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The Other Side of Noam Chomsky's Brilliant Mind
The following is an excerpt from Power Systems: Conversations on Global Democratic Uprisings and the New Challenges to U.S. Empire by Noam Chomsky, interviews with David Barsamian (Published by Metropolitan Books (2013).
It's been more than five decades since you first wrote about universal grammar, the idea of an inborn capacity in every human brain that allows a child to learn language. What are some of the more recent developments in the field?
Well, that gets technical, but there's very exciting work going on refining the proposed principles of universal grammar. The concept is widely misunderstood in the media and in public discussions. Universal grammar is something different: it is not a set of universal observations about language. In fact, there are interesting generalizations about language that are worth studying, but universal grammar is the study of the genetic basis for language, the genetic basis of the language faculty. There can't be any serious doubt that something like that exists. Otherwise an infant couldn't reflexively acquire language from whatever complex data is around. So that's not controversial. The only question is what the genetic basis of the language faculty is.
Here there are some things that we can be pretty confident about. For one thing, it doesn't appear that there's any detectable variation among humans. They all seem to have the same capacity. There are individual differences, as there are with everything, but no real group differences—except maybe way at the margins. So that means, for example, if an infant from a Papua New Guinea tribe that hasn't had contact with other humans for thirty thousand years comes to Boulder, Colorado, it will speak like any kid in Colorado, because all children have the same language capacity. And the converse is true. This is distinctly human. There is nothing remotely like it among other organisms. What explains this?
Well, if you go back fifty years, the proposals that were made when this topic came on the agenda were quite complex. In order just to account for the descriptive facts that you saw in many different languages, it seemed necessary to assume that universal grammar permitted highly intricate mechanisms, varying a lot from language to language, because languages looked very different from one another.
Over the past fifty to sixty years, one of the most significant developments, I think, is a steady move, continuing today, toward trying to reduce and refine the assumptions so that they maintain or even expand their explanatory power for particular languages but become more feasible with regard to other conditions that the answer must meet.
Whatever it is in our brain that generates language developed quite recently in evolutionary time, presumably within the last one hundred thousand years. Some- thing very significant happened, which is presumably the source of human creative endeavor in a wide range of fields: creative arts, tool making, complex social structures. Paleoanthropologists sometimes call it "the great leap forward." It's generally assumed, plausibly, that this change had to do with the emergence of language, for which there's no real evidence before in human history or in any other species. Whatever happened had to be pretty simple, because that's a very short time span for evolutionary changes to take place.
The goal of the study of universal grammar is to try to show that there is indeed something quite simple that can meet these various conditions. A plausible theory has to account for the variety of languages and the detail that you see in the surface study of languages—and, at the same time, be simple enough to explain how language could have emerged very quickly, through some small mutation of the brain, or something like that. There has been a lot of progress toward that goal and, in a parallel effort, to try to account for the apparent variability of languages by showing that, in fact, the perceived differences are superficial. The seeming variability has to do with minor changes in a few of the structural principles that are fixed.
Discoveries in biology have encouraged this line of thinking. If you go back to the late 1970s, François Jacob argued that it could well turn out—and probably is true— that the differences between species, let's say an elephant and a fly, could be traceable to minor changes in the regulatory circuits of the genetic system, the genes that determine what other genes do in particular places. He shared the Nobel Prize for early work on this topic.
It looks like something similar may be true of language. There's now work on an extraordinarily broad range of typologically different languages—and, more and more, it looks like that. There's plenty of work to do, but a lot of this research falls into place in ways that were unimaginable thirty or forty years ago.
In biology it was plausible quite recently to claim that organisms can vary virtually without limit and that each one has to be studied on its own. Nowadays that has changed so radically that serious biologists propose that there's basically one multicellular animal—the "universal genome"—and that the genomes of all the multicellular animals that have developed since the Cambrian explosion half a billion years ago are just modifications of a single pattern. This thesis hasn't been proven, but it is taken seriously.
Something similar is going on, I think, in the study of language. Actually, I should make it clear that this is a minority view, if you count noses. Most of the work on language doesn't even comprehend these developments or take them seriously.
Is the acquisition of language biological?
I don't see how anyone could doubt that. Just consider a newborn infant. The newborn is barraged by all kinds of stimuli, what William James famously called "one great blooming, buzzing confusion."1 If you put, say, a chimpanzee or a kitten or a songbird in that environment, it can only pick out what's related to its own genetic capacities. A songbird will pick out a melody of its species or something from all this mass because it's designed to do that, but it can't pick out anything that's relevant to human language. On the other hand, an infant does. The infant instantly picks language-related data out of this mass of confusion. In fact, we now know that this goes on even in the uterus. Newborn infants can detect proper- ties of their mother's language as distinct from certain— not all, but certain—other languages.
And then comes a very steady progression of acquisition of complex knowledge, most of it completely reflexive. Teaching doesn't make any difference. An infant is just picking it out of the environment. And it hap- pens very fast, in a very regular fashion. A lot is known about this process. By about six months, the infant has already analyzed what's called the prosodic structure of the language, stress, pitch—languages differ that way— and has sort of picked out the language of its mother or whatever it hears, its mother and its peers. By about nine months, roughly, the child has picked out the relevant sound structure of the language. So when we listen to Japanese speakers speaking English, we notice that, from our point of view, they confuse "r" and "l," meaning they don't know the distinction. That's already fixed in an infant's mind by less than a year old.
Words are learned very early, and, if you look at the meaning of a word with any care, it's extremely intricate. But children pick up words often after only one exposure, which means the structure has got to be in the mind already. Something is being tagged with a particular sound. By, say, two years, there's pretty good evidence that the children have mastered the rudiments of the language. They may just produce one-word or two-word sentences, but there's now experimental and other evidence that a lot more is in there. By three or four, a normal child will have extensive language capacity.
Either this is a miracle or it's biologically driven. There are just no other choices. There are attempts to claim that language acquisition is a matter of pattern recognition or memorization, but even a superficial look at those proposals shows that they collapse very quickly. It doesn't mean that they're not being pursued. In fact, those lines of inquiry are very popular. In my view, though, they're just an utter waste of time.
There are some very strange ideas out there. For instance, a lot of quite fashionable work claims that children acquire language because humans have the capacity to understand the perspective of another person, according to what's called theory of mind. The capacity to tell that another person is intending to do something develops in normal children at roughly age three or four. But, in fact, if you look at the autism spectrum, one of the classic syndromes is failure to develop theory of mind. That's why autistic kids, or adults for that matter, don't seem to understand what other people's intentions are. Nevertheless, their language can be absolutely perfect. Furthermore, this capacity to understand the intention of others develops long after the child has mastered almost all the basic character of the language, maybe all of it. So that can't be the explanation.
There are other proposals which also just can't be true, but are still pursued very actively. You read about them in the press, just as you read things about other organ- isms having language capacity. There's a lot of mythology about language, which is very popular. I really don't want to sound too dismissive, but I feel dismissive. I think these ideas can't be considered seriously.
Whatever our language faculty is, humans develop it very quickly, on very little data. In some domains, like the meaning of expressions, there's virtually no data. Nevertheless it's picked up very quickly and very precisely, in complex ways. Even with sound structure, where there's a lot of data—there are sounds around, you hear them—it's still a regular process and it's distinctively human. Which is striking, because it's now known that the auditory systems of higher apes, say chimpanzees, appear to be very similar to the human auditory system, even picking out the kinds of sounds that play a distinctive role in human language. Nevertheless, it's just noise for the ape—they can't do anything with it. They don't have the analytical capacities, whatever they are.
What's the biological basis for these human capacities? That's a very difficult problem. We know a lot, for example, about the human visual system, partly through experimentation. At the neural level, we know about it primarily from invasive experiments with other species. If you conduct invasive experiments on other mammals, cats or monkeys, you can find the actual neurons in the visual system that are responding to a light moving in a certain direction. But you can't do that with language. There is no comparative evidence, because other species don't have the capacity and you can't do invasive experiments with humans. Therefore, you have to find much more complex and sophisticated ways to try to tease out some evidence about how the brain is handling all this. There's been some progress in this extremely difficult problem, but it's very far from yielding the kind of information you could get from experimentation.
If you could experiment with humans, say, isolating a child and controlling carefully the data presented to it, you could learn quite a lot about language. But obviously you can't do that. The closest we've come is looking at children with sensory deprivation, blind children, for example. What you find is pretty amazing. For example, a very careful study of the language of the blind found that the blind understand the visual words look, see, glare, gaze, and so on quite precisely, even though they have zero visual experience. That's astonishing. The most extreme case is actually material that my wife, Carol, worked on, adults who were both deaf and blind. There are techniques for teaching language to the deaf-blind. Actually, Helen Keller, who is the most famous case, invented them for herself. It involves putting your hand on somebody's face, with your fingers on the cheeks and thumb on the vocal cords. You get some data from that, which is extremely limited. But that's the data available to the deaf-blind, and they have pretty remarkable language capacity. Helen Keller was incredible, a great writer, very lucid. She's an extreme case.
