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The IRS has finally issued Form 8939, Allocation of Increase in Basis for Property Acquired from a Decedent, and long-awaited guidance for executors of decedents who died in 2010 and who are deciding whether to elect out of the estate tax and apply the carryover basis rules of Sec. 1022 (Rev. Proc. 2011-41; Notices 2011-66 and 2011-76). Rev. Proc. 2011-41 contains optional safe harbors for the substantive provisions of Sec. 1022, Notice 2011-66 contains the rules for making the carryover basis election and generation-skipping transfer (GST) allocation for 2010, and Notice 2011-76 extends the due date for filing Form 8939 and provides other forms of relief. The carryover basis election is made by filing Form 8939 by January 17, 2012. No further extensions are allowed, despite how late the final Form 8939, instructions, and IRS Publication 4895, Tax Treatment of Property Acquired from a Decedent Dying in 2010, were published.
General Observations
A few general observations are necessary as one prepares the Form 8939. First, the form cannot be viewed in the same light as a Form 706. Form 706, United States Estate (and Generation-Skipping Transfer) Tax Return, is generally a complete listing of the decedent's assets and liabilities. In contrast, Form 8939 includes many assets that the decedent does not own, excludes assets that would normally appear on Form 706, and excludes debts, expenses, or claims of the decedent. Second, while Form 8939 appears to be much simpler than Form 706, with fewer schedules and computations, what it gains in simplicity it loses in the volume of detail required for each property. For each property on Form 8939, the executor must provide the date acquired, cost basis, fair market value, amount of gain that the recipient would report as ordinary income if the recipient sold the property, whether the property is eligible for a basis increase, and how much basis increase is allocated to each property.
Only the executor, if one has been appointed, can make the election. This appears to be a hard and fast rule no matter how little property the executor controls or how much property other fiduciaries hold. Therefore, steps should be taken to appoint or replace the executor so that the "right" person serves.
If no executor has been appointed, the IRS will accept Form 8939 from any person in actual or constructive possession of the decedent's property for the property he or she actually or constructively possesses. If the IRS receives both a Form 8939 and a Form 706 from different authorized filers, the IRS will correspond with each filer and require them to collectively sign and file either a restated Form 706 or Form 8939 within 90 days of the IRS's communication. If they fail to do this, the IRS will decide whether to elect out of the estate tax and will allocate the basis in any manner it deems appropriate. Therefore, it is in the estate's best interest that the parties agree on a method of filing rather than allowing the IRS to determine it.
If the IRS receives more than one Form 8939 for the same decedent from multiple authorized filers attempting to allocate more than the allowable basis increase, it will similarly reject the filings and request a single Form 8939 signed by all persons within 90 days of the IRS notice. Failing receipt of this, the IRS will determine the basis allocations in its sole discretion.
Late Returns
The IRS will not grant an extension of time past January 17, 2012, to file Form 8939 or accept protective or conditional elections, except in the case of individuals serving in the United States Armed Forces under Sec. 7508 or those affected by a presidentially declared disaster or by a terrorist or military act under Sec. 7508A. All others wishing an extension must file a private letter ruling request under Reg. Sec. 301.9100-3 and attach a user fee of $14,000 ($625 and $2,000 for estates with adjusted gross income under $250,000 and $1 million, respectively) (Rev. Proc. 2011-1).
Property Included on Form 8939
The executor making an election must report all property (other than cash) "acquired from the decedent" (Sec. 6018(b)(1)). Property acquired from the decedent includes:
- Property acquired by bequest, devise, or inheritance;
- Property the decedent transferred during his or her lifetime to a qualified revocable trust (whether or not the trust makes a Sec. 645 election) or to any other trust that the decedent had the power to alter, amend, or terminate; and
- Property passing by reason of the decedent's death without consideration (Sec. 1022(e)).
In addition, the statute includes the surviving spouse's one-half share of community property as property acquired from the decedent (Secs. 1022(d)(1)(B)(iv) and 1022(d)(1)(C)). The exhibit illustrates the relationship between property acquired from the decedent and property owned by the decedent.
Property that is not acquired from the decedent is not carryover basis property and is not reported on Form 8939. This includes income in respect of a decedent, which is specifically excluded by statute (Sec. 1022(f)). Thus, the decedent's interest in annuities, installment notes, and IRAs, to name a few examples, should not be reported on Form 8939. It also includes property transferred to a trust by the decedent during life in which the decedent retained an income interest, such as a qualified personal residence trust (QPRT) with no reversion to the estate (Rev. Proc. 2011-41, §4.01(4)). Although Rev. Proc. 2011-41 does not mention grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), the same would be true for a GRAT, except to the extent of any remaining annuity payments due the estate. Finally, an interest in a qualified terminable interest property (QTIP) trust funded by a predeceased spouse would not be owned by the decedent (id.). Note that all these interests would ordinarily be included on a Form 706 under Sec. 2036 or Sec. 2044. But under the carryover basis rules, such property is not acquired from the decedent and therefore is not included on Form 8939.
Proving Up Basis
Rev. Proc. 2011-41 clarifies that carryover basis is determined on a property-by-property basis, which may be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to determine (Rev. Proc. 2011-41, §4.03). The 1976 carryover basis rules allowed an executor to treat the basis of the decedent's property as its market value on the date the decedent or the last preceding owner acquired it if the basis was unknown (former Sec. 1023(g)(3), added by the 1976 Tax Reform Act, P.L. 94-455). However, Sec. 1022 has no such provision.
Under the gift tax rules, if the donee cannot determine the basis of property, the IRS must obtain information from the donor or last preceding owner or any other person cognizant of the facts (Sec. 1015(a)). If the IRS cannot obtain the facts, the basis will be the market value, as best determined by the IRS, at the time the donor or last preceding owner acquired the property (Sec. 1015(a); Regs. Sec. 1.1015-1(a)(3)). The courts generally sustain the IRS's opinion of value where the IRS has reasonable support for its position (see Interlochen Co., 232 F.2d 873 (4th Cir. 1956)). But the courts will not usually find that the taxpayer's basis is zero simply because he or she cannot prove the value at the time the donor acquired it. However, the courts will rule that the basis is zero if the taxpayer has no basis information or cannot show how the property was acquired (see Hodges, T.C. Memo. 2005-168).
Consistency of Basis
While taxpayers are generally required to report income consistently with information returns, there is no similar requirement for reporting basis consistently (Sec. 6201(d)). While the beneficiary cannot dispute the basis increase under Secs. 1022(b) and (c) allocated to his or her property because the executor has sole discretion on how to allocate it, the beneficiary can dispute the underlying basis determined by the executor. Upon examination of the beneficiary's return, if the beneficiary produces credible evidence that differs from the executor's determination of basis, the burden of proof generally shifts to the IRS (Sec. 7491(a)(1) (the burden shifts if the taxpayer meets certain requirements, including maintaining records, cooperating with the IRS, etc.)). However, where the beneficiary inadvertently uses the wrong basis information on a 2010 tax return because the beneficiary did not know whether the estate made the carryover basis election when it filed the return, the IRS will not impose penalties (Notice 2011-76).
Property Eligible for a Basis Increase
Only property that is owned by the decedent is eligible for a basis increase (Sec. 1022(d)(1)(A)). Although most property that is acquired from the decedent is also owned by the decedent, the statute specifically excludes certain property from that which is owned by the decedent. This includes property over which the decedent had a general or specific power of appointment (Sec. 1022(d)(1)(B)(iii)). Thus, property over which the decedent had a power of appointment is reported on Form 8939 but is not eligible for a basis increase. Contrast this to Form 706, which includes property over which the decedent had a general power of appointment in his or her estate and provides a stepped-up basis under Sec. 1014 (Secs. 2041 and 1014(b)(9)). The exhibit illustrates the relationship between carryover basis property acquired from the decedent and carryover basis property owned by the decedent.
Even though some property may be both acquired from and owned by the decedent, there are two kinds of property that are not eligible for a basis increase. First, property that the decedent acquired by gift during the three-year period prior to the decedent's death is not eligible for a basis increase, even though it is considered acquired from and owned by the decedent (Sec. 1022(d)(1)(C)(i)). This does not apply to property acquired from the decedent's spouse unless, during the three-year period, the spouse acquired the property in whole or in part by gift (Sec. 1022(d)(1)(C)(ii)). Nonetheless, if property acquired by gift within three years of death is built-in loss property, it can create additional basis increases that can be allocated to other properties (Sec. 1022(b)(2)(C)(ii)).
Second, stock or securities of a foreign personal holding company, stock of a current or former domestic international sales corporation (DISC), stock of a foreign investment company, or stock of a passive foreign investment company (unless it is a qualified electing fund with respect to the decedent) is not eligible for a basis increase (Sec. 1022(d)(1)(D)).
Appraisals and Other Attachments
Rev. Proc. 2011-41 and the Form 8939 instructions describe several attachments that must be included with Form 8939. Appraisals are required as under Sec. 2031, which requires appraisals to be attached only for articles having artistic or intrinsic value greater than $3,000, such as jewelry, furs, paintings, antiques, rugs, collections, etc. (Regs. Sec. 20.2031-6(b)). In addition, if the executor allocates spousal basis increase to property that has been sold, the executor must attach the will and other documents evidencing the bequest or devise to the spouse. The instructions to Form 8939 also require a copy of the death certificate, the will, trust instruments (where a trust is a beneficiary), and letters testamentary.
Form 8939 provides numerous continuation schedules to properly identify the decedent's property. The executor may also wish to attach depreciation schedules showing the potential amount of ordinary income recapture. This is especially helpful if the property will continue to be depreciable in the hands of the beneficiary. In addition, the instructions to Form 8939 require statements to be attached for basis determination relating to partial interests, ineligible property, jointly held property, and property sold before being distributed to a surviving spouse. Finally, it may be beneficial to attach a calculation of the decedent's share of any joint net operating or capital loss carryover. It should not be necessary to attach a calculation of the built-in losses because Form 8939 requires sufficient information to determine this.
Grouping of Small Items
In estates involving a substantial number of smaller items, the IRS guidance does not allow the executor to group these items on Form 8939. Form 706 allows a room-by-room itemization of household and personal effects, grouping of articles individually worth less than $100, or an aggregate value appraised by a competent appraiser or dealer (Regs. Sec. 20.2031-6(a)). The Form 8939 instructions, however, require enough detail to easily identify the property.
Ordinary Income Property
Sec. 6018(c)(5) requires the executor who makes the Sec. 1022 election to report to the recipient sufficient information to determine whether any gain on the sale of the property would be ordinary income. This applies even to built-in loss property, but not to IRD, which is not reported on Form 8939. Although the character of property generally is determined by its use in the hands of the current owner, not the prior owner, there are exceptions to the general rule.
Rev. Proc. 2011-41 reinforces that the character of the recipient's property is the same as it would have been in the hands of the decedent for the decedent's trade or business and depreciable property (Rev. Proc. 2011-41, §4.06(2)). But it also recognizes that the character of the property may be affected by a subsequent change in the recipient's use of the property. Nonetheless, property that is subject to depreciation recapture under Secs. 1245 and 1250 will always be subject to recapture when sold by the recipient, regardless of whether the property is converted to personal use (Regs. Secs. 1.1245-3(a)(3), 1.1250-1(c)(1), and (e)(2)).
Schedule A
Within 30 days after filing Form 8939, the executor is required to furnish Schedule A to the beneficiaries showing the executor's contact information and detailed information about the property distributed to the beneficiary. The deadline to furnish beneficiary information is now February 17, 2012 (Notice 2011-76). In particular, the executor must give the beneficiary information about the property's basis, date acquired, whether any gain on its sale would be ordinary, the amount of basis increase allocated to it, and its fair market value on the decedent's date of death (Secs. 6018(c) and (e)).
Property that actually has been distributed to the surviving spouse outright or in a trust for which a QTIP election can be made should be listed on Schedule A. In addition, property should be listed on Schedule A if it has been sold and the executor can trace the proceeds distributed to the spouse. Such property is eligible for the spousal basis increase (Rev. Proc. 2011-41) if the executor checks the box to certify that the proceeds have been distributed to the surviving spouse outright or in a QTIP trust. Property that has been distributed to other beneficiaries should be listed on a separate Schedule A for each beneficiary. Property that has not yet been distributed or has been sold and the proceeds were not distributed to or for the benefit of the spouse should be listed on a single Schedule A for the estate. Thus, Schedule A is a snapshot of which property was actually distributed to which beneficiary as of the date the Form 8939 is filed.
Allocating the GST Exemption
Because the GST provisions continue to apply to decedents in 2010, Notice 2011-66 provides that an executor who elects out of the estate tax may allocate the decedent's available GST exemption by attaching Schedule R of Form 8939 to the form. Form 8939 contains Schedules R and R-1, much like Form 706, except there is no tax calculation or signature line. All the normal rules of chapter 13 and the Form 706 instructions should be applied. If Form 8939 is timely filed, the GST allocation will be considered timely filed under Sec. 2632. If Form 8939 is timely filed without attaching Schedule R, the automatic allocation rules of Sec. 2632 will apply (Notice 2011-76).
Although the statute provides a penalty of $10,000 for failure to file a Form 8939 (Sec. 6716(a)), the only real penalty is that the estate is precluded from electing out of the estate tax. There is also a separate penalty of $500 for each failure to report appreciated property that the decedent acquired by gift within three years of death and a $50 penalty for each failure to furnish a recipient of carryover basis property information about the basis as required under Secs. 6018(c) and (e) (Secs. 6716(a) and (b)). It is not clear whether these penalties apply per return, per beneficiary, or per property, but they are subject to abatement if due to reasonable cause (Sec. 6716(c)).
In addition, the estate and beneficiaries could be subject to penalties for understatement of tax for years to come if they sell or depreciate assets using an overstated basis. Moreover, a six-year statute of limitation could apply if the overstatement of basis causes a 25% omission of gross income under Sec. 6501(e) (Regs. Sec. 301.6501(e)-1(a)(1)(iii)). To calm fears about penalties applying before the final Form 8939 and its instructions were released, the IRS announced that no penalties will apply to understatements of tax caused by incorrect estimates of the basis of carryover basis property (Notice 2011-66).
Return preparers can also be subject to penalties under Sec. 6694 if the information reported on Form 8939 constitutes a substantial portion of another's tax return and causes an understatement of tax (Regs. Sec. 301.7701-15(b)(3)). "Substantial portion" is a facts-and-circumstances test and may be determined by the size and complexity of the item or the understatement. If Form 8939 is grouped with Forms W-2 and 1099, penalties would apply only if the preparer acted willfully to understate the tax liability on the beneficiary's return (Rev. Proc. 2009-11). But if Form 8939 is categorized with flowthrough Forms 1065, U.S. Return of Partnership Income, and 1120-S, U.S. Income Tax Return for an S Corporation, penalties could apply even if the preparer's conduct was not willful or reckless (id.). Fiduciaries are not considered tax return preparers (Regs. Sec. 301.7701-15(f)(1)(x)).
Finally, appraisers can be subject to penalties for misstatements of value. If the appraisal overstates the basis by more than 150% of the amount determined to be correct, appraisers can be penalized up to 125% of the amount they earned to prepare the appraisal (Secs. 6695A(a) and 6662(e)). The same penalty applies if they understate the value by more than 65% of its correct value (Secs. 6695A(a) and 6662(g)).
Amended Returns
If an executor discovers a need to amend Form 8939, Notice 2011-76 allows the executor to file an amended return after January 17, 2012, without a private letter ruling under two circumstances. First, an executor may file an amended return at any time to allocate the spousal basis increase, but only if the original Form 8939 was timely filed and complete. Second, an executor may file an amended return for any reason (except to make or revoke an election) on or before July 17, 2012, but only if the executor timely filed an original Form 8939 by January 17, 2012 (Notice 2011-76). Beyond those two circumstances, the executor will need a private letter ruling to amend Form 8939. Notice 2011-66 states that such relief will be granted under Regs. Sec. 301.9100-3 if the executor discovers additional property to which remaining basis can be allocated, but does so after the deadline for filing an original or amended Form 8939. It also provides that such relief will be granted if the executor wishes to reallocate basis as a result of an IRS audit of Form 8939 and resulting redetermination of value. In no event will the IRS grant a request to reduce an allocation of basis.
IRS Examination of Form 8939
If the IRS examines a Form 8939 and adjusts the value of property, it appears that the executor's only right to appeal the determination is to file a private letter ruling request (Notice 2011-66). The IRS can also challenge the basis of an item sold or depreciated on a beneficiary's individual income tax return (Notice 2011-66, §I.B.). However, the individual has the normal appeal rights, including filing a Tax Court petition. The beneficiary can challenge the basis reported by the executor on Schedule A of Form 8939. However, the beneficiary should have credible evidence to support his or her position.
Beneficiaries will use the information reported on Form 8939, Schedule A, for many years to come in reporting sales and depreciating inherited property on their returns. Therefore, despite the length of time without IRS guidance and the short window to file the Form 8939 once the IRS released it, practitioners should complete the form with the best information available. It may also be advisable in some cases to disclose any uncertainties or unusual circumstances surrounding the determination of basis in the decedent's property. Disclosure is generally the most effective remedy for uncertain positions.
Editor Notes
Carol Cantrell is a shareholder in Briggs & Veselka Co. in Bellaire, TX. For more information about this article, contact Ms. Cantrell at email@example.com.


