text: Desperate US offers 25,000 dollars for missing State Department laptop http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/article.html?s=asia/headlines/000810/world/afp/Desperate_US_offers_25_000_dollars_for_missing_State_Department_laptop.html Thursday, August 10 4:20 AM SGT WASHINGTON, Aug 9 (AFP) - Apparently frustrated and desperate for leads after months of fruitless investigation, the United States on Wednesday announced a 25,000-dollar reward for the return of a missing State Department laptop computer containing classified information. "At this point in the investigation, it was time to put out a reward of 25,000 dollars if anybody can identify the machine and bring it to us," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. FBI and department security agents who have been on the trail of the laptop since it was reported missing in January, had been quietly spreading word of the reward since May but it had not widely known until Wednesday, he said. 1. The laptop went missing in January. That is *eight* months ago. In that time, the laptop could be anywhere in the world, destroyed, formatted, etc. It could be sitting in the state department, resold back to them for all they know. 2. No offer of immunity with this reward. If the person who stole it still has it, an offer of immunity from prosecution on this crime might lead them to return it, especially if they cough up the reward. Who is most likely to know where the laptop is... 3. Why isn't there a reward for the capture/prosecution/lynching of the *moron* who left this type of information unencrypted, then allowed the laptop to be stolen. I think it safe to say the laptop wasn't stolen off his/her desk at work. Fliers and posters describing the computer -- "a black Dell laptop with a five-digit serial number ending in the letter 'Q' located on a sticker in the back near the ports," according to Boucher -- were being posted in pawn shops and computer stores around the country, he said. 4. Ooh, this narrows it down a bit! Why didn't the auditing/accounting division of the state department have a full serial number? What model was the laptop? The description above is plenty vague. Boucher brushed aside questions about whether such a description of the computer might not alert otherwise ignorant spies or criminals to the laptop's importance. "If people with nefarious goals took it, they they probably know what they've got already," he said. 5. And if not.... they have alerted every spook in the world to the importance of the information contained on it. Good move. "If people thought they were just swiping a laptop or pawning it or fencing it or whatever, it doesn't really matter to them what's on it and this reward might induce them to look at the laptops and turn it over." Maybe eight months ago when it was fresh in their minds. If this was a simple theft for hardware, do you think the perp will remember such details? "Oh wow, that matches the description of the 18th laptop I stole this year from that car in back of the strip club..." The State Department has never revealed the type of information contained on the missing computer, but some reports have said it includes extremely senstitive data about nuclear weapons and arms control issues. And this information was stored on anything less than a strong encrypted file system with solid security measures in place?! Screw the thief. Convict the state department morons that let this happen.


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if you post photos of your Frenchie and are friends with a bunch of buff, shirtless dudes, Facebook might figure out you're gay. Then again, so may the whole world.
This groundbreaking discovery is brought to us by students at MIT, where a study dubbed "Project Gaydar" has used sophisticated algorithms to figure out who's gay based on the online connections displayed on social networks.
MIT undergraduates Carter Jernigan and Behram Mistree discovered that gay men had proportionately more gay friends than straight men, a trend that could be subjected to rigorous statistical analysis. A similar study of Dogster, a social network for canines and their owners, accurately predicted dogs' breeds.
Put these together and maybe we'd be able to out pet owners based on what they walk to the park.
Aside from the Internet-era twist of drawing data from social networks, Jernigan and Mistree's study isn't that surprising. Sociologists have a name for the commonplace observation that birds of a feather flock together. They call it -- wait for it, wait for it -- the "homophily principle." Ba-dum-bum.
Online hysterics are calling the study "homophobic," predictably if tiresomely. Some worry that this will lead to employees being fired because of their sexual orientation. Of course, one might theorize that the problem there isn't overly revealing social networks but insufficient legal protections for gay and lesbian employees.
Facebook is sanguine about the study's conclusions. "In general, it's not too surprising that someone might make inferences about someone else without knowing that person based on who the person's friends are," spokesman Simon Axten told the Boston Globe. "This isn't specific to Facebook and is entirely possible in the real world as well."
In other words, the problem isn't that someone might figure out you're gay from online data. It's what they do about that information that can cause trouble -- or not.

subset: commoncrawl


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"We should all start to live before we get too old. Fear is stupid. So are regrets." —Marilyn Monroe
Working for myself was always on my bucket list but I never felt prepared enough. How would I know when the time was right? What could I do to make make the transition easier? Week after week, I held onto my stable, well-paying job, afraid of making a wrong move.
After all, from the outside, it looked like I had it made. I constantly asked myself why it was so important that I set out on my own. I had a great career with as part of a brand team working with huge, recognizable companies and I was petrified to leave it all behind. Part of my fear stemmed from my background. I'd grown up in a family where my parents always had traditional, 9 to 5 jobs. I valued stability and set routines. Stepping into a life of freelancing meant that I was signing up for the great unknown.
I saw other people freelancing full time and they seemed to be doing okay but what if I wasn't as savvy at finding new clients as them? What if I completely failed at my dream? The "what if's" never slowed down.
Then, one day my friend invited me to a small business class. One of the activities centered around facing our fears. We were each told to take out a sheet of paper and spend a few minutes writing out our worst case scenarios.
Most of mine centered around not having enough client work. My worst case scenario was asking for my old job back or going out and finding a stable, corporate job for awhile. I stared down at the list and almost laughed out loud. My worst case scenarios weren't bad at all. What was I waiting for?
Next, we were instructed to place that list of fears in a Ziploc bag, zip it closed, take it home and put it on a shelf.
My fears were now out of sight and out of mind.
Once I had that reality check, I realized how much time I'd wasted worrying about tiny things that in the grand scheme of life really weren't a big deal.
Less than 6 months later, I gave my notice. That was over 2 years ago.
Of course, there have been ups and downs but I've been fine. My business has nearly doubled over the last year and now I have the freedom to set my own schedule. I definitely work harder but I also see the direct payoff of satisfied clients and new opportunities. Was it worth giving up my stable routine? Yes, absolutely.
Here are 5 tips to prepare for the transition to freelancing:
1. Set up a designated workspace now.
Even if you're 6 months out from quitting your full time job, having a designated workspace will help you get more comfortable with the reality of your new path. It's okay if your desk is in the corner of your bedroom. Set a schedule, whether it's mornings, nights or weekends and get to work. How does it feel? What can you do to make your spot feel more official? Buy plants, artwork and matching office supplies to help you get in the zone. Need some inspiration? Here's my old home office!
2. Save a minimum of 6 months of expenses.
There's nothing worse than feeling desperation set in because you didn't save enough money. A serious safety net will make it possible to focus on putting out your best work without the imminent fear of starving or getting evicted. Save, save, save! And then, save some more. Money isn't everything but it does give you the luxury of saying no to opportunities you know aren't a good fit.
3. Have your portfolio and website ready to go.
These both take a lot of time to get together so you may have to set some goals long before you give your notice. If you don't have a budget for a custom web design, that's okay. Work with what you have and you can always upgrade later. My first pro portfolio was on Cargo Collective and it worked great. Squarespace is another option. You never know who is going to stumble across your work. Both Forever 21 and Virgin Records hired me based on work I'd posted online.
4. Network like it's your full-time job.
The easiest path to freelance success is to build up your network of creative peers and clients. To get started, do as much free marketing as you can on social media — my favorite platforms to share work on are Instagram, Dribbble, Pinterest and Twitter. I also still find blogging to be really valuable because it allows me to go deeper and share more of the process and story behind each project. Once you're making some decent money, invest in in-person events. There are dozens to choose from but I've had the best results with Designer Vaca. Finding the right mix of networking opportunities takes some trial and error but the point is that you're making an effort to connect.
5. Set up contract opportunities.
Freelancing doesn't feel as intimidating when you have a backup plan. When I first started freelancing years ago, any time I had a slow period, I reached out to placement agencies like Aquent and 24 Seven. It's in their best interest to place you because they earn a commission. They want you to be happy so you stay put! Between the two, I always had a steady stream of work. While I only work with my own clients these days, I'm still great friends with my agent, Dan and know he's just a call away.
I know firsthand how scary it can be stepping out on your own. Being your own boss is no joke! But through my own journey, I've also realized that you have two choices in life: you can either keep holding yourself back or you can ask yourself what your worst case scenario is.
Is it really that bad?
If it isn't, you know what you need to do.
Your turn: Are you thinking about freelancing full-time? What scares you the most?
For even more Creative Chronicles, please click here.
Photo: Shell De Mar.


text: jonb 1 Posted August 7, 2014 Not easy for new user.. Reply to this post? Spent time trying to figure out how to add a post..Must improving here.Regi Agreed - I'm trying to post in the classified forum. All I seem to be able to do is reply to someone else's classified (not sure I should be hijacking another classified ad with my gear) and I have a 'you cannot start a new topic' notice towards top right corner. I've searched every string I can think of with no joy. Unable to find the contact wetpixel form referenced somewhere, and cant seem to find a newbie forum help type thread where I can ask a question. Any help out there? Cheers, jonb Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


