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11/04/2015 Rolls-Royce and Liebherr-Aerospace announce name of power gearbox joint venture and start of operations
Rolls-Royce and Liebherr-Aerospace have named their 50:50 joint venture to develop manufacturing capability and capacity for the power gearbox for Rolls- Royce's new UltraFan™ engine design. The new company, to be known as Aerospace Transmission Technologies GmbH, officially started operations at the site of Liebherr-Aerospace in Friedrichshafen last month.
The initial team consists of nearly 30 employees, mainly from the two parent companies and is co-led by two Managing Directors, Heike Liebe from Liebherr-Aerospace and Dr. Rob Harvey from Rolls-Royce.
Rolls-Royce already has significant experience in the use of power gearboxes with thousands of engines already in service and will continue to lead the design definition and design integration of the power gearbox, as well as the testing activities.
Liebherr has unmatched production engineering know-how and will manufacture the components of the power gear drive train in existing Liebherr facilities for the joint venture during the development phase of the power gearbox.
The new UltraFan, a geared design, will offer at least 25 per cent improvement in fuel burn compared with the first generation of Rolls-Royce Trent engines. The new power gearbox will enable the UltraFan to deliver efficient power over a range of take-off thrusts for high-bypass ratio engines of the future. For the highest thrust engines, each single gearbox will be capable of handling the equivalent horsepower produced by more than 500 family cars.
Dr. Rainer Hönig, Managing Director, Rolls-Royce Deutschland said: "The new power gearbox test centre we're building at our Dahlewitz site south of Berlin is progressing well and celebrating its roof-topping today. I'm pleased to see our joint venture moving at the same pace."
"I would like to congratulate everybody at Rolls-Royce and Liebherr-Aerospace who contributed to the creation of this new joint venture," commented Josef Gropper, Managing Director & COO Production, Purchasing and Asset Investments, Liebherr-Aerospace. "We are happy to provide a home for Aerospace Transmission Technologies GmbH in Friedrichshafen. The joint venture is swiftly capitalising on the vast expertise of both founding partners. The first pieces of metal for the gearbox have already been cut."
About Rolls-Royce Holdings plc
1. Rolls-Royce's vision is to create better power for a changing world via two main business divisions, Aerospace and Land & Sea. These business divisions address markets with two strong technology platforms, gas turbines and reciprocating engines. Aerospace comprises Civil Aerospace and Defence Aerospace. Land & Sea comprises Marine, Nuclear and Power Systems.
2. Rolls-Royce has customers in more than 120 countries, comprising more than 380 airlines and leasing customers, 160 armed forces, 4,000 marine customers including 70 navies, and more than 5,000 power and nuclear customers.
3. Our business is focused on the 4Cs:
- Customer – placing the customer at the heart of our business
- Concentration – deciding where to grow and where not to
- Cost – continually looking to increase efficiency
- Cash – improving financial performance
4. Annual underlying revenue was £14.6 billion in 2014, around half of which came from the provision of aftermarket services. The firm and announced order book stood at £76.5 billion at 30 June 2015.
5. In 2014, Rolls-Royce invested £1.2 billion on research and development. We also support a global network of 31 University Technology Centres, which position Rolls- Royce engineers at the forefront of scientific research.
6. Rolls-Royce employs over 54,000 people in more than 50 countries. Over 15,500 of these are engineers.
7. The Group has a strong commitment to apprentice and graduate recruitment and to further developing employee skills. In 2014 we employed 354 graduates and 357 apprentices through our worldwide training programmes. Globally we have over 1,000 Rolls-Royce STEM ambassadors who are actively involved in education programmes and activities; we have set ourselves a target to reach 6 million people through our STEM outreach activities by 2020.
Liebherr-Aerospace is a leading supplier of systems for the aviation industry.
Liebherr-Aerospace & Transportation SAS, Toulouse (France), is one of eleven divisional control companies within the Liebherr Group and coordinates all activities in the aerospace and transportation systems sectors.
Liebherr-Aerospace is a leading supplier of systems for the aviation industry and has more than five decades of experience in this field. The range of aviation equipment produced by Liebherr for the civil and military sectors includes flight control and actuation systems, landing gear and air management systems as well as gears and gearboxes. These systems are deployed in wide-bodied aircraft, single aisle and regional aircraft, business jets, combat aircraft, military transporters, military training aircraft, civil helicopters and combat helicopters.
Liebherres aerospace and transportation systems division employs around 4,900 people. It has four aviation equipment production plants at Lindenberg (Germany), Toulouse (France), Guaratinguetn (Brazil) and Nizhny Novgorod (Russia). These production sites offer a worldwide service with additional customer service centers in Saline (Michigan/USA), Seattle (Washington/USA), Montr, M (Canada), Sao JosSao Josce wit(Brazil), Hamburg (Germany), Moscow (Russia), Dubai (UAE), Singapore and Shanghai (People's Republic of China).


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Taboo IV: The Younger Generation (1985)
Taboo 4, Romanian subtitles
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subset: commoncrawl


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Former justices
Justice Harlow S. OrtonWisconsin Supreme Court Justice: 1878–1895
Chief Justice: 1894–1895
Life: 1817–1895
"In his intercourse with the people of every class he was gentle, sympathetic, and kindly, and he was gallant and courteous in a strong degree. His radiant smiles and his ringing cheery voice were in themselves mediums of encouragement and hope to all who came within the circle of his presence." – Judge E. W. Keyes, Orton's memorial service (1895)
Harlow South Orton was born in Niagara County, New York, November 23, 1817. He was educated at the Hamilton Academy and Madison University in New York.
In 1837, Orton became a school teacher in Kentucky. Later that year, he left teaching to join his brother Myron, a lawyer in Indiana. Orton was admitted to the bar in 1838. He practiced law until 1843, when the governor of Indiana appointed him probate judge for Porter County. Four years later, Orton moved to the Wisconsin Territory and practiced law in Milwaukee.
In 1852, Orton came to Madison and served as the private secretary and legal adviser to Governor Leonard J. Farwell. He was elected to the state Assembly in 1854. In 1856, he served as defense counsel in Bashford v. Barstow in which the Wisconsin Supreme Court removed an incumbent governor from office because his election resulted from fraud.
In 1859, Orton was appointed judge for the 9th Judicial Circuit to fill the vacancy left by Luther S. Dixon, who became a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice. Orton resigned as circuit judge in 1865 and returned to private law practice. He was elected to the state Assembly in 1869 and re-elected in 1871. He ran for U.S. Congress in 1876, but was defeated by a narrow margin. Orton served as dean of the University of Wisconsin Law School from 1869 to 1874 and served one term as mayor of Madison in 1877.
In 1877, Wisconsin amended its constitution to create two more seats on the Supreme Court and Orton was elected. Orton became the chief justice when Chief Justice William Lyon retired in 1894.
Orton was on the Supreme Court until he died July 4, 1895. He and his wife Elizabeth Cheney had four children.


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Jaume Collet-Serra is lining up action thriller "Inertia," starring Oscar Isaac and directed by Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego ("Apollo 18," "El rey de la montana").
Collet-Serra is producing via his Los Angeles-based Ombra Films, which will team with Miguel Angel Faura's Roxbury Pictures in Barcelona. Spain's Film Factory Entertainment has been handling international sales in Berlin.
"Inertia" has closed key pre-sales in France (Wildside Films), Russia (Carmen Films), Australia (Vendetta), India (Pictureworks), China, Hong Kong and Taiwan (Pandasia) and the Middle East (Gulf Films), Film Factory's Vicente Canales said at Berlin.
In the Spanish-language "Inertia," Isaac will limn an immigrant who witnesses a fatal hit-and-run and pursues the car.
Lopez-Gallego and his regular scribe Fernando Navarro penned the screenplay. Faura, Collet-Serra and Juan Sola produce.
"I've been a fan and wanting to work with Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego since 'El rey de la Montana,' " Collet-Serra said. "I'm thrilled that the first film Ombra is doing with Gonzalo will star Oscar Isaac, who I consider to be one of the pre-eminent young actors working today."
Isaac is currently in production on the Coen siblings' "Inside Llewyn Davis."
"Inertia" is in pre-production, starting principal photography in summer.
Ombra Films was launched in 2010 to produce low-budget horror, thriller and fantasy films, often with U.S. stars, but made by Spanish directorial and technical talent.
Faura explained that by producing a film in conjunction with the U.S. and with international presales, Roxbury Pictures doesn't have to depend as much on the market in Spain and Spanish financing.
Isaac is managed by Jason Spire at Inspire Ent. and repped by Kevin Volchok at UTA. Ombra Films is repped by Scott Greenberg at CAA.


