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A week ago today I saw Burke and Hare at the cinema. Now ordinarily I wouldn't dream of waiting an entire week, allowing my first impressions, insights and musings to rot and fester, before decanting my thoughts into review form. That would just be unprofessional. Even more amateur than my usual efforts. However in the case of Burke and Hare I knew before, during and after the film that it would not be a memorable experience. Burke and Hare is predictable stuff that can be neatly categorized and classified. It is, as one reviewer says, "packed with the cream of British comedy talent". You cannot help but regard it as waste though that the cream should resemble the squirty, mass manufactured variety rather than a rich, full and substantive treat.
The only strong lasting impression that Burke and Hare had on me was to increase my desire to go to Edinburgh. I have technically been before, as a four year old, but have no tangible recollection of the visit. It would be too generous though to claim that the film was solely responsible for my urge to head north, as it was an idea formed in my mind previously over the past few weeks, founded by reading about the city, strengthened with some lovely shots in David Tennant's recent drama Single Father and rounded off with the agreeable atmosphere of the place presented here.
As I've said, Burke and Hare is predictable. It starts off pleasantly enough with Bill Bailey humorously introducing us to the premise, but not that humorously, and he sums up the film too. The problem is that it barely steps up a notch from this gentle beginning. It watches like a who's who of British comedy and television and thus falls into the trap of lots of British productions by feeling like something more suited to the small screen. Rarely did I think a scene warranted the scale and noise of the cinema and there were only a handful of others with me, showing that the public must have reached the same pre-emptive judgement.
However I hope that Burke and Hare hasn't fallen completely flat on its face at the box office to deter filmmakers from churning out such hearty fare. Because this sort of comedy is like a British biscuit; by no means unique but it certainly has its place as a needed comfort food from time to time. Refreshingly the film does not take itself too seriously and some (emphasis on some), some of the classic visual gags are nostalgically funny. It's also splendid to see Ronnie Corbett again, even though it's surely sheer novelty that makes his scenes so enjoyable rather than majestic acting prowess or a hilariously wonderful script. Simon Pegg also enhances his reputation by doing a remarkable job with mediocre material; as Burke he is the only character to come close to being rounded as well as occasionally funny. His relationship with Isla Fisher's character, who adds the traditional totty to proceedings, has the potential to be moving at times. As several reviewers have remarked though, Burke and Hare could have done with a sprinkling of Pegg behind the camera as well to make this a more modern, and most of all a funnier British comedy.
If Burke and Hare was difficult to remember then Shutter Island will be difficult to forget. I genuinely believe that this Scorsese thriller is one of the films of the year and I'll be rushing out to buy it on DVD so I can enjoy its treasures again and again. It's impossible to fully appreciate this film in one sitting. It also must have been magnificent on the big screen and I am gutted that I did not manage to see it at the cinema as I desperately wanted to. If Burke and Hare's score was jolly and comforting, then Shutter Island's is chilling and mesmerising as it builds the tension and paranoia.
Leonardo DiCaprio hogged the limelight with Inception and critics raved about director Christopher Nolan's exploration of dreams. But in my view Inception did not represent what dreams are really like and merely toyed with the structures of narrative with some fresh action scenes in comparison to Shutter Island's bemusing, beautiful and ugly psychological study. DiCaprio's character was haunted by visions of his dead wife in Inception too, but here the nightmares and the hallucinations are far more recognisable as dreams with their symbolism and scares.
It would be easy to dwell on Shutter Island's brilliance but I will try and briefly summarise it. I cannot think of anything I disliked about the film and it feels far shorter than its considerable runtime. It is well acted and directed. The locations look fantastic. The soundtrack is the perfect accompaniment and enhancer of the rising levels of terror, paranoia and tension. The action scenes are engaging; the period perfectly evoked and made use of with its undertones of Cold War suspicion and Second World War horror. Most of all the narrative twists and turns are truly gripping and seductive. You come to care about DiCaprio's character far more than the oddly named Cobb in the more widely praised Inception, and you're far more clueless and concerned about what's going on. In short: Shutter Island is a must see. It's the primetime meat to Burke and Hare's daytime sandwich.


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subset: commoncrawl


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Current mood
24 Responses to "Current mood"
IIRC JP was, at this moment, frantic, desperate and out of all other options. Is that how you are feeling?
It was also the beginning of a victory. Hoping you end the day feeling you are winning the battle too.
Anger and frustration- unfortunately two human traits that feed off each other. Take care and breathe deep and count to 10 or sometimes it takes up to 100.
I hate to admit it, but I feel like that at work quite frequently……
Hang in there! From all that you have shared sounds like you are doing a great job. Just as a side bar, this T I like a whole lot better!!!!


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60" Class (59.57" Diagonal) PureVision Plasma Display
16:9 Wide-Screen Aspect Ratio
High Definition WXGA Resolution (1365 x 768)
Ability to accept1080p/24Hz via HDMI® & Component
- 1¢ Shipping
- Redesigned Deep Encased Cell Structure to improve brightness, image accuracy and panel efficiency
- New First-Surface Pure Color Filter for enhanced contrast, color and reduction in light reflection on screen
- Crystal Emissive Layer for deeper blacks and increased brightness of images
- New and Improved Red and Blue Phosphors creating a brighter, purer and wider color space, improving the overall HD experience
- New Dielectric Layer for improved light management and efficiency of panel
- Wide Viewing Angle of 160° - horizontal and vertical with no color shift or picture distortion
- Pure Drive II Signal Processing – Full time 10-bit Digital Video Processing delivers a low noise, high contrast, natural colored image1080p/24Hz Compatibility for HDMI and Component
- ACE IV (Advanced Continuous Emission) for reproduction of billions of colors and improved grey-scale rendering in dark picture areas
- Advanced PureCinema™ with 3:3 pull down, film-based material on DVD, videotape or even regular TV will match the smooth and nature reproduction seen in a movie theatre
- Color Temperature Adjustment – 3 settings (high/mid/low)
- Digital Noise Reduction – 4 Settings (off/high/mid/low)
- MPEG Noise Reduction – 4 Settings (off/high/mid/low)
- Digital CTI (Color Transient Improver)
- Natural Resize
- Natural Enhancer
- Digital Chroma Decoder(10-bit)
- Fully Integrated Media Receiver with Dual NTSC and ATSC Tuner
- Independent HDMI Inputs (10-bit processing) with the ability to accept a 1080p/24Hz signal
- TV Guide On-Screen® Interactive Program Guide for easy navigation of TV program services
- A/V Selection Memory – 6 options for viewing preferences (Standard/Dynamic/PURE/Movie/Game/User)
- Aspect Ratio Control – 5 positions (Wide/Zoom/Cinema/ Full/4:3)
- "Dot by Dot" for PC
- Split Screen/Picture in Picture display modes to view multiple sources at one time
- Home Gallery offering a convenient way to view photos via USB connection
- V-Chip Parental Control
- New Remote Control with preset, glow in the dark, direct input selection and TV Guide control
- Independent Dual HDMI with Audio
- Component (1 side/2 rear)
- Composite (1 side/3 rear) (1 rear w/Audio)
- S-Video (2 rear) (1 rear with Audio)
- Antenna A & B
- USB (Mass Storage Class) (Side Input)
- Optical Digital Audio
- Monitor Out – Composite/Audio LR
- Subwoofer
- 13 Watt Stereo Amplifier With TruBass® 2-Way Stereo Speakers
- SRS® WOW®/FOCUS™/TruBass
- Bass Boost Loudness
- Table Top Stand – Included (PDK-TS15U)
- Detachable Bottom Speaker – Included (PDP-S41)
- Display: 57-7/8" x 38-3/32" x 4-3/4" (with Detachable Bottom Speaker)
- Display Weight: 112.4 lbs.
*The TV Guide On Screen interactive program guide provides listings for cable-ready, cable box, and digital cable services as well as over-the-air broadcast. It does not provide listings for satellite
PIONEER, the Pioneer Logo, the Elite logo and PureVision are registered trademarks of Pioneer Corporation.
CableCARD™ is a trademark of Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.
HDMI, the HDMI logo and High-Definition Multimedia Interface are trademarks or registered trademarks of HDMI Licensing LLC.
SRS WOW, SRS, TruBass and FOCUS and the symbol are trademarks of SRS Labs, Inc.
In the United States, TV Guide and other related marks are registered marks of Gemstar-TV Guide International, Inc. and/or one of its affiliates.
Dolby and the double-D symbol are registered trademarks of Dolby Laboratories.
Pure Drive Video Features
- 3 settings (high/mid/low)
- 4 Settings (off/high/mid/low)
- 4 Settings (off/high/mid/low)
Panel Technology
Convenience Features
- 6 options for viewing preferences (Standard/Dynamic/PURE/Movie/Game/User)
- 5 positions (Wide/Zoom/Cinema/ Full/4:3)
- WXGA - 1365 x 768
- (1 side/2 rear)
- (1 side/3 rear) (1 rear w/Audio)
- (2 rear) (1 rear with Audio)
Sound Technology
- 57-7/8" x 38-3/32" x 4-3/4" (with Detachable Bottom Speaker)
- 112.4 lbs.


