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The Projected Effects of Social Security Benefit Increase Options for Older Beneficiaries
Policy Brief No. 2013-01 (released October 2013)
In conjunction with larger Social Security solvency plans, many policymakers have proposed introducing benefit increases for older beneficiaries. This brief analyzes the projected effects of two such policy options on beneficiaries aged 85 or older in 2030 using the Modeling Income in the Near Term model. Both options target older beneficiaries' primary insurance amounts for a 5 percent increase, but they differ in how the increase would be calculated. Both proposals would increase monthly benefits for nearly all older beneficiaries, and both would reduce poverty levels among the aged, relative to currently scheduled benefits. However, the options differ in how the benefit increases would be distributed among older beneficiaries across shared lifetime earnings quintiles.
Kevin Whitman and Dave Shoffner are with the Office of Retirement Policy, Office of Retirement and Disability Policy, Social Security Administration.
Acknowledgments: The authors thank Natalie Lu, Anya Olsen, Patrick Purcell, Kathleen Romig, and Mark Sarney for their helpful comments and suggestions.
The findings and conclusions presented in this brief are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Social Security Administration.
The original version of this Policy Brief contained an error in Chart 1. The median changes in average PIAs for the lowest and second lowest shared lifetime earnings quintiles were incorrectly given as 6.7 and 4.9, respectively. The corrected percentages appear in this version of the Brief. [Posted: January 24, 2014.]
|Modeling Income in the Near Term
|primary insurance amount
Many reform plans designed to return the Social Security program to long-term solvency also include a benefit increase targeted toward older beneficiaries. Policymakers use two core rationales for such targeted increases. First, older beneficiaries tend to be more economically vulnerable and reliant on the income Social Security provides.1 Second, certain benefit reductions (such as changes to cost-of-living adjustments) can compound over time, and including a benefit increase for older retirees in a larger reform plan can ameliorate those reductions.
Generally, the benefit increase proposals provide slightly larger monthly benefits starting at around age 80, but can vary along multiple lines. This policy brief analyzes two options, and projects their respective effects. The two options vary in how the benefit increase is calculated:
- The Individual PIA plan provides an increase of 5 percent of the individual's primary insurance amount (PIA), which is the benefit an individual will receive based on lifetime earnings, if retirement benefits start at the normal retirement age.
- The Average PIA plan provides an increase of 5 percent of the average PIA for all retired workers, rather than an individual's own PIA.2
We analyze those two particular provisions because they appear in various publicly available reform plans.3, 4 Both 5 percent targets may appear identical when described only as "a 5 percent benefit increase," but they can produce different outcomes for beneficiaries.
Our analysis focuses on beneficiaries aged 85 or older in 2030 and we express the results as percentage differences from scheduled benefits under current law. We do not project the relative costs of the proposals.5
The analysis is based on data from the Modeling Income in the Near Term model, version 6 (MINT6). MINT6 includes data for respondents to the 2001 and 2004 Surveys of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), matched to Social Security administrative records through 2009. For 2010 and later, MINT6 projects life events, earnings, and benefits for those respondents.6
Major Findings
- The Individual PIA plan would produce a larger median increase in monthly benefits. However, the Average PIA plan would provide more progressive benefit changes, with lower lifetime earners receiving higher proportional benefit increases.
- Poverty would decline by a small amount under both of the plans, but by a slightly larger percentage under the Average PIA plan.
- Although nearly all beneficiaries aged 85 or older would receive the targeted benefit increase provided by each plan, roughly 2 percent would not receive higher benefits. In general, that group would not receive higher benefits either because they are dually entitled beneficiaries, and the increase in their own worker benefit is offset by a decrease in their auxiliary benefit; or because they are auxiliary-only beneficiaries receiving benefits based on the earnings record of an individual who has not yet reached age 81.7, 8
Comparing the Policy Options
Box 1 differentiates the 5 percent targets in the plans we model.
|Benefit increase equals 5 percent of—
|Individual PIA
|The individual's PIA, which is the benefit an individual would receive based on his or her own earnings record if he or she started benefits at the normal retirement age. Dollar amounts vary, mirroring PIA variations among beneficiaries.
|Average PIA
|The average PIA for all retired-worker beneficiaries as of the year they reach age 80 (specifically, the weighted average age-80 retired-worker PIA for each year, based on MINT6 projections for scheduled current-law benefits). All affected beneficiaries receive the same dollar-amount increase.
The other provisions of the two proposals are identical. The plans start in 2013, apply to beneficiaries starting at age 81, and phase up linearly to the full increase at age 85. We analyze effects for beneficiaries starting at age 85 rather than age 81 to provide a clearer picture of how the policies look when fully phased in. Table 1 presents the projected characteristics of the beneficiary population aged 85 or older in 2030.
|Percentage distribution
|Marital status
|Never married
|Less than 12 years
|Completed high school or equivalent
|Associate's degree
|Bachelor's degree
|Graduate degree
|Shared lifetime earnings quintile a
|Second highest
|Second lowest
|SOURCE: Authors' calculations using MINT6.
|NOTES: Weighted population size for beneficiaries aged 85 or older in 2030 is 6,800,966.
Rounded components of percentage distributions do not necessarily sum to 100.0.
|a. Quintiles are not evenly distributed because quintile bounds are based on the beneficiary population aged 60 or older while the population shown reflects beneficiaries aged 85 or older.
Both plans increase benefits by raising the retired worker's PIA. This approach means that the benefit increase an individual receives each month may differ significantly from the original PIA increase calculated using either of these methods (for example, the final benefit could be adjusted based on early or delayed claiming). An additional outcome of modifying the PIA as we do in this analysis is that auxiliary beneficiaries can receive the benefit increase even before they reach age 81.9 To maintain equity for auxiliary beneficiaries receiving benefits on the earnings record of someone who dies prior to age 81, the benefit increase is payable starting when that deceased beneficiary would have reached age 81.
These options do not apply to disability insurance beneficiaries who have been receiving benefits for a period comparable to that of a retired worker reaching age 81. Some elder benefit increase provisions specify that the increase will occur "X number of years post-eligibility," allowing disability insurance recipients to obtain the same type of benefit increase as an older, retired-worker beneficiary. That approach addresses the compounding effect of benefit reductions for long-time beneficiaries. Our analysis does not incorporate that approach, as we focus on the beneficiary population aged 85 or older. Disability insurance beneficiaries who convert to retired-worker status at normal retirement age are also eligible for the 5 percent PIA increase at age 81, but they do not receive special consideration nor the ability to receive the increase before age 81 under the options analyzed here.
Both Options Affect Nearly All Older Beneficiaries
Because these elderly benefit increases do not include any means testing or qualification requirements other than age, we project that nearly all beneficiaries aged 85 and older would see their benefits increase by at least 1 percent above scheduled benefits under either policy option (see tabulation below).
|Beneficiaries (%)
|Individual PIA
|Average PIA
|SOURCE: Authors' calculations using MINT6.
|NOTE: Reflects beneficiaries whose benefit would be at least 1 percent higher than the benefit scheduled under current law.
However, some older beneficiaries would not receive a benefit increase. In general, beneficiaries who did not receive higher benefits would belong to one of two groups:
- Dually entitled beneficiaries for whom the increase in their own worker benefit would be offset by a decrease in their auxiliary benefit because the spouse whose PIA provides the auxiliary benefit is younger than age 81.10
- Auxiliary-only beneficiaries with benefits based on the PIA of a spouse younger than age 81. This outcome is another result of applying the benefit increase to the PIA, rather than the actual benefit.
Median Benefit Increases are Higher Under the Individual PIA Plan
Overall, median monthly benefit increases would be higher under the Individual PIA plan, at 5.0 percent above scheduled benefits (see tabulation below). For the Average PIA plan, the median benefit increase would be 3.9 percent. However, the median figures do not capture the greater variety of benefit changes that appear under the Average PIA plan.
|Benefit increase (%)
|Individual PIA
|Average PIA
|SOURCE: Authors' calculations using MINT6.
Benefit Increases are Proportionally Larger for Lower Income Households Under the Average PIA Plan
The average PIA is a single value that produces a benefit increase of equal dollar value for all elderly beneficiaries, which amounts to a larger percentage increase for those in the lower shared lifetime earnings quintiles (Chart 1).11 For example, among beneficiaries in the lowest shared lifetime earnings quintile, the median benefit increase would be 6.4 percent, compared with 3.4 percent for beneficiaries in the highest quintile. The Individual PIA approach provides an equal percentage increase for all older beneficiaries (5.0 percent), and thus a larger dollar increase for those in the higher shared lifetime earnings quintiles.12
Median percentage change in Social Security benefit under alternative plans to increase PIAs for beneficiaries aged 85 or older, by shared lifetime earnings quintile, projected 2030
Elderly Poverty Would Decline Under Both Options
Both of the options would decrease projected poverty among beneficiaries aged 85 and older. Under scheduled benefits, 1.5 percent of this group is projected to be in poverty in 2030 (see tabulation below). The relatively low poverty rate under scheduled benefits reflects projected differential mortality (that is, wealthier individuals are more likely to live to older ages; see Table 1) and the projected decline in poverty due to real wage growth. Under either elder benefit plan, the poverty rate would decline to between 1.1 and 1.2 percent. However, note that if these elderly benefit increases were coupled with other policy changes that reduce benefits, the number of beneficiaries aged 85 or older at or near poverty might not decline (or could rise), as any increase might be offset by reductions elsewhere.13
|Poverty rate (%)
|Current law
|Individual PIA
|Average PIA
|SOURCE: Authors' calculations using MINT6.
1 Johnson, Goldwyn, and Favreault (2004) project that median family income among individuals aged 85 or older in 2040 will be $9,000 lower than that for individuals aged 67–74, in part because a larger share of the older group will be widowed. Additionally, the older group will rely substantially more on Social Security benefits as a source of income. Reno and Lavery (2009) suggest two reasons for that greater reliance: (1) the oldest old cannot easily supplement their income through work, and (2) private pension benefits, if the individual has any, generally fail to keep pace with inflation.
2 For more information on the PIA, see http://www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/COLA/piaformula.html.
3 The Social Security Administration's Office of the Chief Actuary presents a comprehensive listing of proposed reform plans on its "Provisions Affecting Level of Monthly Benefits" web page at http://www.socialsecurity.gov/oact /solvency/provisions/benefitlevel.html. The proposals analyzed in this policy brief are listed under section B6: Benefit Increases for Older Beneficiaries.
4 Policymakers have also proposed a benefit increase for older beneficiaries based on 5 percent of the PIA for a newly eligible average wage worker (as of the year the individual turns age 62). We modeled a version of that proposal and the results are nearly identical to those for the Average PIA plan. However, those results could differ if the benefit increase were part of a larger plan that modified the PIA formula in other ways.
5 For additional details on the projected costs of benefit increases for older beneficiaries, see the "Provisions Affecting Level of Monthly Benefits" web page (note 3).
6 For more information on MINT6 and the projection methodology, see SSA (n. d.).
7 Dually entitled beneficiaries are eligible for a benefit based on their own earnings record, and for an auxiliary (spousal or survivor) benefit based on the PIA of a current or previous spouse. Auxiliary-only beneficiaries do not have sufficient work history to be eligible for their own retirement benefit.
8 These results arise from applying the benefit increase for older workers to the PIA rather than to the final benefit itself.
9 However, not all proposed benefit increase options for older beneficiaries share this feature. Some do not apply to auxiliary beneficiaries under the specified age limit, and some apply to auxiliary beneficiaries if they are at the age threshold but do not apply to retired-worker beneficiaries who are below the age threshold. See the "Provisions Affecting Level of Monthly Benefits" web page (note 3).
10 In rare cases, a dually entitled beneficiary who receives a higher PIA under one of these options could still ultimately receive a lower final monthly benefit. That could happen if the portion of the benefit based on one's own PIA were reduced because of early claiming (a worker benefit is reduced by as much as 30 percent, if claimed at the earliest eligible retirement age). Then, if the proposed policy changes caused the beneficiary's own PIA to increase but not the spouse's (because the spouse has not yet reached age 81), the own-worker share of the benefit would increase at the expense of the auxiliary share. Thus, the 30 percent early-retirement reduction would apply to a greater proportion of the total benefit than it would apply to under current law, resulting in a lower total monthly benefit.
11 The shared earnings quintile "represents the sum of wage-indexed shared lifetime total earnings. While other quintiles account only for the current spouse's benefits or earnings, this quintile accounts for all previous marriages as well. We divide the sum by 40 for presentation purposes, but earnings across a whole lifetime are included in the sum. If a person is single in a given year, all of his or her earnings that year are counted as shared earnings. If a person is married in a given year, half of the married couple's combined earnings that year are counted as shared earnings. We calculate the quintiles for each year for all elderly beneficiaries aged 60 or older. Wage indexing controls for differences across generations. The dollar ranges shown are in annual real 2012 dollars" (SSA n. d.).
12 For the Average PIA plan, the overall median benefit change is 3.9 percent, while the median benefit change for beneficiaries in the middle shared lifetime earnings quintile is 4.1 percent. This discrepancy reflects the higher share of beneficiaries aged 85 or older who are in the higher quintiles. We define the quintile bounds based on the population aged 60 or older, and differential mortality leads to a greater share of higher lifetime earners at age 85 or older. See Table 1 for information on the percentage of beneficiaries aged 85 or older in each shared lifetime earnings quintile.
13 For widows, often targeted by policymakers for elderly benefit increase options, results are consistent with those for the total beneficiary population aged 85 or older (not shown in table).
Johnson, Richard W., Joshua H. Goldwyn, and Melissa M. Favreault. 2004. "Social Security COLA Reductions Would Weaken Financial Security for the Oldest and Poorest Retirees." Retirement Project Brief No. 18. Washington, DC: Urban Institute. http://www.urban.org /UploadedPDF/311063_retirement_no18.pdf.
Reno, Virginia P., and Joni Lavery. 2009. Fixing Social Security: Adequate Benefits, Adequate Financing. Washington, DC: National Academy of Social Insurance. http://www.nasi.org/research/2009/fixing-social-security.
[SSA] Social Security Administration. No date. "Projection Methodology." http://www.socialsecurity.gov/retirementpolicy/projection-methodology.html.


