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#dolphin, #savedolphins, #savewhales, #seaworld, #whale, animal protection, Book: The Earth Shifter, cat's eye on the future, darkness, Earth karma, Earth Shift System, higher density, higher dimension, karma, kindness, light, marine life, scale of human consciousness, sea world san diego, spirituality and enlightenment, Time Monk Radio, universal scale of consciousness, wholeness, wisdom
Earth Karma, Human Consciousness and Dolphins
This new article is a continuation of my earlier post about #dolphin and #whale tragedy and it is in response to the beautiful comment by reader Aeyrie, which is posted below. Thank you, Aeyrie!
Original post: Save #Dolphins and #Whales – Join #opKillingBay #opSeaWorld TweetStorm 12/19/14. Please go to this article to learn more and see how you can help. Please RT, FB, email, share and reblog it!
What you'll read below will make you think, and questions things; it will reveal who the dolphins really are and why they are here.
Unfortunately, Aeyrie is right about humans and certain dark forces at play. Human consciousness is largely under-evolved compared to so many species out there, dolphins and whales included. Presently there are so many beautiful beings from various worlds and dimensions that incarnate to help in raising human consciousness. The human earthly realm is sequestered and humans have to stay close to the confines of our planet, bound by Earth's gravity and heavy Karma. Human cruelty and violence worries many in the Universe.
However, Aeyrie, I am afraid the dark forces you talk about aren't of any mysterious origin. Sadly, very sadly, all this cruelty and unconscious behavior is purely human. Are there dark forces out there? Of course. Dark energy exists in the universe alongside the energy of light, and it serves its own purpose – balance. Like everything, it's just a tool. It's up to us to use it for good or evil. Misused, it becomes a hindrance to consciousness development, manifestation, and to life itself.
You can only let the dark energy uninvited into your heart and soul, you can only become susceptible to excessive darkness if you allow the darkness within you to become a dominant force – if you become a slave to your lowly emotions and desires. In my Earth Shift System I call it 'low calibration.'
If you allow your soul to be corrupted; if you succumb to fear, greed, shame, guilt; if you live your life unconsciously; in other words, if you calibrate below 200 – then you provide an opening for further corruption of your soul, heart and spirit. We, each of us – are masters of our own destiny. I highly recommend that all my readers check out my 2-part video about Calibrations of Human Consciousness:
- ProjectEarthShift 2: Universal Scale of Consciousness (life-affirming/ life-creating calibrations 200-1000)
- ProjectEarthShift 1:Universal Scale of Consciousness (life-diminishing calibrations 0-199)
It doesn't matter whether this corruption originates from an otherworldly dark entity or from your brother. The point is, corruption will lead to further corruption. On the other hand, personal responsibility, knowledge, truth and wisdom will lead to wholeness (as in: there will be no openings for the dark forces to enter your body, mind and spirit). Wholeness will lead to higher calibration. That will lead you to conscious and enlightened way of life that in turn will rebalance your personal Karma, help lighten up the Earth Karma and will show others the way. In turn, as Earth Karma lightens up, Earth will be able to make a leap into the better future and into the higher density (higher dimension). I talk about that in my mystical thriller THE EARTH SHIFTER.
As I mentioned, I'll be talking about all these very important and interesting topics in my upcoming interview with the Cat's Eye On the Future show on the Time Monk Radio. Links to the show will be posted around Tuesday, 12/9/14 on both blogs.
Aeyrie is also right about the fact that despite all this unbelievable cruelty, and sometimes deliberate harm from humans, dolphins still love us and still try to help us every chance they get. I talked about that in my previous article: Save Our Dolphins! Help Stop Mass Dolphin Slaughter in Japan!
Please read this article about the annual #Taiji, Japan, dolphin tragedy. In it you will find a number of eyewitness videos, heart-breaking stories and many, many useful links and suggestions on how to help change this terrible situation.
In the upcoming interview I'll speak about the heavy Earth Karma and the need to lighten and reverse it. Compassion, kindness, love and conscious living will do this best. Not only that, I like to think that they are contagious. Yes, each and every one of us is personally responsible for our entire planet. More in the upcoming Cat's Eye on the Future show. Stay tuned!
Also, in the comment section of the original post's reblog on FuturisTrendcast you'll find an interesting comment by Patricia Ormsby, who lives in Japan and knows Japanese society first hand: link.
Lada, Sea World San Diego was built in my home town when I was still a young child. When it opened I begged my father to take me there to see the beings I knew even then were my cousins, the Cetaceans. I was a very aware and telepathically gifted child. When I saw via the mental images they conveyed to me some of what Sea World was doing to them, ie: insisting they learn to do demeaning tricks on schedule several times a day, heinously experimenting on them, stealing their children away, forcing them to live in tiny concrete pools they barely had room to swim around in when they were not on show, alone, like a trout in a goldfish bowl, I was horrified.
The facilities of Sea World San Diego, Lada, are located on the edge of Mission Bay. The cruelest cut of all to our dear Cetacean cousins imprisoned there is that the ocean is within their sight. Every single day of their miserable lives they are, literally, within feet of precious freedom and a reunion with their families. Dolphin and Whale kind are smarter than we. How would any of us feel about being so cruelly taunted every day of our existences? When I saw this it so sickened my Heart and grieved my Soul that I never asked to be taken to Sea World again.
Later, as an adult, the first past life I contacted was one in which I was living the life of a Dolphin. I had a family and I was very happy. I loved my sleek and powerful body! The first memory I contacted in that lifetime was the day my wife and baby were threatened by a shark. In a split-second I had the odds calculated and could see what was about to happen. Sleek and powerful as I was I was helpless to change the outcome. They both died in front of my eyes when my wife, who was closest to our baby, turned and furiously attacked the shark. Our whole community was as deeply grieved as I. We did our best to console each other for our mutual loss, and after a time life went on.
Since then I have learned how to call my cousins and speak with them telepathically and I communicate with them regularly. I can tell you with absolute personal certainty that they are fully sentient. They love their homes, families and friends as much as we do. More, actually, because they natively possess a greater degree of consciousness than we currently do. The full spectrum of their awareness is orders of magnitude greater than ours. Collectively, humankind is just beginning the journey back to the level of awareness we once possessed. What we have done to them notwithstanding, they love us very much. Being the Loving Beings they are they continue to help us return to that higher awareness, and go beyond it.
I see that Sea World makes a minimal effort to educate, and while that is commendable, the fact remains that the awesomely sentient Beings they are holding in their facilities do not volunteer for that. They are captured and held as prisoners, treated abominably, driven insane and often brutally killed. All in the name of profit. Miraculously, they are still willing to help us!! They are showing us a beautiful example of the power of Unconditional Love, yes? I, for one, am so grateful.
I suggest that there may be an even darker motive at work here on the part of Sea World and other "scientific", Navy, fishing and whaling operations. The members of the Cetacean race are so much more than beautiful sea creatures. As briefly described above they are an advanced race who has come here to help us and our beautiful Mother Gaia with attaining and holding higher consciousnesses in the higher densities. They (along with others) are here to help us rejoin our Cosmic Family after our very long domination and exile. That is their mission; that is our mutual destiny. The Cetaceans swim in the Akash. The are Higher Beings who are living repositories of Cosmic, planetary and human wisdom. Yet, they are being methodically captured and destroyed by these corporations! Do you think, as I do, that there might be an underlying, sinister agenda and method to this madness?
We must stop this abomination ASAP. We owe it to them. It is for the greater good of Mother Earth, Human kind, all of Gaia's other children, and our sister and brother beings throughout the Cosmos. What we do to one we do to all. We are ONE.


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As with any dispute, there are always two sides to every story.
And as "Ultimate Chaos" victor Javier Vazquez today told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio) such was the case with this past Friday's weigh-in fiasco in Biloxi, Miss., which ultimately cost Din Thomas a chance to fight – and took money from Vazquez's pocket.
"I never went up to the commission," Vazquez said. "I never bitched and complained. I never said anything. It wasn't my job to do that. That's the commission's job to do that."
Thomas, who began rehydrating immediately after weighing-in at 146.6 pounds for the featherweight contest, on Monday told MMAjunkie.com Radio that Vazquez was the one insisting the extra weight be shed despite a reported pass from the Mississippi State Athletic Commission. Vazquez said he was asked a simple question, to which he replied as he would in any other situation.
"We weighed in, and Din was about half-pound over," Vazquez said. "I never said anything. I figured since he was over he was going to have to cut anyways. It's not my job to say, 'Go cut.'
"Someone from the show came up to me and goes, 'Hey, he's a half-of-a-pound over; do you want him to cut?' I'm like, 'Yeah, I want him to cut.' That's as far as I went."
Vazquez, who said he was approached no more than "one minute, two minutes tops after I walked off the stage," said he had no idea Thomas had already started rehydrating.
"I wasn't worrying about him rehydrating," Vazquez said. "I was worried about me rehydrating. I'm not looking over my shoulder to see what he's doing.
"My job is to make weight, get rehydrated, and that's it. Everything else should be on the commission. I'm not going to be running up there and start bitching and complaining. That's not what I did."
Thomas said he received verbal approval from the commission to begin his rehydration process, but Vazquez said he wasn't aware any sort of edict was issued.
Later that night, with Thomas unable to shed weight safely and the bout in jeopardy, Vazquez said he was approached about taking the fight despite his opponent's miscue. Vazquez said he asked for 20 percent of his opponent's purse, which he insisted is fairly standard practice in the industry.
"It's standard – and whether it's written or not, I've been in this business for over 10 years – if you don't make weight, your opponent gets some part of your purse," Vazquez said.
An 11-year veteran, Vazquez said he believes Thomas turned down the fight based on something other than his frustration at a 20 percent fine.
"I personally think he knew he was going to lose that fight," Vazquez said. "He felt like crap, and he saw that the weight cut wasn't an issue for me. He knew he was going to have a very tough fight, so he said, 'Screw it, I'll regroup and we'll try to make the fight later.' But for him to be blaming it on me I think is a bunch of crap because it wasn't my fault.
"I'm not the one that showed up over weight. I'm not the one that missed weight. Everything I did was what I was supposed to do. I showed up on time, on weight and ready to fight. That's not my problem. The one that screwed that up was him. Do I blame the commission? Yeah, I blame the commission because they're a bunch of idiots. But I also blame him."
Vazquez defeated last-second replacement Mark Kergosien in just 19 seconds, but the change in opponent also resulted in a significant reduction in "Showtime's" win bonus. And while Vazquez believes the commission dropped the ball, he believes Thomas was ultimately to blame.
"One thing that I agree with Din about was that commission was a complete disaster," Vazquez said. "The other part of the blame I do blame on Din because he knows the weight we had to make and where he was supposed to be at. He should have known better.
"He's been doing this a long time; he knows he has to make weight. As a matter of fact, I didn't even know we were getting a pound. I was asking for weeks and weeks and weeks. Just to be on the safe side, I was at 145 pounds."
An unfortunate situation all the way around, the bumbled weigh-ins at "Ultimate Chaos" have created an unlikely rivalry – one that Vazquez says may be revisited very quickly.
"I'm definitely interested (in a rematch)," Vazquez said. "We're kind of working on maybe trying to put that together, shortly, so long as he can make weight. I don't think he can make the weight and be healthy. But it's not my problem. He's only going to hurt himself.
"[Thomas] is an amazing fighter, but he won't be able to last. That's up to him. If he wants to take the chance of fighting me again, he knows he's going to be in for a war. He knows I'm not afraid of him, and he knows he's probably going to lose.
"Probably sooner, rather than later, but we're just finishing up some logistics on a couple of things. You might be able to see that fight sooner than you guys think."
(Pictured: Din Thomas and Javier Vazquez courtesy of CombatLifestyle.com)
MMAjunkie.com Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at noon EST (9 a.m. PST) live from the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino's Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by Gorgeous George, MMAjunkie.com lead staff reporter John Morgan and producer Goze. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.