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How can you tell if a condom has expired?– Luis*
Most condoms have expiration dates printed on the packaging. Avoid using a condom after it has passed the expiration date because it will start to break down and become much less effective at preventing STDs and pregnancy.
It's not just the expiration date that matters, though. Sometimes condoms haven't been stored properly and the material breaks down before the expiration date. If a condom ever seems dry, sticky, or stiff when it comes out of the package, don't use it. Instead, get a new condom.
It's best to store unused condoms in a cool, dry place where they won't get creased (not in a wallet or pants pocket) or dried out. And never use oil-based lubricants such as lotion, massage oil, mineral oil, petroleum jelly, or baby oil with condoms because these substances can break down the material.
*Names have been changed to protect user privacy.
Note: All information is for educational purposes only. For specific medical advice,
diagnoses, and treatment, consult your doctor.
© 1995-
Images provided by The Nemours Foundation, iStock, Getty Images, Veer, Shutterstock,
and Clipart.com.
If you have questions, find the number you need to get help and support.
Find the documents and forms you need, including your enrollee handbook.


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Not content to dispel the "myth" that Macs are impervious to malware last week, Kaspersky Lab CEO Eugene Kaspersky is sounding the Mac malware alarm again this week. During the Info Security 2012 conference, he claimed that Apple is 10 years behind Microsoft on the security front.
"I think [Apple is] ten years behind Microsoft in terms of security," Kaspersky told CBR. "For many years I've been saying that from a security point of view there is no big difference between Mac and Windows. It's always been possible to develop Mac malware, but [Flashback] was a bit different. For example, it was asking questions about being installed on the system and, using vulnerabilities, it was able to get to the user mode without any alarms."
Kaspersky suggested that OS X's relatively low incidence of malware over the last decade has caused Apple to fall behind, while the abundance of viruses, worms, and trojans targeting Windows forced Microsoft to step up its game.
There's some truth behind that thinking—Windows 7 is by far the most secure operating system Redmond has built. But Apple hasn't entirely rested on its laurels for the last ten years. The company has added malware detection to OS X, continued to remove default installs of popular exploit vectors like Flash and Java, and added features like address space layout randomization (ASLR) and sandboxing to prevent one application exploit from affecting the whole system.
Furthermore, Apple intends to improve security in the next version of OS X, dubbed Mountain Lion. Features like ASLR and sandboxing will have a more robust implementation in Mountain Lion. Meanwhile, Apple is also adding a new feature called GateKeeper, which allows users to limit software installs to either the Mac App Store or to only verified developers.
The recent hubbub over the Flashback trojan has certainly raised concerns over the security of OS X, and we agree that Apple could do more to be responsive to malware threats when they are discovered. But to suggest Apple is "10 years behind" belies the efforts it has made to secure the OS from different angles.
Read the comments on this post
See more here:
Security firm claims Mac security is "10 years behind" Microsoft


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As of today, instructors can create Course Hub sites for lab, discussion, independent study, and other section-types that do not have Course Hub sites automatically created.
Lab/discussion Course Hub sites are not needed for the majority of courses as the lecture/seminar sites usually suffice. However, they may be useful in the following cases:
- The lab is taught by a separate instructor with its own resources and syllabus.
- You wish to create separate resources (e.g. Moodle sites) for each discussion section.
Below is a brief screen-cast describing how to create additional Course Hub sites.
Basic steps for adding an additional Course Hub Site:


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Guess it helps to be a war hero and have a reputation for bipartisanship.
Sen. John McCain had one of those, "Hey, you kids, get off my lawn!" moments Wednesday. An angry woman started yelling practically before his health care town hall had begun. McCain warned her that if she continued, she'd be kicked out:
"You're going to have to stop or you're going to have to leave," McCain told the woman. When security guards approached to escort her out, he told her "Goodbye, see ya" to a round of applause.
After McCain opened it up to questioning, one man angrily pointed at him and asked the senator why he deserves a better health care plan than him.
"I'm trying to get it for you," McCain told him. "We'll do it for you. We'll make it affordable and available to you."
This incident shows the problems of political double-standards: Last week, Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank came under a certain amount of criticism because he castigated a town hall participant who compared Barack Obama's health care plan to that of a Nazi program. What would have been the reaction if Frank had gone further? What if he had summarily tossed her out as McCain did his protester? What are the rules here for these town halls?
The second problem is McCain's response to the participant who wants to know why he can't have the same health care that McCain has. The senator says that he's "trying to get it for you."
The premise of this question is an unfortunate result of the Republican push-back on the Democrats health care effort. The GOP asserts that the sort of government takeover of health care that Democrats are pushing isn't the same as the nice package that members of Congress enjoy.
Republicans use this same "gotcha!" formulation when it comes to school choice: The argument goes that since members of Congress -- and other wealthy individuals -- can send their children to the schools they wish, why can't the poor?
Well, with that argument, why not take it to its logical conclusion? Since members of Congress get to drive fancy cars -- often with private drivers!! -- why don't the poor get their own personal cars too? Why not make sure everyone gets paid the same $100K-plus salaries that elected leaders get?
It's an absurd argument. McCain shouldn't pander to his town hall participants in such a manner -- and Republicans shouldn't be tossing out this semi-socialist rhetoric.
New York writer Robert A. George blogs at Ragged Thots. Follow him on Twitter.


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Posts Tagged virginia
Break like the wind…
It was an exciting Memorial Day weekend. It started Friday night with a journey to Lisa's parent's house in Eugene. The drive wasn't bad at all – traffic was light, and the weather was uneventful. We had a full car with Lisa, Morgan, Devon and myself. The car was packed with the clothes we would need, a cat carrier, some of my wiring paraphernalia. We arrived with little fanfare. Morgan had fallen asleep in the car. The only one that had a hard time containing himself was the dog. He was a bit hyper after being in the car for two hours.
We unloaded the car, and visited with Lisa's father for a while. Her mother was off shopping up a storm for the BBQ they were having on Sunday.
On Saturday, Lisa and I went over to her friend Cris' new house so I could help Ray wire in her new hot-tub she bought. The job went well, although her breaker box had obviously been abused by the previous owner. There was a braided ground wire that had been divided up and used to provide grounding wires in various places. The wire was completely underrated for the loads that are being applied. I hope they never have to use them! 🙂 In any result, we got the 220 lines installed, the subpanel wired, and the hottub hooked up. It wasn't a big deal, and went fairly seamlessly.
On the return trip to Lisa's parent's house, we stopped at the Mini Pet Mart near their house. It is an odd place with both cigarettes and pet supplies. I would guess that both things are pretty high-margin items, so they can run a profitable business. Lisa's father had recommended the place as a source of kittens as they sell animals that people bring in to the store. They had two kittens from the same litter. Lisa and I decided to take them home. They were covered in fleas, so the store put Advantage flea control stuff on them. We took them to Lisa's parents house and used flea combs on them. Lisa and I got a lot of the fleas, but there were some stubborn ones that we just couldn't deal with. The Advantage eventually took care of them (thank goodness).
We chose to name them after their cigarette related history. The male (light colored) we called Benson. The smaller female we named Virginia.
In any result, you can see lots of pictures of the kitties in the gallery.
On the way back, we had a nice visit with my parents. They were nice enough to make us lunch and to provide Lisa with some tree parts to make cat furniture. Somehow we managed to get it all in the car. 🙂


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If you can't find what you are looking for at Cumbrian Cottages, click here to visit Cottages.com and browse over 19,000 properties from all of our collections, all of which are inspected and graded to ensure you find the perfect cottage.
The lively market town of Pickering lies between York and the North Yorkshire Coast and midway between Scarborough, Whitby, Helmsley and Malton. Known as the official gateway to the North Yorkshire National Park, Pickering makes an excellent base for holidays in the area, although the town itself has plenty to keep visitors entertained too.
One of the main visitor attractions in the area is the North Yorkshire Moors railway line, which runs from Pickering to the seaside resort of Whitby. The steam train journey from Pickering to Whitby takes around an hour and a half and gives travellers the opportunity to take in the beautiful North Yorkshire countryside as well as some quaint old stations along the way.
Pickering is a great destination for nature-lovers and walkers, thanks to its close proximity to the North Yorkshire National Park and Dalby Forest. Both offer plenty of outdoor activities for anyone looking for an active break, such as walking, cycling and horse riding.
The area also has plenty to entertain anyone with an interest in history. Key historical attractions include Pickering Castle which was built in Norman times and the Beck Isle Museum. Other reasons to visit Pickering include a bustling weekly market and a great choice of local restaurants and shops.
There are 99 cottages near Pickering.
Wrelton, near Pickering , North York Moors
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Pickering, North York Moors
near Thornton-le-Dale and Pickering, North York Moors
Thornton-Le-Dale, North York Moors
Thornton-Le-Dale, near Pickering, North York Moors
Little Barugh, near Pickering, North York Moors
Lockton, near Pickering, North York Moors