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In the fall of 2010, Anderson Cooper confronted Michigan Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell about his actions against a student who attended the University of Michigan at the time. Shirvell launched a relentless and personal campaign on the internet and targeted Chris Armstrong in person claiming he had a "radical homosexual agenda" he was pushing as student body president.
Subsequently, Shirvell was fired from his job and denied unemployment benefits because he was let go due to misconduct. He also lost in a federal court in August when a jury reached a verdict in Armstrong's favor, awarding him $4.5 million.
In October, a judge ruled in Shirvell's favor in a lawsuit he filed to get unemployment benefits. She declared his actions toward Armstrong "constitutionally-protected freedom of speech." Now officials in Michigan want that decision reversed.
Tonight Anderson will talk with Armstrong's attorney and CNN's Jeffrey Toobin about the legal precedent and what could happen next. Tune in at 8 and 10 p.m. ET.
Watch Anderson question Shirvell on AC360 in 2010:
Filed under: 360º Follow • Bullying • Gay & Lesbian Issues
Absolutely he should be fired. Yes, the First Amendment protects free speech. But it doesn't protect stupidity. Employers have the right to hold their employees accountable for their actions - especially public employees. This ruling undoubtedly will be overturned by a higher court. It's just a shame more taxpayer dollars will be wasted on it.
Perhaps I've missed it, but what is the connection between Broadwell and Kelley? Why was Broadwell sending Kelley emails?
Anderson Cooper goes beyond the headlines to tell stories from many points of view, so you can make up your own mind about the news. Tune in weeknights at 8 and 10 ET on CNN.
Questions or comments? Send an email
Want to know more? Go behind the scenes with AC361°


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I made some small tabletop quilties to use in November with my scarecrow and Thanksgiving decorations.
They've already been packed away with all my other November decorations,
as I buy my tree and begin to get my house ready for Christmas on the day after Thanksgiving every year.
My house is now all decorated and ready for Christmas! But that "reveal" will be another post to come!!
Oh, and you might not recognize my Schnibble of the Month for November…
which is not actually a "Schnibble" at all, but is a "Little Bite" named "Drop"!
I did change it up a bit… I added some small squares between the tiny blocks…
and I love the way it turned out!!
What did you do this past weekend besides eat turkey?


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HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) Some county health officials are concerned that the state's decision to stop providing free HIV testing in most Kansas counties will cause a drop in services for people with the virus.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment notified most county counseling and testing providers last November that it would no longer provide free HIV testing, starting in January.
The Kansas Health Institute says the state will continue to provide the service in 10 counties, which are generally the most populous and have more cases of HIV.
The Hutchinson News reports state officials cut the service in counties will low instances of HIV in order to use the funds more efficiently. And the new federal health care law is expected to make more people eligible for the testing.


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(Australian Associated Press)
Sydney women worried about their safety during a dodgy date will soon be able to head to the bar and ask for 'Angela'.
The NSW government says staff at about 1300 licensed premises in the city will be trained to provide discreet assistance if someone seeking to remove themselves from an uncomfortable social situation uses the code-word.
"We don't want people feeling intimidated when they're socialising in the city," NSW Police Minister Troy Grant said on Tuesday.
"They're out to enjoy themselves, not feel threatened and this initiative supports their safety."
The campaign is based on a concept that originated in the UK in 2016.
It has already been trialled in NSW's regions – including Wagga Wagga, Albury, Orange and most recently Byron Bay.
The Sydney trial begins on Saturday.
NSW Police Assistant Commission Mark Walton said the initiative could help someone on a first date arranged via social media or a couple who have met at one of the venues.
"We are determined to prevent sexual assaults and if this campaign allows us to remove people from harm's way, then it's well worth it," he said.
However he stressed police were still the first point of contact if someone requires urgent assistance.


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Thursday, December 27, 2012
Dusty Thursday: Kentucky Vintage 1974
Kentucky Bourbon Distillers. This bottle, however, is a rare Japanese export of the same name. The label states 1974 as the vintage year and it was bottled in 2000 exclusively for the Japanese market. Based on the name and what I've heard about it, I assume it was also a KBD product, but I don't know for certain.
Kentucky Vintage 1974, bottled 2000, 25 years old, 47% abv
The nose has mango, tropical fruit and a bit of shampoo. The palate is very sweet, like fruit punch, and the finish is bitter. Water doesn't help.
Yuck. This stuff is terrible.
See reviews of Kentucky Vintage 1974 by the LA Whiskey Society.
3 comments:
I'm amazed at the sheer volume of older labels you taste. I'm in the market looking high and low for anything interesting and I get my hands on more than my fair share. I've combed my way through part of Arizona's liquor stores and bars and I rarely see anything close to the parades I read in your reviews. I doubt there is that much good dusty hunting left in CA. And I'm figuring auctions aren't more than occasional source if at all for you. I've got to hand to you on your acquistion prowess but I just can't figure how you manage to find all this stuff. Especially on the bourbons.
- December 29, 2012 at 11:04 PM
- sku said...
Alligatorchar, much of what I taste for Dusty Thursday are things that others have found and have generously given me a sample.
LA is pretty shopped out. I probably haven't found a good on-the-shelf dusty in LA for a year, but I'm lucky to have a network of friends who travel far and wide and are happy to share their findings.
- December 31, 2012 at 12:38 PM
Here in south georgia/ south Carolina, having great fun with dusty hunting. There must be something wrong with me, as I just passes on the latest George Stagg and William Larue Weller, which I finally found in a Florida, to pick up three bottles of Ezra Brooks from the late '70's. I also found two bottles of old Fitzgerald from bourbon heritage collection. However, if my wife finds I've gone into some sketchy liquor store again, I think she will kill me.
- January 2, 2013 at 11:07 AM


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For 18 years, Jim Hinde's folk songs provided a musical background for Pike Place Market's cacophony of fishmongers and vegetable sellers. His anti-war and protest ballads carrying more meaning and passion than ever as he watched sadly as a new generation went off to fight.
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Hinde, the Market's bushy-bearded busker, died in his sleep Monday. He was 56.
A Vietnam veteran with post-traumatic stress, he turned to writing and performing music to ease his pain.
"He loved the Market. It really helped him deal with a lot of his demons, playing music, writing the lyrics," said his daughter, Katie Hinde. "It gave him a feeling that he was doing something worthwhile and meaningful, and it supported his family.
Article continues below this ad
"He was so heartbroken when we went to war in Iraq . He felt his generation was destroyed by the Vietnam War. He thought, if we learned that lesson, then it was worth it," she said.
"The current activity broke his heart; he felt like the lesson hadn't been learned at all."
Jim Hinde grew up in Sandusky, Ohio. He played football in high school.
After graduating, he joined the Navy during the Vietnam War, serving as a radio and electronic technician on the USS Thomaston.
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"When he got back from the war, he wasn't doing very well. He rode the freight trains, hopping on and off, for a couple of years, then ended up in Seattle," said Katie Hinde, 28.
He met his wife on a visit back to Ohio. Jim and Janet Hinde were married for 29 years.
"He was an amazing father, he never turned to drugs or alcohol, he was the rock of our family," she said.
"He took being a father very, very seriously."
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The family was preparing to celebrate their daughter's graduation from UCLA, with a doctorate in anthropology. They also have a son, Nate, 24, an artist and poet.
When the family was young, Jim Hinde worked as an advertising executive in Bellevue and later sold cars.
He wrote songs for fun and performed on weekends at neighborhood pubs.
In 1989, he started playing part time at Pike Place Market. A year later, he decided he could make it work full time.
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"He wrote a really good body of work; he quickly became a very impressive artist," said Jim Page, his friend of 20 years.
"He would show up at the Market at 8 a.m. and start playing in the morning. He played three sets a day. He treated it like a job, and he did it impeccably," Page said.
Hinde recently produced a CD, "Shout Down the Wind," and won a Northwest Regional Emmy Award for the PBS documentary "Pike Place Market: Soul of a City," which he co-wrote and hosted.
Hinde was a one of the founding members of the Pike Place Market Buskers Guild. He was helping organize the Vietnam Veterans of America national convention in Seattle later this month.
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News of Hinde's death spread quickly through the Pike Place Market community.
"We are devastated by the loss of Jim; he was truly a piece of the fabric that makes the Market magical. He will be missed, sorely," said James Haydu, a spokesman for the Market.
A memorial service will be held July 2 at the Market's Desimone Bridge from 7 to 9 p.m.
Contributions can be made to the Jim Hinde Memorial Fund, P.O Box 21804, Seattle, WA 98111.


