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Museum extension ... ... spirals into controversy
The Victoria and Albert Museum is vigorously for it. But Mrs. Ethne Rudd is totally against it.
"It" is "the spiral."
The spiral is a proposed new extension to the V&A, Britain's major 19th-century decorative arts museum. Mrs. Rudd, secretary of the Kensington Society, calls it "inappropriate."
The spiral is an highly original design by Daniel Libeskind whose Jewish Museum extension to the Berlin Museum has recently brought him into great prominence.
Still at the stage of models and plans, the spiral will likely bring Mr. Libeskind additional fame - or notoriety - when built in the new millennium.
This building is not deferential to history. It makes little attempt to accommodate itself visually to its setting.
But it is what the V&A has been campaigning for since 1996, when Libeskind won an international competition for the project against a formidable array of big-name architects.
On the surface, the spiral seems a radical departure from the Victorian and Edwardian architecture of the complex mini-city the museum is. Such architectural "rudeness" is not often permitted in today's conservation-conscious Britain.
So it was to the astonishment of many and to the shock of the local residential societies in the Boroughs of Kensington, Chelsea, and Knightsbridge where the V&A resides, that the extension has now been granted official Planning Permission. This partly resulted from exhaustive public relations by the V&A.
"I don't think anyone really thought they would pass it," says Mrs. Rudd. "In retrospect I think more effort should have been made to oppose it."
"I do actually like modern things," she says. "My husband used to collect modern pictures. And we know quite a lot of architects. So we are not really the average anti-modernists. But the position of this glass box is inappropriate."
Retired career diplomat and company director Sir Ronald Arculus, also a council member of the Kensington Society, is more scathing: He considers "this horror" to be far more suited to "a vacant lot on the South Bank."
He accuses Libeskind and the V&A's director Alan Borg of indulging in an "ego-trip." He points out that the building is a "fill-in job" and as such "totally unsuitable." It is to be built on the last available space on the site (where the boiler house is housed) but will open prominently and directly onto Exhibition Road, a wide straight thoroughfare on one side of the V&A.
"It hasn't got a straight line in it anywhere," Sir Ronald complains. "It's all angles. It doesn't conform to the lines of any of the existing buildings at all."
He points to two other London buildings, both museum extensions, and both "fill-ins" that are in postmodernist vein: American architect Robert Venturi's National Gallery wing on Trafalgar Square and James Stirling's addition at the Tate Gallery, housing the Turner Collection.
These "do not," he says, "imitate what's there, but they don't outrage what's there either. They fit in, but you can tell they are modern. And they are modern inside."
Intriguingly, one organization that chose not to oppose the V&A Spiral was The Victorian Society. Richard Holder, senior architectural adviser to the society, says "we found the proposal sufficiently interesting not to oppose it." (Though they did question some details.)
He points out that museums today "have moved slightly from the scholastic to entertainment" (which this striking new building clearly represents).
So what do the architect and his client have to say in defense of their project?
Gwyn Miles, the V&A's head of major projects, says: "Daniel actually filled the brief better than any other architect. The British architects [in the competition] were all quite obviously thinking, 'We'll not be allowed to do anything too major.' "
This is a measure of the climate for architecture in Britain. Architects have almost come to accept that the country is like an old museum, unwilling to be disturbed.
"But," says Ms. Miles, "we actually wanted a very visible building that was saying: 'We're interesting, come in and look at us.' "
Libeskind calls his building "unashamedly contemporary. I'm not trying to pretend it's another time, another era," he says. "The Spiral is not monocentric. It opens along different trajectories. It opens the museum to different views, and to different spaces. These are not just gallery spaces, but cafes, restaurants, and public spaces for gathering and education. The public has access to the entire building."
The building is not a conventional spiral, he says. "It unfolds because of a geometry that is virtually endless. You could continue it on and on. 'Spiral' is more an emblematic word."
But it is definitely not like the spiral of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, widening at the bottom. If anything, this new Spiral seems to grow as it climbs and arches over, giving views of the museum complex below. This fulfills one objective: to orient visitors, giving them some overall concept of the V&A's layout.
He insists his building forges "a connection between the dynamic and the meditative. Actually the internal spaces are very calm. I didn't form these shapes arbitrarily. They were molded to make connections between static objects that are monuments of history and art, and interactive spaces where people can watch videos, laser shows, movies...."
One thing is sure. Whatever the opposition, the spiral is hardly a building people will refuse to visit. It is bound to stimulate great curiosity.


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Table of Contents:
Croatia – Economic and monetary affairs
Outline of the Community (European Union) legislation about Croatia – Economic and monetary affairs
These categories group together and put in context the legislative and non-legislative initiatives which deal with the same topic.
Economic and monetary affairs > Economic and monetary affairs: enlargement
Croatia – Economic and monetary affairs
acquis) and, more specifically, the priorities identified jointly by the Commission and the candidate countries in the analytical assessment (or 'screening') of the EU's political and legislative acquis. Each year, the Commission reviews the progress made by candidates and evaluates the efforts required before their accession. This monitoring is the subject of annual reports presented to the Council and the European Parliament.
Document or Iniciative
Commission Report [COM(2010) 660 final – SEC(2010) 1326 – Not published in the Official Journal].
The 2010 Report presents the reforms that have advanced the general level of alignment with the acquis, despite the international financial and economic crisis. However, alignment is not complete and the policy of economic and monetary coordination should be improved.
EUROPEAN UNION ACQUIS (according to the Commission's words)
EU legislation on Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) contains specific rules requiring the independence of central banks in Member States, prohibiting direct financing of the public sector by the central banks and privileged access of the public sector to financial institutions. Moreover, all Member States are bound to lay down specific measures necessary for the protection of the euro against counterfeiting. These rules must have been implemented by the date of accession. Upon accession, new Member States will be expected to coordinate their economic policies and will be subject to the provisions of the Stability and Growth Pact and the Statute of the European System of Central Banks. They are also committed to complying with the criteria laid down in the Treaty in order to be able to adopt the euro. Until they adopt the euro, they will participate in Economic and Monetary Union as a Member State with a derogation and will treat the exchange rate of their currency as a matter of common concern.
EVALUATION (according to the Commission's words)
There has been further progress in the area of economic and monetary policy where, overall, alignment with the acquis is effectively complete.
The economy of Croatia has been severely affected by the global economic and financial crisis. The country fell into recession in the first quarter of 2009 and there were no clear signs of a recovery by mid-2010. Unemployment, public deficit and debt have increased significantly. External indebtedness rose further and remains a key vulnerability of the economy. Monetary stability was preserved by the policies of the central bank and the financial sector weathered the crisis relatively well.
Broad political consensus on the fundamentals of a market economy was maintained. The Economic Recovery Programme has given economic policy a medium-term orientation. The programme's benefit for growth and international competitiveness depends on its effective implementation. Given the existing constraints, macroeconomic policy has, by and large, been appropriate to address the consequences of the global economic and financial crisis. Monetary policy succeeded to preserve exchange rate and financial stability while alleviating liquidity pressures. The current account deficit narrowed as a consequence of the recession and inflationary pressures subsided further. The banking sector remained resilient to shocks.
However, structural reforms generally advanced at a very slow pace, not least with respect to privatisation and the restructuring of loss-making enterprises. The labour market remained highly rigid, with low employment and participation rates which declined further during the recession.
In the fiscal area, the authorities made limited efforts to contain the rising deficit and to increase the efficiency of public spending. Social transfer payments remained high and not well-targeted and a large number of state-owned enterprises continued to receive State support through direct and indirect subsidies and guarantees. For achieving medium-term fiscal sustainability, it remains a key challenge to improve the budgetary process and discipline and to enhance the efficiency of public spending. The investment climate continued to suffer from a heavy regulatory burden and numerous para-fiscal taxes.
Related Acts
Commission Report [COM(2009) 533 final – SEC(2009) 1333 final – Not published in the Official Journal].
Commission Report [COM(2008) 674 final – SEC(2008) 2694 final – Not published in the Official Journal].
The 2008 Report noted significant progress and that alignment with the acquis had reached a satisfactory level in the areas of budget and finance. New regulations and procedures were necessary to increase the efficiency of public expenditure and administrative capacity.
Commission Report [COM(2007) 663 final – SEC(2007) 1431 – Not published in the Official Journal].
The 2007 Report recorded major progress in alignment with the acquis in the area of "economic and monetary affairs". However, the Commission observed that Croatia had not yet completed the necessary alignment.
Commission Report [COM(2006) 649 final – Not published in the Official Journal].
The 2006 Report did not observe any progress in the area of monetary policy. Croatia should continue to make headway with introducing indispensable changes to its institutional and legal system, especially as regards the total independence of its Central Bank. However, in the area of economic policy, the country had made some progress in its alignment with the acquis.
Commission Report [COM(2005) 561 final – SEC(2005) 1424 – Not published in the Official Journal].
The 2005 Report observed that the country should be capable of coping with competition and market forces within the Union. Inflation was kept relatively low, the exchange rate seemed to have stabilised; the substantial deficits which existed in the public accounts and current transactions had been reduced. However, Croatia needed to take steps to consolidate public finances, notably through structural measures in the area of subsidies and transfer payments. The privatisation process speeded up in 2005. On the other hand, little progress had been made with the reorganisation of the major public companies, especially those in the energy sector. Telecoms deregulation, on the other hand, was proving a great success.
Commission Opinion [COM(2004) 257 final – Not published in the Official Journal].
In its Opinion of 20 April 2004, the Commission concluded that Croatia was a stable democracy with a functioning market economy and that it must be able to meet the demands stemming from the Community acquis in the field of economic and monetary union (EMU). The same was true of provisions on monetary financing, privileged access by public authorities to financial institutions and the protection of the euro. As regards Croatia's participation in the third stage of EMU, the Commission took the view that it had enough time to prepare for participation as a Member State subject to a derogation.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Altamonte Springs Police Department welcomes students of Altamonte Springs to tour the department. The groups learn about day to day operations of the Police Department personnel, police equipment, fingerprinting, gun safety, see a police car and motorcycle and tour the department. Students are taught the importance of good choices and child safety.
The tour takes approximately 45 minutes and is both fun and educational. At the end of the tour, each student is given a sticker badge and is sworn in as an honorary police officer.
Tours are by appointment only and must be made 14 days in advance. For more information or to schedule a tour, call (407) 571-8293.


