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So wrote John Hessler, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, in Rapha's fourth Mondial. But while it pays to be wary, we needn't fear getting lost. With a little preparation before you head out, cycling quickly becomes an opportunity to embrace a new adventure. It is harder now than ever to truly get lost and, as Hessler points out, the second half of the twentieth century has seen the jeopardy in adventure swapped for opportunity.
One of the best things about riding a bike is the freedom that comes with being able to set off and, under your own steam, explore. It's an idea so well-worn as to sound cliché but experiencing this freedom for the first time rings true for many of us – glimpses of a breakaway adventure on two wheels, far from parental supervision, live long in the memory. As adults, it's much more likely that a fear of getting lost or going too far will rear its head, waylaying would-be adventurers. But that shouldn't stop us from pursuing two-wheeled ambitions.
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The fear of getting lost is a common obstacle to riding further away from home or even riding at all but with a little pre-ride planning, there's nothing to worry to about. Here's our guide to adventuring, with a little 'a'.26 July 2018
"Humans are drawn to stability as if by instinct. There is no safety in motion or in change. We want to be grounded in a place, in a space, with which we feel familiar."
So wrote John Hessler, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, in Rapha's fourth Mondial. But while it pays to be wary, we needn't fear getting lost. With a little preparation before you head out, cycling quickly becomes an opportunity to embrace a new adventure. It is harder now than ever to truly get lost and, as Hessler points out, the second half of the twentieth century has seen the jeopardy in adventure swapped for opportunity.
"Changes brought about by the science and technology developed through the fighting of two world wars, the advent of computers, the discovery of newer and faster mathematical and computational algorithms, the birth of satellite imagery and the widespread use of the Global Positioning System (GPS), created a new definition of a map, beyond anything that any of the great cartographers of even the near past could have imagined," says Hessler.
With a smartphone in your pocket you have an incredibly powerful mapping tool tucked away, ready to right any wrong turns. Battery packs for recharging your phone are also no bigger or heavier than an inner tube, so you can be prepared for flat batteries in the same way you would flat tires. Rapha Clubhouses are also a font of knowledge to empower local adventurers; the Rapha Cycling Club hire bikes include on-bike GPS computers with preloaded local routes and hundreds of organised rides for all abilities leave every week to explore new roads around the world.
If you're especially worried about going far and getting lost, start out on adventures with a little 'a'. Map out a short route that doesn't stray too far from your house – you can always do another lap of the same loop to make sure that you're never too far away, all the while getting to know the roads nearest home.
Take some time to get to know where you'll be riding, for example where the nearest train stations are. If you ever find yourself unsure, stop and check where you are. Having a pre-planned route on your phone or cycle computer can be useful as they'll keep you right, although you may not learn the way as well when you're relying purely on turn-by-turn instructions.
Try not to see this preparation as a chore, but rather sowing the seeds of a forthcoming adventure. If you're anxious about an unknown route or road, you can go some way to get to know it before you leave the house. Is it near a road you already know? Does it join up with a village you've been before?
In time, you'll come to know your area well. Once you're comfortable riding a roads you know, why not try out turns you don't usually take? Remember, you're in control – you can always turn around.
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For more advice on how best to explore your city and the roads that surround it, Rapha Clubhouses around the world are filled with passionate cyclists happy to share the best and quietest routes. With more than 350 rides a week, there is always an upcoming chance for a little adventure.
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Customer Notice: To schedule an appointment, please contact us at [email protected].
In 2019, the Arizona Department of Revenue (ADOR) will be taking another step in its ongoing drive to provide enhanced customer service through electronic filing and paying.
E-filing and paying is more secure and faster for taxpayers and critical for ADOR to deliver a more results-driven, customer-focused management system that produces enhanced services for Arizonans. Increasing electronic payments also frees up additional ADOR resources to process tax returns and payments of all types much faster, further strengthens tax fraud prevention measures and enhances the taxpayer experience.
Most importantly for taxpayers, electronic filing and paying saves money. Taxpayers filing electronically are eligible to receive up to a $2,000 reduction of tax due thanks to the enhanced annual accounting credit for e-filing.
To file and pay online, a business must be registered to use www.AZTaxes.gov and use Automated Clearance House (ACH) Debit as a payment method to comply with electronic funds transfer (EFT) payment requirements. Filing online means faster processing and fewer errors. For more information, visit azdor.gov.
What's happening?
Under legislation that became law in 2017, effective January 1, 2019, businesses with an annual transaction privilege tax (TPT) and use tax liability of $10,000 or more during the prior calendar year, will be required to file and pay electronically starting in February, 2019 for the January reporting period.
How does the increased accounting credit of up to $2,000 work?
Taxpayers filing transaction privilege tax electronically during a calendar year are able to claim an increased accounting credit from 1 percent to 1.2 percent. This increases the total calendar year credit limit from $10,000 to $12,000. For taxpayers who file paper TPT returns, the accounting credit remains unchanged at 1 percent and a total calendar year credit of $10,000.
Is there a penalty for not filing and paying electronically?
There is also an update to the penalty for late filing. Under recent legislation, all late filing penalties will be a minimum of $25, including for filings with zero liability.
For more information on transaction privilege tax, including TPT filing and paying requirements, go to: https://azdor.gov/transaction-privilege-tax-tpt.
Effective dates for future TPT e-file/e-pay for businesses that have the following liabilities in the previous calendar year:
For more information on the Arizona Department of Revenue visit: www.azdor.gov

subset: commoncrawl


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Fairly frequently, the contact form on my blog gets comments that look similar to this (each field represents a text box users can enter into the HTML form on the blog):
Name: 'ceguvzori'
Email: 'firstname.lastname@example.com'
Website: 'QrSkUPWK'
vaB5LN pepddqfgpcwe, [url=http://hvyhfrijavkm.com/]hvyhfrijavkm[/url], [link=http://cwiolknjxdry.com/]cwiolknjxdry[/link], http://ubcxqsgqwtza.com/
I'd consider them to be spam, but the sites they link to don't exist, so they aren't helping SEO or spreading malicious links. Not even the email host,
avbhdu.com, exists. What is the purpose of these comments?


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(CNSNews.com) - The U.S. State Department removed the sections covering religious freedom from the Country Reports on Human Rights that it released on May 24, three months past the statutory deadline Congress set for the release of these reports.
The new human rights reports--purged of the sections that discuss the status of religious freedom in each of the countries covered--are also the human rights reports that include the period that covered the Arab Spring and its aftermath.
Thus, the reports do not provide in-depth coverage of what has happened to Christians and other religious minorities in predominantly Muslim countries in the Middle East that saw the rise of revolutionary movements in 2011 in which Islamist forces played an instrumental role.
For the first time ever, the State Department simply eliminated the section of religious freedom in its reports covering 2011 and instead referred the public to the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report – a full two years behind the times – or to the annual report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which was released last September and covers events in 2010 but not 2011.
Leonard Leo, who recently completed a term as chairman of the USCIRF, says that removing the sections on religious freedom from the State Department's Country Reports on Human Roghts is a bad idea.
Since 1998, when Congress created USCIRF, the State Department has been required to issue a separate yearly report specifically on International Religious Freedom.
But a section reporting on religious freedom has also always been included in the State Department's legally required annual country-by-country reports on human rights--that is, until now.
And this is the first year the State Department would have needed to report on the effect the Arab Spring has had on religious freedom in the Middle East--had its reports, as always before, included a section on religious freedom.
"The commission that I served on has some real concerns about that bifurcation, because the human rights reports receive a lot of attention, and to have pulled religious freedom out of it means that fewer people will obtain information about what's going on with that particular freedom or right. So you don't have the whole picture because they split it up now," Leo told CNSNews.com.
Former U.S. diplomat Thomas Farr says it's possible that the move to totally separate religious freedom from the human rights reports could simply be a bureaucratic maneuver.
But another possibility is much more likely.
"The other possibility is the Obama administration is downplaying international religious freedom," Farr said.
Farr, who served in the State Department under both Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush, was the first director of the Office of International Religious Freedom.
"I mean, it is important to note here that I do not know--I have no personal knowledge of the logic that went into removing religious freedom from the broader human rights report; but I also have observed during the three-and-a-half years of the Obama administration that the issue of religious freedom has been distinctly downplayed," Farr said
Currently a visiting associate professor of religion and world affairs in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, Farr directs the program on Religion and U.S. Foreign Policy and the Project on Religious Freedom at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs at Georgetown.
He told CNSNews.com that far more resources have been allocated by the Obama administration to other human rights issues than have been directed toward religious freedom.
"(T)he ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, for example, who is the official charged by the law to lead U.S. religious freedom policy, did not even step foot into her office until two-and-a-half years were gone of a four-year administration," he said.
"Whereas other human rights priorities of the administration, such as the ambassador-at-large for global women's issues, were in place within months. So that tells you something.
"It tells me that this has never been a priority for the Obama administration, and it's not now," he said.
"So it seems to me plausible to at least question the removal of religious freedom from the human rights report, although, as I say, there could be other explanations, less insidious, if you will."
Missing: Murdered Christians and the Aftermath of the Arab Spring
The 2010 International Religious Freedom Report is notably missing some important information--the two-year old report contains no mention of the violence, murder and mayhem directed at Christians and other minorities in Muslim nations in Africa and the Middle East since the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011.
However, the less well-known 2012 report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom does take note of the Arab Spring.
-- In 2011, in Egypt, Coptic Christians were among 25 people massacred during a demonstration over an Islamist attack on a church.
-- In the month of January 2012 alone, the Islamist group Boko Haram was responsible for 54 deaths in Nigeria – 42 of them Catholics killed at church on Christmas Day. In 2011, it killed more than 500 people and burned down or destroyed more than 350 churches in 10 northern states of Nigeria.
Former USCIRF Chairman Leo says the fact is the administration no longer makes the proper distinction between freedom of religion and freedom of worship.
"Going all the way back to the president's speech in Cairo, they seem to be satisfied with Arab Spring countries and Middle Eastern countries providing freedom of worship, but not pressuring them on the broader freedom of religion.
"In Saudi Arabia, and in some of these countries, you may be able to draw curtains in your home and pray--but don't take it outside your house. And certainly don't imbue other aspects of your life with your religious sentiments," Leo said.
He added: "We see in a lot of countries around the world, but particularly in the Middle East and in Pakistan and Afghanistan, that it's not just those small non-Muslim minorities that are affected adversely by repressive policies, it's majority Muslims as well. Muslims who don't necessarily want to subscribe to every jot and tittle of what the state feels is the appropriate form of Islam."
Former diplomat Farr agreed the administration hasn't been focused on the freedom of religion in terms of foreign relations.
"As far as I know, the administration has paid very little attention to the religion-state issues, in terms of policy effort, in terms of programs on the ground," Farr said.
"I'm not speaking of speeches, or 'raising the issue'--which are typical State Department platitudes for trying to change the subject--but in terms of actual programs on the ground, whether we're talking about Libya, or Tunisia, or the most important of all, Egypt, the programs on the ground designed to advance religious freedom, as far as I know, are nonexistent."
The State Department, meanwhile, has given no indication of when -- or if -- the next International Religious Freedom Report will be released.


