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In first for Mormon conference, woman leads prayer
For the first time in the event's 183-year history, a woman led a prayer Saturday at the semiannual gathering of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Jean A. Stevens led the morning session's closing prayer for the more than 100,000 Mormons gathered in Salt Lake City for the two-day general conference, and the millions more watching via satellite, radio or Internet broadcast.
Among other church roles, Stevens is member of a three-person board that advises and assists parents on teaching their children about the faith, which has more than 14 million members worldwide.
A feminist group launched a campaign earlier this year asking church leaders to let women lead the opening and closing prayer - a first for the conference - as a symbol of gender equality.
Women hold leadership positions in the Mormon church but aren't allowed to be bishops or presidents of stakes, which are geographic areas similar to Catholic dioceses. At past conferences, women have regularly given speeches and could pray in the audience.
The "Let Women Pray" campaign was launched in January from the same group that drew national attention in December by urging women to wear pants to church rather than skirts or dresses to raise awareness about what they perceive as gender inequality within Mormon culture.
Amber Whiteley, 23, of St. Louis, was one of the campaign organizers and said Saturday she was "thrilled" and couldn't stop smiling when she heard the news.
"I think it shows that it was really compassionate on the church's behalf ... that women are really important in the church and that women's voices matter," she said Saturday.
It also shows that "women's prayers matter as much as men's," Whiteley said.
Church spokesman Eric Hawkins said Mormon leaders late last year decided who would be leading the conference prayers, which is before the women prayer campaign was launched.
Hawkins did not elaborate on why Stevens was selected, but said leaders of the church are the ones chosen to give the invocation and benediction.
Earlier Saturday, Thomas S. Monson, the faith's president, announced the church is planning to build two new temples, in Rio de Janeiro and Cedar City, Utah.
Temples are considered sacred to Latter-day Saints and are used for religious rituals including proxy baptisms, marriage ceremonies and other rites designed to strengthen church teachings.
The exact locations of the new buildings will be announced later, the church said. Worldwide, there are 141 temples in operation and 29 under construction.
The newly announced temple in Rio de Janeiro will be the eighth planned or operating temple in Brazil, where there are more than 1.1 million Mormons. Six temples are up and running in the country, and a seventh is planned in Fortaleza.
The planned temple in Cedar City, in southwest Utah, will be the 17th temple operating or planned in the state. The church previously announced construction of temples in Payson and Provo. Nearly 2 million members of the faith live in Utah, where the church headquarters is located.
Monson also announced during his opening address Saturday that the church has created 58 new missions to accommodate swelling numbers of missionaries.
At the last general conference in October, church officials announced a lowering of the minimum age for missionaries: from 21 to 19 for women, and from 19 to 18 for men.
Church leaders and outside scholars believe that decision could be a landmark leading to many more women serving missions.
The church says applications for new missions are up twofold since the announcement. About half of all new applications have come from women. Previously, only 15 percent of missionaries were women.
"The response of our young people has been remarkable and inspiring," Monson said.
As of April 4, more than 65,000 Mormon missionaries were serving around the world, Monson said. More than 20,000 additional missionaries have been called to serve, while another 6,000 are in the interview process.
The semiannual conference, taking place Saturday and Sunday, offers Mormons words of inspiration and guidance for daily living from the faith's senior leaders. Besides the thousands attending in person, millions more participate in the meeting through satellite, radio or Internet broadcast translated into more than 90 languages.


