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When the National Academies of Science recently looked at the potential for renewable energy deployment in the states, its expert panel made some reasonable assumptions, such as limits imposed by manufacturing capacity and the current electric grid. This week, the NAS Proceedings will see the publication of a paper that considers what would happen if we dropped reasonableness from the analysis and calculated what we might achieve if we pushed wind power to its maximal capacity. The paper is an odd mix of these unreasonable assumptions and conservative estimates, and is probably best viewed as a sort of thought experiment. Still, the numbers that come out of the analysis are quite impressive: maxing out deployment of current-generation technology could produce five times the total energy used in the world today, and 40 times the electricity.
To a certain extent, this shouldn't be a complete shock. The amount of energy deposited on earth by the sun every year dwarfs any conceivable estimate of future energy use, and estimates are that as much as one percent of that winds up being converted to wind. The authors calculate that the fraction of wind energy that winds up on land is over 1014 watts, which is a lot to work with. The key question is how much of that to harvest.
The authors take the total land mass and subject it to a process of elimination. Areas permanently covered in ice are out, so Antarctica and Greenland have to go. Forests and densely populated areas are also out. But the authors supplement their land-based analysis with a second that considers offshore potential. There are plenty of ways to slice up the continental shelf when it comes to feasibility, but the authors keep things simple: the area has to be less than 200m deep, and within about 90km of the shore.
Obviously, wind energy isn't going to be evenly distributed across the areas that are left once this first pass is done, so the authors modified their model to take typical wind speeds into account. Typical global wind behavior was obtained from NASA's GEOS-5 system, with the wind values taken at 100m—the height of a current generation 2.5MW turbine (3.6MW turbines were assumed for offshore installation). Each turbine was given a quarter of a square kilometer footprint in order to limit their interference with the performance of neighboring units. Things like air density at altitude were also considered, and the utilization cutoff—the fraction of time that winds were strong enough to run the turbine—was set at 20 percent.
The authors produced a heat map of wind power capacity, which shows Greenland, the Amazon basin, and Central Africa whited out due to their ice cover or extensive forestation. The Great Plains of the US, the Russian steppe, and the tundra on the east side of Hudson Bay all have lots of potential, and the Patagonian grasslands positively glow. Divided up by nation, Russia comes out way ahead at over 118 PWh (Petawatt hours), with Australia in second at 86; Canada, the US, and Argentina round out the top five. Those same nations dominate the offshore potential as well, which adds another five to 25 PWh to their totals.
For the US, the total that could be generated within its territory is more than 23 times its current electricity consumption. By this measure, even China would have an 18-fold excess in production. If the world wanted to supply all its current electric needs, it could do so exclusively by relying on sites that could run turbines at full efficiency for up to half the year. To handle all its energy needs, it would only have to drop to sites with 36 percent efficiencies, about the same as the current typical install in the US.
Of course, the typical problems with renewable energy come out of this analysis as well. For starters, most of the generating capacity isn't where the people are, so long-distance transmission would be needed. By focusing in on the US, the authors detect two further issues. In the states, electrical use peaks in the summer, which happens to be the time where wind power hits its low point. The summer also turned out to be the time that the wind supply in three distant states (Minnesota, Montana, and Texas) showed the highest degree of correlation. This means that, when the wind stops blowing in one, it's likely to drop in the rest, too.
The last issue is that, at some level, putting this many turbines in place will undoubtedly change the dynamics of the lower atmosphere, with results that are probably difficult to predict.
Again, it's important to emphasize that this isn't being presented as a realistic plan to achieve a renewable energy nirvana; it's simply an attempt to provide a sense of what's possible. In the end, though, the study does make clear that supplying a lot of our energy via wind is possible, and that finding should inform debates about the degree to which it makes sense to do so and the adjustments we'll need to make to our existing energy systems in order to make it happen.
PNAS, 2009. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0904101106
Listing image by US EPA


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All News Releases By Date
Companies in Illinois, Nebraska to Pay Settlements Totaling $84,387 for Distribution of Misbranded or Mislabeled Pesticides
Release Date: 08/19/2013
Contact Information: Ben Washburn, 913-551-7364, firstname.lastname@example.com
Environmental News
(Lenexa, Kan., Aug. 19, 2013) - An Illinois pesticide manufacturer and a Nebraska company that sold some of its fly control products have agreed to pay civil penalties totaling $84,387 to EPA to settle allegations related to their roles in the distribution or sale of misbranded pesticides.
In separate administrative settlement agreements filed by EPA Region 7 in Lenexa, Kan.:
- Wellmark International, Inc., of Schaumburg, Ill., has agreed to pay a $44,704 civil penalty to resolve 19 violations of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) related to the Nebraska company's distribution of its RF2025 Tub and RF2002 Block products from 2009 to 2011.
- Vitalix, Inc., of Alliance, Neb., has agreed to pay a $39,683 civil penalty to resolve 19 violations of FIFRA related to its sales of the RF2025 Tub misbranded as #5 Altosid IGR Fly Tub, and of the RF2002 Block product misbranded as Mineralix Fly Tub with Altosid IGR#11.
Under FIFRA, distributors of pesticides must ensure that the information on their products' labels contains the same required cautionary information as found on the labels filed with EPA by the pesticides' registrants, and that those pesticides are not distributed with claims that differ from the registration information filed with EPA.
Under federal regulations, a pesticide's supplemental distributor – in this case, Vitalix – and its registrant – in this case, Wellmark International – are both responsible for ensuring that the distributor's product is in compliance with FIFRA and the terms of the product's registration.
Through their respective settlements with EPA, Wellmark International and Vitalix have certified that they are now in compliance with FIFRA and its regulations.
# # #
Learn more about EPA's work to assure compliance with FIFRA
Learn more about EPA Region 7
View all Region 7 news releases
Connect with EPA Region 7 on Facebook: www.facebook.com/eparegion7
Learn more about EPA's work to assure compliance with FIFRA
Learn more about EPA Region 7
View all Region 7 news releases
Connect with EPA Region 7 on Facebook: www.facebook.com/eparegion7
Search this collection of releases | or search all news releases
View selected historical press releases from 1970 to 1998 in the EPA History website.

subset: commoncrawl


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NYT's Keller: Fox News is 'Murdoch's Most Toxic Legacy'
Bill Keller, former executive editor of the New York Times, devoted his latest Sunday Review column on the evil that is the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News: "Murdoch's Pride Is America's Poison."
(Times Watch has documented the long anti-Fox, anti-Murdoch obsession of both Keller and Howell Raines, another former executive editor, which recently culminated in the paper's heavy front-page coverage of Murdoch's travails in Britain.)
On Sunday, Keller used news of three upcoming books about Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes to bash Fox. After describing the unfolding "crisis" around Rupert Murdoch in Britain, he made his segue across the Atlantic:
In this beleaguered family of news enterprises, Fox is the good son. It is the most reliable profit center, expected to net a billion dollars this fiscal year. It is untainted so far by the metastasizing scandals. It is a source of political influence more durable than Murdoch's serial romances with British prime ministers. This year the Fox News Primary probably did more to nominate Mitt Romney than New Hampshire or Michigan.
And yet I would argue that -- at least for Americans -- Fox News is Murdoch's most toxic legacy.
The liberal Keller unconvincingly argued that his beef with Fox had nothing to do with the network's position as the sole right-leaning news channel:
My gripe against Fox is not that it is conservative. The channel's pulpit-pounding pundits, with the exception of the avuncular Mike Huckabee, are too shrill for my taste, but they are not masquerading as impartial newsmen. Nor am I indignant that Fox News is the cultural home of the Republican Party and a nonstop Obama roast. Partisan journalism, while not my thing, has a long tradition. Though I do wonder if the folks at Fox appreciate that this genre is more European than American.
My complaint is that Fox pretends very hard to be something it is not, and in the process contributes to the corrosive cynicism that has polarized our public discourse.
I doubt that people at Fox News really believe their programming is "fair and balanced" -- that's just a slogan for the suckers -- but they probably are convinced that what they have created is the conservative counterweight to a media elite long marinated in liberal bias. They believe that they are doing exactly what other serious news organizations do; they just do it for an audience that had been left out before Fox came along.
After confessing a few relatively minor errors (but not liberal bias) on behalf of the press, Keller defended the ethics of his non-Fox colleagues.
But we try to live by a code, a discipline, that tells us to set aside our personal biases, to test not only facts but the way they add up, to seek out the dissenters and let them make their best case, to show our work. We write unsparing articles about public figures of every stripe -- even, sometimes, about ourselves. When we screw up -- and we do -- we are obliged to own up to our mistakes and correct them.
For a year and a half a journalist named Gabriel Sherman has been gathering material for a book on Ailes. He writes mostly for New York magazine, the kind of irreverent urban venue from which Ailes would naturally expect no kindness, but Sherman's work is densely reported and not innuendo-laden or agenda-driven. (He has written a fair amount about The Times, and pulled no punches.) He may be 32, but he's old-school.
Sherman, predictably, was rebuffed.
Keller later relayed his sole example of New York Times fairness -- a Times Sunday Magazine profile of Rush Limbaugh by outside contributor Zev Chafets -- and demonstrated remarkable oversensitivity while defending Sherman from a mild observation by Chafets.
Early this year, Sherman learned of a third entry in the Ailes book-a-thon. Zev Chafets was racing to finish an Ailes biography with the cooperation of the subject. Chafets had won favor among conservatives when he wrote a magazine profile of the radio fire-breather Rush Limbaugh, a profile so evenhanded that Limbaugh subsequently cooperated as Chafets expanded it into a best-selling book.
By the way, that evenhanded profile was published in The New York Times. And I can easily imagine a similarly fair-minded portrait running on NBC or CNN or NPR. Can anyone imagine Fox airing an unloaded profile of anyone left of center? Say, Nancy Pelosi?
But Chafets couldn't resist mentioning -- twice -- that Sherman has a fellowship from "a George Soros-funded institution." Actually, the fellowship in question is from a nonpartisan foundation that gets a minuscule share of its funding (0.5 percent this year) from Soros, the liberal billionaire, and Ailes's own collaborator, James Pinkerton, was also a fellow at the foundation. But in the Fox mind-set, Soros is a boogeyman, so this is like insinuating that Sherman is on the payroll of the Socialist International.
That's journalism, Fox-style.
So "Fox-style" journalism means accurate reporting?
Chafets' profile was indeed fair, as Times Watch recognized at the time. One who found it far too even-handed was Times reporter and critic Janet Maslin, who tastelessly accused Chafets of suffering from "a case of Stockholm syndrome."