Carol did a study here at MIT. She found in working with people with sensory deprivation that they achieved pretty remarkable language capacity. You have to do quite subtle experiments to find things they don't know. In fact, they managed to get along by themselves. The primary subject, the one most advanced, was a man who was a tool and die maker, I think. He worked in a factory somewhere in the Midwest. He lived with his wife, who was also deaf-blind, but they found ways to communicate with buzzers in the house and things that you could touch that vibrated. He was able to get from his house to Boston for the experiments by himself. He carried a little card which said on it, "I am deaf-blind. May I put my hand on your face?" so, if he got lost, if somebody would let him do that, he could communicate with them. And he lived a pretty normal life.
One very striking fact was that all of the cases that succeeded were people who had lost their sight and hearing at about eighteen months old or older—it was primarily through spinal meningitis in those days. People who were younger than that when they became deaf-blind never learned language. There weren't enough cases to actually prove anything, so the results of the study were never published, but this was a pretty general result. Helen Keller fits. She was twenty months old when she lost her sight and hearing. It suggests, at least, that by eighteen or twenty months, a tremendous amount of language is already known. It can't be exhibited but it's in there somewhere, and can possibly be teased out later.
It's known that the ability to acquire language starts decreasing rather sharply by about the mid-teens.
That's descriptively correct, although, again, it's not 100 percent correct. There is individual variation. There are individuals who can pick up a language virtually natively at a much later age. Actually, one of them was in our department. Kenneth Hale, one of the great modern linguists, could learn a language like a baby. We used to tease him that he just never matured.
That's an exception?
Yes. By and large, what you said is true. The basis is not really known, but there are some thoughts about it. One thing we know is that, from the very beginning, brain development entails losing capacities. Your brain is originally set up so that it can acquire anything that a human can acquire. In the case of language, say, it's set up so that you can acquire Japanese, Bantu, Mohawk, English, whatever. Over time that declines. In some cases, it declines even after a few months of age. What's happening across all cognitive capacities, not only in the case of language, is that synaptic connections, connections inside the brain, are being lost. The brain is being simplified, it's being refined. Certain things are becoming more effective, other things are just gone. There's apparently a lot of synaptic loss around the period of puberty or shortly beforehand, and that could be relevant.
I attended one of your seminars in linguistics here at MIT a few years ago, and I was struck by a couple of things. First of all, I was one of the few non-Asians in your class. It was mostly South Asians and East Asians. But the other thing was the extent to which math was involved. You were constantly writing formulas on the blackboard.
We should be clear about that. It's not deep mathematics. It's not like proving hard theorems in algebraic topology or something. But there's good reason why some sophistication in mathematics is at least advantageous, maybe necessary, for advanced work. The basic reason is that language is a computational system. So whatever else it is, the capacity we're both using and sharing is based on a computational procedure that forms an infinite array of hierarchically structured expressions.
A lot of people conflate linguistics with the ability to speak many languages. So in your case, people think, Oh, Chomsky, he must know ten or twelve languages. But in fact linguistics is another universe. Explain why the study of language is important. Clearly, you're animated by it. You've devoted most of your life to it.
I should say, sometimes there's a distinction made between languist and linguist. A languist is somebody who can speak a lot of languages. A linguist is some- body who is interested in the nature of language.
Why is it interesting? Think about the picture that I presented before, which I think is fairly uncontroversial. At some time in the very recent past, from an evolutionary point of view, something quite dramatic happened in the human lineage. Humans developed what we now have: a very wide range of creative capacities that are unknown in the previous record or among other animals. There is no analogue to them. That's the core of human cognitive, moral, aesthetic nature—and right at the heart of it was the emergence of language.
In fact, it's very likely that language was the lever by which the other capacities develop. In fact, other capacities may just be piggybacking off language. It's possible that our arithmetical capacities and—quite likely—our moral capacities developed in a comparable way, maybe drawing from the analytical, computational mechanisms that yield language in all of its rich complexity. To the extent that we understand these other things, which is not very much, it seems that they're using the same or similar computational mechanisms.
Clearly, culture influences and shapes language, even if it doesn't determine it.
That's a common comment, but it's almost meaningless. What's culture? Culture is just a general term for everything that goes on. Yes, sure, everything that goes on influences language.
If we're, let's say, in a violent environment, doesn't that shape the vocabulary? Wouldn't that lead us to talk about "epicenter" and "Ground Zero" and "terrorism" and other terms in the lexicon of violence?
Sure, there's an effect on lexical choices. But that's peripheral to language. You could take any language that exists and add those concepts to it—a fairly trivial matter. But we don't know anything really about the effects of culture on lexical choices. In my view, it's unlikely cultural environments meaningfully affect the nature of language. Take, say, English, and trace it back to earlier periods. English was different in Chaucer's time or King Arthur's time, but the language hasn't fundamentally changed, the vocabulary has. Not long ago Japan was a feudal society, and now it's a modern technological society. The Japanese language has changed, of course, but not in ways that reflect those changes. And if Japan went back to being a feudal society, the language wouldn't change much either.
Vocabulary does, of course. You talk about different things. For example, the tribe in Papua New Guinea that I mentioned before wouldn't have a word for computer. But again that's fairly trivial. You could add the word for computer. Ken Hale's work from the 1970s on this question is quite instructive. He was a specialist on Australian aboriginal languages, and he showed that many of these languages appear to lack elements that are common in the modern Indo-European languages. For example, they don't have words for numbers or colors and they don't have embedded relative clauses. He studied this topic in depth and showed that these gaps were quite superficial. So, for example, the tribes he was working with didn't have numbers, but they had absolutely no problem counting. As soon as they moved into a market society and had to deal with counting, they just used other mechanisms. Instead of number words, they would use their hand for five, two hands for ten. They didn't have color words. Maybe they just had black and white, which apparently every language has. But they used expressions such as like blood for what we would call red.
Hale's conclusion was that languages are basically all the same. There are gaps. We have many gaps in our language that other languages don't have, and conversely, they have gaps that we don't have. It's a little bit like what I said before about whether organisms vary infinitely or whether there's a universal genome. If you take a look at organisms, they look wildly different, so it was quite natural to assume fifty years ago that they vary in every possible way. The more we have learned, the less plausible that seems. There's a lot of conservation of genes. Yeasts have a genetic structure not all that different from ours in many ways, although yeasts look very different from us. But there are fundamental biological processes that just show up differently on the surface and seem differ- ent until you understand them. And something like that appears to be the case with language. Ken's work on this topic is the most sophisticated. There's a lot of popular discussion about "similar data" now, but most of it is extremely superficial and ignorant. In fact, there's almost nothing that's discussed now that he didn't talk about in a much more serious way forty years ago.
People who just read your books don't realize, I think, that you have a mischievous side. At the linguistics seminar I attended, I told you that I had to leave early, and you told me to shake my head back and forth, as I was leaving the classroom, and say, "I don't know what that guy Chomsky is talking about. This is just a lot of nonsense."
That's what this all sounds like if you don't have the right background. There's this commonsense idea: when I talk, I don't think about any of those things linguists are talking about. I don't have any of these structures in my head. So how can they be real? This kind of deep anti- intellectualism, an insistence on ignorance, runs through a large part of the culture. With discussions of language, it's almost ubiquitous.
You could say the same thing about vision. So, for example, one of the most interesting things known about the visual system is that it has core properties that interpret complex reality in terms of rigid objects in motion. In fact, you almost never see rigid objects in motion. It's not part of experience. But that's the way the visual system works.
Take, say, a baseball game. When you interpret an outfielder catching a fly ball, you don't and he doesn't introspect into the method by which he's doing that, which is a pretty remarkable thing. Like how does an outfielder know instantaneously where to run as soon as the crack of a bat takes place? It turns out that's a pretty sophisticated calculation and pretty well understood. But you can't introspect into it. In fact, if you did, you would fall on your face and you wouldn't catch the ball. It's sort of like trying to introspect on how you digest your food. You can't do it. People feel that they ought to be able to do it in cognitive domains because we're partially conscious—at least, we have a consciousness of some of the superficial aspects of our actions. For example, you know you're running to catch a ball. But consciousness of superficial aspects of our activity doesn't give you any insight into the internal computations of the brain that allow these actions to take place.
Copyright © 2012 by Noam Chomsky and David Barsamian. Excerpted from Power Systems: Conversations on Global Democratic Uprisings and the New Challenges to U.S. Empire by Noam Chomsky, interviews with David Barsamian. Published by Metropolitan Books, an imprint of Henry Holt and Company (2013).


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*LUPEC ruminations, as previously published in the Weekly Dig.
Imagine 35 pairs of arms working in tandem to produce a cocktail just for you. If you were in New Orleans for Mardi Gras circa 1915, The Stag saloon would have offered this surreal experience. There, Henry Ramos mixed up his special New Orleans fizzes, believed to be the best in the world.
