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This is the second time I've conducted an interview with Jason Adam. If you'd like to check out the first one, click HERE.
In the full season in between the first interview I did with Jason Adam and this one, Adam did a great job of honing his skills as a pitcher. Lowering his ERA from 4.23 the previous year, to 3.53 for 2012, Adam showed off his ability to locate all three of his pitches consistently.
In addition to a lower ERA, Adam was also able to increase his average number of innings per game, from 5 innings in 2011, up to 6 innings; further evidence of how much Adam matured as a pitcher in 2012.
Adam spent all of 2012 with A+ Wilmington, and although he failed to end the season with a win-loss record at, or above, .500 (as was the case in 2011), as stated, he improved statistically in nearly every category that he, himself, could control. (I feel the win-loss record is overrated anyway.)
It's likely that Adam will begin the 2013 season at AA Northwest Arkansas, however, that won't be determined until late March. No matter where Adam begins 2013, if he can continue to develop into the pitcher he's capable of becoming, it shouldn't be all that terribly long before he's on the mound up in Kansas City, pitching for his hometown Royals.
Jason Adam–top 10 prospect in the Kansas City Royals organization–took the time recently to answer some of my questions:
1.) At the beginning of last season you stated that you were looking to do a better job in 2012 of controlling the running game, along with consistently locating your three pitches. For the most part, you seemed to do just that this past season. What do you feel allowed you to accomplish those goals?
I think all that it really took was a little bit of effort. Controlling the run game is something that you can do regardless of talent level. And as far as consistently locating all 3 pitches, part of the improvement was due to another year of pitching under my belt. I also had a much higher focus level in all my bullpens and playing catch every day.
2.) Being ranked as one of the top 10 prospects in the Royals' organization, does it have any affect on you, in terms of living up to the expectations?
I try not to pay too much attention to the prospect rankings at all. My goal is not to be a top prospect, it is to be a top MLB pitcher. If I focus on the goals I set for myself, and what the Royals organization wants me to do, then all the rest will take care of itself.
3.) Is there any one stat that you pay attention to throughout the season? Or do you try to steer clear of them altogether?
I generally try to ignore my stats until the season is over. I don't want thoughts of lowering my ERA clogging my head when I'm not throwing well, and I especially don't want to get a big ego when things are going well for me. Pride comes right before the fall. I do like to look at minor stats such as first pitch strike percentage and off speed pitch percentage, because those are things I feel I can make improvements on between starts.
4.) You seemed to have a close team this past season. Do you feel your relationship with your teammates off the field transfers onto the field, in terms of playing together as a team?
I absolutely believe that a close team off the field leads to winning on the field. If you look at all the championship teams and talk to all the players, they almost always talk about how close their clubhouse was. It just makes the game more fun and when you can play the game thinking about what you can do to best serve your team instead of best serving yourself, then the results will always be better.
5.) Talk a little bit about life on the road. What's the most difficult aspect of it? What do you do to pass the time? And although you're playing the game you love, does it ever get old?
I don't mind life on the road too bad. I can sleep on the bus pretty well, so most the trips don't seem too terribly long. If I'm not sleeping I'll just listen to music and stare out the window. It keeps me entertained enough. The only part I really don't like is the constant packing and unpacking and basically living out of a suitcase. None of it has gotten old to me yet. And I don't see it getting old, because hopefully before I have time to get sick of it I will be in the big leagues where travel is pretty luxurious to say the least. I'm very blessed to get paid to play the game that I love, so remembering how lucky I am helps me keep from getting sick of the travel.
6.) Obviously the ultimate goal, as it is for every MiLB player, is to make it to the big leagues. What would it mean to you to make it to the majors? (Especially with the added aspect of playing for your hometown team.)
Thinking about making it to the big leagues, with my hometown team the Royals, gives me the chills every time. It's the place and team I grew up dreaming about playing for ever since I can remember. But I don't just want to make it, I want to make it and be a big part of the Royals turning themselves back into a consistent World Series contender, and bring that World Series trophy back to KC.
7.) What was the most memorable moment from the 2012 season?
I would have to say when we clinched a spot in the postseason. We had just won our game, and now all we needed was the other team to lose. We were all huddled in Vance's office around the computer, listening to the game, and when they recorded the last out we went nuts.
8.) What are your plans for the remainder of the offseason to prepare yourself for the 2013 season?
I'm living in Arizona all offseason and training at the Royals' facility in Surprise. My goal is to put on some more good weight and refine my mechanical flaws to bring back the velocity and command that I think I should have. I'll work as hard as I can, and let God take care of the rest.
Big thanks to Jason Adam for taking the time to answer my questions.
You can follow him on twitter: @Jason_Adam9


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Just wanted to let you know we appreciated your help so much! We loved our stay at the condo as well as everybody else. The golf courses were just beautiful and difficult and we loved them all. The golf courses and staff were top notch at every course. Everything went very smooth. Needless to say, we were extremely pleased. Thank you for all your help in providing us with such a great golf package.read more
Thank you so much for your follow-up, and for your guidance once again this year. We have already begun planning for next year. There had been some talk about staying down south and playing some of the courses we have not tried yet one year. But I must tell you, Frank, when we consider the condo, the ocean, the courses, the organization, and your help, we just can't break away from Condo World, even for one trip! That's testament to your group and due diligence. Look forward to continuing our great relationship!read more
It was great to finally meet you after all these years. The trip was a resounding success and everybody in the group had an absolute blast! Thanks you so much as always for your help in putting it all together. Sincerely appreciate all your advice and recommendations! You have never once steered me wrong! Looking forward to the next trip!read more
Just a quick thank you...the week was great, the accommodations, the golf courses, the ease in which it was all handled. My golf buddies were quite impressed. We anticipate this will be a yearly event. Have a great and successful season. I look forward to your assistance in the future!read more
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Thanks for staying on top of everything. It's hard to find establishments that take care of there customers like you do. Thanks again
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Myself and the boys had another great stay at your facility. I wanted to drop you a line saying thanks for all of your efforts as the package was fantastic. Once we get into Sept I will touch base with you so we can work on another package for 2015. Again, thanks very much!
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Just wanted to follow up on our 2014 trip and start planning for 2015. The trip this year was great - we loved the Rewards Package group of courses. Great courses, conditions were great and wonderful staff. Thanks for the recommendation, it could not have worked out any better.
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Just a quick thank you for the wonderful time we had in North Myrtle Beach (April 27th to May 4th.) Although the weather was just so so, the golfing was amazing. We all loved it very much. Enjoyed all the courses except maybe for Aberdeen, which was exciting (we saw 3 alligators and 1 big snake) and a little tight for our game. The accommodation was spacious and comfortable. We had a great time. I've already been asked to book something for next year, I'm also planning on maybe bringing 8 golfers.
Just wanted to drop a note and let you know we had a another great year... the weather didn't cooperate but we did the best we could under the situation and we now have a couple rain checks for next year. Thanks for all of your help and the room situation was perfect. Hope you guys continue to have a busy year, we will continue to spread the word on how great you and your group are at making the process an easy one.read more
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Just wanted send a short note to thank you and your staff once again for all of your work on our behalf. We modified our trip to include another round of golf as, apparently, we 4 are glutton's for punishment. We are looking forward to 5 rounds of superior golf with you next week, some of MB's nicest restaurants, and all of the amenities that a trip of this kind offers.Thank you again for your kindness and professionalism.
I just wanted to get back to you to let you know that we had a great time on our golf trip, the condo you gave us at Barefoot resort was simply outstanding, a lot more than what I had expected. Once again the package you arranged for us was terrific and I appreciate all of the time you take to make things as stress free and relaxing for us as possible. Looking forward to dealing with you again in the near future.read more
I wanted to take the time to write you regarding your staff at Condo-World. I have been traveling to Myrtle Beach for 15 years and I have never experienced such professionalism as I have with the Condo-World group! I was so impressed that I would never think of using anyone else but your company. I have been in charge of booking a trip every year for our group and and this was so wonderful and easy.read more
We go on a yearly golf trip and Condo World made all the necessary arrangements. They set all 8 of us up in beautiful oceanfront accommodations and scheduled the golf times and locations wonderfully. This is why we come back year after year!read more
I want to highlight the outstanding customer service I received from your staff. It's more than receiving the great value that you were able to provide. It's HOW you did it. Everyone was positive, warm, friendly and engaging in how they presented themselves. Most importantly though, you've earned my trust and makes me want to come back again.read more
The golf trip was fantastic we all had a great time! The condo at the beach with the view was like the icing on the cake, my friend, you did a an absolutely fantastic job and I am going to recommend you to all my friends and family! All the guys in the group were highly impressed with every aspect of our trip and how well it was coordinated. Thank you again for a great job organizing our first trip to Myrtle Beach, we plan on coming back many more times!read more
I just wanted to say thank you again for all the help in setting up my golf package. The courses were exactly what I expected them to be, beautiful and challenging... Once again I had a fantastic time in Myrtle Beach and look forward to another return.read more
My group and I just wanted to send a short note to thank you for the great job you did in coordinating our recent golf trip. Between the way you handled the arrangements, the accommodations, and the overall course conditions, everybody said this was probably our best golf trip to Myrtle Beach. We've been coming since 1982, so we have quite a bit of experience to make comparisons. Again...the entire group thanks you for your excellent service!read more
Just wanted to send a quick email to let you know my golf party and I had a wonderful time on our Myrtle golf trip 5/20-5/24. The penthouse at Barefoot was amazing and conveniently located to everything...we'd like to stay in that same unit again next year. I appreciate everything you did to help put a memorable trip together and look forward to working with you again for next year.read more
Just wanted to let everyone at Condo-World know how much we enjoyed our stay last week. Our condo was excellent and the golfing was great! Our group is already talking about our trip for next year!read more
We had a great time as usual. Everything went off like clockwork. We enjoyed all the courses we played. The folks at the Pearl treated us like they really appreciated us being there and the courses were awesome. You guys do a great job as always. Thank you so much!read more
First, I'd like to thank you for your patience, cooperation, and understanding as you worked on our package. I appreciate your accommodating spirit and attitude through all the waffling of my guys; seriously, I can't thank your company enough!read more
I just wanted to report back that our group had a fantastic time last weekend in Myrtle Beach. Conditions at all three Legends courses and the Heritage were near perfect. Thanks for helping us out again and I will be talking to you around December to set up our trip for next year.read more
THIS WAS THE ABSOLUTE BEST GOLFING VACATION THAT WE HAVE EVER HAD!!! We will definitely be back. You can quote me on that.read more
Our group had a wonderful time. The condos were very nice as well as the golf courses. It was nice being able to send one guy into the pro-shop to check in our group when you have a group of 8. Checking in at the courses went smoothly. We where on the tee within 20 minutes after pulling into the parking lot.read more
Good Price, Good Accommodations, Nice Golf Courses. Easy to book thru phone or by the internet!read more
I really appreciated the fact that a representative from your office called me personally after the first day to make sure everything was okay and if I needed anything else while I was in town. You guys really are the best.read more
Simply the best golf vacation experience I could have hoped for. From the initial reservation contact to the very last day. Everything was top-drawer. Thank you!read more
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subset: commoncrawl