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So You Want To Be an Artist? The National Gallery of Canada announces the winners of its cross-Canada art contest for teens
20 Jun, 2013, 14:00 ET
Twitter: https://twitter.com/gallerydotca
Facebook: www.facebook.com/nationalgallerycanada
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/ngcmedia
OTTAWA, June 20, 2013 /CNW/ - The panel of judges has selected this year's winners of So You Want To Be an Artist?, the National Gallery of Canada (NGC)'s cross-Canada contest for teens. First place goes to Alyssa Tang (Markham, ON) for her artwork My Grandma; second place goes to Ling Ke (Vancouver, BC) for Drowning; and third place goes to Priscilla Tremblay (Québec City, QC) for Masked child playing in Trastevere. An honourable mention was also given to Jin Cheng (Toronto, ON) for Alumuna.
Open to teens aged 16 to 19, the third edition of the NGC's annual contest So You Want To Be an Artist? received entries from 203 teenagers across the country. To determine the 12 finalists, participants invited members of the public to vote for their artwork online. Over 25,000 votes were cast. The contest site received a total of 151,412 visitors, a 14% increase from last year.
The 12 entries with the most votes, including the three winning entries, will be displayed at the Gallery until the end of July on the Artissimo Gallery wall, just outside the Special Exhibition galleries, in the concourse leading to the Contemporary Art galleries. The nine other finalists are: Shaza Ali (North York, ON), Medea Rasheed (Waterloo, ON), Christian Amiel Miranda (Winnipeg, MB), Andy Liao (Surrey, ON), William Barthe (Québec City, QC), Megan Wang (Kanada, ON), Norvan Saquiped (North Vancouver, BC), and Kate Pellerin (Hannon, ON).
The panel of judges evaluated finalists' artworks based on the following criteria: clarity of theme and message; originality and imaginativeness; and thought and feeling provoked in the viewer. The panel was made up of the following judges: artist Mélanie Authier from Ottawa; La Presse visual arts journalist Éric Clément from Montréal; artist, curator, and Akimbo social media director James Fowler from Toronto; professor and artist Landon Mackenzie from Vancouver; and Rhiannon Vogl, NGC curatorial assistant, Contemporary Art.
"It's inspiring, each year of the contest, to gain insight into how Canadian teens feel and what they care about. Family, friends, places and social issues are interpreted in unique and exciting ways, showcasing the teens' thoughtfulness and creativity. It's a pleasure and an honour for the Gallery to play a small part in bringing some of that energy and expression to a wider audience. We wish all the teens well on their creative journeys," said Megan Richardson, Chief, Education and Public Programs at the NGC.
First-place winner Alyssa Tang will spend a day at the NGC learning about careers in visual arts and having her portfolio reviewed by an NGC expert, and she will also receive a $500 gift certificate for art supplies. Ling Ke from Vancouver will receive a $1,000 gift certificate for art supplies; Priscilla Tremblay will receive a $500 gift certificate, also for art supplies.
The Gallery thanks its sponsors
The NGC thanks the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Arts for its generosity towards the three winners who will be receiving gift certificates for art supplies.
About the National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada is home to the most important collections of historical and contemporary Canadian art. The Gallery also maintains Canada's premier collection of European Art from the 14th to the 21st century, as well as important works of American, Asian and Indigenous Art and renowned international collections of prints, drawings and photographs. Created in 1880, the National Gallery of Canada has played a key role in Canadian culture for well over a century. Among its principal missions is to increase access to excellent works of art for all Canadians. To do so, it maintains an extensive touring art exhibition programme. For more information: www.gallery.ca
SOURCE: National Gallery of Canada
For further information:
For media only:
For more information, please contact:
Josée-Britanie Mallet
Senior Media and Public Relations Officer
National Gallery of Canada
[email protected]

subset: commoncrawl


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The S&R Honors slot in the left rail features a revolving gallery of scholars and/or rogues. These are people that the staff respects and reveres, although in the case of honorees who are still alive it can't be assumed that they respect or revere us (or even that they're aware of our existence).
Below is the complete list of scholar/rogues (or "scrogues") who have graced the S&R masthead. We encourage you to click in and explore the reasons why we have chosen to honor these great men and women.


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I was enjoying the afternoon sun at a street cafe just outside the Nobel Peace center in Oslo. My husband was fetching coffee. It was peaceful, I shut my eyes and enjoyed the calm, the warmth of the sun, the luxury of a leisurely afternoon.
I woke up by someone swatting with a newspaper, I looked around, and saw a woman hitting another, a gypsy beggar, with a rolled up newspaper. The gypsy woman was standing close to a couple on a neighboring table, shaking a paper-cup, not saying anything. At first I thought the attacking lady was chasing a wasp or something away from the poor woman, then I heard her: "go away, we do not like the likes of you around here!"
Instantly the couple got up, left their coffee and started to leave the cafe. "Are you leaving then?", the indignant, paper-wielding woman said. "Oh yes, "the man said, "we do not want to be seen near the likes of you."
This rumpled the norwegian lady, she made some grumbling noises and left too.
It was all over in a couple of seconds. I could hardly believe it had happened. But the rolled up paper was still on her table.
It was all over in a couple of seconds, the shame of it has lived with me for a week. Not as much that a fellow citizen acted on her prejudices, but that I was not quick enough. That I was not brave enough, that my values had not propelled me into action, but into bewilderment and fear. The moment to say" no" had come and gone, and I had not said anything. This time, somebody else did. What if they had not?
Just up the street we passed the Gestapo headquarters during the 2nd world war. What happens when nobody dares to be the one to say no?