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10.26.08Gemini version available ♊
Microsoft Q1 2009: The Things Microsoft Does Not Tell About Its Continued Decline
And GNU/Linux is partly responsible for it
WHEN Microsoft unleashed its previous financial report, we provided evidence to show that decline was muchly inevitable. A lot of what we put forth back then still applies. Since then, we have presented past allegations of financial fraud at Microsoft. These allegations came from the very inside, indicating or at least suggesting that for quite some time Microsoft had been playing the infamous 'bucket game' to improve perceptions around its financial results and overall health. Novell may be the same thing, but that's another story.
At the moment, Microsoft may be heading towards debt, which its board of directors has already approved. In the mean time, in order to keep up appearances, Microsoft turns its savings into acquisitions, i.e. revenue through artificial growth. This is a very important observation which is worthy of special attention, so again:
Microsoft converts its cash reserves into revenue and income, but this is not sustainable because Microsoft's bottom line is declining.
With that in mind, let us start today's assessment of Microsoft's financial results, which it published on Thursday. We rely on external sources that we reference, so accusations of inaccuracy — if any — should not necessarily be directed at us.
Bad Forecast
Microsoft cut its forecast last week. The stock sank as a result, but some people quickly forgot all about it due to the important report which came shortly afterwards.
Microsoft had already lowered its forecasts in previous quarters in order to meet or to beat them. This is another important point which is missed by many reporters. Microsoft adjusts and readjusts its goals based on its prospective ability to satisfy the market, so it always gets to say that it beat expectations and its public image benefits from this.
Here is some articles about the latest forecast being altered:
- The Australian: Microsoft lowers full-year outlook
- Associated Press/Forbes: Microsoft issues weak outlook for current quarter
- MarketWatch: Microsoft, Juniper shares lose steam after outlooks
- Reuters: Microsoft seen lowering outlook as economy weighs
The Microsoft-focused Ivy Lessner, who is almost always bullish when it comes to this company, was not impressed. Who could possibly describe such a thing as good news? There are some answers to this question in the IRC logs.
Microsoft Cuts Outlook, Wary of Economy
The company's lower financial outlook on Thursday is assuming a mild-to-deeper recessionary environment, CFO Chris Liddell said on the company's fiscal first-quarter earnings conference call.
It is rather amusing that only a day later, Microsoft and its more obedient press pretended that Microsoft was not (or was hardly) affected by the economical climate. How quickly they forgot.
Joe Wilcox, who is biased in Microsoft's favour, summarised it thusly:
Microsoft started off fiscal 2009 with solid quarterly earnings. But the future doesn't look as bright.
Market Watch had a similar take:
Microsoft shares gyrate after mixed report
Software giant beats estimates, but trims forecast for current period
This still misses some of the facts which a divisional break-down would expose. Not everyone could be easily deceived and not everybody was impressed. Here is a portion of an article from IDG:
Microsoft Corp.'s Client revenue, which virtually all comes from sales of Windows Vista, grew just 2% year over year to $4.22 billion in its first quarter of 2009.
"That fell pretty far short of Microsoft's expectations," said Matt Rosoff, an analyst at independent research firm Directions on Microsoft. "That's always a worry, since it's the core of the company's business."
Shelved away are some interesting figures suggesting a significant change in operating system sales. It is down 1% in terms of revenue as customers adopt non-Premium (i.e. not Ultimate and Business) versions of Windows Vista. There are actually other reasons for this and shall come to this in the moment. It's to do with Windows XP.
Erosion of Savings and Budget Cuts
As stated at the beginning, Microsoft's cash piles grow thinner, but let's look a little more closely at some numbers in order to explain what is happening.
For starters, as stated in TGDaily, Microsoft's market value has sunk like a rock since the beginning of the year. It's already below $200 billion.
Microsoft market cap drops below $200 billion
Tech stocks was hit once again hard during a rough trading session that shaved 514.45 points from the Dow and 80.93 points from the Nasdaq index. A quick look at stock values revealed a few winners and losers so far this month.
On the winning side are Motorola, Ebay, Apple, Cisco, Google, Novell and Oracle, all of which were able to either keep their stock values stable or even showed a slight increase during this shaky month.
The value of the company (including assets) is one thing, but another is bank balance. As reported and shown by Venture Beat, Microsoft's cash is being thrown away, partly due to its relentless attempts to grow revenue.
Buried in the first quarter earnings report from Microsoft is an astounding fact. For the first time that I can remember, Microsoft closed the quarter with less cash than Apple. Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments for Microsoft add up to $20.7 billion. Apple, meanwhile, closed the quarter with $24.5 billion.
For visual evidence, see the chart here.
As Microsoft's bank balance approach zero (heavy buybacks still in progress), there are budget cuts too. This new one is measured at half a billion dollars:
The unexpected news in today's Microsoft's earnings conference call? The company's statement that it would cut up to $500 million from its budget this year.
An anonymous Microsoft employee, along with many of the responses in his blog (mostly Microsoft employees), indicates that prospects do not seem rosy even to those who view it from the inside where optimism and morale are pervaded.
So, if your team had to get by with 10% less budget, how do you think it would be best addressed?
IDG published the article "Microsoft CFO outlines plan to weather economic crisis." Microsoft is aware of the fact that it is by no means immune to anything.
To lure and retain customers who are looking "to do more with less" in the challenging economy, Liddell said Microsoft will focus on providing "high-value products at a low total ownership cost as a competitive advantage."
GNU/Linux Harms Microsoft's Profits
The decline in Windows revenue was mentioned earlier and it echoes a similar trend which was spotted and reported back in April of this year. The reason for that, according to many sources, is the sudden rise of sub-notebooks, many of which (estimated at 40% or higher) run GNU/Linux. Here are some articles or posts about it:
1. Microsoft sales tumble from quarterly high
Netbooks running Windows mean growth but relatively low income as they do not run money spinning versions of Windows, like Windows Vista Premium Edition. Microsoft said it was too early to say how much netbooks are cannibalizing traditional sales.
2. Linux Netbooks Impact Microsoft Sales
Now, for the twist: It's no secret that multiple Linux distributions — particularly Canonical's Ubuntu and Novell's SUSE Linux, among others — have gained major momentum on Netbooks. In response, Microsoft has had to cut its Windows OEM prices to make sure Windows is a major force in the Netbook market.
The VAR Guy predicted in July that Netbooks running Linux would proliferate the market. It's already happening.
How much does Microsoft charge Netbook makers for Windows? Alas, The VAR Guy must concede that he doesn't know for sure. But clearly, given Microsoft's latest financial statements, the move to new hardware form factors coupled with open source is causing the software giant some pain.
3. Microsoft: Client Revs Whiff; Blame The Rise of Netbooks; Reduced Guidance Reflects Anticipated Recession
The company notes that growth in the client division was four points short of guidance.
4. Netbooks Slam Shut On Vista Sales
Revenue from Microsoft's key Windows franchise grew just 2% in the most recent quarter as more PC buyers opted for smaller, more nimble, netbook-style devices that don't need a fat OS like Vista. Does Redmond have an answer for this trend?
Redmond's problem: An increasing number of computer buyers, mostly in high-growth, price-sensitive emerging markets, are realizing that they can get by with so-called netbooks for most of their online requirements. It's a fact that's leaving Windows Vista out in the cold in some of the world's fastest growing tech markets.
Netbooks, from offshore manufacturers such as Taiwan's Asus, typically lack the horsepower to run the big and bulky Vista. But they're fully capable of performing routine computing tasks such as e-mailing, Web surfing, and instant messaging. Many models feature the free Linux OS.
5. Microsoft: NetBooks Affecting Windows Revenue
Matt Rosoff, an analyst with Kirkland, Wash.-based research firm Directions On Microsoft, said one area of concern for Microsoft is the falling percentage of premium priced versions of Windows versus non-premium versions, which could be the result of more people buying NetBooks.
In order to fend off GNU/Linux, Microsoft brought back XP and it 'sells' Windows for mere pittance. Fortunately, there is no free lunch and dumping proves costly.
Miserable and predatory pricing is all that remains, just as Glyn Moody predicted.
Web Failures
The Web division performed abysmally also. Examples of this can be found in:
1. Microsoft 2.0 feels data center pinch
All that spending, though, has meant losses and increased costs associated with any revenue that it does earn. Losses more than doubled suddenly in the summer's fourth quarter while revenue has fallen each quarter since January.
The problem for the Seattle-based group is that it is approaching a crossroads. For decades, it has sold PC users, both professional and consumer, a full suite of products. Yet the future is à la carte. Instead of buying a software licence for everything that might conceivably be needed, customers will pick and choose – a slice of word processing please but hold the PowerPoint. Software will increasingly be offered as a (low-margin) service, run from the internet and piped into the building as necessary.
3. When will Microsoft regain its identity?
And given its laughable search market share and its inability to make any headway in the advertising market, I think it's safe to say that Microsoft committed a major blunder.
And now, it's happening all over again.
4. Earnings: Microsoft's Profits and Revs Up; Online Losses Increase
Earnings: Microsoft's Profits and Revs Up; Online Losses Increase
Division wide: in its Entertainment and Devices Division (EDD), which includes XBox and Zune, revenues came in at $1.81 billion, down from $1.93 billion in the year-ago quarter. Operating income for the division was $178 million, up from $167 million in the year ago quarter. In its Online Services Business (OSB) unit, which includes MSN and other online advertising services, revenues came in at $770 million, up from $671 million in the year ago quarter. Operating losses for the division widened significantly, to $480 million, from $267 million in the year ago quarter.
We recently mentioned parts of Microsoft's Web division getting shut down.
Not So Entertaining Anymore
Microsoft's other divisions did not receive much love either. Such as the case with products like Zune and XBox 360, which suffered further decline. By the numbers:
1. Microsoft Revenues Down at Xbox/Zune Division
Xbox 360 and PC game revenue decreased by 22%, which the company attributed in part to the absence of a blockbuster like last year's "Halo 3."
2. Microsoft's Q1 was not particularly riveting
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) had, if you'll pardon the pun, a soft first quarter. The data just didn't do anything for me. The software giant, which competes with Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and IBM (NYSE: IBM), reported after the close of the regular session on Thursday. The stock was down slightly in the after-hours session, which seemed reasonable enough to me.
Sales for Xbox 360 declined 6%. Microsoft has to get the word out that the Xbox 360 is the console to own. The gaming device is a key growth area for the company.
The National Post published "Tough times ahead for Microsoft, analysts predict." Here is a portion from it.
Like most technology companies, Microsoft Corp. has seen its fortunes dwindle over the past year. Through a failed acquisition of beleaguered search operator Yahoo! Inc. to the bad public relations image it has tried to shake off through a much-ballyhooed advertising campaign with Jerry Seinfeld, Microsoft's stock has dropped almost 30% over the past year, including a 7.8% plunge during Wednesday's trading session on the Nasdaq index to US$21.53.
Even the Microsoft enthusiasts over at Motley Fool were rather disappointed
Yes, the days of fat feasts at Mr. Softy are over. Last night's fiscal first-quarter results for the world's biggest software company confirm it.
At risk of seeming repetitive, it ought to be stressed that whenever Microsoft releases figures, it is important to look more closely at the sobering figures for oneself. This rule applies to almost any company and every press release or conference.
A lot of journalists are lazy or biased (or both), so they merely echo Microsoft's claims, which shrewdly obscure all the weak(er) points. Also important to realise is the fact that Microsoft is losing money based on its bank balance, but it's buying assets that continue to give an illusion of growth. Despite acquisition, Microsoft value as a company continues to drop pretty fast. █
"There is such an overvaluation of technology stocks that it is absurd. I would include our stock in that category. It is bad for the long-term worth of the economy."
–Steve Ballmer