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Dumb Enchanted Evening
By Ben Johnson
FrontPageMagazine.com | 4/30/2009
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OBAMA's 100 DAYS OF ENCHANTMENT press conference WILL BE REMEMBERED for one's reporters fawning question: What has "Enchanted you the most from [sic.] serving in this office?" Jeff Zeleny, who writes for the – wait for it – New York Times, buried hard news by becaming part of the story. However, the ho-hum presser featured important revelations on three foreign policy issues: "torture," Iraq, and releasing state secrets. Obama's comments on abortion and illegal immigration should have raised eyebrows, as should a series of statements that would have gotten Dan Quayle or George W. Bush crucified.
The Real Churchill Record
To defend his banning CIA interrogators of using harsh interrogation techniques against al-Qaeda operatives, Obama claimed:
I was struck by an article that I was reading the other day talking about the fact that the British during World War II, when London was being bombed to smithereens, had 200 or so detainees. And Churchill said, 'We don't torture,' when the entire British – all of the British people were being subjected to unimaginable risk and threat.
This tidbit was presumably gleaned from Niall Ferguson's 2006 piece "Why Churchill Opposed Torture" in the Los Angeles Times, or Andrew Sullivan's recent blog on a topic he's exploited for months. However, as Charles Johnson has long since pointed out, it's absolutely false. At the outset of World War II, the Chamberlain government passed Defence Regulation 18B, which allowed for the internment of anyone dubbed to be of "hostile origin or associations." Churchill biographer Martin Gilbert records how within a year Churchill detained "tens of thousands" of "enemy aliens," and some "were German anti-Nazi refugees…including many German and Austrian Jews." These detainees could be held indefinitely, without benefit of habeas corpus, and the ranks soon expanded to include native Britons of suspect political views. Shortly, Sir (yes, Sir!) Oswald Mosley would be carted off, along with most of the membership of the British Union of Fascists.
Nor did Churchill hold all uniformed German soldiers in placid dignity. Many were taken to a prison known as the "London Cage," a long-kept wartime secret, which operated from July 1940 to September 1948. Its commander, Lt. Col. Alexander P. Scotland, remarked how he would tell himself each day upon entering, "'Abandon all hope ye who enter here.' For if any German had any information we wanted, it was invariably extracted from him in the long run." The (UK) Guardian reported the Cage's "prisoners had been forced to kneel while being beaten about the head; forced to stand to attention for up to 26 hours; threatened with execution; or threatened with 'an unnecessary operation.'" (You can read more on the London Cage here.)
Not only did Conservative icon Winston Churchill support the measure, there is every reason to believe his socialist successor, Clement Atlee, approved of Regulation 18B (which he helped implement) and presided over even worse tortures of Germans.
Needless to say, Ferguson's conclusions are as wrong as his "facts." Niall wrote, "Few, if any, American soldiers currently find themselves in enemy hands. But in the long war on which Bush has embarked, that may not always be the case. The bottom line about mistreating captive foes is simple: It is that what goes around comes around." Yet even when he wrote this article, there had been two conspicuous examples of Americans "in enemy hands": the four American contractors in Fallujah, whom they tortured, killed, charred, and then put on display; and Nicholas Berg, whom they beheaded, specifically in retaliation for the photos of Abu Ghraib.
Torture, Iraq, and State Secrets
…On which theme, ABC's Jake Tapper asked Obama the most penetrating question of the evening: if the Bush administration approved waterboarding, and Obama believes "waterboarding…is torture," does this mean "the previous administration sanctioned torture?" Obama's answer, in box-step fashion, was yes; the Bush administration approved of – and uniformed U.S. officials carried out – acts of torture against Muslims. While Obama tipped his hat to "information that was yielded" from waterboarding, he thinks "we could have gotten this information in other ways…that were consistent with our values." He acknowledged, "In some cases, it may be harder," but as he said in his speech before the CIA, doing his best Stuart Smalley impression, "That's O.K." After all, he theorized last night, ending the practice "takes away a critical recruitment tool that al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations have used to try to demonize the United States and justify the killing of civilians." His assertion that Americans perpetrated torture will itself stir anti-American sentiment, not least as it follows his recently order for the Defense Department to release hundreds of photos of detainee abuse. Apparently Obama believes this al-Qaeda recruitment package can be waved away with an assurance that (wink, wink) we no longer do those things – and by the way, Eid-eh Shoma Mobarak!
The release of these photos, accompanied by memos detailing "torture," took a more important tone as the president told Time magazine's Michael Scherer he plans to reveal more state secrets of this sort. "I actually think that the state secret doctrine should be modified. I think right now it's overbroad," he said. He then revealed, "Eric Holder and Greg Craig, my White House counsel, and others are working on that as we speak." The selection of Holder – and Craig, whose commitment to the rule of law led him to assist Bill Clinton's evasion of it – makes one worry Obama plans to make "a foreign-aid program out of American secrets."
However, the foreign policy aspect of the conference was not all naïve promises. He explained "his" long-range Iraq withdrawal policy, which is identical to President Bush's withdrawal policy, saying, "more work needs to be done on the political side to further isolate whatever remnants of Al-Qaeda in Iraq still exist." But if Iraq was a fraud, a "war of choice" as the Left insists, why must we win it? In one phrase, he admits al-Qaeda is in Iraq; that it remains a threat; that Bush's troop surge was the right policy (though Obama opposed it as late as last July); that Nancy Pelosi was wrong to insist, "If we leave Iraq, then the insurgents will leave Iraq, the terrorists will leave Iraq"; and the immediate withdrawal his entire party counseled for years was the wrong policy formulated either out of stupidity or with something other than the nation's best interests in mind.
Social Issues
Obama also made minor headlines on social issues like abortion and illegal immigration. Summarizing the pro-abortion point of view he said, "I don't want to create straw men here." There's a first. Then he announced, "The Freedom of Choice Act is not my highest legislative priority." Which means he's either a liar now or he was a liar on the campaign trail when he told Planned Parenthood, "[T]he first thing I'd do as president is, is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That's the first thing that I'd do." (Even the Left's Messiah lies.) The word "highest" is also troubling, as it means rolling back the vox populi in every state in the union that demands sensible restrictions is still a part of his (anti-)Democratic agenda.
On immigration, he told Lori Montenegro of the Spanish-language network Telemundo he planned to continue his push for "immigration reform," though he stopped shy of endorsing her one-year time frame. He referred to illegal immigrants as "undocumented workers," but he also mentioned the tragic reality of their position in the economy: "they can be exploited at the same time as they're depressing U.S. wages." He proceeded to call for "a more thoughtful approach than just raids of a handful of workers." Not that he wants to create a straw man or anything….
The Iowa Primary?
The majority of the press conference consisted, as most press conferences do, of self-congratulations and nonsense. He continued his penchant for Carteresque just-plain-folks solutions to global problems: "keep your hands washed; cover your mouth when you cough," inflate your tires….
However, he made two statements no Republican could have gotten away with. When CBS's Chip Reid tossed him the second softest softball of the evening – "What do you think [Arlen Specter's party] switch says about the state of the Republican Party?" – Obama replied, "You're talking to a guy who was 30 points down in the polls during a primary in Iowa." Iowa doesn't have a primary. It has caucuses, as do some of the other 56 states.
On the softest softball, he said he felt "humbled" that he "can't just press a button and suddenly have the bankers do exactly what I want." In President Bush, this would have been denounced as cowboy "hubris." For ObaMessiah, a lack of power breeds humility.
May he be richly rewarded with that virtue in his remaining 1,361 days in office.
Ben Johnson is Managing Editor of FrontPage Magazine and co-author, with David Horowitz, of the book Party of Defeat. He is also the author of the book 57 Varieties of Radical Causes: Teresa Heinz Kerry's Charitable Giving.