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Learning to look beyond our line of sight
Obsessed isn't the right word, but my family has become, let's say, enamored with the Eagle Cam. You probably know the one. Perched high in an aerie above Decorah, Iowa, a family of bald eagles, including three recently hatched eaglets, are proceeding with their daily lives, blissfully unaware they are the stars of a new reality show. And it's a hit.
Live streaming video by Ustream
I was introduced to the Eagle Cam by my daughter, whose class has been keeping tabs on this patriotic family of predators, but the live stream is now marching across social media faster than Grumpy Cat.
It's not uncommon now for the backdrop of our dinner conversation or evening homework rituals to include silent, beak-to-beak feeding of squirrel viscera or the devastatingly adorable snuggling of cotton-clad eagle babies keeping warm in their gusty perch.
It's captivating because it is an uncommon sight. Plus, the pairing of the hunters' implacability with their gentle parenting creates a lovely paradox, albeit perfectly ordinary in nature. It's difficult to stop watching because you don't want to miss what comes next, and that is where this conversation dovetails (see what I did there?) with a discussion about writing.
Great storytelling makes us long to know what comes next. I wrote briefly about this regarding the mystery that can be created through perspective. The eagles are interesting because they are unpredictable, and we don't know how their story ends. It is still being written.
Even more, we often are drawn as readers to what is unique. As writers, it's important to challenge ourselves to discover the stories that lie beyond our line of sight. Sometimes, that's literal, such as a biopic about raptors living in the trees above our heads.
It can also be figurative. The bullied child. The homeless woman. The unseen act of kindness. The secret identity of a true hero.
I advocate for unlikely storytelling because I view writing and reading as a way to explore the unknown in the world around us as well as within our innermost thoughts. There may be no better method for learning than a story – and that goes for writing as well as reading.
I have learned a few practical things about eagles by watching them on video. They build strong nests. They are nurturing. They are powerful. They work as a team.
I have also learned that by veering from the norm and looking in unexpected directions, I might find a compelling story. I have the Decorah eagles to thank for that.
And now that I've become invested in their lives, I hope their story ends well.


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Title: They Plotted Revenge Against America
Author: Abe F. March
Paperback: 254 pages
Date Published: February 3, 2009
Publisher: All Things That Matter Press
"Pandemics happen," U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt had said. There have been ten in the past 300 years, and "we're overdue and under prepared" for the next one. Would America be ready for a flu pandemic at least as deadly as the one in 1918 that killed roughly 50 million people worldwide, including 500,000 in the USA? David and his scientists didn't think so. The scientists working with David were scientists for hire and worked underground. Knowing the strong arm of the Mossad, they were trusted to keep any work they did secret and confided only to the originator. They were now assigned to work on a deadly virus…. people had become more vulnerable today than in 1918 because many more now lived in cities that are dependent on food brought in for outside. In a disaster such as an earthquake or hurricane, help can come from outside the region, but with a pandemic, there is no outside.
… Bird and fish virus were the ideal candidates for David and his scientists. The initial target would be the northeastern part of the United States. The forests and waterways would be used to begin the infestation of both fish and birds whose virus would be transmitted to millions of Americans.
–They Plotted Revenge Against America by Abe F. March, pages 30-31
They Plotted Revenge Against America by Abe F. March is glimpse into the minds and motivations of a group of would-be terrorists. Christian, Jew and Muslim, they are bonded in their desire to punish Israel's biggest supporter in the hope of removing the teeth of the Israeli bite. The plan is simple: Go to the US, blend in, observe fish and wildlife in the Northeast and poultry farming in the South, then release viruses that will transmute into a deadly flu, killing hundreds of thousands of Americans.
However, it is much easier to maintain their hatred for the US and desire revenge for their families deaths while living in the Middle-East. Once in America, the teams meet and get to know the people who live in the places they are planning to infect; they begin to have second thoughts and feel guilty, seeing their new friends as their potential victims and not enemies. Things become even more complicated when one of them is detained and interrogated, another falls under the suspicion of a community member, and David, the leader, becomes romantically involved with Samantha, the team liaison.
While this book has moments that seem preachy/teachy about the evil, white-devil America and her meddling in Mid-eastern affairs, it is an intriguing read. As I read this book, Obama-Netanyahu met and "agreed to disagree" about Israeli-Palestinian settlement and peace, and the Swine Flu scare had schools closing in random locations across the US, which added some tension to my reading. I couldn't help but look at H1N1 with a suspicious eye and think that that might be the work of terrorists… interesting how a deadly, potentially-pandemic-capable virus broke out in a popular vacation spot around the time of US Spring Break.
While I don't believe the author is anti-American, infact March served in the US Air Force from 1957-1961, They Plotted Revenge Against Americamight be viewed as excusing, even condoning, terrorism against the US by more Conservative, right-wing, politically impassioned people. In much the same way as some Christians jumped on Harry Potter with both feet, proclaiming it "of the devil," this book might not be received by those who are strong supporters of Israel and believe in US involvement in the Mid-East.
For the most part, I enjoyed reading They Plotted Revenge Against America by Abe F. March, and it will stick with me for a while. I give it 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.
If you'd like to read other reviews of this book, I reccommend the following:
Filed under: Book Reviews | Tagged: Abe March, Air Force, Bird Flu, Christian, conservative, David, flu, Harry Potter, Iraq, Israel, Jewish, Mexico, Mid-East, military, Mossad, Muslim, Netanyahu, Obama, Palestine, pandemic, peace, settlement, Spring Break, Swine Flu, terrorism, They Plotted Revenge Against America, virus | 3 Comments »


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Arsenal 1-0 Villarreal (Toure 41')
Arsenal came out and applied lots of pressure from the start; the first fifteen minutes they were definitely "in the mood". Then the match was interrupted twice by a squirrel, obviously planted there by a Tottenham supporter trying to throw Arsenal off before the big North London Derby on Saturday that will go a long way in deciding the crucial 4th place spot in the Premiership. Sorry, Spurs, but the joke's on you.
Arsene Wenger on squirrel's Arsenal debut:
"Fast and a good dribbler"
The match settled down a bit after that, but Arsenal defintely had the better of it. Henry scored but is was waved off for a questionable offsides decision. Finally on 41 minutes the rock of the defense Kolo Toure scored after a great Henry move & cross and Arsenal were 1-nil to the good.
Kolo: "Je suis de Cote D'Ivoire; je parle Francais.
Allons-Y au Paris!"
The second half was kind of like the 2nd half of yesterday's Milan-Barca match. That is, one-way traffic. Arsenal dominated, created several excellent chances but couldn't get a 2nd goal. This easily could have been 3 or 4 to nil - if they go out next week they will look back and kick themselves that they didn't capitalize on their many chances. Villarreal tried to slow the game down by time wasting at every possible opportunity, so much so that the referee added 5 minutes of stoppage time. For me the MOTM (man of the match) was Gilberto, who completely shut down Villarreal's best player, Riquelme, and prevented him from creating much of anything. Gilberto bossed the midfield just like Vieira used to; he really has turned it around and played well this spring after being total shite through the first half of the season.
Gilberto to Rilqueme: "You are my bitch!"
So The Arsenal are 90 minutes from the Champions League Final in Paris on May 17th. They take their 1-0 lead to The Madrigal next week, where a draw or even a one goal loss 0f 1-2 or greater will see them through. They are in a great position, but like Barca, they have miles to go before they sleep.
Return legs:
Villarreal-Arsenal. Tuesday April 25, 11.45 a.m. PST. ESPN2
Barcelona-AC Milan. Wednesday April 26, 11.45 a.m. PST. ESPN2


