text:
A jet-skier who became stranded in Jamaica Bay easily breached JFK's security system by walking undetected through two runways and into a terminal.
Daniel Castillo of Queens swam to shore and then walked past motion sensors and closed-circuit cameras of the airport's state-of--the art Perimeter Intrusion Detection System.
The $100 million system is meant to safeguard against terrorists.
Castillo climbed an eight-foot-tall perimeter fence and made his way to Terminal 3, according to The New York Post. He approached a Delta Airlines worker, who alerted authorities, the paper said.
The breach raised a host of troubling questions about safety.
" If it had been a coordinated Al Qaeda operation I wouldn't even want to think how bad this could've been," said Rep. Peter King, the Long Island Republican who chairs of the House Homeland Security Committee. " Raytheon is the contractor. Raytheon is trying to determine what went wrong, what didn't work, but it appears that nothing worked."
Raytheon did not yet return calls for comment.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is investigating. The agency says it has increased patrols on the ground and in the water and plans to meet with the security system's maker this week.
"We have called for an expedited review of the incident and a complete investigation to determine how Raytheon's perimeter intrusion detection system-which exceeds federal requirements-could be improved," the Port Authority said in a statement. "Our goal is to keep the region's airports safe and secure at all times."
Castillo was charged with criminal trespass. Information on an attorney wasn't available.
The JFK security breach could also mean that other area airports are vulnerable.
"This has to be corrected. Has to be corrected quickly," Kind said. ""Laguardia and Teeterborough have the exact same system."
Get the latest from NBC 4 New York anytime, anywhere. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Get our apps here and sign up for email newsletters here. Get breaking news delivered right to your phone -- just text NYBREAKING to 639710. For more info, text HELP. To end, text STOP. Message and data rates may apply.


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The Women's Section
A woman of valor–who can find her? In ancient Israel, the place one could not find her was in the Temple, except in a section called the ezrat nashim — literally, women's territory. Only men served in the Temple as priests and Levites. This was partly a consequence of monotheism. In other ancient religions, with goddesses as well as gods, women would often control thetemples to goddesses.
Women did come to the Temple to offer sacrifices, but the instance in which a woman is specifically required to appear is when she's in trouble: in the case of the Sotah. A Sotah, as described in the Book of Numbers (5:11 and following) is a woman whose husband suspects her of adultery but cannot prove it. She is required to appear at the Tabernacle (predecessor of the Temple in Jerusalem) to undergo a trial by ordeal to test her fidelity.
Although the Torah tell much of women's presence in the Temple the Midrash does fill in. The Torah specifies that a large, copper–plated washbasin is to be built for the Tabernacle. (Exodus 30:18)According to a midrash, the copper plates were actually mirrors that had been brought by the Israelite women from Egypt and were used in the Tabernacle in order to commemorate the valiant deeds of those women. The background, as the midrash relates, is that husbands had separated from wives as the result of Pharoah's oppression. Their wives used these mirrors to entice their menfolk back to them to ensure their fertility and thus the continuity of the Israelite nation.
This week's parasha refers to women in an indirect but intriguing way. It contains the instructions for the setting up of the Tabernacle, which was portable, since the Israelites needed to carry it with them during their wanderings in the wilderness. The Tabernacle was contained within a tent,and the last verse of the parasha notes that all the pegs of the tent should be of copper (Exodus 27:19). Then, as now, pegs were needed to keep a tent from either blowing away or collapsing inward. A peg becomes an item of security and stability. This is the case in the metaphor used by Isaiah when speaking of the revival of Jerusalem:
When you gaze upon Zion, our city of assembly, your eyes shall Jerusalem as a secure homestead, a tent not to be transported, whose pegs shall never be pulled up (Isaiah 33:20)
Yet a peg, when pulled out of the ground, can be transformed from an innocent tool into a weapon. Last week's haftarah was the Song of Deborah, a triumphal poem celebrating the victory of the Israelites over the Canaanites. Yael, the woman who kills the Canaanite general Sisera, is singled out for special praise, with due attention to the way she killed him: with a peg.
"Most blessed of women be Yael Smost blessed of women in tents / Her hand reached for the tent pin, her right hand for the workmen's hammer/She struck Sisera, crushed his head, smashed and pierced his temple" (Judges 5:24;26)
This Biblical poem makes quite clear that Yael was able to kill Sisera because she had first seduced him. Similarly, another tale in the Book of Judges tells of another seductress, Delilah, who, in one of her many attempts to rob Samson of his strength, weaves his hair into a web and pegsit to the wall (Judges 16:14).
All these examples can be seen as an explanation for why ancient Judaism did not want women too–publicly present in the Temple : they were considered too seductive. Their seductive force would have to be safely contained in the plating of the washbasin, or domesticated in de–weaponized tent–pegs — or punished in the ritual of the Sotah. Modern Judaism, too, in some of its varieties, keeps women apart from men — in a section of synagogue called ezrat nashim, just as in the Temple. This, too, according to many explanations, is to prevent the men from becoming distracted.
The Temple in ancient Israel was essentially men's territory. Because it was so central to the public expression of Judaism, women's role in that public expression was, in consequence, limited. In the two thousand years since the destruction of the Temple — an era in which prayer and study replaced Temple ritual — women have also had a limited place in public Judaism. One of the features of today's Judaism that makes it very different from that of the past is that in many communities — even some that consider themselves traditional — women are acting and not just observing. Women are acting as leaders of prayer and study. Women are being seen as themselves, not just as mirrored reflections. Women are bringing themselves in, not just being taken in.
The publication and distribution of "A Taste of Torah" commentary have been made possible by a generous gift from Sam and Marilee Susi.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Vectronix has its roots in the military survey activities of Wild Heerbrugg which began producing military instruments such as rangefinders and aiming circles more than sixty years ago. It became an important partner of the Gruppe Rustung (GR), now ArmaSuisse (Swiss Procurement Agency), for both the supply of its own products and the licensed production of international optomechanical, electronic and optronic equipment.
Wild Heerbrugg and Ernst Leitz merged into the Wild Leitz Group, which merged with Cambridge Instruments to form the Leica Group. In 1997 the Leica Group split into Leica Microsystems and Leica Geosystems, and on 1 April 2002 the Defense & Special Projects business unit of Leica Geosystems was incorporated under the name of Leica Vectronix. Groupe SAGEM, a high-technology communications and defence group, acquired 100% of Leica Vectronix on 1 February 2003. The company's name was shortened to Vectronix AG on 1 August 2003.
Vectronix introduced the VECTORTM Rangefinder Binoculars, the world's first combination of binocular optics, eye safe laser rangefinder, digital compass and clinometer. This product is typical for the majority of Vectronix's activities: state-of-the-art COTS solutions for observation, orientation and rangefinding for the armed forces.
Besides finished products for the end-users, Vectronix also provides subsystems or modules for industrial prime contractors, in particular for international land warrior modernization programs where it contributes to the soldiers' situational awareness enhancement.
Vectronix carries out development, design, assembly, testing and final inspection of its products. Parts production is outsourced on competitive basis, the lion's share going to specialized factories within the Leica industrial park in Heerbrugg. Many of its optics benefit from Leica's design and production know-how.
In 2003, with around 100 employees, Vectronix achieved a turnover of CHF 68.8 million. Vectronix exported 90% of its production, over one third to North America.
Product Lines
· Rangefinders
Eyesafe laser rangefinders, including the famous binocular LEICA VECTOR family of which 10,000 units have been sold to date, and the Pocket LRF (PLRF) of which several hundred are in service in the US and other armed forces.
· Night Vision Instruments
Image intensifier products including night vision goggles, binoculars, pocketscopes, and driver periscopes. Over 50'000 units delivered to date.
· Military Survey Equipment
Digital goniometers for modern forward observer systems and customized system solutions with optronic payloads and data input/output devices. Gun laying and positioning systems for artillery and mortars.
· OEM Modules
Angle measuring and range finding sensors and modules for integration in upper level systems or modernization kits, in particular for future soldier programs.
· Assemblies / Thermal Systems
High-tech optronics build to print and licensed production, mainly for the Swiss government.
Quality Assurance
Already in 1986 Leica AG was awarded the SQS Certificate according to SN 29100. In 1998 Leica Geosystems AG was certified according to ISO 14001.
From its start on 1St April 2002 the management system of Vectronix is certified to fulfill the requirements of the ISO 9001:2000 / ISO 14001:1996 standards.