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Could dietary tweaks ease type 1 diabetes?
(HealthDay)—Eating foods that contain certain nutrients may help people with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes continue producing some insulin for as long as two years, a new study finds.
Although eating such foods doesn't alter the need to take insulin injections to treat type 1 diabetes, foods with leucine—an amino acid—and with omega-3 fatty acids may mean that less insulin is needed, according to the new research.
"After the diagnosis of type 1 diabetes, a branch-chain amino acid and long-chain fatty acid were related to C-peptide levels, which are important because they've been shown to improve control of glucose, and maybe help prevent complications," said Elizabeth Mayer-Davis, the study's lead author.
This is "very early work," however, and parents of children with type 1 diabetes need to continue to follow their child's doctor's orders with regard to insulin and any other medications, said Mayer-Davis, professor of nutrition and medicine and interim chairwoman of the department of nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Foods containing leucine include dairy products, meat, soy products, eggs, nuts and whole wheat. Omega-3 fatty acids are found in fatty fish, especially salmon.
At least one expert wasn't convinced that these foods could make a difference in insulin production in patients with type 1 diabetes.
"Nutrition in type 1 diabetes is very difficult to evaluate," said Dr. Joel Zonszein, director of the Clinical Diabetes Center at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. "It's possible that nutrition has a small effect, but people have been trying to connect nutrition to type 1 [diabetes] for more than 30 years. This study will not change my practice."
Type 1 diabetes is believed to be an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system mistakenly attacks and eventually destroys the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas.
Insulin is a hormone that's necessary to metabolize the carbohydrates in food. When carbohydrates are processed into glucose, insulin helps that glucose get into the body's cells to be used as fuel for the body and brain. Without insulin, glucose can't enter the cells and it builds up in the blood.
People with type 1 diabetes often continue making some insulin, though not enough to nourish their bodies properly, for months or even years after diagnosis, according to background information included in the study. The more beta cells that are preserved and still making insulin, the less the chance of serious complications, according to the study.
To see if nutritional factors might contribute to the preservation of beta cells, Mayer-Davis and her colleagues reviewed data on more than 1,300 young people up to 20 years old who had been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Their average duration of diabetes was nearly 10 months.
Nutritional information was gathered from participants and mothers, including information on the consumption of foods containing leucine. Blood samples were analyzed for nutrients such as vitamin D and fatty acids. Blood samples also were used to measure the amount of C-peptide, which is a byproduct of insulin production.
After two years, the researchers found that leucine and omega-3 fatty acids were significantly associated with higher levels of C-peptide.
Vitamin D, which has long been suspected to be somewhat protective against type 1 diabetes, was linked to lower levels of C-peptide in this study. Mayer-Davis said she feels this finding may have been due to chance, especially since it isn't consistent with previous research.
Higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids appeared to have a linear relationship with the preservation of beta cell function, Mayer-Davis said. That means the more omega-3 fatty acids in the blood, the greater the likelihood of higher levels of C-peptide.
"It's possible that there are approaches that may improve the ability to produce insulin after diagnosis," Mayer-Davis said. "Within the context of a healthy diet, dairy products, high-protein foods and salmon may help. But parents shouldn't expect that these foods will be a miracle. Their children will still need insulin."
For his part, Zonszein said, "Type 1 is a very complex disease. I think this needs to be studied more, but I wouldn't recommend dietary changes now. I think the potential mechanism of action needs to be studied. But changing diets dramatically, especially in kids, can dramatically change the flora [such as bacteria] in the gut, which may create other problems."
Mayer-Davis agreed that more research is needed, and she said she hopes other scientists look into this connection.
Asked if this information could benefit children or adults with type 2 diabetes, Zonszein said it's impossible to know from this study. Mayer-Davis noted, however, that previous research on animals with type 2 disease is one of the factors that initially sparked their interest in this nutrient.
Results of the study appear in the July issue of the journal Diabetes Care.
More information: Learn more about type 1 diabetes from the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Health News Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved.


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Ocean Rig UDW Inc. Announces Letter of Award for a 5 Well Drilling Contract for the Ocean Rig Skyros
NICOSIA, CYPRUS--(Marketwired - Jun 17, 2013) - Ocean Rig UDW Inc. (NASDAQ: ORIG) (the "Company" or "Ocean Rig"), a global provider of offshore deepwater drilling services, announced today that it has received a Letter of Award for its ultra deepwater drillship "Ocean Rig Skyros," from a major oil company. The Letter of Award is for 5 wells or a minimum of 275 days contract for drilling offshore West Africa, with an estimated backlog of approximately 190 million. The Letter of Award is subject to completion of definitive documentation and receipt of regulatory approvals. The contract is expected to commence upon delivery of the drillship from the shipyard, in October 2013. As a result of this LOA, as of today, our total contracted backlog (including LOAs) stands at about $5.0 billion.
About Ocean Rig
Ocean Rig is an international offshore drilling contractor providing oilfield services for offshore oil and gas exploration, development and production drilling, and specializing in the ultra-deepwater and harsh-environment segment of the offshore drilling industry. The company owns and operates 10 offshore ultra deepwater drilling units, comprising of 2 ultra deepwater semisubmersible drilling rigs and 8 ultra deepwater drillships, 3 of which remain to be delivered to the company during 2013 and 1 in 2015.
Visit the Company's website at www.ocean-rig.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Matters discussed in this release may constitute forward-looking statements. Forwardlooking
statements relate to Ocean Rig's expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. These statements may be identified by the use of words like "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "should," "seek," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements reflect Ocean Rig's current views and assumptions with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon various assumptions, may of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, including without limitation, management's examination of historical operating trends, data contained in Ocean Rig's records and other data available from third parties. Although Ocean Rig believes that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond Ocean Rig's control, Ocean Rig cannot assure you that it will achieve or accomplish these expectations, beliefs or projections described in the forward-looking statements contained herein. Actual and future results and trends could differ materially from those set forth in such statements. Important factors that, in Ocean Rig's view, could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include (i) factors related to the offshore drilling market, including supply and demand, utilization, day rates and customer drilling programs; (ii);hazards inherent in the drilling industry and marine operations causing personal injury or loss of life, severe damage to or destruction of property and equipment, pollution or environmental damage, claims by third parties or customers and suspension of operations; (iii) changes in laws and governmental regulations, particularly with respect to environmental matters; (iv) the availability of competing offshore drilling vessels; (v) political and other uncertainties, including risks of terrorist acts, war and civil disturbances; piracy; significant governmental influence over many aspects of local economies, seizure; nationalization or expropriation of property or equipment; repudiation, nullification, modification or renegotiation of contracts; limitations on insurance coverage, such as war risk coverage, in certain areas; political unrest; foreign and U.S. monetary policy and foreign currency fluctuations and devaluations; the inability to repatriate income or capital; complications associated with repairing and replacing equipment in remote locations; import-export quotas, wage and price controls imposition of trade barriers; regulatory or financial requirements to comply with foreign bureaucratic actions; changing taxation policies; and other forms of government regulation and economic conditions that are beyond our control; (vi) the performance of our rigs; (vii) our ability to procure or have access to financing and comply with our loan covenants; (viii) our ability to successfully employ our drilling units; (ix) our capital expenditures, including the timing and cost of completion of capital projects; and (x) our revenues and expenses. Due to such uncertainties and risks, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon such forward-looking statements.


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For decades, "going downtown" meant something special – probably from its very first use as a term to describe the lower tip of Manhattan, which was then New York City's heart of business, commercial and residential life.
Downtown was literally "where it was at" – jobs, shopping, cultural attractions and all.
But then, beginning in post-World War II America, many downtowns lost their luster, as people were drawn to the suburbs thanks to cheap land and easy means to traveling to and fro.
In some places, downtowns and the areas immediately adjoining them became places of high crime, industrial decay, shopworn appearances and various socio-economic pathologies.
Things hit rock bottom in the late 1970s, as personified by the Times Square area of New York City. But since then, many downtowns have slowly come back from those near-death experiences, spurred by new types of residents with new and different priorities.
Dan Cort, author of the book Downtown Turnaround, describes it this way: "People – young ones especially – love historical buildings that reintroduce them to the past. They want to live where they can walk out of the house, work out, go to a café, and still walk to work."
There are a number of cities where the downtown areas have come back in the big way over the past several decades. Everyone knows which ones they are: New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Minneapolis …
But what about the latest success stories? Which downtowns are those?
Recently, Realtor.com analyzed the 200 largest cities in the United States to determine which ones have the made the biggest turnaround since 2012. To determine the biggest successes, it studied the following factors:
- Downtown residential population growth
- Growth in the number of restaurants, bars, grocery stores and food trucks per capita
- Growth in the number of independent realtors per capita
- Growth in the number of jobs per capita
- Home price appreciation since 2012 (limited to cities where the 2012 median home price was $400,000 or lower)
- Price premium of purchasing a home in the downtown district compared with the median home price of the whole city
- Residential and commercial vacancy rates
Based on these criteria, Realtor.com's list of the Top 10 cities where downtown is making a comeback are these:
- #1 Pittsburgh, PA
- #2 Indianapolis, IN
- #3 Oakland, CA
- #4 Detroit, MI
- #5 Columbus, OH
- #6 Austin, TX
- #7 Los Angeles, CA
- #8 Dallas, TX
- #9 Chicago, IL
- #10 Providence, RI
Some of these may surprise you. But it's interesting to see some of the stats that are behind the rankings. For instance, look at what's happened to median home prices in some of these downtown districts since 2012:
- Detroit: +150%
- Oakland: +111%
- Los Angeles: +63%
- Pittsburgh: +31%
And residential population growth has been particularly strong here:
- Pittsburgh: +32%
- Austin: +25%
- Dallas: +25%
- Chicago: +21%
In the coming years, it will be interesting to see if the downtown revitalization trend continues – and spreads to more large cities.
And what about America's medium-sized cities, where downtown zones continue to struggle. If you've been to Midwestern cities like Kokomo, IN, Flint, MI or Lima, OH, those downtowns look particularly bleak. Can the sort of revitalization we see in the major urban centers be replicated there?
I have my doubts … but what is your opinion? Feel free to share your thoughts below.


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Fox & Friends' official "B Team," Alisyn Camerota, Dave Briggs, and Clayton Morris, had a much too short stint this weekend. Yesterday the trio was regrettably replaced by F&F's first-string, Gretchen Carlson, Brian Kilmeade, and Steve Doocy, for F&F's special four-hour 9-11 edition. Apparently, FNC Senior Veep of Programming Bill Shine thought that he should once again bring in his weekday cast for such a momentous occasion.
Unfortunately, Shine did not give his untried trinity an opportunity to prove their mettle as one. As to Camerota, Shine has shown that he knows she is assuredly "A Team" material. E.g., he has placed his seasoned star side-by-side with Doocy and Kilmeade in such F&F specials as Pope Benedict XVI's 2008 trip to America, President Barack Obama's inaugural celebrations, and Senator Ted Kennedy's funeral. However, perhaps, Shine is still not fully confident in his developing "Doublemen Twins," i.e., Dave Briggs and Clayton Morris.
As the author has previously noted and Camerota has humorously alluded to, Briggs and Morris have come a long way since they were first thrust upon Fox & Friends fans with the then similarly callow Ainsley Earhardt. Under the tutelage of Camerota, the occasional coaching by the weekday denizens (when subbing), and, perchance, some comments from critics, Briggs and Morris seem to be growing into more serious journalists less apt to play the princess or the clown. Furthermore, they and Camerota seem to be evolving into that ensemble to which they have aspired.
Next time, Coach (Shine), put the Doublemen Twins in with Camerota for the big game to see what they've got. Their fans would surely love to see them play. And, just, maybe, they'll surprise you.


