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Today's Music: AC/DC – Rock 'n Roll Ain't Noise Pollution
Note on Today's Music: In a recent post, L&L said I should go with songs I like. She's absolutely right. This one, the lyric at 2:48 – 2:50, says it all for me. I like the rest of the song too.
Well, that was unexpected. Almost didn't make it here this week. Fortunately, there was some sleeping going on by others that let me grab enough time to cobble this together. So the planets aligned, and here we are, on another glorious Friday!
And despite having no time to post (yesterday's took several days to write and still felt hurried), I did manage to get some good reading in.
Thypolar's daughter did really well at the National American Miss competition.
Edward Hotspur is continuing his exploration of 80s music with a poll on the Best Band of the 80s. Smaktakula Came Out in support of gay folks . Probably about as supportive as he'll ever get, and we sincerely approve! And Pudding Girl nominated me for a One Lovely Blog Award. If you aren't reading her, you should really take a minute to check her out.
Thanks to them and everyone else for the great reads this week.
I'm looking forward to catching up on the stuff I missed as soon as I get a chance.
But no time for that now. Because we have to go over last weeks adventure!
Last week, in the midst of a plethora (ok, two) national festivitudes, we jumped on the spirited bandwagon and asked how you'd celebrate. Or specifically, asked you to finish the thought I Want To Blow Up…
And boy, did you guys not disappoint! Here's what you said. (As always, my comments sparkle in italics):
Certain Passive Aggressive persons, very aggressively. GingerHasSnaapped
(Don't sugarcoat it, Ginger. Tell us how you really feel.)
The entire cast of Jersey Shore! (wordsandotherthings)
real good. John Phillips
(I'd agree. It's through the roof!)
Ted Nugent, just because I think the world would be a better place. Live Clay
(Okay, but do it in a quarantined environment, in case cat scratch fever is an airborne disease…)
In communist Russia, up blows YOU! – Hotspur
(Sure, until it collapses under Gorbachev's forehead tattoo…)
Donald Trump's hair to see if it moves. Lvernon
(Could we blow up Donald Trump instead and just donate his hair to science? Or the circus?)
Gallagher (for those poor watermelons) Carrie Cannibalistic Nerd
(Revenge is sweet! And has a thick rind.)
the flag. Our flag, your flag, all flags. I just hate them. butimbeautiful
(Sounds like you're waving the white flag.)
because blowing down isn't as much fun. sandylikeabeach
(Up and down are relative to how you're… nevermind.)
another kiddie pool that I can keep pee-free for me: Jenn Worrell
(Aren't "kiddie pool" and "pee-free" mutually exclusive?)
the penguin on top of the TV. –cowgirliz
(Wouldn't it be smarter to blow up the penguin in a big empty field instead?)
doll! blow up doll. deluxe please. Lizzie C.
(Doesn't deluxe come with anchovi- Ohhhh. nevermind.)
My husband! 😛
(But then who would you have to blame stuff on?)
I cannot answer this question without legal representation (Elyse 54.5)
(Surely the statute of limitations has run out on that by now…)
my television provider…asshats! ugh…KJ
(You could make it a pay-per-view special!)
Congratulations to Nicole Marie for this weeks winning answer! And from the offered choices, the most popular was Can't we all just get along?!? Everyone who voted for that needs to start running the world. Now.
And once y'all are ensconced in your new positions of power, let's consider this week.
It's been hot. Fry an egg on your bald neighbor's head hot.
Well, maybe not that bad (and I don't suggest trying it)(But if you do take pictures!!!)
But pretty darn hot.
So how do you do it, folks? How do you keep your temperatures from running too hot?
That's the question of this week's poll. Answer honestly, answer often. But answer soon. Because this one closes at 2359 EST on Thursday, 19 July.
And if you leave a way to identify you in your "other" answer, I'll link back to you next week when we (hopefully) do this all again.
And to keep you entertained until next time, I thought we'd stick with the theme of great comedians.
First off, Jonathan Winters
And to finish up, Lucille Ball.
Have a great week everyone! See you 'round the sphere.


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The CNN Daily Mash-up is a roundup of some of the most interesting, surprising, curious, poignant or significant items to appear on CNN.com in the past 24 hours. We'll top it with a collection of the day's most striking photographs. Your comments, as always, are welcome.
Windy days make for memorable airline flights - and even more memorable landings. Pilots' work is harder than it looks. Check it out:
Speaking of air travel, several flights were delayed Wednesday morning at New York's busy LaGuardia Airport when a dog named Byrdie slipped out of her carrier and went for a walk on one of the runways, CNN affiliate WABC reports. The Rhodesian ridgeback was retrieved within a few minutes and put back on her Delta flight to Memphis, Tennessee, authorities told WABC.
Calling it "a moment for sober reflection, not celebration," Gov. Dannel Malloy signed a bill into law Wednesday that abolishes the death penalty in Connecticut. He gave the rationale for the change in a nutshell:
In the last 52 years, only two people have been put to death in Connecticut - and both of them volunteered for it. Instead, the people of this state pay for appeal after appeal, and then watch time and again as defendants are marched in front of the cameras, giving them a platform of public attention they don't deserve.
All-star iReporter Percy von Lipinski shot this video last year, but he waited until Tuesday to share it. And we're not very happy about that. However, we're too blown away by the beauty of the Bled Castle in Slovenia and Lipinski's interview with the charming mayor to hold it against him.
Woe is the Golden State, notes one reader. As worries arise about disease in California's beef industry, CNNMoney coughs out a list of the most environmentally fouled cities in America. The reader's pithy comment:
Not a good headline day for California. Five of the top 10 most polluted cities in the country and mad cows.
An Indiana woman who lost her legs while saving her children from a killer tornado last month threw out the first pitch for her favorite baseball team. All that's missing is an apple pie.
U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, will deliver the annual annual Whittington Lecture at Georgetown University. Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee and the GOP's point man on economic matters, is believed to be a contender to be Mitt Romney's running mate in this fall's presidential campaign. So are Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and several others.
This is where I come for an in-depth intelligent discussion about the news. But I am completely insane.
Everyone here is going to Hell.
Except Sofa King.
Why does CNN allow that odious troll chrissy to keep posting about her lack of sanitary habits?

subset: commoncrawl


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In 1830 if you lived in America on the frontier you lived a very different life to the one that you had left back in Europe. But to get to this new life, you had to get on a ship, get to St Louis and then take a wagon train out west.
There were two worlds The Culture of the Old world and the Culture of the Frontier
Today this split in culture is back. The difference is that there is no ocean or continent to cross. Today the ocean is in our minds.
The frontier is here now. Enough people now live the new or aspire to it to make it a future that most of us might take in time. Remember, after the railway was built in the 1860's 50 million people left the old world for the new in the next 50 years. Once the tipping point is reached a better offer for life will beat the lesser.
Here are 2 short descriptions of the Old World and the New. Just to make it honest, I used to live in the old and thought it was the only way - so I am not being judgemental here.
The Old World
In the old country, you have a job or see the job as central. So you accept that you work away from the home for an organization. You have a lot of debt. You have student debt, car debt. You don't have a mortgage because your student debt prevents this. You rent. You live in a big and expensive city because this is where the jobs are. You have to put your kids into school because you work outside the home. You both commute for 2 hours each a day.
Your kids are 10 and 12. They have no idea what they want to do later in life. They do nothing around the house. The boy doesn't read very well and has had behaviour problems at school where is is profoundly bored. You have been advised to put him on Ritalin but have refused. When they are 18, it is anticipated that a 4 year residential BA will end up with $100,000 of debt. Unemployment for 18 - 35 year olds is now 23% and is expected to climb to 50% in 10 years as technology and globalization continues to kill jobs.You expect that the education system will be there but you don't know how you will pay for it.
You expect the system to be there but you don't do anything to take care of yours self. You rely on processed food because you don't know how to cook well and you don't have the time or energy to prepare meals from scratch. You are both over weight and pre-diabetic. Your kids are both over weight. You don't sit down together to share any meals. There is not a single member of your family that lives closer than 1,000 miles away. You expect the system to look after you when you are old.
In the last 2 winter's there have been terrible storms and you have lost power for weeks. You are pissed off with the the mayor and the utility. There have been layoffs in both your workplaces and you worry about your jobs. You have have no savings. Your debt makes that impossible.
The New World
In new you don't have a job and nor do you seek one. You work at home and you make things. You are a coder. Your spouse works in a co working space near your home. She is a personal coach. You are both artisans with deep skills. You are deeply connected to your customers on a personal basis. You have no debt. You have a small home. You own in a small community where housing is affordable. You educate your kids at home and with several other families close by. You don't have a home classroom.
They learn by getting engaged by what is going on. You read to them all the time as small kids and they both learned to read well by 6. By 10 it is clear what they are really interested in. Your son is mad for drones and you have built several together and he has been using the CAD side of you Mac to drive the 3D printer to make many of the parts. Your skill as a programmer has been invaluable. He watched you work ever since he was an infant. You had him on your knee coding as he learned to read. He is selling them now to a few adults and has a small business of his own. Your daughter is fascinated by carpentry. This is something that you know nothing about but your neighbour is a carpenter and she got the bug by hanging out with him. She is his apprentice and works full time as such. She can do that at 12 because she does not have to attend school. All the math that she needs comes via her work. Your 10 year old has to read at a college level to learn more about design and has the math skills of a math grad. They have never had a lesson.
You eat real food and take care of your health. All at home cook. Your wife's mother lives with you and she does a huge amount of work in the garden where you grow most of your veggies and raise chickens. All the kids have jobs to do in the family household economy. Your extended family have been moving ever closer to you in the last few years and you can now see them all the time. Your dad and mum live very close to you and host a large family meal every 2 weeks. You have a very small car and the kids bike around town.The family own a van and a truck and many of the larger tools that you all need jointly.
All the family have good health. They eat well and have a complete social world. They all use their bodies. They all have a lot of time outside from work to just hang out. The surplus cash flow goes into making the family more resilient. Last year you all built a large green house on your brother's place. The larger family share this. This year the family will buy a large wood splitter so that all the wood you use for heating can be bought in 8 foot lengths and cut up and split by you all. The family supply the labour. In large items like this, the family share in the cash costs. As a result the family are not exposed to the global food system and only in a small way to oil costs. The family use almost nothing from the state and are largely self sufficient.
So which world will be best for you over the next 50 years?