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From Emerson, this is, well… kind of interesting.
… I wanted to issue a quick update on Georgia's search to fill the final spot on its coaching staff.
Mike Ekeler, the former Southern California linebackers coach, interviewed on Friday, as expected, and remains a candidate for the job, per a source.
But there are other candidates for the job, and something may not happen until after signing day, the source said.
Seth goes on to say that Ekeler has other options as well, but is interested in the Georgia job. So, is it just that Richt's too distracted with recruiting just now to pull the trigger? Doubtful. Or is there somebody out there he's waiting on for some reason? Maybe, but what's the reason?
To downshift from going at close to breakneck speed in getting the first three guys in to being more deliberate with the last move makes me wonder what they've got going on. One thing seems certain. They're not worried about any negative impact that being at less than fully staffed might have on the recruiting front.

subset: commoncrawl


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8 to 10
For Cake Batter:
More From Good Housekeeping
3 1/2 cups (440 g) unbleached all-purpose or whole-wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 cups (300 g) granulated sugar
2 teaspoons (9 g) baking soda
1 teaspoon (6 g) salt
2 teaspoons (9 g) cocoa powder
2 cups (470 ml) nondairy milk (soy, rice, almond, hazelnut, hemp, or oat)
2/3 cup (155 ml) canola oil
3 tablespoons (45 ml) red food coloring
2 tablespoons (30 ml) distilled white vinegar
2 teaspoons (10 ml) vanilla extract
Ground pecans, for topping (optional)
For Buttercream Frosting:
1/2 cup (112 g) nondairy, nonhydrogenated butter (such as Earth Balance), at room temperature
3 cups (300 g) confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons (8 ml) vanilla extract
2 tablespoons (30 ml) nondairy milk (soy, rice, almond, hazelnut, hemp, or oat) or water
Assorted food colors (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F; (180 degrees C, or gas mark 4). Lightly oil two 8-inch (20 cm) round cake pans.
To make the batter, in a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder. Create a well in the center, and add milk, oil, food coloring, vinegar and vanilla, and mix until thoroughly combined.
Divide cake batter evenly between prepared cake pans. Place pans in the oven spaced evenly apart. Bake for about 35 minutes, rotating 45 degrees halfway through. When the cakes pull away from the side of the pans and a toothpick inserted into the center of each comes out clean, they are ready.
Let cakes cool for 10 minutes in the pans, then run a knife around the edges to loosen them from the sides. One at a time, invert cakes onto a plate and then reinvert onto a cooling rack, rounded-sides up. Let cool completely.
To make the frosting, with an electric hand or stand mixer, cream butter until it is smooth and begins to fluff. With the mixer on low speed, add confectioners' sugar and fluff for another few minutes. Add vanilla, milk and food coloring (if using).
Once all ingredients are well-combined, beat on high until frosting is light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons more milk to achieve the right consistency. Cover the icing with plastic wrap to prevent it from drying out until ready to use. Rewhip before using.
To frost cake, place one layer, rounded-side down, on a plate or cake stand. Using a palette knife or offset spatula, spread some frosting over top of cake. Carefully set other layer on top, rounded-side down, and repeat. Cover entire cake with remaining frosting. If desired, sprinkle with pecans.
Excerpted from The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. © Fair Winds Press 2009


