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|Ava Pine
For our audiences, Ava Pine almost needs no introduction. Last season, she received rave reviews for her performances as Adele in our fall 2008 production of Die Fledermaus. Other engagements include Adina in L'Elisir d'amore with Arizona Opera, Romilda in Xerxes with Boston Baroque and the Angel in the Southwestern premiere of Angels in America with Fort Worth Opera. As The Dallas Opera's first Young Artist in Residence, Ava appeared in numerous roles during the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 Seasons. We recently asked her to tell us what's on her iPod:
I recently took the plunge and got myself an iPhone. Since it's always with me, it's replaced my iPod for most of my on-the-go listening. But, since it has a lot less memory than my old iPod, I have to be pretty choosy about what's on there. I have three categories: work, geekery, and play.
Work: includes the operas and oratorios that I have coming up – some Mozart, Handel, Mendelssohn, Monteverdi and Puccini.
Geekery: includes all my favorite NPR podcasts — from All Songs Considered to This American Life, and sometimes even Will Shortz's Puzzlemaster segment from Weekend Edition Sunday.
Play: is what takes up the most room on my iPhone. If I'm listening to music, it's usually to relax and clear my head of opera and classical music (ssh! don't tell anyone I said that!). I like to keep a lot of variety on there.
Bob Dylan for road trips — of any length. He is the best driving companion.
Tom Petty for when I run out of Bob Dylan.
Paul Simon for those times when the task at hand really needs a soundtrack.
Radiohead for just about any mood I could possibly be feeling.
Edith Piaf when I want to really hear a singer speak to me.
Neko Case when I want to roll the windows down.
Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong when I want to tap my toes.
The Killers when I want to turn the volume up and rock out.
Iron & Wine when I'm cooking.
Norah Jones when I want to breathe deeply.
Bon Jovi when I want to remember what it was like to be a teenager.
New bands like Elbow, Fleet Foxes, Vampire Weekend and Blitzen Trapper, when I want to feel ahead of the curve.
John Prine when I want to feel nostalgic.
James Taylor when I want to feel really nostalgic.
And of course, my iPod wouldn't be complete without music recorded by family and friends, many of whom are talented singers and songwriters (including my dad!). Those tracks are for the times I want to feel extra blessed to have grown up around music.
James Hampton, Artistic Administration Coordinator


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The first film from Lucasfilm Animation has arrived, but it has the more dubious distinction of being the worst of the Star Wars features. Star Wars: The Clone Wars is redundant, boring, and not terribly attractive in telling a story more suited for the Junior Fiction shelves of your local library than the screens of your local multiplex. The film heralds a new animated Clone Wars TV series, which one hopes will fulfill Star Wars creator George Lucas' promise of telling interesting and varied war stories. For its part, this film doesn't fit the bill, but it does once more demonstrate, silly rabbit, that 21st Century Star Wars is for kids.
Lucas produced the film, which is set between his Episodes II and III, but the writing duties went to three TV writers mostly associated with half-hour animated series: Henry Gilroy (Transformers: Animated), Steven Melching (The Batman), and Scott Murphy (Angel). Here's what they came up with: epic battles on land and in space, R2-D2 opening doors, political treachery, and martial-arts inspired lightsaber duels. Haven't we sung this song before? As Separatist droids battle the Republic's Clones, Jedi knights Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) and Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter) must rescue Jabba the Hutt's kidnapped baby in order to convince the Hutt to grant the Republic access to crucial supply routes. Most of the leg work will have to be done by Anakin and his new padawan (apprentice), Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein).
Ahsoka is a Togruta, which means she has stripes and "head-tails." More importantly, she's spunky! Terrific. If only she were also interesting or likeable. The banter between Anakin and Ahsoka comes—if not from a galaxy far, far away— certainly from a long time ago. Though it's chaste, their chafing immediately signals to the audience that they're made for each other. He calls her "youngling" and, eventually "Snips" (that had critics scratching their heads); she calls him "Sky Guy." Anakin at first resists taking a padawan, but wise old Yoda (Tom Kane) knows he's ready, and that disciplining Ahsoka will result in Anakin disciplining himself.
There's the kernel of what might have been a good contribution to the Star Wars saga there, but the writers fumble it. For starters, Ahsoka is usually right and Anakin usually wrong, a notion that's endemic to the plot but remains unexplored in dramatic terms. Director Dave Filoni was no doubt too busy crafting the video-game density of the image to attend to the characters. On one hand, the film has a simple story. On the other, it has a damn complicated plot, with its ping-ponging across the galaxy and political conspiracies (the Emperor and Padmé Amidala are both here). The screenwriters' strategy is to deal with a plot point in a quick and potentially confusing way, then return to the same plot point several times bluntly to restate it for confused kids.
The new look, old hat approach means that The Clone Wars is for children and super-fans only. If you must go (and you know who you are), you'll find some settings and vehicles and action that are spectacular in a claustrophobic video game way. Completists can also thrill to the vocal returns of Anthony Daniels as C3PO, Christopher Lee as Count Dooku, and Samuel L. Jackson. The look of the film has been described by the filmmakers as something new that's inspired by anime and Gerry Anderson's supermarionation. Those infuences are clear: in particular, the blocky, angular character designs (with waxy faces and beards that resemble slats of wood) evoke Anderson's puppets. But why computer-animate marionettes instead of people? To quote Yoda, "Greater than we think this mystery might be."
Warner gets dibs on the first Blu-ray release of a Star Wars title, and the resulting disc delivers the best goods possible given the mediocre movie. For starters, the AV quality is impeccable, maximizing the visual and aural sources provided by Lucasfilm. The picture looks exactly as it did when I saw it projected onto the big screen of ILM's Premiere Theater, and it goes without saying that the digital source is flawless. The colors are detail are likewise up to par; one can complain about the film's look, but not how this transfer renders it. The lossless Dolby TrueHD soundtrack gives the sound mix an equally accurate presentation that, while not up to the standard of a live-action Star Wars film, certainly gives a lot of oomph to what's essentially a kid's film.
Several significant bonus features are also included on the Blu-ray and DVD. Though the video version of the audio commentary is a Blu-Ray exclusive, the video commentary dubbed "A Creative Conversation" and featuring director Dave Filoni, producer Catherine Winder, writer Henry Gilroy, and editor Jason W.A. Tucker is, oddly enough, encoded in standard definition. (When the talent appears in a lower-right-hand window, the film picture shrinks up into the upper left.)
Also exclusive to Blu-ray is the Hologram Memory Challenge Game, a Star Wars version of Concentration. If one matches the Star Wars icons, one gains access to three hi-def series "sneak peek" clips.
The Behind the Story section houses "Star Wars: The Clone Wars--The Untold Stories" (24:50), previewing the new series' stories, vehicles, planets and battles; "The Voices of Star Wars: The Clone Wars" (9:59), offering side-by-side views of the studio recording sessions and final animation; "A New Score" (10:43), with composer Kevin Kiner; and a Gallery of Lucasfilm concept art.
The four Deleted Scenes (10:50) are "Through the Tanks" (:50), "Rancor Pit" (4:03), "Platform Droid Fight" (4:12), and "Cargo Bay" (1:46). Webisodes (20:59 with "Play All" option, HD) include "Introducing Star Wars: The Clone Wars," "Epic Battles," "The Clones are Coming," "Heroes," "Villains," and "Anakin's Padawan." Trailers (5:29 with "Play All" option) include "'Launch' Trailer," "'Dark' Trailer," and "Star Wars: The Clone Wars Videogame Trailer."
|Review gear:
Panasonic Viera TC-P55VT30 55" Plasma 1080p 3D HDTV
Oppo BDP-93 Universal Network 3D Blu-ray Disc Player
Denon AVR2112CI Integrated Network A/V Surround Receiver
Pioneer SP-BS41-LR Bookshelf Speaker (2)
Pioneer SP-C21 Center Speaker
Pioneer SW-8 Subwoofer

subset: commoncrawl


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Over the weekend, we learned of a South African rugby player, Francois Hougaard, who may or may not have once dated the woman Oscar Pistorius shot and killed, Reeva Steenkamp. According to one report, Pistorius and Steenkamp were fighting over a text message from Hougaard early Thursday morning, shortly before her death. (And how did this all come out? Via Nelson Mandela's personal assistant, of course. More on that in a second.)
Hougaard is a member of the South African national rugby union team, the Springboks. According to the Mirror, he and Steenkamp shared an agent and enjoyed a "close friendship." Hougaard pulled out of a rugby match on Friday as the love-triangle theory got bruited around the press—supplanting the mistaken-burglary story—and his agent released a statement denying his involvement.
Steekamp and Pistorius were apparently introduced by Justin Divaris, a luxury car salesman who apparently knows Hougaard as well. According to the Sun, it was Divaris whom Pistorius called first after shooting Steenkamp, reportedly sobbing to Divaris: "My baba, I've killed my baba — God take me away." The picture above shows Steenkamp with Divaris to her left and Hougaard seated directly beneath him. Divaris tweeted the picture after Steenkamp died, saying "Happier times with special people. We all miss u so much Reevs." Hougaard retweeted it.
Foldable Camping Cot
Adjustable and portable
Set the backrest to any position to fit your needs so you can relax out under the sun this summer.
Bizarrely, this all first came to light when Nelson Mandela's personal assistant referenced the connection between Steenkamp and Hougaard, and a South African journalist retweeted it.


