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Little Argus: Feb. 21
The Carlsbad Current-Argus offers the Little Argus as a complimentary service to non-profits and community organizations for the purpose of running public service announcements and/or publicizing community activities.
Little Argus submissions may be sent to email@example.com at least 24 hours in advance of the first day the announcement is desired to run. Submissions should be kept to 50 words or less and include crucial information such as time, date, location and contact information.
Because this is a free service and space is limited, submissions will be printed on a rotation, meaning announcements are not guaranteed to run every day.
Announcements with no clear end date will be removed at staff's discretion.
Please call 575-887-5501 for more information.
Foundations of Freedom: The Foundations of Freedom video series with historian David Barton and U.S. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann continues, as we watch part two of Foundations of Law at 5:45 p.m. Feb. 21 at First Baptist Church Conference Center, 112 N. Alameda. The public is invited. For more information, call 575-887-3036 or 575-706-0704.
No events.
National Little League: Carlsbad National Little League will hold baseball registration from 5-8 p.m. Feb. 24, 26 and March 2 and from 10 a.m.- 2 p.m. Feb. 20 and 27 at the Carlsbad Mall. Please bring a state issued birth certificate and three proofs of residency. The cost is $65. For more information, please email email@example.com.
American Little League: Carlsbad American Little League will have registration from 5-8 p.m. Feb. 24 and 26 and from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Feb. 20 and 27 at the Carlsbad Mall. Bring a state-issued birth certificate and 3 proofs of residency. The cost is $65.
Class of '66: Members of the Class of 1966 are welcome to attend the next planning meeting at 6 p.m. Feb. 23 at 314 W. Mermod. The reunion is scheduled for Sept. 30-Oct. 1.
Commission on Disabilities: The Governor's Commission on Disabilities will be in Carlsbad at 10 a.m. March 2 at the North Mesa Senior Center. They will be providing sensitivity training dealing with persons with disabilities. The City of Carlsbad Disability Advisory Board will also be in attendance to answer any questions dealing with accessibility issues in city facilities. For information, please call 575-361-8009.
Volunteers needed: The New Mexico Child Abuse & Neglect Citizen Review Board is accepting volunteer applications. Volunteers review cases of children in foster care and make recommendations to the court and the State Advisory Committee. If you are interested in improving the child welfare system in Eddy County, able to devote 6-10 hours each month, complete mandated trainings, access and use a computer and travel within the county, this may be the perfect volunteer opportunity for you. Apply at http://www.nmcrb.org or call 575-646-3785 for more information.
Health Sense: A Senior Circle Health Sense talk is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Feb. 22 in the private dining room at Carlsbad Medical Center, 2430 W. Pierce. Guest speaker is Amanda Ryan, D.O., interventional cardiologist. A light meal will be provided. For more information, call 887-4160.
Healthy Woman: Healthy Woman, a free resource provided by Carlsbad Medical Center, will host a women's heart health seminar event at 6 p.m. Feb. 23 in the CMC private dining room, 2430 W. Pierce. Featured speakers are Amanda Ryan, D.O., interventional cardiologist, and Deana Rogers, registered respiratory therapist, who will discuss women's heart health as well as heart attack and stroke warning signs. A light, healthy meal will be served and many door prizes are available. To register, please call 575-887-4160.
Childbirth class: Carlsbad Medical Center's Women's Services Department will have a free childbirth class from 1-4 p.m. Feb. 27 in the CMC private dining room, 2430 W. Pierce. Food will be provided. Topics of discussion include the stages of labor, C-sections, anesthesia care, breastfeeding, infant care and postpartum care. A tour of the Women's Services unit will also be provided. For more information, call 575-887-4264 or 575-887-4265.
Donations needed: CPAWS, an animal advocacy 501(c)(3) is looking for donations in order to continue our free dog and cat food giveaway and our dog house project. CPAWS qualifies low income families to receive free dog and cat food to help them keep their pets. All animals must be spayed or neutered within 3 months in order to continue to receive food. Please contact Suzanne Hathon at 575-302-2341. Donations can be made at Carlsbad National Bank, acct. #66141. Call us to receive a tax deductible form as donations are tax deductible. Thank you from CPAWS.
Computer classes: The San Jose Center is offering free one-on-one computer lessons. Lessons are on an individual basis and based on what you need to learn and the time that you need. For more information, call the center at 575-885-1402.
Bereavement services: Golden Services Home Health, Hospice and Counseling offers bereavement support services and counseling for individuals and groups. If interested in participating please contact Pastors Jason Shirley or Dave Rogers at 575-885-3082 for an appointment.
Bow and arrow lessons: "CenterShot Ministry" has started a new 8 week session held every Tuesday from 6-7:15 p.m. at Blodgett Street Baptist Church, 1500 W. Blodgett. Sessions are free and will run from Jan. 19-March 8. Equipment is provided and ages 8 and up are welcome.
Report graffiti: The Carlsbad Community Anti-Drug/Gang Coalition and Keep Carlsbad Beautiful invite you to report graffiti to the City of Carlsbad for free removal with owner permission. Call 575-887-1200 or dial 311 from a land line. You may remain anonymous.
Early College applications: Carlsbad Early College High School is now accepting applications for the Class of 2020. All applications are due by 3:45 p.m. March 15. Applications and additional information about the application process may be found online at http://www.carlsbadnmschools.com or in the guidance office at Carlsbad Intermediate School. Please contact Maaike Thomas, College Advisor/School Social Worker with questions at 575-234-9415 or email@example.com.
Instructor needed: The North Mesa Senior Recreation Center offers a variety of activities for adults ages 40 and up. We are currently looking for a volunteer ceramics instructor. If you are interested, please call the center at 575-885-6487 or stop by at 1112 N. Mesa (behind Denny's).
Meals for the homeless: One Love Community Outreach is currently providing meals to the less fortunate in our community every Saturday from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Dr. MLK Jr. Park. If you are interested in volunteering or donating items, please contact Cody Franco at 575-302-0795 or firstname.lastname@example.com.
Volunteers needed: Eddy County CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) is seeking caring, committed citizens to become advocates for abused or neglected children living in foster care. These children have been placed in protective custody of the state by the court. CASA provides the training for volunteers who will be looking out for the child's best interest. Three to four hours per week and an interest in being a powerful voice for these vulnerable children is required. Must be 21 years old, have a high school diploma or GED and pass criminal background check. Training is scheduled to begin in the spring. For more information, call 575-887-5966, email email@example.com, visit eddycountycasa.org or visit the office at 118 W. Mermod St.
Book fair: The BOGO Scholastic Book Fair will be at St. Edward School, 805 Walter St., Feb. 22-25, open daily from 3-4 p.m. Stock up on your children's library with this buy one get one free sale! There will be a family event from 6-7:30 p.m. Feb. 23. There will be plenty of door prizes raffled off!
Jewelry classes: The North Mesa Senior Recreation Center offers a class on beaded jewelry with instructor Frieda Bates every Wednesday from 5:30-8 p.m. as one of the many activities held at the center each week. We have a fitness room, pool tables, bingo, card games, quilting and much more. Membership is only $7.50 a year for anyone over 40. Come as a guest and check out what all we have to offer.
Volunteer opportunity: Keep Carlsbad Beautiful offers both volunteer and community service hours (court ordered, school programs, civic organizations, etc.) for community clean up projects year round. To sign up, call Mary Garwood at 575-234-7925.
Prayer revival: Cavern Baptist Church, 110 Russell St., will be open at noon every Wednesday for non-denominational prayer. There is no set program. Come and pray as you will, silent, out loud, or in a group.
IEP workshop: There will be a free workshop on Recipes for IEP Success from noon-2 p.m. March 16 at the Riverwalk Recreation Complex. For more information, call 505-247-0192.
PARCC for Parents: There will be a free workshop for parents on the PARCC test from noon-2 p.m. March 23 at the Riverwalk Recreation Complex. For more information, call 505-247-0192.
Celebrate Recovery: You are invited to Celebrate Recovery which meets each Monday night at 5:30 p.m. as a safe place to address your hurts, hang ups, and habits (addictions). 1502 W. Mermod. Info: 1-800-601-4530.
Carlsbad Overeaters Anonymous: Overeaters Anonymous is now meeting here in Carlsbad. For more information, please call 575-571-1025 or email email@example.com.
Dog houses: Do you need a dog house? CPAWS has small and medium doghouses for those who qualify. Must be picked up. Call Vickie at 575-885-5406.
Centennial: St. Edward School is proud to announce plans for celebrating our 100th Anniversary this March! All graduates, former students and parents of St. Edward School students are invited to gather as a community to recall fond memories and catch up on events, accomplishments and milestones by attending an evening of family activities. Please send your name, years attended and a mailing address to firstname.lastname@example.com or contact St. Edward School at 575-885-4620 so we can mail you an invitation.
Workshop: Eddy County Extension Office will be offering a free Emergency Preparedness Workshop emphasizing food storage at 4 p.m. Feb. 29 at 1304 W. Stevens in Carlsbad. If you are an individual with a disability and need an auxiliary aid or service, please contact us at 575-887-6595.
Riverblitz: The 2016 Riverblitz will be on March 12 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. This is an annual event to clean up the Pecos River both in the city and in the county areas. Supplies can be picked up at 7 a.m. at the Riverwalk Rec. Center. Lunch will be provided at 12 p.m. at the Recreation Center. For more information call Mary Garwood at 575-234-7925.
Community Focus: Community Focus invites anyone interested in our great community of Carlsbad and Eddy County to their weekly Friday meetings. Meetings are at IHOP at 2529 S. Canal St. in Carlsbad. From 7-7:30 a.m. there is a meet-and-greet, breakfast ($7) is at 7:30 a.m. and the presentation is at 8 a.m. Anyone wishing to promote their organization to community-minded people, please contact Richard Bradley at email@example.com to register.
Volunteers needed: United Way is seeking volunteers for Tax Help New Mexico. Training will be provided to individuals interested in assisting with tax preparation for seniors and low income individuals. For more information, please call the United Way office at 575-887-3504 or email firstname.lastname@example.com.
Tax preparation: Free state income tax preparation is being offered at the San Jose Center, 2814 San Jose Blvd., from 1-4 p.m. every Wednesday. You must make less than $22,000 a year to be eligible for these services. You must bring a photo ID, Social Security cards and proof of income for everyone living in the same household. If your spouse passed away in 2015, you will need to bring a death certificate. For more information, call the San Jose Center at 575-885-1402.
Volunteers needed: The Volunteer Hospital Auxiliary, Pink Ladies & Red Men, of the Carlsbad Medical Center need volunteers with the front desk, coffee cart, surgical waiting, gift shop, patient ambassadors and other activities. For more information, call Anita Buff at 575-234-2859 or Norma Kelley at 575-887-6269.
Black History Month: There will be musical and sacred movement performances at 3 p.m. Feb. 28 at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, 502 N. Alameda St. as part of "Conversations on Black History: What Black History Means to Me." The public is invited to this NAACP-organized event. There will be light refreshments. For more information, call 575-887-2358 or 575-887-9059.
Housing: The Eastern Regional Housing Authority will be accepting applications for Eddy County from 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Feb. 29 at New Mexico State University at Carlsbad's Instructional Building, Room 225. For questions, call 575-622-0881.
Community forum: Carlsbad Municipal Schools invites you to a community forum regarding Desert Willow Elementary from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Feb. 23 at the Carlsbad Municipal School Board Room, 408 N. Canyon. Community members will have the opportunity to ask questions and view pictures of the new school. Pizza will be served.
Family cancer retreat: Cancer Services of New Mexico's free Family Cancer Retreat will be April 22-24 at the Marriott Albuquerque Pyramid North Hotel. To receive an application packet go to www.cancerservicesnm.org or call Mike at 505-239-4239.
Aglow conference: The annual northern New Mexico Aglow International Conference will be March 18-20 at the Nativo Lodge in Albuquerque. Call Lenda at 505-366-7104 for more information.
Pet food giveaway: There will be a CPAWS food giveaway from 9-11 a.m. Feb. 27 at the Carlsbad Tractor Supply to those who qualify. Call 575-200-8536 for more information.
Health fair: The Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce Retirement Committee will hold a free "Growing Bolder" health fair from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Feb. 27 at the Pecos River Village Conference Center, 711 Muscatel Ave. There will be free health screenings, prescription take-back, information on fall prevention, diabetes education and more. For more information, call Ashley Bock at 575-887-6050.
Big band program: Roger Marks will present a program on the music of Duke Ellington and other black bands of the era in honor of Black History Month at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 25 at Carlsbad Medical Center's Senior Circle, 2423 Bonita. The program is open to the public. Call 575-234-3331 for more information.
Amigos Gathering: The Carlsbad Museum and Art Center Amigos are hosting their annual Amigos Gathering and Membership Drive from 4-6 p.m. Feb. 27 at the museum, 418 W. Fox. Tour the museum, enjoy some snacks and attend the annual meeting at 5 p.m. to find out how the museum did in 2015, its goals for 2016 and how you can be a part of it all. Call 575-887-0276 for more information.
Bikers for Change: The Christian Motorcyclist Association of New Mexico invites you to our Bikers for Change rally on March 18 and 19. The rally will be at Abundant Life Christian Center in Belen, 105 Avenida del Fuego. It will begin at 6 p.m. Friday and at 8:30 a.m. Saturday. Families are welcome as well as believers, non-believers and non-bikers. Free lunch will be provided on Saturday for guests, and there is no registration fee. The rally will be finished by 3 p.m. Saturday.
AARP: There will be a special AARP meeting, open to the public, at 3 p.m. Feb. 22 at the North Mesa Senior Center. The Carlsbad Chapter will welcome AARP state office representatives Gary Williams, AARP Associate Director, and Leo Garcia, AARP Advocate, who will provide important information concerning the 2016 Legislative session, the Care Act, Medicare and Medicaid. For more information, call 575-887-8997.
Meeting: There will be a Landsun Homes Auxiliary Meeting at 9:45 a.m. Feb. 25. Roger Marks will be the guest speaker.
Bark in the Park: CPAWS is planning another "Bark In The Park" in April and we are looking for volunteers, sponsors and vendors to help with this fun event. Please call Darya Ramirez at 575-200-8536 for more information.
Drug disposal: Dispose of unwanted medications (pills, tablets) anonymously at the drop box in the entrance to Carlsbad Police Department, 602 W. Mermod. Liquids, ointments, needles, inhalers are not accepted but can be disposed of at a drug take-back event in spring or fall. Sponsored by Carlsbad Community Anti-Drug/Gang Coalition and City of Carlsbad.
Heat assistance: United Way of Carlsbad & South Eddy Counties 211 program will be assisting families in completing paperwork for the Heat NM program paid for through Salvation Army. The assistance will be a maximum of $120 per account and assistance may only be received once a year. United Way staff will be available from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. M-F and may be reached by calling 575-887-3504 or dialing 211.
Art show entry: The Carlsbad Area Art Association is seeking entries for its "CARLSBAD ARTS" multimedia show at the Carlsbad Museum and Art Center. The entry date is from 10 a.m.-noon March 5 at the Carlsbad Museum and Art Center. The show is open to artists 18 and older. Entry forms are available at the Artist Gallery, 120 S. Canyon.