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Every new Samsung flagship is quickly followed by a shotgun blast of variants, in keeping with Samsung's "flood the market" hardware development strategy. Develop a flagship phone to appeal to most people (this year, the Galaxy S5), and then follow it with similar-but-distinct phones to fill every possible niche.Enter the Galaxy S5 Active. We liked the Galaxy S4 Active when we reviewed it last year, mostly because it added some much-needed sturdiness to Samsung's slippery plastic and because it was waterproofed. While it had most of the same speedy internals of the S4, it also used an LCD display panel instead of AMOLED, a nice option for people who don't care for the latter screen technology. In short, the S4 Active was different enough from the vanilla S4 to be worth a look, but not so different that it lacked all the S4's most appealing features (a problem with variants like the S4 Mini).
But the Galaxy S5 is already waterproof. Its back already moves away from the smooth, slidey plastic of older Galaxy phones. AMOLED screen technology has improved to the point where it's not really any worse in direct sunlight than an LCD screen (and the S5 Active includes the same 1080p AMOLED display as the regular S5, anyway). Is this year's Active variant still worth a look, or will most people be better served by the standard S5?
What's the same?
|Specs at a glance: Samsung Galaxy S5 Active
|1920×1080 5.1"(432 ppi) AMOLED
|Android KitKat 4.4.2 with Touchwiz
|2.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801
|Adreno 330
|16GB with MicroSD slot
|Dual-band, two-stream 802.11b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
|Micro USB 2.0, headphones
|16MP rear camera with Phase Detection AF, 2MP front camera,
|5.72" x 2.89" x 0.35" (145.3mm x 73.4mm x 8.9mm)
|6 ounces (170.1g)
|2800 mAh
|Starting price
|$200 on contract, $660 unlocked
|Other perks
|RBG notification LED, IrLED, NFC
The S5 Active is substantially the same phone as the regular S5. It's got the same 2.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 SoC, the same 2GB of RAM, the same 2,800mAh removable battery and SD card slot, the same two-stream 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity options, the same 1080p AMOLED display, the same 16MP front and 2MP rear cameras, the same build of Android 4.4.2 with the same flatter, less-offensive TouchWiz skin laid over top, and even the same semi-accurate, not-all-that-useful heart rate sensor on the back (whew).
For all benchmarks, battery life tests, sample photos, and other spec-related observations, I'll point you to our review of the regular S5. The short version is that the phone consistently ties or beats its other $199-with-contract peers in performance, and it lasts for nearly 11 hours in our Wi-Fi browsing test. We've reprinted a few charts from that review below; a few spot checks confirms that the S5 Active should perform identically in all circumstances.
What changes?
One small difference is that the S5 Active's three buttons are all physical, rather than the mix of physical and capacitive buttons you get in the regular S5. The Home button in the Active is missing the fingerprint scanner from the regular S5, but it's the only major feature you're missing.
The phone's main attraction is its thicker, sturdier, more robust casing. Like the vanilla S5, it's dustproof and waterproof when submerged in up to three feet of water for up to 30 minutes. The thicker case makes it "shock-resistant when dropped from four feet onto a flat surface," according to AT&T's product page. The S5 Active is all-matte plastic on the back and sides, and the corners of the phone in particular are larger and reinforced with small bumpers that should help keep the inside protected. The top, bottom, and side edges of the phone are covered with small divots that make the phone a bit easier to grip—it actually feels better to hold than the standard S5 despite the increase in size.
Also gone is the bumpy Band-Aid back from the original S5, replaced by a flat, matte plastic panel. Pry up that panel and you'll reveal the phone's SD card slot, SIM tray, and battery, and on the back side you'll see the small rubber ring that protects all of those components from water when the phone is submerged (a plastic-and-rubber stopper over the USB 2.0 port on the bottom also protects the innards from liquid—there's no USB 3.0 here, another small change from the regular S5).
The S5 Active is only available in three colors, and while the back is removable it can't work with back covers designed for the original S5. Our review loaner is the "Camo Green" version, and the camouflage pattern is frankly a bit too faux-macho for my taste. Both "Titanium Gray" and "Ruby Red" are more reserved.
The last trade-off you make to get that sturdier chassis is that the phone is larger, thicker, and heavier than the vanilla S5. It's an extra 25g heavier, about a millimeter thicker, one millimeter wider, and three millimeters taller. The original S5 is a little smaller and lighter than the HTC One M8, and the S5 Active is a little larger and heavier (though the grippy S5 Active is easier to hold onto than the smooth M8).
Also, we dropped it on the floor a few times from roughly chest height. It was no worse for the wear. We wouldn't go throwing it against the wall on purpose but the bumpers seem to be doing their job.
Just not different enough
Ultimately, the biggest problem with the S5 Active is that it's no longer different enough than the regular S5 to be worth considering. The vanilla phone is going to be compatible with a wider range of accessories, and you've got your choice of carrier since the S5 is available essentially everywhere from everyone. Like the S4 Active before it, the S5 Active is AT&T-only.
Given the similarities between the S5 Active and the vanilla S5, for most people we'd recommend getting the standard edition of the phone and putting it in a case if you want extra protection. The good thing about having a separate case is that if you drop the phone, the case absorbs the damage while leaving the phone underneath relatively undamaged—in the long run, this will be good for extending the useful life of your phone and increasing its resale value. That's not true when your phone is your case.
The good
- Sturdy casing that's actually pretty nice to hold.
- Most of the good stuff from the S5, including the bright colorful screen and the fast internals.
The bad
- Lacks fingerprint scanner and USB 3.0 port. Neither is the vanilla S5's best feature, so the loss isn't debilitating.
- "Camo green" is not our color.
The ugly
- AT&T exclusive, for the second year running.
Listing image by Andrew Cunningham


text: The NEW Rokinon 16mm Ultra Wide Angle F/2.0 Aspherical Lens is Rokinons newest addition to its assortment of high quality, affordable, prime lenses. The new 16mm lens is designed for cameras with APS-C crop frame sensors. Its build and construction are superb! The lens is constructed of 13 elements in 11 groups and features 2 aspherical lens elements. All of these lens elements combine to minimize distortion and chromatic aberrations. The lens also features a removable hood and takes a 77mm filter. Your pictures are sure to come out razor sharp and clear, even at the corners! The Rokinon 16mm lens features a remarkable 83.1-Degree angle of view on APS-C cameras and 67.6-Degree on 4/3 cameras. The lens is available for the following mounts: Canon EOS, Nikon, Sony Alpha, Pentax, Canon M, Sony E-Mount, Micro 4/3, Fuji X and Samsung NX. The Nikon mount features a built-in AE chip for auto aperture, exposure and metering with your camera.


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Christian Youth Challenge YouTube Blasphemy
More than a month ago, atheists began to blaspheme the existence of God on the popular YouTube network. Today, Christians are turning the tables and taking up the challenge to stand up to their faith in Jesus Christ publicly.
"I'd like to personally praise the Lord for all He does for me," said one young participant in the newly launched "Praise the Lord Challenge" on YouTube. "He's done so much for me and I've only known him a few years."
The Praise the Lord Challenge counters a $25,000 campaign launched before Christmas where atheists, many of whom are young students, videotape their blasphemy, denying the existence of the trinity. "The Blasphemy Challenge" is giving away 1,001 DVDs of the documentary "The God Who Wasn't There" to participants. The only price, the campaign states, is "your soul."
One respondent departed from religion six years ago, he said in his YouTube taping. His grandfather is a preacher and everyone he is related to is "very Christian." Yet ever since his "freedom from religion," he has not looked back, he said as he renounced his belief in God.
With YouTube drawing millions of teens and young adults, the Blasphemy Challenge launched initially as part of the Rational Response Squads war on Christmas - is aimed at young people. The main target audience is the same for the campaigns opposing side.
Mid-January, Michael Mickey launched his own war against the blasphemy challenge on YouTube. Mickey's campaign is appropriately called "The Challenge Blasphemy Project" and under it, the "Praise the Lord Challenge."
"What happens when we take a stand for the Lord?" Mickey said on YouTube, encouraging believers to videotape their love for Christ. "The word of God will bring people to faith in Jesus Christ."
"When we fail to stand," he added, "no good thing comes."
Mickey called Christians to take a stand for the Word of God.
Only a week has passed since the launch of the Praise the Lord Challenge and several Christians have already posted their testimonies, most of them young students.
"I believe every word that's in [the Bible]," said one young respondent as she held the Bible up close to the camera. "Praise God."
"Blasphemy Challenge has seemed to reach a lot of young people, so our hope is we can get youth leaders and pastors ... to try to get young people [particularly] to reach out to that young audience that visits YouTube and demonstrate their faith in the Lord Jesus," said Mickey, according to One News Now.
And the young Christians say they want to make an impact with their message.
"My purpose is to spread the Word and worship Him with every part of me," said one Praise the Lord Challenge respondent. "I've given Him my life, my heart, my very soul. I will never deny my Lord, my Father, my very reason to live."