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Proprietorship Registration
In Budaun
Get an instant start to your small business without any complications or delaysRegister Now
Why Choose Proprietorship?
Sole proprietors need to comply with licensing requirements in the states in which they're doing business, as well as local regulations and zoning ordinances. The paperwork and formalities, however, are substantially less than those of corporations, allowing sole proprietors to open a business quickly and with relative ease - from a bureaucratic standpoint. It can also be less costly to start a business as a sole proprietor, which is attractive to many new business owners.
* A sole proprietor has complete control and decision-making power over the business.
* Sale or transfer can take place at the discretion of the sole proprietor.
* No corporate tax payments
* Minimal legal costs to forming a sole proprietorship
* Few formal business requirements
* Sole proprietor manages the business
* No need to file income tax return if total income is below 2,50,000/-
* No need to pay tax if income upto 7,00,000/- after deduction
* The sole proprietor of the business can be held personally liable for the debts and obligations of the business. Additionally, this risk extends to any liabilities incurred as a result of acts committed by employees of the company.
* All responsibilities and business decisions fall on the shoulders of the sole proprietor.
* Investors won't usually invest in sole proprietorships.
Our Packages
Documents Required For Proprietorship Registration
- PAN card of Applicant
- Address Proof of Applicant (Voter ID, Passport, Aadhar, Driving License)
- Cancelled Cheque of Bank Account
- Registered Office Address Proof Electricity Bill along with • Rent Agreement plus NOC (if Rented) • Ownership proof (if Owned)
- Four photographs of Applicant
Only one person is required to start a Proprietorship and a Proprietorship can have only one promoter.
You need to be a Citizen and Resident of India having PAN Card and Valid Address Proof ( Voter ID, Passport , Driving License or Aadhar)
1. PAN 2. Address Proof ( Voter ID, Passport, DL or Aadhar) 3. Electricity bill + Rent agreement where you want to run your business.
There is no limit on the minimum capital for starting a Proprietorship. Therefore, a Proprietorship can be started with any amount of minimum capital.
Mycorporation has tied up with various banks. We will guide you through the process and help you open a bank account.
No, the Proprietorship firm and the Proprietor are one and the same. The PAN Card of the Proprietor will be the PAN Card of the Proprietorship business and There will be no separate legal identity for the business. The assets and liabilities of the Proprietorship business and the Proprietor will also be one and the same.
Proprietorship firms do not have a Certificate of Incorporation or Certificate of Registration. The identity and legitimacy of a Proprietorship firm is established by registering with the various Government authorities.
A business operated by proprietorship firm cannot be transferred to another person, Intangible assets like Government approvals, registrations, etc., cannot be transferred to another person because PAN can not be changed
Proprietorship firms are business entity that are owned, managed and controlled by one person. So Partners cannot be inducted into a Proprietorship firm.
Proprietorship firms are business entity that are owned, managed and controlled by one person. So Proprietorship firms cannot issue shares or have investors.
Proprietorship will have to file their annual tax return with the Income Tax Department. Other tax filings like service tax filing or VAT/CST filign= may be necessary from time to time, based on the business activity performed. However, annual report or accounts need not be filed with the Ministry or Corporate Affairs, which is required for Limited Liability Partnerships and Companies.
It is not necessary for Proprietorships to prepare audited financial statements each year. However, a tax audit may be necessary based on turnover and other criterion.
MyCorporation will understand your business requirements and help you start a Proprietorship by obtaining the relevant registrations. We will help obtain the necessary registrations to help the Proprietor open a bank account in the name of the business, thereby proving an identity for the business.
Yes, there are procedures for converting your Proprietorship business into a Company or a LLP at a later date. However, the procedures to convert a proprietorship business into a Company or LLP expensive and time-consuming, PAN and all Relevant registration will be applied again and hence it is wise for many entrepreneurs to consider and start a LLP or Company instead of a Proprietorship.
Other services on mycorporation in Budaun
Private Limited Company Registration in Budaun
One Person Company Registration in Budaun
Public Limited Company Registration in Budaun
Limited Liability Partnership Registration in Budaun
Proprietorship Registration in Budaun
Partnership Registration in Budaun


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Description: 1.) 100% brand new and high quality2.) Its special design will make you look unique3.) Elegant design, you can wear in many ways4.) Very compact, easy to carryPackage: 1 x Bag
Warning: You solely accept the full risk of any package (or part thereof) being detained by customs for whatever reason and acknowledge and agree that you will not hold our store liable for such packages or loss, for whatever reason being unable to be delivered to you. Warranty:The items DO NOT comes with warranty. However, for customer benefits our store offers 5 days warranty period PROVIDED ALWAYS:


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Bobcats | Bobcat Overview | Bobcat Damage Assessment | Bobcat Damage Management | Bobcat Resources | Bobcat Acknowledgments | ICWDM | Wildlife Species Information
The bobcat (Lynx rufus), alias "wildcat," is a medium-sized member of the North American cat family. It can be distinguished at a distance by its graceful catlike movements, short (4-to 6-inches [10-to 15-cm]) "bobbed" tail, and round face and pointed ears (Fig. 1). Visible at close distances are black hair at the tip of the tail and prominent white dots on the upper side of the ears.
Figure 1. Bobcat, Lynx rufus
Body hair color varies, but the animal's sides and flanks are usually brownish black or reddish brown with either distinct or faint black spots. The back is commonly brownish yellow with a dark line down the middle. The chest and outside of the legs are covered with brownish to light gray fur with black spots or bars. Bobcats living at high elevations and in northern states and Canada have relatively long hair. In southern states, bobcats may have a yellowish or reddish cast on their backs and necks.
Similar Species. The bobcat is two to three times the size of the domestic cat and appears more muscular and fuller in the body. Also, the bobcat's hind legs are proportionately longer to its front legs than those of the domestic cat.
The Canada lynx appears more slender and has proportionately larger feet than the bobcat. At close distances, the ear tufts of the lynx can be seen. The tail of the lynx appears shorter than the bobcat's and its tip looks like it was dipped in black paint. The bobcat's tail is whitish below the tip. Lynx commonly occur in Canada's coniferous forests and, rarely, in the Rocky Mountains. Where both species occur, lynx occupy the more densely forested habitats with heavy snow cover.
Male bobcats tend to be larger than females. Adult males range from 32 to 40 inches (80 to 102 cm) long and weigh from 14 to 40 pounds (6 to 18 kg) or more. Bobcats in Wyoming average between 20 and 30 pounds (9 and 14 kg). Nationwide, adult females range from 28 to 32 inches (71 to 81 cm) long and weigh from 9 to 33 pounds (4 to 15 kg). Records indicate a tendency for heavier bobcats in the northern portions of their range and in western states at medium altitudes.
The skull has 28 teeth. Milk teeth are replaced by permanent teeth when kittens are 4 to 6 months old. Females have 6 mammae.
General Biology, Reproduction, and Behavior
Bobcats are secretive, shy, solitary, and seldom seen in the wild. They are active during the day but prefer twilight, dawn, or night hours. Bobcats tend to travel well-worn animal trails, logging roads, and other paths. They use their acute vision and hearing for locating enemies and prey.
Bobcats do not form lasting pair bonds. Mating can occur between most adult animals. In Wyoming, female bobcats reach sexual maturity within their first year but males are not sexually mature until their second year. Nationwide, breeding can occur from January to June. In Wyoming, breeding typically begins in February and the first estrus cycle in mid-March. The gestation period in bobcats ranges from 50 to 70 days, averaging 62 days.
Nationwide, young are born from March to July, with litters as late as October. The breeding season may be affected by latitude, altitude, and longitude, as well as by characteristics of each bobcat population. In Wyoming, births peak mid-May to mid-June and can occur as late as August or September. These late litters may be from recycling or late-cycling females, probably yearlings. In Utah, births may peak in April or May. In Arkansas, births may peak as early as March.
Bobcats weigh about 2/3 pound (300 g) at birth. Litters contain from 2 to 4 kittens. Kittens nurse for about 60 days and may accompany their mother through their first winter. Although young bobcats grow very quickly during their first 6 months, males may not be fully grown until 1 1/2 years and females until 2 years of age. Bobcats may live for at least 12 years in the wild.
Bobcats reach densities of about 1 per 1/4 square mile (0.7 km2) on some of the Gulf Coast islands of the southeastern United States. Densities vary from about 1 per 1/2 square mile (1.3 km2) in the coastal plains to about 1 cat per 4 square miles (10.7 km2) in portions of the Appalachian foothills. Mid Atlantic and Midwestern states usually have scarce populations of bobcats.
The social organization and home range of bobcats can vary with climate, habitat type, availability of food, and predators. Bobcats are typically territorial and will maintain the same territories throughout their lives. One study showed home ranges in south Texas to be as small as 5/8 square mile (1.0 km2). Another study showed that individual bobcats in southeastern Idaho maintain home ranges from 2.5 square miles to 42.5 square miles (6.5 km2 to 108 km2) during a year. Females and yearlings with newly established territories tend to have smaller and more exclusive ranges than males. Females also tend to use all parts of their range more intensively than adult males.
Bobcats commonly move 1 to 4 miles (2 to 7 km2) each day. One study found that bobcats in Wyoming moved from 3 to 7.5 miles (5 to 12 km) each day. Transient animals can move much greater distances; for example, a juvenile in one study moved 99 miles (158 km).
Adult bobcats are usually found separately except during the breeding season. Kittens may be seen with their mothers in late summer through winter. An Idaho study found adult bobcats and kittens in den sites during periods of extreme cold and snow. Females with kittens less than 4 months old generally avoid adult males because they kill kittens.
In Canada and the western United States, bobcat population levels tend to follow prey densities. Some biologists believe that coyote predation restricts bobcat numbers. Unfortunately, not enough is known about the relative importance of factors such as litter size, kitten survival, adult sex ratios, and survival rates to predict changes in local bobcat populations. Also, relatively low densities and variable trapping success hinder researchers from easily predicting changes in populations.
Since the late 1970s, several state game agencies have been tagging bobcat pelts harvested in their states. Information from these pelts is being used to estimate bobcat population trends and factors that contribute to those changes.
Bobcats | Bobcat Overview | Bobcat Damage Assessment | Bobcat Damage Management | Bobcat Resources | Bobcat Acknowledgments | ICWDM | Wildlife Species Information
Range and Habitat
The bobcat occurs in a wide variety of habitats from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean and from Mexico to northern British Columbia (Fig. 2).It occurs in the 48 contiguous states.
The bobcat is as adapted to subtropical forests as it is to dense shrub and hardwood cover in temperate climates. Other habitats include chaparral, wooded streams, river bottoms, canyon lands, and coniferous forests to 9,000 feet (2,743 m). Bobcats prefer areas where these native habitat types are interspersed with agriculture and escape cover (rocky outcrops) close by. The bobcat has thrived where agriculture is interspersed through the above native habitat types, as in southern Canada.
Food Habits
Bobcats are capable of hunting and killing prey that range from the size of a mouse to that of a deer. Rabbits, tree squirrels, ground squirrels, wood rats, porcupines, pocket gophers, and ground hogs comprise most of their diet. Opossums, raccoon, grouse, wild turkey, and other ground-nesting birds are also eaten. Occasionally, insects and reptiles can be part of the bobcat's diet. In Canada, the snowshoe hare is the bobcat's favorite fare. Bobcats occasionally kill livestock. They also resort to scavenging.
Dallas Virchow. Extension Assistant. Wildlife Damage Control. Department of Forestry, Fisheries
and Wildlife. University of Nebraska, Scottsbluff, Nebraska 69361
Denny Hogeland. District Director. Nebraska Fur Harvesters. Bridgeport, Nebraska 69336