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(51-150 employees)
- Members choose a contracting medical group/independent practice association from one of the largest HMO networks in the state.
- There's no annual deductible and generally no claim forms.
- Copay levels are low.
Members also enjoy access to a range of benefits when care is provided/coordinated through their primary care provider (PCP).
- Doctor office visits
- Preventive care and wellness services for children and adults such as:
o Routine physicals
o Immunizations
o Tests and screenings for breast and cervical cancer, prostate and colon cancer
- Outpatient surgery and diagnostic tests
- Outpatient and inpatient hospital services and treatments
- Maternity care
- Mental health and substance abuse (inpatient and outpatient)*
- Rehabilitative therapy (such as physical, speech and occupational)
Other coverage that does not require a PCP referral includes:
- Emergency care
- Out-of-area coverage (traveling/temporarily living out of state)
- Substance abuse treatment (inpatient and outpatient)
- Vision exams at the cost of an office visit copay; discounts on lenses, frames and permanent contact lenses; disposable contact lenses and vision correction surgery
- Discounts on hearing aids
- Discounts on chiropractic care, acupuncture, massage therapy and health and wellness products
- Prescription drug card benefit with 90-day supply program for maintenance medications
*Members of Physicians Care Network, Inc. coordinates mental health care directly with the behavioral health network provider.
Network Choices
Qualifying employers can offer employees one or both Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois HMO networks. Having more network options gives you greater flexibility to design the health care benefits that suit your budget — and are affordable and attractive to employees.
Depending on the group size they can offer:
- BlueAdvantage HMOSM - A broad provider network of contracting medical groups/independent practice associations and contracting hospitals at a more affordable cost.
- HMO Illinois® - One of the largest networks of primary care physicians (PCPs) and hospitals in the state at a higher cost.
Check with your Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois representative to determine which package is the best fit for your client, or visit the Contact Us page for the number of a Producer Service Center near you.


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Cowboys take creativity to new level
Cowboys are nothing if not ingenious. It takes that sort of out-of-the-box mentality to allow them to solve the myriad of problems that arise when you combine horse, cow and rope.
In the northeastern Montana country, Jim and Norvell (aliases) were backtracking one fall after the gather. By noon they cut the fresh sign of a bull.
A good cowboy can distinguish bull tracks. It's like comparing an elephant's foot to a crow's foot. They spotted him out in the open and eased up on him. He was a short-tempered, hostile, territorial, man-eating ruler of the range.
Sometimes driving a bull toward civilization is like pushing a bale of straw through a net wire fence. The further our cowboys went zig-zagging from juniper copse to rocky ridge to slippery cut bank, the madder he got.
In a move worthy of a military strategist, the bull dove into a wash thick with choke cherries, box elder and buffalo berries … and disappeared. Our brave cowboys dove in after him as the brush tore at their down jackets and slashed their faces. After 10 minutes of following the bull through this Montana version of a corn maze, they regrouped.
Had they been soldiers they would have called in an air strike but … using their cunning, they decided to build a trap. In one narrow cow tunnel they draped a loop across the path and tied the standing end of the rope to a box elder trunk. Eureka! On the first pass through the trap they caught him.
Then a second rope was put around his neck and tied to a trunk 15 feet further down the trail. The first loop was then untied and leap frogged past the second. Five more jumps brought the bull within sight of the clearing where our imaginative vaqueros intended to back the trailer and load him.
Jim, now afoot, managed to loop the bull's head for the last leap-frog.
By now the bull was frothing, breathing like a steam engine and wild-eyed. Jim dropped to his hands and knees scuttling toward the final tying spot when he heard the bull bellow, the sound of thundering hooves, and branches breaking. The earth trembled. Jim didn't look back.
The impact put him in orbit. He was catapulted from the thicket like a monkey shot out of a cannon.
To his everlasting good fortune, just as the bull's poll hit Jim's hip pocket, the rope came tight. The bull crashed and flipped. Jim hit the ground minus one boot and the left sleeve of his jacket. His hat was down over his ears.
Not exactly out of the Beef Quality Assurance manual for handling cattle. Although I'd like to see it included … fully illustrated.


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It's been three years, as of Tuesday, since Congress last raised the federal minimum wage. And many advocates for the poor say that with low-wage workers struggling, it's time to do it again.
A group of prominent liberal-leaning economists including Joseph Stiglitz, Jeffrey Sachs, Laura Tyson, and Robert Reich sent a letter Monday to congressional leaders urging them to raise the minimum wage from its current level of $7.25 per hour to $9.80 by 2014. "At a time when persistent high unemployment is putting enormous downward pressure on wages, such a minimum wage increase would provide a much-needed boost to the earnings of low-wage workers," the group wrote.
Stiglitz is a former chief economist for the World Bank, Sachs runs Columbia University's Earth Institute, Tyson served as President Clinton's top economic adviser, and Reich served as Clinton's Labor Secretary.
Sen. Tom Harkin and Rep. George Miller, Democrats from Iowa and California respectively, have introduced measures to raise the minimum wage to $9.80. But President Obama hasn't made the issue a priority. Mitt Romney, meanwhile, has twisted himself in knots on the subject, first saying he supports indexing the minimum wage to inflation, then backing down after an outcry from conservatives.
A coalition of liberal and labor groups is organizing rallies Tuesday in support of a raise, in 30 cities across the country. Some rallies will target companies owned by Bain Capital, the private-equity firm founded by Romney.
A raise wouldn't just benefit the roughly 20 million American workers who make the current minimum, supporters argue. "Another nearly 9 million workers whose wages are just above the new minimum would likely see a wage increase through 'spillover' effects, as employers adjust their internal wage ladders," the economists wrote in the letter to Congress.
Advocates of a raise note that the value of the minimum wage has steadily declined in recent decades. In 1968, it was worth over $10 in 2012 dollars, almost one third more than it is today, according to the chart below, which was compiled by the National Employment Law Project (NELP), a labor-backed group.
Opponents argue that the move would raise the cost of hiring for employers, especially small businesses, exacerbating the unemployment problem. But in their letter, organized by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal Washington think tank, the economists noted that "the weight of evidence now show[s] that increases in the minimum wage have had little or no negative effect on the employment of minimum wage workers, even during times of weakness in the labor market."
Indeed, they added, a raise would likely stimulate the economy and boost job growth, because low-income workers have little choice but to spend new income, rather than save it.
In addition, new data compiled by NELP (pdf) show that two out of three low-wage workers are employed not by small businesses but by large corporations. Most such corporations have recovered from the Great Recession and are in strong financial positions, NELP's data show.


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Story highlights
Two boys, ages 9 and 12, were found shot dead in Jackson, Ohio, on Wednesday
The coroner says the incident was a homicide-suicide
But it is not known whether the deaths were accidental or intentional
Boys lived with grandparents, were unsupervised when the shooting occurred, coroner says
The gunshot wounds to two Ohio boys found dead in their grandparents' home are consistent with a homicide-suicide, a coroner said Friday.
The two boys, who were half-brothers, were found Wednesday in Jackson, Ohio, about 75 miles south of Columbus. They were identified as Austin Wiseman, 12, and Blake Campbell, 9.
Both boys suffered gunshot wounds to the head.
Read: Before the play date, the gun talk
The nature of the wounds and the bullets in their bodies indicated that the killings were a homicide-suicide, but it is not known whether they were accidental or intentional, said Dr. Gregory Hawker, the Jackson County coroner.
"We can't tell – we might not ever know," he said.
Family and friends have suggested that the older boy accidentally shot his younger brother and then was overcome with grief and turned the gun on himself, but there is no way to prove that forensically.
"Authorities have taken the older boy's computer to make sure there's no indication of ill intent," Hawker said. The older boy had become obsessed with guns in the last few weeks, he said.
The boys lived with their grandparents and were unsupervised when the shooting happened, he said.
The shooting occurred in an upstairs bedroom.
"That's crazy to think two young boys are dead, and no one knows anything about it," neighbor Michael Hatley told CNN affiliate WSAZ.


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DAVID GELERNTER (lifestreams.com) wrote an article in Wired 02.01.13 with a very definitive title:
The End of the Web, Search, and Computer as We Know It
' … today, the most important function of the internet is to deliver the latest information, to tell us what's happening right now. That's why so many time-based structures have emerged in the cybersphere: to satisfy the need for the newest data. Whether tweet or timeline, all are time-ordered streams designed to tell you what's new.' …' By adding together every timestream on the net — including the private lifestreams that are just beginning to emerge — into a single flood of data, we get the worldstream: a way to picture the cybersphere as a whole. No one can see the whole worldstream, because much of the information flowing through it is private. But everyone can see part of it.
This future doesn't just kill the operating system, browser, and search as we know it — it changes the meaning of "computer" as we know it, too. Whether large or small (e.g., a smartphone), a computer's main function in the near future will be tuning in to — as a car radio tunes in a broadcast station — the constantly flowing global cyberflow. We won't care much about the computer devices themselves since we'll be more focused on the world of information … and our lives as attached to it.'
Trivial, revolutionary? A Fact to be considered!
Given all the already existing stream aggregators like Squirro, netvibes, Flipboard, Google Currents etc. etc. does this not sound quite trivial? May be, but it's a fact to be considered in designing information sites. What's the role of static websites, RSS feeds, SEO, linked twitter accounts and all the social media in the context of this (not so) new user behaviour?
Will we use in the future mainly virtual websites built on (semantic) searches adapted to our interests … and going to specific websites only (and rarely) when there's a need to dig deeper? Challenging situation!