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Have you heard the old wives tale that rubbing a bald head will bring good luck?
George W. Bush certainly has.
Buzzfeed gifted the world wide web with a 16 photo stream of the former president's habit of caressing hairless heads. Here are a few:
Public speaking can be intimidating. Good thing a bald head is close by.
Good luck on the battlefield, soldier.
At the traditional Thanksgiving pardon, it's this turkey's lucky day.
Want more of Bush and bald heads? See the full spread here.


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In our Daddy Issues series, a father of a young daughter seeks guidance, hoping to raise a strong woman. He looks to you, dear readers, for insight.
After last week's post about pretty pink princesses, I waged a minor war on the color pink.
And by war, I mean skirmish. OK, fine, maybe...tactical maneuver.
So I was walking home from school with my 4-year-old daughter, and we were talking about an upcoming snow vacation and the need to find the proper clothes.
"Pink," she told me, "I need a snowsuit that's pink."
"What if they only have blue?" I asked, "Or yellow?"
She frowned.
"We'll let's at least try for pink," she said.
Usually I buy whatever happens to be on sale. I buy all my jeans from the Salvation Army a few blocks away or the clearance rack at Old Navy, because there's no way I want to spend more than $10 on a pair of pants I know I'm going to rip up or get dirty playing horse or jamming down concrete slides with the kid. To be honest, I had wondered if this sort of frugality might rub off, if the idea might somehow break through that appearance wasn't as important as function or price.
Please. I'm up against a world filled with Avril Lavigne videos, where the quality of the song isn't nearly as important as pitching everything from Chucks to computers to perfume and knock-off "vintage" clothing lines.
But I digress. Hearing my daughter go on and on about pink mittens and pink snow boots, I decided to push back a tiny bit. Now, I know plenty of girls who went through a "pink phase" and came out of it loving green. I wasn't concerned this was a life-altering issue (although I did read "Cinderella Ate My Daughter" the day it came out this week and was appalled, aghast and mildly amused by the evolution of pink and what it might portend). I was curious how deep pink had gotten its hooks into her.
"Suppose," I said, "There were only two choices of snow boots. Only two. And you only got to pick one."
She nodded and waited for more, while I explained that while one pair was pink, the boots fit so poorly that it hurt her feet to the point she couldn't wear them for more than two seconds. The other pair, I told her, was blue — and they fit perfectly and made it feel like walking on clouds.
"So which one do you want? The pink hurty one or the blue comfortable one?"
She didn't even think it over.
"Pink," she said.
Those are some big, pink hooks.
Mike Adamick writes at Cry It Out!. He wore pink Andre Agassi tennis shorts.
Image by Lauri Apple.


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Archive for August 2010
Subtitles as translation
Continuing with the theme of translation…
If you have ever watched Indian movies with English subtitles, you will be aware of how uniformly terrible they are. Everything is usually translated over-literally, into phrases that make no sense in English even for ideas common enough that non-literal equivalents exist. (Remember those award-winning regional-language films that Doordarshan used to broadcast at 11:30 pm on Sundays, which you used to watch after your parents had gone to sleep, and where you always had to guess what was meant by translating the English subtitles back into an Indian language?)
Sometimes—very rarely—the subtitles are done with more care, and any successful translation is always worth applauding.
Here is a post on the subject by Carla FilmiGeek, where she mentions a trailer in which a character is in a screen test, saying lines like Kitne aadmi the?, while the subtitles have lines like "I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender" and "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!"
That is to say, instead of literally rendering the famous lines from the Hindi films ("How many men were there?" &c.) the subtitler chose a conceptual translation that slipped the category of "famous lines from Hindi films" to "famous lines from Hollywood films." This rendition conveys the force of what is happening on the screen – the dog is reenacting famous movie scenes – much better than could have been done by a literal translation. […] ; it is not a linguistic translation only, but also a cultural translation.
The comments there also mention this from Hum Aapke Hain Kaun:
"daal mein kuch kaala hai, bhaiyyaji"
"mujhe kaali daal to pasand hain"
Literally this translates to something along the lines of:
"there is something black in the lentils, brother"
"I love black lentils"
but the subtitles instead read:
"something is fishy!"
"I love fish"
This post was occasioned by the few Hindi movies I saw over the last couple of years—though I would have preferred watching them without subtitles, it's hard not to read them when they're forcibly displayed on screen—and was impressed by the English subtitles at times. I don't think this is a general trend of better subtitles (though foreign markets are slowly growing in importance for Bollywood), but merely isolated examples.
The first was Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na, where I was more impressed by the uniformly high quality of the subtitles than by the film. What I found most impressive was that the song lyrics were translated into rhyming verses while still remaining reasonably song-like: where the Hindi lyrics say:
Nazre milaana, nazre churana
kahin pe nigaahen, kahin pe nishaana…
the subtitles say:
The secret look. The stolen gaze.
Finds it's mark, and yet it strays.
and so on. It may not mean exactly the same thing, but is close enough to whatever extent anyone pays attention to the meaning of song lyrics. Despite the "it's", I found it amazing how much care the subtitlers had taken throughout the film in finding the right phrases. Cliches are translated into cliches, colloquialisms into colloquialisms, and everything suggests much thought has gone into it. Subtitlers never get credit for their hard work, so let me acknowledge their names: the credits attribute "English subtitling" to "Renuka Kunzuru" and "Chirag Todiwala" (who also appear in the credits as the actress ("Renuku Kunzru") who plays the character the film is being narrated to, and an assistant editor respectively).
The second example was the Munnabhai films. These are a special challenge because the films often rely for effect on slang Hindi, puns, cultural references and the like (you don't realise how much until you try translating). The first film has passably decent and thoughtful subtitles, given the constraints, with even a few inspired choices. But the subtitles of the second film, Lage Raho Munnabhai ambitiously overextend themselves, often to lame effect. They so often make up new material that they seem to construct an entire (irrelevant) parallel literature: For instance, where in the original 'Circuit' politely explains at knifepoint to the professor that they should help each other in life, and that in exchange for information on Gandhi, he'd be perfectly willing to impart knowledge on "Shakeel Heda, Dagdu Dada, Afzal Tonda", the subtitles mention "Franky four-fingers, Bullet-tooth Tony, Boris 'the blade'". This seems less an intentional tribute to Guy Ritche's Snatch (nowhere present in the original) than simply a failure of imagination in coming up with gangster names, and distracts from what's happening onscreen. Philip Lutgendorf seems to feel the same way; he dislikes Shah Rukh Khan and Dilip Kumar being mapped to Brad Pitt and Robert Redford, and that "clever Hinglish puns are replaced by irrelevant and less-than-clever English word-play".
The moral, I guess, is that though "cultural translation" can be better than literal translation in conveying the intended effect, and is always worth attempting, it is not the point in itself, and must be carried out only so far as the result is palatable, and the translation does not draw undue attention to itself.
(Aside: it is interesting to read about Bollywood from the perspective of non-Indians; one gets to learn about one's own films by seeing what they "get" and don't get, what they observe and find notable that we'd take for granted. Hilarious initial reactions are one thing, but for reviews by people intimately familiar with Hindi cinema (who have probably watched more Hindi films than I have), among the many many Bollywood blogs present online, I especially recommend Filmi Geek and "philip's fil-ums". Lutgendorf, for instance, seems to often pick up references to mythology that we'd not even notice, as we've internalized these stories so deeply.)