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Jeff BurroughsMarch 5, 2007
I don't know where the Jeff Burroughs Louisville Slugger we had at the liquor store came from. I also don't know where it went when the store closed for good in the late 1990s. On the store's last day, my friend Pete and my brother, Ian, who were both in the employ of the store during the End Times, packed up a rented truck with the remaining inventory. The owner, Morty, oversaw this work and probably ended up zealously pitching in, too, even though he was crowding eighty by then and probably under strict orders from his wife, Goldie, to leave the lifting to the two "boys." Once the truck was loaded and the store empty, my brother and Pete transported the booze upstate to Morty's son-in-law's liquor store.
once worked there). Who knows? Maybe that aimless guy or another aimless guy sank the two nails halfway into the strip of wood behind the counter from which the bat hung from the handle. It's all a mystery to me, really, which is fitting in a way, because Jeff Burroughs himself, represented solely in my childhood by this one unusually early (1974) card, was himself mysterious to me. All the other guys who had been awarded the Most Valuable Player award in the 1970s came to loom in my mind as ever-present, larger-than-life figures. Once or twice a year I was thrilled to find one of their dynamic action-shot baseball cards in a new pack; I read about them in Sports Illustrated; I saw them repeatedly in the All Star game; I thought about them, imagined them, sometimes even imagined being them. Bench, Reggie, Rose, Lynn, Carew . . . Burroughs? Part of the problem was that after getting this card, one of the few 1974 cards I own, I never got a Jeff Burroughs card again. He also never showed up in the All Star Game (his 1974 appearance had preceded my attentions, and while he was chosen to be a part of the 1978 National League squad he didn't get into the game). There was, to me, an aura around him. He actually seemed sort of scary. His lone MVP win, coming from what seemed to me to be nowhere, struck me as unpredictably explosive. Who was this Jeff Burroughs, and when was he going to strike again?
Forfeit #2 (June 4, 1974): 10-Cent Beer Night
Here's a few moments of the call from Indians broadcasters Joe Tait and Herb Score, courtesy of an excerpt of Cleveland Sports Legends quoted on The Sissybar:


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Written by Will Fetters
Directed by Scott Hicks
Starring Zac Efron, Taylor Schilling and Blythe Danner
Beth: Why did you come here?
Logan: To find you.
Having never read a Sparks novel, I cannot say whether the blame for such an insipid premise is entirely his or untested screenwriter, Will Fetters' instead. From the moment THE LUCKY ONE begins with an Efron voiceover spitting out cliche after cliche about destiny and following your path and unexpected surprises, it is practically impossible to take anything that follows seriously. Efron plays Logan (no joke), a marine (again, no joke) who finds a picture of a pretty girl in the sand in Afghanistan (or I guess it could be Iraq; there was a desert and they were none too specific in the film), just in time to save him from being too close to an explosion. From that moment on, he sees her as his guardian angel and vows to find her when he gets home (which he does by matching a lighthouse in the photo to others online of course). After a brief and mandatory difficulty with adjusting to civilian life, Logan finds his mystery girl, Beth (Taylor Schilling), but cannot find the words to tell her why he sought her out to begin with. Suffice it to say, complications arise, including a deceased brother who was also a marine and an ex-husband who is an alcoholic, abusive bully (naturally), postponing Logan's announcement even further, which is where the film loses me. We proceed to spend all this time waiting for him to tell her his story as if it were a bad thing or underhanded. In reality, its a lovely story. Too bad the film doesn't see it that way though.
THE LUCKY ONE has one true purpose and that is to sell Efron as a romantic leading man for young women (and myself apparently) to swoon over in repeat viewings. If we aren't fixated on his beautiful blue eyes looking longingly and pensive into the distance, then we are staring relentlessly at his bulging arm muscles while he carries heavy objects on his back or allowing our gaze to travel south when he strips down to the real lucky ones, his underwear. I would almost be ready to buy into it too if he weren't trapped in this horrible contrived and confused package. I'm afraid Efron's true fortune (not that he doesn't have enough already) will only come once Hollywood starts to see him as more than just a pretty boy. I'm not so sure he's that lucky though.
PS. Shame on you, Scott Hicks. You are an Oscar nominated director. (SHINE)