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Q. Given where you were a few days ago, can you comment on the prospect of getting to Game 7?
TERRY FRANCONA: For the last three days, we kept showing up saying we had to win today. And because of that, we'll show up tomorrow and say the same thing. Come to the ballpark and it's the most important game of the day. Carries a little extra weight.
Q. With Bellhorn's struggles, how much are you appreciating what he did for you tonight?
TERRY FRANCONA: I've appreciated what he's done for us all year. I think he's been very, sometimes under appreciated. He's done a lot of good things for our ballclub. Tonight was obviously huge. A home run off a guy we have not done much against last couple outings, ended up being enough for us to win. He's been a very good player for us, and like I said, somebody that we around this ballclub appreciate a great amount.
Q. It certainly appears that your bullpen has probably played as big of a role as anything in getting you to where you are; would you agree with that as far as the impact?
TERRY FRANCONA: Yes.
Q. And anything else you might want to say about them including the fact that you'll be using starting pitchers in your bullpen?
TERRY FRANCONA: We are using our entire ballclub. We have a 25-man roster and whatever it takes to win a game, we'll do. There's not one player or one pitcher that is not willing to do what we ask them to do to try to win. At this time of year, it can't be about individuals. It's got to be about our ballclub and everybody has been great about trying to chip in, whether it's steal, defense, pitch out of the bullpen, everybody has been great.
Q. Did you have any realistic target in your minds for how long Schilling might have been able to go in this game and did he surpass those expectations?
TERRY FRANCONA: Going into the game I really was pretty confident he was going to pitch well. I thought physically he was capable of doing that tonight or we would not have sent him out there. After the fourth inning, though, he started getting a little, cranky is probably not the right word but we kept an eye on him pretty closely. He got through the fifth and started throwing the ball pretty well. Got through the sixth. Really, he was doing a pretty good job. We were keeping a close eye on him but he was throwing the ball pretty good.
Q. Was there any consideration at all to letting him go back out for the eighth?
TERRY FRANCONA: No.
Q. Why not?
TERRY FRANCONA: Well, when you see Schill tell the umpire after the inning "good job" (Laughter.) -- I'm not sending him back out. He's had it. That was the plenty.
Q. Just talk about how important it was that Schill gave you seven, in order to -- you didn't have to empty out the bullpen again today?
TERRY FRANCONA: We were prepared to. I mean, there was a chance he could have come out after five. Doesn't mean we were to the going to try to win that game. We would have definitely had to extend some people. But the fact that he did go so deep, it made the eighth easier for Bronson, he faced the guys he was supposed to and we got to Foulke where we didn't have to extend him more than one inning. Gives you a chance to have some guys fresher tomorrow.
Q. Could you go over the two disputed calls, the home run incident and the interference play?
TERRY FRANCONA: The home one, again, in our dugout, we have a horrible view, but I saw Dale right away yelling it was a home run and when I got out there, Dale explained to me what happened and it was. All I cared about was just getting together and get the call right. It was very obvious after being out there for a minute or two, our whole dugout was empty and on to the field and you can see on the replay, just wanted to make sure we got it right. The play at first, you could see Alex take a swipe at the ball, just couldn't get on the field to say anything till the play was over because the guys were circling the bases.
Q. Both staffs have really been pushed to their limits in their series. Who do you foresee being the lead man tomorrow to take the hill at the beginning of the game?
TERRY FRANCONA: You mean who is our starter (Laughter.)? Is that what you're asking? We're going to make some phone calls, also. I watched Joe's press conference. (Laughter.) We're going to -- give us a little time. We'll get some things figured out.
Q. Back to Curt for a minute. He's already had many moments like this in his career being around as long as he has been. Can you give some perspective on what it is that he did tonight with everything that was swirling around, his injury and where you guys needed to win, this was one of those games that people will talk about for a long time, from his perspective?
TERRY FRANCONA: Well, I don't want to take the stage away from Schill. I don't think people have any idea, we've talked about it and talked about it and talked about it, and I'm sure you can ask Schill and he'll be able to tell you better. I don't think any of us have any idea what he went through to pitch tonight. I'm sure he'll get into it in a little detail. The medical staff actually sutured that area with stitches, and we knew they were going to do this. But, for him to go out there and do what he did -- you can talk all you want about that area, but his heart is so big. This was an amazing -- our medical people, like I said earlier jumped through hoops. They are to be commended because they, along with his heart and his wanting to compete made this happen, and then he stayed out there. I guarantee you he didn't feel that good but he competed and he pitched his Ass off.
End of FastScripts...


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By Bill Bullard
The 2012 Farm Bill process appears to be moving very quickly, so we need the public to help us urge the Senate to include in the Farm Bill both the Livestock Marketing Fairness Act and the Ban on Packer Ownership of Livestock. These bills will help protect the competitiveness of the US cattle market, by slowing the rapid monopoly concentration of the U.S. feeding industry.
Please call your U.S. Senators this week and urge them to become a cosponsor on both the Livestock Marketing Fairness Act (S. 1026) and the Ban on Packer Ownership of Livestock (S. 2141).


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Immigration debate crux: jobs impact
Experts weigh how illegal workers affect US employment.
Seal the border. Round up all the illegal immigrants and send them back to their home countries. Start a whole new agency to handle only invited guest workers.
Would that open up more jobs for American citizens?
This is one of the key questions being posed as the US considers the economics of illegal immigration - with no easy solutions to the challenges in sight.
As Congress debates a new immigration bill, some economists believe any restrictions are likely to be disruptive to a variety of industries, from construction to hospitality to agriculture. At the very least, restrictions could add to employers' costs as they scramble to attract new workers with higher wages. But new regulations might also be good for those without much education or marketable skills: Business might be forced to train them. And those in lower wage brackets might see their wages rise as they face less competition for jobs.
"Do undocumented workers take away jobs from Americans?" asks Anthony Chan, chief economist at JPMorgan Private Client Services in Columbus, Ohio. "My best guess is that they take some jobs away. Some Americans are willing to work at those jobs at low salaries, but not all [Americans are]."
Analysts are quick to point out that the economics of undocumented immigration are complex. Few models have been crafted that try to look at how the US economy would perform without tapping into inexpensive labor for some jobs.
"We can't run econometric models. The numbers aren't good enough," says David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's in New York.
One challenge in performing any calculations is agreeing on the number of undocumented workers. Only estimates exist, and they range from 9 million to 20 million. The conventional estimate is 11 million. But no one really knows for sure.
By way of contrast, the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates how many people out of a workforce of 143 million are unemployed. Last month, 7,193,000, or 4.8 percent, were out pounding the pavement.
The Center for Immigration Studies, which is in favor of some restrictions on immigration, recently issued a report looking at jobs and undocumented workers. One of its conclusions was that between March 2000 and March 2005, only 9 percent of the net increase in jobs for adults went to people born in the US.
"This is striking because natives accounted for 61 percent of the net increase in the overall size of the 18- to 64-year-old population," writes Steve Camarota, director of research.
Howard Hayghe, an economist at the Department of Labor, confirms that this number is correct. But he also points out that by 2005, the economy was doing a better job of producing jobs - and the percentage of native-born residents finding jobs rose to 41 percent. In other words, the stronger economy absorbed more workers of all educational levels. "The more office buildings you build, the more people you need to clean them. The more roads you build, the more workers you need," says Mr. Hayghe.
In addition to the 7 million Americans looking for jobs, another 1.5 million are considered to be "marginally attached" - that is, not actively looking for work. Moreover, some 386,000 are counted as "discouraged" workers. And there are about 19 million, including students and senior citizens, who are not in the workforce.
"If we close the borders and have less undocumented workers, it would put some upward pressure on overall wages," says Mr. Chan. "It's no secret business will have to pay workers more money."
But it's not a given that business will do that. "They may just outsource a larger percentage of the work, or the jobs may just disappear," Chan says.
Economists certainly differ on whether tighter immigration will have any effect on the economy. "It's similar to asking a big part of the labor force to leave," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "In today's economy where the job market is at capacity, asking people to leave means the economy will not grow as fast. In fact, there could be a very difficult adjustment over the first three to four years when this process is in full swing."
On the other side are those who say it will have very little impact on the economy because most undocumented workers are low paid and relatively unskilled. Yes, there might be some adjustments - Americans might have to eat more plum tomatoes that can be harvested by machines. And the US may have to increase its already swollen import bill to make up for what can't be produced here.
"We might have a lower unemployment rate and a somewhat lower gross domestic product, but it wouldn't be a huge impact," says Mr. Wyss.
However, that depends on who is affected. San Diego builder Sherman Harmer Jr., president of Urban Housing Partners Inc., typically delivers about 300 units of housing per year. He relies on workers coming across the US-Mexican border who have some form of documentation. "We have a shortage of construction workers in California," he explains while in New York.
If he didn't have access to these workers from Mexico, he says he would have to slow the amount of construction he does: "There would be a reduction in the inventory of new homes, condos, and apartments, and that would drive prices even higher."
But, as he walks down 125th Street in upper Manhattan, Kevin Brown, a plumber, says restrictions on illegals might be good for him. "Could I have a better job?" asks Mr. Brown, whose parents are from Jamaica. "Possibly," he says, adding that he knows people out of work who could do a job taken by an illegal immigrant. However, he's also quick to add, "I don't blame anyone. Everybody's got to live."
Not far away, Miguel Almanzar, a bicycle messenger, is reading a newspaper. "This country is made of immigrants," says Mr. Almanzar. But he wants them to be legal immigrants. "There is the threat of terrorism," he says. "Now, the country needs to secure its borders."