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Prince George arrives to first day of school with dad Prince William
Britain's future king arrived to his first day of school hand-in-hand with his dad, but his royal mother was unable to take part.
Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, recently revealed she is expecting a third child and that acute morning sickness prevented her from appearing with her husband and son. Kate suffered the same illness while she was pregnant with both Prince George, now 4, and daughter Princess Charlotte, 2.
George arrived on time for his first day at Thomas's Battersea school in south London. Wearing his navy uniform, George shook hands with the head of the lower school, Helen Haslam, before entering the facility.
The prince's new school has been described as "a big, busy, slightly chaotic school for cosmopolitan parents who want their children to have the best English education money can buy," according to the UK Good Schools Guide.
Along with photos of George's first day, Kensington Palace released decades-old pictures from William and Prince Harry's first day of school. In the photo, the boys' mother Princess Diana, can be seen walking her children to meet their school teacher.


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Editor's note: Same-sex marriage continues to be a hot topic of discussion. Today, North Carolina voters will vote on Amendment One, a referendum that would make "marriage between one man and one woman as the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized." Sunday, Vice President Joe Biden stated he is "absolutely comfortable" with same-sex marriages and that all people are "entitled the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all of the civil liberties".
Here is a roundup of CNN coverage highlighting the people, perspectives and stories on this topic.
Referendum banning same-sex marriage in spotlight as 3 states hold primaries
White House downplays Biden's same-sex marriage remarks
Biden's support for gay marriage matches most Catholics' views
Another Obama official speaks out for same-sex marriage
Billy Graham backs North Carolina amendment to ban gay marriage
Bill Clinton chimes in on N.C. same-sex marriage ban
Same-sex couples prepare for North Carolina marriage vote
Photos: 'Commitment' project focuses on long-term gay couples
N.C. House vote to put constitutional same-sex marriage ban on ballot
I have been absent for some time, but now I remember why I used to love this blog. Thanks , I¡¦ll try and check back more often. How frequently you update your web site?
Only 32% of current ACMA bllkiacst is child abuse material Actually this is completely incorrect 32% may be _'alleged'_ child abuse content but it is not confirmed (the ACMA list is all alleged, almost none of it has actually been classified by the Classifications Board). Many people have seen the URLs on the list and it seems like the actual' illegal content is closer to 5% than to 32%.
I'm sorry but, to me, this is not about the church or religion at all. It's about a very small, very vocal minority who, by their very definition, have rejected all of the norms of society and nature. BUT, they want to force our society to allow them to change OUR values and laws for THEIR sakes. I don't give a care who they go to bed with or live with or any of that. But, I DO care about the fact that we have certain traditions and values and we happen to cherish them and they are trying to FORCE us change these to suit their needs. I use the word FORCE because in SO MANY cases they have used the courts to literally FORCE this down the throats of the citizenry despite huge majorities voting against it.
On second thought, I'm going to vote against this amendment. I totally forgot that true conservatives don't want the government in anyone's lives, inlcuding defining marriage. Vote against this amendment as an unwarranted intrusion of government power (aka the lib's favorite tactic). Real conservatives understand.
If you want to pound your chest about "standing by your convicitons", at least own it and call it what it is. If you really believe it's right, how can a simple word hurt you?
From merriam-webster:
"Bigot-: a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially: one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance"
Nah- I think they would probably chafe.
Thank you Rober Jay - you couldn't have said it plainer.
Amen Robert Jay...I couldn't have said it better!
Why is the religious right even involved. I guess separation of church and state only comes into play when it suits them. Maybe when churches start paying taxes they can have a say in what our government does.
They pay no taxes but in NC the Baptist churches can display signs encouraging people to vote for the legislation. Churches should not tell people how to vote. But, people are pretty stupid if they base their opinions on what their church tells them without using their own brain. I don't care if people have a religious objection to this but why should they care what people do with their freedom.
If you believe the bible, or at least the parts of the bible that don't inconvenience you, you will vote for the amendment. If you believe the entire bible, you will vote to treat women as chattel, kill children who talk back to you, kill people who touch pig products, wear their hair too short or too long, eat shrimp, do any work on the Sabbath, see women during their period, marry a woman who is not a virgin, be a woman who does not marry her rapist, or wear mixed fabrics.
If you think gay people have the same rights as straight people, vote against the amendment.
Do you understand the bible at all?
Yeah! It's like a salad bar where you get to pick and choose what parts are actually the word of god. Oh wait...
I did. It would appear that you haven't read it doc. The bible does tell a rapist that he should marry the woman he raped to make it right. He also is supposed to give the dad some money. The bible also says eagles and shellfish. So why aren't you christians trying to close seafood restaurants and get the eagle replaced as the national bird? It's because you pick and choose what you want to believe. Your book is make-believe and the world would be better off without it or the Koran.
So why is Leviticus (and other parts Christians choose to ignore) still in the Bible? Is it possible that parts of the holy book are actually fallible and subject to change?
It is really very clear. If you are a bigot, a racist, rich, or a republican you will vote for the ammendment. If you have ethics, humility, are rationale, are caring, have a vision, (and are probably a democrat) you will vote against the ammedment
Wrong again Lib- 1. Not bigot 2. Not racist 3. Not rich 4. Not a Republican .......AND voting for the Ammendment. You LIberal whiners never get it right. HaHaHaHaHa
Gee, guess I better go back and change my vote to support it then.
As a Republican who believes in the original Republican outlook that personal matters are outside the arena of what the government should have anything to do with, I voted against it.
It must be convienient to blindly classify good and bad based on party lines, I'm sure it requires much less effort than considering facts and drawing your own opinion regardless of what your party tells you is "right".
Uhhh, I don't do that, idi ot.....I just stated that I am not a Republican And I support so-called Democratic principles,too. Let me Guess- You weren't born in NC....or the South... You kinda just moved here recently??
Scott in NC..do you really think there are many others who voted against the ammendment for reasons like you?
You are by far and away a MASSIVE exception to the rule.
You Kidding Me?-
If I was just to judge by those I've spoken to, even those who are more on the religious side, I'd be relatively optimistic about it. From what I've seen in the overall polling thought it doesn't look good.