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Periodontal (gum) disease can cause a number of devastating effects that could eventually lead to tooth loss. However, you may be more prone to a particular effect depending on the individual characteristics of your gums.
There are two basic types of gum tissues or "periodontal biotypes" that we inherit from our parents: thick or thin. These can often be identified by sight — thinner gum tissues present a more pronounced arch around the teeth and appear more scalloped; thicker tissues present a flatter arch appearance. While there are size variations within each biotype, one or the other tends to predominate within certain populations: those of European or African descent typically possess the thick biotype, while Asians tend to possess the thin biotype.
In relation to gum disease, those with thin gum tissues are more prone to gum recession. The diseased tissues pull up and away (recede) from a tooth, eventually exposing the tooth's root surface. Receding gums thus cause higher sensitivity to temperature changes or pressure, and can accelerate tooth decay. It's also unattractive as the normal pink triangles of gum tissue between teeth (papillae) may be lost, leaving only a dark spot between the teeth or making the more yellow-colored root surface visible.
While thicker gum tissues are more resilient to gum recession, they're more prone to the development of periodontal pockets. In this case, the slight gap between teeth and gums grows longer as the infected tissues pull away from the teeth as the underlying bone tissue is lost. The resulting void becomes deeper and more prone to infection and will ultimately result in further bone loss and decreased survivability for the tooth.
Either of these conditions will require extensive treatment beyond basic plaque control. Severe gum recession, for example, may require grafting techniques to cover exposed teeth and encourage new tissue growth. Periodontal pockets, in turn, must be accessed and cleaned of infection: the deeper the pocket the more invasive the treatment, including surgery.
Regardless of what type of gum tissue you have, it's important for you to take steps to lower your risk of gum disease. First and foremost, practice effective daily hygiene with brushing and flossing to remove bacterial plaque, the main cause of gum disease. You should also visit us at least twice a year (or more, if you've developed gum disease) for those all important cleanings and checkups.
If you would like more information on hereditary factors for gum disease, please contact us or schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can also learn more about this topic by reading the Dear Doctor magazine article "Genetics & Gum Tissue Types."


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1960s Braun T520 Radio by Dieter Rams » See more images
1960s Braun SK6 Record Player by Dieter Rams » See more images
1970s Calendar clock origins unknown » See more images
Vintage design? Don't mind if I do. These three pieces are collectables that were for sale on eBay not long ago. I actually think the clock and Braun T520 Radio (which I'd love to have) are still available. Check out the knobs and dials on them. The Braun radio and record player are definitely the must haves.


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Conference Tournament Primer: Big West ConferencePosted by Tommy Lemoine on March 13th, 2014
Championship Fortnight continues with the last five conference tourneys tipping off today, so what better way to get you through the final push of games than to break down each of the Other 26′s postseason events. Today, the O26 tourneys starting are the Big Sky, Big West, Sun Belt and WAC.
Dates: March 13-15
Site: Honda Center (Anaheim, CA)
What to expect: The Big West pecking order finally sorted itself out in the final month of the season, as UC Irvine – league favorites entering 2013-14 – captured the title over UC Santa Barbara and grabbed the top seed in Anaheim. The Anteaters are a stingy defensive unit that holds opponents to the lowest effective field goal percentage in the country, and enters the tournament having won nine of its last 10 games. They will be the slight favorites this week. However, UC Santa Barbara, Long Beach State and Hawaii were all competitive this season and each will be capable of making a championship run, or at the very least knocking off UCI. The champs will meet the fourth-seeded Warriors on Friday if both advance to the semifinals, which could mean drama: They split a pair of overtime thrillers in the regular season, including one that featured a half-court, haltime buzzer-beater and a crazy game-tying bank shot. Likewise, LBSU pushed Russell Turner's club to the brink twice this year, losing two games by a combined five points. It's the Gauchos, though – led by brawny center Alan Williams, who averages 21.0 points, 11.0 rebounds and two blocks per night – that will be the Anteaters' strongest threat in the Honda Center. KenPom suggests they are almost identically-matched teams, and Williams shredded UCI for 26 points, 10 rebounds and three steals back in January. The next three days should be interesting.
Favorite: UC Irvine. The Anteaters will be slightly favored this week, if only because their quarterfinal opponent, UC Riverside, is easily the worst team in the tournament. Beyond that, it's probably a toss-up between UCI and UCSB.


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TAMPA, Fla. — Five years after soaring into the limelight as one of the nation's fastest growing college football programs, the South Florida Bulls are struggling to become relevant again.
An uncharacteristic 2-3 start has drawn attention to a shaky won-loss record that suggests USF's meteoric rise not only has leveled off, but is in gradual decline.
The Bulls have yet to win a Big East title, much less flirt again with the level of success they achieved while climbing to No. 2 in the country in October 2007.
Skip Holtz's team dropped its conference opener to Rutgers last month and returns to league play Saturday at Temple hoping to end a three-game skid that includes a road slipup at Ball State and last week's 13-point home loss to then fourth-ranked Florida State.


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Welcome to this week's edition of Mystery Mondays. This week, author Will Macmillan Jones is here. You can probably tell by the cover, Demon's Reach – 5th in the series – falls under the horror category.
Demon's Reach will be released Oct, 20 2017 but you can pre-order now. Congratulation, Will!
The first in the series is The Showing.
Will is shares his journey in writing and along the way gives us his take on a successful mystery.
What makes a Mystery Successful
By Will Macmillan Jones
Come on admit it: we all love a mystery. There's the challenge of trying to outguess the author by picking up clues too early*; the sneaky pleasure of realising that you were right all along where other readers would have failed to identify the killer so soon – more commonly achieved on the second or third reading of a book, in my personal experience; the satisfaction in a decent denoument; and (hopefully) appreciation of the author's skill in hiding the real villain of the piece until almost the last minute through careful misdirection.
It is the reason Agatha Christie was so successful. Many of her books have, with some justification, been accused of being formulaic: but all the factors for a satisfying reading experience are there in every book. Be it Poirot, or Miss Marple – the reader knows that the main character will uncover the truth, whether or not the perpetrator is ever brought to justice. In fact, the latter point is usually the least important (with the honourable exception of Christie's book Nemesis, which is all about Justice, with a capital J), and the intellectual chase is the main point of the book.
This is where mysteries are a step removed from most crime novels, where the murderer is sometimes revealed early, to allow the reader to focus on the efforts of the Detective to uncover the truth. Wire in The Blood, a highly successful crime novel by Val McDiarmid (another successful novel transferred to TV by the way) is a great example, while Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse novels are more akin to a Christie style with the perpetrator hidden for as long as possible.
Next up are the new generation of 'Cosy Mysteries'. I've read more than a few of these, and while the crimes involved are frequently less grisly than Christie's favoured felonies, for me they feel like the direct descendant of the tradition of Miss Marple, where an innocent (for a given value of innocent!) and certainly non professional character with no real police connections both uncovers and then solves the crime, all in a quite genteel way.
A successful mystery novel may, but does not need, to hide the malefactor. This is just as well for me, when we move a little outside the comfortable zone I have considered so far, then we can move over to some of the darker stories around. Stephen King is normally considered just as a writer of horror, but that really isn't strictly true. The supernatural forms a significant theme in a number of his books – Needful Things is a great example, and of course his breakthrough book Carrie, but several are mystery stories in their own right – although the characters involved may not be human, or even alive. Bag of Bones is the example I'd chose here.
Then of course we meet Dennis Wheatley, an author both revered and reviled in equal measure, mostly by people who have never read his work. For the record, he always describes the Black Magic he portrays as fundamentally wrong, and something to be avoided at all costs – and Evil never triumphs in his work, which always seems to me to be fundamentally highly moralistic. But besides the mystery of the abuse thrown his way, there are the mysteries portrayed in his books.
When I decided that I needed a change from writing humour, another niche genre to horror and carrying its own rules and challenges (not the least of which is finding readers!), I knew that I wanted to write in the paranormal genre. Not Romance, of course, anything but that! I loathe sparkly vampires and not-very-hairy werewolves** who have other designs on attractive men or women than ripping their throats out. Besides, as my ex would tell you at great length if you were to ask her, I am one of the most unromantic people to ever walk the earth. My last publisher once invited me to a Romance Writers Convention, probably after reading my work Bass Instinct, which was written just after my ex and I had parted, an event that might have somewhat coloured my views on Romance. I digress. Sorry.
Anyway, I had grown up reading some Dennis Wheatley novels that I had quietly removed from my Grandfather's library without my parents' knowledge, and worked out that while the settings of the novels were reliably Gothic and Magical and very dark, the story in each novel was fundamentally a mystery. A murder or an abduction perhaps? Illictly gaining money is always a motivating factor, is it not? Both in life (according to the lesser quality of newspapers) as well as mystery novels. These were in Wheatley's books, I was delighted to discover when I started rereading them. As, inevitably, was the desire for Power. In fact, all the myriad of vices known to the human race could become the subject of a novel, viewed through the right prism. Just, of course, as they are in conventional mystery or detective stories. The paranormal just adds an extra dimension and offers an opportunity for the writer to deceive the reader in fresh and unexpected ways.
That was the great pleasure that, as a writer, I found in sailing blithely into the Paranormal Mystery genre. The joy for the reader is, in any mystery, accepting the challenge laid down by the author; and trying to discover the hidden secret of the novel from the clues laid out before the reader in the text. The joy for the writer lies in setting out these clues, and then using misdirection and red herrings to conceal the truth of the mystery for as long as possible. Hopefully to the final chapter. Adding the Paranormal into the mix gives the writer many, many more opportunities to have fun!
And of course, to offer the reader a few frights, chills and scary delights along the way. If I make you go to sleep with the lights on for a night or two, well that's my bonus payment for the labour involved in writing the book, isn't it?
*I have a friend, a well known author with an Amazon released film or two to her credit, who writes the first draft of a novel, and then rewites it to change the identity of the killer in an effort to prevent readers catching on.
** Ooops. Just alienated a huge potential audience, there, I suspect. But I'm a bit of a traditionalist and like my monsters to be more evil than your local Bank Manager or Traffic Enforcement Officer.
Who is Will Macmillan Jones?
Will Macmillan Jones lives in Wales, a lovely green, verdant land with a rich cultural heritage. He does his best to support this heritage by drinking the local beer and shouting loud encouragement whenever International Rugby is on the TV. A just turned sixty lover of blues, rock and jazz he has now fulfilled a lifetime ambition by filling an entire wall of his home office with (full) bookcases. When not writing, he is usually lost with the help of a satnav on top of a large hill in the middle of nowhere, looking for dragons. He hasn't found one yet, but insists that it is only a matter of time.
When not performing as an oral storyteller and poet, he writes Dark Fantasy, fantasy he fantasises is funny, and books for children. Some of his pieces have won awards but he doesn't like to talk about that as it draws attention to the fact that other pieces haven't.
Will Macmillan Jones is responsible for the 'Mister Jones Mysteries' collection of books, released through Red Kite Publishing. The latest, Demon's Reach, will be released on 20 October 2017. They are available in both paperback and all ebook formats.


