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If you don't care about Unnatural Selection in particular but you are interested in the question of trust/mistrust of nonfiction authors in general, scroll down to here, which is where I stop talking about Unnatural Selection. Because I just figured out how to hyperlink to places in my own post. What what. Technology.
Unnatural Selection is a book about how widespread access to abortion in many developing nations has led to a crisis in sex-selective abortion, where the ratio of boys born to girls born — a necessary constant because nobody wins in a sex-skewed society — shifts well out of what would be the biological norm. What ends up happening if parents overwhelmingly select for male fetuses is, eventually, a whole bunch of men with no women to marry. Again, nobody wins when this is the case. The men do not win and the women really, really, really do not win.
There are parts of the history of this phenomenon that are straightforwardly morally wrong. When the West decided to make foreign aid to developing nations dependent on reducing the birth rate, it should not have pushed abortion above contraception education and supply on its list of priorities. Because duh. But other things are less straightforward. If you believe women should have access to abortion, it's tricky to say "You can do it for X reason but not for Y reason." It is a slippery slope to do that. Also that people can lie. On the other hand, even if you believe that any individual woman has the right to an abortion she wants to have, you nevertheless do not want the global crisis of missing girls that results from many, many women making the decision to abort female fetuses.
See how it is tricky? It is so tricky! I do not have a good solution for policy-makers, but I am glad that people are writing books about this thorny human issue. And Mara Hvistendahl is careful not to make grand pronouncements on the morality of the players in this crisis; she delineates the cultural influences behind what is happening (America really, really wanted to reduce the birth rate in Communist countries during the Cold War; parents in many of the countries with this problem are depending on a son to grow up and take care of them in their old age). So that was really good. She doesn't point fingers, she doesn't overgeneralize, and she does a good job breaking down complicated issues in a way that's readable and understandable.
Whenever I start reading a nonfiction book, I check the references pretty exhaustively at the outset. If the endnotes tend to contain interesting further information, I keep checking the references all the way through. If the endnotes provide citations to sources that seem suspect, I keep checking the references until I finish the book or get fed up with all the shady citations (usually the latter). If the endnotes cite non-shady sources and are boring, I stop after the first chapter or two. Unnatural Selection was a non-extreme example of the second case. There weren't many citations that I outright distrusted, but a number of citations (the largeness of this number varied wildly from section to section, and in some chapters it was nonexistent) where I thought, "Surely you could have gotten a better source than that." At one point she cites Malcolm Gladwell to back up a point she wants to make about an international trend. (That being an example of a source I outright distrusted.)
So here are two examples of what I mean:
Sentence: The matchmakers lining the streets of Ruili, along Yunnan's border with Myanmar, tout Burmese girls as a bargain: half price!
Citation: Keith B. Richburg, "Chinese Border Town Emerges as New Front Line in Fight Against Human Trafficking," Washington Post, December 26, 2009
Sentence: Donning magenta saris, the women band together into gulabi, or pink, gangs and brandish clubs against offending men.
Citation: Soutik Biswas, "India's 'Pink' Vigilante Women," BBC News, November 26, 2007
It's not that I wouldn't trust these articles if I read them in the wild. I would. I do! I am sure the Washington Post and the BBC did their homework, and that their reports of these occurrences are reliable. It just felt like there must be some better source for Hvistendahl to give. I felt like, if you are going to pick out a horrifying detail (women on sale for half price), it should be your own original horrifying detail, not somebody else's; and if you are going to talk about an emerging trend (gangs of women going about bashing harassers with clubs), you should cite something that can speak to the long-term existence of this trend.
There was also this thing in the chapter about History where she cited a book about sex selection in history to back up a claim she made about the way the Roman Empire treated women. Again, I don't not trust her source. I just think that if you are going to cite a book as support of your claims about history, the book should have been written by someone whose entire job it is to know Facts from History. Not someone who has a dog in the fight you're fighting.
I get that Hvistendahl isn't a researcher; she's a journalist. She cites like a journalist and not like a researcher. But still I was left with a lingering, pervasive feeling of unease. There was no specific claim Hvistendahl made that I felt sure was factually wrong (leaving out one remark about the demographics of American women who get abortions, but that information is spottily collected so she gets a pass on that, I guess), but altogether I felt that I should take everything with a very large grain of salt. Or several grains of salt.
Wildly skewed gender ratios is an important international issue, and I picked up this book with the final goal — the same final goal I nearly always have when I pick up a nonfiction book! — of being able to speak sensibly about sex-selective abortion and the problems it presents the global community. Which I now can probably do, but maybe not? Even though I think it's perfectly likely that (most of) Hvistendahl's claims are reasonable and accurate, because now, I don't feel confident that I can trust her sources. So if I am ever in a conversation about sex-selective abortions and I'm repeating a claim I learned from this book, I'll have to make some qualifying remark about reliability.
This has made me think some thoughts about trusting nonfiction authors. When I was in high school, I read two of Malcolm Gladwell's books and thought they were pretty good; but what I've noticed more recently is that his arguments don't reeeeeally hang together. What he's good at — and I'll be the first to say he's very good at it — is constructing a compelling narrative, and when someone's good at that it's easy to cut them a lot of slack in other areas. I'd like to say that I started noticing this about Malcolm Gladwell because I am a clever critical thinker, but the truth is that I started noticing it because I loathed the narrative presented in one of his essays (this one here), and I started picking the argument apart and finding it sorely wanting. And it turns out that once you have done this to any single Malcolm Gladwell piece, you can't stop doing it to all the Malcolm Gladwell pieces. Because he is not that good at arguments. Just stories.
And here is the thing: Now that I don't trust Malcolm Gladwell, I will never trust Malcolm Gladwell. Whenever I read any Malcolm Gladwell article ever, even if he's making a point I agree with, I feel that I'm being sold a bill of goods. And the same will be a little bit true of Mara Hvistendahl. I may still read articles by both of them — though probably not books, because life is short — but if I get interested in what they're saying, I will seek independent verification of their claims. This is, I think, completely fair in the case of Malcolm Gladwell, and probably not completely fair in the case of Mara Hvistendahl; but my good opinion, once lost, is lost for ever. (Not really. That is a joke. Little Jane Austen humor for ya there.)
Has this happened to you before? What red flags make you think a nonfiction author may not be trustable? Do the red flags differ if you're reading a book by a journalist versus a researcher? Or a slightly different question: Have you ever discovered external, biographical things about a nonfiction author that made you reconsider how you felt about their trustworthiness in books you had previously enjoyed?
And a question of duration: Once you feel mistrustful of an author, what would it take for you to stop feeling mistrustful of that person? If they got more degrees, would that do it? If all the experts in their field praised them, would that do it? Or is it never ever ever? I think it's never ever ever for me! and I'm worried that makes me a close-minded jerk.


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This Act provides for the organisation of State actions for the mitigation of, preparedness for, response to and recovery from disasters in Belize. It includes requirements for public inquiries in the decision-making process of plans, programmes and policies.
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Instrumentos de política
These regulations establish the processes involved in the preparation and evaluation of environmental impact assessments, including the requirements on public participation and public hearings.
The Freedom of Information Act promotes maximum disclosure of information in the public interest, guarantees and facilitates the right of access to information of every person and provides for effective mechanisms to secure that right.
This Act establishes a comprehensive legal and institutional framework for environmental protection in Belize.
The Constitution of Belize ensures access to information and participation within the framework of the freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association. It also provides constitutional guarantees in case the aforementioned rights are infringed.

subset: commoncrawl


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Have you ever beentexting
with your crush and had a sneaking suspicion he wasn't being totally up front with you? Well, now there's a scientific way to tell if he's lying—sort of.
A recent study from Brigham Young University found that when people are lying, it takes them 10 percent longer to respond to a text—and they make more edits than usual.
But since 10 percent isn't a huge number, you may only be able to tell if something's up if your guy typically responds to texts instantly. (Past research has found that people are much more likely to lie via text than face-to-face. See: Catfish.)
More From Seventeen
Another way to catch someone in their lie: Just use your gut! BYU also found that humans can accurately detect a lie about 54 percent of the time. So rougly half the time, you already know when someone is lying!
Tell us: What methods do you use to sniff out if someone isn't being totally honest via text? Do you have any sneaky tricks you swear by?
Sound off in the comments on how you spot a texting liar!