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- Kate Barker
Cream of Wheat..and a stroll down Memory Lane
Updated: Apr 12, 2021
My Sweet Husband and I were standing in the kitchen, discussing breakfast options. The wind whipped the tree branches back and forth and the rain pounded on the roof. We rattled off several possible choices; an omelet with sausage, waffles with whipped cream, scrambled eggs and toast, Cream of Wheat.
Rainy mornings and Cream of Wheat…a comfort food..stirring happy memories of childhood and those fun-filled years of rushing to have a healthy, yummy breakfast for three lively kids before they bolted out the door to catch the school bus.
I settled on Cream of Wheat. Warm mush ! I like my Cream of Wheat with butter and sorghum. Sorghum is similar to molasses, but much better !
I've never been able to find sorghum in grocery stores in California, so I am forced to ship a case home from my favorite supplier, an Amish family in Dunnegan, Missouri.
(This is my sorghum stash !)
Whenever I dip into my sorghum cache, I am instantly transported to Amish country.
It is another world. Quiet country roads…rolling green hills…and signs that remind us to share our space.
And then I begin to reminiscence about My Grandpa's Farm. A lovely Amish family purchased his farm after he died.
He would be blessed to see how they have loved and cared for his farm.
They expanded the house…(they have 10 children)….and resurrected the outhouse.
(My Grandpa did not have an indoor toilet or shower until 1978. He never did get around to tearing down the old outhouse and it stands today where it stood when we were kids. Showering, before he built the indoor bathroom, meant you filled a 5 gallon bucket, which sat the roof of the cellar, with warm water. You proceeded down the steps into the dark cellar, stripped down, turned on the water using a valve on a hose, soaped up, hurrying and hoping to have enough water to rinse ! We thought it was like camping out !)
They repaired the roof and are still using the beautiful rock barn My Grandpa built…….
Wow..with a bowl of Cream of Wheat and sorghum I had a stroll down memory lane !!
Now it's time for tea !
Happy Infusions,
#Amish #tea #memories #CreamofWheat #farm #sorghum #breakfast


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Web as Service Platform. Marketing with an SD-logic?
January 4, 2012 1 Comment
Social media: marketing's new wonder channel?
I often hear and read marketers about the opportunities brought along by social media. Now, I don't want to dismiss these opportunities. Those are certainly there. The type of opportunities however are often misunderstood by marketers. They tend to see this as nothing more than a new marketing and communication channel. Consequently, social platforms are tools to push messages towards potential customers. Of course, social can be used for the purpose of lead generation or just mind-blowing advertising, but it won't bring the benefits expected by marketers. My point here is that the 'Web' and the 'social web' in particular ought to be looked at from a Service-Design logic instead of a Good-Design logic. I believe it will help marketers realize there goals by deploying the web and social platforms in the correct manner.
SD-logic versus GD-logic: basic principle
In the industrial age, the dominant logic about economic exchange was based on the exchange of "goods". As a result, a GD-logic focuses on tangible resources, added value and (monetary) transactions. Over time however new perspectives emerged. Those new visions look at intangible resources, co-created value and relationships. This new perspective is commonly known as a SD-logic or service design. I believe that marketing should start thinking from this perspective. A perspective in which service provision is fundamental to economic exchange rather than goods.
Marketing logic: SD-logic versus GD-logic
A GD marketing logic limits marketers in creativity for seeing opportunities in value co-creation with customers and other stakeholders. What's more, this focus on transactional exchange ignores aspects like customer loyalty and puts constraints on developing the lifetime value of the customer for the company at stake. The S-D logic on the other hand broadens the logic of exchange – both socially and economically.The Web and The Social Web from an SD-Logic
The internet and the web are well-known and mostly deployed as a mean to share information. Or: the web is seen as just another marketing communication channel.
That's actually a pity because the web also brings along loads of opportunities for process optimization. And process optimization is often about service design thinking, which I believe is at the core about 'servicing a.k.a. making things easier'.
Improving a business process is making things easier. And what's more, it often means that you build strategic competitive advantages – as you're able to get the same (better) result at lower costs.
To overcome overlooking the options when developing a digital-enabled enterprise and/or marketing strategy, one better investigates and lists down the options for process integration.
Who's in for an exercise on process optimization through the web and the social web?