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FAFSA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The FAFSA must be completed in order to apply for state, federal, and institutional financial aid and should be done as soon as possible after January 1st of the year for which you are requesting aid. Even if you don't think you'll qualify for need-based financial aid, you should still complete the FAFSA to be eligible for student loans.
Keep in mind that the FAFSA can be completed for FREE at fafsa.ed.gov. Several websites offer help filing the FAFSA, but these sites charge a fee and are not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. Department of Education. When filing the FAFSA, make sure you go directly to fafsa.ed.gov to evade any charges or scams; avoid any fafsa websites that end in .com. If you need assistance with filling out the FAFSA, you can get free help from a financial aid administrator at your college, the FAFSA's on-line help at fafsa.ed.gov, or volunteers at College Goal Sunday.
To ensure that you don't get scammed, keep these tips in mind when filing the FAFSA:
For more information about financial aid fraud or to report fraud, call the Federal Trade Commission at 1-877-382-4357 or visit ftc.gov/scholarshipscams.
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Sep. 10, 2013 - By DAVID JACKSON - Defense news
WASHINGTON — President Obama told the nation Tuesday he is exploring a Russian diplomatic plan to end a chemical weapons dispute in Syria, but reserves the right to take military action if necessary.
"It's too early to tell whether this offer will succeed," Obama said during a White House address, but it is worth pursuing because of "the potential to remove the threat of chemical weapons without the use of force."
During his nationally televised speech from the White House, Obama also said:
■ He wanted to talk to the country "about Syria, why it matters and where we go from here."
■ He resisted any intervention in Syria's civil war for months until Bashar Assad's government used chemical weapons against anti-government rebels on Aug. 21, killing numerous children.
■ Argued that use of these banned weapons increase the possibility of other chemical attacks in other parts of the world, perhaps even the United States.
■ A lack of action would erode prohibitions on other weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons.
■ "I know that after the terrible toll of Iraq and Afghanistan, the idea of any military action, no matter how limited, is not going to be popular;" but he added that any action in Syria would be specifically targeted on its chemical weapons programs.
■ Syria does not have the ability to retaliate against the United States.
■ He is encouraged by Russia's proposal to have Syria give up its chemical weapons, but added: "I've ordered our military to maintain their current posture to keep the pressure on Assad and to be in a position to respond if diplomacy fails."
■ Americans should review videos of the Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack now posted on the White House website, particularly the pictures of dead and dying children.
"Terrible things happen across the globe, and it is beyond our means to right every wrong," Obama said. "But when with modest effort and risk we can stop children from being gassed to death and thereby make our own children safer over the long run, I believe we should act."
Obama's speech capped a flurry of diplomatic activity, as American, British, and French officials spoke with Russian counterparts about their idea to have Syria turn over their chemical weapons to international control for dismantling.
So far, they are at odds on the details.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would only support a Syrian turnover if the Obama administration renounced the possible of use of force against Assad's government.
Obama declined to do that. In meetings with U.S. senators on Tuesday, and during his prime time speech, Obama said it's the potential for force that pressured Syria into negotiations about releasing its chemical weapons stockpile.
Officials said Secretary of State John Kerry would fly to Geneva, Switzerland, for a Thursday negotiation session with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Syria announced Tuesday it would accept Russia's offer, and said it is willing to join a global ban on chemical weapons.
Members of Congress, divided over a resolution authorizing military action against Syria, began exploring alternatives in light of the new diplomatic moves. The force resolution faces uphill battles in both the Democratic-controlled Senate and the Republican-run House.
Earlier on Tuesday, Obama attended separate meetings with Senate Democrats and Republicans in which he previewed his speech.
A bipartisan group of senators — some of whom support intervention — are working on an alternative that would require Syria to allow a United Nations team to remove chemical weapons within a certain time period, perhaps 45 to 60 days. If Syria doesn't comply, Obama would have the authority to launch military strikes.
Obama also spoke amid rising opposition in the public and in Congress to idea of a military strike against Syria.
An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Tuesday finds that nearly 60 percent of Americans want their member of Congress to oppose the use of military force in Syria.
Jackson writes for USA Today.
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Low-cost carrier Frontier coming to Dulles
CHANTILLY, Va. (AP) – Low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines is launching service to 14 cities from Dulles International Airport.
The Denver-based airline announced Tuesday that service will begin from Dulles in August and September.
Last month, Frontier announced a new fare structure that pushes it further toward the model of ultra-low-cost carriers that charge deeply discounted base fares, with additional fees for items like use of overhead bins, or extra leg room.
Nonstop service to Atlanta; Charlotte, North Carolina; Orlando, Florida; Minneapolis/St. Paul; Chicago-O'Hare and Tampa, Florida begins Aug. 19. Service to Cincinnati, Ohio; Detroit; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Las Vegas; Memphis, Tennessee; Fort Myers, Florida; St. Louis and St. Augustine/Jacksonville, Florida, begins Sept. 8.
The airline kicked off service with a 12-hour fare sale Tuesday that clogged the website with travelers seeking $15 one-way fares.


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In addition to showcasing its extensive portfolio of high-quality tires and complete wheel systems, Trelleborg is to provide visitors to Agritechnica 2015, to be held in Hannover, Germany, from November 8 to 14, with the opportunity to relive one of its 2015 European Road Show's many stops.
Lorenzo Ciferri, Marketing Director, Agricultural and Forestry Tires at Trelleborg Wheel Systems, says, "Following the overwhelming success of our 2015 European Road Show, we've decided to do things a little differently at this year's Agritechnica. On stand we'll be providing visitors that didn't attend the 2015 Road Show or those that did and want to relive it, with the opportunity to experience one of the many stops using innovative Oculus rift virtual technology.
"This remarkable technology will provide visitors with the chance to virtually take part in the Road Show's field demonstrations, which showcase how farming professionals can produce more, with less, with Trelleborg. The Road Show is to return in 2016 with yet more stops and visits to countries we have not yet been to."
Trelleborg's 3,500 sq. ft. stand (stand B6 in Hall 20) will also feature a designated area providing farming professionals with access to its range of advanced, user-friendly digital tools and apps. Taking center stage on a large totem touchscreen will be the Trelleborg Load Calculator (TLC), which identifies the precise load per axle of tractors and the optimum tire pressure for each farming application. As an official partner of the new 'Farming Simulator 15' video game, visitors will also have the opportunity to tackle the challenges of modern agriculture, while making themselves familiar with Trelleborg tires across a range of applications.
The third episode in Trelleborg's series of 3D animated movies, "Space Hops," created using the latest, sophisticated 3D animation techniques, will also be launched.
In addition, the stand will include an area dedicated to Trelleborg's TM700 ProgressiveTraction tire, specifically designed to improve farming efficiency thanks to a double lug. Operating on the soil at different times, the double lug progressively releases higher traction when required. To highlight the tire's superior floatation capability, ensuring an even pressure distribution over the extra wide footprint, Trelleborg will host a series of product presentations on stand throughout the event.
"Providing the ideal platform to bring our latest high performance solutions to those that can benefit from them most, on stand at Agritechnica 2015 we'll showcase our new TM1060 range of tires, designed using ProgressiveTraction for the latest generation of tractors ranging from 95 to 300+ hp," adds Ciferri.
The giant IF900/65R46 TM1000 High Power tire which boasts a maximized tread design and the widest footprint on the market, providing optimum pressure distribution and the utmost respect for the soil, will also be showcased on the stand. The tire will be suspended on stand over an ant to replicate the tire's advertising campaign, titled 'Trelleborg, 500 hundred thousand of lightness.'
Trelleborg's TM3000 tire, the generation of radial tire designed specifically for harvesting applications will also be on stand alongside its TH400 Agro Industrial radial range for telescopic handlers, backhoes and mini loaders.


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Jump Start - Port Canaveral Expansion Begins Early
Port Canaveral will get an early start on work to widen and deepen its main shipping channel so the Brevard County port can handle more cargo. Dredging had been scheduled to begin in 2017, but the Florida Department of Transportation is contributing $24.4 million to allow work to begin as early as next summer. The Canaveral Port Authority is investing $8 million for the project, which will also widen the turning basin and allow access for
bigger ships.
By using state and local dollars rather than federal funds, the work can begin sooner, port officials say, reducing the amount of paperwork and benefiting the local economy as the national economy improves and shipments increase. Work on the shipping channel is to be completed by late 2014.
Two new cargo berths already are under construction, at a cost of $17.4 million, with one to be complete by the end of this year and the second one next year. Trade specialists with the Enterprise Florida economic development agency in Orlando say the ability of the port to handle more cargo will benefit central Florida companies. When shipments to and from the metro Orlando area can go through Port Canaveral instead of ports in Jacksonville or south Florida, it saves time and money as transportation costs are reduced.
A recent study by Rollins College found more than 300 international companies from more than 30 countries operating in the Orlando area and surrounding counties. Orange County accounts for 204 of the foreign-owned businesses involved in manufacturing, wholesale and other sectors that often depend on imports and exports. Brevard has 18 foreign-owned companies operating locally.