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Washington (CNN) - Just seconds after an emotional tribute to Arizona Democratic Rep Gabby Giffords in the House of Representatives Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner - who got a little choked up in the moment - suddenly felt the need to remind members that there's a dress code on the House floor.
Boehner recovered his composure after embracing Giffords, who had just handed him her resignation letter. He looked around the chamber, and announced, "the chair would remind all members to be in proper business attire when you come to the floor of the House."
CNN LIVE: Tune in Thursday at 8 p.m. ET for the CNN/Republican Party of Florida Debate hosted by Wolf Blitzer and follow it on Twitter at #CNNDebate. For real-time coverage of the Florida primary, go to CNNPolitics.com or to the CNN apps or CNN mobile web site.
Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @politicalticker
It was unclear which House members Boehner was calling out, and the moment -broadcast live on CNN among other news outlets– felt a little jarring since it came immediately after a series of heartfelt tributes from several top House Democrats, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
But Boehner's spokesman Michael Steel said the Speaker's remark "was a general reminder of the rules of the House."
It was the second time in a week that Boehner spotted members appearing a little too casual on the House floor.
On Monday night, Boehner ran through some of basic rules of decorum on the floor, including the one about proper dress. "Members should wear appropriate attire however brief their presence might be," the speaker said. And to the wardrobe offenders, Boehner said, "you know who you are."
Wednesday's session to say good bye to Giffords and vote on her border security bill was the last one for the week. Some members, including some Democrats who were about to head off to their annual retreat, were tieless. But reporters, and many members, know full well that Boehner - a dapper dresser himself - is quick to pass along his opinion about what not to wear.
Also see:
New Freddie Mac contract prohibits 'lobbying activities'
Romney resets image with postcards from the edge
That's the most he's done since becoming Speaker. Pathetic, disgusting, rudderless, ammoral fool.
@truth,Barney Frank has done more for this country,than any of your Repub posterboys,remember that.
I thought what Gabby Giffords wore was perfectly acceptable. The speaker should not have called her out like that. Shameful!
very pathetic congressional idiots...
Think before you speak,
John isn't that bright .
Crap. Now the Republicans will want to have hearings on what proper dress is for the floor. If they pull their usual bull, the hearings will go on for months so as not to get any thing done for the American people, as usual. . . Wonder who they will call to testify?
Oh come on John... Did someone's raincoat and umbrella not match? It's probably pretty tough to protect oneself from your periodic outbursts of emotion...


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Yankees bring Soriano's bat back to Bronx
Outfielder returns for second stint to help bolster Bombers' offense
NEW YORK -- Alfonso Soriano played his 539th game as a member of the Yankees on Oct. 25, 2003, going 2-for-3 at the plate as New York lost the deciding Game 6 of the 2003 World Series to the Marlins. On Friday -- nine years, nine months and two days later -- he played his 540th.
The Yankees acquired the veteran outfielder from the Cubs on Friday for cash considerations and Minor League pitcher Corey Black, reuniting Soriano with the organization with which he began his Major League career.
Soriano hit .254 with 17 home runs, 51 RBIs and 10 stolen bases through 93 games with Chicago this year, and he batted fourth and played left field against the Rays in his Yankees season debut.
Soriano finished his first game back with the Yankees 0-for-5 with an RBI and a run, recording two flyouts, a groundout and two reached by fielder's choice, the second plating New York's final run of the night in a 10-6 loss.
"I'm very happy. This is my house, my home," Soriano said before the game. "So I'm happy that I'm back after 10 years. It's never too late, and I'm happy that I've come back."
The trade had been rumored to be close to done as early as Tuesday, but it took both sides a while to hammer things out. Soriano was scratched from the Cubs' lineup before Thursday's game because the deal was almost complete, but the trade didn't become official until after 4 p.m. ET on Friday.
In the deal, the Cubs agreed to pay $17.7 million of the $24.5 million Soriano is owed on his contract, which runs through the 2014 season. The Yankees will play $6.8 million, $5 million of which will be paid next season. Outfielder Thomas Neal was optioned back to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to make room for Soriano.
"I've talked to [Cubs president of baseball operations] Theo [Epstein] on a number of occasions," Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said. "By far, [Soriano] is the best available bat to date. ... This was one that was a match we could make with the Cubs, and a player who had been here before and loved being here, was very interested in returning, so we've got the bird in the hand, and I know we're going to be better for it."
Soriano's addition gives the Yankees a right-handed power bat they have sorely missed this season. The team hasn't hit a home run from the right side of the plate since infielder Jayson Nix hit one against the Rays on June 25, which is the only right-handed home run New York has hit since May 23.
The Bombers' current 28-game streak without a right-handed home run is the Yankees' longest since 1971, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
"When you look at our club, it's been a struggle this year to score runs," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "We're looking for run producers and people who can hit the ball out of the ballpark."
Girardi said he will use the veteran in left field and at designated hitter.
"He's going to a place that is obviously one of the better stadiums, and he's been there before and has performed in that atmosphere before," Cubs manager Dale Sveum said. "Obviously, they've had a lot of injuries, and he's the guy who can fill that void."
Soriano began his career with the Yankees in 1999 and he played for them until 2003, when he was traded to the Rangers in the deal that brought Alex Rodriguez to New York.
The 37-year-old batted .284 over his career with the Yankees, hitting 98 home runs and driving in 270 runs over five years with the club. His best year came 2002, when he hit .300 with 39 home runs, 102 RBIs and 41 stolen bases, and finished third in the American League MVP Award race.
"I'm happy I have the opportunity to come back to New York, where I stated my career," Soriano said. "I'm happy I can try to help the team win and make the playoffs."
Friday was Soriano's first career appearance in the new Yankee Stadium, but he's already comfortable with his surroundings. He played with shortstop Derek Jeter and pitchers Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte during his first stint with the Yankees, and he spent two seasons playing alongside first baseman Mark Teixeira in Texas.
Before the game, he embraced many of his former teammates during batting practice and met some of his new teammates.
Soriano will wear his old number, too. Outfielder Vernon Wells had been wearing No. 12 this season, but he switched his jersey to No. 22 so Soriano can wear the number he's worn every season since 2002.
"I think it's a great addition. He's one of my favorite teammates of all time," Teixeira said. "We had a great time together. He's like Robinson Cano; he's one of those guys that's always happy, loves playing the game. He's an incredible talent. I love the move."
After two years with the Rangers, a year with the Nationals and seven years with the Cubs, Soriano is happy to be back in New York.
"This is my house. I played here to start my career, and I had great moments here with the Yankees," Soriano said. "I was happy when I played here, so I'm happy I came back here."


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Invention, Influence and Innovation – Bryan Ferry and Steven Wilson
When is a musical work true invention? When is it referential? When is it derivative? Can a work influenced by previous work still be considered original or innovative? I suppose these are questions that could spark a (sometimes heated) discussion like: "What audio speakers sound the best? Is it the east coast or west coast sound?" Often, the proper answer is: "What ever speakers sound best to one's own ears."
Generally, I think that most art, design and music works are built on the foundations that came before them and there really is little actual invention, more on the side of innovation or variants of an original. Dig deeply enough and one even can see that Frank Lloyd Wright's and other modern architectural works (many seemingly original) have been influenced by the works of others or by some reference to design in nature or distant history (like many of Wright's LA houses of the 1920s being highly influenced by ancient Mayan temples).
I'm certainly not an expert on the extensive back catalogs of Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry, Porcupine Tree and Steven Wilson (including Wilson's various side projects), but I have enough of their music in my collection to know that I generally like their respective work (some albums, in my opinion, being better than others—that's the subjective part, like the what speakers sound better question). Bryan Ferry and Steven Wilson are from two different musical generations and have been influenced by different works and people, but there is some overlap.
Ferry has noted that much of his seminal listening, writing and songs were influenced by early and mid-20th century instrumental jazz (including Charlie Parker and Ornette Coleman): "I loved the way the great soloists would pick up a tune and shake it up – go somewhere completely different – and then return gracefully back to the melody, as if nothing had happened." With these influences and those of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd, King Crimson and others, Ferry's band Roxy Music (with a number of different musicians, including Brian Eno and later Eddie Jobson) would go on to create quite innovative and often influential art-glam-pop-progressive rock works in the 1970s and early 80s in addition to Ferry's distinctive solo works.
Steven Wilson works within a cauldron of many genres (progressive rock, metal, ambient and jazz fusion), and it's clear from his remixing/remastering work (such as the King Crimson back-catalog, most recently Larks' Tongues in Aspic) that he has both a deep affection for those influences as well as a respect for the history behind them. Wilson's latest album The Raven That Refused To Sing is steeped in a mind-bending brew of musical influences, yet stays safely on the side of creatively paying homage while avoiding pastiche or cliché. Throughout the album he tips his hat with musical phrases and instrumental sounds that have kept me looking back into my music collection for their roots (a most welcome research project).
Steven Wilson – Luminol
Steven Wilson – The Raven That Refused To Sing
Whether it's a soaring guitar bend of Pink Floyd, a vocal introduction reminiscent of McDonald and Giles' Tomorrow's People, a Mellotron phrase from Genesis' Watcher of the Skies, an electric guitar intro akin to the band Focus, acoustic guitar phrases of Ant Phillips' The Geese and the Ghost or flute phrases of Jethro Tull, Wilson and his current band blend these deftly into the rather sullen tale of The Raven… I can also hear more recent parallels in the menacing track The Holy Drinker, to the works of (Miles Davis scholar) Bob Belden's jazz-fusion Animation project (the recent post-9/11 track Provocatism from the album Transparent Heart). The musical and sonic success of this album is also thanks to the great live studio engineering care of Alan Parsons and gifted musicians Nick Beggs, Guthrie Govan, Adam Holzman, Marco Minnemann, Theo Travis and Jakko Jakszyk who have interpreted Wilson's vision into a cohesive and often stunning recording. The dynamics and emotions are broad, from the aggressive percussion/bass opening to the somber balladic close of the title track. There are minimal overdubs on the album, except for using an original King Crimson MKII Mellotron (recorded at DGM).
The Bryan Ferry Orchestra – Do The Strand
In contrast, Bryan Ferry is reinterpreting his own past work with vocals removed, leaving the melodies and harmonies of the original songs, and they're are filtered through a time machine that brings the listener back to Ferry's earliest musical influences—the sound, orchestration and recording techniques of the roaring and often buoyant 1920s. Some fans of Roxy Music or Ferry's original work don't seem to appreciate the effort (especially the sound treatment, and the monaural recording), but being that I enjoy original pre-and jazz-age acoustic recordings, I think it's a favorable re-examination of Ferry's work while avoiding the temptation reissue yet another compilation for the sake of churning a back-catalog. In fact, the recording sounds almost identical to the hi-fidelity of that period, a Victor Orthophonic reproducer and Victrola.
The Bryan Ferry Orchestra – The Jazz Age – The Reinterpreted Tracks
Bryan Ferry – The Jazz Age – The Original Tracks
I like both of these albums very much, for different reasons, and while they are clearly influenced by works before them, they stand very well on their own. Are either as groundbreaking as King Crimson's In The Court Of The Crimson King? No (again, my subjective opinion). On the positive side, after a somewhat cool start, Steven Wilson's album has been growing on me (my favorite track, by far, is Drive Home), whereas I liked Ferry's album almost instantly—I was hooked by Do The Strand. Are either of these albums what I would consider the best of 2013? It's a bit early for that–let's wait and see.
Steven Wilson – Drive Home