text:
Wednesday, 14 November 2012 09:08 AM EST
MOSCOW — A senior German lawmaker urged Russia on Wednesday to end its crackdown on civil society ahead of talks between the two countries' leaders.
Andreas Schockenhoff, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's party, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the Kremlin's moves "intimidate the engagement of active, creative citizens instead of encouraging them."
Schockenhoff, who is also the German envoy overseeing contacts between Russian and German civil societies, urged President Vladimir Putin to "allow NGOs to have a public debate, a public competition of opinions about the future of the country."
"[They] are not a threat to the Russian state," he told the AP. "We see more and more suspicion against contacts with foreigners, and I think that isolates Russia."
Germany is Russia's major trade partner, and Merkel has faced pressure at home and abroad to focus more closely on Russia's worsening human rights situation.
Germany's parliament last week passed a resolution penned by Schockenhoff that urged Merkel to raise concerns about human rights in Russia at her meeting Friday with Putin.
The move, which linked Russia's rollback on democratic freedoms to Putin's return to the Kremlin in May, has angered Moscow, and prompted the Russian foreign ministry to accuse Schockenhoff of making defamatory comments.
The Human Rights Watch group issued a similar appeal to Merkel, saying "there has never been a more important time to put human rights front and center of Germany's relationship with Russia."
Russia is hoping that Germany, which is involved in a number of lucrative joint energy projects with Russia, could help the country modernize its economy by sharing technology and bringing investment to Russia.
Schockenhoff, however, said for Germany "modernization is more than technological innovation," adding that Berlin views a respect for human rights as important as economic ties.
"Modernization is comprehensive: it must address questions of the rule of law, competition of opinions, freedom of expression," Schockenhoff said.
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text:
CORRECTING and REPLACING Small Business Owners Rely on Outsourced Partners for Success
CORRECTING and REPLACING Small Business Owners Rely on Outsourced Partners for Success
The UPS Store launches seven new services via web portal for small business owners to provide help when they need it
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- First graph, first sentence of release should read: The UPS Store® introduced today seven new business services (sted six new business services).
The corrected release reads:
The UPS Store launches seven new services via web portal for small business owners to provide help when they need it
In an effort to further support its growing small business audience, The UPS Store® introduced today seven new business services available through the Small Business Solutions portal. The portal, already serving nearly half a million small business owners, provides access to exclusive content and offers from a variety of service providers. The new additions include:
Web Conferencing Tool from AnyMeeting
Business Phone Services from eVoice®
Newsletter Creator from Flashissue
Online Hiring Systems from Hyrell
Records Management Solutions from Iron Mountain®
Instant Chat Software from LiveChime™
Pre-Employment Background Screening from Risk Assessment Group
The results of a recent national online survey of small business owners conducted by The UPS Store indicate more than 75 percent of small business owners rely on outside partners to fill gaps in expertise and more than half said they outsource to effectively manage time constraints.
The most commonly outsourced tasks are those that do not require intimate knowledge of the business, such as website hosting, telecommunication solutions and credit card processing.
"We know firsthand the kinds of challenges small business owners face, and we offer solutions that work," said Michelle Van Slyke, vice president of marketing and small business solutions at The UPS Store. "Our goal is to make it easier for small business owners to run their day-to-day operations by working with trusted experts like The UPS Store and our vendor partners."
Nancy Hart, for example, is a small business owner in Kingsport, Tenn., who relies on the support of experts to help her operate and grow her business. "My advice to other small business owners is: If you know how to do it, do it. If you don't, find someone who does."
Nancy relies on her local UPS Store as an extension of her team for printing, packing, shipping and faxing needs.
In determining the right service provider, The UPS Store found that small business owners like to do their own homework as well as rely on recommendations from professionals. Three-fourths of those surveyed claiming to do their own online research, and 67 percent look for recommendations from professionals.
More than 450,000 people have taken advantage of The UPS Store's Small Business Solutions portal, which also includes a small business-focused blog and tips and resources from small business experts including SCORE.
For more information, visit the Small Business Solutions portal at smallbiz.theupsstore.com.
About The UPS Store
With more than 4,300 locations, The UPS Store network comprises the nation's largest franchise system of retail shipping, postal, print and business service centers. The UPS Store locations in the U.S. are independently owned and operated by licensed franchisees of The UPS Store, Inc., a subsidiary of UPS (NYS: UPS) . Services, pricing and hours of operation may vary by location. For additional information on The UPS Store, including information on franchise opportunities for opening a The UPS Store location, visit www.theupsstore.com.
Follow The UPS Store on Twitter at @TheUPSStore and like The UPS Store on Facebook at facebook.com/theupsstore.
About AnyMeeting
AnyMeeting pioneered the small business web conferencing market in 2009 with a full-featured and easy-to-use web conferencing service tailored for small business. Since then, it has grown to nearly 400,000 small business users of both its ad-supported service and low-cost ad-free options. Designed and priced specifically for small business, AnyMeeting offers a complete web conferencing and webinar service built on the company's proven Software as a service platform. Meeting hosts are able to invite up to 200 attendees per meeting with no time limits, and enjoy a full range of features including integrated video conferencing, screen sharing, presentation sharing, recording and social media integration.
AnyMeeting is the best choice for small businesses, independent professionals and just about anyone who can benefit from online meetings. For more information, visit www.AnyMeeting.com.
About eVoice
eVoice, "A Better Way to Connect," is a brand service and trademark of j2 Global (NAS: JCOM) . eVoice, one of the industry's leading virtual phone services, offers a wide selection of local or toll-free numbers and is the only phone service of its type to offer personalized U.S.-based VIP setup and support for new accounts. eVoice is online at www.evoice.com.
About Flashissue
Flashissue is an online email-marketing tool that can help anyone effortlessly find fresh content and create newsletters in minutes. Taking the worry out of writing, Flashissue locates relevant content, whether it's your own blog posts or from other online sources and in just a few steps streamlines the entire process of getting you to engage with customers fast. For more information, visit www.flashissue.com.
About Hyrell
Hyrell provides powerful recruiting and hiring management solutions to businesses in a wide range of sizes and industries. The Hyrell cloud-based hiring solution helps these organizations find, qualify, engage, and hire the best applicants possible to deliver business results that matter. For more information, visit www.hyrell.com.
About Iron Mountain
Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYS: IRM) is a leading provider of storage and information management solutions. The company's real estate network of 64 million square feet across more than 1,000 facilities in 35 countries allows it to serve customers around the world. And its solutions for records management, data backup and recovery, document management and secure shredding help organizations to lower storage costs, comply with regulations, recover from disaster, and better use their information for business advantage. Founded in 1951, Iron Mountain stores and protects billions of information assets, including business documents, backup tapes, electronic files and medical data. For more information, visit www.ironmountain.com.
About LiveChime
LiveChime is a Software as a Service product that enables real-time communication between buyers and sellers on any desktop or mobile device, from any web page, blog site, social website, or any online classified ad, directory listing or PPC ad. Our LaunchPaigetm Technology combined with real-time chat creates an interactive sales experience that can lift sales by as much as 300%. Since web chat has become the preferred communication channel for today's online consumer, with one of the highest satisfaction ratings among all online channels, LiveChime levels the playing field for the millions of small businesses around the globe who buy and sell on the World Wide Web. For more information visit www.livechime.com.
About Risk Assessment Group
Risk Assessment Group provides pre-employment background screening from one of the nation's leading providers. When companies hire someone, they need to protect their business from theft, drugs, and violence. For more information, visit www.riskassessmentgroup.com.
The UPS Store, Inc.
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text:
48: Found
Title text: No more, no less
Cueball and Megan are standing together in the middle of a simple maze. As indicated by the words in the comic, they have simply found each other, implying that there is no relationship between them other than running into each other.
As indicated in the title text, there is nothing else to say about how they met.
- [Cueball and Megan are standing on a white hill (presumably snow) with a grey sky covered with thick streaks of white, and small pink dots. All letters are written in lower case.]
- we are just two people
- who found each other
- This was the 45th comic originally posted to LiveJournal.
- The previous was 47: Counter-Red Spiders.
- The next was 49: Want.
- Original title: "Drawing: Found"
- Original Randall quote: "I'll get back to science humor and awful puns soon, don't worry."
- This comic was one of the last 11 comics posted on LiveJournal.
- These 11 comics were posted both on LiveJournal and xkcd after the xkcd site opened on the 1st of January 2006.
- This comic was posted on the same day on both sites.
- They were not all posted on the same day though.
- During the start-up of xkcd, four of the last 11 comics were released on days that deviated from the normal Monday, Wednesday, Friday scheme.
- This one was thus released on a Thursday.
- It was the first of a series of three where the release day was shifted to one day later.
- This one was posted in the middle of the day, 10:41 am.
add a comment! ⋅ add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅ refresh comments!
Talk about bare bones! --Quicksilver (talk) 15:22, 25 August 2013 (UTC)
Am I the only one who sees a 3 in the grey/poka-dot area? Implying that there is some third person involved in the relationship? That view is supported by the title text, I think. FlyingSandals (talk) 03:07, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
- Nice find, dunno if Randall had this in his mind, but it could mean a future third person. The white (probably snowy) hill should also be explained. I did add the incomplete tag for future investigations. The sky isn't really a sky because the pink dots don't look like stars.--Dgbrt (talk) 20:00, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
Sad they are no more than that... for a second I thought they might be in a relationship ship... BFFs... lovers... but just people who found each other... a bit dry.--TheTimeBandit (talk) 21:30, 30 October 2017 (UTC)
Are we sure it's a maze? I also question "sky" and "snowy hill", and I'm pretty sure it's not a 3 — Kazvorpal (talk) 16:15, 30 April 2019 (UTC)


text:
OK everyone I'm ready for you're amazing real food recipes! You had amazing things to share last week. I can't wait to see what you are making with your July harvests.
This week I headed to the Real Food Daily restaurant in Santa Monica. Check out their menu. Who could resist with such a great name and concept!
OK, now it's your turn to share recipes.
Please link back to this post so your readers can find lots of great recipes.
Link to your individual post, not your home page.
Please share recipes made with very little packaged ingredients but using single food ingredients or Real Food. Maybe 1 or 2 if the list of ingredients is long. If I bake something I'm usually using almond flour but I didn't make it myself. So you see where I'm going with this.
Please do not link giveaways or book reviews, this is for recipes with Real Food.
As always, have fun!
Now hopefully that doesn't seem to difficult. The point is to share Real Food with Real People!
Please don't make me be a meanie and have to remove your link if you don't follow the guidelines.
When you share your recipe feel free to grab one of these badges, or as Tia calls it Real Food Bling, and add it to your post. You can even add it to your blog sidebar.
You can find these on the page dedicated to Real Food Weekly.
Now look below for the words, Click Here To Enter so you can link up your recipe! Thank you.