Ramos invented the drink at his Imperial Cabinet saloon in 1888, when New Orleans was becoming a hot tourist destination, beloved for its quaint, historic saloons. Ramos profited greatly from this boom, as tourists thronged his establishment for a taste of his famous house fizzes. Six bartenders were employed per shift at the Imperial Cabinet, each with his own dedicated "shaker boy," "a young black man whose sole job was to receive the fully charged shaker from the bartender and shake the bejeezus out of it," writes David Wondrich in IMBIBE!.
Why all the shaking? This particular fizz recipe calls for egg white and cream, two ingredients that are famously difficult to emulsify. "Shake and shake and shake until there is not a bubble left, but the drink is smooth and snowy white and of the consistency of good rich milk," Ramos said. If preparing a Ramos Gin Fizz, you'd best bring your guns to the show.
By Mardi Gras in 1915, Ramos had conceived a new format for emulsifying: 35 shakermen would shake the drink until their arms were tired, then pass it on down the line.
There is one place where you can still see great displays of mixological showmanship: Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans. This five-day celebration of the history and artistry of drink-making is just around the corner. LUPEC Boston will be there. Days filled with nerdy cocktail seminars taught by the most talented folks in the beverage industry, nights filled with boozing at New Orleans' famous bars and a chance to sample a Ramos Gin Fizz in its hometown—we wouldn't miss it for the world.
Think about joining us as you shake your own fizz long and hard.
Adapted from The Essential Cocktail: The Art of Mixing Perfect Drinks by Dale DeGroff
1.5 oz gin
0.5 oz fresh lemon juice
0.5 oz fresh lime juice
1.5-2 oz simple syrup, to taste
2 oz heavy cream
0.75 oz egg white
2 drops orange-flower water
club soda
Combine the gin, juices, syrup, cream, egg white and orange-flower water in a mixing glass with ice, and shake long and hard to emulsify the egg. Strain into a highball glass without ice. Top with soda but no garnish.
TALES OF THE COCKTAIL IS JULY 21st-25th IN NEW ORLEANS. FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT TALESOFTHECOCKTAIL.COM.

subset: commoncrawl


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Something in the Way (Something in the Way, 1)
It was a hot summer day when I met him on the construction site next to my parents' house. Under the sweat and dirt, Manning Sutter was as handsome as the sun was bright. He was older, darker, experienced. I wore a smiley-face t-shirt and had never even been kissed. Yet we saw something in each other that would link us in ways that couldn't be broken...no matter how hard we tried.
I loved Manning before I knew the meaning of the word. I was too young, he said. I would wait. Through all the carefully-chosen words hiding what we knew to be true, through his struggle to keep me innocent, and through infinitely-starry nights—I would wait. But I'd learn that life isn't always fair. That no matter how much you achieve, none of it matters if you suffer the heartbreak that comes with falling for someone you can never have. Because even though I saw Manning first, that didn't matter. My older sister saw him next.
Book one in an epic, completed love saga.


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Like most of the free world, I spent October following the U.S. presidential election. For me this meant looking over the dailies, a graph of the national tracking average, and a red/blue map of the Electoral College. This was about the extent of my political forecasting. Not so Nate Silver, statistical boy-genius, baseball analyst, and author of the political projection site FiveThirtyEight.com. Silver's predictions have caused quite a stir because they have been so prescient. Based on his analysis of polls, he called the election for Obama. . . in March. Call him lucky. Then he predicted 49 of 50 states correctly on election night with a 6.1% margin for Obama, within 0.4 of the actual margin. Silver can add these to a growing list of oracle-like achievements: calling the results the Super Tuesday within 13 delegates (out of 847), predicting the ascendency of the Tampa Bay Rays and the 90-loss season of the Chicago White Sox. Silver now markets a number of statistical models including PECORA, QERA, and SECRET SAUCE (an algorithm for the Big Mac?).
Silver's uncanny ability to predict things that seem murky to the rest of us reminds me Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, published in 1951-53. Asimov's story is set in a Galactic Empire which contains thousands of inhabited planets and quadrillions of human beings. The stunning size of this empire allows one man, Hari Seldon, to develop a set of statistical models for predicting the future of civilization, a field of study he calls "psychohistory." Seldon's algorithms have no ability to predict the actions of a single individual, any more than one could predict the toss of the coin. The single flip is always unknowable, but not so a hundred flips, a thousand, ten thousand, a series that becomes more predictable with each iteration. It is a science which gains precision as the data aggregates.
The story of Silver and Seldon make for good reading. But they also touch upon a very storied debate among historians about the forces that propel history. For centuries, scholars viewed this force (or "agency" as it is called in the Academy) as a power contained within the individual. In other words, one could understand the ebb and flow of empires by following the actions of powerful individuals: popes, kings, and revolutionaries. Certainly this continues to be a popular way of looking at the forces of history, as can be seen by the hefty shelf space afforded "Biography" at Borders and Barnes and Nobles. But among academic historians, the "Great Man" vision of history has lost much of its blush. Individuals continue to matter, but to many of us, the agents of history reside in the realm of the extra-human: institutions, churches, states, and the ephemeries of culture.
Nowhere was this more apparent than in the French Annales School of the early 20th century. Its founders, Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre grew tired of the emphasis on individuals and big events: wars, coups, congresses, and assassinations. Instead they saw history as a tectonic thing, a gradual unfolding of events caused by millions of people influenced by their habits, geography, and material culture. Here in episodes of "longue durée" lay the true causes for the rise and fall of empires.
So welcome Nate to the world of many parts. We expect big things.


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Benchmark oil prices are poised to make fresh multi-month highs this week amid improved economic data in the U.S. and China, according to CNBC's latest survey of market sentiment. However, a minority of the trade are questioning the rally, arguing the move higher is overdone and Monday's pullback in prices may deepen.
U.S. crude slipped on Tuesday to trade near $96 per barrel as traders booked profits on renewed euro zone worries following signs of political uncertainty in the troubled region, while a slightly firmer dollar also weighed. U.S. crude futures have gained for the last eight consecutive weeks, its longest winning streak since 2004.
More than three-quarters of those polled - or seven out of nine respondents – expect prices to rise this week; one forecast prices will hold steady at current levels and one expected a retracement.
(Read More: Why This Week Will Be a Bad One for Oil)
"Every asset has driven relentlessly higher since late last year and almost every bear I know has capitulated," said Kirk Howell, partner at Spy Ridge Capital, adding that he has revised his 'neutral' call to 'modestly bearish.' "We may continue higher but after six straight weeks up there's a larger risk of at least a $2 to $4/barrel pullback."
Investors have become "too comfortable with the low volatility world central bankers have worked to create," Howell added. "And while the most likely outcome is that this dynamic continues, it's worth preparing and hedging for a shift in risk perception if a catalyst appears. It has never been less expensive to do so."
Changes in the capacity rates of the Seaway Pipeline - which connects the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery point for the U.S. oil futures contract to the Gulf Coast refining center - may prove a wildcard for the market.
Seaway's "capacity looks set to remain limited until the fourth quarter of this year," noted Eugen Weinberg, senior commodity analyst at Commerzbank. That would be bearish for prices since it allows less crude oil to be drained away from Cushing.
(Read More: US Oil Output Hike: What It Means for Gulf Producers)
Irrespective of this, money managers are betting on further increases in the WTI price, Weinberg said.
In the week to January 29, net long positions in U.S. crude futures climbed for the seventh consecutive week to reach 207,054 contracts, their highest level since March 2012.
"That said, the news about the Seaway pipeline could prompt speculative financial investors to withdraw in part, thereby putting pressure on the WTI price," Weinberg said.
U.S. crude futures have yet to re-test $100, a level that has proven tough to crack. Still, prices shy of $98 a barrel are at their highest in four-and-a-half months, raising fears of costlier retail gasoline prices acting as a tax on consumers - a headwind that may stifle the economic recovery.
"Short term, if it spikes up, it's going to matter...then there's more of a tax" on consumers, said David Mann, head of regional research, Asia at Standard Chartered Bank.
(Read More: Iran Oil Exports to Asia Fell by a Quarter in 2012)
Fear Premium
The average U.S. retail price of gasoline rose 13 cents over the past two weeks to $3.42 per gallon, the Associated Press reported on January 31. The average price for the month of January was $3.32, the second highest January average ever, although five cents cheaper than last year's record. Retail gasoline prices have risen for 14 days straight, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).
Though the 'sticker-price' shock of higher fuel bills will impact U.S. consumers in the immediate term, the expansion in domestic production from shale oil fields such as the Bakken formation in North Dakota will in the long term limit any move higher in gasoline prices, market watchers said.
High oil prices will become less of a problem as the U.S. "heads towards energy independence," Philadelphia Trust Company's Mike Crofton told 'Squawk Box' on Friday.