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Figure 1. PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses) flowchart of included studies. AAAs indicates α-adrenergic agonists; ACs, anticonvulsants; BBs, β-blockers; CCBs, calcium channel blockers; SSRIs, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors; and TCAs, tricyclic antidepressants.
Figure 2. Reduction in headaches per month among placebo-controlled trials. WMD indicates weighted mean difference.
El-Chammas K, Keyes J, Thompson N, Vijayakumar J, Becher D, Jackson JL. Pharmacologic treatment of pediatric headaches: a meta-analysis. JAMA Pediatr. Published online January 28, 2013. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2013.508.
Customize your JAMA Network experience by selecting one or more topics from the list below.
El-Chammas K, Keyes J, Thompson N, Vijayakumar J, Becher D, Jackson JL. Pharmacologic Treatment of Pediatric Headaches: A Meta-analysis. JAMA Pediatr. 2013;167(3):250–258. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2013.508
© 2023
Author Affiliations: Departments of Pediatrics (Drs El-Chammas, Keyes, and Thompson) and Medicine (Drs Vijayakumar and Jackson), Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; and Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, Maryland (Ms Becher).
Objective To assess the effectiveness of prophylactic headache treatment in children and adolescents.
Data Sources PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Database of Clinical Trials, and bibliography of retrieved articles through August 11, 2012.
Study Selection Randomized trials of headache treatment among children and adolescents (<18 years old).
Intervention Any placebo-controlled trial or comparisons between 2 or more active medications.
Main Outcome Measure Number of headaches per month.
Results Among 21 included trials, there were 13 placebo-controlled and 10 active comparator trials (2 also included placebo). Twenty trials focused on episodic migraines and 1 on chronic daily headaches. Drugs more effective than placebo for episodic migraines (<15 headaches per month) included topiramate (difference in headaches per month, −0.71; 95% CI, −1.19 to −0.24) and trazodone (−0.60; 95% CI, −1.09 to −0.11). Ineffective drugs included clonidine, flunarizine, pizotifen, propranolol, and valproate. A single trial of fluoxetine for chronic daily headaches found it ineffective. Patients given placebo experienced a significant (P = .03) decline in headaches, from 5.6 (95% CI, 4.52-6.77; Q = 8.14 [Cochran Q is a measure of the heterogeneity of the included studies]) to 2.9 headaches per month (95% CI, 1.66-4.08; Q = 4.72). Among the 10 active comparator trials, flunarizine was more effective than piracetam (difference in headaches per month, −2.20; 95% CI, −3.93 to −0.47) but no better than aspirin, dihydroergotamine, or propranolol. Propranolol was compared with valproate as well as behavioral treatment, and 2 studies compared different doses of topiramate; none of these trials showed significant differences.
Conclusions Topiramate and trazodone have limited evidence supporting efficacy for episodic migraines. Placebo was effective in reducing headaches. Other commonly used drugs have no evidence supporting their use in children and adolescents. More research is needed.
Headaches are common in children and adolescents. Quiz Ref IDJust as in adults, tension headaches are more common than migraine headaches.1 Up to 15% of children and adolescents experience tension headaches compared with 4% for migraines.2-4 Similar to adults, children with tension headaches are less likely to seek medical attention than those experiencing migraine headaches.1 Migraines occur throughout childhood and adolescence, although the prevalence increases with age, from 3% in the preschool age, up to 11% in the elementary age, and reaching as high as 23% during high school.5 Among children, more boys than girls have migraines, but this is reversed after puberty.6
The diagnostic criteria for migraine headaches have evolved over time. Whereas early definitions emphasized the difference between tension and migraine headaches and migraines with and without aura, modern migraine classification also includes frequency as a criterion, with episodic headaches occurring up to 14 times per month and chronic headaches 15 or more times. The diagnosis of migraines in children and adolescents is even more challenging owing to the wide variety in symptoms, including abdominal pain, and because headache can be experienced as a manifestation of a symptom complex due to a particular condition or mechanism, such as epilepsy or mitochondrial disorders.
Pharmacologic headache treatment can be either abortive or prophylactic. Abortive treatment is used for acute headaches, and the aim of prophylactic treatment is to reduce the frequency or severity of headaches. A variety of prophylactic treatment options are available.7 Common ones include antiepileptics (eg, sodium valproate, gabapentin, topiramate, levetiracetam, and zonisamide),8-12 antidepressants (eg, amitriptyline, trazodone, and pizotifen),13-16 antihistamines (eg, cyproheptadine),16,17 calcium channel blockers (eg, flunarizine and nimodipine),18,19 antihypertensive agents (eg, propranolol, timolol, and clonidine),20-22 and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (eg, naproxen).23 The decision as to which agent to use typically depends on the patient's comorbid conditions and the effect profile of the medication. Quiz Ref IDTo help with this decision, we conducted a meta-analysis to determine the comparative effectiveness and adverse effects of different pharmacologic prophylactic treatments of headaches in children and adolescents.
This report closely adheres to PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses) recommendations for reporting on systematic reviews.24 We searched PubMed, EMBASE, bibliographies of all retrieved articles and published systematic reviews, and the Cochrane Database of Clinical Trials for each of the classes of medications (Table 1) through August 11, 2012, without language restriction. We included published randomized controlled trials that evaluated efficacy in reducing the frequency or severity of headaches in children and adolescents (<18 years of age). Included trials could report on migraine, tension, or chronic daily headache and could include either placebo or comparisons between 2 or more active medications. Screening for included trials was a 2-stage procedure. The titles and abstracts of all retrieved articles were reviewed in duplicate by at least 2 of us. Potential articles were retrieved in full and reviewed for eligibility. This process was divided among the authors by drug class, with more than 1 reviewer for each class. Disagreements were resolved by group consensus.
Data were abstracted independently by at least 2 of us. Because headache measures can vary, a priori we intended to follow International Headache Society (IHS) recommendations25 by abstracting headache outcome measures in this order: headache frequency, headache index (including frequency), headache severity, headache duration, and patient preference. However, all included studies reported headache frequency, which was our primary outcome.
When studies used repeated measures analyses with variance assessed based on change from baseline values, we transformed this measure into an absolute measure of headaches per month. The number of headaches per month was pooled using the DerSimonian and Laird random effects model.26 We selected the most common time point (12 weeks) as our primary analysis, although we calculated pooled estimates for each drug at all time points reported. In addition to pooling data for individual drugs, we also pooled data from drugs with similar mechanism of actions (eg, β-blockers, dihydropyridines, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, and tricyclic antidepressants). We also looked at placebo response by pooling the frequency of headaches at each time point among patients receiving placebo treatment and comparing these data with those in other treatment groups using random effects meta-regression.
Some studies also reported a dichotomous outcome, improvement in headaches. For this outcome, we also followed IHS guidelines and included this outcome only if subjects experienced at least 50% improvement. We assessed article quality independently and in duplicate using a component approach based on the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool27 and the Jadad scale,28 with good interrater agreement (Cochrane intraclass correlation coefficient, 0.83; Jadad κ, 0.85). Jadad includes 5 questions of study quality (randomization, blinding, completeness of follow-up, statistical method, inclusion/exclusion criteria, and adverse effects). Scores can vary from 0 to 8. Disagreements were resolved by consensus.
For crossover trials, we followed the recommendations of the Cochrane collaboration by reducing the sample size for crossover trials by 50%29 and pooled both arms of the crossover; all studies reported no carryover effect. If studies had reported a carryover effect, we planned to pool only the first half of the study, effectively reducing the sample size by 50% and converting a crossover trial to a parallel study.
We assessed the presence of heterogeneity visually using Galbraith plots30 and the I2 statistic.31 We planned a priori to conduct heterogeneity assessments on age, sex, study duration, study size, study design (parallel vs crossover), baseline headache frequency, and the Jadad and Cochrane quality characteristics (with a scaled and component approach for the latter), using a random-effects meta-regression approach.32,33 We assessed for small-study effects (publication bias) using the methods of Peters et al34 for dichotomous outcomes and Egger et al35 for continuous ones. All analyses were done with Stata software (version 12.0). There was no external funding for this study. The Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center review board reviewed and approved this article for publication.
Our search found 2918 articles. After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, we included 21 articles in our review. Reasons for exclusion are provided in Figure 1. Of note, 21 randomized controlled trials conducted Quiz Ref IDprimarily in adults included children and adolescents (1 included subjects as young as 11 years), but none had abstractable data on the subgroup of patients younger than 18 years. There were 13 placebo-controlled trials13,14,18,20,22,36-43 and 10 trials44-51 that compared at least 2 interventions (2 of which also included placebo arms37,39), originating from 9 countries (Table 2).
All but 1 trial focused on episodic migraine headaches (<15 headaches per month); the other trial examined chronic daily headaches (any headache type occurring ≥15 times per month). No trial evaluated pharmacologic treatment of chronic migraine or chronic or episodic tension-type headaches, although 1 trial included a few patients with episodic tension-type headaches. Thirteen trials were parallel in design; among the 8 crossover trials, the mean washout period was 2 weeks (range, 0-4 weeks). Other mean values (ranges) included the following: study duration, 12 (4-16) weeks; sample size, 70 (15-305) participants; dropout rate, 16% (3%-41%); age of participants, 11.4 (9.4-14.2) years; and percentage female, 46% (20%-71%).
Among the 13 placebo-controlled trials (Table 2), 2 evaluated clonidine,22,42 1 flunarizine,18 1 both flunarizine and piracetam,37 1 fluoxetine,38 1 pizotifen,16 3 propranolol,20,40,41 2 topiramate39,43 (1 with >1 dose39), 1 trazodone,15 and 1 valproate36 (with 3 doses). Placebo-controlled trials had a mean of 82 participants and a mean dropout rate of 18% (range, 5%-41%). Only 3 trials included an intention-to-treat analysis. All trials reported outcomes as number of headaches per month, and all but 2 were 12 weeks in duration. Among the 13 trials, 11 evaluated episodic migraine headaches, 1 included some subjects with tension headaches (24%), and 1 focused on chronic daily headaches. Patients in trials of episodic migraines had a mean of 7.1 headaches per month compared with a baseline mean of 17.1 headaches per month for the trial on chronic daily headaches.