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New Features
- Docker Hub integration: the Docker engine installed can now sign in to a Docker Registry or Docker Hub with specified credentials.
- Docker Compose support: the extension will create the predefined set of containers on Docker using docker-compose.
- Advanced Configuration: You can now pass an arbitrary list of command line arguments to the Docker daemon started on the Virtual Machine.
Deprecation Plan
- Old extension is:
- New extension is:
- The old extension will be removed from the system on Dec 1st, 2015.
- New deployments of the old extension are expected to fail after this date.
- Existing Virtual Machines with the old extension deployed will keep working.
Migration GuideUsers of the old Docker Extension are highly recommended to migrate to the new one as soon as possible. If you have been using
azure vm docker create command line tool, please update the version of Azure CLI to v0.9.5+ and you will be transparently using the new Docker Extension.
If you have been using Azure REST API or Azure Resource Manager templates, please read the User Guide of the new Docker Extension to learn more about the configuration schema. The schema of the new extension has slightly changed and contains breaking changes. You can find example ARM templates here and here.
- Docker VM Extension User Guide
- Source code for Docker VM Extension on GitHub
- Other Azure VM Extensions and Features


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Right after I swapped my SuperDrive to second internal HDD I was graving to move my 20 GB Boot Camp partition to the other drive and make it bigger, so that I don't have to carry another USB disk for my games.
UPDATE: From the comments it seems that on Mountain Lion 10.8.2 you do NEED rEFIt for the Windows partition to be visible in Boot Menu.
UPDATE 2: I have confirmed lately that the official Boot Camp Assistant method does work on MacBook Pro Retina (Mid 2012) with OS X 10.8.2 (12C3012) on it. So if your Mac came without SuperDrive from the Factory, try the official method first.
UPDATE 3: @Jorge_Rui posted excellent step-by-step instructions down in the comments on how he got it working. Take a look.
What didn't work
You can skip to Success Story if you are not curious. Also, YMMV, so if my method does not work, you can try one of these and see if you have success with them.
USB-booting installer
First I tried to fake Boot Camp Assistant to create bootable USB stick, but that did not boot for some reason. Also, booting from USB-DVD did not work. Then I used Virtual Box to fully install Windows on physical partition and that did not show up in the boot menu either. With all of these options I also combined rEFIt to no avail.
EFI, rEFIt and File Vault 2
Intel Macs have been using EFI instead of BIOS for booting up the system since the beginning. If Boot Camp dual-booting is not enough for you, there is the rEFIt alternative boot manager that gives you more power over boot options. But it turns out that although rEFIt installs without any complaints, it fails to load from File Vault 2 encrypted partition, which is understandable as I haven't yet provided my passkey.
So, running out of options, I decided to decrypt my partition, which I'd have had to do anyway sometime to be able to resize the encrypted partition over the previous Boot Camp partition (Disk Utility is not able to resize encrypted partitions). I still had rEFIt installed and I retried some of previous failed attempts, including booting from USB, but still no effect. Finally I noticed that I had actually two boot loaders – Mac's own Option-key triggered menu and then the rEFIt that was installed on the primary Mac OS X partition. While most of the time Mac menu didn't show me anything besides primary partition and Recovery HD, rEFIt showed me Windows partition (sometimes two of them pointing to the same partition), but was not able to boot from them (giving different errors from EFI failures to Windows complaining that winload.exe is missing or corrupt). In the end I removed rEFIt altogether.
The Success Story
OK, enough of the failures. What ended up working was a variant of the Virtual Machine method, that used Virtual Box to make the partition bootable and then copy over the installation files to that partition. Unfortunately I can not find the original post that lead me to the idea, but it was probably somewhere in this thread.
Note: At this point I had tried multitude of setups already and I can't be sure that all of the steps below are necessary nor that all of the required steps are listed. If you find some errors, please comment on them.
Create partition
Create a partition in some way. You can use Boot Camp Assistant to shrink existing HFS+ partition and create a FAT32 partition or you can do it yourself via Disk Utility or
diskutil command line tool. I had my partition left over from one of the tries with Boot Camp Assistant and USB DVD-drive. Using Boot Camp for this step has the side effect that it gives you the option to download latest Boot Camp drivers for windows (just have a USB stick ready to store them).
Set up Virtual Box guest
Now eject your Boot Camp partition so that it can be remounted elewhere. (Thanks, Bill, for pointing out that I had omitted this step). I used Oracle's excellent (and free) Virtual Box virtualization tool. To get Virtual Box to use your physical Boot Camp partition, you have to make a raw disk image that is bound to your physical disk. In my case it was the
disk1 and I partition number 3 (
disk1s3 as seen from Disk Utility's Info). To create the image, change directory to some good enough place to hold the file and enter (NB! adapt to your needs):
sudo VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -rawdisk /dev/disk1 -filename bootcamp.vmdk -partitions 3
Next, give yourself access to the physical disk and the just created image files:
sudo chmod 777 /dev/disk1s3
sudo chown $USER bootcamp*.vmdk
Last thing is to actually set up Virtual Box Guest OS. There is nothing special there, except that you specify your * bootcamp.vmdk* as the startup disk, instead of creating new one.
Installing Windows
Install Windows to the Virtual Box guest as usual. I shut down the Virtual Box client at the "Setting up Windows for first use" step, but according to some posts (links to which I again have misplaced), you could stop even at the first reboot, though it didn't seem to work in my case.
Now you should have a partition that is visible to the Mac Boot menu, but not a working Windows installation.
Next step is to restart the install, only this time on the real hardware. To accomplish this, mount the Boot Camp partition, delete everything and copy over all files from the installer ISO (Alo commented below that on his newer Mac Mini he did not need this step, but instead installed rEFIt to boot the new partition). NB! You probably need to have some kind of NTFS driver, either NTFS-3G (see my blog on how to get NTFS-3g working in Lion) or some commercial driver like the Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X I have installed.
After you copy over the files, reboot your Mac and hold down Option-key to access the Windows partition. Now install windows as you would if you had with optical disk attached.
Now that I have finally managed to jump through all those hoops to get Windows installed, I can only wish that Virtualization advances enough that I could play those old Call of Duty games without even rebooting into Windows. Until then, I hope to preserve my newly installed Windows. 😉


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Disney and producer Scott Rudin are getting an old pet project back up and running, tapping "Napoleon Dynamite" director Jared Hess to helm the long-gestating sci-fi family comedy "The Pet."
Rudin, who moved his production shingle from Disney last year over to Sony, is producing the live-action pic alongside Craig Perry and Sheila Hanahan Taylor.
Based on an original idea from Matt Lieberman ("Short Circuit"), "The Pet" centers on a man who's abducted by aliens, taken to their planet and turned into a family pet.
Rudin originally boarded "The Pet" years ago at Disney when he had a first-look deal at Miramax. But the project became relatively dormant when he left the Mouse House — in large part because Disney sold Miramax and refocused on family-friendly films, leaving Rudin's adult-skewing projects without a natural home.
"The Pet," however, fits the Disney mold.
"The Simpsons" helmer David Silverman had been attached to the family comedy, and despite a recent rewrite from scribe Tim Dowling ("This Means War"), "The Pet" is now in the hands of Hess, who will oversee all aspects of creative development going forward.
The UTA-repped Hess' recent credits include the Jack Black starrer "Nacho Libre" and 2009's "Gentlemen Broncos." He and wife Jerusha Hess are also exec producing Fox's "Napoleon Dynamite" toon, based on the 2004 indie hit comedy.
Rudin just wrapped another busy awards season, having produced "Moneyball" and "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo."


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Sessions: I'll continue as AG 'as long as that is appropriate'
A day after President Donald Trump said in an interview that he'd re-think appointing Jeff Sessions as attorney general, the head of the Department of Justice said he has no intentions to resign.
Sessions originally planned on Thursday morning to address the dismantling of a major dark web market site as part of the department's efforts to combat cybercrime, but that took a back seat after the president denounced him in a New York Times interview.
Trump said "Sessions should have never recused himself" from the investigation into Russian election meddling and potential collusion by the Trump campaign. Sessions, an early Trump supporter, stepped away from the probe after it was revealed he didn't disclose meetings with a Russian official during the campaign.
"And if he was going to recuse himself he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else," Trump told the Times.
Asked for a response to Trump's comments and if he was considering resigning, Sessions said he'd stay on as attorney general "so long as that is appropriate" and "we wholeheartedly join in the priorities of President Trump."


