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Lalley: Invest big in the people of South Dakota
Few moments in South Dakota have presented so clear an opportunity.
We just don't see it.
While clear in principle, this opportunity is clouded in the verbiage of a public policy debate that sounds like 1970s-era Soviet propaganda. The wonderfully stark "workforce development," common to a thousand PowerPoint presentations.
Nothing brings the party faithful to their feet like a rousing speech on development of any stripe, whether economic, rural or early childhood.
Yet that's exactly what we need. This debate is so much more than finding square pegs to fit our empty square holes.
Gov. Dennis Daugaard said a few weeks ago that his effort to attract qualified workers to South Dakota using private employment services did not work as well as he had hoped. Now he wants to move on and come up with a better plan, and he's taking ideas from lawmakers and presumably anybody else who wants to take a shot.
It's admirable when leaders are open to new ideas. Kudos to the governor for not letting the view over the Pierre pond distort the view of his own fallibility. He's secure enough in his own skin to admit he was wrong.
Now is the time to go big.
The notion that one program or idea will initiate the kind of seismic shift in the quality and quantity of our workers is shortsighted.
Under thoughtful examination, the path to a qualified workforce — one that is adaptive and able to accept the challenges of modern manufacturing, tech-heavy call centers or innovation-based startups — is through education.
All kinds of education.
From rigorous basics of math and reading at the elementary level into more expansive science and problem solving in high school culminating in a publicly backed higher education system.
We can look to the past for an example of thinking big.
Gov. George Mickelson created the REDI Fund in 1987 to raise capital to fund economic development. Today, the fund has more than $90 million to use for attracting and building business.
That's a lot of walking around cash in a little state such as South Dakota.
The REDI Fund has its share of critics and supporters, but there's no doubt that it's had a significant influence in our state.
You might be asking, since 1987 was a long time ago, how did they raise that kind of coin?
Federal largesse? Pretty good guess, given the era, but no.
Tobacco lawsuit? That was later. Where is that money again?
T. Denny? Funny, but that was before his time.
Actually, and you might want to sit down for this one, Mickelson and lawmakers agreed to RAISE TAXES for 10 months to supply $40 million seed money.
Shocking, I know.
But that finite 1 percent sales tax still is paying dividends today.
If Daugaard and today's collection of public policy gurus in Pierre really want to change the parameters of the debate, they will consider something similar.
Don't fool yourself. This is going to take money, and not a million here and there.
Real money.
Alter the landscape money.
Get other states' attention money.
Change people's lives money.
It's not that we need to put more cash in some corporation's coffers. We need to invest in the people of South Dakota, and the corporations will follow.
As will the expansion of our homegrown businesses and the birth of new ones.
The money should be used to expand higher education by increasing accessibility, not just on the campuses in Vermillion and Brookings but in Sioux Falls. Not just in the four-year institutions but in the technical schools and job-training programs that pay such immediate benefits across South Dakota.
Create a matching grant system for tuition assistance or a contract for promised work in key areas or multi-discipline panel of education investors. Do any of it, but just think big.
Grant people access to education, and they will take it.
Offer them the potential of a better job, and they will work toward it.
Give the people of South Dakota the prospect of a better life, and they will reward you a thousandfold.
Daugaard came to office under difficult financial circumstances, pressed under the thumb of a worldwide recession.
We weathered that crisis.
Now is the time to separate South Dakota from our neighbors as a place that trades in the power of what we can do rather than fretting over the things we do not have.
This challenge is met from the ground up, by offering individuals the tools to do better, rather than simply change the number of what we consider a minimum wage.
People will move here for the chance at a better life. We should welcome them with open arms.
That's a more flesh-and-blood mission than the antiseptic language of the current conversation suggests.
The challenge for our leaders — this grand opportunity — is to develop a human force.
Patrick Lalley is managing editor of Argus Leader Media. Reach him at email@example.com or 605-331-2291.


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THE DRILLS AND SKILLS PAGE - Gymnastics Technique and TrainingThe skills page is intended to be a forum for gymnasts, coaches, or anyone who just wants to learn about gymnastics skills. It was created because I noticed a lack of this kind of information on the net. If you are a gymnast it is not intended to replace your coaches techniques. It is just to give different viewpoints and ideas on how to learn a skill. Every gymnast learns skills differently. This is a place you can submit and find different techniques and methods to learn various gymnastics skills. This is NOT intended to teach anyone gymnastics in an uncontrolled environment. Many of the skills discussed could be extremely hazardous if done incorrectly. Please only work these drills under a qualified coaches direction. Many of these skills involve flight, inversion, and unusual positions, any of which could result in serious injury, paralysis, or death. With that said. Please enjoy.
Note: Please visit my sponsors. If even for a moment, it will enable me to spend more time developing the site so it can be more of a service to you. If you were planning on buying something on-line, please remember to shop through my site. Thanks. I have a lot of information to add to the site, I need to find the time. Keep checking back for additions.

subset: commoncrawl


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Pro-Haley group preps first TV ads
An outside group tied to South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is poised to go on the air early in the 2014 cycle.
The Movement Fund, a registered 527 organization helmed by Republicans close to Haley, has booked about $130,000 in airtime in three major markets starting next week, according to a source tracking media buys.
Those funds are spread pretty evenly across media markets in Charleston ($32,000), Greenville/Spartanburg ($51,000) and Florence/Myrtle Beach ($45,000), the source said.
The ad reservations cover a period from May 1 to May 10.
It's not clear precisely what the purpose of the May airtime is and several strategists connected to the Movement Fund did not immediately return requests for comment.
But Haley is expected to face a serious reelection fight: a Winthrop Poll taken earlier this month found her approval rating just under 45 percent among registered South Carolina voters, with 39 percent disapproving of her job performance.
A December survey from the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling showed her in a dead heat with Democrat Vincent Sheheen, her 2010 opponent who announced two weeks ago that he will seek the governor's office again in 2014.
Among the Republicans involved with the Movement Fund are Chad Walldorf, a prominent South Carolina businessman and Haley appointee; Kurt Grindstaff, Haley's 2010 campaign treasurer; and Paige Hahn, finance director of the Republican Governors Association.
South Carolina's The State newspaper reported last year that IRS documents showed the group had raised over half a million dollars from donors including Donald Trump, mutual fund mogul and Rick Santorum patron Foster Friess, and the late Texas homebuilder Bob Perry, who at the time of his death last week was one of the most prolific GOP donors in the country.
The Movement Fund's ad reservations, as they currently stand, overlap with the final days of the closely watched special election in South Carolina's 1st Congressional District, where former GOP Gov. Mark Sanford is seeking to make a political comeback and is locked in a close race with Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch.


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I know I should do a recap for the Citrus-excuse me, Capital One-Bowl but right now I could care less about stats and crap. Chad Henne had a great game. Adrian Arrington had a great game. Percy Harvin had a great game for the Gators. Hell, even Tim Tebow had a good game when he wasn't on his back. I'm not going to brag. I'm not going to talk about Heismans or SEC Speed. I'm not going to talk about what could have, should have been this season. I'm not going to talk about the new coach, effective today. Right now, I'm going to take a few moments to completely enjoy the fact that my team won a game that no one, not even Michigan fans, thought they could win. I'm going to take a moment to be happy for the only coach I've ever known throughout my fandom so far. I'm going to take a moment to be happy that the seniors get to go out with a win.
More celebration pics…
That ridiculous…
…one handed catch.
Another great Adrian Arrington catch. Please come back AA!
I couldn't resist.
The last defensive stand.
The sideline after the fourth down play.
Quite possibly my favorite Wolverine the past couple of seasons, Carson Butler.
Yep. As it should be.


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- This event has passed.
Skaters Trail at Parc Jean Drapeau
February 18, 2022 @ 10:00 am - 11:00 pm
|Recurring Event (See all)
An event every day that begins at 10:00 am, repeating until March 6, 2022
Skating is a great way to exercise, take in some fresh air and have an enjoyable time during the winter season. At Parc Jean-Drapeau, an ice trail has been laid out so that fans of this activity can do their thing — and it's mere minutes from downtown Montréal. This magical ice path is refrigerated and regularly maintained, thereby ensuring a memorable experience, especially after a small snowfall. Come and spend some time open skating, by yourself or with your family, and get a glimpse of the setting sun, as it sinks behind the city's skyscrapers.