text:
This week saw the announcement at Apple's World Wide Developer's Conference of a partnership with nine automakers — probably the biggest tech-car partnership this year. You'd think the car companies would be ready for this big moment. You'd be wrong, as our undercover tech reporter explains. — Ed.
Minutes after Apple announced Siri Eyes Free integration at the WWDC keynote on Monday, the switchboards at GM, BMW, Chrysler and the rest of Apple's automotive partners lit up.
And for good reason.
Apple didn't spend much time on details, only announcing that nine automakers would bring Siri Eyes Free to their products in the next year. There was a lot to cover in the two-hour keynote, so it's understandable that Apple couldn't dwell on what was essentially another announcement in a string of new product and software reveals.
Sustainable beauty
Caprea's Essential Organic PH Cleanser is just $10 with promo code TEN. Normally $19, this foaming face wash is crafted with organic Monoi oil. It's meant to target the production of oil secretion while protecting your skin against air pollution. Normally $19, you can save big on this richly-lathering face wash while supporting a brand that keeps the environment top of mind.
But still, there were questions.
When is it coming? How will it work? Will it use existing hardware? Is there an aftermarket solution? None of the automakers had answers. I know. I spoke with all of them.
In yet another example of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, the PR teams inundated by inquiries from both tech and auto outlets were forced to throw together hastily-written, canned statements that did nothing to clarify -– or even confirm -– Siri integration.
Coupled with clueless spokespeople, stories began surfacing claiming automakers had no knowledge about the announcement before their chromed logos appeared above Scott Forstall's head.
"It was news to us," one spokesman told me on the condition of anonymity. "We had no idea this was coming."
But just because the lone flack you got on the phone doesn't know his nipple from a home button doesn't mean that the entirety of the company isn't aware of the partnership. Every automaker splashed on the screen at WWDC had been working with Apple for weeks or months leading up to the announcement. And any news outlet (and your Aunt Sally) knows the crew from Cupertino is highly secretive when it comes to outside partners, be them hardware companies, software firms, or in this case, automakers. So it's entirely plausible that the voice on the other end of the phone is just as oblivious as you.
But that didn't stop Fast Company from throwing together a misinformed report, CNET grabbing the ball and falling on its face, and the news aggregators reporting it as fact (or adding a cop-out question mark to the title) without taking the time to pick up the phone.
So who did I call? Apple. And I had a reasonable response within an hour and a dead story in my lap. Fine by me, as long as it's the truth.
But that's apparently just too hard, too complex or too taxing for tech pubs attempting to cover cars and automotive outlets trying –- and perpetually failing –- to cover tech


text:
Tel: 06227-399170
Handy: 0176-2116-9990
eMail: email@example.com
Internet: www.heidelbergerwohnen.de
Today's home buyer is looking for a lot in a Realtor and rightly so. As the home buying market continually increases and diversifies, the competition between Realtors intensifies. What makes some Realtors click better in this highly competitive market and how do you know you've chosen the right Realtor?
Moving is one of the most stressful times in someone's life.
This process requires utmost patience, an ability to adapt, and lots of knowledge. The best Realtors have all these skills and take the time to make sure the client benefits from the experience as well. This good rapport goes a very long way. Thus, trusting your Realtor's level of expertise is just as important as judging how your Realtor interacts with you. In real estate, a common phrase explains this well, "You can teach a Realtor skills but you can't teach him attitude". Therefore, it's important that you get along well with your Realtor since you'll be working together a long time.
Just as every home will not be a perfect match, you also aren't going to click perfectly with every Realtor. In many ways, choosing a Realtor is a matter of preference and personality matching. Many studies about traits that home buyers look for in a Realtor indicate that the Realtor's expertise is not the top listed characteristic; instead, how well the Realtor responds to you is of utmost importance to most home buyer. Thus, the Realtors in highest demand are those who take the time to listen to, examine and investigate your hopes and dreams. Look for a Realtor who matches your enthusiasm and energy, which creates effective teamwork between you and your Realtor.
Many Realtors are only motivated by commission and push to quickly close a deal. When you find a Realtor that is only interested in "time is money" rather than the gift of time, you should run the other way. This lack of interest in customer appreciation often leaves you lacking the necessary information to understands your decisions and remain positive about this experience. You deserve as stress-free of a buying or selling experience as your Realtor can make it.
The best Realtors understand the seriousness of going over details and are more than happy to answer any of your questions at a pace that you are comfortable with.
The best customer service is of utmost interest to many clients. They would prefer a Realtor that is part of a firm that offers outstanding customer service. Knowing that their Realtor has access to these support structures is very important, as well as knowing that their Realtor will be around for a long time after closing. Many clients are also looking for 24-hours phone center, money-back guarantees, quality-control standards, and very relevant information.
The best Realtor is able to offer these services and works to supply the best possible customer service.
In today's fast paced competitive market, a good Realtor knows his effort pay off best when he's highly knowledgeable about the real estate market and performs stellar customer service. /www.homes-seekers.net">Home buyers are quick to pick up on this and willing to hunt for the right Realtor. To read more about what makes a Realtor shine above the rest of the pack, visit National Association for Realtors at http://www.realtor.org.
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text:
In my mind Friday battles Sunday for best day of the week.
I'm waving in the weekend. Smile on my face. Prosecco chilling in the fridge. Far away friends on the highway, their GPS set to Destination: Bonnie.
As I got dressed this morning I recalled the strange Tylenol PM induced dream I had last night in which a stranger quoted Emily Dickinson to me. She said "Dwell in possibility."
So, with that I wish you thrilling yet relaxing weekend and I invite you to dwell in the possibilities with me.
Bonnie Rue


text: Back Treating Teen Acne It's a fact of teenage life: When puberty hits, acne often does, too. Just about every teen will find at least one blackhead or whitehead on his or her skin by age 17, and some teens will develop more severe acne, which can leave scarring. The prime culprits of acne, experts say, are heredity and hormones. At puberty, the sebaceous or oil glands around the hair follicles on the skin enlarge. Oil production also increases. Then, the ducts surrounding the follicles become clogged, and a whitehead or blackhead—called a comedo—results. Most cases of pimples, blackheads, or whiteheads will clear up quickly, but for some, acne can cause extremely painful, cystlike lesions. Acne can continue for years, but typically vanishes when a person reaches his or her early 20s. For some, however, acne can continue well into adulthood. Determining which type of acne lesions a teen has is the first step in directing treatment. There are four common types: Blackheads (or open comedones) These are caused by pores clogged by debris on the skin surface. Blackheads typically show up on the face, nose, and forehead and on the neck, chest, and back. (Blackheads have a black center. The black color of a blackhead is not caused by dirt, but by cells and oil in the follicle that are oxidized by oxygen in the air.) Teens can sometimes open the clogged pores by using a benzoyl peroxide gel applied sparingly four to seven times a week. If this doesn't help after a couple of months, then your doctor may prescribe a different medication. Teens also should gently clean their skin twice a day. Girls who wear makeup should use face products that won't encourage blackheads to form. (These products are called noncomedogenic.) Whiteheads (or closed comedones) When a plugged follicle remains under the skin, a small white bump or whitehead results. They can sometimes be treated by over-the-counter benzoyl peroxide cream or with prescription medications. Papules and pustules Papules are small bumps on the skin that are inflamed. Pustules (pimples) are papules that are filled with pus. Topical medications such as benzoyl peroxide or tretinoin (prescribed medicine) can often help. An oral antibiotic or prescription cream may be needed. Cysts or nodules These are deeper, painful lesions that occur when the infection within the sebaceous gland causes the gland and the area around it to become distorted as the infection spreads below the skin surface. An oral antibiotic or other acne medication like isotretinoin is often necessary to treat these types of lesions to help prevent scarring. Skin care and treatment A starting point for good skin care includes thorough but gentle cleansing at least twice daily. Vigorous scrubbing will irritate the skin, making acne worse. Be aware that products that include alcohol or other astringents or harsh detergents can irritate the skin and constrict the pores, often making acne worse. Your teen should wear an oil-free sunscreen when outdoors. Occasionally, nodules or deep bumps of acne persist. Then, topical antibiotics may be prescribed. Oral antibiotics, or other acne medicines like isotretinoin, are sometimes required, but you should talk with your child's doctor about the risks and benefits before using them. Tips to care for acne Keep all skin areas prone to acne very clean. Use soap and lots of water; pat areas dry; don't rub the skin. Avoid washing acne prone areas with very hot or very cold water. Lukewarm water is best for not aggravating skin conditions. Don't cover acne with bandages or tight-fitting clothing.


text:
Big Night (1996)
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
Must-see food scene: A timballo, usually the star of a multicourse Italian meal, is made using a complicated, and secret, family recipe. Brothers Primo and Secondo, like worried expectant parents, stand over the dish, waiting to see if it comes out of the oven unflawed.
What to munch: Add a little zing to traditional baked ziti with a Sausage-and-Pepper Baked Ziti. Try making it slowly and perfectly, preparing it with as much care and pride as the brothers.
Cast: Stanley Tucci, Tony Shalhoub, Marc Anthony, Minnie Driver, Isabella Rossellini
Movie summary: Talented Italian chef Primo creates elaborate dishes, which unfortunately don't seem to be drawing crowds to his restaurant. His charmingly sarcastic front-of-house manager and brother, Secondo, convinces Primo that in order to save the restaurant, they need to take a gamble on one big night. Fingers crossed, Primo prepares the feast of a lifetime to wow their guests and hopefully save the restaurant from closing for good.
More on Big Night at the Internet Movie Database