(Read More: Union Pacific Rides the Shale Boom: Exec)
Despite continued political instability in the Middle East and North Africa and fears over supply disruptions, many argue that the price of Brent crude already reflects the 'fear' premium and there is little further upside to expect barring any physical stoppages to oil flows.
"In the past, events like we have had over the last few months would normally be the type of events that would shock us and jolt prices," said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago.
"Now we remain largely unmoved because the markets have already to a large extent priced the risk of the sad events that we have seen in part because global supply is not as tight but mainly because the markets expect a certain amount of headline risk," he said.


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Summit County community notes: 9-15-13
Alpenglow returns to Summit
The Alpenglow Chamber Music Festival welcomes returning artistic directors Rieko Aizawa and Jesse Mills to a week of exciting public concerts and soirees in private homes coming up Saturday, Sept. 14 through Saturday, Sept. 21. Concerts will be at the Lord of the Mountains Lutheran Church in Dillon Tuesday, Sept. 17 and Saturday, Sept. 21 at 7 p.m. Admission is $ 20, half price for seniors and no charge for children and students. Soirees will be held Saturday, Sept. 14 and Friday, Sept. 20, also at 7 p.m. These settings allow chamber music to be enjoyed in the intimate atmosphere for which it was composed. The soirees ($75) sell out, so advanced booking is required. Visit http://www.alpenglowchambermusic.org or call (970) 797-4999 to reserve seating for the soirees. The participating musicians will also conduct a workshop for Summit County High School music students.
Windows 7 seminar
This seminar will provide in-depth instruction on organizing your photos and other documents on your computer using Windows Explorer, the file-management system provided with Windows 7. Bring your Windows 7 computers to the class and follow along. Topics will include: A tour of Windows Explorer … what it is, how to navigate within it and how to change its settings; how to use Windows Explorer to organize your documents, pictures and other files; the basics of "libraries" in Windows Explorer; how to download files or pictures from other sources (e-mails, cameras, thumb drives, the Internet, etc.) and place them where you want them on your computer; searching for files you can't find on your computer; backing up your computer and your important data. The seminar will run Saturday, Sept. 14 from 9-11 a.m. at the Senior Center in Frisco. The cost is $5 and the seminar is limited to 20 so please call the Senior Center to pre-register, (970) 668-2940.
Volunteer for Summit County Teens
The Summit County Library would like to invite all middle and high school students to the North Branch Library, 651 Center Circle, Silverthorne, every Monday after school from 3-5 p.m. to do community service to help meet any requirements you may have for school or other organizations with which you are involved. Volunteer work can count toward the schools' IB program, Scouting, etc. No need to call ahead. Snacks provided. For more information on this or other upcoming events or programs, please contact Janet at (970) 468-5887 or janetg@co,summit.co.us; visit our website at http://www.summitcountylibraries.org ; "like" us on Facebook; follow us on Twitter (@summitlibraries); or simply come by and check with us at any of our three locations, in Frisco, Breckenridge and Silverthorne.
Teens needed for Teen Advisory Board at library
If you are a Summit County teen, grades six to 12, then the Summit County Library needs your help! We are seeking new members for our Teen Advisory Board (TAB). The TAB meets once a month during the school year to plan events for middle and high school students, decorate the teen area, suggest books to add to our growing collection, and have lots of fun! Our next meeting is Monday, Sept. 16 from 3-4:30 p.m. at the North Branch Library, 651 Center Circle in Silverthorne. Please join us at our upcoming meeting to help plan a party for Teen Read Week in October. Snacks will be provided. If you have any questions, please email Janet, at firstname.lastname@example.com or call (970) 468-5887.
Reading is a team effort for teens
The Summit County Library is looking for teen readers, from the middle and high schools, with active imaginations and a sense of fun for a missing-ending book club. This is a book club with a twist … each reader gets a book with the final pages of the story stapled closed. Please pick up your free book and a special surprise package throughout September at the North Branch of the Summit County Library, 651 Center Circle, Silverthorne. Read the book all the way up to the stapled pages (the missing ending), then join us for the meeting on Monday, Oct. 7, at 3 p.m. We'll provide the snacks, games and even a craft, and you provide the ending! Finally, the author's ending is revealed, and the reader with the best guess at the ending will win a prize! For more information on this or other upcoming events or programs, please contact Janet at (970) 468-5887 or janetg@co,summit.co.us; visit our website at http://www.summitcountylibraries.org ; "like" us on Facebook; follow us on Twitter (@summitlibraries); or simply come by and check with us at any of our three locations, in Frisco, Breckenridge and Silverthorne.
Eagles Nest Wilderness Trail Project
The Friends of the Eagles Nest Wilderness needs volunteers for a trail maintenance project on Saturday, Sept. 14. We will be building drainage improvements along the Gore Range trail above Willow Brook. Volunteers meet at the Dillon Ranger District office in Silverthorne at 8 a.m. on Saturday and carpool to the trail head. A light breakfast will be provided. FENW provides tools and safety equipment. Volunteers should bring a lunch, plenty of water and any other gear needed for a day on the trail. Tailgate refreshments are provided at the end of the day, usually before 4 p.m. Please join us in this important work. For further information visit http://www.fenw.org or contact Bill Reed at (970) 513-9741.
The Peak School rummage sale
Saturday, Sept. 14, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at The Peak School 40 W. Main Street, Frisco. The Peak School will hold a multi-family rummage sale with lots of great items including office furniture, home furnishings, toys and games, clothing and more! Interested in donating items? Drop off items at The Peak School Monday, Sept. 9 through Friday Sept. 13 from 4-5 p.m. Only gently used items please! We will not accept: mattresses, refrigerators, computer equipment or televisions, cribs, car seats, skis/snowboards or ski boots/snowboard boots tires, paints/chemicals, items that are broken or materials with stains or holes in them.
Thank you from Easter Seals Camp Excel
Easter Seals Camp Excel is a summer day camp that serves children, teenagers and young adults in Summit County with disabilities. We serve a diverse group of individuals and their families, and our mission is to provide exciting, safe and one-of-a-kind experiences for all of our campers. Summer 2013 is only the third year for our camp, but we had a fantastic adventure-filled summer thanks to the overwhelming support we received this year from the community. We would like to give special recognition and send out a huge thank you to all the businesses and organizations in Summit County that have made this summer possible for our kiddos. We could not have done it without you! Our 2013 Easter Seals Camp Excel season has ended, but we will pick back up next summer and continue to provide services to families that have children with disabilities in Summit County. Please check us out on our website at http://www.easterseals.com/co/our-programs/childrens-services/summer-day-camps.html or on our Facebook page.
Free homebuyer education class
Have you ever wondered what steps are involved in purchasing a home? Come find out at our free homebuyer education class on Thursday, Sept. 12 from 12:30-5 p.m. in the Mount Royal Room at the County Commons in Frisco. You will learn the basics A-Z what it takes to purchase a home, as now sure is a great time to do so! The class is free and is sponsored by the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority, and put on by the Summit Combined Housing Authority with help from local volunteers who will walk you through the lending process, real estate transaction, title company portion and home inspection. There will also be information on current down payment assistance programs and much more! The class is free and snacks will be provided. Please pre-register so that we know how many people to expect; call Joanne at (970) 423-7044 or email firstname.lastname@example.com with any questions or to register for this great class.
Join Breckenridge Cub Scouts
Cub Scouts is open to all boys in first through fifth grades. Breckenridge Cub Scout Pack 187 meets once a month and dens typically meet twice a month. Please join us at our first Pack Meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 10 at the Upper Blue Elementary cafeteria from 6:30–7:30 p.m. to get organized and pay dues. Dens will have the opportunity to plan out their year and choose their own meeting time. For more information please contact cub master Chris Johnson at firstname.lastname@example.com or committee chair Jen Gallagher at email@example.com or check out our website https://cubscoutpack187.shutterfly.com.
Thanks from the Summit County Libraries
The Summit County Libraries would like to thank everyone who helped with our recent book sale. Our gratitude goes out to all of the volunteers, staff and Friends of the Libraries members who donated their time and energy; community members who donated books prior to the sale; and to all of those who supported us by visiting and purchasing books. This sale would not have been possible without the help of each one of you. The Friends of the Library book sale proceeds of $3,509.86 will go toward assisting the library in purchasing new materials, covering operational costs, assisting with the upcoming fall programming and much more — all of which helps us to better serve our patrons and the residents and visitors of Summit County. For more information on any upcoming events, volunteer opportunities or to learn how you can help the Summit County Libraries through donations, please call Joyce Dierauer, at (970) 668-5555 or email@example.com; visit our website at http://www.summitcountylibraries.org; "like" us on Facebook; follow us on Twitter (@summitlibraries); or simply come by and check with us at any of our three locations, in Frisco, Breckenridge and Silverthorne.