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I give quite a lot of presentations. A whole lot less than I used to, but still quite a few per year. Most of the time, the presentations are on performance tuning MySQL.
Almost every time I give a presentation on MySQL performance tuning — and this happens 100% of the time if I am presenting to a Windows SQL Server crowd — I get the following question:
Why don't you cover using stored procedures in order to increase performance? Wouldn't that be the easiest way to get better performance since the stored procedures will only be parsed once and then the compiled bytecode would be efficiently executed from then on?
Every person that asks this question assumes something about MySQL's stored procedure implementation; they incorrectly believe that stored procedures are compiled and stored in a global stored procedure cache, similar to the stored procedure cache in Microsoft SQL Server[1] or Oracle[2].
This is wrong. Flat-out incorrect.
Here is the truth: Every single connection to the MySQL server maintains it's own stored procedure cache.
This means two very important things that users of stored procedures should understand:
- If you operate in a shared-nothing environment — for example, the majority of PHP and Python applications that do not use connection pooling or persistent connections — if your application uses stored procedures, the connection is compiling the stored procedure, storing it in a cache, and destroying that cache every single time you connect to the database server and issue a CALL statement
- If you use stored procedures, the memory usage of every single connection that uses those stored procedures is going to increase, and will increase substantially if you use many stored procedures
Ooops, I Invalidated Everything Again
So, what happens when you CREATE, ALTER, or DROP any stored procedures? Since MySQL stores all stored procedure execution code on the connection threads, each of those connection threads must invalidate the procedure in its caches that has changed, right?
No, it's worse. Every time ANY stored procedure is added, dropped, or updated, ALL stored procedures on ALL connection threads will be invalidated and must be re-compiled. Here is how the "caches" are invalidated:
from /sql/sp_cache.cc, lines 193-197, in MySQL 5.5
/* Invalidate all routines in all caches. SYNOPSIS sp_cache_invalidate() NOTE This is called when a VIEW definition is created or modified (and in some other contexts). We can't destroy sp_head objects here as one may modify VIEW definitions from prelocking-free SPs. */ void sp_cache_invalidate() { DBUG_PRINT("info",("sp_cache: invalidating")); thread_safe_increment(Cversion, &Cversion_lock); }
It's a bit misleading, since it actually doesn't invalidate anything at all. What the above code does is increment the global "Cversion" variable. When a connection thread attempts to execute, drop or insert a new procedure, it will notice that it's local cache's version number is less than this Cversion number and will destroy the entire cache and rebuild it gradually as procedures are affected or executed.
So, Should You Use Stored Procedures in MySQL?
The above warning doesn't necessarily mean that you should never use stored procedures? No. What it means (besides being a bit of a rant on the implementation of MySQL's stored procedures) is that you should be aware of these issues and use stored procedures where they make the most sense:
- When you know that you will be executing the stored procedure over and over again on the same connection — for instance, in a bulk loading script or similar
- When you know that you will not be disconnecting from the MySQL server at the end of script execution — for instance, if you use JDBC connection pooling
- When you know that you have a limited number of stored procedures and the memory usage of connections won't be an issue
Finally, if you see benchmarks that purport to show a huge performance increase from using stored procedures in MySQL, be careful to understand what the benchmark is doing and whether that benchmark represents your real-world environment. For instance, if you see a huge performance increase in sysbench when using stored procedures, but you have a PHP shared-nothing environment, understand that those benchmark results mean very little to you, since sysbench connections don't get destroyed until the end of the run…
[1] From my copy of Inside SQL Server 2000, Delaney (2001), pages 852-865. For a short, but decent, online explanation of SQL Server's stored procedure cache, see here
[2] Oracle's stored procedures are stored in the shared pool of the Oracle system global area (SGA)


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On a remote island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, a bloodbath is underway. Unchecked hordes of gigantic house mice are devouring endangered baby seabirds en masse.
Top image by researcher Ross Wanless shows an R.O.U.S. consuming the remains of a dead seabird chick, via National Geographic
Writes National Geographic's Rachel Kaufman:
The massacre is taking place on Gough Island (map), a British territory almost smack-dab in between the tips of South America and South Africa. The only humans living on the island belong to a small team running a weather station.
Gough Island has long been recognized as an important seabird colony, since it hosts roughly ten million birds of more than 20 species. The island is also thought to be the only breeding ground for the Atlantic petrel-2 million breeding pairs produce 1.6 million chicks a year.
The new study, though [published by researcher Ross Wanless and colleagues in a recent issue of Animal Conservation], reveals that the petrel chicks are in constant danger from house mice, which have grown to supersize proportions since being introduced to the island 150 years ago.
How supersized are we talking? Let's put it this way: R.O.U.S.s do exist, and they're ravaging Gough island.
Gough is a textbook example of what can happen when a nonnative species is introduced to an ecosystem devoid of predators and rich in resources. These mice are up to 50% larger than normal mice (some measure up to ten inches in length without their tails), and their population levels have exploded, reaching what Wanless calls "stupendous densities" every summer (about 1.9 million mice on an island just 25 miles2 in area). This massive growth in size and population has enabled them to overwhelm larger birds like petrels and albatrosses. It's been so overwhelming, in fact, that Wanless and his colleagues think these rare birds may face serious risk of extinction.
Continue reading at National Geographic.


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May 2, 2013 -- UFOs aren't often discussed in Washington, D.C., and former members of Congress don't often hold hearings.
But that's what's happening this week at the National Press Club, where the UFO advocacy group Paradigm Research has paid $20,000 each to former Sen. Mike Gravel and former Reps. Roscoe Bartlett, Merrill Cook, Lynn Woolsey, Carolyn Kilpatrick, and Darlene Hooley to stage a five-day "hearing" modeled after congressional proceedings to examine evidence of UFO sightings and the possibility of advanced extraterrestrial life. The program has an eye toward government disclosure of whatever the military and intelligence communities may know about the subject.
To say that conspiracy theories abound at this event would be an understatement. On Wednesday, UFO experts said they were certain of a government cover-up.
The former lawmakers heard from Peter Davenport, director of the National UFO Reporting Center, who recounted eyewitness reports of unidentified flying objects, hovering motionless and able to change direction more quickly than earthly technologies would seem to allow.
In McMinnville, Tenn., in 1995, observers witnessed a fleet of hovering objects, and a cluster of the lights appeared to explode. In 1997, residents of Phoenix witnessed at least one "unimaginably" large craft hovering over the city. In 1999, two airline pilots near the Dallas-Fort Worth airport saw a large disc approach their plane and execute a 120-degree turn in less than one second, Donovan said.
"I have no explanation for a craft that can hover motionless above Phoenix for five minutes," Davenport told the panel.
They also heard from Peter Robbins, a researcher and lecturer, who told them of sightings like the Rendlesham Forest Incident in the U.K., where U.S. Air Force personnel said they witnessed a UFO, and Gary Heseltine, a former U.K. police detective, who has collected sightings from police officers.
"I now have over 425 cases involving over 940 British police officers," Heseltine told the panel. "Over 70 percent of these cases are multiple-witness-officer cases."
Linda Moulton Howe, a journalist who studies livestock mutilation, brought slides of horses and cattle that had been stripped of flesh, had their organs removed surgically and without any trace of blood, and were left on soft patches of earth without any surrounding tracks.
"Ranchers have seen the glowing discs put beams down. Ranchers have seen the animals rise," Howe said, showing a cow with its udder cleanly removed, no blood in sight. Howe clicked to another slide of cow flesh bearing serrated cut marks that university veterinarians told her had likely been done with equipment using high heat.
"I think it involves, on a more sophisticated level, what we are beginning to do in our science with cloning," Howe said, when former Rep. Lynn Woolsey asked, skeptically, what extraterrestrials might want with cow parts. "The agencies of the U.S. government, the CIA ... they've all been studying this. They have more data than I do."
The lawmakers appeared partially swayed, but not sold on the idea that extraterrestrial beings have used advanced technology to visit Earth and lift animals from fields with beams -- and that multiple world governments have been silent.
"I'd have to be pretty arrogant to think that, out there in this huge universe, there isn't some civilization more advanced than ours," Bartlett said.
"Isn't it a leap to say, 'UFOs exist,' and then say it's E.T.?" asked Cook. "Is it the only explanation?"
Woolsey told ABC News she agreed to appear on the panel because she's interested in government transparency.
Gravel, the former Democratic Alaska senator who ran for president in 2008, told ABC News he doesn't believe UFO sightings necessarily mean extraterrestrial life exists.
"We don't know, but the reason we conclude it's extraterrestrial is because there's no explanation of the phenomenon of all these sightings," Gravel said. He bemoaned "the American government keeping this information from the American public and the people of the world. ... There's no question that there's something going on that's not explainable."
At one point during the "hearing," Kilpatrick appeared to buy into theories of extraterrestrial life.
"What you all have unveiled is there's something out there, we're not alone," Kilpatrick said.
The Wednesday morning session, attended by 55 or 60 in a dim auditorium at the Press Club in downtown Washington, D.C., will be featured in an upcoming documentary being produced by Paradigm, the same group that arranged the event.
According to organizer Stephen Bassett, who founded Paradigm in 1996 as a political-advocacy and lobbying group to pressure the government to release information on UFOs, the whole event will wind up costing $600,000. Funding was supplied by a wealthy Canadian donor named Thomas Clearwater, Bassett told ABC News.
"Congress is out of the game. Let me tell you, the president is out of the game," Bassett told ABC News. "It is run within the military-intelligence community."
An earlier version of this story referred to all the former members of Congress as Democrats. Former congressmen Bartlett and Cook are Republicans.


