hate capitalism and hate Trump. And their constituents don't have the wherewithal to ask 'what then?' after their socialist future comes about.
But all of this is part and parcel of a party that has long been the creator and promoter of the nation's miseries, highlighted by their support of slavery, then decades of Jim Crow, then the destruction of black families and promotion of urban blight launched by their not-so-Great Society, and now continuing with the dismantling and destruction of America's educational system. (The complete list is too long to recount here.) While the Republicans also have warts and have not always been our angels, the policies and politics of today's Democrats have surely made them into our Demonic Party.
[25mar20 update] Healthy companies create jobs, jobs pay people, people with money can buy things they need, companies make more such things, and the cycle repeats. I have yet to find a single leftwinger, let alone socialist, who really understands this cycle. The role of a thriving private sector economy is so obvious that, when told this, almost all folks of the Left will agree to the need for such a cycle that epitomizes a healthy economy. And then they blow a tire, because invariably their follow-on remarks turn out to promote economy stifling policies, which gives lie to the claim that they understand. All this is enormously magnified by the nation's political idiot contingency in Washington and other levels of government across the land. They simply cannot connect the dots when it comes to wealth creation; they sincerely believe that money (wealth) is created simply by government printing the long green as much as is needed. There is no comprehension as to what has to stand behind those printed slips of paper (or the equivalently fortuitous bit patterns on some mass memory device somewhere in the cloud). We see that again in the demonic machinations of Team Pelomer in Congress. Last October "the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in partnership with the World Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation hosted Event 201, a high-level pandemic exercise, in New York, NY. The exercise illustrated areas where public/private partnerships will be necessary during the response to a severe pandemic in order to diminish large-scale economic and societal consequences." (more here) Their bottom line, don't destroy the economy when fighting a pandemic, the resulting damage is a lot worse and longer lasting than what the pandemic can do in an economy that continues to function. Save the economy to save the people.


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Despite falling behind in medals, U.S. officials upbeat
SOCHI – The U.S. team was one day away from history. After winning a medal on every day of the Winter Olympics, the streak ended Saturday on Day 14. Thanks to the men's hockey team, which played as if the Americans wanted to be anywhere else but in the bronze-medal game against Finland.
As the NHL and players' union debate future involvement in the Olympics, the 5-0 loss made a statement. With only a bronze medal at stake, were the American stars more concerned with rejoining their NHL teams instead of showing up at the Bolshoy Ice Dome?
"I'm kind of embarrassed where we're at now," U.S. defenseman Ryan Suter said.
Heading into the final day of competition, the U.S. team fell behind Russia in the medal race. With 27 medals, two fewer than the Russians, the Americans virtually have no shot at catching up in the overall count. They might even be passed by Norway, which has 26 medals.
With only three medal events left Sunday, the Russians are likely to get at least 30 to finish atop the medal count. After two runs in four-man bobsled, Russia's Alexander Zubkov held a slim lead over Latvia's top team heading into the final two runs. American Steven Holcomb and his four-man team was fourth after two runs, one-hundredth of a second behind the top sled from Germany.
On the positive side, the 27 medals is the most the U.S. team has won in a Winter Olympics held outside of North America. Still it is way below the mark set in Vancouver. Four years ago, the U.S. turned in its best performance in history with 37 medals, the most ever won by any nation at a single Winter Games.
The Americans went into Sochi not expecting a repeat of that medal haul.
"Vancouver was a once-in-a-lifetime performance by our team," USOC CEO Scott Blackmun told USA TODAY Sports last week. "While that's a good benchmark from an aspirational standpoint, it's not a realistic expectation every time we compete because it was just so special. It was like competing on home soil, our time zone, our culture, our food — it was that combined with the fact that our athletes had a lot of lifetime-best performances."
Even so, the U.S. team didn't expect such a dismal showing from its speedskating teams. In long track, the Americans were shut out of a medal for the first time since 1984 and one of the sport's all-time greats, Shani Davis, ended his Olympic career with disappointment, finishing 8th and 11th.
"We weren't the only national team that got smoked by the Netherlands," Blackmun said Saturday. The Dutch won 21 of 30 individual medals. Blackmun once again said it wasn't about the suits. Amid the struggles, skaters blamed their new Under Armour suits for the underwhelming performance. Truth is, most seemed to run out of gas in the home stretch, which raised questions about their conditioning.
As the governing body focused on the project with Under Armour and extolled its cutting edge technology, it failed to prepare for the conditions in Sochi. The team trained the entire year in conditions opposite from that in Sochi, which is below sea level on slow ice in humidity. The team trains in Salt Lake City on fast ice and then prepared for Sochi for by practicing at altitude on an outside track in Italy.
The governing body was in disarray for much of the last year and the former executive director resigned under pressure. Some insiders blamed the USOC for not stepping in soon enough as U.S. Speedskating reeled after the short track team dealt with issues beyond the ice. Amid a skate-tampering incident, the head coach was fired, and several athletes filed a grievance against the governing body and a lengthy arbitration process ensued.