Quiz Ref IDDrugs that were found to reduce headaches (Figure 1) more than placebo for episodic migraines included topiramate (difference in headaches per month, −0.71; 95% CI, −1.19 to −0.24; Q = 1.58; df = 1; I2 = 0.0%) and trazodone (−0.60; 95% CI, −1.09 to −0.11; 1 study;Figure 2). Drugs no more effective than placebo included clonidine (difference in headaches per month, −0.34; 95% CI, −1.29 to 0.62; Q = 0.53; df = 1; I2 = 0.0%), flunarizine (−2.27; 95% CI, −4.65 to 0.11; Q = 6.94; df = 1; I2 = 85.6%), pizotifen (−0.75; 95% CI, −2.02 to 0.52; 1 study), propranolol (−1.38; 95% CI, −4.41 to 1.65; Q = 11.9; df = 2; I2 = 84.0%), and valproate (0.30; 95% CI, −0.42 to 1.02; 1 study). A single trial of fluoxetine for chronic daily headaches found it ineffective (difference in headaches per month, −8.75; 95% CI, −18.80 to 1.31; 1 study). Quiz Ref IDPatients who were given placebo experienced a significant (P = .03) decline in headaches, from 5.6 headaches per month (95% CI, 4.52-6.77; Q = 8.14; df = 8; I2 = 1.7%) to 2.9 headaches per month (95% CI, 1.66-4.08; Q = 4.72; df = 10; I2 = 0.0%).
Fewer trials reported the likelihood of achieving at least a 50% reduction in headaches. Among the 3 studies on propranolol, the only study that found statistical evidence of benefit in reducing the number of headaches per month also found that propranolol significantly increased the likelihood of a 50% reduction in headaches (relative risk [RR], 5.8; 95% CI, 2.3-14.5). Neither topiramate (RR, 1.3; 95% CI, 0.93-1.84; Q = 4.0; df = 1; I2 = 50.4%) nor valproate (RR, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.75-1.14; 1 study) were more likely than placebo to reduce headaches by 50%.
The drugs were generally well tolerated. Patients receiving topiramate or valproate were more likely to experience any adverse effects than those receiving placebo (Table 3), although those taking propranolol were not. However, the withdrawal rate was not higher for subjects taking valproate or topiramate. Subjects taking topiramate were more likely to report paresthesias than those taking placebo; no other adverse effects differed for any drug from those effects seen with placebo.
Among the 10 comparative effectiveness trials (Table 2), flunarizine was compared with aspirin, dihydroergotamine, piracetam, and propranolol in 4 separate trials37,46,48,49; propranolol was compared with valproate in 2 trials,44,45 with cinnarizine in 1 trial,51 and with behavioral treatment in 1 trial.50 Two studies compared different doses of topiramate39,47; one included a placebo arm.39 All trials evaluated episodic migraines. Mean values (ranges) for included trials were as follows: study duration, 12.8 (4-24) weeks; sample size, 59.3 (15-120) participants; dropout rate, 10% (0%-40%); age of participants, 10.3 years; and percentage female, 45%.
Flunarizine was more effective than piracetam in reducing headaches at 16 weeks (−2.20; 95% CI, −3.93 to −0.47; 1 study). There were no differences among the other comparisons (note: values represent decrease in headaches per month for the first listed drug compared with the second listed drug): flunarizine vs aspirin (−0.90 headaches per month; 95% CI, −5.13 to 3.33; 1 study), flunarizine vs dihydroergotamine (−0.60; 95% CI, −1.94 to 0.74; 1 study), propranolol vs valproate (−0.53; 95% CI, −1.08 to 2.14; 2 studies), propranolol vs cinnarizine (−0.59; 95% CI, −2.77 to 1.59; 1 study), and propranolol vs flunarizine (−0.90; 95% CI, −1.91 to 0.11; 1 study). Propranolol was equivalent to behavioral therapy (difference in headaches per month, 0.88; 95% CI, −1.86 to 3.62; 1 study). Two studies39,47 found that different doses of topiramate were equivalent (25 or 50 mg vs 100 mg). Among trials reporting likelihood of achieving 50% reduction in headaches, there was no difference between flunarizine and aspirin (RR, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.62-1.53; 1 study), propranolol and valproate (RR, 1.14; 95% CI; 0.92-1.43; Q = 1.33; df = 1; I2 = 24.9%), or propranolol and behavioral therapy (RR, 1.0; 95% CI, 0.49-2.03; 1 study). The 100-mg dose of topiramate was more likely to produce a 50% reduction in headaches than the 50-mg dose (RR, 1.81; 95% CI, 1.23-2.68; 1 study).
There were not enough trials to assess for small-study effects (publication bias) or the effects of covariates on outcomes for any individual drug or drug class. Among studies evaluating episodic migraines, there was no evidence of publication bias (15 studies; P = .36), although there was considerable heterogeneity (Q = 46.83; df = 14; I2 = 70.1%). We found no variables that explained this heterogeneity, including participant age (P = .12), percentage of female subjects (P = .93), baseline headache frequency (P = .92), study size (P = .12), study design (parallel vs crossover, P = .82), study duration (P = .98), specific drug studied (P = .34), or dropout rates (P = .65).
Among placebo-controlled trials, the mean Jadad score was 4.3 (range, 1-8; Table 4). There was no relationship between Jadad scores and outcomes (P = .19). Only 4 trials (19%) included intention-to-treat analyses despite mean withdrawal rates of 10% (range, 5%-26%). Only 8 trials (38%) assessed compliance, 5 (24%) had adequate sequence generation, 5 (24%) had concealed allocation, 7 (33%) had adequate blinding, 5 (24%) adequately addressed incomplete outcome data, and 8 (38%) were free of selective outcome reporting. Four trials (19%) were funded by industry. None of these variables explained the heterogeneity in our outcomes (compliance, P = .27; sequence generation, P = .25; concealed allocation, P = .15; blinding, P = .12; incomplete data, P = .21; selective reporting, P = .14; or industry sponsorship, P = .24).
A variety of drugs are commonly used in the prophylaxis of pediatric migraines, largely based on evidence of success in trials among adults. In contrast to the large number of adult trials, we found relatively few trials evaluating prophylactic treatment of pediatric headaches. All but 1 evaluated episodic migraine headaches; none evaluated chronic migraine or tension headaches. There was limited evidence for the efficacy of trazodone (1 trial) or topiramate (2 trials) as prophylaxis for episodic migraines. There was no evidence of efficacy beyond placebo for clonidine, flunarizine, pizotifen, propranolol, or valproate, although the number of trials for each drug was limited, ranging from 1 to 3 studies. A single trial of fluoxetine for chronic daily headache found no benefit. There were few comparison trials, and these showed little difference in efficacy among flunarizine, dihydroergotamine, aspirin, propranolol, and valproate, either in the total reduction in headache burden or the likelihood of achieving a 50% reduction in headaches.
On the other hand, there was significant improvement with placebo treatment; headaches were reduced by a mean of nearly 3 headaches per month. This placebo response has been reported elsewhere in headache trials among adults52 as well as for other symptom syndromes, such as irritable bowel syndrome,53 overactive bladder,54 and low back pain.55 This is an important finding because it is still common to perform uncontrolled case series to investigate prophylactic treatment efficacy for pediatric headaches.12,16,56-59
The IHS has issued guidelines for conducting clinical trials in patients with migraine headaches.25 Our data highlight the point that trials need to be randomized and placebo controlled with sample size calculations accounting for the placebo response. The IHS also recommends that outcomes should be patient reported and that the primary outcome should be headache frequency. Finally, it recommends that dichotomous outcomes need to be based on at least 50% improvement.
It is interesting to note the difference in demographics for migraine headaches between children and adults. Most children with migraines are male, whereas adults with migraines are predominantly female. All the drugs in our analysis have been found effective in adults with migraine headaches, but few were beneficial among children. This suggests there may be something different about pediatric migraines or that the response to treatment differs between children and adults.
Although there is scarce evidence on safety in our analysis, most of the drugs that could be used for migraine prophylaxis have been used extensively in other conditions (eg, epilepsy, depression, other pain conditions) and have relatively well-known safety profiles. Given the insignificant differences in efficacy between medications from the comparison trials, an optimal approach to selecting a prophylactic regimen for migraine would take into consideration the actual need and patient preferences, as well as any comorbid conditions and the adverse effect profile of the possible medications.
Our study has some strengths and limitations. First, there are relatively few studies on the prophylactic treatment of headaches among children and adolescents, despite our exhaustive search for articles in any language. The validity of systematic review conclusions depends on the quality of data being synthesized. Exacerbating the paucity of trials is the fact that studies were relatively small. Flunarizine, for example, had a pooled reduction of 2.3 headaches per month relative to placebo. This is a clinically meaningful reduction, but the sample size in our analysis (n = 147) was too small for this reduction in headaches to be statistically significant. Lack of evidence of efficacy is not necessarily evidence of lack of efficacy when the data are so sparse. It is difficult to make firm conclusions on the basis of such limited evidence.
Second, no clinical trials assessed treatment of tension headaches or chronic migraines. Third, our data had considerable heterogeneity, and none of the variables we abstracted explained this variation. Fourth, our original intention was to perform a comparative effectiveness meta-analysis and include indirect comparisons using network meta-analysis. Unfortunately, the data were too sparse to allow such comparisons. Fifth, included trials were relatively short in duration; other reviews of headaches in adults have found more effectiveness with longer treatment duration.60 Sixth, we did not include unpublished data. Two of our trials compared more than 1 dose; it is likely that dose-finding pharmacologic studies are underrepresented and that additional unpublished industry trials exist. Finally, several adult trials (n = 21) included subjects as young as 11 years, but unfortunately none of them provided abstractable data about the pediatric subgroup; moreover, most of these trials had only a handful of pediatric subjects, so they are unlikely to be a rich source of additional information.
We conclude that there are limited data suggesting efficacy for trazodone and topiramate in the prophylactic treatment of pediatric episodic migraine headaches. There is no evidence that other commonly used drugs are more effective than placebo, including clonidine, flunarizine, pizotifen, propranolol, and valproate, although the paucity of data makes firm conclusions impossible. The few comparative effectiveness trials found only that flunarizine was better than piracetam, with no other differences. There are no trials of chronic migraine or tension headaches, and a single trial among children and adolescents with chronic daily headaches found no benefit from fluoxetine. More studies of pediatric headaches need to be conducted. Because there was a significant placebo response, future trials need to include placebo controls.
Correspondence: Jeffrey L. Jackson, MD, MPH, Department of Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, 5000 W National Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53295 (firstname.lastname@example.com).
Accepted for Publication: August 15, 2012.
Published Online: January 28, 2013. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2013.508
Author Contributions:Study concept and design: El-Chammas, Keyes, Thompson, and Jackson. Acquisition of data: El-Chammas, Keyes, Thompson, Vijayakumar, Becher, and Jackson. Analysis and interpretation of data: Keyes, Thompson, and Jackson. Drafting of the manuscript: El-Chammas, Keyes, Thompson, and Jackson. Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: El-Chammas, Keyes, Vijayakumar, Becher, and Jackson. Statistical analysis: Keyes, Thompson, and Jackson. Administrative, technical, and material support: El-Chammas, Keyes, Vijayakumar, Becher, and Jackson.
Conflict of Interest Disclosures: None reported.
Disclaimer: All the opinions in this article are those of the authors and should not be construed to reflect, in any way, those of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Online-Only Material: This article is featured in the JAMA Pediatrics Journal Club. Go here to download teaching PowerPoint slides.