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As some of you may know, I'm the father a two-year old twins (a boy and a girl). At this age, the Walt Disney Company is constantly vacuuming funds out of my wallet. In the past year alone, I've bought Lion King and Toy Story Blu-rays, movies tickets to see The Muppets, a dancing Mickey Mouse (complete with the ability to moonwalk, which is actually pretty sweet), Lion King dolls, Disney Princess books, Disney Princess clothes, Disney Princess purses, Disney Princess stage show tickets, Disney Princess toys and of course the granddaddy of all Disney wallet sucking experiences, a trip to Disney World staying in a Disney hotel complete with a Disney Princess breakfast at Cinderella's Castle.
For all of the money that people like me spend on Disney toys, movies and theme parks and others that watch TV properties such as ABC and the Disney Channel, the Mickey Mouse-controlled subsidiary that provides more profit to the company than any other by a massive margin is ESPN. In fact, it's not even close. Currently, ESPN is in close to 100 million households clearing over $5.00 per month from every single one of them in subscriber fees. This means that ESPN is making around $500 million in revenue per month and $6 billion in revenue per year before even selling a single advertisement. ESPN isn't just the most powerful sports network in America. That would be vastly understating the network's power. Here's the real bottom line: ESPN is the most powerful media and entertainment company in America. Period.
It's against this backdrop that we have to analyze the prospects of Fox, NBC/Comcast and, to a lesser extent, CBS becoming viable competitors to ESPN in cable sports world. Fox has just announced that it is forming a new national cable sports network, NBC/Comcast has rebranded Versus to be the NBC Sports Network, and CBS is trying to turn what was once a college sports-focused channel into a broader sports network. Certainly, it makes sense for all of them to try to get a piece of ESPN's cable sports pie. As I noted here last year, there are three key factors in television viewership today:
- More old people watch TV than young people*
- More women watch TV than men
- More people are using DVRs
(* For TV purposes, "old people" are defined as people older than 49 and "young people" are between 18 and 34 years old. The only rating that matters for advertisers for a network prime time TV show is what it draws in the age 18-49 demo, while age 18-34 viewers command the greatest premiums. It doesn't matter that people older than 49 actually have higher incomes – this is about simple supply and demand, where younger viewers are in shorter supply.)
As a result, the most valuable property on TV on per viewer basis is the program that draws the age 18-34 male that watches it live. This is what sports does more consistently and dependably than anything else on TV, which means that advertisers and cable providers pay a significant premium for sports programs even though their overall viewership numbers (outside of the NFL) generally aren't that large compared to the average network prime time show or even the movie of the night on TNT or USA. As a result, ESPN is able to charge the highest monthly subscriber fee of any channel on cable by a significant margin.
The problem is that competing with ESPN is much easier said than done. Fox and NBC might be spinning their networks as "new competitors" where they just woke up yesterday and realized that ESPN needs some competition, but the reality is that they've been trying to compete with ESPN for decades to no avail. Cablevision created SportsChannel America back in the 1980s, which was a consortium of regional sports networks that bought national TV rights to NHL (in the glorious days when the Norris Division was alive) in attempt to create a competitor to ESPN. Many of those regional sports networks got bought by Fox in the 1990s, where they tried create a similar type of ESPN competitor by buying national cable rights to properties such as the Big 12 and Pac-12 along with creating studio programs such as "The Best Damn Sports Show". That has been done a bit better than the old SportsChannel America, although it's still been fairly lukewarm and the new national Fox sports network (dubbed "Fox Sports 1") appears to be simply a vehicle to put air the national rights that it already has on a coast-to-coast network as opposed to through regional networks. In the meantime, NBC Sports Network has been in existence for quite awhile, with it initially being called the Outdoor Life Network. Comcast already attempted to rebrand the channel as Versus several years ago in order to try to position itself as a direct ESPN competitor, and it's now doing a rebranding again with its recent purchase of NBC.
So, when I see sports fans that are exasperated with ESPN (for good reason)* cheering the prospects that someone is finally competing with the Worldwide Leader, the problem is that they're falling for the spin that these companies are just starting from scratch with something brand new. It's simply not the case. The core problem for any network that wants to compete with ESPN is the lack of access to what I call "Tier 1" content, which I would consider to be the NFL, Major League Baseball, NBA, SEC and Big Ten. These are the properties that a network can use as tent poles to drive casual sports fans to flip over. "Tier 2" content would be the other major college conferences, the NHL and the elite levels of golf, tennis and soccer, while "Tier 3" is everything else. A network can fill airtime with Tier 2 and Tier 3 content, but can't rely on that programming alone to break through to legitimately compete with ESPN.
(* Note that I'll always consider this blog to be a Deadspin baby, as I was in one of the early sets of commenters on that site due to the graciousness of former editor and fellow Illinois alum Will Leitch. That original commenter group ended up spawning a whole bunch of blogs with much wider reach than this one, such as Kissing Suzy Kolber and With Leather. The point is that I'm well-schooled in the lampooning of ESPN, culminating in what is quite possibly the funniest story that I've encountered in all of the years of writing this blog: the comically insensitive ESPN college basketball commercial casting call that was real. I still laugh my ass off at that one. So, this post is not a defense of ESPN in terms of its editorial and promotional practices, which can be nauseating at times. However, ESPN is absolutely the best run media organization in the country when it comes to the business side. That side of the equation should be unquestioned.)
NBC Sports Network has been able to get Tier 2 and Tier 3 content, but nothing at the Tier 1 level (which has been the case for many years). As a result, the ratings lately have been nothing less than horrible. Viewership during the first quarter of 2012 for NBC Sports Network is down 22% compared to the same period last year and is actually at its worst levels since 2004, when it was still the Outdoor Life Network (meaning that the ratings this quarter right after the NBC re-branding are worse than at any point when the network was called Versus). Even worse is the rating in the target demo. Remember when I noted above that the whole reason why sports networks get a premium is that they are supposed to draw age 18-34 males? NBC Sports Network's rating in that demo was 0.4 this past quarter. By comparison, Lifetime (yes, Lifetime) had a 0.5 in that demo. There's no good way to spin those figures.
Fox has a better stable of sports rights to draw from with the Pac-12, Big 12 and international soccer rights such as the English Premier League and Champions League. However, that's still a limited amount of content to power an all-sports network that's aiming to draw a broad audience (not just niche fans) on par with ESPN. Fox still doesn't have any Tier 1 tent poles.
In theory, NBC/Comcast and Fox could overcome these disadvantages by simply bidding more for Tier 1 content than ESPN. That sounds logical, but it's not quite as easy in practice. First, there's not much Tier 1 content available. The NFL decided to grant its own NFL Network a full season Thursday Night Football package, which means that the biggest potential tent pole of all is now off the table. The Major League Baseball package will come up for bid likely later this year (the current deals run through 2013), while the NBA and Big Ten will have their packages opened up in about 3 years (with their respective current deals ending in 2016). The SEC is locked up through the mid-2020s. That's not very much out there and even if a network can get one of those packages, that can only take it so far. A viable ESPN competitor really needs 2 or more of those packages.
That gets to the second point, which is that the Tier 1 content leagues like being around other Tier 1 content leagues. As much as we believe that sports leagues will simply take the most money no matter who it comes from, the Tier 1 entities aren't very interested in being pioneers on an upstart network (unless they actually own that upstart network a la the NFL Network or the Big Ten Network). It's no different than really wealthy people generally preferring to buy houses in neighborhoods with other really wealthy people instead of going to a place where they'd clearly be the wealthiest people on the block. During a panel of top sports media executives at the recent MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference*, this was called "optimization instead of maximization", meaning that sports leagues aim to optimize their media audiences and not necessarily maximize revenue. That might sound like MBA speak gobbley gook, but it's really just a newfangled way of saying, "Don't kill the golden goose". For instance, the NFL could theoretically make the most money by keeping all of its games for the NFL Network and effectively charge whatever it wants for the channel, which cable providers would almost certainly have to pay. The Big Ten could do the same by sending all of its games to the Big Ten Network. However, neither entity wants to do that because that's taking short-term revenue at the expense of long-term viability. The Tier 1 sports leagues got to that position because they are able to combine a passionate core fan base with interest from casual sports fans. League-owned networks and lower distribution channels can still draw the passionate core fan base, but the casual fan segment won't move over and will deteriorate over time.
(* I highly recommend watching this panel discussion that features the presidents of ESPN, Fox Sports, NBC Sports, NFL Media and MLB Media. They go through a whole slew of issues, including rising TV sports rights fees, the impact of Internet streaming and on-demand viewing, league-owned networks and cable chord cutting.)
That's really the toughest part of competing with ESPN: it provides the best platform by far for drawing casual fans, which is what the Tier 1 content providers need. The interesting thing is that the only successful cable bidder for Tier 1 content outside of ESPN and the league-owned networks has been Turner with the NBA (TNT), MLB (TBS) and NCAA Tournament (TNT, TBS and truTV). That's notable because TNT and TBS are not sports networks and are instead positioned as broad-based general interest channels that are the cable equivalents of the Big Four (ABC/CBS/NBC/Fox) over-the-air networks. This means that TNT and TBS are able to draw in casual TV viewers in a way that, say, NBC Sports Network can't, meaning that they are much more palatable to Tier 1 leagues.
As a result, the most realistic competitors to ESPN aren't other all-sports networks, but rather the broad interest cable channels that draw high ratings such as USA (owned by NBC/Comcast) and FX (owned by Fox) alongside Turner's TBS and TNT. At least that's how I'd approach it if I were running NBC Sports or Fox Sports. It would take many years for an all-sports network to get the critical mass of content on par with ESPN2, much less the ESPN mothership, and that's assuming that such network wins every competitive bid for Tier 1 and Tier 2 content until the end of this decade. That's simply a losing battle. However, TBS and TNT have shown that they can make a dent on ESPN's chokehold over cable sports rights and have been rewarded with higher rights fees as a result. They are able to incorporate Tier 1 sports into their other entertainment programming that draw high ratings, which means that they are getting casual fans (not just the hard core fans) to tune in. My belief is that it would be easier to sell rate increases for USA and FX adding on premier sporting events than to try to get brand new rights fees for separate new sports networks. I don't blame NBC/Comcast and Fox for trying their current all-sports plans because those ESPN-type rights fees are so enticing, but I think that in a few years, they'll end up retreating and focus on beefing up the sports content on their general interest networks instead. That's where they can draw out value that ESPN isn't able to provide.
(Image from American Progress)