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Read the Bible, discover plans, and seek God every day.
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[Who's Your One? Series] Heaven or Hell
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The World - In It But Not Of It
Jesus: Your Soul's Sole Passion
Jesus, Our Risen Savior: An Easter Family Devotional
Bricklayers 7
Conquer Your Deliverance: Live in Total Freedom
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Biblical Success - Running Our Race - the "D" Vine Strategy
I Believe in God, but I Trust in Science, Not the Supernatural
My Jesus by Anne Wilson
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The rapacious appetite of the food media requires they declare new trends and jettison old ones every other month — remember the banh mi rage? Fried chicken's fifteen minutes of fame? Hamburger mania? Up, down, in and out. So, this being year's end, predictions for next year's food trends are being proposed with dispatch.
The James Beard Foundation insists the following are going to be big: locavorism, redefined ("rescue heirlooms from obscurity or extinction"); doughnuts; Thai food; the new Nordic pantry, where "buckthorn and wood sorrel will appear at more American restaurants" (sure, right); and others. The Food Channel's predictions for 2012 include the growing popularity of black market foods, whatever they may be; shopping schizophrenia (?); better college food; "Groovin' On Peruvian"; and the rise of the YouTube chef.
Somehow I'm not convinced any of this is going to sweep American gastronomy, although college food programs are improving. Here are some of the things I think you'll be seeing in 2012, and a few things that will not:
• At best, the economy won't completely tank, but it will be sluggish enough to keep restaurants sales flat, with more people dining out far less often and spending a lot less money. Instead of ordering "little plates," people will order one big plate and share.
• Expense accounts will be cut way back so that few businessmen and women will be popping for wines over $100 a bottle. The opening of new steakhouses will slow way down, and expect the closing of some famous-name restaurants in Las Vegas.
• The extravagance and elitism of modernist/molecular/progressive cuisine will stop the already tiresome, wheezing movement in its tracks. No one is going to be opening a place serving thirty-course, $200 meals made out of thin air and chemically-induced aromas.
• Except maybe in Chicago, the overbuilt gastropub scene will die down as people realize it now costs just as much to eat rabbit rillettes from a jar, a pork chop, and two bottles of artisanal beer as to go to a high-end steakhouse and order the porterhouse for two.
• While pizzas will appear on 99 percent of all American menus in 2012, the craze for creative toppings like truffle oil, sushi, buckhorn, and wood sorrel will cease.
• Peruvian food has no chance of becoming a trend for the simple reason that beyond ceviches — already ubiquitous — there's not a helluva lot more to Peruvian cuisine.
• The hot new food of 2012 will be Asian dumplings. Bank on it.
• The retro cocktail of 2012 will be the Old Fashioned.
• Better, cheaper French country wines will be imported, while inferior, more expensive Spanish and South American wines will try to flood the market. The term "California Cult Wine," referring to boutique estates charging outrageous prices for high alcohol fruit bombs will fade from the media, just as the wines themselves go unsold.
• Wine guru Robert Parker will wake up one day with total amnesia and a vague sense that he was once a rodeo rider.
• The most hyped cookbook of 2012 will weigh 275 pounds, be bound in wood sorrel leaves on paper recycled from tofu, and be titled Lutefisk and Reindeer: The New Cuisine of Today's Latvia. Caroline Kennedy will publish a bestseller titled Recipes My Mother Would Have Made If She Ever Set Foot in the Kitchen.
• No one in his right mind will open an Italian restaurant charging $26 for a plate of pasta.
• The Michelin Guide, whose tire-company owners are making major sales inroads in Japan, will declare 392 new three-star restaurants in Osaka "worth a journey" in your car.
• Hollywood will make a movie from Frank Bruni's novel Born Round, starring Jonah Hill. Ruth Reichl will be played by Bernadette Peters.
• PETA will go on a full-scale campaign to get the country of Turkey to change its name to Eggplant.
PLUS: More John Mariani on Esquire's Eat Like a Man Blog and John Mariani's Official Site


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Mohr and more writing
Congratulations to San Francisco's Joshua Mohr, whose debut novel "Some Things That Meant the World To Me" has been sold as part of a two-book deal, according to Publisher's Marketplace. Mohr teaches a writing course at the local The Writing Salon and has had several short stories in litmags. But as far as I can tell from Google, he has neither a website nor a blog. So he actually might write a second book some day!
In Marin, the literary scene in remote but picturesque Point Reyes Station [map] was the subject of a long article in the Marin Independent Journal on Sunday. The piece draws attention to the visits by nationally known authors and political figures, as well as a recent three-day Stegner conference.
And the folks at Stephen Elliott's Progressive Reading Series are excited about the upcoming August 16 show to be headlined by Jonathan Franzen.