In figure skating, the men and women had their worst finish since 1936. "Why we may not be winning as many medals in certain sports that we'd like to, we're doing extremely well," said Alan Ashley, the USOC's chief of high performance. "It's not as though we're doing worse, the whole level of competition across the world and the diversity across the board, is growing,"
Twelve of the USA's medals came from freestyle skiing and snowboarding, including six of nine gold medals.
Soon after the men's hockey loss to Finland on Saturday night, the party at USA House turned up a notch. The U.S. women's hockey team pushed back the couches and created a dance floor. Mikaela Shiffrin, who was just awarded her gold medal for women's slalom in the Olympic Park, joined in. As Whitney Houston's I Wanna Dance with Somebody played in the background, the athletes took to the floor. They cheered on the men's bobsled team, shown on the big screen, and the dancing only stopped when the group paused to cheer on Holcomb and his four-man team.
Heading into the Sochi, with all the concerns about security, preparation and politics, USOC officials went to great lengths to praise these much-maligned Games in their closing news conference on Saturday.
"They've done a phenomenal job," said USOC chairman Larry Probst, mentioning everything from smooth transportation to Vladimir Putin's presence throughout the previous 15 days. "(Putin) has really owned these Games," he said.
Amid #SochiProblems, big and small, the most expensive Games in history at $51 billion, the U.S. delegation will leave Russia with few complaints. "We are very, very impressed," CEO Scott Blackmun said.
In the weeks before Sochi, hockey player Julie Chu, the flagbearer for Sunday's closing ceremony, said she was asked about Russia's anti-gay laws more than any other topic. Chu said all the athletes felt welcomed. "It's been a nonfactor here," Chu said. "This has been an incredibly enjoyable experience."


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Groovy is a popular, open source, dynamic language residing on the Java Virtual Machine. Born in 2003, Groovy offers Java developers an almost-zero learning curve while gaining inspiration from Python, Ruby, and Smalltalk, according to its developers. Complementing it is the Grails open source Web application framework, which leverages Groovy.
InfoWorld Editor at Large Paul Krill recently spoke with Groovy project lead Guillaume Laforge and Grails project lead Graeme Rocher about what to expect in future versions.
[ Groovy is one of the top five JVM scripting languages. Learn about them all. | Subscribe to InfoWorld's Developer World and Enterprise Java newsletters. ]
InfoWorld: Why does Groovy exist?
Laforge: Initially, Groovy was created as a companion to Java, rather than as a replacement. The idea was to be able to simplify certain aspects of the Java language to make Java developers more productive.
InfoWorld: What are the main benefits of Groovy, and what differentiates Groovy from other languages, such as Ruby, Scala, Python, or Java itself?
Laforge: We wanted to complement Java by offering new features that were available from other languages, such as Ruby, Smalltalk, and Python. In terms of syntax and look and feel, it looks very much like Java. So it's very easy for Java developers to learn Groovy.
InfoWorld: What's the advantage of using Groovy instead of just using Java?
Laforge: You can make the code more expressive, for example, for defining your algorithms, whereas a language like Java is usually more verbal. So in terms of maintenance, because you spend more time reading your programs more than you spend writing them, it's even easier to read and maintain the code. And we bend the Java syntax to allow the creation of domain-specific languages. Because the syntax of Groovy is very flexible and you can write almost-plain-English sentences, business people are easily able to write business rules and domain concepts in a concise and very readable way.
InfoWorld: The latest version of Groovy was version 2.0, released in June. What are the principal improvements in it, and what improvements are planned for future versions and when might those arrive?
Laforge: There are essentially three big things in Groovy 2.0. Let's start with what I call the static theme. Groovy's nature is to be a dynamic language, but we also added new features, such as static type checking. We also built on that feature to do static compilation, which is about generating the same kind of bytecode as the Java C compiler. The net result is that you've got the same kind of type safety as you have with a language like Java, as well as the same speed as Java.
Typically, dynamic languages are slower than Java. But Groovy is very, very fast, thanks to those features, and they are safe to use for Java developers.
The second thing is around everything that happened in the Java language and in the Java development kits with Java 7 and JDK 7. [With] the syntax of Groovy being very close to Java, we added the same kind of syntax enhancements that were added to Java 7.
There's also another aspect related to the JDK and especially the Java Virtual Machine, which is the support of invokedynamic. Invokedynamic is a new bytecode instruction at the JVM level as well as a set of APIs, which have been created especially for the support of dynamic languages.
The last thing is about modularity: We made Groovy more modular.
InfoWorld: What improvements are going to be in Groovy in the future?
Laforge: In Groovy 2.1, we will be finishing work around invokedynamic support to completely use all the aspects of the invokedynamic bytecode instruction as well as the various APIs to further improve the performance of all the dynamic aspects of the language. We are also going to continue improving the support at the language level. It's going to be available in a couple of months or so, definitely before the end of the year.