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Class V Career
Don't believe what you see in the movies. Indiana Jones doesn't live in Connecticut; he lives in Portland. Or at least a couple of good stand-ins do: Trip Jennings and Andy Maser. Together, the two kayakers (plus Santa Fe resident Kyle Dickman) comprise the Epicocity Project, a Portland-based adventure-kayaking film company that travels to some of the world's most far-flung rivers. But instead of seeking a lost ark, these three hope to promote the protection of wilderness areas through their Rivers in Demand project.
"The idea was to produce stories we hoped would convince others to take the big step from being outdoor enthusiasts to protecting the wild areas we play in," says Jennings, a professional kayaker.
Collectively, the University of Oregon alums have completed more than 30 first descents (many through kayak-mangling Class V rapids) on four continents, including a sadistic 65-mile stretch in Papua New Guinea, a tangle with the lower section of Africa's Congo River (the world's deepest river), and—two months ago—a harrowing descent of the Rio Roosevelt (also called the River of Doubt) in Brazil.
The vision for Rivers in Demand surfaced in 2007, when Jennings teamed with Dickman, a journalism graduate, and the pair earned a $5,000 National Geographic Young Explorers grant to discover the source of Papua New Guinea's Pandi River. They found it hidden in an underground cave system among six active volcanoes.
"There was no turning back when we went to Papua New Guinea," Dickman says. "I realized we could make a living being adventure filmmakers and journalists."
Since then, the group has paddled Africa's deadly Congo River with American Museum of Natural History fish expert Dr. Melanie Stiassny. (The resulting footage became Epicocity's first National Geographic TV special, "Monster Fish of the Congo.") And in November, they headed to the Rio Roosevelt in the untamed Amazon Basin of central Brazil to compile a comprehensive biodiversity study on how a proposed dam will affect fish migration.
All that risk-taking has other rewards, too: one of Epicocity's environmental films garnered positive reviews at the Mountainfilm and Wild & Scenic film festivals. And in 2007, Jennings was named a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year honoree. "The film festivals were a huge step," says Jennings. "We went from young explorers to actually making a name for ourselves through National Geographic television."
This February, they'll be adding to that name when the Epicocity team visits Laos's Mekong River to promote the protection of fish habitat and to film another episode for National Geographic (to air this summer) on their search for giant catfish. And, of course, they'll hunt for their own kind of holy grail: some serious white water.


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You may remember French puppeteering group Royal De Luxe's mechanical elephant, but here's an even more deliciously absurd contrivance. This is the piano catapult, a musical siege weapon that was recently shown off in the city of Nantes. It's not particularly effective, but at least we'll know what to expect if Billy Joel ever tries to conquer the globe.
Misha Collins on What Made Supernatural Successful
As you can see in this clip, they tickled the shit out of many an ivory. Brings to mind a certain famous castle assault.
[Via Super Punch]


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North Carolina, University of
North Carolina, University of, main campus at Chapel Hill; state supported; coeducational; chartered 1789, opened 1795, the first state college to open as a university. In 1931 the North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering (now North Carolina State Univ., founded 1887, opened 1889) at Raleigh, the Woman's College of the Univ. of North Carolina (founded 1891, opened 1892) at Greensboro, and the Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were consolidated under the present name. The university also has campuses at Asheville (1927), Charlotte (1946), and Wilmington (1947). A leading Southern university, it has a noted university press and institutes for research in folklore, the natural sciences, fisheries, statistics, and Latin American studies. The Raleigh campus has an outstanding school of textiles. Since 1972 the university has been part of the Consolidated Univ. of North Carolina, which includes nine other universities and the North Carolina School of the Arts at Winston-Salem. There is a noteworthy art center and a planetarium, and the university library has an outstanding collection of North Caroliniana.
See A. Henderson, The Campus of the First State University (1949); L. R. Wilson, The University of North Carolina, 1900–1930 (1957); P. Russell, These Old Stone Walls (1972).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Colleges, U.S.


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A little more than a year after introducing its iBooks Author software, Apple has posted a section with some of the popular results.
A little more than a year after introducing its self-publishing book software, Apple is heavily promoting some works that were made using it.
The company today began promoting some of those titles in a new section called "Breakout Books" which rounds up books that have high user ratings. That spans across three genres: romance; sci-fi and fantasy; and mysteries and thrillers, along with a collection of other titles.
The promotion, spotted by The New York Times, comes just days ahead of when Inkling, which was founded by former Apple executive Matt MacInnis, plans to hold an event in New York. The company, which has its own books platform and sales front for books, is expected to debut on Monday new products, and to talk about its progress in the digital book sector.
Apple debuted iBooks Author at a private event last January, aiming squarely at the education market. The company later opened it up to other types of book titles as part of an update late last year.
The software is set up to let authors and publishers alike create several different book types with a what-you-see-is-what-you-get editor similar to its Keynote presentation software. Even with an advertised ease of use and a soft learning curve, the software's success in the e-book market remains unclear.
Apple's licensing agreement inside of iBooks Author prompted controversy last year shortly after its introduction, when it appeared that the company planned to restrict what people could do with the works they created using it, including sales on rival platforms. Apple modified the license agreement to note that any exclusivity was limited to titles used in its proprietary format, which added extra features like 3D objects, widgets, quizzes, and flash cards.


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Non Featured Products
Thank you for your interest in our products. The product you entered is still most likely available. It is just no longer being featured as a mainstream product on our site.
Over the years we have featured many products that were good but they were just slow movers. From time to time we feature products and then move them to a non featured status to make room for new products.
Just E-mail us at firstname.lastname@example.com and we will see what we can do.


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Ah, college. The freshmen that are beginning college this week are, for the most part, 18 or 19 years old which means they were born in 1992 or 1993. (We'll overlook the Doogie Howser-esque young prodigies for the purposes of this article.) For the class of 2015, LBJ means LeBron James; women have always been on the Supreme Court; Andre the Giant and River Phoenix have always been dead; they've never touched a TV dial; and Ferris Bueller is old enough to be their dad.
Want to feel even older? Here are 18 things older than this year's college freshmen:
1. The Nirvana baby.
Spencer Elden, who appeared naked on the cover of Nirvana's Nevermind, was born February 7, 1991.
2. The world wide web.
Tim Berners-Lee published the world's first website on August 6, 1991.
3. MTV's "The Real World."
The Video Music Awards (or VMAs) have been around since '84 but in 1992 Bunim-Murray started reality television with a simple show about "what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real." Season 26 starts in September. (It's my theory that everyone under 40 has one season that they strongly identify with from their youth — mine is 1998's "The Real World Seattle" with Irene and the famous slap heard 'round the world.)
4. Mariah Carey's entire career.
Her debut album came out June 12, 1990. She had eight #1 songs by the end of 1993.
5. Pac-Man, Mario, Mega Man, Link ("Zelda") and Sonic the Hedgehog.
Pac-Man may have been the first major video game icon when it debuted in 1980 until that plucky plumber known as Mario arrived as Donkey Kong's rival in 1981. Then Link appeared in "The Legend of Zelda" in 1986, Mega Man sprung into action in 1987, and Sonic first appeared on Sega in 1991.
6. Reebok Pump inflatable shoes and L.A. Lights' light-up sneakers.
The craze of getting "pumped up" before a basketball game started in 1989, and kids have been wearing those cool light-up sneakers since 1992.
7. "Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?"
Do it Rockapella! This geography show and accompanying theme song both debuted in 1991. (Those of us who watched it will snicker now to realize that the host's name was Greg Gethard. Tee-hee.)
8. Non-Communist Russia.
Unless they're studying history, the class of 2015 has little to no knowledge of the fact that Russia used to be known as the U.S.S.R. and was the foremost Communist power in the world until it dissolved in 1991.
9. Pamela Anderson's ginormous boobs.
She later had them removed (and got them again in 2004), but "Baywatch" lifeguard CJ Parker first got breast implants in 1990, going from a 34C to a 36DD.
10. Barney.
Barney the purple dinosaur was created in 1987 and debuted on PBS in "Barney & Friends" in 1992.
11. Mark Wahlberg's non-acting career.
When today's college freshmen were born, he was known as Marky Mark, modeled for Calvin Klein and had a #1 rap hit with "Good Vibrations." His first movie role was in 1993's The Substitute.
12. Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves, Orlando Magic, Tampa Bay Lightning, Ottawa Senators, San Jose Sharks.
These NBA and NHL expansion teams were all added between 1988 and 1992. The Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies joined the MLB in 1993.
13. Beauty & The Beast, The Little Mermaid, The Brave Little Toaster and Aladdin.
These four Disney movies came out between 1987 and 1992. The first Pixar movie, Toy Story, changed animated films forever when it came out in 1995 when today's freshmen were just 2 or 3 years old.
14. The Silence of the Lambs.
Sir Anthony Hopkins starred as Hannibal Lecter for the first time in 1991. He won an Oscar despite only appearing on screen for 16 minutes, the shortest ever for a Best Actor winner.
15. Hello Kitty.
The cute Japanese bobtail cat with no mouth is even older than you might realize. She first appeared in the U.S. in 1976 and now is the face of more than 12,000 products worldwide and has earned Sanrio billions of dollars.
16. Jonathan Lipnicki.
The cute "the human head weighs 8 pounds" kid from Jerry Maguire was born October 22, 1990. He was adorable when he was 6, but his cuteness (and his career) faded as he got older.
17. "Blossom," "Doug," "Rugrats," "Clarissa Explains It All," "Ren & Stimpy," and "The Jerry Springer Show."
All of these premiered in 1991. Yes, Jerry Springer has been interviewing Nazi midgets with clown fetishes on TV for 20 years, and Mayim Bialik and Melissa Joan Hart are both now 35. "Whoa!"
18. Otto the Orange.
Syracuse University, back when their sports teams were still called Orangemen and Orangewomen, did not make Otto the official mascot until 1995. However, according to the SU website, the cheerleading squad first picked the name Otto for "The Orange" in 1990.
Speaking of Syracuse (my alma mater), Michael Jordan's daughter Jasmine is a freshman at SU this year. Yes, MJ's youngest child is in college and she was born two years AFTER Syracuse basketball great Derrick Coleman won the NBA Rookie of the Year award in 1991. How old do you feel now?