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The problem with having an experienced Due Diligence lawyer figuring out what is really going on in an industry is we do tend to blow through ordinary barriers. It is just reflex to figure out who really owns what and where the funding is coming from and who else is connected. Which may make me a pain sometimes in casual conversation but it was darn useful to clients. Now since I have chosen to use writing to explain the connections and why they matter in education and how it relates to planned social, political, and economic transformations globally, let's get going again. Because with this story, the real question becomes who isn't affected, not who is.
A book that is probably not on your radar screen that should be came out in 2009 in the UK and 2010 in the US. Called The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger it lays out a vision to "inspire us to create a better society." It argues that the developed rich countries have "material success and social failure" and that "the broken society and broken economy resulted from the growth of inequality." Now I would argue that what has broken the rich countries is too much government intervention, like in the mortgage markets, that creates perverse incentives and loads of unintended consequences.
We have discussed before that many economists like Joseph Schumpeter realized that if you keep blaming the ill effects of interventionism on capitalism instead of the reality of cronyism coupled to government coercion, you will steadily get socialism quietly and invisibly. That is precisely what appears to be happening and The Spirit Level is intended to be a key component in creating the desired mindsets and political will for change. Blind, ignorant, but effective change.
Because of its thesis on what is broken and why, the book wants to "shift attention from material standards and economic growth to ways of improving the psychological and social wellbeing of whole societies." Now that dovetails perfectly with both the UN and OECD's current global emphasis even though the authors do not say so. As we will see though the dovetailing does have a lot to do with who gets published and why these days and who gets a fat nonfiction advance. And with the merger of Penguin and Random House as of July 1, 2013 that will become even more true. That one entity controls fully a quarter of the world book publishing business and the two previous competitors were frequently the sole bidders on major nonfiction.
Now Penguin is wholly-owned by the largest ed company in the world, Pearson PLC, which is a lot of influence in virtually every area of the information that gets out. If you remember, Pearson's Chief Ed Advisor is Sir Michael "Irreversible Change" Barber who thought Global Citizenship would make a nice substitute ideology to guide daily behavior since, he said basically, the Christian religion was no longer compelling and Marx had a bad rep in the 90s. He has his own tag detailing some of these pushes and his links via public meetings to Irina Bokova, head of UNESCO, who currently wants to use Media Education, including digital learning, to drive the planet to Marxist Humanism in the 21st century. Yes, she has said so. See those tags as well. Does she have any connections then to media? Yes, I would say so especially as German media conglomerate Bertelsmann controls 53% of the new publishing company to Penguin's 47%.
If we quit thinking of socialism and the rest of Uncle Karl's visions as being about the Kremlin or Mao and begin thinking of it as government led control by connected insiders of the economy and everyone else, what is really going on makes a whole lot more sense. Accurate perception also means we can strategize over both effective defense and offense in the coming years. At the end of the Spirit Level book, the authors remark that "creating the political will to make society more equal is more important than pinning our colours to a particular set of policies to reduce inequality. Political will is dependent on the development of a vision of a better society which is both achievable and inspiring."
Now creating such political will and vision is Oh So Much easier if the largest ed company in the world owns Penguin which can simply publish such a book and many more. Then that ed company can have its employees write reports and Forewords like this one just released http://www.nesta.org.uk/library/documents/Alive_in_the_Swamp.pdf that push to have digital learning "irresistably engage" students. Software and gaming and assessments "personalized with the goal of unlocking the passion of the learner." We have discussed before that digital learning can provide expert systems that teach but that is NOT the vision of digital learning actually being pushed. This is to be about behavioral change and the role of the teacher is to be a change agent "trained to focus on the personal experience of the individual student and to help uncover values and motivations." Which again is darn useful since everyone involved about two levels up from the classroom, if not less, is intent on using education to obtain that political will and impose that social vision and create new values.
So the development of modern technology according to the book "will help us rein in consumerism and ease the introduction of policies to tackle global warming." It believes "profit-making institutions" will "appear increasingly anti-social" which is highly likely given such media control over education and what gets published as nonfiction in the future. Who needs censorship when so few control so much of what will make it to most human minds as available information? We will likely get more of http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/resources/park-avenue-how-much-inequality-too-much types of documentaries. Notice that just came out too and is classified as an educational material. Also notice Equality Trust is preparing curriculum materials for 16-19 year olds and has a June 17, 2013 blog post explaining that we all have a flawed understanding of liberty.
The graduate student writer seems to have the life comprehension skills of someone who has always been supported by someone else as as he wants to define "liberty as the absence of relations of domination and dependence between persons" so "equality and liberty are not in conflict, but are in fact compatible and self-reinforcing concepts." Honestly, if the government and connected insiders are in charge of making equality for all a fact as they are under all these visions, there will be a whole lot of domination and dependence and it will be hard to escape from. All in the Gutter Together with no ladder up or out. We will be back in the kind of status society referred to previously as feudalism. And we are not being assigned to the Castle with Moat class either. Someone has spent too much time in poli sci and cultural studies classes or reading the Howard Zinn view of history.
The authors are now turning The Spirit Level into a documentary for a planned release in Summer 2014 which will give emotionally compelling visuals for students going into US midterm elections. http://thespiritleveldocumentary.com/blog . The Foreword of the US version of the book was written by former Clinton Secretary of Labor Robert Reich and the co-sponsor of that Nesta Digital Learning Innovations report is the hugely influential and connected California-based New Schools Venture Fund in case anyone thinks this is only a UK invisible coup. I explained the Marxist Humanist theory of changing attitudes and values here http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/naming-educators-as-the-levers-shifting-the-human-personality-to-marxs-moral-revolution/ and that post fits with what is being explained in this post as well.
The Spirit Level ends with this rephrasing of Uncle Karl's vision, still being sought so many years later:
"To sustain the necessary political will, we must remember that it falls to our generation to make one of the biggest transformations in human history. We have seen the rich countries have got to the end of the really important contributions which economic growth can make to the quality of life [they have gone through the requisite technology stage to supposedly make redistribution possible believed Uncle Karl] and also that our future lies in improving the quality of the social environment in our societies.[me again, that's why there is so much emphasis in ed reform on the common good and community] The role of this book is to point out that greater equality is the material foundation on which better social relations are built."
That certainly is the role of that book and isn't it helpful Pearson is in a position to publish that book and use digital learning and its role as provider of so much of the curriculum and so many of the assessments to be used with the Common Core and for Texas' STAAR? In a unique global position to prepare tasks and projects and questions that push that vision and create that political will? That it has a foundation pushing Global Learning in the US with the Asia Society mostly out of sight?
And is there any question whose vision we are about to use education to experiment as to whether better social relations can be built if nobody knows much and education becomes about engaging the passions through activity and visual stimulation?
Should we start a pool on how these transformations are really likely to turn out?