subset: commoncrawl


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"How To: 20 Christmas Gifts to Make and Christmas Dessert Recipes" eBook
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"How To: 20 Christmas Gifts to Make and Christmas Dessert Recipes" eBook
'Tis the season to get in the holiday spirit! Nothing says Christmas quite like handmade gifts. There are so many options when it comes to creating your own presents and all types of crafters can get in on the fun. Whether you enjoy knitting, crochet, paper crafting, sewing or something else entirely, you can easily create inexpensive Christmas gifts that everyone will love. These crafts will look great under a tree and can be given to a holiday hostess, a friend at work or a family member. The added effort and care you take for these easy crafts to make for Christmas won't go unnoticed. If you've ever wondered how to make Christmas gifts that really make an impression, then you'll love this free eBook.
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Download your free copy of How To: 20 Christmas Gifts To Make and Christmas Cookie Recipes.
Quick and Easy Christmas Gifts to Make
Just because you're short on time doesn't mean you can't make your own inexpensive Christmas gifts. Set aside an afternoon or a quiet evening and make a few simple Christmas crafts that you can store for a later date. Best of all, you don't need a lot of money and supplies to make any of these projects. If you don't have a lot of time, consider making a decoupage product. In this eBook, you'll find ways to decorate a frame and plate using decoupage. You can easily customize the piece for the gift recipient and use papers or photos you already have on hand. Other homemade Christmas gift ideas for busy crafters include a snow globe, candy dish and even bath bombs. All of these gifts can be customized to create a great gift that's sure to leave a lasting impression.
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If you have a little more time on your hands or just want to make something a little more intricate, consider a project you can crochet, knit or make with beads. Home made Christmas gifts are always the best option, but when you put in extra time and thought, it truly shows. Your gift will last well past the holiday season and will make an impression every time it's used. This season, consider making Christmas-themed jewelry or decorations. However, you can think outside the holidays for some inspiration. Some Christmas gifts to make can scarves and socks for that can be worn in January or even April. Versatility is the key when it comes to creating memorable gifts and these projects can last well past the holiday season and into the new year. Even holiday-themed jewelry can be worn later on in the year - it's just too pretty to leave in a drawer for nine months out of the year.
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Consider the importance of handmade gifts and delicious treats this Christmas season. Though it's tempting to head to a store and buy something thoughtlessly, handmade items make a much greater impression. If you want to learn how to make Christmas gifts or delicious cookies for the holiday season, look no further than How To: 20 Christmas Gifts To Make and Christmas Cookie Recipes. This eBook is filled with quick and easy Christmas gifts to make, patterns for seasonal projects and recipes for delicious holiday treats that everyone will enjoy. Each of these projects offers a unique and unexpected take on a traditional project or seasonal idea.
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I grew up watching the Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark movies. Then later came Lara Croft the Tomb Raider – Lloyd Levin is an amazing film-maker and storyteller, but I'm sure he wouldn't pretend they have anything to do with reality* … and the 'reality' of archaeologists' days is what The Day of Archaeology is about.
We know that digging up old tombs has been going on forever – the Abbott Papyrus in the British Museum deals with tomb looters, and several Roman legal texts deal with the looting of tombs and sanctuaries. In the Medieval period Western Europeans thought the ground mummies were a magic cure-all, so there first developed a thriving trade in real mummies being bug up and shipped, and then mummy faking in Egypt (the Muslims were slightly repulsed by this European penchant for cannibalism, but if Francois I of France wanted to wear a purse with ground mummy around his neck for emergencies, then they were happy to take his cash)+. The ancient Egyptians were looking for loot to sell off for cash, the Romans were more interested in collecting. Collecting and archaeology went hand in hand for much of the modern period, with excavations undertaken in Rome during the Renaissance, then around the bay of Naples in the 18th century, as much to find relics of the past as to understand it. Nowadays archaeologist hunting for relics and tomb raiding in the manner of Indie and Lara is frowned upon.
I first 'dug' in the summer of 1981. My brother had just been born and I was sent to cousins in the country. Aged 8, I got them to excavate their garden and our 'finds' are now in the storeroom of the local museum. (At French schools, we had learnt about the Gauls and Romans, so this seemed normal). My first 'real' dig was at Sparta, where the team worked on the theatre. I'm still proudest of my personal find there: the remains of the Augustan theatre built into the foundations of the later stage buildings (I was meant to be drawing an elevation, tied away the ground to even it out at the bottom, and hey presto out popped some finely carved marble fragments). These days I have links with a few excavations, but tend not to dig day to day.
I had originally planned to study History of Art, but seriously fluffed my Courtauld interview due to pneumonia, so I thought I'd study Classics instead since that was the Renaissance education and would give me insight into their mind-set. I tried a few other jobs, but I did post-grad partly because I was raising my baby brother, and I'd managed to schedule my undergrad courses around his school runs, and a PhD seemed easier to work around that than a job at an investment bank. I'll never make as much money at archaeology as I would have at Fleming's but I love what I do, and nobody that chooses to do archaeology can be all that interested in money. I did a post-doc at the ASCSA generously funded by the Onassis Foundation, then went on from there.
The two themes of many of the posts that make up The Day of Archaeology seem to be about emails / paperwork and children. I managed to combine the two this morning thanks to my trusty Blackberry, without which I couldn't have answered hundreds of emails from colleagues (academics love to cc each other) about a few exhibitions that might or might not happen in the future, working with three museums on two continents. I also love Twitter (www.twitter.com/DorothyKing) and last night, for example, ended up discussing women gladiators with www.twitter.com/sarahebond and www.twitter.com/rogueclassicist. Other recent Twitter discussions have included annoyance at portraits of random women being labelled Cleopatra and assorted other topics.
The "children" part is that … this photo of me I took at lunchtime might suggest khakis and archaeology, but … the dirt is the result of dogs and children, and a nanny failing to turn up … although Ellie the Jack Russell is proving rather fond of "her" trowel …
I've been blogging for years, as it's a handy way of sharing ideas and research, and the Blackberry is also handy for that: http://phdiva.blogspot.com … I keep track of info through links, so that version of this post on my blog will have lots of links to others' work. Maybe I should have followed the more traditional career path, but these days I am a Fellow of or on the Board of assorted projects / institutions.
The main project keeping me busy these days is trying to set up a database of looted archaeological material to help track antiquities that went missing in wars or the looting of sites or museums. At the moment photos of some objects are available various places, but there is no central place on the web where someone can look up an item they see and suspect is dodgy to see if anyone has reported it missing. Previous attempts to create such a database have failed, so this may all turn out to be a house of cards but I feel I have to give it a go. I'm talking to museums, universities, governments, law enforcement agencies, and we'll be looking for volunteers to help with it – so if you want to get involved, just drop me a line.
Jesper Jensen and Peter Schulz have organised a conference in Copenhagen next May, and kindly invited me to speak, so I'm also working up my paper for it: Kings, Tombs and Ruler Cult Before Alexander: new evidence from Vergina and Caria. I'm re-examining the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus based on the monuments that copied it, and on the newly found sarcophagus in the Tomb of Hecatomnus his father at Mylasa. I also think I've identified Mausolus' mother as a woman named ABA, based on an inscription.
So anyway, that's my day of archaeology on a typical summer holiday day … dogs, children, answering emails, chatting with colleagues, trying to do some research, trying to get people to collaborate on projects – no tomb raiding or fighting Nazis.
Dorothy King
* = I was thrilled to read that not only does Michigan State grad student Kathryn M. Meyers blog at Bones Don't Lie, but she also works on video games to make the archaeologists more "real" … (if she's interested in research, I've done high kicks in four inch wedges, so that bit is very possible)
+ = I wrote more about the mummy trade in my 2006 book, The Elgin Marbles