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Test Drive: 2019 Lexus ES350 F Sport
Entry price: $39,750
Price as tested: $53,768
This week, we drive the 2019 Lexus ES350 sedan that competes with the best in the business in a crowded midsize class. Delivered in F Sport trim with an entry price of $44,035, our Lexus was a pleasure to drive and provided spirited performance when called on. Notable is that even in performance F Sport trim, our ES350 still adheres to the Lexus ideology of opulence found in every Lexus assembled.
Built in Georgetown, Kentucky, and listed as a midsize by the EPA, our F Sport is loaded with both amenity and performance upgrades, including a color coordinated front bumper, sport mesh grille, 19-inch all-season tires on F Sport specific split five-spoke alloy wheels, special instrument cluster, high-tech suspension system, Hadori aluminum trim, 10-way heated and cooled seats, leather trim and special F Sport exterior upgrades including a rear spoiler.
Standard on our tester is a power moonroof, SiriusXM, 8.0-inch display, heated mirrors, LED headlights, carpeted floor mats, dual-zone air, tilt-and-telescoping, Enform WiFi with 4G, 10-speaker Lexus premium stereo, Bluetooth, USB, iPod, Apple compatibility, Smart Key with push button start, dual chrome exhaust and much more. The entry ES 350 starts at $39,750 which is a fair price and near $7,000 less that the Sport model and both have identical drivetrains.
Our tester upgrades the stereo/navigation to a top line Mark Levinson, 1,800 watt, 17-speaker setup for $3,000 more. In addition to the great sounds, you receive a 12.3-inch display and enhanced Apple CarPlay and Enform Destinations Assist with one year free subscription. Yes, this stereo upgrade is expensive, but it will engulf you in a cocoon of remarkable sounds. Consumers will also receive an Electochromic auto-dimming rear view mirror with Homelink along with Dynamic Voice Command.
Safety equipment? Both the Lexus Safety System-plus and Enform Safety Connect are standard fare, ensuring driver and passengers are riding in a Five Star government crash-rated vehicle. Included are all of the best safety items, from emergency collision avoidance, lane departure with steering assist and smart radar controlled cruise control. Then there are the many more Enform 2.0 additions like pre-collision and safety pedestrian detection, speed limit notification, lane track assist and more. Bottom line? All Lexus ES 350s have almost all of the modern safety equipment as standard fare.
Another notable, albeit expensive, safety/convenience option is the $1,515 Triple Beam Headlights package. This option offers a modern aero headlight package that provides outstanding added visibility thanks to automatic intelligent high-beams that switches on when the road ahead is clear. When an oncoming vehicle appears, it will temporarily switch to low-beams. A 10.5-inch head up windshield display adds $500; intuitive park assist with rear cross traffic and blind spot adds $1,065 and a power rear sunshade for $210 and a few other lesser priced options brought the final retail to $53,768 with $1,025 delivery included.
Under the hood, ES350 F Sport receives a 3.5-liter V6 developing 302 horses and 267 torque. The engine couples to an eight-speed automatic which is standard on both the Lexus F Sport 350 and entry 350 trim.
The ES350 eight-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifters make driving the front-wheel-drive Lexus more fun and is desirable for helping find correct downshift and upshift points in more spirited situations. Thus, if you enjoy more aggressive driving when the times and conditions are proper like at open track days, F Sport is indeed a car you will appreciate. EPA numbers are good at 22 city and 31 highway and notable is F Sport's more aggressive engine sound when RPM's rise. Expect zero to 60 mph in about 6.6 seconds while top speed is a computer controlled 131 mph.
On the road you'll feel safe and secure even in higher speed cornering thanks to the advanced suspension and driver suspension setting options. Additionally, you'll enjoy the Lexus comfort factor during normal driving as overall, 350 F Sport is a great car to make a 400-mile trip in, which I did.
Inside, F Sport's two-tone cabin is striking. It features excellent side support seating that Lexus consumers expect. The dashboard is well-done and all switches and dials are in easy reach. The aforementioned performance inspired instrument cluster is digital although the stereo is very cumbersome to learn.
On the road, expect a firmer F Sport ride thanks to a $750 extra adaptive variable suspension option and basic sport suspension setup. Standard on the ES 350 trims are three drive modes to select and the Sport/Sport+ selection is the most satisfying for performance enthusiasts. To further explain, these selections affect shock absorber settings at each wheel that are either toughened or softened up, shift points, throttle mapping and economy. Drivers can thus manually input their ride desire thanks to the Drive Mode Select dial that offers Economy (ECO), Normal and Sport/Sport+ settings.
Important numbers include a wheelbase of 113.0 inches, 3,649 lb. curb weight, 16.7 cu. ft. of trunk space, 38 ft. turn circle and a 15.9 gallon fuel tank.
Check with your area dealership for any current incentives and remember that the ES 350 in non F Sport trim starts at less than $40,000.
In summary, Lexus ES300 is a great car, and in F Sport dress competes with some of the very best sport luxury sedans in the world, ala BMW, Audi, Infiniti, Acura, Mercedes-Benz, Cadillac and Lincoln.
Currently, a zero-percent, 60-month offer for qualified consumers on the 2019 ES350 is available through Dec. 12 and since the 2020 ES350 is a near identical twin, this might be the best offer out there. If you would rather lease, $359 for 36 months with $3,999 down is also available.
Likes: Performance, great interior, Lexus opulence.
Dislikes: Front grille, confusing infotainment controls, expensive options.
Greg Zyla writes weekly for More Content Now and GateHouse Media. Contact him at email@example.com or at 303 Roosevelt St., Sayre, PA 18840.


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Story highlights
NEW: Snow headed for Michigan, western New York
At least three people are dead because of the storm, officials say
Storm is weakening, snowfall amounts shouldn't be as high as Monday
Wichita, Kansas, breaks a 100-year record for February snowfall -- in six days
The worst of a brutal winter storm may be over for many, but plenty of residents of the Great Plains and Kansas City still were coping Tuesday with its effects.
Ice and falling branches downed power lines, cutting electricity to tens of thousands of people. And the heavy, wet snow made getting around difficult, whether by car or by foot.
A CNN crew driving through Kansas City saw very few other drivers, and those who were out were taking their time.
Residents, hit by back-to-back snow storms, just want a break.
"It's been a long, what, seven days, 10 days, something like that," Kansas City resident and snow shoveler Lindsey Hughes said. "I'm ready to go home."
The storm is weakening as it moves to the Northeast and the moisture is being stolen by the rain, CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said.
"This is great news," Myers said. "The rain is taking the moisture out of the storm and taking the punch out of what could be the snow part of the storm, and it's raining out rather than snowing out."
That means areas hit with snow Tuesday won't see accumulations like portions of Texas, northwest Oklahoma and southern Kansas got Monday. Rain was falling Tuesday afternoon over much of the Midwest.
There likely will be snow all day in Chicago, Myers said.
More than 330 flights at O'Hare International Airport and 170 at Midway International Airport were canceled Tuesday.
The storm is far from done. About 45 million people in 21 states were under some form of winter weather watch, warning or advisory.
"This storm is still a very active and dangerous storm, from Michigan into western New York and the mountains in New England are getting hit with very heavy snows, said Louis Uccellini, director of the National Weather Service.
The cold air associated with the system will linger on the East Coast through the weekend, he said.
But to the west, piling snow damaged buildings Tuesday in Kansas and Missouri.
In Shawnee, Kansas, the roof of a horse arena collapsed under the weight of snow Tuesday morning, CNN affiliate KSHB reported. It was one of several such collapses in the region because of the wet heavy snow, the station said.
No injuries were reported in those collapses, but a person died Monday in a roof collapse in hard-hit Woodward, Oklahoma, said Mayor Roscoe Hill.
Two other deaths came in Kansas on Monday in separate weather-related accidents on Interstate 70. One accident happened in Sherman County and the other in Ellis County, the Kansas National Guard said.
More than 56,000 customers in Kansas and Missouri were without power Tuesday afternoon, the Kansas National Guard said. The bulk of the outages – 45,000 – were in the Kansas City region straddling the border between Kansas and Missouri.
Most flights out of Kansas City International Airport were canceled.
Roads were still snow-covered, but improving, in northwestern Missouri, the state Department of Transportation said on Twitter. The agency continued to discourage travel.
Forecasters expected the storm to bring up to a foot of snow to parts of eastern Kansas, Missouri and Illinois a day after plastering southern Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Winter storm watches and warnings or weather advisories stretched from Oklahoma to Michigan.
About 6 inches of snow fell in Mediapolis in southeastern Iowa, CNN iReporter Rose Schmidgall said.
The high school student spent much of the day shoveling snow.
"The digging was difficult and took a little while. The snow was packed really good and was heavy to scoop," she said, adding her family still had power as of Tuesday afternoon.
While the back-to-back snowstorms were frustrating for some, others put a positive spin on the experience. Jim Service of Overland Park, Kansas, spaced out the work of clearing last week's snowfall over four days. He finished Sunday, just in time for this storm.
After a warm-up session clearing Tuesday's snow – much wetter and heavier than last week's – he retreated inside with a Clive Cussler novel and planned to enjoy the day off. Like many others, Service's company called off work Tuesday at the behest of state officials who warned that the storm was too dangerous for people to be on the roads.
"It's great for me," he said.
The Kansas National Guard warned that continued snowfall and gusty winds would make travel tricky through Wednesday.
In Woodward, emergency vehicles were still having trouble getting around Tuesday, a day after the storm dropped more than 15 inches of snow.
Crews dispatched to a house fire Monday had trouble reaching the home because of 4-foot snowdrifts. The snowplow sent to free the firefighters also got stuck. Even Tuesday, emergency vehicles still were having a tough time getting around.
"We're in such a mess," said Hill, the mayor.
Whiteout conditions
The storm follows one last week that paralyzed a broad swath of the Plains and Midwest with more than a foot of snow. Portions of Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and other states were affected.
The storm prompted a state of emergency declaration in Kansas and parts of Oklahoma, bringing whiteout conditions to southern parts of those states and Texas.
Schools in Wichita, Kansas, were closed Tuesday for a fourth straight day after last week's storm, which dumped a record 14.2 inches on the city. Wichita has received 21 inches of snow in February, breaking a record that had stood for 100 years, the National Weather Service said. And it all fell in the past six days.
Are you there? Send stories and photos
CNN's Greg Botelho, AnneClaire Stapleton and Judson Jones contributed to this report.


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Share your vision for Oakland schools and your ideas for how to transform our public education system!
Hold Tony Smith and the school board accountable to the people they are supposed to serve!
Demand the district reverse the school closures, privatization trend, attacks on teachers, and special education cuts!
The People's School Board Meeting
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
4pm @ Lakeview Elementary
5pm @ OUSD offices ( 1025 2nd ave.)
This Wednesday is the last OUSD school board meeting until the fall. All year, we have been attending school board meetings to protest school closures, union busting, cuts and privatization, and we have been ignored and silenced. The school board has pushed our agenda items until the end of their discussion, and after hours, we have been permitted just 2 minutes to share our concerns with barely present board members.
We refuse to continue to have our concerns ignored and dismissed! The school board doesn't represent our communities, so we must represent ourselves. On Wednesday 6/27, the parents, students and teachers of the Lakeview Sit-in are organizing our own hearing – the "People's School Board Meeting"! We invite all parents, teachers, students and community members to join us to share your vision for Oakland public schools, and speak out against the continuous disrespect Tony Smith and the elected school board members have shown the school communities they are supposed to serve!