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You know the story: Blond Italian-American pop diva, music video eminence, and all-round material girl marries a Brit artiste and moves to England. The relationship hits some bumps along the way, but a baby boy ensues and celebrity life keeps on rolling. "It is weird that we have all these similarities," Gwen Stefani allows as she nestles on a couch in one of the many rooms her entourage has taken in London's Landmark hotel in mid-November. With a voice that hovers somewhere between sultry and Kewpie doll, the singer has a knack for sounding about seven years old: "Madonna's had us over to dinner and stuff, and she's always been very nice to me."
Undeniably, there is scale to Madge's assault on the Old Country, everything from the horsey rural estate to the creeping mid-Atlantic accent. Stefani, by contrast, will lose her flat, half-swallowed Californian vowels when hell freezes over, and anyway, she hasn't even truly relocated to England; she and Brit rocker husband Gavin Rossdale have for the past 10 years split their time between the house in London's tony Primrose Hill (neighbors on either side are Jude Law and his ex, Sadie Frost) and a manse in L.A. But if Madonna does it bigger, it is no longer heresy to suggest that musically, Stefani does it every bit as well. After 17 years of fronting the redoubtable rock/ska/reggae band No Doubt (she should make the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on the strength of one immortal break-up tune alone, "Don't Speak"), Stefani took the solo plunge. Her 2004 giddy confection of dance tunes Love. Angel. Music. Baby. went triple platinum. ("I remember telling Madonna I was going to do an '80s dance record," Stefani says, "and she rolled her eyes, because I think when you've lived through it like she did, she's like, 'Whatever.' But a lot of my influence came from her early work, like directly, like a Xerox.") That album spawned one monster single, "Hollaback Girl," a saucy cheerleader chant that taught teenage girls how to spell the word bananas and simultaneously established Stefani's urban street cred as a white suburban rapper comfortable with the "S" word and with pop-hop notables the Neptunes' martial beats.
"Gwen was always dope," says Pharrell Williams, producer and one half of the Neptunes. "If there was an ill black record out there, she knew what it was."
Linda Perry, the songwriter-producer who made Pink into Pink, says she barged her way onto the Stefani solo team by physically accosting the singer at the Grammy Awards in 2004. "I was pokin' on her head," Perry says, "and I was like, 'Dude, you gotta give me a call for the new record.'"
More From ELLE
Just last week, Stefani put the finishing touches on her new solo album, The Sweet Escape, which, if industry buzz and early radio play can be trusted, is poised to make a major impact. Less self-consciously retro than its predecessor, The Sweet Escape employs the same working method as L.A.M.B.: Lock Gwen up in the studio with a blurry succession of dream-team producers all vying for that one megahit (can you spell bananas?), tape everything, toss it up in the air, and see what sticks. A likely recipe for disaster (which No Doubt purists, partial to human beings playing actual drums and bass, may well judge), but it works, mostly due to Stefani's feckless, reckless impulse to try anything that pops into her head. Nothing is more out there than the album's first single and video, "Wind It Up"—typically sinister Neptunes beats and Stefani, backed by a symphony orchestra, singing fragments lifted from The Sound of Music's "The Lonely Goatherd." (Yes, that's right: "High on a hill was a lonely goatherd/ Lay, odl ay odl ay hee hoo.")
"Some people are freaked out by that yodel," Stefani confides. "Either they get it or they don't. But I've always had the fantasy of putting The Sound of Music to a beat. I used to quote all the songs like a geek!" (Pharrell, a famous musical minimalist, was less than convinced, but as he tells me later, "I just rolled with her. I wanted her to be happy.") Stefani's term of art for a tune like "Wind It Up" is a "mash-up," but, if you wanted to go all High Culture on Gwen, Dada would do as well. Marcel Duchamp has nothing on Stefani, whose brain is as adhesive as flypaper, a trap for pop-culture fragments that almost randomly catch and reassemble.
In her own mind, Gwen Stefani is the Cinderella of pop music. At any moment, it seems, the Landmark could turn into a pumpkin. "The hotel maid walked by today," she says, "and she's really pretty and she probably comes from Poland. And here I am about to spend a lot of money on room service and I was thinking, I could have been a maid." Actually, Stefani grew up solidly middle-class in Anaheim, the second of four kids in a tight-knit family headed by folk-music-loving parents (dad Dennis was a Yamaha marketing executive; Patti was an accountant before becoming a full-time mom). Teenage Gwen was mad for clothes and jumped-up Jamaican-rooted ska music, then enjoying one of its periodic revivals. In '87, her older brother, Eric, formed No Doubt and persuaded his bopping little sister to sing in the band and that, aside from a little college on the fly, would be her life: near-constant touring and a steady romance with the band's bassist, Tony Kanal. The Cinderella theme kicked in big time with No Doubt's hit third album, 1995's Tragic Kingdom (Anaheim being home to Disney's Magic Kingdom, after all), which transformed the Southern California party band into a pop/rock juggernaut. By then, Tony and Gwen had broken up (providing the raw material for "Don't Speak") and Eric had decamped to become an animator with The Simpsons. But the band chugged on through 2001's Rock Steady, by which time all four No Doubters were desperate for a break. (Kanal has since emerged as one of Stefani's trusted studio collaborators.) As to whether the success of solo Gwen means the end of No Doubt, Stefani says she hopes not: "I'm looking forward to going back to my little musical family and trying to write a song," she says. But for the tween girls who are the core of her solo fan base, No Doubt, much beloved by young men, would fall squarely into the "No Clue" department.
With hubby Rossdale in L.A. recording with Pharrell, Stefani has turned over the London Primrose Hill house to her parents, visiting from Anaheim and eager, like the rest of her inner circle, to get some quality time with their six-month old grandson, Kingston. ("He's pretty rad," Kingston's mom says.) For nine days, Stefani has moved into the Landmark with a small army of publicists and managers, transforming one of the city's swankier hotels into a field headquarters for the first campaign of a global publicity push behind The Sweet Escape.
"I'm so exhausted," Stefani announces as she walks into her personal assistant's hotel room. But just because Cinderella is in a mood doesn't mean she's a diva. ("The ghastly thing about her is that she is a really decent human being," says her pal Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson.) Fame and talent aside, Stefani is the mall girl next door, one who's very in touch with her emotions. When she's up, she's up, when she's down, she cries easily, and she's particularly sensitive in matters of physical appearance. Trailed from city to city by a retinue of hair and skin and clothes handlers who have become her intimate friends ("They are as obsessive as I am and complete mad hatters," Stefani says), she is still the last word on her high-glam platinum persona that evolved over a decade and a half's worth of music videos. Today, an all-day photo shoot for another project has let her down. "I started with my hard look—my bangs—but the lighting was like Kmart—'Attention shoppers!'—so I had to revise."
Post-photo-shoot debacle, Stefani has changed into a soothingly rich green tracksuit with the logo of her clothing line, L.A.M.B., running down one side in fancy gold script letters. (She has also launched a teen-friendly line, Harajuku Lovers, her homage to the style-conscious Tokyo girls who hang out in the Harajuku shopping district.) "People always say the same things," she tells me. "That I'm smaller than they expected and that I look better in real life. Which is kind of a backhanded compliment."
True enough. The early No Doubt Gwen, the adorable ska kid with a little baby fat, has been updated into a striking 37-year-old woman with angular features and a trim, honed physique. And then there's the hair, which serves as a kind of Stefani mood ring, never more dramatically than in 2000 when she broke up with Rossdale (temporarily) and opted for the startling pink do that graced the cover of No Doubt's Return to Saturn. She's since gone back to Jean Harlow platinum, an over-the-top shade that can be seen to good effect in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, Stefani's chance to play her Hollywood avatar for about three minutes of screen time, hanging off the arm of Leo DiCaprio's Howard Hughes. (The movie experience seems to have slaked her once-ardent film ambitions, but she says, "If Martin Scorsese called me up again....")
Hair color notwithstanding, the past four years have been anything but a cakewalk. After her 2002 marriage to her English rocker, she learned that Rossdale had fathered an illegitimate child, now a teenager. Stefani's lyrics tend to read like blog entries from her own tumultuous Planet Relationship, so fans interpreted "Danger Zone," off her first album, as her stinging retort: "Are your secrets where you left them?/ 'Cause now your ghosts are mine as well." (In this instance, the fans were wrong; the song was written before the revelation, but Stefani would be shocked by its prophetic resonance.)
As for the new album's gorgeously bleak ballad "Early Winter" ("I can't fix what you broke"), it turns out that Tim Rice-Oxley from the band Keane wrote most of the lyrics and, by all accounts, Stefani and Rossdale are in a positive phase of the moon, thank you very much. "But [that song] felt weird," she says. "It felt like I could have lived it and I have lived it. I mean, of course me and Gavin have problems, sometimes. Everyone does. We've been together for over 10 years. This is, like, the real deal." (For more on loving your man in spite of it all, consult "The Real Thing" off L.A.M.B.)
In any event, she adds, it's not like she's going into the studio these days expressly for emotional catharsis. "I'll never be as pure as I was when I wrote Tragic Kingdom," she says. "Once you've had a hit, there's no going back, because it's so addictive. It's a drug. I felt I was going back and getting more Pharrell, 'Hollaback Girl Number 2.'" She giggles. "As you would! It's not like being ambitious is a bad thing. And I wanted [this album] to be now, to be modern. I want it to be in the clubs. No Doubt was never in the clubs. I want to go out and hear that song pumping in the car next to me. I want bass! I want to bump!"
Room service knocks and our tea arrives. "This is perfection," Stefani says. She may be getting the hang of the England thing after all.
The next day, I follow Stefani to the KISS radio station to watch her make nice over the English airwaves. It's an entourage production, but in addition to the usual handlers we get an appearance by the beguiling Kingston Rossdale, who holds court in the waiting lounge under the watchful eyes of his grandparents. "Kingston is so chill," Stefani says. "He goes with me everywhere, 'cause I'm still nursing. He's been to every studio in L.A., New York, London. He lives up to his name—total Rasta boy. He gives me real balance. You can go 100 miles an hour, but you still have to stop to hang out with him." According to Manson, Stefani functions bafflingly well at top speed. "Sometimes you hang out with her and she says, 'Oh God, I had two hours of sleep last night. I was in the studio until 4 a.m. and then up with the baby at 6.' Then she throws a big party at night."
If motherhood is sweet, the pregnancy proved to be an unexpected bitch. "I thought I was going to be one of those Mother Nature girls. I figured, I'll just squeeze it out," she says, "'cause I'm really strong and I work out and stuff." Instead, shortness of breath and a host of other physical ills made the latter part of her L.A.M.B. tour a nightmare. "I would be seriously crying before I went onstage. I didn't know how I was going to get through the tour, putting on nine costume changes on a stage in front of 12,000 people every night. And I didn't want people to know [I was pregnant]. I didn't want it to become the Gwen Freak Circus Show—'Watch it grow onstage.'"
Tonight, gearing up for her Sweet Escape tour, Stefani is looking the furthest thing from maternal, in a skintight sweater and clunky neck chain that I assume is garden-variety hip-hop bling until she sets me straight. It's a key, she says, formed by two back-to-back G's, her "Wind It Up" key that's featured prominently in the video with the yodeling and the lonely goatherd and an allusively related Houdini subplot with a struggling Stefani shackled to a chain fence as if underwater. "In the video," she says, "you can see the key coming out of my mouth. When Houdini used to do his tricks, his wife used to pass the key from her mouth to his mouth. It's the sweet escape. And I was thinking, The key is the music. It all kind of ties up together."
Whatever (as Stefani would say), it makes for a cool video. Her new fans are happy to follow her into the woolliest recesses of her imagination, entranced by the fabulous artifice, by the playful tug-of-war between her Jean Harlow and abs-of-steel personas, and by the evident fact that you can be a mega-pop star without the standard-issue T & A pander (especially about a zillion preteen girls who take their uncomplaining dads to her concerts). Something about Gwen Stefani seems to reconcile opposites—humble celebrity, femme jock, surrealist material girl—and has ever since the early No Doubt days when she was the girl in the guys' band touring the rock dives of America in a van. "I would 'go off' in the mosh pit," she says, "but I was always very glamorous before I dove in."
Joseph Hooper co-author of THE SWIFT DIET: 4 Weeks to Mend the Belly, Lose the Weight, and Get Rid of the Bloat