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LeahS [Admin]12/13/10
I've been searching for a doughnut with two main requirement.
1. It has to taste good even an hour after I fry it.
2. It had to be easy, so that I don't need to pull out my mixer.
Recipe from "Fresh & Easy Kosher Cooking" by Leah Schapira/ Artscroll
To watch a video on how to make these doughnuts - http://www.cookkosher.com/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=194&Itemid=8
4 cup flour
¼ cup sugar
2¼ tsp dry yeast (1 packet)
2 eggs
1¼ cup warm water
1 pinch salt
2 oz margarine (½ stick room temperature)
In a large bowl. Place the flour, sugar, yeast, eggs and warm water. Mix with a wooden spoon.
Add the salt and incorporate it into the dough.
Cut the margarine into small pieces and add them to the bowl. Knead the dough by hand (You may need a drop of flour, but use the least amount you can, a sticky dough yields a fluffier doughnut.)
Knead for a minimum of 5 minutes.
Cover the dough and let it rise 2 hours in a warm, draft-free spot.
Sprinkle flour over the rolling surface, place the dough on top, and then sprinkle flour over the dough.
Roll the dough out in the shape of a rectangle ½ inch thick. (At this point you may add as much flour as you need to ensure that the dough won't stick to the rolling surface.)
With a knife or a pizza cutter, cut squares about 2½ x 2½ inches. Separate the squares, sprinkle with flour if necessary, and let rise, covered, for 45 minutes.
When there are 10 minutes left for the dough to rise, heat oil for a full 10 minutes. With your thumb, punch a hole right through the center of the doughnut and drop into hot oil.
Fry 3 or 4 at a time so as not to overcrowd the pot and end up lowering the temperature of the oil.