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Top Items:
Erica Sadun / The Unofficial Apple Weblog:
Apple Geniuses are reportedly unbricking iPhones — Apple continues posting warning signs around their stores, cautioning customers that unlocked and modded iPhones fall outside their warranty. And at the same time, Apple Geniuses around the country quietly are reportedly accepting bricked iphones …
John Biggs / CrunchGear: iPhone update 1.1.1: the aftermath
Bryan Gardiner / Epicenter: Apple Store Geniuses Replacing iBricks?
Ian Betteridge / Technovia: Irreparable damage... to software?
Rob Beschizza / Gadget Lab: How To Unbrick an iPhone: Let Apple Do It For You
Carl Howe / Blackfriars' Marketing: Apple and gray market enterpreneurs compete for iPhone customers
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Apple has a PR nightmare brewing... Tons of people on Twitter are reporting problems with their iPhones. Including my son. Including Jeff Clavier. Anyone else having this problem? These are people who have not unlocked their iPhones. I'm about to update mine and will report what happens.
Discussion: Hardware 2.0, Guardian Unlimited, Drew B's take on tech PR, Gizmodo, InfoWorld, Infinite Loop and MacRumors iPhone Blog
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / Hardware 2.0: iBricks will be a PR nightmare for Apple
Jack Schofield / Guardian Unlimited: Apple bricks some hacked iPhones
Robert McMillan / InfoWorld: New update breaks hacked iPhones
David Chartier / Infinite Loop: What does and doesn't work with iPhone 1.1.1 (Updated 9x …
Saul Hansell / Bits:
Steve Jobs Girds for the Long iPhone War — This afternoon, Apple did release the update. And the gadget blogs confirm that it does indeed wreak havoc on modified iPhones. Some phones have indeed been "bricked." In others, unofficial applications have been disabled.
Karl Long / WebProNews: Apple Battles Customers
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0: iPhone Update: The Good News
Jason Chen / Gizmodo: IPhone: iPhoneSIMFree Claims Their Unlock Doesn't Send iPhones to Activation Limbo
Warner Crocker / GottaBeMobile.com: ThoughtFix and Nokia Unlocked
Peter / Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check: Steve Jobs Girds for the Long iPhone War - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog
Ilya Kochanov / CrunchGear: Update Bricks Hacked iPhones, Kills Kittens
Melissa Perenson / Today @ PC World: New iPhone Firmware Out, Hacked iPhones Being Disabled?
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Apple's growth, an unwinnable iPhone war and a reputation at risk — Apple is clearly in a war with hackers over the iPhone and its most loyal fans could take a few hits. How Apple performs through these battles will determine the company's overall reputation going forward.
Discussion: MacDailyNews and Bits
Jonathan Seff / iPhone Central:
Bricking my iPhone — I guess Apple was telling the truth.
Bricking my iPhone — I guess Apple was telling the truth.
Quincy Pince-Nez / 9 to 5 Mac: You've Bricked your Hacked iPhone and Want to Start Over?
Luigi Lugmayr / I4U News: Apple iPhone Firmware 1.1.1 locks unlocked iPhones
Radimus / Mobility Site: Update iPhone, get iBrick
Melly Alazraki / BloggingStocks: Before the bell: AAPL, F, SBUX, SIRI ...
Chris Ziegler / Engadget: iPhoneSimFree-unlocked iPhones require AT&T SIM to reactivate
Marc Orchant / blognation USA: iPhone update - first thoughts
Bryan Gardiner / Epicenter: Apple's IPhone Warranty Threats Legally Sound, Lawyers Say
Soso Sazesh / Techomical: Apple The Oppressor
Griffith / Forever Geek: First reports of bricked iPhones emerge
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily: iBrokeIt (Updated) — Turns out "irreparable damage" …
Russell Shaw / IP Telephony, VoIP, Broadband: User says firmware upgrade DID INDEED brick his unlocked iPhone
Richard Baguley / wirelessinfo.com Blog: Apple iPhone Firmware 1.1.1 Out
Jim Dalrymple / Macworld:
Apple update disables unlocked iPhones
Apple update disables unlocked iPhones
Discussion: Gizmodo, Techdirt, Mashable!, MacRumors, CNET News.com, TechSpot News, Compiler and Computerworld
Mike Masnick / Techdirt: Unlocked iPhones (Temporarily?) iBricked
Adam Ostrow / Mashable!: iPhone Update Renders Unlocked Devices Useless
Justin Mann / TechSpot News: iPhone update cripples many hacked phones
Michael Calore / Compiler: Apple's Latest Firmware Update Breaks Hacked IPhones
Microsoft Extends Sales Availability of Windows XP — Responding to feedback from its customers, the company decides to give small businesses and customers in emerging markets more time and flexibility to test and prepare for the operating system upgrade. — In an effort to respond …
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily: Act Now and Get a Downgrade to the OS You Really Want, ABSOLUTELY FREE!
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld: Microsoft gives Windows XP five-month reprieve
Ina Fried / CNET News.com: Microsoft extends Windows XP's stay
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft: Is Windows XP too good for Microsoft's own good?
Nick Mokey / Digital Trends: Windows XP Refuses to Die
David Hunter / Microsoft News Tracker: Microsoft extends Windows XP availability
George Ou:
More facts and less hysteria on Vista, please!
More facts and less hysteria on Vista, please!
Joe Fay / The Register: Microsoft shouts 'Long Live XP'
Microsoft bows to pressure on XP
Microsoft bows to pressure on XP
Discussion: CrunchGear
Brian Prince / eWEEK.com:
Microsoft Investigates Blocked Patch Updates in XP
Microsoft Investigates Blocked Patch Updates in XP
Discussion: WinBeta, Windows Vista Team Blog and Neowin.net
Nick White / Windows Vista Team Blog: Addressing a Windows Update failure after repairing from XP CD
Emil Protalinski / Neowin.net: Microsoft Investigates Blocked Patch Updates in XP
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Day 73: The (Sleepy) Attack of the Yahoo Vice Presidents — Despite a lot of noisy speculation all around the Internet yesterday about big changes afoot, let me give you the skinny on exactly what is going to happen today at Yahoo when all its top brass gather at its Sunnyvale headquarters for an all-day confab.
Discussion: GigaOM, Insider Chatter, Silicon Alley Insider, WebProNews, Valleywag, TechCrunch, BetaNews, Epicenter, paidContent.org and CNET News.com
Om Malik / GigaOM: Yahoo & Yang's 100-Day Report Card
David A. Utter / WebProNews: Yahoo Breaking Up With The Past
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch: Yahoo Leadership Meeting Tomorrow; Premium Music Services to be "De-emphasized"
Terrence Russell / Epicenter: Yahoo Aims for Direction With Entertainment Division Shakeup
Elinor Mills / CNET News.com: Yahoo shaking things up
Rebecca Dana / Wall Street Journal:
CBS Creates 'EyeLab' To Woo Web Surfers — CBS Corp. thinks Web surfers would rather watch a blooper reel from the sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" than an actual episode of the show. — To cater to what it believes is the short attention span of online audiences, the network today is launching CBS EyeLab …
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider, PDA, MediaBytes with Shelly …, Mashable!, paidContent.org, 24/7 Wall St., BloggingStocks and Lost Remote
Jemima Kiss / PDA: CBS goes all YouTube
Shelly Palmer / MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer Video: MediaBytes 09.28.2007 — View today's MediaBytes video.
Adam Ostrow / Mashable!: CBS Launches New Online Video Initiative
David Kaplan / paidContent.org: CBS Hedges Bets With Online Studio EyeLab For Short-Form, Ad-Supported Video
Douglas McIntyre / BloggingStocks: CBS attacks web attention span
Steve Safran / Lost Remote: CBS creates Corporate Mashup Division
Peter Sayer / InfoWorld:
Update: Huawei, investment fund to buy 3Com for $2B — (InfoWorld) - Network equipment vendor 3Com has agreed to be acquired by associates of Bain Capital and of Huawei Technology in a deal worth $2.2 billion, 3Com said Friday. — Huawei affiliate Shenzhen Huawei Investment & Holding Co …
Discussion: The Register and Tech Trader Daily
Chris Williams / The Register: 3Com finally sells out to China
Dana Cimilluca / Wall Street Journal:
3Com Reaches Buyout Deal With Bain Capital, Huawei
3Com Reaches Buyout Deal With Bain Capital, Huawei
Discussion: BloggingStocks, CNET News.com, Greg Galitzine's VoIP … and PE HUB
Peter Cohan / BloggingStocks: 3Com (COMS) gone private
Dawn Kawamoto / CNET News.com: 3Com sold to Bain in $2.2 billion deal
Dan Primack / PE HUB: peHUB First Read — Some links to kick off your Friday...
Ionut Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Google Buys Zingku, Mobile Social Network — Google's plans to extend in the mobile space could include the launch of a mobile phone. For now, Google bought another mobile social network: Zingku. "We've entered into an agreement to have Google acquire our Zingku service," informs us Zingku.com.
Discussion: Search Engine Land, Download Squad, The Social Web, eWEEK.com, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, InfoWorld, WebProNews, localmobilesearch.net, blognation USA, Search Engine Journal, TechCrunch, Profy.Com, Googlified, Google Blogoscoped, Rev2.org, VentureBeat, Epicenter, Read/WriteWeb, ReveNews Online Revenue … and Mashable!
Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land: Google Buys Mobile-Social Site Zingku
Chris Gilmer / Download Squad: Google acquires Zingku
Steve O'Hear / The Social Web: IBM workers strike in Second Life; Twitter keyword alerts goes live …
James Niccolai / InfoWorld: Google buys Zingku mobile social networking service
David A. Utter / WebProNews: Meanwhile, Google Rings Up Zingku
Greg Sterling / localmobilesearch.net: Never Heard of Zingku? Google Now Owns It
Marc Orchant / blognation USA: Google spree continues - Zingku mobile app
Arnold Zafra / Search Engine Journal: Google Goes Shopping Again, Buys Zingku
Duncan Riley / TechCrunch: Google Acquires Mobile Platform Operator Zingku
Michael Garrett / Profy.Com: Zingku - Google's 2nd Chance At Mobile Social Networking?
Haochi / Googlified: Google Acquires Zingku
Philipp Lenssen / Google Blogoscoped: Google Acquires Zingku
James Fleet / Rev2.org: Google Acquires Zingku Mobile Social Network
Bryan Gardiner / Epicenter: Google Invests (Again) in Mobile Social Networks with Zingku Acquisition
Marshall Kirkpatrick / Read/WriteWeb: Google Acquires Mobile Communication Company Zingku
Sam Harrelson / ReveNews Online Revenue News …: Zingku: Google Makes Another Mobile Social Network Acquisition
Adam Ostrow / Mashable!: Google Acquires Mobile Social Networking Service Zingku
Catherine Holahan / Business Week:
Google Defends the DoubleClick Deal — In Senate hearings on the proposed acquisition, critics say the deal would give Google too much control of the online advertising market — Google (GOOG) is watching you. But you already knew that. Every time you conduct a search using its search engine …
Discussion: Ars Technica and Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
Jim Puzzanghera / Los Angeles Times:
Google, Microsoft spar before senators
Google, Microsoft spar before senators
Discussion: eWEEK.com, WebProNews and Computerworld
David A. Utter / WebProNews: Google, DoubleClick On Defense Against Senators
Peter Kaplan / Computerworld: Google looking at privacy protections for users
Sandra Hanchard / Hitwise Intelligence:
Slide.com Grows 228% May - Sep, Overtakes Flickr in NZ — Photo-sharing website, Slide.com grew by 228% between 5 May 2007 and 22 September 2007, overtaking Flickr during the week ending 8 September 2007 in the New Zealand market. Slide.com ranked at second position in the Hitwise Entertainment …
Discussion: Read/WriteWeb, WebProNews and Make Meaning
Marshall Kirkpatrick / Read/WriteWeb: Hitwise: Slide Passes Flickr, Threatens Photobucket for Top Spot in NZ
Doug Caverly / WebProNews: Slide Surpasses Flickr In New Zealand
Kosmix releases Google GFS workalike 'KFS' as open source — Search startup Kosmix has released a C++ implementation of the Google File System as open source. This parallels the existing Hadoop/HDFS project which is written in Java. The Kosmix team has deep engineering talent …
Discussion: Insider Chatter and OnoTech
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Apple iPhone a No-Show in Paris: UPDATE — UPDATE: Under the headline "EXCLUSIF Orange et Apple au bord de la rupture" the French weekly Challenges reports on its website today that Apple (AAPL) and France Télécom (which owns Orange) have indeed come to loggerheads.
John Ribeiro / InfoWorld:
VOIP provider Jajah gives subscribers toll-free Internet calling — (InfoWorld) - VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) service provider Jajah is offering its subscribers toll-free call buttons that they can place on their Web sites, enabling site visitors to immediately set up phone calls to Jajah subscribers in 122 countries.
Discussion: VentureBeat
Matt Marshall / VentureBeat: Jajah releases in-email calling
PR Newswire:
Daniel Cooperman to Join Apple as General Counsel — CUPERTINO, Calif. /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple® today announced that Daniel Cooperman, senior vice president, general counsel and secretary at Oracle Corporation, will join Apple as the company's senior vice president …
Discussion: Tech Trader Daily and Byte of the Apple
Arik Hesseldahl / Byte of the Apple: Revolving Door At Apple's General Counsel Office


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Fair Isle Complete!Tuesday, October 17, 2006
My sister came in from New Jersey this weekend for a visit. We had an awesome time doing what we love to do. Drinking coffee while knitting in the a.m., watching childrens sport activities (swim meet, baseball and soccer) while knitting in the afternoon, drinking wine while knitting in the evening. Needless to say we both got a lot of knitting in! I finished my daughters fair isle sweater. It is from EZ knitting in the round book. I used Classic Elite Renaissance on size 7 needles. I left out one of the patterns to accommodate for her yoke. I LOVE the fact that it is seemless and I did not have to sew the pieces together! This will complete the sweaters for our Christmas Card photo. Thank goodness because it could take 2 months for me to get a good photo! (Thanks for making the trip, Shell!)
3 comments
- Anonymous10/17/2006
The fair isle, and all the kids sweaters are beautiful! Gives me the crazy notion to do the same--maybe next year. Well done:)ReplyDelete
- Anonymous10/17/2006
Hey,nice blog!!! I found a place where you can make an extra $800 or more a month. I do it part time and make a lot more than that. It is definitely worth a visit! You can do it in your spare time and make good cash. Make Extra CashReplyDelete
- Anonymous10/18/2006
Thanks for your comment!ReplyDelete
The sweater looks great.