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Are you a law enforcement professional looking to join a team that's centered around our UPMC core value of Quality and Safety? UPMC is excited to be hiring for Police Officer opportunities at UPMC Altoona Hospital.
Full time positions are eligible for a generous sign-on bonus!
(external candidates eligible)
• $1,500 sign-on bonus available with a two year work commitment
The Act 235 Certification is required prior to hire. The Act 120 Municipal Police Officer training is not a substitution for Act 235. To learn more about Act 235 please visit https://www.psp.pa.gov/lethalweapons.
Police Officers are responsible for maintaining a safe and secure environment for patients, visitors, staff and all UPMC owned and adjacent properties. Enforces UPMC rules and regulations to both employees and the public. Establish a uniformed police presence by patrolling UPMC hospitals, buildings, grounds and associated areas to deter criminal activity, investigate criminal events, document activities, and take appropriate police action when necessary. Monitors security, fire, and environmental alarms. Responds to and resolves problems, disputes and unusual circumstances as necessary. Provides customer service to patients, families, visitors and staff to maintain a safe and secure environment. Serves as a first responder to any violent act occurring at a UPMC location. Will be armed with a firearm. Oversees the operations of assigned shift and formally leads the daily operations of the department. Organizes and assigns work, and provides daily instruction to staff regarding specific duties and assignments.
- Ability to handle evidence control pertaining to UPMC initiated criminal investigations
- Responds to acts of extreme violence at UPMC owned or controlled properties that have the potential to require the deployment of deadly force as dictated by UPMC policy.
- May be required to support various types of investigations that have system-wide implication
- Required to carry, properly handle, and be able to deploy a firearm.
- Tasked with the ability to issue PA state citations for certain criminal and traffic offenses, using specific law enforcement applications such as the PA Justice Network, and performing other law enforcement duties as necessary.
- Investigates incidents of unusual circumstances reported by UPMC staff, visitors, physicians and patients.
- Must be able to perform as a Security Officer when necessary.
- Appropriately escalates problems and concerns to Management's attention.
- Will be responsible for the transportation of those subjected to criminal arrest and subsequent prosecution
- May be required to serve legal documents such as arrest warrants, subpoena, Protection From Abuse, etc.
- May function as a shift supervisor as needed to oversee the operations of assigned shift and formally lead the daily operations of the department, organize and assign work, and provide daily instruction to staff regarding specific duties and assignments.
- May be required to provide support at various UPMC facilities which would include: Detailed knowledge of the physical layout of multiple facilities. Working knowledge of site specific policies and procedures between sites. Ability to effectively interact with differing management and customer bases from site to site.
- High School diploma or equivalent.
- Act 120 trained or equivalent (PA State Police Act Police Academy training, Police Officer training as mandated by the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers) with 1 year of experience in law enforcement or a security related field preferred OR
- Five years of prior law enforcement experience in which a firearm was an essential tool and for which, at minimum, annual firearm training and qualification was maintained
- Must possess strong interpersonal skills, especially the ability to effectively interact, communicate, and diffuse potential combative situations with persons from all walks of life.Psychological fitness required to deal with stress and potentially dangerous conflict situations.
- Physical fitness requirements to deal with typical physical demands that require full body motion and physical strength and stamina sufficient to respond to crisis interventions and medical emergencies. Be able to effectively communicate both orally and in written format.
- Good interpersonal skills; able to deal with stress and potentially dangerous conflict situations.
- All applicants will be subject to a thorough background and criminal record check
- Must be available for all shifts
- Officers are required to wear a bullet proof vest.
- Must be able to perform as a security officer when necessary.
Licensure, Certifications, and Clearances:
- Act 235 with successful completion of both the academic and firearms training modules, required prior to hire
- Must meet audio and visual standards outlined in Act 235 at time of hire.
- Successfully complete UPMC Police Training upon hire.
- Successful completion of all UPMC mandated weapons and firearms training.
- Successfully pass UPMC Physical Fitness Standard: Physical fitness requirements to deal with typical physical demands that require full body motion and physical strength and stamina sufficient to chase, apprehend and subdue criminal suspects, and respond to crisis interventions and medical emergencies.
- Must have good hand/eye coordination and able to pass an eye and hearing test with appropriate correction.
- Basic Life Support (BLS) OR Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)
- Driver's License
- UPMC Physical Fitness Standard
- Act 235 with Firearms
- Act 31 Child Abuse Reporting with renewal
- Act 33 with renewal
- Act 34 with renewal
- Act 501
- Act 73 FBI Clearance with renewal
UPMC is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Disability/Veteran
Individuals hired into this role must comply with UPMC's COVID vaccination requirements upon beginning employment with UPMC. Refer to the COVID-19 Vaccination Information section at the top of this page to learn more.
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Petalo.ai provides innovative solutions to simplify senior care operations. The Petalo communication platform provides a seamless experience for customers by allowing them immediate access to information and streamlined communication with staff. The platform reduces staff time spent on low-value tasks and empowers them to engage in other high-value job duties. Additionally, immediate feedback provides customers with faster response times and greater peace of mind.
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(240) 273-7611
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Item Specs
Tags Per Sheet: 12
Tag Size: 2" x 2"
Weight: 105 GSM
Thickness: 7.7 point
Size of Hole: 3/16"
Distance of Hole From Edge of Tag: Top centered down 5/32"
Distance of Tags From Left Edge of Sheet: 1"
Distance of Tags From Top Edge of Sheet: 1 1/8"
Distance between tags: 1/4"
Tags are rectangular with 1/8" rounded corner radius
Tags are scored in the middle for folding
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City of Grayson
200 North Carol Malone Blvd.
Grayson KY 41143
Grayson, Kentucky is an area of unmatched natural beauty. It rests in Carter County, between three of Kentucky's most awe-inspiring state parks. Encircling the city are Grayson Lake, Carter Caves State Park, and Greenbo Lake, making it perfect for swimming, camping, and a multitude of recreational activities. A unique event that Carter County takes part in is the annual Route 60 Yard Sale. Stretching 40 miles, from Boyd to Rowan County, the event features a variety of merchandise from sellers near and far. Outdoors or indoors, a trip to Grayson will give one a refreshing look at life in a serene Eastern Kentucky town.


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(a) Admissions to educational institutions prior to June 24, 1973, are not covered by these Title IX regulations.
(b) Administratively separate units. For the purposes only of this section, §§ 5.225 and 5.230, and §§ 5.300 through 5.310, each administratively separate unit shall be deemed to be an educational institution.
(c) Application of §§ 5.300 through 5.310. Except as provided in paragraphs (d) and (e) of this section, §§ 5.300 through 5.310 apply to each recipient. A recipient to which §§ 5.300 through 5.310 apply shall not discriminate on the basis of sex in admission or recruitment in violation of §§ 5.300 through 5.310.
(d) Educational institutions. Except as provided in paragraph (e) of this section as to recipients that are educational institutions, §§ 5.300 through 5.310 apply only to institutions of vocational education, professional education, graduate higher education, and public institutions of undergraduate higher education.
(e) Public institutions of undergraduate higher education. §§ 5.300 through 5.310 do not apply to any public institution of undergraduate higher education that traditionally and continually from its establishment has had a policy of admitting students of only one sex.
Page Last Reviewed/Updated Monday, July 30, 2018