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TORONTO - Is your freezer a way station between the fridge and the recycling bin? You stock up on steaks and chicken breasts when they are on sale, but somehow end up tossing trays of freezer-burned meat months later? Do you find yourself scraping ice crystals off the top of storage tubs in an attempt to answer the question: Is this chili? Spaghetti sauce? Soup?
If the answer to any of those questions is yes, you may be tempted to make practising effective freezer management one of your new year's resolutions for 2014.
Experts say most foods freeze very well — eggs in the shell, mayonnaise and leafy vegetables are rare exceptions. But understanding the dos, don'ts and how longs will help you maximize the dollar-stretching capacity of your fridge's freezer or your deep freeze.
We got some advice from three experts on food freezing: Doug Goff, a professor of food sciences at the University of Guelph in Ontario; Rick Holley, a food safety microbiologist at the University of Manitoba and Elizabeth Andress, a food safety specialist at University of Georgia at Athens.
Here are some of their tips.
Leaner lasts longer.
With meats and fish, lean cuts last longer than those marbled with fat. Lean meat that are well wrapped can last up to a year, the experts say. The storage time for ground meat is shorter — about three to four months.
Lean fish can last up to six months but fattier fish types, such as salmon, should only be kept for about three.
The issue with fat is oxidation. Exposure to air will make fat go rancid. "Rancidity will continue, even in the freezer," Andress says.
Rancid food doesn't trigger food poisoning. But rancidity will affect the flavour, odour and texture of the product.
"You will find that there are two things that happen," Holley says. "Number 1 is that they lose their typical flavour. So bacon doesn't taste like bacon anymore. And it also picks up this rancid, cardboardy-like flavour as well."
Holley recalls once eating some expensive Italian sausage he'd frozen, as an experiment, for a couple of years. "Honestly, I would have gotten more satisfaction out of chewing on a piece of wood."
Sugar and spice isn't always nice.
It's a fact of freezing. Items that have high sugar or salt contents do not freeze as well as other foods. Think about the differences between frozen fruits and frozen vegetables; the latter retain a much better texture after freezing than the former, generally speaking.
It's because sugar and salts lower the point at which the foods freeze, creating a situation where the food may not freeze as thoroughly.
"That will then increase the rate of deterioration, both enzyme and chemical deterioration, and also physical damage to the product itself," says Goff.
"The more sugar there is in a product, the more difficult it is to freeze and shorter the shelf-life that it's going to have."
That means baked goods don't have a particularly long freezer shelf life. If your freezer is set to -10 Celsius to -15 C, the quality of these types of foods will start to change after only a couple of weeks. If you want to store them for longer, the freezer should be set to -20 C or lower, Goff says.
He also suggests you store these types of foods in the coldest part of your freezer. In a deep freezer, that would be at the bottom. In the freezer compartment of your refrigerator, it would be at the bottom and towards the back.
Cured meats also have a shorter shelf than a roast or chops because of the salts used in their preparation, says Andress, adding products like sausages and hot dogs will start to change after two months or so.
Holley agrees: "You should never really think that you can get much in terms of shelf life from a frozen cured meat product. It's just too easy to forget you've put them in the freezer. And two months goes by with the blink of an eye."
They don't call them "freezer" bags for nothing.
Wrapping food well is the key to successful freezing, the experts say. The aim is to keep air away from whatever you are freezing, and to keep the product's moisture in it so you don't end up with freezer burn.
Package things tightly. Andress says she will wrap items in plastic wrap, and then overlays that with aluminium foil.
If you want the meat you bought on sale to still be a good bargain six months from, don't go cheap on the cling film or the plastic bags. Sandwich bags and freezer bags are not interchangeable.
"Definitely don't get chintzy," Goff says. "If you want to freeze things and have good quality, it has to be wrapped well."
Another piece of advice: Don't throw meat or fish directly into the freezer in the packaging it was sold in. Grocery store wrap may be flimsy, says Goff, and there is often a pocket of air around the product if it's sitting on a Styrofoam tray.
Remove the original packaging and re-wrap the products, ensuring they are as air-tight as possible.
Oh, and while you are packaging products to freeze, don't forget to label them. Months from now you are unlikely to remember which steaks should be used up first.
The ice cream gauge.
As we now know, sweet things don't freeze that well, and that includes ice cream. Goff, who is an expert on ice cream — seriously — says unless freezer conditions are right, the quality of ice cream will deteriorate noticeably in as little as a few weeks.
It comes down to temperature. You need really cold temperatures, in the -18 C to -20 C range, to freeze ice cream well. At those temperatures ice cream will be too hard to scoop. (Zapping it in the microwave for 10 seconds, Goff says, will get around that problem.)
So if you don't have a thermometer in your freezer, you can guestimate how cold the unit is by whether ice cream stored in it is scoopable or not.
Another tip: As you work your way through a container of ice cream, the exposure to air in the container increases. That doesn't enhance the texture or flavour of the product. Goff suggests cutting a piece of plastic wrap and pressing it down onto the surface of the ice cream to create a barrier between the frozen dessert and the air.
On the Web:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has a handy one-page guide on foods that can and can't be frozen, and how long they will keep. It is found here: http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/FoodborneIllnessContaminants/ucm109315.pdf
And the U.S. National Center for Home Food Preservation has detailed information on how to freeze a wide variety of foods. It is found here: http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/freeze.html
Also on HuffPost


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The ultimate indoor LEGO playground
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Both kids were more than entertained. Literally something for every age. Google Review
Cool for kids. They have a lot of activities for them Google Reviews


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I want to change a current site that already has a fairly robust database. Before I do, I want to test a few different layouts to make a decision. Instead of using the original site, I am thinking of changing the test site wp-config file to call the database from the original site. Can I do this without "damaging" the original site?
My rationale is that since the original site has custom post types, it would be easier to be able to use that database, rather than try to recreate it.