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Businesses Seeking Opportunities in Real Estate
More information on doing business with GSA is available on the For Businesses: Working with GSA page.
GSA provides workplaces to the government by constructing, managing, and preserving federal buildings and by leasing and managing commercial real estate through its Public Buildings Service (PBS).
To accomplish this mission, GSA looks to the private sector for the following:
Helpful Links:
|Doing Business with GSA Part VI: Market to the Federal Government
|GSA is committed to providing the vendor community with the necessary training and tools needed to compete for work with the Federal Government. Please select the link to attend upcoming webinar.
|Miller Act [PDF - 106 KB]
|Federal law outlining how payment bonds protect subcontractors and suppliers
|Summary of Performance and Financial Information 2012
|Key information from GSA's FY 2012 Financial Report
|2015 Congressional Justification [PDF - 4 MB]
|Congressional Justifications are part of GSA's budget that the President sends to Congress every year.
|Small Business - Getting Started
|Resources for small businesses who are new to federal contracting.
|PBS on FedBizOpps (FBO)
|Federal Business Opportunities - Direct link to database of contracting opportunities for GSA's Public Buildings Service on the Federal Business Opportunities website.
|Federal Procurement Data System – database used to collect and report on Federal procurement spending.
|How GSA Helps Small Business
|Resources, events, and featured opportunities and programs offered by the GSA Office of Small Business Utilization
|For Vendors - Getting on Schedule
|Shows vendors how to become a GSA Schedule contractor


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Boohan History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms
The name Boohan arrived in England after the Norman Conquest of 1066. The Boohan family lived in Sussex. Their name, however, does not refer to that area, but to their former place of residence, the town of Bohun, in the French maritime department of La Manche, in western Normandy. [1]
Early Origins of the Boohan family
The surname Boohan was first found in Sussex. Humphrey with the Beard (died c. 1113) was a Norman soldier and nobleman fought in the Norman Conquest of England of 1066 and is the earliest known ancestor of the de Bohun family. [2]
He had three sons: Robert de Bohun, who had no issue; Richard de Bohun, progenitor through the female line, of the Bohuns of Midhurst; and Humphrey I de Bohun (died c.1123) who through marriage became "the founder of the fortunes of his family." His son, Humphrey II de Bohun (died 1165) continued the lineage. His son, Henry de Bohun (1176-1220), was the 1st Earl of Hereford and Hereditary Constable of England from 1199 to 1220. [3]
"Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, inheriting the honour of Essex from his mother, Maud, sister and heiress of William de Mandeville, last Earl of Essex, was created Earl of that county by Henry III., and in a few years after stood sponsor for Prince Edward. In 1250, he assumed the cross, and proceeded to the Holy Land, and in the great content between the King and the Barons, fought under the banner of the latter, in whose army his son Humphrey was one of the most distinguished leaders, and commanded the infantry at the Battle of Evesham. " [2]
Early History of the Boohan family
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Boohan research. Another 156 words (11 lines of text) covering the years 1176, 1220, 1215, 1275, 1298, 1342, 1373, 1368, 1394, 1587, 1660, 1645, 1699, 1698 and are included under the topic Early Boohan History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Boohan Spelling Variations
Anglo-Norman names are characterized by a multitude of spelling variations. When the Normans became the ruling people of England in the 11th century, they introduced a new language into a society where the main languages of Old and later Middle English had no definite spelling rules. These languages were more often spoken than written, so they blended freely with one another. Contributing to this mixing of tongues was the fact that medieval scribes spelled words according to sound, ensuring that a person's name would appear differently in nearly every document in which it was recorded. The name has been spelled Bohon, Bohun, Bone, Boon, Boone, Bohan, Bound and many more.
Early Notables of the Boohan family (pre 1700)
Outstanding amongst the family at this time was Humphrey VII de Bohun (d. 1298), 3rd Earl of Hereford and 2nd Earl of Essex, who, along with Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, led the barons in opposition to King Edward I; Humphrey de Bohun (1342-1373), 7th (and last) Earl of Hereford, 6th Earl of Essex and 2nd Earl of Northampton; and Mary de Bohun (c.1368-1394), who was the...
Migration of the Boohan family to Ireland
Some of the Boohan family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt.
Migration of the Boohan family
For many English families, the political and religious disarray that plagued their homeland made the frontiers of the New World an attractive prospect. Thousands migrated, aboard cramped disease-ridden ships. They arrived sick, poor, and hungry, but were welcomed in many cases with far greater opportunity than at home in England. Many of these hardy settlers went on to make important contributions to the emerging nations in which they landed. Among early immigrants bearing the name Boohan or a variant listed above were: Lawrence Bohun, who arrived in Virginia in 1610; Ann Bone, who settled in Virginia in 1663; William Bone settled in Virginia in 1643; John Bone settled in Maryland in 1747.
SS Caribou


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Some news! An article I wrote last year called "'Susie Bubble is a Sign of the Times': The Embodiment of Success in the Web 2.0 Economy" is now available online at Feminist Media Studies. In it, I consider the enormous popularity of fashion blogging phenom Susie Bubble (also, Susanna Lau) as a case study for examining the cultural frames that now shape how we see and recognize "success" in the digital creative economy. Understood more broadly, the essay explores the new racial and gendered formations of the labor market in the creative digital economy. This article builds on and expands some of the ideas from my blog posts tagged under the label "Fashion 2.0" (in the Departments pull-down menu, right column).
Also! This week I was super excited to learn that an older article called "Blog Ambition: Fashion, Feelings, and the Political Economy of the Digital Raced Body" in Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies was the journal's most-read article in March 2012! WOOOT!!
(I know we've been a little quiet on Threadbared for awhile but wanted to share these essays as alternative ways you can keep up with what we've been doing.)


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MLB Season in Review: Chicago Cubs Pitchers
By R.J Anderson //
Biggest Surprise: Carlos Silva & Tom Gorzelanny
Silva went from one of the worst pitchers in baseball to a guy with a 10-6 record and 4.22 ERA. Meanwhile Gorzelanny went from unemployable by the Pirates to a 4.09 ERA in 23 starts. The Cubs had a disappointing season, but they managed to turn broken eggs into souffl� twice during the same season. Both pitchers have dealt with injury issues throughout the season, including Gorzelanny breaking a finger and Silva enduring elbow tendinitis in September alone.
Biggest Bust: Carlos Zambrano
Not because he pitched poorly, mind you, but because his temporary stints on the inactive list and in the bullpen wasted away his value and held him to 19 starts.
2011 Keeper Alert: Carlos Marmol
One of the most incredible seasons in baseball this or any season, Marmol's 77.2 innings pitched come with 138 strikeouts and 40 hits allowed. For his career, Marmol has struck out twice as many batters as hits given up. That's just unfathomable. The only aspect of his game that prevents Marmol from being perhaps the most dominant reliever in baseball (if he isn't already) is his tendency to lose the plate: No closer walked more batters more frequently than Marmol (6.03 BB/9 IP – though that was, amazingly, nearly two full walks per game lower than his 2009 mark).
2011 Regression Alert: Carlos Silva
Silva struck out 6.37 batters per nine innings this season. His career rate is a little over four. Maybe he's discovered the key to fanning heaven, but probably not. Be careful about overvaluing the latest season, even though pitchers like Esteban Loaiza have broken out at a similar age.
For more on the Chicago Cubs, check out Bloomberg Sports' fantasy kits.


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In many ways I'd much prefer the site to be better known for the articles and reviews I write, but the visitor numbers the established rumours pages bring in are something that no commercial site can ignore (remember that the site also brings me in new commercial work).Keith, I follow your rumours site and came to it by reading your articles. BTW I use your B&W test image for years! Great explanation what the image does and can be used for. Keep my fingers crossed for September. As a former electronics engineer I totally agree with Michaels Optimizing Exposure and the recent article on this site, Five Camera Technologies We Want, But Likely Won't Get. Henk
Hi Joshua,Canon Australia commented on their Wall post.Canon Australia wrote: "Hi Joshua, weve actually just removed the survey you refer to because people were allowed to name their Canon products and unfortunately some people posted products that arent available in Australia or do not exist, like the camera youre referring to. Sorry for the confusion, the Canon team."


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Happy Easter! Christianity is Dying.
Just in time for Easter, Gallup has released poll data going back to 1948 showing an inexorable decline in the number of Americans who practice Christianity.
The graph nicely illustrates the inherent contradiction posed by religious zealots who alternatively shout "we are a Christian nation!" and "Christianity is under attack!" We are an overwhelmingly Christian nation—or at least we tell pollsters that we are—that is on a long and steady slide toward atheism, agnosticism, and general secularism. Those who find some sort of strength in the fact that they are currently part of the 77 percent of the nation who call themselves Christian deeply fear the fact that, ten years from now, that number will have been chipped away to 70 percent, and so on.
The numbers are certainly not going up. Astonishingly, the chart shows no bump in post-9/11 religiosity, which means it will take a lot of screaming and fire-breathing and Bible-thumping to reverse the trend.
Below is a corresponding graph showing the concomitant rise in atheism:


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'Gangster Squad' is criminally sloppy
- USA TODAY review: ** out of four
- Cast: Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin, Nick Nolte, Emma Stone
- Rated R; runtime: 1 hour, 53 minutes; opens Friday nationwide
A bullet-riddled bloodbath with an all-star cast, Gangster Squad is a lurid and ludicrous Mob thriller that glorifies a gangland lifestyle.
In the last five minutes the film (** out of four; rated R; opens Friday nationwide) shifts gears and offers a tribute to law enforcement. But this tacked-on resolution is as sticky and fake as Sean Penn's make-up job.
Penn plays gangster Mickey Cohen as an over-the-top psycho, lacking any of the charm that the former boxing champ purportedly used to get so many to do his bidding. Cohen was one of the most dangerous Mob bosses, but as portrayed by Penn, with his puttied face and snappy pronouncements, he mostly comes off as laughable.
"Los Angeles is my destiny," Cohen proclaims to his henchmen. And: "I am progress."
The story is set in L.A. in 1949 when Cohen brought his Brooklyn-based Mob empire to the West Coast. For a while he seemed to have most key officials in his pocket, including police officers, judges and politicians.
Fearless in the face of Cohen's trigger-happy goons, war hero Sgt. John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) initially appears to be the only honest cop in all of the city. A distant second is Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), who distracts his pangs of conscience with wine, women and nightclubbing.
When the police chief taps O'Mara to form a clandestine squad to take down Cohen and dismantle his drug, gambling and prostitution rings, at least a half-dozen officers prove eager to play gangster. The plan is to covertly disrupt Cohen's enterprises by using his own tactics, so the men in blue punch, pummel, shoot, bomb and generally behave like bad guys — in service of a greater good.
The crew he assembles is played by an impressive team of actors that also includes Anthony Mackie, Robert Patrick, Michael Peña and Giovanni Ribisi. Given that this was a notoriously racist LAPD, though, the effort to integrate the squad with a black officer (Mackie) and a Mexican-American (Peña) seems an anachronistic nod to contemporary political correctness.
The story is based on true events, as chronicled in Paul Lieberman's eponymous book. But the screenplay, written by former LAPD detective Will Beall, seems to draw more on other gangster movies than insider knowledge.
In one particularly unlikely scene, O'Mara and Wooters take on a slew of Cohen's heavily armed thugs in a hotel lobby. It's two against about 40. But the cops go in guns a-blazing and somehow manage to dodge all the machine gun fire and pick off most of Cohen's men.
In another hard-to-buy scene, O'Mara's pregnant wife Connie (Mireille Enos) survives a machine gun attack on their house, crawls across the floor and gives birth in a bathtub. The baby pops out looking ready to crawl.
While there is little to recommend this movie — and the excessive gun violence could put viewers off — it does evoke a glamorous era, with close attention paid to period costumes, architecture and set design.
L.A. Confidential still remains the quintessential film about the city in that era. The guys here, appropriately, spend a good deal of time in the less-storied environs of Burbank.
If, as Stephen Colbert has said, "the movies is where Americans learn their history," Gangster Squad is just noisy disinformation.


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For a paper which turns its nose at news about the rest of the media, The Times of India has a strange item on its business page, news of the mobile phone entrepreneur turned member of Parliament, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, evincing some interest in Ramoji Rao's Eenadu television chain in Andhra Pradesh.
The ToI report comes a day after a Business Standard report that Network 18 was in the midst of merger talks with Eenadu. There has been plenty of market buzz that Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries has been more than interested in Eenadu through its subsidiaries and friends like Nimesh Kampani.
For the record, Chandrasekhar already owns news properties in print and television in Malayalam (Asianet News) and Kannada (Suvarna News, Kannada Prabha).
Rajeev Chandrasekhar buying a Malayalam daily?


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Police department's dash cam footage of crash reminds drivers to move over, slow down
A police department in Texas is reminding drivers to be cautious when passing emergency vehicles after sharing dash cam video of an SUV hitting a tow truck on the side of the road Wednesday.
The video, which has been shared more than 1,000 times on Facebook, shows a police officer with the Euless Police Department and tow truck driver assisting a driver whose car was stopped along the side of the road.
Suddenly, a black SUV is seen swerving out of control and into the side of the car, before hitting the ramp of the tow truck and flipping onto its side.
"The law states a driver must either vacate the lane closet to the stopped emergency vehicle if the road has multiple lanes traveling in the same direction OR slow down 20 mph below the speed limit," the police department said in the post.
Police said no one in the video was injured as a result of the crash.


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You don't have to be directly hit by a tornado in Minnesota to experience damage. Taking some time to prepare could save you thousands of dollars and hours of clean-up.
In an average year, 800 are reported nationwide, but in April of 2011 alone, 875 tornadoes were reported. Oftentimes, homes and businesses close to a tornado are damaged or destroyed by wind, rain and flying debris. Check with us to see if your insurance policy covers repair or rebuilding costs.
If you can't live in your home, see if your policy will pay additional living expenses. We can review your policy for detailed coverage explanations.
Review your insurance policy once a year to make sure you have enough coverage to rebuild based on current construction costs. Insurance Solutions of Litchfield recommends you work with an independent building contractor to get a precise estimate, and make sure you chat with us about your business or home's unique features.
You can't make your home or business tornado-proof, but you can take steps that improve the odds of surviving the high winds. Ideally, you may want to call on professionals for the more technical jobs.
Check out some of these additional resources or let Insurance Solutions of Litchfield find the right insurance protection for you:
It's necessary to get the right insurance protection for you. For more information on your policy or if you'd like to ask about additional coverage, please contact us or give us a call at 320-593-0591.


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My Anritsu
5G Lab
IoT (Internet of Things)
The MT8860B is an integrated one-box test set dedicated to testing 802.11 WLAN devices. It provides a high-speed measurement solution that is suitable for both production testing and design proving.
The MT8860B has two modes of operation: Network and Direct. The "Network" mode uses standard WLAN signaling and can be used for testing both the transmitter and receiver of DUTs. In "Direct" mode, the MT8860B tests DUT receivers by generating and transmitting WLAN packets, and tests DUT transmitters with its built-in transmitter analyzer. In Direct mode, the DUT must be controlled by the test mode software utility from the silicon supplier. The user interface is implemented through the supplied LANLook software package. LANLook runs on a standard PC and uses a conventional Windows®, based interface for both instrument configuration and results displays in clear numerical and graphical formats. LANLook communicates with the MT8860B through a GPIB interface.
For supporting documentation, see Library tab below


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Sara Pickell wrote a brilliant post about MMOs, and the struggle between companies trying to sell them to us as goods vs services. I've tried to come at this from a different angle before, but she does it far more eloquently than I did.
But there was one paragraph that made me stop and think (and she's referring to the Bartle player types here – achiever, explorer, socialiser, killer):
The primary audience of any product will always be the achievers, those who want it for it's own use and to excel within it's use. The secondary target would be explorers, those who are interested in seeing it in it's entirety. You may still want some socialites to build buzz for you, but they are more likely to strain your system without seeing very much content so their presence is more a marketing investment than anything. Killers are last place, to one extent catering to another audience is always a good thing, on the other, killers are more likely to drive away other players or cause harassment issues. Killers are probably only given serious representation now because they simply make up one of the largest minorities in MMOs.
I think it is commonly held (by non-killers) that the 'killers' (ie. players whose primary way to have fun is by attacking other players) are a negative influence on the genre. They're the griefers, the min-maxers, the trouble-makers, the forum whiners. They're the ones who will drive other players away by corpse camping them for hours and then flooding forums with illegible leet smacktalk. They're the kiddies, the guys who just don't know how to play nice with others.
But all virtual worlds involve competition
When you get more than one person into a room, in real life as well as in a game, they will compete with each other. It may be subtle, it may be non-serious, but they will compete for any resource available.
The idea that a virtual social world utopia would be completely free of negative vibes is ridiculous. Social competition is some of the most bitter, vicious, cut-throat gaming that it is possible to have. And it's largely based on trying to be popular. Being bitter about not getting enough attention from 'the right people'. Networking. Trying to make yourself useful. Cybering for extra perks (it happens a lot).
You know what guild drama can be like? You know how people fret if they feel left out of a clique? Imagine an entire virtual world which is all about guild drama. I'm not saying that it can't be fun – people are extremely fun. They will surprise and entertain you in ways that no mechanical NPC ever can. But we don't have a good ruleset for social competition.
If the killers know one thing, it is how to compete
And this is where the killers come in. The way they compete is far simpler. You kill someone. Or you get killed. You exchange some smack talk. You go back to base and start again. At the end of the session, they leave the game on the table.
Compare that to the extended guild drama bitchfests which can leave people in tears or depressed for hours. Which is the most healthy form of competition, really?
For all that devs and other players complain about the killers in our games, I wonder if we need them there to teach us how to play the things.