Recruitment via social networking conference
A recent survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reveals that employers are increasingly using social networking platforms to recruit job candidates. In fact, 77 percent of respondents said they use social networking in their candidate searches. Recognizing the growing impact of social media in the recruitment process, the 2013 Colorado SHRM State Conference is featuring a presentation titled "Leveraging Social Media to Recruit Tomorrow's Talent," by Brian Rhonemus, managing director of banking and financial services at Angott Search Group (ASG). The presentation takes place on Aug. 29 at the Keystone Resort and Conference Center in Keystone.
Open Arms Childcare & Preschool enrolling
Summer is almost over, and that means preparing for another school year! Open Arms Childcare & Preschool is currently enrolling preschool students for the fall. We have highly trained teachers that offer quality curriculum to prepare the students for kindergarten and beyond. Open Arms is located at 16072 Highway 9, Farmers Korner. For more information, please call (970) 237-3229, visit http://www.OpenArmsChildcareAndPreschool.com, or follow us on Facebook.
Coats for Kids campaign
The second annual Knights of Columbus "Coats for Kids" Campaign was jump-started with a significant donation by Century 21 Realty. Your monetary donations will enable the Knights to purchase new warm winter clothing for cold children in need. Please support this priority cause by sending your tax-deductible donations payable to: Knights of Columbus, P.O. Box 3673, Dillon, CO 80435. Call (970) 468-6566 for info.
Thanks from Far View
The Far View Horse Rescue would like to thank Corey Pusey and the Summit County Boy Scouts, Troop 40, and their families for all the hard work at the horse rescue. Corey and his troop spent countless hours building a buck-and-rail perimeter fence for the Far View Horse Rescue's new obstacle course to help with horse rehabilitation. They received a permit from the Forest Service to cut down trees and transport them to the rescue to construct the fencing. The obstacle course helps to build trust with the rescued horses and to teach them new skills. Congratulations, Corey, on your Eagle Scout project, and thank you, Troop 40, for all your hard work. It is greatly appreciated.
N'Balance class
Join us for a community-based balance class on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:15-2:15 p.m. at the Summit County Community and Senior Center in Frisco. Classes start Tuesday, Sept. 3 and run through Dec. 5, with no class on Thursday, Sept. 12, Oct. 22 or during Thanksgiving week. Come improve your balance, increase core and leg strength, improve posture and enhance your ability to navigate obstacles! This class is taught by Pat Aden, PT with Avalanche Physical Therapy. There will be a FREE balance assessment on Tuesday, Sept. 3 from 1:15-3 p.m. at the Senior Center, please call 668-2940 to reserve space in this beneficial class! The suggested donation is $5 per class.
Go2Work free workshops for job seekers
Drop in any time on Tuesdays between noon and 4 p.m. Colorado Mountain College in Dillon in the Computer Lab, Room 11. Services available: computer access, Internet job searches, job application and resume assistance, interviewing skills, interest inventories, computer-based work-skill enhancement, skill assessment and certification through ACT WorkKeys. Earn the new CareerReady Colorado Certificate and skill training through Career Ready 101™, a web-based study program. Also: information on CMC classes and financial aid; information on other training and educational resources; online registration for Colorado WorkForce Center; information regarding WIA (WorkForce Investment Act) benefits; and referrals to additional services. All services are free and no pre-registration is required! Contact: Jason Read at (970) 468-5989 or firstname.lastname@example.com.
GED prep classes
Colorado Mountain College offers GED preparation classes at the Dillon campus on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings and Monday and Wednesday evenings. Register now for the current session! There are five content-area exams necessary to complete the GED: mathematics, reading, writing, science and social studies. CMC teachers can help you to prepare to successfully earn your GED! Contact Laura Pless at (970) 468-5989 for more information!
Volunteer to help victims of assault
Are you ready for a new volunteer opportunity? Become a volunteer with Advocates for Victims of Assault. Work with victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and trauma. Fall Volunteer training begins on Sept. 9. Please call (970) 668-3906 for more information or to sign up.
Help us spread the wildfire message!
Wildfire can be deadly and destructive. It is a constant threat in Summit County and throughout Colorado. The Summit County Wildfire Council and other organizations have allocated significant dollars to defensible space and wildfire preparedness and awareness in the county. To better define where those dollars are spent, the Wildfire Council is seeking input on how its message is received. Fill out a quick survey and be entered for a chance to win a number of prizes, including passes to the Breckenridge Recreation Center! Link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/96RQJG.
Come play pickleball!
Come learn and play the fastest-growing sport in America — pickleball! Reserved times: Frisco Town Courts, Galena and Sixth, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; Dillon Town Courts, on LaBonte, Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 a.m. to noon; and Silverthorne Recreation Center, Sundays 1-4 p.m. and Fridays 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Lessons for newcomers at Frisco and Dillon begin at 11 a.m. Equipment is available to borrow. Contact Bill (770) 286-7799 or Noreen (14) 923-9235.
Request for proposals
The Victim Assistance and Law Enforcement Board of the Fifth Judicial District, which is Clear Creek, Eagle, Lake and Summit counties, is seeking grant applications from agencies and organizations to provide assistance services to crime victims. The funding cycle is Jan. 1, 2014, through Dec. 31, 2014. The board is committed to funding programs that provide direct services to crime victims and implement the Victims' Rights Amendment. It may also consider scholarships for training that is related to the welfare of victims. Revenue for this fund is generated from a surcharge or fees assessed to people who are convicted of felonies, misdemeanors, traffic offenses and fish and game violations. These funds are authorized by Title 24, Article 4.2, Colorado Revised Statutes. During the 2013 12-month grant cycle, the board awarded a total of $300,230.00 to 12 agencies that provide services to victims in the Fifth Judicial District. It is anticipated that approximately $300,000 will be available for the 2014 grant cycle. FUNDING PRIORITIES: Programs that are required to implement the Victim's Rights Constitutional Amendment, programs that provide direct services to crime victims and witnesses as outlined in the V.A.L.E. statute, victim-related training, equipment and personnel needs of law enforcement agencies. The V.A.L.E. Board may also take into consideration actors other than those stated above, in making their final decisions. Board members may award money for projects not designated in the priority categories. Completed grant applications must be received by the board administrator by 5 p.m., Friday, Sept. 6, 2013. You may request a grant application or information regarding scholarships by contacting the V.A.L.E. Board Administrator, Kathleen Maher at (970) 453-2327, ext. 113 or by writing c/o The Office of the District Attorney, P.O. Box 488, Breckenridge, CO 80424 or email@example.com.
Carriage House enrolling
Carriage House Early Learning Center is now enrolling in its toddler and preschool programs. Please call (970) 453-6423 for more information.
Options for long-term care
The Upper Arkansas Area Council of Governments (UAACOG) Area Agency on Aging (AAA) is pleased to announce that it will become the Case Management Agency for Central Mountain Options for Long Term Care (CMOLTC). This change took effect July 1, 2013. UAACOG-AAA office is located at 139 E. Third St., Salida, CO 81201. You may reach the staff at (719) 539-3341, or toll free at (877) 610-3341.
Host a foreign student
Hosting a foreign student can bring a whole new perspective to your family. Having someone from another country stay in your home can be a real eye-opener for kids and parents alike. Suddenly your "American-ness" is showing. The ordinary way you do things, the typical activities and rhythms of your day are revealed as not the only way or best way of doing something. The thought of hosting an international student might be intimidating at first. "What if he hears me yelling at the kids?" "What if she thinks we are total freaks?" But don't fear! Students adapt quickly and won't embarrass you or tell your family secrets. There is something about being a part of a family that instills that even in an apparent stranger. The beauty is that after a few weeks, that stranger suddenly becomes an integral part of your family. For information on hosting a student please contact Mary Elizabeth Johnson at (303) 709-2180 or visit http://www.edutrav.org
Summit Public Radio & TV needs volunteers
Summit Public Radio & TV is seeking several board members to fill specific positions. Our nonprofit organization is managed by an all volunteer, working board – we have no paid staff. As a result of this management structure, 100 percent of all contributions are used for operations. The positions are: Membership Coordinator, works to retain and expand membership, including annual membership campaign; Events Coordinator, works with SPRTV board to organize events that promote awareness or thank our members; Grants Coordinator, maintains awareness of grant funding opportunities to support operating and capital requirements and coordinates grant applications.
Enjoy singing?
The Summit Choral Society, under the direction of Dr. Jill Schroeder-Dorn, is currently rehearsing for its summer program. They recently performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City, singing the Brahms Requiem. The current program is of lighter music, including songs of New York and Broadway. Rehearsals are Mondays from 7-9 p.m. at Christ Lutheran Church, Farmers Korner across from the high school. We do vocal exercises and work on music for our current program. If you enjoy singing, please join us. Questions? Phone (970) 262-2235.
Summit Preschool taking applications
Summit County Preschool is now taking applications for before- and after-school child care for elementary-age children attending Frisco Elementary School for the 2013-14 school year. Please email email@example.com or stop by at 70 W. Main St. in Frisco to pick up an enrollment packet. Before-school hours start at 7:30 a.m., and the students are taken to the bus stop for transportation to school. After-school students are transported from the school to a bus stop near the preschool where they are picked up and care is provided until 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The cost is $20 for Mondays and $15 a day Tuesday through Friday.