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SAN FRANCISCO — Tim Lincecum's final start of the 2013 season took a bizarre turn as the Giants shook hands after a 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday night.
Former Giants closer Brian Wilson walked slowly from the visiting bullpen to the backstop and confronted team president Larry Baer, who has seats alongside the Giants dugout. Sources said Wilson was upset that he had not yet received his 2012 World Series ring.
The Giants invited Wilson to the April 7 ring ceremony at AT&T Park, but he did not respond to phone calls and text messages from club officials. Manager Bruce Bochy has often held private ceremonies for former players, including a short one with Blue Jays outfielder Melky Cabrera when the Giants visited Toronto. Bochy gave Chicago Cubs outfielder Nate Schierholtz his ring when the Giants visited Wrigley Field, and the two exchanged handshakes and pleasantries during batting practice.
The Giants had hoped to hold a similar private ceremony for Wilson sometime this week, but he repeatedly rebuffed team officials.
Wilson, who had Tommy John surgery in April of 2012, signed with the rival Dodgers this August and has twice pitched against the Giants. He pitched an inning in Tuesday night's Dodgers win and was warming up in the top of the ninth Thursday as Sergio Romo closed out a Giants victory.
Giants players stared in disbelief as Wilson walked over and yelled at Baer. The bearded right-hander pointed to the field several times and then turned and angrily walked back to the Dodgers dugout.
Before the Dodgers left AT&T Park, the Giants — having been blown off repeatedly in their attempts for a private exchange — gave the ring to a Dodgers official.

subset: commoncrawl


text: The Virus foundry was set up by Jonathan Barnbrook, designer of the fonts Exocet and Mason from Emigre, to release his unusual and experimental fonts. The library consists of a mixture of whimsicality and serious typographic experiment with fonts such as NixonScript, a naive script font 'especially to tell lies with', and Prozak, 'an attempt to reduce all letterforms down to the minimum number of character shapes'. The library also contains others including Barnbrook's well known fonts Bastard and Prototype and a sans-serif version of Exocet.