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|"Bodyguard" (2018) — TV series review (BBC and NetFlix)
|This review is for the BBC series from last year which was made available world-wide (or at least here in the U.S.) via NetFlix. The series stars "Game of Thrones" actor (oldest Stark son) Richard Madden as Sergeant David Budd, an Afghanistan war veteran and Protection Command (PCO) bodyguard, Keeley Hawes as The Right Honorable Julia Montague, the Home Secretary, Conservative MP for Thames West (the "subject" person being protected), and, Gina McKee as Commander Anne Sampson, Head of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command. Of course there was a raft of others, but I remembered (finally) McKee as the crippled wife / friend seen in "Notting Hill" (my review of that here). McKee didn't get a mention in that review / post, so I'm kinda making up for it with a mention in this post.
|Like most BBC series (a "series" on the BBC means one year of shows), this series is relatively short – only six episodes, but each is roughly an hour long. This means the series is suitable for a single day of binge viewing. Or, alternatively, you can easily break it up into two viewings – which is what I did.
|Because the show is relatively current, I won't get into a lot of detail as it will ruin the viewing for you. All I will say is that it is a tense, well acted police drama with a smattering of politics (police, domestic (U.K.) and international) thrown in, as well as some discreetly shown sexual content (male nudity) and action / violence lightly sprinkled in. The first twenty minutes throws you in the deep end (tension wise) and it's a roller coaster from there to the end.
|Final recommendation: highly to very highly recommended. If you're dying to see Madden's bum or hear him repeatedly calling his superior female officers (and PC subject) "Mum", this is your ticket. I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope there will be additional years (series) to follow. There has been no announcement as of this date (to my knowledge), but I understand the show was so popular the producers / writers have said if there is a second series, it will run through four. If this happens, I hope they don't run the main topic of each year across the break(s). Please keep the story arc within each single season. Then if the BBC or NetFlix cancel the remaining years, we viewers won't be left in the lurch with an incomplete arc. (Not that anyone ever listens to me…)
|On This Day In:
|Pass A Voting Rights Act For Democracy's Sake
|Tomorrow President Biden Starts Wrestling
|Good-Bye #45
|The Burden Of Faith
|On To Superbowl LIV (54)!!
|Are Your Dogs Barking?
|Dangerous Waistcoats
|And 40+ Years Later?
|He Is Alone
|Charlie Redux
|The Crux
|Erosion And Rechannelling
|Alliance, n.
|How Many Thought… (One I Know Of)
|Choices And Decisions
|Speed Spoils
|Simply Intended
|A Second 4 Hour Jog
Dangerous Waistcoats
January 19, 2019 by kmabarrett


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The Effects of New York City's Conditional Cash Transfer Program
What happens if parents and their teenagers are offered cash incentives if the teens go to school and pass their exams? Teens spend more time on academically oriented activities but are no more likely to be engaged in school. Parents save more for college. Surprisingly, teens are less likely to engage in risky behaviors.


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The Pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI has come to an end. And as this post hits the internet, the Worldwide Rosary for his transition to being "…a pilgrim who is beginning the last part of his pilgrimage on earth", will commence.
Pray the first luminous mystery with Benedict:
Blessed pilgrimage Benedict! We are with you!


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BMW X3 Takes ALCan 5000 Winter Rally
BMW X3s take the winter rally
BMW's new all-wheel drive X3 proved itself worth of the roundel emblem by taking first and second place in the 2004 AlCan 5000 Winter Rally in February. Sixteen vehicles entered, 14 finished, and four were European cars. The AlCan 5000 is a time speed distance rally.
Three 2003 BMW X3 3.0's started, along with one 1989 325iX, and one 2003 Audi S4. The Audi finished dead last, and one BMW X3 joined a tired Mitsubishi Montero on that did not finish list. It was my X3.
The AlCan 5000 is billed as the longest, toughest, coldest winter rally in the world. Cars shove off in Seattle, Wash., move quickly north into Canada all the way to the Arctic Ocean, eight days later, and then backtrack part of their way to Anchorage, Alaska.
The event consists of nearly 5,000 miles of driving, most of it north of the Arctic Circle, in 10 days. Road surfaces run the gamut from dry pavement to wet pavement, snow, ice, slush, gravel, dirt and mud. Temperatures ranged from a high of 47*F to a low of -21*F. Rallyists drive by day and by night, although nightly stops at places of lodging provided at least the opportunity for what was euphemistically called sleep, before pressing on once again in several hours.
Running north into British Columbia on the first day, it does not take long before Canada's overwhelming wilderness envelopes the vehicles. We had breakfast in Seattle. By dinner two days later, we had seen falling boulders, a family of mountain goats, and a small herd of buffalo--and that was just on the road.
When British Columbia yields to the Yukon Territories on the fourth day, Arctic trees begin to appear--black spruce the grow short and spindly the further north you drive. Whitehorse is the big city. The fifth night is spent in Dawson City, near the base of the Dempster Highway that leads to the Arctic Circle and the Northwest Territories.
Books have been written about the Dempster, and for good reason. The beauty and danger are beyond any road I've ever driven. The road surface is permafrost--permanently frozen ground, covered by snow and ice for about 600 miles.
My X3 was co-driven by Paul Duchene and navigated by Katy Wood had fallen victim to our sixth place position on Day Six. At the time, X3s were in first and second place. The team of Henry Joy, Satch Carlson and Russ Kraushaar had damaged a front control arm in the first of three ice races. It literally broke in half in the parking lot of the fuel station/motel/restaurant at Dawson Corners, at the base of the Dempster Highway, and the same exact place where my 325iX fuel pump died during the 1998 Rally of the Lost Patrol. Duchene is a veteran journalist, presently writing for Sports Car Market.
We had our own problems, but none were mechanical. Wood, our navigator, had essentially quit the team, declaring that she would ride with Duchene and I only during timed sections. We didn't get to try that out, but I was not optimistic. We were in sixth place, and it did not look like we'd be advancing to the top three under these circumstances. To ensure a one-two BMW victory, Duchene and I gave up our control arm and left our X3 in Dawson Corners. It was flat bedded down to Dawson City to meet a fresh control arm Fed Ex'd in by BMW of North America. The idea was, we would pick up our X3 on the way back, and at least finish the rally. Unfortunately, someone at the tire shop where it was parked decided to move it under it's own power. Without a front control arm on the right side, the suspension torqued and ripped the CV joint out of the front differential, ruining the right axle shaft. Our X3 and our rally were finished. Duchene, Wood and I were passengers in other vehicles throughout the rest of the vent--Wood rode separately.
The X3 victory is even more significant in that the trucks were totally out of their element, which is, arguably, the New Jersey Turnpike. Six Suburu's ran the AlCan 5000, including one WRX. Rallying is Suburu's forte, not BMWs, and the competition was fierce but BMW bested the Japanese at their own game. Now, rallying is all about the navigator and driver in that order, but to win you need a good vehicle as well. There's no discounting the X3, in or out of its element. BMW's electronic xDrive all-wheel drive system works seamlessly under normal driving conditions, transferring power between front and rear wheels as dictated by DSC and yaw sensors. On the way to Wal-Mart, you'll never even notice the system is functioning.
We saw none of the ride quality or "BMW-ness" issues raised in X3 reviews appearing in the elite automotive press. In fact, I cannot image what the hell they are talking about with the ride. It is entirely subjective, ride quality, but to our team and me it seemed perfect. The other X3 teams voiced similar opinions. "BMW-ness" changes and evolves with models and body styles. The same thing happened in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. In case you've been stranded in the South Pacific, we happen to be in the middle of one of those changing and evolving periods right now.
Unfortunately, despite this victory, rallying is not xDrive's forte. The electronics that make the truck a dream drive for suburban moms with no winter driving skills worked us in competition. Pressing the DSC switch on the console can roll DSC parameters back, but the electronic nanny cannot be completely turned off--and it can roll those parameters forward again if it thinks you're going to crash. It did exactly that throughout the ice races.
ABS brakes are integral to the xDrive function, so they cannot be turned off. ABS maintains steering capability under maximum braking on snow and ice, but a trained winter driver can stop faster on these surfaces without ABS.
Adding to the challenge, BMW gave us automatic transmissions. Automatics are unsuitable for TSD rally competition, which requires constant minute speed adjustments. It is extremely difficult, and the slushbox hunting up and down for gears makes it more difficult. Manual mode was all but worthless, as it would still shift by itself. It did help reduce the gear hunting on normal transits, through. And it eventually stopped shifting into its vaunted sixth gear. In short, all the reasons we hate automatics were very much in evidence.
At the last ice race at Big Lake outside of Fairbanks, the Joy, Carlson, Kraushaar X3 had total X-drive electronic meltdown. DSC stayed on regardless of the switch, and the thing reverted to RWD. However, the winning X3 of Ronald Ahrens, Gary Webb and Peter Schneider performed flawlessly.
At the end of the rally, it was clear that the X3 is perfectly suited to its market. If I had a need for a four-door all-wheel-drive truck, there is no doubt I would choose an X3 3.0-liter, six-speed manual, with sport package. If BMW will grant more say in the way the vehicle is equipped and prepared, I would happily run the AlCan 5000 again at it's next running in 2006.
And next time, there won't be any parts donations.
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Sheriff: Request from commissioner 'childish and petty'
PANAMA CITY — This year's budget battle between the Bay County Sheriff's Office and the Bay County Commission is over but seems to have led to acrimony and a lack of cooperation between employees at both agencies, according to a series of emails obtained by The News Herald.
It reached a point last week that Commissioner Guy Tunnell sent a public records request to the Bay County Sheriff's Office. It's unclear exactly what Tunnell, a former Bay County sheriff, expected to find, but other documents and sources suggest Tunnell and other county officials believed BCSO officials had encouraged criticism about commissioners on Facebook.
The response, obtained by The News Herald on Wednesday afternoon, yielded little new information about the issue except for Sheriff Frank McKeithen's assessment of the dispute.
"See enclosed emails," McKeithen wrote to Tunnell. "There is no charge for these records. I think taxpayer's money should not be used for such childish and petty endeavors."
According to the documents, much of the animosity between the two groups surfaced with the county's Haunted Hayride event in Harders Park in October. County officials, saying they didn't get a timely response from a request to the Sheriff's Office, decided to hire two off-duty Florida Highway Patrol officers to work the event instead.
The troopers, who worked one person at a time in different shifts, were paid $35 an hour, county officials confirmed Wednesday. BCSO deputies, when they are hired for similar duties by the county, are paid $30 an hour. The money came out of the proceeds from the event, officials said.
Shortly after the event, commissioners began receiving emails questioning why they had allowed officers from another agency to work a detail that could have been done cheaper by BCSO employees.
Sgt. Jeremy Mathis of the Sheriff's Office was one of those who questioned the decision.
"I understand that the county budget shrunk this year as … it has the last several, and am not complaining at all about the budget that was recently passed," Mathis wrote. "However, in these financial times, it is amazing to me that this decision would be even considered, much less acted upon, when someone from the county had the chance to help a couple of deputies make some extra money. Shouldn't we all be working together?"
Tunnell responded to Mathis and several others in an email, saying county employees tried to get BCSO to work the event but BCSO personnel failed to return several phone calls from the county.
"It is extremely unfortunate that the relationship between the BCSO, particularly the command staff, and the BOCC has degenerated to the point that it has," Tunnell wrote. "In my opinion, this whole situation reeks of a lack of respect, professionalism and, most importantly, leadership. It is abundantly clear to me that many involved have lost sight along the way of those whom we are obligated to serve, that being the citizens of Bay County."
That garnered a reply from Mathis, who defended McKeithen's "leadership, loyalty and willingness to fight for his employees."
BCSO Capt. Ricky Ramie also joined into the discussion with a point-by-point analysis of how county staff had failed to adequately prepare for the event and connect with BCSO command staff.
"Poor preparation leads to poor performance," Ramie wrote.
BCSO also has provided a collection of emails between Ramie and Assistant County Manager Dan Shaw. In those Ramie explains BCSO is short of patrol deputies and can't help out at the hayride but can offer an off-duty detail if the county is willing to pay for them.
"OK … nevermind," Shaw replied via email.
On Oct. 31, a day after Ramie's point-by-point email to Tunnell, McKeithen sent out an email to the entire BCSO staff.
"It appears we are concentrating way to [sic] much on messages concerning certain personal feelings that stem from recent distasteful politics. Since we are already low on personnel … and do not have the luxury or time I would strongly suggest we cease and desist our comments and responses," he wrote. "Remember who we are, what the truth is, and our mission, and this too will pass. You are truly the best sheriff's office in the state of fla [sic] and I am proud of each and every one of you. Be safe."
The same day, Tunnell sent the public records request asking for communication prepared or provided by Maj. Tommy Ford regarding the Haunted Hayride. Also on Oct. 31 he sent an email to BCSO command staff and BOCC staff describing the relationship between the two entities as "untenable."
Tunnell pointed out that BCSO was no longer allowing inmate work crews to serve the county and that bad feelings between the agencies had spilled over into Facebook.
"I have also learned that certain senior command officer(s) have gone so far as to direct and encourage subordinates to make Facebook and/or email comments that are extremely derogatory and/or threatening towards BOCC members," he wrote. "I have given much of my adult life in service to our community through the BCSO and my efforts to lay the groundwork for what it is today. While I am presently focused in a little different direction, I will never forget my first calling. Two organizations whose respective missions depend so very much on one another, that mean so much to the safety and well-being of our citizens, must not continue in this direction."
County Manager Ed Smith emailed a statement to The News Herald about the situation Wednesday afternoon.
"We regret any miscommunication that may have occurred concerning the Haunted Hayride event, but we continue to work with the Sheriff's Department on special events, such as the setup for the rodeo this weekend, repairs to the roof of the jail, requested signage on the road to the jail and the renovation of the Sheriff's firing range. We understand there were some differences of opinion regarding the budget, and we hope to move past this and get back to the business of the people of Bay County," he wrote.
BCSO officials declined to comment on the situation Wednesday night.


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Problem 156. Parasitic numbers
Solution Stats
Problem Comments
5 Comments
might be best to add a test case to guard against test suite hacking
Far too few test cases. In fact, a serious issue with this problem is that there are too few parasitic numbers that will fit into even 64 bits for most values of n.
I've added some test cases, that will make it a bit more difficult to game this problem.
Cases 5 and 7 are identical, and I believe they are both wrong. 5 x 142857 = 714285. Isn't this a parasitic number? What am I missing?
Can the problem creator disqualify "solutions" that cheat? There should be a point penalty (-200) associated with cheating too.
Solution Comments
5 Comments
Cases 5 and 7 are identical, and I believe they are both wrong. 5 x 142857 = 714285. Isn't this a parasitic number? What am I missing?
There is 4, not 5
I mis-typed. 4 x 142857 = 571428, which is a shift right of 2. Incidentally, both n = 4 and 5 both make parasitic pairs with 142857.
Thus it is not a 4-parasitic number. It doesn't meet the definition. Nevertheless is a great example of a cyclic number. You can get different cyclic permutations when multiply 142857 by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. For 5 you got shift by one digit, therefore it's 5-parasitic.
Ahhh, I see! Thanks, Jan - I get it now!
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text:
EEE threat level raised after third horse diagnosed with virus
Animal was stabled in Tyngsborough, health officials say
The third case of Eastern equine encephalitis in a horse this year has been reported in an animal that was stabled in Tyngsborough, health officials announced Wednesday.
As a result of this finding, the EEE threat level has been raised to "Critical" in Tyngsborough. The surrounding towns of Chelmsford, Dracut, Dunstable, Groton, Lowell and Westford have been raised to "Moderate."
Health officials are urging communities designated as "High" and "Critical" to cancel evening outdoor events for the remainder of the mosquito season.
"Mosquitoes remain present in our environment until the first hard frost, so people need to continue to take precautions to avoid getting bitten," said DPH State Public Health Veterinarian Dr. Catherine Brown. "The most effective tools are available to all of us. Use insect repellant, cover up exposed skin and avoid being outdoors after dusk in the highest risk areas when mosquitoes are at their most active."
There has been one human case of EEE so far this year. In 2012, there were seven cases of EEE acquired by Massachusetts residents.
EEE is usually spread to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito. EEE is a serious disease in all ages and can even cause death.


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Laws legalizing pot pose a quandary for K-9 units
(c) 2013, Bloomberg News.
DENVER — Like the good drug dog he's trained to be, Vader barks and scratches the Chevrolet Suburban's running board when he smells a bag of marijuana hidden between the doors.
Yet the mission for the 80-pound Belgian Malinois is unclear now that Coloradans 21 and older can legally possess as much as an ounce (28 grams), of marijuana. Several new dogs on his 10-member K-9 team won't be trained to sniff out weed while some, like Vader, will keep trying to nose out the drug.
"There are so many unanswered questions," said Colorado Springs police officer Andrew Genta, the K-9 unit's head trainer. "There have not been any test cases to say yes or no we do not have the right to do this."
With new laws that aim to treat marijuana possession much like that of alcohol, law-enforcement agencies in Colorado and Washington state are grappling with whether they should retrain their drug-sniffing dogs to ignore marijuana, retire older pooches who alert when they smell the drug, obtain new animals, or make no changes to their programs.
One issue is whether police can continue to use dogs trained to find pot without violating citizens' rights, in an environment in which marijuana is legal under state law. Officers are also concerned that defense lawyers may use evidence found by such dogs to their advantage in court.
"What's going to come up is a case where a dog hits on a car with two pounds of cocaine," said Sal Fiorillo, tactical operations lieutenant of the Colorado Springs Police Department's Specialized Enforcement Division.
"The defense attorney will say that the dog wasn't hitting on the cocaine, he was hitting on a half-ounce of marijuana, and that's legal," he added. In such a scenario, the lawyer may try have the evidence suppressed because the dog can't differentiate between cocaine and marijuana.
A survey of the largest cities in Colorado and Washington found that K-9 units' responses to legalization measures approved by voters last November vary as much as the breeds of dogs on their teams.
Some police departments won't use animals that were trained to smell marijuana, Fiorillo said, adding that Colorado Springs' K-9 unit will continue to use dogs like Vader based on advice from the local prosecutor.
A month ago, the Colorado District Attorneys' Council started traveling around the state to instruct police officers that a drug-sniffing dog reacting to the smell of marijuana isn't enough for probable cause, said Tom Raynes, the council's executive director.
"The issue is they could be hitting on a legal quantity," Raynes said.
In Washington, the state's Association of Prosecuting Attorneys wrote in a Dec. 4 memo that an officer seeking a search warrant based in part on a dog's alert must disclose the canine's previous training.
The memo, written by Pam Loginsky, the association's staff attorney, recommends that search warrants based in part on a canine trained to detect marijuana include when the dog was trained. She also suggested listing what odors it's trained to detect, that it "cannot communicate which of these substances s/he has detected" and that the dog "cannot communicate" the amount of the substance that's present.
The Washington State Patrol won't train new dogs on its canine team to sniff for marijuana, said Bob Calkins, a spokesman.
"In the past it used to be, if a dog alerted, that was probable cause for a search warrant," Calkins said. "Now, along with the dog's alert, we have to have an indication that there's reason to believe it's something other than marijuana."
Indicators that provide probable cause for a search can include visible signs of other drugs, such as tools used for smoking methamphetamine like a bent, burned spoon, Calkins said.
There's disagreement among departments in Washington and Colorado whether dogs can be taught to disregard an odor once they've been drilled to hunt out the scent for years. The animals give the same alert to all drugs they're trained to find, including cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana and heroin.
"Once you put an odor on a dog, it's very difficult to get that odor off a dog," said Fiorillo, the Colorado Springs officer. "We can't train our dogs to bark if it's cocaine, roll over if it's marijuana, scratch if it's methamphetamine."
The Seattle Police Department is no longer training its dogs to recognize the odor of marijuana, said Sgt. Sean Whitcomb, a spokesman.
"There's constant training to make sure their sniffers are up to snuff where we use real drugs from evidence and a dog is rewarded for sniffing it out," he said. "Marijuana is not something they are training on -- that skill is no longer being reinforced."
Police in Tacoma, Wash., about a half-hour drive south of Seattle, aren't doing anything differently with their drug-sniffing dogs, which are trained to detect seven different odors, including marijuana, said Officer Loretta Cool.
"There are several instances where marijuana is still illegal, if you are under 21 you cannot possess marijuana," Cool said. "If you have more than an ounce, it's illegal."
In Colorado, the Denver Police Department isn't making any changes to its K-9 program, given that marijuana is still illegal under federal law, said Sonny Jackson, a spokesman. Neither are police in the city's largest suburbs, including Aurora and Lakewood.
"They still use marijuana to train the dogs," said Steve Davis, a Lakewood police spokesman. "If a dog hits on marijuana, you don't know whether you're going to find one ounce in that suitcase or six pounds."
The conflicting views at police departments in Colorado and Washington over whether the legalization of cannabis requires a new way of thinking about how they train their K-9 units may ultimately be resolved by judges.
"The federal courts said a dog's nose is special, it doesn't fall under the regulation of the Fourth Amendment," which prohibits unlawful search and seizure, said Mary Fan, who teaches law at the University of Washington in Seattle.
"In Washington we have a more protective constitution and we said even if that's so under federal law, we think it's intrusive to have a dog walk up and sniff our stuff," she said. "This just adds yet more layers of complexity to the already existing debate as to how much we want to regulate the use of sniffer dogs."
bc-dogs-pot (TPN)


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by Mike Ratliff
1 Then God said to Jacob, "Arise, go up to Bethel and live there, and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau." 2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Put away the foreign gods which are among you, and purify yourselves and change your garments; 3 and let us arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone." (Genesis 35:1-3 NASB)idolatry 1: the worship of a physical object as a god 2: immoderate attachment or devotion to something (from Webster's Ninth Collegiate Dictionary)
I'm sure that most Christians' conception of idolatry is one in which people fall down and worship some statue or image or a facsimile of something that appears to resemble a god. While that is an example of idolatry there is a more subtle form of idolatry that all people are neck deep in outside of the grace of God. If we look closely at the dictionary definition I placed near the top of this post, we will see that the first definition is our conception while the second is the reality that we must all agree that we are guilty of. The last word in that definition could easily be change from "something" to "someone." Then all we have to do is look in a mirror to see who that someone is. We are all guilty of idolatry to some level.
All in Christ have been forgiven and are guiltless before God because at the moment of salvation He declared them Righteous. He imputed both Christ's active and passive righteousness to them. Christ's blood covers their guilt and they are imputed Jesus' perfect keeping of the Law. When the Father looks at His children he sees His son's perfection instead of their guilt. Christ is the Passover Lamb whose blood on their doorpost causes the Angel of Death to "Pass over" them.
Another form of Idolatry that Christians seem to fall for all the time is to "idolize" their Christian leaders. They place their pastors or favorite evangelist or Bible teacher on a pedestal they by no means deserve. They see them as a quasi-Saviour or one that at least hears directly from God face-to-face in their tent of meeting as Moses did. God most definitely gifts some of His people to be leaders, pastors, preachers, and teachers. However, they are just people like everyone else. We must not become guilty of idolatry by seeking to place these people between us and God as if they are Saints that must intercede for us because our guilt (in our own minds) is too great for us to come to the throne of grace. This is idolatry.
There is also another form that plagues the Church. It is "traditions" or the extra-biblcial "teachings" of men that have been elevated to doctrinal status. Any attempt to shine the light of Biblical truth into that darkness will bring down an amazing display of the wrath, not from God, but from those in love with their traditions (idols).
However, the most prevalent form of Idolatry that Christians must have no part in is that of seeming to serve God without Christ the Mediator, His Word and command. It has taken many years, but I think I have finally learned that any work I do that is "ministeral" in any form in which I am not totally dependent upon the Grace of God to do it, is Idolatry. The following quote is from Martin Luther's Tabletalk. It is in the section titled "Of Idolatry" article CLXXI.
Idolatry is all manner of seeming holiness and worshipping, let these counterfeit spiritualities shine outwardly as glorious and fair as they may; in a word, all manner of devotion in those that we would serve God without Christ the Mediator, his Word and command. In popedom it was held a work of the greatest sanctity for the monks to sit in their cells and meditate of God, and of his wonderful works; to be kindled with zeal, kneeling on their knees, praying, and having their imaginary contemplations of celestial objects, with such supposed devotion, that they wept for joy. In these their conceits, they banished all desires and thoughts of women, and what else is temporal and evanescent. They seemed to meditate only of God, and of his wonderful works. Yet all these seeming holy actions of devotion, which the wit and wisdom of man holds to be angelical sanctity, are nothing else but works of the flesh. All manner of religion, where people serve God without his Word and command, is simply idolatry, and the more holy and spiritual such a religion seems, the more hurtful and venomous it is; for it leads people away from the faith of Christ, and makes them rely and depend upon their own strength, works, and righteousness.
In like manner, all kinds of orders of monks, fasts, prayers, hairy shirts, the austerities of the Capuchins, who in popedome are held to be the most holy of all, are mere works of the flesh; for the monks hold they are holy, and shall be saved, not through Christ, whom they view as a severe and angry judge, but through the rules of their order.
No man can make the papists believe that the private mass is the greatest blaspheming of God, and the highest idolatry upon earth, an abomination the like to which has never been in Christendom since the time of the apostles; for they are blinded and hardened therein, so that their understanding and knowledge of God, and of all divine matters, is perverted and erroneous. They hold that to be the most upright and greatest service of God, which, in truth, is the greatest and most abominable idolatry. And again, they hold that for idolatry which, in truth, is the upright and most acceptable service of God, the acknowledging Christ, and believing in him. But we that truly believe in Christ, and are of his mind, we, God be praised, know and judge all things; but are judged of no human creature. – Martin Luther
Man-made religion is idolatry. In this quote from Luther we see that even in the 16th century the Roman Catholic monks were practicing a from of Contemplative Prayer. This is making a huge comeback in our time. Luther knew all about the idolatry of the religious orders in the monasteries which had their own rules to come to God that did not include faith in Christ, but instead, relied on keeping their own set of rules.
Notice in the last paragraph from Luther that the Roman Catholics considered their religiosity, which in actuality was idolatry, to be the greatest service to God while, at the same time, they considered to be idolatry that which is the most upright and most acceptable service of God, the acknowledging of Christ and believing in Him. Can you see the complete reversal, the complete backwardness this is? Idolatry is getting everything between us and God backward. This is a marker of the Antichrist. This is his way. The following quote is by William Tyndale from his book The Obedience of a Christian Man. It is from the chapter "Obedience to all degrees" section "Of miracles and worshipping saints."
Our blind disputers will say, if our good deeds justify us not, if God look no on our good deeds neither regard them nor love us the better for them what need we to do good deeds? I answer God looketh on our good deeds and loveth them, yet loveth us not for their sakes. God loveth us first in Christ of his goodness and mercy, and poureth his spirit into us, and giveth us power to do good deeds. And because he loveth us, he loveth our good deeds: yea because he loveth us, he forgiveth us our evil deeds which we do of frailty and not of purpose or of the nonce. Our good deeds do but testify only that we are justified and beloved. For except we were beloved and had God's spirit we could neither do nor yet consent unto any good deed. Antichrist turneth the roots of the tree upward. He maketh the goodness of God the branches and our goodness the roots. We must be first good after Antichrist's doctrine, and move God and compel him to be good again for our goodness' sake: so must God's goodness spring out of our goodness. Nay verily God's goodness is the root of all goodness and our goodness, if we have any, springeth out of his goodness. – William Tyndale
Humans are full of idols. All are guilty of idolatry to some degree. All in Christ have been forgiven and cleansed. However, it is so easy to slip into idolatry or for the spirit of the Antichrist to invade, coming between us and God. Humanism is a form of idolatry. Why? it refuses to submit to the sovereignty of God. It says that the end of all things is the happiness of Man. Genuine Christianity says that the end of all things is the Glory of God. The Church of the 21st Century is humanistic to the core for the most part. God is drawing those from that Great Harlot who will worship Him in Spirit and in Truth, obeying Him and serving Him for His glory alone. This Remnant must still be on guard to not only stand and not fall as the Great Apostasy surrounds it, it must also be bold in telling the truth and not compromising in any way. This stand cost William Tyndale his life, but of course his martyr's death was not the tragedy we see it is because he walked from his execution pyre right into our Saviour's arms in victory. As we stand against the growing darkness we must not be surprised when those bound to the spirit of the Antichrist attack us with every weapon they have. Even so…come soon Lord Jesus.
Soli Deo Gloria!


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Aaron, (flourished 14th Century BCE), the traditional founder and head of the Israelite priesthood, who, with his brother Moses, led the Israelites out of Egypt. The figure of Aaron as it is now found in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, is built up from several sources of traditions. In the Talmud and Midrash (Jewish commentative and interpretive writings), he is seen as the leading personality at the side of Moses. He has appeared in different roles in Christian tradition.
His Life
Aaron is described in the Book of Exodus of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) as a son of Amram and Jochebed of the tribe of Levi, three years older than his brother Moses. He acted together with his brother in the desperate situation of the Israelites in Egypt and took an active part in the Exodus, their liberation from bondage there. Although Moses was the actual leader, Aaron acted as his "mouth." The two brothers went to the pharaoh together, and it was Aaron who told him to let the people of Israel go, using his magic rod in order to show the might of YHWH (God).
When the pharaoh finally decided to release the people, YHWH gave the important ordinance of the Passover, the annual ritual remembrance of the Exodus, to Aaron and Moses. But Moses alone went up on Mount Sinai, and he alone was allowed to come near to YHWH. Moses later was ordered to "bring near" Aaron and his sons, and they were anointed and consecrated to be priests "by a perpetual statute." Aaron's sons were to take over the priestly garments after him. Aaron is not represented as wholly blameless. It was he who, when Moses was delayed on Mount Sinai, made the golden calf that was idolatrously worshiped by the people.
Once a year, on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), Aaron was allowed to come into the Holy of Holies, the most sacred part of the tabernacle, or sanctuary, in which the Hebrew tribes worshiped, bringing his offering. Together with his sister, Miriam, Aaron spoke against Moses because he had married a foreigner (a woman from Kush, the southern portion of Nubia); but, as in the episode of the golden calf, the narrative tells how Aaron was merely reproved, though Miriam was punished, for the offense. In the rebellion of Korah the Levite, however, Aaron stood firmly at the side of Moses. According to Numbers 20, Aaron died on the top of Mount Hor at the age of 123; in Deuteronomy 10, which represents another tradition, he is said to have died in Moserah and was buried there.
Aaron is a central figure in the traditions about the Exodus, though his role varies in importance. At the beginning he seems to be coequal with Moses, but after the march out of Egypt he is only a shadow at Moses' side. Moses is obviously the leading figure in the tradition, but it is also clear that he is pictured as delegating his authority in all priestly and cultic matters to Aaron and "his sons."
Aaron and the Biblical Critics
Scholars have long been aware that the figure of Aaron as it is now found in the Pentateuch is built up from several sources or layers of traditions. According to Julius Wellhausen, a German biblical scholar, and his followers, the Yahwist source was the oldest one, followed in order by the Elohist, the Deuteronomist, and the Priestly code. Scholars have attributed the passages about Aaron to one or the other of these sources. Although their results differ, they do agree in ascribing about 90 percent of the material about Aaron to the Priestly source. According to Wellhausen, Aaron was not mentioned at all in the Yahwist narrative, but he may have been inserted by later redactors.
Other scholars, such as Sigmund Mowinckel, believe that the narrative about the golden calf, which presents Aaron in an unfavourable light, was part of the ancient tradition in the Yahwist work, being the only passage in it that mentions him. This narrative, according to these scholars, originally came from the northern kingdom of Israel and described Aaron as the ancestor of the priests in northern Israel; later it was rewritten in a way defamatory to Aaron. But there are also features in the narrative that may indicate that a later source (or traditionist), the Elohist, tried to excuse Aaron and to put the main responsibility on the people. The Elohist narrator was credited with making Aaron the brother and helper of Moses, who stood at the side of Moses in the conflict with the pharaoh and assisted him as a leader in battles and in the cult. It may also be the Elohist who provides the unfavourable story about Aaron's objection to Moses' wife.
On the other hand, it seems to be the same narrator who mentions Aaron at the side of Moses in the revolt at Meribah, but here also Aaron, together with Moses, is actually reproached. There is reason to believe that Aaron was not mentioned in the Deuteronomist work by the original author but that his name has been added by a redactor. The main bulk of the traditions about Aaron and the frequent addition of "and Aaron" after the mention of Moses are found in the Priestly source, which was written at a time when the priests had a more dominant position in Judah than they had before the exile. By then Moses had ceased to be the hero of the priests, and Aaron had taken over that role.
Many modern scholars speak of traditions where their predecessors spoke of sources, but, apart from this terminology, the view concerning Aaron has not greatly changed. There have been new attempts, however, to see the contrasting figures of Moses and Aaron in a new light. It has been suggested that the traditions about Moses represent a southern Judaean tradition, while the old traditions about Aaron originated in the northern kingdom. It has also been indicated that the traditions about Moses are primarily concerned with a prophet, while those about Aaron are connected with priesthood. There may be a kernel of truth in all these suggestions, as also in the theory of Ivan Engnell that Moses represents the royal ideology while Aaron stands for priesthood, and priesthood alone. The standing struggle between the king and the leading priests is reflected both in the laws and in the narratives of the historical books.
Aaron in Later Jewish and Christian Thought
Aaron continued to live as a symbol in Jewish religion and traditions, and the position of the priests was strengthened after the exile. Also, in the Qumrān sect, a Jewish community that flourished in the era just before and contemporary with the birth of Christianity, Aaron was a symbol for a strong priesthood, as can be seen from the Dead Sea Scrolls. At the end of time, men of the community should be set apart, as a select group in the service of Aaron. Only the sons of Aaron should "administer judgment and wealth," and, according to the Manual of Discipline, two messiahs were expected, one of Aaron, the priestly one, and one of Israel. According to a fragment found near Qumrān, the priest would have the first seat in the banquets in the last days and bless the bread before the messiah of Israel. Here "the sons of Aaron" have the highest position.
In Talmud and Midrash, Aaron is seen less as a symbol than as the leading personality at the side of Moses. The relationship between the two brothers is painted as prototypical in the Haggada ("Narrative"—the nonlegal parts of Talmud and Midrash). Rabbi Hillel, the great liberal sage, praised Aaron as peace-loving, a man of goodwill, who wanted to teach his people the Torah ("Law" or "Teaching"; also another name for the Pentateuch).
In Jewish exegesis little is said about him, though he is mentioned as a man who created peace among men. Many attempts have been made to explain Aaron's participation in the episode of the golden calf. According to some exegetes, Aaron had to make the calf in order to avoid being killed. In the 11th century, the French commentator Rashi contended that the calf was a symbol of the leader, Moses, who was at that time on the mountain. The relationship between Moses and Aaron is also discussed in the Talmud. Some traditionists have wondered why Aaron, and not Moses, was appointed high priest. The answer has been found in an indication that Moses was rejected because of his original unwillingness when he was called by God. It also seems to have been hard for some traditionists to accept that Aaron was described as older than Moses. The death of Aaron is related in the Midrash Petirat Aharon.
The first Christian communities admitted that Aaron, "the sons of Aaron," or "the order of Aaron" constituted symbols of the highest priesthood. But in the Letter to the Hebrews, Christ is described as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek, which was set against "the order of Aaron." Of the Church Fathers, St. Cyril of Alexandria says that Aaron was divinely called to a priesthood and that he was a type of Christ. St. Gregory, I translates the name Aaron as "mountain of strength" and sees in him a redeemer who mediated between God and man.


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4 heads broccoli, cut into 1-inch florets
Olive oil, for drizzling
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter
1 whole onion, diced
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups whole milk
2 cups half-and-half
Pinch nutmeg
3 cups grated cheese (mild Cheddar, sharp Cheddar, Jack, etc.), plus more for garnish, optional
1 cup chicken broth, optional
Watch how to make this recipe.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Remove 2 cups of the broccoli florets, cut in half, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place on a baking sheet cut-side down and bake until the florets begin to crisp and turn slightly brown, about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a pot over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until softened, 3 to 4 minutes. Sprinkle the flour on top. Stir to combine and cook until the flour is absorbed and smells lightly toasted, 1 minute or so. Add the milk and half-and half. Add the nutmeg, then the broccoli, a small dash of salt and plenty of black pepper. Cover the pot and reduce the heat to low. Simmer until the broccoli is tender, 20 to 30 minutes. Stir in the cheese and allow to melt.
Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed. Serve the soup as is, mash with a potato masher to break up the broccoli a bit, or transfer to a blender in two batches and puree completely. (If you puree in a blender, return the soup to the heat to heat back up. Splash in some chicken broth if needed for thinning.) Garnish with the toasted broccoli or grated cheese and serve.
From Food Network Kitchens; after further testing and to ensure the best results this recipe has been altered from what was in the actual episode.
When blending hot liquids, first let cool for 5 minutes or so, then transfer to a blender, filling only halfway. Put the lid on, leaving one corner open; this will prevent the vacuum effect that creates heat explosions. Cover the lid with a kitchen towel to catch splatters and pulse until smooth.
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My daughter is stronger than I–she can live without refined sugar. So for her birthday party last night I was wracking my brain as to what sort of "cake" I could make for her and her friends, that didn't have processed sugar in it. I stumbled upon a "cake" made of watermelon slices on pinterest (my guilty internet pleasure). It looks like the original idea came from here, though I can't say for certain.
Given that I was making this cake in the middle of January there weren't lots of choices for watermelons. I made this out of four personal size watermelons. I think it would be better if you could make it out of a really long summer watermelon, that way the slices would fit together better. Even though my slices were a little uneven it all got gobbled up.