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(CNN) - Monica Wehby, who won this week's Republican primary for Senate in Oregon, is addressing separate instances of alleged harassment brought to light during her campaign.
A pediatric neurosurgeon, Wehby told conservative radio host Lars Larson that Democrats have turned to "politics of personal destruction" by digging up these accusations.
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"For the Democrats to be willing to try to shred my family and drag my kids and my friends through this again, you know, just for their own political gain," she said. "How can they sleep at night doing this? Do they not realize what this does to kids?"
Related: 5 things we learned on Tuesday
Asked by Larson about the two instances - one involving her now ex-husband and another an ex-boyfriend - Wehby described the events as isolated instances, and not an indicator of her character as a candidate.
Her ex-boyfriend accused her last year of entering his home without permission and stalking him.
"I just wanted to clarify things because I needed some closure," Wehby said of the incident, first reported by Politico.
"People understand that when your heart's broken, sometimes we say and do things that we don't mean, but I have to say Lars, on that police report, the one thing that I found the most hurtful was that Andrew had described me as medium build," she joked, also noting that he has since said he regrets calling the police.
On the one involving her ex-husband, Wehby said she couldn't remember what exactly they were fighting about and chalked up the event to "tense moment" in the midst of a custody battle for their children.
"To be honest with you, I can't remember the details, but I do remember that I had a post-it note in my hand and I was talking on the phone and he came up towards me and I kind of swatted it away like you were swatting a fly away," she said.
In both cases, Wehby said she now has good relationships with both, adding that they contributed to her campaign.
She'll face Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley in November.
Related: Mitt Romney endorses Wehby
Oh No, someone found out she was a not as she presented herself to republicans. No One but a few republicans will vote for her.
No denial. Just I don't really remember Spousal abuse is not limited to men only being the abusers. Can you imagine what the far right would say about a male candidate with these type of incidents.
Well , everybody has personal problems in their relationships, and I wouldn't hold it AGAINEST her. But her backing the republican going NO WHERE AGENDA from 1950, I will hold that AGAINEST her. How can anybody vote for these GOP DO NOTHING MORONS. After the votes are counted in November , the GOP will have a lot of EMPTY SEATS filled by democrates!!!!!
You leftist are unreal. All Talk. If you don't agree with you people you are wrong. If you are a socialist at 30, you have a heart. If you are still a socialist at 40 you have no brain.
Another " Sarah Palinish " victim. I see she described the events, never denied them
Thats just life under dem management ? Anger and blame anger and blame we all suffer from their rosy AMBITIONS OF HOPE AND THEM CONSTANT THAT A BOYS THAT MAKEs us FEEL GOOD AND READY T0 FACE THE WORLD in A positive light on a equal playing field no matter the color thx alot dems and thx again good work thx again ?
I have to agree, using this as a means of slander seems a bit low. No democrat has ever done anything dumb when there heart was broken? Not a fan of GOP policies but taking advantage of someone's broken heart is not just somewhat low, but really low and dirty.
Nut Job !
A very educated woman , high achiever , controlling , wavers between victim and volunteer .
syndrome by proxy or a rare form of Michele Bachmann disorder , 24 / 7 medication .
Wehby has been endorsed by nutjob extraordinaire, Dr. Ben Carson.
Birds of a feather ...
Lars Larson is a Limbaugh-wannabe, right-wing hack. On the one hand, he thinks it's OK for an employer to deny women healthcare coverage based on the corporate owners "religious beliefs" (Hobby Lobby) and on the other hand thinks being fired for saying inflammatory things while representing your employer is unfair and yet another example of lame-stream media control by Liberal overloads (HGTV).
Larson is just another corporate shill doing his bit to convince the gop/tea bag base to vote against their own self-interest AGAIN. Wehby and her nutty ideas and unstable character are right up his alley.
Talk about the pot calling the kettle. Has she heard the screecher from AK who , if my memory serves me, started the name calling and innuendos while the old man from AZ stood by because he wanted so badly to be president (and failed so miserably)?
So your exes are lying about you? Why would they. It sounds as if this woman has a real "problem". What is she going to do when she loses, I hope, to Merkley? He better watch his back.
-look, these republicans are total distruction of this nation. Drive these thugs out. They talk no sense at all. Wars are their only agenda and Haliburton type looting their goal. Period. Vote direct democratic ticket. Unfortunately none, neither Birth certificate, nor ACA Law, nor Benghazi, nor VA stuff is workable to their credit. Yes, Hillary16. Period.
A woman with limited control of her emotions, and physical actions, really, these people vote for anybody, SMH. A loud mouth, emotionally challenged, juvenile, we dont need a Jr.high, cheerleader wanna be holding public office.
So, what do we know about her that isn't just talk, she has no respect for others rights, she has no resoect for others privacy, she has no respect for the law, but I'm sure all that will change once she's elected ,please!
Ever the Republican, she has accused the Democrats of dragging her family through this, really, they dragged them into this? She is using her own kids in a poor attempt to become the victim, she breaks into his house, and you can only imagine her state of mind at that moment, he was probably in fear of his life, and you seriously don't have a problem voting for this woman, that speaks volumes. I can only imagine the over the top outrage if she were a Democrat.
"How can they sleep at night doing this? Do they not realize what this does to kids?"
The same way republicans sleep at night after 6 years of Obama family bashing. Toughen up chump.
Wow. She does realize she's in Politics right? It gets very dirty in the gutter lady. If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. Any and everything in your past is fair game. But what would one expect from one of the entitled ones?


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NGC 281: A nebula with active star formation about 9,200 light years from Earth.
This composite image of NGC 281 contains X-ray data from Chandra (purple) with infrared observations from Spitzer (red, green, blue). The high-mass stars in NGC 281 drive many aspects of their galactic environment through powerful winds flowing from their surfaces and intense radiation that heats surrounding gas, "boiling it away" into interstellar space. This process results in the formation of large columns of gas and dust, as seen on the left side of the image. These structures likely contain newly forming stars. The eventual deaths of massive stars as supernovas will also seed the galaxy with material and energy.
Learn more about NGC 281:
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By Sonia Van Gelder,
When mob governs, man is ruled by ignorance; when the church governs, he is ruled by superstition; and when the state governs, he is ruled by fear. Before men can live together in harmony and understanding, ignorance must be transmuted into wisdom, superstition into illuminated faith, and fear into love. ~ Manly P. Hall
The Cross of Chains
As world events currently seem to be spiralling out of control, it is a reminder of how history repeats itself and raises the question of where mankind is failing and where we are heading. To those who have stepped outside the box, so to speak, and removed themselves from the daily programming that takes place in our modern lives, it soon becomes obvious that something is very very wrong. We as a people seem so far removed and ignorant of the natural laws our ancestors once held sacred. →
Read more via A Lesson from the Aboriginal Book of Wisdom — Prepare For Change


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Exclusive: SVU Books Shameless Star for Episode About Violent Youths
Following Law & Order: SVU's headline-ripping take on Chris Brown and Rihanna's rocky relationship, the veteran NBC drama is poised to explore another hot topic.
Check out 15 canceled shows TVGuide.com users want to bring back
Shameless star Ethan Cutkosky has been tapped to play a troubled boy named Henry Mesner, TVGuide.com has learned exclusively. Despite his seemingly normal and supportive upbringing, and various diagnoses and prescriptions, Henry has become increasingly antisocial and his capacity for violence is escalating.
"The question for our detectives is," executive producer Warren Leight tells TVGuide.com, "is Henry a born psychopath?" To help answer that question, Benson (Mariska Hargitay) & Co. will turn to Dr. George Huang (returning guest star BD Wong) for his expert opinion.
The episode comes in the wake of mass shootings by young men in Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn. Although we hear the episode doesn't depict any scenes of mass violence, the show will explore questions about what happens to troubled young kids who don't get the help they need.
Has your favorite show overstayed its welcome? Tell us which shows should end
Cutkosky, who plays Carl Gallagher (a fairly disturbed kid in own right) on Shameless, has also appeared in such films as The Unborn and Conviction. Wong, a former series regular who last guest-starred in a late Season 13 episode, most recently starred on NBC's short-lived Awake.
Law & Order: SVU airs Wednesdays at 9/8c. The episode is currently slated to air April 24.
View original Exclusive: SVU Books Shameless Star for Episode About Violent Youths at TVGuide.com
Other Links From TVGuide.com