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Play stimulates creativity and learning, language use, integration of many forms of learning, development of interpersonal skills, problem solving, collaboration with others, interest, engagement and challenge.
So I was more than a little bit interested when I heard that LEGO had developed a new product designed to use their materials as a tool for language and literacy. The new product is called StoryStarter (see materials below) and uses LEGO play as a basis and foundation for speaking, listening, reading and writing and it is linked to school curricula.
|Above: My Duck!
How it works
Step 1 - The children use project-based activities (24 topics in all) that relate to Australian Curriculum Achievement Standards. They work together to plan a sequence of story events manipulating Lego pieces as part of the story making.
Step 2 - They create scenes and images.
Step 3 - They use the Lego StoryVisualiser software by uploading their images and photos into the program to create a unique text by dragging and dropping.
Step 4 - Share the stories with others.
The StoryStarter kit costs $234.95 AUD (depending on what you include) and will be well received by children and teachers. A great feature of the kit appears to be the StoryVisualiser software that can be used on computers or via a special app for iPads. The software or app makes it easy for children to combine words and images. The app can be downloaded free from iTunes but you need a unique password provided when you purchase the product to use it. StoryVisualiser has a variety of layout templates that are applicable with varied written genres (narrative form, comic format, factual or fictional texts and so on). I can see some schools wanting more than one of these so that classes don't have to wait too long between topics.
StoryStarter has a positive impact on the way students interact and collaborate. As students work in teams to create their story sequences, they have to navigate team work to complete their task in an open, non-judgemental environment. LEGO's internal research suggests that StoryStarter helps the students learn about teamwork. I haven't seen the full research yet, but I hope to do a more detailed assessment in a future post. The developers and teachers who have trialled the product suggest that because there is no one judging them, StoryStarter helps students who are shy or struggle with reading and writing to take an active part.
As part of the release a number of teachers have been using the product. Cheryl Bellamy, Year 3 teacher at Hercules Road State School in Queensland, started using the innovative new LEGO Education StoryStarter learning tool at the beginning of the 2014 school year. She commented on the impact it has had on her students:
"What's really interesting is how StoryStarter brings out the student interactions with one another. Walking around during the lesson you can certainly tell who the leaders are, making sure their group stays on task, as well as the ones who are more likely to sit back and let the others do the work"
As well, she found that:
"StoryStarter has really helped the students with their storytelling and verbalising narratives. When we started the students would describe their scenes with only two to three words, but in just a few months this has expanded to three to four sentences. It's helping them to get used to writing more complex sentences."
Some Early Research Findings
David Whitebread, Senior Lecturer in Psychology & Education at University of Cambridge Faculty of Education has been doing his own research on the materials. He describes 5 clear areas in which StoryStarter offers unique educational support for children's storytelling and related learning skills:
1. Identifying the main ideas in a text. A basic skill in developing narrative or story-telling skills is the ability to identify the main points or ideas in a text. StoryStarter supports early development of these skills, as it requires children to identify a number of key moments in a story and to represent them concretely in the medium of LEGO bricks.
2. Providing a concrete narrative structure. In order to tell or write a story well you need to keep a lot of information in your head, about what has previously been said, what will happen later, and so on, while you are saying or writing each part. As StoryStarter involves the construction of a concrete 3-D representation of the story, this provides an external memory aid which supports children's ability to plan the structure of their story, to reflect upon it and to modify it until it is well structured and provides a clear narrative, with a beginning, a problem and a resolution.
3. Expressing ideas in different media. As using StoryStarter to construct narratives involves children in representing their ideas in various different media (i.e. in oral narrative or discussion, in 2-D drawings, in 3-D LEGO bricks, in 2-D photographs, through speech bubbles, in writing, and in a story book format combining pictures and text) it supports children's developing expressive abilities, their metacognitive understandings of the roles of different modes of expression, their ability to think through ideas in their heads, and to make effective use of a repertoire of representational tools when tackling challenging tasks.
4. Language and thinking. Children's metacognitive and self-regulatory abilities are key determinants of success at school and as learners. These abilities involve being aware of their own abilities, developing a repertoire of mental strategies for problem solving, and effectively using these mental resources when faced with novel tasks. Learning to use language to think and to reason is supported by these abilities. StoryStarter encourages children to talk about and justify their ideas, to listen to others' ideas, and to work towards agreed solutions.
5. Play and learning. A playful approach has been shown to lead to more creative problem solving in a variety of areas of learning, including storytelling and writing. Learning to write stories using StoryStarter has several playful aspects to which children are very positively disposed, including the use of LEGO bricks and computer-based technologies. It enables a degree of hands-on, flexible and playful enactment of parts of the story, which is known to support the development of imagination and creativity, alongside social learning about human motivations, relationships and so on.
Note: I have received no incentives or benefits to write this post. The research referred to above is yet to be fully assessed as is the product but early indications are that this will be a very useful aid to learning. I hope to do a further post in the future once I have had a chance to assess the product more fully. I was able to interview Lisbeth Hattens, Educational Manager of LEGO based in Denmark, who offered some additional insights and information on the product and its development.


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In the early 1960s, curators at the Philadelphia Museum of Art noticed something funny about one of their modern-art sculptures: It smelled like vinegar. Worse, the once-clear plastic sculpture had begun browning like an apple, and cracks had appeared on its surface. By 1967, Naum Gabo's translucent, airy Construction in Space: Two Cones looked like Tupperware that had gone through the dishwasher too often.
The volatile Gabo got so angry at the curators (he blamed the deterioration on their keeping his work in an airtight display case) that he took the sculpture back to repair it. That didn't work—things, in fact, got worse—and he finally gave up. He cast a replica of Two Cones, donated it to the Tate in London, and gave Philly back the degraded original.
The incident would have remained a footnote in art history, except that other Gabo pieces (including the Tate's replica) started falling apart, too, and in much the same way. They flaked into pieces, turned strange colors, and began to reek. Gabo found a reason to blame other owners for mishandling his work, but curators soon discovered a common factor: rhodoid, an early plastic made of cellulose acetate.
In the 1920s, Gabo and other artists began experimenting with plastic, both because it offered the freedom to create any shape in any color and because they believed artists should embrace technology and a plastics-based industrial future. (Gabo was trained as an engineer.) Plastics manufacturers assured the artists that cellulose acetate was durable—Greek marble for a new generation. Not quite. It turned out plastics were no more intrinsically stable (and sometimes less stable) than wood, paint, or any other media—a detail Gabo and the Philadelphia curators never suspected until too late.
The problem of preserving plastics isn't limited to highbrow art. Not long after The Graduate debuted, manufacturers around the world began to incorporate synthetic polymers into their goods. As plastics revolutionized the making of furniture, toys, health care products, and electronics, museums of industry, design, and medicine began snapping up plastic objects that were either historic (the first artificial heart) or culturally important (Barbie dolls). Plastics hold up well for the decade or so during which a consumer uses most products. But museums, unlike consumers, are in it for the long haul, and when plastics crash, they crash precipitously. As a result, museums of all sorts have been having Gabo moments in the past decade.
The casualty list is appalling: Antique plastic dolls at the National Museum of Denmark have begun to peel and flake; classic furniture at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London might as well have been left out in the sun for years; the first-ever plastic toothbrush, at the Smithsonian, is collapsing into a pile of crumbs; etc. A whole generation of irreplaceable items that are as representative of our culture as pottery or flintheads were of ancient ones are dying—and many people charged with their care have no idea how to stop further damage.
A handful of unstable, "malignant" plastics are responsible for most of the carnage. Cellulose nitrate was the first widely used plastic (it dates to the early 1830s); it was used to make the film in reel-to-reels. It's remembered today for being a notorious fire hazard: Billiard balls made of cellulose nitrate would occasionally explode on contact, and the plastic was responsible for the destruction of many early movie theaters, as hot projection booths caused the film to catch fire. For safety reasons, cellulose acetate, the material Gabo used, began to replace cellulose nitrate in many applications in the 1930s, though it wasn't any more durable. Because both plastics were based on readily available plant matter (cellulose is the main component of a plant's cell walls), they found widespread use until the 1970s, despite their flaws.
More recently, manufacturers and artists have turned to latex and wholly synthetic plastics like PVC or polyurethane. But these plastics have also proved feeble over the long term. At a molecular level, plastics are long chains of a single molecule repeated over and over. Such long chains would be uselessly brittle on their own, but chemists realized they could add chemicals, called "plasticizers," whose molecules work their way between the chains and soften the plastics up. This greatly increased malleability, and virtually all plastics today employ plasticizers. Unfortunately, plastics will squeeze the plasticizers out over time. This process pushes the chemicals to the surface of the object, leaving the underlying plastic fragile. Different plastics deteriorate in different ways under different conditions, depending on what plasticizers or dyes were added. But the end result tends to be forms of matter rarely seen outside the reject piles of industrial chemistry labs. You can recognize "bleeding" or "weeping" plastics by the slimy plasticizers pooling on their surfaces. Other plastics push powder to their surfaces and feel sugary to the touch.
Scientists have struggled to figure out the best general strategy for the long-term care of plastic objects. One necessary step is keeping them out of sunlight, since ultraviolet light breaks down both plastic fibers and the colored pigments in plastics, bleaching them. Curators also need to watch out for biological agents. Molds and bacteria have evolved to eat plastics, and although it's not their preferred food, some beetles will eat through Plexiglas if hungry enough.
It's inevitable, however, that even plastic objects kept in dark, sterile drawers will begin to deteriorate chemically. The wholesale dilapidation of something like Gabo's Two Cones usually takes a few decades. More durable plastics can last longer, but even they are slowly crumbling.
Often the only clue a plastic is degrading is its odor. Some begin to smell like ammonia or take on a sickly new-car smell. PVC weeps chlorine, giving it a swimming-pool smell, and any plastics with acetate eventually give off whiffs of acetic acid, which is found in vinegar. Other plastics are redolent of burnt milk, burnt hair, celery, cinnamon, raspberry jam, or camphor "muscle rub."
Worst of all, when plastics weep and bleed they can corrupt everything around them. Chemicals evaporate from their surface and acidify any moisture inside a display case. This causes mini bouts of acid rain that in turn eat away at the plastic in nearby objects—as well as any cloth, metal, or paper in those objects. Curators can lay down special carbon cloths beneath a plastic object to absorb some acid, but some plastics have to be quarantined immediately. Museums have also used plastics to coat nonplastic objects like silver (to prevent tarnishing) and paintings (to prevent flaking). But plastic coatings often "bloom" and turn opaque or "crizzle" (i.e., wrinkle) like dried rubber cement, changes that can damage the very object the coating was meant to preserve.
As of today, most chemical damage to plastics is irreversible, and conservators focus less on rehabilitation than simple maintenance. The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum recently asked the Museum Conservation Institute to help preserve a high-altitude flight suit in its collection. The suit had belonged to the one-eyed aviation pioneer Wiley Post. The leather straps and cotton garments in Post's suit look fine, if a little dingy. But his plastic gloves look like the shriveled hand of a mummy. Conservation scientists said even light handling of the gloves would cause them to crack and crumble, and they admitted they can do little but put the suit in deep-freeze storage and take pictures for posterity.
One branch of the art industry that has taken a particular interest in the question of how to preserve plastics is insurers, since they will have to pick up the tab for damaged goods. Insurance agencies fund much of the research into preserving plastic art, a fledgling science aching for a breakthrough. One company, AXA Art Insurance, publishes a book with the dour title Plastic Art: A Precarious Success Story, and has held numerous training sessions to teach curators the best-known methods of staving off decay (and, it hopes, to generate new ideas on how to reverse it). In a warning to museums snapping up the work of some of today's hottest artists, the AXA book states that plastic-heavy pieces by Damien Hirst, Matthew Barney, and Jeff Koons will be "difficult, costly, and nerve-racking to preserve."
In the future, museums will probably have to be stingier about sharing or even displaying plastic holdings. Conservators at New York's MoMA say it frequently gets requests to loan out Eva Hesse works, such as Viniculum II, which consists of latex pieces affixed to a wire, but they have to refuse because of their fragility. In even worse shape are the plastic sculptures of blue-collar workers, overweight shoppers, and white-trash tourists by Duane Hanson, a name on the lips of most every plastics curator. His grotesque renderings used to startle museum-goers with their uncanny realism, but as the sculptures peel and crack, they're looking creepy for different reasons. When a Hanson statue, Woman With Handbag, began to decay at the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne, Germany, curators cleverly asked the artist to "age" the woman by playing up her age spots and changing her hair. But since Hanson's death in 1996, the museum has limited the time it shows the piece.
A few conservation scientists worry even more about the next generation of plastics—biodegradable plastics, which are supposed tobreak down. Artists are not always a read-the-instructions bunch, and conservators fear they will ignore manufacturers' directions about the lifetime and durability of "green" plastic and use it anyway. Brenda Keneghan, a conservator of modern materials at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, summed up her fears about the future of plastics in art this way: "Everyone else in the world is trying to get rid of them," she sighed, "and we're trying to preserve them."