Mentor group needs volunteers
Summit County Mountain Mentors is a community-based mentoring program that matches caring adult volunteers with youths ages 8-16. Their mission is "to positively influence the youth of Summit County to lead healthy lifestyles through a consistent one-on-one relationship with an adult." The group is looking for volunteers to spend eight hours each month with one of the 48 youths waiting for a mentor. Call (970) 668-9184 or visit http://www.summitcares.org.
Support Local Journalism
Support Local Journalism
As a Summit Daily News reader, you make our work possible.
Summit Daily is embarking on a multiyear project to digitize its archives going back to 1989 and make them available to the public in partnership with the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. The full project is expected to cost about $165,000. All donations made in 2023 will go directly toward this project.
Every contribution, no matter the size, will make a difference.


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MasterMover Global News
Airbus Creates Production Line Using MasterMover Electric Tugs
Airbus, one of the world's leading aircraft manufacturers, uses MasterMover pedestrian electric tugs as an integral part of its wing assembly plant in Broughton.
The factory, near Chester, manufactures wings for Airbus aircraft, from the company's popular A320 to its state-of-the-art A350 XWB.
The complex manufacturing and assembly process requires fast, safe and effective transportation of components and tooling around the factory.
Wings for the A320 aircraft are currently made using aluminium but the arrival of the A350 brings with it a move towards carbon fibre composites. With either, the parts are long, awkward to handle and often heavy.
Over the past 10 years MasterMover has supplied models from the MasterTug range as a solution for moving everything from stringers (lightweight aluminium struts that secure the wing outer skin to the frame) through to complete wings for the A320. As demands on the Broughton operation have grown, so has the role for the MasterTug. Today, the tugs are also used to move support equipment including mobile working platforms, production tooling, kitting trolleys and test equipment.
Using the principle of weight transfer, electric tugs enable a single pedestrian operator to move heavy components with ease. Components can be moved in a safe and controlled manner without the need for forklift trucks or overhead cranes. This, in turn, means that Airbus is able to organise its assembly layout to suit its specific working practices without having to account for overhead cranes that only operate in one direction or forklift trucks that need wide internal road networks.
Varying sizes of MasterTug are used at Broughton, from the MT5/400 capable of moving four tonne loads to the MT20, which can tow up to 15 tonnes. They are used throughout the production process: moving parts from goods in to the production line; transporting sub-assemblies through the machining process; and handling turnover jigs so that production staff can rotate components freely and safely.
MasterTugs take their place on the flow-line production system used for final assembly of the A320 wings. One is positioned at each assembly stage and together they move the whole production line in unison. This proved to be a cost effective and highly reliable means of benefitting from flow line production techniques, which is exactly what Airbus needed with the rapidly growing demand for the smaller single aisle A320 aircraft. With a new wing completed every 11 hours, the MasterTugs have confirmed their reliability and longevity in a demanding production environment.
The expansion of MasterMover's involvement at Airbus has been a continuous process as Hugh Freer, Sales Director, explains.
"As one department begins to use the MasterTug, their neighbours decide it will also be ideal for their purposes, and so on. The initial proposition proves itself very quickly."
If you would like to arrange a free demonstration contact MasterMover today.


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Social media moguls like Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg talk about uniting mankind through the power of social networking. Back in 2012, Zuckerberg wrote in a letter that accompanied Facebook's IPO paperwork that "Facebook... was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected."
That's a worthy mission, and it's hard to find any who who opposes it. We all want a more open and connected world, don't we?
On a practical level, there are two ways to make the world more open and connected. One way is for a single company, like Facebook, to get all the users. And Facebook is trying to do that -- through organic growth, and through the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. Despite lofty rhetoric, it's clear that Facebook sees monopoly as the best way to achieve a more open and connected world. If everybody's on Facebook, then everybody's connected.
But if everybody is not on Facebook, the alternative way to make the world maximally open and connected is for everyone to use all or many different social networks. In fact, there's no way Facebook will ever become the only social network or provider of social services. There will always be social startups, new apps, innovative messaging platforms and other alternatives to Facebook's social apps and services.
The better and more likely way to achieve Facebook's vision of a more open and connected world is the second option -- for everyone to use multiple social networks.
The trouble is, using several social services is really hard -- all that switching from one mobile app to the next, and from one website to the next. Each has its own design, menu structure, settings and configuration options, and processes for handling photos, likes and mentions. It's also impossible for someone with a lot of friends to remember which people are on what network. Most people who try to use several social networks end up forgetting about some and spending most of their time on one, or maybe two.
So much for an open and connected world.
The reality is that we've all gone off to our separate closed and disconnected worlds, and choice of network is actually one of the strongest determinants of whom you maintain personal relationships with.
But what if there was a way to see all the items posted by all our friends, relatives and colleagues all together in one stream? And what if we could interact on that stream and post from a single location, sending out those posts to the various social networks?
In fact, there used to be such a service. It was called Friendfeed. Facebook, the company with the social mission to "make the world more open and connected" acquired it, starved it of oxygen and, just last year, killed it. (Ironically, one of Friendfeed's founders, Bret Taylor, was appointed to the Twitter board last week.)
Friendfeed was more than a way to bring disparate social networks together. You could also plug in social bookmarking sites like Reddit, blogs and RSS feeds.
Friendfeed wasn't great by today's standards, but at least it was designed for the general public and was free and easy to use.
In the wake of Friendfeed's demise, fans of the service built at least three Friendfeed alternatives, including Frenf.it, FreeFeed.net and Mokum. But these are small, unfunded and thoroughly incomplete efforts that don't work very well.
Solid social aggregation services do exist, but mainly for professional marketers who want to manage brands on social media. The leader in this category is Hootsuite, but Hootsuite has competitors like Spredfast and Sprout Social.
A WordPress plug-in called WordPress Social Stream looks like a great option for aggregating social feeds and putting them all into a Pinterest-like interface. But because it requires WordPress and costs $19, WordPress Social Stream is not ready for mainstream prime time.
Social aggregation services are supposed to bring other people's posts on many social networks into a single place. A product called Digi.Me does the opposite -- it brings only your posts into a single location.
Digi.Me began as a social network backup program called SocialSafe and has since pivoted to a product that protects your privacy and gives you control over your personal information.
Digi.Me is super easy to use. Just point the Digi.Me desktop application or mobile app at all your social accounts, and it synchronizes everything so you can see your own data in one place.
You can use a hobbled version of Digi.Me for free and try the full premium version for 30 days for free. If you decide to pay, the cost is an annual fee based on the number of social accounts: $6.99 per year for up to four accounts, $16.99 for five to 10 accounts, and $27.99 for 11 to 20 accounts.
One way Digi.Me protects you is that it's not a cloud service, but an old-fashioned application or smartphone app. You download and install the software, then add your social networks. Digi.Me then slurps up everything you've ever posted, plus the comments on those posts, and stores them locally. (The company recently added the ability to store your data on Dropbox, and support for additional cloud storage is promised for later.)
I talked to Digi.Me founder and executive chairman Julian Ranger last week, and he told me his company is working on the ability to add additional information beyond social posts, including medical information harvested from quantified-self wearables, financial data and more. He also said the company is working on a system that will enable you to share your personal data with companies that request it in a way that's controlled by you.
I also asked Ranger if Digi.Me had any plans to become a social aggregator, a modern take on the FriendFeed idea. After all, Digi.Me is already synchronizing many social networks (and RSS feeds). Why not bring in other people's posts along with my own? Plus, Digi.Me could offer an encrypted and more secure way to do social networking.
Doing that would probably be contrary to his company's mission, Ranger said, but he added that another company could and probably would create such a service on top of the Digi.Me platform.
"The power of personal data is so huge that if we were trying to take some of that value chain to ourselves, we would inhibit further innovation rather than encourage it," he said. Ranger specifically cited Twitter as an example of a company that stifled innovation by taking over for itself some of the services that other companies built on top of its platform.
So there you go, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs: Digi.Me is a platform upon which you can build a service that achieves Facebook's mission to make the world more open and connected -- without a Facebook monopoly. The downside is that because Digi.Me costs money, it's never going to be a mainstream platform.
Do we still want a connected world? I know I do.
Facebook's stated desire "to make the world more open and connected" is the right vision. But Facebook's monopoly solution is the wrong approach. Google doesn't allow third-party companies to access Google+ with an API. And Twitter has demonstrated over time that it can't be trusted to allow third-party services using its API to continue existing.
Despite proclamations by social media companies, making the world "more open and connected" is always going to be secondary to making money.
Still, I want a single stream where all the social activity I care about shows up in a single place, and from which I can engage with everyone I know on many social networks.
We need someone to build it. Then we need users to demand access to their own social streams.
Who's with me on this?