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Carnival turns New Orleans into a world-class playground, and a couple of new places in the Warehouse District have recently expanded the scope of entertainment options available. By splicing quality food and drink offerings to their primary entertainment, DNA, Fulton Alley and Barcadia up the ante for things to do in the Crescent City while creating new options for private parties and events.
Fulton Alley opened in mid-November 2013. It isn't the first hybrid bowling alley (the venerable Rock 'n' Bowl wears that crown) but the vibe is distinctively different. Posited on the pedestrian-friendly stretch of Fulton Street behind Harrah's Hotel, Fulton Alley puts forward a downtown lounge ambience to go with its primary attraction of bowling – here you'll find Chesterfield sofas flanking the lanes rather than hard plastic benches. An idiot-proof computer takes the hassle out of keeping score, and servers are quick to come around to ensure drinks (or in the case here, craft cocktails) continue to flow.
Principal owners Shawn Barney and Kyle Brechtel brought in chef Mike Nirenberg to handle the cuisine. Formerly chef at Tivoli & Lee, Nirenberg was attracted to the project in part by the ownership group but also because it appealed to him on a personal level. "This is the kind of place that I would want to go to," Nirenberg says. "My food could reach a lot more people and is also more my style. Not quite fine dining but good food in a fun and relaxed atmosphere."
Nirenberg came in on the ground floor, helping to design the kitchen layout as well as hiring the staff and creating the menu. Like Tivoli & Lee, Nirenberg's food emphasizes Southern and regional cuisine, with a few unique caveats tailored to the setting. Given that it's served lane-side, plates are snack-oriented and designed to be shared; basically finger food that doesn't break your focus between frames.
"Everything we do is prep-heavy but fast on the line," Nirenberg explains. His menu is set up so that orders can be finished à la minute and sent out right away, but in a manner that doesn't compromise quality. "We have to be able to execute the food quickly. If it takes too long for our guests to get served it can hurt their bowling experience."
Take the chicken wings, for example. Rubbed with coriander and paprika and smoked ahead of time over hickory and mesquite, when the ticket comes in, the wings get flash-fried to order and sent out with a Crystal hot sauce and blue cheese dressing. The result is a wing that has bold flavor but isn't sauced or greasy, and therefore manageable to eat while rolling.
Unique dishes such as Nirenberg's blackened drum tots stick to the theme of being regional and creative without being stuffy. Nirenberg often ran variations of this favorite finger food during his time at Tivoli & Lee. Here they're bite-size morsels of coarsely chopped spiced fish that come with a tomato aioli dipping sauce.
Also carried over from his prior restaurant is an emphasis on local sourcing. "We don't necessarily write it all over the menu where we get these ingredients from, but we do use Two Run Farm, Covey Rise and Hollygrove Market and Farm, among others," he says. "Pretty much the same contacts I used with Tivoli & Lee I use here." For those with a sweet tooth, try the chocolate and raisin bread pudding beignets – you get a little bite of New Orleans with the bread pudding done up beignet-style with the bourbon sauce on top.
The cocktail side of things is a big part of the attraction as well. Curated by Neal Bodenheimer and Kirk Estopinal of Cure, it leans heavily on small-batch liquor and New Orleans-inspired drinks, yet is less highbrow than some of their other ventures. Exchanging Lanes, their version of the Sazerac, is Nirenberg's pick.
Fulton Alley makes for an excellent option for parties and other special events. It has a decidedly adult vibe, but those under 21 are welcome during "family hours" on Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Just a few blocks away from Fulton Alley is Barcadia, the retro video game nirvana carved out of the ground floor of a parking garage just a block off of Poydras Street. Gamers of a certain age, please take note of the titles available – Tron, Frogger, Spy Hunter and Defender for starters, and the list goes on. Table-style attractions such as air hockey and skee ball are represented as well. Décor is casual and accented by 1950s-era cheesecake pinup art with an overall fun, friendly vibe.
Food offerings are a grab bag of wraps, burgers and deli-style sandwiches. The Manager's Special best represents the latter, with its pastrami and Swiss cheese on marble rye dressed with Abita Andygator-spiked mustard. Their everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach encompasses some curveballs, like a tempura battered and fried peanut butter and jelly dessert sandwich, Korean "pork shanks" done up with Sriracha and a bulgogi marinade and naan (the Indian flatbread) pizza topped with pulled pork, BBQ sauce and cilantro and onion. A french fry submenu offers numerous variations (including one with pastrami and Swiss cheese, should you prefer your deli sandwiches in french fry form).
A standout draft beer menu offers more than 40 options with a full bar for spirits as well. Daily drink specials include enticements such as "Free Play" Tuesday as well as a "Sous Vide Steak Night" on Wednesdays with $2 PBR and $3 Jameson shots. A life-size Jenga game is offered on the patio. Like Fulton Ally, Barcadia is a fun option for parties and private events, and a private game room is available for such functions. Barcadia is open daily from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m., making it a late-night option as well.
Other entertainment options offering a particular focus on food and drink include The Theatres at Canal Place , with its full bar service and a snack-heavy menu c rafted by chef Adolfo Garcia; the number of available theaters has recently expanded. Over on the West Bank, NOLA Motorsports offers clubhouse and catering options from chef Scott Boswell of Stella! and Stanley!. Rock 'n' Bowl is a cl assic as well.
Find Your Playground
Fulton Alley | 600 Fulton St. | 208-5569 | FultonAlley.com
Lunch and dinner daily
Barcadia | 601 Tchoupitoulas St. | 335-1740 | BarcadiaNewOrleans.com
Lunch and dinner daily