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I spotted a golden feather on the edge of the concrete platform, waiting for me, while I was waiting for the train. I thought of a joke, about rats devouring an entire golden pigeon—but there was no one around to share the joke with. A bum slept expertly on a too small bench, a woman pulled herself inward and stood far away, watching her toes, and a very young man gave me a very rough look. I picked up the feather, which was on a thin gold chain, but I stayed squatted, close to the edge, leaning my head into the danger zone. I could see all the way to the next station, where the train idled, its headlights like tiger eyes in the tunnel-jungle. I waited there, poised, fascinated, as the train approached and the eyes widened. When I finally stood, the woman and the young man were staring baldly. We were all connected, all relieved that I had not jumped. I dangled my feather for them on its chain, as if to explain myself—all of this in just a blink of a moment—then the train roared its arrival, doors opened, and we stepped into separate cars. It was late, past midnight, and I was headed uptown to clean for a man.
He lived in the penthouse suite of a building overlooking Central Park. There was a doorman whom I had to tell my name and the name of the man I was there to see. I used a made-up name for myself, Salvatore. The doorman introduced himself as Freddy and gave me a wink. He was a light-skinned black man, likely in his fifties.
"You Latin?"
"Puerto Rican," I said, pushing my hands into my back pockets and puffing out my chest.
"Yeah," Freddy said, grinning. "Course you are."
On my way to the elevator, Freddy called me back. I stood before him and Freddy made a motion to suggest that I come even closer, as what he had to say was only for me to hear, though we were alone in the lobby.
"You line up all the skinny little brown boys I seen pass through this door, headed exactly where you're headed"—Freddy leaned toward me—"you line them up and you know what you'd have?"
I waited.
"What do you think you'd have?"
I let my gaze crawl down to Freddy's crotch, over his little desk, his crumpled sports-car magazine, then slowly back up to his creased face, his smug, mischievous eyes. I looked at him patiently and deliberately.
"You'd have the army of a Third World country," Freddy said, and broke into squawks of laughter.
When I got to the apartment, the man instructed me to keep my underwear on. The apartment was open and very modern—sixteen-foot ceilings and one wall somehow made entirely of glass.
I moved along the window-wall, polishing with ammonia and newspaper. I liked my reflection in the nighttime glass, the way my body was almost translucent, its outline and features only hinted at, and the way the city lights and the black-green hole of the Park were contained within, and spilling out of, me. The reflection of my white cotton underwear neared opacity, realness, and the gold chain with the gold feather glimmered. The man passed comment on all the usual parts of my body, but the unusual as well—my calves, the notch at the top of my spine. To comment is not necessarily to compliment, we were both aware.
I did not look at him. I looked at me in the window: half disappeared, slim, and young. If you don't pretend at vanity, the men feel dissatisfied. Look at my smooth skin, look at my young face, look at my golden feather!
And then something else, conviction, took over; I am a very good pretender. So, more than anything, I want to say this: in that moment I was happy.
"Explain, explain," Nigel demanded, but he did not want me to explain anything. I had become a monster to him, and he needed me to stay a monster. I kept silent, slowly spinning a sugar packet on the table with the tip of my finger. The waitress gave us a wide berth—Nigel was weeping openly—but I wished she would come and refill my empty cup. I listened to Nigel; I watched him cry; I rummaged around inside myself and tried to find a memory, a hurt, that would enable me to cry as well. I'd been a dick, dicked around, throughout the long near-decade of our relationship, countless men, often, though not always, for money. In penance, I wanted to cry for him now. I rummaged and rummaged, but I was dry.
"Explain!" Nigel demanded. He smacked the table. A grown man, blubbering like he was, and that pink thrift-store oxford with the elbows patched, and his foppish hair—we looked very gay, and a little pathetic. I could perceive us through the eyes of the round family in the neighboring booth; I could hear the thoughts of the single men, eating alone at the counter, their hunched slabs of backs to us; and the waitress, of course—I had her number—was never going to bring that pot of coffee around again. We looked ridiculous, and Nigel looked especially ridiculous. I should have been able to shut off that judgment, that concern for appearances. I should have focussed on Nigel, only Nigel, and felt something.
"Come on," I said. I slipped twenty dollars out of my pocket and made sure to catch the waitress's eye as I laid it near the edge of the table—twenty dollars for two cups of coffee and being gay in an all-night working-class diner in South Brooklyn.
"Explain, explain," Nigel whined.
I stood and lifted his ratty old peacoat from the peg. "Put this on. Wipe your eyes. We're leaving. Here—napkin. Blow your nose."
I handed Nigel his scarf, which he had knitted himself, poorly. How proud he was of its garish colors and its holes and dropped stitches, the inelegance of it all. I had watched him from bed, many nights, knitting in the lamplight and playing records with our little fat, deaf cat on his lap, and I had thought him beautiful, soft, cozy; at the same time, there was the dust and the clutter and the cat hair, and always the same records, scratched in the same places, and I would ponder what made him so soft, and what he was so afraid of.
"Explain. I need you to explain, you asshole."
"Get up. Come on. Enough. I'll walk you home."
There was such a wind, such an icy wind wriggling into every buttonhole, and I had no hat. I was glad for the wind; everyone walked face down, the crowns of their heads fully forward, hands tucked into armpits. No one looked at anyone else, or had to be looked at. But I let that wind push and bite into my face, and I looked at the men—even then, I looked at all the men.
Our shabby little apartment was now his. He did not want to let me up, but I told him it was too cold to try to explain anything out on the sidewalk.
"Is that a joke? Is this a trick?" Nigel asked. "Trickster, trickster. Am I a trick?"
He pushed the key into first one lock, then the next. He trembled. I did not want to have sex with him, but I knew that he needed me to want to.
Inside, the cat pushed against our legs.
"She missed you," Nigel said. I thought to pick her up, but I was wearing a long black wool coat and our cat was very white. I took Nigel's hand and led him toward the bedroom.
"No," he said. "Not anywhere it ever was. Here." He opened up the bathroom door and pulled the light bulb's chain. "On the floor."
I needed only to glance at the hexagons of white tile to feel a deep, hard coldness in my bones, yet I stripped, dutiful, diligent, and laid my bare back against the floor, and waited. Nigel came back with a condom; we had never used one, not once.
"Where the hell did you get that?"
"Shut up."
"No, seriously, did you buy that? Already? Already you bought that?"
"Put it on."
I did. We proceeded. Underneath me, the floor grew somehow colder and harder. As we gathered speed, Nigel put his hands on my shoulders and lifted me, I thought, for a kiss—we had not yet kissed—but instead he slammed my shoulders back down, and my skull met the floor in a blinding, white-noise kind of way. It took a few moments to realize that I was curled on my side, cradling my head, eyes closed. I opened my eyes; Nigel was standing in the bedroom doorway, watching me. He looked unwell—shell-shocked, naked, clutching our cat to his chest. He looked very, very unwell.
"I'm O.K.," I said.
He sneered, huffed a crazy laugh, and kicked the door shut.
I locked the doors to the bookstore and cut the music but left the lights on—the whole store suddenly hugely silent, the shelves picked over, in need of straightening. I turned the chairs upside down on the café tables and left the empty register drawer hanging open to discourage the curious from putting a brick through the window. In the back, I counted out the till. Once, I stole a hundred dollars in ones and fives, and how flushed Nigel was when I kept pulling bills out of my pockets, how exasperated. How many jobs had I been fired from, or walked out on, over the years, how many long stretches of joblessness? I felt free. Always I'd felt free; Nigel had never been fired, never quit abruptly. He worked slavishly for social-justice organizations, kept us in food, and cat food, and secondhand records. People steal, I told him. People lie, people cheat. Except that he didn't steal, lie, or cheat.
I was in the back, counting out the till, and the phone rang. I thought it was him, I was expecting him, any minute, he was the one supposed to come and meet me after work, but it was Nigel calling, from just outside.
"Poke your head out," he said. "You'll see me."
"I'm counting."
"Take a break from counting—sheesh—poke your head out, let me see you."
"I'll lose my place. Anyway, go home, I told you I had plans."
"Plans? Go home?"
"I told you—Caroline. And she just wants me, not us. You know how she gets—she'll want to get drunk and unload, and you have to work in the morning. And anyway she just wants me, not us. It's not personal, she just feels superior to me, thinks I'm more fucked up than she is, so she can tell me—"
"There's a man," Nigel said, "on a bicycle."
And I just shut up.
"There's a man, looking in the window. He's sitting on a bicycle, looking in the window. And I want you to tell me the truth. Is he waiting for you?"
"Unbelievable," Nigel whispered. And he whispered something else, some other word. Or it was the wind. Then he said, "He looks like a really nice guy. You unbelievable asshole."
He was not a nice guy, but he knew how to look like one.
We stayed on the phone. I stayed in the back. Nigel walked toward the train. The man on the bicycle waited. I pleaded and apologized and pretended I did not want to break up as much as I really did want to break up. All the while, I felt such anger; I was so tired of apologizing. Nigel was always finding discarded plants and taking them home to regenerate. Everywhere in our apartment were plants, thriving. This, too, infuriated me—and when Nigel instructed me not to come home that night, when he told me to come by the next day, while he was at work, and remove all my shit and never come home again, I thought of those plants, of a space in the world without them.
"It's over," Nigel said. "You're free."
Nigel and I took jobs as farmhands on a tiny two-acre farm in Virginia—a sloppy, rocky field nestled in the folds of the Blue Ridge Mountains. We drove down non-stop, taking turns behind the wheel. The car was Nigel's, some old thing he'd scrimped for. We'd slowly chug up one side of a mountain, then slide down the other, recklessly, not braking for as long as possible, hollering at our luck, at our newfound right to do as we damn well pleased and to do it together. We were nineteen years old, both of us, and we'd found each other.
At our first truck stop, I stole a pair of driving glasses that had yellow-tinted lenses and large black plastic frames. They made the whole world seem as if I were swimming through honey. Nigel started on some sensible nonsense about the serious consequences I was gambling with. He speculated about the jails around those parts, the conditions, the prejudice and hostilities of others, but I slipped the glasses on him while he was driving, I kissed him on the neck, I said, "Look."
And he said, "Wow, it's beautiful."
We arrived at night, on the heels of a rainstorm that had sucked away half of the dirt road that led to the farmer's driveway. We kept sinking into little craters filled with water that splashed up onto the windshield, as if we were driving through a car wash. It took three passes before we found the turnoff, an unmarked path of red dirt, two parallel paths, really, tire tracks, with grass growing in the middle. Leaves and brambles closed in from both sides and scraped against the windows. Three miles on this path, with no light beyond the scope of our high beams, no moonlight, no starlight, just trees and a blackness so heavy that we both stopped talking and stretched our necks until our foreheads were almost touching the windshield, trying to make sense of the tarry vastness around us.
"We just slipped off the edge of the world," Nigel said.
The headlights caught a flash of sparkling eyes, some tiny faceless beast. Inside the car, the green light of the dashboard reflected off the soft white underside of Nigel's chin. It looked as if the light were radiating from inside him, as if he had swallowed a fistful of emeralds.
"What are you so afraid of?" I asked.
Nigel took his eyes from the drive for just a second to look at me. "Oh, come on. You love to pretend you're so fearless."
The farmer appeared on the edge of the path, shielding his eyes, a shotgun in his hands. Nigel stopped the car and cranked down his window.
"You'll have to leave the car here," the farmer said. He made no excuse for the gun. "You brought a flashlight?"
He led us to a small shack, a tilting shingled structure with four walls and a wood-burning stove. It was perched on the slope of a minor mountain, about a third of the way up, with thick slabs of rock stuck under the front side, a new rock every year, to keep the house from tumbling forward into the fields of wild raspberries. He explained this to us with wide sweeps of the flashlight.
We had met the farmer that spring, when he had opened up his land to the swarms of protesters descending on the capital for a week of anger and messy celebration. We'd missed an entire day of protests, because we were so taken with the seedlings and the greenhouse and the mountain and the old hippie back-to-the-lander who told us charming, paranoid stories and invited us to work for him in the summer, when he could use the extra hands. Now, in the darkness, on the side of the mountain, the man seemed ornery and off.
"She's wobbly," the farmer said. "She's aiming to pitch, but she'll make it through the summer."
"You're sure about that," Nigel said, too timid to curve the statement into a question. I was breathless from the hike and the weight of our belongings, trying to keep my panting quiet.