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EADS, BAE discuss mega-merger
Defense giants EADS and BAE Systems are discussing a possible merger that could result in the world's largest aerospace company and would shake up an industry struggling to adapt to a flattening U.S. military budget.
The deal would have its greatest impact in Europe, where both companies are based. But the resulting mega-firm would surely gain major clout on Capitol Hill, possibly emerging as a top power player on par with rivals Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Boeing CEO Jim McNerney on Wednesday discussed the potential merger, saying in a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations that he had "just caught those rumors this morning."
"I don't see this as something that is going to threaten us fundamentally," McNerney said. "It does reflect a global consolidation that is beginning to happen."
Under the potential agreement, announced by the two aerospace firms on Wednesday, current shareholders of EADS would own 60 percent of the combined company, and current shareholders of BAE Systems would own 40 percent.
The two firms have been in negotiations "for a couple of months," according to a source familiar with the discussions, and a combined company would be worth more than $90 billion. The immediate impact on the merger in the United States would be "modest," the source said, as the value of EADS's contracts with the Pentagon is small relative to the value of BAE Systems' contracts.
The long-term impact, though, could be substantial. Because of its foreign ownership, EADS has struggled to gain access to U.S. markets. But BAE Systems has a security agreement with the United States that has allowed the company bid on sensitive projects. One of the goals of the merger, the source said, is to have that security agreement apply across the combined company.
EADS, headquartered in the Netherlands, includes subsidiaries Airbus and Eurocopter, the world's largest helicopter manufacturer. BAE Systems, meanwhile, is headquartered in London and is the world's third-largest defense contractor, based on 2011 revenues.
The two companies already are big players in the U.S. political scene, ranking fourth and fifth, respectively, in terms of lobbying expenditures among defense aerospace companies, according to the latest numbers compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. BAE Systems has spent $2.3 million on lobbying this year, compared to $1.4 million for EADS North America, the company's U.S. division.
Their combined total still falls below third-ranked United Technologies ($6.3 million), second-ranked Lockheed Martin ($7.9 million) and first-ranked Boeing ($8.1 million).
In addition, BAE ranks seventh among defense contractors in terms of political contributions this election cycle, with 46 percent of its $776,573 in donations going to Democrats and 54 percent going to Republicans. For its part, EADS North America has contributed $172,817 to politicians this cycle, with 34 percent going to Democrats and 66 percent going to Republicans.
The combined company could have about $100 billion in revenues, but both BAE Systems and EADS stressed that they're still in the initial stages of working out an agreement.
"There is no certainty at this stage that that the discussions will ultimately lead to a transaction," the two firms said in a joint statement.


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"Mom! I've got a rubber ball collection!" my fourth grader announced as he returned from a weekend at my in-laws' house. Then he presented me with a yellow plastic supermarket bag full of rubber balls.
"Woooow," I offered, winking at my mother-in-law and then peering into the bag. "That's some collection." A collection that's been bouncing around me ever since. It bounces off the refrigerator. It bounces across the floor. It bounces just past my tea mug, over my newspaper and under the heater. Woooow.
It had never occurred to me to provide my children with a rubber ball collection, but then, that's what grandparents are for. Case in point: The light-up fish toy from "Finding Nemo on Ice" that my mother had given to my sons. The three of them had disappeared at intermission during the ice skating show, returning with ice cream, popcorn and a flashlight toy shaped like the angler fish that chases Nemo under the sea and, that day, on the ice. Funny, I didn't know that we needed one of those.
For weeks after the show, I found the fish flashlight on the kitchen table, on my desk, on the stairs and, ultimately, on the floor of my car, where toys go to die. I haven't seen it since.
More From Good Housekeeping
But I have seen a resurgence in Legos, thanks to my mother-in-law, who has supplied my fourth grader with a few fresh batches. I had thought that we (and my vacuum) were done with Legos, but my son had put them on his Christmas list and, on Sunday morning, on the floor just outside the door to my home office, where it's been slowing down my commute (and my vacuum) all week.
I thought we'd be done with this by now. I thought that once we retired the toy box and found new homes for the Tonkas and the Hot Wheels, my house would be free of collections of things that bounce and spread and - whoopsies! - crunch under your foot. I thought we'd go straight from the Rescue Heroes to the Guitar Hero without any stops along the way. But now I understand that's why they call them "tweens."
We are, indeed, between two stages of childhood. We are between the light-up sneakers and mac n' cheese shaped like SpongeBob, SquarePants, and the size 11 Nikes and the "Who ate all the leftovers?"
We are between stages, and yet, we are in a stage itself where my kids still love to hang out with their grandparents, and their grandparents still love to buy them things that only kids truly love. We are also between vacuum bags, so I'd better add it to my shopping list. With all those rubber balls in the house and on the floor of my car, they'll fill up fast. Who knows what they'll come home with the next time they visit their grandparents.


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Green, Andrew Haswell
Green, Andrew Haswell, 1820–1903, American civic leader, b. Worcester, Mass. He read law under Samuel J. Tilden and became his partner. Prominent in civic affairs of New York City, he held a number of offices, was largely responsible for much of the park system (notably Riverside Drive, Morningside, and Fort Washington parks), and accomplished financial reform. However, he is mainly remembered as the chief advocate of a plan to merge New York City (then Manhattan and the Bronx) and Brooklyn and other neighboring communities to make up Greater New York. He was chairman of the commission that in 1897 drew up the plan by which Greater New York was established in 1898. He also helped to bring about the union of the Astor and Lenox foundations into the New York Public Library with funds left by Tilden.
See biography by J. Foord (1913).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Social Reformers


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Washington (CNN) -- While administrations come and go, and power in Congress teeters between political parties, one thing remains constant in the lives of Washington, D.C.'s, elite: the power lunch.
Between noon and 2 p.m., brokers meet to clinch deals, with the emphasis more on power than on lunch.
Just steps from Capitol Hill, Charlie Palmer is one of the places to see and be seen at lunchtime. Depending on the week, the modern American steakhouse serves between 70 and 80 congressmen and between 20 and 30 senators.
"I'd bet we've had every member of Congress and every senator in the restaurant at some point," says Matt Hill, executive chef for the famed eatery.
It's not just the proximity to Capitol Hill that draws Washington's elite to Charlie Palmer. The restaurant has several private dining areas -- including a rooftop with scenic views of the city -- and an executive chef who prides himself on serving homemade, inventive fare.
"We do anything, we've got senators from Hawaii that come in, and they ask for Hawaiian hors d'oeurves, we've got, you know, people from Texas that ask for things from Texas," Hill says. "So, we can really vary the menu, and it makes it interesting for me to try to come up with new ideas."
Thirty-seven years ago, Tommy Jacomo moved to Washington with his brother and built The Palm with his bare hands. Now, as executive director of the famed power spot, Jacomo is known by Washington's elite as the keeper of the keys to The Palm. Everyone knows him.
"It's pretty frightening, yeah, you can't even walk down the street sometimes, Jacomo said. "People say, 'Hey, Tommy! Put me down for two at 12:30,' and I don't even know who the hell they are."
The Palm has hosted every president from Richard Nixon to Bill Clinton. President Obama has yet to make a visit.
But it's not just presidents who visit The Palm. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has frequented the restaurant since the Clinton administration. Cabinet secretaries including Madeleine Albright, administration officials, senators and representatives, Supreme Court justices, the city's top lobbyists, lawyers, strategists and media elites are all regulars at the Dupont Circle steakhouse.
And if you become a regular, you get your picture on the wall.
"People used to think when we first opened up that we had all the [portraits of] Republicans on one side and all the [portraits of] Democrats on the other side," Jacomo said. "It's not really as much thought behind it. It just goes up, it's good customers, loyal customers, famous people, infamous people, and I decide where I want to put them when I get the chance," he joked, pointing out the minimal space left on the wall.
Not everyone is willing to put their picture on the wall. James Carville and Mary Matalin, who are political strategists and CNN contributors, chose to have their dogs' portraits on the wall instead of their own.
While steakhouses remain a favorite, not all power restaurants dish out filet mignon. Steps from the White House are three of Washington's oldest power spots: The Oval Room, which serves up American fare; Bombay Club, which is Indian; and Old Ebbitt Grille, which also specializes in American cuisine.
Cafe Milano, in Georgetown, and The Monocle and Johnny's Half Shell, on Capitol Hill, also remain abuzz with some of the most prominent people in Washington.
Italian restaurant Posto on 14th Street has become a favorite among younger administration staffers because of its laid-back atmosphere and expansive dining room. Posto's sister restaurant Tosca, owned by Paolo Sacco, has kept D.C.'s top lobbyists and politicians coming back since it opened in 2001. Not only known for the power scene and homemade Italian cuisine, Tosca has set itself apart from others by having some of the most attentive waitstaff in the city.
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, known by friends as a big foodie, has dined at Tosca, as have Emanuel and Obama adviser David Axelrod. The Washington Post reported that former Sen. Tom Daschle convinced then-freshman Sen. Obama to run for president at the Italian eatery.
The newest member of the Supreme Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, is known by friends as a "very adventurous diner." She is a fan of Lebanese Taverna, in Woodley Park, which serves up Middle Eastern fare.
Serving up inventive sushi dishes like a fish-and-chips roll, or wasabi guacamole with wonton chips, SEI in Penn Quarter has established itself as a newcomer to the power scene, along with its neighbors Rasika and Oyamel -- all reported to have recently hosted first lady Michelle Obama.
"One of the things that's been sort of fun to watch over the course of this year is the Obamas have eaten out in a wide variety of places," says Garrett Graff, editor of Washingtonian magazine. "You've seen them come and get burgers up here on the Hill, you've seen them go out for burgers in Virginia, you've also seen them go out to some of the nicest restaurants in the city, like Citronelle and Blue Duck Tavern, where they went this fall for their anniversary dinner. But then you see Barack eating on his own -- he's going to a place like Ben's Chili Bowl or he's going to a place like Ray's Hell Burger."
Graff points out one top restaurant at which the Obamas have yet to dine.
"They still haven't been to what is widely considered to be the city's best restaurant, which is a small Greek place near Dupont Circle called Komi," Graff said. "But one of the challenges with a place like Komi is that it's very small and books up far in advance, so it might be hard for the Obamas to sort of drop in there like they've been dropping in at a lot of these other restaurants."