text: Back Why Your Doctor Tests Your Blood Sugar If you don't have diabetes, and your doctor orders a blood sugar test, what is he or she checking? In adults, a screening blood sugar test is generally used to determine whether your blood sugar is too high. Often, adults with elevated blood sugar don't experience obvious symptoms of diabetes or prediabetes. Catching and treating type 2 diabetes early is important to prevent complications of diabetes. According to 2011 statistics from the CDC, 18.8 million people, or 8.3 of the U.S. population, have been diagnosed with diabetes, while an additional 7 million Americans have diabetes but have not been diagnosed. The CDC estimates that, in 2010, at least 79 million people in the U.S. ages 20 and older, had prediabetes. In adults, type 2 diabetes accounts for the majority of all diagnosed cases. Type 2 on the rise There's an epidemic of type 2 diabetes in America. That epidemic can be controlled if more people begin to pay attention to lifestyle issues. As a society, we eat too much and we exercise too little. Some long-term damage to the body, especially the heart and circulatory system, may already be occurring during prediabetes. People with prediabetes are at high risk for developing type 2 diabetes. Studies have shown that people with prediabetes can prevent the development of type 2 diabetes by making changes in their diet and increasing their level of physical activity. Many people don't know what type 2 diabetes is or why doctors are interested in their blood sugar levels. In diabetes, the hormone insulin, secreted by your pancreas, isn't used properly. Insulin allows your body to use sugar, starches and other food for energy. When there isn't enough insulin or your body's cells are unable to use what is there, blood sugar rises. In type 2 diabetes, your pancreas either does not secrete enough insulin or insulin isn't used properly by the body's cells (called insulin resistance). When blood sugar is consistently elevated, the risk of heart attack and stroke increase by up to four times. It also greatly raises the risk for kidney disease, along with leg amputation from poor circulation, blindness, and other maladies. Type 2 diabetes is usually diagnosed later in life. In an alarming trend, we're diagnosing many teens with this type of diabetes--something almost unheard of 20 years ago. This is thought to be directly related to obesity, poor diet, and lack of exercise. The American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommends type 2 diabetes screening for children and teens who are overweight and have at least two of these risk factors: a family history of diabetes, in a high-risk ethnic group, or have signs of insulin resistance. It's always best to catch diabetes before symptoms begin. But watch for these symptoms: fatigue, intense thirst, frequent urination, sores that don't heal, weight loss, and intermittent blurry vision. According to the ADA, if you're 45 or older and you don't have risk factors for diabetes, you should get screened every three years. If you have risk factors for diabetes, you may need screening tests more often. If you're under 45, you don't need routine screening unless you are overweight or obese, and have another of the risk factors for diabetes. Risk factors Risk factors for type 2 diabetes are: Being older than 45 Being over weight or obese (body mass index of 25 or higher) Having parents or siblings who have diabetes High blood pressure (140/90 mmHg or higher in adults) HDL (good) cholesterol of less than 35 mg/dL and/or a triglyceride level of 250 mg/dL or higher A sedentary lifestyle High-risk race/ethnicity (African American, Alaska Native, Hispanic American, American Indian, Asian American, or Pacific Islander) Previously elevated blood sugar test Having diabetes during pregnancy or having a baby weighing more than nine pounds at birth Having polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) Having a history of cardiovascular disease Diagnosing diabetes The ADA now recommends the A1C test for use in the diagnosis of prediabetes and diabetes. The A1C (also known as the hemoglobin A1C test), estimates the average blood glucose levels over the preceding three-month period. An A1C level of around 5 percent is considered normal. An A1C of 6.5 percent or above indicates diabetes. Although the A1C test is not more accurate than the fasting plasma glucose test (FPG) and the two-hour oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), it does not require fasting and can be measured at any time of the day. Experts hope the A1C's convenience will result in more people who are at risk for diabetes or prediabetes being tested. This would help reduce the number of people with undiagnosed diabetes in the U.S. The ADA's Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes (2011) lists the following criteria for the diagnosis of diabetes: an A1C equal to or greater than 6.5 percent; an FPG equal to or greater than 126 mg/dL; a two-hour plasma glucose of greater than or equal to 200 mg/dL during an OGTT; or a person who shows classic symptoms of fluctuating blood sugar levels.


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There were some phases I was not sorry to see go. The wailing, puking baby reflux stage. The shoving-everything-in-her-mouth phase. The pulling-everything-off-of-the-coffee-table phase. Definitely the diapers phase, and absolutely the Elmo-infatuation phase. The "why?" phase and the "no!" phase are still pretty much here, but now they're more purposeful and less instinctive: Ruby asks "why?" incessantly because she's curious, not just because she wants something to say; she says "no!" after considering a scenario and rejecting it, not just because she wants to see what happens.
There were other phases I really mourned. I was sad when she stopped nursing. I was sad when she got too big to carry in a sling. I was even a little sad when she stopped needing me to brush her teeth for her because we had a silly little game we'd play in which she would insist that Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz was in her mouth, and then I would be the tornado and brush Dorothy out while singing the tornado music. (I am sure every parent out there has done something equally ridiculous, so I'm not even embarrassed to admit this.) The first night she brushed her teeth, put on her pajamas and got into bed all by herself, calling out, "Mommy, I'm ready for my stories now!" I felt bewildered and completely replaced, a telephone operator after the advent of direct dial, just standing there forlornly holding the phone (or in this case, the Hello Kitty toothbrush).
But of all the developmental leaps, the one I lamented the most has got to be when Ruby finally started saying "sandwich" correctly. There were plenty of cute things she said: "Hoy-yo" meant "hold me" – she didn't quite understand pronouns yet and was trying to say "hold you"– and "i-seem" was of course "ice cream." She said "yem" instead of "yes." Her own name, as far as she was concerned, was "Wubu." She called the ABC's "H-I," for some reason, and she sang "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" as "Tink-tink stahhhhh!" As adorable as all of that was, though, nothing charmed me nearly as much as the way she said "sandwich": "smamish." I contrived different ways to get her to say it: "Hey, Ruby, do you want some peanut butter on bread? What's that called again?" and "Ruby, what would I have if I put some cheese between two pieces of bread?" Whenever we played Restaurant, I would only agree to play if "smamishes" were on the menu. And then one day, quite suddenly, she asked me if I would make her a ham-and-cheese sandwich, and I almost cried.
Generally, Ruby's growing up hasn't really bothered me. I might miss one phase, but I delight to see what comes next. Right now, I am having too much fun watching her learn to read, have sleepovers, make best friends and wiggle loose teeth to grieve the loss of toddling and chubby fingers. But still, saying goodbye to "smamish" made me depressed for days.
Now, though, I have so much to look forward to with Georgia. She already communicates by waving and smiling, but her language is pretty limited to "dada" and various inflections of "goo." I am really excited to see what linguistic idiosyncrasies she develops. I try not to compare my two girls, but I have to admit that if Georgia doesn't say "smamish," I will definitely be a little disappointed.
What mispronunciations were you sorry to see go with your kids?


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Nov 3/16 2009 24th Monday after Pentecost
St Paul is the quintessential pastor and shepherd[1]. As a priest, I am inspired and humbled by his zeal. Any true pastor (and I boldly proclaim that I am a true pastor, even though very limited by my sinfulness, but the Lord knows that I care and try to be a good pastor) feels a great "resonance" in his soul when reading the Apostle's many exhortations and emotional proclamations to his flock.
I cannot be the pastor and shepherd the Apostle was, but I do understand how he feels about his flock. His words to the Thessalonians are my words too:
For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord. (1 Thess 3:8)
This means that the pastor loves his flock, and the joys of his flock are his joys, and the sorrows his sorrows. When a person has a fall, or some difficulty, he feels it deeply, as if it was his own fall or difficulty. By "now we live" the Apostle is saying for all pastors that our greatest joy is to see those in our flock "stand fast in the Lord". This motivation is why we are pastors.
As in all Scripture, the meaning is even deeper than mere words can convey. Our nature loves to be alive, and covets those feelings that make us feel the most alive. For some, this feeling is accomplished the most when encountering danger (the "adrenaline junkie") or when viewing the beauty of nature, or, lamentably, when indulging in some useless and pernicious pleasure of the flesh. The more refined among us, those closer to perfection, feel the most satisfaction in life when they are helping someone, but even this does not capture the Apostle's meaning
The perfect identify so closely with those among them and consider their life so intertwined with their loved ones that they do not consider themselves to be alive unless their loved ones are alive. The only true life is to be in Christ. He is the resurrection and the life[2], and anything outside of Him is death. The perfect Christian feels this death so totally that when those he loves are "living as dead", he laments their lot with bitter tears, and feels it as if it his own, and much more than this, marshals every bit of his energy to help them.
I am not there yet, but I want to be there.