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6 Ways to Be a Great Parent
- :parenting.com
- 860
1. Play video games
That's right: They're good for something. Wendy Hart Beckman of Cincinnati found that the best way to actually have a conversation with any of her three sons was to do it while they were playing a video game together. The bonding plays out in a different way with each child, she says. With her oldest, the distraction of the game allows them to have revealing conversations that might prove too uncomfortable face-to-face. With her middle son, she uses video games as a way to help him work on social skills. And her youngest son enjoys teaching her how to play new games, so it gives them a common interest. Try it -- you might even be surprised at how much fun you have.
2. Keep a diary
"When things get chaotic, I grab a pen and record what's happened and why," says Christine Louise Hohlbaum of Paunzhausen, Germany, a mom of two. "It often defuses the situation for me immediately."
Writing out the ups and downs of life as a parent can help you vent, problem-solve, and track your child's development. "We get frustrated, angry, and overwhelmed, with little opportunity for an immediate outlet," says Hohlbaum. Give yourself one and -- bonus -- your kid will also see a productive way to handle frustration.
3. Hang out with your friends
With all you have to do for your kids (plus everything else!), it's no wonder friends fall by the wayside. But if you can stay close, you'll be happier -- and show your kids how important friendship is.
"My kids enjoy hearing us talk about when we were kids," says Tami Berman, a mom of three in Newburgh, New York, who's still close to her two best friends from grade school. "And they've made a vow with my friends' kids to stay close, too. It gives them a sense of stability."
Keeping up is hardest when children are small -- but that's exactly when you need friends the most. Set up a bimonthly dinner (families invited, too), then grab a drink afterward.
4. Let your child make her own crazy choices
As a toddler, my daughter was so insistent on wearing exactly what she wanted -- even if that was a tutu and patent-leather shoes on a snowy day -- that I let her. Much later, I realized the value of letting her pick out her clothes, books, room decor: She developed independence and individuality, and was better at making sound choices (about food, friends, activities) than kids who'd had decisions made for them.
5. Say no to your kids
During my first few years of motherhood, my vision of the perfect mom was one who was all-loving, all-giving, all-nurturing, who never got angry or said no. If I slipped up (as I did frequently), I just had to work harder to attain perfection. And if my kid was cranky, unruly, and demanding, that must mean I had to be even more patient and understanding.
I believed this until the day I exploded. When I finally said no, the sun came out. I realized that being a great mother didn't mean endlessly indulging my child but guiding her, acting as her leader.
With my two youngest, I've been more confident saying no, and it's been smoother. They know the rules because I've made them clear, and they also feel secure that yes means yes.
6. Put an end to Candy Land
Most of us believe that good parents are interested in their children. That's true -- up to a point. Around about the 50th game of Candy Land or viewing of Jay Jay the Jet Plane, you may wish your child were interested in your stuff. He can be. "I think there's too much of an emphasis on self-sacrifice in parenting," says Lisa Phillips, a mom of one in Woodstock, New York. So instead of listening to nothing but children's music, they turn on funk and soul. With kids along, hikes might be slower and scrapbooking might be messy. But at least you're not stuck in the Molasses Swamp.
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The holiday season is a time for gathering to celebrate with friends and family, to reflect and to give thanks. At this time of year, the Department of Commerce's U.S. Census Bureau presents holiday-related facts and statistics from its data collections, including details about mail, retail sales, toys, trees and decorations and much more. The nation's projected population as we ring in the New Year is estimated to be more than 312 million. Happy holidays from the U.S. Department of Commerce!
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A Description of San Francisco, the Metropolis of the Pacific Coast Before the Fire -- One of the Most Beautiful and Picturesque Cities in America -- Home of the California Bonanza Kings.
San Francisco has had many soubriquets. It has been happily called the "City of a Hundred Hills," and its title of the "Metropolis of the Golden Gate" is richly deserved. Its location is particularly attractive, inasmuch as the peninsula it occupies is swept by the Pacific Coast on the west and the beautiful bay of San Francisco on the north and east. The peninsula itself is thirty miles long and the site of the city is six miles back from the ocean. It rests on the shore of San Francisco Bay, which, with its branches, covers over 600 square miles, and for beauty and convenience for commerce is worthy of its magnificent entrance--the Golden Gate.
San Francisco was originally a mission colony. It is reported that "the site of the mission of San Francisco was selected because of its political and commercial advantages. It was to be the nucleus of a seaport town that should serve to guard the dominion of Spain in its vicinity. Most of the other missions were founded in the midst of fertile valleys, inhabited by large numbers of Indians." Both of these features were notably absent in San Francisco. Even the few Indians there in 1776 left upon the arrival of the friars and dragoons. Later on some of them returned and others were added, the number increasing from 215 in 1783, to 1,205 in 1813. This was the largest number ever reported. Soon after the number began to decreasse through epidemics and emigration, until there was only 204 in 1832.
The commercial life of San Francisco dates from 1835, when William A. Richardson, and Englishman, who had been living in Sausalito since 1822, moved to San Francisco. He erected a tent and began the collection of hides and tallow, by the use of two 30-ton schooners leased from the missions, and which plied between San Jose and San Francisco. At the time Mr. Richardson was also captain of the port.
Seventy-five years ago the white adult males, apart from the Mission colony, consisted of sixteen persons. The local census of 182 showed a population of 36,000, and ten years later 90,000. The last general census of 1900 credits the city with a population of 343,000. The increase in the last six years has been much greater than for the previous five, and it is generally conceded that the population at the time of the fire was about 425,000.
California was declared American territory by Commodore Sleat, at Monterey, on the 7th of July, 1846, who on that day caused the American flag to be raised in that town. On the following day, under instructions from the commodore, Captain Montgomery, of the war sloop Portsmouth, performed a similar service in Yerba Buena, by which name the city afterwards christened San Francisco was then known. This ceremony took place on the plot of ground, afterward set apart as Portsmouth Square, on the west line of Kearney street, between Clay and Washington. At that time and for some years afterwards, the waters of the bay at high tide, came within a block of the spot where this service occurred. This was a great event in the history of the United States, and it has grown in importance and in appreciative remembrance from that day to the present, as the accumulative evidence abundantly shows.
Referring to the change in name from Yerba Buena to San Francisco, in 1847, a writer says: "A site so desirable for a city, formed by nature for a great destiny on one of the finest bays in the world, looking out upon the greatest, the richest, and the most pacific of oceans--in the very track of empire--in the healthiest of latitudes--such a site could not fail to attract the attention of the expanding Saxon race. Commerce hastened it, the discovery of gold consummated it."
Modern San Francisco had its birth following the gold discoveries which led to the construction of the Central Pacific railway, and produced a vast number of very wealthy men known by the general title of California Bonanza Kings. San Francisco became the home and headquarters of these multi-millionaires, and large sumes of their immense fortunes were invested in palatial residences and business blocks.
The bonanza king residence section was Nob Hill, an eminence near the business part of the city.
In the early days of San Francisco's growth and soon after the Central Pacific railroad had been buidit by Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins, Collis P. Huntington and the others who devoted the best part of their lives to the project of crossing the mountains by rail this hill was selected as the most desirable spot in the city for the erection of homes for the use of wealthy pioneers.
The eminence is situated northwest of the business section of the city and commands a view of the bay and all adjacent territory with the exception of the Pacific Ocean, Russian Hill, Pacific Heights and several other high spots obscuring the view toward the west.
Far removed above the din and noise of the city Charles Crocker was the first to erect his residence on the top of this historical hill which afterward became known as Nob Hill. The Crocker home was built of brick and wood originally, but in later years granite staircases, pillars and copings were substituted. In its time it was looked upon as the most imposing edifice in the city and for that reason the business associates of the railroad magnate decided to view with him in the building of their homes.
Directly across from the Crocker residence on California street Leland Stanford caused to be built a residence structure that was intended to be the most ornate in the western metropolis. It was a veritable palace and it was within its walls that the boyhood days of Leland Stanford, Jr., after whom the university if named, were spent in luxurious surroundings. After the death of the younger Stanford a memorial room was set apart and the parents permitted no one to enter this except a trusted man survant who had been in the family for many years.
But the Stanford residence was relegated to the background as an object of architectural beauty when Mark Hopkins invaded the sacred precincts of Nob Hill and erected the residence which he occupied for three or four years. At his death the palatial building was deeded to the California Art Institute and as a tribute to the memory of the sturdy pioneer the building was called the Hopkins Institute of Art. Its spacious rooms were laden with the choicest works of art on the Pacific coast and the building and its contents were at all times a source of interest to the thousands of tourists who visited the city.
The late Collis P. Huntington was the next of the millionaires of San Francisco to locate upon the crest of Nob Hill. Within a block of the Crocker, Stanford and Hopkins palaces this railroad magnate of the west erected a mansion of granite and marble that caused all the others to be thrown in the shade. Its exterior was severe in its simplicity, but to those who were fortunate to gain entrance to the interior the sight was one never to be forgotten. The palaces of Europe could not excel it and for several years Huntington and his wife were its only occupants aside from the army of servants required to keep the house and grounds in order.
Not to be outdone by the railroad magnates of the city the next to acquire property on the crest of the hill was James Flood, the "bonanza king" and partner with William O'Brien, the names of both being closely interwoven with the early history of California and the Comstock Lode. After having paid a visit to the east the millionaire mine owner became impressed with the brown stone fronts of New York and outdone his neighbors by erecting the only brown stone structure in San Francisco.
It was in this historic hilltop also that James G. Fair laid the foundation of a residence that was intended to surpass anything in the sacred precincts, but before the foundations had been completed domistic troubles resulted in putting a stop to building operations and it is on this site that Mrs. Herman Oelrichs, daughter of the late millionaire mine owner, erected the palatial Fairmont hotel, which was one of the most imposing edifices in San Francisco.
The old San Francisco is dead. The gayest, lightest hearted, most pleasure loving city of this continent, and in many ways the most interesting and romantic, is a horde of huddled refugees living among ruins. But those who have known that peculiar city by the Golden Gate and have caught its flavor of the Arabian Nights feel that it can never be the same. It is as though a pretty, frivolous woman had passed through a great tragedy, She survives, but she is sobered and different. When it rises out of the ashes it will be a modern city, much like other cities and without its old flavor.
The city lay on a series of hills and the lowlands between. These hills are really the end of the Coast Range of mountains which lie between the interior valleys and the ocean to the south. To its rear was the ocean; but the greater part of the town fronted on two sides on San Francisco Bay, a body of water always tinged with gold from the great washings of the mountains, usually overhung with a haze, and of magnificent color changes. Across the bay to the north lies Mount Tamalpais, about 5,000 feet high, and so close that ferries from the waterfront took one in less than half an hour to the little towns of Sausalito and Belvidere, at its foot.
It is a wooded mountain, with ample slopes, and from it on the north stretch away ridges of forest land, the outposts of the great Northern woods of Sequoia semperrirens. This mountain and the mountainous country to the south brought the real forest closer to San Francisco than to any other American city.
Within the last few years men have killed deer on the slopes of Tamalpais and looked down to see the cable cars srawling up the hills of San Francisco to the north. In the suburbs coyotes still stole and robbed hen roosts by night. The people lived much out of doors. There was no time of the year, except a short part of the rainy season, when the weather kept one from the woods. The slopes of Tamalpais were crowded with little villas dorred through the woods, and those minor estates ran far up into the redwood country. The deep coves of Belvidere, sheltered by the wind from Tamalpais, held a colony of "arks" or houseboats, where people lived in the rather disagreeable summer months, going over to business every other day by ferry. Everything invited out of doors.
The climate of California is peculiar; it is hard to give an impression of it. In the first place, all the forces of nature work on laws of their own in that part of California. There is no thunder or lightning; there is no snow, except a flurry once in five or six years; there are perhaps a dozen nights in the winter when the thermometer drops low enough so that there is a little film of ice on exposed water in the morning. Neither is there any hot weather. Yet most Easterners remaining in San Francisco for a few days remember that they were always chilly.
For the Gate is a big funnel, drawing in the winds and the mists which cool off the great, hot interior valleys of the San Joaquin and Sacramento. So the west wind blows steadily ten months of the year and almost all the mornings are foggy. This keeps the temperature steady at about 55 degrees--a little cool for comfort of an unacclimated person, expecially indoors. Californians, used to it, hardly every thought of making fires in their houses except in the few exceptional days of the winter season, and then they relied mainly upon fireplaces. This is like the custom of the Venetians and the Florentines.
But given an Easterner six months of it and he too learns to exist without a chill in a steady temperature a little lower than that to which he is accustomed at home. After that one goes about with perfect indifference to the temperature. Summer and winter San Francisco women wore light tailor-made clothes, and men wore the same fall weight suits all the year around. There is no such thing as a change of clothing for the seasons. And after becoming acclimated these people found the changes from hot to cold in the normal regions of the earth hard to bear. Perhaps once in two or three years there comes a day when there is no fog, no wind and a high temperature in the coast district. Then there is hot weather, perhaps up in the eighties, and Californians grumble, swelter and rustle for summer clothes. These rare hot days were the only times when one saw on the streets of San Francisco women in light dresses.
Along in early May the rains cease. At that time everything is green and bright and the great golden poppies, as large as the saucer of an after dinner coffee cup, are blossoming everywhere. Tamalpais is green to its top; everything is washed and bright. By late May a yellow tinge is creeping over the hills. This is followed by a golden June and a brown July and August. The hills are burned and dry. The fog comes in heavily, too; and normally this is the most disagreeable season of the year. September brings a day or two of gentle rain; and then a change, as sweet and mysterious as the breaking of spring in the East, comes over the hills. The green grows through the brown and the flowers begin to come out.
As a matter of fact, the unpleasantness of summer is modified by the certainty that one can go anywhere without fear of rain. And in all the coast mountains, especially the seaward slopes, the dews and the shelter of the giant underbrush keep the water so that these areas are green and pleasant all summer.
In a normal year the rains begin to fall heavily in November; there will be three or four days of steady downpour and then a clear and green week. December is also likely to be rainy; and in this month people enjoy the sensation of gathering for Christmas the mistletoe which grows profusely on the live oaks, while the poppies are beginning to blossom at their feet. By the end of January the rains come lighter. In the long spaces between rains there is a temperature and a feeling in the air much like that of Indian summer in the East. January is the month when the roses are at their brightest.
So much for the strange climate, which invites out of doors and which has played its part in making the character of the people. The externals of the city are--or were, for they are no more--just as curious. One usually entered the city by way of San Francisco Bay. Across its yellow flood, covered with the fleets from the strange seas of the Pacific, San Francisco presented itself in a hill panorama. Probably no other city of the world could be so viewed and inspected at first sight. It rose above the passenger, as he reached dockage, in a succession of hill terraces.
At one side was Telegraph Hill, the end of the peninsula, a height so abrupt that it had a 200 foot sheer cliff on its seaward frontage. Further along lay Nob Hill, crowned with the Mark Hopkins mansion, which had the effect of a citadel, and in later years by the great, white Fairmount. Further along was Russian Hill, the highest point. Below was the business district, whose low site caused all the trouble.
Except for the modern buildings, the fruit of the last ten years, the town presented at first sight a disreputable appearance. Most of the buildings were low and of wood. In the middle period of the 70's, when a great part of San Francisco was building, there was some atrocious architecture perpetrated. In that time, too, every one put bow windows on his house, to catch all the morning sunlight that was coming through the fog, and those little houses, with bow windows and fancy work all down their fronts, were characteristic of the middle class residence district.
Then the Italians, who tumbled over Telegraph Hill, had built as they listed and with little regard for streets, and their houses hung crazily on a side hill which was little less than a precipice. For the most part, the Chinese, although they occupied an abandoned business district, had remade the houses Chinese fashion, and the Mexicans and Spaniards had added to their houses those little balconies without which life is not life to a Spaniard.