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Judith Curry has followed up her post about a positive feedback between politics and science, with which I strongly disagreed, with a number of other posts trying to explain where she's coming from. The latest, "no ideologues, part III", makes a lot more sense than her previous "dogma" posts, and sounds a lot less adversarial. This post is based on my comments over at her blog (here and here).
Her thesis is that climate scientists, the UNFCCC and the IPCC seem to adhere to a certain political ideology. In the case of the IPCC that seems a bit of an absurd notion, but in the case of individuals it seems almost self evident that everybody has some sort of political ideology. She writes:
It is fine for people (and scientists) have political ideologies. The problem comes in when you use politics to defend your science, and you use science to demand policies. This whole thing seems to me to boil down to the traditional clash of values between the greens and the libertarians.
So does this make more sense? I think a fairly large number of scientists will sign up to believing this ideology, but few will want to be regarded as ideologues. Are we getting closer her to clarifying this? I think so (hope so).
I am wondering to what extent her critique would be better described as the overly defensive attitude and 'circling of the wagons' strategy of many mainstream scientists and perhaps the community as a whole. She has described it as such before, and to a certain degree I agree.
She gives Michael Mann (who else?) as an example of voicing a political ideology that exemplifies that of the wider community/UNFCCC/IPCC. The headings she provides above citations from Mann give a certain twist to his words though, and provide more fodder to the label 'political ideology'. Which may give the appearance of wanting to put his words in a certain light. (perhaps for ideological reasons? – just kidding)
E.g. In #2 on the list Mann talks about what can still be done, whereas in her heading Judith characterizes it as what needs to be done. #5 has a large disconnect between her heading (action is needed) and Mann's retelling of historical environmental threats.
She is right though that overall, Mann's words as quoted are not purely in the realm of science, but nor are they intended to I think. It would be helpful if scientists are more clear as to when they're talking about science and when they're talking about something else (their personal opinion about the public debate, politics, ethics, etc). Hansen and the late Schneider are good examples of that IMO. Some may respond that those differences are very obvious already: Why spell them out. Which has (more than) a nucleus of truth as well of course.
I wrote about distinguishing these kinds of issues in a conversation I had with Tom Fuller a while ago, about what the next generation questions regarding climate change are:
Let's distinguish the following main issues:
– To what extent is climate change occurring, and to what extent is it man-made?
– To what extent is that (going to be) a problem?
– What can or should we do about it?
The first questions are strictly scientific; the middle has a judgment value to it (besides being also based on the forever tentative answer to the first question), and the latter is primarily a political/moral judgement (and has more to do with technology and policymaking than with climate science).
We have made much more progress in addressing the first question than in addressing the last one. The limiting factor in addressing the issues relating to climate change is IMO not a lack of knowledge about the exact nature of the changes; rather, it is the unwillingness of society to deal with (the consequences of) this knowledge. Even if, within realistic boundaries of the uncertainty, climate change is less bad than currently expected, we need to dramatically step up our policy response.
Needless to say, that last sentence is a value laden statement, based on my understanding of the science combined with my value system, risk perception and risk aversion. Or perhaps that is not needless to say? (that's not a rhetorical question btw).
Judith responded by saying that what she has a problem with is when people or institutions use their ideology "to stifle dissent and scientific debate". Well, who wouldn't have a problem with that?
That's the broad brush again. The dissent from the mainstream scientific view takes a lot of different forms. E.g. there are the arguments such as voiced by Bob that AGW is bunk because of the hockeystick and surface temperature issues (my paraphrasing). I hope you'll excuse me for not taking such criticism all that serious, where a minor detail is blown up as if it falsifies a whole theory, not unlike claiming that gravity doesn't exist because that bird in the sky disproves it (argumentum ad absurdum; I'm aware that gravity is a better established (though also still not 100% known) topic than climate change).
These kinds of arguments are very common, whereby the conclusion (AGW is wrong) is miles and miles apart from the reasoning that supposedly led the writer to that conclusion. Which leads me to think that maybe, just maybe, they may have been really arguing in the other direction: from their desired conclusion to an narrative that fits with it. Because in the direction as the argument is stated, it doesn't make sense.
Am I stifling scientific dissent by saying this? I would hope you agree with me that I'm not. I'm arguing against a (to me) nonsensical critique of the science, which IMO isn't actually a scientific critique at all (though it's dressed up to look like it). I.e. I'm not stifling anything and the dissent I'm primarily arguing against is hardly scientific (or charitably only partly scientific).
What most mainstream scientists get so worked up about are these nonsensical critiques on the science and the amount of traction they seem to have gotten.
If you have examples of where *scientific* dissent and debate is being *stifled* (no emails please), I'd like to hear about it.
As I stated before, I agree that in this highly polarized environment scientists have sometimes gotten too defensive in their reaction to the various critiques, because of course, some of the criticism does make sense, and even if the conclusion doesn't, perhaps the premise purportedlyleading up to the conclusion contains some grains of truth. It doesn't hurt acknowledging that.
Postscript: Simon Donner has an excellent post on the role of the blogosphere in these kinds of climate discussions and how it relates it to the themes of introspection, de-polarization and letting down our defenses. This is the road towards bridge building.
Aikido: The way of harmony. That's me doing the throwing (in full harmony of course).
Michael Tobis has a related post, citing an interesting lecture by Mike Mann:
"We have to make it clear that the ice sheets are not Republicans or Democrats – they don't have a political agenda as they disappear," said Michael Mann. MT asks: "why the politicization of the non-political parts of the question?" That would be a good question for Judith Curry to ponder.
Chris Colose, who also chimed in over at Curry's blog, has a post on her 'dogma' and 'ideology' framing. He finishes by saying:
Finally, we're going to be endlessly stuck at a cross-roads if discussion is stifled, (…) but a glance into the refereed literature clearly shows this is not the case. (…) We're also going to be stuck at a cross-road if you perceive the progression toward unanimous [I would have said "broad"] agreement by the informed as a sign of dogma as opposed to robustness of the conclusion. [link added by me]


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Blogger Gary Vaynerchuk has dubbed April 3 as good people day around the blogosphere, so I thought I'd point you to five very good eggs whose blogs are characterized by generosity of spirit and great advice. Some of them are very successful and some less well-known, but I think you will get a lot out of reading any or all of these folks.
These are in no particular order other than boy-girl-boy-girl. For every good egg I mentioned here, of course there are a dozen more, but it just so happens that the cool istock photo I found had five!
- Naomi Dunford at Ittybiz . Naomi & I have been pals ever since she wandered over here, said hi to Seth in the comments (he said hi back), sent a donation to Smiletrain, and then toddled off to start a blog that trounced the pants off mine. Ittybiz is snarky and funny and honest and has a ton of great advice. Ittybiz is Naomi, in other words.
- Chris Brogan at chrisbrogan.com. Chris is the guy to read if you want to understand how community and the online world come together, what that means, what it can look like, and why we should care. He's been so consistently friendly, open, and generous with his time, in addition to putting out a ton of great content and holding down a significant day job, that he makes me feel like a gigantic slacker.
- Colleen Wainright, aka the communicatrix. Colleen is very funny and very smart and writes a damned good newsletter. Plus she is both sharp and kind, which is my favorite combination. She writes about marketing and writing and acting and not being a jerk and other good stuff. You would like her.
- Maki (what's Maki's last name, anyway?) over at DoshDosh thinks about everything too much. Then he writes it all up in intelligent, thoughtful posts and we get to benefit from it. The guy works insanely hard and seems to be motivated by a desire to help everyone in the universe get stuff the way he does. He's often the first to Sphinn or Digg a post, and he's a great example of the good you can do when you put others first.
- Caroline Middlebrook at caroline-middlebrook.com is probably the most honest make-money-online blogger in the history of the Internet. She'll tell you all about the stuff she's tried that failed miserably. She'll tell you about her relationship that fell apart. If there's a link on her site that makes money, she makes a point of letting you know how that works. Her blog is a little like that Penn & Teller magic trick where they cut Teller in half, but they use a clear acrylic box–you get to see exactly what makes it all work. And there's no way I could make a "good egg" post without mentioning Caro. I don't really know her, but I admire her a lot and am always glad to see what she's doing.
Those are my nominations of the day for five good eggs! Who are your favorite good eggs around the Web? Let us know in the comments.


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Kenya's deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta – accused of crimes against humanity – can stand in next month's election, after a court declined to bar him.
The High Court refused to rule in a case brought by campaign groups seeking to exclude him from the 4 March poll.
Mr Kenyatta and Prime Minister Raila Odinga are seen as the favourites.
Mr Kenyatta and his running mate William Ruto deny the charges brought against them in The Hague.
They are due to go on trial in April at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in connection with the violence that followed disputed elections in 2007.
Centre stage
"The High Court lacks jurisdiction to deal with a question relating to the election of a president," the panel of five judges said in a statement read to a crowded courtroom.
I have repeatedly said that my main competitor should have the opportunity to face me in a free and fair election, whose outcome is determined by the people of Kenya" Raila Odinga Prime Minister
"This is an issue that is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Supreme Court," the judges said.
The BBC's Will Ross in the capital, Nairobi, says Mr Kenyatta's supporters celebrated in the streets after the ruling was announced.
Correspondents say it is not immediately clear if any application would be made to move the case to the higher court.
Edgar Kavu-Lavu from the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) – one of the civil society groups to bring the case to court – says they won't appeal as there is not enough time before the elections are held.
The ICC case against four Kenyans – including Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto – is taking centre stage in the elections and was an issue that featured prominently in the first presidential debate last week between the eight leading candidates for the post.
Mr Kenyatta was forced to fend off claims of impunity during the debate and was put on the spot by the moderators and his presidential challengers who demanded to know why he would not pull out of the race to concentrate on his case at The Hague.
Both he and Mr Ruto have been indicted by the ICC for crimes against humanity emanating from the violence that killed more than 1,000 people and forced about 300,000 people from their homes after the disputed election that was won by President Mwai Kibaki, who is now stepping down after two terms.
Mr Odinga said he welcomed the High Court ruling.
"I have repeatedly said that my main competitor should have the opportunity to face me in a free and fair election, whose outcome is determined by the people of Kenya," he said.
Mr Kenyatta, the son of Kenya's founding president, faces five charges of crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, persecution, deportation and other inhumane acts.
Mr Ruto faces three charges of crimes against humanity.
Mr Kenyatta insisted during the debate that he and his running mate were innocent and would defend themselves vigorously.
The case would not prevent him from discharging his presidential duties, if he was elected, he said.
The Kenya Human Rights Commission, the Kenyan branch of the ICJ, and the International Centre for Policy and Conflict have all argued that any person committed to trial at the ICC would not be able to carry out their duties of running the country properly.
They say that the honour and integrity of the public office would be damaged.