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The "fetal material"-stuffed freezer at Philadelphia's "Women's Medical Society"
The mainstream news reports about Philadelphia's serial baby-killer Kermit Gosnell and his abortion clinic death squad only scratch the surface of his barbaric enterprise. You must, must, must read the entire, graphic, 281-page grand jury report (embedded after my column below) to fully fathom the systematic execution of hundreds of (not just seven) healthy, living, breathing, squirming, viable babies — along with an untold number of mothers who may have lost their lives in his sick, grimy chamber of horrors as well. It is explicit. It is enraging. It will haunt you.
Ask yourself why you are not hearing about which root causes and whose rhetoric are to blame for this four-decades-long massacre — just the tip of a blood-soaked iceberg defended by the predators of Planned Parenthood. You know the answer: If it doesn't help the Left criminalize conservatism, it's not worth discussing.
From the conclusion of the grand jury report: "It is not our job to say who should be fired or demoted. We believe, however, that anyone responsible for permitting Gosnell to operate as he did should face strong disciplinary action up to and including termination. This includes not only the people who failed to do the inspecting, the prosecuting, and the protecting, but also those at the top who obviously tolerated, or even encouraged, the inaction. The Department of State literally licensed Gosnell's criminally dangerous behavior. DOH gave its stamp of approval to his facility. These agencies do not deserve the public's trust. The fate of Karnamaya Mongar and countless babies with severed spinal cords is proof that people at those departments were not doing their jobs. Those charged with protecting the public must do better."
Over to you, eugenics-inspired, eco-freak Obama science czar John Holdren…
The Philadelphia Horror: How mass murder gets a pass
by Michelle Malkin
Copyright 2011
Let's give the "climate of hate" rhetoric a rest for a moment. It's time to talk about the climate of death in which the abortion industry thrives unchecked. Dehumanizing rhetoric, rationalizing language, and a callous disregard for life have numbed America to its monstrous consequences. Consider the Philadelphia Horror.
In the City of Brotherly Love, hundreds of babies were murdered by a scissors-wielding monster over four decades. Whistleblowers informed public officials at all levels of the wanton killings of innocent life. But a parade of government health bureaucrats and advocates protecting the abortion racket looked the other way – until, that is, a Philadelphia grand jury finally exposed the infanticide factory run by abortionist Kermit B. Gosnell, M.D., and a crew of unlicensed, untrained butchers masquerading as noble providers of women's "choice." Prosecutors charged Gosnell and his death squad with multiple counts of murder, infanticide, conspiracy, abuse of corpse, theft, and other offenses.
The 281-page grand jury report (see full embedded document below) released Wednesday provides a bone-chilling account of how Gosnell's "Women's Medical Society" systematically preyed on poor, minority pregnant women and their live, viable babies. The report's introduction lays out the criminal enterprise that claimed the lives of untold numbers of babies — and mothers:
"This case is about a doctor who killed babies and endangered women. What we mean is that he regularly and illegally delivered live, viable, babies in the third trimester of pregnancy – and then murdered these newborns by severing their spinal cords with scissors. The medical practice by which he carried out this business was a filthy fraud in which he overdosed his patients with dangerous drugs, spread venereal disease among them with infected instruments, perforated their wombs and bowels – and, on at least two occasions, caused their deaths. Over the years, many people came to know that something was going on here. But no one put a stop to it."
Echoing the same kind of dark euphemisms plied by Planned Parenthood propagandists who refer to unborn life as "fetal and uterine material," Gosnell referred to his deadly trade as "ensuring fetal demise." Reminiscent of the word wizards who refer to the skull-crushing partial-birth abortion procedure as "intact dilation and evacuation" and "intrauterine cranial decompression," Gosnell described his destruction of babies' spinal cords as "snipping."
He rationalized his macabre habit of cutting off dead babies' feet and saving them in rows and rows of specimen jars as "research."
His guilt-ridden employees then took photos of some of the victims before dumping them in shoe-boxes, paper bags, one-gallon spring-water bottles, and glass jars.
They weren't the only ones who adopted a see-no-evil stance:
*The Pennsylvania Department of Health knew of clinic violations dating back decades, but did nothing;
*The Pennsylvania Department of State was "repeatedly confronted with evidence about Gosnell" – including the clinic's unclean, unsterile conditions, unlicensed workers, unsupervised sedation, underage abortion patients, and over-prescribing of pain pills with high resale value on the street – "and repeatedly chose to do nothing."
*Philadelphia Department of Public Health officials who regularly visited Gosnell's human waste-clogged offices did nothing;
*Nearby hospital officials who treated some of the pregnant mothers who suffered grave complications from Gosnell's butchery did nothing; and
*The National Abortion Federation, the leading association of abortion providers that is supposed to uphold strict health and legal standards, determined that Gosnell's chamber of horrors was "the worst abortion clinic she had ever inspected" – but did nothing.
Meanwhile, the death racketeers have launched a legislative and regulatory assault across the country on pro-life crisis pregnancy centers from New York City to Baltimore, Austin, and Seattle who offer abortion alternatives, counseling, and family services to mostly poor, vulnerable, minority women.
Already, left-wing journalists and activists have rushed to explain that these abortion atrocities ignored for four decades by abortion radicals and rationalizers are not really about abortion. A Time magazine writer argued that the Philadelphia Horror was "about poverty, not Roe V. Wade." A University of Minnesota professor declared: "This is not about abortion."
But the grand jury itself pointed out that loosened oversight of abortion clinics enacted under pro-choice former GOP governor Tom Ridge enabled Gosnell's criminal enterprise – and led to the heartless execution of hundreds of babies. Mass murder got a pass in the name of expanding "access" and appeasing abortion lobbyists. As the report made clear: "With the change of administration from [pro-life Democrat] Governor Casey to Governor Ridge," government health officials "concluded that inspections would be 'putting a barrier up to women' seeking abortions. Better to leave clinics to do as they pleased, even though, as Gosnell proved, that meant both women and babies would pay."
Deadly indifference to protecting life isn't tangential to the abortion industry's existence – it's at the core of it. The Philadelphia Horror is no anomaly. It's the logical, blood-curdling consequence of an evil, eugenics-rooted enterprise wrapped in feminist clothing.
var docstoc_docid="69618219″;var docstoc_title="Grand Jury Report — Philly Abortionist Kermit B. Gosnell Multiple Counts of Murder (January 2011)";var docstoc_urltitle="Grand Jury Report — Philly Abortionist Kermit B. Gosnell Multiple Counts of Murder (January 2011)";Grand Jury Report — Philly Abortionist Kermit B. Gosnell Multiple Counts of Murder (January 2011) –
Related must-read by The Anchoress:
It[']s funny how framing works. A massacre perpetrated by a deranged man is not about the deranged man; it's about "rhetoric." But a massacre perpetrated by an abortion provider whose violations against laws of the nation and of humanity were overlooked for years is "not about abortion." It's about criminal behavior, and that's all. But some of our most prominent politicians have voted against the very bill — the "born alive" bill — that defines such behavior as criminal. Meaning, I guess, that if only enough politicians had voted with Sen. Barack Obama, Gosnell's behavior would not be "criminal" at all, and therefore we wouldn't even be talking about it?
Well, the story of Kermit Gosnell is about abortion; it's about abortion in America. And abortion in America is about a mindset, — even (or especially) among regulation-happy folk who will make a big noise about public safety on issues large and small — a mindset that will protect a Gosnell, and purposely turn a blind eye to abortion centers and practitioners and all of their lapses and illegalities, as long as the abortions keep on coming.