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Brightpearl, formerly called Pearl – is the little cloud ERP vendor that should really be way bigger than it is. As I've said previously;
I've always thought of it as the little engine that could, with a team of only five people they have managed to build a solution that covers the majority of bases that a real world business might need – stock, email marketing, Ecommerce, helpdesk and the all important migration from other solutions. The reason that I'm so bullish about Pearl is that it delivers on the promise made by The Small Business Web, but does so with all the heavy lifting already finished – Pearl packages up solutions from third parties (MailChimp for email marketing for example) but tightly integrated and seamlessly presented within the main app.
Brightpearl today announced that it is available on the Google Apps Marketplace – thus extending its reach to US and Canadian customers with multi level sales taxes and multiple timezone support. Looking at the reviews that have already been written about the product, users share my positivity about the BrightPearl approach.
To go hand in hand with this release, Brightpearl has added four more data centers to their infrastructure hosted on Amazon EC2. This move should make people more comfortable over the dual concerns of distance from data and data sovereignty.
Brightpearl continues to focus on micro to small business, director Andrew Mulvenna said that:
Our focus is on the needs of smaller, rapidly growing businesses that can save time and money by having a single, well-thought-out system to run their operations, we have developed a system that offers the most important capabilities in one place including CRM, accounting, and inventory management.
I've always said that suites will win the ERP wars this time around – that is even truer when looking at offerings aimed at SMBs – these smaller businesses are less able to complete custom integrations than their larger counterparts. With the Google Apps Marketplace integration, Brightpearl are able to target a much larger addressable market, and also to offer even richer integrations with the Google Apps suite.


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Opera Mobile
With the award-winning Opera Mobile browser you can surf the same Web sites on your mobile phone as you do on your personal computer. The Opera mobile Web browser for Symbian S60 is designed with speed and ease-of-use in mind, so you can surf the Web with your mobile phone quickly and easily. No hassle, just fast browsing...Read more


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Rock Creek Containers
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Rock Creek Containers has the perfect container for any job, big or small. We have years of experience and countless satisfied customers. Rock Creek Containers, a locally owned and fully-serviced waste disposal company, offers dumpster rentals for residential and commercial projects. Our easy to use online booking system makes it easy to get started. You can book a dumpster online at any time, on your own schedule. Rock Creek Containers is dedicated to providing the best service possible to its customers. We offer a variety of services including drop off and pick up, so you can always count on us to be there when you need us. Get in touch with us today to find out how we can help you with the next project.
About East Flat Rock
East Flat Rock is an unincorporated area and census-designated place (CDP) in Henderson County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 4,995 at the 2010 census, up from 4,151 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Asheville Metropolitan Statistical Area. == Geography == East Flat Rock is located in southeastern Henderson County at 35°17′4″N 82°25′8″W (35.284583, -82.419013). It is bordered to the west by the village of Flat Rock and to the northwest by unincorporated Barker Heights.
Neighborhoods in East Flat Rock, North Carolina
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|About GN3
|GN3 Nodal Profiles
The planet is fraught with challenges as it enters the 21st century. Dozens of aspects about the world situation are urgent and need attention. Foremost among these are the challenges of elite economic globalization, the decline of nation states, and the "clash of civilizations" as dramatized by the September 11, 2001 event. And all these are occurring amidst the resurgence of US global social dominance. These four driving forces deeply influence other aspects of the world situation including massive ecological destruction and the social and spiritual impoverishment of billions of human beings. These economic, political, and cultural, social, ecological, human and spiritual aspects of the world situation have led and are leading to world disorder and chaos. Billions of lives are affected and the future of the earth hangs in delicate balance.
Concerned individuals from various countries around the world have come together to make a constructive contribution in addressing these global issues from the perspective of comprehensive sustainable development through social threefolding. This is the Global Network for Social Threefolding (GlobeNet3 or GN3). >>more
GN3 is a loose, horizontal but interacting global network activated by geographic and functional "nodes" in strategic areas of the world. "GN3 currently has 17 geographic and functional nodes, located in four continents, around the world. The geographic nodes are based in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Germany, France, Israel, South Africa, Philippines, Japan, US East Coast, US West Coast, plus an additional Youth Node in the Netherlands. more
NOVALIS - South Africa
The Novalis node of GN3 was established in July 2002 and currently has five members and is based primarily in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
Novalis seeks to promote threefolding and the general development of civil society in South Africa.
Currently, Novalis works to arrange conferences, workshops and study groups and to publish books and other printed educational materials.
In the future, Novalis hopes to develop greater interest among young people for the understanding of Agenda 21 and sustainability.
Since 9/2000
Global Secretariat
|Updated July 2007
Thank you for visiting GlobeNet3
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A California judge has now granted motions to add Apple"s iPhone 5 and Samsung"s Galaxy S3 to a patent infringement suit between the mobile giants.
The two companies are embroiled in patent lawsuits in 10 countries and have accused each other of stealing design and technology.
Samsung was ordered by a US jury in August to pay Apple $1.05 billion in damages for illegally copying iPhone and iPad features for its flagship Galaxy S smartphones.
It has appealed the ruling.


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Overheard at SF MOMA
The Lee Miller exhibition at the SF Museum of Modern Art, which was due to open July 1, has opened early, and I toured it today. Beautiful stuff, with material from her career as a mid-1920s fashion model through her work in Europe and Egypt in the 1930s, her wartime work in the 1940s, and her postwar slowdown.
Overheard at the exhibit:
One woman to another:
"I never hear of something… and then it's everywhere."
A couple standing before a Miller portrait of her mentor and lover Man Ray (pictured above, though not the picture they were looking at):
Her: "He was no cutie."
Him: "Well, that's why you become an artist."
The exhibit remains through Sept. 14.


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Griffith Buck Roses
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Griffith Buck Roses were first bred by Dr. Griffith Buck around 1950 when he started combining strains of very cold hardy roses with modern hybrid teas and other roses. To ensure he bred winter-hardy plants, he tested them in harsh Iowa winters of 20-30 degrees below zero with absolutely no protection. The survivors would be the seedlings he chose to introduce. Griffith Buck Roses are very disease resistant roses and have been tested in Iowa's hot humid summers, too. While other roses need protection in zone 5, these roses do not. Some protection in Zone 4 is advisable. In order for these roses to be ready to overwinter in zones 4 and 5 they should be planted by June 15th.


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CAEA, board reach pact
After a brief negotiation period, the Cheboygan Area Education Association and the Board of Education have agreed on a contract for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years.
The two-year contract will expire on Aug. 31, 2015. It includes a few notable changes from current contracts, but otherwise follows suit.
Teachers will get a 2 percent raise over the next two years, twice what was awarded under the current contract.
"It's not much for all these people do, but is at least something," said Mark Dombroski, CAS superintendent.
Part of the reason, CAS was able to offer these raises in the number of retirements this district will have following this school year.
"We have seven teachers retiring," Dombroski explained. "That's about $700,000 per year for the district. We're hiring teachers who are at the bottom of the pay scale to fill these positions, which will cost roughly $420,000. That's a big savings and we're using some of it to reward the teachers. Not all of it, but some of it."
Teachers will welcome the raise with open arms. The extended school day that goes along with it, not so much.
"We've added two days to the school year," Dombroski explained. "There aren't actually extra days or time for the students, but we've added time to the teachers days. That's something administration was really after, so we could have meetings and things like that."
In this contract, some of the schedule B activities and groups that had been previously cut were brought back, a benefit for both teachers and students.
"We were able to bring back quiz bowl, French Club, and Spanish Club," said CAEA President Paul Clark. "We're really happy about that."
The Green Club and Green Dinosaurs will also return under this contract.
As far as contract negotiations go, this one moved at the speed of light. Its not uncommon for teachers' contract negotiations to drag-out for a year or more. This one began in late February and both parties put ink to paper in early April, which is almost unthinkable.
"This was really a great process," said Clark. "This was by far the fastest I've ever been involved in."
"Things progressed very quickly and fluidly," said Dombroski. "It was more like a brainstorming session than a negotiation."
One of the big hang-ups in most contract negotiations is the benefit package. For the most part, nothing has changed from the current contract.
"The only change is that teachers can have a health savings account of $2,500 per year," Dombroski explained. "That's something they pay. Its just another option for them."
As far as insurance premiums go, the district still employs a hard cap to determine insurance costs. This cap limits annual district contributions to $15,525 per family, roughly $11,000 per couple, and $5,500 per single.


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Syk inhibitors have had a rough ride, with both Rigel and Portola running into significant issues in clinical development.
Rigel and partner Astra Zeneca released data from a Phase 2 Rheumatoid Arthritis study, summarized here:
"In the study known as OSKIRA-1, two doses of fostamatinib significantly improved the signs and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis compared to a placebo following 24 weeks of treatment. However, fostamatinib failed to show improvements over placebo in bone erosion and joint-space narrowing as measured by X-ray." from http://www.thestreet.com/story/11888193/1/astra-rigel-arthritis-pill-posts-mixed-trial-results.html).
Sadly thats about all you need to know about fostamatinib, especially given that earlier data have been unimpressive as we discussed in December. There is no clear role for this drug in RA given the label granted to Pfizer for their JAK inhibitor tofacitinib, approved for use as second line therapy for RA. Tofacitinib also has shown clear evidence of protection from joint damage, something fostamatinib has failed to do.
Fostamatinib is apparently moving forward in multiple oncology indications, and therein may lie its future, if it has one.
Portola's Syk inhibitor, licensed by Biogen Idec, is in development limbo, and the clinical trial in RA was withdrawn. Whether this is due to toxicity issues, efficacy concerns, or commercial strategy is not known, as Biogen has not provided an update on this drug.
In the meantime companies continue to focus on kinases that signal downstream of Syk, notably Btk and PI3K. While PI3K inhibition may carry too much toxicity for use outside of oncology, Btk inhibitors appear to be safe enough to develop in autoimmunity and inflammation. We will continue to watch the development of small molecule inhibitors in this space, and anticipate success for novel Btk inhibitors.