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Cincinnati Bengals offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth is still hot about the scuffle that broke out during Sunday's convincing win over the Oakland Raiders.
Whitworth fully expects to be fined after he and Raiders defenders Tommy Kelly and Lamarr Houston were ejected for the fourth-quarter chaos. Money is one thing, but Whitworth is more irritated over Raiders players he says hit him and gouged his eyes during the melee.
"I'd hope there would be guys on their team that would address that, but it is what it is," Whitworth told The Associated Press. "You've got guys that want to make names for themselves and can't, and then they get frustrated. It's their opportunity to do something they feel and be tough, but that ain't tough. Face-to-face is tough.
"Most of those guys, they are what they are -- they're cowards. And if they really wanted to have an issue with you, they'd address you. But they obviously don't."
The fight started after Houston dropped Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton to ground on a fourth-quarter play called dead for a false-start penalty. Whitworth then went after Houston and all hell broke loose. Whitworth said he found himself under a pile where Oakland players clawed at his eyes.
"I haven't watched the film," he said. "If I watch it, I'll go find those people, so I really don't want to know."
Dalton defended his lineman this week, saying he was thankful to have a player like Whitworth watching his back. The behemoth says he'd do it all over again.
"I would still confront the guy," Whitworth said. "And what I still believe -- and why I called those guys cowards -- is Lamarr Houston and I simply grabbed each other and were shoving, and that's all it would have been. But the other guys that jumped in and started swinging and throwing a bunch of punches and doing things to try to get ahold of us -- that were taking cheap shots on me -- that's what makes it a fight."


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Longtime State Sen. Brewer Won't Seek Re-Election
Sen. Stephen Brewer will retire when his term expires at the end of 2014, after the Barre Democrat lost a power struggle last year against Majority Leader Sen. Stanley Rosenberg to succeed Senate President Therese Murray.
Brewer, who took over the budget-writing Senate Ways and Means Committee in 2010, has served as a top deputy to Murray with a hand in almost all major pieces of legislation to emerge from the Senate over the past four years. Murray is serving her last term as Senate president and hasn't said whether she will move on from elected office.
But with Rosenberg preparing to take control of the Senate and Brewer's place in the hierarchy uncertain after this year, the 65-year-old has decided to retire after serving in the Legislature for more than three decades.
Brewer arrived on Beacon Hill in 1988 when he was elected to the House of Representatives. He joined the Senate in 1997, where he has helmed various committees over the course of his career, including the Committees on Veterans and Federal Affairs and Natural Resources and Agriculture.
Rosenberg, who lives in Amherst, announced in July that he had secured enough votes among the current membership to succeed Murray when she leaves the Senate or is forced to relinquish her post due to term limits.
At the time, Brewer told the News Service he would "absolutely" be running for re-election in 2014, and said he had no doubt he would be able to work with the new Senate president.
"I'm a cancer survivor. Everyone knows that, and any cancer survivor will tell you that they live from doctor appointment to doctor appointment. I love what I do," Brewer said.
In his announcement Wednesday, Brewer said his long commute to and from Boston was a factor. He said he was "contemplating several ideas although nothing specific at this time. However, teaching, volunteering, travel, working with land trusts and learning the banjo hold specific appeal to me. I have a long bucket list."
Brewer's district encompasses 28 towns west of Worcester stretching from the Connecticut River to the New Hampshire borders.
Before his announcement, Brewer had already drawn two Republican challengers in his Worcester, Hampden, Hampshire and Middlesex district.
After his plans to retire were first reported Wednesday by Boston Magazine, Brewer took a full day before responding to the report, even as one of his opponents seized on the news.
"I want to wish Senator Stephen Brewer well in his future endeavors. In his eighteen years as a state senator and seven years as a state representative, he provided a model of constituent service for other elected officials to follow. As a citizen of the district, I thank him for such service. If elected to succeed him, I will look to his efforts as a guide as to how to provide such constituent service," said James Ehrhard, a member of the Tantasqua Regional School Committee and owner of the law firm of Ehrhard & Associates P.C.
Ehrhard, of Sturbridge, said he and Brewer disagreed on the "proper balance between taxes and spending and the size of government in citizens' lives."
Michael Valanzola, who chairs the Tantasqua Regional School District and previously served as a Wales selectman for two terms, is also running in the Republican primary for Brewer's seat.
In his statement, Brewer said facing opponents in November and the Senate presidency competition "had no bearing on my decision."


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WASHINGTON, July 1, 2010 — Afghan and international security forces conducted numerous operations last night, capturing a Taliban district chief and killing or capturing numerous other insurgents, military officials reported.
A combined Afghan-international force captured the Taliban district chief of Now Zad and killed a large number of insurgents during an operation in Helmand province's remote Baghran district.
Numerous insurgents engaged the combined force with rocket propelled grenades and machine gun fire as the force approached a compound outside the village of Kariz‑e Adamkhan.
Throughout a four-hour fire fight, insurgent forces tried to use homemade bombs against the security force. Precision air fire was used to suppress the attacks.
No civilians or Afghan members of the combined force were killed or wounded, officials said. After the combined force secured the area, servicemembers administered medical aid to several wounded insurgents, including the Taliban district chief. The wounded were evacuated along with several captured insurgents.
Dozens of automatic weapons, RPG launchers and rounds, a machine gun, grenades, and ammunition were discovered, along with 20 pounds of wet opium. The combined force destroyed the weapons and drugs at the scene.
In other operations last night:
— An Afghan-international security force captured a senior Taliban weapons facilitator and a number of suspected insurgents in Kandahar province. The facilitator operated primarily in Kandahar City and Panjwai district, but is believed to have ties to senior Taliban leadership in Helmand and Kandahar provinces. No shots were fired, and security forces protected women and children who were present.
— A combined Afghan-international force detained several suspected insurgents while pursuing a Taliban commander in the Charkh district of Logar province. Afghan forces used a loudspeaker to call for the occupants to exit the targeted compound, and then secured it. After initial questioning, the security force detained the suspected insurgents. No shots were fired, and the security force protected women and children who were present.
— An Afghan-international security force detained several suspected insurgents in the Sabari district of Khost province. The force found multiple automatic weapons, ammunition and grenades. No shots were fired, and the combined force protected women and children who were present.
Compiled from International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Releases