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The revolutionary new and lighter platform, combined with the Ergolock System, maximizes control in any condition, making the RXT-X the new benchmark for rough water performance. With the 300-hp engine, 60 mph (96 km/h) is just a few seconds away.
This is not an offer for credit and should be used for estimation purposes only based on the information you provided. You should not base your decision on this estimate alone. Title, registration, tax and other fees, and personal circumstances such as employment status and personal credit history, were not considered in the calculations.
Neon Yellow / Lava Grey
Eclipse Black / Lava Red


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Creamery Commander
Welcome to the official tournament thread of Creamery Command. Before you post anything, please take a moment to read the following rules:
-If you are not a member of Creamery Command, you can't post here. Plain and simple
-Tournament applications and battle forms MUST be posted on this thread. They will not be accepted if they are not posted here.
-Posts on this thread DO NOT count as activity posts for the guild.
-Flaming and trolling will not be permitted. Ever.
-This thread is reserved for Signing up for tournaments, Activity posts for tournaments, and posting tournament battles. Nothing else.
It's time for another tournament, and we've decided to bring back an old favorite. As such, here we go with the second edition of the Flavor Tournament (Also known as monotype)
Table of Contents
- This Tournament will be PO/PS only.
- Each Round will go for one week, so members have a week to complete their battles.
- Single Elimination Tournament
- There will be no maximum number of participants. There will, however, be an 8 player MINIMUM.
- All Tournament battles WILL count for clan records.
- It is up to you to get your match done. I will not pm you telling you when each round is up.
- You will be assigned a different 'flavor' each round. You must make a 6:0 monotype team using that type. Every single Pokemon on your team must have that type.
- All battles will be XY Pokebank OU. Standard clauses apply.
- Battles are BEST OF 3. NOT 1, NOT 5, 3. NO EXCEPTIONS
To join the tournament, please post the following form as a reply to the Creamery Command - Tournaments thread. Posts in the main thread will be regarded as spam.
Flavor Tournament 2 Signup Form
Serebii Username:
Timezone: (GMT format)
These are the different flavors and their corresponding types.
All Participants get 100 cones for Joining.
Winner: 2000 Cones & an automatic Rank-Up & choose a new flavor for a new rank! For this tournament, the flavor must be one of the flavors used by the tournament winner.
Runner Up: 1000 Cones & an automatic Rank-Up
Third Place: 500 Cones
Fourth Place: 250 Cones
The signup phase will last 1 full week. It will end at 12:01 AM EST next Thursday, February 5th.
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Nearly two years after Massachusetts lawmakers approved legislation mandating minimum standards for dementia special care units, state regulators Wednesday finalized new rules that will require at least eight hours of initial training for workers in such units, and four additional hours annually.
The rules also require that the facilities have at least one "therapeutic activities director" dedicated to the dementia unit to ensure meaningful and appropriate activities for residents.
The rules close a loophole that had allowed nursing homes to advertise dementia units without any specific training for their workers, specialized activities for residents, or safety measures in place, such as high fences, to prevent residents from wandering.
"These regulations have really been a labor of love for thousands of people affected by this difficult disease," James Wessler, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Association of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, said in a statement.
Few changes were made in the dementia care standards since they were unveiled last August by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and finalized Wednesday by the Public Health Council, an appointed body of academics and health advocates that sets public policy.
One of the few changed provisions dealt with the height of fences required around facilities with dementia care units. The health department proposed that such facilities be required to have a 6-foot-high fence surrounding outdoors areas in order to prevent residents from wandering off and getting lost.
But some nursing home operators objected, saying that facilities in urban areas may never be able to meet the requirement for outdoor space if a fence is mandated. Others felt that such a high fence might diminish residents' enjoyment while outdoors.
The Alzheimer's Association urged that secure fences be required for patient safety.
As a compromise, the Public Health Council dropped the 6-foot high requirement, and instead adopted a provision that still requires a "fence or barrier to prevent injury and elopement."
Another change was made to the care standards that would have prevented overhead paging systems in dementia care units, which are often jarring to patients.
"Several providers said overhead paging systems have been designed to operate throughout the building, and it would be too costly to shut off in this one unit," Dr. Madeleine Biondolillo, associate public health commissioner, told the council.
As a result, the Public Health Council made the change in the final rules that will allow nursing homes to use overhead paging systems, but only in cases of emergency.
Additionally, a number of nursing home leaders had objected to a provision that requires nursing homes with dementia units to provide the specialized new training for staff within 90 days after the rules go into effect, citing concerns about the costs and the short timeline.
But the Alzheimer's Association and other patient advocates argued that the timeframe was too long. The rules also require all licensed nursing homes, and not just those with special dementia units, to provide dementia-specific training for all direct-care workers within 180 days. This requirement includes medical directors, nurses, social workers, dietary aides, therapists, and activities staff.
Regulators said it was important to mandate the training at all facilities because roughly 60 percent of nursing home residents have some form of dementia.
The health department said the new rules would go into effect in about two weeks, after they are published in the state's register.


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Rihanna: Back On Top!
Every once in a while, a pop star comes along who is so visually magnetic, her music so utterly everywhere, that the world can't take its eyes off her. There's no question who that superstar is right now: Her name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty. At 21, Rihanna's résumé could turn even a music industry veteran a major shade of green: Since Jay-Z signed her to Def Jam in 2005, she has scored four number-one hits and has sold more than 12 million albums, a number soon to grow with her just-released album (untitled as of press time). Add to that Rihanna's self-invented style—a mash-up of Paris couture and street punk, and possibly the best-known haircut on the planet—and you have a full-on fan frenzy. With all that attention comes a sky-high platform for doing good, and Rihanna's used it wisely: In 2006 she quietly started the Believe Foundation, a fund that provides educational and medical supplies to needy children, and she has personally helped two leukemia sufferers find the bone marrow matches they needed to live. Of course, it's impossible to talk about Rihanna without also discussing the February night the singer was brutally assaulted by her then-boyfriend, pop star Chris Brown. Rihanna has remained mostly silent about that awful experience. But now, with Brown out of her life, she's opening up as a way to speak on behalf of victims of domestic violence. Listen in on this honest comeback interview.
Glamour: Let's first talk about life before you made it: You are one of the few pop stars in recent years to come from the islands.
Rihanna: I would have never dreamed that my career would be this successful. I grew up in an average home in Barbados, and we didn't live in the best neighborhood. But I was never aware that we were poor; my mom never made us feel that way. She loved me unconditionally. She made us feel anything was possible and instilled in me such confidence.
Glamour: Did you sing a lot as a kid?
Rihanna: Always—in the shower, to pillows and stuffed animals, my cousins. But I knew I wanted my music to be heard worldwide. That was my dream. I was able to make demos whenever I had vacation time, but my mom always said, "You are not stopping school until you get signed." And even when I got signed, she still made me go to school.
Glamour: You auditioned for Jay-Z at Def Jam. What was that like?
Rihanna: I was nervous as hell. The night before, I couldn't sleep. I was trying on a million different outfits and makeup. I remember seeing Jay-Z and starting to shake. I thought he would be in a suit, sitting behind a desk with a cigar. But he was totally chill, wearing sneakers and a T-shirt. Then I went into audition mode. I knew it was all or nothing. Right away, the Def Jam people said, "You can't leave the building." They closed the door, and the lawyers stayed until 1:00 or 2:00 A.M. to do the deal.
Glamour: That literally is the definition of overnight success!
Rihanna: In a matter of weeks, the first single ["Pon de Replay"] went to radio. Then we shot a video, and the song just took off. I was in the Top 10 with huge artists who I looked up to. Jay-Z kept telling me, "This never happens, so don't get used to it." I saw how special that moment was.
Glamour: What's the most valuable piece of advice Jay-Z's ever given you?
Rihanna: In the beginning of my career, he said, "You must be a good person, because good things are happening for you, but you have to stay humble." One thing that intrigued me about him was that he was such a huge artist and really down-to-earth. I felt like if he was saying this, it must work.
Glamour: Let's talk about this past year—you've obviously been through some difficult things. How did the people around you help you cope?
Rihanna: My friends and family have been extremely supportive, and everyone has been there for me. But at some point you are there alone. It's a lonely place to be—no one can understand. That's when you get close to God.
Glamour: Are you referring to the [Chris Brown] incident?
Rihanna: I am talking about starting with the night [before] the Grammys and then on. That was not the only thing that occurred this year. The picture leaking…it was one thing after another.
Glamour: You're talking about the photo [reportedly of Rihanna's injured face taken by police after Brown assaulted her] that was allegedly leaked by cops. You handled that so well; you kept silent in the press.
Rihanna: It was humiliating; that is not a photo you would show to anybody. I felt completely taken advantage of. I felt like people were making it into a fun topic on the Internet, and it's my life. I was disappointed, especially when I found out the photo was [supposedly leaked by] two women.
Glamour: How has this event changed you as a person, as a woman?
Rihanna: I'm stronger, wiser and more aware. You don't realize how much your decisions affect people you don't even know, like fans.
Glamour: Do you think you've gotten your strength from your mom?
Rihanna: Definitely. My mom gave us the tools to survive…. My parents separated when I was eight or nine. I helped her raise my [youngest] brother, because my mom was working all the time. He's my favorite.
Glamour: Do you feel that this experience has laid the groundwork for coping with anything so public again?
Rihanna: It has taught me so much. I felt like I went to sleep as Rihanna and woke up as Britney Spears. That was the level of media chaos that happened the next day. It was like, What, there are helicopters circling my house? There are 100 people in my cul-de-sac? What do you mean, I can't go back home?
Glamour: If you could offer a message to the millions of young women who look up to you, what would you tell someone who found herself in a similar situation?
Rihanna: Domestic violence is a big secret. No kid goes around and lets people know their parents fight. Teenage girls can't tell their parents that their boyfriend beat them up. You don't dare let your neighbor know that you fight. It's one of the things we [women] will hide, because it's embarrassing. My story was broadcast all over the world for people to see, and they have followed every step of my recovery. The positive thing that has come out of my situation is that people can learn from that. I want to give as much insight as I can to young women, because I feel like I represent a voice that really isn't heard. Now I can help speak for those women.
Glamour: I think that's a great message. What about your new album? What's it like?
Rihanna: I was involved in a lot of the writing. I put everything I've wanted to say for the past eight months into my music. The songs are really personal. It's rock n' roll, but it's really hip-hop: If Lil' Wayne and Kings of Leon like my album, then I'll feel good. I would not change anything about it. Even if people don't love it, I made exactly the piece of art that I wanted to make. It's super fearless—which is exactly how I feel right now. I am in a really good place.
Glamour: Justin Timberlake said it sounds a little more grown-up—do you agree with that comment?
Rihanna: I agree. I have grown up a lot since my last album. It [represents] exactly where I am at right now.
Glamour: Jay-Z once said that your challenge as an artist was going to be to make people relate to you as a human being. What do you think he meant by that?
Rihanna: Before, there was an innocence to me. It was a perfect image. So the minute I did something imperfect, it was a big deal. I think that's what he was referring to: People forget that after we get to our hotel rooms at night, we take a shower, we watch TV, eat room service and do normal things. Behind it all, we are still human beings.
Glamour: Now let's talk about your success in the world of fashion: You have become a fashion icon practically overnight. What does it mean to you as a performer, as a creative person, as a way to celebrate who you are?
Rihanna: Fashion for me is another way I get to express myself creatively. It is one of the fun things I get to do: to play dress-up, and create outfits and looks that aren't typical. I am an artist, so I like creating things. Shoes are my favorite thing.
Glamour: OK, so how many pairs do you own?
Rihanna: Too damn many! [Laughs.]
Glamour: Your look has evolved from the beginning of your career.
Rihanna: In the first two years of my career, there were a lot of restraints on what I could do. I couldn't wear certain colors of lipstick, like bright pink, dark pink or red; [my lips] had to be natural. Eventually, I stopped communicating with certain people at the label, and did exactly what I wanted to do. And that was to cut my hair, dye it black, change my clothes, change my sound. Really to just express myself.
Glamour: Let's talk about that famous hair of yours. Your cut now is even called "The Rihanna" in salons!
Rihanna: Yeah, we cut it into a bob for the [Good Girl Gone Bad album] cover shoot, but then I went even shorter for the NRJ Music Awards [in January 2008]. My hairdresser just said, "I don't feel like doing your hair anymore—I want to cut it." I was like, Finally!
Glamour: On to your charity work: What in your own life inspired you to start the Believe Foundation?
Rihanna: I have always loved kids. They are little adults with so much personality, and it is fun to work with that. Whether that means donating school supplies or medication, or [using my celebrity] to get them a bone marrow transplant, I want to help.
Glamour: You actually helped a young girl and a mother of two, both of whom were suffering from leukemia, find bone marrow matches for transplants. How did that happen?
Rihanna: My manager sent me a video this little girl did for her best friend. It shows them playing, and then Isabelle says to the camera, "This is my friend Jasmina, and here's how you can help her: Swab your mouth for DNA, and put it into an envelope." They were both adopted and have the best bond—they are inseparable. The video made you fall in love with both of them. I was like, I have to help her. So I did a bunch of events to raise awareness. Just when we thought we were not going to find a donor, we found one. The other woman, Lisa, is a mother of two who was diagnosed with leukemia and was going to die if she didn't get a bone marrow transplant. I knew she could not leave her two kids; that's all that was going through my head. So we said a lot of prayers, sent out press releases and did events in order to get the word out. Her transplant was successful. She was in a lot of pain, but she was so strong and determined.
Glamour: Wow, that's amazing. So here you are, only 21, and you have already accomplished so much. Where do you see yourself in five years?
Rihanna: So much has happened in the past five years, I can't speak for the next five. What I want is to continue to grow. Because I am never satisfied; I always want more. I always want to get better. I always want to climb another step.
Glamour: Is it too early for you to think, I want to be in love, I want to have a family? Is that too far down the road?
Rihanna: I hope I find love in the next 10 years—that will be pretty annoying if I am 31 and still have never been in love! But yeah, I'd like to be in a great place in both my personal life and my career. I still want to be doing what I love. Whatever that is in 10 years, I don't know.
Glamour: Well, congratulations on being a Woman of the Year!
Rihanna: It is an honor. The women who are being honored are all such great inspirations to me. I look up to them.