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A lot fewer pregnant parents have a birthing course right now than 20 or thirty years earlier. This really is easy to understand. Mommies are usually functioning plus they get home from function worn out rather than looking to head out again. In addition, numerous mothers decided with an epidural already hence they don't see the demand for a giving birth school.
I believe, however, that being well informed about being pregnant as well as the birth approach, can certainly make your being pregnant along with your giving birth far more rewarding and even safer. It will surely cause you to a better buyer for medical selections. Cesarean Area rates are over 30% and rising. Maternal and neonatal stats in the states are alarming. Preterm childbirth rates in the US elevated 29Percent between 1981 and 2002. The Mar of Dimes during 2009 provided the united states a D class for preterm birth price. Sure, pregnant women in america have got a more than 1 in 10 possibility of possess a baby born before 37 several weeks. And understand that any newborn delivered before 39 days gestation is regarded as high-risk for breastfeeding issues.
Can childbirth classes change lives? It all depends about the class. From my own, personal rather extensive expert practical experience like a Labor and Delivery health professional, many courses trained by medical centers do not develop enlightened healthcare consumers, but the alternative. They educate mother and father to suit to the healthcare facility birthing program without making waves. Dollar Simpkins, western coastline birthing professional then one of my most admired ladies, confirms in her reply to Important Health Up-date.
There is, in reality, such numerous types of birthing sessions, that it must be hard to research the effects of giving birth classes. Nonetheless, I really believe, they may be much more essential these days than in the past, for several reason. 1 reason is the fact that there is a lot details available today, but someone not educated in giving birth training or obstetrics fails to know what is helpful and precisely what is dangerous. Another explanation may be the health insurance and nutritional standing in the states is far from outstanding. French-fried potatoes are the only veggie that some children actually try to eat. (They get older to be moms and dads.) Three house well prepared meals a day have already been replaced with junk food and prepackaged processed food – full of sweets, synthetic ingredients, additives and MSG and reduced in every one of the necessary nutrient elements which women that are pregnant should get every day and preferably at each and every dinner.
Childbirth sessions could be the very first time a mum has stopped for taking an actual very good have a look at her diet regime as well as to make correct modifications. Preferably this ought to be done before conceiving or very at the start of carrying a child. Therefore, I suggest, an earlier bird type within the first couple of months of childbearing. This will likely also give you a probability to check out the teacher, have a look at what she gives and discover if she might be a in shape for you personally.
Most childbirth sessions will talk about pregnancy and the introduction of your infant. If you know the real reason for some of the items you will be experiencing and just how they are actually good for you and your baby, they will be less annoying. Your may also learn about what assessments can be accomplished as well as the risks and advantages of every. Without it information and facts, you can not get involved in your care for an well informed consumer.
Nursing will probably be covered to some degree and you may find some good of your concerns clarified. I believed to be truly prepared for nursing some 4 courses at the nearby La Leche League team is good. An informed breastfeeding buyer knows what healthcare facility practices advertise nursing achievement and the ones that are detrimental. I am aware a medical facility may have a lactation expert and she may be very excellent but an oz of reduction continues to be really worth a lb of heal. That LC might be way more than expanded she might not have breastfed a baby herself and her cause of being an LC may be to acquire an all coveted no night time, saturdays and sundays or holidays situation.
Have 6 to 10 new pregnant good friends to go over you maternity with is yet another advantage of childbirth sessions. Frequently, interactions are formed that final after your courses are over. In addition, the course may also help you explore things about your being pregnant that worry you however you have hesitated to create up.
An excellent childbirth school will show you rest skills that in case you process them will likely be advantageous all through your daily life. I have got employed the strategy i explained within my courses to adopt a laboring woman in horrible soreness to being completely peaceful and calm through her complete contraction. It might be that powerful.
And naturally, childbirth lessons will instruct you on about discomfort administration. Some will give you factual information and facts plus some may also encourage lessening your usage of prescription drugs. Without complete details, you can't make an educated decision. Maybe you have decided prior to deciding to were actually expecting a baby that you were actually proceeding to have epidural. But do you realize the dangerous outcomes of an epidural on the child raise with the number of hours you have the epidural? It comes with an huge distinction between seeking an epidural as soon as you could have it (2 to 4) centimeters and simply being prepared to work with your work till you make a decision you actually need the epidural. Incidentally, the anesthesiologist is about the flour and wants to practice it now could be not just a valid reason to get an epidural during the early work. With no childbirth schooling, that is exactly what is probably going to come about.
Or are you currently shared with which it doesn't arrive at your baby? Epidural drugs are available in the power cord bloodstream along with the Neurologic and Adaptive Capacity Ratings are lower at twenty four hours in babies brought into this world to mothers with epidural anesthesia.[i] These infants also display motor unit deficits at 1 month and also the longer the epidural was infusing, the more evident they were. They cease considering per month and then we don't understand how long the deficits lasted. It really is thought that these babies have far more pain after delivery service because they lack the endorphins with their bloodstream to present them relief of pain.[ii]
Current reports tend not to take a look at the impact of epidurals on breastfeeding. Bear in mind reports really need to be bought by an individual and this influences the questions we question, particularly if we curently have an excellent idea what the answer is. Privately inside a twelve months time period working as a Labor and Delivery service registered nurse, I went from getting virtually every infant bust give in the first two hrs to around 50Percent who would not latch by any means. This coincided using the year that Epidurals had become the tradition. We used them more often and earlier in labor.
Additionally, you will gain information about assessments and operations, what they are for and the advantages and perils associated with each. Including inductions of labor. Efficiency inductions are a huge contributor to the nation's prematurity level. Who is it handy for? The obstetrician! It's his weekend to become on call. If he induces all of the mums obtaining near to their due day he won't must be up a lot of times and won't have his business office time disrupted. But managed he let you know that the tradeoff for inducing your 2nd child can be a labor a lot more like the first, instead of quick and easy? Or that cesareans danger goes up? Or that toddlers under 39 days are more likely to have breastfeeding issues?
I am hoping this article has given you anything to contemplate and may inspire one to check out a giving birth course. Try to find:
Modest Lessons (12 or significantly less), earlier parrot sessions, robust increased exposure of nutrients, a category not trained by your medical center (child helpful private hospitals could be an different), and courses that set a solid increased exposure of diet. Be sure the coach has already established an infant and preferably has nursed her baby. Also essential topics are looking at the benefits and perils associated with all interventions and assessments and discussion posts on deciding on your midwife or MD along with your healthcare facility. They are more significant than deciding on a type because it's located close or is kept at the practical time. You will usually get what you buy. A large roomed full of pregnant lovers is going to be less costly but you won't get the personalized attention you require. For more information on Being pregnant and Birthing, I would suggest:
1. The Womanly Craft of Nursing by La Leche League Global and 2. The Pregnancy Reserve by William and Martha Spears.
[i] Anesthesiology 83:300-308, 1995
[ii] Linda J. Smith, Mary Kroeger, Effect of Birthing Techniques on Breastfeeding (Jones & Bartlett Web publishers, 2010)
You're thanks for visiting reprint these content in your website and then in your e-publications free of cost, provided that you don't affect the post in any way and also you are the byline (together with a backlink to the more effective Cloth Baby diapers website). In doing so you accept to indemnify Greater Fabric Baby diapers along with its brokers from and against all failures, statements, injuries and obligations that come up out of their use.
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Ukraine crisis upends West's view of Vladimir Putin
WASHINGTON — The Ukraine crisis has forced Western leaders to reassess what they thought they knew about Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has shown that he is willing to make far riskier moves to achieve his security goals and that his hostility to the U.S. and its allies runs much deeper than many wanted to believe.
That reappraisal has caused U.S. national security officials to take Putin more seriously as a threat. The possibility that he might also send troops into eastern Ukraine, which could spark a war, or that he might use force against other neighboring countries, including the Baltic nations, no longer seems as unlikely as the foreign policy establishment thought.
"We're seeing that he has the ability and will do things that … we were sure they wouldn't do," said Eugene Rumer, a Russia specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "We are being forced by events to reappraise Putin, Russia policy and our relationship."
Putin alarmed Western governments in 2008 when his troops and tanks moved into two pro-Russia breakaway regions of Georgia to stop a military advance by the central government. But his use of troops to seize control of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula without any provocation is a far more ominous threat, breaking more international norms and involving a nation that is far more consequential to the security of Europe, officials and analysts say.
This week, Putin has also shown the depth of his personal antagonism to the West, describing U.S. officials in a disjointed news conference as mad scientists "doing experiments on Ukraine like on rats." His denunciations have raised questions about whether the Russian leader, smarting from Ukraine's turn to the West, might try to undermine Western governments on vital collaborations, such as the talks to resolve the Iran nuclear issue.
His claims during the Ukraine crisis have drawn worried reactions from the United States and Europe. Putin is "in many ways delusional about this," former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told CNN.
Sen. Christopher S. Murphy, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate's Europe subcommittee, told the Senate that it was a mistake to "impute rationality" to Putin's statements. German Chancellor Angela Merkel told President Barack Obama in a call that Putin was "living in another world."
Obama administration officials say they believe Putin is rational. But the depth of their concern about what he might do next has been clear as they have denounced him in harsh personal terms they've never used before. The State Department on Wednesday mocked his justifications for the takeover of Crimea as "the most startling Russian fiction since Dostoyevsky."
Many, though not all, U.S. government experts were caught by surprise when thousands of Russian troops moved into Ukraine. Although CIA officials told senior administration officials and lawmakers that some signs had pointed to a Russian seizure of Crimea, a separate analysis by the Defense Intelligence Agency did not predict it, officials said.
Now officials say they remain worried that Putin could take the much more dangerous step of advancing into eastern Ukraine, which would require a massive military presence. Such a move would probably trigger a war and an exodus of refugees. The possibility has terrified the country's immediate neighbors, including several NATO members.
Putin gave a general warning to the West about his goals seven years ago, when, at an annual meeting of diplomats and defense ministers in Munich, he denounced the United States for "overstepping its boundaries in every sphere" and said he was determined to halt its advance. The speech was viewed as a Cold War relic, and his threats were largely dismissed.
Since then, Putin has not resisted strongly as the West has sought to knit Russia's neighbors, such as Moldova, into closer alliances. Russia has also peacefully settled some disputes with Western governments, such as Norway's claims to waters near Russia and long-standing disagreements with Estonia over their mutual border.
In several of these cases, which had gone unresolved for decades, "the Russians were taking a constructive approach," said Andrew Weiss, who was a Russia and Ukraine adviser in the Clinton White House.
But now, with the overthrow of a Ukrainian government allied with Russia, "something seems to have snapped … in Russia's view of its neighbors," said Weiss, who is now the vice president for research at Carnegie. "And now we're all going to deal with the consequences."
Not long ago, Putin referred to Western governments as "partners." He's stopped that now.
The U.S. foreign policy establishment has been skeptical that Russia might re-emerge as a serious threat to security in Central Europe. When Mitt Romney, as the Republican presidential nominee in 2012, described Russia as America's foremost geopolitical threat, his comment was widely ridiculed.
Russia specialist Rumer said only weeks ago that an invasion of Crimea seemed unlikely because it was simply too heavy-handed a move and had too many downsides for Putin, who has been shaping his image as a responsible world leader.
Yet Putin ordered the move "in a very direct way, without a lot of finesse, and apparently not too worried about the reputational risks," he said. "I'll hesitate, from now on, to make any prediction about what he's going to do."