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When you unboxed my hypothetical Apple Television Set you would find three devices inside. There would be a lovely large display panel with an impossibly thin bezel (unadorned by an Apple logo). It'd have one wire, the power plug. The second device would look very much like the current Apple TV though it'd sport an HDMI input or two on the back. The third device would be a remote control. It'd look much like the current remote but have only one button, right where the circular buttons are now. You'd place the display where you'd like it (using the optional iMac style foot it comes with, though that's just connected to the display with a standard VESA mount), and then plug it in. You'd stick the Apple TV box someplace where you don't have to see it (though it'll still be prettier than all your existing equipment) and plug it in. Then the display would light up and show the Apple logo just as on an iOS device. You'd be shown a list of WiFi networks and you'd pick one, the iPhone in your pocket would ping and you'd be asked if you wanted to allow the Apple TV to join the network, and you'd tap "Allow". The display then shows you the new main Apple TV navigation interface which involves moving a blue highlight around by swiping on the new remote control or, if you'd like to find something rather than browse, you'd hold the button on the remote and ask a Siri sibling to find the content you'd like to watch.
Wouldn't that be nice? Here's how Apple can do it.
I've done a lot of thinking about the Apple TV. For some reason it fascinates me. It's entirely different from the other applications of software. First, it's a shared experience rather than a direct experience like a Mac or an iOS device. Second, this shared experience means there's necessarily an indirection of input — if a screen is big enough to be seen by everyone in the room you're not going to be close enough to it to mess with it directly. So when the rumours went around of an iOS based Apple TV coming I became intrigued and tossed some ideas back and forth with a friend. Mostly the discussion came down to input methods — what could they do and what'd that mean for the interface? Around that same time Bluetooth 4.0 was ratified and the specification includes a low power mode. I guessed that if the Apple TV had a Bluetooth 4.0 chip then we'd see a new remote, if not we'd likely just stick with what we had.
Well, it turns out the new iPhone 4S has a Bluetooth 4.0 chip and since all of these devices, broadly, share a generational common platform we can expect to see it appear in the next iteration of Apple TV. So that's one part of the puzzle. My guess is for the new remote is a touch sensitive surface with a mic that's activated by holding down on the Select button. That's my guess at least, if you can't play with these things it's hard to know how they'll actually work.
But there's a lot more going on with my hypothetical Apple Television Set than just a fancy remote. There's no wires, there's the box finding the display and there's joining the network effortlessly. How can all of that happen? I believe it's all possible thanks to the details in this report by Nilay Patel writing for The Verge.
I like this report because it's a little forlorn — the intent is to convey that AirPlay won't be enabled over Bluetooth contrary to previous rumours. But buried in here are, to my mind, major clues to technology that will change the value proposition of an Apple Television Set.
Made For iPhone accessories have to be authenticated by iOS to work, and the new chip is an authentication module that works over the dock connector, AirPlay, and Bluetooth.
Sounds perfect for an authentication system that'd be required to stream protected content wirelessly to a display. We'd need that if we were going to build my hypothetical Apple Television Set. So the Apple TV box and the Display could find each other via Bluetooth and authenticate with each other. Since you're very unlikely to be plugging in three sets of these things within Bluetooth range of one another the odds are good that you don't need to worry about selecting specific devices. And in the cases where that might happen well just read the Tech Note that tells you to do them one at a time. But we're still at a loss about how we can connect to the WiFi network so easily.
We're also told Apple is making it easier to for MFI accessories to connect to Wi-Fi networks by automatically pulling the appropriate configuration information from your iOS device over Bluetooth or the docking cable — all you have to do is approve the request and your accessory will hop online without any extra effort.
So if you're in an Apple based household the odds are good that your new Apple TV will be able to talk to one of your other devices and get the required network info from it. I'd bet heavily that this capability makes its way into AirPort devices and Macs. "Want to let this device on your network?", is exactly the level of simplicity that Apple tends to aim for.
I think the pieces are coming together to make an Apple Television Set an interesting and worthwhile proposition. The Apple TV box device finds and communicates with the Display seamlessly. The control channel between the Display and the Apple TV box is based on a low power Bluetooth 4.0, the Display doesn't even need an on/off button since it draws so little power. Once the Apple TV box has turned on the Display it feeds it video via AirPlay over the WiFi network. The HDMI inputs on the Apple TV box are displayed in the interface just like other sources of input, like NLB or NetFlix.
The beauty of this sort of setup is that it disconnects the iteration of the Apple TV box from the expensive Display. One key argument against Apple doing a television set has been that people buy new TVs infrequently and so it'd take a long time to break into the market. By building an Apple TV box that can act as it does now but also deal so much more magically with a terrific television then Apple can gain traction selling the devices and accrue additional sales in a new market as users buy into the whole device chain.
I'd believed the idea of Apple doing a television set to be a little far fetched or, at least, something I couldn't see the value of. With the new information to hand I feel like there really could be a compelling product there. Not, mind you, a blow out success like the iPhone or iPad, but something solid and sustainable.
Oh, and in the impossibly thin bezel of the Display would be a FaceTime camera.


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(CNN) -- Israel has agreed to establish a "humanitarian corridor" to supply residents of Gaza with aid as international concerns about conditions among civilians mount, according to a government statement.
Israeli workers prepare humanitarian supplies to be delivered in Gaza on Tuesday.
The statement, posted on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Web site, said Olmert decided to accept a proposal from security advisers to open the corridor.
It said a path into Gaza, where Israel launched a ground offensive against Hamas militants on Saturday, "will be opened for a specific period of time, during which the population can receive the aid."
The statement also said Olmert spoke Tuesday with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to "update her on political and military developments," including the humanitarian situation.
Hospital workers reported Tuesday that far more civilians than Hamas fighters were arriving at hospitals for treatment.
Food, water, medicine and electricity shortages have been reported throughout Gaza during the campaign, in which nearly 600 Palestinians have been killed and another 2,750 wounded, according to medical sources.
Jerusalem has been under intense international pressure to let goods pass, because of shortage of food, medicines and fuel.
"There are food shortages. ... The health system is overwhelmed. The people here don't have electricity," Mohammed El-Halaby, program manager for humanitarian group World Vision, said earlier this week.
El-Halaby said several power lines and water pumps were damaged during last week's airstrikes, which preceded the ground incursion.


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Interning at the Museum of American Finance has been a great experience. While most summer internships for college students consist of tedious letter filing and coffee runs, we learn first-hand what it takes to run a non-profit museum in the financial capital of the world. In addition to archiving, guiding tours and utilizing social media outlets such as Twitter and Flickr, we take weekly trips to local partner institutions. The interns here have interests across a range of areas including American history, finance and the visual arts.
One of the better aspects of the internship is that there is a rotational schedule; we spend two weeks on each project, be it visitor services, archiving, social media or educational development. This system allows for collaboration between interns and establishes a sense of community in the office.
Despite the freezing temperatures in the library and the archive room, working in the archiving department provides us with a rare inside look into the collections that have been generously donated over the years to the Museum. Sifting through old banknotes, bonds, magazines, stock certificates and photographs, interns quickly learn about the nation's rich financial history. Archiving has also showed us the process of preserving the collections and its importance in helping to maintain objects in their original state.
Everybody looks forward to Thursdays, which is field-trip day. So far, we have been fortunate enough to visit the Federal Reserve Bank, the New York Stock Exchange and the New York Mercantile Exchange. Along with these important financial institutions, we have visited other museums such as the Skyscraper Museum, the National Museum of the American Indian and the New York Public Library. Visiting the museums has given us the chance to see how other institutions maintain and present their collections and exhibits. We found that the NYPL, in particular, had a wide range of collections and a great layout to its exhibits. It has been both helpful and interesting to compare and contrast the MoAF with other museums.
The upcoming "Race Around Wall Street" scavenger hunt has been a joint project amongst the interns, and is essentially an amalgamation of the different rotations; researching and assembling this event has involved all of the skills and knowledge the interns gained from their various roles at the Museum. We've marked key sites around the Financial District, and, using the financial and historical knowledge acquired from walking tours and field trips, generated sets of challenging clues for the competitors. The skills gained from the interns' social media rotation have been most beneficial, as we have used Twitter, Facebook and Museum mailing lists to advertise our events.
Our work is made even more enjoyable because of the friendly community atmosphere of the Museum. The staff at the Museum is unbelievably accommodating and open to all of our questions and concerns; rather than regarding interns as lowly grunt men or hassles, the staffers have made a concerted effort to include the interns in staff discussions and traditions such as Free Lunch Friday. Such a warm community makes the unpaid work bearable! A small staff ensures that everyone at the Museum gets to know each other, and even employees and interns that leave the Museum come back to visit.


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- Install Azure PowerShell Cmdlets V0.8.0 or above from here.
- If the scripts will be run on an existing VM, make sure VM Agent is enabled on the VM, if not follow this blog post to install one.
- Upload the scripts that you want to run on the VM to Azure Storage. The scripts can come from a single or multiple storage containers.
- The script should be authored in such a way that the entry script which is launched by the extension in turn launches other scripts.
Use Case 1: Uploading files to a container in the default account.If you have your scripts in the storage container of the default account of your subscription, then the cmdlet snippet below shows how you can run them on the VM. The ContainerName in the sample below is where you upload the scripts to. The default storage account can be verified by using the cmdlet 'Get-AzureSubscription –Default' Note: This use case creates a new VM but the same operations can be done on an existing VM as well.
Use Case 2: Using non-default storage accounts.This use case shows how to use a non-default storage either within the same subscription or in a different subscription for uploading scripts/files. Here we'll use an existing VM but the same operations can be done while creating a new VM.
Use Case 3: Uploading scripts to multiple containers across different storage accounts.If the script files are stored across multiple containers, then currently to run those scripts, you have to provide the full SAS URL of these files. SAS URLs generated can be generated by using a tool like Azure Storage Explorer. Hopefully these cmdlets will help you automate some of your VM Customization tasks. We'd love to hear from you on what other capabilities you'd like to see in this extension in its upcoming releases. Please post your comments/questions to here. Update : Once the scripts are upload the script execution status can be viewed by using the following cmdlet:
// Get the VM status $x = get-azurevm -ServiceName $svcName -Name $name //Parse the output to retrieve the extension status, in the example below CustomScript Extension is 2nd in the list of extensions added. $x.ResourceExtensionStatusList[1].ExtensionSettingStatus.SubStatusList