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Great Grey Owl
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,Leslie Yap足球博彩平台(www.hg108.vip)是一个开放皇冠即时比分、代理最新登录线路、会员最新登录线路、皇冠代理APP下载、皇冠会员APP下载、皇冠线路APP下载、皇冠电脑版下载、皇冠手机版下载的皇冠新现金网平台。足球博彩平台上登录线路最新、新2皇冠网址更新最快,足球博彩平台开放皇冠会员注册、皇冠代理开户等业务。
KUALA LUMPUR: Nomura Asset Management Malaysia Sdn Bhd, a Malaysian fund management unit of Nomura Holdings Inc, is targeting RM50 million of assets under management (AUM) in two years of its newly launched fund Nomura Global Shariah Sustainable Equity Fund (GSSEF).
Managing director Leslie Yap said there is an increasing awareness and recognition by investors of the environment, social and governance (ESG) investments which saw Nomura's handling of about US$600 million or 10 per cent of global assets on ESG equities.
"With Malaysia being the Islamic financial hub, incorporating the shariah-compliant assets could be an added advantage to pool the investment bigger for more Muslim investors to participate and benefit from.
"Besides, we also see the interest of the shariah version of ESG fund from institutional investors of the shariah ESG fund which further encouraged us to launch this GSSEF fund," he told reporters after the launch of the GSSEF fund here today.
On the returns for the GSSEF fund, Yap said the group's relative target for the fund would be 3 to 4 per cent over the benchmark Dow Jones Islamic Market Developed Market Index.
However, he said inflation is a challenge to investors, and with the market currently in correction mode, it is also the right time for professional investors like Nomura to help their clients to identify companies with the right valuations.
Yap said the fund is available in Malaysia from today for a minimum initial investment of RM1,000 and US$1,000, and Nomura Asset Management UK Ltd has been appointed as the investment adviser to the fund, to provide investment research and stock recommendations in accordance with the investment objectives and within the investment restrictions and limits of the fund.
"Our goal is to offer our clients more opportunities and ways to invest according to their principles, achieve their investment goals as well as to generate positive impact.
"We believed we can do so by providing long-term value with quality solutions that combine ESG and shariah principles," he said.
He said ESG investments would also allow Nomura to offer local investors responsible investing options delivering sustainable impact which could be achieved by focusing not only on portfolio companies' financial performance, but also on their positive social impact.
As part of its commitment to grow the universe of ESG companies globally, he said the group is actively integrating and progressing towards its six impact goals.
These include mitigating climate change, natural capital depreciation and obesity, eliminating communicable diseases, and providing global access to clean drinking water and basic financial services, which in turn are all aligned to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, he added. - Bernama
转载说明:本文转载自Sunbet。 环球UG声明:该文看法仅代表作者自己,与本平台无关。转载请注明:足球博彩平台(www.hg108.vip)_Nomura Malaysia targets RM50mil AUM for new fund


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Handmade Bow // Christmas Blossom
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Work with Pie Charts
A pie chart gives dashboard consumers an immediate visual clue of the relative sizes of the shares of a whole. Categories are represented by individual slices. The size of the slice in a pie chart is determined by the value.
You can animate a pie chart if you want its pieces to be exploded, which means that the individual slices of the pie can be pulled away from the rest of the pie.
To animate a pie, enable Animated check box in the Chart Designer.


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A Broadcasting Cup of Coffee
I got a wonderful surprise recently when the Cincinnati Reds called me to see if I could fill-in for Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Brennaman next weekend.
I feel a bit like one of the PawSox players because it's a tremendous thrill to get a call to the big leagues.
Marty will be attending the 50th anniversary celebration of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association (he is a member of its Hall of Fame) and I feel privileged to keep his seat warm.
I'll work with Jeff Brantley in Pittsburgh May 1-3 and I'm really excited to get another "cup of coffee" in the majors.
I've have the good fortune to broadcast about 30 big league games on radio and TV in my career — two with the Toronto Blue Jays, seven with the NY Mets (on the mighty WFAN), and the rest with the Reds (I used to host their pre-game show on TV).
I've called two of Ken Griffey Jr's 613 home runs, as well as HR by Mike Piazza, Chipper Jones, Fred McGriff, Adam Dunn, and Vladimir Guerrero.
I described the only shutout that Danny Graves threw in 518 major league appearances and was behind the mic when Ryan Freel set a Reds franchise record with 5 stolen bases in a game against the Dodgers.
And if Reds fans are wondering if I can bring the team good luck next week, they should consider this: I was the TV announcer on July 31, 2005 when Eric Milton tossed 7 shutout innings in 7-1 win at San Diego.
(Milton was 16-27 with a 5.83 in 3 years with the Reds, so I'm pretty sure I witnessed the best of his 66 starts)
I'm grateful to the Reds for giving me the opportunity and to PawSox President Mike Tamburro for allowing me to go.
* * * * *
The PawSox are a season-high 4 games over .500 after a 7-4 win at Lehigh Valley on Sunday. It's was the fourth and final game of Julio Lugo's rehab stint with Pawtucket and he had 2 hits for the second straight game, including a long double to right field (he also flied out to the wall in center).
While Lugo swung the bat fairly well, he did not display the speed we're used to seeing. On Saturday, he was thrown out at second base on a sacrifice bunt attempt by Sean Danielson, and the bunt appeared to be OK. On Sunday, Julio hit a slow roller to the left side of the infield that looked like it might be an infield hit, but got thrown out by a wide margin.
Lugo, who had arthroscopic knee surgery on March 17, is likely to be back in the Red Sox lineup tomorrow night.
* * * * *
Coca-Cola Park in Allentown, PA is slightly more than one year old, and probably has the nicest video board in the International League.
One of the things it's used for is to post interesting tidbits about the Lehigh Valley players, including their response to the question "What is your favorite food?"
IronPigs relief pitcher Jake Woods responded with, "Whatever my wife makes."
If his wife is a world-famous chef that's acceptable. To specify a specific dish like "my wife's chicken cacciatore" would have been OK.
But "whatever my wife makes" is definitely worthy of a fine in Lehigh Valley's kangaroo court.
It will be mentioned every time Woods pitches against Pawtucket for the rest of the year.
* * * * *
I went with an IronPigs theme today on "Stump Steve." The game was "2 Out of 3 Ain't Bad" and the correct answer to all 3 questions had the word "ham" in his last name.
1. I am a current major leaguer who has been an All-Star, the MVP of a league championship series, and the MVP of the World Series.
2. I pitched for the National League in the 1983 All-Star game and gave up the first grand slam in All-Star game history.
3. I spent 13 years in the big leagues with Baltimore, Cincinnati, Colorado, Milwaukee, San Francisco, and Washington. I was an All-Star in 2000 when I batted .335 with 106 RBI for the Rockies.
The answers are:
1. Cole Hamels
2. Atlee Hammaker
3. Jeffrey Hammonds
Hyder was only able to get #3, so he falls to 7-6 this season.
* * * * *
Since scheduled starter Michael Bowden got promoted to Boston and pitched in Sunday night's game against the Yankees, Clay Buchholz will get the start for Pawtucket on Monday night at Lehigh Valley. Buchholz will be pitching on normal rest since the PawSox had a day off on Thursday.
I hope you'll join Steve Hyder and me for the radio call beginning with the pregame show at 6:50 on the PawSox radio network and PawSox.com.
I'd love to hear from you. The address is firstname.lastname@example.com.