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Published in the Portland Phoenix
We know, we know: Last week, Olympia Snowe made history by being the only Republican in 2009 to vote for any sort of healthcare reform, even in committee-level draft language far from its final form. And after she made her "when history calls, history calls" remark, fellow non-nutjob Republican senator Susan Collins decided she might be hearing things as well.
Snowe, of course, voted for the healthcare-reform bill being discussed in the Senate Finance Committee, parting ranks with her fellow Republicans in that group, and defying those GOPers who threatened to deny her a senior post on the Senate Commerce Committee if she approved of the plan. The Finance Committee's bill, the last of five proposals to make it through a congressional committee, has been roundly criticized by conservatives as being too expensive, by liberals as not making care affordable (and giving hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to insurance companies), and even by Snowe herself for being "far from" what she wants to see in a reform package.
Nevertheless, she has been lauded around the country for the move, which definitely put her in the "independent Republican" category — if it didn't strike "Republican" from her affiliation entirely.
And she has left herself more than enough wiggle room for voting for or against future revised proposals, saying in the committee meeting, "My vote today is my vote today. It doesn't forecast what my vote will be tomorrow."
Snowe has repeatedly objected to plans that include at their outset a "public option," most frequently envisioned as a Medicare-like program for people of all ages, to compete with insurance companies' plans. Public-option proponents say it is the best way to bring down insurance rates and improve coverage and service.
But she is not ruling such a plan out entirely; she has advocated for a "trigger," in which a public option would be created if certain affordability and coverage targets were not met through the private market alone. (She told Charlie Rose last week that she wants to see what the market does with the restrictions and reforms the bill would put in place first.)
But she also made a clear declaration of principle: "The status-quo approach has produced one glaring common denominator, that is that we have a problem that is growing worse, not better," she said in the meeting.
Collins may have heard the call, too, signaling in interviews after the Finance Committee's vote that she too might be open to some form of healthcare reform. However, a statement by her office was almost completely critical of the Finance Committee's bill, saying it stifles job creation and does little to control costs; it also completely dismissed the Senate Health Committee's bill and the three House bills that need to be combined. And Collins has repeatedly opposed any form of public option.
If Collins is willing to go along with some version of reform, that might give the Democrats enough votes in the Senate to get something passed, but certain terms will likely be dictated by Snowe, who is the only Republican still at the negotiating table. While congressional Democrats spent the weekend saying they weren't going to "cater" to her needs in drafting the final bill, Snowe is in a powerful position, and the actual picture that develops as the five committees try to combine their divergent bills (the other four do include a public option) will definitely have a great deal to do with her.
But until there is a bill passed — and anything that passes will take years to have full effect — we are still waiting.


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Third storm in past week wallops parts of Maine
Maine Turnpike speed restored to normal
The Maine Turnpike Authority has restored speed limits to normal, after crews worked through the night to clean up after a messy storm.
According to News 8 meteorologist Mallory Brooke, the winter storm is slowly exiting western and southern Maine Sunday morning, but not before dropping over 6 inches in most areas. Knox and Waldo counties continue to see light to moderate snow, but the rest of the region is simply under the clouds for the rest of Sunday morning. An additional inch or less is possible. A few pockets of sun are possible before sunset.
Highs Sunday will struggle to move because of a lack of sunshine and more fresh snowpack. We'll be lucky to hit 30 degrees, and overnight lows will tumble under clear skies. Winds pick up this afternoon, making wind chills drop to the teens during the day and below zero overnight. From here on out, the forecast is dry, but rather cold.
Here are a few snow totals from this storm as of 6 to 8 a.m.
Cumberland: 6.7 inches
Camden: 6.4 inches
Cape Neddick: 6.2 inches
Livermore Falls: 6.0 inches
Bath: 6.0 inches
Hope: 5.0 inches
Lewiston: 4.7 inches
North Anson: 4.0 inches
Turner: 3.9 inches
North Conway, NH: 3.9 inches
Bridgton: 3.6 inches
Berlin, NH: 3.0 inches
The highest amounts in Maine were found in Washington County, where Machias reported 15 inches at 5:30 a.m. Bar Harbor reported 10 inches at 4:24 a.m. More snowfall amounts will come in as the morning progresses and weather observers take measurements.


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|Problems? Is your data what you think it is?
Re: Introduction to Parallel::ForkManagerby Molt (Chaplain)
|on Sep 15, 2003 at 10:35 UTC ( #291519=note: print w/replies, xml )
|Need Help??
Very nice description of one of my favourite and most-used modules there.
The only thing I'd add to your description is just how good this approach is when handling a lot of batchfile work on multiprocessor machines.. when I had a program doing the same rather intensive thing to over 20,000 large files I found that doing the ForkManager approach really screamed compared to the single process method, and without the nastiness of poking Fork() myself.
In Section Tutorials


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Do you have long, quiet periods where nothing much is going on followed by bursts of activity? It seems to work that way in my life. Also, that sort of describes spring where I live, except that this year we had an abundant rainy season preceding the burst of bloom occurring now. I'm in the midst of a burst of spring activity too, so I thought it would be a good time to let you know what's going on in my wonderful world of writing.
First, The Brevity of Roses and An Illusion of Trust, books 1 and 2 in my women's fiction series The Bay of Dreams, got a facelift. I'll be writing Book 3 this year. This week, the cover of my supernatural suspense novel Forever was also updated.
Next, the lovely Darlene Foster, author and world adventurer, interviewed me. She's a Canadian, now living in Spain, who incorporates her adventures into her middle-grade fiction Amanda series. You can learn more about Darlene and read my interview on her blog. If you're into learning more about me, check out my other interviews.
Then, Amazon took the stage. I got word that Kindle Press will be publishing my humorous romance Love & Liability! This is the second book in my High Tea & Flip-Flops Series. They haven't given me the publication date yet, but I expect it will be sometime in early April. (Amazon moves quickly in their publishing divisions.) When it's scheduled, you'll hear me shouting the date.
As you may know, Kindle Press is also the publisher of two of my other ebooks—High Tea & Flip-Flops and Forever. And since the two-year anniversary of the Scout program is coming up, they've decided to celebrate that by putting all their publications on sale. The sale will run from March 20 through April 3, and all Kindle Scout books will be priced at only $.99 … yes, 99-cents! Mark your calendar now!
Also, beginning in April, Forever will be part of the Amazon Prime Reading program, which means that if you're a Prime member, you could read it absolutely free.
Is anything exciting happening in your life?


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Turmeric can spice up your health
If you're looking for a way to spice up your health, just open your kitchen cabinet. Turmeric, also know as Indian saffron, can do more than make your food taste better.
Its bright in color and has been used for centuries in India. And doctors say it can protect you.
Dr. Sara Sukumar, an oncology professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, told WPBF 25 News that turmeric can help prevent diabetes and certain cancers, and help reduce the effects of rheumatoid arthritis.
"It reduces the inflammation and swelling in the knees and elbows and fingers to make your movement much easier," Sukumar said.
Sukumar added the best and most effective way to get the age-old spice into your diet is to sautee it in oil. Every day. You should use at least a 1/4 teaspoon for each dish. It dissolves very well in hot oil, Sukumar said.
Turmeric comes in a supplement form, under the name curcumin, but Sukumar said you don't get as much out of a supplement as you do when you put it in your food. And you certainly can't beat the price. You can buy a huge sack of turmeric at a local spice store for just a few dollars.
"It's the cheapest drug you'll ever find," Sukumar joked.


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Fresh Off The Press
State of Marketing Trends Report 2022
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Have signs of ancient Martian life been found inside a Red Planet meteorite?
A team of scientists says that microscopic tunnels and carbon-rich spherules that stud the interior of a Martian meteorite known as Yamato 000593 may have been formed by Red Planet organisms long ago, NBC News reported today (Feb. 25).
The new study, which was published in the February issue of the journal Astrobiology, does not claim that Yamato 000593 harbors conclusive evidence of life on Mars. But the rock may indeed contain something truly special, its authors say.
"We cannot exclude the possibility that the carbon-rich regions in both sets of features may be the product of abiotic mechanisms; however, textural and compositional similarities to features in terrestrial samples, which have been interpreted as biogenic, imply the intriguing possibility that the Martian features were formed by biotic activity," they write in the study, which you can read here.
The new study comes 18 years after researchers announced that they had found evidence of possible Martian lifeforms in a different meteorite from the Red Planet, known as Allan Hills 84001 (ALH 84001). Much of the scientific community was unswayed, however, saying ALH 84001's "nanofossils" could be abiotic in origin.
The new Astrobiology paper is already meeting with similar scrutiny and skepticism, as its authors undoubtedly knew it would.
"I don't think the science community will find 'textural and compositional similarities' compelling enough to be proof of a biological origin," Chris McKay, of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., told NBC News.
The lead author of the 1996 ALH84001 paper — which was published in the prestigious journal Science — was David McKay, a scientist at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston. (He and Chris McKay are not related.) David McKay, who died last year, is also a co-author on the new Astrobiology paper.
The research team plans to continue and expand its investigation of the 30-lb (13.5 kilograms) Yamato 000593 meteorite, which scientists say formed about 1.3 billion years ago on Mars and landed in Antarctica a maximum of 10,000 years ago, after being blasted off the Red Planet by an impact event.
"We have to go to the next step of going in there and tearing these carbon molecules apart," Everett Gibson of JSC, who was involved in both the ALH84001 and Yamato 000593 studies, told NBC News.
Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.