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Thursday, September 4, 2008
The Elephant in the Room
I am not about to rant on either candidate, but I do want to share my dismay at some of the health care issues that are going to be affected by the outcome of the next election. A friend of mine in Hawaii wrote to me that blue cross/blue shield in her state requires women to pay higher premiums than men--and gets away with it! Yes, women have expenses related to reproductive care that men don't, and yes, we live longer. But the whole idea of health insurance is to spread risk fairly through a population. Differential pricing by gender implies that men are the true representatives of the population and women somehow deviant from the norm (despite being an absolute majority). This stands the very edifice of health insurance on its head.
Beyond reproductive health care services like abortion and contraception, adequate insurance for the elderly, including nursing and other support services, are also "women's issues." When insurance fails to cover services, it is typically women--wives and daughters--who pick up the responsibilties of caregiving. When insurance does not pay for services for children, it is mothers who step in fill the vacuum. Now that women are more productive in work outside the home, the economic costs of us having to cut back our own work to become caregivers are huge, and rarely acknowledged.
The underlying problem is one of state/federal conflict, not necessarily Democratic/Republican differences. The regulation of private health insurance is a state rather than a federal function. Many insurance companies have budgets--and therefore political clout--larger than the state governments that regulate them. Only the federal government is large enough and strong enough to rein in the rogue health insurance industry. Personalities and records aside, this mother in medicine is going to vote for the candidate who believes in using the power of government to regulate crucial service institutions directly, not through byzantine manipulations of the tax code. Three guesses as to who that will be.
7 comments:
- AnonymousSeptember 4, 2008 at 12:57 AM
I spent medical school and residency believing in socialized medicine. I was going to the rallies and speaking w/ my representative about the good that would come about w/ government-backed medicine. I went into primary care so I could better care for the poor and uninsured. Now having spent 3 years working in an inner city clinic w/ all medicaid/medicare patients and the past 10months in a VA clinic (which is completely gov't run), I have made a complete 180 on the idea of the gov't managing any portion of healthcare. Especiallyin the VA system, it is not a matter of unequal or unfair access to healthcare. Instead, it is a complete lack of access to healthcare. The majority of our patient are older w/ a slew of problems. I work at one of the larger clinics outside of the main VA hospitals. We are able to draw blood. That's it. Even that is being threatened to take away. An x-ray of anything is 45min awayReplyDelete
-urine dip - 45 min away
- CT scan - 45min away
- MRI - 2hrs away
- most specialists - 2hrs away
We are not even supposed to be checking spot glucoses. To get an wrist brace for carpal tunnel, again 45min away. We cannot prescribe anything off-label (i.e. cannot get Lyrica for HAs, even if we know it works). Just recently were able to start prescribing Lantus for our pts w/ overnight glucose lows. And women's care- forget it. I can do a pap, that's it. We're not allowed microscopes or slides to check for anything like BV, fungus, trich, etc. Again, 45min away. And that's just from our clinic. Many of our patients drive 1-2hrs just to get to our clinic.
Despite our complaints, and our concerns regarding our limitations to appropriately care for our patients, we have more and more taken away from our clinic secondary to "budget cuts", though many times, it's someone on top flexing their muscles.
Working w/ mostly Medicaid/Medicare patients was only slightly easier. The sheer amt of paperwork involved in trying to get anything ok'ed was staggering. And again, there were barriers to access everywhere.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think the current system is good, but I think the government taking over would make it unimaginably worse.
Hey, I thought there were no health care problems cuz anyone who needed care could just go to the ER? I see absolutely no huge major gaping problems with THAT solution ;)ReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 4, 2008 at 1:58 PM
Any reforms in our healthcare crisis will need reform of the current malpractice situation. We also need a cultural change that says we need to accept personal responsibility for our own healthcare (care for our own bodies, watch excesses, exercise etc.), and that bringing a lawsuit against someone is not one of the freedoms guaranteed by the constitution.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 4, 2008 at 8:51 PM
Responsibility: What is that? If one knows anything about the generation of high school students that is rising up in the U.S., they would literally swim/run/jet to another country. As a former substitute teacher in an urban school district, I had my days of being abused and bullied, and it was my lack to control the classroom. The students got away with everything! Keep in mind, in one classroom I had 3 (THREE) uniformed police officers and 30 students in the classroom, and my cell phone was stolen from my pants pocket. I was informed it my fault, not the students who stole it. Please note the only reason I had it, was my life was in my hands as I had literal death threats. Oh by the way, I have to carry my own health care insurance, and I pay $35.00 more dollars per month, than males my age.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 4, 2008 at 8:54 PM
it was my lack to control the classroom. -ReplyDelete
The administration blamed me and stated it was my lack of ability to control the classroom.
- AnonymousSeptember 6, 2008 at 7:38 AM
Reply from poster: I agree that any health care reform has to include malpractice reform and some effort to consider the cost of medical education and medical debt. We as physicians need to advocate for our own interestes, but it should not be at the cost of opposition to efforts to extend health care to others--we justifiably lose the public's trust if we do not put their interest at least on par with our own. Tax policies that merely encourage individuals to purchase insurance on the open market cannot achieve these multiple, complex ends, which will require much more direct regulation and reform.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 6, 2008 at 5:26 PM
Wait...women have higher expenses and you're complaining because they have to pay more for insurance? Wow. Are you also mad at the grocery store for having to pay more for a full cart than the guy next to you with 2 items? Insurance is not socialism. It's risk management by a private company.ReplyDelete
Hey, I don't trust the government to deliver my mail. Dear God, don't let them have any more control over healthcare. They already have way, way too much control.
That government is best which governs least.


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Nepali Calendar
Nepali Calendar is an official calendar of Nepal. Nepali Patro is approximately 56 years and 8½ months ahead of the Gregorian calendar (A.D). Unlike Gregorian months, the lengths of Nepali calendar months are not predetermined, and change from year to year varies from 29 days to 32 days. So, this Nepali calendar gives you the exact date with cultural events and festivals of Nepal from 1970 to 2100 B.S for both Gregorian and Nepali calendar together. People around the world mainly: USA, Australia, Canada, UK, Japan, Nepal love to use this online Nepali Calendar.


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SAS® Visual Investigator on SAS® Viya®
Try it free for up to 28 days!
Experience firsthand how our modern, open platform helps you address a wide variety of intelligence analysis and investigation management needs – from intelligently prioritized alerts, to free-text and geospatial searches across data sources, to visualized results.
About the Trial
- There's nothing to download; a web browser is all you need (we recommend Google Chrome 64-bit for the best experience).
- Use our sample data and demo scripts to explore the software's capabilities.
- Share the trial environment with four of your colleagues.
- Help is readily available from videos, documentation and an online community.
Interested in other SAS® Viya® products?
During the trial period you'll have access to other SAS Viya products in addition to SAS Visual Investigator.
Please note: The trial is only available in English.


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You are the Master who makes the Grass Green by Robert Anton Wilson [RAW].
Intelligence increases when you change yourself from the inside out.
Yoga is the Science of the East. Science is the Yoga of the West.
There is no objective knowledge outside of us. Quantum physics.
Intelligence can be raised. Consciousness can be altered.
Robert Anton Wilson You are the Master who makes the Grass Green Video:
Change your nervous system and you may go to wider and wider reality tunnels
and bigger and bigger levels of perception.
With a higher level of intelligence you may start choosing different reality tunnels.
" You are the Master who makes the Grass Green. It doesn't matter who you are, if you follow scientific procedure, you'll find the truth." – Robert Anton Wilson


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Factors to Consider When Choosing an Asphalt Contractor
Sometimes the driveway at your house may start chipping off and looking unattractive. Similarly, it may be the parking lot of your business that needs some revamping so that it can be restored to its initial state as it was before. Asphalt companies or contractors are responsible for this. They do repairs or even change the design of the entire pavement so that it looks better. There are a lot of asphalt contractors in the country that you can choose from but it is not all that will do a satisfactory job. The job of repairing a pavement is not easy, it is a technical task that requires precision and thus it is vital that you hire a contractor who know what they are doing. There are some tips that will help you in making the right choice. It is vital that you take your time when making a selection so that you don't end up with a quack working on your pavement.
The internet is usually the best place to start. It contains directories of different asphalt contractors and their contacts which can help you in initiating your search. The first thing has to do with the budget or how much you intend to spend. Although budget should not be the only factor to pay attention to, it is an important thing. You should request for a price catalog and quotations by different contractors so that you can settle on the one that charges the best prices. However, while considering the price, look at the he quality of materials that they use. Although quality asphalt material might be expensive at first, it tends to save costs in the long run because it requires less maintenance and renovations.
It is also good to find out how the contractor finances their operations, for example is it by debt or are they liquid enough. It would be disappointing to start a project then mid-way bail out on it. Request to find out the payment schedules or patterns that they accept for example, monthly, quarterly among others. The nature of equipment that the company has is another vital thing. A firm that has state of the art tools of work will be much more efficient than those that without. They should have mechanized most of the activities. For instance do they have motor grades, road roller machines among others. All these will make work easier. If it is mixing, they should be having mixers for that as opposed to using manual labor which tends to be uncertain at times.
Insurance is also critical. It is recommended that the the asphalt contractor have a policy cover of at least $500000 per policy cover. For example in auto liability, worker's compensation in case they are injured while at work among others. The reputation of the company also important. First do a background research of what people say about the company before going ahead to hire it. If positive, then pick it, otherwise, shun from it.
News For This Month:
How I Became An Expert on


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Earlier this week, Erik Hershman, co-founder of Ushahidi, presented his project to our Stanford Peace 2.0 group.
Talk about exciting stuff! Ushahidi is a brilliant example of smart web and mobile technology put to the service of a very worthwhile social cause, in this case violence in Kenya. What enthralled me, was Erik's announcement of the soon to be released, Ushahidi 2.0, 'a free, open source version, rebuilt from the ground up that anyone will be able to use around the world'. Ushahidi just won the 2008 NetSquared Challenge.
I can very well see having several Ushahidi sites, to cover various aspects of the climate crisis, from food, to water, to natural disasters, to the witnessing of environmental deterioration. This way, citizens from all over the world can become live witnesses of the negative changes taking place in their environment, and get connected with the solutions to remedy these changes.
Erik is also the guy behind Afrigadget, another project well worth checking out.