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text:
FAQ Can I use an installation program to distribute my Eclipse product?
Most Eclipse-based commercial product offerings ship their own product plug-ins using a professional installation program, such as InstallShield, or using a free one, such as the Install Toolkit for Java (from IBM AlphaWorks). Such installation tools provide the flexibility of user-defined scripts that are run during installation to discover already installed Eclipse installations, to query the registry on Windows, and most important, to provide graceful uninstall capabilities.
For example, IBM's WebSphere Studio Device Developer is shipped as a set of plug-ins and embedded Java runtimes, together with the latest release of Eclipse, designed to install from a CD-ROM. The product can be installed stand alone or added to an existing IBM product, such as WebSphere Studio Application Developer. Doing the installation with a product like InstallShield allows for this kind of flexibility during the installation.
Once the product has been installed, it is recommended that the Eclipse Update Manager be used to check for updates and that an update site be used for delivering new features or feature upgrades to users. This is the way users of WebSphere Studio Device Developer can add support for embedded platforms that were added recently or that are provided by third parties.
See Also:
- InstallShield (http://www.installshield.com)
The referenced IBM alphaWorks Install Toolkit for Java has not be available since April 9, 1998.
This FAQ was originally published in Official Eclipse 3.0 FAQs. Copyright 2004, Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. This text is made available here under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0.


text:
Reimbursement Policies
These reimbursement policies apply to our Georgia Medicaid plans.
Reimbursement policies are designed to assist you when submitting claims to CareSource. They are routinely updated to promote accurate coding and policy clarification. These proprietary policies are not a guarantee of payment. Payments for claims may be subject to limitations and/or qualifications. Payment will be determined based upon a review of the actual services provided to a member and will be determined when the claim is received for processing. Providers and their office staff are encouraged to use self-service channels to verify member eligibility.
The policies below are in PDF format. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader, you may download it here.


text:
Wrangling in the ruling party
Jacob Zuma looks set to hold onto his job but plenty of bad blood is bubbling
By E.C.S. | JOHANNHESBURG
ON A street in Johannesburg's posh northern suburbs, a hand-lettered sign wryly warns of danger ahead: MANGAUNG, it says, with an arrow pointing down a cavernous pothole. On December 16th the ruling African National Congress (ANC) will gather several thousand delegates for a special five-yearly "elective" conference in Mangaung ("place of cheetahs"), the African name for Bloemfontein, capital of the Free State province, where they will spend four days choosing their party leaders. By extension that means choosing South Africa's president, since the ANC is still unchallenged as the country's ruling party; whoever leads the party leads the country too. That man is Jacob Zuma. Will he survive?
It has been a painful few months—for him and for South Africa. In August 34 strikers were killed by the police at the Marikana platinum mine during a wave of wildcat protests that shook the entire mining industry. The unrest then spread to farms in the Western Cape province, where protests against low wages persist.
Meanwhile, the ANC has been badly buffeted on the bumpy road to Mangaung by infighting, divisions and thuggish violence. At some nomination meetings guns have even been brandished. A dispiriting mood pervades the ruling party. Mr Zuma has been widely criticised for a lack of leadership and for his failure to deal with the country's most pressing problems.
At the ANC's last such conference, in Polokwane in 2007, the singing and dancing Mr Zuma ousted the more aloof Thabo Mbeki as party leader. Mr Mbeki was then "recalled" by the ANC from his post as South Africa's president. Mr Zuma, however, looks likely to win another term in Mangaung, although a party faction known as the "Forces of Change" has been angling for the country's deputy president, Kgalema Motlanthe, who served as a stopgap president after Mr Mbeki's removal, to replace Mr Zuma full-time.
A stream of adverse reports about state funds lavishly spent on Mr Zuma's rural home at Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal province seems not to have seriously dented his prospects. Still, at a recent prayer meeting in Nkandla, Mr Zuma donned leopard skins and asked his ancestors for help in winning another term. Twelve cattle were slaughtered to bolster his campaign.
So far Mr Zuma is said to have secured the support of 2,259 delegates, a whisker more than the 2,251 he needs to win. Mr Motlanthe has 482 delegates behind him, but his backers say he will get more support at Mangaung, since the final vote there is expected to be secret.
Mr Motlanthe has scrupulously avoided saying whether he will stand. He recently told foreign journalists that he was "not a politician" but that he had merely a "political attitude". Asked repeatedly whether he would run against Mr Zuma, he said he felt "completely neutral" on the matter.
While Mr Motlanthe hedges his bets, some say that he may end up losing his spot as Mr Zuma's deputy. Waiting in the wings is Cyril Ramaphosa, one of South Africa's richest businessmen, who has impressive struggle credentials going back to his days as the miners' charismatic leader under apartheid. If he won a top post in the ANC at Mangaung, Mr Ramaphosa could be well placed to become the country's deputy president after the next general election, due in 2014. And that could put him on the path towards the presidency itself in due course. Under South Africa's constitution, parliament selects the national president and his deputy.
But this might raise eyebrows. For Mr Ramaphosa is a director of Lonmin, which owns the Marikana mine. He came under fire when it was revealed that he had urged the police to intervene to quell the protests. He also felt obliged to apologise for flaunting his wealth by bidding 19.5m rand ($2.2m) for a buffalo at an auction of game.
The nomination process has been steamy. The ANC in Limpopo province had to cancel its nomination conference after militants wearing Zuma T-shirts disrupted proceedings, causing delegates to flee. The ANC's provincial secretary in North West province said he had escaped an assassination attempt for supporting Mr Motlanthe. An armed gang stormed a branch meeting near Johannesburg and is said to have threatened to shoot party members if they failed to nominate Mr Zuma.
Some ANC people think the party could fracture after Mangaung. But factions have splintered off before, always leaving the rump of the party intact. Bad blood is likely to be spilt but Mr Zuma looks set to hang on.
More from Baobab
A particularly sad farewell to Baobab
We're changing how we handle online coverage of Africa
All foreigners out! Well, some of you
What lies behind South Sudan's antipathy towards foreigners?
Blade runner, the judge's cut
The Pistorius trial shows that justice is meted out to rich as well as poor


text: Psychic Readings | Clairvoyant | Tarot Psychic Readings by Max Mancer. Over 15 years of experience working with clients from all over the world. Sessions done Via Email or Phone or Via Skype. Healings also available. Please view the Home Page of This Website and purchase a session at: https://www.lightaxishealing.comRead More →


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Friday, June 4, 2010
givin' him the finger
j: yeah, well he's been waking up to fuss...but then i give him the finger and he's ok.
[context is a funny thing]
1 comment:
People know that a replica watch is a replica watch and the replica watches can never replace a real one. Why go in for a replica watch when you can get a real one. They say that the replica watch is cheaper that the real one. Most of them agree in unison that the replica watches sale lasts nearly as long as the real one. They point out that fake rolex sale keeps proper time too. You should wear luxury and cheap replica watches. Deep down inside, doesn't each and every one of us want to be noticed or want to be replica watches sale and a fashion icon. Unfortunately, most of the clothes and replica watches sale that adorn the bodies of the models, that walk the ramp don't ever seem to catch up to our personality's. The clothes are either too bold or the accessories are just plain or overdone. We often tend to choose garments, that represent our motto's, our ideals and our lifestyles. Just like a home that functions as a mirror to our lives. For instance, a messy home may reflect the cluttered thoughts that rolex replica or an overtly neat home may reflect the perfectionist in us.ReplyDelete