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BAGHDAD (AP) — A powerful Iranian general has emerged as the chief tactician in Iraq's fight against Sunni militants, working on the front lines alongside 120 advisers from his country's Revolutionary Guard to direct Shiite militiamen and government forces in the smallest details of battle, militia commanders and government officials say.
The startlingly hands-on role of Iranian Gen. Ghasem Soleimani points to the extent of the Shiite-led Iraqi government's reliance on its ally Tehran. It also strikes a strong contrast with the more methodical, cautious approach of the United States, Iran's rival for influence in Iraq. Shiite fighters have come to idolize the Iranians who have moved into the heat of battle alongside them — with two Iranian advisers killed in fighting — while government officials grumble the United States has failed to come to their aid.
The Iranian role, however, risks further sharpening the sectarian rifts in the conflict. At a time when the U.S. and others are pressing Iraq's government to reach out to Sunnis to reduce support for the insurgency, the effective Iranian command of Iraq's defense is likely to further alienate Sunnis, who have long accused Shiite-led Iran of trying to dominate Iraq through its allies here.
Soleimani, commander of the elite Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force, is a frequent visitor to multiple battlezones in Iraq, most particularly in Samarra, a city north of Baghdad under siege by Sunni extremists in their march toward the capital. The city is vital to Baghdad's Shiite-led government because it is the location of a revered Shiite shrine that Sunni insurgents have destroyed in the past and are targeting again now.
In his frequent stays in Samarra, Soleimani bases himself in the al-Askari shrine, even sleeping in its basement as he coordinates the city's defense, said two Shiite militia commanders who saw him there. On one recent visit, he joined militiamen in group prayers in the shrine, said one of the commanders, who like the other spoke on condition of anonymity because the government has sought to keep the Iranian role behind the scenes.
The Revolutionary Guard military advisers with Soleimani have provided guidance for Shiite militiamen in shelling positions of the Sunni insurgents and have directed them in a strategy of carving out a large enough margin of territory around the city that Sunni mortars can't reach the shrine, the commanders said. "Without them (the Iranians) and the militias, we would have lost Samarra," one militia commander said.
A handful of advisers from Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah guerrilla group are also offering front-line guidance to Iraqi militias fighting north of Baghdad,
"We sorely need these advisers," said Wahab al-Taei, a senior commander of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, one of several Iranian-backed Shiite militias in Iraq. "They have the expertise we lack in urban guerrilla warfare."
The United States has a team of around 210 troops in Iraq. Their main mission has been to assess the readiness of the Iraqi military to fight the Sunni insurgency, led by a radical al-Qaida breakaway group called the Islamic State, which over the past month has overrun most Sunni-majority parts of the country. The Pentagon this week confirmed it had received the team's assessment, but that it will take some time to review it and come up with recommendations on how the U.S. should help Iraq in the fight.
Iraqi requests for U.S. airstrikes against the Sunni militants have so far gone unanswered, though President Barack Obama has not ruled them out. Pentagon officials have said there are questions whether strikes would be effective if the Iraqi military is not capable of recapturing lost ground and that strikes could further turn Sunnis against the government.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki "feels he has been let down by the Americans and that's why he sought Iranian help," said Watheq al-Hashemi, an Iraqi analyst known to be close to the prime minister.
A senior Iraqi military official said of the Americans, "We have not seen any real help from them so far," saying the U.S. team had not ventured out to the battlefields. He spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the team's activities.
The American emphasis has been on building an inclusive government that can win the support of the minority Sunni community, widely alienated by al-Maliki. Sunni support is seen as vital to regaining the Sunni-dominated regions captured by the insurgency after the military collapsed. In contrast, the Shiite militias being organized by Iran have been able to stem the insurgents advance — but if they play a prominent role in trying to retake Sunni areas, it will likely only fuel sectarian hatreds and bloodshed.
Iraq's state-run media has made no mention of Iranian involvement, apparently to avoid fueling the sectarian rift. But evidence of its presence surfaced July 6 when Iran's state news agency said an Iranian was killed while defending Shiite holy sites in Samarra. A second Iranian military adviser was killed several days later by a roadside bomb in the Samarra area.
Soleimani's Quds Force, the external-operations arm of the Revolutionary Guard, has been involved for years in training and financing Iraqi Shiite militias. It has also long worked with Hezbollah in Lebanon and has been helping Syrian President Bashar Assad in the fight against mainly Sunni rebels in that country's civil war.
"Soleimani wants to protect Baghdad and Samarra just as he kept Damascus safe for Assad," said one Iraqi government official, also speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the Iranians' role. "He is constantly shuttling between Iraq and Iran and when he is here he goes everywhere."
Besides the adviser team, Iranian drones are flying near daily reconnaissance flights and Iranian weapons have been pouring into Iraq in large quantities, mostly to Shiite militias.
Iran also allowed Iraqi pilots to bring back to Iraq five Soviet-era Sukhoi-25 fighter-bombers that Saddam Hussein ordered flown to Iran rather than risk their destruction before the 1991 Gulf War. The aircraft join about a half dozen Sukhoi-25s that al-Maliki bought secondhand from Russia to give an edge to his fledgling air force of two Cessna planes firing U.S.-made Hellfire missiles.
The Shiite militia commanders said Soleimani was also directing militias, volunteers and government forces at other front-line zones around Baghdad. His willingness — and that of his advisers — to go right into the battle has created a near cult of personality for Soleimani among some militiamen.
"They are so much braver than Iraqi army commanders," a senior militia commander deployed in Samarra said of the Iranians. "Soleimani is the world's best military commander."


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In Hillary Rodham Clinton's 3 a.m. television ad in the 2008 primary campaign, we heard the sound of a ringing phone and saw sleeping children. In ominous tones, a narrator warned that "something is happening in the world" and asked, "Who do you want answering the phone?"
Well, it's 2012, and — the phone is still ringing. Please, somebody answer the damn thing!
The story of the terror attack in Benghazi is that neither Clinton nor the president who made her secretary of state responded to the real emergency when it came. The biggest foreign-policy crisis of the last four years is revealing an astonishing lack of competence and character at the center of the Obama administration.
That's not to say the Democratic duo did nothing in response to the worst terror attack on American civilians since 9/11. After eulogizing our dead ambassador and three others, Obama and Clinton got to work spinning a web of deceit that would make Richard Nixon blush.
They sent out a wave of aides to mislead and torture the truth. Even now, nearly three weeks later, they have yet to come clean.
In the process, they are demonstrating how to turn a disaster into a scandal.
The attack in Libya, on the 11th anniversary of 9/11, killed one of our ambassadors for the first time since 1979. Christopher Stevens' diary was recovered by CNN, and it shows he feared he was an al Qaeda target. Yet he had almost no security.
Because of their deception, you don't have to be a cynic to ask what Obama and Clinton knew, and when they knew it. As Fox News has shown, intelligence officials concluded within 24 hours that the attack was carried out by Islamic terrorists affiliated with al Qaeda. Also, a terror group claimed credit for the attack.
But it wasn't until this past Wednesday that Clinton hinted of an al Qaeda link. Even then, she made only a single reference and was far from definitive.
The next day, Obama's flack said he, too, thinks it was terrorism, though the president has not deigned to say so himself or explain what happened.
This is not an isolated example. When it comes to terrorism, this White House has a bad habit of starting with a lie.
In 2009, after the underwear bomber's Christmas Day plot was stopped, Obama called him an "isolated extremist." That wasn't true — he was sent on the mission by an al Qaeda affiliate, a fact interrogators knew before Obama spoke.
In May 2010, when a Pakistani national tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square, Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano claimed it was a "one-off," a tale that police knew was false.
Those deceptions were all part of a relentless public-relations campaign to make Obama look good. The death of a colleague does not deter their spin.
But it should wake up the rest of us. The lack of integrity about something so fundamental as a terror attack suggests there is no line this White House will not cross to protect Obama.
The choice to mislead the public dishonors the sacrifice of Stevens and those who died with him. But it does something else, too. It shows a willingness to put Obama's reputation and re-election ahead of America's national security.
That's a real emergency.
Obama's foes come a-courtin' for Koch
The battle for Ed Koch's soul, or at least his support, rages on. My report that he is again furious with President Obama has stoked a lobbying campaign.
Koch tells me fellow Dems have argued to him that Obama can be trusted. On the other side, people have asked how he could possibly support Obama given the president's failure to settle the Iran issue and his chilly attitude toward Israel.
Jeffrey Wiesenfeld is especially passionate about getting Koch to switch horses. A principal at Bernstein Global Wealth Management and a City University trustee who worked for Koch, Wiesenfeld thinks the former mayor's defection could tip the election.
Here are excerpts of his latest letter to Koch:
"Ed — there is a real chance that Israel will be destroyed. And that will be the end of the Jewish people, because we are disappearing in every country — including America. Zabar's, Seinfeld and kitsch will not sustain us. This is not like after the 1st and 2nd temples. If Israel is gone, we are all gone.
"The president will never, ever pre-empt Iran. It is not in him. A man who blames a film for world jihad will never save Israel in time — not to mention America.
"We are on the line and this is FDR watching the Jews dispassionately (I'm being kind) once again. You do not disagree, you are simply 'charmed' by the president and don't want to flip.
"I tell you once again — Edward I. Koch in his remaining years can move enough confused Jews in a state or two to give us a president who will see the world for what it is. You simply have to gather the courage you've always summoned to once again do what is right."
Bloomy aces this test
One of the tests of political leadership is the willingness to stand up and fight back against an assault on core values. Mayor Bloomberg did just that by resisting a dopey lawsuit filed by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and other so-called civil-rights groups against New York's top public high schools.
Their complaint is that because few black and Latino students get accepted on the basis of a single test, the schools are guilty of racial discrimination.
The stats are indeed lopsided: Although blacks and Latinos made up 45 percent of last year's test takers, they were only 14 percent of those accepted to Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and six others. Whites and Asians made up 41 percent of the test takers, and 70 percent of those accepted.
The test results aren't massaged to achieve politically correct outcomes, so the bellyachers insist that a new admittance path be found. In effect, they demand quotas.
"Life isn't always fair," Bloomberg said, shooting down the idea. "We're not here about equal results. We're here about equal opportunity."
He added that "these schools are designed for the best and the brightest. There's nothing subjective. You pass the test, you get the highest score, you get in."
What a sweet sound — the sound of somebody defending standards and those who meet them. Bravo.
A duty to pay tribute
In an article on the growth of lower Manhattan, The Wall Street Journal has an amazing statistic: The 9/11 Memorial drew over 4.7 million visitors in its first year, more than the Statue of Liberty. Tourists say going there is akin to a patriotic duty.
They're right. If you haven't visited, you must.
Miscarriage of 'Justice'
My, my, the Justice Department sure moved fast to find a pretext for locking up the maker of that anti-Islam film. And Jon Corzine, who actually harmed Americans, still walks free.