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Morning Jolt: Armed men seize government building in Ukraine
In the news
Armed men stormed the regional government administration building and parliament in Ukraine's southern Crimea region today, and they raised a Russian flag. The move comes about a week after the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych, who was in favor of siding with Russia over the European Union. Yesterday Russia conducted military exercises near Ukraine.
Happening today
The Food and Drug Administration today will propose changes to nutrition labels. One of the proposals will be that a soda, for example, tells you how much is in the container, not just how much of things there are per serving size.
Opening bell
The Dow Jones opened at 16,198.41 after finishing up 18.75 points Wednesday.
Quote of the day
"It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it." - John Steinbeck
Hot video: Godzilla is coming
Have you seen the second trailer for "Godzilla"? It's pretty awesome. Not only does it have Godzilla, it has Bryan Cranston!
More Content Now News


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Facebook has partnered with handset maker HTC to produce a mobile phone that would be released in mid-2013, Bloomberg reported today.
The news agency disclosed the news in a tweet this afternoon that revealed no other details.
BREAKING: #Facebook is said to work with #HTC on mobile phone for Mid-2013.— Bloomberg West (@BloombergWest) July 25, 2012
Facebook declined to comment on the details of the Bloomberg report, preferring instead to focus on its broader mobile strategy.
"Our mobile strategy is simple: We think every mobile device is better if it is deeply social," a Facebook representative told CNET. "We're working across the entire mobile industry -- with operators, hardware manufacturers, OS providers, and application developers to bring powerful social experiences to more people around the world."
Rumors and reports that the social network was working on marketing its own smartphone have been circulating for nearly two years. Facebook denied a report in September 2010 that it was developing a mobile operating system to be used on hardware created by a third party, although CNET confirmed that the social-networking giant had reached out to hardware manufacturers and carriers seeking input on a potential Facebook-branded phone.
It's also not the first time we have heard that HTC was involved. All Things D reported last November that Facebook was working with Taiwan-based handset maker to build an Android-based smartphone -- code-named Buffy -- with the Facebook social-networking technology built into the core of the device. In May, DigiTimes reported that the Taiwan-based handset maker was "in cooperation" with Facebook on a customized smartphone that would launch in the third quarter of 2013.
HTC has also produced two smartphones that feature dedicated Facebook buttons -- the HTC Status and the HTC Salsa.
A smartphone phone could go a long way toward relieving a source the headache the social-networking giant has been experiencing with the mobile sector. After reporting that users' shift to smartphones and other mobile gadgets might hurt the company's ad revenue, Facebook has ramped up its focus on mobile advertising. Bloomberg reported last week that the social network was developing a mobile ad product that uses real-time data based on users' locations.
Updated at 4:30 p.m. PT with Facebook comment.


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Updated below
NationBuilder is an online campaigning tool kit, providing clients with the ability to do online advocacy, email supporters, raise money and integrate social media. NationBuilder was founded by a group of progressive and Democratic technologists with campaign and grassroots non-profit organizing experience in the Netroots. It's not particularly different from other online tool kits like Blue State Digital, Salsa or Action Kit, with the notable exception that it is dramatically cheaper, with pricing starting at $19 per month for smaller campaigns and non-profits. Online tools can be quite expensive, beyond the reach of many state level campaigns, or even congressional candidates. NationBuilder has, in my estimation, been successful at making online organizing tools more accessible to people with less money to spend.
All of this is preface to another disappointing development: NationBuilder has announced a deal to be the "exclusive software provider for the Republican State Leadership Committee."
Excuse me? The RSLC helps elect Republican state legislators, the very people who are going around the country passing things like bans on marriage equality, racist laws targeting immigrants for deportation, and rolling back reproductive rights and environmental protections. These reactionaries think passing laws banning Sharia law is a good use of time. And NationBuilder is going to provide the technology to help more of these people get into office.
Have no fear, despite being started by progressives and made popular in large part from progressive and Democratic business, NationBuilder is only a technology platform.
[Co-founder Joe] Green said he has no misgivings about providing technical assistance to candidates with whom he likely disagrees vehemently.
"Our ultimate goal is simply to level the playing field and let the people decide based on the strength of the arguments, not based on who has the biggest TV ad budgets," Green said. "We're proving that political software can and will be nonpartisan."
I'm sure Green and his business partners won't mind, then, if Democratic campaigns and progressive organizations fire NationBuilder today.
Much of the controversy around Change.org revolved around their construction of an open campaign platform, staffing themselves with many notable progressive campaigners, accepting the mantle (both earned and perceived) as being a progressive piece of infrastructure, and then deployed a defense of "But we're an open platform!" when criticized for working with union busters.
In fairness, NationBuilder has been more open about a willingness to work with the Tea Party from its earliest days. But its founders' backgrounds in Democratic electoral politics and the activist-progressive film and organizing group, Brave New Films, have lead to many grassroots progressive organizations to embrace the tools. Again, NationBuilder has said they're non-partisan, but there's a bit of a difference between being an open platform and inking a contract to provide tools to just about any Republican state legislative candidate in the country.
It isn't openness when what you mean is you'll work for anyone who gives you a big check. That's what Lanny Davis does with his lobbying services and I don't think it'd be accurate to call him an open platform.
Technology can be used to do anything. At its most basic level, programming may be fundamentally non-ideological. But once code enters the world, it is used for specific ends. The people who sell technology can decide whether they want their code to be used for good or ill. They have a choice. And NationBuilder is choosing to work for people who want to put women in jail for getting abortions and deport any brown person with a Hispanic-sounding name. That anyone can pay to use NationBuilder's tools is no defense. It's an excuse and a sad one at that.
I think it's time for progressive activists and organizations to start putting out clear expectations about the behavior of companies who want our business. Clearly there is a problem with ostensibly left-leaning technology firms and their willingness to do work with conservative activists.
My recommendation is to deny business to technologists who are working with conservatives to turn America back to the late 1800s. If you are a client of NationBuilder, fire them. If you are considering hiring them, don't. Make your decision public and make sure that even if NationBuilder isn't going to change, other technologists will know that progressives won't work with the people whose code is being used to attack the human and civil rights of women, gays, immigrants, people of color, and workers.
Update 6/29:
I've received feedback on this post, both in the comments and offline, and I think it was inaccurate for me to describe NationBuilder as a "liberal tech company." They are non-partisan and honest about that fact. I noted this in the post, but the headline and lede do not make that clear.
That said, the criticism of any company for objectionable business practices is fair, especially one which derives a significant portion of its revenues from progressive organizations and campaigns. NationBuilder should be treated exactly the same way as any other business which works to help get reactionary Republicans elected. Recent examples would be Waffle House, Koch Industries, and Coors Brewing Company, though online progressive groups regularly run campaigns pressuring businesses which support conservative work, as we saw with tremendous campaigns against ALEC's corporate donors.
In short: There's no reason to give technology companies that progressives use any different treatment from any other companies who are doing objectionable things.


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If Starbucks is not already your go-to study spot, it's about to be. A new study reveals that there is no better place to check your Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and oh yeah, research papers, than your favorite coffee shop. According to Open Signal's U.S. Wi-Fi Report, Starbucks has the fastest public high-speed Internet in the country.
But all this FREE high-speed WiFi means you'll only be able to enjoy your frapp until your phone dies, right? Don't worry, Starbucks has that covered too, as they're beginning to place phone charging mats in locations across the country. So essentially you never have to leave, and we're totally okay with that.
What else can Starbucks do to become the ultimate coffee shop? Comment below!
More From Seventeen
Best New Ever! You'll Soon Be Able To Preorder Your Frapps With New Starbucks App
10 Stages Of Becoming Addicted To Starbucks


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Fifth Annual PLMS Conference – Save the Date
Posted by The Situationist Staff on October 30, 2010
The Fifth Conference on Law and Mind Sciences, tentatively titled "The Psychology of Inequality," is now being planned for Febuary 26, 2011 at Harvard Law School. More details will be announced soon.
You can learn more about our previous conferences here.


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Answer This: Brian Kilmeade
Brian Kilmeade is the host of Fox News's morning program "Fox & Friends" and co-author of the new novel "George Washington's Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution," which looks at the Culper Spy Ring that Kilmeade and co-author Don Yaegar credit with helping turn the tide during the Revolutionary War. Kilmeade joins POLITICO for our latest "Answer This" interview:
Tell us your favorite joke.
No favorite, but best I heard lately came from Jay Leno on uranium. "Apparently, what got the Iranians to sign this deal was a promise from President Obama, who said, 'If you like your uranium, you can keep your uranium.'"
When's the last time you used profanity?
When the Giants-Cowboys game ended.
How many hours of sleep do you get (on average)?
Describe your level of ambition.
Somewhere between Christopher Columbus and Larry the Cable Guy.
You're president of the United States for enough time to make only one executive decision. What is it?
I would start fracking on federal lands.
What's a common and accepted practice for Americans nowadays that you think we'll look back on with regret?
Running up personal debt.
What is your favorite body part (on yourself) and why?
Triceps … round out my arms like one can only dream.
What would you attempt to do if you knew that you could not fail?
Try out for the U.S. national soccer team.
What type of products do you never go cheap on, for the sake of quality?
Cleats, beer.
Describe a few pet peeves of yours.
Chewing gum drives me nuts.
How often do you Google yourself?
I set up alerts … saves me time.
What do you know now that you wish someone had told you 10 years ago?
Having your own radio show is cheaper than therapy.
What childhood event shaped or scarred you the most?
The death of my dad at 14.
Would you rather … live without music or live without TV?
… be gossiped about or never talked about at all?
Gossiped about.
Think of one of your least favorite people in Washington and, without naming him or her, describe what makes that person so unappealing.
A certain NFL coach … who seems to not understand how to use or relate to RGIII.
Let your mother know how much she means to you, in the form of a haiku.
Always knowing what to say
daily on my side
Thanks for being there.