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This is pretty great:
He loved his family, his neighbors, Georgia Tech, the Atlanta Braves, bowling (he was a great bowler), the Atlanta Journal/Constitution (where his dad had worked), Waffle House, Hickory House and the Picadilly Cafeteria, and Little Debbie. He didn't get his final wish for Tech, which to see Paul Johnson get fired, but hey, there's still time.
If only he'd taken out a life insurance policy big enough to cover Johnson's buyout.
(h/t USA Today)


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Chaos Monkey can conceivably help any organization that deploys applications via the cloud. So should you turn the monkey loose? Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) that beg off testing for budget reasons, for example, can't argue with Chaos Monkey's price tag. But MacLeod's not too sure many SMBs are prepared for what the software will do. If you lack the resources to quickly respond to downtime, Chaos Monkey is probably not for you. "There's not a 'reverse' of Chaos Monkey to bring things back up [automatically]," MacLeod said.
No matter your company's size, there are two prerequisites before running Chaos Monkey, according to MacLeod. First: "Know what you're getting into. This is something that is designed to cause problems," MacLeod warned. Chaos Monkey could very well knock you offline, something that's likely to inspire fear in some corners of the business. MacLeod also pointed out that it might be just as scary--and probably for good reason--if you turn on Chaos Monkey and nothing breaks.
The second prerequisite is to have the proper organizational philosophy. Given the tool's purpose--to break stuff--you'd better have buy-in from your bosses before turning it on. Imagine trying to explain yourself to non-technical management after the fact if Chaos Monkey runs rampant within your infrastructure. ("A chaos what?!") "It requires an adventurous spirit and confidence that you've got an architecture that's going to survive this, plus enough humility to know that you're willing to test your site to get better," MacLeod said. "One of the big problems out there is arrogance--'Oh, I know I don't have any problems.'
Even if you're unwilling or unable to invite Chaos Monkey inside your infrastructure, it can still offer a valuable lesson from safe distance. "The best thing about Chaos Monkey is that it's making people think about security and uptime and helping them realize that these aren't optional features in a service. They're something that needs to be designed in from the beginning," MacLeod said. Cutting corners on reliability will lead to unexpected failures--and a bunch of unhappy customers.
"It's like realizing, two-thirds of the way through building a car, that you kind of need an engine and a gas tank, and then trying to figure out where to shove those in," MacLeod added. "It's a lot easier if you start out with the reliability and the security in mind."
This Dr. Dobb's virtual event, Developer-Based Testing, will examine developer-based testing of code in its many forms: the tools, the techniques, the best practices. Sessions led by established experts explain the subtleties of different approaches and the best practices that have worked best in the field. If you want to know more about how to test your code with less effort and better results, one or all of the day's sessions are for you. It happens Aug. 2.


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Posted 10 years ago
(967 items)
This is an unusual trench art piece and may have even been originally made in the trenches of WW1.
The center piece is made from a very large copper driving band from an artillery shell. It has been decoratively finished on each end and has three coat hooks.
I also like the bullets that have been applied at the top.
This particular item is very crude in manufacture, but in my opinion it has a nice overall appearance.
Reproduction of these images in any form is not authorized.


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Wolf Blitzer delivers the most important breaking news and political, international, and national security stories of the day. Tune to The Situation Room weekdays 5-7pm ET on CNN.
Insurance companies are worried that tinkering with Obamacare plans will destabilize the health insurance market.
Here are a couple little secrets the media won`t cover. Before Obama Care insurance companies carried around a 8% profit. Obama Care guarantees the insurance companies a 15% profit. And the best one is if the insurance company guesses wrong on the payment from the government the government is not responsible for the underpayment the policy holder is. I can tell you a lot more but would someone please tell me how this law helps the middle class and please don`t say that as a 56 year old male I now don`t have to pay for lactation services.
Why is getting Obamacare website up and running the top priority? Millions of Dollars being spent on what? American People (including me) know that when it is up and running nothing is going to change. Insurance Coverage will be FAR FROM AFFORDABLE!!! I have blue cross/blue shield of Alabama. I worked two jobs to pay the $302. month premium. Now in 2014 my premium will be over $600 – DOUBLE with higher deductible and less coverage. I am 59 year old woman, self employed and can not understand why the Americans with NO insurance were not put on Medicaid or given the option for federal policy. That most likely would have cost less than this big fat MESS call Obama Affordable Healthcare was created!! Get the website up and running...the problem will not be fixed!! I can not pay the "$600 premium and will have to pay the fine for having NO insurance. from fully insured to no insurance.....and that is story of the majority of Middle American. Thanks for Freakin NOTHING!!!! An No Oprah...this is not a Racist Thing (White Middle Americans voted him in, myself included) This is ECONOMICS!!
I am an active and healthy 62 year old retiree who has maintained health insurance my entire adult life beginning with my first job out of college when I was 19 years old.
When I sold my business several years ago I purchased individual health care coverage from North Carolina Blue Cross Blue Shield.
In September of this year I was informed by BC/BS that I must "transition to a new, ACA- compliant medical plan and that my existing plan would no longer be offered". In other words, my policy was to be cancelled in 2014.
The new plan, which they proposed, Blue Advantage Silver 3500, was the closest thing to my existing plan.
I was informed that my premium would increase from $401.03 per month to $747.21 – an annual increase of $4,154.16.
I do not qualify for any federal subsidy as my income exceeds the threshold. I should note that my wife is on medicare with medicare and drug supplemental policies.
Although I am a retiree, my choice to retire was made with a budget and the responsibility to live within my means. An additional annual cost of over $4,000 is significant.
After numerous attempts and countless hours... I am one of the people who was able to successfully enroll in the federal marketplace as North Carolina does not have a state exchange.
However, once enrolled, I found that the only insurer available to me through the federal marketplace is Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina and the plan available to me is the Blue Advantage Silver 3500 that Blue Cross had already informed me about. (There were a few options that Blue Cross Blue Shield offered but these were not comparable and were equally expensive.)
Note: I don't believe that the story has come out about the limited number of insurers available through the federal marketplace. I am one of the people who probably clogged up the system trying to enroll when I ultimately learned that the federal marketplace offered me nothing new or different! I suspect others may have had a similar experience.
Thus, my options are severely limited and my expenses are going to increase dramatically for essentially the same level of benefits that I have received in the past.
So....my question is "will Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina be required to provide me the same policy as they did last year for essentially the same cost as it was last year? I would be more than happy to pay an inflation adjusted premium.
Please know that I am a supporter health care reform and believe in it's necessity – and am willing to pay and do my fair share.
Thank you,
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(CNN) -- Lori Hyde was hunting for a unique vacation experience when her curiosity was piqued by Pretty Joe Rock, a tiny speck of land in the waters off Marathon in the Florida Keys with just enough room for a two-bedroom home and a few clusters of mangroves.
She and her husband spent a week on the petite island in February, relaxing and enjoying each other's company, with no one else around but the resident birds.
"I was looking for a rental that would be private so that came up as I was searching around and we were like, well it can't get much more private than that," said Hyde, 43, a stay-at-home mom who lives in Woodbridge, Virginia.
"It's not an exclusive sort of thing. We're just ordinary people who just did something cool."
Indeed, the idea of renting a private island usually conjures up images of multimillionaires spending a fortune to jet off to a tropical paradise in the Caribbean or the South Pacific. If you have a lot of money to shell out, the possibilities are endless.
But while a big budget will give you more options and luxurious accommodations, you don't have to be rich to rent your own island for a vacation. It can sometimes take as little as a few hundred dollars a week, a sense of adventure and the willingness to look at locations closer to home.
The island mystique
Pretty Joe Rock, for example, can be yours for under $3,000 a week, which includes the use of a boat to get you to and from the island. Owner Bob Rainek said he gets a broad spectrum of renters, from blue collar to white collar; from families with kids to couples.
"It's almost a universal thing that people have this romantic kind of feeling for islands," Rainek said. "It's a mystique to be on your own private island, to have water 360 degrees [around you.] It's a primal type emotion, as I look at it."
Business has been brisk despite the economy, partly because people who might otherwise go to Mexico for a vacation have been scared off by that country's drug-related violence and are looking for something exotic closer to home, Rainek said. He was proud to tout the Florida Keys, which he called "America's Caribbean," as an alternative.
Some of the most popular places to rent islands may surprise you. They include the northern United States and Canada, said Chris Krolow, the CEO of Private Islands Inc., a company based in Toronto, Ontario, that has about 200 islands for rent all over the world in its database.
Clients come from all walks of life, spending as little as $550 for a week on Republic Island in Michigan (which comes with a log cabin) or more than $66,000 for a week on The Rania Experience in the Maldives (which comes with three villas, a private chef, a yacht and other ultra-luxurious touches.)
'Robinson Crusoe' experience
For something in between, a budget of several thousand dollars a week is usually a good start.
"We're even finding more and more people who are saving and planning a honeymoon on an island. It's a little bit more expensive than what they had originally planned but it seems to be a growing trend," Krolow said.
"It's probably the most romantic experience that you could ever imagine just being on this tiny island with the person that you just married."
You can choose a self-catering island, which gives you the use of a home but requires you to bring your own food and make your own meals (the less expensive option), or a full-service island that comes with a staff, according to Vladi Private Islands, a company based in Hamburg, Germany. Its database of about 150 islands for rent includes everything from Île de Chantemesle near Paris, France, to Forsyth Island, New Zealand.
Some people seek the thrill of being dropped off in a remote place that's completely undeveloped. On "Robinson Crusoe" islands, you are left to your own devices, make your own meals, bring a tent or hammock and anything else you may need, the company said. Nova Scotia, Canada, is one part of the world that offers such opportunities, added Sabine Rollinger, a Vladi spokeswoman.
Krolow recalled a CEO who last year spent 10 days on a deserted spot in the Marshall Islands bonding with his 13-year-old son.
"It's pretty much the closest you'll get to being stranded on your own private island," Krolow said.
Spending a lot or a little
On the other end of the spectrum, there's Necker Island, Sir Richard Branson's 74-acre paradise in the British Virgin Islands complete with luxurious accommodations and a large staff. It's all yours for at least $53,000 a night for up to 28 guests, though you can rent individual rooms for a fraction of that price during a select few "Celebration Weeks."
YouTube: See what $53,000 a day gets you on Necker Island
It may sound like the ultimate getaway, but people who are looking for that private island feel might be a little disappointed by such a huge resort, Krolow said.
And if the idea of having an island all too yourself is too expensive or intimidating, you can try one with a single lodge or hotel perched on top, like the quaint five-room bed-and-breakfast on East Brother Light Station near San Francisco, California. Starting at about $300 a night, it's an island stay that's both private and not too hard on the wallet.
Whatever your budget, an island may be waiting.