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Voxphoto writes – "In the t-shirt laptop case shown in MAKE #06, on page 27, it looks like the laptop fits in long way round–but the way I made it, the dimensions work better this way…. End result: a soft pouch with three compartments, plus a pocket for the power brick. Keeps the dirt off your shiny white laptop and confuses potential thieves." – Link.
T-Shirt Laptop Pouch – Reincarnated tee "iShirt" protects your computer and deters thieves. MAKE 06 – Page 27.


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Join us, and take a tour of our site where you can learn all about cats and cat shows. We have lots of great information plus fun games for you to play.
If you are really interested in cats (as well as any other animals, too) we have a new section that will explain what you can do to turn your interest in cats into a lifelong career.
|Copyright © The Cat Fanciers' Association, Inc. Please visit the CFA web site | Contact CFA | Privacy Policy


text: Personality is that which is most intimate to me--that by which I must act out my life. It is that by which I belong to man, that by which I am able to reach after God; and He has given to me this pearl of great price. It is an immortal treasure; it is mine, it is His, and no man shall pluck it out of His hand.Hugh Reginald Haweis


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The professional golf season is year-round, with tournaments taking place each month around the world. First-place prizes vary in digits, players vary in ability and courses vary in difficulty. But every year, four major tournaments stand out from the rest. And each year, those four tournaments, dubbed the " four majors," provide the highest quality of golf and the most dramatic final rounds.
The Masters Tournament
The Masters is the first major tournament of the year, played during the first full week of April at Augusta National Golf Course in Augusta, GA. Officially known as The Masters Tournament, it is the youngest of the majors, but it's also the most prestigious. This picturesque course is dominated by plush green landscape, along with the famous "Amen Corner" three-hole stretch on the back nine that comprises holes 11, 12 and 13. The Masters provides for some of the best drama in golf against arguably the most beautiful backdrop in the game.
When all is said and done, the winner receives a green jacket, undoubtedly the most distinctive award handed out in professional golf. The Masters is the only major tournament that never changes location. It has been played at Augusta since the tournament's inauguration in 1934.
U.S. Open
Next during the golf season is the United States Open Championship, most commonly referred to as the U.S. Open, which is held during the third week of June. The final always falls on Father's Day. The inaugural U.S. Open was played in 1895, and, like the two majors following it, the U.S. Open rotates to a different golf course each year. Still, there are distinct characteristics that define U.S. Open golf courses. Typically they are long courses with high-cut rough and narrow fairways that put a premium on accuracy. The U.S. Open commonly proves to be the toughest challenge of all the majors for golfers each year.
British Open
The oldest major is The Open Championship, commonly known as the British Open, which was first played in 1860. It is the only major held outside the United States and is usually scheduled to fall during the weekend of the third Friday in July. Currently, there are nine courses in the site rotation, four in England and five in Scotland, though the British Open was once played in Northern Ireland.
No matter where the tournament is held, it is always played on a links course, which is typically on a coast, providing plenty of wind and rain throughout the competition. The British Open is known for its unpredictable weather, extreme wind gusts, uneven fairways, thick rough and small, deep sand traps known as "pot bunkers." While Augusta's green jacket is the most prestigious award handed out in professional golf, the Claret Jug is undoubtedly golf's most recognizable trophy. Officially called The Gold Champion Trophy, it has been handed out to the winner of the British Open since 1873.
PGA Championship
The PGA Championship, the final major tournament of the year, is typically held four weeks after the British Open. The tournament was first played in 1916 at Siwanoy Country Club in Bronxville, NY, just months after Rodman Wanamaker and a collection of golf professionals had formed the PGA of America.
The 91 PGA Championships that have been played—three were canceled because of war—have been hosted by 71 different courses. While the tournament rotates, it looks for only the most renowned sites across the United States, meaning it is much more picky about choosing a location than the U.S. Open is. Still, the PGA Championship is almost like the little brother to the other major tournaments. It boasts an impressive field of competitors and a challenging course to match them each year. However it simply does not have the prestige nor the mystique of the other majors.
Record score to par
The Masters: Tiger Woods (18-under, 1997)
U.S. Open: Tiger Woods (12-under at Pebble Beach in Pebble Beach, California, 2000)
British Open: Tiger Woods (19-under at St. Andrews in Fife, Scotland, 2000)*
*Record for all majors
PGA Championship: Tiger Woods and Bob May (18-under at Valhalla in Louisville, Kentucky, 2000)
Most recent winner and prize money awarded
The Masters: Charl Schwartzel – $1,440,000
U.S. Open: Graeme McDowell – $1,350,000
British Open: Louis Oosthuizen – $1,305,593
PGA Championship: Martin Kaymer – $1,350,000
Record number of tournaments won by one player:
The Masters: Jack Nicklaus (6)
U.S. Open: Willie Anderson, Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus (4)
British Open: Harry Vardon (6)
PGA Championship: Walter Hagen and Jack Nicklaus (5)