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I am completely exhausted by all the nonsense swirling in the interwebs about (lesbian? Buddhist? activist?) Barbara Johnson, who was denied communion and made to suffer other indignities (the priest, Marcel Guarnizo, leaving the sanctuary while she eulogized her mother) because she is a lesbian with a partner.
Bloggers have blathered on about how the priest was somehow right in denying her communion because, alternatively, she is a Buddhist (she said so in an academic paper!) or she is a lesbian (she appeared at her mother's funeral with her partner!). Every single one of them–without a shred of knowledge about what they are talking about apparently, including normally even-keeled Rod Dreher–have invoked canon 915 as justification. Well, brothers and sisters, here is the canon, and here is how it is supposed to be read according to canon 17 (law should be understood according to the proper meaning of the word in context) and canon 18 (laws that impose a penalty are subject to strict, that is narrow, interpretation).
Canon 915: Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.
1. Note the first half applies to those penalized by "imposition or declaration" of a penalty. These people are denied communion by an act of the bishop (usually), so their offense has been serious enough to draw the attention of the bishop. This means it would have to be a very big, very public deal.
2. "And others": Which others? In context, they must be doing something so bad they should have a penalty applied to them by the bishop. It's not just anyone Josephine Pewsitter thinks is bad That's what is meant by "context" in canon 17.
3. "Obstinately": To apply this penalty, the "other" has to be obstinate–that is, they must have been personally corrected by an ecclesiastical authority who has authority over them (their pastor, for example, not just any priest). If one is obstinate, this has presumably been going on for a while. We're not talking about a single sin, even a public one.
4. "Persevering": The "other" has to continue doing it anyway, after being personally corrected several times.
5. "Manifest": The sin has to be public knowledge–known to more than one person–with the presumption of scandal.
6. "Grave sin": And here's the kicker. Not only does it have to be a sin, it has to be grave, which means it must be a serious matter, and it must be grave in the conscience of the one committing it. This is a judgment of conscience, and it is likely that only the person and/or their confessor would know the gravity.
7. "Are not to be admitted to holy communion." This is an extremely serious penalty, one that, according to the principles by which the Code of Canon Law was revised after the Second Vatican Council, should be imposed through a public declaration, certainly not in the communion line.
Barbara Johnson is accused by her detractors of 1) being a Buddhist and 2) telling the priest that she was a lesbian living with another woman.
1. "She is a Buddhist." On what grounds does anyone claim this? On the grounds of an academic paper she wrote God knows when. It is absurd to presume that the contents of an academic paper reflect the status of a person's conscience at her mother's funeral. Nor is it a sin to "be a Buddhist," even for a Catholic; many Catholics admire and explore Eastern religions, and unless she made some public proclamation rejecting her Catholicism and her faith in Christ, she isn't an apostate. Using the strictest interpretation of the law, this is no grounds for denying her communion, especially since her alleged Buddhism was hardly "manifest" in the situation.
2. She is a lesbian. First, it is no sin to be a lesbian. Second, it is no sin to tell a priest you are one. (It is alleged that Johnson introduced her partner to the priest, though that is hearsay.) It is no sin to have a partner or to live with that partner. According to Catholic teaching, it is only a sin to engage in sexual relations with a member of your own gender. Unless Johnson had done that in some "manifest" way–and introducing your partner does not count–and she knew (and believed it, since we are in the realm of conscience here) to be a "grave sin," both charity and the law demand–and I do mean demand–that we resolve any doubt we have in her favor.
Nor had Johnson been obstinately persisting in a manifest grave sin (because she has never been personally corrected); besides, I doubt she believes she is committing a grave sin (which is a judgment of conscience), and even if she does, she isn't committing it in public. There is absolutely no cause for denying her communion according to a strict reading of canon 915, which is the only one permitted by the code.
This is utterly basic moral and pastoral theology folks; it was even in the manuals before Vatican II. Enough with the sloppy proof-texting from the code. Catholics don't read scripture that way, and we don't apply the law that way either. So cut it out.