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Warn Winch Video
For the fifth consecutive year, Warn winches holds the title of Official Winch of the Ultimate Adventure. Now, this is no ceremonial moniker, Warn is the predominant winch brand on the variety of vehicles that set out to conquer this annual trip. You'll see a couple different styles of Warn winches on the UA this year. Models range from the relatively compact HS9500 found on the front of Fred Perry's custom TJ to the monster 16.5ti installed on Jeff Nasi's M715 support vehicle Ketih Bailey prefers to remain old school with his upright M8000 mounted on the front of his '84 CJ7.
Of those 4x4's, the most important is the Official Vehicle. This year, the staff of 4-Wheel and Off-Road built an old-school rig, a 1975 Chevy K-10. The Ultimate K-10 received not one but two Warn winches to prepare it for the grueling week of the UA and beyond. Up front, a Warn 9.5ti was mounted on an Off-Road Design front bumper assembly along with their 210HB lights. Out back, a 16.5ti is nestled in the floor of the bed underneath the spare tire.
Warn's official entry this year, a '90 Jeep YJ was piloted Warn's own Pat Meiwes. As you can imagine, Pat's Jeep comes resplendent with a variety of Warn product ranging from the winch to the lights and down to the axle shafts. Pat also graced the group with the finer points of winch use, which is always welcome.
For more information, visit the web site at: www.warn.com
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On the face of it, this series seems a simple walkover for two bottom ranked teams headed in opposite directions. Since making a triumphant return to Test cricket by humbling the Bangladeshis and pushing the Pakistanis and New Zealanders, Zimbabwe has been struggling of late across formats. On the other hand, Bangladesh has gone from strength to strength in the past 15 months by somewhat successfully hosting the Bangladesh Premier League, coming within 3 runs of winning the Asia Cup, and an ODI series win against the West Indies plus another series drawn in Sri Lanka, and posting their best Test totals in successive tours. The author previews the tour.
Bangladesh in Zimbabwe: A tour preview
by Asaad Wahid
Published: 17th April, 2013
On the face of it, this series seems a simple walkover for two bottom ranked teams headed in opposite directions. Since making a triumphant return to Test cricket by humbling the Bangladeshis and pushing the Pakistanis and New Zealanders, Zimbabwe has been struggling of late across formats. On the other hand, Bangladesh has gone from strength to strength in the past 15 months by somewhat successfully hosting the Bangladesh Premier League, coming within 3 runs of winning the Asia Cup, and an ODI series win against the West Indies plus another series drawn in Sri Lanka, and posting their best Test totals in successive tours. However easy a prediction might seem on paper, this is an important series for two teams who don't play nearly enough cricket otherwise.
The Birds still haven't played enough matches to make definitive statements about their team, but the recent trends don't look good. In their last 3 Tests - all away matches – Zimbabwe are averaging a disappointing 13.80 with a highest total of just 211. They have managed just 2 individual fifties as a team from 6 completed innings, with a top score of 63.
They have, however, looked far more comfortable at home. Bangladesh will be facing a stiff challenge from multiple fronts. The ZC (Zimbabwe Cricket) have changed the order of the series in order to maximize their home advantage, opting to play the 2 Tests first. The Harare pitches have been re-laid, and one can only expect that they will remain more seam friendly than spin friendly. Bangladesh also have the challenge of confronting their humiliation during their last tour.
Zimbabwe will look towards Brendan Taylor for guidance. He has been their best batsman by some distance in all three formats of the game. While he hasn't been in good form recently, the comfort of playing on home soil should shift the odds in his favor considerably. He can take the game away from Bangladesh if he gets going. Senior batsmen Hamilton Masakadza and Vusi Sibanda will also play a crucial role in the outcome of the game. Sibanda in particular has a strong technique, but has been guilty of throwing away starts throughout his career, as evidenced by the fact that he has just a solitary international century. Masakadza meanwhile needs a strong performance in order to deflect concerns that he is an inconsistent "minnow basher" as well as to solidify his role as a senior statesmen in the team. Sean Williams, the talented left-hander, has also returned to national colors, and made his Test debut in the just concluded series against the West Indies. His batting ability will be invaluable for Zimbabwe's inexperienced side, and he offers part time left arm spin to boot.
Zimbabwe will really miss the injured Tino Mawoyo. Like most of the rest of the lineup, he faltered in their recent tour to the Caribbean, but he also hit their only fifty plus score. With the luxury of a more free-stroking Sibanda at the other end, Mawoyo could have focused on taking the shine off the ball, a feat he exemplified against Pakistan by batting out an entire day to only score 80 runs, and carrying his bat for an astonishing 150 overs. The absence of Craig Ervine continues a disturbing trend of players disenchanted with the ZC and preferring the compensation of overseas club cricket to the fame of internationals. Malcolm Waller lends talent to the middle order, but has not yet justified it with big scores. He will look to break the jinx against Bangladesh's weak bowling attack. Elton Chigumbura makes a return to the preliminary squad, and given his experience and all-round capability may make the selectors think. The downside is that he has disappointed more often than not for the past several years. Other names that will get serious consideration even if they end up missing out are wicket-keepers, Regis Chakabva and Richmond Mutumbami who has impressed in the Logan Cup first class league by leading the run-scorer's tables. Chakabva hasn't grabbed a hold of a roster spot in his limited chances, and thus Mutumbami might earn a Test cap. Pakistani import, Sikander Raza, and Timycen Maruma may also end up featuring in the series.
Fans have been both frustrated and optimistic with the bowling in recent times. The aging Ray Price, long the lone strike bowler in a post-Streak attack finally seems to be nearing the end of a solid career. He was not picked for the limited overs matches and only played in half of the Test series. In his absence, seamer Kyle Jarvis has impressed. He took a crucial 4-wicket haul in the return Test against Bangladesh in 2011, helping his side to a comprehensive win, and has backed that up with five-fors against both New Zealand and West Indies, home and away. While not express, he has just enough pace to be effective when used skillfully. The second seamer's spot will be decided between the incumbent debutant Tendai Chatara and the physically imposing Shingarai Masakadza. Chatara has started his career well with 4 wickets in his debut series, including the dismissal of the dangerous Chris Gayle. It is likely that the seam friendly surface of Harare will see all three of Jarvis, Masakadza, and Chatara in the bowling attack. The only downside of that is that all three are genuine tailenders, increasing pressure on an already fragile batting lineup. Elton Chigumbura offers part time medium pace, though he is not certain to play.
It's fairly certain, that only one specialist spinner will be picked, and it's anyone's guess who that will be. The odds favor Prosper Utseya who played ahead of Price in the most recent match and took 3 wickets as well. Bangladesh would prefer a defensive off spinner like Utseya on a track not expected to be spin friendly. The young leg spinner Graeme Cremer may also be in the mix, although his record to date has been less than pleasing. However, in the event that Price is picked, he is sure to keep things interesting and ruffle some feathers in the opposition camp with his penchant for expressive antics, not to mention exceptionally tight bowling.
For a team likely to be missing its premier specialist batsman, and with a history of poor scoring ability, Bangladesh arrive at Harare with uncharacteristic optimism. Bangladesh now have the discipline to put on big scores frequently. Most of the batsman likes to play strokes, and if the HSC track doesn't offer much movement, then Bangladesh could see themselves to another healthy total.
The absence of star opener Tamim Iqbal - at least for the first Test - will put pressure on the top order, but a similar lineup did score 638 in the recently drawn Galle Test against Sri Lanka. Jahurul Islam has looked good in spurts, but has managed to throw his wicket away when the going gets tough. He will have to reign in his self-destructive tendencies if Bangladesh wants a good start to proceedings. With Anamul Haque also out due to exams, the other opener slot is a question mark but Shahriar Nafees is probably the lead candidate for the job at this time. One-time ace, Mohammad Ashraful, made an unexpected return to the side due to a plethora of injuries and had one of the best series of his stop-start career. He fell agonizingly short of a maiden double ton, and could be looking at this tour as the best opportunity to finally cross that landmark. He was uncharacteristically solid throughout the Sri Lanka tour, and even his harshest critics will hope that this finally marks a turn-around for this former talisman. Mominul Haque, the young left-hander, should retain his spot as he had an excellent start to his Test career in Sri Lanka. He will need to work on his temperament in order to convert the starts he seems to regularly get into more significant contributions. Shakib al Hasan is one of those rare Bangladeshi cricketers who need no introduction and Bangladesh will hope that he is able to pick up exactly where he left off before an unfortunate injury. He is a man who cannot tolerate defeat and is never short on desire and this can only be fortuitous for Bangladesh as they seek to right the humiliation of their last two trips to Zimbabwe.
Mushfiqur Rahim, the skipper, has been criticized for his unassertive approach to captaincy, but one cannot deny his outspokenness and aptitude for managing his boys and maximizing his resources. His batting has also improved since he's taken over as captain, and has played a number of critical knocks in the past two years. As Bangladesh's first double centurion, he will command respect from any attack tasked with bowling to him. Completing the middle order is a couple of batsman with seemingly opposite traits. While Nasir Hossain is green and fearless, Mahmudullah is more experienced and has yet to string together a series of consistently good performances. Riyad in particular struggled in the Sri Lanka Tests, but young Nasir has been a revelation. The only way Mahmudullah will crack a healthy starting XI is in place of Mominul, and that is not warranted based on most recent performance.
This series marks the possibility of a distinct peculiarity for Bangladesh. They might simultaneously suffer from total ineptitude with their seam attack, while also delivering headaches to the opposition by way of their abundant spin resources.
Injuries and lack of depth means that Bangladesh has been forced to recycle some of the same bunch of fast bowlers who have failed to get results in the recent past. Shahadat Hossain seems a shadow of the fellow who once ripped match figures of 9 for 97 against a full strength South Africa side five years ago. He has been picked simply on the back of his history of 4 five-wicket hauls, the most recent of which was nearly three years ago. Since then he has been as feeble as a Chris Martin forward defensive. Rubel Hossain retains his place, and he bowled at a very nippy pace in Sri Lanka, but without much success. If he can get movement with the old ball back, he will become a more dangerous man to face. Robiul Islam also keeps his spot and needs to work on cutting the bad balls out of his repertoire. He can bowl a few wicket-taking deliveries in each spell, but he needs to be more consistent with that. Left-handed pacer Sajidul Islam comes back, almost from nowhere, and if he can bowl with control plus the swing he displayed in New Zealand several years ago, he will be a very handy variation to the attack.
Bangladesh will rely on the spinners, regardless of what sort of track is eventually laid out. It makes perfect sense: it's their strength, and Zimbabwe's weakness. The bowling can contain if not attack, and constrict the flow of runs. Sooner rather than later, a wicket will fall. Shakib has been picked as a specialist batsman for the first Test, however, given his fierce competitiveness; it would not be surprising to see him bowling a fair number of overs, especially if the need arises. He will be tough to score off of, and his guile should earn him a few scalps. Sohag Gazi is the first specialist non-SLA spinner to don a cap for Bangladesh for as long as anyone can remember. Although the HSC tracks aren't expected to assist spin, Gazi could be a handful if there is bounce on offer. Zimbabwe failed to cope with the slight turn and sharp bounce of Shane Shillingford in the West Indies and Gazi could pose similar problems for the hosts. Enamul Haque Jr makes a well-earned comeback after several years on the sidelines. Everyone remembers him for that delivery against Michael Clarke and the fact that he owns Bangladesh's only 10-wicket haul in Tests, when he took 12 for 200 against Zimbabwe in Bangladesh's maiden win. He is an attacking option, and if he gets in the groove, he will be dangerous.
Given the most recent forms of the two sides, Zimbabwe's continual off field problems, and Bangladesh's latest history in the country, this marks a series Bangladesh cannot afford to lose. They must continue the good work and build upon the momentum of the previous year. Bangladesh have made strides as a team by crossing 550 totals twice in recent months, home and away. Several batsmen have made career best scores in the process. What's more is that much of that has been done without their best known batsmen, Tamim and Shakib. Confidence is high, but Bangladesh must be vigilant against complacency. Bowling remains a serious concern, but with the return of Shakib, Bangladesh must believe they can win every game on this tour.
Anything less will be interpreted as failure back home, and a total lack of improvement abroad.
About the author(s): Asaad Wahid is a distinguished member of Banglacricket forum and he goes by the nick al Furqaan.
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YaVaughnie's Revenge: Billboarded Executive Out at Morgan Stanley
Charles Phillips is leaving the board at Morgan Stanley after four years. Chalk up a win for YaVaughnie Wiliams, the mistress—and ex Morgan Stanley intern—who used billboards to expose her eight-year affair with the executive.
Phillips won't seek re-election to Morgan Stanley's board, where he sits on the nominating and governance committees, according to an SEC filing by the investment bank, spotted by Bloomberg. Although he's admitted the longtime affair publicized via billboards across the country, Phillips remains co-president at Oracle, a member of the board there, at Viacom and at the White House, where he is on the president's advisory panel for economic recovery. The fallout is probably limited to Morgan Stanley because of the company's connection to the affair: We were told Phillips was an executive there when he met Wilkins, then interning for famed tech analyst Mary Meeker (see the latter half of this post). Of course, there's also the question of company culture. Something tells us Oracle's infamous playboy CEO Larry Ellison didn't get too riled up about his underling's philandering.