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Departments / Divisions
- Ophthalmology at Sibley Memorial Hospital
Masks are required inside all of our care facilities. We are vaccinating all eligible patients. Learn more:
Vaccines, Boosters & Additional Doses | Testing | Patient Care | Visitor Guidelines | Coronavirus
Find more COVID-19 testing locations on Maryland.gov.
Reginald D Barnes Jr, M.D.


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American tyranny, Finian Cunningham, geopolitical strategies, NATO, OTAN, Peace, Plots, Syrian Patriots, The Old Sniper, US regime, USA, USA plots, War, War Criminals, War Strategy, Warmongers, Zionist conspiracy
By Finian Cunningham, for Strategic-Culture, submitted by 'The Old Sniper'
The monstrous US military budget is a classic illustration of the proverb about not seeing the wood for the trees. It is such an overwhelming outgrowth, all too often it is misperceived.
In recent years, Washington's military expenditure averages around $600 billion a year. That's over half of the total discretionary spending by the US government, exceeding budgets for education, health and social security. It's well over a third of the total world military annual spend of $1.7 trillion.
The incipient military-industrial complex that President Dwight Eisenhower warned of in his farewell speech in 1961 has indeed become a central, defining feature of American society and economy. To talk of «American free-market capitalism» is a staggering oxymoron when so much of the country's economy is wholly dependent on government-funded militarism.
Or put it another way: if the US military budget were somehow drastically reduced in line with other nations, the all-powerful military-industrial complex and the American state as we know it would collapse. No doubt something better would evolve in time, but the impact on established power interests would be calamitous and therefore is trenchantly resisted.
This is the context for the escalation in Cold War tensions with Russia this week, with the deployment of the US missile system in Romania. The $800 million so-called missile shield is set to expand to Poland over the next two years and eventually will cover all of Europe from Greenland to southern Spain.
Washington and NATO officials maintain that the Aegis anti-missile network is not targeted at Russia. Unconvincingly, the US-led military alliance claims that the system is to defend against Iranian ballistic missiles or from other unspecified «rogue states». Given that Europe is well beyond the range of any Iranian ballistic capability and in light of the international nuclear accord signed last year between Tehran and the P5+1 powers, the rationale of «defense against Iranian rockets» beggars belief.
The Russian government is not buying American and NATO denials that the new missile system is not directed at Russia. The Kremlin reproached the latest deployment as a threat to its security, adding that it would be taking appropriate counter-measures to restore the strategic nuclear balance. That's because the US Aegis system can be reasonably construed as giving NATO forces a «first-strike option» against Russia.
A couple of things need to be clarified before addressing the main point here. First, European states are chasing Iranian business investments and markets following the breakthrough P5+1 accord signed last July. Germany, France, Italy, Britain and Austria are among the Europeans who have been vying to tap Iran's huge economic potential. The notion that Iran is harboring a military threat to such prospective partners is ludicrous, as Russian officials have pointed out.
Secondly, the US protestations of innocent intentions towards Russia are a contemptible insult to common sense. They contradict countless statements by Washington, including President Obama and his Pentagon top brass, which have nominated Russia as an aggressive threat to Europe. Washington is quadrupling its military spending in Europe, increasing its troops, tanks, fighter jets, warships and war exercises on Russia's borders on the explicit basis of «deterring Russian aggression».
In other words, Russia is viewed as a top global enemy – an existential threat – according to Washington. So, the deployment of the US Aegis missile system this week in Eastern Europe is fully consistent with Washington's bellicose policies towards Russia. It would thus be irrational and foolishly naive to somehow conclude otherwise, that the US and its NATO allies are not on an offensive march towards Russia.
The depiction of Russia as a global security threat is of course absurd. We can also include similar US claims against China, Iran and North Korea. All such US-designated «enemies» are wildly overblown.
Western claims – amplified relentlessly in the Western news media – of Russia «annexing» Crimea and «invading» eastern Ukraine can be easily contested with facts and indeed counterpoised more accurately as belying Washington's covert regime change in Kiev.
Nevertheless, Western fear-mongering supported by unremitting media propaganda has to a degree succeeded in conflating these dubious claims into a bigger specter of Russia menacing all of Europe with hybrid warfare. It is, to be sure, a preposterous scare story of a Russian bogeyman which has racist undertones and antecedents in Nazi ideology of demonizing Slavic barbarians.
But this demonizing of Russia, as with other global enemies, is a necessary prop for the American military-industrial complex and its essential functioning for the US economy.
The $600 billion-a-year military spend by Washington is roughly tenfold what Russia spends. And yet, inverting reality, Russia is presented as the threat!
The US military budget is greater than the combined budgets of the world's next nine big military spenders: China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Britain, France, Germany, India, Japan and South Korea, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Arguably, the US economy as we know it – dominated by Pentagon, corporate, Wall Street and congressional interests – would cease to exist were it not for the gargantuan government-subsidized military budget.
Structurally, the US economy has ossified into a war economy and the only way for this to be maintained is for the US to be continually placed on a war footing, either in the form of a Cold or Hot conflict. Historians will note that out of its 240 years of existences as a modern state, the US has been in war or overseas conflict for more than 95 per cent of its history.
During the former Cold War with the Soviet Union, a recurring theme in Washington was the alleged «missile gap» which purported to portray the US as losing its military edge. This resulted in relentless military expenditure and an arms race that in part led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Washington's self-ordained privilege to run up endless debt (currently nearly $20 trillion) because of its dollar dominance as the world's reserve currency has permitted the US to escape a day of reckoning for its ruinous military profligacy.
This madcap situation continues to prevail. A quarter of a century after the official end of the old Cold War, US military spending continues at the same profligate, unsustainable pace.
What Washington needs in order to keep the fiasco going is to whip the rest of the world into a frenzy of fear and loathing. That's why the Cold War with Russia and China has had to be rehabilitated in recent years. Swords cannot be turned into plowshares because the US power interests that command its economy have no use for plowshares.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has on several occasions invited global cooperation on security matters, and with the US in particular. Moscow has also recently said that it does not want to embark on a new arms race. The latter wariness is understandable given the deleterious experience for the Soviet Union from runaway military spending.
However, that is precisely what the US wants and needs to induce: a global arms race which it can then invoke as justification for its own monstrous military.
According to SIPRI, both China and Russia have significantly increased their military budgets, by about 7.5 per cent each in 2015.
Russia may not want to engage in an arms race, mindful of the warping pressure that can inflict on its national resources and development.
But when the US installs a new missile system on Russia's doorstep, the impetus for Russia to likewise scale up military commitments is onerous.
And that is what Washington is driving at. It is not that Russia is an objective security threat to Washington or its allies. The real threat to Washington is peaceful international relations which would make its military-industrial complex redundant.
It is a disturbing reality that world peace is antithetical to the very foundation of America's corporate capitalist power.
Shamefully, the world is subjected to the risk of war and even annihilation all for the purpose of maintaining elite American power privileges. And among those who suffer this diabolical injustice are none other than the majority of American citizens, who have to endure poverty and misery while their corporate elite siphon off $600 billion a-year in military obscenity.
Finian Cunningham (born 1963) has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. Originally from Northern Ireland, he is a Master's graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in newspaper journalism. For over 20 years he worked as an editor and writer in major news media organizations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent. His columns appear on RT, Sputnik, American Herald Tribune, Strategic Culture Foundation and Press TV.
By Finian Cunningham, for Strategic-Culture
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DC DataEntry Validator is a program development solution that lets you check data entry according to your own preferences. It lets you validate text as you type, limit data to specific characters, and define your own restrictions. This makes programming a breeze, whether you're writing a simple script or a complex application. With DataEntry Validator, you can spend more time coding and less time looking for errors. DataEntry Validator can be set to accept numeric characters from 0 to 9, and alphabetic characters in upper and lower case. You can also define numbers in decimal places and set date fields in dd/mm/yyyy format. Multiple fields can be separated by commas and labelled with alphanumeric names, such as ?FirstNames? and ?FamilyName.?. When your entry does not match your definitions, DataEntry Validator alerts you by changing the foreground color to red. Since the alert appears in the foreground, you can spot errors as you make them - not after you test-run the program and have to wade through pages of code. DataEntry Validator can be used with all COM-based applications such as Delphi, Visual Basic, Borland C++, and Visual Basic C++. It only takes a few lines of code to set the definitions for the entire program, so you don't have to keep returning to your Form Load event as you code. DataEntry Validator installs automatically on Windows 98, NT, 2000, and XP. There's no need to open the file separately - the program loads by itself when you open your application. To run DataEntry Validator on your project, select ?Add Reference? from the Project menu, click Browse, and open the DC_DataEntryValidator10.dll file. This is usually in the directory C:Windowssystem32. Make sure to set the form and controls before starting the project.
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Zombie visits the Flyers as he details more about his Broad Street Bullies movie
Rob Zombie visited the Flyers last night to watch a game and catch up with some of the notorious 'Broad Street Bullies' who will be the subject of his forthcoming movie about the brutal '70's hockey team.
While watching the game, Rob spoke to Philly.com and NHL about the project, where he is with the script, what attracted him to the film and more. To read and watch the interviews
From NHL VideoCenter: (video is a flash file, to download Flash: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/)
From Philly.com: http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/20130206_Flyers_Notes___Director_Rob_Zombie_talks_about_Broad_Street_Bullies_movie.html
Flyers Notes: Director Rob Zombie talks about Broad Street Bullies movie
Flanked by former Flyers Bernie Parent, Gary Dornhoefer, and Bob Kelly, Hollywood movie director and rock musician Rob Zombie talked Tuesday night about the motion picture he is creating about the Broad Street Bullies.
Parent suggested that Danny DeVito could play the role of Kelly.
Dornhoefer interceded.
"Moses can play you," Dornhoefer told Parent, who looked distinguished in his white hair and matching goatee.
Zombie said the project is in its early stages, and he attended Tuesday's game against Tampa Bay to visit with some of the Broad Street Bullies – the brawling teams that won Stanley Cups in 1974 and 1975 – and to observe the fans.
"It's the greatest sports story ever not told. It's been told other ways, but not film," Zombie said. "I had to do it. It reads like fiction. It's so incredible."
He added: "We're just wrapping up the script right now, looking to start shooting in the fall. This is sort of a fact-finding mission. This is where I try to get everyone to tell me stories they don't want to tell."
Zombie, who grew up near Boston, recalled the 1974 Cup finals against the Bruins. "I remember it well," he said.
Parent added his two cents. "By the way," he said, "who won?"
Zombie plans to shoot most of the movie in Philadelphia.
"It's almost like Rocky, but it's real," he said. "When you watch Rocky,you go, 'God, I wish that was real.' It's sort of like Boogie Nights meetsRocky. I know from the five-minute conversation [with the ex-Flyers] there's a lot of good stuff besides hockey going on.
"It's a character-driven movie," he added. "There's such great characters. To just make a movie about hockey, hockey fans will love it, but nobody else will. The characters are so great that – not to keep going back toRocky – even if you hate boxing, you love the movie because the characters are so great. This has incredible characters, except they're real."