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A few months ago I asked the question about whether ACOs were more about good accounting than they were improving care. Here's a summary of the fear:
I think this is a massive challenge with value based reimbursement. We require certain data to "prove" that there's been a change in how organizations manage patients. However, I can imagine hundreds of scenarios where the organization just spends time managing how they collect the data as opposed to actually changing the way they care for patients in order to improve the data.
I recently came across an article from HealthLeaders Media which says things may be even worse than I described. Not only do quality metrics not improve care, but they may actually have a negative impact on the care provided.
The article cites a survey by the Commonwealth Fund and Kaiser Family Foundation which highlights this result. Here's an excerpt from the article:
Of the 1600 primary care physicians surveyed, 55% said the growing use of quality metrics to assess provider performance is having a negative impact on the quality of care. Less than a quarter said that quality metrics have a positive impact on healthcare quality.
Fifty-five percent of the nation's primary care physicians are currently receiving financial incentives based on quality or efficiency measures. Fifty-two percent cited concerns around programs that impose financial penalties for unnecessary hospital readmissions.
Amy Mullins, MD from the American Academy of Family Physicians also has this zinger of a quote, "It often seems [payers] are measuring to measure, not measuring to improve quality."
This is one of the major challenges associated with trying to legislate or regulate payment based on quality. If you get it right, then the incentives will encourage providers to improve care. If you get it wrong, doctors will jump through the hoops and care will not improve and may even get worse.
I recently wrote that Digital Health is Hard. I think building appropriate quality metrics that actually encourage improved quality care is even harder. Many say that this is the time when we learn from our experiences. I just feel bad for all the guinea pigs who are being tested on without a choice.


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DETROIT – Bobby Ferguson was sentenced Friday to 21 years in prison on convictions he extorted millions during his time as a contractor in Detroit and orchestrated it all with Kwame Kilpatrick.
He walked into the courtroom with a smile on his face, he smiled at his wife as the handcuffs were removed from his wrists; his attorneys said Ferguson is a different man now.
Kilpatrick and Ferguson were described as a team who committed bribery, extortion and other crimes.
Judge Nancy Edmunds said the evidence showed that Kilpatrick often went to bat for his buddy and punished contractors who didn't make room for Ferguson on excavation projects. Edmunds said despite the fact that Ferguson was not a public official, he was still a catalyst in the scheme and that he perpetuated an atmosphere of corruption that forced many people out of the city.
Before his sentencing, Ferguson spoke to the court while clutching a Bible. He said everything that had been said about him in the courtroom had been interpreted to the benefit of the prosecution.
He said he hopes God will continue to bless his family and mentioned that he didn't think prison was beneficial -- rehabilitation was needed for prisoners.
His soon-to-be ex-wife, Marilyn, and one of his daughters were in the courtroom for his sentencing.
When speaking to the judge Ferguson became emotional, saying his wife's birthday was today, then he turned to his wife who just filed for divorce a few days ago and said, "Happy birthday Marilyn."
Not once did Ferguson say he was sorry for anything, instead he used the moment to read from the Bible and offer a blessing to his family and even the judge saying, "May the lord bless the words you are about to read."
He did not ask the judge to go easy on him instead he said young criminals need the break.
"I am 44-years-old I have lived my life, I have five kids and two grand kids. A 19-year-old who gets sentenced to 20 years breaks my heart," Ferguson said.
Judge Edmunds listened then spoke, saying Ferguson was bold and outspoken in his extortion scheme and forced many good people out of the city.
The judge gave Ferguson seven fewer years than his buddy Kilpatrick received, citing the serious differences between Bobby Ferguson and Kwame Kilpatrick.
Ferguson was not elected mayor Edmunds said.
Story: Bobby Ferguson's wife files for divorce
Recap: Courtroom blog on Ferguson's sentencing
In March, Ferguson was found guilty on nine of 11 counts of corruption charges including racketeering conspiracy, extortion and bribery.
He's been ordered to pay $6,284,000.
Ferguson must also forfeit some of his properties, hand over his financial records to the courts and participate in an anger management program.
View: What Kilpatrick and Ferguson were convicted on
Kilpatrick was convicted on 24 of 30 corruption charges. He was sentenced to 28 years in prison on Thursday. Prosecutors had been seeking the same term for Ferguson.
More: Kilpatrick, Bobby Ferguson could get 30 years in prison
Story: Kilpatrick's stiff sentence could be bad news for Bobby Ferguson