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"You EAT them?" a little boy new to the neighborhood asks. He leans forward for the answer, his face ready to constrict in doubt.
Children already well acquainted with our family's springtime ritual stop picking.
"Yeah!" they eagerly assure him, "They're really good."
They aren't referring to a new vegetable in our garden. They're talking about dandelions.
Herbalists tell us exactly what we need grows nearby. Those plants we call "weeds" may in fact remedy what ails us. They are so common that their properties are easily overlooked in a culture searching for packaged wellness. Plantain, mullein, comfrey,mint, mugwort,St. John's wort, chicory and purslane spring up wild in my untreated lawn and garden. Weeds, but also powerful healers.
Today we're picking dandelions in full flower. It isn't about finding a remedy. For me the harvest is has to do with celebrating spring and affirming the beauty around us. For my children and our neighbors it's about fun. I wait until the blooms are at their peak. Then I call friends and neighbors to announce, "Today is the day!"
Children spread out across the yard holding little baskets. A girl squats in front of each plant, pausing a long moment before she reaches out to pluck a flower from its stem. The oldest boy in the group walks by many dandelion plants to pick only those growing in clusters. And the newest little boy falls silent, as the rest of the children do, taking delight in the seriousness of the harvest.
European settlers brought the dandelion plant to this continent for food and medicinal purposes. The perennial spread easily across most states. It's a testament to the power of herbicide marketers that such a useful plant became so thoroughly despised. Standing under today's blue sky, I look at exuberant yellow rosettes growing in bright green grass and feel sheer aesthetic pleasure.
After the children tire of picking we sit together on the porch and snip off the dandelion stems right up to the flower. We mothers look over their busy heads—blonde, brown, black—and smile as we watch them stay at this task with the kind of close attention children give to real work. One girl remarks that the flowers look like the sun. Another child says her grandmother told her that in the Old Country they call the plant by the same name as milk because of its white sap. The newest boy chooses to line the stems neatly along the wide porch planking, arranging and rearranging them by length.
Every aspect of a ritual holds significance so I pay attention to the warm breeze, the comfortable pulse of friendship, and flowers so soft against my fingers they remind me of a newborn's hair.
When we're done the flowers are rinsed in a colander, then it's time to cook them. I'm not a fan of frying. There are better ways to preserve the flavor and nutrients in food. Consequently I'm not very skilled. But this is easy. The children, their mothers and I drop the flowers in a thin batter, scoop them out with slotted spoons and fry them a dozen at a time in shallow pans.
After the blossoms cool slightly on paper towels they're put on two platters. One is tossed with powdered sugar and cinnamon, the other sprinkled with salt and pepper. Handfuls are eaten in the kitchen while we cook. Then we carry the platters outside. Children run off to play in grass polka dotted with bright yellow flowers. We adults sit on the porch laughing and talking.
It's suggested that we should be eating healthfully prepared dandelion greens and roots rather than indulging in delectable fried blossoms. That sentence fades into a quiet moment as a breeze stirs new leaves on the trees and lifts our children's hair. I feel enlivened. Everywhere, around me and inside me, it is spring.
Flower Power Recipe
Gather dandelion flowers from areas free of chemical treatments or fertilizer. Pick in a sunny part of the day so the flowers are fully open, then prepare right away so flowers don't close.
Cut away stem, as this is bitter, leaving only the green part holding the flower together.
Douse briefly in salt water (to flush out any lurking bugs). Dry flowers on dish towels while you prepare batter.
3 to 4 cups dandelion flowers, prepared as above
1 cup milk (dairy, soy, almond, coconut, any variety)
1 egg (or equivalent egg replacer product)
1 cup flour (slightly smaller amount of any whole grain alternative)
½ teaspoon salt
oil (frying is best with healthful oils which don't break down at high temperatures, try safflower oil, coconut oil or olive oil)
1. Combine milk, egg, flour and salt in wide bowl. Mix well. Heat an inch or two of oil in skillet (350-375 degrees).
2. Drop a dozen or so blossoms into the batter, stir gently to coat. Lift out with slotted spoon or fork. It's best to hold the bowl over the skillet as you drop each blossom into the hot oil.
3. Turn flowers over to brown on both sides. Remove with slotted spatula to drain briefly on paper towels. Continue to fry remaining flowers using same steps. Toss cooked dandelions with sugar and cinnamon. Or salt and your choice of savory flavoring such as garlic, pepper or chili powder.
4. Making flower fritters is a speedier method than frying individual flowers. Simply drop flowers and batter into the oil by the spoonful, then turn like a pancake. Serve with jam, maple syrup or honey. Or try savory toppings like mustard, ketchup or barbeque sauce. These fritters are endlessly adaptable. Try adding sunflower or sesame seeds to the batter and serve with either the sweet or savory toppings.
What You May Not Know About Dandelions
The common dandelion, Taraxacum officinal, has been used in traditional medical systems around the world to boost nutrition as well as treat conditions of the liver, kidney and spleen; slow abnormal growths; improve digestion and more. Recently science has taken a closer look at this often scorned plant. No surprise, traditional wisdom holds up under scrutiny.
~Dandelion root stimulates the growth of 14 strains of bifidobacteria.1 This is good news, because bifidobacteria aid in digestion. Their presence in the gut is correlated with a lower incidence of allergies.2
~Dandelions appear to fight cancer. Researchers testing for biologically active components to combat cancer proliferation and invasion note that dandelion extracts have value as "novel anti-cancer agent[s]." Their studies show dandelion leaf extract decreases growth of certain breast cancer cells and blocks invasion of prostate cancer. The root extract blocks invasion of other specific breast cancer cells3 and also shows promise inhibiting skin cancer. 4
~Dandelions work as an anti-inflammatory and pain relieving agent.5
~Dandelion extract lowers cholesterol. This, plus its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant qualities leads some researchers to believe that the plant may reduce the risk of atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries).6
~The plant's leaves are an effective diuretic.7
~Dandelion shows promise in diabetic treatment. It slows the glycemic response to carbohydrates, thereby helping to control blood sugar.8
~Dandelion extract increases the action of estrogen and progesterone receptors. It may prove to be a useful treatment for reproductive hormone-related problems including PMS.9
~ Leaves, roots and flowers of the humble dandelion are fully edible. USDA National Nutrient Database analysis proves that a festive array of nutrition awaits any lawn harvester. One cup of chopped fresh dandelion greens are extremely rich in vitamins K, A and C as well as good source of vitamin E, thiamin, riboflavin, vitamin B6, calcium, iron, ,magnesium, manganese, fiber and omega-3 fatty acids.10
The flavonoids found in dandelions are valuable antioxidants and free radical scavengers.11
1 I. Trojanova, V. Rada, L. Kokoska, E. Vikova, "The Bifidogenic Effect of Taraxacum Officinale Root," Fitoterapia vol 75 issue 7/8 (December 2004), 760-763. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15567259 (accessed 8-29-09)
2 Bengt Bjorksten, Epp Sepp, Kaja Julge, Tiia Voor, Marika Mikelsaar, "Allergy Development and the Intestinal Microflora During the First Year of Life," The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology vol 108 issue 4 (October 2001), 516-520. http://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(01)96140-8/abstract (accessed 8-29-09)
3 S.C.Sigstedt, C.J. Hooten, M.C. Callewaert, A.R. Jenkins, A.E. Romera, M.J. Pullin, A. Korneinko, T.K. Lowrey, S.V. Slambrouck, W.F. Steelant, "Evaluation of Aqueous Extracts of Taraxacum Officinale on Growth and Invasion of Breast and Prostate Cancer Cells," International Journal of Oncologyvol 32, num 5 (May 2008), 1085-1090. http://www.spandidos-publications.com/ijo/article.jsp?article_id=ijo_32_5_1085 (accessed 8-30-09).
4 M. Takasaki, T. Konoshima, H. Tokuda, K. Masuda, Y. Arai, K. Shiojima, H. Ageta, "Anti-carcinogenic Activity of Taraxacum Plant," Biological & Pharmaceutical Bulletin vol 22, 6 (June 1999), 602-605. http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.cpl.org/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=108&sid=b7ce94b0-1484-4aef-a5a8-73e1efddb194%40sessionmgr104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=cmedm&AN=10408234 (accessed 9-1-09).
5 H.J. Jeon, H.J. Kang, H.J. Jung, Y.S. Kang, C.J. Lim, Y.M Kim, E.H. Park, Anti-inflammatory Activity of Taraxacum Officinale," Journal of Ethnopharmacology vol. 115, 1 (January 2008), 82-88. http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.cpl.org/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=108&sid=4b56dd3a-f9b3-4444-b85d-80d79eb1f3ce%40replicon103&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=cmedm&AN=17949929 (accessed 9-1-09).
6 Jinju Kim, Kyunghee Noh, Mikyung Cho, Jihyun Jang, Youngsun Song, "Anti-oxidative, Anti-inflammatory and Anti-Atherogenic Effects of Dandelion (Taraxacum Officinale) Extracts in c57BL/6 Mice Fed Atherogenic Diet," FASEB Journal vol 21, issue 6 (April 2007), 1122. http://wf2dnvr17.webfeat.org/aNuiM141/url=http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=5&sid=a168be9f-0a5c-41c6-b86d-2a9c3677c6f4%40sessionmgr4&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=25598840 (accessed 9-1-09).
7 Bevin A. Clare, Richard S. Conroy, Kevin Spelman, "The Diuretic Effect in Human Subjects of an Extract of Taraxacum Officinale Rolium Over a Single Day," Journal of Alternative & Complementary Medicine vol 15, issue 8 (August 2009), 929-934. http://wf2dnvr17.webfeat.org/aNuiM14/url=http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=9&sid=a26346e7-f010-44fc-88ea-891214f7539a%40sessionmgr10&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=43671001 (accessed 9-1-09).
8 Secil Onal, Suna Timur, Burcu Okutucu, Figen Zihnioglu, "Inhibition of a-Glucosidase by Aqueous Extracts of Some Potent Antidiabetic Medicinal Herbs," Preparative Biochemistry & Biotechnology vol 35, issue 1 (February 2005), 29-36. http://wf2dnvr17.webfeat.org/aNuiM141/url=http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=8&hid=104&sid=982fd009-501c-4a90-9ce3-7d5475b2ed05%40sessionmgr4&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=16133864 (accessed 9-1-09).
9 Zhi Xu, Ken-Ichi Honda, Koji Ozaki, Takuya Misugi, Toshiyuki Sumi, Osamu Ishiko, "Dandelioin T-1 Extract Up-regulates Reproductive Hormone Receptor Expression in Mice," International Journal of Molecular Medicine volume 20, 3 (2007) 287-292. http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=19007317 (accessed 8-27-09).
10 USDA Agricultural Research Service, USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 21, (2008) NDB # 11207 http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/cgi-bin/list_nut_edit.pl (accessed 9-1-09).
11 Hu C. Kitts, "Dandelion (Taraxacum Officinale) Flower Extract Suppresses Both Reactive Oxygen Species and Nitric Oxide and Prevents Lipid Oxidation in Vitro," Phytomedicine 12, 8 (August 2005), 588-597. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16121519?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=2&log$=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed (accessed 9-1-09).
This post is reprinted from an article that first appeared in Natural Life Magazine.