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Archive for December 22nd, 2012
2012: A Memory or Two
Rise and Shine
Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, December 22, Honolulu, Hawaii (Photos: Pool/Getty)
Anyone worried that Bo got left behind ….. 0:38 …. 😎
NYT Editorial: Wayne LaPierre would have been better advised to remain wherever he had been hiding after the Newtown, Conn., massacre, rather than appear at a news conference on Friday. No one seriously believed the N.R.A. when it said it would contribute something "meaningful" to the discussion about gun violence. The organization's very existence is predicated on the nation being torn in half over guns. Still, we were stunned by Mr. LaPierre's mendacious, delusional, almost deranged rant.
Mr. LaPierre looked wild-eyed at times as he said the killing was the fault of the media, songwriters and singers and the people who listen to them, movie and TV scriptwriters and the people who watch their work, advocates of gun control, video game makers and video game players.
Full editorial here
Charles Blow: Seriously, what was the National Rifle Association performing on Friday? I thought it was going to be a press conference. It wasn't. I really don't know how to describe it. A soliloquy of propaganda? A carnival of canards? A herding of scapegoats?
Wayne LaPierre, the N.R.A.'s executive vice president, blamed gun violence in general, and mass shootings in schools in particular, on everything except for the proliferation of brutally efficient, high-capacity guns and his organization's efforts to resist virtually any restriction on people's access to those weapons.
It was an appalling display of deflection and deception. So much smoke and so many mirrors.
Full article here
Eugene Robinson: Absurd, unbelievable, tragic, obscene — I grope for words to describe the National Rifle Association's proposal for how the nation should respond to last week's slaughter in Newtown: More guns in the schools.
The idea is so insane that as far as I'm concerned — and, I hope, as far as a still-grieving nation is concerned — the NRA has forfeited the right to be taken seriously on matters of public policy. Newtown is still burying six-year-olds and Wayne LaPierre, the organization's chief, wants more freaking guns in the schools. Wow.
More here
Gail Collins: Well, the Mayans were sort of right.
The world didn't implode when their calendar stopped on Dec. 21. But the National Rifle Association did call for putting guns in every American school in a press conference that had a sort of civilization-hits-a-dead-end feel to it.
And we learned that negotiations on averting a major economic crisis had come to a screeching halt because Speaker John Boehner lost the support of the far-right contingent of his already-pretty-damned-conservative caucus. We have seen the future, and everything involves negotiating with loony people.
Full article here
Washington Post: The main thing that has held Republicans together philosophically is the belief in holding down taxes. Not one of them in Congress has voted for a significant increase in more than two decades.
Now that very issue is tearing the GOP apart and making it an all-but-ungovernable majority for Speaker John Boehner to lead in the House.
Disarray is a word much overused in politics. But it barely begins to describe the current state of chaos and incoherence as Republicans come to terms with electoral defeat and try to regroup against a year-end deadline to avert a fiscal crisis.
The presidential election was fought in large measure over the question of whether some Americans should pay more in taxes. Republicans lost that argument with the voters, who polls show are strongly in favor of raising rates for the wealthy. But a sizable contingent within the GOP doesn't see it that way and is unwilling to declare defeat on a tenet that so defines them.
Full article here
MoooOOoooOoooOooorning everyone.