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Littering and Following the Crowd
Why it's so tempting to throw trash on the ground, and how environmentalists are using psychology to change that
Loretta Brown walked along Bishop's Beach near Homer, Alaska, looking for plastic bottles, Styrofoam cups, beer cans, cigarette butts, and old fishing nets.
"You tend to find things among the driftwood, since the same tide that washes up the driftwood washes up the trash," she said, stooping to pick up a plastic water bottle. "It's kind of like an Easter egg hunt."
Brown is a marine debris education and outreach specialist with the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies, a nonprofit organization based in Homer that educates the public about coastal issues and offers eco-tours of the region. She also has a keen, experienced eye for litter.
"We're likely to find some up here among the grasses," she said, homing in on small pieces of Styrofoam nestled in clumps of grass among the basalt rocks and clam shells along the beach. "The birds will eat these."
With all of the work she does picking up litter and educating people about the long-term environmental damage it does, Brown has developed some theories about what makes people throw out their trash, and how to get them to stop.
"It probably goes to our roots as a species," she said. "We've always had refuse of some kind. In the beginning, it didn't matter if you threw things on the ground, because it was biodegradable and would rot. It wasn't a problem until plastic was invented."
Education, she thinks, is the way to change the culture of littering.
"The best way for people to become engaged and change their behaviors is not just to inform them of the problem, but to have them actively experience the problem," she said. "It's about having the conversation—that really helps. It's a behavioral change."
Despite Alaska's strict anti-littering laws, the state has a serious problem with marine debris because of ocean currents that bring trash from around the world to its shores, according to Julie Decker, director of the Anchorage Museum. In an exhibit called Gyre, the museum puts this trash on display, with artworks that incorporate and call attention to plastic trash collected from beaches worldwide.
The exhibit places litter under museum lights so that people will look at it, talk about it, think about where it came from, and ultimately change their behavior.
"In one moment you understand it," she said. "You see yourself in the problem. You see your own products. You see your own beaches. I wasn't sure what kind of response we'd get, but watching children go through has been one of the most powerful experiences I've had. They leave talking about behavior, talking about what they're going to do."
One of the exhibit's goals, according to Decker, is to start a conversation about why people litter in the first place.
"People want to make it invisible to themselves, to get rid of the trash and the smell," Decker said. "Most people litter when they're not being watched."
Brown's and Decker's hunches about why people litter and what it will take to change their behavior have a basis in social science research, such as that done by Robert Cialdini, emeritus professor of psychology and marketing at Arizona State University and author of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.
"One of the things that's fundamental to human nature is that we imitate the actions of those around us," said Cialdini, who has conducted a number of landmark studies in littering and litter prevention—all of them pointing to the fact that people are likely to do what they think is expected of them. It's about norms and expectations, he says: Change these, and you'll change people's behavior.
"It's the idea that look, no one is littering here, so it must not be a legitimate thing to do," Cialdini said. "We take our cues about what to do in a particular setting by what people are doing there already."
Some of Cialdini's litter studies have taken place in parking lots and parking garages, with flyers placed under the windshield wipers of random cars. Unsuspecting subjects return to their cars and researchers observe them, to see what they do with the flyers. Will they throw them on the ground? In study after study, it turns out that cues in their environment are a strong determining factor in what actions people take.
"It depends on what you see immediately before you get to your car," Cialdini said. "If you see a environment that is highly littered, you litter. If there is not litter, you are significantly less likely to litter."
But if there is just one piece of litter in an otherwise litter-free environment, subjects are even less likely to throw their trash on the ground.
"If there is one piece, you are least likely to litter," Cialdini said. "If you see one piece, it reminds you that most people are not littering here. It calls attention to the fact that the majority of people are not littering."
Cialdini's research echoes the "broken windows theory," first introduced in 1982 by social scientists James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling. This theory holds that people are more likely to break windows, write graffiti, or deface an environment if it's already been defaced. One broken window, in other words, leads to more broken windows. And likewise, a littered stretch of beach or highway leads to more littering.
In Cialdini's research, what people see being done around them also affects their actions. Thus, if they see someone throwing a flyer on the ground nearby, they are more likely to throw their own down. And if they see someone reacting disapprovingly to littering, they are less likely to litter themselves.
"The most dramatic results we've gotten are from situations that show people disapproving of littering," Cialdini said. "One study took place in a library parking lot. People left the library, and there was a piece of paper on their windshield. The thing that most affected people was when they saw someone nearby reaching down and picking up a piece of litter with a disapproving look. When they got to their own cars, not one person littered. If they didn't see anyone picking up litter, 33 percent littered. We went from a third of the subjects littering to zero, when they saw an example of someone like them who picked up litter and showed disapproval."
Cialdini argues that the results of his studies demonstrate that people are sensitive to what they see as normal behavior, and they'll change their behavior to adapt to what they see being done around them.
"It all comes down to norms, and you get those cues from the environment," he said. "People litter for reasons of convenience. They don't want this thing. The crucial question is why don't they litter, since the easy thing is to litter. Why would people hold onto a piece of trash? Their attitudes toward the environment make a difference, but what they perceive as the norm is key."
He argues that the classic 1971 Keep America Beautiful television commercial showing a Native American man (who was later revealed to be actually Italian) crying amidst a polluted environment, therefore, was not as effective as it could have been, since it depicted an already trashed landscape. A more effective campaign, he says, would create and enforce a positive norm.
"You need to indicate disapproval of littering in all of your signage, not by saying that there are so many people littering, but by saying that if one person litters, it destroys the beauty of the park," Cialdini said. "Instead of normalizing littering, you need to marginalize it with your message."
Cialdini has recently expanded his research into other areas of environmental persuasion, such as convincing people to reuse hotel towels. He has worked with hotel chains to design signage with messages like "the majority of our guests reuse their towels"—thus creating a norm that people are likely to follow.
"You ask, 'What are people like me doing?'" Cialdini said. "People decide what to do based on what people like them have been doing. If you say, 'The majority of our guests have reused their towels,' you get more compliance than if you say, 'Do it for the environment.'"
Meanwhile, people on the front lines of the litter war are struggling to come up with messages that work. Joel Hunt, a public information officer with the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT), admits that despite public relations campaigns, littering in his state remains at an all-time high. According to Hunt, more than 400,000 bags of litter being picked up along Ohio's roadways each year.
ODOT, like other state transportation agencies, is tasked with cleaning up its roadways and partnering with other agencies to educate the public about the problems with littering. A recent public information campaign called "Untrash Ohio," sponsored by Keep Ohio Beautiful, for instance, featured billboards with images like that of someone fishing and reeling in a plastic bottle. And ODOT's adopt-a-highway program—which gives individuals and organizations the opportunity to adopt a section of highway to keep it clean—seeks to create clean roadways so that, ideally, people will be less likely to litter on them.
Hunt says that his agency continues to try to combat the problem of littering, and he hopes that eventually its efforts will pay off.
"It's a $4 million preventable problem," said Hunt. "That money could be used to purchase 28 new snow plow trucks or to repave a 40-mile two-lane road every year."
Instead, Ohio spends that money—and much time and effort—on collecting all the bottles, cans, and other pieces of trash that inevitably end up along its roadways. It's a seemingly endless cycle, but litter research suggests that without these clean-up efforts, the problem would get even worse.