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Bob Sneller: A few life's lessons
A popular saying these days seems to be, "It is what it is."
I don't know who first made this profound discovery.
I DO know that, looking back over the years, it also "was what it was."
Not only that, but there is a very good chance that it "will be what it will be" in the future.
Back in the day, there was a song, "Que sera', sera'"…. the future's not ours to see … whatever will be, will be … que' sera', sera'." Remember?
After that little introductory trip down Memory Lane, let us examine how what parents say teaches and influences their children.
When I was a boy, my father was very strict. But now I realize how many valuable lessons I learned from him and I will be eternally grateful to him.
When he thundered, "Don't you EVER let me catch you doing that again!" he taught me to be more careful.
When he explained "why" with, "Because I SAID so, that's why!" he taught me logic.
When he exclaimed, "You'd better pray that mess will come out of the carpet," he taught me religion.
When Dad said, "You'd better straighten up or I'll knock you into the middle of next week," he taught me good posture and an awareness of how fast time can travel.
When he said, "Be sure to wear clean underwear in case you have an accident," he taught me to be prepared.
When he said, "If you keep on crying, I'll give you something to cry about," he taught me what irony is.
When he said, "Look at all that dirt on the back of your neck," he taught me about contortionism.
When he said, "You are not leaving the table until you eat all your cauliflower," he taught me about stamina.
When he said, "If I've told you once, I've told you a billion times, not to exaggerate," he taught me about hypocrisy and hyperbole.
When he said, "When that lawnmower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me," he taught me to have a sense of humor.
When he said, "When you have children of your own, you will see things differently," he taught me justice.
As the presidential race continues to heat up, Olaf Drywitt called to discuss it.
OLAF: All the candidates keep calling for CHANGE!! They already have all my dollars, and now they want my CHANGE, too?!?
Olaf wanted me to write an encouraging note to his grandson, who is in the hospital.
ME: Sure. What's your grandson's name?
OLAF: Mark.
ME: Is that Mark with a "k" or Marc with a "c"?
OLAF: That's Mark with a capital "M."
A man with no ears was interviewing three people to be his chief office assistant.
He was very sensitive about not having any ears and he was going to make sure to hire the applicant who best shared his sensitivity.
So, he decided to give the job to which one of the three applicants gave the most sensitive answer to his question, "Do you think there is anything unusual about me?"
Here were their answers:
APPLICANT NUMBER ONE: Yes, I notice you don't have any ears.
He was dismissed from further consideration.
APPLICANT NUMBER TWO: Only that you have no ears.
She, too, was eliminated.
APPLICANT NUMBER THREE: The only thing unusual I see is that you are wearing contact lenses.
The third applicant was hired.
A week later, the boss asked his new assistant how he knew he wore contacts.
APPLICANT NUMBER THREE: Well, I figured a guy with no ears would HAVE to be wearing contact lenses.
Neosho Daily News


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By JUANA SUMMERS AND AUSTIN WRIGHT
The defense industry's glory days on Capitol Hill are coming to an end.
The last year has been a tough one for some of the industry's stalwarts. In December, the defense establishment lost Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), a Medal of Honor recipient who then chaired both the Senate Appropriations Committee and its subcommittee on defense.
Just last month Rep. Bill Young (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, died. And a few days later, former Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), a long-time leader of the House Armed Services Committee, died nearly three years after he was defeated for reelection.
Still ahead is the pending retirement of Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee who has announced he's not seeking reelection next year.
"It really is the end of an era," said John Ullyot, a Republican strategist who was a spokesman for then-Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), a long-serving chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Interviews with more than a half-dozen industry insiders and former congressional aides found similar sentiments.
Loren Thompson, who directs the Lexington Institute, called it "a new world for the defense industry on Capitol Hill." And Powell Moore, an assistant secretary of defense under President George W. Bush, agreed.
"The level of support for the Defense Department and our national security that you got from those leaders is going to be difficult to duplicate," Moore said.
The consequences of the defense brain drain are still unfolding. But they could be a gut punch to an industry already hard hit by sequestration and general budget tightening, said Mackenzie Eaglen, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Calling the shift a "startling and rapid descent of knowledge by sitting members of Congress," Eaglen told POLITICO there's "no doubt that this has significant short- and long-term consequences for the defense industrial base," the Pentagon and the military.
"The Pentagon is already seeing the effects of this diminishing bloc of members. They are no longer large enough to sway major votes in one direction or another. This means that leadership has to put defense farther back in the long line of issues to prioritize," Eaglen said. "Further, this hurts the committees of jurisdiction, particularly the authorizers. Their influence and status are at risk."
For the first time, there are no longer any World War II veterans in the Senate. The last — Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) — died in June.
"We're seeing sort of the passing of a generation, the passage of a torch in a very real sense," said Dan Stohr, a spokesman for the Aerospace Industries Association. "When Sen. Inouye died, that was a tremendous loss of a person who had served in the military for a very long time and then had served both in Congress and in the Senate for a very long time."
And Moore, who left the Defense Department in 2004, also noted the dwindling ranks of military experience in Congress. "Experience matters in any endeavor," he said.
The void is likely to remain, as the candidates running to replace some of the defense giants, are not steeped in military affairs.
In Florida's 13th Congressional District, Young's former general counsel, David Jolly, has entered the race to succeed the late congressman with the support of Young's widow, Beverly Young, who has cultivated a reputation as an outspoken veterans' advocate but has decided not to seek the seat herself.
The primary for that special election, Florida Gov. Rick Scott has announced, will be on Jan. 14, with the general election following on March 11.
Joe Marino, the head of the Florida Defense Contractors Association, said that while his group doesn't delve into politics, its members say the uncertainty created with the shifting dynamics in Congress is akin to the pain they feel from sequestration and the series of continuing resolutions that has funded government recently.
"From an industry standpoint, we're just concerned mostly with the now additional level of uncertainty, with regards to leadership and all the changes that are happening up in D.C.," he said. "It adds to the level of uncertainty. Any business trying to make business decisions about the future, uncertainty is the poison pill because it's very hard to obviously predict what certain decisions may impact that particular business whether they're small, medium or large."
In Michigan, where Levin in not running again, the race is now between Democratic Rep. Gary Peters and former Republican Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, neither with significant defense ties.
via The end of an era for Hill's defense hawks | POLITICO Pro.


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Te Marautanga o Aotearoa is a statement of official policy relating to teaching and learning in Māori-medium schools. Its principal function is to set the direction for student learning and to provide guidance for schools as they design and review their curriculum.
A parallel document, The New Zealand Curriculum , will serve the same function for English-medium schools. Although they come from different perspectives, both start with visions of young people who will develop the competencies they need for study, work, and lifelong learning and go on to realise their potential. Together, the two documents will help schools give effect to the partnership that is at the core of our nation's founding document, Te Tiriti o Waitangi / the Treaty of Waitangi.
The resources you will find on this page include examples from Te Marautanga o Aotearoa website and provide examples of schools actions to support Māori to enjoy education success as Māori.
Filed under: Productive partnerships | Identity Language and Culture | Effective leaders
Yolanda Julies, Principal at Te Kura Reo Rua o Waikirikiri, discusses the importance of establishing a shared understanding and supportive school culture as the school explored the national curriculum documents.
Filed under: Productive partnerships | Effective leaders
The purpose of this project was to deepen the Ministry's understanding of the characteristics of successful whānau and iwi engagement in the development of marautanga-ā-kura.
Filed under: Identity Language and Culture | Effective leaders
Jan Tinetti from Merivale School and Sue Horne from Maungatapu School discuss how they are using both The New Zealand Curriculum document and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa in their schools.
Filed under: Productive partnerships | Identity Language and Culture | Effective leaders | Effective teachers
Te Marautanga o Aotearoa is the Māori medium curriculum, which outlines what students will learn through the medium of Māori language. The curriculum is founded on the Treaty of Waitangi, and is expressed through the vision of students achieving their full potential.