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Kim Newman is not just an acclaimed film critic and pop culture expert — he's also the author of a Dracula-themed alternate history book series, beginning with Anno Dracula. So he knows what he's talking about when he says that a lot of recent vampire stories, well, suck.
To celebrate the re-release of his second Dracula novel, The Blood Red Baron, Newman breaks down the problems with substandard vampires.
After all that build-up, there's got to be more to a vampire villain's evil plan than drinking some dimwit's blood.
This is an especial problem when dealing with Dracula, or equivalent King Vampire type characters. If your villain has lived centures, gained vast occult powers, can transform into pretty much anything he (or she) chooses, has their pick of willing and unwilling victims, possesses a castle (and a fortune and a title) and can enslave lesser mortals by the sheer force of will, then he (or she) better have a colossal scheme to be getting on with or face a charge of monumentally failing to live up to their potential.
The problem dates back to Dracula — which, to be fair, had the advantage of coining all the cliches and so can't really be criticised for it. In Bram Stoker's book, the Count comes to Britain as a would-be conqueror only to be tripped up because he conceives a hard-to-explain passion for the wife of a provincial solicitor. Of course, this misstep left open the door for my Anno Dracula series — in which Dracula sticks to his original plan and takes over the Empire. Ever since, there's been a need to escalate evil vampire plans — the several-times-thwarted rise of a vampire ruling elite in the TV show Being Human, or Dracula's suicidal plot to wipe out humanity with a plague and then starve to death in The Satanic Rites of Dracula, or the vampire who seeks an elixir substitute for human blood so he doesn't have to be a killer in George R.R. Martin's Fevre Dream, or Anne Rice's characters' attempts to answer the riddle of their own existence and the reason for evil to exist, or the immortals who pull off a casino heist to ensure really long-term financial stability in Marc Behm's underrated novel The Ice Maiden.
Whatever you think of the execution, the sheer scale of the enterprise is appreciated. Next to these stratagems, merely taking over a Maine town in Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot seems unambitious (a whole city, as in Robert McCammon's They Thirst, plays better), let alone the way some Hammer Films (Dracula Has Risen From the Grave, Scars of Dracula) have Christopher Lee's Count just get into an undignified spat with some students and their girlfriends, or the hang-around-and-annoy-people act of The Lost Boys. Yes, vampires drink blood — but there has to be more to their schtick than that ...
The biting scenes ...
Everyone who's ever written a vampire story knows that the act of vampirism has to be central. For a long time, from Sheridan LeFanu and Stoker through to Rice and Stephenie Meyer, the dominant trend has been to emphasise the bodice-ripping, seethingly sexual side of neck-nipping ... in the movies, even the ratfaced Nosferatu slides into the heroine's bedroom lasciviously, and there have been a great many big bloody romantic clinches. The heroine swooning in the cloaked aristocrat's embrace as he barges into her bedroom is one of the big, primal scenes of horror fiction and plays out in movie after movie, mostly with matinee idol bloodsuckers. Equally familiar is the scene where Dracula's three wanton brides force themselves on Jonathan Harker, which has inspired dozens of bosomy, fanged starlets to fall out of negligees as they predate on some poor hopeless clod. It's no wonder there are so many vampire porn movies: all the stuff about seduction, penetration, boudoirs and night raptures is barely even symbolically sexy.
Because of this, there have been several trends to counter-program: vampires have attacked like muggers, addicts or childish fetishists in the likes of Martin, The Addiction, 30 Days of Night, Let the Right One In, etc. Indeed, these types of vampires have their own sets of cliches to deal with — how many times have you seen some pathetic degenerate lick spilled blood off a floor? — and they need to be avoided too.
Because, as everyone who's ever written a vampire story knows, the problem with biting scenes is that there aren't that many variations you can play with. In Anno Dracula, I wrote a chapter where a heroic vampire is wounded and their human partner willingly lets them feed to build their strength up; I don't claim to have invented that bit of business, but I feel slightly responsible for the fact that it's been done so often since then. Especially in a novel — or, worse, series of novels — variety has to be maintained, and you can't just write the same scene over and over. I've noticed in my own books, and in other series, that there tend to be fewer and fewer bites as the story goes on, and the ones described get more perfunctory when the author feels they can't think of a new way to describe someone biting someone else.
So, biting scenes are a pain. In werewolf stories, it's transformation scenes. They need to be there, but how many can you do before you get tired and the audience goes home?
Seriously, what do you think you look like?
In Stoker's novel, Dracula is first described as dressed all in black: he's been hiding in his castle for centuries, brooding and plotting and didn't need a larger wardrobe. When he leaves for London, he does so in Jonathan Harker's clothes — which we assume are boring British tweeds — in order to fit in. The only adaptation which picks up on this (the weak BBC production with Marc Warren) shows why most others drop the idea: Dracula just looks foolish when dressed as a regular bloke. It's one of Stoker's masterstrokes to have his villain wander about London 'in a straw hat which suit him not'. He may be immortal, powerful and diabolical, but he has no idea what to wear that won't make him look a prat. Not being able to see himself in a mirror, he really doesn't know what he looks like — the vampire pimp in Scream Blacula Scream is infuriated when he can't preen in his new threads in front of a looking glass, but even if he could he'd be the worst dressed vampire in the movies.
When Dracula became a stage play in the 1920s, it was a drawing room drama: so Dracula shows up in tailcoat, starched shirt, bowtie, top hat and opera cloak. This was the look Bela Lugosi rocked on stage and film, and remains a default for, say, Grandpa Munster and the Count from Sesame St; Christopher Lee kept the black swashbuckling cloak, now lined with scarlet, and that hung about almost as a vampire uniform for decades. A cloak can be raised to transform into bat-wings, or flung up over the face to hide a crucifix from sight, or to conceal the biting down on a heroine's lovely neck. Robert Bloch wrote a story, 'The Cloak', which is adapted in the Amicus film The House That Dripped Blood, about the vampire's cloak which possesses anyone who wears it. This dressiness was carried over by Anne Rice's clotheshorse vampires and is still a part of the vampire image — especially as fed into goth culture and fashions. Though if you were prone to messy eating, would you go out in really expensive frilly shirts?
From the '80s onwards — the patient zero seems to be the film-within-a-film of Brian DePalma's Body Double — there's been a tendency for vampires to adopt passing youth cults, dressing up as punks, bikers, new wavers, club kids, slackers, or whatever. How anyone who can regenerate body parts gets a body piercing or a tattoo is a question few filmmakers bother to answer, just as the tendency to put whatever the accepted 'alternative' pop music style is in the year of production on the soundtrack always strikes me as silly. Dracula's idea of music is howling wolves, and though I can imagine him appreciating Howlin' Wolf, the idea that he might listen to heavy metal just reduces his stature. People tend to stick with the music they liked as teenagers, no matter how embarrassing. There's a scene in Twilight where the sensitive vampire — who was turned in the early 1900s — listens to Debussy, but I'd be more convinced if he had a stack of ragtime or minstrel 78s in his lair and could still plunk out 'The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi' on a banjo. Actually, risky though it would be in a film, I prefer Stoker's original notion of a vampire who has no aesthetic, fashion or musical sense or interest whatever, and might fail to be convincing if he even tried to fake them.
Fragile immortals ...
This is something that comes up over and over. Vampires can only be killed by a stake through the heart. If you're really hardcore, even that doesn't work unless you pray while you're hammering the wood home. Only, vampires can also be killed by direct sunlight. And decapitation. And silver bullets (strictly, that's werewolves — but it's too poetic to leave off the list). And holy water in the sprinkler system. Or just running water — in Dracula AD 1972 and Daughters of Darkness, vampires die by falling into the shower. Or being blown to bits. Or being struck by lightning. Or kung fu. Or too much garlic on pizza. Or being eaten by a werewolf. Or ... well, too many things for a supposed immortal, really.
When we meet Carmilla, Dracula or many other vampires, we are told that they've lived for centuries and defeated countless enemies. But this is the week they die. A titanic struggle has to be undertaken, and you need an array of heroes and heroic mentors to do it, but Buffy or Van Helsing or Doctor Who or Blade or Captain Kronos are going to win and the vampires will be dust. Nevertheless, with the proliferation of vampire movies and the need to get some variety into death scenes, it seems that the once-fearsome monsters are far too easy to get rid of. So, maybe it's time to make the monsters hard to kill again — since an easy victory makes for a dull storyline.
But I'm not like those nasty vampires ...
Lestat only kills murderers — or did after Anne Rice changed her mind and decided she liked him more than whiny Louis. Edward Cullen and gang are 'vegetarians', which means they feed off animals. Angel seems to subsist on donor blood. The vampire leads in Being Human and True Blood are mostly on the wagon, except for flashbacks — they do sexy drinking, but have sworn off killing people (I'll 'fess up, the same goes for at least two of the protagonists in the Anno Dracula series). And let's not get into the Little Vampire, Count Duckula or the Count. These characters get all the cool parts of being a vampire — living forever, hot girlfriends or boyfriends, stylish wardrobe, super-powers, etc — but are let off the repulsive, evil or wretched side of the lifestyle. In the end, that's a cop-out: if they don't kill people, or at the very least hurt the ones they love, it's not that they aren't proper vampires, it's that the authors are ducking out of moral complexity in order to have a high old time without giving the Devil his due.
In many recent fictions, we've had attractive vampires — characters we might want to be or be with — but they have to have teeth, they have to have a sense of estrangement from human morality or at the least struggle to keep a moral compass. Spider-Man has a more complicated attitude to his condition than most fictional vampires, and he comes from a comic book written for children. We should hold our vampires to a higher standard.
Nomadic haemovores ... ?
I know it's an attempt to get past the embarrassments of being in the same genre as The Vampires Night Orgy or I Was a Teenage Vampire, but doing a vampire story in which characters are confronted by immortal, blood-drinking, back-from-the-dead, turn-into-a-bat, nocturnal creatures and don't call them vampires just isn't convincing. This means you, Ultraviolet the TV series, Near Dark the otherwise classic movie and the Will Smith hatchet job of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend. If you were doing Jaws, you wouldn't bend over backwards to have characters avoid using the word 'shark' in discussing what's eating them, would you?
Of course, none of these are hard-and-fast rules, and you can do good work even if you willingly plunge into all of these traps. Though vampires are not quite as overexposed as zombies just now, there are a lot of vampires about — and that of course means a lot of substandard work. So, the real dictat for anyone setting out to do a vampire story is the one that applies to every type of fiction — just do it properly, don't take short cuts and find a way to connect with the old material in something approaching a fresh way.
The Blood Red Baron, book two of the Anno Dracula series, is available now from Amazon.