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I have been involved with many customer's who are integrating OAM 11g with Universal Content Manager 11g (UCM) and I know that trying to follow the OAM documentation can be daunting. So I put together my own integration document/Blog. Not to re-invent the wheel, this post utilizes what we already have in terms of documentation. Think of this as a checklist and the steps that I implemented to get my own internal environment working.
- Install and configure UCM
- Install a weblogic plug-in on OHS that fixes a bug for UCM. http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/ias/downloads/wls-plugins-096117.html
High Level Steps/Checklist
- Configure an OHS server to proxy all request to UCM (/cs, /adfAuthentication and /_ocsh).
- Register a webgate with the URL's you want to protect.
- Configure an OAM Identity Asserter and LDAP/OVD provider in Weblogic.
- Validate users can access UCM with WLS Security.
- Install a webgate on OHS server and validate.
Detail Steps
- Follow the documentation to configure OAM Access Manager 11g with Oracle UCM, Section 220.127.116.11: http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E21764_01/doc.1111/e10792/c03_security.htm#CDDHGCCC
Note: The documentation is not clear whether to install the Webgate on the OHS server first. Recommend to install the webgate at the end.
126.96.36.199 - Configuring Oracle Access Manager 11g with Oracle UCM
1.a. In our use case, we only need to protect the UCM URI's below.
# UCM Content Server
<Location /cs>
SetHandler weblogic-handler
WebLogicHost <hostname>
WebLogicPort <portnumber>
# UCM Content Server authentication
<Location /adfAuthentication>
SetHandler weblogic-handler
WebLogicPort <portnumber>
#UCM online help
<Location /_ocsh>
SetHandler weblogic-handler
WebLogicHost <hostname>
WebLogicPort <portnumber>
b. Use the remote registration tool oamreg as follows in section 184.108.40.206:
126.96.36.199 - Provision with 11g Webgate
1. Acquire the tool
a. The rreg tool can be found and executed on the same box where OAM is installed. No need to un-tar.
2. Created a new UCM-Request.xml:
3. On the command line, execute the following:
./bin/oamreg.sh inband input/UCM-Request.xml
When asked to enter the admin and password, make sure the user is part of the system store you configured for OAM (e.g testuser1/welcome1)
2. Continuing Section 22.214.171.124
You can configure the OAM Asserter and LDAP/OVD Authenticator before installing a webgate. Once the LDAP/OVD authenticator is configured, recommend to test UCM and make sure that you can bind to a user that is created within the provider you configured.
The order of the provider's should be as follows:
OAM Identity Asserter
The following 'Common' parameters should be set as:
Leave the default values for the 'Provider Specific' tab.
OVD Provider
'Common' tab:
'Provider Specific' tab:
Based on the backend LDAP repository, make sure that you specify the correct object class and user name attribute within the LDAP filters. In our case, we used 'inetorgperson' and 'uid' for a user object and 'groupofuniquenames' and 'uniqumembers' for groups.
3. After Installing and configuring OAM 11g……
a. Recommend installing the webgate now. No good links in the documentation to install webgate 11g. Use the following: http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E21764_01/install.1111/e12002/webgate.htm#CACCBCFF
Section 20.2.4
You will need the gcc libraries. Can get them here:
Look for 'GCC Libraries for Oracle Identity Federation'
Use the following cpio file to extract the gcc libraries:
cpio -idvm <cpio-file>
Section 20.4
Step 2 - Ran the command:
./deployWebgateInstance.sh –w /u0/Oracle/Middleware188.8.131.52/Oracle_WT1/instances/instance1/config/OHS/ohs1 -oh /u0/Oracle/Middleware126.96.36.199/Oracle_OAMWebgate1
Step 3 –
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/u01/Oracle/Middleware22.214.171.124/Oracle_WT1/lib
Step 5 – Ran the command:
./EditHttpConf –w /u01/Oracle/Middleware126.96.36.199/Oracle_WT1/instances/instance1/config/OHS/.ohs1
b. Next you will need to copy the artifacts that were generated in step 3 from section 18.104.22.168. Copy the 'ObAccessClient.xml' and 'cwallet.sso' located in the 'output/UCM-INT' directory under 'rreg' to the /config directory.
Webgate installation completed. Make sure that the oam managed server is running and restart the OHS server.
Trouble shooting tips:
- Cannot login via OAM – A few things to verify:
- Make sure that the LDAP Authentication Module in the OAM console is pointing to the correct data store.
- Make sure that the OVD provider in WLS matches the same OAM data store configuration.
- Login looping issue
- In some cases we see a looping issue when using IE when the time sync of off between the webgate machine and the OAM server machine.
- Logout not working
- Please follow the instructions to configure UCM logout with OAM. http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E17904_01/doc.1111/e14770/ucm.htm#ASRLA3579
In my next post, I will continue to integrate my OAM environment to include the Image Processing Management (IPM) tool, which requires UCM.


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In Late Game Thriller, Florida State Wins National Championship Against Auburn
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) – For all Jameis Winston had done as a redshirt freshman for Florida State, he never had to pull the Seminoles from the brink of defeat.
In the biggest game of the year, down by four with 79 seconds left, the Heisman Trophy winner put together the drive of his life, and the Seminoles proved they could take a punch to win a championship.
Winston threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Kelvin Benjamin with 13 seconds left and No. 1 Florida State beat No. 2 Auburn 34-31 to win the BCS national title game on Monday night.
"There's a lot of heart and guts down in Tallahassee, too," coach Jimbo Fisher said.
The Bowl Championship Series went out with a bang, with one of the best title games in its 16-year history. It will be replaced by a four-team playoff next season. And the Southeastern Conference's seven-year winning streak in college football's biggest game was snapped by the Atlantic Coast Conference school that played in the first three BCS title games but hadn't been back since.
Florida State was voted a unanimous No. 1 in the final AP Top 25. Auburn finished second.
Winston struggled much of the night but was near perfect when the Seminoles (14-0) needed it most, going 6 for 7 for 77 yards on the game-winning 80-yard drive.
"It was the best football game he's played all year," Fisher said, "and I'll tell you why, because for three quarters he was up and down and he fought.
"And to pull it out in the atmosphere and environment and with what was on the line tonight, to me if that's not a great player, I don't know who is."
Winston was 20 for 35 for 237 yards and two fourth-quarter touchdown passes. He zipped the Seminoles down the field on the final drive, with a 49-yard catch and run from Rashad Greene.
Florida State also got help from Auburn, too. A pass interference penalty on Chris Davis on third-and-8 from the 10 gave Florida State a first down at the 2.
"Thought it was great defense. That's all I can say," Davis said, adding, the officials "should have just let us play."
On the next play Winston flipped high to the 6-foot-5 Benjamin for the touchdown.
"Once the ball is in the air on that post route, I've got to go get it, and I did," Benjamin said. "Simple as that."
There was no miracle finish this time for the turnaround Tigers, who went from 3-9 to SEC champions in their first season under coach Gus Malzahn. They tossed the ball around on one final play, but it ended with Florida State jumping on a fumble, and the Seminoles sprinting onto the field under a storm of garnet and gold confetti.
Florida State scored 21 points in the fourth quarter, and the teams combined for 24 in a breathtaking last 4:42.
"It felt storybook again," Auburn defensive tackle Gabe Wright said. "It really felt like we were going to bring it out again. We're just on the other end of the stick. It's usually us going out on the field and celebrating. It's been a long time since we had an 'L' in this locker room."
Auburn won nine straight to get here after starting the season unranked.
Tre Mason gave Auburn (12-2) a 31-27 lead with a 37-yard touchdown run with 1:19 left after Kermit Whitfield had put Florida State in the lead for the first time since the first quarter with a 100-yard kickoff return to make it 27-24 with 4:31 left.
Mason ran for 195 yards and Nick Marshall threw two touchdown passes for the Tigers.
"I told them in the locker room, we put together the biggest turnaround in the history of college football. We were on the brink of making it one of those magical seasons," Malzahn said.
Florida State hadn't been challenged like this all season, winning by an average of 42 points.
Florida State and Winston's biggest problem this season came off the field. Winston was investigated for a year-old sexual assault complaint in November, but after three weeks the Florida state attorney's office determined it did not have enough evidence to charge him.
Winston, who turned 20 Monday, told his teammates before the final drive: "'Guys, we didn't come here for no reason.' I said 'Y'all, this is ours, man.'"
The Seminoles were down 21-3 in the first half, and wobbling, but never fell over.
And now Florida State is national champion for the first time since 1999, the first team to win the BCS title game after being down at halftime.
Winston was jumpy against a strong Auburn pass rush, led by Dee Ford. Winston was sacked four times.
The Seminoles cut it to 21-10 with a late touchdown in the second quarter, following a faked punt and a tough 21-yard run by Winston, and chipped into Auburn's lead with a 41-yard field goal by Roberto Aguayo with 6:05 left in the third.
Meanwhile, Florida State had found some answers to Auburn's spread offense. A holding penalty that wiped out a long pass also helped keep the Tigers scoreless in the third quarter, and the Seminoles began the fourth with P.J. Williams intercepting Marshall's pass and setting up Florida State at its 38.
When Winston tossed in the flats to Chad Abram, who hurdled over a tackler on the way to an 11-yard touchdown, the lead was 21-19. Florida State was considering going for two to tie, but Devonta Freeman was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct and that pushed the extra point back 15 yards and forced the Seminoles to kick and make it 21-20.
Auburn responded with Cody Parkey's 22-yard field goal to make it 24-20 with 4:42 left.
During Winston's record-breaking season, filled with blowouts and fourth quarters spent watching from the sideline, he never faced a situation in which he had to drive his team to a winning score.
Now he had a chance to add that last line to his remarkable resume — until Whitfield handled it for him.
Whitfield broke through a seam around the 30 and hit the sideline at full speed. Fisher ran down the other sideline yelling "Go! Go!" with Winston chasing behind pumping his arms and slapping his coach on the back. Florida State was on top, but Auburn was not done and Winston would be called upon one last time.
He delivered.
"Only thing is we're victorious and glad to say Florida State is the national champion again, and I guarantee you we're bringing that swag back," Winston said. "You'd better believe it."
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Brian Jaworski
Head Men's Golf and Head Men's Soccer Coach
Head Coach Brian Jaworski took over as leader of the Pioneer men's soccer program in 2004 and has built Grinnell into a powerhouse. The 2009 Pioneer squad won the Midwest Conference Tournament title and earned the school's first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance as Jaworski was voted MWC Coach of the Year.
Jaworski has helped build the Pioneer program into a consistent winner. After his first two teams went 10-19-2 overall and 5-13 in Midwest Conference play, Grinnell has posted a combined overall mark of 46-32-13 and league record of 31-8-6 in the past five seasons. The Pioneers have posted winning records the last five years and qualified for the MWC Tournament each of the past five seasons.
Under his guidance, Grinnell also boasted its first-ever MWC Player of the Year in 2010, Mark Rosenberg. Overall, Jaworski has developed six All-Region selections while at Grinnell and 10 Academic All-Region selections.
Jaworski arrived at Grinnell in August of 2004, following a long and successful career as an assistant coach at DePauw University that spanned from 1991-2003. During his tenure as an assistant coach, the Tigers went 167-58-12 (.704) and made four NCAA Tournament appearances.
In May 2003, Jaworski was named Aflac National Assistant Coach of the Year in recognition of his hard-work and dedication to the DePauw University men's soccer program. The award is based on a coach's longevity and expertise, as well as contributions to the school and community, and special achievements throughout their careers.
In addition to his work with the men's soccer program at DePauw, he also was an assistant coach for the DePauw women's soccer team that advanced to the NCAA Final Four in 2003.
Jaworski was a standout soccer player for the DePauw men's team from 1984-1988, and he became the first and only player in the school's history to earn all-America honors in men's soccer, earning the distinction in 1988. He currently ranks seventh all-time in career goals scored with 31, and is eighth all-time in career points with 75. Jaworski, a 1989 graduate of DePauw, was inducted into the DePauw Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002.
As a head coach, Jaworski has coached two separate club teams to Indiana state championships. In 2002, his under-17 Dynamo FC Indianapolis club team claimed the state championship, and in 2000 his under-18 Dynamo FC Indianapolis squad won the team title. In 2004, Jaworski guided his Carmel United under-18 club to the final four of the Indiana state championship, where his team lost to the eventual state champion.
Jaworski recently started the highly-successful Grinnell Soccer Academy which allowed several young players in the area to enhance their soccer skills. The first group of Academy attendees was honored prior to a Pioneer soccer game in the 2008 season. Also since in Grinnell, Jaworski has traveled around the state to lend his coaching talents to youth teams in multiple communities.
He and his wife Leslie (a staff member of the College's psychology department), with the assistance of College coaches Tim Hollibaugh and Andy Hamilton, began the Grinnell Sports Camp in 2005. The camp allows participants to learn fundamentals and participate in drills in a variety of sports while also learning the values of sportsmanship and enjoyment of several activities.
Along with his soccer duties, Jaworski has served as head men's golf coach since 2007. He had previously been an assistant track and field coach since his arrival in 2004.
Promoted to Associate Professor of Physical Education in the spring of 2011, Jaworski has also served as head men's golf coach since 2007. The Pioneers' golf squad achieved the ultimate academic achievement in 2011, being named the Academic National Champion for all of NCAA Division III.
He had previously been an assistant track and field coach since his arrival in 2004. Jaworski resides in Grinnell with his wife Leslie and their three children: Ann Marie, John and Calvin. He and his wife are actively involved with Grinnell's youth soccer program. In addition to his duties as head men's soccer and golf coach, Jaworski also serves as an assistant professor in the Physical Education Department.


