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Monday, 08 March 2010 04:09 PM EST
For a guy who professes to have no interest in running for president, Gen. David Petraeus can come off as surprisingly eager to talk about it — sometimes without even being asked.
In a recent appearance at the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia he turned a question about his retirement plans into an opportunity to deny he has political ambitions. An audience member asked if he planned to write a book when he left the Army. He responded by saying he'd feared the politics question.
"The answer is 'no,'" he said — and he didn't mean no book; he meant no race for the White House.
Part of his stock reply to the politics question — even when it's not asked — is to cite lyrics from a Lorrie Morgan country-western song about rejecting an unwanted suitor: "What part of 'no' don't you understand?"
Then he chuckles as if to suggest he's a bit embarrassed by the fuss — fuss sometimes of his own making.
Is he keeping his options open?
As the most popular and widely known general of his generation, Petraeus, 57, is approaching a new juncture in a career that catapulted him to fame when President George W. Bush sent him to Baghdad in early 2007 to carry out a long-shot "surge" strategy that arguably rescued Iraq from collapse.
Ambitious, shrewd, articulate, famously competitive — Petraeus has a three-decade record of accomplishment, a penchant for publicity and a reputation for toughness that sets him apart in today's military. Those qualities explain why he is sometimes talked about as a prospective presidential candidate — and why the talk seems to make him uncomfortable and energized at the same time.
Nearly two decades ago, similar star qualities drove a wave of public speculation about the political prospects for Colin Powell, who declared himself a Republican after he retired from the military in 1993 and was widely touted as a possible challenger to President Bill Clinton in 1996. Powell, the first black Joint Chiefs chairman, declined to run, saying he lacked the passion and commitment.
Many believe Petraeus is the leading candidate to become the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which is the pinnacle of a military career. Another possibility, generally seen as less likely, is that he would be nominated to be the next chief of staff of the Army, succeeding Gen. George Casey.
In late 2008 after returning from Baghdad he began his current assignment as chief of U.S. Central Command, overseeing U.S. military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and a wide swath of troubled territory stretching across the greater Middle East. It's a broader set of responsibilities than he managed in Iraq, but it has reduced the public spotlight on him — not so much because he's no longer in Baghdad but rather because the Obama White House has wanted him to assume a lower public profile.
It's not clear whether President Barack Obama, who opposed the Iraq surge that made Petraeus famous, would choose Petraeus as Joint Chiefs chairman, who by law is senior military adviser to the president.
Even though the outcome in Iraq is still in doubt, Petraeus is widely seen as its savior, a miracle worker. He recently was introduced at a Washington think tank as "an authentic American hero, a man of remarkable honor and valor," and "one of the finest military minds America has ever produced."
In addition to Powell, there are plenty of other examples in American history of a popular general turning to politics, beginning with George Washington and including Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Among four-star Army generals who made a failed bid for the White House are Alexander Haig (1988) and Wesley K. Clark (2004).
A Petraeus watcher, Ray DuBois, sees him either becoming the next Joint Chiefs chairman, replacing Adm. Mike Mullen, whose term expires next year, or retiring. He does not see a political future for Petraeus.
"My hunch is that he will appropriately avoid any consideration of an elective political career, and that he would be well advised to dampen any aspiration in that regard," DuBois said in an interview. DuBois is a former senior civilian Army official and adviser to former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
It is a strongly held consensus in today's military that top leaders like Petraeus are obliged while in uniform to focus fully on their military duties, setting aside any personal ambitions they might pursue after retirement — especially those in positions of wartime command. Petraeus is known to share that view.
DuBois thinks Petraeus is a natural choice to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs, given his extensive wartime experience and proven ability to negotiate the corridors of power on Capitol Hill and across the government. And although there is no formal requirement for rotating the chairmanship among the services, the Army has gone the longest — nine years so far — without having one of its generals at the top.
Petraeus, whose Army career began in 1974 when he graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., has a doctorate in international relations from Princeton. Coincidentally, in the late 1990s he served as executive assistant to the last Army general to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Hugh Shelton.
The ascendancy of Petraeus has come during a period in American military history in which generals have acquired influence well beyond the battlefield. Petraeus and his counterpart commanders in the Pacific, in Europe and in Latin America are regular visitors to the halls of political power in foreign capitals. Some point to the commanders' clout as evidence that U.S. foreign policy has become militarized.
In Petraeus's case, Bush deliberately elevated his Iraq commander to a position of pivotal importance, saying in effect that Petraeus knew best and that the president was just following his general's lead. That reflected a Bush calculation that Petraeus had more credibility on Iraq than did he.
Peter Mansoor, a retired Army colonel who was Petraeus's executive officer in Baghdad during the surge, doubts Petraeus intends to run for president in 2012 but does not rule out the possibility of him considering it later.
"He adamantly states he's not interested in politics," Mansoor said in an interview. "Privately he's never mentioned anything different to me, so I think you have to take him at his word on that, even though no one is really convinced."
In a Petraeus appearance at Georgetown Law Center in January, an audience member raised the matter of the military's role in society, prompting Petraeus to point to the talk about his own political aspirations.
"I've said 'no' about as many different ways as I possibly could. And I truly mean it," he said earnestly. And then he invoked the memory of William T. Sherman, the Civil War general who famously said of his interest in presidential politics: If nominated I will not run, if elected I will not serve.
"I am Shermanesque in my response to those particular questions," Petraeus said.
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February 22, 1862 - October 15, 1917
Ruth Gentry grew up in Indiana and received her A.B. degree at Indiana State Normal (now Indiana State University) in 1880. After ten years of teaching at preparatory schools, she earned a degree in mathematics from the University of Michigan in 1890. She spent the following year as a Fellow in Mathematics at Bryn Mawr, then became the first mathematician and the second recipient of the Association of College Alumnae European Fellowship, which she used in 1891-92 to attend lectures at the University of Berlin (but was not allowed to enroll for a degree). After a further semester attending mathematics lectures at the Sorbonne in Paris, Gentry returned to Bryn Mawr to become one of Charlotte Scott's first two graduate students. She received her Ph.D. in 1896 on the topic "On the Forms of Plane Quartic Curves." As she writes at the beginning of this thesis:
Many papers dealing with curves of the fourth order, or Quartic Curves, are to be found in the various mathematical periodicals; but these leave the actual appearance of the curve as a whole so largely to the reader's imagination that it is here proposed to give a complete enumeration of the fundamental forms of Plane Quartic Curves as they appear when projected so as to cut the line infinity the least possible number of times, together with evidence that the forms presented can exist.
Gentry taught at Vassar College from 1896 until 1902, where she was the first mathematics faculty member to hold a Ph.D. degree. She was promoted to associate professor in 1900, but left Vassar two years later to become the associate principal and head of the mathematics department at a private school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a position she held until 1905. After that she spent some time as a volunteer nurse and traveled in the United States and Europe, but she became increasingly ill and died at the age of 55. She was a member of the American Mathematical Society from 1894 until her death in 1917 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

subset: commoncrawl


text: Dear Glycosci/TGN mailing list member, The Second Electronic Glycoscience Conference starts in just under four weeks - it takes place on the Internet from Monday 9th September until Friday 20th September. The timetable for realtime electronic discussions is already taking shape and over 100 abstracts have been received - papers are currently being sent in. In order to view the posters and partake in the discussion sessions, please register as soon as possible - preferably by 1st September (otherwise no guarantee of your registration being processed in time!). Point your WWW-browser now to http://bellatrix.pcl.ox.ac.uk/egc2/ and proceed to the registration page. Once you've selected your username and password, etc, you'll receive an automatic acknowledgement giving details on how to pay. Cheque, bank transfer and credit card payments are available. Once your payment has been processed, you'll receive another acknowledgement informing you of the activation of your password. If you have any queries, please e-mail egc2org at bellatrix.pcl.ox.ac.uk


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Story highlights
The demonstration is held in the Cannon House Office Building
Disability activists are worried about proposed cuts by House Republicans
Actor Noah Wyle is among those arrested
Seventy-six people, including actor Noah Wyle, were arrested Monday at a demonstration protesting cuts in Medicaid proposed by the House Republican leadership, authorities said.
Hundreds of demonstrators filled the ornate rotunda of the Cannon House Office Building for the protests. The 76 were arrested on suspicion of unlawful conduct and demonstrating in a Capitol building, police said.
Wyle, formerly of "ER" and current star of "Falling Skies," was among those handcuffed and taken away. Police said he and most of the others would face a misdemeanor fine and be released after processing.
The rally against the proposed cuts in Medicaid was organized by ADAPT, the Americans with Disabilities for Attendant Programs Today. A statement handed out during the event called for "accountability," against the House's proposed one-third cut to federal Medicaid spending.
"Today, I took part in an effort by ADAPT to bring attention to the Medicaid cuts that have been made by many states and are threatened to be made on a federal level," Wyle said in a statement.
"To institutionalize a disabled American costs four times as much than to give assistance for independent living. This issue is about civil rights, not about medicine. People who have the ability to live in integrated, affordable and accessible housing should have the right to do so."
The group wants House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) to require states to provide long-term alternatives to nursing homes and institutions that are often mandated by Medicaid rules.
Instead of home and community support when she's older and unable to live on her own, protester Madeleine McMahan of Pennsylvania told CNN, "My generation? The Baby Boomers? we're looking at nursing homes if we don't do something about it."
She spoke in handcuffs, waiting for police to escort her to an elevator for arrest processing.
Also in handcuffs and a wheelchair, Denise McMullin-Powell of Delaware said lawmakers proposing the Medicaid cuts are "completely ignoring that we even exist in the stupid budget that they have."
She said "it's worth getting arrested, it's worth dying for, but they're gonna kill us first because of the cuts. If we can't stay in our home, if we can't get the things we need through Medicaid, we will die in the streets without that type of thing."
Wyle said, "This effort is to end the longstanding bias of the Medicaid system toward institutions and away from community care. The real shame is to see so many productive, intelligent people expending their energy on the fight for basic services to ensure their survival."
CNN's Anisa Husain contributed to this report.


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Yesterday, NASA and the NSF announced the detection of what may be the first Earth-like planet orbiting in its star's habitable zone, meaning that it might play host to liquid water. This is a pretty big deal. The paper describing the findings calls this "one of the holy grails of exoplanet research," and one of the scientists involved in the discovery, in a fit of over-enthusiasm, even claimed that he was certain there would be life there. But there's actually no guarantee that, even within the habitable zone, liquid water will be present, much less life. That's the bad news, though; the good news is that its discovery implies that similar planets might be relatively abundant.
The star, Gliese 581, is only about 20 light years away. The team behind the new exoplanet reasoned it was a good candidate for observations because it's relatively small and cool (an M-class dwarf). The low mass makes the influence of orbiting planets easier to detect, while its cool temperature means that the habitable zone is relatively close to the star—planets in that region are easier to detect. So, about 10 years ago, the team started gathering observations of Gliese 581 and a few hudred similar stars using the Keck Observatory in Hawaii.
Gliese 581 was already known to host several planets, and some of these have already been suggested as potentially habitable—in fact, the paper refers to it as having "a somewhat checkered history of habitable planet claims." The outer of this pair of planets is probably too cold, while the inner one is only cool enough if you assume the greenhouse effect doesn't exist (which, for the record, no one does, so it is now considered too hot for liquid water).
A relatively Earth-like planet
But, with a dozen years of observation, the authors claim to have data indicating two new planets, the fifth and sixth in the Gliese 581 system. One of those, GJ 581f, is big (at least seven times the Earth's mass) and orbits well beyond the area that's warm enough to support liquid water. But GJ 581g is only about three times the mass of Earth, and appears to orbit within the habitable zone. In the case of Gliese 581, that means a distance of 0.146 AU and an orbital period of 36.6 days.
The planet wasn't imaged directly. Instead, the authors used the traditional system of looking for periodic changes in the star's spectrum, caused by the pull of planets as they orbit. These show up as Doppler shifts in the light we can observe from Earth. A substantial portion of the paper is spent on describing how systemic sources of noise are limited in order to make the signals apparent. For example, during imaging, they placed an iodine cell in front of the spectroscope slit in order to use the absorption typical of that element as a scale for identifying small shifts in the light from the star.
In fact, the team had tried to submit a paper last year, but it got shot down during peer review because of potential sources of noise. "One of the referees (from the HARPS team)," the new paper acknowledges, "kindly raised the concern (based partly on our larger value for apparent stellar jitter) that we may have some residual systematics that could be affecting the reliability of some of our conclusions." So, the authors got another year of data and redid their entire analysis.
With 11 years of spectral wobbles to work with, the authors set about identifying signals from individual planets, and then subtracting those from the total spectrum. By the time no orbital signals were left, they had identified six planets, including the two new ones. All of these fit comfortably inside Earth's orbit; five of them orbit closer than Mercury. The data indicates that the orbits are roughly circular, and modeling confirms that the system would be stable on reasonable time scales.
Although this revealed two new planets, the attention is on GJ 581g, since, despite its larger mass, a bigger radius estimate places its surface gravity very close to Earth's, at between 1.1 and 1.7g. Based on the output of the star, its surface temperature is estimated at 228K. Assuming an Earth-like greenhouse effect, that temperature rises to between 236K and 258K, a bit below the Earth's 288K. But this wouldn't be evenly distributed, because the planet is tidally locked to its host star, meaning that it always faces a single side towards it. Thus, there may be different temperature zones at the interface between the planet's light and dark sides.
It's important to emphasize that the assumption of an Earth-like greenhouse is critical for getting this planet into a zone where liquid water could exist. A weaker or stronger one could easily push the planet out of the zone. It also says nothing about the planet's geology and chemistry, which could easily lock most of the water in rocks or turn it into an acidic soup that stretches the definition of habitable. The scientist who was certain of the presence of life was enthused because life on Earth flourishes in even these harsh environments (frozen, dry, and acidic), but that says little about whether life could arise under these conditions.
In any case we aren't likely to know more until we have hardware that can image the planet's atmosphere directly.
How many more like this?
A later section of the paper considers what this says about the general presence of habitable planets. To a certain extent, the authors cheat by including our own solar system as host to a planet (after all, if it weren't, we wouldn't be here to find GJ 581g). But simply going out to the planet's distance means that 1.7 percent of the stars within that volume host potentially habitable planets.
When you consider only a fraction of the stars would have planets orbiting within a plane that makes it possible to detect them, that number goes up. It goes up further once the fact that we've not been observing most of them long enough to get the sort of data that we have for Gliese 581. By the time the authors are done adding caveats, the number is over 20 percent, and they conclude, "if the local stellar neighborhood is a representative sample of the galaxy as a whole, our Milky Way could be teeming with potentially habitable planets."
Listing image by Lynette Cook; NASA


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20-year-old found shot to death after trying to buy PlayStation
An arrest has been made in the slaying of a man found bound and shot multiple times on the bank of a New Jersey creek a week ago.
The Mercer County prosecutor's office said 29-year-old Rufus Thompson, of Trenton, was arrested Saturday at a friend's house by county homicide investigators and federal marshals.
Thompson is charged with murder, felony murder, robbery, kidnapping and weapons offenses.
Authorities said 20-year-old Danny Diaz-Delgado was found March 24 face-down near Assunpink Creek in Hamilton Township with his hands tied behind his back and tape around his face.
Officials said Diaz-Delgado had multiple gunshot wounds to the torso, head and leg and was pronounced dead at the scene.
WPVI reports the night before he was found dead, Diaz-Delgado found an ad online from someone selling a used PlayStation 4 video game console. Thompson is believed to be the person who posted the ad.
The young man left to meet the seller, but never returned home.
Olga Diaz said her son was something special.
"He was a good person who glowed with the love of God, and now he's dead," she said. "We are a poor family and he always fought to better himself. He even said, 'One day I will have a lot of money, Mom, and we will never be poor again.'"
Asked how she feels about Thompson, she said she only wants to know why.
"I want justice, because every day it gets only harder to deal with this. Why would anyone do this to a person who never hurt anyone? Now though, my son is in a better place," she said.
A GoFundMe page was created in Diaz-Delgado's memory.


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[Notes, commentary, and questions for LDS Sunday School teachers using the 'Doctrine & Covenants and Church History' manual. Feel free to share your thoughts or ideas regarding the lesson in the comments.]
"Priesthood" in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a primary boundary marker, perhaps the central boundary marker if one includes its origin stories, between Mormonism and antebellum American Protestantism. If there is one primary heresy qua Protestantism in Mormonism, it is the dispensing of grace via authoritatively performed sacraments. Most Latter-day Saints see this as the "Power of Godliness" and via Joseph Smith have an extensive protological sacramental soteriology. Their Protestant brothers and sisters were—and perhaps are yet in some cases—filled with the fear of prelate tyranny by such claims (shucks, being a BYU professor, I know some Mormons who feel the same–academic freedom anyone?!?). These claims also entailed communal living enterprises, breach of the sacrosanct canonical wall, a little bit (that a hundred years later had turned into a lot) of Methodist salvific pessimism and eventually the mysterious secret rites of temple Mormonism. Burrrrr, they said.
[Read more…]


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From an unfinished mess that no one wanted to play to a highly-polished gem that nobody can access in just under three years. Way to relaunch, Square Enix. Update: Added information on this week's coming server expansion and free game time credit.
I've been incredibly patient. During the early start last weekend, when Americans and Europeans were dealing with the inability to connect to any of the servers in their region, I gave Square Enix the benefit of the doubt. Having rolled on a Japanese server myself (quite by accident), I had no trouble at all logging on during peak Western hours. I felt for the folks having issues, but I was hopeful they'd all be ironed out in time for full launch on Tuesday.
They were not. They only got worse.
There was no logging into a North American or European server after 6 PM Eastern Time Tuesday through Thursday. I mean, surely someone was logging in — the servers were up, and folks were playing — but I and many others had no luck whatsoever. Our only recourse was to hop on Japanese servers, where plenty of English-speaking fans were taking refuge.
Then the weekend hit, and things got impossible. North America, Europe and Japan were constantly full, and that's when they were showing up in the world selection portion of the client.
Sometimes the Western servers would be unavailable. Sometimes the Eastern ones would disappear. Sometimes I would get a "Server is Full" error before even getting to character selection — was the login server full?
It certainly doesn't help that there isn't any sort of AFK kick timer in the game, so many players that do get into the game simply leave it on without logging out, afraid they won't be able to get back in.
Creating new characters on a majority of servers has been disabled, part of Square Enix's efforts to curb congestion. Earlier in the week they halted digital sales of the game to stem the tide of disappointed new players.
Square Enix's customer service for the game is congested as well, leading to problems unrelated to server congestion going unanswered. I've received many emails over the past few days from players who accidentally registered the game to a fresh Square Enix sub-account instead of their main Final Fantasy XIV account, which keeps them from bringing their legacy characters over and denies them access to veteran's rewards. It's incredibly easy to make this mistake, but getting it fixed is near impossible at the moment.
Fans are upset, and rightly so. The forums are raging. My email is filled with angry folks lashing out, sometimes irrationally — I'm pretty sure adding servers to Japan before America and Europe was a matter of convenience and not racism, as has been suggested (Update: Note that Square hasn't added servers to either side of the pond yet, and the initial announcement that Japan would get more servers was expanded to include North America and Europe as well.) I get where it's coming from, though. Fans want answers, and since Square Enix isn't offering much in that way, folks are making up their own.
This is a game MMORPG fans should play. They just can't.
What makes the whole situation worse, aside from this being a long weekend for the U.S., is that the game people are desperately trying to play is really quite good. The convoluted mess that was Final Fantasy XIV has been streamlined into a more traditional fantasy MMO with all the Square Enix trimmings — iconic character classes, gorgeous music and scenery, etc. This is a game MMORPG fans should play. They just can't.
I've reached out to Square Enix several times over the weekend. I was told a statement was forthcoming yesterday. As of this writing, that statement has not been made. (Note — I am referring here to a statement promised me via Square Enix PR, not the statement on the FFXIV website.)
So now I am angry. I wasted a large portion of my long weekend trying to play this game, following up on player complaints, assaulted by a constant barrage of server disconnect and server full messages. I'm getting snappy. I want to say things like, "You'd think the company that sent out a press release back in July boasting its game had over a million beta registrations would have prepared for a similar number of actual players, instead of letting this bullshit happen."
I guess I just did.
To all the players that I've emailed with over the past week, sorry this took so long. Hope to see you in Eorzea, eventually.
Update: As many have pointed out in the comments, on Twitter, shouting out loud at their monitors and such, producer Naoki Yoshida addressed the login issues, expanding players' free play time by seven days and laying out a plan to add more servers later this week.


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Lagos court sentence four men to death by hanging for robbery, kidnapping
Appeal Court Delivers Ruling On Adeleke, Oyetola Osun Governorship Election
ICPC arraigns ex-JAMB registrar, four children over alleged fraud
Jigawa govt reduces working hours by two hours during Ramadan
EFCC reveals plan to go after 'corrupt' public officials from May 29
Burkina Faso Soldiers Reportedly Open Fire On Nigerians, Kill 16 In Cold Blood
Gunmen kill host, others at birthday party in South Africa
Cameroonian mother reportedly gives baby 'Tramadol' in order to go clubbing, baby dies
Gambia Vice President, Badara Joof Is Dead
Egypt announces discovery of ancient royal tomb in Luxor
Bomb blast in Afghanistan kills mother, 5 children
Colombia coal mine explosion kills 11 people
China announces full reopening of borders to all travellers
Turkish President says 48,000 people killed in devastating earthquakes
Several killed in shooting at Jehovah's Witness centre in Hamburg
PDP in Taraba appoints Abubakar Bawa as chairman
Ogun Labour Party demands governorship election rerun
Labour Party Rejects Enugu Governorship Election Results
Wike Threatens PDP Over Action Against Fayose, Ortom, Others
Lagos APC tells LP candidate Rhodes-Vivour to go to court and stop playing victim
Stock Market Closes Green Despite CBN's MPR Increase
Oil Prices Rise by 2% as Banking Troubles Raises Concern
Currency in Circulation in Nigeria Drops to N982.09bn in Feb – CBN
NASD Market Slumps 0.05%
NGX Market Down By 0.05%
Guinness Book of Records declares The Weeknd as most popular artist in the world
Uche Maduagwu criticizes actress Omotola Jalade over her bedroom photo with husband
Naira Marley urges Muslims against betting during Ramadan
Whitemoney Blasts Nollywood Actress for involving his mother in a comment
Broda Shaggi Reveals Amount Of Money He Makes From Skit Making Every Month
Ahmed Musa reveals when he will quit Super Eagles
Steven Gerrard advises Harry Kane to leave Tottenham
Bayern Munich sack Julian Nagelsmann, set to appoint Tuchel
Rooney, Gerrard, others congratulate Harry Kane after breaking England's all-time goal scoring record
Sergio Aguero thinks Lionel Messi will return to Barcelona
Foods that make menstrual pain worse
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Drinks to boost your s*x drive naturally
WAEC says Over 50m candidates' data on EDUSTAT
JAMB resumes direct entry registration
BREAKING: JAMB Extends 2023 UTME Mock Examination
UNILAG shifts resumption date to March 21
LASU Students shut down gates to protest soldiers 'maltreatment'
Bill Gates says AI is the most important technological advance in decades
YouTube reinstates Donald Trump's account following two-year suspension
TikTok claims US threatens ban if China stake not sold
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Canada Adds 400,000 Job Vacancies And The Eligible Requirements Are…
UAE imposes total visa ban on Nigerians
Before your US Embassy visa interview, note these tips.
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Two dead, two injured in accident involving ex-President Jonathan's convoy
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'I'm Into GIRLS'- Bobrisky Reveals, See Video
Dayo Kujore, a late veteran musician, will be buried on January 28, 2022. Late Kujore, aged 69, died on Monday, after a brief illness at the...


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Sadly, 95% of the public will never see how radicalized Washington and Berlin made the new Ukraine. However, only one will reap the benefit: Germany's Fourth Reich.
KIEV/BERLIN (Own report) – German foreign policy makers are proposing that tougher sanctions against Russia be discussed. In light of the escalating combat in Eastern Ukraine, we "unfortunately have to discuss tougher sanctions," declared several representatives of the German political establishment's transatlantic fraction. Berlin accuses the insurgents in Eastern Ukraine, and even Moscow of escalating the conflict. The escalation in Donetsk and Mariupol, however, followed the Kiev government's decision to launch another wave of mobilization and arms buildup, which, according to observers, could be the prelude to a major military offensive. Kiev has also launched a long-term militarization of the country: Adolescents, and even children, will not only have to undergo a "national patriotic education" in school, but also learn "how to use rifles and Kalashnikovs." Just a few days ago, the EU parliament passed a resolution to supply "defensive weapons" to Ukraine. Berlin had already authorized such supplies last year. Brussels is preparing a comprehensive propaganda campaign to accompany the escalation of the conflict. Continue reading


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Blind Items Revealed
January 8, 2013
This A++ list boy bander got to fulfill what he said was his biggest fantasy last night. He had sex with this former Baywatch actress.
Harry Styles/Pamela Anderson
January 8, 2013
This A++ list boy bander got to fulfill what he said was his biggest fantasy last night. He had sex with this former Baywatch actress.
Harry Styles/Pamela Anderson
Posted by ent lawyer at 11:45 AM
Labels: blind items revealed
first of all ewww
secondly: phoenix got it
I thought Harry Styles was a gay homosexual. And he's waaaaay too young for Pammy.
well i hope he didn't take any lessons about contraception from the biebs
BAM! Gross and amazing all at once! :)
What is he 40 (years old) or somethin'?
Add another ewwww.
I need some brain bleach.
lucky mofo
A++???? I never heard of him... I'm not over 35 years old either!? Only A++ boy bander ever is Justin Timberlake.
I have a hard time believing this one.
Barf. Betcha her odometer has turned over a FEW times. He really pinged my gaydar too, thing must be broken.
I wonder did he pay for it... Or did Pam sleep with him for free?
Why would people even want to hit that knowing that she has Hep C? I vaguely remember a blind item about a celeb who faked an illness and people guessed it was Pam, iirc.
And it only cost him $4500 and a fist full of Xanax.
Hope he didn't eat her butt and get the Hep C.
*shudder* Please let this be a bullshit blind!
but cant you only get hep c from needles?
He must have strapped a board across his waist, otherwise he would have never been found again.
Hahaha whaaaaat the fuck did I just read?
And he got her Hep too I bet. Hes not the who dumped Taylor Swift is he?
Not convinced this one is true/real, but if so, he's only a few years older than her sons. That fact alone should have dissuaded her. Besides, I thought she charged now?
@derek Seriously?? No....
Hey! I was eating......
I like that he likes older women (these types are often rumored to be gay...see Hugh Jackman) but an older sl*t is a whole different thing.
@sandybrook Yes, he's the same one.
@pheonix I don't think she ONLY charges...plus, if it was "his biggest fantasy", don't you think he'd shell out some of that OD money??
I second, third, fourth and fifth what heatherfleabag (great username,btw)
I second, third, fourth and fifth what heatherfleabag (great username,btw)
well maybe we are in for one interesting Taylor Swift album coming up if thats the case
lmao Kimstyle, I guess you're right. It's just creepy on so many levels I can't quite wrap my mind around it.
@sandy that was 100% publicity. Not a real "dumping"
WTF is a Harry Styles?
Totally a bullshit blind. NO kid his age even remotely knows who Pam Anderson as a hottie is! Seriously, she's been a fucking mess for what 15 years?!
@ Swaysway1
@ Count
@ Sandybrook
Come on folks! Hep C is not spread by regular sexual contact, and non-blood bodily fluids.
It is a blood-borne disease. It requires blood to blood contact. The Hep C virus isn't present in semen, vaginal fluids, tears, saliva, sweat, and mucous. Only blood. That's why almost all transmissions are linked to shared needles, and blood product transfusions.
Red Cross finally got their act together in the late 80s with regard to testing donated blood.
I too thought for sure he was gay.
I think some underestimate the global popularity of Baywatch......go on girl! Lol! Bet she taught him a thing or two. Anyway, better than Kim Stewart....I can't see the appeal at all with her.
Isn't Pammy pay for play? And old enough to be his mother?
Funny how many of us had the same instant reaction: Ewwww. One of my fondest memories was taking home an ex-boyfriends hot younger brother from a bar one night, and dropping him at high school the next morning. I was 30 or so but didn't look it, he was 18, and I thought that was bad.... Pammy's what, 48 or something? Mind you, now that she's had her face redone she does look much younger.
I think the Enties adding an additional "+" to the A+ status made B. Profane's head explode.
did Pammy get her hiney retightened because sadly all I can think of is that sex tape with Tommy Lee
Yes & Yes.....
I thought it was him but all these British lad gander's seem like dopplegangers to me
Kudos to him for hitting that
@Sugar - Sexuality is fluid and most artists, almost by definition, want to push boundaries and expand their limits.
Harry Styles seems to have girlfriends pretty regularly and want to fuck them pretty often.
That doesn't mean that he hasn't fucked a guy or two as well.
At the moment though, his focus seems to be women.
Of all the Baywatch women Pam to my mind is the least attractive on any count; then you add in the rumors. Double YUCK!!
Eww times infinity. His hair drives me crazy, I just want to shave it all off.
@Kassandra, why thank you! The big, banged up pitbull in my avi is Chyna, my inspiration. Just don't ever feed her Lean Pockets and she's good. Half the taste with all the diarrhea. I digress, did this Harry chick, I mean dude, REALLY nail Pammy? He really pings my gaydar, especially after he hired Taylor, the go-to beard.
I know everyone says this kid is gay but this isn't the first time he's been connected to an older woman right? Hey the kids smart in that respect. Us cougars are ALL bad. Meow..
He was 18 and her sons are 15 and 16 1/2.
I kind don't believe it. Yes, it's his fantasy, but when he saw that cig smoking Social Disease bag of a worn out woman, he ran. Or he said he hit it, but went to the movie instead.
As much as people will say "it's icky because he's only a couple years older than her kids", I wouldn't put it past her. And as for the gay rumours about Styles, my guess is he's bi.
I wonder when he started watching Baywatch?
Not a chance, that kid is 100% gay.
Did he have enough money for that?
NO WAY. He might have wanted to hit 80s Pammy, sure, but now? He'd just run away screaming.
I think a lot of people are underestimating what hormones + opportunity can lead to. Seemingly random sexy hookups!
Reruns are evil. This shit proves it.
Harry Styles is absolutely A++ as a boy bander, 1D has been all over the place forever it seems. Just because you're out of the loop doesn't mean the rest of the world is
Great question that unfortunately we'll probably never get the answer to :/
Ew. Gawd. I know he likes older women, but Pam?! Yuck.
We need to ask someone who knows but Maybe Pammy has become a gay Icon like Cher or (in her case) Joanna Lumley in 'Simply Fabulous'?
Mr. Wolf, did you just say that Harry Styles is an artist? :D
I'm sorry but there is absolutely no way in hell this is true. That boy is about as straight as a circle, and it's totally obvious to anyone who pays any real attention. I say that with love because I adore him and his glorious levels of gayness.
Perhaps this nice little blind was leaked by his PR people, who so desperately want him to appear straight so little 12 year old girls will think they have a chance with him....which is disgusting on so many levels.
Tommy Lee's cock is bigger than all of Harry Styles. She could deep throat him. ALL of him.
1. texas rose , that was a classic comment. My compliments.
2. I could understand if she had aged well like a Cindy Crawford but Pam looks gross these days.
3. Does it count as sex if he doesn't hit the sides?
@Unknown: Really? Well if you don't count ass eating as regular sexual contact, then you'd never have a second date with me.
if this is true.
Blegh. Hope he used protection.
Idk Harry's always seems like a nice, but glass-closeted, aggressively-repped gay boy to me. Could all this OTT linking of older women and girls to him be a way of detracting from that?
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JOHANAN GADI (Greek, I'αδδιç):
Eldest of the five sons of Mattathias the Maccabee (I Macc. ii. 2; Josephus, "Ant." xii. 6, § 1), though the least important. When Jonathan took the leadership and was being hard pressed in the country east of the Jordan, he sent Johanan with the baggage to the friendly Nabatæans; but another tribe, the sons of Jambri, seized it and killed Johanan. His death was avenged by his brothers Jonathan and Simeon (I Macc. ix. 35-42; Josephus, "Ant." xiii. 1, §§ 2-3; "B. J." i. 1, § 6). This tragic end is in strong contrast to the surname "Gadi" ( meaning probably "the Lucky"). The rabbinical sources ascribe more importance to Johanan, but these accounts are confused (see "R. E. J." xxx. 215).


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by Seyedeh Dr. Nahid Angha
The history of Sufism is, indeed, an old yet glorious one. This inner path, which originated from the heart of Islam and was established by the people of the platform, Ahle-Suffa, in Medina, Arabia, fifteen centuries ago, has embraced many individuals throughout the world during its most celebrated history. It is because of the inner truth of Sufism, a belief system and discipline free from the confines of time and place, that people from diverse cultural backgrounds and all walks of life, who are, yet, seeking a common pathway to an eternal and transcendent truth, can call themselves Sufis. It is easy to think of Sufism as an abstract doctrine. It is easy to think of Sufism as an open gateway that leads to the garden of truth, as a path of love which requires no endeavor. It is all too easy if we tend to forget that the inner strength of Sufism has been established through and from the personal qualifications, devotion and intellectual ability of those who have defined the quest of truth, that lies at the heart of Sufism.
The history of Sufism records that when the news of Islam spread throughout the middle east and its neighboring nations, many people from many lands were attracted to Arabia. They were coming to hear the teachings of the Prophet. Among these seekers, there were also groups of people, from many lands, nations, cultures and backgrounds, who were united by the inner longing to learn the reality of religion. These individuals found the teachings of the Prophet close to their hearts. Being inspired by His teachings, they became so enraptured by Divine love that they devoted themselves to meditation, purification and servitude and in search for a inner path they developed one of the most celebrated movements in the history of civilization: Tasawouf, Sufism.
It is from these enlightened individuals that Tasawouf came into historical existence. At that time, these enlightened individuals did not call themselves Sufis. The term came into the vocabulary many years later.
Tasawouf has been referred to as a path, a journey, a journey of the heart. Such a journey has a beginning; a point of departure that leads towards a destination. A Sufi takes an inner journey to attain the knowledge of Self, a knowledge that leads towards the understanding the Divine. A journey towards understanding such truth will necessarily involve steps, one has to pass through stations of learning, awareness and understanding. One must learn the rules, disciplines and practices. One does not become a Sufi without honoring the rules of the Path. Being attracted to the teachings of Sufism does not necessarily make one a Sufi.
In Sufism, the traveler departs from the station of limited knowledge and understanding and takes the journey towards the destination of greater understanding, understanding the Divine. The foundation of such a journey is based on the individual's recognition of his/her own limited knowledge and a desire to expand such knowledge and ultimately surpass its limitation. In passing the successive stages of the journey, the traveler will learn the meaning of Divinity, will become aware and knowledgeable of the teachings of truth, will pass the levels of purification to discover the meaning of unity which lies hidden behind the veils of multiplicity. And s/he will finally arrive at the stages of heart, all knowledgeable, tranquil and aware to witness Divine illumination.
In the journey of the heart the Sufi, the traveler, becomes enraptured by the magnificent existence of the Divine, the Divine becomes the eternal Beloved and the journey becomes the journey of the lovers towards the Beloved where finally the Sufi declares:
God is Love, Prophet is Love, Religion is Love
From the smallest grain of sand to the highest heavens
All are enraptured by love.
Throughout the world of Sufism, love has become the eternal theme. Sufis have gracefully glorified this theme in their poetry, in their principles, in their songs and practices, to the point that the Sufi proclaims:
Let love exist
No fear if I exist or not
Let this iron change into gold
Rising from this fire of love.
(Moulana Shah Maghsoud, 20th Century Persian Sufi)
We must understand that it is a human right to be able to find the way towards understanding the reality of the Divine, an understanding which is direct without the need for a medium. One needs to dissolve into the being of the Beloved, the Divine, where there remains no need to refer to You (referring to the Divine) and I (referring to oneself). In such a state the veils of multiplicity will fall and essential unity will remain. The seeker will become the true manifestation of la illaha illa Allah, there is nothing except one Divine Unity. It is in this state that the seeker becomes a truthful monotheist.
I wonder at this You and I
You are all there is
And I am all annihilated.
There is an I
No longer exists.
Mansur al-Halaj (10th Century Persian Sufi)
We searched a while for the Divine
Within the depth of our illusions
Looking there to find His signs
In the Beings of "you" and "I".
When love appeared
" You" and "I" were dissolved,
And found no more need to follow signs.
(Moulana Shah Maghsoud, 20th Century Persian Sufi)
In the life story of the Prophet, whose title was Habib-u-Allah, the beloved of Allah, we read of his immeasurable love for Allah. We learn that his love for the Divine was powerful and so complex that it was/is not easy to separate this lover from his Beloved Allah. His state of Unification is beyond words. Such tradition, annihilation in the Divine has remained strong in Sufism, certainly it was strong among the People of Suffa.
After the passing of the Prophet those founders of Sufism went back to their own homelands. They began teaching what they had learned. Students gathered around them and centers were created. Among the most organized and established centers were: Khorasan (northeastern Iran); Fars (central Iran); and Baghdad (Iraq). The students of these teachers, in turn, traveled to many lands and with them the teaching and message of Sufism was introduced to the hearts of many nations and many people.
Over the centuries, gradually two systems of Sufism developed: practical Sufism and philosophical Sufism.
Sufism is established on the essential laws of Being, and the laws of Being are timeless, free from dimensions of time and place and the limitations of human qualities. Individuals do have the ability to understand the laws of Being, yet they cannot change the laws. The same principle applies in Sufism. As a result, the essential principles of Sufism have remained free from the dimensions of time or place, gender or race, cultures or ceremonies and all human qualities.
When a traveler of the journey of the heart, a Sufi, passes the stages of Being and arrives at the ocean of infinity, when s/he passes from the world of multiplicity to discover essential unity, when the walls of nature fall, and the manifestation of the Divine reflects into the heart of the seeker where s/he discovers the bounty of the existence after complete annihilation, capable of witnessing Divine illumination, s/he has entered the realm of Practical Sufism. Such essential law does not change as cultures or times change.
When Practical Sufism has entered different cultures and times,
sometimes its surface might have taken the colors of cultures and
times, but its essence has remained secure and unchanged in the
chests of its owners. This spiritual journey is not a matter of
chance, of following intuition, or trusting empty verbal formula.
Rather, it is an expedition carried out in accordance with definite
Practical Sufism did not deviate and change from its original mission.
Parallel to this school, another line of Sufism has developed since the 12th-13th century. When a few Sufi teachers began to explain the laws and mysteries of creation and governing principles of Sufism within the confines of the philosophical language, so people could better understand, they created, knowingly or not, Philosophical Sufism; a descriptive Sufism based more on explanations, philosophy and history.
The expansion and development of Philosophical Sufism was faster, since it was easier to understand.
This belief system, founded on the principles of Islam, gradually became an interesting discovery for a few western researchers. These researchers, or Orientalists, focusing on this middle eastern mysticism, have translated or written commentaries on the works of Sufis, yet not all those researchers were familiar with those cultures, Sufism and the dominating languages including the language of Sufism itself. Many of these researchers have taken Philosophical Sufism as Practical Sufism and introduced it to their readers.
Practical Sufism is based on practice while philosophical Sufism focuses on the verbal explanation of the practice, history or principles of Sufism. Such explanation, even though useful, yet without doubt, can always be conditional. It is conditioned upon the level of the writer's understanding of Sufism and on his or her level of prejudice, personal qualifications, likes and dislikes. Philosophical Sufism can also be bound to the limitation of language and words used to describe a practice. We all know how the meaning behind the words varies from one culture to another.
Even though these two systems of Sufism are different from each
other, it is not always easy for an observer to distinguish between
the two, especially since sometimes ceremonies and traditions may
become more interesting, therefore easily replacing the quest for
the truth which lies in the heart of Sufism.
It is necessary for us to remember that the verbal explanation of an experience is different from the experience itself. The word "water" or its description does not quench thirst, its drinking does. Imagining the Divine will not lead to understanding the Divine, inner discovery will. Ceremonies will not open the door towards Unity; Divine unity is attained through passing from the limited self and dissolving in Divinity, without any medium, and becoming the messenger of la illaha illa Allah, there is nothing except Divine Unity. One cannot confess such truth without being that truth and the truth does not change with the changing of cultures and times.


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From my hometown of Lakeway…recently this hamburger shop opened up right near our neighborhood. Now I lived in California for a few years and nothing world wide tops In-N-Out hamburgers. I know we all have our preconceived notions on what we like and dislike and if someone says hey try this? If you already have a favorite, you typically say…no thanks! Or you try it and say…its ok but it is no "XYZ". So when this place opened up I stayed away. Finally after a month I broke down and decided to give it a try. Now to me it is a copy of In-N-Out, so maybe it would be good? I gave it a whirl and it was pretty solid!! Yes, not In-N-Out, but a good #2!! Kudos PTerry's! In-N-Out is in Dallas now and will soon be in Austin (few years). But at least there is a nice burger joint that passes the test! If you are ion Austin…look for a PTerry's! I eat these burgers maybe once a week and always told myself as I drive up…that would be a cool HDR! …and here it is!! Burgertime!!
Category Archives: Lakeway
Lakeway, Texas – Lake Travis Football – Ready to Rumble!
While photographing our local team….the Lake Travis Cavaliers a few weeks back…I grabbed this shot and my thoughts were that LT was ready to rumble this evening! #32 is a guy called Turney Maurer…gotta love his preparation look. He is ready to play! Kudos Turney! This shot was incorporated into the recent cover of our local magazine called the Lakeway Voice….published by Peel, Inc. Thanks for another cover shot Kelly! Great choice! LT has another playoff game tonite! Good luck LT!!
Lakeway, TX – Waterfall (HDR)
From my hometown of Lakeway, TX…here is our local waterfalls! I had no idea these were here until my wife took a trail walk with my daughter this past year and told me about them. I took a lunch hour to check them out and photograph the lovely scenery. The top section is a walking path over the river and the bottom is natural. Gotta love Texas waterfalls! We have many! =) Not sure what these are called…so I will call them Lakeway Falls. It is finally getting cooler here…I plan on taking another ride up to Gorman Falls soon! My fav waterfall in Texas!
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Lakeway, Texas – Emmaus Church (HDR)
From my hometown of Lakeway, TX here is our local church…Emmaus. When I first walked in years ago…one word…WOW! Beautiful wood architecture surrounds you all over. I had always wanted to photograph it, but never had time. Yesterday I took my lunch hour to head over and take a few shots. The sun was bright through the windows and creates a nice glow. One kudos for HDR…there were no lights on inside this amazing church and I photographed it as is… allowing its natural tones to come out. This was done in 7 exposures. I wanted to try and get all the wood details as possible. I'll head back one nite when possible and get this shot with the wonderful lights on and its true beauty will appear….coming soon!
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Storm Island
If you like extreme weather, the French island of Ouessant is a good place to find it
Brittany shapes the west coast of France into a ship's prow pushing bravely into the North Atlantic. At its farthest seaward extension lies Ile d'Ouessant, an austere and windswept island surrounded by reefs and strong currents, about two hours by passenger ferry from the port city of Brest. The island, four miles long by two miles wide, consists of pastureland cut by stone walls and edged by cliffs and offshore rocks slowly crumbling into the sea. It is inhabited by about 800 permanent residents, some of whom raise sheep, and an equal number of people who come only for the summers. British mariners, who call the island Ushant, have written about it for so long and with such foreboding that the name alone evokes dread. In particular, the wreck there in 1896 of the passenger liner Drummond Castle, in which at least 240 lives were lost, still scars Britain's collective memory. But that tragedy was just one in a long and unfinished list. Indeed, so many Britons have come to grief in these waters that, local lore has it, the royal family helped to fund the construction of a church and established the island's cemetery for the English dead.
The French, too, have suffered heavily on Ouessant, as have other seafaring people. In any language it is one of the ocean's notorious places, the treacherous leeward shore at the entrance to the English Channel, a deadly outcrop of rocks among strong tidal currents, where even now, in this era of powerful engines and satellite navigation, ships continue to be threatened. One reason is purely geographic: Ouessant stands so far to the west (at 5 degrees W, nearly the same longitude as Land's End, in England) that it interferes with the shipping routes to several major European ports, compressing an average of 150 vessels a day into narrow lanes that pass close offshore. But for visitors the more interesting reason for its reputation is the weather, which by coastal standards is some of the stormiest in the world. The relevant storms are enormous low-pressure systems that swirl eastward across the North Atlantic and hit the island undiminished by any landmass—usually in the period from October through February. They can generate mountainous waves and pack winds of well over 100 miles an hour.
During the summers, which are generally benign, the drama may not be obvious. You can make a tame day trip of a visit to Ouessant and tour the island on bicycles that are available for rental at the ferry landing. The roads are quiet. It takes about a half hour to wobble by bike into the island's only village, Lampaul, and another half hour to wobble to the cape at the far end. If you explore some of the hamlets, or stop for a traditional meal of crêpelike galettes and mildly alcoholic cider, you can occupy another few hours. The most likely excitement is a passing rain shower or an encounter with lambs; the greatest mental effort required is remembering to wobble back to the ferry in time. But even on a calm summer day you find evidence of the elemental battles that continue to be fought on Ouessant—in the unusual concentration of five lighthouses, and the grim radar tower looking out to sea; in the anchored haystacks and the braced sod shelters erected in the pastures for the protection of sheep; in the hunkered-down stone houses, many huddled shoulder to shoulder against westerly gales; in the clumped grass, wind-sculpted bushes, and stunted trees; in the stories of apocalypse that the residents tell to explain why their island is special. Forget the summer—Ouessant is a place to visit in the winter, during the fury of an ocean storm.
The timing is of course critical. Big storm systems, which are constantly metamorphosing, may be anticipated as much as five days in advance, but their path and intensity can be forecast accurately only about two days ahead of time. During the winter the island is served by a single daily ferry, which departs from Brest at 8:30 A.M. but suspends service during the most violent weather, so storm enthusiasts have to drop other plans and head for Ouessant almost as soon as the forecast solidifies.
Getting the forecast requires some effort, because on TV and in most newspapers Europe tends to go in for the "Mr. Sky is going to cry" style of weather reporting, which is not detailed enough. To move beyond this, though, all you really need to know is that Ouessant lies in a part of Brittany called Finistère. If you have access to the Internet, you can find your way to the French and British meteorological offices, which tend to demand subscriptions for their marine forecasts but do not charge for general information, which is serviceable. If you understand French, you can receive by telephone a five-day coastal forecast that's free except for the cost of the call: phone 011-8-36-68-08-29 and then press "*" followed by "2" for the waters of Finistère. You can also phone a service called Météo Consult (011-1-39-28-00-28) and for about $15 talk to a live person, who may or may not speak English. Or try the Web site, www. meteoconsult.fr. Before you do any of that, however, you need to look at the newspapers with decent weather pages (The Times of London, Le Monde, the International Herald Tribune) and wait for a really strong low to appear.
That's what I did last year—until, on a December evening at the close of a working week in The Hague, I noticed that what had been an innocuous atmospheric disturbance on the previous day seemed to have organized itself into a tightly wound system on a collision course with the French coast. I called France from a pay phone in a café and navigated through the choices to get the forecast for Finistère. A marine warning had been issued in anticipation of a storm of Force 12 on the Beaufort scale: winds greater than 74 miles an hour, air filled with foam and spray, sea white with spray, exceptionally high waves, visibility bad. The French were advising ships along the coast to seek shelter. The storm was due to hit Ouessant as early as the following evening. I had less than twelve hours to get to Brest and make the morning ferry—after which, I had to assume, the island might be cut off. My suitcase was, as usual, already packed; I caught the next flight to Paris and took the fast, four-hour train to Brest. I arrived in the early hours of the morning, in a heavy rain with lightning in the sky.
Brest is an ugly city—a deepwater port that was commandeered by the Germans during World War II, bombed into rubble by the Allies, and rebuilt badly afterward. But the waterfront is pleasant in a utilitarian way. If you arrive the night before your ferry, you can stay in one of several small harbor hotels, eat simply, and drink with the locals. The best of those establishments is the Maison des Gens de Mer (011-2-98-46-07-40), the Seamen's Home, where you can get a clean room for about $25. I had the traditional breakfast there—a pot of strong coffee and a sliced baguette with salted butter—together with deckhands and dockhands at the end of the graveyard shift and fishermen heading out before dawn. The ferry for Ouessant lies just across the street. Reservations are possible (011-2-98-80-80-80) but unnecessary, though it's prudent to keep a close watch on the departure schedule, which may suddenly be advanced because of an oncoming storm.
My ship last December was a high-bowed 150-foot steel beauty driven by twin 2,500-horsepower diesels, with a high, wide bridge, two passenger decks aft, and a crane and a cargo hold forward—a vessel designed for hard duty. It was manned by a crew of eight and commanded by an articulate gray-bearded captain who had fished for tuna off San Diego and was known locally for his ship handling in heavy weather. Against a strong wind and in moderate rain, we rolled with the first fugitive swells while still in Brest's well-protected bay. Soon afterward we emerged into the open ocean, and the ship began twisting and shuddering through seas as high as twenty feet—steep slopes that reared to windward and broke across the entire superstructure. The crew worked the helm and throttles actively, sometimes slowing abruptly to keep the bow from battering the heaviest waves.
The ship was almost empty. Of the twenty-eight passengers aboard, most were islanders going home—a rugged-looking bunch. They sat in the warmth and isolation of the lower cabin, reading the standard French tabloids and hardly bothering to glance outside. Braced and sheltered by a steel bulkhead, I stood one level above on the exposed afterdeck as the waves broke against the hull and tremendous sheets of seawater slammed into the benches bolted farther aft. It was a good ride. The only other tourists on board were a Swiss couple, who came outside to share the view. They had not previously heard about the oncoming storm but had guessed correctly that on Ouessant in the winter they would find some solitude. The man enjoyed the action but went inside after a while to smoke a cigarette. The woman was equally game but soon grew ill. I held her by the belt as, between the waves, she vomited over the rail.
After an unusually slow trip of two and a half hours the ship arrived at the poorly sheltered landing on Ouessant, where, jolting against the stone jetty, it dallied just long enough to offload the passengers and a single packet of cargo. Then it cast off, hurrying home ahead of schedule. The wind by now was gusting to 50 miles an hour and driving veils of rain under a low, scudding overcast; the temperature was in the high 40s. I threw my suitcase into the back of a taxi-van and took the quick ride into Lampaul, where the choice of hotels in the winter is limited to two, both small and offering excellent southwesterly views of the town's treacherous, rock-strewn bay.
The larger of those hotels is the Roc'h Ar Mor (011-2-98-48-80-19), which has brightly renovated rooms with TVs, private bathrooms, and in some cases little balconies. Those with a view start at $45 a night. If you've decided on this trip for romantic reasons, you might want to go all out and spend an extra $20 to stay in the top-end "panoramic" room, which has wraparound windows. For my purposes the hotel seemed, if anything, too nice, though I did enjoy a spider crab for lunch at the restaurant there.
I checked into the other establishment, down the street—the Hôtel Duchesse Anne (011-2-98-48-80-25), a ramshackle house standing in isolation above the bay like a sentinel against the storms. For $28 a night I got a large and pleasantly seedy room that overlooked the water through big, rain-splattered French windows leaking wind. Downstairs the hotel had a small dining room, where I never ate, and a café-bar that offered a good $5.00 breakfast and where in the afternoons a group of aging regulars gathered to drink, smoke, and pass the time.
I went outside to explore Ouessant in the worsening weather. For six hours, into the night, I sloshed down the lonely roads, past sheep and shuttered hamlets, to the windward western coast, where a heavy surf pounded the rocks, raising brown salty foam that tumbled in patches through the pastures. I ran into the Swiss couple, who, despite their original intention to read cozily in a café, had been caught up in the spirit of the place and, like me, had been walking for hours. The scenery, we agreed, was eerily beautiful, and of course evocative of the sea, but what mattered was not anything specific so much as the mood: the entire island was infused with the drama of the oncoming weather.
That evening, at the bar of the Duchesse Anne, there was suddenly reason for doubt: from Brest the television news reported that the storm had diminished to Force 11. Though its winds were still forecast to be severe, the system was lingering offshore and was not expected to peak at Ouessant until late the following night. The man with whom I watched the news had spent decades as a volunteer on the Ouessant lifeboat, an all-weather vessel with a history of heroic rescues. He turned away from the TV with Gallic disdain and said, "Alors, it's a storm for sissies."
Nonetheless, the next day passed in continuing expectation. The ferry made a valiant run hours ahead of schedule, and after a brief pause at the jetty, turned and disappeared into the turmoil of the sea. By lunchtime the mood on the island was electric with the news that the mightiest rescue vessel of them all, a celebrated ocean tug named Abeille Flandres, had taken up position in the partial shelter of the island, where it would patrol for the duration of the storm, ready to assist any passing ship that began to drift or founder. I spotted the tug that afternoon, while walking along a coastal trail; its brutish form emerged slowly from a squall and idled through the worsening weather with a distinctive arrogance. Awhile later the clouds lifted for a time, the rain stopped, and the winds died down—a tedious spell during which I walked my clothes nearly dry. But the regulars at the Duchesse Anne assured me that the fury would be upon us late in the night. The hotel's barometer was falling rapidly. And sure enough, with darkness the rain returned and the wind shifted and freshened.
By dinnertime the wires and stone corners of the village had set up a mournful howl. I took refuge in Lampaul's best restaurant and bar, a small, attractive place called Ty Korn, which specializes in local seafood and, with its narrow confines and paneled walls, has some of the warmth and intimacy of a wooden ship. The two Swiss were there, chatting happily with others at the bar—a comfortable and cosmopolitan crowd, many of them, including the owners, refugees from mainland life. The storm was expected to hit its peak from 1:00 A.M. to 3:00. I told the Swiss that I planned to head out around midnight and walk to Ouessant's principal lighthouse and the exposed westernmost point that lies beyond it, and I invited them along. They declined, which was just as well, because the utter solitude of that walk turned out to be part of its appeal.
The night was cold and wet. I don't know how hard the wind was blowing, though I later heard that it was sustained at 90 miles an hour, with higher gusts. Outside the shelter of the village the walking was slow, like straining uphill but on flat ground, leaning forward with arms folded back, powering into the gale. I left my flashlight in my pocket, preferring to move in the darkness, drawn by the distant lighthouse as migrating birds caught in bad weather are said to be. There were no cars on the roads. At one point a power line arced, throwing sparks into the night, but otherwise there was no sign of damage or flying debris—for the obvious reason that Ouessant is naturally well scoured.
After a long struggle I came to the base of the lighthouse, a massive structure painted in black and white stripes, rising 200 feet above the sea, and topped by two levels of rotating lenses sending multiple beams into the inkiness of the storm. Those beams, turning silently overhead, angled strangely downward in a way that created the illusion of rotating cones, and passing through windblown waves of rain and ocean spray, remain in my memory as one of the world's fantastic sights. Eventually I pried myself away and continued toward the end of the island, along cliffside trails and across open terrain. Enormous waves slammed into the rocks below, shaking the earth and raising plumes that were seized and atomized by the wind and mixed with the rain. The resulting deluge pelted painfully against my face, limiting my vision and forcing me at times to turn and walk backward under the protection of my parka's tightly drawn hood. Twice when I tried to stand upright and face the storm, I was knocked down by the wind. The only way to proceed now was by crouching and, on uncertain ground near the edges, crawling. It was exhilarating work, but with care never unsafe, since the onshore winds shoved me not toward destruction but away.
I came finally to the westernmost tip of the island, where the shore took the form of gravelly shelves stepping down to the sea, partially protected by house-sized boulders that stood in shallow water and bore the brunt of the waves. I crept as close as I dared, wedged myself into the shelter of a rock, and spent an hour trying in vain to judge the scale of a gargantuan scene. The numbers don't matter anyway: the breakers were huge, and when they hit the boulders, they exploded twice as high. The wind and the water roared. The moon came out briefly and lit the boiling surf. When I grew cold from sitting, I found my way back to the hotel. The walking was easy downwind.
In the morning the seas remained rough, but the rain had stopped, the winds had dropped to a paltry 50 miles an hour, and the ferry was reported to be running on schedule. It was the end of the storm, the natural moment to leave. I had a breakfast of black coffee, paid my hotel bill, and arranged for the taxi to deliver my suitcase to the ferry landing. The last hours I spent walking again—as you might want to as well, to enjoy the calm. The ferry departs for Brest at 4:30 P.M. and arrives by 7:00, which allows you to get to Paris in time to spend the night, and the next day, perhaps feeling invigorated, to resume ordinary life.


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Food craving, defined as an intense desire to eat a specific foodstuff, is a common occurrence across all cultures and societies. These yearnings, and those associated with nonfoodstuffs such as pagophagia (the practice of consuming ice) and geophagia (literally, earth-eating), are not linked to any obvious nutrient insufficiency. In some individuals food cravings and dietary restriction may be related; however, these observations are inconsistent with the majority of published studies.
A number of mechanisms have been advanced to explain the physiological and pathological changes in behavior that lead to food cravings and a loss of control of over eating. The latter, of course, is a major concern with obesity and a number of eating disorders. Researchers have employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore the neural basis of cravings and the imaging data suggest that components of the amygdala, anterior cingulate, orbital frontal cortex, insula, hippocampus, caudate and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex are activated during periods of pining for food. It appears that there may be a network of neural regions that is involved with the emotion, memory and chemosensory stimuli of food craving.
Eating is generally a pleasurable social experience. Using chocolate consumption as an example, it follows that there may be constituents in chocolate that influence satiation or alter our acceptance of the treat, including psychoactive or mood-altering endogenous compounds such as phenylethylamine, tyramine, serotonin, tryptophan and magnesium. It is important to note, however, that many other foods, including dairy products, also contain these compounds at higher concentrations but tend to have somewhat lesser appeal than chocolate does.
Studies suggest that chocolate craving, especially among women, may result from a sense of deprivation or in reaction to stress, peri-menstrual hormonal fluctuation and modulation of neuropeptide concentrations. Regardless of the factor(s) that initiate chocolate cravings in women, the apparent physiological explanations are inconsistently expressed in a diversity of cultures, especially among those that consume large amounts of chocolate. Spanish women, for example, eat relatively large quantities of chocolate and exhibit limited chocolate craving. This is in contrast to many American women who consume relatively little chocolate yet present a strong chocolate craving. Clearly, the relationship between food preferences, mood and the menstrual cycle is complex.
Some investigators have proposed that carbohydrate craving (with resulting consumption) attenuates depression. This theory results from some observations that diet can modulate the serotonergic system in the brain, which is linked to mood. Research that shows administration of naloxone, an opiate antagonist, appears to reduce food intake provides additional evidence for a nutrition-neurological interaction. This effect appears to inhibit mainly the consumption of sweet, high-fat foods such as chocolate. Studies of cannabinoids and antagonism of cannabinoid receptors have shed more light on the complex neurochemistry of selective appetite. In addition, research on satiety or appetite control mechanisms residing in the gastrointestinal tract has led to the identification of an entire spectrum of gut neuropeptides with elaborate central nervous system feedback.
After acknowledging the complexity of the influences on and the mechanisms of "normal" appetite and craving, it is important to review what we know about pathology. For example, pagophagia is frequently observed in children, pregnant women and young adults. This behavior may contribute to or exacerbate nutrient insufficiency and lead to severe iron deficiency anemia although pica (the desire to consume nonfood items) is not a result of the latter. Geophagia, such as eating termite hills in Africa, is a practice in many cultures. This eating disorder can result in a host of bacterial and parasitic infections as well as various poisonings and life-threatening toxicities.
Several mechanisms have been proposed to assist our understanding of food cravings and pica. Nutrient deficiencies may result from these abnormal behaviors; however, the scientific literature does not support a causal relationship with food cravings or pica. "Cravings" undoubtedly represent a true bio-psycho-social paradigm in which sociocultural factors, stressful environments and hormonal fluctuation participate in a complex drama performed on a neurological stage and the result has varied--and as yet incompletely understood--implications for nutrition and health.


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Daniel and I exchanged emails about the recent piece in The New York Times, 'Outdoors and Out of Reach, Studying the Brain,' by Matt Richtel. We both responded strongly to the article; although we liked the discussion of technology's effects on cognition and the positive benefits of being in nature (and away from digital technology), getting down to thinking through the various points left us both feeling pretty cranky (maybe not enough time in nature, eh?). Daniel's already taken on some of the issues that could be raised with the piece, but I just wanted to pick up a few other threads.
The article discusses a river trip including five neuroscientists who took time away from their typical routine of digital interaction, dwelling in built environments, and conducting research to float down a river valley in Utah and spend some quality time with bats and cliffs as well as each other. To be honest, this sounds pretty idyllic to me, and I think far more conferences should be held outdoors in tents rather than in rented hotel meeting rooms with PowerPoint slides, 15-minute papers and cellophane-wrapped muffins. A whole new industry of Adventure Academic Meetings could allow physicists to discuss new breakthroughs while spelunking or philosophers to reflect on Continental theory while snowshoeing. Sign me up for the Anthropologists Hike the Appalachian Trail conference, but count me out of International Neuroanthro-Bungee 2012!
The participants in the white-watering brain sciences tête-à-tête seem to share my enthusiasm for a change in conference formats:
"There's a real mental freedom in knowing no one or nothing can interrupt you," Mr. Braver says. He echoes the others in noting that the trip is in many ways more effective than work retreats set in hotels, often involving hundreds of people who shuffle through quick meetings, wielding BlackBerrys. "It's why I got into science, to talk about ideas."
One of the first things that irritated me in the NYTimes piece, however, was the conflation of living the 'life uninterrupted' — having a small, intimate retreat with a handful of people — and being 'in Nature,' as if the two were inherently inextricable. Of course, one wouldn't have to invite hundreds of people to the hotel for a conference, and the conversations would likely be a lot more intimate and less distracted, even if your small group was at a spa or dude ranch. Likewise, you can go to Nature at an outdoor music festival and feel completely over-stimulated, even though you have no access to electricity or indoor plumbing.
Continue reading "Your Brain on Nature: Outdoors and Out of Reach 2"


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Andrew II
Andrew II, d. 1235, king of Hungary (1205–35), son of Bela III. He continued his predecessors' policy of transferring crown lands to the magnates, and the lesser nobles forced him to issue the Golden Bull (1222), which served as a charter of feudal privilege. This
Magna Carta,expanded in 1231, extended the old nobility's privileges (immunities from local courts, taxes, and military service abroad) to the lesser nobles, most of whom were freemen in the king's service. It made royal ministers responsible to the diet, which was to meet annually, and gave the right of resistance to the nobles if any of the bull's provisions were violated. Foreigners were not to receive office without consent of the diet, and offices were not to be hereditary. Nobles were also protected against arbitrary arrest or punishment. Andrew took part (1217) in the Fifth Crusade. Initially welcoming the Teutonic Knights to S Transylvania in 1211, he later became alarmed at their growing power and expelled them in 1225. He was the father of St. Elizabeth of Hungary and of Bela IV, his successor.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Austria and Hungary, History: Biographies


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Copy outlines of three different trendy eyeglass shapes—aviator, cat eye and round-framed—and adhere them to felt pouches to create a quirky-cool gift for friends and loved ones.
Materials (for all 3 cases):
Felt: 9" x 12" piece each of white, red, light blue, brown and yellow
More From Woman's Day
Paper-backed fusible web
Sewing machine
Matching thread
1. Enlarge patterns. Cut case pattern twice from desired color of felt.
2. Trace desired eyeglass pattern onto paper side of web. Cut out each piece (you'll have 2 lenses and 1 frame).
3. Using iron and following directions on fusible web packaging, fuse web pieces onto desired colors of felt; cut out.
4. Peel paper backing off lenses; arrange on frame piece and fuse.
5. Peel backing off frame piece; arrange on one case piece and fuse.
6. Stitch case sections together close to edges, leaving one short end open. Backstitch at each end to secure.


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February 25th, 2013
Janet Jackson, Wissam Al Mana are married
Janet Jackson's a pro at keeping a secret.
According to her rep, the 46-year-old entertainer is married to Wissam Al Mana, and she has been for a while.
As "Entertainment Tonight" reports, their wedding happened months ago.
"Last year we were married in a quiet, private, and beautiful ceremony," the married pair said to "ET" in a statement regarding speculation that they were planning an "extravagant wedding."
"Our wedding gifts to one another were contributions to our respective favourite children's charities," they continued in their statement. "We would appreciate that our privacy is respected and that we are allowed this time for celebration and joy."
Jackson's union with Al Mana marks her third; she was previously wed to James DeBarge and René Elizondo, Jr. Jackson secretly married Elizondo in 1991 and they split in 2000.
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Adapted from the Kosher Palette
2 eggs, lightly beaten
½ cup milk
½ cup mayonnaise
1 small onion, chopped
1 ½ packages (15 total ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
2 cups sliced mushrooms, sautéed in 2 Tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
3 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Combine eggs, milk, mayonnaise, onion, spinach, mushrooms, flour, ¾ cup cheddar cheese, and ¾ cup of the mozzarella cheese.
Pour into a greased 9-inch round or glass pie plate. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and Parmesan cheese.
Bake 30 – 45 minutes or until puffed in center.


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A Mushroom Under the Beeches Waiting to be Picked
57 comments
yay! i love persunmall! you look fun and that's like a really fun outing tooReplyDeleteReplies
thanks a lot Ann! :))Delete
You look adorable. Love the cute skirt and hat. Most beautiful "mushroom" I have ever seen ;-)ReplyDelete
xx Mira
awww. you are so sweet Mira! Thank you so much! *virtual hug*Delete
Love the shoes, great blog! I'm your newest follower :) xxReplyDelete
Eli from The Green Raybans
hello! thank you very much for following my blog! i really do appreciate :">Delete
Have a great week ahead and Happy Christmas! :)
Love the warm tone <3ReplyDelete
I love your skirt!ReplyDelete
thanks dear! :)Delete
Love the idea of looking like a mushroom! The outfit is very cute! The celebrations looks like lots of fun!ReplyDelete
Sharon xx
Beauty, MiscellanyReplies
haha! thank you so much dear! :">Delete
cute look. :)ReplyDelete
Thank you rinx :">Delete
marvelous outfitReplyDeleteReplies
thanks Adam! :))Delete
what a cute look! I really like your braid.ReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks a bunch Ivana!~Delete
You rock the mushroom look! hahhaha loe the print of the skirt <3 and your oxfords.ReplyDeleteReplies
hahaha! thanks a lot dear!~Delete
Nice look!ReplyDelete
Dear I would like to invite you to my Firmoo giveaway where you can win a pair of free glasses!
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Fashion DupesReplies
Thanks! and sure! I'll check it out :))Delete
Lovely lookReplyDelete
and your shoes is super fab.
thank you so much Ann! :)Delete
what a wonderful look! i'm in love with your skirt!ReplyDelete
maren anita
Guess, Moschino, Benefit GIVEAWAY:
FASHION-MEETS-ART by Maren AnitaReplies
thank you dear!~Delete
- AnonymousDecember 16, 2013 at 9:42 PM
Love your look <3ReplyDeleteReplies
thank you so much!~Delete
you are so cute! I love those oxford shoes! :)ReplyDelete
Metallic PawsReplies
thanks a bunch Izzy!~Delete
Overall your style seems good and I <3 those Oxfords. That empire cat skirt is also amazing.ReplyDelete
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awww. you are very sweet! thank you! ;DDDelete
what a cute "mushroom" :DReplyDeleteReplies
teehee! thank you pretty girl :"3Delete
I do not know where you get your post titles but asdfghjkl so pretty. <3ReplyDeleteReplies
haha. Thanks sie! from my imagination and the books i read. :"">Delete
You are so adorable! I just wanted to say that I got your letter a few weeks ago and enjoyed it so much. I sent out a reply today so hopefully it will reach you sooner than later. <3 xoxoReplyDeleteReplies
awww. Thank you Sarah! I'm so glad you enjoyed my letter :DDD I can't wait to receive yours! hihi. Merry Christmas!~Delete
Oh, always so good to be with family for happy celebrations! I didn't find you like a mushroom - I loved the skirt and the shoes! And the beret, coming as a gift from a nice friend, even better! You look very pretty and in a happy atmosphere! denisesplanet comReplyDelete
This food looks sooo yummy~ReplyDelete
And you guys look very happy as a family :)
Thanks for the lovely comment :)ReplyDelete
Wanna follow each other on GFC???
Just let me know and I will follow back right away
- AnonymousDecember 19, 2013 at 3:17 PM
you look so pretty ! yummy food ! would you like to follow each other on Bloglovin :) xxReplyDelete
Looking forward to see your new post! Have a happy Thursday sweetheart!ReplyDelete
xx Mira
I love the first pictures!ReplyDelete
Dear I would like to invite you to my Firmoo giveaway where you can win a pair of free glasses!
Check it out here: here
Follow Fashion Dupes:
Fashion Dupes
Super cute shoes! Love this look. Just found your stylish blog and joined. Excited to follow you. :)ReplyDelete
Will you join my blog?
beautiful post!ReplyDelete
what would you think about following each other? if you want we can also follow on other socials like instagram!
just let me know on my blog :)
You look so stunning. Looks fun too.ReplyDelete
Care to follow each other GFC and Bloglovin?
You are the cutest "mushroom" girl evah! LOVE your skirt and your oxford shoes!!ReplyDelete
♥, Jo | www.STYLEAT30.com
Fashion | Food | Travel
im loving your outfit and I love mushrooms too hahah! Your hat is super cool!! I'd love it if you dropped by to my blog atReplyDelete
www.JuneWantsItAll.com and if you like, we could follow each other!
I love the skirt! Are those tiny cats all over it?ReplyDelete
The Undercover Dress-Up Lover x
You look so cute and adorable with this look ! :3ReplyDelete
Fashion and Cookies
You're invited to enter my Ecua-Andino hat Giveaway, open worldwide until December 20h !
Love the interesting title of this post! You look pretty <3 The food looks so deliciousss.ReplyDelete
Such a lovely skirt! Pretty! Thank you for stopping by!ReplyDelete
Come back soon to visit me on The Notebook of a Fashion Lover
Evi xoxo
Cute mushroom! Sounds like a fun event!ReplyDelete
Taupe or mushroom is a lovely color! I think I want more things in that shade.ReplyDelete
7% Solution
- AnonymousJanuary 12, 2014 at 7:32 AM
Love the colour combo of your outfit and the shoes! :DReplyDelete


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James Brown - Monterey California 1979
In which he does The Robot, sweats a lot, and rocks the f*ck out. You can pick up the DVD version of this performance, "Body Heat", on Amazon for like $5. I suggest you do so.
Watch Super Heroes Super Fail
What? Everybody has an off day now and again—even Wolverine.
Plasma Lights Burn Like the Sun to Grow Better for Buds
You've already got your pick between MH, HPS, and LED lighting systems for your grow room—now you can add LEPs (Light Emitting Plasma) to that list.
According to Marijuana.com:
Light emitting plasma is a gas and metal halide mixture that becomes heated, once activated, through an electrical field inside a very tiny little glass bulb. Once heated all the way, the gas and metal halide mixture, combined with the electrical field, creates a plasma state within the bulb in which an extremely bright light is produced. This bright light that is produced is said to be the latest technology to more closely mimic the sun in comparison to any other type of light fixture.
The new lights also consume just half of what HPS and MH fixtures do and last 50,000 hours—three times as long—as conventional ballast setups. They're new to market so expect the bulbs to be expensive and difficult to acquire for a bit until the technology further penetrates the market. [Marijuana]
WTF Is a Hurricane Bong
Dang, these are actually pretty slick. They spin the rising vapor hard enough to separate tar from the smoke through centrifugal force. Has anybody smoked out of one of these? If so, let us know in the comments.
Yes, this an allegory for having the munchies.


text:
May 16th, 2012
You may recognize Alan Richman's name from his 25 years as GQ Magazine's restaurant critic, his numerous James Beard Journalism Awards (including the Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award he won just last week) or his highly publicized "Best New Restaurants in America" and "10 Best Restaurants in New York" lists. You may be acquainted with his 2004 anthology of food essays "Fork It Over: The Intrepid Adventures of a Professional Eater" or his classes at the French Culinary Institute, where he serves as Dean of Food Journalism and New Media.
But, if you're not an obsessive follower of food literature, you probably know Alan Richman as the guy who got a Sazerac thrown in his face on an episode of Treme. The casting was hardly an accident.
For this, Bourdain bestowed the "Douchebag of the Year" award to Richman at the 2008 Golden Clog Awards at the South Beach Food & Wine Festival, citing the recipient as "the best example of twisted, repressed, or compromised 'I'd rather be making lemon bundt cake with My Cat, Mr. Mufflesworth' journalist who actually HATES food and hates the people who make food even more."
Richman swung back with a deeply unfavorable and pointed review of Les Halles Brasserie, the restaurant where Bourdain served as "Chef-at-Large," but was no longer in the kitchen, and had not been for some time.
"I clearly had one motive in mind when I set out to write about a restaurant in which Bourdain was involved - to comment on Bourdain," Richman told Village Voice writer Rebecca Flint Marx. "Even back then I felt he shouldn't be allowed to get away with his unending onslaught of slurs and insults, not just at me. For better or worse, I believe in an old-world system of honor, which doesn't involve turning the other cheek."
Bourdain fired back with the no-punches-pulled chapter title, and then in 2011, offered Richman the chance to pay public penance. Bourdain had been hired as a script writer on Treme (HBO's hour-long drama about residents of post-Katrina New Orleans) and wrote a scene in which Richman, playing himself, would take a Sazerac in the face from a chef enraged by his GQ story.
The former Vietnam War Army captain took the dousing with great aplomb, earning the accolade(ish) from his nemesis in an Eater.com interview, "I hate the b*stard, but I admire him. It shows considerable good humor and no small amount of balls. A reminder that he was a marine in a former life. He lived up to the high standard."
All Richman's perceived offenses were not washed away by the gesture, though. Last week after Richman's award, Bloomberg restaurant critic Ryan Sutton took to Facebook to express his disappointment with Richman's victory, which was in part for an manifestly odd review of restaurant M. Wells in which he sought to counteract alleged complaints of inappropriately touching a server.
Sutton wrote in part, "I'm saddened that Alan Richman has won a James Beard award for what is arguably the most irresponsible piece of restaurant criticism I've read in a long time...The fact that this one-sided tirade against a small restaurant was published is shocking and embarrassing. It's a dark day for food writing."
Tonight, both accolades and vitriol will be served up piping hot at a roast in honor of Richman's 25-year GQ tenure. Bourdain, chefs David Chang and Eric Ripert, along with other luminaries of the food world, are slated to address Mr. Richman at a dinner at chef Ripert's Le Bernardin restaurant, and we'll be right there in the thick of it. Follow us on Twitter @eatocracy and we'll share the post-mortem here in Eatocracy when the flames have subsided.
We'll just be sure to stay out of the Sazerac splashing zone.
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What is it?
The 2014 Ford Fiesta equipped with the 1.0-liter three-cylinder EcoBoost engine is a small car with a surprisingly sassy attitude. Ford takes downsizing to the extreme, yet the engine still makes 123 hp and 148 lb-ft of torque and is projected to wring out more than 40 mpg on the highway. The unit uses turbocharging, variable valve timing and direct injection, among other technologies. Ford paid particular attention to reducing friction and harshness, so as not to play into stereotypical notions of small engine foibles.
The entire 2014 Fiesta lineup gets a redesigned face that draws inspiration from the Evos concept from the 2011 Frankfurt show, an upgraded interior and MyFord Touch technology.
What is it like to drive?
Just 1.0 liter of EcoBoost power is rather peppy. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised; we test drove the same engine in the larger Focus earlier this year and it was more than up to the task. Dropping that engine into a Fiesta makes things a bit crisper and the five-speed manual allows the driver to wrest every drop of power out of the three cylinders. The clutch has a nice weight and the steering returns some feedback, though it's a touch light in overall demeanor. The chassis is excellent. Our European-spec Fiestas tackled California's Pacific Coast Highway, an autocross course, and curved, hilly roads with eagerness and ability. This small car has a swagger to it when pushed.
Do I want one?
That depends on the final price. The drive experience is better than that of many four-cylinder engines and there's nothing that makes occupants scream in frustration over the small displacement. It's just another engine and 1.0 is just another number. Get past that and it drives fine. Besides, the 1.6-liter four-cylinder Fiesta is still available and the raucous 197-hp Fiesta ST arrives next year. There are plenty of choices if a Fiesta is in your future.


text:
- Item
- c 1970s-2000s
Striped multicoloured ringbinder file containing scenic photographs of Dundee and the River Tay in the 1970s, copies of photographs of ships built at the Caledon shipyard and ships being launched in the 1930s-1970s, together with some photographs of David Wilson. Also includes a copy of an article entitled "The Maryport Steam Adventure" from Seabreezes magazine c 2002, and a flyer about the motor tug Kent produced by The South East Tug Society c.1999.
David Wilson