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Budé, Guillaume
Budé, Guillaume gēyōm´ büdā´ [key], 1467–1540, French humanist, b. Paris. Budé, known also by the Latinized form of his name, Budaeus, was a towering figure of the Renaissance. He was secretary to Louis XII, coming to power and prestige under Francis I. With the latter's patronage he established the study of classical works. Budé persuaded Francis to found the Collège de France and to amass a library at Fontainebleau, which became the nucleus of the Bibliothèque nationale. Acquainted with nearly all the great minds of his age, Budé carried on a voluminous correspondence in several languages. His treatises on language helped to establish the discipline of philology. He translated and commented on Greek literature.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Language and Linguistics: Biographies


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You know what's better than a penguin on a plane? Two penguins on a plane! Even better than that: five penguins on three different planes (two of whom may possibly be the same penguin). Watch and learn.
Thanks to the folks at Yahoo's The Sideshow, we know that the two adorable little suckers above are Pete and Penny, SeaWorld penguins who flew to New York for the premier of the documentary Frozen Planet. The Sideshow also reveals that penguin-plane videos are surprisingly common. For instance ...
Here's two adorable dudes waddling around the aisle on a flight from Orlando to New York. They seem so into it!
And here's a penguin flying from San Diego to San Francisco. This guy is Pete — I think he's the same one who accompanied Penny down the aisle (I know that makes them sound like they're married, which would be awesome) on the recent New York flight. It is probably good that I am not these penguins' trainer because I would just be trying to get them to carry little briefcases all the time. Briefcases full of fish.
Penguins, flying first class, delight passengers on Delta flight [The Sideshow]


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Wolf Blitzer delivers the most important breaking news and political, international, and national security stories of the day. Tune to The Situation Room weekdays 5-7pm ET on CNN.
Former Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel is confirmed as Secretary of Defense. CNN's Dana Bash & Barbara Starr report.
RELATED STORY: Hagel confirmed as U.S. defense secretary, bruised after political fight
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Mallenby History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms
The ancestors of the Mallenby family first reached the shores of England in the wave of migration after the Norman Conquest of 1066. Their name is derived from the Old Norman personal name Melmor. The name Mellanby was also the name of several places in Cumberland and the North Riding of Yorkshire. The family name Mallenby was brought to England after the Norman Conquest, when William the Conqueror gave his friends and relatives most of the land formerly owned by Anglo-Saxon aristocrats.
Early Origins of the Mallenby family
The surname Mallenby was first found in Yorkshire where they held a family seat as Lord of the Manor of the large village of Malmerbi or Melmerby, near Hutton Conyers. At the time of the taking of the Domesday Book in 1086, a survey of all England taken by Duke William to record the ownership of all taxable land in England, Melmerby was held by Count Alan, and, conjecturally, it is from this family the surname is descended. Melmerbi is given by Cottle as "farm of the devotee of (St) Mary" but this shows an Irish origin which is unsupported. Count Allan also held Wensleydale, south of Richmond. He was anciently a Breton, known as Allan the Black, distinguishing him from Duke Allan the Red, his brother. It was customary amongst the Norman families who introduced surnames into England after the Conquest, to name their sons, nephews and so on, by the name of the Manors which they held so as to distinguish these descendents from the main line.
Early History of the Mallenby family
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Mallenby research. Another 27 words (2 lines of text) covering the years 1316 and 1412 are included under the topic Early Mallenby History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Mallenby Spelling Variations
Endless spelling variations are a prevailing characteristic of Norman surnames. Old and Middle English lacked any definite spelling rules, and the introduction of Norman French added an unfamiliar ingredient to the English linguistic stew. French and Latin, the languages of the court, also influenced spellings. Finally, Medieval scribes generally spelled words according to how they sounded, so one person was often referred to by different spellings in different documents. The name has been spelled Mellanby, Mellanbie, Mellsanby, Melsanby, Melanbie, Melanby, Mellerby, Melerby, Melanbie, Melmerbie, Mellmerby, Mellmerby, Mellmerbie, Mallansby, Malansbie, Mallansbie, Malansby, Melmerby, Mellenbie, Mellenby, Melenby, Melenbie, Mallenbray, Malenbray, Melanbray, Melanbry, Malenbry, Melsanby and many more.
Early Notables of the Mallenby family (pre 1700)
More information is included under the topic Early Mallenby Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Migration of the Mallenby family to Ireland
Some of the Mallenby family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt.
Migration of the Mallenby family
To escape the political and religious persecution within England at the time, many English families left for the various British colonies abroad. The voyage was extremely difficult, though, and the cramped, dank ships caused many to arrive in the New World diseased and starving. But for those who made it, the trip was most often worth it. Many of the families who arrived went on to make valuable contributions to the emerging nations of Canada and the United States. An inquiry into the early roots of North American families reveals a number of immigrants bearing the name Mallenby or a variant listed above: John and Joseph Mallenbray arrived in New York in 1790.


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Use Mountain Lion's new Wi-Fi Scan utility to optimize your home wireless network
A new Wi-Fi scanner tool is in Mountain Lion's refreshed Wi-Fi Diagnostics Utility, allowing users to easily discover Wi-Fi networks within range and view related data not available from Apple's Wi-Fi menu bar item. Comparable to third-party Wi-Fi stumbler tool iStumbler, the scan tool provides data for BSSID, band, protocol, channel, signal strength, security, and more. It also has Active and Passive scan modes.
From the window, you can see what networks are in your area and their strength. Some maneuvering of base stations can increase coverage to the outermost areas of your house, and it is much, much easier to see slight differences in numerical signal vs. noise strength over those four waves Apple uses in its Wi-Fi menu.
Additionally, by looking at what Channel (1-13) your base station is on, compared to your neighbors (or other base stations in your house), you can often find the least used channel in your area to improve reception.
If you are interested in using the new Wi-Fi scanner tool, OSX Daily provided the necessary steps for quick access:


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President Barack Obama and National Security Advisor Tom Donilon walk along the Colonnade of the White House, March 7, 2012 (Photo by Pete Souza)
Today (All Times Eastern):
11:05: The President and First Lady depart the White House en route Joint Base Andrews
11:20: Depart Joint Base Andrews
1:40: Arrive Homestead, Florida
2:25: The President and First Lady visit a Coral Reef High School classroom
2:40: The President delivers remarks
S&P 500 carved out its 50th record close since it took out Oct. 2007's highs about a year ago. on.mktw.net/1qcxGHO http://t.co/oDq4PON3IF—
(@MarketWatch) March 06, 2014
Bruce Japsen: Employer Health Cost Increases At 15-Year Low As ObamaCare Comes Into View
U.S. employers this year face their "smallest increases in health care costs in 15 years," according to a new survey showing the latest evidence of health inflation slowing. The trend comes as employers move to higher deductible health care plans that make workers think twice about choosing expensive tests and procedures, forcing employees to become better health care shoppers. Employers are also installing additional new strategies to encourage wellness activities such as financial incentives to stop smoking.
Most respondents to the survey are "recalibrating their health strategy" with 18 percent having either adopted a new strategy or updated an existing one, the Towers Watson executive summary of the report said. Another 57 percent of respondents are "in process," the summary added. Two in five respondents cite the Affordable Care Act as the primary driver of their health care strategy.
More here
STOCKS SURGE AFTER STRONG JOBS REPORT read.bi/1hT74rn—
Business Insider (@businessinsider) March 07, 2014
TPM: U.S. Employers Add 175K Jobs Despite Harsh Weather
U.S. hiring improved in February from the previous two months despite a blast of wintry weather, likely renewing hopes that growth will accelerate this year. The Labor Department said Friday that employers added 175,000 jobs last month, up from just 129,000 in January, which was revised up from 113,000. December's gain was also revised higher. The unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent from a five-year low 6.6 percent. More Americans started looking for work but didn't find jobs. That's still an encouraging sign because more job hunters suggest that people were more optimistic about their prospects.
Some recent reports hint that the economy will accelerate as the weather warms. The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits fell last week and is at about the same level as before the Great Recession. Applications essentially reflect layoffs. The decline suggests that companies are confident about future growth, because layoffs would rise if employers expected business to weaken. Instead, businesses advertised more jobsonline last month, according to the Conference Board. Online job ads rose 268,100 in February to 5.19 million.
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Eight U.S. states that constitutionally ban same-sex marriage allow marriage between first cousins. http://t.co/CaxtyF9Yaz—
Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) March 07, 2014
AP: Cummings Says Issa Apologized And He Accepts
Rep. Elijah Cummings said Thursday night that California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa called him and apologized for refusing to let Cummings speak during an IRS hearing. The Maryland Democrat said he accepted the apology. Issa abruptly adjourned a hearing of the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday. He instructed committee staff to turn off the microphone of the committee's top Democrat, Cummings.
"This evening, Chairman Issa telephoned me and apologized for his conduct, and I accepted his apology," Cummings said in a statement. "My sincere hope is that as we move forward, we will respect the opinions of all members of the committee, we will proceed in a deliberate and considered manner to obtain the facts, we will refrain from making accusations that have no basis in fact, and we will seek resolution rather than unnecessary conflict."
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Obamacare continues to turn us into a nation of part-timers. Household survey says full-time employment up +163k, part-time down -210k.—
Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) March 07, 2014
NEWSFLASH: I'll believe in absolute racial equality in America when I see white people willing to wait in line for 8 hours just to vote.—
Think Gooder (@StillJohnCA) March 07, 2014
Washington Post: Community Lenders' Network Commits To Lend $1 Billion In Support Of 'My Brother's Keeper'
A network of community lenders is committing to lend $1 billion in support of President Obama's "My Brother's Keeper" initiative that aims to boost the life chances of young African and Hispanic men. The Opportunity Finance Network, which represents more than 225 community development financial institutions, will pledge Thursday it will expand financing for organizations and initiatives working to help young minority men.
Obama launched the initiative to help young minority men last week, saying this group of Americans are disadvantaged in today's economy and deserve the nation's attention. Obama's solicited $200 million in financial commitments from foundations and companies to introduce programs aimed at keeping young men of color in the classroom and out of the criminal justice system. Mark Pinsky, chief executive of the Opportunity Finance Network, said his group was inspired by Obama's commitment and decided to make their own.
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Harry Reid: "I won't give up" on Obama's top civil rights pick bit.ly/1kATOL3—
Talking Points Memo (@TPM) March 06, 2014
Igor Bobic: Sen. Harkin: Senate Would Have Confirmed Obama's Top Civil Rights Nominee If He Was White
The U.S. Senate would have confirmed President Obama's top civil rights nominee if he was white, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) suggested on Wednesday. "Here's the message we sent today," Harkin said. "You young people listen up. If you are a young white person and you go to work for a law firm … and that law firm assigns you to a pro bono case to defend someone who killed eight people in cold blood … my advice from this, what happened today, is you should do that … Because if you do that, who knows? You might wind up to be the chief justice of the United States Supreme Court.
"However, if you are a young black person and you go to work for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund … and you're asked to sign an appeal for someone convicted of murder, what the message said today is, 'Don't do it! Don't do it.' Because you know what? If you do that, in keeping with your legal obligations and your profession, you will be denied by the U.S. Senate from being an attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice," Harkin said.
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Obama Spoke With Putin On Phone Thursday To Push Diplomatic Solution talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/obama…—
Donna NoShock (@NoShock) March 07, 2014
NBC News: White House Blocks Visas For Some Tied To Ukraine Crisis
The White House, toughening its response to the crisis in Crimea, said Thursday that it has revoked the U.S. visas of Russians and Ukrainians responsible for "threatening the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine."
It also threatened financial sanctions against people or companies that the United States determines are responsible for undermining the Ukrainian government. A senior administration official said that the number or names of revoked visas would not be made public. The official also said that no people or companies have yet been sanctioned.
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Big problem for GOP. Most important #CPAC2014 panel. Topic: minority outreach. View: largely empty room. http://t.co/LQKQ0QwwVc—
John Hudak (@JohnJHudak) March 06, 2014
Speeches at CPAC suggest GOP field will double down on retro social views and rejected top down Econ policies. Time to party like it's 1984—
David Plouffe (@davidplouffe) March 07, 2014
David Edwards: Paul Ryan At CPAC: Free School Lunches Means Poor Parents Don't Care About Kids
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) asserted on Thursday that liberals did not understand that kids who got free lunches at school did not have parents who cared about them at home. Speaking to the Conservative Political Action Conference, the former Republican vice presidential nominee argued that conservatives should let Democrats be the "party of personality," while "we will be the party of ideas."
"I'm optimistic about our chances because the left, the left just isn't out of ideas, they're out of touch," he explained. "Take Obamacare — not literally, but figuratively here, okay? We now know that this law will discourage millions of people from working. The left thinks this is a good thing." Ryan insisted that liberals were only offering people "a full stomach and an empty soul."
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The story Paul Ryan told about free school lunches never actually happened: bit.ly/1f6v3Db #CPAC2014—
Talking Points Memo (@TPM) March 07, 2014
Yet another lie of congenital liar @RepPaulRyan gets exposed and Four Pinocchios. washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-che…—
(@amk4obama) March 07, 2014
Thanks to the GOP
THE WORRISOME NUMBER: # of long-term unemployed jumped up by 200,000 ppl in February. (One month after long-term UI benefits expires.)—
Lisa Desjardins (@LisaDCNN) March 07, 2014
Unemployment rate by education:
No HS diploma: 9.8%
HS diploma: 6.4%
Some higher ed: 6.2%
College degree or more: 3.4%—
Zachary Goldfarb (@Goldfarb) March 07, 2014
Boston Globe: US Hiring Improved In February
US hiring improved in February from the previous two months despite a blast of wintry weather, likely renewing hopes that growth will accelerate this year. The Labor Department says employers added 175,000 jobs last month, up from just 129,000 in January, which was revised up from 113,000.
The unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent from a five-year low 6.6 percent. More Americans started looking for work, but didn't find jobs. That's still an encouraging sign because more job hunters suggest that people were more optimistic about their prospects.
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In SF, @sfpelosi announces @NARAL's SRO crowd -- fired up by TX politics - raises $700,000+ for reproductive rights/abortion rights causes—
Carla Marinucci (@cmarinucci) March 06, 2014
Think Progress: Three More Abortion Clinics Forced To Close In Texas: 'This Is A State Of Emergency'
Three more reproductive health care facilities in Texas have been forced to permanently close in the wake of a new state law that imposes stringent restrictions on abortion providers. The clinics are located in communities with high rates of poverty and uninsurance, leaving many vulnerable Texas women with no ready access to reproductive services. Two of the shuttered clinics are operated by Whole Woman's Health, the largest independent abortion provider in Texas. That group used to operate five clinics in the state — but now, that number is shrinking to three. With the closure of another independently owned clinic in Harlingen, the Lone Star State is down to just 19 abortion clinics in the entire state. That's a dramatic difference from where the reproductive health landscape stood just a few years ago. Back in 2011, there were 44 facilities in Texas that offered abortion care.
Women voted 17-3 for Gillibrand military sexual assault bill. Men voted 42-38 against blogs.rollcall.com/wgdb/senate-vo…—
Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) March 06, 2014
New restrictions on abortion providers went into effect at the beginning of November. Now, abortion doctors are required to obtain admitting privileges from a local hospital within 30 miles of their clinic, a medically unnecessary requirement that's often impossible for doctors to meet. Nonetheless, the doctors who continue to practice without admitting privileges are at risk of getting their medical license suspended. So dozens of clinics — including Whole Women's Health facility in McAllen — were forced to halt their abortion services in the fall. But that's not the only burdensome restriction in Texas' new law. Starting this September, abortion clinics will be required to bring their facilities in line with ambulatory surgical centers — which typically involves making expensive and unnecessary renovations, like widening hallways and installing water fountains.
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Our businesses have added:
• 8.7 million jobs over 4 years
• 2.2 million in the past year
• 162,000 in February
→ http://t.co/BmmrWp0aam—
The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 07, 2014
VIDEO: Senate minority leader brings gun to political conference bit.ly/1n0CVLB @ABC http://t.co/yUaqtnTre8—
(@NewsBreaker) March 07, 2014
Washington Post: Crimea Sets Referendum On Joining Russia
Pro-Russian lawmakers in the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea sparked a showdown reminiscent of the Cold War on Thursday, accelerating their bid to leave Ukraine and join Russia in a move that President Obama, the new government in Kiev and European leaders described as provocative and illegal. Lawmakers in the autonomous region voted Thursday to join the Russian Federation and hold a referendum March 16 to validate the decision. The regional parliament, now led by Sergei Aksyonov — a businessman and politician known around Kiev as the "Goblin"
because of his alleged ties to organized crime, said it would nationalize Ukrainian state industries and begin setting up government ministries separate from Ukraine, which Crimea joined in 1954 when the nation was still a satellite of the Soviet Union. In Washington, Obama said the world was "well beyond the days when borders can be redrawn over the heads of democratic leaders," as his administration imposed sanctions on Russians and Ukrainians involved in Russia's military intervention in Crimea. European leaders also sounded alarms, denouncing the referendum plans as unacceptable.
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Florida justice: George Zimmerman is free. This woman might get 60 years for shooting a wall: slate.me/MLObdZ http://t.co/m73MnkNQWJ—
(@Slate) March 05, 2014
Damian Paletta: Unemployed Workers Stage Craigslist Fire Sale
Craigslist.org has always represented something of a virtual yard sale, but for many unemployed Americans it's become something of a fire sale. You name it, they are selling it. Someone in Springfield, Ore., is selling a men's watch for $100. "Unemployment is running out need money will sell for $100.00. Call before 8pm and after 8amplease be respectful. We can meet anywhere in public."
And they are asking for it. Another worker in Kissimmee, Fla., whose post says lost benefits when Congress didn't extend jobless payments Dec. 28, is asking for dog and cat food. "My dogs & cats are not picky," the person wrote. Washington is wrangling with whether to extend long-term unemployment benefits, which ran out in North Carolina in July and in the other 49 states in late December as discussed in Monday's Outlook column. But the financial pressures facing many Americans are much more complex than the Washington debate.
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US solar power now up 1500% since 2008. Tnx, you-know-what! greentechmedia.com/articles/read/… via @greentechmedia—
Michael Grunwald (@MikeGrunwald) March 05, 2014
Obama science advisor totally debunks leading climate confusionist Roger Pielke thkpr.gs/1fVYWWv—
Climate Progress (@climateprogress) March 03, 2014
White House: Readout of President Obama's call with President Putin of Russia
President Obama spoke for an hour this afternoon with President Putin of Russia. President Obama emphasized that Russia's actions are in violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, which has led us to take several steps in response, in coordination with our European partners. President Obama indicated that there is a way to resolve the situation diplomatically, which addresses the interests of Russia, the people of Ukraine, and the international community. As a part of that resolution, the governments of Ukraine and Russia would hold direct talks, facilitated by the international community; international monitors could ensure that the rights of all Ukrainians are protected, including ethnic Russians; Russian forces would return to their bases; and the international community would work together to support the Ukrainian people as they prepare for elections in May. President Obama indicated that Secretary Kerry would continue discussions with Foreign Minister Lavrov, the government of Ukraine, and other international partners in the days to come to advance those objectives.
US auto sector added 3,400 jobs in February (seasonally adjusted) to 833,300, dealers added 1600 jobs to 1.16 million bls.gov/news.release/p…—
David Shepardson (@davidshepardson) March 07, 2014
If jobs growth really has been hit by bad weather over recent months—and it has—then the underlying pace of growth is still around 150-200k.—
Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) March 07, 2014
James West: What The Ukraine Crisis Means For The Energy Industry
1. The United States is rushing to push more gas onto the market to undercut Putin's power. Russia's presence in Ukraine is prompting calls, especially among congressional Republicans, to loosen export restrictions on US natural gas in the hopes of diminishing Russia's ability to use gas as a diplomatic weapon, like it did in 2006 and 2009. With America's newfound dominance in gas production (in 2013, the United States surpassed Russia to become the biggest producer of oil and gas, thanks in part to fracking) comes greater power in energy diplomacy.
2. Russia isn't as powerful as you might think. But for all the Russian posturing, and the canceled energy deal, Ukraine—and Europe more broadly—does have some leverage over Russia to prevent the situation from deteriorating further, says Edward Chow, an energy and security analyst at Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). "Interestingly, the gas pipelines, as well as critically important gas storage facilities, all go through Western Ukraine," he says. "Until Russians build additional bypass pipelines…they are still highly dependent on Ukraine to transit gas exports to Europe."
US has evidence that Russian security services are at the heart of anti-Ukraine military in Crimea
via @GeoffPyatt—
Maxim Eristavi (@MaximEristavi) March 07, 2014
The United States and European Union are making energy reform central to their aid packages. Bill Gibbons, a spokesman for the US Energy Department, said on Tuesday that the Obama administration is directing part of the $1 billion loan guarantee that John Kerry delivered to Kiev this week to "energy security, energy efficiency and energy sector reform." The European Union's $15 billion package is also aimed, in part, at modernizing Ukraine's gas transit system. With patrons of this much-needed aid linking their help to energy reform, there might well be a bigger chance of success, says Chow. "If you don't do it now, when are you going to do it?" he asks. "Because Russia is not going to be interested in helping individuals from the new [Ukrainian] government extract rent like the previous government unless they can cooperate on other fronts. So this is quite a good opportunity to clean things up."
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All told, I'm mildly more optimistic about the recovery after this jobs report. Seems to suggest a continuing rather than stalling recovery.—
Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) March 07, 2014
That was a big relief of a jobs number. Suggests economy still on track for near 3% growth this year. Pretty much all positive beyond hours.—
Ben White (@morningmoneyben) March 07, 2014
Market Watch: Why Job Hunters Should Cheer The End Of The Winter
The bad weather has done more than give people a case of cabin fever — it's kept them out of work, which means there's another reason to cheer for warmer days ahead. While some economists argue that consumer spending and hiring are down for reasons beyond Mother Nature's control, it's clear the below-average temperatures have had an impact. For instance, there were 142,000 jobs added to private payrolls in January, about 46,000 jobs short of the four-month average, says Michael Montgomery, a U.S. economist for IHS Global Insight. Some of those jobs were likely held back because of the weather, says Montgomery, adding they may push that hiring to the coming months as the weather gets back to normal.
"Because February stunk too, the makeup is deferred until March or later," he says. Hiring also tends to pick up in the spring and summer anyway because more people are likely to shop, go out to eat and travel more often when the weather is nice, says Mark Hamrick, the Washington bureau chief for Bankrate.com. Those habits lead to higher demand for workers in the retail and tourism industries, he says. More homeowners also look for help with landscaping and painting the house after the weather warms up, adds Montgomery.
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Over the past year, we've added >2 million full-time jobs, and lost 231k part-time jobs.
Because Obamacare means we're all part-timers now.—
Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) March 07, 2014
Tonight I shook the President's hand, looked him in they eye & said thank u for making me so proud of my country. Greatest honor of my life.—
Frankie James Grande (@FrankieJGrande) March 07, 2014
On This Day:
Sen. Barack Obama at a campaign rally Friday March 7, 2008 in Laramie, Wyoming (Photo by Ken Driese)
President Obama, Prime Minister Julia Gillard of Australia, and members of the Australian and American delegations look up at the presidential seal in the Oval Office ceiling following their bilateral meeting, March 7, 2011 (Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama practices passing a football with Prime Minister Julia Gillard of Australia in the Oval Office, March 7, 2011. Under Australian Football League rules, a player must hold the ball in front of them and punch it with a clenched fist in order to conduct a legal pass to another player (Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama greets Davis Marsico, 6, and other supporters upon his arrival at Charlotte Douglas International airport, March 7, 2012
People line the motorcade route as President Obama makes his way to the Mount Holly Truck Manufacturing Plant in Charlotte, N.C, March 7, 2012 (Photo by Pete Souza)
President Barack Obama gives a thumbs up after signing the Violence Against Women Act as he is joined by Vice President Joe Biden and members of women's organizations, law enforcement officials, tribal leaders, survivors, advocates and members of Congress, at the Interior Department on March 7, 2013. The law strengthens the criminal justice system's response to crimes against women, including domestic violence, sexual assault and trafficking