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A Wake Forest Police Department spokesperson said Gregory Paul Raymer, 48, was one of six men who responded to an advertisement posted by undercover police on a popular website men often seek out female prostitutes.
The men face misdemeanor charges of prostitution and attempted crimes against nature.
Raymer, nicknamed "Fossilman," is best known for winning the 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event. According to Wake County records, Raymer owns a house in Wakefield valued at $1.6 million.
Raymer was easily recognizable during the 2004 tournament because he wore sunglasses with a reflective coating that looked like lizard eyes.
Raymer's attorney, Wade Smith, issued a statement to ABC11 Friday:
"Mr. Raymer is very sorry for this lapse in judgment. He regrets deeply the pain he has caused his family, friends and fans. Mr. Raymer is grateful for the many expressions of support he has received."
Another of the accused is Christopher Burell Shella, 41, who once worked as an attorney for Duke Lacrosse accuser Crystal Mangum after she was arrested on murder charges in 2011.
Bond for the men was set at $1000.
Wake Forest police said the sting was part of a wider attempt to crack down on prostitution.
"The locations prostitutes choose for this type of criminal activity vary and seldom remain the same for more than a couple of days at a time which makes enforcement difficult," said Police Chief Jeff Leonard in a statement.
Also arrested in the sting were:
- Kevin Scott Konarzewski, Wake Forest, NC
- Barrett Lee Bennett, Durham, NC
- Robert Hancock, Wake Forest, NC
- Gerald Barham, Wake Forest, NC
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1. Danger dogs.
The Tijuana delicacy -- a hot dog wrapped in bacon, fried, and topped with mayo -- has made its way to San Diego and Los Angeles, sold from carts outside stadiums, clubs, and wherever hungry drunks congregate. See also:
2. Jersey breakfast dogs.
An East Coast derivative with scrambled eggs and melted cheese.
3. Surfing Teahupoo, Tahiti.
Unbelievable swells that roll over a shallow coral reef. Catch a wave and you're flying; bail and you're bleeding.
4. Giving a buddy a kidney.
You only need one. Hopefully.
5. Black Cat espresso from Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea.
A triple. Note the exceedingly heavy body, with chocolate, caramel, and dried-fruit notes. Also note that you're vibrating. That means it's working. intelligentsiacoffee.com.
6. Lyle Sankey's "Vision Quest" Bull Riding Adventure Experience, Branson, Missouri.
The Website says it well: "We work hard to match the livestock with your abilities, but we can't make you an athlete, change your mental or physical condition, or help you lose weight in a three or four day session. Come into this realizing that Rodeo is NOT tee ball." Of course, if the bull really pisses you off, you can seek revenge on his kind at the...
7. Bullfighting school at the California Academy of Tauromaquia.
One of the only (legal) bullfighting schools in the country. Someone's getting wounded in this battle. Hopefully, it's the bull. (Visit the Website for more information.)
8. Butter.
9. Drugs.
10. Cream puffs.
The best are available at the Wisconsin State Fair for two weeks every August.
11. Blowhole diving.
Jump in and get sucked by the current through tunnels forged over thousands of years of erosion. Timing is everything. It should feel like being flushed down a toilet, not like smashing your face on rock. Hone your skills at the "easy one" in Laguna Beach. (Ask a local.)
12. Punching Barry Bonds in the face.
13. A Little Downhill
Hard: Corbet's Couloir, Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Congratulate yourself for nailing that 15-foot mandatory air at the top, but try not to slam your skull into the soaring rock wall if you fail to wrench an immediate, impossibly sharp left turn.
Harder: Silverton Mountain, Colorado.
The owners of this one-lift wonder hurl bombs to avoid avalanches, but that's the extent of the pampering: no signs marking the claustrophobic glades and chutes as narrow as coffins. Avalanche beacons and shovels required -- for real.
Downright nuts: Helicopter skiing the Chugach Range, Alaska.
Staring down the descents would terrify you -- if they didn't fall away in concave pitches so steep you can't see them. Riders who wipe out tend to cartwheel a long way because they're mostly falling in space, reconnecting with snow every 40 feet or so.
--Rob Story
14. Chopped Liver
I was not raised by daring Jews. Nor were they brainy and accomplished. This Junior of Zion was saddled with no family legacy of piety, wisdom, or Talmudic scholarship. My people were chosen for bubkes, peasants in both countries, Old and New.
I'll tell you what we had: We had chopped liver. Hankering to defy death? Try schmaltz, hard-boiled eggs, organ meat, and onions, all ground to a coarse pâté, thumbed up from the bowl on thick heels of seeded rye. Add salt. Then we'll speak of risky feats and cardiologic derring-do.
Its earthy serf-feed roots are blatant -- no one ever kvetched, "What am I, beluga?" -- and yet chopped liver lives on as a great delicacy savored wherever Jews gather to fress like chozzerim -- which is, quite frankly, how Jews love to eat. The last platter I devoured -- airy, creamy, nothing that my thick-fingered Bubbe would have recognized -- was floating on a bed of lettuce in a poyer-free deli in Beverly Hills. It certainly wasn't bad -- gehakteh leber simply can't be bad -- but it wasn't Gram's.
Bad for you? Hell is yonder, full of hungry, heart-healthy bastards; heaven's hither, beaming from that laminated menu in your hands. Quick! Before that white-smocked cossack comes to pump up the blood-pressure cuff.
--Scott Raab
15. Smoking Cubans (in Cuba)
Until night, it's Guilt City, Havana. Especially from the top of the Parque Central hotel, rising high and new out of the nearruins, with its rooftop pool and bar and rich Germans browning in the last of the sun that's been cooking the poor streetbounds since morning. After dark, it's easier to forget what surrounds you, because you can't see the poverty; only the hotels stand out, like stars against the night, foreign currency having trumped the day's electricity rations. In the distance: the historic Hotel Nacional, where you wandered this afternoon on the lazy hunt for cigars. Not Cohibas -- every fat-fuck turista down here smokes Cohibas -- but a box of Sancho Panzas, cheap and creamy and drawing enough heady smoke to begin choking out the last strains of ill feeling. The rum assists -- in mojitos, drunk through straws stuck in a pile of wet sugar at the bottom -- as do the cheeseburgers, grind-house bloody, because there are no surgeons general to mind your store in Cuba. Nobody cares if you die down here. And at last, just now, spitting out the end of your night's fourth cigar, ordering another rummy drink, your belly full and warm with still-kicking meat, you don't care, either.
--Chris Jones
16. A night on the town with Kiefer Sutherland.
17. Deep-fried Twinkies.
18. The schmaltz at Sammy's Roumanian, New York.
One tablespoon of pure rendered chicken fat contains nearly 13 grams of fat, 11 grams of cholesterol, and 115 calories. Delicious on steak or drizzled over bread.
19. The Ramos ginfizz.
In a cocktail shaker, dissolve 1 tbsp sugar in 1 tbsp water. Add:
• 1 1/2 ounce Tanqueray gin
• 1/2 ounce lemon juice
• 1/2 ounce lime juice
• 1 ounce heavy cream
• white of 1 fresh egg
• 3 drops -- not dashes -- of orange flower water
Fill with cracked ice and shake lustily for a long, long time, and then strain into a tall glass. Add 1 oz chilled seltzer, stir briefly, and then smile.
20. Paragliding Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, Wyoming.
Dangerously close to that wall we call the Grand Tetons. Especially if you lack knowledge of tricky thermal currents.
21. Smashing the cameras of paparazzi mercilessly hounding Angie, Scarlett, or Halle.
22. Oysters Mosca at Mosca's in Avondale, Louisiana.
A baked casserole brimming with two dozen oysters in garlic and butter with a breaded topping. A night ender.
23. Mountain biking in Moab, Utah.
Possible dehydration, heatstroke, and disorientation. Probably the most inspiring panorama you'll ever see.
24. The Fat Darrell at the R. U. Grill & Pizza in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Considering his namesake sandwich is made up of chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, and french fries, it's a wonder that Darrell is still with us (and trim).
25. Testing your cold-weather driving skills in Arjeplog, Sweden.
Where auto engineers converge to drive at high speeds on frozen lakes. They seek automotive innovation; you seek 75-mile-per-hour doughnuts. Beginners should first try the Porsche Camp4 Colorado Winter Driving School -- ice slaloms in a 911 Carrera.
26. Combo No. 4 at the Varsity in Athens, Georgia.
For $6.90, you get a tray of Americana and grease: a chili cheese dog, a chili cheeseburger, french fries or onion rings, and a medium drink. Upgrade to the Frosted Orange for 30 cents more.
27. The dark-chocolate-and-peanut-butter gelato from Il Laboratorio del Gelato in New York. laboratorio-delgelato.com.
28. The fugu (poisonous blowfish) tasting menu at Morimoto in New York and Philadelphia.
29. Playing tackle football past the age of 25.
30. Narco Diving
The Bahamian island of Andros is a sheer-walled skyscraper, lapped by the six-thousand-foot-deep Tongue of the Ocean, where a diver can kick out a few yards and fall right off the continental shelf. While the abyss is free to all, Small Hope Bay Lodge offers a guided dive called Over the Edge of the Wall, down to 185 feet. It's not for the impulse-control challenged; at that depth you will be thoroughly narced, as in nitrogen narcosis, the dreaded Rapture of the Deep.
Why one gas should produce euphoria and another mere unconsciousness is not easily explained. But at about a hundred feet, a strange sea change begins to come over your brain, thanks to the increased partial pressure of nitrogen at depth. The muted colors of dangling sponges and the melancholy shapes of massive plate corals leap out at you, laughing. All at once, you're in on the cosmic joke. Truly, you are tiny, so freaking tiny, yet oceanic in your newfound wisdom. All is one -- and then some! Cap'n of the Good Skull Lollipop, you soar in space as you slowly fall, blessing basses and wrasses and intoxicating gases. At last you touch down on a little sandy ledge, a catwalk worthy of the north face of the Eiger, overlooking blue-black inner space. You may ask yourself, referencing the Talking Heads, How did I get here? And you may experience the profound confusion of an honest philosopher, which some people do not enjoy. But Jerko -- it's just scuba diving. You're only high, frying your synapses on pressurized dope. Confusion and death await those who linger too long.
So don't. Head for the surface and you'll come down as you go up, into the brilliant Bahamian light, no longer such a smarty-pants, perhaps, but still on vacation.
--Bucky McMahon
31. Getting a Road Job
Sometime before you die, and potentially right before, you must enjoy a blow job while driving a car in excess of eighty miles per hour. Everything about a blow job is better at high speed: the power, the thrill, the feeling you're about to lose control and leave a memorable obituary. A few caveats: The interior design of automobiles has changed since my road-job days, and it seems like it would be impractical in these newfangled models with their obstructive cupholders. It won't work in a Prius, for example, which is a damn shame, because imagine the self-satisfaction of zero-population-growth sex with low carbon emissions. It would probably work in a Hummer. Other considerations: It works best in the Great Plains, where the highways are long and straight; it's safer, and more fun, in broad daylight, particularly if you slow down as you pass a truck; and most important, drinking and driving and dunking don't mix. I can't recall exactly how you talk a woman into going down on you in a speeding car, though. I think it's mostly hand gestures.
--Larry Doyle
32. Carousing with the Mob
It happened one night in a bar near the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. I was researching a novel and found myself deep in conversation with a number of ballet dancers. Don't laugh. Dancers drink. Dancers smoke. Dancers believe in the short life.
Two in the morning. We had all been overserved. It was time for one last song. I closed my eyes and belted it out. The bartender grabbed me by the shoulder. "Shut up," he said. I've heard the complaints before. "Shut the fuck up," he said. "Look."
I turned and saw a number of impeccably dressed men walking into the bar. They were packing guns. One of them stopped and stared at me. It was as if all the oxygen was gone from the air. They cased the bar and abruptly left. I started singing again. The bartender grabbed my arm. Seconds later the real mob -- without their well-dressed bodyguards -- walked in: fat and unshaven and scruffy. Each had a bouquet of beautiful women on his arm.
"Leave," my ballet friends whispered. "Leave now -- and quietly."
I walked across the room. I picked out the meanest fucker of them all and hunkered down beside him. He looked as if he'd just strangled Vladimir Putin's mistress. There are times in life when we must throw out the anchor, even when it's unattached to a rope. "You want to hear an Irish song?" I asked him. He stared at me, his mouth quivering. I was suddenly quite sober. He took me by the collar. I could feel my heart beating in my cheap white shirt. He said nothing but slowly broke into a grin.
The drunk man often navigates by the stars beyond the ceiling. Still to this day I cannot remember what song it was I sang, but I do recall that fifteen minutes later I was party to the spectacular sight of three great Kirov ballerinas dancing on the long wooden table of the Shamrock Irish Bar on Dekabristov Street, performing ballet moves with three very large Russian mafiosi, shots of vodka thrown back and forth, and the dancers outlasting them, and outcharming them, with ease.
As they left the bar -- it was five in the morning -- the Mafia leader put his arm around me and said that he would help me if ever I was in trouble. "What do you do?" I asked, trying hard to be naive. He turned and looked me straight in the eye. "I am . . ." he said, stumbling toward the door, "...I am a Russian baby-sitter."
--Colum McCann
33. Drinking Alone
I know that everything I'm about to say has already been said better by George Thorogood. And listen, I aced health class back at Sedgwick Middle School, and so I know that drinking alone means you're an alcoholic. I know too that being an alcoholic is bad, that alcoholism turns you toothless and yellow and moaning in the dark.
Until I was thirty, my biggest fear was that I'd end up drinking alone. Like every day. Like full-time. But now I'm thirty-five. I've got a nearly regular job. I'm married, and I've got a daughter. This means I'm almost never alone. And that's great. That's the best thing that's ever happened to an idiot like me. And yet...and yet...I miss drinking alone. I miss walking into a bar early and without intent. I miss sitting there talking to no one. I miss ordering a Harvey Wallbanger only because I've never had a Harvey Wallbanger and because I might never summon the courage to order a Harvey Wallbanger in the company of others.
The more I think about it, my mistake was worrying too much about drinking alone. I should've drunk alone more often. All the stupid things I've done...and no one to see me do them. All the stupid things I've said...and no one to hear me say them. Yeah, the drinking alone might end you early, but sometimes it sounds like heaven.
--Benjamin Alsup
34. Refried doughnuts.
When and where can one sample the unholy union of Krispy Kreme and hot bacon fat? In your kitchen, whenever you make one.
35. Duck-fat potatoes.
• 1 pound small red new potatoes (about 16), with strip peeled around center
• 4 tablespoons duck fat ($3 for 7 ounces; specialty supermarket or dartagnan.com)
Over low heat, melt duck fat in deep skillet with tightly fitting lid. Raise temperature to get hot. Run potatoes under water, letting excess drain through colander. Transfer to skillet (water and hot fat create splatter but also cooking steam; potatoes must be in one layer with enough room to roll around) and quickly cover. Shake pan slightly to coat potatoes and cook until deep golden and tender, about 18 minutes. Season abundantly with coarse salt and ground black pepper and serve.
36. Bodysurfing the Wedge, Newport Beach, California.
When the Army Corps of Engineers installed a jetty on the north side of Newport Harbor, it created a massive freak wave that peaks only a few times a year (primarily summer). A blessing or a curse, depending on your skill level.
37. Speaking truth to power.
Thomas Becket. William Wallace. You.
38. The Carpetbagger steak topped with blue cheese, a fried oyster, hollandaise, and caramelized onions at Jacques-Imo's in New Orleans, washed down with:
39. A "three-bagger" of Sazeracs at Tujague's.
Three strong rye-whiskey cocktails in a row at a bar with the perfect seedy charm.
40. Attending a Glasgow Rangers versus Glasgow Celtic soccer match.
Preferably in the Scottish Cup final. Imagine: Red Sox versus Yankees, if the ALCS involved sectarian hatred, hooligan rioting, and the occasional death threat.
41. Fried dill pickles at Cock of the Walk in Natchez, Mississippi.
42. Secondhand smoking.
The smoker has the best stories, tells the best jokes, and laughs the hearty, hacking laugh of someone wise beyond his dwindling years. If black lung by proxy is the price we must pay for staying close to this dying breed, so be it.
43. A Home Firearm
My entire life is a series of hedged bets. As the fifty-four-year-old dad of a seven-year-old, I take no uncalculated risks. I don't let the gas-gauge needle fall below the quarter-tank mark. I set the ADT alarm every night. You could not pay me to travel outside the northern half of the Western Hemisphere. Everywhere lurks doom; I acknowledge its inevitability by avoiding all danger at every turn. When I can, I avoid turns.
I spent a long time living dangerously. I was the guy they sent into the pharmacy with the forged quaalude prescription. The guy who sold weed by the pound to the outlaw bikers. The guy who ate ham-and-cheese sandwiches on Yom Kippur. Now I'm the guy who insists that his wife clean the dryer vent twice a year so the lint doesn't catch fire.
Still, a few feet from where I now sit typing on the third floor of our home in a Garden State suburb of leafy calm sits my shotgun. The safety's on, but it is loaded. I don't hunt. And though my penis would win no bar bets, the shotgun doesn't make me feel larger. It is what it is: the most fearsome, effective, legal home-protection device around. Is it a danger to me and mine as well? Many studies say so, but I haven't seen a study yet that helps me get to sleep at night.
Call me crazy. Call me an ugly American. But don't expect me to call 911 if you break into my house -- not till I've blown your head and neck clean off your shoulders.
--Scott Raab
44-48. The Five Most Decadent Burgers in the United States of America:
The cheeseburger at Shady Glen Dairy Stores in Manchester, Connecticut.
Four carefully arranged pieces of cheese extending far beyond the border of the patty melt directly on the grill, creating a chewy crust that is as difficult to describe as it is to digest. $4.95.
The original DB burger at DB Bistro Moderne in New York.
A sirloin burger filled with braised short ribs, foie gras, and black truffles. $32.
Denny's Beer Barrel Belly Buster at Denny's Beer Barrel Pub in Clearfield, Pennsylvania.
The world's biggest burger: 11 pounds of beef, 22 slices of cheese, three whole tomatoes, and a jar's worth of pickles. No one person has ever finished it. $49.95.
The Krispy Kreme burger at the Gateway Grizzlies ballpark concession stand in St. Louis.
A bacon cheeseburger with glazed doughnuts in place of a bun. A thousand-plus calories. Minor league gimmick; major league angina. $4.50.
The deep-fried hamburger at Dyer's Burgers in Memphis.
Instead of a grill, Dyer's uses a cast-iron skillet filled with grease. Old grease. They've been using the same batch since they opened -- in 1912. $3.
Click the print button up there and take this with you the next time you're in Sin City.
49-59. The 18-Hour Vegas Vacation
For each activity, multiply the time spent by 100 and subtract the total from your life expectancy. Repeat twice annually until death.
Sunning (sans sunscreen) to a robust burn while marinating in premium tequila after dozing off at the pool: 1 hour
Chain-smoking unfiltered Kamel Reds to intimidate fellow poker players: 2 1/2 hours
Agonizing over minor scoring fluctuations in a meaningless NBA game: 2 1/2 hours
Devouring hare stuffed with duck confit and foie-gras-and-blood sauce at Guy Savoy, not to mention the 12 other courses: 4 hours
Watching Cirque du Soleil's Love, at the Mirage. (No life sacrificed, just dignity): 1 1/2 hours
Impersonating Nick Nolte with a bottle of Grey Goose at Tryst at the Wynn: 1 hour
Wandering downtown in search of the Four Queens, one of only two Vegas casinos that still offer single-deck, 3-2 payoff, dealer-stays-soft-17 blackjack: 1/2 hour
Talking shit to strangers with unplaceable accents at the table while alternating caffeinated and alcoholic drinks in ten-minute intervals: 3 1/4 hours
Threatening to exact bloody revenge on the firstborn child of a stingy dealer: 1/2 hour
Touching Brandie when it "feels rights" at Crazy Horse Too: 1 hour (ten songs)
"Date" with suspiciously underdressed woman sitting alone at the hotel bar: 1 hour (okay, 15 minutes)
60. Directing
A year ago,my twelve-year-old daughter, Chloe, was acting in my film RV. After a long day, I said, "You know, Chloe, you're painfully opinionated and you boss everyone around. You should be a director."
"No offense, Dad, but I'll stick to being a movie star," she said. "Directing looks too stressful."
On the first movie I directed, The Addams Family, I ended up fainting when, after a sleepless night, I thought I could maintain some sense of awareness the next day by drinking nine straight espressos. When the head of Paramount Studios said that it was unreleasable, I spent the night weeping on Sweetie's (the wife's) lap. During Men in Black II, I was raced to the hospital with what I thought was a heart attack. After spending the night in the emergency room next to a woman whining, "I need quinine," I was given an echocardiogram and told that I was simply suffering from stress and that I should get into a program of meditation. (I didn't tell the doctor that I was meditating when the chest pain started.) On Wild Wild West, I broke my hand in five places when I punched Will Smith's arm.
So why direct? It's the closest a guy like me will ever come to being a general. I have a thought, and suddenly manly men are building gigantic sets. Plus, being forced to make thousands of decisions a week on topics that you didn't know you were ever going to need to have an opinion about (Lara Flynn Boyle's girdle comes to mind) is exhilarating. I also get to send back cappuccinos because the foam looks too much like a latte and work with people smarter than me, who make me look good. If every couple of years I have a psychological breakdown, well, at least I've got a thick head of foam on my cappuccino.
--Barry Sonnenfeld