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Life Sciences Control of Suppliers and Own Brand Labeling Training
Suppliers of goods and services are critical to most medical device legal manufacturers, whether they supply a key sub-assembly or design and manufacture the whole device.
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The training includes case studies and group work, which can be based on client devices and situations in the case of in-house training.
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GNOME 3: A desktop that brings a certain level of ire to the hearts and minds of many a Linux user. When this desktop first arrived, my opinion was fairly high. Why? It was new, fresh, and seemed like it could easily take the desktop world by storm. But then the developers stopped listening to the users and things seemed to fall apart.
It's been a while, since last I condemned the GNOME 3 desktop to obscurity, so I thought I needed to revisit the topic and give the one-time king of the open source desktop another chance. Believe it or not, I was quite pleasantly surprised at what I found.
I've made it abundantly clear, I'm a fan of Ubuntu Unity. It's a refreshing change that actually can help make desktop computing far more efficient. Unity and GNOME 3 hold a number of similarities, but just enough differences to set them very much apart.
I installed GNOME 3 on two very different machines. Both machines were running Ubuntu 12.10. The first machine was a low-end desktop that would bog down after a given period (using Unity). The laptop, on the other hand, had plenty of power to run either.
Initial impressions
Take into consideration, I had been using Unity for quite some time — so I was incredibly comfortable with the design and the change. I had also previously used GNOME 3, which means the environment wasn't a complete unknown.
Installation was quite simple:
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-gnome-desktop ubuntu-gnome-default-settings
I made sure to retain the LightDM login manager (as I preferred that to GDM). That was it. I was ready to revisit the land of GNOME, flavored 3.6.
If you are a user of Unity — there's very little to report. Here's what GNOME 3 has:
- Activities View: Click the "Super" key (Windows key) to reveal the launcher, your current windows, pager, system tray (Figure A)
- Desktop-wide search: Open up the activities view and type a search string to reveal applications and files.
- Integrated messaging: Connect to your Facebook and Google accounts (I have yet to find the means to integrate Twitter)
- Powerful extension system: Extend the experience of GNOME 3 with easy to install extensions.
Figure A
What GNOME 3 does not have (in reference to Ubuntu Unity):
- Head Up Display
- Always-visible launcher
- Web-integrated search
Now, if you look at the above list, you might see somewhat of a theme. Minus the always-visible launcher, the two things GNOME 3 does NOT have are the two things many Unity users gripe about the most. There has been a big stink about the web-integrated search for some time, and the HUD (which I happen to really like) gives many people more of a headACHE than a headUP.
As far as performance is concerned, I have to say that GNOME 3 wins hands down. I have a feeling this is due to Unity still relying on Compiz; whereas, GNOME 3 uses Mutter. The performance gains with Mutter are noticeable. Not only are the effects cleaner, the transitions are smoother.
After using GNOME 3 as my primary desktop for a week, I just can't figure out why everyone is so up in arms about this desktop. I understand the majority of users do not like change. But change is inevitable. And with the enormously popular mobile platforms, users have started growing accustomed to various interface metaphors.
My fear is that this push backwards to GNOME 2 will be yet another factor keeping Linux on the desktop. Let me explain. When I first started using Linux (back in '96) I was put off by how out of date the interface looked. It wasn't until I discovered AfterStep that I realized I could have the power of Linux, yet have a sexy desktop interface. It was important to me then and it's important to consumers now. If Linux is going to achieve any success with the modern desktop user, it has to advance. Both Unity and GNOME 3 are doing just that. Both are solid interfaces that help to focus the user (in a modern-looking manner) on the work — not the interface.
After this week-long experiment, I came up shrugging. I simply can't figure out why the ire is focused so strongly on GNOME 3. GNOME, KDE, and Unity are doing everything they can to modernize the Linux desktop — and I applaud them for their efforts. All three desktops have done a great job of making Linux not only more user-friendly, but surpassing the innovation and look of any other desktop.
I also am fully aware that there are many people out there who simply do not want to let go of the familiar and the simple. I don't blame them for that — and I think Linux is the perfect place for them. For anyone that shrugs off change, Linux will always offer the ability to maintain what you know and what works best for you.
But for the future, and future generations of Linux users, GNOME 3 (Unity and KDE) is the desktop. I would entreat each and every Linux-friendly reader out there to install the latest GNOME 3 and give it a try. It's come a long way from the beginnings of the third major iteration — you might be surprised at how much you can get done (and enjoy working with) this desktop.


