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'Persona 4 Arena' Digs Deep Into The Teenage Heart Of Battle
Persona 4 Arena
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Reviewed on PlayStation 3
The quirky, the odd and the eerie. As a videogame publisher, Atlus has become the expert in making the strange into the popular. It released Demon's Souls, a horror-filled role playing game that was so unrepentantly unforgiving, even hard core gamers complained (even as they continued playing). Last year, Atlus' Catherine was a long meditation upon the nightmarish angst and fear that can emerge when trust fails a young relationship.
Last week, the company released a peculiar spinoff of its 15-year-old Persona role playing game series. Persona 4 Arena is a fighting game that takes place in suburban and rural Japan, not in the glitz of Tokyo. Often, a fighting game relies on superheroic characters like the vituperative, blade-wielding Nightmare in the SoulCalibur series. Or they can be caricatures of human types like the superpowerful Ryu in the Street Fighter series.
But Arena substantially sets itself apart from these other games of pugilism because the Persona series has rarely relied upon the more well-worn stereotypes of heroes or humans in its games. Instead, the Japanese franchise features a passel of teens who can reach into their burgeoning brains to summon their alternate beings. The Persona games' inspiration is partly derived from Jungian psychology, including the idea of collective unconscious and of archetypes.
When you begin Arena's story mode, you feel as though you're reading a graphic novel that's occasionally animated. The text-filled tale, as complex as it is long-winded, revolves around one of the four high schoolers you choose to become in the game. I became Chie Satonaka, a tomboy-ish high school junior, because I was drawn to the quirky description below her name on the main menu. It says she loves justice, kung fu ... and steak.
As the teens come together for a reunion, Chie, who wants to join the police force when she grows up, begins to investigate a re-emergence of something called "The Midnight Channel." Within the channel is a TV network that's also a portal to a world where Chie's Persona can be called upon as she battles very close friends who have unexplainably become enemies. "The Midnight Channel" is made into the weirdest of Twilight Zone episodes by Teddie, an anthropomorphic, cross-dressing bear who's been transformed into a cigar-smoking general. (I told you the game was curious.)
So when a character like Chie constantly second-guesses herself and within moments pumps her ego up to the point of swagger in Story Mode, it works because you expect anything and everything to happen. And when you finally play her character within a TV show co-hosted by what can only be described as the Japanese version of Gossip Girl, you understand fully her motivations, her weaknesses and her strengths.
Before each match, each character uses the nastiest of psychological throwdowns to get a leg up in the coming round. The battles that ensue are rife with speedy action. Chie becomes kind of a mash-up of Gabby Douglas and Claressa Shields, flipping and spinning and dragon kicking, punching, bouncing, double jumping. It's an amusement park of acrobatics. Then with the press of a button, she turns into her Persona, Tomoe, a samurai who wields something that looks like an oar with blades on either end. All the while, there's beauty in the strangeness, in the rendering of the protagonists, in the wide-ranging story and in the gameplay.
Persona 4 Arena features hundreds of fighter moves and eight spirited fighting modes, including online battles with a broadband connection. But it's the Story Mode that compels you to continue, because Chie and her cohorts feel real even when their world is at its wackiest. Chie makes you remember the gnawing ache of learning to grow and mature in a world that seems to be against you. And she makes you happy that you don't have to relive that particular bout of teenage mishegas. After an hour or so of play, you can leave the story and the arena for an adult world that is only sometimes rife with indecision, self-doubt and pain.
Harold Goldberg is the author of All Your Base Are Belong to Us: How 50 Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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- This event has passed.
Blessings Boutique
May 12, 2020 @ 11:00 am - 2:00 pm
The Blessings Boutique is located in the church's Darnell House, just to the west of the main building, at 109 N 5th Street. The boutique is open two Tuesday's a month for the community to shop. Gently-worn clothing, shoes, and accessories are available for men, women and children, and affordably priced from $1 – $5. Clothing is geared towards business to business casual.
All proceeds are used for the Missions of our church.
To donate gently-worn clothing, shoes or accessories, you may drop off your donation during shopping hours or call the Church Office at (580) 658-2765 to schedule a time.

subset: commoncrawl


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By Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr.
NNPA Columnist
All U.S. United Nations ambassadors sit in a perpetual hot seat. That comes with the assignment and to be periodically involved in public controversies is not out of the ordinary. Yet with the growing unprincipled and ultra-partisan attacks on the integrity, intelligence and competence of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, those who believe in freedom, justice, and equality cannot sit back and be silent in the face of these putrid political and undeserved personal attacks on the good character and reputation of Ambassador Rice.
Even though Rice has been one of the most effective and articulate U.S. ambassadors to the United Nations in recent memory, Republican Senators John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina are leading the misguided campaign against Ambassador Rice in the wake of the controversies surrounding the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012. We all mourn the loss of U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens and the other three Americans killed in Benghazi. Those responsible for the killings should be brought to justice.
But instead of demanding that an emphasis be put on finding and apprehending those responsible for the violence, Republicans have a contrived fixation on besmirching the leadership and character of Ambassador Rice. The question is why? What are the Republicans really trying to achieve by continuing their political campaign to tarnish the good name of Ambassador Rice?
Both McCain and Graham have announced their opposition to the possibility of President Barack Obama nominating Rice to serve as the next U.S. Secretary of State. Graham stated, "I don't trust her. I think she was a political choice, telling a political narrative, and either she didn't know the truth about Benghazi—so she shouldn't have been on T.V. – or she was spinning it…… I don't think that's a good resume to be Secretary of State."
McCain claimed, "My judgment at this time is that four Americans were killed, and the information that our U.N. ambassador conveyed was clearly false…. There was overwhelming evidence that it was completely false. And she should have known what the situation and circumstances were and not tell the world on all Sunday morning talk shows."
The fact is, however, on those Sunday morning talk shows after the tragedy in Benghazi, Ambassador Rice reported exactly and accurately the information that she had been given by U.S. intelligence officials at the early stages of the investigative analysis. This information was well known by McCain and Graham, yet they have persisted in attempting to undermine both President Obama and Ambassador Rice.
It is as if that McCain, Graham, Romney and many other Republicans are still sore losers because of the outcome of the 2012 national elections. President Obama stated, "But when they go after the U.N. ambassador, apparently because they think she's an easy target, then they've got a problem with me…. If Senator McCain and Senator Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me – and I'm happy to have that discussion with them."
Ambassador Rice also made it clear, "When discussing the attack against our facilities in Benghazi, I relied solely and squarely on the information provided to me by the intelligence community …. I made clear that the information was preliminary, and that our investigations would give us the definitive answers."
President Obama should continue to stand up for Ambassador Rice with strong fervor and renewed determination not to be sidetracked from pushing his national and international agenda forward. As the president contemplates his new cabinet, certainly Ambassador Rice should be considered for further duty. In fact, the recent controversies have only resulted in making Ambassador Rice as stronger diplomat and public servant loyal and committed to the president's leadership and direction. During the next four years, it is obvious that the forces of backwardness and regression will have to be challenged vigorously.
We support President Barack Obama and we stand with Ambassador Rice today and into the future. Now is the time for strong leadership domestically and internationally. American politics needs more balance from the opposition party, but it clear that the Republicans have yet to repent.
Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. is president of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network and Education Online Services Corporation and can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com


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UN joins forces with world's parliaments to combat human trafficking
"Around the world, millions of people, usually women and children, are trapped in a modern form of slavery called human trafficking," Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said at the launch of the handbook.
Trafficking in persons is a form of slavery, a human rights violation that constitutes a crime against the individual and the State, and it must be punished by legislative means, UNODC said in a news release.
"Twenty-first century abolitionists are now needed to enact laws and take measures to set victims of trafficking free and stamp out a crime that shames us all," stressed Mr. Costa, as he called on parliamentarians to put an end to human trafficking at the 120th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Addis Ababa.
According to a UNODC report published in February, based on information provided by 155 Member States, two out of every five countries covered by the report have yet to convict anyone on trafficking charges.
Although no UNODC figures are available for the number of trafficking victims worldwide, the UN International Labour Organization (ILO) has said that two million people become enslaved annually.
UNODC reported that only one victim out of every 100 trafficking cases is rescued, and at present there are 22,500 cases of people being recovered worldwide. Also, nearly 80 per cent of reported trafficking comprises sexual exploitation, but sweatshops and child exploitation are also prevalent.
"Combating Trafficking in Persons: A Handbook for Parliamentarians" – created in collaboration with IPU – contains a compilation of international laws and good practices developed to combat human trafficking, and offers guidance on how national legislation can be brought in line with international standards.
The handbook not only outlines measures to prevent the crime but also to prosecute offenders and to protect victims, and includes advice on how to report on human trafficking and how to enlist civil society in the cause.


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It became clear to me years ago that using the headphones supplied by the manufacturer to listen to a portable audio player is a lot like trying to eat watermelon through a straw—some delicious juice may get through, but you're certainly not making the most of the experience. Hence my ongoing quest for the ultimate on-the-go sonic solution, a journey of discovery that recently brought me to the extraordinary Shure E500 PTH sound-isolating earphones, which combine two ingenious innovations to create one irresistible product.
Shure has always excelled at squeezing out high-performance audio from tiny components, but the E500s take this mastery of miniaturization to new extremes by incorporating three separate audio drivers in each minuscule earbud. With one tweeter and two woofers in each ear, you get music reproduction with amazing range and precision. While vocals benefit most—the buds ably re-create every breathy nuance in my favorite Diana Krall torch songs—plucked guitar strings and brushed cymbals also come through with striking delicacy and clarity.
Achieving a great fit with earbuds is tremendously important, both to block out external noise and to ensure comfort during long listening sessions. Toward that end, Shure provides a generous "fit kit" with eight different interchangeable options, including soft rounded domes in three sizes, squishy foam sleeves and what looks like a plastic porcupine quill. (That last one must be comfy cozy for someone, but it just scares me.)
Shure's second major innovation with the E500PTH comes when the earbuds are snugly in place and you need to interrupt the music to give the barista your morning brew order, hear the pilot's comforting spiel or maybe listen to your wife. Instead of abruptly plucking the buds from your ears, just push a button on the included Push to Hear (PTH) module to activate a small microphone that pumps the sounds of the outside world into your ear canals. Push again and the music floods back in. It's an elegant solution to a common problem and, while I'm hoping the PTH module gets a lot smaller in a follow-up model, I'm already addicted to the convenience it provides. Priced at a decidedly upscale $499, the E500PTH is a high-end earphone, but you can purchase the PTH module alone, for use with any headphone or earbud you own, for just $59.
Visit www.shure.com.


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In my first blog for Feminism and Religion, I discussed the cognitive and embodied dissonance that some Muslims experience as a result of historically (not eternally) gendered ritual forms. I ended with a promise to share with readers the ways in which el-Tawhid Juma Circle mosques try to create space to break free of those forms. Our mosques affirm all human beings as spiritually, socially, and ritually equal and try to break down the social hierarchy of ritual and theological leadership by opening up a space for all bodies, minds, and hearts to lead and follow as equals among each other.
Breaking out of cognitive and embodied dissonance requires cognitive and embodied habituation to what Amina Wadud names, "The Tawhidic Principle." Meaning, the space must be one in which human beings can embody divine oneness by recognizing that their relationships with each other are on the horizontal plane and refrain from mediating between any other individual and God on the vertical plane. Wadud has described it as a triangle in which God is at the top with self and other at the two points beneath. Each has an individual relationship with God and a relationship of reciprocitous community with each other. Wadud argues that to mediate between another and God is nothing other than idolatry because the mediator forces another to accept that satisfying his expectations is the same as satisfying God.
Sufis make an analogy to tasting an apple to explain that God cannot be known fully in oneself except through direct experience. One cannot know an apple by hearing someone describe it or by understanding all of its elements intellectually. One must eat the apple and taste it for oneself. Our mosques seek to act as resources for the message that all human beings are ritually, spiritually, and socially equal to one another. Likewise, we try provide intellectual resources for analyses and critiques of historically patriarchal forms in Islam. But the key to the work we do is our effort to create a space in which people may carve out their own relationship with God directly in whichever way is healthiest for them.
Several related ground rules guide the establishment and maintenance of our spaces. They are rooted in the assumption that all human beings, all families, all bodies, and all loves are equal. It's not a point of discussion for us. First, everyone is an imam. Second, people must be free to stand and sit where they feel comfortable. Third, people must be free to physically express themselves and dress in a way that befits their own relationship with God. Fourth, people must be free to express their experience without correction or silencing.
Everyone has equal access to all possible roles in ritual leadership. Imagine a mosque in which all children are encouraged to learn to lead the prayer or give a sermon (with an adult partner to do the Arabic parts, a sweet one might tell us about a story with a message she loves). Imagine a mosque in which those of all abilities, all gender and sexual expressions, all bodies, all expressions of Islam, and all language abilities are welcome to call out to God by leading the prayer, giving a sermon, making the call to prayer, offering the group supplications, making tea, doing outreach, and sharing in each other's sorrows and joys. Imagine a mosque in which there is no side entrance for anyone literally or metaphorically. This is our vision.
We say that we pray "Mecca Style," but it is more than that. Those who have experienced sitting behind and without access to the imam may want to sit and stand in front. Those who have felt they had to hide at the sides or the back because their sexual identity opened them to humiliation or worse at other mosques may want to stand in the center or in the front. Families may want to sit together so children are not separated from their parents, so parents can take turns caring for the children together, and so they make experience community life in prayer together. Men who come to us, because they reject the social hierarchy of mosque organization, may want to stand in back to reject the "right" to stand in front.
Our dress code asks that we clothe ourselves in accordance with the nobility of the soul. There can be no policing of bodies. No declarations that nail polish, the lack of head scarf, or a t-shirt with a musician's image on it are threatening a person's relationship with God. This is easy to accept when a person wears unrevealing clothing. But if someone comes in wearing very low cut jeans and a thong that shows when they bend over, then it's a bit harder. Even for us. But everyone must accept that the individual determines their body's relationship with God. And the effect of their dress on others? Anyone who does not feel comfortable praying behind them, should not pray behind them. We try to help people understand that their gaze is their responsibility.
People must not be silenced. In such mosques, one's words cannot be censored by others. From AA, we have borrowed the no crosstalk rule. We often have a discussion period on Fridays and people share where they are with God, individually. Admittedly, it is hard not to affirm or deny a view when it resonates with you for good or ill. It's hard not to clarify for others. It's hard not to try to bridge differences. But being committed to the struggle to speak only for oneself only is to learn to acknowledge the true humanity in others and to enter into relationships of reciprocity with them. It is to acknowledge the diversity of souls and paths to God and learn from them.
Each week at the mosque is a work in progress. The struggle for those of us who do the day to day work of running these mosques is to find that delicate balance between opening a safe space for others and crowding them out with our efforts to do the right thing. While we see ourselves as part of global Muslim movements, diverse in their visions, who imagine human dignity beyond the bounds of the traditional social hierarchy, our mosques must be for the people who come to us and not the broader movements. The people are the purpose of our work. Thus the mosque should not highlight those who took the risks to establish it and do the hard work of running it each week. Paradoxically, creating a space for others means that one has to remove oneself from the center so that people may create their own dwelling in God's presence. That is not always easy, but tawhid is not a thing, it is a process. May we keep on keeping on.
Laury Silvers is a North American Muslim novelist, retired academic and activist. She is a visiting research fellow at the University of Toronto for the Department for the Study of Religion. Her historical mystery, The Lover: A Sufi Mystery, is available on Amazon (and Ingram for bookstores). Her non-fiction work centres on Sufism in Early Islam, as well as women's religious authority and theological concerns in North American Islam. See her website for more on her fiction and non-fiction work.
With El-Farouk Khaki and Troy Jackson, she founded Toronto Unity Mosque (ETJC) to serve all who desire to worship in full equality with others. Find us on Facebook. ETJC prayer communities are located in Toronto, Montreal, Boston, London (Ontario), and Vancouver. Other prayer spaces committed to human equality are run by Muslims for Progressive Values, USA, the Inclusive Mosque Initiative in London, UK, and individuals. Maybe you too? We help people start their own communities.


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The Real Problems With Psychiatry
A psychotherapist contends that the DSM, psychiatry's "bible" that defines all mental illness, is not scientific but a product of unscrupulous politics and bureaucracy.
On May 22, the American Psychiatric Association will release the fifth Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the DSM-5. It classifies psychiatric diagnoses and the criteria required to meet them. Gary Greenberg, one of the book's biggest critics, claims these disorders aren't real -- they're invented. Author of Manufacturing Depression: The Secret History of a Modern Disease and contributor to The New Yorker, Mother Jones, The New York Times and other publications, Greenberg is a practicing psychotherapist. The Book of Woe: The Making of the DSM-5 and the Unmaking of Psychiatry is his exposé of the business behind the creation of the new manual.
Can you talk about how the first DSM, published in 1952, was conceived?
One of the reasons was to count people. The first collections of diagnoses were called the "statistical manual," not the "diagnostic and statistical manual." There were also parochial reasons. As the rest of medicine became oriented toward diagnosing illnesses by seeking their causes in biochemistry, in the late 19th, early 20th century, the claim to authority of any medical specialty hinged on its ability to diagnose suffering. To say "okay, your sore throat and fever are strep throat." But psychiatry was unable to do that and was in danger of being discredited. As early as 1886, prominent psychiatrists worried that they would be left behind, or written out of the medical kingdom. For reasons not entirely clear, the government turned to the American Medico-Psychological Association, (later the American Psychiatric Association, or APA), to tell them how many mentally ill people were out there. The APA used it as an opportunity to establish its credibility.
How has the DSM evolved to become seen as the "authoritative medical guide to all of mental suffering"?
The credibility of psychiatry is tied to its nosology. What developed over time is the number of diagnoses, and, more importantly, the method by which diagnostic categories are established.
You're a practicing psychotherapist. Can you define "mental illness"?
No. Nobody can.
The DSM lists "disorders." How are disorders different from diseases or illnesses?
The difference between disease and disorder is an attempt on the part of psychiatry to evade the problem they're presented with. Disease is a kind of suffering that's caused by a bio-chemical pathology. Something that can be discovered and targeted with magic bullets. But in many cases our suffering can't be diagnosed that way. Psychiatry was in a crisis in the 1970s over questions like "what is a mental illness?" and "what mental illnesses exist?" One of the first things they did was try to finesse the problem that no mental illness met that definition of a disease. They had yet to identify what the pathogen was, what the disease process consisted of, and how to cure it. So they created a category called "disorder." It's a rhetorical device. It's saying "it's sort of like a disease," but not calling it a disease because all the other doctors will jump down their throats asking, "where's your blood test?" The reason there haven't been any sensible findings tying genetics or any kind of molecular biology to DSM categories is not only that our instruments are crude, but also that the DSM categories aren't real. It's like using a map of the moon to find your way around Russia.
So would you say that these terms -- disorder, disease, illness -- are just different names for the same concept?
I would. Psychiatrists wouldn't. Well, psychiatrists would say it sometimes but wouldn't say it other times. They will say it when it comes to claiming that they belong squarely in the field of medicine. But if you press them and ask if these disorders exist in the same way that cancer and diabetes exist, they'll say no. It's not that there are no biological correlates to any mental suffering -- of course there are. But the specificity and sensitivity that we require to distinguish pneumonia from lung cancer, even that kind of distinction, it just doesn't exist.
What are the most common misconceptions about the scientific nature of diseases such as depression?
I guarantee you that in the course of our conversation a doctor is telling a patient, "you have a chemical imbalance -- that's why you're depressed. Take Prozac." Despite the fact that every doctor who knows anything knows that there is no biochemical imbalance that causes depression, and most doctors understand that a diagnosis of depression doesn't really tell you anything other than what you already knew, that doesn't stop them from saying it.
Research on the brain is still in its infancy. Do you think we will ever know enough about the brain to prove that certain psychiatric diagnoses have a direct biological cause?
I'd be willing to bet everything that whenever it happens, whatever we find out about the brain and mental suffering is not going to map, at all, onto the DSM categories. Let's say we can elucidate the entire structure of a given kind of mental suffering. We're not going to be able to say, "here's Major Depressive Disorder, and here's what it looks like in the brain." If there's any success, it will involve a whole remapping of the terrain of mental disorders. And psychiatry may very likely take very small findings and trump them up into something they aren't. But the most honest outcome would be to go back to the old days and just look at symptoms. They might get good at elucidating the circuitry of fear or anxiety or these kinds of things.
What is the difference between a disorder and distress that is a normal occurrence in our lives?
That distinction is made by a clinician, whether it's a family doctor or a psychiatrist or whoever. But nobody knows exactly how to make that determination. There are no established thresholds. Even if you could imagine how that would work, it would have to be a subjective analysis of the extent to which the person's functioning is impaired. How are you going to measure that? Doctors are supposed to measure "clinical significance." What's that? For many people, the fact that someone shows up in their office is clinical significance. I'm not going to say that's wrong, but it's not scientific. And there's a conflict of interest -- if I don't determine clinical significance, I don't get paid.
You say one of the issues with taking these categories too seriously is that it eliminates the moral aspect behind certain behaviors.
It's our characteristic way of chalking up what we think is "evil" to what we think of as mental disease. Our gut reaction is always "that was really sick. Those guys in Boston -- they were really sick." But how do we know? Unless you decide in advance that anybody who does anything heinous is sick. This society is very wary of using the term "evil." But I firmly believe there is such a thing as evil. It's circular -- thinking that anybody who commits suicide is depressed; anybody who goes into a school with a loaded gun and shoots people must have a mental illness. There's a certain kind of comfort in that, but there's no indication for it, particularly because we don't know what mental illness is.
How do diagnoses affect people?
One of the overlooked ways is that diagnoses can change people's lives for the better. Asperger's Syndrome is probably the most successful psychiatric disorder ever in this respect. It created a community. It gave people whose primary symptom was isolation a way to belong and provided resources to those who were diagnosed. It can also have bad effects. A depression diagnosis gives people an identity formed around having a disease that we know doesn't exist, and how that can divert resources from where they might be needed. Imagine how much less depression there would be if people weren't worried about tuition, health care, and retirement. Those are all things that aren't provided by Prozac.
What are the dangers of over-diagnosing a population? Are false positives worse than false negatives?
I believe that false positives, people who are diagnosed because there's a diagnosis for them and they show up in a doctor's office, is a much bigger problem. It changes people's identities, it encourages the use of drugs whose side effects and long-term effects are unknown, and main effects are poorly understood.
In 1850, doctor Samuel Cartwright invented "drapetomania" -- a disease causing slaves to run away. How do social and historical context affect our understanding of mental illness?
Cartwright was a slaveholder's doctor from New Orleans -- he believed in the inferiority of what he called the "African races." He believed that abolitionism was based on a misguided notion that black people and white people were essentially equal. He thought that the desire for freedom in a black person was pathological because black people were born to be enslaved. To aspire to freedom was a betrayal of their nature, a disease. He invented "drapetomania," the impulse to run away from slavery. Assuming there wasn't horrible cruelty being inflicted on the slaves, they were "sick." He came up with a few diagnostic criteria and presented it to his colleagues.
So we corrected our notion of what counts as a "disease." Is there a modern equivalent?
Homosexuality is the most obvious example. Until 1973, it was listed as a disease. It's very easy to see what's wrong with "drapetomania," but it's easier to see the balancing act involved in saying homosexuality is or isn't a disease -- how something has to shift in society. The people who called homosexuality a disease weren't necessarily bigots or homophobes -- they were just trying to understand people who wanted to love people of their own sex. Disease is a way to understand difference that includes compassion. What has to shift is the idea that same-sex love is acceptable. Once that idea is there, it doesn't make sense to call homosexuality a disease.
Who was involved in the creation of the DSM-5?
The American Psychiatric Association owns the DSM. They aren't only responsible for it: they own it, sell it, and license it. The DSM is created by a group of committees. It's a bureaucratic process. In place of scientific findings, the DSM uses expert consensus to determine what mental disorders exist and how you can recognize them. Disorders come into the book the same way a law becomes part of the book of statutes. People suggest it, discuss it, and vote on it. Homosexuality was deleted from the DSM by a referendum. A straight up vote: yes or no. It's not always that explicit, and the votes are not public. In the case of the DSM-5, committee members were forbidden to talk about it, so we'll never really know what the deliberations were. They all signed non-disclosure agreements.
What are the important changes made in the new DSM, and how will they affect patients?
It's going to cause a lot of trouble when Asperger's Syndrome disappears. It may cause some trouble when the bereavement exclusion disappears. That's a good example of why the APA's going to be in trouble. It was so unnecessary, so stupid. They've made the absurd statement that they know the difference, two weeks after someone's wife dies, whether that person is "depressed," or just "in mourning." Come on! Who are these guys?
The APA released a series of drafts of the DSM-5 before publication. Why?
They solicited public input, to their great credit. But they never said what they were doing with it. They said "we got this number of responses" but not what the responses were. How they influenced the process, if at all. The other problem with the drafts is that they deleted them. The history of how these things developed will be difficult to trace unless you happened to make copies of the website, which was in explicit violation of the APA's copyright. They also tried to prevent people from using the draft criteria in any kind of academic paper -- an unprecedented move. They demanded that anybody who wanted to use the criteria would have to seek and obtain their permission for academic publication. Nobody's ever done that. There were a couple of high profile, embarrassing studies that were conducted with the draft criteria, and once that happened, the APA asserted copyright over the draft criteria.
The APA considers the DSM-5 a "living document." What do you think they mean by this?
It's one of those rhetorical flourishes that, if you dig into it, you realize is a real problem. There's a difference between a constitution and a book of medical diagnoses. It's not entirely clear what they mean by "living document," but it appears that they want to update as evidence comes in. That's not a bad idea -- they don't want to go through one of these massive, expensive, embarrassing overhauls of the diagnostic manual every five or ten or fifteen years, they want to update as they go. But in the meantime, people are getting diagnosed, drugs are getting developed and prescribed, research is being done, and nobody knows to what extent things will get revised as time goes on. The APA is trying to say it's always in flux. But if that's the case, why should we let it have so much power?
Can you talk about that? What does the DSM has power over?
To get an indication from the FDA, a drug company has to tie its drug to a DSM disorder. You can't just develop a drug for anxiety. You have to develop the drug for Generalized Anxiety Disorder or Major Depressive Disorder. You can't just ask for special services for a student who is awkward. You have to get special services for a student with autism. In court, mental illnesses come from the DSM. If you want insurance to pay for your therapy, you have to be diagnosed with a mental illness. Whatever future contact you have with the health care system will be affected by the fact that a mental illness is in your dossier. If you call it a living document, what happens to all the people who are diagnosed with Asperger's when that's thrown out? Will it be chaotic? Maybe.
Al Frances chaired the task force for the DSM-IV and has become one of the biggest critics of the DSM-5. What do you think of his arguments?
We agree that the DSM does not capture real illnesses, that it's a set of constructs. We disagree over what that means. He believes that that doesn't matter to the overall enterprise of psychiatry and its authority to diagnose and treat our mental illnesses. I believe it constitutes a flaw at the foundation of psychiatry. If they don't have real diseases, they don't belong in real medicine. Al's attack is overdone. I think he's really trying to keep scrutiny off of the whole DSM enterprise. That's why he's been so adamant that you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater -- he believes that the DSM-IV, for all of its flaws, its still worthwhile. I disagree.
Frances also worries that your criticisms are anti-psychiatry.
It's the universal paranoia of psychiatry that everybody who disagrees with them is pathological. You can't disagree with a psychiatrist without getting a diagnosis. I've been writing critically about psychiatry for ten years and I've always encountered that. Psychiatry is a defensive profession. They have a lot to protect and they know their weakness. To repel criticism in the strongest way possible, from their point of view, you diagnose the critic.
Can you talk about the intersection between psychiatry and psychology? How does the DSM relate to both fields?
Psychiatry's in charge of the DSM. Psychologists and other mental health professionals use the DSM. But psychiatrists have the power and money. I'm critical of the mental health professions in general, including my own practice. But the APA has appropriated this business to themselves. They guard it jealousy, they protect it with ruthless tactics, and yes, they take a disproportionate amount of the heat for this thing, but it's their baby. They make hundreds of millions of dollars off of this deal.
Related Story
Will the APA lose credibility?
Of course it will. The DSM-5 will come out on May 22 and people will take their pot shots at it -- like shooting fish in a barrel. I had to be convinced to write this book, though. How hard is it to criticize an organization that seriously thinks that it's okay to call "Internet Use Disorder" a mental illness? They're going to take shot after shot. And the response will be ineffectual and weak. They'll bob and weave, talk about the "living document," and unleash their line of bullshit.
Is there a solution?
The solution is to take the thing away from them. The APA owns these diagnoses. I didn't ask permission because I don't care -- let them sue me. But if anyone wants to put diagnostic criteria into this book, they have to pay the APA. That's absurd. And if you add the vacuousness of the document and the incompetence with which the revision was carried out -- take the damn thing away from them.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.


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Medical Surveys & Questionnaires
As a medical institution, you might be super confident in your personnel's professional abilities. However, as for any businesses who deals with paying customers, it's absolutely necessary to get feedback, regarding both medical staff and the institution itself. Jotform's surveys and questionnaires provide this chance. Since they are completely customizable, you can edit them to match your needs as well.
Medical Report Form
A medical report form is a document used by medical professionals for documenting a patient's medical treatment.Healthcare Forms
Screening Checklist for Visitors and Employees
Prevent the spread of COVID-19 with a free Screening Checklist for Visitors and Employees. Ideal for hospitals or other organizations staying open during the crisis.Checklist Forms
Patient Feedback Form
A patient feedback form is a survey with questions that allows medical doctors to gather feedback from patients regarding their overall experience with the clinic.Healthcare Forms
Coronavirus Case Report Template
People can report suspected cases of COVID-19 in their workplace or community. Easy to customize, integrate, and share online. No coding required.Healthcare Forms
Patient Medical History Form
The template is used by patients to register medical history through providing their personal information, weight, allergies, illnesses, operations, healthy habits, unhealthy habits. You can integrate the data to your own systems.Healthcare Forms
Gym health questionnaire Form
A gym health questionnaire is a health form that is used by gym instructors to track the health and fitness of their clients.Healthcare Forms
Skin Care Consultation Form
If you make a skin care consultation you can use this skin care consultation form to make an appointment for follow up check up. This facial consultation form template provides to collect contact information, skin information such as skin care goals, skin care challenges, skin care products that are used by the client, health information such as illnesses, allergies. Also, this skin consultation form template contains your policies and allows your policies to be accepted by your customers. You can collect your clients' signatures with this skin care client consultation form.Medical Surveys & Questionnaires
Contact Tracing Form
Reduce the spread of coronavirus with a free online Contact Tracing Form. Ideal for hospitals, medical organizations, and nonprofits. Collect data on any device.Medical Surveys & Questionnaires
Initial Visit Patient Forms (MDR)
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Medical Employment Information Form
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Medical Questionnaire
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Health Evaluation Form
If you have an online health service , this forms is suitable for you. Get your patient history, lifestyle and more. Customize it to your needsHealthcare Forms
COVID-19 Questionnaire
Record information about families in need. Free questionnaire for nonprofits. Easy to customize and embed. Integrate with 100+ apps. No coding required.Medical Surveys & Questionnaires
Covid Contact Tracing Form Template
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Counseling Intake Form
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Patient Health Questionnaire
If you have an online health service , this forms is suitable for you. Get your patient to fill the form so that you can be able to diagnose them.Healthcare Forms
Nutritional Assessment Questionnaire Form
Here is a Nutritional Assessment Questionnaire that is useful for health institutions to learn more about patients' eating habits by asking their blood sugar, fatty acid, inflammation, toxicity, and eating habits.Healthcare Forms
HIPAA Medical History Form
HIPAA Medical History Form allows gathering patient's contact details with their current symptoms, medications, allergies, drug use, and family medical history that allows for a better healthcare service and management process.Healthcare Forms
Health Survey
A health survey is a questionnaire used by medical professionals to collect information about their client's health.Healthcare Forms
Alternative Medicine-Patient Intake form
Do you work for alternative medicine? This alternative medicine disclaimer form is very useful for those herbal medicine practitioners, wellness practitioners, alternative medicine practitioners, holistic medicine practitioners, etc. This holistic health intake form will help you to gather your patients' current diet information, health concerns, lifestyle information, education, physical activity, etc. You can create a HIPAA Compliant holistic nutrition intake form today.Healthcare Forms
Veterinary EMR
Do you work for the veterinary group? This veterinary physical exam template is based on the SOAP template for a veterinary physical exam and evaluation. Veterinary treatment sheet template collects information about client's contact details, appointment time, client pet's details and client physical exam findings.Veterinary Service Forms
BMI Calculator
Here is a BMI Calculator which collects submitter name, age, gender information with their height and weight measurements and provides them with their body measurement index and body type information.Healthcare Forms
Patient Intake Form
Register new patients for your practice with a free online Patient Intake Form. Great for telemedicine or telehealth. Option for HIPAA compliance.Healthcare Forms
These templates are suggested forms only. If you're using a form as a contract, or to gather personal (or personal health) info, or for some other purpose with legal implications, we recommend that you do your homework to ensure you are complying with applicable laws and that you consult an attorney before relying on any particular form.


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The peak season for flights to San Jose Cabo is April, June and December . The low season for purchasing tickets is January, September and November .
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Depending on the number of days remaining before departure, the price of airfare for San Jose Cabo could change by more than 44%.
Jetradar suggests buying flights to San Jose Cabo in advance in order to choose the conditions for your flight based on your preferences and financial resources.


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WTP Development Status Meeting
Note: feel free to correct any errors/omissions in above attendance record.
Remember, any committer can add an agenda item. Typically, short announcements or news items go in the "Announcements" section at the beginning. Longer items or issues requiring discussion should go in the "Other business" section at end.
Announcements And Special Reports
- No status meeting next week.
- Build machine issues ... partially resolved. See bug 295394
- It is time to submit proposals for EclipseCon 2010. Deadline is December 18.
- This blog entry by Program Chair gives a good overview of what is expected and desired for this year's EclipseCon.
WTP Calendar
(Weekly Google Calendar updated through June, 2010)
For Galileo and Helios overall dates, see a Simultaneous Release Calendar
Quality Focus Items (Neil) - no updates this week
- Focus Item:
- Untargeted severity "Major" and higher bugs opened before Oct 1st, 2009 (Current: 1 - Previous: 3)
- Options:
- Target to a specific release or "future" if planning to fix but not in the next release
- Adjust severity as appropriate
- Ongoing Focus Items:
- Untargeted bugs with patches attached opened before August 1st, 2009 (Current: 11 - Previous: 15)
- Untargeted bugs with patches attached opened before Oct 1st, 2009 (Current: 17 - Previous: 21)
- Options:
- Mark invalid patches as obsolete
- Target bugs to a release or "future" if not a current release
WTP 3.1.x
Declared builds to resume in January.
See also the Galileo ramp down dates
- 01/08 M Build
- 01/15 M Build for SR2 RC1
- 01/29 M Build for SR2 RC2 (PMC Review starts following this build)
- 02/05 M Build for SR2 RC3 Can this be our final build?
- 02/12 R Build Final Build
- (02/26 Galileo SR2) (WTP 3.1.2) (fourth Friday of February)
Galileo Maintenance Plan
See WTP_3.1.x_Maintenance for documentation of scope of maintenance and approvals required.
- Ready to declare latest build?
- Does anyone need a declared build next week?
- Bugs
- RC1 05/14 (followed by weekly RCs, if needed)
- Final WTP 3.2 build 06/10
- (06/23 Helios Release)
Note: these (and our plan dates) are on 'Friday' of the week. But, we produce and test the build on Thursday of the week, and ideally declare on Thursday. The dates in the Google Web Tools group calendar are for 'Thursdays' since that's a calendar for committers. We give ourselves the buffer to Friday, as our "public" date, that others can pick up our build, just in case a regression is found on Thursday and we have to respin and retest. [Technically, some might say, we still have till the following Tuesday or Wednesday for "Simultaneous Release" due date ... but it's hard to do much in that window, without disrupting everyone ... so we'd not use that buffer, except for the worst emergencies.]
Other business
- Plan to remove "contributors page". There's been no objections and no volunteers to maintain it.
- Bug 295000 - Committers page is inaccurate and not maintained
- Ok to remove unused performance bundles? See bug 295202.
- Have heard from all but a few teams.
- heads up for unit test changes to allow tests that depend on JUnit 4. Educate yourself, but no mass updates recommended at this time. See bug 153429.
See also the WTP Meeting Archive-Reference Page.


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Lindeman's global popularity has been driven by the positive philosophy of Dr Henry Lindeman, who established Lindeman's in the Hunter Valley in 1843.
Perfect for everyday moments, yet equally worthy of an occasion, Lindeman's immensely popular wines are approachable and accessible, with an unfailing record of consistent quality and timeless appeal.
What makes us smile? Friends and family around the table, sharing stories over a bottle of wine, hearty conversation and great food, any day of the week and any time of year.
In every bottle of Lindeman's wine you will find the spirit of our founder, Dr Henry Lindeman. From humble beginnings in the Hunter Valley in 1843, Dr Lindeman laid a strong foundation for what has become one of the world's most popular wines.
The first Lindeman's wine to venture overseas was in 1858, when Lindeman's Cawarra Claret was exported to the United Kingdom. By 1862, Lindeman's wines were being exhibited widely around the world and Lindeman's Cawarra gained international recognition at the International Exhibition, London. The accolades and awards continued to follow and over the next 100 years, Lindeman's global footprint grew significantly.
It was in the 1980s that Lindeman's most well-known wine was created. Lindeman's iconic Bin 65 Chardonnay was launched in Canada in 1985 in response to the popularity of Lindeman's approachable and fruit-driven style of wines in the northern hemisphere. Following its success in Canada and the United States, Lindeman's Bin 65 was then 'brought home' to Australia in 1991.
Bin 65 Chardonnay captured the world's adoration of Australian wine and propelled the popularity of Lindeman's on an international scale. The Bin Series has since grown to incorporate 18 popular varieties.
Today, Lindeman's is enjoyed in over 100 countries around the world. We are proud to draw on 170+ years of continued winemaking and entrepreneurship to craft popular wine styles that people simply love to drink.
Read More


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SSD products and deployments have been a hot topic of late, but consumer SSD options are still confined to the extreme high end of the market. Faster drives and a falling cost-per-gigabyte should help bring drive costs down from the stratosphere and into a price bracket more consumers can afford, but the focus in the manufacturing world right now is on boosting storage capacities and performance, not reducing costs. It's very much a game right now where every 12 months, we're going to see considerable breakthroughs in performance.
Yesterday, memory manufacturer OCZ announced a SATA-II drive that will offer read/write speeds of 120MB and 100MB. That's a substantial improvement over first-generation SSDs, which typically offer read/write speeds in the 60MBps/35MBps range. At first, the drives will be available in 32GB or 64GB capacities.
The graph below compares drive speed between current SSD models and the highest-end laptop drive available. Performance numbers for the SSD drives are manufacturer-reported, while the Hitachi 7K200's performance is drawn from Storage Review's review of that unit. The discrepancy isn't ideal, but Hitachi doesn't report drive performance in the same way as most manufacturers.
Hitachi's Travelstar 7K200 actually compares quite well against Samsung's first-generation SSD, but second-generation, SATA-II drives will outstrip anything a traditional spindle-based hard drive can offer.
OCZ's listed MSRP of $499 for the 32GB drive and $1,099 for the 64GB drive won't smash any price barriers, but it will put pressure on the market and thereby lower the cost of lesser drives. As drive capacities continue to grow and interface speeds increase, the high-capacity, high-end models of today will become the budget models of next year, too. OCZ isn't the only player making waves right now with SSD-related announcements.
As we recently discussed, Intel has big plans for the SSD market in 2008 that could rapidly turn today's top-end drive into tomorrow's midrange model. According to Intel CEO Paul Otellini, the company will launch 80GB and 160GB SSDs later this year. These new drives will utilize the Open NAND Flash Interface 2.0 and should be capable of a sustained 200MB/100MB read/write speed. This type of rapid-pace development isn't bad for OCZ and other players—it'll actually allow them to sell more drives at a variety of price points. Consumers, meanwhile, will benefit as well, particularly if the rapid pace of development pushes first-gen drives into the "genuinely affordable" market.
Further reading
- "Intel to fight recession with solid-state drives"
- "New high-speed flash gets giant speed boost"
- "Samsung begins volume production of 2.5" 64GB SATA 3.0 SSDs"
- "EMC offers SSDs in enterprise storage array"
- "No spin: Ars reviews the MacBook Air with solid state drive"
- Storage Review: "Hitachi Travelstar 7K200"


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Game On: 2014 Giro d'Italia Starts Friday
Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! Download the app.
AFP/Yuzuru Sunada
May 08, 2014: The experienced legs of former Tour de France champion Cadel Evans face the test of a climb-heavy Giro d'Italia, and some more sprightly rivals, when the three-week Italian epic begins on Friday. Evans, a third-place finisher last year when Italian Vincenzo Nibali triumphed ahead of Rigoberto Uran, comes into the 97th edition amid a promising season and on the back of overall victory at the Giro del Trentino.
In what is the twilight of his career and with Nibali and several other big names concentrating on the Tour de France, the 37-year-old Australian has faith in a "committed" BMC team coming good against a pack of hungry, younger riders over three tough weeks of racing. BMC has been boosted by the inclusion of 2008 Olympic road race champion Samuel Sanchez of Spain, one of the best climbers in the peloton.
"I'm delighted with the Giro team we have," Evans said. "They are absolutely committed riders and these are really my guys I trust and know I can rely on. Having a lieutenant like Samuel is far more than I could have hoped for."
Yet with a total of nine of the 21 stages in the mountains, Evans will have to deal with at least one true climbing specialist as well as more rounded overall rivals all determined to make their mark. Colombia's Nairo Quintana (Movistar), who climbed his way to a runner-up finish behind Chris Froome on his Tour de France debut last year, is a huge favorite and is expected to come good in the final week when recuperation will be key to tackling a series of high-altitude climbs.
Countryman Uran (Omega-Pharma), who pipped Evans to runner-up place behind Nibali last year, is another strong bet, as is Spaniard Joaquin Rodriguez and Italian veteran Michele Scarponi (Astana). Quintana, speaking at a pre-race conference on Wednesday alongside Uran, Rodriguez, Evans and Scarponi, said he would be taking his bid day by day.
"Everyone sat here has virtually the same chance of winning the Giro," said the Colombian. "At the moment it's all square but that will soon change once the race starts. I'm in good form and ready to fight for the title. All I can do is hope everything goes well."
Known for its famous pink jersey, awarded to the overall winner on the final day, the Giro's opening stages will take on a slightly green hue. The opening three days will be held on the Emerald Isle, beginning with a team time trial in Belfast on Friday and ending with stage three from Belfast to Dublin on Sunday.
The race returns to Italy on Tuesday for stage four and the beginning of the hostilities as riders and teams battle for stage wins and the overall title. On the way, there will be opportunities for the fast men of the peloton, like Germany's Marcel Kittel (Shimano).
"I think the route this year is good for me as a sprinter given the different opportunities for bunch finishes," said Kittel, who won the opening stage of last year's Tour de France to take the yellow jersey.
Kittel claimed a further three stages last July, including the final stage when he ended the four-year winning streak of British rival Mark Cavendish, not racing the Giro, on the Champs Elysees.
The battle for the pink jersey will also be held over three time-trials, adding to the difficulty of five stages in the medium mountains and four at high altitude, including the 20th and penultimate stage to Monte Zoncolan. Victory in the opening stage team time-trial could give one team command of the race, and plenty of air time, for the opening stages. However the next race against the clock, the 41.9 km-long "wine stage" from Barbaresco to Barolo, will play an early role in whittling down the field on stage 12. The final time-trial will be held over 26.8 km from Bassano del Grappa to Monte Grappa on stage 19, a day before the stage to the notoriously difficult stage to Monte Zoncolan.


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All News Releases By Date
Six Cape Cod Towns, plus the National Seashore Seek to Protect Coastal Water from Boat Pollution
Release Date: 04/29/2011
Contact Information: David Deegan, (617) 918-1017
(Boston, Mass. – April 29, 2011) – EPA is considering a proposal to designate the coastal waters of six towns and the Cape Cod National Seashore as a "No Discharge Area." If approved, discharges of treated and untreated boat sewage would be prohibited within the town boundaries of Chatham, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro and Provincetown. The area also part of the Cape Cod National Seashore.
On behalf of the Commonwealth, the Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management (MA CZM) has petitioned EPA to approve the No Discharge designation, with the town's and the Cape Cod National Seashore office's concurrence. EPA has in turn published the request in the Federal Register and will accept public comments on the proposal for 30 days, ending May 29, 2011.
"Protecting coastal water quality and our local environment is a wise step to protect the foundation of vibrant local economies and healthy communities," said Curt Spalding, regional administrator of EPA's New England office. "Especially in areas that enjoy robust tourism and a productive shellfishery, EPA applauds these Cape Cod communities and the National Seashore for taking this important step to protect the environment."
Before EPA will endorse a No Discharge Area designation for any area, the applicant must demonstrate that there are enough "pumpout" facilities where boaters can get their sewage holding tanks pumped out. This particular area has an estimated 519 boats, of which 91 may have a head or toilet on board. There is only one small harbor within the proposed area, which is Nauset Harbor, which does have a pumpout. Small skiffs owned by the residents of the area are the primary users of Nauset Harbor. Other vessels that would use the harbor would most likely come from Provincetown Harbor, Pleasant Bay, or Chatham Harbor, all of which are currently NDAs and have pumpout facilities for these boaters.
"Our coastal waters are precious natural resources and recreational opportunities, important to residents and visitors alike," said EEA Secretary Richard K. Sullivan Jr. "By keeping bacteria and pathogens from boat sewage out of these precious natural resources, we are ensuring that everyone can enjoy clean water along this landmark stretch of shoreline for years to come."
The majority of the coastline of the proposed area is within the Cape Cod National Seashore. The National Seashore encompasses 43,500 acres and was established by Congress in 1961 to "preserve the nationally significant and special cultural and natural features, distinctive patterns of human activity, and ambience that characterize the Outer Cape, along with the associated scenic, cultural, historic, scientific, and recreational values", and to, "provide opportunities for current and future generations to experience, enjoy, and understand these features and values."
The various beaches, marshes, and harbors and their recreational opportunities attract thousands of visitors to Cape Cod every year. On the eastern shore of Cape Cod, from Chatham to Provincetown there are 24 bathing beaches covering over thirty miles of coastline.
"Like all NDA designations, this is a team effort. Local, state and federal partners are working together to both protect these coastal waters and make it easy for boaters to properly dispose of sewage through convenient pumpout options," said Bruce Carlisle, CZM Acting Director. "I'd like to thank these six Cape Cod communities for their commitment to protecting coastal water quality and habitat."
Many other areas in New England already have designated their coastal waters as No Discharge Areas these include:
• All state marine waters of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire;
• In Massachusetts: All waters except Mount Hope Bay, Nantucket and Vineyard Sounds and Martha's Vineyard waters.
• In Maine, Boothbay Harbor, Casco Bay, Kennebunk/Kennebunkport/Wells, Southern Mount Desert area and West Penobscot Bay (Camden/Rockport/Rockland);
More information:
- No Discharge Areas in New England (https://www.epa.gov/ne/eco/nodiscrg/index.html)
- How to comment on proposal (http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=EPA-R01-OW-2010-0316-0001 ) Docket number: EPA-R01-OW-2010-0316
# # #
Follow EPA New England on Twitter: http://twitter.com/epanewengland
Search this collection of releases | or search all news releases
View selected historical press releases from 1970 to 1998 in the EPA History website.


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You are one of the few out there whose wings are
truly ANGELIC. Selfless, powerful, and
divine, you are one blessed with a certain
cosmic grace. You are unequalled in
peacefulness, love, and beauty. As a Being of
Light your wings are massive and a soft white
or silver. Countless feathers grace them and
radiate the light within you for all the world
to see. You are a defender, protector, and
caretaker. Comforter of the weak and forgiver
of the wrong, chances are you are taken
advantage of once in awhile, maybe quite often.
But your innocence and wisdom sees the good in
everyone and so this mistreatment does not make
you colder. Merciful to the extreme, you will
try to help misguided souls find themselves and
peace. However not all Angelics allow
themselves to be gotten the better of – the
Seraphim for example will be driven to fighting
for the sake of Justice and protection of those
less powerful. Congratulations – and don't ever
change – the world needs more people like you.
*~*~*Claim Your Wings – Pics and Long Answers*~*~*
brought to you by Quizilla


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Cuomo says NY will boost beer, wine, liquor sales
Staff Writer
The Leader
Gov. Andrew Cuomo says state government will put the promotion of beer, wine and liquor made in New York "on steroids" to boost jobs and help the growing industries.
Cuomo along with farmers and orchard growers are meeting Wednesday in Albany for New York's "Wine, Beer and Spirits Summit."
The aim of the meeting is to boost wine production and craft brewers, in part to spur job growth.
Cuomo and the state Farm Bureau will lead the discussion of ways state government can help these old, but small, industries flourish in New York.
A similar summit on Greek-style yogurt resulted in the easing of some environmental protection restrictions on dairy farms.


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CANBERRA, Australia — An Australian icebreaker carrying 52 passengers who were retrieved from an icebound ship in the Antarctic resumed its journey home on Saturday, leaving behind another two icebreakers trapped in pack ice.
The Aurora Australis will continue its interrupted resupply mission to Australia's Antarctic base Casey Station before returning to the Australian island state of Tasmania in mid-January with the rescued scientists, journalists and tourists.
It had been slowly cracking through thick ice toward open water after a Chinese ship's helicopter on Thursday plucked the passengers from their stranded Russian research ship Akademik Shokalskiy and carried them to an ice floe near the Australian ship. But on Friday afternoon, the crew of the Chinese icebreaker Xue Long, or Snow Dragon, that had provided the helicopter said they were worried about their own ship's ability to move through the ice.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority's Rescue Coordination Centre, which oversaw the rescue, told the Aurora to stay in the area in case help was needed. Under international conventions observed by most countries, ships' crews are obliged to take part in such rescues and the owners carry the costs.
The U.S. Coast Guard said Saturday that one of its cutters, the Polar Star, is responding to a Jan. 3 request from Australia, Russia and China to assist the two trapped ships. The Polar Star was cutting short its planned stop in Sydney, Australia, to assist the Russian and Chinese ships because they may not be able to free themselves from the ice.
"Our highest priority is safety of life at sea, which is why we are assisting in breaking a navigational path for both of these vessels." Vice Adm. Paul F. Zukunft, the Coast Guard Pacific Area Commander, said in a statement released by the Coast Guard after passengers had been successfully evacuated from the Russian ship. "We are always ready and duty bound to render assistance in one of the most remote and harsh environments on the face of the globe."
The Polar Star left its homeport of Seattle in early December to take part in one of its main missions, Operation Deep Freeze, to break a channel through the sea ice of McMurdo Sound to resupply and refuel the U.S. Antarctic Program's McMurdo Station on Ross Island. The Polar Star is the U.S. Coast Guard's only active heavy polar ice breaker.
On Saturday, AMSA said the Aurora was allowed to continue and that the Chinese ship was safe assistance.
Andrew Peacock, an Australian doctor and photographer who was rescued from the Russian ship, said his fellow passengers had been frustrated by the news Friday that their journey home had been delayed by another potential rescue operation.
"My feeling, and those of others I believe, today is one of relief at finally having a concrete plan for how and when we can return to loved ones, family and friends," Peacock said in an email from the Aurora.
The Chinese ship remained stuck several kilometers (miles) from the Russian icebreaker Akademik Shokalskiy, from which the passengers were rescued. The Russian ship has been immobile since Christmas Eve.
A reporter for China's official Xinhua News Agency who is aboard the Snow Dragon, Zhang Jiansong, said an iceberg appeared overnight and blocked the ship's return route. He said the ship would again try to find a way out, possibly as early as Monday.
Zhang said late Saturday that the 101 crew members on board the vessel were safe and had plenty of supplies.
An Antarctic tourism operator is holding out hope that the Russian icebreaker will be free in time to take 48 sightseers on a cruise of Antarctica's Ross Sea.
Heritage Expeditions has leased the Akademik Shokalskiy to depart New Zealand for the cruise on Jan. 17.
Heritage Expeditions general manager David Bowen said he would give the ship until Monday to break free from the pack ice before considering "other options."
The Aurora had offloaded only 70 percent of its cargo at Casey last month before it was diverted to the rescue.
It will now deliver the remaining 30 percent, which includes scientific equipment vital to research projects scheduled to be carried out during the narrow window of the Antarctic summer.
Australian Antarctic Division acting director Jason Mundy said the rescue had stretched resources for the summer research program, which he hoped to recoup from the Russian ship's insurer.
In addition to the disruption to Australia's scientific program, the rescue will cost Australian taxpayers 400,000 Australian dollars ($358,000), Environment Minister Greg Hunt's spokesman John O'Doherty said.
Associated Press writers Kristen Gelineau in Sydney and Didi Tang in Beijing contributed to this report.


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About Mordax
Hello. I am an aspiring author and editor as I'm sure many of you are. If you happen to be on my profile or reading my work, thank you!! I hope to improve in any way possible which is why I'm here.
A bit about me:
I love to read, my current favorite book being the entirety of The Giver series (I'm nostalgic, what can I say). I also watch too much anime and am particularly fond of any genius, manipulative villains [looking at you Light Yagami ]. I love any music (literally anything). Okay, I lied. I love any music except country... And lastly, I love food and making it. Growing up on Korean food, I have a particular fondness for it especially.
she/her - asexual
I enjoy writing, reading, listening to music, and cooking.
I work full time at a bank as well as go to college. I'm currently a freshman, double majoring in accounting and English.


text:
"Is that Nicholas?" my sister-in-law asked. She was on the other end of the phone line when her nephew – my son – started playing the piano. "Wow!" she exclaimed. Wow, indeed. I looked over at the piano where my 10-year-old was playing Beethoven's "Für Elise" and told him, "She's impressed." His face brightened as he announced, "I'll go get my sax!"
Oh no. Roll over Beethoven. Here comes that darned saxophone.
My sons have been taking piano lessons for nearly two years, and it shows. When he's not playing Beethoven, Nicholas likes to compose his own classical songs, and they're pretty good. His little brother, however, prefers Sinatra. When he plays "New York, New York," it feels like intermission at Broadway show around here. Milk Dud, anyone?
More From Good Housekeeping
But then fourth grade band class had to go and ruin it all. In our school system, fourth graders have to choose an instrument to play for band – and it can't be the piano. My son chose the tenor saxophone, the same instrument that Clarence Clemons plays for Bruce Springsteen's band, only for Clarence, the sax isn't nearly as big as he is. Also, when he practices, geese don't answer him.
I certainly don't expect my son to be able to master the saxophone in just one month of practice. I'd just like his sax to stay at school until he does. Unlike our digital piano, his sax has no volume button. Worse, it's mobile, which is why he wound up on our front step the other day, jamming. As he set up his sax, our fourth grade neighbor, David, announced, "I'll go get my trumpet!"
Okay! And I'll go get a drink!
My younger son grabbed his recorder and joined the impromptu band on the front step, when the police showed up, lights flashing, down the street. I had a vision of the boys in high school, when, no doubt, the sax and the trumpet will add guitars and a garage. My garage. "Mrs. Singer," the police will say. "Is this your son? And is this his sax?"
But the policeman was merely pulling over a speeding car. He left before the boys started playing their second "song." Phew.
I turned back to the, uh, band. My younger son – a third grader – put down his recorder mid-song, and shouted, "Mom! Next year, I'm gonna play the clarinet!"
Oh no. Roll over Sinatra.


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Drew Lindsay is a dynamic Australian Novelist and Writer. He has travelled extensively throughout Australia and the world. His background includes working as a Policeman and detective, then managing his own private investigation business as well as working in Fraud Investigation Management positions within the insurance industry.
Drew is a PADI Divemaster and holds a private pilot's license. He has a great love of entertaining others with his vivid imagination. His novels allow the reader to escape into worlds of romance, excitement, humour and fast paced adventure. Drew lives on the north coast of New South Wales with his wife.


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Powering Down
With the economy crumbling, banks folding, and major corporations looking for handouts, CEOs are often cast as the bad guys. You're getting out at a good time. I put this into process several years ago, before I had any idea of what was going to happen with the economy. If anything, I have some regrets about leaving now. I love challenges.
When you see corporate heads getting grilled on Capitol Hill, do you have empathy for them? Absolutely. You have to. Some of them make some very bad mistakes and have reasons for being there, but others get caught up in the politics of things. It's difficult. A company like ours, we're over a hundred years old, and I was constantly reminded of decisions that were made thirty, fifty, sometimes a hundred years ago that I had to live with. You just make the best decisions possible with the information you have and move forward.
Retirement leads to a lot of reflection. What are you most proud of? I feel like I've helped the company get to a good place. We became publicly traded again [in 2006]. We pretty much finished up working through—with the Public Utility Commission—most of the issues around the Trojan nuclear plant, and we finished our new plant, Port Westward. We've got wind plants coming in the future, so it seems like a good time to hand things off.
Is it more difficult providing energy to a city that seems to care so much about the topic? I think people in Portland are tougher. I don't think they realize what we do, or that we're given enough credit for what we do. We have one coal-fired plant in the state. We depend less on coal than many other utilities do. People expect more from us in that regard than they do in other areas, and they also want lower prices. If you have lower prices, it's probably because you're dependent on coal, or you're dependent on an old nuclear plant, and sometimes people don't understand that.
What are some of PGE's goals moving forward? The state has a renewable energy standard: we're supposed to have 25 percent of our energy from renewable resources by 2025, and we will meet that. Going into the future, for us it's more about wind and solar power. With the completion of the [Biglow] Canyon wind-plant projects, I think we'll be at about 11 percent, and that's not counting hydro. We probably don't get enough credit for that: about 25 percent of our energy comes from hydro.
Are there any particular energy-related challenges facing Portland? Not really. We're number one in the nation for renewable energy, so if anything we have an advantage. We're very fortunate to have a variety of resources, where we can choose between hydro and gas, and we've got a lot of solar in the area that we can use. Wind, too. We have a good transmission system with Bonneville power.
So what now? I guess we'll start with our vacation home in Redmond. I want to ski more, play a little more golf, and I need to make sure that I stay with my exercise program. But mainly it's about leaving some flexible time, so that I'm not booked every single minute of the day like I have been.
And when your electricity goes out or you don't agree with your PGE bill? I'll use the regular channels: I'll call customer service.
You won't even pull a "do you know who you're talking to"? That would be very inappropriate. If there's an outage, my power doesn't come on before any other person's. I'm just the same as anybody else now.


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New hope for the beer business?
According to recent survey by Consumer Edge Insight, 39 percent of alcohol-drinking consumers name beer as their favorite category.
Trailing beer was spirits at 31 percent and wine at 25 percent. Consumers named flavored malt beverages 4 percent of the time and alcoholic cider was last at 1 percent.
That's good news for the beer industry as the category has been beaten down in recent years. For the past three years, the category saw declines in volume, (which measures sales without regard to price or currency changes). However, some expect 2012 may be the year the trend is reversed.


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Pretty much everyone (myself included) has been reading Google+ wrongly. Because it bears many superficial resemblances to social networks such as Facebook or Twitter - you can "befriend" people, you can "follow" people without their following you back - we've thought that it is a social network, and judged it on that basis. By which metric, it does pretty poorly - little visible engagement, pretty much no impact on the outside world.
If Google+ were a social network, you'd have to say that for one with more than 500 million members - that's about half the size of Facebook, which is colossal - it's having next to no wider impact. You don't hear about outrage over hate speech on Google+, or violent videos not getting banned, or men posing as 14-year-old girls in order to befriend real 14-year-old girls. Do people send Google+ links all over the place, in the way that people do from LinkedIn, or Twitter, or Facebook? Not really, no.
There's a simple reason for this. Google+ isn't a social network. It's The Matrix.
Yes - you know, the one from the film. The one that knows everything you're thinking, and which guides what you see and experience.
Consider: if you create a Gmail account, you'll automatically get a Google+ account. Even if you don't ever do anything with it, the Google+ account will track you wherever you're signed in to your Google account.
If you're not signed in when you visit it, Google's front page has a "SIGN IN" button in red and white in the top right: prime colouring and location to grab your attention.
Maps? If you want to save locations, Google+ is pushed at you (for sharing too, though you can avoid it). You have to sign into your Google+ account to edit anything with its Mapmaker facility. (You have to have an account to edit OpenStreetMap too, though there are lots of accounts you can use - an OSM one, or Google, Yahoo, Wordpress, AOL.)
YouTube? You can use it without signing in (you'll get a "Sign in" label in the top) but of course you can't participate by, say, commenting. Update: Google now requires you to have a Google+ account to comment on YouTube. Why? "We've released several new features that integrate YouTube and Google functionality.. In order to take advantage of these new features, your channel needs to update to our Google-wide identity system, which works both on YouTube and also across the rest of Google. This identity system is powered by Google+." (Emphasis added.)
Drive? Shopping? Wallet? The soon-to-come paid music service? Google+ demands that you log in, so it can sees it all, and log it.
The reason why it doesn't seem like much of a social network is that the "friending" and "following" are just an accidental outgrowth of what it really does - being an invisible overlay between you and the web, which watches what you're doing and logs it and stores that away for future reference.
That's where the "Matrix" part come in. Next time you're searching for something, or looking on a map, or searching on YouTube, you'll see what Google has decided are the "most relevant" results (and of course the "most relevant" adverts). If you frequent climate change denial sites, a search on "climate change" will turn those up ahead of the sites run by rational scientists. Whatever your leaning, politically, sexually, philosophically, if you let Google+ see it then that will be fed back to you. It's the classic "filter bubble".
(You can, by the way, escape from the Google+ filter bubble by using its Ajax search API, which simply gives the "pure" results like you might have received back in, oh, 2007. But not for much longer. It was "deprecated" in November 2010. Although it's still working as of this writing, in future you'll need to sign in with - you guessed - a Google account.)
Of course, in the post-Google+ world, the "most relevant" results are increasingly those which also point to content on Google properties. The idea of the Matrix is that there's less and less outside the Matrix. But some people have noticed. The outcry when this version of search was switched on in the US in January 2012 was remarkable: Twitter, Facebook and MySpace developers united in writing a plugin called "Don't Be Evil", which stripped out the search biasing that Google seemed to be adding in so as to push its product in peoples' faces, and make it seem more popular than it was. Well, the Matrix doesn't really allow for things outside the Matrix; and Facebook, Twitter and (less so) MySpace all lie beyond its spidering. And in Europe, the antitrust commissioner Joaquin Almunia has said that Google has to make "more concessions" over how it presents search results - where it presently gives its properties a lot of prominence - if it's to avoid a big court battle.
Google+'s designs on our movements haven't gone unnoticed. Ben Thompson, author of the Stratechery blog, has made this point recently, as has Benedict Evans of Enders Analysis in his Google I/O impressions.
Thompson first:
Think about it: what is more valuable? [Facebook's] Inane chatter, memes, and baby photos, or every single activity you do online (and increasingly offline)? Google+ is about unifying all of Google's services under a single log-in which can be tracked across the Internet on every site that serves Google ads, uses Google sign-in, or utilizes Google analytics.
Every feature of Google+ – or of YouTube, or Maps, or GMail, or any other service – is a flytrap meant to ensure you are logged in and being logged by Google at all times.
And Evans:
Just as Microsoft cross-leveraged Windows and Office, and then Internet Explorer, Google is cross-leveraging search, Gmail, Maps, Android and everything else, tying them together with Plus.
The objective is to index not just the web but the users - to drive better understanding of the data by knowing how and where people use it. This is the point of Google Plus - it's not a social network, but a unified Google identity to tie all of your search and indeed internet use together in a Google database just like Pagerank.
If you want an alternative way to think about Google+, you could start with Horace Dediu's wonderful metaphor comparing what Google does to catching fish:
Google tries to make a business succeed through having a huge amount of _flow_ in terms of data, traffic, queries and information that is indexed. So think about this idea of them tapping into a vast stream. The more volume that is flowing through the system the more revenue they generate.
As so given this very rough analogy I try to sharpen it up by saying: imagine it more as a river. And even more than a river, as a watershed, a river basin. Perhaps a giant basin the size of a continent. The business is, let's say, capturing fish at the mouth of the biggest river, before it exits into the ocean at its delta.
And so your job (as Google) is to catch fish mostly at one point. It's the most efficient way to catch fish because you have the most flow of water at that point and building nets is not trivial.
If you use that metaphor, then Google+ puts radio tags on all the fish. It's so much easier to know where they're going. (Ignore for a moment that you're the fish. It only gets in the way.)
The question really is, now you know that, are you comfortable with it? Personally I always found the choice at the heart of The Matrix a puzzling one. The choices seemed to be: you can know that the world you live in is a blasted, awful place with a dire climate, or you can live in what seems like a fairly comfortable world (as long as you don't mess with the agents, of course).
To be honest, I always wondered whether the people whose "lives" (computer-generated or no) were upended by Neo, the hacker hero of the film, really liked having that choice made for them.
Anyhow, that's what Google+ is about. Discussing it as if it were a social network which needs activity in the way that Facebook and Twitter do misses the point. It really doesn't matter if you never use it, never fill out your profile, never fill a circle, never get added to anyone's circle. What matters to Google is that you're signed in, in order that it can form its matrix of knowledge about you.
So now that you know: red pill or blue pill? Sign in or sign out?


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May 30, 2009
An emotional fight over land for Flight 93 memorial
Posted: 01:43 PM ET
By Eric Fiegel and Kate Bolduan CNN
SOMERSET COUNTY, Pennsylvania (CNN) - A chain link fence now stands between Tim Lambert's land and the impact site of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed here on September 11, 2001. The property has been in Lambert's family for almost 80 years.
"My grandfather purchased about 200 acres in the 1930s, and he would cut timber and sell the timber off, and he would build cabins as well," Lambert says. "That's how he got the family through the Depression."
Lambert says he had no plans for the land, he just knew he wanted to hold on to it. "There's a lot of natural resources in this area - natural gas, coal," he says.
That all changed the day 40 passengers and crew died trying to take control of a Boeing 757 that had been hijacked by four terrorists as it took off from Newark, New Jersey, bound for San Francisco, California. It is believed the hijackers had intended crash the plane into the White House or the U.S. Capitol.
Plans for a permanent memorial have been in the works for years. Congress passed a law in 2002 instructing the National Park Service to establish a national memorial where the crash occurred. Part of it would be on Lambert's land.
In the seven years since, some of the most important land needed for the massive project has remained in limbo, producing an emotional debate among landowners, family members and the National Park Service. See plans for the proposed Flight 93 Memorial
At the center of the dispute is the government's plan to take the remaining land needed by using its power of eminent domain. The government can seize privately owned property to convert it to public use after paying the owner fair market value.
Lambert's land is key to the project. He owns 6 acres that are just feet from the crash site. He has yet to reach an agreement with the government to buy his land.
"Eminent domain was sort of dropped on us at the last second here," he says, "and it feels like we never even had a chance to talk about some of the issues that we needed to address during the negotiations."
Lambert still finds debris from the plane on his land.
"Red and blue wire all over the place," he says as he bends over to pick up a piece. "Here it is almost eight years later."
The National Park Service says time is running out if the memorial is to be ready by September 11, 2011, the 10-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks. It says it has to use eminent domain for 166 essential acres that it has been unable to purchase.
"We've held off using it until we've got here, really at the very last stage of this where we have no other choice," says National Park Service associate director Steve Whitesell.
The amount of land needed for the memorial is just over 2,200 acres, about 1,400 of which is near the crash site, where there will be a visitor center. The other 800 acres would create a buffer around the site to protect the rural setting.
That is where Randy and Linda Musser live - on more than 100 acres of land, 62 of them within the memorial park boundaries. The Mussers enjoy hunting, fishing and horseback riding on their land, which is about three-quarters-of-a-mile from the crash site.
"This eminent domain cloud hangs over this whole piece of property now," Randy Musser says, standing by a pond where he likes to fish. He was a member of a committee formed with Flight 93 family members to establish the boundaries of the park.
"If I knew the National Park Service was going to be able to use eminent domain to acquire property within the park boundary, I would had fought that at the time the park boundary was established to keep as much property out of the park as possible," Musser says.
The Mussers now fear that their land isn't safe from the government and say it's not needed for the memorial. "We have to play fair, we have to follow the rules and they just change the law to suit their own needs," says Linda Musser.
For Patrick White, vice president of Families of Flight 93, this project is a labor of love. White's cousin, Louis Nacke, was killed on United Flight 93. White is leading the effort to acquire all the land needed for the memorial.
"We're creating a place where the 40 heroes of Flight 93 can be revered and remembered," White said from his law office in Naples, Florida.
White says the negotiations with landowners has been challenging and supports the governments use of eminent domain.
"No one has ever questioned that there is a public purpose to these lands'" White says. "Their purpose became public the minute that those private citizens' lives and remains became part of those lands."
Lambert says he feels the same way as he walks just a few feet from where the plane crashed. "A lot of people lost their lives here and this is their final resting place. ... That's one thing I always keep in mind when I come here and I am walking through these woods."
This isn't just about money, Randy Musser says. It's about doing what's right, allowing landowners to continue to live on their land and use it the way they intended before that day. "That loss of freedom is probably the thing that bothers people more than anything else," he says.
Neither the government nor landowners will comment on how much money has been offered for the land yet to be acquired.
Patrick White said he remains confident the memorial will be completed in time. "Getting this done is a commitment that must be achieved. ... These are folks who as citizen soldiers stood up and we all need to recognize that at a place that's appropriate."
To make that happen, the National Park Service says it needs to start construction this November for a ribbon-cutting ceremony on September 11, 2011.
The courts may have the final say. Government lawyers are expected to file a lawsuit in Pittsburgh next week to condemn the property for public use.
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Ape is enough
So long as we're blogging about apes using the internet, I feel duty-bound to remember the web's own simian Neil Armstrong: Koko, the first gorilla to walk in cyberspace, making nerd history in 1998 by participating in the very first -- and to date, the only -- interspecies web chat. Now, while that sounds pretty impressive at first blush (as it must have to the more than 20,000 AOL subscribers who logged in to "watch," as it were), Koko's end of the conversation was somewhat less than scintillating, reading like the dregs of a hyperactive spam filter:
MODERATOR: Koko, do you feel love from the humans who raised you?
KOKO: Koko loves that nipple drink, go.
Claiming Koko could understand 2,000 words of spoken English, her trainer, Gorillologist Dr. Penny Patterson, taught her about half that many idioms of sign language. During the chat, Patterson acted as Koko's translator, interpreting and relaying her signs to an AOL moderator via phone. However, much of Koko's time online was spent demanding something to eat, and eventually devolved into nonsense as the moderator began to ignore her:
KOKO: Hurry give-me mouth nipple.
MODERATOR: So everyone, buy tee-shirts "" each one is a donation to the gorilla preserve!
KOKO: Fine have food lips lipstick hurry.
The astute reader may notice that Koko suffers from a malady not uncommon on the internet but downright odd in a gorilla: a nipple fetish. Which brings us to yet another giant leap for ape-kind pioneered by Koko: the sexual harrassment lawsuit. Named in at least three, the suits were brought by former employees of Dr. Patterson "" all female "" who claim they were pressured into flashing Koko and/or allowing her to grab their breasts. Bad gorilla!


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Posts Tagged 'digger bees'
Native bees: Exotic honeybees and their Apidae family
We've talked about the ways that native bees differ from honeybees (read that here) and how great of pollinators they are (read that here), but how do you identify native bees? There are seven known families of bees worldwide, and six live in North America: Andrenidae, Apidae, Colletidae, Halictidae, Megachilidae and Melittidae. The family Stenotritidae only Read More »Read More