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From the Steakhouses Dining Guide, October 2003
If there was anything more disheartening than the wan exterior of the double porterhouse served at the Connecticut Avenue Morton's, it was the tableside carving: Rather than slicing the strip and the filet and placing the meat in overlapping slices on their respective sides of the bone, the manager separated the two pieces of meat from the bone, cut each into two chunks, and plopped them on the diners' plates. This is no way to treat this costly slab of beef, which was no more tender than a good supermarket steak and yielded no trace of dry-aged flavor.
A porterhouse for one sampled several weeks later at the Georgetown branch of Morton's was similarly disappointing: Unlike those precisely cut bone-in triangles of prime beef that long exemplified Morton's signature steak, this was a curiously gnarled piece of meat for the $34.95 asking price. With a slightly rubbery strip side and a dry, underflavored filet, its texture reflected its outward appearance, which was as beige as the double porterhouse at Connecticut and L. What has happened to the wonderful charred exterior that was the hallmark of Morton's porterhouses?
Morton's house salad–ribbons of romaine heavily coated with a creamy bleu-cheese dressing, scattered with chopped hard-boiled egg, and topped with a pair of crossed anchovy filets–would be more enjoyable were not served at such a frigid temperature. The Caesar salad, served just as cold, is just as dull.
The house version of hash-brown potatoes is golden mass of crunchy potato shreds reminiscent of a French straw-potato pancake. Depending on when you get it–it is made ahead of serving and kept warm–it can be either quite good or rather stale. The mashed potatoes can be improved at table by adding a great deal of butter. The kitchen's rendition of creamed spinach honors this steakhouse classic.
Although Morton's wine list lacks the depth of those at the Prime Rib, Sam & Harry's, and Smith & Wollensky, it offers a serviceable collection of familiar labels from California and abroad.


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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.
Officials are on alert as anarchists threaten to shut down both National Conventions. CNN's Jill Dougherty reports.
RELATED STORIES: CNN Coverage to Offer Viewers an On-the-Ground Experience from Political Conventions
I hope Romney in his exception speech, he will explain how he will bring back all the jobs he outsource to China, and credit back his profit to the American employees, he only know one thing and that is to screw the American business's just to make a profit, Ann can talk about how he care about her health problems, but by Romney picking Ryan the butcher of health care, medicare, medicate and social security her speech will fall on death ears.
"the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will" (Daniel 4: 17, 25, 32 ; 5: 21)
"He removeth kings, and setteth up kings" (Daniel 2: 21) (smile)
The city of Montreal lived the scourge of the "Black Block" for a couple of months this spring. Night after night they were in the streets mixed among the hot-headed student protesters. Although this relationship seemed almost symbiotic, in most cases the Anarchists will attach themselves to any available host.
The SPVM (Service Police Ville Montréal) got a heck of a work-out.....No doubt the experience gained will prove beneficial in the not so far future.
They are not a "good thing".....Intimidation and mayhem are their calling card.
Bring in the NATIONAL GUARD at both with orders to shoot first and ask questions later.Jim Thomas Phx.Az.
Would some one inform Romney,Obama already open new oil exploration in the US, I can not believe some one from GOP has not inform him of this I do not thing they know. It ease to say he will create 30,000,000. in his first year, is he going buy back from China all the jobs he and Bain capital sold to them for years.
Why are you worried about anarchist at the Republican convention? By definition anarchism is synonymous with the Republican party. They are all anarchist!
So if you carry a cardboard protest sign you are an international terrorist now?
Why do Republicans think Miit Romney is such a cult figure? Is it because of his Bain tenure, his welfare ads, or what?
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Say: blud gloo-kose leh-vul
Blood glucose level is the amount of glucose in the blood. The body gets glucose, a sugar, from the food we eat. Glucose is carried, through the bloodstream, to all the cells in the body. Like gas for a car, glucose is fuel for the body's cells and gives them energy.


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Rob Peters, born in Drachten, studied at the Academies of both Arnhem (1958-1959) and Rotterdam (1959-1960). Although his comics production is limited, his work does stand out for its original and personal style and its absurd humor. He started out in 1966-1967 with several bizarre short stories starring 'Meneer Plum', that were published in Robbedoes, as well as its French equivalent Spirou. He got help for some of his early comics from friends like Peter Snoey, Peter Bulthuis and Phocas Kingma.
Amber en Akka (Robbedoes #1649, 1969)
He continued as one of the few Dutch artists that published in Robbedoes with the funny detective series 'Amber en Akka' (1969-1972) and 'Professor Hilarius' (1972-1973). Most of the scripts of these comics were written by Jules Deelder, Peters' childhood friend who would become well-known for his "jazz poetry", and who is nicknamed the "nightly mayor of Rotterdam". Peters and Deelders also made the 'ABC voor de genieter van Marihuana', a marijuana guide, under the pen names Youssouph Ben Houpla and Julian the Joint. They were furthermore part of a popgroup called Popera, together with Rob's sister Roselie and composer Peter Snoey.
Peters's next comic, 'Topsland', about a medieval land with modern, present-day neighbors, was too unconventional for Robbedoes. That is why 'Topsland' appeared in Aloha in 1970 and 1971, and in Mimo in 1972.
Rob Peters, who had lived on Ibiza since 1966, cancelled his comics activities in the late 1970s to become a freelance animator in the United States. He later settled in Rotterdam, where he worked as a fine artist and illustrator. Between 1985 and 2004 he has made illustrations for magazines like Playboy and Nieuwe Revu, and the publishing house De Bezige Bij. Fascinated by the Bismarck ship and his disastrous maiden voyage, Peters spent many years of his life working on Bismarck-themed art. With his knowledge of the Bismarck, he won the Dutch TV quiz 'De 64.000 gulden vraag' in 1991.


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Reels |
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Sporting the Orange and Black, Simms Premium Pro Dry Rain Jacket
Total Score: 8.16 -
Introduction: I like
fishing in the rain, some of my biggest fish have come right after a deluge.
When the weather is "bad" there is often less pressure on the lake and the fish
certainly don't seem to mind. The real challenge is how to stay out in those
conditions long enough to get those quality bites and fishing when it is wet and
cold out doesn't have to be a game stopper if you are properly geared up with
the appropriate foul weather garments, and there are a number of clothing
manufacturers which are designing jackets, pants and bibs designed to keep you
fishing longer in all conditions. One such company that caters more towards the
high end of the market is Simms.
Simms ProDry
Rain Jacket
pro Shell fabric
Medium through 3Xtra Large
Delta Green,
Steel grey, Fury
stretch fabric
in shoulders and
elbows for
lined hand
warmer pockets,
3 point cinch
stowable storm
hood, watertight
adjustable waist
and full length
center front
Simms ProDry
Rain Jacket
Simms ProDry jacket is comfortable to fish in all day long
Simms gained
prominence as a supplier of premium fly fishing garments but over the last two
seasons has quickly gained a foothold in the bass market with the introduction
of a complete range of garments designed for both everyday anglers and
tournament anglers. Last ICAST they introduced the premium the ProDry Gore-Tex
rain jacket which was built with a single purpose, to deliver the very best
fishing rainwear on the market.
Built into the pocket is a polishing cloth
Like most of the company's products the ProDry is immediately recognizable as
Simms garment. The jacket features clean lines and is available in familiar
Simms colors that include greys, greens and the bright orange that is a common
element on many Simms waders, fly vests and jackets. You can't mistake this
jacket for that of another brand as the ProDry is also somewhat of a walking
billboard and has the Simms logo proudly displayed on all sides.
Simms logos double as reflective surfaces for visibility
The jacket
features a large stowable storm hood, adjustable cuffs and an adjustable waist.
There are also a number of large pockets including two high capacity chest
pockets capable of holding low profile tackle boxes, and there are even two
zippered microfleece lined hand warmer pockets that come complete with built in
heat pack pockets for those extremely wet and cold days.
cuffs are watertight preventing water from entering your sleeves
Though the
ProDry Jacket looks rather large it does fold down and pack quite small since
there is very little insulation beneath the Gore-Tex main layer. This is a rain
jacket, not an extreme cold weather jacket so insulation needs to come from
other garments like a fleece worn underneath.
Rain beads up on the Gore-Tex surface
Real World
Simms has access to a rain room which simulates downpours. The ability to test
garments in this environment allows the company to continually test, alter and
re-test during the design process. Unfortunately other than a pressure washer we
have no such apparatus at our disposal so we had to rely on good old Mother
Nature for the majority of our water and wind tests. We purchased a ProDry
Jacket and Bib directly from Tackle Warehouse and fished the garment from Winter
through Spring. While we logged plenty of hours fishing the jacket in cool
weather we had an abnormally dry season, even by California standards.
After a while the jacket becomes saturated but keeps you dry
While we
normally hope for great conditions we found ourselves praying for rainy windy
conditions so we could finally test the ProDry as well as competing garments
from Gill in a real field test. Our opportunity finally came when we finally got
a few days of solid rain, it was time to go fishing. During the course of the
tests we fished for everything from largemouth bass to Lahonton cutthroat trout
across the California and Nevada border.
ProDry allows for free range of fishing motion
Section: Time to get wet, really wet...