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More Americans died in 2008 from pharmaceutical painkiller overdose than fatalities from illegal drugs like cocaine and heroin combined. Responsible for nearly 15,000 deaths in 2008, prescription painkillers have become wildly popular among Americans. The news comes after a previous report found drugs to outnumber traffic accidents in fatalities. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) statistics, as of last year more than 12 million were on prescription painkillers purely for the high they cause instead of their intended medical purpose.
Many of these individuals obtain the drugs by eliciting prescriptions from several doctors, known as 'doctor shopping' within the community. Others purchase them from underground drug rings and illegal online pharmacies, bringing the ingredients into question. It is no wonder that the amount of painkillers made available at pharmacies and even doctors' offices has quadrupled from 1999 to 2010. In fact, the CDC has blamed irresponsible doctors for unnecessarily prescribing painkillers to patients who do not need them:
"More of a problem is now created by a few irresponsible doctors than drug pushers on street corners," CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden told reporters in a phone briefing.
The issue is very similar to the current problems surrounding antipsychotic drugs. With 50% of all Americans to be diagnosed with a mental illness in their lifetime, antipsychotic drugs have become the most popular therapeutic class drug. Even as experts speak out against antipsychotics in a similar manner to how many are raising awareness against prescription pain medication, it seems that the medical establishment has ignored the evidence.
"The system is awash with opioids, drugs that get people hooked and keep them hooked," Frieden said.
In 27 years, there have been 3 million deaths from prescription drugs, and 0 from vitamins. Prescription drugs come with up to 525 negative side effects, with around 70 being the average. Avoiding these drugs and utilizing high quality organic alternatives like whole food-based multivitamins and green superfoods will lead to a total health transformation without harsh side effects and an exponentially increased death risk.


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Our microbiological tests form an important part of quality control for a wide range of clients from diverse industries, covering products as diverse as food, cosmetics, detergents and packaging.
With an international network of microbiological testing laboratories, equipped with cutting-edge technology and experts using the most up-to-date testing methodologies, we are your perfect test program partner, no matter what your product.
We are able to conduct a range of microbiological tests to help you assess the safety or efficacy of raw materials, components, ingredients and final products. Our aim is to examine for the risk of contamination under normal use conditions.
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Suspension springs are a key part of your car's suspension system. Umm…did I really need to tell you that? If you're not incredibly comfortable with what a suspension system is, trust me when I say three things: First, it's important. Very important. Second, it helps your car drive well. Third, your butt is happiest when your suspension system is fully operational.
Okay, let's get to it. Your car has a suspension spring at each wheel. Want to guess which of the wheels have front suspension springs?
The suspension springs are usually standard coiled springs, which is why they're sometimes called coil springs, or suspension coil springs, if you really want to be overly verbose. They sit between the upper and lower control arms and absorb shock as your car drives. And that's kind of it.
Your car travels over a lot of imperfections on the road, such as potholes, speed bumps, and random objects that some idiots didn't strap down to the back of their trucks. But the ride is usually pretty smooth, thanks to the suspension springs absorbing a lot of that impact. The springs are what allows the suspension to move up and down with the road, instead of the entire car doing so. That keeps the impact from going to the frame of the car, and to the people sitting in it.
In addition to absorbing impact, the front suspension springs also help support the weight of your car, which is pretty important. So, if you like having your car sitting at the right height, you can thank your suspension springs.
Front suspension springs are extremely durable, and usually last the entire life of the car. If yours don't, however, they'll need to be replaced in pairs. You'll have to replace both front suspension springs.
One last note: Replacing suspension springs can be dangerous, given the amount of pressure holding them in place. So, don't get all high and mighty on your car skills just because you added some windshield wiper fluid. Leave this one to the pros.
The suspension springs support the weight of your car, from each wheel. If one of them breaks, your car won't be supported in that corner.
If you spot your car leaning to the front, or to one of the front corners, then you may have some busted front suspension springs. Yes, it looks funny. No, it's no laughing matter.
If the coil springs are failing, you may notice less of a lean and more of the car just being way too low. It will look funny, but again: no laughing matter here.
The suspension springs hold your car up. If they're not doing their job, they won't hold your car up. Just imagine yourself without calves. That's your car with faulty suspension springs. Not so fun, is it?
Please tell me this isn't new information to you, but your car shouldn't make bizarre noises. If it does make bizarre noises, it's because something's wrong, and you should try listening.
If your car has some broken front suspension springs, then it will likely make a knocking noise. You'll notice this noise coming from the suspension when you drive over bumps, or other imperfections in the road. It's the sound of busted suspension springs being forced to move when they don't work.
Your car is safe to drive short distances when it has a broken front suspension spring. But it's still an urgent service.
The longer you drive a car without a fully functioning suspension system, the more pressure and impact is put on the suspension, which can lead to further damage. So, if you ignore a front suspension spring replacement, you may end up with a much worse problem on your hands.
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Malicious advertisements on domains belonging to Disney, Facebook, The Guardian newspaper and others are leading people to malware that encrypts a computer's files until a ransom is paid, Cisco Systems has found.
The finding comes shortly after technology companies and U.S. law enforcement banded together in a large operation to shut down a botnet that distributed online banking malware and so-called "ransomware," a highly profitable scam that has surged over the last year.
Cisco's investigation unraveled a technically complex and highly effective way for infecting large number of computers with ransomware, which it described in detail on its blog.
"It really is insidious," said Levi Gundert, a former Secret Service agent and now a technical lead for threat research and analysis at Cisco, in a phone interview Friday.
Cisco has a product called Cloud Web Security (CWS) which monitors its customers web surfing and reports if they are browsing to suspected malicious domains. CWS monitors billions of web page requests a day, Gundert said.
The company noticed that it was blocking requests to 90 domains, many of those WordPress sites, for more than 17 percent of its CWS customers, he said.
Further investigation showed that many of the CWS users were ending up on those domains after viewing advertisements on high-traffic domains such as "apps.facebook.com," "awkwardfamilyphotos.com," "theguardian.co.uk" and "go.com," a Disney property, among many others.
Certain advertisements that appeared on those domains, however, had been tampered with. If clicked, they redirected victims to one of the 90 domains.
The style of attack, known as "malvertising," has long been a problem. Advertising networks have taken steps to try and detect malicious advertisements placed on their network, but the security checks aren't foolproof.
Occasionally, bad advertisements slip in, which are shown on a vast array of websites that have signed up with the network or its affiliates. The websites where the ads appear are often unaware they're being abused.
"It goes to show that malvertising is a real problem," Gundert said. "People expect when they go to a Tier 1 website that it is a trustworthy place to visit, but because there are so many third-party external links, that's not really true."
The 90 domains the malicious advertisements pushed traffic to had also been hacked, Gundert said. In the case of the WordPress sites, it appears the attackers used brute-force attacks -- which involves guessing login credentials -- to access the site's control panels. Then, an exploit kit called Rig was inserted, which attacked the victim's computer, Gundert said.
The Rig exploit kit, first spotted in April by Kahu Security, checks if users are running an unpatched version of Flash, Java or the Silverlight multimedia program. If someone's computer isn't patched, "you're instantly exploited," Gundert said.
In the next stage of the attack, a ransomware program called "Cryptowall," a relative of the infamous Cryptolocker malware, is installed. It encrypts the user's files, demanding a ransom. In another sign of the operation's sophistication, the website where users can pay the ransom is a hidden website that uses The Onion Router, or the TOR network.
To navigate to a TOR hidden website, a user must have TOR installed, which Cryptowall helpfully provides instructions for how to install. Those who delay paying the ransom find it increases as time passes.
Because of the use of TOR and the technically complex attack chain, Cisco hasn't yet been able to identify a group behind the attacks.
Gundert said it is likely that several groups or people with different skills -- such as malvertising, traffic redirection, exploit writing and ransomware campaigns -- are working together.
"You could have a threat actor putting together all of these pieces on their own, but there are so many different specialties involved in this attack chain," he said.
Send news tips and comments to firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow me on Twitter: @jeremy_kirk


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Full Description of the VodaHost web hosting reseller program. Including pricing schedule.
WHM Web Host Manager is the interface you will use to manage your reseller account. (30 Voice enabled Tutorials & Users Guide)
How to change your WHM...
Use this control to limit the display of threads to those newer than the specified time frame.
Allows you to choose the data by which the thread list will be sorted.
Order threads in...
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Forum Rules