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This article was originally published in the November/December 1994 issue of Home Energy Magazine. Some formatting inconsistencies may be evident in older archive content.
| Back to Contents Page | Home Energy Index | About Home Energy |
Home Energy Magazine Online November/December 1994
IRS Nips at Utility Rebates
Two Congressional resolutions would allow utilities to deduct the cost of energy conservation services in the year the costs are incurred. Supporters hope they will end a challenge by some Internal Revenue Service agents who are forcing some utilities to capitalize those costs.
A number of IRS agents have interpreted a Supreme Court decision, INDOPCO Inc. versus Commissioner 112 S. Ct. 1039 (1992), to mean that expenditures related to energy-efficiency should be capitalized--that is, deducted over a period of time. But taking tax deductions on energy conservation investments in the year in which they are made is more economically attractive to utilities than deducting the expenses over a longer period.
A capitalization interpretation would add to the cost of conservation programs and expose utilities to punitive losses for tax benefits that have flowed through to utility ratepayers in prior years, contends Gloria Quinn, of the Edison Electric Institute (EEI). This is really part of a broader debate because it isn't just utilities that are affected but a lot of other companies too, she adds.
Utility energy conservation programs frequently defer cost recovery and provide performance incentives to compensate utilities for administering the programs. Utilities have consistently deducted conservation expenditures in the year paid or incurred for federal income tax purposes regardless of the rate recovery methods imposed by regulators. Quinn warns that the new IRS interpretation could be taken so far as to disallow deductions made in previous years by utilities.
In fact, Southern California Edison Co. recently informed the California Public Utilities Commission that because of the potential tax liability, it will suspend its rebate programs in January 1995, if the issue hasn't been resolved. The utility annually spends about $50 million of its $138 million demand-side management budget on rebates.
In a hearing last year before the Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures of the House Ways and Means Committee, Tony Smith, director of taxes at Southern California Edison Co., argued that the IRS interpretation is contrary to the National Energy Policy Act. These utilities expend considerable funds for conservation services to assist customers to utilize energy more efficiently [but] the products the customers purchase, such as energy-efficient appliances, are owned by the customers, not by the utilities, he said.
In 1991, the national IRS office issued a Technical Advice Memorandum (TAM9128010) to Puget Sound Power and Light Co. covering the company's 1979-'80 tax years, ruling that conservation expenditures are not required to be capitalized, yet leaving the issue unresolved by indicating that such expenditures may be subject to capitalization where a cause and effect link is established to significant future benefits.
Now, EEI claims, the IRS is ignoring the memorandum, and is asking the Treasury Department to publish a ruling clarifying that conservation expenditures are currently deductible regardless of the rate-making methods and performance incentives that may be authorized by regulators to encourage conservation programs.
Utilities want an administrative solution to clarify that conservation expenditures are fully deductible in the year incurred. Two proposed measures (H.R. 784, and Senate Bill 988) would do this, but they are not expected to go before Congress this year. Supporters of these resolutions are still hoping for a favorable outcome and some think a resolution can be reached by the end of this year through a Treasury Department ruling.
In 1993, the IRS lost a bid to tax residential utility customers who got rebates for installing energy-efficient appliances. Under the Federal Energy Policy Act, the rebates aren't taxable (see IRS to Lose Its Slice of Utility Rebates, HE May/June '93, p.8).
-- Jim Hammett
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The way forward for Takaful has been saved
The way forward for Takaful
Spotlight on growth, investment and regulation in key markets
This study marks the beginning of a new approach in the field of Islamic Finance which aims to promote a culture of industry-driven research.
Increasingly, many Takaful organizations are realizing the need to address the regulatory compliance and investment risks that threaten strategic objectives around growth and profitability. Equally, industry executives recognize the importance of implementing good governance practices to facilitate compliance and devise well-balanced investment strategies to realize growth and sustainability.
This report builds on our last study on the global Takaful insurance market, and looks more deeply into the core Takaful markets in the Middle East and South Asia. The analysis and discussion are formed around building case studies on those markets. The research team examined in brief the economic and regulatory environment in six selected countries, three from each region. The goal was to bring to our discussion, and to the readers, an update on developments on both regulatory and economic fronts.
A detailed analysis of the insurance sector and Takaful was made through cross-examining the financial performance and investment strategies for a selected group of prominent Takaful firms. The main business and economic drivers and factors underpinning the growth of Takaful business in those countries were discussed with analysis and rationalization.
More importantly, this study marks the beginning of a new approach in the field of Islamic Finance which aims to promote a culture of industry-driven research. This aspiration was shared by Deloitte Middle East and two prominent research institutions – the International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF) and Henley Business School, University of Reading. As such, this study is a strategic collaborative research initiative aimed at promoting industry-sponsored research in Islamic Finance, and this report demonstrates the value of collaborative work and resource sharing to address practical and regulatory issues in our industry.
This industry research benefited from two important factors that added valuable inputs into the research process and implementation. The first is a group of student researchers at INCEIF who carried out the desk research and preliminary analysis of markets in South Asia – Dr. Mohd-Pisal Zainal, Alaa Alaabed, Irum Saba, Maznita Mokhtar, Layla Jawad, Adeelah Heesambee, Khurram Shahzad, and Fatema Hasan from Deloitte IFKC. The second is a sponsorship from FWU Group.
Finally, and as in our past thought leadership publications, the last section of 'Thought leaders' perspectives' invited and engaged prominent industry thought leaders and practitioners to share their insightful views on issues discussed. We are grateful for their valuable support in taking part in the debate and enriching the industry-wide dialogue to harmonize global industry practices.


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Jan 12, 2022Lettuce Aphids Showing Up Early This Season
Lettuce aphids, Nasonovia ribisnigri, (aka., red aphid) have been found colonizing lettuce fields since mid-December in several locations throughout Yuma. In the desert, we typically associate lettuce aphid with the warm growing conditions in February and March. However, in the past few weeks, I've identified lettuce aphids infesting head and romaine lettuce in both organic and conventional production in Dome Valley, Gila Valley, Yuma Valley and across the river in Mexico. This is by far the heaviest I've seen lettuce aphids colonize lettuce in the desert this early in the season. Foxglove aphid is also being reported in the Yuma Valley, albeit at much lower abundance. Given their widespread incidence, Lettuce aphids likely came into the desert on one of the multiple flights of winged aphids we've reported from sticky traps this winter (see Areawide Trapping Network). Experience has taught us high temperatures in the 70-80's are ideal for population growth of these aphid species. Our local weather forecast suggests that high temperatures will be in the 70's with moderate nighttime lows in the 50's for the next two weeks. Assuming the weather service is correct, these conditions may be conducive for lettuce and foxglove aphid population growth. So be prepared to battle them.
A few things to remember about lettuce aphids relative to the other aphids we commonly see. First, the immature nymphs are small and have a red appearance, whereas the apterous (wing-less) adults are typically a large brown colored aphid with dark bands running across the abdomen (see images below). Second, among the crops we grow locally, lettuce aphids are only found on the lettuce types (Lactuca spp.). Lettuce aphids prefer to colonize the terminal growth, and can often be found in heads or hearts, whereas green peach aphids are often found on the frame leaves in high numbers before moving into the heads. Sampling should be focused on the terminal growth of young plants, and in the heads and hearts of older plants. Third, they can reproduce prolifically, producing many more alates (winged) adults than other species, which can quickly lead to widespread abundance in a field and dispersal throughout a growing area. Finally, as the saying goes "he who hesitates is lost". If lettuce aphids are found on your lettuce, it is recommended that you respond quickly with an insecticide treatment. The product of choice is Movento at 5 oz/ac. Because of its systemic activity, Movento will reach aphids in the protected terminal growth. Be sure to include a penetrating adjuvant for best results at a rate of at least 0.25% v/v. It normally requires about 7 days of activity before significant reduction in the infestation is observed but can take longer (10-14 days) in cool, cloudy weather. Sequoia and Sivanto are good rotational products if coverage of terminal areas can be attained. For more information on lettuce aphid please refer to Lettuce Aphid on Spring Produce-2022. If you're finding lettuce aphid on organic lettuce, good luck; we've not had much success in controlling them with available biopesticides.To contact John Palumbo go to: email@example.com