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2020 Calendar
Following another successful year, our 2020 calendars are now sold out.
Prices are the same as last year (£10 (UK), £12 (EU) and £14 (international)). Payment is via Paypal, and prices include postage
The society will print a fixed number of these calendars in the first instance, with additional print runs possible depending on demand. All proceeds will contribute towards supporting TMSoc activities.
Details of the winners can be found on the TMSoc twitter page!
Pricing Table
- Post to UK
- £10
- Post to EU
- £12
- Post to outside EU
- £14


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GOP prepares '14 contenders
WASHINGTON (AP) — Having watched several promising campaigns collapse in 2012 after candidates made catastrophic mistakes, national Republican leaders are leaving nothing to chance as they prepare for this year's midterm elections.
They're summoning contenders — especially those who seem inexperienced, unpredictable or inclined to provocative opinions — to first-of-a-kind training at the GOP's Senate campaign headquarters to learn, in part, what not to say and how not to say it.
It's a delicate intervention, but one deemed essential by officials smarting from campaign debacles that cost the GOP winnable races, including Senate seats in Missouri and Indiana, last time.
"Hopefully, everyone has paid attention to the huge blunders that were made," said Ari Fleischer, former top aide to President George W. Bush who helped draft a post-election analysis for the Republican National Committee after the 2012 campaign. "You can't buy enough ads to cover up a candidate who is flawed."
The two-day sessions, which feature experts in communications and public policy, have brought in more than a dozen Senate and about 50 House candidates. The GOP's hopes for winning a Senate majority this year depend on picking up six seats, some by candidates who are less seasoned.
In addition to the policy briefings and campaign advice that both parties have long offered, the candidates are counseled specifically on navigating trouble-prone issues related to women.
Republican Senate candidates Todd Akin in Missouri and Richard Mourdock in Indiana self-destructed in 2012 after making controversial comments about pregnancy and abortion. Akin asserted that a woman's body was equipped to fight off pregnancy in cases of "legitimate rape." Mourdock said that in pregnancies, "Even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, it is something God intended to happen."
The perils were illustrated again last week when former GOP presidential contender Mike Huckabee accused Democrats of portraying women as unable to "control their libido or reproductive systems" without government help, which set off another cycle of explaining and defending.
In the communications lessons with GOP candidates, "I'm very tough on them," said instructor Todd Harris, a former adviser to Sen. John McCain and Marco Rubio. "Nobody's cried. But some of them, when they're done, I'll tell them, 'That was crap.' "
Conservative fundraisers such as Karl Rove have vowed full-scale efforts to recruit better contenders and sidetrack problematic ones.
But less noticed has been the party's stepped-up initiative to fix candidates rather than replace them.
The sessions hammer away at "message discipline," with mock interviews, news conferences and post-game video analysis.
"All Democrats want to do is talk about the war on women, so it would be malpractice for us not to address it," said senior National Republican Senate Committee spokesman Kevin McLaughlin.
Terri Lynn Land, a leading Republican candidate for Senate in Michigan, was among those urged to attend the sessions. Despite winning two terms as Michigan's secretary of state, she was criticized for poor debate performance in her unsuccessful 2010 GOP race for governor.
Others who have attended include Mark Jacobs, a Senate candidate in Iowa who has extensive business experience but none in public office, and Matt Whitaker, who lost his only statewide race in Iowa, for treasurer.
Doug Truax, a Republican businessman running for the Senate in Illinois, said the sessions are very helpful for a novice.
"The candidate school went deeper on policy, allowing me to supplement my current thinking, then capped it off with media training to hone my delivery," he said in an emailed statement.
But attending was an awkward issue for some candidates, and few agreed to talk about it publicly.
"We're just not going to put Shane on the record on this," said Bill Novotny, campaign manager for Nebraska Senate candidate Shane Osborn.
Officials with the National Republican Senatorial Committee, who are co-sponsoring the sessions with their House GOP counterparts, said the 2012 gaffes don't dominate the sessions, which generally emphasize careful preparation. The Democratic Party and progressive groups also hold campaign boot camps for Democratic candidates.
But the intensified GOP training now includes discussion of the 2013 Massachusetts Senate race in which Republican Gabriel Gomez stumbled through a convoluted explanation of his abortion position.
Democratic campaign officials said the problem isn't how some Republican candidates explain their views. "It's not a mistake when Republican candidates say things that are part of Republicans' vision for this country," said Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Lon Johnson.


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If your vehicle or other property was damaged in a hit-and-run accident and you are unable to identify the owner or driver who caused the accident, the SAAQ could compensate you for the property damage you sustained.
You can file a claim for compensation if all of the following conditions are met:
Please note that the SAAQ may request to have the damage assessed by an accredited appraiser at any point before rendering a decision on the eligibility of a claim for property damage to a vehicle or other property in the event of a hit-and-run.
You cannot file a claim for compensation if you are in any one of the following situations:
You can:
In Québec: 418-528-3603
Elsewhere (Québec, Canada, United States): 1-866-658-7048
email@example.com This link opens your default email software.
Québec area: 418-646-6818
Elsewhere: 1-866-882-6964
Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec
C. P. 19150, succursale Terminus
Québec (Québec) G1K 9C3
Once we have received your claim for property damage, we will begin analyzing your file as soon as possible. If necessary, a compensation officer will contact you. We could ask you to provide additional documents.
If you are unsatisfied with the decision rendered by your compensation officer, you can contest it before the Small Claims Division of the Court of Québec.
Last update: May 17, 2022


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Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Ich My Fish is Sick
By Dawn Wing
Woaaaaah. Just look at that image above! An origami fish thing! I can't imagine making one of those to hold your zines. Well, I guess I can. I've made origami things before, but making one for each copy of your zine? That is awesome dedication that I clearly do not have. I mean, I find doing more than two folds for a zine to be intensely annoying.
I'm a little afraid the tail might fall off, and it would be extra amazing if the zine was square and fit inside the fish completely, but really, who cares? Look at this thing!
Inside there's a short comic about ich, which is some sort of horrible fish disease parasite thing. Ewwww, I hate reading about parasites, even ones that say "hey". There follows Wing researching how to fight ich, and then doing so. *Bang!* *Pow!* There's a bit of text that confused me a bit (a winner who's going to lose?), but the fish seems to get better and everyone is happy. Hurray!
1 comment:
Hi again Matt!ReplyDelete
Thanks for reviewing my mini-comic.
I appreciate your thoughts.
I noticed the textual confusion you mentioned, and realized it would have been clearer had I simply drawn a line to separate the supporting text of the illustrations from the text of main narrative. It was supposed to read with the pictures "research+attitude= winner," and the bottom text, "who (the parasite) will soon lose this fight."
Next time, I'll be more aware design elements to avoid narrative confusion.
As for the size of the comic, I made the conscious decision of having the the word "sick" of the title stick out of the fish's mouth as if the fish was announcing its condition.
But please let me know why your preference of it being square and fitted inside the fish could change/enhance the overall comic as I'm curious to know.
Sassy Spinster
sassy.spinster (at) gmail.com


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DAKAR, Senegal — Nearly 100 African migrants hoping to escape crushing poverty met a grisly end in the desert, officials said Thursday, dying of thirst under the baking sun after their two trucks broke down in the middle of the Sahara before reaching Algeria.
It took weeks for authorities to learn of the tragedy and for recovery teams to reach the distant site, where they found a gruesome scene including the remains of 52 children and 33 women.
"It was horrific. We found badly decomposing bodies and others that had been eaten by jackals," said Almoustapha Alhacen, the head of a nonprofit organization in northern Niger that helped bury the bodies and who was at the site Wednesday. "We found the bodies of small children who were huddled beside their dead mothers."
The victims were spread out across a 12-mile radius, suggesting they had set off on foot but failed to head in the direction of the Algerian border just 6 miles away, he added.
The tragedy is the latest to shed light on the perils of illegal migration. In early October, at least 365 migrants drowned when a boat capsized near the Italian island of Lampedusa, which is closer to North Africa than to the European mainland.
The migrants in Niger had begun their journey late last month in two trucks and were being smuggled along a well-established trafficking route to neighboring Algeria, said Col. Garba Makido the governor of Niger"s Agadez province, south of where the bodies were found. From Algeria, many continue on in hopes of crossing from North Africa to southern Europe.
While nearly all who take this desert route are economic migrants, it was not immediately clear why so many women and children were among the victims.
Officials were alerted to the migrant deaths only when a lone woman managed to stumble out of the desert into the Nigerian town of Arlit earlier this month.
The next day, a father walking with his two young daughters also arrived. But his children perished of thirst just a few miles outside Arlit, Makido said. A total of 92 people died and 21 survived, most of whom made their way to towns at the Algerian border.
"This is a true tragedy," the governor said. "The prosecutor has opened an investigation and we plan to do everything we can to find the truck drivers."
First word of the disaster came Monday when officials reported that 35 people died but the death toll rose when more bodies were recovered from the desert.
The tract of land that runs across the continent just south of the vast Sahara desert has for decades been the province of smugglers and criminals, including the local chapter of al-Qaida. Tens of thousands of West African migrants attempting to reach Europe each year have tapped into this perilous route, after authorities cracked down on sea routes via the Atlantic Ocean.
They travel from countries across West Africa to the Nigerien city of Agadez where they pay smugglers as much as $3,000 for transport to Europe. Migrants are ferried across the ocean of sand in rickety trucks, braving one of the harshest landscapes on earth for a chance at reaching Europe.
They are willing to risk death because few meet the criteria for even a tourist visa much less have the money to travel to Europe by plane. Once in Europe, they hope to work illegally and eke out a living with enough left over to send money back to their families in Africa.
The landlocked nation of Niger is one of the world"s poorest countries, and ranks last on the 2013 Human Development Index that measures criteria such as life expectancy and income.
The country has been ravaged by drought and hunger numerous times, and the United Nations estimates that of the country"s population of more than 16 million, some 2.5 million people go hungry even during good agricultural years.
An estimated 42 percent of Niger"s children are chronically malnourished, and one out of every eight children dies before age 5, according to U.N. figures.


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Ring ring ring, all aboard the content-mobile. Roku doesn't have the best interface, but there's now an officially overwhelming amount of stuff to watch on those little pucks.
New to the channel lineup, we've got Blockbuster on Demand, Flingo, Fox Now (New Girl! Gosh!), PBS, Syfy, and VEVO. Roku is also getting a big audio boost with the addition of iHeartRadio stations and the Amazon Cloud Player. A lot of this is redundant, but it's a free addition, so don't you dare complain. There are now over 700 channels to add on your Roku. Christ. [Roku]


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Memoir? Fiction? Fictional memoir? Real events, tweaked and compressed? Easier said than done, especially since it's all fogged by time, booze, and selective remembering. Also, I have only the loosest grasp of English grammar. There was the escape to the West, meeting the duplicitous hippy chick Lucille and six-fingered Matias. The Rocky Mountain Mafia, of course. Which led to The Incident. Then, the hideout in the mountains and a final showdown at 11,000 feet. And, the aftermath (epilogue?). But, I suppose this IS the aftermath and that's enough to explain why I need to write it all down. Damn that Shaboo! Damn him and bless him. I've been treading water for too long. Can this project bring me back to life?
Here goes nothing.
I guess it really started with delivering pizza in the mid-1990s New England on the campus of my state university. If you have a car at college, then delivering pizza is a great way to make money quick. Cash money! Great for a certain lifestyle. You can't buy pot with a credit card (actually, you can now, but that's a different story). So I had a one-hitter in the ashtray and a vodka bottle in the door holder and it worked pretty good, the drinking and delivering. Until it didn't work and I got pulled over in front of a crowd of people waiting to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the campus stadium. The cops' favorite: tail light out. With a crowd chanting "DUI! DUI! DUI!", I was asked to step out of the car. When the pint vodka bottle, blue label 100 proof Smirnoff, fell from the door compartment and went skittering into the street, the crowd cheered and the roadside sobriety test was kind of moot. The chants of "DUI! DUI!" were renewed with a fervor of spectacle and satisfaction and I raised my arms in triumph, basking in my defeat. I had never received so much attention before. The cop said, "Put your arms down, asshole."
I'd like to say what I did next was ballsy or righteous or filled with the spirit of freedom. But, there was no thought whatsoever. I just made a run for it. I ran away from the crowd, across the street, and into the maze of buildings in the center of campus. The crowd roared and, once away from the cop car and street lights and stadium lights and people, it was very dark and quiet and it felt good and I was running very fast. The cops had my car and my weed but I was running and it felt really fucking good and right.
I ran all the way to the Rockies.