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Yes, many people are already writing their Top 10 movie lists for 2012. We're saving ours for the last week of the year, but while we wait for this full, rich, and weird movie year to end, we're going to start looking back at certain highlights. Today, it's our favorite performances that won't be rewarded come Oscar time, but which stuck with us nevertheless.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Smashed
Every actor loves to play a drunk. It's a faux-grit version of the sad clown. You get to ham it up, overact like crazy, make certain that you're the center of every scene ... but, you know, in a tragic way. Playing drunk has a tendency to turn every actor into Jerry Lewis.
So when someone does it right, it feels like a minor miracle. Smashed was a small indie movie that received a miniscule release back in October. If you heard about it at all, you might have thought it was a higher-quality TV-movie, considering its cast of talented TV actors (Aaron Paul, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally). But it rises above the usual substance-abuse-movie tropes because it's not really about a drunk at all: It's about someone desperately, earnest trying not to be a drunk.
Winstead plays Kate, a kindergarten teacher who parties so hard with her husband (Paul) that she finds herself needing drinks in the parking lot before school and vomiting in the trashcan in front of her class. (She tells them she's pregnant, which has a certain drunk-talking-to-children logic.) After one wild night that ends up with Kate smoking crack, she groggily snaps to. She begins going to meetings with a co-worker (Offerman), becoming best friends with her sponsor (Octavia Spencer) and pulling her life back to some sense of normalcy.
What's impressive about Smashed is that this where the movie starts, not where it ends. It's clear that alcoholism is only one of Kate's issues, not least of which include her depressed (and also drunk) mother. We see how Kate's recovery in many ways makes her life even more difficult. It's one thing to follow AA's code to the letter, and it's another entirely to admit to your boss that you were drunk in front of a bunch of first graders. And mostly, we see how Kate's fight to get clean affects her marriage. Her husband, played with that winsome charm that Paul has made famous as Jesse Pinkman on Breaking Bad, drinks as well and doesn't see anything all that wrong with it; he also doesn't appreciate suddenly feeling like an asshole every time he has a few beers with his wife at dinner. But then again: Maybe he has more of a problem than he realizes himself. Kate and her husband love each other, without question, but that doesn't mean they're good for each other.
That sad love story makes up the heart of Smashed, and the best part of Winstead's performance is how little she reaches for effect. There isn't a moment she isn't believable; it's the type of quiet, non-fussy performance that's easy to miss, because there are no scenes of her throwing plates across the room or histrionically overemoting. It's just a clear, pleading look at a smart, lost young woman who is trying to figure herself out, before it's too late ... and just hoping that knowledge is enough.
Tom Cruise, Rock of Ages
One of the things that makes Tom Cruise a terrific star is the very thing that gets him into trouble: his willingness to make an utter fool out of himself. When he jumps on Oprah's couch or belittles Matt Lauer, there's deep, committed genuineness to his actions. He never half-asses anything—even if it's a throwaway part like Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder, he acts like it's the Most Important Role in the World. It ought to be exhausting to watch, but Cruise's fevered intensity make everything he does compulsively engrossing. He will not stop until you are sufficiently entertained.
Rock of Ages is completely disposable, but Cruise gives it some kick because he's the one actor in the whole thing who takes this silly fluff seriously. He plays Stacee Jaxx, a leather-pants rock god of the late '80s who's like Axl Rose with a better upper body. But where the rest of the cast seem to be trapped in an extended Saturday Night Live skit—enjoying playing dress up with their bad hair and tight pants—Cruise goes to the trouble of turning a one-joke character into a really funny portrayal of monstrous, deluded ego.
In the original jukebox musical, Jaxx was more of a cretin, so if the defanged movie version isn't exactly a reprisal of Cruise's Frank T.J. Mackey role from Magnolia, it at least allows him to be uncomfortably demented and dynamically arresting. His Jaxx is almost a mirror version of his public persona: sexually assertive and arrogantly callous where in real life he's almost always projected a bland, neutered handsomeness. It's clear Cruise understands this guy in a way a lot of us never will.
And then there's his singing. Most of Rock of Ages is content to wallow in glib nostalgia for bad hair metal, but Cruise's renditions of "I Want to Know What Love Is" and "Pour Some Sugar on Me" actually bring something new to the songs. Dueting with Malin Akerman on the Foreigner power ballad while trying to get in her pants, he sleazily mocks the song's declaration of true love to get at the horny, sweet-talking desperation underneath. As for the Def Leppard song, Cruise doesn't just sing the hell out of it—he embodies all of its cocky, shameless excess while strutting around the stage in front of a room of adoring fans. He doesn't ennoble "Pour Some Sugar on Me" because Def Leppard doesn't need to be ennobled. It needs to be embraced as the unsubtle, dopey piece of arena-rock nonsense that it is. Cruise alone in Rock of Ages seems to understand this: These cheesy songs (and the people who made them) wouldn't have become immortal if they weren't on some level utterly sincere in their attempt to show you a good time. That's the only gear Cruise knows.
Grierson & Leitch is a regular column about the movies. Follow us on Twitter, @griersonleitch.


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Illinois notebook: Mendenhall making good impression at NFL combine
Former Illinois running back Rashard Mendenhall realized what the NFL scouts needed to know before he arrived in Indianapolis for the NFL draft combine last weekend.
"They need a 40 time from me,'' Mendenhall said shortly after declaring for the NFL draft. "I've never been timed in the 40.''
Determined to show he's more than just a power back, Mendenhall's goal was to break 4.5 seconds in the 40-yard dash. Mendenhall clocked a 4.45 Sunday, just one more good impression in a weekend full of them for the Big Ten Conference's MVP. He might have been the back who helped himself the most.
At 5-foot-10, 225 pounds, Mendenhall was fast for his size. He looked the part, chiseled at his weigh-in, and Mendenhall also had 26 reps on the bench press. In the interview sessions, he made an impact as a humble and personable prospect.
"By all accounts, he really impressed some people,'' said his mother, Sybil. "From what I hear, his stock is rising.''
While former Arkansas running back Darren McFadden is generally regarded as the top running back prospect, NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock rated Mendenhall as the prospect at the position ahead of McFadden and former Oregon running back Jonathan Stewart. McFadden clocked a 4.33 in the 40, one of four players under 4.4. Stewart had a 4.48.
"Mendenhall translates better to the NFL game,'' Mayock said. "He's 225 pounds and has great feet and tremendous burst and acceleration for a player of his size. My biggest concern with McFadden is that although he also has great burst and acceleration, I don't think he has the lower body strength that you're looking for in a first-round NFL back.''
Mendenhall set a single-season school-record with 1,681 yards rushing to lead Illinois to a 9-4 record and its first appearance in the Rose Bowl in 24 years. If any critics weren't convinced of Mendenhall's prospects after he was a one-year wonder at Illinois, Mendenhall made the right decision, according to the NFL mock drafts.
Even if he's the No. 3 running back in the draft, Mendenhall could go in the first half of the first round. Nolan Nawrocki, draft analyst for Pro Football Weekly, had Mendenhall as the No. 16 pick and the third running back taken.
The Chicago Bears, who will pick at No. 14, and the Arizona Cardinals, with the No. 16 pick, are expected to take a hard look at the running backs. Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Ron Turner, the former Illini head coach, first secured the verbal commitment from Mendenhall, and he reportedly would like to have Mendenhall in the Bears' backfield.
Mendenhall has left school to train for the draft in the Chicago area. Mendenhall will likely perform at Illinois' Pro Timing Day on March 12.
Men's basketball
Illinois coach Bruce Weber is the first to admit that Kelvin Sampson's resignation as Indiana coach hits close to home.
"Obviously, it has a little emotional tie to us,'' said Weber, considering the rekindled rivalry after guard Eric Gordon first committed to Illinois before jumping to Indiana when Sampson was hired as coach less than two years ago.
It's a tough hurdle for the Hoosiers to clear and a black eye for college basketball when one of the game's top programs is accused of five major NCAA violations.
"It goes beyond (the rivalry),'' Weber said. "You're talking about the Big Ten and college basketball in general. The (National Association of Basketball Coaches) tried to make a huge push to keep everybody doing it the right way. Their kids have done a good job of staying focused at their task of trying to win a Big Ten championship. You have to give them credit, too, with what they've gone through.''
Meanwhile, Illinois (11-17 overall, 3-12 in the Big Ten) is idle until playing at Iowa on Saturday (5 p.m., Big Ten Network).
Women's basketball
The Illini women (15-12 overall, 7-9 in the Big Ten) must win four games at the Big Ten tournament to reach the NCAA tournament. No Big Ten team has done that in the history of the women's tournament. Illinois' 55-52 loss to Michigan on Sunday assured the Illini wouldn't receive a first-round bye.
"At tournament time, it's anybody's ballgame,'' Illinois coach Jolette Law said. "We need to go in with the mind set that we're going to the finals and we're going to win this tournament.''
Illinois hasn't reached the conference tournament semifinals since 2001. The Illini haven't played in the NCAA tournament since the 2002-03 season.
In other news
Illinois baseball posted a 2-1 record after Illini pitchers allowed five earned runs in 26 2/3 innings for a 1.69 earned-run average in the season opening weekend, what coach Dan Hartleb called "the best start on the mound in my 18 years at Illinois.''
No. 11 Illinois lost to No. 1 Iowa 21-12 in wrestling at Huff Hall Sunday. Illini 157-pounder Mike Poeta improved to 28-2 with a 6-2 decision.
John Supinie can be reached at email@example.com. For more coverage, read Illini Talk blog at www.sj-r.com.


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