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On Obamacare, tea party is on right track
Vitriol has gone beyond partisan give-and-take in the nation's politics. It is now seeping into and poisoning the ranks of the Republican Party.
Mainstream Republican politicians are cringing at the proposal by senators in the tea party movement — Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Lee of Utah and Marco Rubio of Florida — that upcoming legislation to appropriate funds to operate the federal government be held hostage on condition that Obamacare funding is withheld.
Republicans opposing this strategy see it as lose-lose. They don't believe this tactic can defund or deliver a deathblow to Obamacare. At the same time, they see it producing more antipathy toward Republicans and branding them as zealots and obstructionists.
I think the tea partyers are on the right track, and I think the "mainstream" opposition is missing key, important points.
Republicans should be thinking about two objectives.
First, fight public resignation that Obamacare will become an inevitable part of our national landscape and continue building public understanding of how bad and dangerous this law is for our health care and our economy.
Second, continue the ongoing work to build public awareness that Republicans are not the party of "no" but the party of "yes" to a conservative agenda, which is really the only viable path to national recovery.
On the first point, the tea party strategy is already working.
If Republicans sit politely on the sidelines and allow business as usual to continue in Washington, the American public can only conclude everything is basically OK.
But everything is not basically OK.
We don't even have to look to Republicans to show what a disaster Obamacare is.
The Obama administration itself initiated a one-year delay in implementing one of the most central features of the law: the mandate on employers to provide government-defined health insurance. No clearer statement could be made of the unworkability of this bureaucratic nightmare.
Now Howard Dean — former Democratic presidential candidate, Democratic National Committee chairman, Vermont governor and still a physician — calls for scrapping another central feature of Obamacare: the Independent Payment Advisory Board.
This is the unelected committee of 15 Washington bureaucrats who will play the central role of pricing medical services under Medicare.
Pricing of medical services by bureaucrats is the pure socialism of Obamacare that those opposed to the law said from day one would not work. Now, Dean confirms this.
On the second point, Republicans must wake up to the public relations battle they have lost over recent years. Radical left-wing Democrats have been accepted in the public eye as moderate and reasonable, and conservative Republicans are portrayed as the nutty extremists.
Obamacare, The Affordable Care Act, was passed in March 2010 through legislative sleight of hand and without a single Republican vote. It brings socialism to almost one-fifth of the American economy. Its core features are regulation and the government printing press.
Where is the money going to come from to pay for all the subsidized purchases of government insurance? Where is the money going to come from to pay for the 20 million or so dumped into Medicaid on top of the 60 million already there?
And somehow those who brought us this nightmare are the moderates?
No, the tea partyers are right. The future of our country is at stake.
The Republican Party's priority must be to wake America to what faces us, to show who the real radicals are and to demonstrate the only way out of this mess is by restoring personal and fiscal responsibility and a functioning free market.
Star Parker is an author and president of CURE, Center for Urban Renewal and Education. Contact her at www.urbancure.org.


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Five D-backs prospects land on Top 100 list
Skaggs (10), Bradley (24), Gregorius (63), Davidson (77), Eaton (97) all ranked
There were bright spots in 2012, Gibson said, pointing to the team's burgeoning farm system, which saw five affiliates qualify for the playoffs and three win championships.
Arizona's success in building a top farm system was validated Tuesday, when five of the team's prospects were ranked among the Top 100 by MLB.com.
Tyler Skaggs (10), Archie Bradley (24), Didi Gregorius (63), Matt Davidson (77) and Adam Eaton (97) were the D-backs prospects that made the rankings.
"We feel like we've got players throughout our system," D-backs general manager Kevin Towers said last fall. "We've got an extra pick in this year's Draft, a lottery pick. If we could keep nailing these Drafts, we should be set up pretty good."
The annual ranking of baseball's biggest and brightest young talent is assembled by MLB.com's Draft and prospect expert Jonathan Mayo, who compiles input from industry sources, including scouts and scouting directors. It is based on analysis of players' skill sets, upsides, closeness to the Majors and potential immediate impact to their teams. The list, which is one of several prospect rankings on MLB.com's Prospect Watch, only includes players with rookie status in 2013.
Only the Cardinals, Twins, Marlins, Red Sox and Rangers with six prospects among the Top 100 had more than the D-backs.
"We had five [playoff teams] in our Minor Leagues, and what's the key, one of the keys to being competitive year in and year out?" Gibson said at the end of the year. "It is having great depth and establishing things throughout your Minor Leagues. We did that."
Here's a look at the five players who were ranked:
Skaggs: The left-hander started the 2012 season at Double-A Mobile before moving to Triple-A Reno and eventually made six starts in the big leagues. He was acquired in the deal that sent Dan Haren to the Angels in July 2010.
Skaggs struggled in his six starts in the Majors due to being a bit fatigued, but the organization considers him its top pitching prospect and he will battle for the No. 5 spot in the rotation this spring. If he doesn't make the team out of camp, it's a safe bet he will be a big contributor at some point during the season.
Bradley: The right-hander was the team's second first-round pick in 2011 (seventh overall) out of Broken Arrow (Okla.) High School. Regarded as one of the most advanced high school hurlers that year, Bradley was limited to a couple of Pioneer League appearances in '11.
Last season, he was 12-6 with a 3.84 ERA in 27 starts for Class A South Bend, and the team believes he will rise quickly through the system.
Gregorius: The D-backs searched far and wide during the offseason for a shortstop of the (near) future, and they think they found their guy in Gregorius. To acquire him, the D-backs traded right-hander Trevor Bauer, who was ranked 17th on the Top 100 Prospects list.
Gregorius spent time at both Double-A and Triple-A in the Cincinnati system last year before getting 21 plate appearances in September. He will have an outside chance at winning the shortstop job during Spring Training, but it is more likely that the D-backs will send him to Reno for additional seasoning.
Davidson: The third baseman was a supplemental first-round pick by the D-backs in 2009 and has risen steadily through their system.
Last year with Mobile, he had an .836 OPS and he followed that up with a strong Arizona Fall League performance. Davidson still has some work to do defensively and is likely to open the 2013 season in Reno.
Eaton: The center fielder was a 19th-round selection in 2010, and he has excelled at every level and found himself in the big leagues last September.
Thanks to his speed and ability to get on base, Eaton is an ideal leadoff hitter, and after a strong September debut, he figures to have the inside edge at the starting center-field job in Arizona this year.


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Early sparkling wines were produced by the méthode ancestrale, with the carbon dioxide gas arising from fermentation in the bottle. The méthode ancestrale is still used in certain parts of France such as in Gaillac and Limoux in the Languedoc. But as the lees (accumulations of dead or residual yeast) are not removed from the bottle, the end product can be quite cloudy.
Historically in the Champagne, cold weather halted fermentation, which then restarted in the spring. If the wine had been bottled, the carbon dioxide gas produced by this second fermentation of sorts often shattered the bottle. And if the bottle survived intact, the result was a sparkling wine more or less similar to modern champagne. However, the Champenois considered this sparkling wine to be faulty, and even called it vin du diable (devil's wine).
In contrast to the Champenois, the British acquired a certain taste for this accidentally sparkling wine and eventually introduced the fashion into the court of Versailles, then under the regency (1715-23) of Philippe II, duc d'Orléans. The Champenois rose to meet the increasing demand for the sparkling wine, but they found it difficult to control the process and could not source bottles strong enough to reliably withstand the pressure.
The solutions to these problems came not from Champagne but from across the Channel. In 1662 Christopher Merret FRS presented a paper in which he correctly maintained that any wine could be made sparkling by the addition of sugar prior to bottling, and it is very likely that the English were making the wine of Champagne sparkle long before the Champenois. English glassmakers of the 17th century used coal- rather than wood-fired ovens that resulted in a stronger glass and stronger bottles. The English also rediscovered the use of cork stoppers (lost after the fall of the Roman Empire), which provided an airtight closure with which to cap their stronger bottles and seal in the sparkle.
Six years after Merret presented his paper, Dom Pérignon (pictured) was appointed cellar master at the Benedictine Abbey at Hautvillers. Dom Pérignon thought of sparkling wine as faulty wine, and recommended using the pinot noir grape to minimize the tendency to sparkle. At the same time, he greatly improved practices of viticulture, harvesting, and vinification, and thereby modernized the production of the wines that became modern champagne. For example, he advocated aggressive pruning and smaller yields, early-morning harvesting, the rejection of bruised or broken grapes, rapid pressing to minimize skin contact, and the discarding of the fourth and fifth presses (the so-called vin de taille and vin de pressoir).
Until the early 19th century, champagne producers did not remove the lees from the bottle. This spared any sparkle from being lost, but could make for quite a cloudy and unpleasant wine. The veuve (widow) Cliquot and her cellar master addressed this problem by developing the process of riddling to remove the lees with minimal loss of sparkle. This process, which is still in use, involves progressively moving the lees into the neck of the bottle and then ejecting it under the pressure of the wine.
The small amount of wine that is lost through riddling came to be replaced by a varying mixture of sugar and wine called the dosage, which then as today very much determined the final style of the wine. Throughout most of the 19th century, champagne was very sweet, and champagne destined for the Russian market was sweetest of all with as much as 250-330 grams of sugar. At the other end of the scale, champagne destined for the English market contained 'only' 22-66 grams of sugar. Today, brut with only 6-15 grams of sugar is by far the most popular style of champagne, and doux, the sweetest style of champagne, can contain as little as 50 grams of sugar.
Following the ravages inflicted by the phylloxera epidemic in the late 19th century and a seemingly endless series of poor vintages, riots erupted in January 1911. Some producers had been making faux champagne with grapes from other French regions, and the Champenois grape growers intercepted the trucks carrying these grapes and dumped the grapes into the River Marne. To pacify them, the French government attempted to delimit the Champagne region, but the exclusion and then inclusion of the Aube provoked further riots which might have degenerated into civil war had they not been cut short by the outbreak of World War I. The Great War brought severe destruction to many buildings and vineyards, and some Champenois took refuge in the famous chalk cellars or crayères which are used to store and age champagne.
The Champenois had barely begun to recover from the wounds of war when the lucrative Russian market was lost to the Bolshevik Revolution, and then the US market to the declaration of prohibition. The Great Depression also hit sales, as did the advent of World War II. Since the end of World War II champagne has been in ever increasing demand. This has led not only to a quadrupling of production to over 200 million bottles per year, but also to a great number of imitators throughout France, Europe, and the New World and, back at home, to a controversial expansion of the Champagne vineyards…


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A UK EuroMillions ticket-holder has won the jackpot prize of more than £121.3 million.
The winning main numbers were 20, 23, 28, 30, 44, and the lucky stars were 03, 07.
Andy Carter, senior winners' advisor at The National Lottery, said, "Wow – what a night for UK EuroMillions players.
"A single ticket-holder has banked the entire £121.3 million jackpot and immediately becomes the third biggest winner this country has ever seen.
"Players are urged to check their tickets and, rest assured, we have plenty of champagne on ice ready to help The National Lottery's newest multi-millionaire celebrate."
The total jackpot was £121,328,187, Camelot said.
In July 2011, Colin and Chris Weir became Europe's biggest lottery winners when they scooped more than £161 million. They made a £1 million donation to the SNP shortly after winning.
Adrian and Gillian Bayford, from Suffolk, took home more than £148 million in August 2012.