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In our globalized, post-industrial world, a single Canadian company can shape the Internet experience for 20 percent of the world's wireline broadband users. Sandvine makes deep packet inspection hardware that can identify and then block, shape, degrade, fold, spindle, or mutilate user traffic coming from particular applications such as Skype or BitTorrent clients. The 160 worldwide ISPs who use the company's products love this particular capability so much that a full 90 percent of them employ it to "manage" their networks in a discriminatory way.
According to the company, these 160 ISPs serve 20 percent of the world's wireline broadband connections. If 90 percent of the ISPs shape traffic by application, Sandvine equipment alone may be responsible for the application-specific discrimination that 18 percent of world wireline broadband users face—and that figure says nothing about all the other ISPs who use similar products from other vendors. If you thought that network neutrality was some kind of default position for the worldwide Internet, think again.
Let's innovate
In Sandvine's view, the only appropriate way to handle traffic shaping is to not regulate it—though governments can step in after the fact if there are egregious attacks on competition.
Sandvine made its revelations in a recent filing to Canadian regulators (read them all) as part of that country's ongoing network management proceeding. In essence, telecoms regulator CRTC wants to know whether Canada needs network neutrality guidelines. Final comments were due last week, and Sandvine took the opportunity to point out that discriminatory traffic shaping is already hugely popular around the world. Everybody's doing it!
"As a result of the different demands placed on a network by various applications and the differences in subscribers' expectations of service quality between applications, most of Sandvine's customers have adopted some form of application-specific ITMPs [Internet traffic management]," wrote the company.
And don't think it's not happening in the US, either, despite the smackdown Comcast received last year from the FCC for just this sort of behavior. "Sandvine estimates that approximately 90% of its 160 customers, which span 70 countries, use some form of application-specific traffic management policies, including most of its customers in the United States." If Canadian ISPs weren't able to use the same tools everyone else used, they might be at a disadvantage.
In Sandvine's view, the only appropriate way to handle traffic shaping is to not regulate it—though governments can step in after the fact if there are egregious attacks on competition. Why can't minimal upfront regulation work? Because ISPs must be able to innovate. "Nobody predicted the impact of P2P filesharing before it occurred," says the company's filing. "What kinds of demands will the mass adoption of applications like High-definition YouTube and Slingbox, which 'slings' TV signals to fixed line and wireless Internet devices, place upon the network? And what policies will be best to deal with them? We don't yet know. Again, experimentation will be required."
The obvious rejoinder to this is: no one knows, but it doesn't matter. Limit people's Internet usage when necessary in a nondiscriminatory way and let them choose what applications to run and when to run them. Congestion can be alleviated by 1) building out capacity, 2) using data caps, and 3) throttling heavy users at peak times without regard to their content or applications. These are the steps taken by Comcast in response to the FCC, and they've led to few complaints.
Even Sandvine admits that nondiscriminatory throttling and user control are the future. "As a future step we see subscribers choosing their own ITMP traffic priorities; however, commercialization of this solution is still in progress. Halting this roadmap through a guideline that precluded application-specific policies would have a chilling effect on innovation and the future quality of the Internet experience for Canadian users." Good for them, though that last bit doesn't make much sense; such a policy would quite obviously spur the innovation in subscriber-oriented throttling choices that Sandvine says it is already working on.
Not everyone is down with the customer-focused approach, however. Bell Canada reminded the CRTC of its own (largely toothless) proposed guidelines for traffic shaping. These would allow ISPs like Bell to "take into account the real time vs. non-real time nature of applications (e.g. gaming vs. downloads)," which is just a way of saying that ISPs should have the right to decide if that Linux .iso you're downloading is something that you need immediately or if you can wait a while on it.
Consumer groups are outraged at these kinds of proposals, of course, and so is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the country's public broadcaster. In its own comments last week, the CBC argues that traffic shaping really is about "innovation"—but innovation at the edges.
"CBC/Radio-Canada believes the debate surrounding P2P provides the best argument for prohibiting any type of protocol-specific traffic management," says the filing. "It would be profoundly bad public policy to permit ISPs to constrain innovation by way of shortsighted traffic management targeted at today or tomorrow's 'problem child.' All traffic management practices should be protocol agnostic."
Sandvine thinks that's "laughable."


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The Social Detective
In the old days, before the baseball cap became the ubiquitous symbol of Americans, hats were serious business and defined individuals in the deepest possible way. We were, literally, our hats. When my father was a TV and movie producer, he wore a Homburg, now known as the Godfather hat. When he was an investment banker with a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, he wore a bowler. He had a top hat for openings at the opera and was never without a straw hat on Martha's Vineyard.
My mother's hats were fashioned by Lilly Dache of ocelot, tweed, velvet or lace and adorned with a single feather or a tiny veil. The hats were never bigger than her hand and didn't hide much hair. With or without them she was a dead ringer for Princess Margaret. (The Windsor, not Wise.)
In April, I needed a hat for Pique-nique sur la Baie, the New College Library Association's spring luncheon. Frankly, my dears, I'm not a big fan of fund-raising lunches. Getting caught in an endless valet parking line at The Ritz or Michael's is enough to ruin a writer's whole afternoon. But Pique-nique is something special. It's held out at New College of Florida on the bay, where there's quite enough lawn to park your own car if you want to. Pique-nique was originated by Paulette Schindler, who is French and thought an elegant lunch party for ladies wearing hats would be an appropriate "thank you" for volunteers. It was such a success that fund raising for books had to follow.
Just 42 years old, New College was named No. 1 best educational value in America by the Princeton Review this year. It wasn't the first top 10 ranking by any means, and the New College Library Association (NCLA) has its own place as a Sarasota innovator. It launched the first black-tie event in town, and 38 years later the Mistletoe Ball is still one of the best parties of the season. In addition, NCLA's book clubs and Colloquium started the rage for author appearances for which Sarasota is now famous.
Nowadays, unless you're a red-hat lady or Annette Scherman, you can count on two fingers the hat-wearing opportunities in Sarasota. "There's nowhere else [than Pique-Nique] to wear them," lamented Jane Summerville, NCLA's executive director. Jane recalled that her mother had her own hat maker. "Whenever she wanted a real treat, she'd get a new hat." Jane got hers at Dillard's.
That's why the sell-out crowd of 560 was so excited, and preparations so frantic. You could see people skulking around town for weeks desperately seeking.something. There was a lot of ducking in and out of Saks on the way to Dillard's, Marshalls and Beall's. A few hats came from TJ Maxx, and there were even some secret forays to JoAnn's and glue-gunning of flowers in the dead of night. Other people had to leave town to get the job done. Cornelia Matson went to Paris for hers. Debbi Benedict got her fab hat at Saks in Naples, "because Saks here had nothing," she said, which was borne out by Sally Schule arriving hatless herself.
Penny Hill, who rarely wears hats, "because you can't see and you can't kiss," was on the way to Naples with to sort out the hat problem when they stopped in Venice for lunch. "I got my hat in Venice, can you believe it?" she said. I did. It was as big as she is.
A little cloudy and cool the day before, Pique-nique day dawned perfectly. Those who didn't know the way to New College made anxious last-minute calls to Cheryl Burstein, Pique-nique's able chair, who was worried about the first Chinese raffle. "It's not potluck. You put your tickets in the bag for the basket of your choice," she explained. It turned out to be another fine innovation. As usual, I didn't win a thing.
New College is just past the Ringling Museum. Turn left at the New College sign and follow the road to the Charles Ringling Mansion on the bay. It leads you to an era where Jackie Morton fit right in with her magnificent 1920s white crochet dress (found at The Pines thrift shop) and matching cloche with vintage white coral jewelry. I found her in a decorative clump with Diane Roskamp and B.J. Creighton, chair of NCLA. Roskamp said she has 12 "sun" and four serious "bright and bold" hats. The one she wore was a Florida conservative. Creighton's glam, beflowered hat came from Orlando.
"I love this party," Bea Elden told me. Her hats and clothes were still in storage because her new condo wasn't ready. "I bought a hat at Saks for this event, but it didn't go with my outfit. So I ran over to Dillard's and got this one for $50. Don't tell."
"I won't," I promised.
Julie Riddell has 10 or 12 hats. Her hat of the day came from Neiman's. Gila and Michael Meriwether were there together. "It's one of Michael's favorite events," Gila said. "He wouldn't miss it." Gila is such a hat person she could not tell me how many hats she has. She was wearing a gorgeous Eric Javit. Jill Strode bought her hat from Lotus on Main Street. "It's a Helen Kaminski. You can fold it up and sit on it." The same could not be said of her daughter's hat. Jerry Strode Smith and Kate O'Connell were wearing over-the-top Nikki Feldbaums. They were so gorgeous I almost wanted one. Margaret Wise was wearing a pink Raul Molina confection. "How many hats do you have?" I asked. Wise waved her hand. "Not many. I wear them twice and give them to Designing Women, the graveyard of St. John. Don't tell," she said.
"I won't," I promised.
Lydia McIntire was wearing an adorable hat from a Sarasota street vendor, and table No. 10 was the cowboy hat table. Sherry Chapman's cowboy hat had the only feather I saw that day and came from her husband's collection. Ann Van Cott was wearing an Emme, her mother's hat from Bonwit Teller. Sally Kessler's hat was from Mark Strike Fore "a long time ago." Alexandra Jupin got her hat from "New York," and Diane Smoler's hat was adorned with real tulips. Jan Holly has 60 hats. Her hat came from the Circle. "One For Me and Two For You, or is it the other way around?" she said.
I caught sight of Judith Thomson and Marie Belcher at their special milliner on different days, and they each begged me not to tell. "I won't," I promised. (Stein Mart.)
Not hat people were Pat Johnson, Amanda Stiff, Renee Richardson Kling and the Florida "bright star" New College student, Perri Warren, who sat next to me at lunch, thanks to John Cranor, head of the New College Foundation, who funded 10 students to attend the event. Warren's major is environmental studies, and you can be sure she's not going to be lobbying for oil drilling in the Gulf when she graduates. It was a great day. Sally Schule promised that she'll stock up hats at Saks for next year's Pique-nique, even if she has to watch another Neiman Marcus fashion show, but didn't promise to wear one herself.
Leslie Glass is a playwright and the author of 14 novels, including the best-selling crime series featuring the NYPD's April Woo.