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It's tempting to think that President Obama picked Ernest Moniz on Monday to be his next energy secretary because Moniz's long wavy mop of mostly-white hair might distract people who have been obsessed with Michelle Obama's bangs.
But Moniz, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also lends Obama's Cabinet scientific heft and brings prior Washington experience. At MIT, he has directed the school's Energy Initiative, where he oversaw reports on almost every aspect of energy. And he has been a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Moniz, who served as associate director of the White House office of science and technology policy and as undersecretary of energy under President Bill Clinton, is also devoted to the "all-of-the-above" strategy for energy that Obama has embraced. In a voluminous written and spoken record, Moniz has come out in favor of nuclear power, research into carbon capture and storage for coal, renewable energy and shale gas produced by hydraulic fracturing.
Like outgoing Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Moniz is alarmed about climate change and devoted to funding scientific research into low-carbon alternatives to fossil fuel.
"He brings expertise, experience in a prior administration and real science credibility," said Ian Bowles, former Massachusetts secretary of energy and environmental affairs and now a managing director of venture firm WindSail Capital. "You can argue about whether you want to have a scientist, but within that food group he's an excellent choice."
But over the past couple of weeks, many environmentalists and some prominent renewable energy experts have tried to block the nomination of Moniz because of an MIT report supporting "fracking" — as hydraulic fracturing is commonly known — and because major oil and gas companies, including BP, Shell, ENI and Saudi Aramco, provided as much as $25 million each to the MIT Energy Initiative. Other research money came from a foundation bankrolled by shale gas giant Chesapeake Energy.
"We would stress to Mr. Moniz that an 'all of the above' energy policy only means 'more of the same,' and we urge him to leave dangerous nuclear energy and toxic fracking behind while focusing on safe, clean energy sources like wind and solar," Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune said in a statement Monday.
Ironically, the Energy Department has no jurisdiction over fracking policy. The Environmental Protection Agency is weighing whether to impose new regulations under the Clean Water and Clean Air acts. The Interior Department owns many of the lands that oil companies want to exploit and is devising standards for fracking in those areas. State governments currently handle most regulation.
But the Energy Department issues licenses for terminals exporting liquefied natural gas, which some industries would rather keep at home to keep prices low. Moniz was co-chair of an MIT study that recommended that "the U.S. should not erect barriers to natural gas imports or exports."
"I think the good news is he can hit the ground running," said Carol Browner, formerly Obama's climate and energy czar. "He knows the function of the agency, the power of the agency and its tools."
"In some ways you could not find a more perfect guy than Ernie," said Sue Tierney, an energy consultant at The Analysis Group. "He knows a lot about a very wide range of things within the DOE mission, almost more than any person on earth."
But, she added, his challenge would lie "more with the almost inherently impossible nature of the job."
More than 60 percent of the Energy Department's budget is devoted to maintaining the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile and managing cleanup efforts at sites such as the decommissioned plant in Hanford, Wash., that earlier produced material for nuclear weapons. The department also funds national laboratories, sets appliance standards and aids state-level energy efficiency programs.
"Think of DOE as a holding company with very disparate pieces of business," said Tierney.
While Chu had tens of billions of dollars in grants and loan guarantees to sprinkle over different energy technology firms under the economic recovery act, Moniz will have fewer resources. Unless that changes, the secretary's job will be largely a bully pulpit.
The grandparents of Moniz, who would be the third consecutive scientist or engineer to head the Energy Department, came to the United States from the Azores, and Moniz grew up speaking a little Portuguese, he told a local newspaper in the 1990s. After graduating from Boston College, he earned a doctorate in theoretical physics from Stanford University. He joined the MIT faculty in 1973 and ran its nuclear accelerator and later its physics department.
In 1995, he joined the Clinton administration, then returned to MIT, whose president, Susan Hockfield, was trying to make energy research one of the university's principal endeavors. Moniz became director of the MIT Energy Initiative. In that role, Moniz has commented on almost everything.
He warned Chilean leaders recently that mushrooming electricity demand could lead to a "catastrophic increase in the temperature" of the planet.
Driven by concerns about climate, Moniz favors nuclear power despite the catastrophe that Japan's 2011 earthquake and tsunami inflicted on that country, in part by destroying its Fukushima nuclear power plant.
"It would be a mistake ... to let Fukushima cause governments to abandon nuclear power and its benefits," he wrote in a Foreign Affairs article in late 2011. "As greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere, finding ways to generate power cleanly, affordably, and reliably is becoming an even more pressing imperative. Nuclear power is not a silver bullet, but it is a partial solution that has proved workable on a large scale."
He has said that he favors federal assistance to build several new nuclear power plants this decade to give industry a better idea of economic costs.
Moniz also served as a member of Chu's Blue Ribbon Commission, tasked to figure out what to do with nuclear reactor waste after the Obama administration ended work on the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada. Moniz said that moving spent nuclear fuel from pools to dry casks provided a relatively safe, compact solution that "buys time" to figure out something longer-lasting.
In a video interview posted on the Switch Energy Project Web site, Moniz said it was important to figure out a way to put a price on carbon emissions, making sure it addressed equity issues. "If you take one simple thing, that's the direction I think we need to go in," he said.
"What I believe is if we squeeze down on carbon, we squeeze up on cost, and it brings along a push toward efficiency; it brings along with it a push toward clean technology; it brings along with it a push toward security," he said.
Energy efficiency is also a priority, Moniz said. "The most important thing is lowering your use of energy in ways that actually save you money," he said. "It sounds trivial, but putting out lights really does matter."
Moniz said that "I will admit to being very bullish on solar in the long term. It just has so many features, including the fact that even though it's intermittent, at least it tends to be on when you want it."
But for the foreseeable future, Moniz said, oil and gas will remain dominant features of the world energy picture.
In the introduction to a report on shale gas, Moniz wrote that "natural gas truly is a bridge to a low-carbon future."
Moniz added: "In the very long run, very tight carbon constraints will likely phase out natural gas power generation in favor of zero-carbon or extremely low-carbon energy sources such as renewables, nuclear power or natural gas and coal with carbon capture and storage. For the next several decades, however, natural gas will play a crucial role in enabling very substantial reductions in carbon emissions."
That report came out shortly after one by Robert Howarth, a Cornell professor of ecology and environmental biology, who wrote that methane leaks made emissions from shale gas operations so high that they offset the climate benefits of replacing coal with gas.
Experts from MIT, where Howarth received his doctorate, criticized his report. Howarth said last week that the energy institute was "way too cozy with industry, and I think that's affected their scholarship, and I'm worried about what that would mean."
More broadly, Howarth said that Moniz is "clearly a believer that our strategy should be all of the above. I just think that's the wrong policy." Howarth predicted: "That's going to lead to climate disaster. Shale gas is probably the worst of the fuels to use if you're worried about climate change. It's the wrong policy for a president concerned about climate change."
Other renewable-energy advocates fault Moniz for stressing research instead of infrastructure and financing. In a posting on the Web site GreentechMedia, Jigar Shah, former chief executive at a solar installation firm and now a consultant, wrote: "With the likely nomination of Ernest Moniz as the Secretary of Energy, President Obama has chosen invention over deployment — and R&D over job creation and carbon reduction."
But other energy experts said that Moniz was well suited for the job.
Bowles said, "He knows the department, which is a big plus because it's complicated and involves a lot of nuclear issues, and he's an expert on those issues."
"Outside maybe Secretary Chu, probably nobody who knows more about various aspects of energy than Ernie does. He is a policy guy," said Charles Ebinger, an energy security expert at the Brookings Institution. "He might be a little too academic for what we need as energy secretary right now. If the president really decided to really embrace the unconventional oil and gas revolution, he will need someone who can go out and sell this to the American people."


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Greetings in the name of His & Her Imperial Majesties Qedamawi Haile Sellassie I & Itege Menen Asfaw,
I welcome you all to a new regeneration of cycle Torah readings! This is another one of the many interpretations of the Scriptures from the light of Ras Tafari by, I, Lidj Yefdi (or Yefdeyah). I assure you that if you are patient with me, come with a willing mind and heart(ready to learn), you will receive more than what you might have asked for, in seeking the perspective of a Ras Tafarian's I-sight (eyesight) into the study of the Scriptures. So, with this Hebrew Shabbat (or Sabbath day) if those who actually open up their Bibles to read in a Jewish/Hebrew cycle of readings, & thoroughly discern, have come to the opening of the Torah portions with BeHa'alōtecḥâ – בְּהַעֲלֹתְךָ, from a Jewish/Hebrew mode of study for those out in the diaspora, living outside of Jerusalem or Israel. From the Jewish or Hebraic Calendar in the 5782, this Sabbath day would probably fall on the 18th – יח, & on the 19th – י״ט , of the month of Sïw[v]án – (סִיוָן) for this week, in this mode of study; for those out in the diaspora or outside of Jerusalem/Israel. (The Hebrew Calendar corresponds to a Lunar cycle of the Moon) &, from an Ethiopic-Christian perspective, in what may be known as the year 2014/2034/7514, on the Ethiopic calendar. This calculation, with its readings from the Scriptures, would align to Sítlläkʷ's – ስትለኵስ; on the 10th – ፲, & on the 11th – ፲፩, of the ወርኀ(Wärha – month) of Gínbōt – ግንቦት, for this Sabbath (or Senbet – ሰንበት) in the Ethiopian language of Amharic which is currently one of the languages of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church(the other language being Ge'ez – ግእዝ).
Numbers 8:1- 12:16
Zechariah 2: 14- 4:17
I Corinthians 10: 6-13
Revelation 11: 1-19
In this week's portion of the study of the Scriptures, Moses is instructed by God to tell his brother, Aaron to light the seven lamps for the candlestick(Menorah) in the Tabernacle.
& Aaron, did so; lighting the lamps.
[Numb. 8: 1-4]
Moses, is then also instructed to sanctify the priesthood (Levites) before the entire assembly of the children of Israel. The children of Israel outstretched their hands forth to consecrate the blessing & cleansing of the Levites among the Hebrews, also for their service in the Tabernacle.
[Numb. 8: 5-18]
The Levites were taken by God to be the firstborn among the children of Israel. The priesthood were to adhere to Aaron and his sons, and conduct the services and duties in the Tabernacle.
The laws, commandments, and statutes, for the appointed season of the Passover were given to Moses for the children of Israel, in the wilderness of Sinai. The laws were given in the first month(Abïb/ Nïsán) of the second year of the Israelites' coming out of Egypt. The fourteenth day of this month was when the Hebrews were to keep the memorial of the Passover. (even in the wilderness)
[Numb. 9: 1-14]
The day the Tabernacle was reared up, a cloud covered the Tabernacle, over the Tent of Meeting (the Sanctuary), and in the evening to nightfall, a pillar of fire hovered the same of the Tabernacle.
[Numb. 9: 15-23]
God then spoke to Moses, saying, speak to the children of Israel, that they make two (2) trumpets of silver; for they would be used in the calling of the assembly & for the journeying of the camps. The rules for the blowing of these trumpets would find an alignment different from that of the blowing of the Shofar.
[Numb. 10: 1-10]
The cloud then, was taken up from Tabernacle & the children of Israel journeyed on the twentieth (20) of the second month (Iyyar/ Ziw[v]) out of the wilderness of Sinai to the wilderness of Paran.
[Numb. 10: 11-36]
The children of Israel then began to complain, and grumble for they had begun to forget the ways of God; how and why he brought them out of Egypt. Their complaining kindled the the anger of God.
[Numb. 11: 1-3]
Now, the mixt multitude went lusting after their old ways, even from their captivity. (even after the fire at Taberah) Yet now, in this study portion of the Scriptures the children of Israel wept again; now, for they desired flesh to eat.
[Numb. 11: 4-9]
Moses, heard the people and went before God, not knowing what to do for the weeping and complaining. God instructed Moses, to gather those of the children of Israel, who were known as the elders(or wise) among them; for God would lift the burden of bearing all of the children of Israel's problem upon himself.
[Numb. 11: 10-39]
God then sent a wind that brought quail to the children of Israel, & they did eat but, while the meat was in the process of consumption, a plague of death fell upon them; so much so that like Taberah – תַּבְעֵרָה, the place where the children of had fell away from the grace of God here was named Kibrot Ha Ta'aw[v]ah – (የምኞት መቃብር _ YeMígñoch MäQábr) קִבְרוֹת הַתַּאֲוָה , or in translation the ( graves of lust ).
[Numb. 11: 31-35]
At this point, from the place of the children of Israel's graves of lust they saw it fit to move on; and so, the Israelites journeyed on to Hazeroth (ሐጼሮት/ חֲצֵרוֹת).
Here, Moses' sister and brother spoke against him, for he married an Æthiopian woman.
(Ts'ipporah /Sephorah /Tz'iporah)
God was angered, so that he spoke to Miriam, Moses, and Aaron.
But, upon his departure Miriam, Moses' sister became leprous. Aaron, Moses' brother pleaded with him, for Miriam's case & Moses prayed for his sister to be healed of the disease . God gave grace and said that, seven days, Miriam should be set outside the camp; once she was healed, she could return.
Sabbath Readings' Companion Book
– the Ras Tafari Sabbath Companion Booklet to the cyclical Torah Readings. Hebraic in essence, & Christened in interpretation. A very valuable tool when teaching to children, or introducing one's self to the Judaic/Hebraic forms of approaching study of the Scripture in entirety.


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Let's review the stages of what happened in Honduras:
-President calls for a vote on having a referendum to allow his reelection
-Supreme Court and Assembly say it is illegal and Court rules so. Military warns that the law should be obeyed. Constitution actually says even promoting reelection is illegal.
-President removes Chiefs of Staff of military, Court tells him he can't do that.
-President continues with plans to carry out vote on Sunday. On Sunday, military arrests him.
-National Assembly votes unanimously to name a new President, Supreme Court backs it.
-World is in outcry over Zelaya's overthrow but was not over outright coup against Constitutional order.
The first question is why was the removal of Zelaya illegal, despite all independent institutions backing it, while similar removals of elected Presidents in Ecuador and Bolivia did not even raise an eyebrow in the world's international "democratic" institutions and Nations?
The second question is why it appears as if democracy in our Hemisphere refers only to the fact that Presidents are elected, but somehow they can ignore the laws, the institutions and the Constitution once they get there and its fine with the world, but any attempt to force these elected Presidents to respect the institutions is somehow ignored and even considered suspect by world opinion, particularly if the elected President seems to be left wing. There is clearly a double, if not triple standard in all this.
Finally, why is it that the OAS can meet so fast to meet in these cases but has yet to look at the rape of the Venezuelan Constitution by Hugo Chavez or even his role in the Honduran affair. Chavez was indeed elected by the people but that does not give him the right to violate our rights, anymore than Zelaya attempted to violate everyone's rights in Honduras by carrying out an illegal vote.
Until institutions like the Supreme Court, the National Assembly and others are not allowed to curtail Presidential power, by maintaining checks and balances and limiting what Presidents can do, our countries will not have a true democracy. The Constitution is there for everyone and the President should be the first person to defend it and promote. If not, it is the people that are left defenseless from the Dictadorcitos that fate throws upon us like Hugo Chavez and wannabe Zelaya.
Zelaya simply tried to stage a Constitutional coup because he was the President, but somehow the world seems to have ignored all of this, against the background of institutions that in the end did follow the law and the Constitution in order to remove him.


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Modern siding plays a key role in the facade design of your house. They are not there simply to beautify your house, but also to protect the exterior walls of the building. Sidings are not exactly a modern invention. Residential homes of every part of the globe are being designed with sidings from time immemorial. In many traditional mountain huts of Canada you will see the wise use of sidings.
We will discuss some of the many reasons of using sidings on the exterior walls, different siding materials and much more in today's article.
Different siding options and siding materials can be used in residential structures boasting of different façade designs. For example, certain siding materials like metal are ideal for contemporary structures. They are best not utilized for rustic homes. Before we discuss the types of available materials and their pros and cons, let's have a brief look at the many benefits of having sidings on the exterior walls of your home.
Appropriate sidings help to accentuate the beauty of the exterior of any house. So every homeowner who cares about the curb appeal of his or her home must opt for sidings.
They improve the insulation qualities of your home by increasing the R value or the resistance factor. This automatically helps you to improve the condition of the interior atmosphere and energy efficiency of your home. You can stay in a comfortably warm home in the winter and a cool one in summertime.
With the help of modern colored sidings you can add a bit of spice of the façade of your home.
Modern siding helps to protect the exterior walls of your dwelling and increase their lifespan.
Before opting for any one or different types of house siding, make sure you know how to choose the best ones of your home. When in doubt don't hesitate to contact an experienced architect. Choose modern house siding depending on the architecture and façade design of your house. Sidings with increased resistance value provide better comfort and energy efficiency to your home. It is better to opt for materials that are water resistant. This expands the lifespan of the walls. Besides, you save cost in frequent renovations of your façade.
Choose durable siding materials so avoid the hassles of frequent refurbishing and draining of money. There is a big push for choosing eco-friendly siding materials for very good reasons.
Metal siding – Durability of metal makes it an ideal choice for contemporary homes. They are not prone to developing rots. However, iron based metal siding without proper galvanization can develop rusts. This type of siding is not prone to pest attacks either. Metal sidings can be easily painted. They are also fire resistant.
Metal happens to be one of the most favored siding options in Canada. But you should be aware about some of its deficiencies as well. Aluminium is a rather soft metal and can develop dents and scratches over a period of time. Copper changes color due to constant exposure to the environment. Metal is heavy. So this type of sidings need greater reinforcements during installation which prolongs the time required for installation. They must be painted every 5 to 6 years' or so to maintain its prim look.
Wood sidings continue to beautify the exteriors of modern houses as well as the classical and country style ones. The most commonly used wood type for this purposes are cedar, spruce, pine and redwood. Wood is used in a variety of ways for the external walls. Some of the commonest ones include shingles, board and batten, log, vertical boards, horizontal lap siding and sheets.
Board and batten type sidings can give your house a chic look. Two separate wooden boards are joined together with a thin strip of wood in this case. Logs are very common in the mountain regions of Canada. Log houses make the best use of this type of sidings. Wooden shingles are very common in urban dwellings as well as the rural ones. This type of sidings is made of thin slices of natural wood. Vertical and horizontal sidings are very popular for the modern façades. The cost of wooden sidings varies between $5 CAD and $12 CAD. You may need a minimum of $7200 CAD to clad your entire house with wooden shingles.
There are several benefits of using wooden sidings on the exterior walls. They have a telling effect on the façade design of your home. They increase the inviting feel due to their warm color and varying texture. Natural wood is an extremely durable material. Properly treated and seasoned wood does not develop rots. High quality wood is also not prone to pest attacks.
You can design modern facades as well as the rustic ones with wooden boards, logs, shingles, boards or laps. Wood provides you with a range of customization options. Wood is one of the best insulating material for your home. No surprise then that you feel so comfortable in summer months as well as winter in a home decorated with wooden sidings.
However, wood needs to be repainted in every 6 years' or so. Ill maintained and poor quality wooden shingles, boards or logs are prone to pest attacks. They are not the most fire resistant of the materials. They are also not one of the cheaper siding materials.
Modern vinyl siding is favored due to its cost effectiveness. They also provide you with improved insulation of your home and help you maintain an energy efficient structure. You may invest in vinyl sidings with a look of stone or natural wood. They are not susceptible to pest attacks. They can be used in a variety of ways to design a stylish exterior of your house. Installation of vinyl siding is relatively easy. Many homeowners prefer doing it themselves.
One of the biggest concerns about vinyl is it is not a biodegradable material. So naturally they are a threat to the environment. Though it is fairly water resistant, but the material is not completely waterproof. This means the surface underneath could be affected by seeping rainwater. Vinyl cannot be repainted either. If you ever get fed up with it, you will have to replace it with a new one with a differently look and design. Vinyl does not have the durability of natural wood or stone.
Stucco or cement siding is frequently used in modern homes. Fiber cement siding is hailed for its eco-friendly nature. Fiber cement is made from a blend of wooden fibers, cement and sand. They can be designed to resemble the looks of other materials like natural stone and wood. This is one of the main reasons of their increased popularity. Cement siding is fire resistant, not prone to insect attacks and moisture related issues. It is one of the most durable materials for modern homes.
House exterior materials are available in a range of varieties. Depending on the architecture of your home and your personal requirements, you may choose outdoor siding panels for your house. You may even opt for a combination of sidings made of different materials. You have already seen some of the advantages of using wood, cement and metal sidings. Brick siding as well as stone siding is also common in modern homes. Brick siding is a particularly cost effective and durable option. Stone siding is highly coveted for its beautiful tone and texture.
Check out these materials for designing the facade of your home.


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Prairie Dog Cabin
Type: Modern Cabin
The Facility is ADA Compliant
Prairie Dog cabin sleeps six (one double bed, a futon and a pull-down--"Murphy-type" bed), comes with a full kitchen (refrigerator, stove, microwave, dishes, pots and pans and coffee pot), as well as table and chairs. Beds are fitted with mattresses only; you will need to bring your own bedding (full size sheets), pillows, soap, shampoo and towels. There are no television, internet or telephone hookups. Check in time is after 2 p.m. and check out time is noon every day, year-round. Exterior amenities include a picnic table, fire ring, water hydrant and an excellent view of the lake. The public fishing dock is located within an easy walk from the cabin. Please clean the cabins before you check-out and leave them as you found them for the next visitors. Other camping units (tents and/or campers) are not allowed in the area surrounding the cabin.
Specific Cabin Rules
- No smoking allowed inside.
- Pets are not allowed inside the cabins, and must be kept outside on a chain, leash not longer than 10' or kennel.
- DO NOT clean fish or game inside.
- Items not provided: linens, bedding or personal toiletry items.
- Cabin permits are valid from the date purchased to noon the following day, check in is at 2:00 p.m. and check out is at noon.
- Quiet hours are from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.
- Other camping units (tents and/or campers) are not allowed in the area surrounding the cabin.
- Consumption of alcoholic liquor is prohibited. Cereal malt beverages with not more than 3.2% alcohol by weight are allowed, but no kegs.
- Trash must be removed from the cabin and discarded in dumpsters.
- All vehicles must have a vehicle permit and park in the provided parking areas; no vehicles are allowed off the road or paved parking areas.
- Fires in provided fire rings only.
- No cooking on the porch.
- All State, as well as, Park and Public Lands regulations apply during the use of the cabin.
- Renter is responsible for cleanliness, and/or damages to the cabin upon check-out. Cleaning costs and/or damages will be charged to the credit card or PayPal account used to pay for the rental.
Rental Fees:
October - March
- Weekdays: $80 /night
- Weekends: $85 /night
April - September
- Weekdays: $90 /night
- Weekends: $100 /night - two night minimum


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For the past 22 years, Meerkat Roofing Exteriors have been offering its services in Calgary and its nearest areas. Owned by Larry Metz, the said roofing company got its name from the meerkat. Due to the reason that Metz aimed for a company that has an environment similar to the personality of meerkats. Meerkat Roofing & Exteriors made sure to follow its philosophy regarding working towards the quality of their work and meeting the expectations of their clients. Aside from helping its customers, Meerkat Roofing knows the importance of giving back. That is why we ensure to give back to our community. We support charities that are deserving of the resources they need, locally and internationally. Our customer service team are making sure that we will never put any pressure when it comes to making decisions. We will make sure to give detailed choices and options that will provide our client's opportunity to choose what they want. Go to https://www.meerkatroofing.ca/ for more information about the services offered.
Meerkat Roofing & Exteriors offers a wide variety of roofing materials and exterior products. We partnered with the best suppliers and made sure to keep up with your expectations. You can check our works and read the testimonials of our customers to support our claims. It doesn't matter if you are from Calgary or Red Deer because, in Meerkat Roofing, we will ensure that the moment you keep in touch with us, you will surely get our service. The roof is one of the most critical parts of the house since it provides security and protection for the family. We make sure to give the same safety that your roof offers. Want to visit our offices? Bay 135, 2710 - 3 Ave NE Calgary, AB, Canada T2A 2L5 and Bay #2 7471 Edgar Industrial Bend Red Deer, AB, Canada T4P 3Z5 are our business locations. Visit https://www.meerkatroofing.ca/our-services/emergency-support/ for more information about emergency roofing support services.


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Whew! That took way longer than I thought it would, but I think it's worth it.
The new site is finally live, so please head on over there and check it out.
If you've linked to my blog from anywhere (your blog or a web site), please update your link to reflect the new site: www.prairiemoonquilts.com.
This blog will remain here, so if there's anything you need to come look at, it won't disappear. It's just that I'm not adding any new content here. It'll all be over at the new place.
I've moved over all the content from my old web site, and updated it, and hopefully made it better and easier to navigate.
So come on by and see me over there!


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Algeria militants played shrewd media game
RABAT, Morocco - As wildly contradictory accounts trickled out about a terror attack at an Algerian gas plant, one source of information proved to be the most reliable: announcements by the al-Qaida-linked militants themselves.
The hostage-takers phoned in regularly with up-to-the-minute reports, offered eerily accurate numbers of hostages taken and killed, and clearly laid out their goals.
All this came via a Mauritanian news website that - apart from receiving calls from radical Islamists and al-Qaida-linked militants - is known for its reliability on more mundane local news.
Algeria's official information, in contrast, was silent and murky. At one point the state news service even went dark online before returning with a home page scrubbed of all mention of the hostage crisis that had riveted the world.
When Algerian officials were willing to comment - only anonymously - their information drastically underplayed the scope of the hostage siege that left at least 37 captives and 29 militants dead and sent scores of foreign energy workers fleeing across the desert for their lives.
The reliability of the information from the kidnappers was a departure from the more bombastic and exaggerated announcements typical of al-Qaida-affiliated insurgents in Iraq, Afghanistan and other conflicts.
Also, instead of publishing statements on a password-protected jihadi website entirely in Arabic, the Masked Brigade that claimed responsibility for the gas plant attack sent its information to a news website published in both French and Arabic, reaching a much wider audience.
"It was in the interests of the gunmen to get their story out and the Algerians didn't perceive it was in their interest to get the story out in real time," said William Lawrence, the North Africa analyst for the International Crisis Group. "The gunmen needed to negotiate through the media, politicize the Mali conflict through the media, and score jihadist points in the media."
The editor of the Mauritanian site, the Nouakchott Information Agency, also known as ANI, attributed the difference in style to the Masked Brigade's founder, Moktar Belmoktar.
"Moktar is a man who speaks frankly of what he wants, he's straight forward," said El Mokhtar Ould Sidi, who added that his site left out the parts of the kidnappers' statements that he deemed to be propaganda. "It's very different from al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb or al-Qaida central."
Figuring out what was happening during North Africa's most audacious terror attack was no easy matter with the Ain Amenas natural gas complex deep in the Sahara desert, more than 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) from the capital, Algiers.
Despite a vibrant local newspaper scene, Algeria is not an easy place for foreign journalists to operate and information about security matters is kept under tight control by the military-dominated government.
Instead, as the four-day standoff unfolded, it was the regular dispatches from the militants carried by the Nouakchott agency that provided the most consistent source of information. The reports also bolstered the militants' assertions that the Algerian forces had endangered the hostages with their tactics.
No matter how shocking the news was, it seemed to come first and most reliably from the militants.
Soon after the attack began Jan. 16, the militants claimed to have seized 41 hostages. That night, Algerian Interior Minister Dahu Kabila maintained there were only 20 hostages and they were being held by a local terror group.
The militants replied by listing their diverse nationalities, including the presence of Canadians - something only confirmed by the government several days later.
The biggest revelations came on the second day of the standoff when frantic messages from the militants described Algerian helicopters shooting at the complex's living quarters, followed by a full-scale attack on a convoy of vehicles carrying hostages.
Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci at the time denied there had been any such airstrike, and all that was reported that day was that the army had foiled an escape attempt.
The ANI, meanwhile, said 35 hostages and 11 fighters were killed, with only seven hostages left alive - a death toll it took Algerian authorities several days to match. In the end, their final numbers were quite close.
The accounts of two hostages who barely escaped the doomed convoy, Irish electrician Stephen McFaul and Filipino civil engineer Ruben Andrada, ended up corroborating the militants' version of events.
While the Algerian government claimed the kidnappers were trying to escape with their hostages, the militants were trying to take the captives from the complex's living quarters to the more defensible gas works on the other side when the helicopters attacked.
Being the chosen media outlet for high-profile hostage-takers has not been easy on ANI. At one point, its director was summoned by Mauritanian authorities to defend charges that it was a propaganda outlet for terrorists.
The site was also hacked twice with bogus articles posted blaming the Algerian military for planning the attack and was also savaged in the Algerian press.
Of course, there were important elements of the hostages' accounts that didn't make it into ANI's reports. Algerians evacuated from the site described how the militants searched for foreign workers room by room, killing some outright and booby-trapping others with explosives.
Still, late Thursday after the strafing by its helicopters, the Algerian government claimed its special forces had taken control of the gas plant and insisted that only four hostages were dead.
The next morning it turned out that the standoff was still ongoing. Gradually over the next few days, the official toll rose to meet the one first set out by the militants.
In the absence of official information, including at one point Friday when the Algerian Press Service website shut down for 45 minutes and returned with no stories whatsoever on the standoff, quotes from anonymous officials proliferated. Even material carried by that official news service was often sourced to anonymous officials as the military and police kept up a veil of secrecy.
The local press was filled with assertions from anonymous officials, some of which were wildly untrue.
At one point, an anonymous official confirmed Sunday that 25 burnt bodies had been discovered. That meant, when added to the official toll, more than 80 people were dead in the attack. Yet the final amount the next day was just 66 - and it was not clear where the extra bodies had disappeared to.
One area in which there was a zone of silence was the question of any possible Algerian army casualties in the chaotic, four-day fight against an enemy armed with heavy machine guns, missiles and mortars.
It wasn't until Wednesday, four days after the fighting had ended, that Algeria's Ministry of Defense issued a curt statement saying that "contrary to insinuations" regarding casualties, only eight soldiers had minor wounds.
"Algeria has nothing to hide and we opted for total transparency in communicating all information on this matter as soon as it was available," a member of the prime minister's office told the AP on Tuesday.
He insisted, however, on speaking on condition of anonymity, because he said he wasn't authorized to talk to the press.


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"The only real fire to cultivate is the fire inside of you. Nothing external will cultivate it."
Sitting and reading a book of history has never been my cup of tea. But visiting the space where history took place is a different story. It brings an historical era alive.
This summer I revisited a place that I never tire of -Ladew Gardens in "hunt country" of Monkton, Maryland. Home to the first American to create garden rooms, Henry S. Ladew,( 1887 – 1976) his creative garden spirit is still alive. To read more about the life of Henry S Ladew and his stunning gardens, see this publication.
Beautiful topiaries, strategically-placed antique garden hardscape,beautiful ponds and fountains make the place a real sanctuary for gardeners and non-gardeners alike who have a fine appreciation of beautiful spaces in nature. New to the property since my last visit is a butterfly pavilion which is manned by volunteers who explain the process from caterpillar to chrysalis to hatching of butterflies and their purpose in nature. To read more about this natural phenomenon, visit this article.
The Garden Cafe, Ladew's residence, art studio and library are open to the public. The spaces are where educational, scientific and cultural pursuits flourish for the public benefit. On Sept 27th at 10pm CNN will feature a story about these historic gardens on Mike Rowe's show called "Dirty Jobs."
As a garden enthusiast, my visit to Ladew was as fulfilling as the first time I walked the 22 acres of grounds.
This blog is brought to you by the EVVY award-winning author of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.


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Here are some tasting notes from a mid-week dinner over at Ed's house with me and three other guys. There were no conversations about what types of wines to bring or anything else really beforehand, but once we saw what everyone had brought along to share, we were able to put together some nice flights—each one paired up with different dishes Adam chose from his favorite local Chinese take-out joint up the street.
Flight 1: Champagnes in the kitchen
2002 Jose Dhondt Champagne Grand Cru Mes Vieilles Vignes Blanc de Blancs. There's a very nice bouquet to this wine, featuring appealing aromas of biscuits, graham cracker, ginger, browned apples, toasted meringue and crushed nuts that are starting to show a bit advanced in tone, but in a very engaging way. In the mouth, it's creamy-textured, cohesively-flavored and finely balanced between the excellent bass note heft and the sneaky drive and power the wine displays. I also like the yellow fruit profile and the little twists of funk that come through once in a while. Overall, it's starting to show some maturity and I think it's right about in the spot where I'm apt to like it best in its evolution.
2002 Henri Goutorbe Champagne Special Club. This is also lovely, though in a fresher and more elegant package. The nose sports aromas of white flowers, mellow citrus, chalk, herbs and graphite powder in a finely-lifted and crisp profile that's nice and soft around the edges. It also has a classy mouthfeel to it on the palate, where there's a certain sense of seriousness and refinement to the flavors of grapefruit, ginger, chalk and minerals. It has very good length and staying power, too, and I wouldn't hesitate to drink now or hold awhile longer.
2005 J. Lassalle Champagne Cuvée Angeline. This is light, fun and fresh on the nose, with taut but expressive aromas of struck flint, pear, lemon, smoke and pencil shavings showing some pretty edgings to them. In the mouth, it's really popping and lively right now, with a mouth-cleansing quality to the acidity and the bright flavors of yellow citrus, lemon pepper and chalk. For all that, it still feels nicely smooth and creamy on the finish. It needs a few more years probably to broaden out on the mid-palate, but it's also a fun Champagne to drink now, in my opinion.
Flight 2: A lone white
2011 Château de Pibarnon Bandol Blanc. There's a very floral bouquet to this wine, with notes of orange blossoms, honeysuckle, spritzy grapefruit, lime zest, lanolin, smoke and limestone emerging from the glass. In the mouth, it's crisp and clean on the entry but quickly fans out and finds a rich bottom note on the mid-palate. It has a smooth, easy feel to it, but also a bit of youthful grip still. It has a bit more density and depth than the airy bouquet might lead one to expect, and the flavors of pineapple, grapefruit, lime and brown spices show good energy and lift. I think everybody enjoyed this, especially with some of the Chinese food.
Flight 3: Southern Rhones
1998 Château Fortia Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Our first red of the evening is fairly pale ruby in color. It has a savory, but restrained and gentlemanly nose to it, with earthy aromas of rhubarb, pomegranate, cool soil and hard leather. In the mouth, it has a nice earthy profile and fine bright acidity to it. It isn't the most expansive wine in the mouth, but the tangy red fruit is nice and juicy in a focused swath across the palate. Supporting flavors of berries and spicy leather add refined tones that are almost pinot-like in their vinosity. It's only going to go downhill from here, I would say, but it's a nice old-fashioned, lighter-weighted wine for drinking right now.
1999 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The nose here is full of leather, tobacco leaf, toasted spice, red currant, cassis and truffle aromas that slowly pull in deeper notes from a well of richer dark red fruit. It's moderately savory, but without any of the Beaucastel funk in play, at least not right now. In the mouth, it displays a lot more body, structure and depth than the first wine, with dense and deep flavors of red currants, raspberries, black plums and clean spices. Gentle tannins kick in late, and it is evident that this can go for quite a while yet.
Flight 4: Northern Rhones
1997 Tardieu-Laurent Crozes-Hermitage. This is a tad dusty and musty off the top, but beneath that can be found rather serious, dark and earthy aromas of black cherry, charcoal, vanilla bean, iron ore and iodine. It improves all night long, with some sweeter elements coming into play as the evening goes along, but always staying sinewed, cool and black in tone. In the mouth, it's dark and full—with black olive, dried blood, black currant and sweet vanilla flavors showing a gripping and ropy quality to them. It has a cylindrical feel to it and stays tight-knit all night long. I like it more than I love it, but I can see it hanging in there and perhaps softening a bit over the next 5 years or so.
1991 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie Brune et Blonde. This is a real treat on the nose, showing outstanding aromatics of peppercorn, bacon fat, brine, burnt embers, tapenade, and mixed red and black fruits that have great balance and fine old-world character. In the mouth, it's cool, calm and collected—still showing plenty of grip, tension, backbone and supportive tannin but also lots of meaty, briny and muscled flavors of black currants, tapenade and black pepper. The flow and freshness are great and the controlled but expressive profile is really to my liking. This is excellent stuff right now or you can hold it without worry.
Flight 5: Napa Valley Cabernets
1987 Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon Bonny's Napa Valley. The nose on this wine soars up out of the glass and leaves no doubt whatsoever that this is a Silver Oak bottling–with big hits of peppermint dust, menthol, eucalyptus, pine needle, jalapeno, dusty earth, cassis, red currant and tomato paste aromas carving out their distinctive house signature. In the mouth, it's smooth and medium-weighted, with a lively and generous flavor profile packed with sweet red fruit and supported by accents of pine sap, mint and menthol. For some at the table, it's all a bit too obvious, but I find it kind of fun, easy and characterful.
1998 Anderson's Conn Valley Vineyards Éloge Napa Valley. This blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Cabernet Franc and 10% Merlot is richly-styled but also fairly Bordelais in nature with its outstanding aromas of tobacco, leather, black currants, black raspberries, violet flowers, classy spices and raw lumber. In the mouth, it starts out a bit syrupy and sticky early on, but smooths out and weaves an ever-finer tapestry the longer you stay with it. The tannins are definitely in play, but again seem to integrate better with time. All the while, the full-bodied and finely-balanced flavors of black currant, dark berry and rich earth provide a luxuriant blend that delivers a good deal of palate pleasure. It may actually have been better on day 2—suggesting to me that a healthy decant is the best way to approach this wine right now to optimize all that it has to offer.
2001 Nickel & Nickel Cabernet Sauvignon Rock Cairn Oakville Napa Valley. This is definitely young, but already seems expressive aromatically with its fine and pure aromas of cassis, bright red cherries, fine soil and dark-roasted coffee. It turns more black-fruited in the mouth, where it features full-bodied but polished flavors of black currants, blackberries, and dark plum supported by abundant but well-rounded tannins and smooth cool acidity. There's some sneaky power to this, but it also seems pretty classy and toned. It has a long life ahead of it, in my opinion, and I'll be glad if it turns out anything like the fine 1997 we had a few months earlier.
Flight 6: Sweet wines
1988 Château de Rayne-Vigneau Sauternes. This was served from a 375 ml bottle. It features very robust botrytis aromas on the nose, with lots of scents like candied grapefruit, powdered sugar, crème brulee topping and sweet caramel cream just adding to the very nice overall impression. In the mouth, it's creamy and rounded–with exotic tastes of candied ginger, pineapple, baking spices and caramel. It's not a blockbuster sort of wine in terms of richness or sweetness, nor is it a particularly racy style—instead if comes across as balanced and well-paced, with generous flavors and a tasty all-around profile.
1983 Gould Campbell Vintage Porto. The color here is very healthy, and the nose is quite lively with its rich but effortless aromas of dark figs, black plums, brown spirits and toasty spices. It's a nice and generous wine on the palate, too, without much heat at all and showing fine balance and plenty of structure still. It's quite spicy and warmly-fruited, and goes down nice and easy, still showing a bit of grip toward the finish. I'd have to say it's drinking quite nicely, but I don't think it's in any danger, either.


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Editor Jane Slaughter's talk at the 2014 Labor Notes Conference.
It's been 35 years since the founding of Labor Notes—a good time to look at how the labor movement's challenges have changed over the last 35 years.
Labor Notes was founded the same year that employers discovered you could get concessions, that a signed contract wasn't written in stone: you could plead poverty and open it up and force workers backwards.
How many of you can remember when it was considered automatic that each contract would be better than the one before? It wasn't easy for the labor movement to force the employers to that place, but we were there for a few decades. In auto, for example, we got a 3 percent raise every year plus COLA. Ninety days after you hired in, you were at top pay.
Today in an auto plant, you could work 90 years, you will never get to top pay.
Today union bargainers approach each new negotiation with dread—what are they going to want us to give up this time?
A Boring Labor Movement
But Labor Notes was actually founded in early 1979, in February, before the secret got out on givebacks (when Chrysler threatened bankruptcy and asked for and received concessions).
The labor movement then was actually kind of boring in many ways. At that time we didn't foresee that the next 35 years were going to be fighting one concession after another, one trade agreement after another, one bad court ruling after another, more states going right-to-work, hysteria against immigrants.
Rather, what we saw was employers taking advantage of workers in all the "normal" ways—speedup, keeping pay down, lack of respect—and unions that weren't doing enough about it.
We saw unions that didn't belong to their members, that had become these big lumbering bureaucracies—with high salaries for leaders who'd been out of the shops for decades, who in some cases were comfortable with their employer golfing buddies.
It was not on any union president's mind: how can I get my members more involved? And frankly, it wasn't on a lot of members' minds either. The union wasn't something most members thought about a lot. Hopefully it would get you something in the contract, and it would be there if you got in trouble at work. It was "the union they," not "the union we."
The Troublemaking Wing of the 1970s
But of course, there were some union members who did care deeply about their union and about using it to fight their employers, and that's what gave birth to Labor Notes.
Coal miners were wildcatting thousands of times a year over safety and grievances and getting a Black Lung bill. They had a reform movement inside their union, Miners for Democracy, and they had elected one of their members as their union president. When Jimmy Carter got a Taft-Hartley injunction to stop their strike in 1978, they said, "Taft can mine it, Hartley can haul it, and Carter can shove it," and they kept on striking.
Teamsters for a Democratic Union had been formed around getting a decent Master Freight contract. There was a reform group in the Auto Workers called the United National Caucus. Steelworkers were demanding the right to a rank-and-file vote on the Basic Steel Contract, a right they didn't have, and they had come close to winning their union presidency.
But none of these groups in steel, coal, auto, and trucking were in touch with each other or even knew about each other. We had our land lines.
So we thought a monthly newsletter with news about these different movements could maybe help those movements to… become more of a movement. People could feed off each other. They could see they were all part of the same troublemaking wing of the labor movement.
And they did. In 1981 the first Labor Notes Conference was held, 400 people in Detroit. It felt big, at the time.
By that time, though, the labor movement had gotten a whole lot less boring—in some happy ways and some not so happy ways. The movements inside unions were growing, and sometimes winning, but the employers had gone on the offensive.
At that first conference we talked about how to fight concessions. Tony Mazzocchi called for a labor party. By the time of our second conference, in 1982—well, the title of it was "Organizing Against Concessions."
The pattern had been established that we're still living under today—each negotiation is a time for employers to see what they can get back. And in between contracts too.
The "Trust Us" Programs
And then employers kept coming up with more schemes to make the labor movement an interesting place to be. More things to fight them on. Remember labor-management cooperation programs? Yes, back in the '80s, and extending into the '90s, our bosses actually tried to convince us that we had more in common with them than we had in conflict.
The idea was that workers would give management their ideas about how to run the workplace better, and that would make everyone so happy that productivity would go up, and everyone would benefit.
This was accompanied by lots of management crocodile tears: "Oh, we're sorry we never listened to you in the past. But now we've changed. Trust us." Union officials would go around with company officials and give joint presentations to conferences, and dare their listeners to try to guess which one was which.
Nowadays most employers don't bother. They just say they want more power over your work life, and more of your paycheck, because they can. Even if they're superprofitable, like Boeing or UPS.
Of course, plenty of people at the time saw through that hooey. They were called troublemakers, or dinosaurs: they were stuck in the past, they wouldn't think outside the box.
Those troublemakers had to spend a decade or more explaining to fellow workers why they shouldn't be like Charlie Brown and Lucy: don't believe her when she says "trust me." She is definitely going to yank that football away one more time.
At least today the employers have got it all out on the table. They're not pretending to make nice.
How the Work Gets Done
But through these programs, employers were paying very close attention to how work actually got done in the workplace, on the shop floor. We should take note of that. They are super-aware how much their profits depend on getting us to work harder.
So UPS, for example, goes to the trouble of telling its drivers exactly how to carry their truck keys—on their pinky—because they've figured out it will save x /100ths of a second at each stop, and those seconds add up. Every UPS truck is equipped with more than 200 sensors that monitor drivers' every move. Every driver is expected to follow 72 pages of "methods."
Meanwhile unions, at the top, have generally been way behind on caring about what the workday is like. It's like, you're getting a paycheck, kwitcher bellyaching. I actually once heard a UAW president say that it didn't matter if companies were getting auto workers to work harder, because they hadn't been working very hard in the first place.
In this context I'd like to take a minute to acknowledge two personal friends who got the Labor Notes Troublemakers award in 2010 and 2012. Charley Richardson, a labor educator who never forgot his own days in the shipyard and who spent his life teaching workers how to defend themselves against brainwashing and speedup. And Jerry Tucker, who was the master of knowing just how the workplace worked and helping workers figure out how to "run the plant backwards." A moment of appreciation for Charley and Jerry.
Employers' Dream
At the same time that employers were thinking hard about the details of the workplace, they were also thinking big. They were thinking about how to increase the power of the 1%—as if they didn't have enough!—over all aspects of society.
So in 1994 we got NAFTA, with Bill Clinton putting on the full-court press to bribe Congresspeople to vote for it. Today we're fighting the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which makes NAFTA look like small potatoes.
One result of NAFTA was to strengthen corporate freedom to run away and invest anywhere they wanted, with the resulting loss of jobs. And another was the displacement of more than 1 million campesinos and 1.4 million more Mexican workers whose jobs depended on agriculture—so that millions of Mexicans and other Latin Americans felt obliged to come here to make a living, the biggest wave of immigration to the U.S. since the early 1900s.
It took a while, but the labor movement finally got its head on straight and now we feel privileged to welcome those who've come here. It was an unintended consequence from the 1%'s point of view, but today our labor movement is actually stronger because of those new members, and the worker centers they've created and the different energy they bring. In the spring of 2006 they pulled off the largest political strikes in the history of the U.S., when a million people were in the streets, to protest an ugly anti-immigrant bill.
We didn't think, in 1981, about needing translation at a Labor Notes Conference. Welcome to all our newest sisters and brothers.
No Right to Exist
The last difference I want to mention, between the labor movement of 35 years ago and today, is that back then, it was assumed that unions had a right to exist. Employers didn't like us, they tried to keep us out of unorganized workplaces, but once the union was in, they would at least come to the table.
Now, all bets are off. They want us not just out of their own workplaces but out of politics, out of political influence. Dead. So Michigan is now a right-to-work state. Michigan, my friends—birthplace of industrial unionism. We had 17 percent union density and still the legislature passed right-to-work.
Unions are in such a perilous state that it's natural that people would think of any means necessary to shore up numbers. Get the union's foot in the door any way you can—even with a sweetheart agreement—and at least you're in the door.
But though we can understand that desperation, we all know that way is not going to save us. For one thing, there aren't enough employers left who would even agree to a sweetheart agreement. For another, it's too hard to transform a union that started out as a handshake between guys at the top.
So…. what is the way forward?
Learning From the Unorganized
I won't attempt to answer that in the next two minutes. If you went to all the workshops over the next two days, you'd have the answer.
The simple answer is that a lot of folks are showing us the way who aren't even union members yet. Young immigrants like Reyna Wences who we'll hear from on Sunday are chaining themselves to deportation buses, saying, "no, you're not taking my parents or my friends away." A thousand "Moral Monday" North Carolinians got themselves arrested last year for human rights. They said, "no, you are not taking us back to the days of Jim Crow."
What these folks know is that you have to exert power through your willingness to get in the way of business as usual. Working people can get somewhere when we go outside the usual channels, because those channels were set up for us to lose.
We have to dig our own channels. That's making trouble, sisters and brothers. That's union.


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International conference at which the fields of psychosis and dissociation meet, focusing on new theoretical perspectives and treatment approaches.
Welcome to the beautiful city of Kristiansand in the south of Norway for a conference set on bringing together science, theory and practice, thus expanding theoretical perspectives and understanding of treatment.
During the first two days, internationally renowned speakers present the latest knowledge in their professional field. The lectures will be held in English.
The last day of the conference will be held in Norwegian and offers presentations by renowned national experts. The spotlight is directed towards clinical challenges across the various disciplines.


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MPEG has issued a request for comments and a call for further evidence on a royalty-free video codec standard under consideration.
The request is contained in the publicly available meeting resolutions of the October 2010 94th Meeting in Guangzhou, China.
The request follows responses received at the October Guanghzou meeting to the previous August call for evidence on Option-1 licensing (MPEG-speak for royalty-free) and input from the Chinese and US National Bodies.
In addition to information about target performance, the request cryptically asks:
The relevance of pursuing such a standards activity within MPEG, particularly with respect to current market conditions and industry needs.
Presumably this is a veiled reference to the announcement after the August MPEG meeting by the MPEG LA patent licensing administrator of new royalty terms on its AVC/H.264 (MPEG-4 Part 10) pool that has met Internet industry opposition.
14.6 Option 1 Licensable Video Coding
14.6.1 The Requirements subgroup thanks the following organizations for their response to the Call for Evidence on Option-1 Video Coding Technology: Oracle, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University.
14.6.2 The Requirements subgroup thanks the CNNB and USNB for their input related to Option-1 video coding technology.
14.6.3 The Requirements subgroup recommends approval of the following documents:
|Exploration – Option 1 Licensing Video Coding
|Call for Evidence on Option-1 Video Coding Technology
14.6.4 Interested parties are encouraged to respond to N11676.
14.6.5 MPEG requests that companies comment on the following topics relating to Option-1 licensable video coding:
The relevance of pursuing such a standards activity within MPEG, particularly with respect to current market conditions and industry needs.
What are the specific video codec performance targets that may be required in order to secure the desired level of market adoption? As an example, current discussions related to an Option-1 codec have considered a 2x coding gain, in comparison to MPEG-1, as a minimum performance target.
"Resolutions of the 94th Meeting", ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC29 N11553, Guanzhou, CN, October 2010, http://www.itscj.ipsj.or.jp/sc29/open/29view/29n11604c.htm
"Think H.264 is Now Royalty-Free? Think Again – and the "Open Source" Defence is No Defense to MPEG-LA", Peter Csathy, CEO Sorenson Media, Sept. 20, 2010, http://blog.sorensonmedia.com/2010/09/think-h-264-is-now-royalty-free-think-again-and-the-open-source-defense-is-no-defense-to-mpeg-la/
"Mozilla shrugs off 'forever free' H.264 codec license: Uh, will H.264 even be relevant in 4 years?', Cade Metz, August 26, 2010, http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/mozilla-unmoved-by-royalty-free-h264/9499
"Opera still won't support H.264 video", Jan Vermeulen, October 1, 2010, http://mybroadband.co.za/news/internet/15547-Opera-still-wont-support-H264-video.html
"Open Standards for Video — Video standards (formats, codecs, metadata, etc.) should be open, interoperable, and royalty free", in "Some principles for open video", Open Video Alliance, http://openvideoalliance.org/wiki/index.php?title=Some_principles_for_open_video


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2 tsp canola oil
sauteed apples (go here to see method)
carrot fronds
chopped parsley & baked carrot chips
pre heat oven to 425*
on a rimmed baking sheet spread prepared carrots, sweet dumpling squash & onion- toss with 2 tsp canola oil. roast in pre heated oven for 20-30 minutes checking and tossing veggies at the half way point until roasted golden.
in a soup pot over medium heat toast spices until fragrant (coriander through cardamom). add roasted veggies, salt, bay leaf and 6-8 cups water (water depends on how thick you like your bisque).
bring to a boil, reduce heat & cover- simmer on low for 20 minutes.
remove from heat, with an immersion blender blend soup until smooth and creamy.
ladle into bowls and garnish eat bowl with the topping of your choice.