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by Dr. Ellen Hodgson Brown
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
May 27, 2009
"I understand that these cuts are very painful and they affect real lives. This is the harsh reality and the reality that we face. Sacramento is not Washington – we cannot print our own money. We can only spend what we have."
– Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger quoted in Time, May 22, 2009
Christmas comes early, Governor. You CAN print your own money. Fiscally solvent North Dakota is doing it . . . and so can California. Now!!!
In a May 22 article in Time titled "Billions in the Red: Fiscal Reckoning in CA," Juliet Williams reports that since California voters have now vetoed higher taxes and further state government borrowing, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has indicated that he intends to close the budget gap almost entirely through drastic spending cuts. The cutbacks could include laying off thousands of state workers and teachers, ending the state's main welfare program for the poor, eliminating health coverage for about 1.5 million poor children, halting cash grants for about 77,000 college students, slashing money for state parks, and releasing thousands of prisoners before their sentences are finished. Schwarzenegger bemoaned the fact that the state could not print its own money but said it could only spend what it had.
But the state can create its own money. After all, banks do this every day. Certified, card-carrying bankers are allowed to do something nobody else can do: they can create "credit" with accounting entries on their books. As the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas explains on its website:
"Banks actually create money when they lend it. Here's how it works: Most of a bank's loans are made to its own customers and are deposited in their checking accounts. Because the loan becomes a new deposit, just like a paycheck does, the bank . . . holds a small percentage of that new amount in reserve and again lends the remainder to someone else, repeating the money-creation process many times."
President Obama has also acknowledged that banks create money, through what he calls the "multiplier effect." In a speech at Georgetown University on April 14, he said:
"[A]lthough there are a lot of Americans who understandably think that government money would be better spent going directly to families and businesses instead of banks – 'where's our bailout?,' they ask – the truth is that a dollar of capital in a bank can actually result in eight or ten dollars of loans to families and businesses, a multiplier effect that can ultimately lead to a faster pace of economic growth."
Money in a government-owned bank could give us the best of both worlds. We could have all the credit-generating advantages of private banks, without the baggage cluttering up the books of the Wall Street giants, including bad derivatives bets, unmarketable collateralized debt obligations, mark to market accounting issues, oversized CEO salaries and bonuses, and shareholders expecting a sizeable cut of the profits. A state could deposit its vast revenues in its own state-owned bank and proceed to fan them into 8 to 10 times their face value in loans. Not only would it have its own credit machine, but it would control the loan terms. The state could lend at ½% interest to itself and to municipal governments, rolling the loans over as needed until the revenues had been generated to pay them off. According to Professor Margrit Kennedy in her 1995 book Interest and Inflation-free Money, interest composes, on average, fully half the cost of every public project. Cutting costs by 50% could make currently-unsustainable projects such as low-cost housing, alternative energy development, and infrastructure construction not only sustainable but actually profitable for the government.
If all this seems too radical and unprecedented to venture into, consider that one state has had its own bank for 90 years; and it has not only escaped the credit crunch but is doing remarkably well . . . .
Only three of fifty states are now solvent, meaning they have the revenues to meet their state budgets; and one of them is North Dakota. It is an unlikely candidate for the distinction. It is a sparsely populated state of less than 700,000 people, largely located in isolated farming communities afflicted with cold weather. Yet since 2000, the state's GNP has grown 56%, personal income has grown 43%, and wages have grown 34%. The state not only has no funding issues, but this year it actually has a budget surplus of $1.2 billion, the largest it has ever had.
North Dakota boasts the only state-owned bank in the nation. The Bank of North Dakota (BND) was established by the state legislature in 1919 specifically to free farmers and small businessmen from the clutches of out-of-state bankers and railroad men. The bank's stated mission is to deliver sound financial services that promote agriculture, commerce and industry in North Dakota. By law, the state must deposit all its funds in the bank, which pays a competitive interest rate to the state treasurer. The state rather than the FDIC guarantees the bank's deposits, which are plowed back into the state in the form of loans. The bank's return on equity is about 25%, and it pays a hefty dividend to the state, which is expected to exceed $60 million this year. In the last decade, the BND has turned back a third of a trillion dollars to the state's general fund, offsetting taxes. The former president of the BND is now the state's governor.
The BND avoids rivalry with private banks by partnering with them. Most lending is originated by a local bank. The BND then comes in to participate in the loan, share risk, and buy down the interest rate. The BND provides a secondary market for real estate loans, which it buys from local banks. Its residential loan portfolio is now $500 billion to $600 billion. Guarantees are also provided for entrepreneurial startups, and the BND has ample money to lend to students (over 184,000 outstanding loans). It purchases municipal bonds from public institutions, and it backs loans made to new farmers at 1% interest. The BND also has a well-funded disaster loan program, which helps explain how Fargo, when struck by a disastrous flood recently, managed to avoid the devastation suffered by New Orleans in similar circumstances.
North Dakota has also managed to avoid the credit freeze, through the simple expedient of creating its own credit. It has led the nation in establishing state economic sovereignty. In California and other states, workers and factories are sitting idle because the private credit system has failed. An injection of new money from a system of publicly-owned banks on the model of the Bank of North Dakota could thaw the credit freeze and bring spring to the markets once again.
Ellen Brown developed her research skills as an attorney practicing civil litigation in Los Angeles. In Web of Debt, her latest book, she turns those skills to an analysis of the Federal Reserve and "the money trust." She shows how this private cartel has usurped the power to create money from the people themselves, and how we the people can get it back. Her earlier books focused on the pharmaceutical cartel that gets its power from "the money trust." Her eleven books include Forbidden Medicine, Nature's Pharmacy (co-authored with Dr. Lynne Walker), and The Key to Ultimate Health (co-authored with Dr. Richard Hansen). Her websites are www.webofdebt.com and www.ellenbrown.com.
Time To Get Out The Wheelbarrows? Another Look At The Weimar Hyperinflation by Ellen Brown
Restoring National Sovereignty with A Truly National Banking System by Stephen Lendman (Part VI)
Cash-Starved States Need To Play The Banking Game: North Dakota Shows How by Dr. Ellen Brown
Global Economic Crisis: "Recapturing What is Ours and Turning Scarcity into Abundance" by Stephen Lendman (Part V)