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(Columbia) Gina Rodriguez, Anthony Mackie, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Thomas Dekker, Matt Lauria, Aislinn Derbez. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke
A Mexican-American woman, visiting family south of the border, is drawn into the world of the drug cartels with the lives of those she loves most on the line. Working both sides of the line, she must find a strength and power of her own if she and her loved ones are to survive.
See the trailer and a video featurette here
For more on the movie this is the website
Genre: Action
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: PG-13 (for sequences of gun violence, sexual and drug content, thematic material, and language)
(Annapurna) Nicole Kidman, Sebastian Stan, Toby Kebbell, Tatiana Maslany. The career of an LAPD detective was forever scarred when as a young cop she was placed in an undercover position with a vicious gang in the California desert with tragic results. Now with the leader of that gang re-emerging, she must confront the demons of her past in order to put the gang down once and for all.
See the trailer, clips, a video featurette and B-roll video here
For more on the movie this is the website
Genre: Crime Drama
Now Playing: AMC Altamonte Mall, Old Mill Theater
Rating: R (for language throughout, violence, some sexual content and brief drug use)
Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga
(FOX Star) Sonam Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Juhi Chawla, Rajkummar Rao. A young woman is pressured by her family to marry which isn't unusual in India. However, she must contend with a writer who is completely smitten with her, a secret love that her family will never accept and a truth that may shatter her.
See the trailer, clips and a promo here
For more on the movie this is the website
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Now Playing: AMC West Oaks, Cinemark Universal Citywalk, Touchstar Southchase
Rating: NR
The Gandhi Murder
(Rising Star) Stephen Lang, Om Puri, Vinnie Jones, Rajit Kapoor. In the aftermath of India's independence from the British empire, religious differences threaten to tear the nascent country apart. Three different police officers in three different parts of India gradually become aware of a threat against national hero Gandhi's life and all three must make key decisions that will save either the country or Gandhi. This is reportedly based on true events.
See the trailer here
For more on the movie this is the website
Genre: True Life Drama
Now Playing: AMC West Oaks, Cinemark Universal Citywalk
Rating: NR
Garabandal: Only God Knows
(Mater Spei) Fernando Garcia Linares, Belėn Garde, Rafael Samino, David Cruz. In the summer of 1861 in a village in Northern Spain, three young girls are visited first by the Archangel Michael, then receive over two thousand visits from Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The parish priest and the commander of the local Civil Guard must cope with the sudden notoriety and influx of supplicants seeking answers and with the hierarchy of the Church, some of whom seek to hide or exploit the young girls.
See the trailer here
For more on the movie this is the website
Genre: True Life Faith-Based Drama
Now Playing: Regal The Loop
Rating: PG-13 (for brief violence)
The Least of These: The Graham Staines Story
(Skypass) Sharman Joshi, Stephen Baldwin, Shari Rigby, Manoj Mishra. An ambitious Indian journalist is assigned to go undercover to investigate Staines, an Australian missionary who is accused of forcibly converting poor and sick Hindus to Christianity, which is illegal in India. What the journalist discovers will cause him to choose between telling the truth and improving his career, all leading up to a terrible tragedy that would shake the foundations of Indian life.
See the trailer here
For more on the movie this is the website
Genre: Biographical Drama
Now Playing: AMC Altamonte Mall, AMC Disney Springs, AMC West Oaks, Regal Oviedo Marketplace, Regal Waterford Lakes
Rating: PG-13 (for thematic elements/disturbing images)
Hale County This Morning, This Evening
Then Came You
Bufo Alvarus: The Underground Secret
The Image Book
My Online Valentine
Saint Bernard Syndicate
Sharkwater Extinction
Whiskey On Beer
An Affair to Die For
Sarvam Thaala Mayam
Vandha Rajavathaan Varuven
Miss Bala
Then Came You


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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
U.S. sending more medics to Guantanamo as hunger strike grows
The U.S. military is sending additional medical personnel to the Guantanamo prison camp, where more than half the captives have joined a hunger strike to protest their open-ended detention, a camp spokesman said on Monday.
Reinforcements numbering fewer than 40 will arrive by the end of April, said Lieutenant Colonel Samuel House, a spokesman for the detention operation at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in southeastern Cuba.
House said the new arrivals would include a doctor, nurses, corpsmen and medics, who will supplement the 100 medical personnel already on duty. Navy hospital corpsmen and Army medics are trained to provide emergency care and basic medical services.
"There was no specific trigger, other than the growing number of detainees that have chosen to hunger strike," House said.
The U.S. military counted 84 of the 166 prisoners as hunger strikers on Monday and was force-feeding 16 of them liquid meals through tubes inserted in their noses and down into their stomachs. Six were hospitalized for observation, House said.
Hunger strikes have occurred at Guantanamo since shortly after the United States began detaining suspected al Qaeda and Taliban captives there in January 2002.
The current hunger strike began in early February, after guards seized photos and other belongings during a cell search. Prisoners said the guards had also mistreated their Korans during the search, which the U.S. military denies.
The military has declined to say what prompted the cell searches but similar searches have been conducted in the past.
Though the cell search was the immediate trigger, military officials and lawyers for the prisoners have said the protest generally reflects frustration with the failure to resolve the prisoners' fate. Most have been held for more than a decade without charge or trial and Congress has blocked Obama administration efforts to close the camp.
"It's escalated because the men are desperate and they've hit a breaking point," said Carlos Warner, a federal public defender from Ohio who is part of a team representing 11 Guantanamo prisoners.
"Really what is behind all this is the president abandoned his promise to close Guantanamo. The men know that, they're desperate."
Forty-three prisoners had joined the hunger strike by April 13, when guards in riot gear swept through a communal prison and forced the detainees into one-man cells where they could be better monitored. Camp officials said the detainees had covered the security cameras and windows, blocking guards' view.
The number refusing meals has grown steadily since then, and two prisoners tried to kill themselves by making nooses with their clothing, House said.
Lawyers for the prisoners have said the hunger strike is more widespread than the military acknowledges, with between 100 and 130 detainees taking part.
More than half of Guantanamo's prisoners have been cleared for release but Congress has put stringent restrictions on transfers. About two-thirds of those cleared for release are Yemenis and the Obama administration has halted repatriations to their homeland because of instability there.
[Source: By Jane Sutton, Reuters, Miami, 22Apr13]
State of Exception
|This document has been published on 30Apr13 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.


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I've had extra time on my hands the last few weeks due to my frequent male companion's six and now seven-day work week (project roll out). While I am sorry for him, I'm pretty happy with all the extra evenings I've been gifted. One of the projects I've tackled with this windfall of free time is cleaning up my basement / sewing area. Twenty minutes a night for a week seriously cleared out 50 percent of the clutter. I went through bins of fabric. Not organizing really, but taking a cue from Trena and making a concerted effort to sew from my stash.
I'm not even talking random projects to use up my stash. But projects that I actually already want to make. In truth, I was shocked to see that I had at least 30 projects when I compiled my list. Thirty projects with pattern and fabric matched! I could sew at least two garments a month and still not be done in a year. And, I'll be honest. There are still about 100 cuts of fabric outside of those 30 projects. My slide show is below (RSS Readers, please click through). Some of the items I've made before, but want to re-make. Some are so that when a wedding comes around I'm not scrambling for an outfit to wear (I have at least one, possibly three this summer in addition to two black-tie events).
My goals are simple.
- Not sew maniacally for events because I don't have anything in my closet
- Sew the projects that I've wanted to work on
- Not be distracted by new projects or fabric. It just takes time away from things I want to make.
By focusing on these projects that I want to make, I want to avoid the sewing slump of not knowing what I want to make. By sewing things I'm passionate about, I can make room for new things and fresh ideas. I've made two fabric purchases this year.
There is material in my stash I ADORE. But, I don't know what to do with them. If i focus on what I do have ideas for, that will allow me to think about those other projects. So, there you have it. Sewing projects for likely the next two years. Crazy, right?
I'm working on uploading my spreadsheet to Google docs so it's all on public display 🙂


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How much worse will the destruction and death have to be to wake us up?
Fifteen years after the carnage of 9/11, American foreign policy is still mired in its fossilized dogmas and dangerous delusions. The consequences are obvious. Iran, the world's foremost state sponsor of terrorism and long an avowed enemy of the United States, has filled the vacuum of our ignominious retreat from the Middle East, even as the mullahs move ever closer to possessing nuclear weapons. Russia, Iran's improbable ally, bombs civilians in Syria, kills the Syrian fighters we have trained, bullies its neighbor Ukraine, consolidates its take-over of the Crimea, and relentlessly pursues its interests with disregard for international law and contempt for our feeble protests. Iraq, for which thousands of Americans bled and died, is now a puppet state of Iran. Afghanistan is poised to be overrun by the Taliban in a few years, and ISIS, al Qaeda 2.0, continues to inspire franchises throughout the world and to murder European and American citizens. Continue reading


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Just How Much Is Your Privacy Worth?
Most of us would shy away from making purchases in a foreign country if we didn't know the exchange rate. Yet, if privacy is the true currency of the Internet, as many argue, millions of us are doing that very thing every day. Meanwhile, Internet giants amend their privacy policies in ways that allow them to harvest and sell even more of our personal data. While privacy campaigners protest, users generally vote with their clicks and carry on regardless.
So should we conclude the Internet generation is happy to trade its privacy for free or cheaper Web services? Not according to Nicola Jentzsch of the German Institute of Research in Berlin, and colleagues, who last week published research showing that most people prefer to protect their personal data when given a choice and that a significant proportion are willing to pay extra to do so.
The researchers directed 443 students to a website offering tickets for a real movie showing, sold by two different vendors. Although the tickets were subsidized, the volunteers, who were able to purchase one, two, or no tickets, had to pay most of the cost themselves.
When both vendors offered tickets at the same price but only one required customers to enter their cell phone number, the more privacy-friendly vendor got 83% of sales. When participants were offered the same choice, but with an additional charge of 50 euro cents from the privacy-friendly cinema, its market share fell to 31%.
"It turns out that when you are good on privacy you can charge more and make a greater profit," says Sören Preibusch, of the University of Cambridge, one of the authors of the study, published by the European Network and Information Security Agency, an agency of the European Union.
When only one of the two vendors stated it would use the customer's e-mail address to send them advertisements, and both charged the same price for tickets, 62% of sales went to the privacy-friendly ticket retailer. But when the privacy-friendly vendor charged 50 euro cents more, its market share dropped to 13%.
"What people say in surveys is that they care about privacy, but what they actually do is spend their time constantly updating their status on Facebook," says Alessandro Acquisti, codirector of the Center for Behavioral Decision Research at Carnegie Mellon University, who was not connected with the new research. "This has led some to conclude that people no longer care about privacy. This new data, along with similar work we have done in the U.S., shows this is not the case, and that the desire for privacy is not dead after all."
Privacy protection is at a critical juncture on both sides of the Atlantic. In January, Google announced it would merge personal data gathered from the users of dozens of services, including YouTube, Gmail, and Google+, saying this would allow better searches and more targeted advertising. On Monday, France's National Commission for Computing and Civil Liberties, which represents European regulators, wrote to Google that preliminary findings suggest that the new policy does not comply with the European Data Protection Directive.
The E.U. is working on new data protection rules that would include fines of up to 2 percent of a company's global revenue. Last month the Obama administration set out the framework for a new privacy code that would give consumers more control over the use of their personal data.
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