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Finally! I took the Merry Cox class in November for this piece and was pleasantly surprised to be able to finish so much of it but my friend, Tedra, finished the needlebook and inside pocket and watch for me. I'll be honest, I'm finishing challenged. I'm happy to finally have it done. The pocket watch goes into the little inside pocket and has the initials of my husband, kids and siblings. It was well worth all the over one stitching and the grumbling as I tried to stitch it in time for the class.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Treasures of Thy Life So Dear
Posted by Deborah at 11:11 AM 8 comments
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LAS VEGAS – Fans who limit their intake of mixed martial arts strictly to UFC contests likely have little idea who Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (18-3 MMA, 1-0 UFC) really is.
He may perhaps be known as the twin brother of former UFC interim heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Or fans may remember his lone UFC performance to date – a UFC 106 "Knockout of the Night" win over Luiz Cane.
At Saturday night's UFC 114 event in Las Vegas, Nogueira plans on taking the next step toward making his a household name.
"It's a new challenge, and it's a great challenge," Nogueira told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) through his manager and interpreter, Ed Soares. "It's actually motivated me to go out there and prove to myself and prove to everyone and show everyone in the U.S. and the UFC who I am in the world of MMA."
After dismantling Cane in just 1:56 this past November, Nogueira was originally expected to face Forrest Griffin at Saturday night's event. The former light heavyweight champion was forced to withdraw from the card due to a shoulder injury, and gritty wrestler Jason Brilz (18-2-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) took the fight on short notice.
Nogueira said the difference in style between Brilz and Griffin meant a change in training, but as a nine-year veteran of the sport, "Little Nog" knew how to handle the adjustments.
"It did throw a little bit of a curveball to us because we were expecting to fight somebody like Forrest Griffin who likes to stand up and strike," Nogueira said. "Now they gave us more of a wrestler. But fighting a guy like Forrest Griffin who is a complete fighter, I was training everything. I just had to change my focus a little bit, and I feel great for this fight."
Nogueira said he utilized top-level training partners such as UFC middleweight contender Mark Munoz and Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal to hone his grappling skills.
Of course, the change in opponent also meant a drop in stature, and what was one the co-main event of UFC 114 was replaced by Michael Bisping vs. Dan Miller.
Nogueira said he was disappointed at the lessened exposure of a simple main-card contest, but he understands the UFC's reasoning.
"I was a little bummed out," Nogueira said. "It was an opportunity for me to fight a great big name like Forrest Griffin, who's a tough fighter and a former champion. It was a little bit of a bummer, but it happens in our business."
Brilz comes into the matchup a decided underdog, but Nogueira said he's not taking the Midwesterner lightly. In 2007, Nogueira suffered the only stoppage loss of his career after entering a PRIDE bout with Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou as a decided favorite, and the Brazilian doesn't plan on letting that happen again.
"I haven't seen anybody knock [Brilz] out or anybody submit him, so he's not an easy guy to finish," Nogueira said. "He's got an 18-2 record, and he's no slouch. He's fighting in the UFC."
A win for Nogueira would make him 2-0 in the UFC with seven-straight victories overall.
In his storied career, Nogueira has been in the cage with Dan Henderson, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Vladimir Matyushenko, Guy Mezger, Alistair Overeem, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, Kazushi Sakuraba, and Sokoudjou, among others. And while many MMA observers felt Nogueira's best days were behind him after a 1-2 stretch between 2005 and 2007, the 33-year-old believes there is plenty of glory still to come.
"I feel that right now there are a lot of good guys in my division, but I feel that I'm within the top seven, for sure," Nogueira said. "I believe that in the near future, after this win and with me showing my work, I believe I'm going to be able to show my skills.
"I believe I'll be in the top three – hopefully, very soon."
And with a win, Nogueira already knows exactly what he wants to next. In fact, the Brazilian felt so sure of himself, he bypassed his translator in favor of an English-language answer.
"For sure," Nogueira said. "I want the opportunity to fight Forrest Griffin."
For complete coverage of UFC 114, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of MMAjunkie.com.
(Pictured: Antonio Rogerio Nogueira)
John Morgan is the lead staff reporter for MMAjunkie.com.


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In a story titled "George Zimmerman Case: Should Charges Be Dropped?" Matt Gutman of ABC News contemplates the implosion of the case against George Zimmerman, but he has us puzzling over this:
"There is no second-degree murder evidence in this case," Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz said. "It's a very close case."
I see those quotation marks, but when did Dershowitz say "It's a very close case"? Last Friday he wrote this in the Daily News:
A medical report by George Zimmerman's doctor has disclosed that Zimmerman had a fractured nose, two black eyes, two lacerations on the back of his head and a back injury on the day after the fatal shooting. If this evidence turns out to be valid, the prosecutor will have no choice but to drop the second-degree murder charge against Zimmerman — if she wants to act ethically, lawfully and professionally.
There is, of course, no assurance that the special prosecutor handling the case, State Attorney Angela Corey, will do the right thing. Because until now, her actions have been anything but ethical, lawful and professional.
Believe it or not, I did not find the words "close case" in that article.
Back in April, before the recent evidence dump, Dershowitz was scathing about the arrest affidavit:
"Most affidavits of probable cause are very thin. This is so thin that it won't make it past a judge on a second degree murder charge," Dershowitz said. "There's simply nothing in there that would justify second degree murder."
Dershowitz said that the elements that would constitute that crime are non-existent in the affidavit. "It's not only thin, it's irresponsible," said Dershowitz.
..."This affidavit does not even make it to probable cause," Dershowitz concluded. "everything in the affidavit is completely consistent with a defense of self-defense. Everything."
If there was a segue to "close case" I missed it.
Now, it may be that somewhere Prof. Dershowitz has opined that a manslaughter charge could lead to a close case. And I can believe that the motion to dismiss based on Florida's self-defense immunity might be close. But that is hardly the context being presented by ABC News.
I think ABC News ought to present a bit of context for that "close case" quote, which seems way out of line with everything else Dershowitz has said.
Free the quote! No context, no peace!


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The exhibition's title, FEEDBACK, refers to the self-correcting mechanisms by which systems—in this case, ecological—respond to the influence they exert on their environments. The works on display echoed this recursive dynamic, from Rebecca Bray and Britta Riley's DrinkPeeDrinkDrinkPee sewage processing organ, to Natalie Jeremijenko's tadpole-dispensing prescription from the walk-in Environmental Health Clinic for the ecologically unwell. In direct response to the world's loss of crop biodiversity Leah Gauthier's Sow-In engaged the public, in partnership with local community gardening groups, to sow the seeds of those food plants most in danger of extinction.
Numerous projects in the exhibition addressed energy consumption, production and harvesting: A visitor entered the exhibition through Fluxxlab's Revolution Door, a modified revolving door that harnesses and redistributes human energy. Mouna Andraos' The Power Cart is a mobile unit that delivers alternative power to people on the street, and Jeff Feddersen's installation The Off-Grid Outlet is a solar-powered AC outlet and 12V DC power port destined for the Brooklyn restaurant Cafe Habana. Building on existing urban infrastructure, Andrea Polli's Queensbridge Wind Power Project investigates how clean, renewable wind power might be integrated into the landmark architecture of the Queensboro Bridge.
FEEDBACK also featured the winners of the Eco-Vis Challenge, a two-part juried design competition to raise environmental awareness through creative data visualization projects.
A series of short video-documentaries by Jason Jones of the Brooklyn artists' collective Not An Alternative, commissioned especially for FEEDBACK, documents the making of each of the displayed projects, providing insight into the creative process. These videos were screened in the main gallery, and are now available on Eyebeam's website.
The exhibition design was by fluxxlab, and the series of paneled displays enclosing an expanse of vibrant green artificial turf in FEEDBACK references an aesthetic of trade shows and science fairs. The suggestive use of donated, recycled and blatantly artificial grass designated a central commons, posing questions without easy answers: Is artificial turf truly eco-unfriendly?
All 19 projects on display in FEEDBACK were designed to enlighten and entertain, challenge and inspire, and ultimately compel viewers to move beyond passive spectatorship. Toward this end, Fred Benenson's Committeecaller.com, a website application that enables one person to target an entire congressional committee over the phone, was featured in the exhibition. Three telephones for use with CommitteeCaller were available to exhibition visitors in order to make calls on behalf of three local community groups, including SolarOne and Sustainable South Bronx, who provided agendas and talking points for the callers.
Artist-led workshops offered a unique opportunity to brainstorm with FEEDBACK artists and experiment with the methods, tools and strategies on display. The following public programs took place in conjunction with FEEDBACK; all were free and open to the public.
January 26: Open Source Sustainability Critique
March 29: Sustainablity + Architecture panel
April 5: Alternative Energy Sources + Use/Reuse Workshops
April 19: Sustainability Action Day: toxic tours + urban gardening
People: Amanda McDonald Crowley, Andrea Polli, Annina Rüst, Beatriz da Costa, Brooke Singer, Carmen Trudell, David Benjamin, Eve Mosher, Fluxxlab, Forays, GreenMap System, Jamie Schulte, Jeff Feddersen, Jenny Broutin, Leah Gauthier, Liz Slagus, Michael Mandiberg, Mouna Andraos, Natalie Jeremijenko, Not an Alternative, Oz Etzioni, Paul Amitai, Preemptive Media, Rebecca Bray and Britta Riley, Soo-in Yang, The Living, The Studio for Urban Projects, Timm Kekeritz
Research: Sustainability
Tags: feedback, green, sustainability