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When you work with large amounts of photos, it can get tiresome to have to manually manage the file and directory structures. To help resolve this, many people use photo managers such as Picasa, DigiKam, and iPhoto. There are several options for Linux, so we've decided to check out each of the major photo management options for Linux to see exactly what each one offers. Today we'll be comparing Picasa, F-Spot, Shotwell, DigiKam, and Geeqie.
Google's answer to the problem of photo management is Picasa. Some of the notable features include facial recognition, search capability, automatic photo correction, and a reasonable amount of image editing options. There's even a I'm Feeling Lucky button which does a surprisingly good job of adjusting colors and lighting to improve photos.
Unfortunately and somewhat surprisingly, Google doesn't seem to put much effort into the Linux branch of Picasa. Instead of creating a native port for Linux, they bundle Wine, the Windows "emulator" in with the Linux package. Picasa for Linux is essentially Picasa for Windows wrapped in a compatibility layer. Additionally, the Linux version (3.0 beta) currently lags well behind the Windows version (3.5). Even through these limitations, Picasa is still among the best photo management options available for Linux.
The default photo manager in Ubuntu is currently F-Spot. The interface is similar to Apple's iPhoto so it should be simple to use if you're a Mac user. Local and camera images are typically imported into the Pictures folder in the user's home, with the originals left unaltered. You can apply tags to various photos to make categorizing easier. F-Spot also includes some image correction functionality like red eye removal and auto coloring (similar to Picasa's Lucky button).
As a native Linux/Gnome app, F-Spot integrates with the system much better than Picasa. For instance, you can set F-Spot albums or favorites as the source of images for the Gnome screensaver or desktop background. F-Spot has the second most web export options of the programs listed here, and includes support for Picasa, Facebook, Flickr, Smugmug, Zoomr, and others.
Replacing F-Spot in Ubuntu 10.10 (and Fedora 13) is Shotwell. It's got many of the same benefits as F-Spot, but often with improved speed and reliability. Shotwell also improves over F-Spot on editing capabilities, but does not provide as many web export options (Shotwell only supports Picasa, Facebook, and Flickr). It does however have similar support for tags and Exif information.
Possibly because it does not rely on the Mono framework, some users report that Shotwell runs with greater speed and a smaller memory footprint than F-Spot.
What Shotwell is to Gnome, DigiKam is to KDE, and a whole lot more. Overall, this is probably the most powerful application on the list. It's got the most image editing capability, the most web export functionality, the most sorting/filtering options, batch image processing, search capabilities, even geolocation. if you're looking for an extremely robust photo management solution for a large volume of images, DigiKam may be your best bet.
Tavis, MTE's resident KDE expert, has written on DigiKam in more detail a few times. If you'd like more info on some of DigiKam's best features, check out his guides here and here.
Geeqie (Formerly GQview)
On the opposite end of the spectrum from DigiKam is Geeqie. This little app does not take the same approach as the others here in attempting to create an all-in-one photo management suite. Instead, it's more like a cross between a photo viewer and a file manager. Geeqie does not build new photo libraries or databases, it does not have automatic color correction or web export. What it does well is let you browse, sort, and perform file operations on your pictures. Windows users may notice a resemblance to ACDSee.
Another of Geeqie's main strengths is its configurability. For such a small application it's got a surprising amount of user controls and preferences. Amazingly, Geekie is also the only application in this list that allows you to put an image slideshow on "shuffle".
When it comes to pure power, it's hard to argue with DigiKam. It offers just about everything that the others have, and quite a bit more. If you need the most robust and feature-rich photo manager, it looks like DigiKam is probably your best choice. If, on the other hand, you don't want to worry about tags and libraries and metadata, you may be better off with the likes of Geekie.
What about you? Which photo manager do you use?
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The Immortal Highlander by Karen Marie Moning
Fantasy Romance
Form: Audio Book
With his long, black hair and dark, mesmerizing eyes, Adam Black is Trouble with a capital T. Immortal, arrogant, and intensely sensual, he is free to roam across time and continents in pursuit of his insatiable desires. That is, until a curse strips him of his immortality and makes him invisible, a cruel fate for so irresistible a man. With his very life at stake, Adam's only hope for survival is in the hands of the one woman who can actually see him.
Enter law student Gabrielle O'Callaghan. For Gabrielle, cursed with the ability to see both worlds, Mortal and Faery, it is the beginning of a long, dangerous seduction. But as Adam's quest to regain his immortality plunges them into a world of timeless magic, the price of surrender could be their very lives. Unless they can thwart the conspiracy that threatens both Mortal and Faery realms…and give them a shot at a destiny few mortals ever know: glorious, wondrous, endless love…


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Are these characteristics of a great-sounding place? Or does the loose framework and lack of structure sound a little frightening? In any case, I think I need to make the point that almost none of the groups I'm thinking of is a profit-oriented group. These groups are almost always volunteer or non-profit organizations. They also tend to be relatively small (no more than 50 active members at any one time, and perhaps 200 other inactive members).
Sadly, some of these groups also tend to have strict entry requirements, or a long scrutiny period before a person is "welcomed" in. This is the one drawback of these groups. However, it is my observation that with some of these groups, the selection is automatic --- those not interested tend to drop out or stay away. Only people with similar interests and mentalities remain --- and they sure form some effective and sometimes awe-inspiring teams!
Greed. Backstabbing. Lying. Power-hungriness. People who pretend to be reasonable on the surface, but who are filled with uglier things beneath. Leaders who pull rank to get their way. Leaders who patronize. Secret empire-building! Pressure to provide personal favors! Manipulation, of even the person at the top. Secret tribunals and judgments. Leadership by fear and threats (and lies). Basing all a project's designs on the goal of generating sales, not based on any inner vision or heartfelt joy. Unreliable teammates. All-powerful people whose words are law. The Dilbert theory of management (promotion to the level of incompetency). Hypocrisy!! Profit-as-the-goal mentality. Sexism/racism etc. Judgment based on looks, not competence. No training or learning on any side. Leaders who assume underlings are incompetent or unworthy. Leaders who take all the credit (and none of the blame). Political power games. Leaders and teammates who unfortunately are so busy protecting themselves, they hurt their underlings or peers. Winners and Losers. Adherence to the Clock. Superiority complexes in one group against another, even internal to the same organization. Lack of communication. Arbitary application of standards. Maliciousness. How-loud-you-are determines if you're heard or not. Secrecy and concealment. (Gee, so many of these are based on insecurity, aren't they?)
Where do I tend to find or notice these traits? Profit-driven corporations and power-seeking political groups. Big surprise.
I sincerely respect managers I've had and whom I've heard of who have not let their positions affect how they treat others.... Their priority is to help those below them get their jobs done. Whether or not one is Christian, I think this quote might ring true in an odd way: "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.... Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave...." (Mark 20:25-28).