InfoWorld: What is going to be in Groovy 3.0, and when would that be out?
Laforge: Groovy 3.0 will be released in probably about a year. We are going to rework the dynamic core of Groovy to completely review and rework the APIs, which are used for all the dynamic aspects of the language to further benefit from the invokedynamic support and to bring Groovy forward in the next phase. Also, we are bootstrapping Groovy by writing more of Groovy in Groovy.
InfoWorld: I was looking at a news article from about 2008 that raised the notion of Groovy overtaking Java on the Java Virtual Machine. Do you see that ever happening?
Laforge: Java will stay the dominant language on the JVM platform. That's my view, at least.
InfoWorld: What's the future for Grails?
Rocher: We are working on the 2.x chain of releases for Grails. At the end of last year, we released Grails 2, which is a pretty significant release, incorporating a new systems API. A couple months ago, we released 2.1, which adds integration with the Maven build tool. And then we're about to put out the release candidate for 2.2, in which you can embed different Grails applications within another application.
We're looking at Grails 3 into next year, which we're planning on moving to Gradle as the build system and implementing more advanced support for Web services to better support the creation of single-page Web applications
This story, "Groovy: The road map for the popular JVM language," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the latest developments in programming at InfoWorld.com. For the latest developments in business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.


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Abandon All Faith Ye Who Enter Here
Published by Shannon Frost Greenstein
Author, "These Are a Few of My Least Favorite Things" (Really Serious Literature) and "Pray for Us Sinners" (Alien Buddha Press.) Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize Nominee. Former Ph.D. candidate in Continental Philosophy. Cat-lady, mother, ally, writer, Nietzschean, retired ballerina, arachnophobic. View all posts by Shannon Frost Greenstein


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This medication is used to prevent certain types of chest pain (angina). It may allow you to exercise more and decrease the frequency of angina attacks. Nifedipine belongs to a class of medications known as calcium channel blockers. It works by relaxing blood vessels so blood can flow more easily. This medication must be taken regularly to be effective. It should not be used to treat attacks of chest pain when they occur. Use other medications (such as sublingual nitroglycerin) to relieve attacks of chest pain as directed by your doctor. Consult your doctor or pharmacist for details.
Older adults should discuss the risks and benefits of this medication with their doctor or pharmacist, as well as other possibly safer forms of nifedipine (such as the long-acting tablets).
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Avoid eating grapefruit or drinking grapefruit juice while taking this medication unless your doctor instructs you otherwise. Grapefruit can increase the amount of certain medications in your bloodstream. Consult your doctor or pharmacist for more details.
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Tell your doctor if your condition worsens (for example, your chest pain worsens or is more frequent).
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Agency proposes recovery plan for rare right whale
The National Marine Fisheries Service has proposed a recovery plan for the endangered North Pacific right whale that focuses on finding out more about the rare species.
Before whaling, the population of North Pacific right whales may have been as high as 20,000, but only about 30 North Pacific right whales remain in U.S. waters. They make up the eastern population of the species.
An estimated 900 animals are in the western population off the coasts of Russia, Japan, China and Vietnam.
The Center for Biological Diversity nearly a year ago announced its intention to sue the National Marine Fisheries Service if the agency didn't come up with a recovery plan, and the agency announced in April it would do so.
Center attorney Sarah Uhlemann said endangered species with a recovery plan have a better chance of making a comeback.
"Having blueprint and a roadmap is a very helpful thing," she said.
The whales are only rarely spotted feeding in summer in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea. Their winter range and calving areas are largely unknown.
Whalers gave them their name, finding them to be the "right whale" for harvesting. The whales were highly desired as prey because they are big and slow and because they're buoyant after they're killed. They have been listed as endangered since the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973.
Adults are 45 to 55 feet, with females at the upper end. Calves are 13 to 15 feet and weigh a ton at birth.
The proposed recovery plan lists multiple threats, starting with the small population. With 30 or fewer animals remaining, a North Pacific right whale lost to a ship strike would be a significant blow, according to the proposal.
Other threats listed include environmental contaminants, the possibility of reduced prey due to climate change, and industrial noise that could increase as sea-ice melt makes northern waters more accessible to commercial ship traffic and oil and gas development.
The plan notes the scarcity of population information on North Pacific right whales and said a primary component would be data collection to help understand the animals' distribution, range and trends.
The agency estimated the cost of recovery actions at $17.1 million.
Uhlemann said the National Marine Fisheries Service correctly notes that more information is needed about North Pacific right whales.
"Unfortunately the agency just sort of ended there in its recovery plan and didn't really address kind of what it plans to do to really deal with some of the threats that this species is facing," she said.
Agency spokeswoman Connie Barclay said the public can comment on the 73-page recovery proposal for 45 days. Adoption of a final recovery plan will depend on the public's feedback and peer review, she said.