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Now at Pinkberry: Greek Yogurt and Great Savory Bowls!
Did you know that Pinkberry now has greek yogurt? Not a "greek" frozen yogurt, but a bonafide greek yogurt, and they use it to make some great bowls! Yes, Pinkberry's not just about froyo anymore.
I was recently invited to the Pinkberry headquarters in Santa Monica to do a blind tasting of greek yogurts and try their new Powerbowls. When else will I get a chance to visit their headquarters??
The strawberry and granola one was more what I'd expect to eat at home, but I also really liked their Chocolate Berry bowl, especially with the addition of the dark chocolate granola and cinnamon honey. The cinnamon made it just that much better.
1. This yogury was thick and creamy, but a little sour. This was revealed to be Chobani.
2. Thick but fluffier than (1). Smoother, sticks to the spoon more. Not as sour, but chalkier. This was Fage.
3. Thick, silky, smooth. Glossy finish. Not as sour and chalky. This one was revealed to be Pinkberrygreek, which is made with milk from Fair Oaks Farm. I did like the fluffy texture of Fage but the less chalky Pinkberrygreek is much more enjoyable to eat.
4. Vanilla flavored Pinkberry's Greek Yogurt. Slightly less thick but still silky. Sweeter, but can still taste the yogurt. The yogury is mixed in store with Madagascar vanilla to retain freshness.
We then moved on to their Powerbowls. Think acai, quinoa, and the like. They even built it as we go during the tasting so the toppings don't get soggy. For now, the Brentwood store is their test store and will roll out new products like this first before anywhere else, but look out for these powerbowls in the near future.
After the greek yogurt and powerbowl tasting, we had a taste of the upcoming Cherry frozen yogurt flavor which will be out in September, and met their oldest employee who is now in charge of getting the taste consistent. Rather than the cherry flavor, I was partial to the butter pecan Pinkberry. Especially topped with caramel, caramelized pecan and chocolate!


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Howdy folks,
I'll be attending these two upcoming conferences. If you're planning to attend either of them or if you just happen to be in town when they occur, please contact me via my about.me page if you'd like to meet up and chat about learning in virtual worlds!
4th Global Conference – Experiential Learning in Virtual Worlds
March 22-24, 2014
Prague, Czech Republic
The main aims of this conference are to increase our understanding of experiential learning in virtual worlds, both formal and informal, to share experiences and best practices, and to debate future possibilities for learning in virtual worlds. For full details, please see the conference website.
My panel presentation will be "Finding the Balance between Pedagogy and Technology." Here's my abstract:
Next Generation virtual worlds will be tightly coupled to many other emerging technologies, leveraging modern knowledge management processes and providing platforms for broad use among teachers and learners. As the technological landscape grows, it is becoming increasingly difficult for educators to identify the right platform (or mix of platforms) for their specific immersive learning needs.
In my current position at ReactionGrid and my previous work at Linden Lab and Harvard Medical School, I have explored the use of a wide range of gaming and virtual world platforms to augment education. Today there are a number of very interesting virtual world technological trends involving specific gaming technologies like Unity as well as the growth of Open Source platforms such as OpenSimulator. My ongoing work involves finding the right match between educational goals and technological affordances as well as identifying key synergies when virtual world technologies are interwoven with existing social media and web-based educational content.
Above all else, there must be a thoughtful match between pedagogy and technology. Different virtual world platforms are suited for different uses, ranging from collaborative work environments to immersive goal-oriented simulations. One of the most important and challenging goals for any educator exploring virtual worlds is simply finding the right tool for the right job. Likewise, it is critical for virtual world platform developers to keep a firm focus on well established knowledge management principles when designing new technologies intended to advance the field of immersive learning.
I'm particularly thrilled about this panel because I'll be participating with Dr. Bryan Carter from the University of Arizona. Bryan is a true pioneer in using virtual worlds for experiential learning, and he's been working with virtual environments since his dissertation project in 1997 when he created a virtual simulation of Harlem, NY as it existed during the 1920s Jazz Age and Harlem Renaissance. Virtual Harlem was one of the earliest full virtual reality environments created for use in the humanities and certainly one of the first for use in an African American literature course. The project continues to grow and evolve as Bryan explores new virtual world platforms.
1st International Conference on e-Learning e-Education and Online Training (e-LEOT)
September 18–20, 2014
Bethesda, Maryland, United States
This new conference will assess a wide range of progressive ideas for the future of e-Learning, focusing on the idea of technology as a means to education rather than an end in itself. The conference organizers are lining up a wonderful range of interdisciplinary speakers and are planning to attract a wide group of heterogeneous scholars and practitioners. For full details, please see the conference website.
I'll be giving a keynote at this conference. And if you're looking to interact with the organizers and other attendees and speakers, be sure to check out the e-LEOT LinkedIn Conference Group.
Be seeing you!


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Away from the casinos of Macau – the only place in China where they have been legalised – there lies an old Portuguese city steeped in colonial history and packed with impressive sights and restaurants. Rough Guides writer Helen Ochyra set out to find the best things to do in Macau beyond the betting tables.
"Where East meets West" is a cliché as overused as those other travel writing horrors "city of contrasts" and "melting pot". And yet, for some places it is simply true.
One of those places is Macau, a city where Portuguese colonial history sits inside modern China. Macau was a Portuguese colony for several centuries until 1999, and as a result this very Asian city retains a wonderfully European flavour.
This cocktail of cultures is expressed nowhere better than in the food. Macanese cuisine combines the city's Portuguese and Chinese influences, but adds a dash of African or South American spice picked up from its days at the centre of numerous trade routes.
I sample this unique culinary mix at Restaurant Litoral, started by Manuela Ferreira with the aim of bringing traditional Macanese food, as cooked in the home, to the public. Her signature dish is galinha à Africana (African chicken), barbecued chicken smothered in red spicy sauce. Although garlic, chilli, paprika and coconut are staple ingredients in this Macanese favourite, every restaurant makes it differently and Manuela makes hers with peanut in the sauce – this makes it thicker and tastier than you'll find elsewhere. I tuck in to mine with gusto and find myself hoping this full-on flavour-punch of a dish is served anywhere back home in London.
Traditional Portuguese cuisine is also popular in Macau and many of the city's best restaurants specialise in this. One of these is Antonio's, run by chef Antonio Coelho. My meal begins with an array of starters – clams in white wine, prawns in garlic, chorizo in brandy – all of which I scoop up hungrily and devour with a smile on my face. Then, the main event; a rich cataplana packed with scallops, prawns, octopus and chorizo, served in a steaming copper pot that is unveiled with suitable reverence at the table. It is designed to be shared and so I tuck in politely with my companions. Washed down with a Portuguese Quinta da Aveleda, it is delicious.
More Portuguese classics are served at O Manel, where we are welcomed with luscious slices of pata negra (cured ham), aged for 36 months and imported directly from Portugal. I could eat solely this, folded on top of the homemade bread, but the chalkboard menu cries out to us and so I order more clams, more prawns and a seabass from the nearby fish market, cooked on a charcoal grill. Owner and chef Manel visits the market twice daily to get the very best fresh fish and the benefits are clear – this is one succulent seabass.
Portuguese food may be popular in Macau, but I am in China and can avoid its intoxicating pull no longer; it is time to indulge in some Cantonese. For this I head to Coloane, where Kwun Hoi Heen serves upmarket dim sum. This is a real test for my chopstick skills, as I pierce crystal dumplings, scoop up dao miu (peasprouts) and attempt to wind stir-fried crispy noodles with Wagyu beef around them. This is dining at its most varied and I stay for hours, soaking up the sea views and trying to fit in just one more prawn dumpling.
Suitably sated I stroll around Coloane. This historic fishing village has always been less populated than the main city and today it remains a quiet retreat, the parks lined with walking trails and cobbled squares surrounded by pastel-coloured churches.
From Coloane Town Square we walk along the waterfront to one of Macau's most well-known foodie names – Lord Stow's Bakery. This small café is credited with bringing Portugal's most famous tart, the pasteis de nata (egg custard tart), to Macau. It is the perfect mid-afternoon snack, the creamy sweetness providing the necessary sugar rush to carry on exploring.
And there is still so much to see. We head to Macau's historic centre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005, which is ripe for strolling. We start at Senado Square, its cobbles arranged in black and white waves, and its colonial buildings standing grand with their-neo-classical arches and creamy yellow and white façades. From here we walk past the Baroque São Domingo church, the nineteenth-century Dom Pedro Theatre and up to Guia Lighthouse, China's oldest.
But the highlight is the atmospheric façade of the seventeenth-century Portuguese cathedral dedicated to St Paul. Today the ruin of St Paul is Macau's most photographed site and you can spend ages staring up at its intricately carved stonework.
Our final stop of the day is the Macau Tower, a 338-metre spindle that was finished in 2001. This is the best place to get a view of the city and looking out over it all I see Chinese temples standing side-by-side with colonial churches, Portuguese ruins next to ultra-modern casinos. "Where East meets West"? Check. A "city of contrasts" and "a melting pot"? Absolutely yes.
Explore more of China with the Rough Guide to China. Don't forget to purchase travel insurance before you go. For more information on Macau visit www.macautourism.gov.mo.
The Rough Guide to 2014 is out! Find the top countries, cities, and best-value destinations to visit in 2014 here.