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As you may know, handsome actor George Clooney, he of the chiseled jaw and charming eye crinkles, is dating the statuesque blonde former wrestler Stacy Keibler, who, despite what you might have heard, is not related to the cookie-making elves. However, it is unlikely that Clooney will get married, says his sister. Which prompted a reporter to ask whether or not The Cloons is gay.
Are we still here? In a world where a good-looking man of a certain age who's not married is homosexual? How very retro. Granted, it should not come as a shock, since a woman of a certain age (a younger age, a lower threshold than for men) who is not married is sad and lonely and tragic. Just think of Jennifer Aniston. The tabloids have portrayed her as desperate, obsessed, lovesick, dumped and in pain.
But usually, George Clooney escapes that kind of scrutiny… at least in the media. A quick survey around the HQ found only one person had never heard gay rumors about George Clooney. One editor: "I've def heard someone claim he's gay and his agent is his boyfriend and that he bought the house in Lake Homo to be away from prying eyes." Another of us quipped, "I feel like if George Clooney was gay, he would be the outest, swingest gay guy around." Now, maybe. But he turned into a leading man in not-so-progressive times.
Anyway, those are just civilian rumors. There are seldom — if ever — tabloid stories about Clooney's love life, and the general consensus is he's a rich happy straight man sleeping with various women half his age and why should he worry about getting married? The narrative never becomes "poor Georgie can't find love." But for single women in the public eye, it's different. Katy Perry is a fool. The Kardashians are alone and desperate. Even Taylor Swift, who is twenty years old, and has plenty of time before she can put knitting needles in her hair and dress like the lady on the Old Maid playing cards, is on a tabloid cover that sobs, "Why She Can't Find Love."
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These are the stories women are sold, because these are the stories women buy. Single women are sad, dramatic. Single men? Eh, who cares. So Clooney doesn't end up on the covers. No one wants to know why Clooney can't find love. It's acceptable for him to have a career and a revolving door sex life.
Still, the reporter asked, and Clooney's sister had an answer:
Asked what she makes of rumors that her brother is secretly gay, the 52-year-old laughed.
"Yes that's quite ridiculous, we don't even listen when people say things like that anymore. I think he decided that in his life he could have the career or he could have a family," she said. "And so when he decided to go full bore into the acting. That was where his focus was going to be."
In fact the Hollywood heartthrob's sister thinks for that same reason Clooney, 51, will also never have children.
"If he had children, when he was with them, he would be concerned about his career and if he was working he would be concerned about the children," she said. "And he doesn't think it would be fair to split his focus."
Logical explanation. One that makes sense for men and women, not that you hear a lot of female celebrities say it out loud. Not that the tabloids ever tell that tale. Everyone buys a happy bachelor. No one believes in a happy bachelorette.


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Controversial World Cup call a red flag for US side
SAO PAULO – Most of the U.S. players watched the World Cup opener between Brazil and Croatia at a viewing party at the team hotel. And most reacted like typical fans when Fred's flop resulted in a penalty kick for Brazil. But they also took away an important lesson.
In soccer, as in preschool, the same rules apply: Keep your hands to yourself.
In Brazil's 3-1 victory, Croatia's Dejan Lovren put his hand on Fred's shoulder in the box and though Fred's fall was full of theatrics, Brazil was awarded a penalty kick, which resulted in a Neymar goal.
So, Tim Howard, what did you think about the call? "It sucks for Croatia, that's what I think," the U.S. goalkeeper said with a laugh. "That's part of the game. Referees have got to get those things right. It's a big moment and it's not easy being a referee, but it's important that those are taken care of."
U.S. midfielder Jermaine Jones has never met a hard tackle he didn't like. His penchant for amassing yellow cards gives American fans fits, but his aggressive nature also gives the team needed bite. Even so, Jones acknowledged he has to react with his head and not with his hands (or elbows or cleats) on Monday when the team meets Ghana in Natal.
Earlier in the week, a FIFA referee met with the U.S. team, as is the case with all 32 squads, to review the rules and points of emphasis. "We have to watch out with hands in the box and on corner kicks," Jones said. Then, he added with a smile, "Especially with me with yellow yards."
Before the U.S. team left for Natal on Friday, the festivities, and controversy, of the prior day were still fresh. "As a defender that was a tough one to see," Matt Besler said. "But I think it's a good one to see because it's a lesson that some learn just by watching, that it's going to be called tight in the penalty box so you have to be careful."
The referee's botched call in the opener certainly won't be the last of the tournament, or the worst, and more controversial dives are still to come. Even so, there's resignation that feigned injuries are part of the game. "The players, the fans and the referees, we would like to do away with it at all cost," Graham Zusi says. "It exists in all leagues across the world."
"It's ridiculous," Croatia coach Niko Kovac said after the loss. "If we continue in this way, we will have a circus."
"Brazil doesn't need any help from the referees," he said, pointing his finger at the officials and not Fred. "Everybody is trying to do that. Like it or not, it's part of football. I don't blame him. I blame the referee," he said.
Zusi was in the players' lounge watching the game with his teammates when the questionable call was made. "I have mixed emotions. That's going to happen. The system isn't perfect, but you have to be ready for it," Zusi said. "We've all been well versed on how the referees are going to be approaching the games. Little things we can take from it on referees don't want us to do, go up in their faces and touch them."
Even so, a controversial call didn't dampen an otherwise joyous start, even for those teams with no rooting interest. Besler had his hotel room window cracked open when Brazil scored. The entire city roared. "It gave me chills," Besler said. "The energy of the country is finally here."


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On our ongoing guided tour of features and utilities available at Baseball Prospectus, we'll pick up where we left off in our Team Tracker walkthrough last week, with my NL-Only Yahoo roster having been quickly and easily entered into Team Tracker. Notice that the default display statistics are interesting, but perhaps not exactly what's needed for a given purpose—such as my Yahoo league, which uses Runs, RBI, SB, OBP, and SLG (instead of batting average and HR, giving two rate stats for batting, as there are for pitching). To see these different categories, simply click on "Change Display Statistics" while viewing a stats report (there are different stats displayed—separately selectable—for projections). This brings up a page where various stats can be selected or deselected for either batters or pitchers:
I've highlighted OBP and SLG, using click and control-click to get them both. Then, from the above, I clicked on the right arrow, highlighed them again in the right-hand ("Your Selections") box, and moved them upward, so they were after SB, using the arrow on the right to move them.
Having chosen the desired stats, it's time to click "Submit Statistics Selection." The report now includes all of the statistics that were added (and doesn't include any that were removed). Many of the advanced Baseball Prospectus statistics are available using this process.
Once the statistics are selected, different numbers of days into the past (current season only) can be selected, using any of the options on this menu other than Forecasts. For instance, here's how my fantasy players have done since the middle of May:
All of the selections available designate dates in the current season, except "Forecasts," which gives the rest-of-season PECOTA forecasts for the players on the team. For example:
Note that the display statistics are different—these are configured separately (by choosing "Change Display Statistics" while viewing forecasts).
On the "Edit Teams" page (accessible by clicking on the Team Tracker navigation bar), each team can have two parameters configured:
1. Default Time Period—This can be one of several date ranges (past week, month, etc.) or FORECASTS, to show PECOTA by default.
2. Email Notification—This is off ("No Notification") by default, but can be set to email the team owner whenever an article references a player on his team, or whenever the Daily Roundup column mentions a player on his team.
Last but not least, Scoresheet Baseball players can rejoice at the ease of loading their team rosters, thanks to a collaborative effort between Scoresheet Baseball and Baseball Prospectus. Clicking on "Load Teams" allows an owner to simply choose their Scoresheet league and team number, and the players are loaded into the currently active Team Tracker team (note: emptying the team first is a good idea). This functionality is further described in the introductory article announcing the product. Originally, it was necessary to enter the URL of a Scoresheet league, but now those are available in a convenient pulldown menu. Otherwise, the instructions in the original article should get a Scoresheet roster loaded in almost no time.
A final note: not every player in the Baseball Prospectus database is available to Team Tracker, and occasionally we won't have someone you'd like to see. Feel free to email me or Customer Service (using the Contact Us link at the bottom of the page or by responding here) if you'd like players added.
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