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This is probably what the people running our countries want, when it is obvious that their psychopathic worldview has a negative impact on so many people.
I learned to think differently about cultures and worldviews by reading the work of Ken Wilber, whose work is partially based on the book "Spiral Dynamics" by Don Beck and Christopher Cowan .
I don't have a reason to trust these people but I think their information is useful. It has given me tools to come to a better understanding. I am sure that there are many people on this forum who can understand this info better than me. (and who can do a better job of introducing it to others)
So I would recommend for example hoi to take a look at it. It could provide us a better language to talk about cultures and worldviews.Probably, the information is being used to manipulate us, so as a bonus this would become easier to spot.
Let me know what you think.Here is a quote from a book review. I have read the book but I don't think it is necessary to buy the book to be able to grasp it, there is plenty of information online.
http://www.spiraldynamics.com/book/SDreview_Dinan.htm wrote:This is really a terrific book once the reader gets past the capital letters and color-coding scheme. It presents, in fascinating detail, a spiral developmental model of worldviews. Beck and Cowan call these patterns of thinking vMemes (short for values-attracting meta-memes). vMemes can be thought of as broad orienting paradigms, a schema through which we interpret the world. These vMemes fall into a series of eight levels, with the potential for higher ones emerging as we speak. Each level also has entering, peak, and declining phases. They avoid the most common pitfall of stage models by introducing a great deal of fluidity. First, situational factors encourage different vMemes to "light up." We might rely upon one vMeme in the religious domain and another in intimate relationships. In times of intensive stressor war, previously submerged vMemes often come to the surface. Furthermore, Beck and Cowan argue that the healthy expression of each vMeme is essential to the health of the entire spiral of development. In this way, they allow for the kind of structural analysis that is so useful from stage models without the rigid (and alienating) process of just assigning people to boxes, stages, or roles. We can be encouraged or assisted to use more complex and evolved paradigms, but the goal of what they call "the spiral wizard" is to meet people, situations, and cultures where they are at, creating organizational and political models that are, at most, a ½ step ahead of the individuals involved. The spiral wizard recognizes that the health of the overall spiral is paramount and that change can generally happen only by small increments. Beck and Cowan are more interested in lubricating change effectively than rejecting and overthrowing old structures.
Each vMeme leads to certain beliefs, social groupings, motivation patterns, organizational dynamics, and goals. If we try to impose solutions or structures that are too far ahead of the curve (that reflect or engage inappropriate vMemes) the result is alienation and rebellion rather than transformation. In this way, Beck and Cowan model a way of being in the world that is eminently practical, sensitive and oriented towards transformation. Too often, we intuit a "better" or "higher" mode of being without respecting the stages of change and development that must happen before large numbers of people in an organization or society can enact such a mode. Beck and cowan actually avoid use of the terms "better" or "higher," sticking with, at most, "more complex" vMemes. There is a hierarchy involved, but it is more factual than evaluative. The eight dominant vMemes today are listed below with a range of factors that reflect such a worldview. Each vMeme has emerged historically in response to the needs of new, and more complex, life conditions.…"


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Sandy Hook Promise unveils national campaign
NEWTOWN -- Sandy Hook Promise has launched a grassroots campaign to educate and empower parents nationwide on how they can help prevent gun violence.
For the Parent Together campaign, Sandy Hook Promise will focus on mental wellness, community connectedness and gun safety and compile a directory of existing successful programs that parents can implement to make their own communities safer and healthier.
The campaign was announced Thursday, on the 11-month anniversary of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. It is intended to make Sandy Hook a place where "lasting transformation began."
"This is the best way to try to honor Dylan," said Nicole Hockley, whose six-year-old son was one of 20 first graders who died that day. "This is my way to keep him alive and to give him a legacy. Today's a sad day. There's no way about it. But this is going to be the start of something new. Dylan will be part of something that will save the lives of others."
Sandy Hook Promise will support programs that ensure earlier identification of mental health issues in children and access to counseling services. It will also seek to provide information to communities on bystander behaviors around gun violence, so it can change, Hockley said.
For instance, she said one research report found that in many cases, a peer knew their schoolmate was going to commit an act of violence but didn't report it.
"There have been a lot of changes this year, but the focus has been on legislation and policies," said Nicole Hockley, the mother of six-year-old Dylan, one of 20 first graders who died that day. "To make change happen, it needs to be based on what we do as people. We want to reset the conversation and not focus on the different polarizing debates that have been going on for decades, but focus on what we have in common -- our love for our children."
Rob Cox, cofounder of Sandy Hook Promise and a director of the group, said the idea of Parent Together is not to create new programs but borrow the best and give them national exposure.
More InformationTo learn more about Parent Together and Sandy Hook Promise, visit www.sandyhookpromise.org.
"Where Sandy Hook Promise can be most credible is in speaking to other parents, bringing them best practices and highlighting them,'' Cox said. "The promise is a manifesto -- we don't want Newtown to be known as a place of tragedy and victims. We want it to be a place of change."
The group does not represent families of the 20 first graders and six educators who died that day but has family members who belong, he said.
"This started the day after the shooting. We said 'what are we going to do about this," he said. "Now, this is a turning point."
Sandy Hook could serve as a flashpoint for stopping gun violence, like Selma, Ala., was for civil rights and Seneca Falls, N.Y., was for women's rights, he said.
Although, Sandy Hook Promise was brought into the conversation about changing gun legislation and took part so it didn't squander its voice, the group wants to do more than that, he said.
Cox said he's hopeful that, like in the decade it took to transform the country's attitude on marriage, the conversation on gun violence will change.
Parent Together was developed through conversations with parents across the country, including gun owners, as well as Republicans, Democrats and Independents, people of different faiths and economic backgrounds.
Cox remembered watching a room full of people who watched the clip of David Wheeler on the television news magazine 60 Minutes talking about his six-year-old son Benjamin's death.
Wheeler told viewers to "find a mirror in your house and look in it and look in your eyes and say 'this will never happen to me, this will never happen in my school, this will never happen in my community,' and see if you actually believe that. And if there's a shadow, the slightest shadow of doubt in what you've said? Think about what you can do to change that."
Cox said you could see the chemistry in the room shift.
"All of a sudden the people who were parents were starting to realize, 'this is so unacceptable,'" Cox said. "The point will be when 30,000 families say this is unacceptable. Let's have a conversation about how to reduce the number of deaths. Let's be clinical about it. Parent Together is our approach. It's where we as a group are most credible."
firstname.lastname@example.com; 203-731-3333


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