The difference between a sinful pastor such as myself and the Apostle is that sometimes the sorrows of caring for the flock and the concerns of a pastor are overwhelming. I am convinced that this is because of moral failings. Everything is easier and we are more powerful with holiness! If I was holy, I would be sad about sad situation regarding my flock, but this sadness would spur me to pray as the Apostle did (just look at most of his epistles to see how he prayed!) and not engender feelings of spiritual exhaustion.
So today, I have a proclamation and a confession. You my flock, are
"my glory and joy", and I live, "if ye stand fast in the Lord".
And also, I am a truth teller and a liar[3] when I make this proclamation, although the Lord knows that my heart does not lie, even as I prove myself a liar because I am incapable in every instance of living up to these words.
Therefore, like the Apostle has often done in his letters, I exhort your prayers also. I need them much more than he needed them. Pray for your pastors, those men with feet of clay who speak of angelic things. Pray for those sinners who have made it their life's work to teach others to not sin.
Epistle reading for this day:
1 Thessalonians 2:20-3:8 20 For ye are our glory and joy. 1 Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone; 2 And sent Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellowlabourer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith: 3 That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto. 4 For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye know. 5 For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain. 6 But now when Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, and that ye have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us, as we also to see you: 7 Therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith: 8 For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord.
Priest Seraphim Holland 2009. St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, McKinney, Texas
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[1] More properly, the quintessential MORTAL pastor, since the pastor of pastors and shepherd of shepherds is our Lord and Savior, the God-man, Jesus Christ.
[2] John 11:25 "Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:"
[3] Psa 116:11 I said in my haste, All men are liars.
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text: It wasn't lengthy ago that bridges and dentures had been your only alternatives when it arrived at replacing missing the teeth. Right now, nonetheless, you can find much better alternatives. While "far better", however, they are also more pricey. This isn't very likely to transform in the future, as dentistry implants require a medical operation… Continue reading Dental Implants Periodontist


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East to the West
A writer contemplates the beginning of the West
May, 2004. Homeward bound from teaching in New York state, I'm driving west from Chicago on Interstate 80, passing stubble fields, white farmhouses, little round-topped silos, and the mounded, freshly leafed-out crowns of hardwood forest between the farms. La Salle, Rock Island, the Mississippi River -- no, the West doesn't begin here -- and into Iowa as a slight roll comes to the green land. There's a muddy stockyard full of cows near Iowa City, the prairie patched with fields and pastures, and fewer trees now -- clumps, singles, strands along fencerows and small rivers. Toward Council Bluffs the land takes longer swells, and I'm crossing the Missouri -- no, not here either -- under a lowering, gray-plate sky, storm warnings breaking into the radio talk show, new corn a few inches high in the moist fields.
In Nebraska, the speed limit jumps to 75, a sure sign of westering. Near Lincoln the fields stretch out plainsier now, and closing in on Grand Island, in bright sun, the Midwestern roll is gone from the land and big-wheeled sprinklers shine in the fields, ready to boost the summer rainfall that won't be enough. So here, maybe? But now I-80 falls in with the Platte River, its braided channels lush with forest. The names are Western now -- Pioneer Village Motel, Stagecoach Restaurant -- and three or four miles short of Kearney, the earth is dry enough for a scatter of pines. Under the Great Platte River Archway Monument that spans the freeway -- definitely not here -- I'm cruising at 80, a windmill spinning hard to my left, a tractor throwing up clouds of dust, neat-rolled hay bales spotting the sprawling fields. Irrigation equipment is everywhere, for corn and hay. I ride the Plains neck and neck with a Union Pacific freight train, off to my right -- if we're not in the West, we're mighty close -- and then, a few miles past Gothenburg, under flat-bottomed cumuli in a vastness of sky, to the southwest there's a low, solitary ridge specked with junipers.
There won't be another cornfield. There will be cattle in pastures and feedlots, the bumpy fringe of the Sand Hills to the north, ranch houses with windbreaks of tall poplars, outcrops of volcanic rock, power line towers marching into the distance, a few oil rigs bowing and rising, and settlements of doublewides with sheds, old vehicles and assorted machinery. The first glimpse of the Rocky Mountains will come just over the Wyoming border, but by then, in my book, I'll have been in the West for 200 miles.
The West began for me in 1966 when I was 18, driving Route 66 in a very loud jeep across Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle into New Mexico. The flat expanses looked naked and glary to my East Coast eyes, but the land was wide open and so was my spirit. I passed the miles bellowing the lyrics of "Mr. Tambourine Man," trying to out-shout the Jeep. My brother, at George Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert, had taken a shine to that country of Joshua trees and creosote bush, but to me, then, it looked only parched and desolate. I was happier with the California coast -- Big Sur, San Francisco, the misty redwoods, and finally western Oregon, where I would conduct my brief career as a college student. It rained all winter and stayed green. The trees were enormous and so were the mountains, the seaside rocky and stormy and fine. Even the wet earth smelled sweet. I began to suspect I'd been born on the wrong coast.
Forty-four years later I'm still here, about as far west as I could settle, but not in the West. Theodore Roosevelt once remarked that California, seaward of the Sierra Nevada, is actually west of the West, and I agree. This sundown fringe of the continent, from southeast Alaska down through the oak-strewn hills of the California coast, is its own region -- a country of earthquakes and volcanoes, dramatic coastline, badly abridged versions of once-profuse rainforests and salmon-thronged rivers, and a half-dozen of North America's great cities with their proliferating suburbs. It is geographically, geologically, climatically, biotically, and culturally distinct from the broad, drier interior region it borders.
In the 1970s I moved to Klamath Falls, Ore., for a railroad job, pursuing my dropout curriculum of drink, self-doubt and confusion, and was shocked to discover that the eastern two-thirds of Oregon was not verdant with Douglas firs and mossy-rock streams. It was Nevada north -- semiarid plateau country of sagebrush and juniper expanses, buttes and cinder cones, clumps of conifered mountains. But the landscape grew on me. I found that I liked the breathing room, the drama of visible distance, and I liked it that the land presented itself in particulars. Not the enveloping hardwood forest of the East, not western Oregon's thick stands of conifers, but this twisted juniper with a packrat nest at its base. This angling ponderosa pine, its orange bark scored with a lightning scar. This huddle of aspens around a spring, and in the distance a few small buttes alive with the slow-moving shadows of clouds.


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All News Releases By Date
July 7 Update on Federal Response to Silvertip Pipeline Oil Spill Near Billings, Montana
Release Date: 07/08/2011
Contact Information:
At approximately 11:00 PM on Friday, July 1 a break occurred in a 12-inch pipeline owned by ExxonMobil that resulted in a spill of crude oil into the Yellowstone River approximately 20 miles upstream of Billings, Montana. According to the company's estimates, 1,000 barrels of oil entered the river, which is in flood stage, before the pipeline was cut off.
EPA's primary concern is protection of human health and the environment, and the agency is conducting both air and water sampling to determine what impacts the spill may have on air or water quality, while also ensuring the responsible party is held accountable. Air monitoring using real-time instruments that look for volatile organic compounds and hydrogen sulfide continue to show no detections in ambient air along the Yellowstone River. Additionally, air sampling for benzene has been conducted between Laurel, MT, and Billings, MT, with no detections. We have collected six 24-hour air samples at locations along the Yellowstone River to ensure the continued protection of the community and emergency responders and will publish these results as soon as they are available.
Water sampling conducted by EPA between Laurel and Miles City, MT indicates there are no petroleum hydrocarbons above drinking water levels standards in that region. Preliminary results indicate that the Yellowstone River poses no threat to agriculture use. Prior sampling and ongoing monitoring indicate that the municipal drinking water supplies in these areas remain safe. Fully validated results will be on the EPA website within the next few days. EPA will be coordinating domestic well water testing and conducting indoor air sampling at residences impacted by the spill.
EPA is also directing and overseeing cleanup activities since arriving at the site. As of Thursday, July 7, approximately 544 personnel are involved in the incident response and over 360 are in the field conducting cleanup operations and recovering oil. Personnel continue to walk the shores and deploy absorbent boom along the river banks to absorb oil that has collected in slow water areas along the shoreline. While most of the oil has been encountered within 30 miles of the spill, a pocket of emulsified oil has been spotted approximately 80 miles downstream. No evidence of visible oil staining or emulsified oil has sighted beyond this point during ground and aerial reconnaissance to Miles City.
On July 6, EPA issued an order to ExxonMobil, pursuant to the Clean Water Act, directing the company to take a number of clean-up and restoration activities as a result of an oil spill into the Yellowstone River. EPA will continue in its role in directing and overseeing the cleanup and restoration of the river and ensuring the protection of human health and the environment.
EPA is coordinating its response actions with the Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service and state and local agencies and will take whatever steps are necessary to ensure ExxonMobil, as the responsible party, addresses any and all potential impacts of this spill. In addition, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is responsible for determining the cause of the pipeline failure and has been onsite since Saturday.
Press inquiries: email@example.com
Website: https://www.epa.gov/yellowstoneriverspill
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