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Agriculture and Food Cashmere Electron Microscope Test
To ensure the high quality and value of cashmere, the fibers need to be measured in terms of scale density and thickness, pigmentation, diameter and other characteristics.
SGS has the experience and expertise to conduct the two commercially viable methods of measurement currently available: optical microscope and scanning electron microscope (SEM).
Cashmere identification with SEM
Using the SEM method allows our operatives to see, with high magnification, the surface of the fiber in detail. The high resolution (down to two nanometers) and large depth of field means that our experts can determine the surface characteristics more easily. It also allows them to measure topographical features such as scale height and density (the ratio of scale length to fiber diameter). While such measurements can be useful when objectively discriminating between fibers, it is worth noting that the SEM method does not reveal the fiber's interior structure (or pigmentation).
We follow the relevant industry-standard methodology for measurement of composition by SEM, as set out by the International Wool and Textile Organization (IWTO-58). This uses the scale height to differentiate between wool (defined as having a scale height greater than 0.55 microns) and speciality fibers – including cashmere, mohair, camel, llama and alpaca.
Consistent, accurate measurements
Our operatives then identify the speciality fibers from other topological properties, such as scale shape, density and regularity of the fiber diameter – a somewhat subjective process. To maintain consistency and accuracy, we use industry-accepted measurement methods and provide our operatives with standardized training based on our traceable animal fibers library.
We have centralized the operation of our speciality animal fibers testing services in the UK. Approved by the Cashmere and Camel Hair Manufacturers Institute (CCMI), this facility is constantly involved in the development of:
- Standardized technical procedures
- Traceable electronic and physical fiber samples
- Computerized training for fiber identification
- Processes for the continuous monitoring of operatives
Get in touch with SGS now to find out how our fiber testing services can help maintain the high quality and value of your fiber shipments.


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Inbee Park leads Taiwan Championship
Inbee Park of South Korea shot an 8-under 64 to take a two-stroke lead after the third round of the Taiwan Championship on Saturday.
Park had two eagles and five birdies and was at 18-under 198 at the Sunrise Golf and Country Club.
''Today, probably, was almost perfect for me,'' Park said. ''I hit the ball great and putted really good today. Couldn't ask for better weather. It was a perfect day. The conditions of the golf course were perfect. I was able to go at every pin, so I was able to play aggressive.''
Suzann Pettersen of Norway had six birdies in a round of 66 to sit in second place, two shots ahead of defending champion and local favorite Yani Tseng (66).
''I feel like I left lots of birdie chances out there today,'' Tseng said. ''I didn't putt well again today, and I just feel (I'm) very (much) struggling out there.''
Catriona Matthew of Scotland had a 68 and was in fourth, another two shots back at 12-under 204. Christie Kerr (67) of the United States was at 10 under.


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The benefits of window glasses in a car are enormous. Up until recently, most cars were built with manual windows that you had to roll up and down with a crank. As nostalgic as they are, there are a few reasons they aren't found in newer cars.
Power windows in cars offer several advantages, including:
It is true many vehicles have a master control pad on the console or the driver side door. If the kids are playing havoc in the backseat with the windows, you have the power to lock them. If you realize partway through your journey that someone left one of the back windows rolled down, you have the power to roll it back up with a push of a button or switch of a lever. You have complete control over every window in the vehicle, allowing you to focus on getting to your destination.
As we mentioned, rather than having to put all your muscle into cranking up the window, power windows are controlled with a button, switch or lever. This makes it easier not only for the driver, but also for passengers with limited mobility to control his or her window.
Automatic windows have become a standard in today's vehicles. If you have manual windows and would like to make the switch, it's possible in almost any vehicle!
Window Damage Can Quickly Spread
When you notice a small crack or chip in your car's window, it may be tempting to put off your repair services to another day. Over a period of time, the cracks can spread and cover a wide area. To prevent injury during an accident, it is necessary to have the crack repaired as soon as it forms on your window's surface.
Window Damage Can Pose a Safety Threat
You are at a greater risk of sustaining injuries in times of an accident. The window which has already cracked can move out of its frame and cause injuries to you or your co-passengers in the impact.
Window Damage Can Affect Your Car's Resale Value
In the event that you decide to sell your car, your vehicle will have a lower resale value if its windows have any signs of cracks or damage. Before you start the car selling process, it is a great idea to have your automotive glass damage repaired by a licensed professional. Taking care of your window damage will allow you to bargain a better price for your vehicle. A team of window repair experts can fix your cracked auto glass in no time.
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Should-You-Take-Care-Of-Your-Car-Windows?&id=9594843


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Gongura Chicken Boneless Pickle Chennai
Order Veg & Non-Veg Pickles, Powders, Masalas, Instant Mix and Snacks online at the lowest price. Bhimavaram Pickles is one stop store that sells homemade products using authentic, traditional recipes from Bhimavaram in Andhra Pradesh with a Vision of 'Engaging and developing Women. Bhimavaram is a small town in Andhra Pradesh and the birthplace of pickles. Bhimavaram pickles are well known for unique taste's and flavour keeping Family Healthy.
Best Pickels in Andhrapradesh and Bhimavaram


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Enjoy our Trick or Treating photos from the last few years as you're eating your Halloween candy!
Batman, Robin, and a puppy… 2008
Star Wars (Yoda, Ewok, Storm Trooper, Princess Leia, Darth Vader, Darth Maul ) 2009
Mystery, Inc. (Scooby Doo, Shaggy, Fred, a Werewolf, Daphne, and Velma) 2010
The Avengers (Spiderman, Nick Fury, Captain America, Incredible Hulk, Thor, Iron Man) 2011
Do you dress up for Trick or Treating? Or do you turn off the porch light?!


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Mar 07 2017
Chris Hemsworth admiring his Bleacher Creature!
Anthony Mackie hanging out with his Falcon Bleacher Creature!
Stephen Amell hanging out with his Bleacher Creature counterpart!
UFC star Georges St. Pierre hanging out with his Bleacher Creature!
UFC legend Anderson Silva posing with his Bleacher Creature!
John Cena hanging out with his Bleacher Creature!
Finn Balor is excited to meet his Bleacher Creature for the first time!
Kane and his mini-me striking fear into the heart of the Daniel Bryan Bleacher Creature!
Ryback admiring his plush likeness!
Seamus from the WWE showing off his Bleacher Creature!
Bill Nye The Science Guy amazed by his mini-me!
Pope Francis is all smiles with his Bleacher Creature!
Even Stephen Colbert had to take part in the Pope plush mania!
Antonio Brown is happy to hang out with his Bleacher Creature twins!
Andrew Luck is all smiles with his plush look-alike
Todd Gurley meeting his Bleacher Creature for the first time!
DeAndre Hopkins is all smiles with his Bleacher Creature pal!
Patrick Peterson of the Cardinals posing with his Bleacher Creature!
A.J. meeting his Bleacher Creature for the first time!
Green Bay Packers Randall Cobb enjoying some time with his Bleacher Creature!
Ndamukong Suh gives his Bleacher Creature his sign of approval!
Hall of Fame Running Back Barry Sanders hanging out with his Bleacher Creature!
Hall of Famer Jack Lambert approves of his Bleacher Creature!
Bills' HOF'er Jim Kelly always keeps a hearty supply of Bleacher Creatures in his reach!
Vikings star Adrian Peterson enjoying his Bleacher Creature!
Matt Forte having some fun with his Bleacher Creature!
Teddy hanging out in the locker room with mini-Teddy!
Connor Barwin can't watch film without his Bleacher Creature!
Connor Barwin hanging out at NYC Toy Fair 2015 with his army of plush!
Connor Barwin cutout, Connor Barwin Bleacher Creature, and Connor Barwin!
Connor Barwin of the Philadelphia Eagles spends every minute of workouts with his mini-Connor by his side!
Carolina Panthers Superstar Luke Keuchly kicks it with his plush twin.
Giants RB Rashad Jennings with his favorite QB, Eli Manning!
Victor Cruz of the NY Giants with his Bleacher Creature!
Chargers safety Eric Weddle can't decide whether to choose his own plush or his teammates!
A.I. showing off his legendary plush likeness!
Damian Lillard hangs with his Bleacher Creature on set of the 2015 NBA Store commercial
Spurs legend Tony Parker posing with his very own Bleacher Creature!
The slam dunk king Dominique Wilkins, approves of his Bleacher Creature!
Kemba Walker hanging out with #LilKemba during practice!
Washington Wizards superstar Marcin Gortat took some time on the lake with his twin!
Kevin Hart, LeBron James, and James Harden with mini-Harden at the 2015 NBA
MCW looks a little overwhelmed at how much his plush look like him!
King Felix hanging out with his Bleacher Creature twin!
Pirates Andrew McCutchen hanging out with lil' Cutch at PNC Park!
Hunter Pence playing Playstation with his Bleacher Creatures!
Hunter Pence showing off his mini-me!
Evan Longoria spending some time with his mini me!
Yasiel Puig and mini-Yasiel hanging out at Dodger Stadium!
Houston Astros Cy Young Award Winner takes a break from the mound to hang with his Bleacher Creature plush!
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Display Ads Don't Work Anymore: NOW WHAT
I attended several meetings last week in the Bay Area and met with several companies including Google and Pandora. I'm always energized after spending time with businesses whose sole focus is on the pursuit of digital and the monetization of those efforts.
During the meetings we spent a lot of time talking about the ever changing consumer behavior as it relates to interacting with advertising. As we all know, display ads are still a major component of most online efforts but with each passing day the advertisers that pay for those ads are asking for more clarity on the success rate. Jason Del Rey of AdAge wrote a good article on the subject that talked about click throughs becoming irrelevant as a way to measure the success of digital display ads. Advertisers are starting to talk more about the interaction with the ad which includes hovering over the ad, listening to audio, playing a game integrated in the ad, or other activities.
I am seeing more and more advertisers asking to have their message put into the context of content on the page. Check out how SAP ad is relevant to content. Advertisers are also asking how social aspects of the content can be integrated into advertising. Think Facebook. In other words, the old way of thinking about display ads as relatively static messaging has to change if we want to continue selling to advertisers.
Buzzfeed's Jonah Peretti wrote a good article that talked about the importance of moving beyond display ads. I particularly took note of this quote:
"Peretti sees display ads as artifacts of an earlier Internet era when people went to portals to find content. That era — and its skyscraper and banner ads — has long passed as readers instead turned to search and, more recently, to social networks to find stories."
I believe the issue of display ads not working as well as they once did is becoming even more critical when you consider the impact of mobile and tablets. Most publishers are seeing desktop page views flattening out and most growth is coming from smart phones and tablets. Now think about display ads on a smart phone. It's a small screen and many advertiser websites are not optimized for smart phones, creating a bad experience. The answer? We often create mobile landing pages for our advertisers.
On the tablet, display takes on a whole new meaning. Using a tablet is an engaging process; consumers are much more interactive using the device. They spend more time, look at more pages, and click on more ads. They are more likely to click on an ad if it takes advantage of the device's technology, with interactive and social elements. Most advertisers can't create interactive ads. They need an agency or the publisher to do that for them. Therefore we create tablet landing pages and build interactive and social elements into ads for our advertisers.
So, what's a publisher to do? Here are some recommendations:
- Create mobile and tablet landing pages for your advertisers
- Integrate interactive and social elements into ads
- Offer advertisers an immersive experience, giving them a role in the content on the page
There are no easy solutions. For anyone. And after sitting with the Pandora execs, one thing I know is no one has it all figured out. Pandora is doing a great job in getting an audio advertisement to your music station every 20 minutes. The ad includes a leave-behind display ad. However unless you have the phone in your hand or you're sitting at your desktop you won't see a display ad unless you need to access the screen itself.
And Pandora's ads are typical display ads that fill the screen on a smart phone, similar to a static display ad. Pandora has a compelling message and audience reach story. As they evolve in the space my bet is they come up with even more compelling interactive ads for mobile devices.
Everyone has a chance to be successful in the mobile and tablet space as long as they don't treat it like desktop. Pandora is making sure they don't, and my guess is they will be a big winner in selling digital ads for their service.
Google is also really pushing the envelope in thinking about mobile and tablet, but their real knockout punch is still Search. They are constantly evolving with more progressive advertising on mobile formats and no longer thinking about it as a display ad.
It is going to take a combination of social, display, integrated messaging and interactive elements to win this battle. My message here is that even the big guys haven't figured out the secret sauce as display ages and new formats evolve and progress for all our mobile devices. Keep trying new things and don't get caught trying to repurpose old formats.


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Ruby Bridges meets with marshal who escorted her to school
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Civil rights icon Ruby Bridges, who as a 6-year-old helped end public school segregation in South, was reunited Thursday with one of the federal marshals who had escorted her past angry crowds so she could attend a previously all-white school.
Bridges, who in 1960 became the first black child to attend an all-white school in New Orleans, met with Charles Burks at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, which was filming the pair for its permanent exhibit called "The Power of Children." Burks, now 91, is the only one of the four marshals who escorted Bridges to and from school who is still alive.
"Thank you Charlie for doing what was right at a time when it might not have been the easiest thing to do," she told Burks.
Burks said escorting Bridges to school was a highlight of his life, adding that he supported the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision that struck down segregation in public schools. Bridges was in first-grade when she started attending William Frantz Elementary School on Nov. 14, 1960, as the court-ordered integration of public schools began in New Orleans.
"It was a privilege to be able to do what I did, even though it was one of my duties. Everybody says it was just another job to do, but it was a wonderful job," said Burks, who lives in Logansport, Ind.
Before Thursday's meeting Bridges and Burks had reunited only once, in 1995, since 1960.
Bridges, now 58, said she didn't realize at the time the role she was playing in helping end segregation because her parents had not explained everything that was happening. She thought the loud crowds that gathered daily outside the school were taking part some sort of parade, such as Mardis Gras, and they didn't frighten her.
But Bridges, who still lives in New Orleans, did recall seeing a black doll in a baby's casket the crowd taunted her with, a haunting image she said gave her nightmares.
"I would dream that this coffin had wings and it would fly around my bed at night, and so it was a dream that happened a lot and that's what frightened me," she said.
Burks and the other marshals escorted the young Bridges to and from school for several weeks before local police took over that duty. Eventually the crowds dispersed and she no longer needed protection.
The first tense days outside the school were captured by Norman Rockwell in a painting that depicts a young black girl carrying textbooks and a ruler being led by marshals past a wall marred by a splattered tomato and a scrawled racial epithet.
Bridges, who went on to become a travel agent, said seeing that painting in her late teens made her realize her role in U.S. history.
"I didn't realize that it was actually an event that changed the face of education, that affected the wider world," she said.
Bridges said was happy she got to meet again with Burks to discuss their shared experience and record their memories for the museum's exhibit, which also highlights the lives of Anne Frank and Ryan White.
She said she hopes the exhibit can help children understand both U.S. history and the civil rights movement's victories and the work that still remains to overcome the nation's legacy of racism.
The pair hugged more than once during Thursday's reunion, sitting before two Associated Press photos, one showing Bridges entering the school and the other exiting it, both under the watchful eyes of Burks and the other marshals.
Burks, who has 11 great-grandchildren and last month celebrated he and wife Betty's 68th wedding anniversary, said he has framed copies of both photos in their north-central Indiana home.
"Every time I walk down the hall past those pictures, it reminds me of those days. It was something great and dramatic in my life. I tell my grandchildren it was one of the highlights of my life. And I'm glad I was involved."@
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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The $10 million Automotive X-Prize was billed as a "Revolution Through Competition," which backers said would promote real-world-capable 100 miles per gallon vehicles that are "safe, affordable and desirable." The reality is it's a complete farce.
For those who know the car business, the Automotive X-Prize seemed a well-intentioned snipe hunt. There's a reason Tucker went under and Tesla Motors needed Daimler and Toyota to bail it out — building cars, especially technologically advanced cars, isn't a million dollar enterprise. It's a billion dollar one.
Reporting on it twice did not shape my opinion in the way organizers hoped, but my previous editors weren't interested in my opinion.
Like the proverbial courtiers to the naked emperor, almost no one wanted to recognize the possibility that a likely post X-Prize outcome would be nothing. Looking at the field of X-Prize finalists and five million dollar-winners today, the likelihood that these science fair toys would be tomorrow's safe, affordable and desirable production vehicles is about equal to Rep. Anthony Weiner becoming the 2012 Democratic presidential nominee.
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Finally, somebody connected to the event inadvertently owned up to the reality that the X-Prize booty isn't doing all the organizers claimed it would do. Ironically, the epiphany came at one of the world's biggest sustainable transportation events, the 2011 Michelin Challenge Bibendum in Berlin.
I caught up there with Roger Riedener of Pevaves AG. The Swiss company fielded their E-Tracer electric cabin motorcycle in the X-Prize and came away with the $2.5 million prize for winning the Alternative Tandem Class thanks to their 205.3 mpg-equivalent performance.
When asked how the prize money impacted his company, Riedener smiled, laughed slightly and said, "It didn't change anything."
However, Riedener said, "The X-Prize for us was only a catalyst for people to talk to us that never would have before." Riedener explained that these conversations give him the opportunity to spread his gospel about cabin motorcycles being efficient.
That seems rather obvious, doesn't it?
Even after collecting $2.5 million Riedener admitted, "We're certainly not capable of high-volume production. That would have to come from another organization, not us. This vehicle is all hand-built. It requires 700 hours of fabrication, so it's expensive and will continue to be low volume."
So from the mouth of the team leader, the E-Tracer is and will forever be a toy for rich greenies, not a safe, affordable and desirable production vehicle for regular people dealing with $4-a-gallon gas.
Having stumbled upon fodder supporting the long-term irrelevance of the Automotive X-Prize, we asked Riedener to let us drive it. Looking shocked, the real estate developer and transportation dabbler claimed we needed four days of instruction before we could operate the motorcycle with retractable outrigger-style training wheels. In lieu of, we accepted a ride.
Yoga-loving contortionists will have no problem entering the rear seat. In the form-fitting bucket with legs splayed wide around the driver's chair OB-GYN-stirrup style, we realized a quick exit was out of the question, especially if the bike tipped over on its left side (the canopy opens on the left).
Hit the track and the immediate torque from the E-Tracer's 150kW electric motor feels good, and thanks to the bike's long wheelbase, the ride is ultra smooth. Dip into the accelerator and road noise even helps to drown out the manic whirring of the electric motor enough to make you think you're driving a real bike. As speed increases, the outriggers that helped provide the bike a tricycle-like feeling at lower speeds fold up into the body. But, pulling to a stop, if the driver doesn't manually trigger the outriggers, the unit falls over like a guy cold cocked with a brick. For $123,000, the outriggers should probably self deploy.
After a five-minute ride, I concluded the E-Tracer has about as much to do with transportation for the masses as a Hot Wheels racer.
Another X-Prize winner, Edison2, won a $5-million share of the Progressive Insurance-sponsored prize booty with a 102.5 mpg-e performance. Ron Mathis, Edison2's Chief of Design said, "I wouldn't want to minimize the task of getting the car to market, and the prize money is helping us do that. We also had accrued debt getting through the X-Prize, so some of the winnings went toward that." Demonstrating that Edison2 is staffed by true believers who didn't view the X-Prize as a geeky engineer money grab, the winning team is still together. Nobody took their share and split.
When asked directly about whether the winning Very Light Car could be produced in the form that it won the X-Prize competition, Mathis chose his words carefully and said that the Very Light Car, "was designed to win the competition." Mathis went on to explain that a version of the Very Light Car could be produced for third-world countries but that the company didn't presently see a market in North America.
Li-Ion Motors, the second $2.5-million X-Prize winner may be doing the most with their booty and increased visibility. PR Manager Rich Ralston said, "Winning the X-Prize validated our battery management technologies." The company's two-seat commuter car, the Wave II, achieved 187 mpg-e in the X-Prize competition.
Li-Ion Motors hopes that the Wave II and the company's high-performance Inizio sports car will pass U.S. crash tests and gain federal approvals no later than the second quarter of 2012. The challenges for this company that's never serial produced vehicles are huge.
Pending federal approvals, the company has production capacity of 30 to 40 vehicles per month from a facility in North Carolina. In anticipation of great things, Li-Ion Motors entered into a purchase agreement for land in Alberta, Canada, on which they plan to build a higher-volume factory.
Ralston said, "If everybody in America drove a Wave II, we'd be exporting oil right now." While the statement might be true, it's silly hyperbole and completely irrelevant coming from a company that might be able to produce as many cars in a year as Ford builds in 30 minutes. The bigger issue is whether there will be enough demand for the $39,000 Wave II if it eventually meets all required standards. Certainly, every American won't want to drive a two-seat car that looks like a frog being wheeled out from a high-speed wind tunnel.
At this point, the Automotive X-Prize shows little to no chance of revolutionizing the car world through its science-fair-meets-Great-Race circus. Preston Tucker has a better shot of building an electric vehicle that's safe, affordable, desirable and capable of mass production than this competition. And he's been dead since 1956.
Rex Roy is a freelance automotive journalist based in Detroit.


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In all honesty we just weren't that keen on RAC's, MNDR and Kele featuring, Let Go, in fact much of their output ever since they transformed from reMixers extraordinaire to major label Indie-Pop outfit has fallen a bit flat in our opinion, it;s not bad, it's just not particularly inspired. Being big fans of MNDR, we really wanted to love Let Go, we just weren't feeling it. However, we very much are feeling this reMix of the tune from New Your Indie-ElectroPop heroes Holy Ghost!, so there's always that. I wonder if RAC know that the RAC is actually a thing in the UK, like the AA.
So, Holy Ghost! do what Holy Ghost! do best, injecting the track with a ton of their raw synth Disco. Twisting analog lead lines and thick, bouncing bass permeate every second of the track. MNDR's vocals in particular fit beautifully with Holy Ghosts! NYC groove, moreso than in the original, we'd absolutely love to hear more of a Holy Ghost!/MNDR collaboration. The result here is a smooth and breezy, but definitely urban, slice of synthesizer funk, heave and robust, that's as playful as it is pumping.
♫ RAC (Feat. Kele & MNDR) – Let Go (Holy Ghost! reMix)
RAC's Let Go is out now.
Buy RAC's music from:


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scattered memories – the healing process
I have read so many blogs and stories of others who have really struggled with the process of therapy, and how some people feel like therapy has made them feel "worse" than better!
I was one of those who struggled with that same thought years ago – until I realized why I was feeling the way I felt, and saw the process of healing actually working.
For the first couple of years in therapy for me it was like being thrown into a warp zone of vulnerability. I would leave therapy after a hard session, and I would struggled to do my every day tasks, and it was so hard to focus on anything else.
I struggled with being grounded or connected to anyone around me. I felt like I was in a constant fog, and would zone out during conversations with others not being able to concentrate because I felt so lost and raw feeling.
I too was one of those people who thought "is this making me worse? "how is this healing?" "Maybe I should quit, because this doesn't feel very good and I don't think I can continue this hard path".
BUT something deep inside told me to hold onto this, keep on going, keep on moving through this process. Keep trusting the process and trusting my therapist and the good work we were doing.
One of the things my therapist has helped me to see over the years is how memories work and why they are so hidden so deep within us; especially if the trauma happened at a young age.
For those traumatized at a young age, including myself, our brain scatters those memories over time, and those memories are scattered until we are able and ready to face those memories and face those moments that our brain hid deep deep within. It's a protection within us . . . but not something that is healthy to keep hidden away.
Therapy is a process of pulling those scattered memories one by one and putting them together like a puzzle, and the more we sit with the puzzle, the pieces get easier to fit.
I have been in therapy almost 9 years now. I began my journey April 2007 .. I started this journey scared, vulnerable, raw, and had so many walls up that you needed to climb walls just to see the walls. But I knew what my past held, and I knew something needed to be discovered and talked about, because how I felt inside, wasn't how I wanted to live and be.
I hear of a lot of people who struggle to find the right therapist, and I will say, having the right therapist is so CRUCIAL, because this is your healing journey, this is your life, your voice, your truth, and its so important to feel safe and connected with someone who can walk this journey with you.
I was lucky, God really placed me on a path with an amazing therapist right from day 1. I knew within the first month that my therapist Andy was someone I could walk this journey with – he is warm, gentle, caring, open to hear and open to wisdom that I really needed to hear. I trust him more than I trust anyone else, and that is a big big deal for me, given what I have endured in my past.
Therapy and healing is a process . . . it's not about covering up the wounds expecting it to scar over and feel better right away … it's about digging into that wound and cleaning it out before you can cover it and heal from it. Therapy is not a band-aid .. it's a process of true healing to what is going on inside of you – – those scattered memories from the past that need to be brought together and be told a story of truth.
It's a painful yet rewarding process as you take those steps. Even today, after almost 9 years in this journey I still sit with hard things that take me out of my self – but because of the process I have taken, it has made those hard moments bearable. I no longer walk around in that fog of hopelessness, instead I process each session and talk through it and live my life the best I can on the outside.
When I read these blogs of those who want to quit or give up on their process of healing, it makes me sad, because I know what that feels like, and I know what is to come if you stay with it and trust the process – yes a painful process – but one that you will see changes you .. but you have to really want to make that change within! No one can do it for you – your therapist cannot do it for you – it's a team effort and its about your wisdom and your process that takes you there.
There are things that I am still working through – some really hard things that surfaced out of a situation I was put in years ago … some of my close friends and family know about the hard times I have gone through the past couple of years – but I am trusting the same process and continue to work hard just as I have thus far.
I also have come to learn that not all wounds are ready to be healed .. and some heal faster than others. Some need to be covered up again until your ready to uncover and peel back the layers of skin, and although painful and raw, you will know when you are ready for that healing.
Some wounds take a long time to heal, and some remain raw and all you can do is learn how to adjust to that pain.. but you will and your life will feel livable with more hope and even happiness will shine through those wounds.
SO for those who are in the process of healing . . . stick through it, work through it, give the process of healing time .. you are worth it, your wounds are worth healing, your voice is worth hearing and your truth is worth believing – a process I am still learning to trust – one step at a time.


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Program News...
Pharmaceutical manufacturers' sharps plans have been published as required by Senate Bill 486.
Find a Drop-off Location
Your doctor's office or hospital may collect only their patients' sharps (but check first) Other sites include pharmacies and "household hazardous waste (HHW) facilities" listed here:
- CalRecycle's disposal facility list*
- Earth911.com
- California Department of Public Health (CDPH). Look for the a "list of home-generated sharps consolidation points located throughout California" near the bottom of the page.
*The California Department of Public Health regulates medical waste. While CalRecycle lists sites here for convenience, you should contact your local enforcement agency to find home-generated sharps collection locations in your area or to correct their listings.
Check for Free Options
Mail-back programs or free sharps containers may be available from your:
Rigid plastic sharps containers such as bleach or detergent bottles are allowed in: Fresno, Mariposa, Merced, Napa, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, Stanislaus, Yolo, and Yuba counties.
Explore Other Options
Needle Destruction Devices. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) currently only lists the "Disintegrator" as a needle destruction device approved for use by self-injectors.
Mail-Back Service. Many sharps manufacturers offer mail-back services for their products, contact them directly for disposal options. You can find many sharps manufacturers have already provided CalRecycle with their Disposal Plan and options.
Unused Sharps Disposal
Needle exchange programs may accept unused sharps in their original unopened packaging—but call first to confirm. Otherwise, these materials would fit the definition of home-generated sharps waste, which are banned from household trash disposal (see "The Law" below). After unused sharps are collected, potentially compacted, and hand-sorted, the source of a waste disposal worker's needlestick may still be unknown, still requiring six months of testing for HIV or Hepatitis infection. If reuse options are not available, the steps above should also be used to dis-pose of unused sharps.
Business-Generated Sharps
Businesses such as hospitals, clinics, and other smaller businesses generating sharps should contact the California Department of Public Health's Medical Waste Management Program for information on how to manage that waste under California's Medical Waste Management ActPDF download. Businesses generating small amounts of sharps waste may find mail-back services to be most cost-effective compared to contracting with an authorized medical waste transporter.
Why Is It Important?
Improper sharps disposal can affect janitors, maids, pest control workers, groundskeepers, waste management workers, and children or household pets among others. Roughly 25% to 45% of all facilities processing household trash (besides recycling) in California have workers hand-sorting recyclable material out of that trash. A single worker's on-the-job needlestick can mean weeks of taking drugs to prevent the spread of infection, with side effects including nausea, depression, and extreme fatigue as well as months waiting for expensive periodic tests to reveal whether they contracted life-threatening HIV/AIDs or hepatitis B or C. A 2008 study suggested that "nation-wide each year 25%…or roughly 150,000 to 200,000 needlesticks occurred outside the health services industry for a cost of $38 million."
The Law
State law (H&SC §118286) makes it illegal to dispose of home-generated sharps waste (hypodermic needles, pen needles, intravenous needles, lancets, and other devices that are used to penetrate the skin for the delivery of medications) in the trash or recycling containers, and requires that all sharps waste be transported to a collection center in a sharps container approved by the local enforcement agency.
CalRecycle Resources
- Sharps Manufacturer and Collector Resources. Legislation and ordinances, stakeholder involvement, and education-al materials to help sharps manufacturers and collectors implement safe and efficient programs.
- Pharmaceutical Manufacturer Sharps Disposal Plans. Learn about the law, SB 486, and view a list of manufacturers' sharps collection and disposal plans that CalRecycle has received.
Federal Guidance
- Environmental Protection Agency. EPA publications and other sharps disposal guidance.
- Food and Drug Administration. Needlestick guidance and other background material.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. State and Community policies and guidance.
Non-Government Organizations
- California Product Stewardship Council. Local programs, media, studies, policies, and legislation.
- Product Stewardship Institute. PSI's work to facilitate sharps dialogues.
For More Information
Stay informed about the latest developments in CalRecycle's efforts to promote safe disposal of sharps waste.
- Subscribe to the Pharmaceutical and Sharps Waste Stewardship Listserv to receive periodic information about sharps.
- You can review previous messages on the Pharmaceutical and Sharps Waste Stewardship Listserv Archive regarding legislation, regulations, policy, lawsuits, and grant program highlights.
- Please contact email@example.com for questions or more information.


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Sweden has cancelled an arrest warrant for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on accusations of rape and molestation.
The Swedish Prosecution Authority website said the chief prosecutor had come to the decision that Mr Assange was not suspected of rape but did not give any further explanation.
The warrant was issued late on Friday.
Wikileaks, which has been criticised for leaking Afghan war documents, had quoted Mr Assange as saying the claims were "without basis".
That message, which appeared on Twitter and was attributed directly to Mr Assange, said the appearance of the allegations "at this moment is deeply disturbing".
In a series of other messages posted on the Wikileaks Twitter feed, the whistle-blowing website said: "No-one here has been contacted by Swedish police", and that it had been warned to expect "dirty tricks".
In its "official blog" on Saturday before the warrant was cancelled, Wikileaks said it was "deeply concerned about the seriousness of these allegations. We the people behind Wikileaks think highly of Julian and and he has our full support".
The current whereabouts of Mr Assange, a 39-year-old Australian, are unclear.
More documents
The Swedish Prosecution Authority website said chief prosecutor Eva Finne had come to the decision that Julian Assange was not subject to arrest.
In a brief statement Eva Finne said: "I don't think there is reason to suspect that he has committed rape."
The website said there would be no further immediate comment.
Earlier, Karin Rosander, communications head at Sweden's prosecutors' office, said there were two separate allegations against Mr Assange, one of rape and the other of molestation. She gave no details of the accusations. She said that as far as she knew they related to alleged incidents that took place in Sweden.
On Saturday she said the police investigation into the molestation allegation continued.
Ms Rosander said: "The [chief prosecutor] will look into that later. She hasn't been able to do that, but that's not enough for being arrested. It's not a serious enough crime."
Media reports say Mr Assange was in Sweden last week to talk about his work and defend the decision by Wikileaks to publish the Afghan war logs.
Last month, Wikileaks published more than 75,000 secret US military documents on the war in Afghanistan.
US authorities criticised the leak, saying it could put the lives of coalition soldiers and Afghans, especially informers, at risk.
Mr Assange has said that Wikileaks is intending to release a further 15,000 documents in the coming weeks.
Categories: Anti-War, Government, Imperialism, International, Internet, Media & Culture, Statements, Sweden, U.S. News


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Bad Bangs: The Making of Billy Bob Thornton's Demented Fargo Look
[Warning: The following contains spoilers from Fargo's premiere. If you haven't seen it yet, you might want to have a cup of coffee or piece of pie instead. Have a nice day!]
Fargo's central criminal is ruthless, intimidating... and sports a really lousy haircut.
Aw jeez! FX's new series Fargo "too good" for stars to pass up
On Tuesday, FX debuted its new crime comedy based on the Oscar-winning film of the same name and introduced Billy Bob Thornton's character Lorne Malvo, a drifter whose extreme actions are only surpassed by his extreme bangs. Although the Oscar winner had already planned on dyeing his hair and beard dark for the series, the super-short trim initially threw him for a loop. "That was accidental. I got a bad haircut that I couldn't do anything with," he tells TVGuide.com. "It wouldn't comb over. It wouldn't act right, you know? I was looking at myself in the mirror thinking, 'God, what a disaster.'"
Faced with his blunt-cut fringe, Thorton had a moment of inspiration. "I said, 'Hang on a second. This looks like mid-to-late '60s L.A. rock. This looks like the bass player for the Buffalo Springfield.' Speaking of the Buffalo Springfield, Neil Young actually had that look at one point. So once I put that big coat on and that turtleneck and those bangs and that beard, it's like I was a bass player in a country-rock band in '67 in L.A."
Although that may seem like an odd choice for playing a man who commits murder as casually as he goes to the dry cleaners, it fit in with the series' overall incongruous nature. "It was good because bangs are usually associated with -- if it's not Bettie Page -- innocence. Bangs are innocent," Thornton says. "They're clean-cut. I had bangs when I was in high school. So to have a guy who is this ruthless to have bangs I just thought, 'What a great irony.' So I decided to just go with that instead of fixing it."
Spring TV 2014: Must-watch new shows
Malvo is anything but innocent. In the premiere alone, we see that he's kidnapped one man, stabbed another in the skull, and shot and killed the chief of police in the sleepy town of Bemidji, Minn. It can also be argued that it's his influence that prompts his new acquaintance, mild-mannered insurance salesman Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman), to kill his wife.
Despite all of these transgressions, Malvo is appealing. Maybe it's the lighthearted pranks he likes to play, maybe it's his friendly banter, maybe it's the bangs. "He's sympathetic. A lot of people have told me that as ruthless as this guy is, we can't help but root for him a little bit," Thornton says. "I think it's the dark sense of humor that he has. When he sees stupidity or weakness ... he's got to mess with them. We all want to mess with people in society because people are so screwed up now. You can vicariously live through him."
In a way, Thornton doesn't feel that Malvo can be judged by society's mores of right and wrong. "You can't really compare him to them because he literally lives like an animal. He's part of the animal kingdom," the actor says. "It's like, do we hate polar bears? Polar bears are one of the most dangerous creatures on Earth, but they're on Coke commercials and they look so cute. They're all white and fluffy. And they're just horrible, dangerous predators. But you know, that polar bear doesn't know anything else. Malvo doesn't know anything else. He is a predator and he is an animal. So to say he's right or wrong, it would be like saying a polar bear is wrong."
Right or wrong, good or evil, polar bear or man, Lorne Malvo is one of Fargo's unique and unmistakable creations. "Between the haircut and the kind of clothing I wear, it's iconic," Thornton says. "It's a character that instantly has a stamp on it. It's pretty cool. I like it."
What did you think of the Fargo premiere and Lorne Malvo? Did he win you over? Weigh in below.
Fargo airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on FX.
(Additional reporting by Sadie Gennis.)
View original Bad Bangs: The Making of Billy Bob Thornton's Demented Fargo Look at TVGuide.com
Other Links From TVGuide.com


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The Trash Issue—with a special section guest designed by Sulki & Min
The Trash Issue: Featuring a special section guest designed by Sulki & Min; a visual essay by Jillian Tamaki; a look into the garbage cans and recycling bins of 18 designers; the winners of Print's 2012 Color Competition; and stories by Rick Poynor, Steven Heller, Debbie Millman, Fritz Swanson, Michèle Champagne, and more.
PURCHASE COPY | PURCHASE PDF | DOWNLOAD SINGLES | SUBSCRIBE (In Print or iPad Version)
Reused, Rewasted, Reabandoned, Reforgotten, RecollectedTrash and its endless afterlife.By Sulki & Min
Loving GarbagePrint recycles: This 1993 story on an exhibition of waste management is reprinted throughout the feature well.By Tod Lippy
Trash the BlockA visual catalog of lost and abandoned objects in one Brooklyn neighborhood.By Jillian Tamaki
Trashed and FoundA packaging designer discovers her own work discarded in the streets.By Debbie Millman
Print's 2012 Color CompetitionOur annual look at the best use of color in design
A travelogue of crappy graphics.
By Michèle Champagne
A remembrance of Tom Trumble, letterpress pressman, and a meditation on preservation and nostalgia.
By Fritz Swanson
Jennifer Heuer, Post Typography, and Rumors tell us about their favorite projects that never saw the light of day. Also, 18 designers answer the question "What's in your garbage?"
Could a locally made garbage can help bring American manufacturing back from the brink?
By Alissa Walke
Grids+GuidesDroog goes waste-free, Aesthetic Apparatus puts a new spin on up-cycling, Steven Heller studies ice cream, and The New York Times Magazine talks trash.
DialogueSteven Heller interviews Kevin O'Callaghan, junkyard alchemist.
StereotypePaul Shaw and Stephen Coles on the workaday beauty of stencil letters
InteractionIs information overload killing our ability to think?
Best PracticesGetting rid of sticky-label liners
ObserverRick Poynor on the aesthetic transformation of waste
Back IssueMartin Fox revives Print's Salon des Refusés.
ReviewsTom Vanderbilt on "Graphic Design: Now in Production," and Claire Lui on Robert Caro's LBJ covers
In the StudioAndrew Byrom's ample campus work space
Print's 2013 Regional Design Annual


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Today, is our anniversary. We recited the Prayer of St. Francis at our wedding and have it displayed on a small and simple plaque. It reminds me of what it means to be human, in relationship with another person, and in relationship with God.
When I was in Spokane, I printed a copy and put it on the wall of the small room I stayed in. I refer to the room as my monastic cell and the Prayer of St. Francis seems a fitting complement to any monastic cell.
During challenging moments, I recite parts of the prayer to bring me peace and be present in the world.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
The picture is one I took several years ago of Kathy standing above a set of waterfalls close to the headwaters of the Fraser River.


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A Cosmo Style Eulogy: 23 Things Helen Gurley Brown Knew about Sex, Marriage, and Life That YOU NEED to Know Today
Author and Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown died yesterday at the lovely age of 90, after having been declared a "living landmark" in New York.
In her honor I dusted off her 1962 blockbuster, Sex and the Single Girl. I remember buying it at a used book store in graduate school. At that time I delighted in its wit, joy, compassion, bravery and zeal, amid the drearification of my feminist soul that tends to happen when you're reading a steady diet of monographs about race, class and gender oppression.
How did Brown make it? She wrote of herself, "I am not beautiful, or even pretty. I once had the world's worst case of acne. I am not bosomy or brilliant…." Oh, and she was an introvert, and frequently "mean and cranky."
Brown had it rough. She was desperately poor, growing up. Her father died when she was 10. Her sister Mary had polio. They lived in a tiny house in a small town, and at night when they weren't hearing the trains roaring by on the tracks, they could hear gophers trying to tunnel their way up into their bedrooms.
Brown settled in Los Angeles. She had 17 jobs before she became the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan in 1965. She married a successful Hollywood producer who, on paper, she "shouldn't" have been able to snag. But it wasn't a "miracle" that she married late in life, and well. To the contrary, she said, "I deserved it!"
Sex and the Single Girl stayed on the bestseller lists for all of 1962. Interestingly, it was published within months of Betty Friedan's galvanizing and equally sensational The Feminine Mystique. The two paired well together, if accidentally. One was a chatty, hilarious redemption of the putatively less "successful" single woman's feisty life of careers and affairs; the other, a more studious, researched expose on the morose, gloomy, unfulfilled life of the socially more "successful" married woman with children.
Clearly, Brown's book satisfied a craving. Before she wrote it, she'd found no books on single women. She read only propagandistic, mythologizing magazine pieces (as did Friedan) on "couples and families." And, "to further depress you," she writes, "the couples and families are always blueberry pie normal."
Brown's still-timely advice in the face of media myths of womanhood was not to "fold up" in life "over what you read" about the hopeless plight of the single (or career) woman. "Part of what you are…missing in marriage may be well worth missing," she reassured.
Reading this time around, I was struck by how everything Brown describes is "sexy." Having a stock portfolio is "sexy." So is an ashtray. And a career, that's most definitely "sexy." She writes about the "sexy kitchen."
I felt this time that "sexy" for Brown was a sort of cover story, or an alibi, although one sincerely believed, that allowed her to convey an even more audacious message to women: the quest for sexy is nothing less, really, than the quest for Having a Life—a self-realized, self-designed, "rich, full life," as Brown calls it. Sure, it's all sexy, and it's something to have for the sake of charming the men, let's not forget about them (glimmers of the Cosmo we know today are evident here). The pursuit of men and marriage provided a socially accepted cover story for the single woman's journey, but they're not the purpose, not really. Just have an adventure, be daring, catch as catch can, and get a life—and sexiness (as well as men) will follow.
I think marriage is insurance for the worst years of your life. During your best years you don't need a husband. You do need a man of course at every step of the way, and they are often cheaper emotionally and a lot more fun by the dozen.
Frankly, I wouldn't want to make the choice between a married hell or a single hell. They're both hell.
It takes guts. It can be lonely out there out of step with the rest of the folks. And you may not find somebody later. But since you're not finding somebody sooner as things stand, wouldn't it be better…to start recognizing what you have now?
Church: Friends tell me it offers spiritual benefits, but few men.
Alcoholics Anonymous: [A friend] was about forty-three, had no drinking problem of her own, but since outsiders are permitted to attend A.A. meetings … she wandered into the Beverly Hills Chapter meeting, sat next to a famous writer, and bagged him within the year. .. if you are going to try this approach to men, I suggest you pick a wealthy chapter of A. A. Might as well start with a solvent problem child, like say someone with liquid assets.
According to statistics there isn't even one man for every girl… Actually, the statistic merely states there are not enough marriageable men to go around. Nobody said a word about a shortage of men.
I think he is much maligned. [He doesn't get a divorce because] he doesn't want one. Because of the children, because of the community property and because in many cases he doesn't really dislike his wife…. Basically they are pretty good friends…. Between the thought [of divorce] and the final decree lies an area as broad, stormy and unnavigable as the straits of Magellan.
It seems to me the solution is not to rule out married men but to keep them as pets. While they are "using" you to varnish their egos, you "use" them to add spice to your life. I say "them" advisedly. One married man is dangerous. A potpourri can be fun.
I'm afraid I have a rather cavalier attitude about wives. The reason is this: A wife… will get her husband back every time. He doesn't really want her not to. … She may have played herself on occasion. If she doesn't get him back, it's probably because she's lazy, blind, or doesn't want him. If he's a hopeless chaser,…he will chase regardless of who does or does not give him succor, so no need to feel guilty. Many people have said this before me but no man or woman is attracted to just one person…
What is a sexy woman? Very simple. She is a woman who enjoys sex. Being sexy means that you accept yourself as a woman…with all the functions of a woman….Being sexy means that you accept all the parts of your body as worthy and lovable…. You even welcome menstruation as the abiding proof of your fertility. A woman who feels all this is sexy. She wears it like perfume. … She's got smell No. 5, which is even better than Chanel of the same denomination…. Gorgeousness has little to do with sexuality, either. The physiologically sexy woman, be she droop-shouldered, flat-chested, horse-faced or bone-headed, will find somebody to be sexy with. She's got it. He'll find it.
We're born sexy and will "stay that way if nobody interferes."
The girl who is hell bent for motherhood [and therefore doesn't pursue a career] is missing another great creative experience, which is to get paid for producing things in her head. Then she could have babies, but I guess if you've gotta foal, you've gotta foal.
[Gurley Brown tells of her husband's production assistant]: Pamela's four year old son is one of the sunniest, most secure moppets I have ever met, and a housekeeper has looked after him since birth. Pam's husband…is proud of his smart successful wife. They are having another baby that will also be cared for by a nurse when Pamela goes back to work. If you are working for toads, drain all the experience you can from the pond and move to a new one… Don't be a scaredy-cat.
I needn't remind you, career girls are sexy. A man likes to sleep with a brainy girl. She's a challenge…Some men are supposed to prefer weak headed women. I never met one who did. Not ever in my life!…. If a few more rushing brides stopped rushing and worked for a few years, they might not find themselves so thoroughly bored at thirty.
Scrimp on what isn't sexy or beautiful or really any fun, so you can afford what is…. Buy half gallon jugs of red table wine…and serve it in a shimmering Blenko glass decanter. Drugged by your charm, aficionados will swear it's Richebourg '53
If you are to be a glamorous , sophisticated woman that exciting things happen to, you need an apartment and you need to live in it alone! After your thirtieth birthday, a Great Dane would do more for your image than two roommates, and dogs don't borrow sweaters!
Being onein a world of twos is a bloody bore and lonely at times….Throw in a possible half-starved body (even though it's ten pounds overweight) and no wonder you have the blues!
As for marrying to have children, you can have babies until you're forty or older. And if you happen to die before they are forty, at least you haven't lingered into their middle age to be a doddering old bore. You also avoid those tiresome years as an unpaid baby sitter.
If all the unmarried girls having affairs in my city alone felt called upon to do [Start Over by leaving town], there would be the biggest population scramble since Exodus. Nice, single girls do have affairs, and they do not necessarily die of them!
Suppose you like girls. You've already worked out a way of life for yourself to which I could contribute no helpful advice. I'm sure your problems are many. I don't know about your pleasures. At any rate, it's your business and I think it's a shame you have to be surreptitious about your choice of a way of life.
I never met a completely happy single woman…or a completely happy married one.
Every smart single woman I know gets adopted by a good butcher, an expert mechanic, and an influential and/or rich couple.
Put your guilt away. Would it surprise you to know that our most wicked and base thoughts—secret fantasies—even leanings to homosexuality, are not unusual, and should not alarm you? You may share your desire to make love to an African lion with the vicar's wife—or even the vicar! Far from making you a depraved monster, your thinking is probably not even original.
There are a lot of half alive people running around in the world, any number of whom are single women. .. Paradoxically, living dangerously lengthens and strengthens your life.


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Making Better Movies with Moviestorm, Vol 4
The fourth part of our free series of books on filmmaking is now published. It focuses on an area of filmmaking that's easily overlooked, but is perhaps the most important part of the whole process - editing.
The popular perception of films is that they're a creative collaboration between the director, the writer and the actors. It's the director who always gets the credit for how a film turns out – or gets blamed if it's a box office flop. Most aspiring filmmakers dream of being directors, because they want the creative control that directing seems to offer.
But it's not the director who makes the film that the audience actually sees. The director decides what to shoot and tells his actors and crew what to do. It's the editor who assembles everything into a completed movie – the footage, the sounds, the special effects, the titles and credits and anything else. In the editing stage, the pace of the story can be changed completely, and even the story-telling structure can be switched around to put emphasis on different characters or reveal key plot points in a different structure. Scenes can be removed to keep the story moving, and some of the director's best work can end up as nothing more than a DVD extra. In extreme cases, editing can sometimes result in a film that's very different to what the director intended – as a great example of what an editor can do with your carefully filmed footage, check out Scary Mary, the recut trailer for Disney's Mary Poppins. Skilful editing turns this classic family movie into a horror movie.
As a director, you need to understand the editing process instinctively. Working closely with your editor is key to a successful creative team. You have to remember that everything you film is just raw material for your editor – it's just a stage in the process. In pre-production, you need to think about how your film will be edited. If you can previsualize your film and make an animatic, this can help immensely. Not only can you plan out your shots, but you will also be in a position to check the timing, pacing, sound, movement, and more.
This volume covers a range of common editing techniques, and provides exercises which help you think about different ways of cutting the same film. They will help you develop a sense of what you as a director have to do to make the editor's job easier, and to ensure that you are giving the editor what they need to create the film you envisage.
With live action film, you often find yourself making creative compromises when the footage you shot turns out not to be quite right. Reshoots are expensive, usually prohibitively so, and you're forced to work with whatever you have. Using Moviestorm makes it easy to go back and forth between all stages of the film, so it's easy to adjust anything that doesn't work once it's been in final edit. You can see how a scene turns out, and if you think you can do better, you can quickly make changes to the camerawork, the staging, or anything else, and try it again.
Previous volumes


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Shootout/Thread ring
Each program should create and keep alive 503 threads, explicity or implicitly linked in a ring, and pass a token between one thread and the next thread at least N times. Programs may use kernel threads, lightweight threads? cooperative threads? and other programs with custom schedulers will be listed as interesting alternative implementations. Briefly say what concurrency technique is used in the program header comment.
Each program should
- create 503 linked threads (named 1 to 503)
- thread 503 should be linked to thread 1, forming an unbroken ring
- pass a token to thread 1
- pass the token from thread to thread N times
- print the name of the last thread (1 to 503) to take the token
Similar benchmarks are described in Performance Measurements of Threads in Java and Processes in Erlang, 1998; and A Benchmark Test for BCPL Style Coroutines, 2004. For some language implementations increasing the number of threads quickly results in Death by Concurrency.
Proposed entry
Should be easily the fastest entry.
-- The Great Computer Language Shootout
-- http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/
-- Contributed by Jed Brown with improvements by Spencer Janssen and Don Stewart
-- 503 threads are created with forkIO, with each thread
-- creating one synchronised mutable variable (MVar) shared with the
-- next thread in the ring. The last thread created returns an MVar to
-- share with the first thread. Each thread reads from the MVar to its
-- left, and writes to the MVar to its right.
-- Each thread then waits on a token to be passed from its neighbour.
-- Tokens are then passed around the threads via the MVar chain N times,
-- and the thread id of the final thread to receive a token is printed.
-- More information on Haskell concurrency and parallelism:
-- http://www.haskell.org/ghc/dist/current/docs/users_guide/lang-parallel.html
import Control.Monad
import Control.Concurrent
import System.Environment
ring = 503
new l i = do
r <- newEmptyMVar
forkIO (thread i l r)
return r
thread :: Int -> MVar Int -> MVar Int -> IO ()
thread i l r = go
where go = do
m <- takeMVar l
when (m == 1) (print i)
putMVar r $! m - 1
when (m > 0) go
main = do
a <- newMVar . read . head =<< getArgs
z <- foldM new a [2..ring]
thread 1 z a