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Ann Arbor, Michigan (CNN) -- There haven't been many times when I have been at a loss for words when conducting an interview as a medical reporter. This was one of those moments.
The man cleared his throat, after ignoring the question I just asked him. "You want to know what I think?" he said loudly.
"I do," I replied.
"Is that what this is about -- you want to know how I really feel, what makes me tick?" he said even louder.
I nodded as calmly as I could.
"Let me tell you something," his voice trailed off. He paused and looked momentarily distracted. He gave a long, hard look at his lawyer, who was standing right behind me. He shivered a little bit and bunched up his powder blue sweater.
"I have no regrets, none whatsoever," he said. It was windy outside, but it was also over 90 degrees in sunny Ann Arbor, Michigan. I was now sweating, and he was ... well, cold.
He shifted his gaze from his lawyer back to me. "Sanjay, you want to know the single worst moment of my life?"
That wasn't the question I asked, but in fact I was curious to know the answer.
"OK," I replied -- a little uneasily.
He smiled now and said in a very deliberate, almost staccato voice: "The single worst moment of my life... was the moment I was born." And, we had officially begun my sit-down interview with Dr. Jack Kevorkian.
We were in Ann Arbor because we both attended the University of Michigan Medical School. I graduated in 1993 and the 82-year-old Kevorkian in 1952. We found his class picture in a long hallway connecting the medical school to the University Hospital.
As he shuffled toward the picture, he leaned in to me and said, "I am not a sentimental person." Still, he had a glimmer in his eye when he identified the younger and more handsome version of himself.
I was about to ask him about the other members of his class, when he started pointing at various student pictures. "Dead... dead, dead," he repeated over and over. He was bringing me up to date on the status of his classmates.
"Dead, dead," he paused and cracked a smile. "This guy here ... he wanted me in jail." I looked over, pointed, and asked, "This guy?" "No... but, he probably did as well," Kevorkian replied. He then laughed and shuffled off again down the hallway.
I didn't know what to expect when I was planning this interview. I had read everything I could find about him, including two books he had written while in prison.
I had watched "Kevorkian," the documentary that will premiere June 28 on HBO and the recent docudrama with Al Pacino, for which, he told me, he received "not a penny."
He lives in a small apartment in Royal Oak and has recently adopted a caloric-restriction diet, eating around 500 calories a day, he says.
Kevorkian had sprung onto the national scene right about the time I was starting medical school. He fascinated my parents, and during the rare occasions I attended a cocktail party with them, the conversation among their friends seemed to always turn to him. He invoked strong emotions in so many people he had never met.
"During your interview for medical school, right there in that building, when they asked you, 'Why do you want to be a doctor?' what did you answer?" I asked.
"What did you answer?" he replied somewhat harshly. Throughout the two-and-a-half hour interview, he fluctuated wildly between being downright combative and hostile to being sweet and fatherly.
It was almost as if he desperately wanted me to understand all the decisions he had made in his life. By this point, I knew he was just asking me rhetorically, so I waited patiently for him to collect himself.
"I told them all the stuff they wanted to hear. Oh, I want to heal people and I want to join medicine, because it is the noblest of all professions... noble, yeah right."
"Is medicine a noble profession?" I continued. "What do you think?" he once again fired back. I waited. "No, it is not," he finally answered.
Dr. Jack Kevorkian is as opaque a person as I have ever met. But despite his crazed rants -- often about the Ninth Amendment to the Constitution, complete with a defense of James Madison and trashing of Thomas Jefferson (that guy ... he just took all the credit!) -- Kevorkian still knows how to make a point.
Not surprisingly, he strongly advocates assisted suicide, or euthanasia, or what he calls "patholysis." Terms matter to Kevorkian, and this is the term he prefers when describing the "medical procedure" he performed on at least 130 people, by his own count.
"Path means disease or suffering," he said to me.
"And lysis, means destruction," I said.
"Exactly," he answered. Patholysis, he repeated. The destruction of suffering.
As we walked around campus, Kevorkian drew a lot of attention. Many stopped to say hello, ask for an autograph or take a picture. He spent time with every person, asking about them and their role at the university. It was about an hour into the interview when I realized Kevorkian was trying to make a broader point. It started when I cited a study about the people he had "patholysed."
"It says here that in at least five of the people, there was no evidence of any disease on autopsy."
I let that hang in the air for a second. He seemed a little stunned that I had found this study. He shook his head slightly, and looked again at his lawyer, with no intention of addressing the point I had just made.
"Recently, I had three former CEOs of companies -- perfectly healthy -- who called me up and told me they wish to die." He let that sink in.
It was my turn to be stunned. "So... what did you do? What did you tell them?" I asked gently.
"No, nothing," he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I didn't do anything, but people have their rights."
I realized this was what he had building up to for some time. This wasn't just about assisted suicide; this was about upholding the ability for people to do whatever they wanted to do, without interference from doctors, the states or the federal government.
That the rights of the masses should not impede on the rights of a few. Someone once told me that was the "gist" of the Ninth Amendment, and it is something that has helped inform Dr. Jack Kevorkian's thinking and his life.
Turns out he did have some regrets, which he told me about. He wishes he'd treated his parents better, and his sister, he said quietly. He also is deeply resentful that the Supreme Court never heard his case, which he felt was a constitutional one.
"That is what they are for!" For a moment, I had finally penetrated inside the head of Kevorkian, and it was a lucid, well thought-out, and somewhat frightening place to be. And, perhaps he was right about Madison as well -- he really didn't get enough credit for contributing to the Constitution.
"In times of desperation, people may make decisions they regret," I started up again. "This isn't about deciding whether you want frozen yogurt or ice cream. These decisions about patholysis are ... forever."
He agreed with that point, but quickly pointed out that he obtained mental health exams on all of his patients before agreeing to proceed. He also thoroughly reviewed medical records -- about what he was looking for exactly, he was less forthcoming. Fact is, he says he turned down "many" patients who had requested his services.
And, for what it is worth, he never charged. A family member had once sent repeated checks to him after Kevorkian assisted in his wife's suicide, and he kept sending the money back, he told me.
I did ask Kevorkian about his reflections on his own mortality. "I am not ready to die," he answered. "I have purpose in my life and three missions," he added.
He wants to tell mankind about "impending doom." He worries that our culture of overabundance will soon lead to the extinction of the human race. "I am not going to be too popular for that one."
His second mission is to educate people about patholysis. "They just don't get it in Oregon, " he said. "Or in Washington state or Montana, the other states," where assisted suicide has been legalized. In those states, a person has to be considered terminal in order to qualify for assisted suicide.
"What difference does it make if someone is terminal?" he said. "We are all terminal."
His third mission is to convince the American public that their rights are infringed upon each and every day -- and that the Ninth Amendment is not being upheld. Everything from banning smoking in public places, to assisted suicide, euthanasia and patholysis.
By the end of the interview, Dr Jack Kevorkian was smiling a lot and thanking me for spending a day with him. He was back to the paternal, friendly Jack.
We shook hands, and he hung on for a few extra seconds, looked me in the eyes and said, "Thank you Sanjay."
I told him it was an honor to meet him, and hoped to see him again soon. As he shuffled away, I couldn't help but think Kevorkian still invoked strong emotions in people -- but I also hoped that if the moment of his birth was the worst of his life that he had some good moments since then.


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Investors will look for direction this week from the U.S. Federal Reserve and the housing market to steer markets back into the green. But an emergency deal on Saturday to bailout Cyprus, the tiny European country, could throw global investors into a little bit of disarray.
The Dow Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq lost their grip on a 10-day winning streak on Friday.
Despite that, all three indexes ended higher for the week, and are up between 7% and 11% for the year.
On Saturday, the EU unveiled a €10 billion plan to rescue Cyprus' outsized banking sector and avoid a default. Though the bailout of the tiny nation is relatively small, the EU has required a one-time tax of 6.75% on bank deposits of less than €100,000 and 9.9% for those over that amount, starting Tuesday.
Already, this has sent people in Cyprus rushing to ATMs to withdraw cash. The worry is that investors and depositors in other financial weak European nations might also fear similar bailout provisions in the future from the EU, which has the potential to destabilize global financial markets.
"The question is whether this becomes a full-blown crisis or a mini-crisis," said Steven Englander, global head of foreign exchange strategy at Citi.
In the U.S., the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee will hold a two-day meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. It will culminate in an announcement on interest rates and a closely-watched press conference on Wednesday afternoon.
At its last meeting, the Fed held rates at record lows and said it would continue buying $85 billion in Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities each month to bolster the economy.
The central bank is expected to maintain its gloomy forecast for this year. Investors will be looking for any comments on how government spending cuts could impact economic growth later this year.
The Philadelphia Federal Reserve will also release its survey on general business conditions on Thursday.
A smattering of reports on the housing market are on tap this week. Real estate has steadily been a bright spot in the otherwise slow recovery and investors will be closely watching for any signs of how the market is performing.
The National Association of Home Builders housing market index, housing starts, building permits, FHFA housing price index, existing home sales and MBA mortgage index are all due out throughout the week.
Home prices along with home sales are up, as near record low mortgage rates and a drop in foreclosures have created a much better market for builders. In January, they filed for the greatest number of building permits since 2008.
This has spilled over into the labor market. The February jobs report showed that builders have added 151,000 jobs over the last five months, the sector's best hiring surge since the 2006 housing bubble.
In corporate news, FedEx (FDX), Oracle (ORCL) and Nike (NKE) are expected to report earnings throughout the week.


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SAN ANTONIO -- A 12-year-old Texas boy who was suspended from school after shaving part of his head to resemble the face of Spurs forward Matt Bonner scored tickets to a playoff game and props from his favorite NBA player.
Patrick Gonzalez was suspended for a day from Woodlake Hills Middle School because the school district deemed his $75 haircut a distraction. He returned to class Thursday after reluctantly fully shaving his head.
Gonzalez says Bonner is his favorite player, noting they're both redheads.
Bonner, whose mother is a teacher, says the school could have just moved Gonzalez to the back of the room. Bonner encouraged Gonzalez to "keep supporting us redheads in the NBA."
Gonzalez's story prompted the Spurs to give him and his family tickets to Thursday's playoff game -- against the Clippers, of course.


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In winter, the resort is ideally placed, just off to the side of the ski slopes.
Take a look at our offers and find the package that best suits your style of vacationing.
Discover the magic of a vacation at the Hotel Lac Salin SPA&Mountain Resort****S.
Download the brochure and anticipate the charm of your coming stay in Livigno in an exclusive environment.


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I don't think they could get enough naturally aspirated power out of this for the next Viper (LOL).
A supercharged version would be an easy 800-900hp if they could get it to pass emissions.
I've been reading about a 7.0 for the pickups for awhile now, if they put them in the 2020 HD's I'm going that route, I'm tired of DEF etc. Plus it would sound badass going down the highway towing a trailer LOL