Yet the most characteristic thing after all was the coloring. For the sea fog had a trick of painting every exposed object a sea gray which had a tinge of dull green in it. This, under the leaden sky of a San Francisco morning, had a depressing effect on first sight and afterward became a delight to the eye. For the color was soft, gentle and infinitely attractive in mass.
The hills are steep beyond conception. Where Vallejo street ran up Russian Hill it progressed for four blocks by regular steps like a flight of stairs. It is unnecessary to say that no teams ever came up this street or any other like it, and grass grew long among the paving stones until the Italians who live thereabouts took advantage of this to pasture a cow or two. At the end of the four blocks, the pavers had given it up and the last stage to the summit was a winding path. On the very top, a colony of artists lived in little villas of houses whose windows got the whole panorama of the bay. Luckily for these people, a cable car climbed the hill on the other side, so that it was not much of a climb to home.
With these hills, with the strangeness of the architecture and with the green gray tinge over everything, the city fell always into vistas and pictures, a setting for the romance which hung over everything, which always hung over life in San Francisco since the padres came and gathered the Indians about Mission Dolores.
And it was a city of romance and a gateway to adventure. It opened out on the mysterious Pacific, the untamed ocean, and most of China, Japan, the South Sea Islands, Lower California, the west coast of Central America, Australia that came to this country passed in through the Golden Gate. There was a sprinkling, too, of Alaska and Siberia. From his windows on Russian Hill one saw always something strange and suggestive creeping through the mists of the bay. It would be a South Sea Island junk with fanlike sails, back from an expedition after sharks' livers; an old whaler, which seemed to drip oil, back from a year of cruising in the Arctic. Even the tramp windjammers were deep chested craft, capable of rounding the Horn or of circumnavigating the globe; and they came in streaked and picturesque from their long voyaging.
In the orange colored down which always comes through the mists of that bay, the fishing fleet would crawl in under triangular lateen sails, for the fishermen of San Francisco Bay were all Neapolitans who brought their customers and their customs and sail with lateen rigs shaped like the ear of a horse when the wind fills them and stained an orange brown.
Along the waterfront the people of these craft met. "The smelting pot of the races," Stevenson called it; and this was always the city of his soul. There are black Gilbert Islanders, almost indistinguishable from negroes; lighter Kanakas from Hawaii or Samoa; Lascars in turbans; thickset Russian sailors; wild Chinese with unbraided hair; Italian fishermen in tam o'shanters, loud shirts and blue sashes; Greeks, Alaska Indians, little bay Spanish-Americans, together with men of all the European races. These came in and out from among the queer craft, to lose themselves in the disreputable, tumbledown, but always mysterious shanties and small saloons. In the back rooms of these saloons South Sea Island traders and captains, fresh from the lands of romance, whaling masters, people who were trying to get up treasure expeditions, filibusters, Alaskan miners, used to meet and trade adventures.
There was another element, less picturesque and equally characteristic, along the waterfront. For San Francisco was the back eddy of European civilization--one end of the world. The drifters came there and stopped, longered a while to live by their wits in a country where living after a fashion has always been marvellously cheap. These people haunted the waterfront or lay on the grass on Portsmouth Square.
That square, the old plaza about which the city was built, Spanish fashion, had seen many things. There in the first burst of the early days the vigilance committee used to hold its hangings. There in the time of the sand lot riots Dennis Kearney, who nearly pulled the town down about his ears, used to make his orations which set the unruly to rioting. In these later years Chinatown laid on one side of it and the Latin quarter and the "Barbary Coast" on the other.
On this square men used to lie all day long and tell strange yarns. Stevenson lay there with them in his time and learned the things which he wrote into "The Wrecker" and his South Sea stories, and in the center of the square there stood the beautiful Stevenson monument. In later years the authorities put up a minicipal building on one side of this square and prevented the loungers, for decency's sake, from lying on the grass. Since then some of the peculiar character of the old plaza had gone.
The Barbary Coast was a loud bit of hell. No one knows who coined the name. The place was simply three blocks of solid dance halls, there for the delight of the sailors of the world. On a fine busy night every door blared loud dance music from orchestra, steam pianos and gramaphones and the cumulative effect of the sound which reached the street was at least strange. Almost anything might be happening behind the swinging doors. For a fine and picturesque bundle of names characteristic of the place, a police story of three or four years ago is typical. Hell broke out in the Eye Wink Dance Hall. The trouble was started by a sailor known as Kanaka Pete, who lived in the What cheer House, over a woman known as Iodoform Kate. Kanaka Peter chased the man had marked to the Little Silver Dollar, where he turned and punctured him. The by-product of his gun made some holes in the front of the Eye Wink, which were proudly kept as souvenirs, and were probably there until it went out in the fire. This was low life, the lowest of the low.
Until the last decade almost anything except the commonplace and the expected might happen to a man on the waterfront. The cheerful industry of shanghaing was reduced to a science. A stranger taking a drink in one of the saloons which hung out over the water might be dropped through the floor into a boast, or he might drink with a stranger and wake in the forecastle of a whaler bound for the Arctic. Such an incident is the basis of Frank Norris's novel, "Moran of the Lady Letty," and although the novel draws it pretty strong, it is not exaggerated. Ten years ago the police and the foreign consuls, working together, stopped this.
Kearney street, a wilder and stranger Bowery, was the main thoroughfare of these people. An exiled Californian, mourning over the city of his heart, said recently:
"In a half an hour of Kearney street I could raise a dozen men for any wild adventure, from pulling down a statue to searching for the Cocos Island treasure."
This is hardly an exaggeration.
These are a few of the elements which made the city strange and gave it the glamour of romance which has so strongly attracted such men as Stevenson, Frank Norris and Kipling. This lay apart from the regular life of the city, which was distinctive in itself.
The Californian is the second generation of a picked and mixed stock. The merry, the adventurous, often the desperate, always the brave, deserted the South and New England in 1849 to rush around the Horn or to try the perils of the plains. They found there already grown old in the hands of the Spaniards younger sons of hildalgos and many of them of the proudest blood of Spain. To a great extent the pioneers intermarried with Spanish women; in fact, except for a proud little colony here and there, the old Spanish blood is sunk in that of the conquering race. Then there was an influx of intellectual French people, largely overlooked in the histories of the early days; and this Latin leaven has had its influence.
Brought up in a bountiful country, where no one really has to work very hard to live, nurtured on adventure, scion of a free and merry stock, the real, native Californian is a distinctive type; so far from the Easterner in psychology as the extreme Southerner is from the Yankee. He is easy going, witty, hospitable, lovable, inclined to be unmoral rather than immoral in his personal habits, and above all easy to meet and to know.
Above all there is an art sense all through the populace which sets it off from any other part of the country. This sense is almost Latin in its strength, and the Californian owes it to the leaven of Latin blood. the true Californian lingers in the north; for southern California has been built up by "lungers" from the East and middle West and is Eastern in character and feeling.
With such a people life was always gay. If they did not show it on the streets, as do the people of Paris, it was because the winds made open cafes disagreeable at all seasons of the year. The gayety went on indoors or out on the hundreds of estates that fringed the city. It was noted for its restaurants. perhaps the very best for people who care not how they spend their money could not be had there, but for a dollar, 75 cents, 50 cents, a quarter or even 15 cents the restaurants afforded the best fare on earth at the price.
If one should tell exactly what could be had at Coppa's for 50 cents or at the Fashion for, say, 35, no New Yorker who has not been there would believe it. The San Francisco French dinner and the San Francisco free lunch were as the public Library to Boston or the stock yards to Chicago. A number of causes contributed to this consummation. The country all about produced everything that a cook needed and that in abundance--the bay was an almost untapped fishing pond, the fruit farms came up to the very edge of the town, and the surrounded country produced in abundance fine meats, all cereals and all vegetables.
But the chefs who came from France in the early days and like this land of plenty were the head and front of it. They passed on their art to other Frenchmen or to the clever Chinese. Most of the French chefs at the beggest restraurants were born in Canton, China. Later the Italians, learning of this country where good food is appreciated, came and brought their own style. Householders always dined out one or two nights of the week, and boarding houses were scarce, for the unattached preferred the restaurants. The eating was usually better than the surroundings.
Meals that were marvels were served in tumbledown little hotels. Most famous of all the restaurants was the Poodle Dog. There have been no less than four restaurants of this name, beginning with a frame shanty where, in the early days, a prince of French cooks used to exchange ragouts for gold dust. Each succeeding restaurant of the name has moved further downtown; and the recent Poodle Dog stood on the edge of the Tenderloin in a modern five story building. And it typified a certain spirit that there was in San Francisco.
For on the ground floor was a public restaurant where there was served the best dollar dinner on earth. It ranked with the best and the others were in San Francisco. Here, especially on Sunday night, almost everybody went to vary the monotony of home cooking. Every one who was any one in the town could be seen there off and on. It was perfectly respectable. A man might take his wife and daughter there.
On the second floor there were private dining rooms, and to dine there, with one or more of the opposite sex, was risque but not especially terrible. But the third floor--and the fourth floor--and the fifth. The elevator man of the Poodle Dog, who had held the job for many years and never spoke unless spoken to, wore diamonds and was a heavy investor in real estate. There were others as famous in their way--the Zinka, where, at one time, every one went after the theatre, and Tate's the Palace Grill, much like the grills of Eastern hotels, except for the price; Delmonico's which ran the Poodle Dog neck and neck in its own line, and many others, humbler but great at the price.
The city never went to bed. There was no closing law, so that the saloons kept open nights and Sundays, at their own sweet will. Most of them elected to remain open until 3 o'clock in the morning at least. Yet this restaurant life did not exactly express the careless, pleasure loving character of the people. In great part their pleasures were simple, inexpensive and out of doors. No people were fonder of expeditions into the country, of picnics--which might be brought off at almost any season of the year--and often long tours in the great mountains and forests. And hospitality was nearly a vice.
As in the early mining days, if they likes the stranger the people took him in. At the first meeting the local man probably had him put up at a club; at the second, he invited him home to dinner. As long as he stayed he was being invited to week end parties at ranches, to little dinners in this or that restaurant and to the houses of his new acquaintances, until his engagements grew beyond hope of fulfillment. There was rather too much of it. At the end of a fortnight a stranger with a pleasant smile and a good story left the place a wreck. This tendency ran through all grades of society--except, perhaps, the sporting people who kept the tracks and the fighting game alive. These also met the stranger--and also took him in.
Centers of men of hospitality were the clubs, especially the famous Bohemian and the Family. The latter was an offshot of the Bohemian, which had been growing fast and vieing with the older organization for the honor of entertaining pleasing and distinguished visitors.
The Bohemian Club, whose real founder is said to have been the late Henry George, was formed in the '70s by a number of newspaper writers and men working in the arts or interested in them. It had grown to a membership of 750. It still kept for its nucleus painters, writers, musicians and actors, amateur and professional. They were a gay group of men, and hospitality was their avocation. Yet the thing which set this club off from all others in the world was the midsummer High Jinks.
The club owns a fine tract of redwood forest fifty miles north of San Francisco, on the Russian River. There are two varieties of big trees in California; the Sequoia gigantea and the Sequoia semperfirens. The great trees of the mariposa grove belong to the gigantea species. The semperfirens, however, reaches the diameter of 16 feet, and some of the greatest trees of this species are in the Bohemian Club grove. It lies in a cleft of the mountains; and up one hillside there runs a natural out of door stage of remarkable acoustic properties.
In August the whole Bohemian Club, or such as could get away from business, went up to this grove and camp out for two weeks. And on the last night they put on the Jinks proper, a great spectacle with poetic words, music and effects done by the club, in praise of the forest. In late years this had been practically a masque or an opera. It cost about $10,000. It took the spare time of scores of men for weeks; yet these 700 business men, professional men, artists, newspaper workers, struggled for the honor of helping out on the Jinks; and the whole thing was done naturally and with reverence. It would hardly be possible anywhere else in this country; the thing which made it possible is the art spirit which is in the Californiana. It runs in the blood.
Some one has been collecting statistics which prove this point. "Who's Who in America" is long on the arts and on learning and comparatively weak in business and the professionals. Now some one who has taken the trouble has found that more persons mentioned in "Who's Who" by the thousand of the population were born in Massachusetts than in any other State; but that Massachusetts is crowded closely by California, with the rest nowhere. The institutions of learning in Massachusetts account for her preeminence; the art spirit does it for California. The really big men nurtured on California influence are few, perhaps; but she has sent out an amazing number of good workers in painting, in authoriship, in music and especially in acting.
"High Society" in San Francisco had settled down from the rather wild spirit of the middle period; it had come to be there a good deal as it is elsewhere. There was much wealth; and the hills of the western addition were growing up with fine mansions. Outside of the city, at Burlingame, there was a fine country club centering a region of country estates which stretched out to Menlo Park. This club had a good polo team, which played every year with teams of Englishment from southrn California and even with teams from Honolulu.
The foreign quarters were worth a chapter in themselves. Chief of these was, of course, Chinatown, of which every one has heard who ever heard of San Francisco. A district six blocks long and two blocks wide, when the quarter was full, housed 30,000 Chinese. The dwellings were old business blocks of the early days; but the Chinese had added to them, rebuilt them, had run out their own balconies and entrances, and had given it that feeling of huddled irregularity which makes all Chinese built dwellings fall naturally into pictures. Not only this, they had burrowed to a depth equal to three stories under the ground, and through this ran passages in which the Chinese transacted their dark and devious affairs--as the smuggling of opium, the traffic in slave girls and the settlement of their difficulties.
There was less of this underground life than formerly, for the Board of Health had a cleanup some time ago; but it was still possible to go from one end of Chinatown to the other through secret underground passages. The Chinese lived there their own life in their own way. The Chinatown of New York is dull beside it. And the tourist, who always included Chinatown in his itinerary, saw little of the real life. The guides gave him a show by actors hired for his benefit. In reality the place had considerable importance in a financial way. There were clothing and cigar factories of importance, and much of the tea and silk importing was in the hands of the merchants, who numbered several millionaires. Mainly, however, it was a Tenderloin for the house servants of the city--for the San Francisco Chinaman was seldom a laundryman; he was too much in demand at fancy prices as a servant.
The Chinese lived their own lives in their own way and settled their own quarrels with the revolvers of their highbinders. There were two theaters in the quarter, a number of rich joss houses, three newspapers and a Chinese telephone exchange. There is a race feeling against the Chinese among the working people of San Francisco, and no white man, except the very lowest outcasts, lived in the quarter.
On the slopes of Telegraph Hill dwelt the Mexicans and Spanish, in low houses, which they had transformed by balconies into a resemblance of Spain. Above, and streaming over the hill, were the Italians. The tenement quarter of San Francisco shone by contract with that of New York, for while these people lived in old and humble houses they had room to breathe and a high eminence for light and air. Their shanties clung on the side of the hill or hung on the very edge of the precipice overlooking the bay, on the edge of which a wall kept their babies from falling. The effect was picturesque, and this hill was the delight of painters. It was all more like Italy than anything in the Italian quarter of New York and Chicago--the very climate and surroundings, wine country close at hand, the bay for their lateen boats, helped them.
Over by the ocean and surrounded by cemeteries in which there are no more burials, there is an eminence which is topped by two peaks and which the Spanish of the early days named after the breasts of a woman. At its foot was Mission Dolores, the last mission planted by the Spanish padres in their march up the coast, and from these hills the Spanish looked for the first time upon the golden bay.
Many years ago some one set up at the summit of this peak a sixty foot cross of timber. Once a high wind blew it down, and the women of the Fair family then had it restored so firmly that it would resist anything. As it is on a hill it must have stood. It has risen for fifty years above the gay, careless, luxuriant and lovable city, in full view from every eminence and from every alley. It must stand now above the desolation of ruins.