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By Philip L. Tite
I recently received the Fall/Winter issue of McGill News, the alumni magazine for McGill University. Although I normally don't find much in the McGill News of interest (usually I find articles on business or technological advances, athletic accomplishments, or stunning tales of the "1%" of McGill graduates, usually with the typical subtext for the rest of us to make significant financial donations to the university), this time I did not immediate drop the magazine into the recycle bin. Instead, my attention was caught by an article entitled "In Defence of Religion" by Mark Reynolds. A lovely picture of Arvind Sharma, who is the Birks Professor of Comparative Religion in the Faculty of Religious Studies and a noted scholar in the phenomenology of religion, takes up about 1/6th of the page. Stunned that McGill's religious studies program would have a full article on it, especially with a focus on one of the professors that I knew from my days as a doctoral student at McGill, I read through the article with great interest.
Since the violent events of 9/11, the article observes, religion has come under attack in popular perceptions. Fueled by media coverage, Reynolds claims that "the mainstream consensus has come to define religion by its most extreme and violent adherents." Thus, religion has become a problem. Sharma is presented as resisting this very tendency to dismiss religion as a social ill. However, Sharma, at least as presented in this article, does not wish to articulate a more accurate social and ideological description of various religious traditions (i.e., to correct errors in the data collection), nor does he call for explanatory analysis of both those traditions and the ideological processes at work in the emergence and perpetuation of the "mainstream consensus" (i.e., to make sense of those data sets). Rather Sharma has a "faith in religion's ability to inspire our better natures" due to the "positive potential of religion" to make the world a better place. To this end, he helped organize the Global Conference on World Religions After 9/11 held in 2006. This very well attended conference included such key speakers as Deepak Chopra, Steven Katz, Gregory Baum, Tariq Ramadan, and even the Dalai Lama.
The Conference set forth three resolutions to try to improve the role of religion in international affairs: (1) "that, whenever in the world there are religious schools (seminary, or yeshiva, or madrasah, etc) they should teach a course on world religions" (evoking the claim that education leads to moral and peaceful progress in society); (2) "that violating the sanctity of the scriptures of any religion amounts to violating the sanctity of the scriptures of all religions" (which takes on new meaning in light of the Florida Qur'an burning); and (3) "finally, that the religions of the world should come together to formulate a Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the World's Religions" (situating the entire Conference within an inter-faith dialogue that articulates a humanistic "core" in all religions).
This article raised serious issues for me as a scholar of religion, especially as this is a public presentation of one of the leading program for religious studies in Canada. Specifically, I had to ask myself: Is this what our job as scholars – as public intellectuals – should be? This article represents an understanding of religious studies that is grounded in the value of the "caretaking" of traditions (to evoke Russell McCutcheon apt terminology). As a discipline, religious studies holds value in that its practitioners (scholars as researchers and teachers) and resources (institutional) only hold value (or primarily hold value) when they are engaged in protecting insider concerns, defending the very integrity of a religious tradition. Couched within this discourse is the place of inter-faith dialogue, an area of work that has gain a solid footing within the discipline.
All of this shifts our academic focus away from understanding and explaining social phenomena, toward a discursive game of claiming moral authority (as scholars) to (1) tell those we label "religious" how they should be religious, and (2) to authoritatively safeguard those very traditions as essentially beneficial to humankind (and thus to delegitimize other, non-beneficial acts, individuals, or social groups as not authentically religious). The former is a prescriptive move (rather than a descriptive move with subsequent theorization of the constructed data sets) that is founded upon the universalizing and essentializing premise of the later. Often a humanistic ethic underlies arguments in favor of the inclusion of the study of religion in the modern university (as if that were the only way to justify our existence).
Although I do agree that the academic study of religion – like other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences – can contribute to broader public dialogues over cultural issues, I am not convinced that the approach articulated in this article is really helpful. McCutcheon has offered (in my opinion) a definitive and devastating attack on scholars adopting the role of "caretaker" of religions (in his classic article "A Default of Critical Intelligence?" published in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion in 1997; also his book, Religion and the Domestication of Dissent). Other scholars have further articulated various problems with the phenomenological approach to comparative religious studies, especially when such approaches lead to transhistorical, normative truth claims. For myself, I think that religious studies scholars can offer something far more useful to public discourse than simply re-stating, prescriptively correcting, and defending insider truth claims (especially when scholars articulate an "authentic" version of a given tradition).
As highly trained cultural critics engaged in redescribing insider truth claims and methodologically delimited theorization of those data sets we have constructed, we are in a place qua scholars to elucidate those ideological processes that are at play within cultural and social interactions, interactions that result in discursive "normative" scripts being played out. What economic, social, and geopolitical forces are at work between competing claims to a commonsense, normative worldview? What rhetorical acts are utilized in both legitimization and delegitimization of those posited worldviews? Are we as scholars culpable in such discursive engagements (what are our ideological blinders)? Answering such questions (and empowering students to struggle with such questions, even if that means they disagree with us) strikes me as a more valuable and unique contribution to public discourse. It is in this task of asking questions, detecting ideological processes, and testing answers that the scholar of religion can function as a public intellectual; not, however, as a public intellectual whose function or concern is to "protect" or "further" a specific social body, political agenda, or nation state (in this sense I'm following Bertrand Russell's philosophy of education), but in better understanding those very mechanisms of social formation.
So are we defenders of religion? Is this our job as scholars of religion? For myself, I don't think it is useful for us to don our scholarship as if we were medieval knights in shining armor rushing into high castle towers in order to rescue the poor damsel in distress, the beautifully adorned maiden called World Religions. Rather than living in fairytale conceptions of our role, I think we are better off trying to make sense of our world with the intellectual tools of scholarship.


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Hey Ladies! I'm still trying to get the word out about Tip Junkie's new look & home. Many of you are still linked to this old blogspot address. {{yuck!}}
Here's the new link:
Head on over to check out the new amazing features. {{giddy}} You're going to love them. If you're looking for a topic or post, simply search it on the new site. I know you'll find what you're looking for.
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text: Where am I going next? June 2, 2017June 3, 2017 Fabiano Maciel Air Travel, Experiences, Leisure Travel, Train Travel It is true. I haven't been able to dedicate time to post on my blog anymore. It all started when I got really busy at my previous job. Then, my blog got hacked (I still ask myself why) when I was on vacation. It took weeks to get the problem solved, and still, I don't have a functioning blog. Then I got a new job, things changed, life became even busier with other projects, other priorities showed up. I had to let it go. But a few days ago I received a notification from my hosting company that I needed to renew my plan. A 3-year plan was about to expire. Three years…..that is a long time and yet, it feels like yesterday. I missed not blogging anymore. And then decided to bring this one up. There is still a lot to explain, I know. But we can do that another time. What I want right now is to share my next adventure. You know one of those promises you make to yourself…. Three years ago I had the opportunity to visit Japan for the first time on a business trip, and it was an amazing experience (although I didn't have time to explore and was there for 5/6 days only). But it was enough to know I wanted to go back on vacation. Then I went back on business again. But now I am about to board on an adventure for the next two weeks …… in Japan!!!!!!!! Tokyo Station in Tokyo, Japan The idea is to go through the Nakasendo Way. I saw pictures of this tip a while ago and it looks pretty amazing. As described on Wikipedia, The Nakasendo or Kisokaido, used to be one of the routes of the Edo period and connected Tokyo to Kyoto. Along its way, there are small communities or posts, as they call them. So here is my preliminary itinerary: Days 1 to 3: Osaka Days 4 & 5: Kyoto Day 6: Train to Nakatsugawa followed by a trail from Magome to Tsumago and then to Nagiso, for the final train ride to Kiso-Fukushima. Day 7: Train to Yabuhara followed by trail to Kiso-Hirasawa. Then a train ride to Matsumoto if time is enough to visit the famous Castle and continue the train trip to Karuizawa. Day 8: Trail from Karuizawa to Yokokawa, followed by train to Tokyo. Days 9 to 14: exploring Tokyo and its vicinities. As there will be a lot of walking (some of the trails are 6 to 8 hours long), I won't be able to carry too much. And for the first time, I am going on a 14-day trip with a backpack (and nothing more). I must confess …. I am scared and already have that feeling I am leaving something behind even before my departure. Another thing that scares me is the fact that I do not eat Japanese food. And most of the places along the way are very traditional, and so are their eating habits. OK, you must be laughing right now, but I kid you not. I am saving space in my backpack for cereal bars, in the case of an emergency. I will do my best to post pictures of interesting things I will come across along the way. You are welcome to follow my Instagram and Twitter, where I will be posting the most. And hopefully, I will meet you here again soon, to report back on this exciting Journey. Thanks for reading. Fabiano Maciel Travel blogger and aspiring writer. Business oriented, workaholic, passionate about travel, marketing, social media, multiculturalism and the international education sector. Love skiing and horseback riding.


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"King Donald?
No, that can't be right.
This is Rome, after all. Yes, Rome in all her grandeur. And the year is 36 AD, if I knew what 'AD' meant. Anno Domini, they say, 'The Year of our Lord.'
Not that I have any idea what you're talking about. Our lord is, of course, the great and glorious Emperor Tiberius. But this you surely know.
They whisper in the streets that Tiberius only rose to power because his step-father was the mighty Caesar Augustus, but if you were to only see the man, you would know that this is not the case. Indeed, you may find many here who would disparage the great emperor as a fool at best and a madman at worst, but these are nothing but false reports!
Of course, you may not have the good fortune to see Emperor Tiberius. He is away presently, as he so often is, at his villa in Capri.
But just because he's off in some pleasure villa doesn't mean he's not working tirelessly to make Rome great again! Granted, our historian Tacitus has recorded the emperor as a temperamental man who goes on rants (such as decrying the Senate as 'men fit to be slaves'), but do you know what? I can appreciate an emperor who says exactly what's on his mind.
Not like these purveyors of wicked falsehoods! Continue reading