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Any avid follower of the Twitter account of our editor at large,Derek Blasberg
, will attest to his global travel. We had to track him down in Lima, Peru, where he is with a bevy of supermodels celebrating the opening of the Mario Testino Foundation and putting the finishing touches on Mr. Blasberg's Best-Dressed List for the week. Perhaps he's homesick because this week he was looking for Manhattan beauties (or, at the very least, for girls who were looking fabulous in the Big Apple). He was spoiled for choice this week, with Louis Vuitton's party for the opening of the Kusama exhibit at the Whitney and a slew of other events. Even in the summer, New York is a city of parties. So who made the cut? The perpetually stylish Diane Kruger, Freida Pinto and Anne Hathaway, along with a flock of New York's chicest socials. Click through for the full list.


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Film helps women soldiers find safety at home
- Film%27s co-producer and director said more women are speaking up about PTSD and sexual assaults
- Women in film didn%27t expect to come home to depression%2C anxiety and PTSD
- Women say when speaking to Veterans Affairs they want more female health care providers
MELBOURNE, Fla. -- It took time, but Mariette Kalinowski is now more open to identifying herself as a veteran than when she first returned from war.
After two deployments in Iraq with the Marine Corps' 2nd Military Police Battalion, she returned home with post-traumatic stress disorder. At first, she suffered in silence.
Therapy and participating as one of the subjects of Service: When Women Come Marching Home, a documentary film about women transitioning from active duty to civilian life, helped Kalinowski.
After a screening of the film and a question-and-answer session last week at Eastern Florida State College, other women in the audience spoke up about sexual assault, PTSD and other difficulties.
"For many years following my discharge, I was experiencing pretty classical symptoms of (PTSD)," said Kalinowski, a student at Hunter College in New York. "I was isolating myself. I was bottling everything up. I was self-medicating."
Karen Martin, a senior national service officer with Disabled American Veterans at the Veterans Affairs office in St. Petersburg, Fla., hears the stories of difficulties with PTSD and sexual assaults.
"Often, they find it difficult to prove, and that can be a deterrent to coming forward and asking for help," Martin said. "I'm completely humbled at some of the experiences our women veterans have been through."
But Marcia Rock, co-producer and director of the film, said changes are beginning to occur as women speak up more about the issues they face, which are often different from what men experience.
"I learned that women are more prone to PTSD than men," she said. "But they heal faster. I think it's because they talk easier about the issues."
More women are serving in the military than ever before and more roles that were traditionally held only by men are now open to women. Almost 15% of active duty military members are women. They make up more than 15% of the reserve members. Women are in most career fields or duty in the military.
In the film, some women spoke about their difficulties with sexual trauma. One spoke of losing both legs in an explosion in which she was the only survivor.
Many expected to come home to a good job and a home and not depression, anxiety and PTSD.
The women in the film and in the audience said that when they seek help from the VA they want private, dignified access with a separate waiting room from men and more female health care providers.
"They got a chance to tell their stories, and it changed most of them," Rock said. "And, we hope that their example will help other veterans tell their stories to each other, to therapists, to caregivers and move on."
Regardless of the bad experiences, most of the women said they would serve again and recommend it for other young women. They would advise others of what they could encounter and to be aware that sexual assault could be a danger in some units.
Asked if she would serve again in the military if she could, Kalinowski responded, "Yes, in a heartbeat."
"I don't regret getting out, but I would do everything the same exact way," she said.


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Weekend – Garage Sales/Auctions
More Garage Sales/Auctions
Craigslist in Madison
Madison Stuff Exchange
Dane County and the City of Madison present an online resource for recycling materials that would otherwise be tossed out. The rules are simple — everything is priced under $100, no illegal or hazardous materials allowed, and services cannot be advertised. But check it out if you?re in the market to buy or sell an old bike, TV, or other household treasures.