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Chevy Aveo Speedometer
I have one of those radar signs in my neighborhood that tells you how fast you are going. On my old car, the sign said what was close to what my speedometer said, but on my Aveo, it reads lower, sometimes substantially lower. However, the odometer is spot on correct. I know in older cars the two were related and if the odometer was correct, then the speedometer is correct. Is that still the case?
Also does having an all-white car have any effect on radar or on these signs?
I like to drive the speed limit and I can't tell if I'm going any faster or slower than usual because 99% of the other drivers fly by me anyway. I have found that if I drive the same speeds as always, I arrive at about the same time as the old car, or just a little bit sooner.
Also does having an all-white car have any effect on radar or on these signs?
I like to drive the speed limit and I can't tell if I'm going any faster or slower than usual because 99% of the other drivers fly by me anyway. I have found that if I drive the same speeds as always, I arrive at about the same time as the old car, or just a little bit sooner.
timseh Member Posts: 24Get on the highway and use a stopwatch. Time yourself from mile marker to mile marker. 60 MPH should be exactly 1 minute. I believe 65 MPH is about 55 seconds. 70 MPH should be 51 seconds or so. 55 MPH should be about 65 seconds. On surface streets, if you can avoid stoplights/signs, 45 MPH should be 80 seconds even. 35 MPH should be 102 seconds (1 min. 42 seconds).
The color of the car has absolutely no bearing on radar... unless you managed to get your hands on some of that cool radar absorbing/deflecting military stealth paint.0
I figured out the first couple of days that the speedometer was off. Comparing to radar signs, the speedo reads 5 mph over in the 50-65 mph range and 3-5 mph over around town at lower speeds. I compensate by allowing a higher reading than what I want to actually be traveling.
Have also checked against mile markers over a considerable distance, and the odometer reads high by 4-5%.0
Thanks for replying.
I will try the stopwatch thing, but I don't like looking at a stopwatch while driving as I live in a very high traffic area. But, I plan to take a long trip out to the desert and there are some places where I might be able to do that. I'll take the numbers you posted with me.
I found some research that says that most speedometers on American cars tend to read as much as 4% higher than the actual speed. But, in my case, it read up to 20% off, though it does seem to be improving. Yesterday, the sign seem to indicate that it was around 10% off. The odometer is perfect, right on the mark, so I'm not worried about mileage.
The car was an ugly duckling on the lot that I got it from. It was driven heavily for the first few years, then dropped off at a dealership, and basically only driven for 20 miles during the last few months. It also rained heavily during that time and there were several problems by the time that I test drove it. But, a lot of them have resolved themselves just by regular driving and a little TLC. Maybe this will be one of those problems that will resolve itself. I just hope that if there is a problem, I can convince the dealer to fix it.0
I don't know why there is such a problem with speedometers reading high. Of the last 4 cars I've driven, 3 had speedometers that were inaccurate.
This isn't exactly a high-tech dilemma. It's probably just a little plastic gear that needs to be the right size, so what's the problem?0
Yeah, I hear that some of them are also just a magnetic connection between the dashboard and the cable to the transmission or wheels, too. But, that's what several studies have said, I don't remember the exact places, but it was several.
I know that my last 2 cars that I've owned had very accurate speedometers, too. In fact, I was "paced" by a motor officer when I had a Ford Granada and when I went 1 mile over the speed limit before he waved me to slow down.
I just noticed, today, that my local freeways don't have mile markers on them. :confuse: I have to go way out of town before I start seeing them.0
I just found out that there is a TSB relating to incorrect speedometers on the year and model that I have. I am taking the car in for a timing belt change in a couple of months, and will bring this up to the dealer. Hopefully, having a TSB number or copy of the TSB will convince them something needs to be done if it's really is inaccurate. I will let everyone know how the road test went when I can do it. It's not a major thing, but I like my speedo to be correct as possible.0
What year is your car and does the TSB include every vehicle in that model year?0
The NHTSA number is 10018606 and seems to cover all models. I have a 2004, but it seems to cover up to 2006. I haven't been able to find out all the details, yet, but I'll dig around. It seems to be a recent TSB. I also get a number 3774, I think, too. The problem is that you have to pay to get the full reports.0
Thanks. Went through the entire list of TSB reports for my model year. Almost all the issues I've had are addressed, but the dealers have been unable or reluctant to fix the problems.
Doesn't matter to me now as its got high mileage and was restyled by a snow plow in December. The inevitable progression from shiny new car to beater.0
Yeah, I think it's going to be a pain convincing them on this one because the car was "certified" after the date that the bulletin came out. And, I guess the fix is to replace the instrument cluster. I wonder how long they would take to do that?
Since I think it's about 10%, I may just drive with the speedometers at about 10% higher unless I know I'm going through a photo enforced zone. I haven't checked it against mile markers. I have checked the odometer against the clock and it reads exactly 1 mile at 1 minute when I drive 60mph and I've already confirmed it's accuracy.
It's possible those speed signs in my neighborhood aren't working right.0
Every time I see one of those portable radar set-ups on the side of the road, I check my speedometer against it. The speedometer is ALWAYS reading high by about 9% -- that has been consistent over years and many thousands of miles.
The TSB states that the readings are 7-9% high, so that's right on the money. I got used to driving at a 5 mph faster speed (by the speedometer) and I've never had a problem.0
busiris Member Posts: 3,490My o5 hatchback also showed a faster speed than actual speed, showing about 61-62 mph at actual 55 mph. Like you, I just adjusted my driving habits to include the speed differential...0
I am wondering if the sign is off because when I went walking today, I went past it and all the cars seemed to be going about 10% lower than usual. The speed limit on our street is 35, but most people go around 45 to 50 MPH. But, today, the sign read most of the cars around 37 to 42 even when I could tell the car was really hauling.0
This discussion has been closed.


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Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley
This week we talk about the genre of Literary Fiction. Our first hurdle is the word "literary" whose use in this context can imply that all other genres are somehow not literature. In that vein, then, we're talking about mainstream, or "non-genre" fiction which is crafted with close attention to the finer points of the prose. After framing our discussion, we dive into the nuts and bolts of writing in the Literary Fiction genre.
Credits: This episode was recorded by Andrew Twiss, and mastered by Alex Jackson.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:18 — 14.0MB)
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You drive your spouse to the airport and watch them fly away on a trip. Then you go straight home, and find them there in the house, sitting at the computer…
Midnight's Children, by Salman Rushdie (print and ebook available here)


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From the Economist:
In December 2007 the World Bank unveiled the results of the biggest exercise in window shopping in history. Scouts in 146 countries scoured stalls, supermarkets and mail-order catalogues, recording the price of more than 1,000 items, from 500-gram packets of durum spaghetti to low-heeled ladies' shoes.
This vast enterprise enabled the bank to compare the purchasing power of many countries in 2005. It uncovered some statistical surprises. Prices in China, for example, were much higher than earlier estimates had indicated, which meant the Chinese income in 2005 of 18.4 trillion yuan ($2.2 trillion at then-market exchange rates) could buy less than previously thought. At a stroke, the Chinese economy shrank, in real terms, by 40%.
Since then, many scholars have wondered what this economic demotion means for the bank's global poverty counts. It famously draws the poverty line at "a dollar a day", or more precisely $1.08 at 1993 purchasing-power parity (PPP). In other words, a person is poor if they consume less than an American spending $1.08 per day in 1993. By this yardstick 969m people suffered from absolute poverty in 2004, a drop of over 270m since 1990. The world owed this progress largely to China, where poverty fell by almost 250m from 1990 to 2004.
…[using a new poverty line of $1.25/day (2005 US$) Shaohua Chen and Martin Ravallion ] find that 204m Chinese people were poor in 2005, about 130m more than previously thought.
That is the bad news. The brighter news is that China's progress against poverty is no less impressive than previously advertised. By Mr Ravallion's and Ms Chen's new standard, the number of poor in China fell by almost 407m from 1990 to 2004, compared with the previous estimate of almost 250m.


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I just returned from another trip in the forests of the Frankenjura in Germany!
It was my 15th trip here so I have nothing more to say about the place,the climbing,the landscapes,the people... Everything in my opinion is perfect here and I feel like at home.
Finally for the first time I managed to bring other friends and for the first week we were a nice crew of 6!
Unfortunately the weather has been horrible for many days at the beginning and the rocks were really wet from all the rain and snow of this past winter.
All the routes I wanted to try were unclimbable and soaked so I had to find some dry or semi dry stuffs.
Keeping the motivation high was really hard with that weather and besides that, after a couple of days of climbing on wet holds I got two bad splits.
After a few days a big part of the crew left but me and Ema had another 10days planned! The weather finally became more sunny and stable and my two splits were healed!
After only a few tries of work each I was able to do a couple of 8c+ and one 8c of course all of them estabilished from Markus Bock!
Here is a list of the routes I climbed during this trip:
- Three Suns and One Star 8c+
- Sympathy for the Devil 8c+ (photos)
- Second Place is the First Loser 8c
- Kamasutra 218 8b (Gullich '86)
- Killer 8b (Gullich '87)
- Amadeus Schwarzenegger 8a+ (Gullich '86)
- Amboss 8a+ ('88)
- Melanom 8a+ ('89)
- 00 Faber 8a+ ('96)
- Engel und Bestien 8a ('85)
And here is a little trailer from my friend Matteo Pavana "The Vertical Eye" about the first wet week of the trip!


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Insider: People
Our Indiana Jones
Bruce Holst, Selby Gardens' director of research and collections, has journeyed to the famed Lost World region of Venezuela—often being helicoptered in to remote mountaintops—more times than he can count. He calls the region's plant life "the most botanically diverse—and vulnerable—in the world." Now Holst, 53, has partnered with ecologists studying the effects of climate change in this remote corner of the world. Scientists believe changes there could foreshadow changes elsewhere. He's headed back to the region (the setting for the 2009 film, Up) this month. "I'm hooked," he admits.
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