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Labor Day weekend, folks. Party it up, you've earned it. Here in New York, we've recently weathered earthquakes and minor hurricanes and other inconveniences. So fire up the grill, put a cold beverage in your hand and turn up the mildly twee indie pop jams on this week's mix. Cover art photo was taken by Kate Bryant at the Friends With You inflatable sculpture park which is at the upper end of the Highline park.
While Labor Day is seen as the end of summer, Summer Fridays mixes will continue to the Autumn Equinox… so you get two more after this. Enjoy!
1. Zumpano! – The Party Rages On
2. Allo Darlin' – Darren
3. Future Bible Heroes – Hopeless
4. Ski Lodge – I Would Die to Be
5. Murder Mystery – Problems
6. XTC – Day In Day Out
7. Peggy Sue – Song & Dance
8. Devon Williams – All My Living Goes to You
9. Papas Fritas – My Revolution
10. Radiation City – The Color of Industry
11. The Liminanas – (I've Got) Trouble in Mind
12. The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Hide and Seek
13. Music Machine – The People in Me
14. The Fresh & Onlys – I Would Not Know the Devil
15. Pale Saints – Fell from the Sun
16. Cymbals Eat Guitars – Keep Me Waiting
17. Grandaddy – Chartsengrafs
18. Destroyer – Savage Night at the Opera
I'm not even going to write it this week, but you know what I'm talking about. Liner notes after the jump.
Continue Reading


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When you're an author, you have to be an extrovert and an introvert. Long lonely days of research, writing and thinking are interspersed (if you're lucky) with speaking, interviews, travel and time spent plugging your book. These two challenges demand different kinds of energy.
So wearing my hyper-social marketing hat, I recently pushed a button . . . read more


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Building guide for this product is available in the Downloads section.
You may also want to order the number of Amp Control System DC Detection + SS Relay boards required for your setup (one board per channel).
Amp control V6 is a microprocessor controlled monitoring board that will shut down the amplifier, sending a signal to disconnect the speakers on any sign of a problem from the amplifier it is connected to.
The key difference between V6 board and V5.3 board is the ability of V6 to control 2 x independent PSU modules in dual mono configurations, including the hybrid ones.
It has onboard current sensing connections that monitor the voltage drop through a pair of emitter resistors of up to two amplifier channels. It monitors the temperature of up to 8 locations with remote temperature sensors connected over an I2C communication bus. It has a connector that is daisy chain connected to multiple DC detection board/speaker relays. It has a pair of onboard power relays and fusing that will start and protect a single main power transformer for an amplifier. It can communicate with power supplies with rail quick shut down MOSFETs that can be turned off in the event of an amplifier failure to minimize damage. It has an onboard mains voltage loss detection circuit to protect the supply transformer from brownouts and intermittent power loss. It has an input for a front panel switch, as well as a 12VDC trigger input and a shorted contact trigger input to signal power up. It controls a front panel LED that will signal power state and will flash trouble codes if a shutdown event happens. It's expandable through communication over I2C, SPI or serial communication for just about any other imaginable interface need.


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LOS ANGELES — UCLA has become the first school in the University of California system to ban smoking on campus.
The Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/ZFoMFW ) says a no-tobacco policy was launched Monday on Earth Day. The policy will operate on an honor system.
The ban also includes smokeless tobacco and the sale and advertising of tobacco products.
UC President Mark G. Yudof has called for all 10 schools in the system to go smoke-free by next year.


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Update: Zdziarski put up a more detailed response.
Apple responded to the backdoor story.
Each of these diagnostic capabilities requires the user to have unlocked their device and agreed to trust another computer. Any data transmitted between the iOS device and trusted computer is encrypted with keys not shared with Apple. For users who have enabled iTunes Wi-Fi Sync on a trusted computer, these services may also be accessed wirelessly by that computer.
Zdziarski, the author of the article that started this all, is not impressed.
I don't buy for a minute that these services are intended solely for diagnostics. The data they leak is of an extreme personal nature. There is no notification to the user. A real diagnostic tool would have been engineered to respect the user, prompt them like applications do for access to data, and respect backup encryption. Tell me, what is the point in promising the user encryption if there is a back door to bypass it?
Apple response doesn't actually deny or contradict anything Zdziarski stated, so in the end, it all comes down to trust. Apple claims they only use these tools for "diagnostics" (which is a stretch considering the extensive and pervasive nature of the data they expose, but alas), and it's up to us to decide whether we trust them or not. If you still trust Apple – or Google, or Microsoft, or any other major technology company, for that matter – at this point, then I admire your child-like innocence.


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Pierce helps Celtics top slumping 76ers
PHILADELPHIA — Paul Pierce had 18 points and 11 rebounds, and Avery Bradley scored 22 points to lead the Boston Celtics to a 109-101 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night.
Kevin Garnett scored 18 points to help the Celtics continued their push up the Eastern Conference standings. The Celtics entered in seventh, but were no more than two games behind the next three teams ahead in the standings.
Led by Pierce, the Celtics controlled the game and used a 9-0 run midway through the fourth quarter to seal the win. Last May, these two teams went to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. On Wednesday, the Sixers lost for the ninth time in 10 games and are well out of the playoff race.
Jrue Holiday had 18 points and 10 assists for the Sixers, and Thaddeus Young had 19 points and 10 rebounds.
The Sixers beat the Celtics twice this season after stretching the Celtics to seven games in last year's playoff series. But the Sixers are a team in freefall because of injuries and a roster ill-equipped to handle the losses of postseason standouts Andre Iguodala and Lou Williams.
There was some mild concern late in the fourth period when Holiday, their All-Star point guard, was hurt. Holiday grabbed his right ankle and hobbled back on defense after an awkward drive. He hopped on one foot after a steal attempt went nowhere, but did stay in the game.
Like so many teams over the last 15 years, the Sixers had no real answer for Pierce. He hit his first four 3-point attempts, each one more crushing than the last. When the Sixers went on a mini-run to close within eight, Pierce and Jason Terry connected on consecutive 3s to build a comfortable lead.
Pierce had averaged 21.8 points over 54 career games against the 76ers.
At one point in the first half, both teams were 15 of 32 from the field. The Celtics found other ways to separate themselves from the Sixers: Boston went to the free-throw line and made 3s. The Sixers missed 9 of 11 3-point attempts in the first half and were 0 for 3 from the free-throw line.
The Sixers finished 5 of 21 on 3s and 14 of 18 on foul shots They did score 64 points in the paint.
Boston got sloppy at the end of the third quarter and had three turnovers in the final 90 seconds. That helped the Sixers score six straight points and slice the lead to five. Jordan Crawford opened the fourth period with a pair of 3-pointers that made it 91-76 and the Celtics never let up from there.
Crawford's points and production off the bench were needed for a veteran team with another game Wednesday night at Indiana. He scored 12 points and fellow reserve Jeff Green added 16. Pierce's perfection helped the Celtics go 11 of 19 from 3-point range.
NOTES: Injured 76ers C Andrew Bynum (knees) was re-examined in New York on Tuesday by Dr. David Altchek. GM Tony DiLeo said surgery remained an option. ... Sixers G Nick Young (sprained left ankle) did not play. ... The 76ers will play two preseason games in Europe. They'll play Uxue Bilbao on Oct. 6 in Bilbao, Spain, and the Oklahoma City Thunder on Oct. 8 in Manchester, England.


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By Emilie Haertsch, Publications
When the United States entered World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the nation's food resources were already stretched thin. Once operating at a surplus, U.S. farmers were sending a large portion of their crops overseas to aid the Allies and alleviate the growing food shortage in Europe. With U.S. troops heading to war, there was an ever greater demand for food as only well-fed soldiers could serve at full strength.
In response to the increasing need for food, the U.S. government implemented the Food Rationing Program in 1942, which called on U.S. citizens to conserve their food consumption and avoid waste. In conjunction with rationing, the government also asked civilians to plant "Victory Gardens" and consume the produce they grew. The slogan "Food For Freedom," originally coined during World War I, was repurposed to great effect.
There is evidence of this very garden movement in Boston's Fenway neighborhood today. Among the 49 areas obtained for gardens by the Boston Victory Garden Committee, one large plot was established in what is now known as the Back Bay Fens. Area community members could apply for their own plots to aid the war effort, and receive instruction if they were novice gardeners. In order to encourage better gardening and crop yield, Victory Gardeners also held contests and exhibitions.
The gardens remained in this form until the war was drawing to a close and the need for food rationing in the U.S. lessened. In 1944, a group of plot-holding gardeners who feared losing usage of the land assembled with the goal of continuing their urban gardening beyond the war. They established the Fenway Garden Society, and the MHS has their papers in its collections.
The Fenway Garden Society held its first meeting on 15 October 1944, with 23 members in attendance. According to the meeting notes, the society's object was to "promote the planting and growing of vegetables for home usage." The society continued to be part of the war effort into 1945, when Chester Bowes of the War Food Administration in Washington, D.C., "wrote stating more food would be necessary." However, by 1946 the National Victory Garden Commission had dissolved and the society shifted its focus to the general benefits of gardening.
They continued to hold contests to encourage good gardening, giving out small cash prizes and the coveted gold star to winners. They also wrote open letters to gardeners to encourage them to become involved in the society's work and promote knowledge of gardening.
The Fenway Garden Society often faced an uphill battle in maintaining the piece of land used for the garden plots in what continues to be a highly desirable part of Boston. In one of their first open letters in 1946 they referenced "a petition asking for the gardens for this year, and expressing appreciation for them in the past" and encouraged prospective and current gardeners to sign. There would be many more occasions when the society's members would have to advocate to maintain their land. Throughout the years, attempts have been made to build hospitals, schools, and parking lots on that land, and it has only been through the Fenway Garden Society's efforts, and media and legislative support, that the community gardens have remained.
Today the Fenway Victory Gardens are a Boston Historic Landmark. The Fenway Garden Society still exists today and tends the same land in the Fens, which now consists of 500 individual plots cultivated by a diverse group of gardeners.


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Check out the trailer for LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 Final Chapters.
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 continues the saga of the Boy Who Lived in this spell-binding adventure for wizards and Muggles alike. This time, players are transported through the final three books and final four films to experience the ultimate fight of good vs. evil. The creative LEGO prowess unites with the expansive world of Harry Potter once again to deliver an exciting and rewarding gameplay experience. The game features lessons, spell-casting, dueling and much more for players of all ages to enjoy.