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Add Superman to the list of reporters leaving the newspaper business behind.
In the comic book series' latest issue, which went on sale Wednesday, an outraged Clark Kent quits his job at The Daily Planet after his boss berates him.
"I was taught to believe you could use words to change the course of rivers - that even the darkest secrets would fall under the harsh light of the sun," the superhero's alter ego says in a newsroom outburst. "But facts have been replaced by opinions. Information has been replaced by entertainment. Reporters have become stenographers. I can't be the only one who's sick of what passes for the news today."
In Wednesday's issue, Kent tells his editor he's been a journalist for barely five years.
But for decades, his job as a reporter at The Daily Planet has been a mainstay of Superman's story.
Word of the superhero's career move drew attention from media critics and others who've watched the newspaper industry's struggles.
"It seems very overly dramatic," said Erica Smith, a former newspaper employee who's tracked U.S. newspaper industry layoffs and buyouts on her Paper Cuts blog since 2007. "It doesn't seem to me to fit either the industry or the character."
As an overly passionate, silly geek, when I like something, I don't just "like" it. I tend to get excited in a very specific way, going into full fan mode fairly quickly (see this drawing for a visual explanation).
Once I get rolling, I become a constant broadcaster, excitedly telling my friends about my newest obsession, while I wave my hands around in the air for emphasis.
This excitement is called "fangirling" (or fanboying, as the case may be), and it's fairly common behavior when it comes to the nerd world. In fact, it even extends beyond nerds: Stamp collectors, vintage record experts, and doll fanatics have their moments, too. We all light up when we get a chance to talk about the thing we love. When we share our enthusiasm, we welcome another person into our inner circle.
Sometimes, though, in the midst of marathoning yet another Asian drama with impossibly good-looking leading men, I'll catch myself wondering: Is my fandom escapism? And can it go too far?
All pleasures can lead to escapism, but where do they cross over into obsession? Are you obsessive if you spend each year crafting yet another insanely detailed Final Fantasy costume to wear to Dragon Con, or are you merely nurturing your creative pursuits? Is an encyclopedic knowledge of Star Trek history a good thing, or does the need to keep it up-to-date eventually edge out the necessities of life? FULL POST
While titles like "Street Fighter" and "Mortal Kombat" may ring a bell if you ever spent any time in arcades as a kid, you may not have heard of "Persona." So why is Japan going totally nuts over it, with American otakus quickly following suit?
This August, "Persona 4 Arena," debuted on the U.S. market. The game features popular characters from a Japanese franchise of role-playing games that was founded by gaming company Atlus in 1996. Since its Japanese release on March 1st, the game has sold more than 128,000 units for PlayStation 3, making it the fasting selling fighting game of all time.
Persona's tremendous success as a franchise can be chalked up to a mix of well-defined characters and marketing savvy that the Japanese know how to execute with finesse.
If there's one thing most gamers excel at, it's devotion. Ever since I discovered the first "Final Fantasy," I have stood dutifully at the door of the local game store at the midnight launch, waiting to get my copy.
I fell stone cold in love with "Persona 3" first and worked backwards: The modern fantasy settings, great dialogue and character development have me hooked like a helpless fish.
The latest installment, "Persona 4 Arena," is a perfect example of the power of the Japanese franchise. By appealing to a hardcore Japanese fan base - and the American fans that carefully follow the same trends –and creating a game that features already beloved characters, Atlus is swinging for a home run. Square-Enix did the same in 2008 with "Dissidia Final Fantasy," which featured characters from every major Final Fantasy game and gave fans a chance to fight against one another. The game nailed a spot as the best selling PSP game of 2009 as a result.
However, the way franchises work in Japan is a bit different from the way they work in America. This is a key element to the reason games like "Persona 4 Arena" and "Theatrhythm Final Fantasy" have performed so well. FULL POST
Spoiler alert: You watched Saturday night's "Doctor Who" mid-season finale, right? If you missed it, or are intending, one day, to Netflix the series and DON'T want any inkling of what happened in the episode, stop reading now. We don't divulge information that hasn't been already well-publicized. But we know even the faintest of spoilers can get you riled up like a Dalek on the trail of a sonic screwdriver. Read at your own risk.
Amy and Rory couldn't travel with The Doctor forever. Not that fans suspected they could - the Doctor's past includes many companions. But now we have to wait until the special Christmas episode, possibly beyond that, to see the next stop on the epic TARDIS hitchhike.
In Saturday's "Doctor Who" mid-season finale, "change" and "endings" were as thick as the fog that attends the sneaky, predatory weeping angels. For a show about an alien who travels through time saving Earth and thwarting evil across the universe, the message got a bit heavy-handed at times. It was almost as if executive producer Steven Moffat was trying to prepare himself, the Doctor and the audience for the inevitable.
Even Matt Smith (the eleventh man to play the Doctor) was emphasizing that theme in an interview before last month's New York City season premiere screening.
"The show is about change," he said. "Like Steven likes to say, it can never be predictable, it can never be cozy – It's got to feel like it's sort of marking new territory, I think, every season."
But why belabor the point? This is a television show that for nearly 50 years has established the fact that the characters on the show are always coming and going - including the titular main character, the Doctor (who?) Even relatively new fans (and certainly, American fans fit that bill) of the show have gleaned that time travel is a limited engagement.
That started in 1966, when the show's original Doctor, William Hartnell, needed to retire due to health issues. The show's producers devised a clever plan to transition to a new actor, Patrick Troughton, in the main character role.
The alien nature of the Doctor provided the fix: As a species known as a Time Lord, the Doctor can regenerate instead of dying in the traditional sense. Once regenerated, the Doctor is essentially a new person: he retains memories from his previous life but has a fresh personality.
This prevents a classic Dick York/Dick Sargent quandary where a new actor is installed and no one is supposed to notice the change. Even better, when an actor takes over the Doctor's role, they aren't trying to mimic their predecessor's performance, which allows them to put a unique spin on the character all while adhering to the show's canon.
"Doctor Who" fans, or "Whovians," are unique among television show fandoms in that each fan can point to a favorite version of the Doctor without also having overwhelming disdain for any particular actor in the role. A popular T-shirt cheekily states, "You never forget your first Doctor," and it's spot-on; a Whovian's fan identity is typically established with the first incarnation of the Time Lord (or his companion) they fall in love with. FULL POST
Editor's note: Lauren Orsini is a reporter for the Daily Dot, the hometown newspaper of the World Wide Web, the paper of record for what happens online. Follow her on Twitter @laureninspace. You can find more images of "Homestuck" cosplay on photographer Ed Tan's Flickr account.
In an age of computers, smartphones, and instant gratification, studies lead us to believe that our attention spans are the shortest they've ever been.
If that were completely true though, a 5,000 plus page webcomic shouldn't be able to attract millions of fans, much less inspire them to raise a million dollars in under a week.
"Homestuck," cartoonist Andrew Hussie's longest and latest project, is a video game inspired saga set in the Internet age. In the story, rife with Generation Y pop culture references, teenagers unite through an online game in order to save the world.
"I like Homestuck because it is one of the first pieces of media that genuinely appeals to me as a person who grew up in a very Internet based generation," wrote Deanna Bennett, 20, in an email responding to my Tumblr request for "Homestuck" fanatics.
"Homestuck is meant to live online. It combines a lot of Internet humor that a lot of mainstream cartoons and comics are trying to desperately to tap but are failing and missing every damn time."
Sounds like fun, right? But choosing to read it is a big commitment—in the form of hours and hours of free time. Fans compare its length to a that of a Greek epic. It has more than 100 main characters. And instead of comic panels, its gigantic pages are a mix of still and animated images, intimidating walls of text, Flash movies with original music, and even short video games.
"Homestuck is perhaps the first modern work to make full use of the Internet as not just a distribution tool but as a fully realized artistic medium," wrote Clark Powell, 20. "Text, music, artwork, interactive, and animation are all combined in ways that have never been attempted before. On top of that, Homestuck is a piece of work whose very narrative is something of relevance to a new generation; it is, after all, a comic about the Internet, video games, and pop culture, if it can even be called a 'comic.'"
Recently, the convoluted comic (and Hussie's tendency to coin his own vocabulary for the script) prompted PBS's Idea Channel to speculate that "Homestuck" just might be "the Ulysses of the Internet." But as host Mike Rugnetta suggests, with great effort comes an incredible reward—the psychological theory of effort justification indicates that fans who stick it out will certainly grow attached. FULL POST


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Savannahnow.com moves to metered pay model
Dear Readers:
With the announcement this morning of our All-Access Membership program for Savannah Morning News print subscribers, we are moving savannahnow.com to metered access effective Monday evening, Oct. 29.
Metered access will allow our Savannah Morning News print subscribers unlimited access to our locally produced journalism and premium content while limiting access to those who seek our premium content for free. Effective Monday evening, non-subscribers will only be able to access 15 pages of our premium content each month without a subscription.
We made this decision for a few reasons:
• Our core business model needs to change. The world is evolving around us with media consumption habits driving massive change in the delivery platforms for news and information.
• For almost 145 years, our only delivery platform was the newspaper. Today, we have print, desktops and laptops, tablets and smartphones. You can get our information, through print or on savannahnow.com, wherever and whenever you want it. This has challenged our traditional reliance on advertising revenues as new platforms fragment the advertising marketplace. As we look to the future, we seek to have more balance between our advertising and subscription revenues.
The bottom line: Our local journalism is valuable whether it comes delivered in the newspaper or on any other platform.
• Our goal is to be a 21st century media company that provides advanced digital and print solutions. Our new business model allows us to invest in journalism for the future. We are expanding our news and digital staffs and intensifying our focus on investigative and watchdog reporting. Our recent reporting on management issues at the city of Savannah is one example. No other local media source could match the time, attention and detail given to this matter by the Savannah Morning News and savannahnow.com.
We are honored to serve our community and look forward to a strong, vibrant future as your local news and information source.
Here are some important details on the change announced today:
What do print subscribers need to do to activate unlimited access to savannahnow.com?
Print subscribers to the Savannah Morning News will continue to receive unlimited access to savannahnow.com as part of our new All-Access Membership program. Print subscribers will need to activate their unlimited access at www.savannahnow.com/allaccess. This access is included in our subscription.
What does this mean to non-subscribers and how does a non-subscriber gain unlimited access to savannahnow.com?
Non-subscribers can gain unlimited access to our premium content on savannahnow.com, our iPad edition, our e-newspaper edition and smartphone applications by purchasing an All-Access Digital Access package for $16 a month or a single channel for $9.95 per month. Other plans are available that include the print edition of the Savannah Morning News as well. Details can be found at www.savannahnow.com/allaccess.
As a non-subscriber, what will happen when the monthly 15-page limit is reached?
You will no longer be able to view our premium content without a subscription. Our system is set up to alert you to your options once you reach the limit.