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It was on April 1, 1970, April Fool's Day, when my life completely changed and I was then about to turn to the age of 18 years old. I entered the Philippine Military Academy, leaving my ambition to become a doctor from the University of the Philippines, to become a future officer of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
During the first two months of "Beast Barracks" (soldier's training from civilian life), all of us would wake up every morning to run in formation for 5 kilometers or 30+ minutes after we have done repetitions of the "Army Dozen" Exercises. (Note: You can google "Army Dozen" Exercises to find out how the workout is done). I did not have any problems with those early morning exercise routines during the early months of my cadet hood.
However, there is a very famous running loop inside Fort Gregorio del Pilar/Philippine Military Academy Compound in Loakan, Baguio City which starts at the Sun Dial/Fountain that goes south to the Jurado Hall or swimming pool area and goes north passing through the left side of the Borromeo Field/Grandstand passing by the Kitchen of the Cadet's Mess Hall and following the road that goes to the Gate of the Camp and then going back to Melchor Hall by passing the Nakar Hall, Chapel, PMA Hospital and then back to the Sun Dial/Fountain. We were told when we were cadets that the loop has a distance of 5 Kilometers.
When I was a "plebe" (first year cadet/fourth classman), I was a member of our Company's Cross Country Running Team and we would run that loop every other day and that would serve as our training for the incoming Cross Country Event in our Cadet's Intramurals. I did not have any records on how fast I could complete the loop during my cadet days. For three years as an upperclass cadet, I've been running on the said loop on a regular basis, at least, three times a week.
I would run through the loop almost everyday when I was already a Major when I was assigned as a Tactical Officer and a member of the Academy Staff in the mid-80s but I would not recall how fast I could run the said loop. I would neither dare to run the same loop for the second time in a single workout. I would rather choose to run longer by going out of the Gate of the Camp towards the direction going to City Proper and then back to the Camp or simply run and go back to my quarters at the Navy Base in Baguio City after office hours!
Last month, I was able to go to Baguio City to monitor the progress of the training/preparation of Marcelo & Gerald with regards to their participation in the incoming 2013 Vibram Hongkong 100K Trail Run. I stayed at Nakar Hall, inside PMA Compound, during the duration of my stay in Baguio City. On my first day in the camp, I tried to reminisce those days when I was a cadet and an officer assigned at the PMA by running along the 5-Kilometer Loop.
I started my run in front of the Nakar Hall and went to the direction going to the Chapel and descended towards the Officers Quarters Lane and turned right towards the road that leads to the back of the new Academy Administration Building. I went to the "Slope" and had my picture taken with Mt Santo Tomas-Mt Cabuyao Range as my background by one of the cadets who took his time and attempts to guess what PMA Class I belong. From Jurado Hall, it was an easy run to the Gate of the Camp and I did not have any walking breaks as I "attacked" the once dreaded "Cardiac Hill" where the monument of General Del Pilar is located. As I finished in front of the Nakar Hall, my Garmin Watch would register a distance of 4.88 Kilometers! I was surprised! The loop lacks some meters to make it a 5K distance even if I took an extra distance by taking the road that goes to the back of the new Administration Building.
I was not happy with the result of my run. I need to find an extra distance to make the loop as 5K distance. So, I started to run again by taking the same direction with my first loop. Before I reached Jurado Hall, I decided to go down to the PMA Shooting/Firing Range which is located behind Jurado Hall. It is a descending road all the way to the shooting range and I knew I would be forced to have my walking breaks as I go back to Jurado Hall. But on the contrary, I managed to continuously jog all the way back in front of Jurado Hall. I was breathing heavily and I was surprised of what I've done!
I continued my run to the Gate of the Camp and then completing my second loop in front of the Nakar Hall. I got what I wanted as I registered a 5K distance for my 2nd loop plus some hundreds of meters as bonus. I ran an extra one kilometer plus some extra meters for my cool-down run to complete a distance of 12 kilometers as my total mileage for the day.
I have proven three (3) important things in this run. First, the PMA 5K Loop is not accurate as I found later that it was measured on those days by the kilometer reading/odometer of one of the vehicles of the Command. Second, it was my first time to experience running two loops inside PMA in a relax mode where I registered a time of 1:20+ hours for the 12K workout. Third, I may not be as fast as I was a cadet or a Major on this loop but I could be as strong and even a smarter runner at the age of 60 years old!
Hopefully, I would be back again to the hallowed grounds of my Alma Mater every year to run more 5K loops and be able to reminisce those days of cadethood and service to the country.