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When the snow flies, armloads of greens from Coveyou Scenic Farm in the Petoskey hills overlooking Walloon Lake are turned into holiday wreaths and centerpieces. In this video Kathy Coveyou gets us up close and personal with their evergreen operation.
Click to read an interview with David and Kathy Coveyou about what it is like to live and work on their family farm near Petoskey.


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MacNeice, Louis
MacNeice, Louis məknēs´ [key], 1907–63, Irish poet b. Belfast. Educated at Oxford, he became a classical scholar and teacher and later was a producer and traveled the world for the British Broadcasting Corporation. In the 1930s MacNeice allied himself with a group of poets of social protest led by W. H. Auden. His later poetry, written in a wide variety of verse forms, frequently expresses the loneliness and futility of modern life, while retaining the sparkling wit, ironical flatness of statement, the frequent theme of love, and the fluently colloquial tone of his earlier verse. His volumes of poetry include Poems, 1925–1940 (1940), Springboard (1945), Holes in the Sky (1948), Ten Burnt Offerings (1952), and Solstices (1961). He also rendered poetic translations of Aeschylus' Agamemnon (1936) and Goethe's Faust (1951).
See his Strings Are False: An Unfinished Autobiography (1966, repr. 2007); Collected Poems, ed. by E. R. Dodds (1967) and Collected Poems, ed. by P. MacDonald (2013); Letters of Louis MacNeice, ed. by J. Allison (2010); biography by J. Stallworthy (1995); studies by W. T. McKinnon (1971), D. B. Moore (1972), T. Brown (1975), R. Marsack (1982), P. MacDonald (1991), E. Longley (1996), and F. Brearton and E. Longley, ed. (2012).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: English Literature, 20th cent. to the Present: Biographies


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Monday, 10 April 2017 08:45 AM EDT
Just a bit of vigorous exercise each day could help some children and teens reduce their risk of developing heart problems and diabetes, researchers say.
The new study looked at nearly 11,600 kids, aged 4 to 18, in the United States, Brazil and Europe.
The investigators found that replacing light exercise with as little as 10 minutes a day of intense activity may provide significant cardiometabolic benefits for young people who have relatively large waists and elevated levels of insulin in their blood. These are factors that put them at risk for developing heart problems and metabolic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes.
"The results suggest that substituting modest amounts of vigorous physical activity for longer-duration light exercise may have cardiometabolic benefits above and beyond those conveyed by moderate activity and the avoidance of sedentary behavior," lead author Justin Moore said.
Moore is an associate professor of family and community medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C. He noted that more research is needed because additional factors that contribute to disease risk -- such as diet and genetics -- need to be taken into account.
"If such studies provide robust results, a relatively brief but intense dose of physical activity -- perhaps as little as 10 minutes day, which is certainly feasible for most youth -- could turn out to be part of a 'prescription' for children to achieve or maintain cardiac and metabolic health," Moore said in a medical center news release.
The study was published recently in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
© HealthDay
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text: A Batman fan is spending $2 million to create a cinema in his home that looks exactly like the batcave. The 12,000 square foot cinema includes full bat suits, a bat mobile, 180 degree bat screen (film screen), gargoyles, secret tunnels, and bat computers. These 3D images are what the cinema will look like when completed in November. Amazing.


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Americana's Underbelly: Times Square Mickey Mouse Edition
America! A land in which our most treasured popular cultural symbols are just candy coating for our other, far darker cultural symbols. Maybe Mickey Mouse is worth a shit, after all.
Have you ever come to NYC as a tourist and visited Times Square? Fuck you. But that's a separate issue. Anyhow, in Times Square you see Elmo and Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse and a host of other characters parading around in costume, taking pictures with the kiddies for spare change. Today in the WSJ, Sumathi Reddy and Amber Benham have an extremely worthwhile story about the people—actual humans!—on the inside of those costumes. They're all immigrants! Some are undocumented! Many do not even speak English! Elmo is just trying to make it. Meet the backbone of your Mickey Mouse Industrial Complex, America:
"When I'm dressed up, people come close to me, they hug me, they kiss me, smile at me," Mr. Vasquez said in Spanish as he worked at the corner of Broadway and West 48th Street recently [dressed as Mickey Mouse]. "When I don't have my costume on, people don't talk to me."
"They don't see you," added the 42-year-old.
We're all terrible people. Read it all.


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Heart Embroidery & Giveaway
I found another use for freezer paper - negative space embroidery!
Cut your linen or other fabric a bit larger than what you will need for your project. Cut out a shape with freezer paper and iron it, shiny side down, to your fabric.
Select a few shades of embroidery floss and thread three strands of your first color onto an embroidery needle. Make tiny stitches around the shape, closer together near the shape, and farther apart as you get away from it.
Once you get all the way around, repeat with your second color, and so on.
Remove your freezer paper & voila! If you don't have enough stitches to make the design appear, you can iron the shape back on and add a few more stitches.
Now you can use it for a little zippie pouch or something else fun!
You may have seen a glimpse of another embroidery project:
Rachael at imagine gnats asked me to be a tester for her new embroidery patterns! I couldn't even wait until she had instructions ready, so I used her pattern and my own plan for stitches. I just love this little superhero of love!
Rachael has graciously agreed to give one reader their choice of valentine embroidery pattern! So leave a comment and let me know if you'd pick this sweet girl or the boy. It will be delivered via email as a pdf.
And, just so we all can be a winner, Rachael has an amazing assortment of valentine printables, free for us all! Go take a look here or here or her free flickr set.
Thanks for reading, have a wonderful weekend!
xo - Courtney


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Hello guys :)
I never thought I'd settle on this idea, but the theme for my first card challenge is OPPOSITES :)
And it's not just about love or people's characters; everything and anything that has an opposite goes: light/dark, good/evil, love/hate, right/wrong, sun/moon, day/night, white/black [or other colors] etc. The idea can be expressed either by the picture you use, the quote/words or both.
The rules are pretty simple:
~ Please limit the images to anime/manga, provide the link if possible, and mention if the quote belongs to someone famous or comes from a song.
~ Yaoi/yuri is very much allowed.
~ Follow theO's guidelines.
~ 2 submissions per person.
And there will also be some prizes :)
~ First place: One card request + 5 gifts
~ Second place: 5 gifts
~ Third place: 3 gifts
Sorry if they aren't much, but I still hope you'll enter my challenge and do your best ^^. Oh and everyone that enters gets a gift [just for making me happy by entering :P]
If you have any question, feel free to ask. You have one month so good luck and I look forward to your cards ^^
Edit: Thank you everyone for all your lovely submissions ^^
Thank you everyone for all your lovely submissions ^^
It was no easy job choosing the winners, you all did such a good work, I really wish I had more golden medals >_<
Oh and I've sent your well-deserved gifts, but if some problem occurs and you haven't received them, please PM me and I'll gladly sent them again.
So that's it for now ^^. Hope I'll be seeing your entries in my next challenges as well :)