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GPs and Doctors in Waterford
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Supporters of ending Indiana's unique ban on Sunday retail alcohol sales will have to wait until at least next week before knowing whether their effort will advance in the Legislature.
Bills seeking to end the ban have been filed by legislators for the past several years, but an Indiana House committee hearing on Wednesday marked the first time lawmakers have taken up the proposal.
Public policy committee chairman Rep. Bill Davis, R-Portland, said after the hearing that he didn't support ending the prohibition of Sunday sales but that he'll talk with committee members before deciding on whether to advance the bill to the full House.
"We'll decide going forward exactly what we're going to do with the bill if we're going to vote on it next week or whether we're going to amend it," Davis said. "We just haven't made those decisions yet."
Dozens of opponents to lifting the ban filled much of the House chamber and gallery for Wednesday's three-hour hearing, with many of them wearing stickers saying, "No Sunday Sales."
Several liquor store owners and employees spoke against the change, arguing it would benefit large chain grocery and convenience stores that don't face age restrictions on who can enter and don't have the same requirement of hiring clerks with state liquor licenses.
Supporters of allowing Sunday sales said it would be more convenient for customers and eliminate an outdated law.
Indiana is the only state that prohibits retail carryout sales of beer, wine and liquor on Sundays, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. Indiana is among 12 states with limits on Sunday sales of liquor.
Rep. Sean Eberhart, R-Shelbyville, said he sponsored the bill ending the Sunday sales ban because he thought it was inconsistent with state laws allowing alcohol sales at restaurants, bars, concerts and sporting events.
"We can gamble 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Eberhart said. " … We can visit a strip bar and drink alcohol any day of the week."
Andy Lebamoff, co-owner of the Cap n' Cork liquor stores in Fort Wayne, said he estimated his 15 stores would need to see a $9 million increase in sales in order to have enough profits to cover the additional cost of being open an extra day each week.
"It's going to be a huge expense and burden," with no assurances of a sales increase, he said.
The current law protects liquor stores and puts the Legislature in the middle of picking winners and losers among the businesses of selling alcohol, said Scott Imus, director of the Indiana Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association.
"This is not at all about controlling alcohol, this is about controlling market share," Imus said.
Supporters of the change said they believed it would lead to increased state tax revenue from more alcohol sales, but a report by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency said it couldn't determine how much tax revenue the change might generate.
Kroger public affairs manager John Elliott said the grocery store chain estimates it annual Indiana sales could increase by at least $300 million if it could sell alcohol on Sundays. Elliott said he was optimistic that legislators would approve changing the law if given a chance.
"We've spent so many years with an aggressive package liquor store lobby blocking open and honest debate, just to have the opportunity to publicly share our point of view is progress," he said.


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Wouter "Wally" De Backer, better known to the world as Gotye, knows the perils of being typecast as a one-hit wonder, an overnight success, a guy who will go to his grave playing "that song." After an everywhere-all-at-once hit such as "Somebody That I Used to Know," where else is there to go?
"I have a little self-talk along the lines of 'Enjoy the moment, while it lasts,' " says Gotye, in the kind of low-key Australian accent that suggests nothing fazes this guy. "Having this level of success, it wasn't something that I necessarily aimed at. Things might change very quickly, next year, whenever, and I'd be alright with that. I've got plenty of friends, guys in my management, who keep perspective. We all realize this has been a really interesting, amazing, strange year. Nobody sees this as permanent or something that can be reproduced."
Then, almost as an afterthought, he says, "On some level, it helps to be a bit older."
At 32, Gotye has been around long enough to know what it feels like not to have anyone care about his music. After a decade of performing in Australia with his indie-rock trio the Basics and his Gotye studio project, he's paid dues and then some.
"I've done hundreds of rock 'n' roll shows with the Basics, and not all of them were well-attended," he says with a laugh. "One gig we played to zero people. It was a small upstairs bar and eventually even the bartender left. The three of us were left on stage alone, so we treated it like a rehearsal. That was eight years ago. Fortunately, it's been slowly growing since then."
Not fast enough to anticipate the massive success of "Somebody That I Used to Know," though. The single has generated more than 6 million sales in the United States alone, though it nearly got shelved last year. Gotye says he was seriously considering leaving the song off his latest album (and U.S. breakthrough), "Making Mirrors" (Universal), because it was taking too long to finish.
It began with a flash of inspiration nearly two years ago as he was piecing together bits of music for the next Gotye album at his recording studio -- a farm outside Melbourne. He had stumbled upon a two-note guitar pattern on a 1967 instrumental recording, "Seville," by a Brazilian bossa nova artist, Luiz Bonfa, and it triggered the song's opening line: "Now and then I think of when we were together."
"I dig through thrift shops all the time, taking a punt on a record that has a strange cover or has something that piques my interest," Gotye says. "In this case, it was the album title that caught my attention: 'Luiz Bonfa plays Great Songs.' OK, 'great songs,' eh? So I decided to buy it and have a listen. I heard those few guitar notes and looped them. It registered intuitively some kind of atmosphere, a melancholic feeling. The song was written very linearly from there, with the soft padded drum loop in the left speaker; the xylophone hook that I played; more guitar sound samples, which I manipulated to create the wobbly vibrato; a melody between the verses; the break before the chorus. But I hit a brick wall where I felt the story was going nowhere with this voice, so I came up with the female part in the space of a few weeks."
That's where things broke down.
"It took five, six months to find (New Zealand singer) Kimbra to sing it," Gotye says. "At a few points I was ready to give up. At one stage I thought I had the right person, but she pulled out. I tried some vocals with other people whose voices I love, but it didn't feel quite right for this song. I thought about putting it aside because it was holding up release of the album overall. Fortunately, I did have an inkling that musically it had a strength worth waiting for. So it was great to finally go to Kimbra's apartment and hear her sing it and realize, 'That's it!' "
The song is part of an album that plays mix and match with electronic and world music, tribal rhythms, dub step and psychedelia. Gotye is a multi-instrumentalist who is also a visual artist, and his collage-style arrangements merge the two disciplines to create subtle if unexpected juxtapositions and transitions. Part of the staying power of "Somebody That I Used to Know" is that as worldwide hits go, it's fairly understated and idiosyncratic.
I ask Gotye to play rock critic for a minute and explain what it is about the song that has resonated with so many people. "I can see that the song has a peculiar balance about it," he says, "a tension that balances opposing tendencies. It's a restrained ballad with something angsty about it, and it pushes that out to the world, with big reverb. There are hooky parts but they are revealed in slow fashion, requiring investment from the listener, which most pop does not require. Most pop songs just smash you in the face."
Now he's on the victory lap of a tour that brings him to the Charter One Pavilion, a venue nearly twice the size of the 4,500-capacity Aragon, which he sold out in April. It's been a year of Gotye firsts: First U.S. tour, first U.S. album release, first worldwide hit.
What's he got planned for an encore in 2013? "With things so absurdly massive, I don't feel compelled at all to match what's happened. I just want to make the most interesting, challenging music that I can. As long as I'm into it, without regard to its commercial considerations, it'll be alright."
Gotye: 7:30 p.m. Friday at Charter One Pavilion, 1300 S. Lynn White Drive, $39.50; ticketmaster.com.


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Guys. I was seriously just plowing through this cape to have something for the 10-mile DC Tweed Ride. It wasn't until I finished the cape that I fell IN FREAKING LOVE with it!!! With over 900 people registered for the ride, I was definitely in a color that stood out.
The BEST thing about this cape is that so many tweed riders were in darker fall colors. This turquoise blue just *popped*. I was nervous in general about how bright the blue is. It's not a color I normally wear. My original fabric was a dark gray tweed, but I ran out of material and used this blue from the Carol Collection instead.
A good indicator of your outfit on these rides is how many people ask for photos or tell you they like your outfit. Liz is wearing my Burda jumper, 10-2009-119.
Liz and I did *ok* during the Seersucker Social. But, we were on fire at Sunday's ride. I borrowed the white feather fascinator from her. I'd love to be in a hat. But, my head is just too big for vintage and even modern hats are generally pushing it.
The cape was finished on Friday. But, the buttons will NOT stay on. They are metal and shank. And, all four buttons on the opening edge have been resewn at least two times each. Three fell off on Saturday night. Two fell off before the ride on Sunday. Two fell off during the ride and now, on Monday morning, another fell off. In fact, in the photo above Trena and I are with Claudia. She's a DC dweller who reads our blogs. She saw the ride go by and happened upon us! Good for me, because she sewed one of my buttons back on!!
I *think* the rough metal shank is just cutting through the double strand of thread. I'm going to reattach with coat / button thread and see if that will help.
I'm wearing a knit Burda jumper, 9-2007-121. It had a classic look with my shoes. I lined the cape with a stunning raspberry material, also of the Carol Collection. It gives an amazing double whammy of color. The blue wool is fully interfaced, which happily did not stop me from having beautiful, crisp edges.
It can be worn open, and not buttoned. That does make it easier to *do* things.
Capes are totally and completely impractical, but I have a serious thing for them and trench coats. I guess it's kind of that military influence, no? The cape is PERFECT for this kind of ride and (I'm told) looks great while biking.
Our ride took us around downtown DC. I couldn't resist a photo in front of the White House. We also biked past the National's Stadium, the Capitol Building, and through Chinatown. I'm not sure there is anyone Chinese in DC's Chinatown….
The night ended at Smith's just outside of Capital Hill with a live band, gin drinks and fun!
I fell in love with this guy's vest. Someone (a UK National) recently told me I'd fetished the whole Brit thing. True Dat.
We were wiped out oat the end of the night. I just love this photo! Liz has a folding bike so we popped that in the back seat. That's Trena next to the bike with two more bikes out back!
These rides are so much fun! You get dressed up, you get to bike and see the city and the people are all just incredibly cool. I'm already planning next year's outfit!


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I've been reading some of the never-ending controversy in the medical blogosphere about the 80-hr week (some are talking about 57hrs as though it's a definite development; that had just better not be true). I thought I'd add a slightly different perspective:
Today I worked about 14 hrs – came in an hour earlier than I was supposed to, and left an hour later than I was supposed to; not bad for a surgery intern. At the end, I walked away from a sick patient who will likely to go the OR tonight, I'd guess around midnight. When I left, he wasn't acutely decompensating; his pressure had stabilized and he didn't need to be intubated, yet, although there were more lines being put in. I had admitted him; he was one of the traumas that came in all together, and by the luck of the draw, the triage information was inadequate, and the senior residents went with patients who seemed sicker, but turned out to be in better shape. So I'd worked him up, admitted him, followed him for several hours. Then I was told to leave, while his final outcome was still unclear: could we handle him nonoperatively, or would he require one of the now nearly legendary trauma ex-laps (exploratory laparotomies)? (legendary because so many blunt trauma injuries are now managed with just observation or angiography)
If I had thought that I would get to participate if I stayed for the surgery, I would have stayed eagerly. But I knew that the senior resident in-house would get to do anything that was the least bit interesting about him; just because I'd admitted him didn't mean I'd get to do anything meaningful in the surgery. So I left.
I don't know which came first, shift work, or the attitude that seniors get all the cases. I'd stay more if I thought I'd do more. As it is, I'm sorry to miss seeing exactly how it plays out, but since I wouldn't see the inside of him anyway except from a distance, I figure sleep is good, and I'll hear in the morning exactly how many hours of borderline pressures, and how low of a hemoglobin, it took to get him to the OR, or not.


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Some energy drink companies are changing the way they market their products, deciding to sell them as beverages rather than dietary supplements, which will mean a change in the drinks' labels, according to news reports.
While the move will lead to better disclosure of the products' ingredients, it leaves open loopholes that could compromise consumer safety, experts say.
Monster Beverage, which makes the energy drink Monster Energy, said that by May, 90 percent of its products will have labels that include the products' caffeine content, according to the New York Times. Caffeine content is not required to be listed for dietary supplements.
If Monster Beverage were to list the caffeine content on all of its products, it would be a small step in the right direction, said Dr. Pieter Cohen, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a general internist at Cambridge Health Alliance. "Consumers need to know how much caffeine they are consuming. That should become the standard for all energy drinks," Cohen said.
The company Rockstar Energy also switched from selling its products as dietary supplements to beverages in January, the New York Times says.
However, marketing energy drinks as beverages provides no additional evidence that these products are safe or effective, Cohen said.
And unlike companies that make supplements, companies that make beverages are not required to report deaths and injuries potentially linked with their products to federal regulators, the Times reported.
The Food and Drug Administration is investigating several reports of deaths tied to energy drinks. And a recent study found that more than 20,000 emergency room visits in 2011 were linked to energy drink consumption. Health problems brought on by energy drink consumption can include headaches, anxiety and fast heartbeat, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Because there's no limit to the amount of caffeine allowed in energy drinks, the products' makers can still put in as much caffeine as they want. "This is clearly the loophole that needs to be closed," Cohen said.
A 16-ounce can of Monster Energy will be listed as having 140 to 160 milligrams of caffeine, according to the New York Times. That compares with 330 milligrams for the same size of Starbucks coffee.
Sodas, on the other hand, are required to limit caffeine content to 71 milligrams per 12 ounces.
A similar limit should be set for energy drinks, Cohen said. Cohen considers 100 milligrams per 16-ounce drink to be a "safe" amount of caffeine. This would be in line with the limit for sodas and "reflects the reality that energy drinks are often consumed in large quantities," he said.
Just yesterday (March 19), a group of doctors sent a letter to the FDA urging the agency to set a limit for the caffeine content of energy drinks in order to protect consumers, especially children, from the injuries associated with high caffeine intake. Earlier this month, Cohen co-wrote an opinion article in Stars and Stripes highlighting the issue of hidden caffeine content in energy drinks for military troops, and said products not known to be safe and effective (which include energy drinks) should not be sold on military bases.
Pass it on: Some energy drink companies will list the caffeine content on their products, but more action is needed to ensure their safety, experts say.
This story was provided by MyHealthNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily @MyHealth_MHND, Facebook & Google+.


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Four more women accuse Filner
The San Diego Democratic Party voted Thursday to ask Mayor Bob Filner to resign just hours after four new women appeared on TV accusing Filner of sexual harassment, according to reports.
Members of the San Diego Democratic Party Central committee voted 34-6 to ask Filner to resign, according to the local NBC affiliate. Democratic leaders had voted not to ask Filner to step down last week.
"Now charges have been filed and the legal process has started. We think it is in the best interest for Mayor Filner to step down," Democratic Party Chair Francine Busby said.
( PHOTOS: Scandal pols: Where are they now?)
The four new accusers on Thursday were a retired Navy rear-admiral, a dean at San Diego State University, the head of the Port Tenants Association and a businesswoman, according to local TV station KPBS, with whom the women did a joint interview. All four said Filner should resign as mayor.
Sharon Bernie–Cloward, president of the San Diego Port Tenants Association, told KPBS Filner approached her after a National City event in 2010 and told her she was beautiful.
"I was talking with friends and he gave me a hug," she said. "And then he touched me, actually groped me on my backside inappropriately… I was left there startled and fearful. In fact, I actually had someone walk me to my car that night."
Patti Roscoe, a prominent business woman in San Diego, said Filner used to put her in "the famous headlock" and would also try to kiss her on the lips.
Veronica Froman, the retired Navy admiral, said Filner once blocked her exiting his former Congressional office and ran his finger on her cheek, asking if she had a man in her life.
"I was really rattled, I got in the car with the two guys I was working with and I told them never to leave me alone in a room with Bob Filner again," Froman said.
Joyce Gattas, dean of the College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts at SDSU, described interactions where Filner held her "too tight" or kissed her on the cheek.
"I've experienced his sexual innuendos with me at various events that again, have left me in that strange feeling of: This is inappropriate, this is unwanted and this shouldn't be happening," Gattas said.


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- This event has passed.
SANTA CRUZ—Exhibit: Your Vote is Your Voice/ ¡Vote! Su Voto es Su Voz
January 27, 2020 @ 12:00 am – 9:00 am
An event every week that begins at 12:00 am on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, repeating until March 16, 2020
Bob Fitch photography archive. © Stanford University Libraries. SANTA CRUZ—Presented by Pajaro Valley Arts, Vote! Your Vote is Your Voice was invited by County Clerk, Gail Pellerin, to reprise the 2019 exhibit at the County of Santa Cruz Government Center during their most important 2020 election season. This exhibit aims to inform, inspire and develop greater interest in the non-partisan democratic process. Co-curated by Maria Gitin and Pajaro Valley Arts Curator Judy Stabile, the exhibit features Bob Fitch photography from the archives of Stanford University Library and artifacts from civil rights veteran Maria Gitin. The exhibit includes contemporary regional artists' interpretation of voting rights and informative displays from Santa Cruz County Elections Department. A visual timeline highlights key events in voting rights history. The exhibit is presented in partnership with the Santa Cruz County Clerk/Elections Department, Santa Cruz County Arts Commission, and Santa Cruz County General Services. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday from 8 am to 5 pm. Exhibition runs from January 27 to April 3. Opening Reception on Friday, February 7, from 5:00-8:00 pm. 701 Ocean Street Third Floor Santa Cruz, CA 95060 Admission: Free ADA Accessible For more information, go to https://pvarts.org/articles/current-exhibit/ or contact Hedwig Heerschop, Exhibit Coordinator, 831-722-3062, firstname.lastname@example.com or Maria Gitin, Curator at email@example.com . This project received support from a Humanities for All Quick Grant.


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Posted by Editoress on 03/14/11
With five months until teams gather in British Columbia at the start line of Raid the North Extreme 2011, organizers say the event will soon be sold out!
Due to the rugged wilderness nature of the course, registration is capped at 50 teams. This ensures the highest standards of safety and logistical support is achieved at all times, and provides a world-class experience for all teams, communities and partners of this internationally acclaimed expedition race.
The current roster of 47 registered teams is quite diverse, both in terms of countries and experience levels. Canada and the US are well-represented, almost from coast to coast to coast, with teams coming from BC across to Quebec, and from 16 states including Texas, Maryland, California, and Pennsylvania. Teams are also registered from Australia, Mexico, Ireland, Switzerland and St Martin.
The list of teams, complete with information on each racer, can be seen at www.raidthenorthextreme.com.
"I can't recall this level of enthusiasm for RTNX since we hosted the AR World Champs back in 2004," said race director Geoff Langford.
The internationally acclaimed expedition race will happen July 23rd to 31st, in the rugged and historic West Kootenays of BC.
Four-person co-ed teams will travel six days non-stop, navigating a 500+ kilometre unmarked expedition course through the Selkirk, Monashee and Purcell mountain ranges in BC's West Kootenays by foot, canoe, kayak, mountain bike and fixed ropes.
Frontier first hosted Raid the North Extreme ("RTNX") in 1999, and it is now one of the world's longest-running and most recognized expedition-length adventure races. Renowned for its focus on real wilderness, real navigation, and real adventure, RTNX is a traditional wilderness adventure race.
"RTNX is, and has always been, a hard-core traditional expedition race," said Langford. "We design true point to point courses that traverse the landscape as an early explorer would have. Competitors will have to deal with exhaustion, weather, elevation and anything else Nature will offer up that week. There's a good chance they won't finish this race. This is not a scavenger hunt or a day hike; this is real, challenging expedition racing."
Raid the North Extreme is more than a challenging wilderness expedition; the race has always served as a platform to highlight the host region's history, character and communities. The rich mining and pioneer spirit of the area will capture the imagination of racers as they experience abandoned railway trestles and tunnels, dormant volcanoes, old mining access trails and ghost towns.
Registration Details:
Registration for this 6-day, non-stop race includes one night accommodations before and after the event and shuttles to and from the regional airport. All watercraft will be provided and this will be an unsupported race. As well, teams are treated to opening and closing ceremonies, pre- and post-race meals, including a legendary post-race party, and one of the best race courses ever laid out in North America - in true Raid the North Extreme style.
Registration is open at the price of $4500 CDN.
For more information, visit www.raidthenorthextreme.com, or contact race organizers at email@example.com.
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Philip III
Philip III, 1578–1621, king of Spain, Naples, and Sicily (1598–1621) and, as Philip II, king of Portugal (1598–1621); son and successor of Philip II of Spain. He was as pious as his father, but lacked his intelligence and capacity for work. Preferring to pursue his own pleasure, Philip left the actual government to his favorite, the duque de Lerma. Peace had been made with France by the Treaty of Vervins (1598) shortly before Philip III's accession. Peace with England followed in 1604, and in 1609 a 12-year truce was made with the United Provinces of the Netherlands. In Italy, however, Spain was involved in war (1615–17) with Savoy over Montferrat and in clashes with Venice. In 1620, Spain entered the Thirty Years War by sending troops into the Palatinate. The Spanish occupation of the Valtellina in the same year also led (1622) to war with France. Philip's reign saw a growing decline in Spain's economy, partly as a result of the expulsion (1609–14) of the Moriscos, while the grandees accumulated huge estates and the church prospered. Yet Spanish culture was in the midst of a glorious period which gave the world Cervantes, Lope de Vega, El Greco, and Zurbarán. Philip III was succeeded by his son, Philip IV. His daughter, Anne of Austria, married Louis XIII of France.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Spanish and Portuguese History: Biographies


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Put this one strictly in the rumor basket, but if the apparently loose-lipped product manager at iRiver's Australian distributor is to be believed, the Korean company has the iPod Touch, Amazon Kindle, and even Arrington's CrunchPad firmly in its sights.
Accordingy to Current.com.au, Danny Bejanoff of local distributor C.R. Kennedy says that iRiver hopes to launch an Android-based iPod Touch rival next year. Dubbed the K2, the device would have a 3.5-inch display, touch screen, Wi-Fi, built-in browser, accelerometer, Bluetooth, and even a digital TV tuner. The catch? Apparently the project is not yet 100 percent signed off.
Bejanoff went on to say that he also hopes to soon test a new iRiver e-book reader and Internet tablet. Is a three-way Web Tablet Battlemodo between iRiver, the possible Apple tablet and the CrunchPad looming? Did Current.com.au get Bejanoff drunk for that interview? If so, I'm Australian, why wasn't I invited?


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UnNews:Surprise resurrection of Madalyn Murray O'Hair, America's most hated woman
17 April 2010
MONTEVIDEO, Uraguay -- In the nondescript capital of a nondescript South American country, a most peculiar event has brought the news vultures descending like flies to offal. Madalyn Murray O'Hair, dictatorial leader of American Atheists until her abduction in 1995, was inexplicably and incomprehensibly resurrected from her previously dead state, and found herself wandering the back streets of this bastardized-Spanish speaking country's capital this morning.
Fundamentalists of all religions were glad to be rid of her, when she and two family members were killed for their hoard of gold. Televangelist Pat Robertson said, upon hearing of her gruesome murder, "That's the last we'll hear from that heathen bitch." He then reportedly danced a jig, oddly similar to that of Adolf Hitlers little dance in Paris.
She became America's most hated woman in 1963, when her lawsuit protesting school prayer reached the U. S. Supreme Court. Photographs show Madalyn standing on the steps of the high court with her two sons, Jon Garth, then 9, and Bill, 16. She is smiling, hovering lovingly over her boys, and respectably attired with a demure hat and gloves. But the conventional-looking matron was -- unthinkably for the early '60s -- a divorcee and an avowed Communist with two illegitimate sons, sired by two different fathers.
Many media reports noted that O'Hair was brash, profane and vulgar, that she had a reputation for being abrasive and turning friends and allies into enemies, that she was notoriously tight-fisted and always looking for ways to enrich her empire -- all of those things she might have agreed with.
Rumors among Pentecostal Christians were that Church of Satan high priest Anton LeVey, who had raised both himself and Jim Varney from the dead, was behind this recent abomination. However, Talmudic scholars at the Hebraic Academy of Sciences refuted this, claiming that, "those weirdo glossalalians were reading from an incorrectly calibrated Necronomicon, rendering their findings moot."


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Emma Watson took to Twitter to put to bed rumors that she may be in the Fifty Shades of Grey movie. She has no desire to be in the flick. They actually haven't begun casting for the film. What's taking them so long?! USA Today
Our girl Beyoncé has released new music, and we love it. Obviously. E! Online
Kim Kardashian dishes on her pregnancy, revealing that she's lost her love for eating sweets...especially chocolate. Gasp! People
More From Cosmopolitan
Stephanie Meyer says that the Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson cheating scandal was "tragic." It broke our hearts too. Us Weekly
Whoa. European researchers are very close to completely curing 14 adults of HIV. My Health News Daily
Want more from Dara? Follow her on Twitter @dadeeyo.
Photo: Steve Granitz/Getty Images


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(CNN) – Exercise enthusiast Paul Ryan back pedaled Monday on his claim of a marathon time of under three hours, attributing the mistake to over two decades of time passed and a back injury.
Ryan said in an August radio interview with Hugh Hewitt that his best marathon time was under three hours, which would mean the fit Wisconsin congressman and Republican vice presidential candidate held under seven minute miles for the 26.2 miles race–an impressive feat for even the most avid runners.
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Runner's World magazine raised questions about Ryan's time last Friday, shortly after the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida.
Then Ryan's staff issued a statement to the magazine last Friday where he admitted misstating his time by over an hour, finishing the 1990 Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota race in just over four hours. The GOP vice presidential candidate said his brother pointed out his mistake, in the statement published on the magazine's website on August 31.
"The race was more than 20 years ago, but my brother Tobin-who ran Boston last year-reminds me that he is the owner of the fastest marathon in the family and has never himself ran a sub-three. If I were to do any rounding, it would certainly be to four hours, not three. He gave me a good ribbing over this at dinner tonight," Ryan said in the statement, which the campaign confirms was sent to the magazine.
Ryan blamed the fudged personal record on time passed and a back injury in an interview with WTOL in Toledo on Monday.
"I literally thought that was my time. It was 22 years ago," he said in the interview. "You forget sort of these things. I hurt my back when I was in my mid twenties, so obviously my perception of races and times were off."
Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who is also an active runner, jumped on the mistake Tuesday linking Ryan's exaggerated marathon time to his character.
"I must confess, I do not do an under-3 hour marathon," Sebelius joked to the Ohio delegation at the Democratic National Convention. "Anyone who starts with the notion that you have to make up your marathon time tells you all you need to know about Paul Ryan."
Paul Ryan seems to be turning out to be a liar. During his speech at the RNC, he misquoted Obama's campaign speech at a GM plant in Wisconsin (Ryan's home state) about options to keep the plant open. Options that Ryan agreed with at the time. Ryan then claimed Obama broke his campaign promise when the plant closed. But Ryan very conveniently omitted the fact that the factory closed in Dec 2008, BEFORE Obama even took office in 2009.
Ryan said he had friends who lost their jobs when the factory closed, and that he had worked with GM to find ways to keep the factory open. So how come he doesn't know when the plant actually closed? Does he not care about the truth? Never let facts get in the way of a good story, I guess.
Maybe we should see who can run through all 57 states the fastest.
Finally Ryan has told a lie that he wants to walk back. I am waiting for him to do the same with the half dozens other lies he has told.


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Today is my Grandma's birthday!
Grandma said she always looked forward to her birthday because it was the only day she was allowed to sleep late. The bad part was she always woke up early.
Lillie Katherine Schuetz was born 8 September 1895 in a cedar log house in Kendalia, Texas. Her parents were Henry and Emma Bauer Schuetz. She had two brothers, Alec and Harry. As a young adult, she loved to go dancing and would go to dances with her younger brother Harry. They would go on horseback, horse and buggy or by car. One time they were headed to a dance in Kendalia when a spinning wheel zipped past the car. They thought that was so funny until they realized it was from their car! She met Willie Adam at one of those dances.
She married, my grandfather, Willie Adam on 16 March 1919, in San Antonio. Returning from their honeymoon in San Antonio they stopped by Willie's parent's house and received a special treat to welcome them home, homemade peach ice cream! They settled on a farm down the road from Willie's parents.
I loved to go to her house for Sunday Kaffeeklatsch. She made the best raisin spice cake. I wish I had the recipe. She made cutout cookies that she kept in an owl cookie jar. You couldn't eat just one cookie. They were lip smacking good! Now, all I can think about are the dishes she prepared, homemade noodles, fig preserves, homemade bread, homemade pickles. My mouth is watering…
Happy birthday, Grandma!


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How important is body language?
55 percent of what you convey when you speak comes from body language. In fact, when you're speaking about something emotional only about seven percent of what the other person hears has to do with the words you use.
More often than not you can tell what a politician thinks about an issue just by watching their hands. Psychopaths can tell who would be a good victim just by watching them walk.
In five minutes you can often evaluate people with approximately 70 percent accuracy… but obviously we're wrong often, and that 30 percent can be very costly.
What can the research teach us about better reading people's body language?
What you're doing wrong
In The Silent Language of Leaders: How Body Language Can Help — or Hurt — How You Lead the author points out a number of common errors people make.
Here's how I interpreted the findings:
- Ignoring context: Crossed arms don't mean as much if the room is cold or the chair they're sitting in doesn't have armrests. Everything has to pass the common sense test given the environment.
- Not looking for clusters: One of the biggest errors people make is looking for one single tell. That's great in movies about poker players but in real life it's a consistent grouping of actions (sweating, touching the face, and stuttering together) that is really going to tell you something.
- Not getting a baseline: If someone is always jumpy, jumpiness doesn't tell you anything. If someone is always jumpy and they suddenly stop moving — HELLO.
- Not being conscious of biases: If you already like or dislike the person it's going to affect your judgment. And if people compliment you, are similar to you, are attractive… these can all sway you, unconsciously. I know, you don't fall for those tricks. Well, the biggest bias of all is thinking you're unbiased.
What to focus on
What signals can and should you trust when trying to get a "read" on someone? They need to be unconscious behaviors that are not easily controlled and convey a clear message.
In Honest Signals: How They Shape Our World, the authors point out three to keep your eye on:
- Speech mimicry and behavioral mimicry: Are they using the same words you use? Speaking at a similar speed and tone? Are they sitting the way you sit? Is a subtle, unconscious game of follow-the-leader going on? This is a sign the other person feels emotionally in sync with you. It can be faked but that's rare and difficult to pull off consistently across a conversation.
- Activity level: As a general rule, activity levels indicate interest and excitement. (Often when a woman is bouncing her foot during a date it means she's interested in the man she's with.)
- Consistency of emphasis and timing: This is a sign of focus and control. Someone who is less consistent is less sure of themselves and more open to influence.
Specifics to look for
Contextually vetted, baseline adjusted clusters are your best bet… but research has shown some specifics are often decent indicators.
Crossed legs are a very bad sign during negotiations.
Crossed legs can have a devastating effect on a negotiation. In How to Read a Person Like a Book, authors Gerard I. Nierenberg and Henry H. Calero reported that the number of times settlements were reached increased greatly when both negotiators had uncrossed their legs. In fact, they found that out of two thousand videotaped transactions, not one resulted in a settlement when even one of the negotiators had his or her legs crossed. [The Silent Language of Leaders: How Body Language Can Help–or Hurt–How You Lead]
There's a consistent cluster that has been seen among people who are trying to cheat you.
Via Wray Herbert, author of On Second Thought: Outsmarting Your Mind's Hard-Wired Habits:
Again and again, it was a cluster of four cues: hand touching, face touching, crossing arms, and leaning away. None of these cues foretold deceit by itself, but together they transformed into a highly accurate signal. And the more often the participants used this particular cluster of gestures, the less trustworthy they were in the subsequent financial exchange. [On Second Thought: Outsmarting Your Mind's Hard-Wired Habits]
Who should you trust? Look for people who are consistently emotionally expressive in their body language:
These results suggest that cooperators may be more emotionally expressive than non-cooperators. We speculate that emotional expressivity can be a more reliable signal of cooperativeness than the display of positive emotion alone. ["Emotional expressivity as a signal of cooperation" from Evolution & Human Behavior]
And look at people's hands. Palm down gestures indicate power. Palm up shows submission.
The New York Times cites Adam Kendon, author of Gesture: Visible Action as Utterance, on the deeper meaning of hand positions:
Gestures of the Open Hand Prone or "palm down" family are used in contexts where something is being denied, negated, interrupted or stopped, whether explicitly or by implication. Open hand Supine (or "palm up") family gestures, on the other hand, are used in contexts where the speaker is offering, giving or showing something or requesting the reception of something… [The New York Times]
Keep in mind that men and women differ in body language. For instance, they flirt differently:
A female begins fascinating a male by smiling at him, raising her brows to make her eyes appear wider and more childlike, quickly lowering her lids while tucking her chin slightly down, in an effort to bring him closer. After averting her gaze to the side, she will, within moments and almost without exception, put her hands on or near her mouth and giggle, lick her lips, or thrust out her chest while gazing at the object of her intended affection. And it's consistent, regardless of language, socioeconomic status, or religious upbringing. For men, says Rodgers, the fascination ritual is less submissive but no less standardized. He'll puff out his chest, jut his chin, arch his back, gesture with his hands and arms, and swagger in dominant motions to draw attention to his power… [Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation]
How to get better at reading body language
First, pay attention. Sounds obvious, but you're probably not doing it consistently throughout the conversation.
Dynamics change, especially when you're dealing with someone who is actively trying to deceive you. Unless they're very good, inconsistencies will arise ("leakage") and you can get insight into how they really feel.
You'll improve dramatically by addressing the four weaknesses pointed out in The Silent Language of Leaders:
- Consider context: Should someone in this situation be acting like this?
- Look for clusters of actions, not isolated ones: All three of those behaviors are associated with…?
- Get a baseline: How do they normally act?
- Be aware of your biases: Are you tempted to cut them slack and they haven't started speaking yet?
Your abilities will make a quantum leap if you realize that body language is part of a bigger context and a bigger cluster and you start monitoring the other facets of behavioral interaction: voice, appearance, clothing, etc.
These can help you evaluate the whole package:
- What does a face tell you? How about a quick glance?
- What are 10 instances when you should trust your gut?
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TJ Martinez: Slap shot -- a hockey fan is reborn
I spent the past weekend in the big city of Denver covering state softball. My wife accompanied me on the trip, and with the games being completed by the late afternoon I had the rest of the night to find some sort of entertainment that my wife and I could enjoy.
After checking the local concert venues with no success, being the gentleman I am I thought to myself, "what could my wife and I possibly enjoy together?" -- Avalanche game! What kind of woman wouldn't enjoy watching men with missing teeth and hockey sticks check each other against a wall of glass.
Before the game started I was somewhat shocked to hear my wife had never even watched a hockey game on television. What was she doing all those nights she sat next to me while I watched the Avs take on the Red Wings? Come to think of it, she might have been in the other room ... . I don't really know, I was too busy watching the game.
My wife's only knowledge of the game came from Disney's "Mighty Ducks" movies -- which, by the way, are some of the best sports movies ever -- rivaling such classics as "The Natural," "Field of Dreams" and "Rudy."
But anyway, having never attended an Avalanche game myself, I was pleasantly surprised as to just how entertaining the game was. I have seen many concerts at the Pepsi Center, where the Avs and Nuggets play their home games, and they had enough lights, sirens and other things going on to rival a Kiss concert. The only thing that was missing was a fire-breathing bass player, but they more than made up for it with a giant floating Chipotle burrito.
The game was entertaining enough for me to forget about the $35 taxi ride to the Pepsi Center.
I had heard for years that the live hockey experience was far superior to watching the game on TV, and after witnessing it this weekend I have to agree. There was such a show at the Pepsi Center, complete with new mascot Bernie the St. Bernard pumping up the crown and a knock-off "Price is Right" contest during intermission. But the best show was on the ice.
After the Avs' Ryan O'Reilly scored a goal, I heard one of the best sounds in all of sports, the siren signifying a goal. The siren is deafening, and you can't help but stand to your feet when you hear it.
Seeing the players in person also makes you realize how athletic these hockey players really are. They hit like football players but are as graceful on the ice as figure skaters. Being in that atmosphere brought back my love for the game that I had lost during the lockout in 2005.
After 2005 I felt burned and refused to go back. The Avalanche were significantly weaker after the implementation of a salary cap, and my favorite player, Peter Forsberg, was no longer with the team. I had brief affairs with the game, usually during the playoffs or a Red Wings game, but my heart was never in it. I came close in 2008 when Forsberg re-signed with the Avalanche, but as quickly as he came, he was gone and so was I.
But after watching the Avalanche with their great young players -- O'Reilly, Matt Duchene and T.J. Galiardi -- it reminded of all the good memories spent watching the Avs when they were going through another youth movement with players like Milan Hejduk, Alex Tanguay and Chris Drury.
I don't know if it was the atmosphere at the Pepsi Center or the fact that I shared the experience with my wife, but my love for the game has been renewed.
TJ Martinez writes for the La Junta Tribune-Democrat La Junta, Colo.


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Welcome once again to The Week in Pictures! I'm sitting in my office, drinking a super big coffee, looking over my to-do list and simultaneously doing laundry. Not the most exciting but it feels good to be getting things done. Earlier this week, I posted about the premier issue of CARSON mag. Juicy hues!
I whipped up quite a few logo options for various clients this week, all while a brightly painted eye peeked through from my desktop.
Had a great time out last night with my dad, Tana and Joey at one of our favorite bars where we shared drinks, tasty food and stories of debauchery.
I've been wanting a change from my sleek, minimal Nixon watches. Something a bit more dramatic and outlandish. I spotted this inexpensive vintage Japanese watch on Etsy and decided it fit the bill. I know nothing about the brand but I love the oversized watch face and varying scale of numbers. Now I just need to find a jeweler to remove a handful of links.
Inspiration on top of layers of even more inspiration. I love my IKEA inspiration board because it's magnetic — there's never a need to put tacks or tape on my most favorite images.
I've been wearing this Mickey sweatshirt pretty often this week, complete with gold foil and backwards type.
And with that, I'm off! Enjoy your weekend and stay out of trouble! xoxo


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I'm so excited to share this workout challenge with you guys! I've LOVED participating in various 30-day yoga challenges over the last couple years. I thought it might be fun to make a challenge of my own (using free online workouts of course) for another type of exercise I quite enjoy — BALLET!
It might sound strange, but those yoga challenges bring me a lot of joy.
a) I don't have to think about what workout to complete on any given day.
b) Committing to something for a specified period of time, even to myself, means I'm way more likely to follow through.
c) The results are usually pretty nice.
d) I love that yummy feeling you get after completing a challenge you set for yourself.
With those 4 joy-inducing items in mind, I added a 10-day ballet challenge to my FIND MORE DELIGHT LIST. And Monday I'm kicking things off!
Here's how things will shake down if you're interested (or if you feel like tackling a ballet challenge of your own!!! plz dooo!)…
Day One
Adult Ballet Barre by Ballerinas by Night
Day Two
15min BALLET WORKOUT by Sarahs Day + Arms Exercises With Theraband by Lazy Dancer Tips
Day Three
Pre Ballet Class Feet Strengthening Routine + Easy Ballet Barre Workout both by Kathryn Morgan
Day Four
Classical Ballet Barre with Centre by Lazy Dancer Tips
Day Five
New York City Ballet Workout I designed by Peter Martins
Day Six
Arms Exercises with Theraband + Relax & Stretch both by Lazy Dancer Tips
Day Seven
Ballet Barre for Balance & Core by Kathryn Morgan
Day Eight
Beginners Ballet by PsycheTruth
Day Nine
Classical Full Ballet Barre by Lazy Dancer Tips
Day Ten
New York City Ballet Workout II designed by Peter Martins
And there you have it! I'll definitely let you know how it goes…Until then, WISH ME LUCK!
Have you ever done a workout challenge like this one (or the Yoga with Adriene 30 day challenges)? Love 'em or hate 'em? How do you stay motivated to exercise? Let me know!
P.S. More Finding Delight posts on working out – Ballin' on a Budget – Ditch the Gym Membership and Found! The Greatest Exercise Video Ever
P.P.S. If you've ever avoided clicking that "share" button, felt that sharing your message online was too much work or you haven't been sure where to start, LET'S CHAT!


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As the wheels on the Republican clown car keep flying off one at a time, our President and Vice President continue to prove that the Democratic Party is the only serious, adult political party in Washington these days. Even with the obstructionist GOP pulling every dirty trick in the book, the President and Democrats keep moving forward and fighting for all Americans.
I remember back to December of 2012 when Republicans started telegraphing their intention to try to use the debt ceilings as "leverage" to destroy the safety net that took generations to weave and I thought to myself that they clearly didn't learn any lessons from the last election.
I laugh every time a Republican, or one of the media that parrots them, tries to make the lame ass argument that because the GOP retained control of the House, even though they lost seats, that somehow they won. Here is one example of that denial from Boehner the Blubberer…
"The American people want solutions, and tonight they responded by renewing our House Republican majority," House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, who ran unopposed in his re-election bid, declared Tuesday night.
And of course Buzzfeed, a wannabe Politico, took the idiotic concept even further.
Americans, for all their griping, apparently really do prefer their government deeply divided and dysfunctional.
I almost feel silly spelling this out for people, but in our current state of political and media dysfunction, you really do have to spell it out in precise detail for the uninformed or Fox News brainwashed masses. We each vote for our individual representatives and senators and when the dust settles on the election, we find out which party came out ahead. I've never seen a line on a ballot that gave me the option of voting for who controls a branch of congress or a check box for "divided government". It's wherever the chips fall. It's magical thinking to believe that somehow the American people coordinated their votes to reach an outcome.
I feel similar about the folks on the left saying that more people voted for Democrats than Republicans when you add up all the votes. Well, we don't add up all the votes or if we do, it means absolutely nothing. I certainly agree with the people pointing out the gerrymandering that took place in order for Republicans to keep so many seats, but the fact that Democrats received more votes overall, shouldn't be used in the same way Republicans are using the overall outcome in the House. Democrats should stick to the facts, we picked up seats in the House.
The changing metric of who won or lost an election in the Republican's minds reveals just how pathetic they are. If the roles were reversed and Democrats retained the House while Republicans picked up seats, you know damn well that they would be saying they won because they picked up seats. The grasping for some kind of straw that they can use to say they won is comical to me and reveals just how easy it is to spin without push back.
This denial from the Republicans, which may be better described as a delusion, also makes them continue with the same crap that brought the American people out to smack them down on November 6th. The prime example is the Republican's attempt to use the debt ceiling to take our economy hostage again. There is a huge difference between the 2011 debt ceiling crisis and the current one. In 2011, the Republican's goal, as spelled out by many in the party, was to make President Obama a one term president at all costs. That included damaging the economy, preventing job growth and saying anything to mislead their voters and rile them up. And it was easy to get their partisans to go along with it, because after all, it served their prime goal.
When the idea of another hostage situation with the debt ceiling started creeping into the discussion before Christmas, I couldn't believe that the Republicans would go there again. Not only is it idiotic for all the same reasons it was in 2011, but with the election behind us and the goal of defeating the President a mere memory of a wet dream, it raises the level of stupidity even higher. The President has played his hand masterfully. He is smart enough to know that the election is behind us and that Wall Street and big business is not into losing money unless it is planned for their benefit.
Newt Gingrich was one of the first in the GOP to point out the stupidity of the tactic and he is being joined by many others on the right side of the fence. Steve Benen gives us the latest defections from the stupid caucus…
Just today, Charles Krauthammer, a prominent conservative pundit, told Republicans they "won't get" their ransom, they'll have to "give in" eventually, and they should "forget about forcing tax reform or entitlement cuts or anything major." Jennifer Rubin added, "The jig is nearly up…. [T]he threat of bumping up against the debt ceiling is not realistic and hence not useful." […]
It would probably be an overstatement to say Republicans are already surrendering, but let's just say they've taken the white flag off the shelf, even if they're not yet ready to wave it.
That said, it also appears the congressional GOP hopes to trade one hostage for another.
Even if Republicans now seem to realize they can't follow through on their debt-ceiling threats — they really should have thought this through beforehand — GOP policymakers still appear committed to aggressive confrontations on automatic sequestration cuts and funding levels for the government itself.
Late Breaking News! While I was at lunch, apparently a new defection came to light that makes it inevitable that the GOP is going to cave on their idiotic ploy. Sen. John Cornyn made it quite clear in an interview with the Houston Chronicle…
"We will raise the debt ceiling. We're not going to default on our debt," Cornyn told the Houston Chronicle editorial board…. "I will tell you unequivocally, we're not going to default," Cornyn said Thursday.
Game, Set, Match!