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A federal judge on Friday temporarily prevented the Obama administration from forcing a Christian publishing company to provide its employees with certain contraceptives under the new health-care law.
U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton granted a preliminary injunction sought by Tyndale House Publishers, which does not want to provide employees with contraceptives that it equates with abortion.
At issue are contraceptives such as Plan B and intrauterine devices. If a woman is already pregnant, the Plan B pill has no effect. It prevents ovulation or fertilization of an egg, and according to the medical definition, pregnancy does not begin until a fertilized egg implants itself into the wall of the uterus. The Plan B pill may be able to prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus. IUDs mainly work by blocking sperm but may also have the same uterus effect. To Tyndale, these methods are morally no different from abortion.
Tyndale, based in Carol Stream, Ill., says it provides its 260 employees with coverage for some contraceptives. The company and its president and chief executive, Mark D. Taylor, filed the lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services last month.
"The contraceptive coverage mandate affirmatively compels the plaintiffs to violate their religious beliefs in order to comply with the law and avoid the sanctions that would be imposed for their noncompliance," wrote Walton, an appointee of President George W. Bush. He said that if the company doesn't comply with the mandate, it is subject to government fines and lawsuits.
Walton acknowledged that the government has broad, compelling interests in promoting public health and ensuring that women have equal access to health care, but he said the question "is whether the government has shown that the application of the contraceptive coverage mandate to the plaintiffs furthers those compelling interests," underlying "to the plaintiffs" in the text. Nothing in Walton's order applied to anyone other than Tyndale.
Walton said that the government hasn't offered any proof that mandatory insurance for the specific types of contraceptives that Tyndale objects to furthers the government's compelling interests.
Walton ordered the parties to appear on a date yet to be determined for arguments on whether to make the injunction permanent.
Matthew S. Bowman, a lawyer for Alliance Defending Freedom, which brought the suit on behalf of Tyndale, said in an e-mail that Bible publishers "should be free to do business according to the book that they publish."
He added: "The Obama administration is not entitled to disregard religious freedom."
The Department of Health and Human Services declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation.