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Water company says that tap water is safe, even if discolored
Hoboken City Hall on Friday circulated a press release issued by United Water of Hackensack stating that United Water is continuing to address taste and odor and discolored water concerns for customers in Jersey City, Hoboken, Secaucus and Weehawken.
The water continues to meet all the standards for safe drinking water, they said. It can still be used for drinking, cooking and bathing.
They said the taste and odor have to do with a lowered reservoir level that has brought on conditions that allowed for algae growth. Certain taste and odor episodes can also be caused by turnovers in the reservoir. This occurs when the surface water cools and sinks to the bottom, causing a disturbance to the lower water layers.
Baby pronounced dead after home birth in Hoboken
A newborn was pronounced dead on Tuesday after a Hoboken couple delivered the baby by a home birth in a Garden Street home, prosecutors confirmed on Thursday. The biological father, a mid-wife, and a doula (a non-medical labor coach) were all present at the birth, according to Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Michael D'Andrea.
D'Andrea commented Thursday that police and medical personnel were contacted after the death but there is no confirmation of whether the baby was born alive or delivered stillborn. The mother was subsequently hospitalized, and a further investigation, including a post mortem exam, is being conducted.
Hoboken High School 50th anniversary events coming up
In celebration of Hoboken High School's 50th Anniversary, various events will be held beginning with a Red Wing Alumni Sports Luncheon on Thursday, Sept. 27 from 12 to 2 p.m. at La Reggia Restaurant, 40 Wood Ave., Secaucus. Those interested in attending can contact Joe Paulillo at firstname.lastname@example.com.
There will be a free assembly the following day, Friday Sept. 28, from 1 to 3 p.m. at Hoboken High School for alumni, faculty, students and administration. Also on Friday, a cocktail reception will be held to benefit the 50th Anniversary Alumni Scholarship Fund from 6 to 10 p.m. at Kolo Club at Pilsener Haus Beer Garden, 1422 Grand St., Hoboken. For tickets, contact Michel Florio-Ising or Kathleen Kelly at (201) 356-3703.
On Saturday Sept. 29 the varsity football game between Hudson Catholic and Hoboken High School will take place at JFK Memorial Stadium. A block party will round out the anniversary events between Eighth and Ninth Street on Grand Street from 3 to 9 p.m. Anyone interested in being a vendor at the fair can contact Christopher Munoz at firstname.lastname@example.com or by calling (201) 978-2164.
It's fun to stay at the YMCA – and now more people can
Seventy low-income housing units at the Hoboken YMCA will be made available in a random lottery drawn on Oct 17, according to Executive Director Susan Walsh.
The building is being renovated and will have 91 open units, 21 of which are occupied by grandfathered-in tenants living in a different part of the building. The 70 units available are for men who earn between $15,480 and $25,800 annually. Two tiers of rent are available: Those who make under $15,480 will pay $365 per month and those who make more will pay $578 per month.
As of Wednesday, the YMCA had received 40 applications but expect many more. Construction for the units started in November 2011 and is estimated to cost about $16 million.
If you are interested in applying to rent one of the affordable units, you must complete a preliminary application and return the application to the Hoboken YMCA at 1301 Washington St., Hoboken. Preliminary applications are available at the Hoboken YMCA, and at www.HobokenYMCA.org. Applications can also be requested via mail by calling the YMCA at (201) 963-4100.
Breast Cancer Brunch
A brunch hosted by the Madeline Fiadini LoRe Foundation for Cancer Prevention will be held on Oct. 28 at 10 a.m. at the W Hotel, 225 River St., Hoboken. The brunch is in celebration of Breast Cancer Awareness Month and will feature keynote speaker Lillie Shockney, a two-time breast cancer survivor and nationally recognized speaker and author. Mayor Dawn Zimmer is serving as the event's honorary chairwoman.
Tickets for the brunch are $50 each and are available by calling (201) 437-9100 or visit mflfoundation.com.
Holiday services for Yom Kippur
Chabad Jewish Center of Hoboken offers free High Holiday Services for Yom Kippur (Sept. 25 to 26). All services will take place at the Boys and Girls Club, 123 Jefferson St., Hoboken (first floor). There are NO MEMBERSHIP FEES and Chabad's services are open to all Jews.
Hebrew/English prayer books are provided. For more information, check: www.JewishHoboken.com or call (201) 386-5222.


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subset: commoncrawl


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Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–July 18, 2011
Wind Forecast Improvement Project video. VIDEO: Watch the YouTube video. (Credit: NOAA)
There has not always been a need to know precisely how hard the wind blows 350 feet above Earth's surface. Today, wind turbines occupy that zone of the atmosphere, generating electricity. So NOAA and several partners have launched a year-long effort to improve forecasts of the winds there, which ultimately will help to reach the nation's renewable energy goals.
The Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP) is a collaboration among NOAA, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), two private wind energy companies and academic research institutions. The project began today as dozens of powerful, custom instruments designed to better profile and predict the weather and winds were powered up.
"The end goal is to lower the cost of electric power for the consumer and meet President Obama's clean energy challenge," said Alexander MacDonald, NOAA deputy assistant administrator for research and director of NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) in Boulder, Colo. "Our starting point is to improve the basic wind forecast for all users, including wind power and conventional energy companies, the aviation industry and the general public."
Turbines near the Dyess Air Force Base in Texas generate power for the base. (Credit: Courtesy of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory)
Last fall, through a competitive process, the DOE chose AWS Truepower, LLC and WindLogics, Inc. to participate in WFIP. DOE funds WFIP with about $6 million, while NOAA contributes scientific experts and expertise in collecting atmospheric data and in making weather predictions. The project targets the Upper Midwest and Texas, which were selected in part because WFIP industry partners support thousands of wind turbines in the areas.
For the next 12 months, WFIP researchers will gather atmospheric data from instruments such as wind profiling radars, sodars and anemometers, which will capture detailed images of wind speed and direction in the atmosphere. The team is especially interested in wind speeds and directions up to 400 feet above the ground.
The data will be used to help drive a high-resolution research weather model at ESRL. Scientists expect the additional observations will improve the accuracy of regional weather forecasts. WFIP researchers will evaluate the value of various types of weather data for improving the accuracy of weather forecasts, as well as the economic value of improved forecasts to the wind companies.
Wind turbines north of Blairsburg, Iowa, in Webster and Hamilton counties. (Credit: Courtesy of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory)
"Our private sector colleagues already use NOAA forecasts to make power production predictions and decisions," said Melinda Marquis, NOAA ESRL's renewable energy program manager. "If we provide them with better wind and weather forecasts, they may be able to better forecast wind power production. In one year, we should know what kind of data energy companies need to better integrate wind energy into their power portfolios and how much money they can save with better forecasts."
The Wind Forecast Improvement Project fits under a Memorandum of Understanding on "Weather-dependent and Oceanic Renewable Energy Resources" signed by NOAA and DOE in January 2011. The agreement set up a framework for NOAA and DOE to work together on renewable energy modeling and forecasting.
WFIP is one of NOAA's efforts to help the country achieve 80 percent "clean energy" by 2035, a goal established by President Obama in his January 2011 State of the Union address and his Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future. WFIP is one of a suite of wind forecasting projects over land and ocean conducted by NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.
NOAA's mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.
Source: noaa.gov


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Former football standout Craig James says 12 million immigrants who did not enter the country legally should be deported because they broke the law. But the new Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate concedes that finding all those who are not here properly will be hard – as would the acquisition of enough busses to move those people out of Texas.
Folks who didn't come to this country legally "need to go back," James said Thursday before a U.S. campaign debate with other GOP candidates. "They have to pay the price for coming here illegally."
The former SMU star and NFL Hall of Famer says he has compassion for families who came to the United States for work and a better way of life.
"But they came here illegally. They broke the law," James said.
He does not support the Dream Act, which would provide a pathway to citizenship for children who arrived in the country illegally if they serve in the military or graduate from college.
James called the status of children of illegal immigrants "unfortunate. But, they are here illegally."
James did not say how people here not legally should be returned to their native countries.
"We have to squeeze down … find out who they are and get them out of here," he said. "I have compassion for those kids, but they have broken the law because they are still here."
James emphasizes the need for the federal government to secure its border by building fences and walls and assigning more Border Patrol agents.
James wants to jump from his EPSN sports broadcasting career directly to the U.S. Senate. He talks about being "bold" and emphasizes his commitment to "God, family and the Constitution."
"We can't send another politician to Washington," said James, who faces Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz and six other lesser known Republicans vying for the seat of retiring U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.
"I'm going up there to kick the skunks out of the bushes," he said, adding later: "The game's over, man."
James doesn't lack confidence.
He believes that "right is right; wrong is wrong. It's never right to do wrong."
But he concedes he did wrong as a football player at Southern Methodist University where he accepted illegal handouts from school boosters. The amount he accepted was "insignificant," declining to tell reporters how much he took during his playing days in the 1980s. He spoke cryptically of "$20 handshakes."
"I didn't have the maturity to turn it away," James said, adding he did "not really" know that it was wrong at the time.
The NCAA slapped SMU with the "death penalty" for allowing boosters to pay football players.
Even while playing for the New England Patriots, James turned to real estate deals during the off-season "to prove that I was more than a football player, that I was a smart guy."
He also once owned a broadcasting school for athletes, developed an Internet video content business and has a background in real estate and ranching.
"I get what's going on in the real world," he said.
He's a big backer of the 10th Amendment and states' rights and also the 2nd Amendment, explaining that he keeps both a pistol and a shotgun "between my mattresses."
James said he put a "substantial amount" of his own money into the campaign but can't self-finance because "I'm not a gazilllionaire."
Former SMU teammate and business partner Joe Beard introduced James before his first interaction with the state Capitol press corps.
Beard said Texans will get to know James as "a defender, a protector, a fighter and a winner."
"He will be tireless, fearless and prepared physically, mentally and morally to fight, when necessary, for that which is right," Beard said.


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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union should be worried about Huawei [HWT.UL] and other Chinese technology companies because of the risk they pose to the bloc's industry and security, the EU's technology chief said on Friday, echoing concerns raised elsewhere in the world.
Huawei expressed disappointment at EU tech commissioner Andrus Ansip's comments, saying it had never been asked to install technology that could be used for spying and never would.
"Do we have to be worried about Huawei or other Chinese companies? Yes, I think we have to be worried about those companies," Ansip told a news conference in Brussels, days after a top executive at Huawei was arrested in Canada as part of an investigation into alleged bank fraud.
Huawei, which generated $93 billion in revenue last year and is seen as a national champion in China, faces intense scrutiny from many Western nations over its ties to China's government.
Ansip said he was concerned because Chinese technology companies were required to cooperate with Chinese intelligence services, such as on "mandatory back doors" to allow access to encrypted data.
He also said the companies produced chips that could be used "to get our secrets".
"As normal, ordinary people we have to be afraid," he said, adding he did not have enough information about the recent arrest in Canada.
Huawei called such comments misunderstandings and denied it posed a security threat.
"Huawei has never been asked by any government to build any backdoors or interrupt any networks, and we would never tolerate such behavior by any of our staff," the company said in a statement.
"Cyber security needs to be addressed jointly at a global level, and equipment vendors should not be treated differently based on their country of origin. Singling out one vendor does nothing to help the industry identify and address cyber security threats more effectively," it said.
Separately, sources with knowledge of the matter said on Friday Huawei would spend $2 billion as part of efforts to address security issues raised in a British government report earlier this year.
Germany, meanwhile, said it opposed excluding any manufacturers from the planned construction of 5G mobile networks.
However, Belgian newspapers L'Echo and De Tijd reported the country's center for cybersecurity was considering the possibility of banning Huawei in Belgium. The company supplies equipment to telecom providers Proximus PROX.BR and Orange Belgium OBEL.BR.
The center was not immediately reachable for comment.
The EU as a whole is braced to launch a far-reaching system to coordinate scrutiny of foreign investments into Europe following a surge of Chinese investments and concerns about security and forced technology transfer.
However, the arrest in Canada of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou relates to a U.S. investigation into an alleged scheme to use the global banking system to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran, people familiar with the probe told Reuters.
Europeans too could potentially face prosecution in the United States, which has withdrawn from an agreement with Iran on its nuclear program. Reimposed U.S. sanctions have already forced many European companies to stop trading with Iran.
Meng was due to appear in a court on Friday as she awaits a possible extradition to the United States.
Reporting by Francesco Guarascio, Foo Yun Chee and Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Mark Potter
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.


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Welcome to my world. I'm a long time IT guy, over 30 years of dabbling and such, with many experiences. Join me in my pages here to enlighten and discuss the various and changing world of technology.
The most popular discussion is on my Free Internet Software page. Here I track and log various pieces of software that are 1. completely free, that is free of cost and at least mostly free of adware and other annoyances. And, 2. really worth your time to use. So many web sites are clogged with "free downloads" for software that is ultimately not free in any sense of the word. Either they end up costing you in money or worse in infecting your computer with additional software or features that destroy your system's integrity.
Also visit the Ramblings category on my blog for good information on how to keep your computers in shape. Lean and mean is the method I recommend for any computer. The more software you add, even if it seems like a small thing, can sometimes end up being a major blow to your system. This concept is also approached in my Free Software list. Keep the software simple, and your computer will remain in the best condition.
In any review, here or elsewhere watch out for these: Rhetological Fallacies


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I was accepted at MIT today.
Congrats Jorriss and scipinion on your acceptances. Best of luck to everyone still waiting.I got accepted to U of Kansas, U of Georgia at Athens, and Colorado State U---the only three schools I applied to. So I'm happy. I'm going for a PhD in Organic (total synth, and synth methods).
I was accepted at MIT today. What schools did you apply to?
So jealous... What field are you interested in and who do you think you'll work for?Johns Hopkins, Georgia Tech, Texas A&M, UCSB and USC. I applied a bit late but before the deadlines for each school. It's been hard juggling apps and work, but I'm hope full I'll get into at least one of em. I think the only thing really working against me is the fact that I've been out of school for more than a year, though I did take a math course this past summer. I need to get out of industry, it's killing me.
Hello! I applied to Wayne State's and Notre Dame's chemistry programs. I also applied to biology and biochemistry and molecular biology programs at Wayne State, UIC, UChicago and Loyola U Chicago. I graduated with a 3.44, but a high 3.5 in my chemistry and biology courses. I have a year and a half of successful research experience, but no publications and it isn't related to what I plan to study in grad school. I also have work experience, as a lab assistant for the chemistry dept. and as a supplemental instruction leader for an introductory chemistry course for a year.I haven't heard back from any schools yet but I'm hoping to get accepted soon! I wrote a short summary of my credentials, there's other details I didn't include but what are your opinions? Are there any schools you haven't heard back from yet?
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Olof 1982 - The Gentlemens Sport Pocket Square
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Olof Nithenius created a capsule collection of handmade pocket squares in collaboration with various artists from different creative fields. The Olof 1982 collection of pocket squares is colourful, fun, and in our opinion, a very nice way to add a touch of colour into your outfits.
- Original artwork done by Didier Falzone for Olof 1982
- 70% Wool, 30% Silk
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42cm x 42cm


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Cohen, a former Channel 4 News reporter and founder of the gay news website PinkNews and co-founder of Out4Marriage.org, presented a controversial 14-minute lecture on his experience growing up as an Orthodox Jewish boy who attended Christian prep schools and even performed in nativity plays.
The lecture is honest and introspective, but it's also offensive to Christians who believe that comparing anyone's lot in life to the sacrifice of Jesus, humanity's lord and savior, is blasphemous.Andrea Williams, director of Christian Concern, told The Telegraph that: "To link this experience to that of Christ is to misunderstand the biggest event in history – it is blasphemous."
Cohen, who has been campaigning for marriage to be re-defined in England, cites Psalm 21 and Matthew 27 to link his life as a gay Jewish man growing up in 1980s Britain, in which he feared persecution and abandonment by his family and community, to the life of Jesus.
Reading from the Scripture Matthew 27:46, when Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "My God, My God why have you forsaken me?" Cohen compares England's abandonment of the gay community with the Jewish priests' treatment of Jesus, and ultimately, his crucifixion.
In his own life, Cohen says he's received support from his family and religious community; but in his lecture, he said he's angry with the religiously devout who are holding on to their firmly held opposition to gay marriage.
The Christian Institute, a nondenominational Christian charity in England that is committed to upholding the truths of the Bible, is accusing the BBC of pushing a liberal gay rights agenda in an effort to undermine Christians.
"This is typical of the BBC's socially liberal bias which tries to distort the Christian message at every turn, a spokesman for The Christian Institute said in a statement. "Using the crucifixion to push a gay rights agenda is a new low, even for the BBC. It's yet another slap in the face to every Christian who pays the licence [sic] fee."
Yesterday, Cohen presented his testimony to members of Parliament who sit on the Public Bills Committee, which is considering proposals to change marriage laws in England to allow same-sex marriage.
In his broadcast, Cohen asks religious parents if the really want to reject their children for something they, in his opinion, cannot help, "just as the Jewish authorities rejected Jesus for something he considered he couldn't help: being the son of God."
Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/bbcs-easter-message-compares-jesus-crucifixion-to-plight-of-gay-community-91735/#Awemu4vmrTbG3RbT.99


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Hope fully you enjoyed my piece about Sicilian food and your appetite was suitably whetted to hear some more about the wines from this wonderful island. I wrote about Donnafugata, one of the leading Sicilian estates here, but this article focuses on one of the leading quality wine regions on the island – Etna.
The first couple of days of my Sicily trip were spent around Etna and although this wine region is a mere D.O.C. – rather strangely the only D.O.C.g. on Sicily is Cerasuolo di Vittoria. I found Etna to be the most consistently high quality region that I experienced on Sicily. Other areas have some great producers making very good wines, but to me Etna appeared to be Sicily's most consistently reliable region for making good and interesting wines. The natural conditions seem to lean towards excellence and excitement whereas perhaps the other places need to work that bit harder for really exciting wines? Of course the fact that it is Sicily's smallest region might help keep the quality up too as it means that by and large Etna is a land of boutique producers and small estates.
Etna is an amazing area and although wine is produced all over the volcano's lower slopes and surrounding hillsides, the D.O.C. only covers the northern, eastern and southern slopes – see my map. This can mean that some very good Etna wines only have I.G.P. on the label, as does the fact that the D.O.C. does not cover the very highest slopes – yet.
Altitude varies enormously here from 450m to 1100m above sea level and the eastern slopes enjoy much more rain than the other sides. This tempers the heat and dry conditions, so together with the height making it cooler and the rich mineral, volcanic soils this area is really good for white wine production. Certainly three of my favourite whites from the trip were grown around the village of Milo on the south eastern slopes of Mount Etna – if your Etna Bianco is labelled Superiore then it can only come from Milo.
I really liked a great many wines from around here, but the whites led the pack for me – perhaps because they suited the cuisine so perfectly, but possibly because they were really very good. The secret weapon of the area is their own indigenous white grape called Carricante. It does not seem to be grown anywhere else, but it responds superbly to the local conditions to produce elegant dry white wines with high acidity and wonderful minerality – so can put the drinker in mind of Assyrtiko from Santorini.
My highlights:
This beautiful estate is the brainchild of Tuscan wine producer Silvia Maestrelli and Piemontese Federico Curtaz and is just 10 hectares pieced together by buying up old bush vine vineyards.
Tenuta di Fessina wines are available in the US through Winebow.
I was greatly looking forward to visiting Benanti. I had tried a couple of their wines before and knew they were good, so eagerly anticipated trying them in situ and learning about this impressive producer. Technically it was established in 1988 by Giuseppe Benanti, but actually his family had farmed this land for generations and what he did was to really focus it on wine production. Not just any old wine either, right from the start he wanted to produce fine wine. As recently as 1988 no one else was trying to make top quality wine on Etna, so Benanti was the trend setter. He saw the potential in his land and sought outside advice from experts in Burgundy and Piemonte on what to grow and what to do he set off trying to turn Etna into a great wine region.
Today the place is run by Giuseppe's twin sons Antonio and Salvino and they really do seem to do a wonderful job. They exude charm and confidence and a real love for their land, although they have both had other careers before joining the family firm.
What fascinated me was their belief that Etna is totally unlike the rest of Sicily, they claimed to never even talk about Sicily, just Etna. They regard their wines as mountain wines, Alpine like Austrian or Friulian wines rather than Sicilian Mediterranean wines. I can see what they mean too, their wines – the whites anyway – have a purity about them that seems very unlike the Mediterranean. Although the history of Benanti wines is not long they have come a long way since 1988 and now exclusively champion the native grapes of Etna over the international varieties they started with.
Again I thought all the wines were good, but the stand out wines for me were:
Brut Noblesse
This is a delightful sparkling wine made from Carricante grapes, grown at between 950 and 1200 metres above sea level, plus some other local grapes to add a little richness to the acidic, taut and mineral citrus notes of Carricante. It was quite delicious and hit the spot rather well before climbing up into the vineyards. A small portion of the wine is barrel fermented and it is aged on the lees over the winter before the second fermentation takes place the following Spring. After bottling it was aged for 18 months on the lees before disgorging. An attractive and enjoyable sparkling wine of excellent quality and finesse, if not great complexity – 87/100 points.
2009 Pietramarina
D.O.C. Etna Bianco Superiore
For me this is the standard bearer wine for Sicily – or Etna anyway. Pure Carricante grown in Milo at over 950 metres above sea level, most of the vines are over 80 years old and many are ungrafted. The wine is unoaked, but released after ageing in bottle, 2009 is the new release. This age means that we still get the taut, nervy minerality and high acidity, but it is balanced by some creamy waxy richness that makes the whole wine more complex and interesting and introduces richer orange notes and nuts in to the flavour profile. This is a wonderful wine – 93/100 points.
Yet again it was the whites that really thrilled me and again they were just perfect with the food, but everything Benanti made seemed very good including 2 of the very best Etna reds that I tasted on the trip:
2005 Rovittello
D.O.C. Etna Rosso
80% Nerello Mascalese – the dominant black grape in these parts – and 20% Nerello Capuccio. Masacali is a village on Etna which lends its name to the Nerello Mascalese. This wine is made from a 80 year old vines on a single vineyard site in Castiglione di Sicilia at 750 metres above sea level and aged in cask for 12 months.
This is a delicious red wine, rich with black cherry characters and iron-like minerality, silky tannins and earthy, mushroomy, leathery, tobacco together with dried fruit and gently rustic and baked Medierranean flavours. The finish is very long and with a wonderful savoury character – 90/100 points.
2006 Il Monovitigno Nerello Cappuccio
I.G.T. Scilia
100% Nerello Capuccio, also from Castiglione di Sicilia, grown at 700 metres above sea level and aged in cask for 8-10 months. This is simply an I.G.T. as the D.O.C. rules only allow up to 20% Nerello Cappuccio in Etna reds. This is because it is not so widely grown and is very much the junior partner historically.
I did like the Rovittello very much, but this really stood out, everything about this wine is a delight. The colour is intense, the nose is lifted and aromatic with rich red fruit and savoury leather and herbs. On the palate there's a supple, mouthfilling and velvety texture with soft tannins and intense sweet red fruit, ever so slightly cooked and reminiscent of rich Pinot Noir, especially as there is some freshness of acidity. There are herbs, iron, earth, rich cherry, salami, tobacco and mocha, some of which implies a sort of rustic memory somewhere in this wine's DNA, but it isn't rustic at all. A glorious wine – 93/100 points.
I should also point out that the 2006 Il Monovitigno Nerello Mascalese is rather lovely too, but the Cappuccio totally thrilled me that bit more.
Another family winery that is seeking to make great Etna wines in the Castiglione di Sicilia area, Cottanera was created in the 1990s by brothers Guglielmo and Enzo Cambria when they converted a hazelnut grove into a vineyard. Since Guglielmo untimely death the estate has been run by his daughter Mariangela and Enzo.
D.O.C. Etna Bianco
The fresher, zestier side of Etna Bianco This is basically a cold fermented Carricante – with a little dollop of Catarratto – that was aged on the lees.
In fact after I arrived back in the UK I tried the Wine Society's bargain 2012 Etna Bianco from a producer called Nicosia and while it was not in the same league as the other whites mentioned in this piece, it was a lovely, fresh, crisp, mineral and tasty dry white wine of real quality at just £8.50.
I also tasted one more Etna white on the trip when I visited Planeta a few days later. This impressive producer started making wine much further West in Sambuca di Sicilia and Menfi, but now has vineyards dotted throughout the island. They created an estate on Etna in 2008 and their first vintage is the 2012. So far they only make a white that it is mainly Carricante blended with something quite surprising – and wow is it good. More of that another time.


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Medical Genetics Test Details
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Maple Syrup Urine Disease Type 3 (DLD) tests available.
Dihydrolipoyl Dehydrogenase (E3) Deficiency | MSUD Type 3
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We require that the referring center consult with our laboratory genetic counselors regarding prenatal cases prior to submitting any samples. Please call 1-800-411-4363.


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Main Content
Top of the pageCheck Your Symptoms
Young children are more likely than older children or adults to put small objects—such as beads, dried beans, popcorn, plastic toy pieces, foam rubber, or small batteries—up their noses. If the child doesn't tell you about it, your first clue may be a bad-smelling green or yellow discharge or blood (epistaxis) from one of the child's nostrils. The child's nose may also be tender and swollen.
Some objects in the nose cause more problems than others. Disc batteries (also called button cell batteries) are more dangerous than other objects and should be removed immediately. The moist tissue in the nose can cause the battery to release strong chemicals (alkali) quickly, often in less than 1 hour. This can cause serious damage to the sensitive mucous membranes lining the nose. Seeds, such as beans or popcorn, can swell from the moistness of the nasal tissue, making removal harder.
An object in the nose may cause some irritation and swelling of the mucous membranes inside the nose. This swelling can cause a stuffy nose, making it hard to breathe through the nose.
Infection can develop in the nose or in the sinuses following the insertion of an object. The longer the object is in the nose, the more likely it is that an infection will develop. The first sign of infection is usually increased drainage from the nose. It is usually from only one nostril. The drainage may be clear at first but turns yellow, green, or brown. The drainage may have an unpleasant odour. As the infection progresses, symptoms of sinusitis or another infection will develop.
An object inserted in the nose may cause a nosebleed if the object irritates the tissues in the nose. The nasal tissue can be damaged from pressure against the object. This is called pressure necrosis.
Older children and adults can also inhale objects while working closely with small objects. Nose rings and metal studs from nose piercings can also cause nose problems. A piece of glass may enter the nose during a car crash. You may be unaware of this because of other injuries that occur during the crash.
Check your symptoms to decide if and when you should see a doctor.
Many things can affect how your body responds to a symptom and what kind of care you may need. These include:
You have answered all the questions. Based on your answers, you may be able to take care of this problem at home.
Symptoms of difficulty breathing can range from mild to severe. For example:
Severe trouble breathing means:
Moderate trouble breathing means:
Mild trouble breathing means:
Symptoms of infection in the nose may include:
Disc batteries are small, round batteries used in toys, cameras, watches, and other devices. Because of the chemicals they can release, they can cause serious problems if they are swallowed or get stuck in an ear or the nose. Small magnets used in household items and objects that contain a lot of lead (such as bullets, buckshot, fishing weights and sinkers, and some toys) also can cause problems if swallowed.
There are a couple of ways to remove an object from the nose:
To remove an object from a child's nose, you can also try the "kiss" technique:
Don't try this if it makes you nervous or if the child gets upset or says it hurts.
Certain health conditions and medicines weaken the immune system's ability to fight off infection and illness. Some examples in adults are:
Certain health conditions and medicines weaken the immune system's ability to fight off infection and illness. Some examples in children are:
Based on your answers, you may need care soon. The problem probably will not get better without medical care.
Based on your answers, you need emergency care.
Call 911 or other emergency services now.
Sometimes people don't want to call 911. They may think that their symptoms aren't serious or that they can just get someone else to drive them. But based on your answers, the safest and quickest way for you to get the care you need is to call 911 for medical transport to the hospital.
Based on your answers, you may need care right away. The problem is likely to get worse without medical care.
Based on your answers, the problem may not improve without medical care.
Follow these steps to remove an object from the nose:
You may be able to remove an object from a child's nose using the "kiss technique." Do not try this if you are uncomfortable with it, if your child says it hurts, or if your child becomes upset by your attempts:
Some tenderness and nasal stuffiness are common after removing an object from the nose. Home treatment will often relieve a tender, stuffy nose and make breathing easier.
Try a non-prescription medicine to help treat your fever or pain:
Talk to your child's doctor before switching back and forth between doses of acetaminophen and ibuprofen. When you switch between two medicines, there is a chance your child will get too much medicine.
Be sure to follow these safety tips when you use a non-prescription medicine:
Call your doctor if one or more of the following symptoms occur during home treatment:
Small children love to explore their surroundings. They are also curious about their bodies. To prevent children from inserting objects into their noses:
Older children or adults should be cautious when working with small objects or if they have nose piercings.
To prepare for your appointment, see the topic Making the Most of Your Appointment.
You can help your health professional diagnose and treat your condition by being prepared to answer the following questions:
Current as of: March 9, 2022
Author: Healthwise StaffMedical Review: William H. Blahd Jr. MD, FACEP - Emergency MedicineAdam Husney MD - Family MedicineKathleen Romito MD - Family MedicineDavid Messenger MD
Current as of: March 9, 2022
Author: Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:William H. Blahd Jr. MD, FACEP - Emergency Medicine & Adam Husney MD - Family Medicine & Kathleen Romito MD - Family Medicine & David Messenger MD
This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated, disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. Learn how we develop our content.
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The director of the original Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has questioned the need for the upcoming American remake, reigniting a long-running war of words over Hollywood raiding foreign language films to repackage them for a global audience.
With an English-language version in the works, to be directed by The Social Network's David Fincher, film-maker Niels Arden Oplev expressed anger at plans to cast an American actor in the lead role of Lisbeth Salander, drawing unflattering comparisons with the Hollywood adaptation of the French film La Femme Nikita, which was poorly received when remade as The Assassin, starring Bridget Fonda in the 1990s.
He told the Word & Film website: "Even in Hollywood there seems to be a kind of anger about the remake; like, 'Why would they remake something when they can just go see the original?'
"It's like, what do you want to see – the French version of La Femme Nikita or the American one? You can hope that Fincher does a better job".
Oplev's film, released in 2009, was the first of three films based on Stieg Larsson's best-selling Millennium crime novels, and remains the all-time homegrown box-office smash in Scandinavia, taking over $16m there. It was released a year later, in March 2010, in the UK and US, and performed respectably, grossing £1.5m and $10.1m respectively.
But the figures fall well short of what producers could expect if they had a major blockbuster on their hands: by comparison, The Bourne Identity, the first in the Bourne series, took more than $120m in the US alone.
Oplev's complaint could equally well apply to Let Me In, the newly released Hollywood remake of Let the Right One In, another Swedish breakout film.
Tomas Alfredson's tender 2008 vampire film was a multi-award-winning addition to a popular horror genre, and appeared ripe for remake in the wake of the Twilight films, Buffy and the Underworld series.
But audiences are shunning the American remake. Despite reasonably strong reviews for Let Me In, the film debuted this weekend with £488,000 from 363 screens. That compared with Let The Right One In which made £224,000 from just 68 screens back in April 2009 – it eventually made £1.1m at the UK box office. Pundits suggest remakes tend to do better when the original film was relatively obscure, something that could not be levelled at either Swedish film.
But however critically garlanded a film is, if an English-speaking audience has to read subtitles, it will automatically reduce the film's chances at the box office, and confine it to the status of art film, whatever its content.
Jason Wood, director of programming for the independent cinemas Curzon, says he chose not to release Let Me In in his cinemas as he felt Alfredson's original was simply too good. "People who had seen Let the Right One In would have compared it unfavourably. They would have seen it almost as sacrilege."
Wood points to the remake of Michael Haneke's thriller Funny Games, in which the celebrated Austrian director essentially reproduced his own film with an American cast, including Naomi Watts. "Haneke said he wanted it to have a greater reach, but if anything it put people off. Audiences for foreign language films tend to feel a sense of exclusivity, like they are in a club. I can see why that happens, but we need to change that if we can: we need to get younger people to be open to them."
Another option is to add an English-language dubbed soundtrack to foreign made films, in the manner that regularly happens in Spain and Italy: but Wood is equally sceptical of its chances. Audience snobbery means it will most likely alienate the small but loyal fans of art cinema, who expect to hear the actors' real voices, even if they can't understand what they're saying. "The whole idea of a foreign film is to show us something unique about another country, so to dub it with English-speaking actors betrays the whole point. Audiences in this country tend to be aghast."
In the original version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo the film's lead was played by Swedish actor Noomi Rapace, and Oplev complained of the "Sony PR machine" trying to push her out of the limelight.
"Noomi has captured this part and it should always be all her," he said. "That's her legacy in a way I can't see anyone competing with. I hope she gets nominated for an Oscar," he said.
Rapace has not been entirely cold-shouldered by Hollywood – she has been given a role in the upcoming Sherlock Holmes sequel, alongside Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law and Stephen Fry. Rooney Mara, whom Fincher cast in a small but important part in The Social Network, has been given the role instead. She will star alongside James Bond actor Daniel Craig.
The assumption is, of course, that a Hollywood remake is always going to be inferior to the original. While it is obviously premature to make a call on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and the jury is still out on Let Me In, the remake is as old as cinema itself, and works both ways. The Magnificent Seven was a great remake of a great Japanese film, The Seven Samurai, while The Beat That My Heart Skipped is a superb French remake of a cult American gangster film, James Toback's Fingers.
The Hollywood version of The Ring is generally held to be the equal of the creepy Japanese original, Ringu, while James Cameron's True Lies was an expensive but clunky version of a throwaway French film, La Totale!, which never even received a release in the US. The furore over remakes may suggest that Hollywood is bereft of original ideas; but recycling already-proven material has always been the film industry's way: whether reconfiguring already-successful books, plays and – latterly – video games, or simply freshening up its own product. The Maltese Falcon starring Humphrey Bogart, for example, was a remake of a 1931 film, which itself was based on Dashiell Hammett's celebrated novel of a year before.
Brilliant remakes … and terrible turkeys
Some that worked ...
Down and Out in Beverly Hills A remake of Jean Renoir's 1932 classic Boudu Saved from Drowning. Nick Nolte shines as a tramp who nearly drowns in Richard Dreyfuss's swimming pool in LA's plushest district, and who then forges a bond with the wealthy family he's ensconced with. Its success relies on director Paul Mazursky's precise and insightful observation of American class-consciousness.
Twelve Monkeys Less a remake of than an "inspired by". La Jetée, by avant-gardist Chris Marker, was a 1962 existential short essay composed entirely of static images. In Terry Gilliam's hands, it became a highly wrought dystopian time-travel thriller, with Bruce Willis, below, as a convict sent back to the 1990s to try and forestall a planet-wide bioterror attack.
Insomnia The cinematic ancestor of Wallander and Lisbeth Salander, the 1997 Norwegian original had Stellan Skarsgård as a sleep-deprived detective investigating a murder in the nightless far north. The 2002 Hollywood remake, reset in Alaska, gave a meaty role to Al Pacino, but more importantly heralded Christopher Nolan's entry to the Hollywood A-list.
And some that didn't ...
The Vanishing In 1988, this Dutch thriller electrified audiences with its pitch-perfect merging of ordinariness and sheer torture. The original's director, George Sluizer, was hired to remake his own film with Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock and it all went horribly wrong. Roger Ebert called it "a textbook exercise in the trashing of a nearly perfect film".
Swept Away Madonna and then-husband Guy Ritchie invited universal ridicule when they released a remake of Lina Wertmuller's mid-70s parable of male-female relationships under bourgeois capitalism. Suffice to say, the critics were not kind. But it didn't put Madonna off making movies. Her short film Filth and Wisdom drew brickbats at the Berlin film festival, and now pencils are being sharpened in anticipation of WE, her biopic of Wallis Simpson.
Vanilla Sky Chilean director Alejandro Amenábar put Penélope Cruz to good use in this intricate thriller about a man who is disfigured in a car crash. Tom Cruise bought the remake rights and hired his Jerry Maguire buddy Cameron Crowe to direct. But it didn't work – the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw called it "cumbersome and bombastic". It may have triggered Cruise's long, slow fall from grace.


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Who's Behind Asia-Pacific's Growing Tensions? Curbing China's Rising Power
Increasing tension in the Asia-Pacific between China and nations surrounding its territory, appears to be an unstoppable and inevitable lead-up to regional conflict and perhaps even global war.
In reality, for those who have studied history, this is a familiar rerun. Change the characters and place current events in the context of the early 1900's and we see the lead up to World War II and more specifically, the events that set the stage for the fighting in the Pacific.
Some may believe this is a rerun of when Japan was the sole aggressor in the region, expanding beyond its means before finally meeting its match. Predicated on this misconception, these same people would believe that China has now traded places with Imperial Japan, and is expanding recklessly at the expense of regional and global peace and stability.
However, this is indeed a misconception.
World War II: Setting the Record Straight
To make this clear, we must consider the words of a contemporary of the period before World War II and the words of warning he offered regarding the true nature of tensions at that time. He was United States Marine Corps General Smedley Butler, two-time recipient of the Medal of Honor, and a man who fought America's wars on multiple continents throughout his entire adult life and part of his childhood – he lied about his age to enlist in the Marine Corps early.
In his seminal writing "War is a Racket," he speaks specifically of tensions in the Asia-Pacific at the time and offered advice on how to avoid what would be a catastrophic war (emphasis added):
At each session of Congress the question of further naval appropriations comes up. The swivel-chair admirals of Washington (and there are always a lot of them) are very adroit lobbyists. And they are smart. They don't shout that "We need a lot of battleships to war on this nation or that nation." Oh no. First of all, they let it be known that America is menaced by a great naval power. Almost any day, these admirals will tell you, the great fleet of this supposed enemy will strike suddenly and annihilate 125,000,000 people. Just like that. Then they begin to cry for a larger navy. For what? To fight the enemy? Oh my, no. Oh, no. For defense purposes only.
Then, incidentally, they announce maneuvers in the Pacific. For defense. Uh, huh.
The Pacific is a great big ocean. We have a tremendous coastline on the Pacific. Will the maneuvers be off the coast, two or three hundred miles? Oh, no. The maneuvers will be two thousand, yes, perhaps even thirty-five hundred miles, off the coast.
The Japanese, a proud people, of course will be pleased beyond expression to see the United States fleet so close to Nippon's shores. Even as pleased as would be the residents of California were they to dimly discern through the morning mist, the Japanese fleet playing at war games off Los Angeles.
The ships of our navy, it can be seen, should be specifically limited, by law, to within 200 miles of our coastline. Had that been the law in 1898 the Maine would never have gone to Havana Harbor. She never would have been blown up. There would have been no war with Spain with its attendant loss of life. Two hundred miles is ample, in the opinion of experts, for defense purposes. Our nation cannot start an offensive war if its ships can't go further than 200 miles from the coastline. Planes might be permitted to go as far as 500 miles from the coast for purposes of reconnaissance. And the army should never leave the territorial limits of our nation.
General Butler alludes to the fact that America's posture in Asia-Pacific would inevitably provoke war. To answer why precisely the United States was conducting naval maneuvers off Japan's shores before the outbreak of World War II, one must consider America's openly imperialist "Manifest Destiny" which saw the seizure and occupation of islands across the Pacific, up to and including the Philippines which still to this day suffers the effects of constant US military, political, and economic meddling – but at the time the island nation was literally occupied as a conquered territory by the US.
The Pacific theater of World War II was then, not a battle between good and evil nor between democracy and empire – it was a battle between two empires who sought to impose their will upon lands beyond their borders.
One could argue though, that Japan's actions may have been driven more by a need to counterbalance long-standing Western hegemony in the Pacific, rather than a desire to conquer the planet. While certainly the Japanese sought empire, much of what precipitated World War II was an attempt by the Japanese to push out Western imperialism that surrounded Japan and openly sought to eventually impose its rule upon Japan itself.
China Today
We can see something similar today in Asia Pacific. The stated goal of US foreign policy, particularly the "Pivot to Asia" is to reestablish American preeminence in the Pacific region, thousands of miles from American shores. There exists policy papers drafted from corporate-financier funded think tanks that openly call for the encirclement and isolation of China to thwart its rise as a regional economic and military power.
This is not because the United States fears Chinese troops storming the beaches of California, but because they fear China challenging and displacing American influence where it shouldn't be in the first place.
The term "String of Pearls," taken from the 2006 Strategic Studies Institute's report "String of Pearls: Meeting the Challenge of China's Rising Power across the Asian Littoral," refers to a "string" of geopolitically important ports, pipelines, and other installations China is building stretching from the Middle East and North Arfica (MENA), past Pakistan, India, and Myanmar, and all the way back to China's shores in the South China Sea.
The SSI report openly lays out plans to disrupt Chinese interests along this "string," a strategy in 2006 that would tangibly manifest itself beginning with the US-engineered "Arab Spring" in 2011which saw extremists eventually pushed Chinese interests out of the MENA region, to various conflicts today regarding destabilization in Myanmar and Pakistan, as well as "island disputes" in the South China Sea.
In virtually every point along the "string" the SSI report covered, we now see concerted violence and political chaos whose source stems from US State Department-funded nongovernmental organizations and movements everywhere from the Middle East, to Baluchistan, Pakistan, to Myanmar, and of course to the governments of Japan and the Philippines, subservient to US interests since the end of the Second World War.
The SSI report would conclude by stating the following carefully coded wording:
The United States, through its diplomacy, economic policies, and military strategy has an unprecedented opportunity to shape and influence China's future direction. Overcoming the potential challenges posed by the "String of Pearls" and the successful integration of China as a responsible stakeholder in the international system are necessary for the future prosperity and security of states in the region and across the globe.
The present world order serves the needs of the United States and its allies, which constructed it. And it is poorly suited to the needs of a Chinese dictatorship trying to maintain power at home and increase its clout abroad. Chinese leaders chafe at the constraints on them and worry that they must change the rules of the international system before the international system changes them.
It's very clear then that tensions in Asia Pacific, amid which the US attempts to pose as an indispensable mediator of, are in fact the intentional, premeditated consequences of long-standing, well-documented US foreign policy. It is clear that a rising China was not the cause of the last World War, nor will it be the cause of the next. The cause is rather the same tiresome special interests which have driven all of the World Wars – those centered in the West unable to accept regional influence and a multi-polar world, and those interests who will only settle for global hegemony.With the true perpetrators of rising tensions in the Pacific identified, and the consequences well-studied of when last these perpetrators stoked such tensions, those nations faced with the choice of playing proxies for Wall Street and Washington or readjusting and even profiting from the rise of China, have one last chance amid a closing window of opportunity to ensure history does not tragically repeat itself, yet again.
Tony Cartalucci, Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine"New Eastern Outlook".
First appeared: http://journal-neo.org/2015/06/18/who-s-behind-asia-pacific-s-growing-tensions/


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In 1845, Sir John Franklin and 128 men sailed into the Arctic aboard HMS Erebus and HMS Terror in search of the Northwest Passage. They were never heard from again. The mystery of the search for Franklin took decades to solve. Theories about the causes of the expedition's demise continue to the present.
The irony of the Franklin expedition is that it accomplished more in failure than it ever could have in success. The disappearance of the party sparked dozens of relief expeditions from Britain and led to a comprehensive survey of the Canadian Arctic archipelago and its native peoples.
For the United States, which entered the search effort in 1850, the rescue of Franklin became the driving force for U.S. exploration of the Arctic, a 60-year effort that established the polar regions as next frontier after the American west.
Last week an expedition organized by Parks Canada found HMS Investigator which set out to find the Franklin party in 1850. In taking up the search for Investigator, Parks Canada made itself a part of the 150 year old legacy of the Franklin search. It also established a place in a much larger lost-explorer theme that became dominant in the 19th century as explorers set out to find other explorers who had gone missing.
Yet in his editorial about the discovery, Canadian Minister of the Environment Jim Prentice is eager to point the different, distinctly modern, uniquely Canadian elements of the Parks Canada search.
First, it was done on the cheap:
This modern-day expedition was typically Canadian: quietly conceived and carried out on a modest budget from an unassuming cluster of 10 orange Mountain Equipment Co-op tents scattered on the rocky shore of Mercy Bay.
Second, the crew was quintessentially Canadian:
The senior marine archaeologist manning the sonar was Calgary-born Ryan Harris. Alongside him were archaeologists Jonathan Moore, who hails from Kingston, Ont., and Thierry Boyer of Montreal. Also present was soft-spoken John Lucas, a Canadian of Inuit ancestry and the senior Parks Canada officer for Aulavik National Park.
With some substitutions of names and technology, this statement sounds a lot like the patriotic boosterism of the British Admiralty or the American Geographical Society 150 years ago.
Ultimately Prentise's interest in showing this effort as 'exceptionally' Canadian make it sound a lot like other efforts in 19th century frontier conquering. While their are the usual nods to the importance of archeology and the history of indigenous peoples, he ends his editorial on the subject that was of highest importance to the Great Powers in the late 1800s: territorial rights.
Most importantly, however, the quest for the Investigator celebrates our Arctic heritage and speaks to the exercise of our sovereignty in the Arctic Archipelago today.
Things change, things stay the same.


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Most Americans opposed to defunding Obamacare
Pat Cunningham
Steve Benen COMMENTS on the chart above:
The far-right campaign to shut down the government unless Democrats agree to defund the federal health care system isn't going well, but Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is undeterred. Asked a few days ago how he intends to win this fight, the Texas Republican said there's a "grass-roots tsunami" on the way that will convince lawmakers to follow his lead.
Cruz is likely to be disappointed. The latest report from the Kaiser Family Foundation asked Americans about defunding the Affordable Care Act, and a clear majority disapprove of the idea.
While a 57% majority ...


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Effective June 1, 2019
Lake Charles, Louisiana 70609
McNeese State University is a member of the University of Louisiana System.
McNeese State University assures equal opportunity for all qualified persons without regard to race, color, national origin, sexual orientation, religion, disability, veteran status, age, or sex in the admission to, participation in, and treatment or employment in the programs and activities which the University operates. Anyone having questions or complaints regarding equal opportunity or needing reasonable accommodations should contact the Office of Inclusive Excellence.
The University reserves the right to change the calendar, fees, degree program requirements, and the rules regulating University admissions, registration, and graduation and to change any other regulations affecting the student body without notice. Changes shall go into effect whenever the proper authorities so determine and shall apply to current and prospective students.
The catalog is not intended to be a contract or an offer to contract by students enrolled or enrolling in the University.
Students must take the initiative to ascertain current information and meet the requirements of the particular program in which they enroll.
The McNeese State University web site, www.mcneese.edu, is an additional source of information about the University.


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I'm a nice person—idealistic and philanthropic, you might say—but I recently learned a hard lesson when I made some donations to certain charities:
Now, let's start with the main culprit responsible for ruining your dinner, relaxation time, and even work time (especially if you work from home).
It's not enough that the DO NOT CALL REGISTER gives your number to any of these organisations: charities, research companies, political parties & educational institutions. Even if you have an unlisted number, like I have, you're not safe. And by giving out your number, they are also indirectly responsible for people becoming stressed, annoyed, feeling stalked, and sometimes turning into bullies.
What happens then? We end up blasting the poor customer service employee who has to make all these annoying calls. Not only that, but with all the work health and safety legislation floating about, charities can expect to get a high increase in stress claims from their employees (but hopefully no suicides); AND let's not even go into the high turnover of burnt-out employees that throw in the towel.
The point here is that charities are not being very charitable about their own people or call centre people they engage to annoy the rest of the population, plus in my opinion the DO NOT CALL REGISTER is vicariously responsible for unleashing this chain of events.
Since I started to get more and more calls to my unlisted number, I registered my land line with the DO NOT CALL REGISTER. I even listed my mobile (cell) number for good measure. Once I did this, I naively thought if I had to take the odd call from a charity, this would be okay. My estimation at the time was that I'd get maybe one call a month or so. But never in my wildest nightmares did I think I would be stalked with an average of 30 to 40 calls per month!
Once this happened, I went into forums on the Internet to see what others had to say about this subject, and I found that most of these poor people were getting up to 50 calls per month from charities alone, and they didn't know how to make it stop. Of course, people in the forum also discussed how useless the DO NOT CALL REGISTER is. I mean, whatever happened to PRIVACY laws? AND why the hell am I paying for an unlisted number if every man and his dog can find me, and tries to wheedle yet another donation from me?
Personally, I have nothing against charities. In fact, I sponsored two children through World Vision until they were age 18 and 20 years respectively—and I would sponsor more if I had a full time job, but being a freelancer my income fluctuates, and it's difficult for me to commit for the long term.
Despite this, over the many years I sponsored these kids, I was sometimes unemployed but still kept up with my donations as I didn't want to let them down. I also give to the Cat Protection Society, the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
Why do I keep giving to these charities? Because none of them have made the gross error of constantly ringing me at home when I'm cooking, eating or about to watch the next episode of Midsomer Murders. Nor do they call me at lunch, morning coffee break, or on my mobile. In fact, they don't call me at all. They market themselves by sending the odd card or letter, and I can also subscribe to their online newsletters. This way, I don't feel annoyed, stalked or harassed--and under no pressure to donate.
The charities I no longer donate to are the ones that break all the rules and simply don't get it that the more they telephone the more they alienate me.
The very last phone call I ever took from a charity started like all the others (while I felt my blood pressure rise to dangerous levels):
And being the softie that I am, I ended up pledging $30 just to get them off the phone so I could get on with my day! Then I berated myself for being so stupid. I already have my favourite charities I give to, and when I have a bit of spare cash I don't mind giving to a new charity here and there. Unfortunately, by giving to charities that telephone me, I am constantly encouraging them to keep on ringing me again and again and again—which is what they do.
The DO NOT CALL REGISTER is obviously not going to do anything about this "monster" problem they created, although I have to thank them for having controlled the number of calls I used to get from telemarketers. I still get the odd call from them, but nothing like in the past. Other than this, the DO NOT CALL REGISTER is giving away my unlisted number to all sorts of organisations despite the privacy laws and the fact that I specifically pay extra for my unlisted number (as I mentioned earlier) so I won't be bothered by all these people.
Some steps I took to minimise annoying calls
The downside of all this
While taking the above measures will help, it's annoying that I have to screen my calls all the time—not so much when family and friends call, as their number shows on my phone display (caller ID). Of course, if any of them, such as my brother, has an unlisted number, then they'll have to leave a message on my answering machine before I will pick up. This is ludicrous!
The other very annoying thing for me is that because I mainly work from home and represent a nationwide company, I get lots of calls from all over Australia—and oftentimes I'm not sure who is calling. So the odd "charity" call will still slip through.
In closing, I'd like to say to the DO NOT CALL REGISTER: "Thanks for nothing, people! I hope you get as many annoying calls as I do!"
To the charities that call incessantly and don't get the hint I don't want to talk to them, I say: "The more you call, the less you will get donations for your charity. You annoy people like the telemarketers used to do, so you should know better."
I like to be pleasant on the phone to my callers and not add to their stress levels. So my message to the person who actually makes the call on behalf of a charity is this: "I don't hold you responsible for annoying me—you're only doing a job that pays the bills."
Author Sylvia Massara's:


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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A Ukrainian man who allegedly tried to hijack a Turkey-bound commercial flight and divert it to Sochi on the day of the Winter Olympics' opening ceremony wanted to press for the release of anti-government protesters in his country, authorities said Saturday.
Turkey's transport minister suggested the man probably acted alone and didn't have any links to terror groups.
The 45-year old Ukrainian man, identified by Turkish media as Artem Hozlov, claimed he had a bomb and tried to divert a Pegasus Airlines flight, which originated in Kharkiv, Ukraine, to Sochi, Russia, on Friday. The crew tricked him and landed the plane in Istanbul instead where he was subdued by security officers who sneaked on board. Turkish authorities said no bomb was found.
The foiled hijacking took place as thousands of athletes from around the world poured into a tightly-secured stadium in Sochi amid warnings the games could be a terror target.
The man was being questioned by police for possible links to terror groups, according to Turkey's state-run TRT television. It wasn't clear when charges would be brought.
"We think it was an individual thing," Transport Minister Lutfi Elvan told reporters in response to questions on to whether the incident was a "terrorist" act. "It may be linked to (events in) Ukraine… Our colleagues say it is not a serious issue."
Maxim Lenko, the head of the Ukrainian Security Service's investigative division, said the Kharkiv resident wanted to divert the plane to Sochi where Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych were meeting on the sidelines of the Olympics.
"The passenger put forth the demand to free the 'hostages' in Ukraine," Lenko said, in reference to people arrested in the ongoing protests in Ukraine. "Otherwise, he threatened to blow up the plane."
Turkey's private NTV television quoting an unnamed passenger on board the plane said the man was demanding freedom for prisoners in Ukraine as well as former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who is Yanukovych's top foe and serving a seven-year sentence on charges of abuse of office.
Huge protests began in Ukraine when Yanukovych shelved an agreement to deepen ties with the 28-nation European Union in favor of getting a $15 billion loan from Russia. Many Ukrainians resent the long shadow Russia has cast over Ukraine.
The protests quickly expanded their grievances to calls for Yanukovych's resignation and the denunciation of police violence after the brutal dispersal of some early peaceful rallies. The demonstrations erupted into clashes last month after Yanukovych approved harsh laws against protesters. At least three protesters died in the clashes.
Jim Heintz in Kiev contributed to this report.


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This brother is definitely in need of some "Sexual Healing" – and I'm not talking about what Marvin Gaye was singing about either. He's taken that Horse Whispering thing to a whole new level…
Rodell Vereen of South Carolina may be spending the next 5 years pining over Misty of Chincoteague and watching reruns of My Friend Flicka…
Rodell Vereen: SC Man Charged With Having Sex With Horse
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina man was charged with having sex with a horse after the animal's owner caught the act on videotape, then staked out the stable and caught him at shotgun point, authorities said Wednesday.
But this wasn't the first time Rodell Vereen has been charged with buggery. He pleaded guilty last year to having sex with the same horse after owner Barbara Kenley found him in the same stable and was sentenced to probation and placed on the state's sex offender list.
Kenley said she noticed several weeks ago her 21-year-old horse Sugar was acting strange and getting infections again. She noticed things in the barn had been moved around – dirt piled up and bales of hay stacked near the horse's stall at her Lazy B Stables in Longs, about 20 miles northeast of Myrtle Beach.
"Police kept telling me it couldn't be the same guy," Kenley said Wednesday. "I couldn't believe that there were two guys going around doing this to the same horse."
She spent several nights at the stables, which are about four miles from her home, but didn't find anything. So she installed surveillance cameras, and when she reviewed the footage from July 19, she couldn't believe she was seeing the same man doing the same thing to her horse.
Kenley didn't call police because she was certain the man would come back to the stable, and she wanted to make sure he was arrested. So she staked out the barn and caught Vereen inside Monday night, chasing him to his truck and holding him with her shotgun until police came.
"He said he wasn't there to do anything, and I said, 'I know you were. I have you on tape.' And then he said he was sorry if he hurt me," Kenley said.
Vereen, 50, was first charged with trespassing, but police added a buggery charge after watching the surveillance tape. He faces up to five years if convicted. Vereen was already on probation after pleading guilty to buggery last year and was sentenced to three years of probation, ordered to stay away from the Lazy B Stables and declared a sex offender. He remains in jail, awaiting a hearing Monday to determine if he violated his probation.
And the Horse was getting infections?


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When Jon M. Chu first got on Justin Bieber's tour bus in 2010, he was just a promising director who cut his teeth on two Step Up films and a Hulu-exclusive dance series called The LXD. But then Bieber happened, and Chu became something a little more than a director.
After directing Never Say Never, the first of Bieber's documentary-concert films, Chu's social profile soared and, thanks to some great reviews, so did his professional career. Now, after a year of intense tabloid scrutiny, Chu and Bieber have released this week's Believe, a kind-of sequel to Never Say Never that promises to show the "real" Bieber.
"He's not as perfect as he says he is," Chu says, over a coffee at the Bowery Hotel on a frigid day in December, "and he's not as bad as the paparazzi portray him to be. He's a kid." Chu was originally asked to creatively direct Bieber's tour and film it for posterity, but as more and more tabloid stories came out — from attacking a paparazzo in London, to peeing in a mop bucket in New York — the movie took shape. "By March, he had several more tattoos and I thought, 'Okay, that's interesting,' and then things started to happen. Stories started coming out."
On red carpets, Chu can come across as intense, laser-focused on his work and its intended impact. Away from the cameras, however, Chu is warm and exceedingly generous. He is simultaneously serious about the "work" of filmmaking and excited at his ability to actually, seriously make a living by doing it. Chu's first major gig was directing Step Up 2 the Streets, the kind of straight-to-DVD dance movie destined for a Razzie. Chu, straight out of college, turned it down until his mother called. "My mom was like, 'When did you become a snob? If you're a real storyteller, like you say, you can tell a story by a campfire, you can tell a story with a Hi8 camera and a cup,'" Chu recalls. "I was like, You're right, I'm going to make the best direct-to-DVD dance movie sequel of all time."
He didn't. Step Up 2 got a score of 27 percent on Rotten Tomatoes but it did set up his career in other ways. It paired him with Channing Tatum, with whom he later worked as director on G.I. Joe: Retaliation, another sequel. It also cemented his position in the dance world, one of the reasons he was called by Scooter Braun, Bieber's manager, to direct Never Say Never.
"I originally didn't want to hire him," Braun says, in a phone interview from L.A. "I said, 'Before we start I just want to let you know I'm not really trying to hire you. I'm not trying to make a concert dance movie and they want me to talk to you.'" Fortunately for Chu, he shared Braun's vision and Braun offered him the job by the end of the call. "Honestly, we created a format together, the kind of film we made? No one had ever made a film like that," Braun says.
A lot of that had to do with Chu earning Bieber's trust. "When I was first introduced to [Bieber], they said, 'Hey, this is Jon, he'll be making the movie,' and he said, 'What movie?' That was his first reaction," Chu says.
"[Bieber] only invests his emotion in you if he knows you're going to be around because so many people come in and out... When he realized I'm not leaving, it was 2 a.m. in the morning, and he was like, 'Jon, come here,' and I was like, You know my name? He showed me this YouTube video so I was like, 'Check this one out,' and we went back and forth. From then on he knew my name and he trusted that we understood each other on a certain level."
The central "Bieber Paradox," however, is one of integrity. Optimists say Bieber really is just a kid in a tough position trying to do his best. Cynics say Bieber is a dick and his team is a bunch of dicks that are manipulating thousands of earnest fans that believe in Bieber's narrative.
The cynical extension is that Bieber is also playing Chu. Even more cynical is that Chu may be in on it as well. The thing is, odds are high that Bieber really is a good guy prone to public displays of stupidity. The closer you get in Bieber's circle, the easier it is to see. "I'm sure he would take back some of the things he's done, but I don't know how we can expect a rambunctious young boy to stay in his hotel watching a movie and eating room service every night," says Bill O'Dowd, who produced Believe as CEO of Dolphin Entertainment. "I just don't know what people expected."
Bieber is famous, but he is like a planet with a gravitational force of fame that draws in his closest collaborators and friends. "We'll be on stage and they'll be screaming our names as well as his," says Nick DeMoura, Bieber's choreographer and longtime collaborator. "Everyone's now asking me how Justin is and for me to leave the hotel is an issue. We don't have security so we gotta run from 13-year-olds as well."
People who have been with Bieber for that long can't really escape his orbit. Ryan Good, Scooter Braun, Bieber's dancers and backup band — everyone is included, even Chu. "[Jon] cares a lot about Justin, there's genuine friendship," O'Dowd says. "Scooter would be the uber-protective older brother. I think Jon would be the concerned friend."
Despite paving his own way, Chu's social feeds are borne back ceaselessly into Bieber's world. "I think I have somewhere over 600-and-something-thousand followers now and I would say most of them are Justin Bieber fans," Chu says matter-of-factly. In the Bowery hotel, Chu picks up his iPhone 5s from the table and starts scrolling through his Instagram feed for proof. He stops on a picture of a wind-up toy of two ping-pong players and shows it to me.
"So I wrote, 'What do you want for Christmas?' and I saw this stupid toy in this store," Chu says, both of us huddled over his phone. "Nobody wrote about that. They just wrote..."
"I want @JustinBieber for Christmas" —Sonitabun
"Justin yeh dats exactly what i want..." —yamini-belieber
"I want justiiiin" —leilajbfan
"I want Justin ,that would be awesome !" —laurauhljdb
That post has about 5,000 likes and 370 comments. Chu leans in. "That's what it is. Oh, look at this person: 'I want an iPad touch... and Justin Bieber.'"
This is now Chu's life. He's gone from "director" to "something more," wrapped up in the evolving career of a 19-year-old pop star. "These are my pictures on Instagram and this is just them tagging me and it's all Justin Bieber," Chu says without looking up from his Instagram feed. He pauses. "And that's all it is."
It's not easy to enter Bieber's world. "In the very beginning it was shocking for [Jon]," Braun says. "You become part of that world and he's someone who is a very large contributor to deliver [Justin's] message. You have a lot of people hitting you up and you realize the power of that."
But the increased scrutiny has been a blessing, Chu says. "What Twitter did for me was make me not feel so isolated in filmmaking." From an early age, he was spending hours in editing rooms "missing the party, missing the dance. When it's dark and 2 a.m. in the morning I can say, 'Hey, someone tell me a joke,' and, like, thousands of people tell me a joke," Chu says. "It's like moral support that you're not alone in this. There are people on the other side waiting for [your work]." Nowhere is that stronger than with Bieber's Beliebers.
Social media has played a crucial role in keeping Bieber relevant during his tabloid lows, and those same mistakes gave Chu the film he wanted to make. "We got a movie out of it," he says, "We got a better movie out of it." But it can be difficult for someone in Bieber's position to really, actually understand if they're messing up. "You have this padding around you," Chu says of Bieber. "It's hard to know what you do and the consequences because they go outside of that bubble" — Chu traces his hand in a semi-circle, like a spaceship leaving orbit — "and they never get back in. You show up to a venue with a hundred thousand people yelling your name and it looks just as big as the other day."
As part of the ramp-up to Believe, Bieber's camp has been more actively promoting his good deeds, including a trip to the Philippines, post-typhoon, to build a school, and a short video about giving back to a fan involved with Bieber's charity interests.
This is the Bieber Paradox at work: Bieber has a legitimately good philanthropic track record, but it's also no accident these posts are popping up in the run-up to Believe. "The Philippines is a real problem," Braun says. "I saw 6 million people displaced. Me getting stressed out because people don't see we're doing it for the right reasons? You can't get locked into that... That's your bullshit, not mine."
The real question of the film is simple to ask but much more difficult to answer, says O'Dowd: "Does the pressure crack the kid, or does the kid crack the pressure?"
Chu insists Believe is not a damage-control movie, saying, "I'm not going to make a fluff piece. Otherwise what am I doing here?" But Braun disagrees: "You're damn right it's damage control. People have been talking shit for the past year." Braun claims he and Chu collaborated even more closely on Believe than they did on Never Say Never.
Chu may be on Team Bieber, but it at least seems that he comes by it honestly, learning to respect Bieber as a documentarian and independent filmmaker and not as a paid hand. Chu takes on projects that he feels push his skills to make anything good, to tell a story that needs to be told right. This has led to some crazy career pivots, so much so that Chu's choices can appear counterintuitive. He's been cussed out by his own fans for selling out, first with Bieber, then with G.I. Joe.
And yet, he's managed to win them back each time. "When someone says, 'This is impossible,' that's my trigger," Chu says. "I'm like, Oh yeah? Watch out."
Never say never? I venture. "Never say never," Chu responds automatically, then pauses. "Oh God." After months of documenting Bieber, staring at footage of the teenager in the edit room, becoming more and more a part of the star's world, that vernacular has — for better or worse — started to burn its way into his brain, even as he prepares for projects outside the Bieber orbit.
"Believe," Chu says, shaking his head. "Just believe."
Follow The Culture Blog on RSS and on Twitter at @ESQCulture.


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While the US government expresses outrage over the brutality of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi toward his own people, we're missing a complex but significant wrinkle that ties Qaddafi to America's cover-up of the true path to war in Iraq.
In May, 2009, a man named Ibn Shaikh al-Libi supposedly committed suicide while being held in a Libyan jail. Al-Libi is a deeply, deeply interesting fellow. Back in 2002, he was tortured by Egypt under US direction. It appears that the reason the US government had him tortured was not to stop some imminent attack on the United States, but to generate alleged—and false— links between Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein that could justify invading Iraq.
Al-Libi was captured and sent to Egypt, where under severe torture including waterboarding, he related what turned out to be false information about purported Saddam-9/11 links. Al-Libi later explained that he provided that material because that's what his captors wanted to hear, and it ended his torture.
Nick Baumann wrote about it in 2009 in Mother Jones:
Al-Libi was the man whose false confession, obtained under torture, of a link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda provided the Bush administration with its casus belli for war with Iraq. It didn't seem to matter that al-Libi's claim that Bin Laden had sent operatives to be trained in the use of weapons of mass destruction by Hussein's people didn't make any sense. "They were killing me," al-Libi later told the FBI about his torturers. "I had to tell them something." A bipartisan Senate Intelligence committee report would later conclude that al-Libi lied about the link "to avoid torture."
More on this at The Washington Note, where former Colin Powell aide Lawrence Wilkerson weighed in.
Given the enormity of what al-Libi's revelations represent, then his continued presence and ability to witness the true background to the Iraq invasion made him a grave threat to the Bush-Cheney administration and the potential vulnerability of its leading lights to war crimes prosecution.
Thus, the fact that he suddenly "killed himself" while being held by Qaddafi's police state at least raises the question of whether Qaddafi was doing a favor for the US. Of course, by 2009, when al-Libi suddenly died, Obama had become president—but it's safe to say that deep, covert cleanup operations don't end with an inauguration.
With the world delighting in the abdication of the dictator Mubarak in Egypt and now the Libyan Qaddafi's potential demise, the least we can do is examine the threads back to our own country. If we do not pay attention to these things, we are all culpable.
Image Credit: (thefullwiki.com)


text: Defined as a reanimated corpse by supernatural means, this original work explores life (or death) through a variety musical scenes both normal and abnormal...even waltzing! With a few special effects to set the mood, dynamic shifts and instantaneous style changes keep the zombies alive. Spooky and engaging, this is a real imagination enhanced by music---and dreaming is out of the question!


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Four gay couples from southern Indiana sued the state Friday, seeking to force Indiana to recognize same-sex marriages from out of state and issue licenses to same-sex couples.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New Albany, asks a federal judge to overturn Indiana's Defense of Marriage Act, which declares same-sex marriages void even if another state recognizes the union.
"How long do you wait before you decide 'I think I'd like to stand up for myself'," said 66-year-old Lane Stumler of New Albany, who wants to marry his longtime partner Michael Drury. "How long do you wait to say that?"
Multiple rulings around the country have struck down same-sex marriage bans recently — from Texas to neighboring Kentucky. Those all came in the wake of a June ruling in the U.S. Supreme Court that nullified part of the federal anti-gay-marriage law.
Dan Canon, one of several attorneys who are representing this suit's plaintiffs and also handling a similar one in Kentucky, said the attempt this legislative session to add a gay marriage ban to the Indiana's constitution pushed the plaintiffs to move now.
The state's lawmakers approved an altered version of the proposed amendment, but it won't go in front of voters this November. Such proposals must be twice approved by the Legislature, unchanged and in consecutive legislative sessions, in order to appear on the ballot. Plus, some argued that the U.S. Supreme Court would likely be the final arbiter of the issue.
"I think it's fairly clear the people of Indiana cannot depend upon the legislature and the governor to do what is right, so we're turning to the federal courts to do it," Canon said during a news conference in his office in Louisville, Ky.
Already, Indiana law limits marriage to being between one man and one woman, and the state only recognizes out-of-state marriages of the same ilk. Putting a same-sex marriage ban in the state constitution would protect against state-level legal challenges, but would not affect federal suits like the one filed Friday.
Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller said Friday he will defend the law in court.
"People of goodwill have sincere differences of opinion on the marriage definition, but I hope Hoosiers can remain civil to each other as this legal question is litigated in the federal court," Zoeller said in a statement.
The Indiana couples head to court less than a month after U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn in Louisville issued an opinion Feb. 12 that Kentucky's ban on recognizing same-sex marriages violated the U.S. Constitution's equal-protection clause in the 14th Amendment because it treated "gay and lesbian persons differently in a way that demeans them."
Unless an appeals court issues a delay, Kentucky will have to grant full legal rights to same-sex couples starting March 20, meaning people can seek name changes, add names to adoption certificates and file joint state tax returns.
Kentucky's attorney general has opted not to appeal, but Gov. Steve Beshear said he will hire outside counsel to pursue the case.
Heyburn is among several federal judges who have issued rulings in support of same-sex marriage, the latest of which came last week in Texas. Two of the rulings — in Utah and Oklahoma — are being appealed to a federal appeals court in Denver.
Plaintiffs Jo Ann Dale of Otisco, married Carol Uebehoer in Massachusetts six years ago. They've been together 35 years, and Dale said not having legal recognition of their marriage creates a variety of problems, including filing tax returns, making medical and end-of-life decisions and even filling out simple forms that ask about marital status.
"It feels so schizophrenic not to be recognized for who you are," Dale said.
Jennifer Redmond and Jana Kohort married in New York last year. The Jeffersonville couple said they want state recognition to be able to stay in Indiana near family and friends.
Another Jeffersonville couple, Melissa Love and fiancee Erin Brock, said the ban deprives them of more than 1,000 rights granted to opposite-sex married couples who get married.
"We fell in love and we want to get married," Love said. "We want to do it in our hometown."


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I had some very interesting and headache-full days trying to implement the proposed methods of three papers I've found. I decided to use PHP using \Imagick. I believe that those could be easily implemented with pure imagemagick / shell scripts. I'd like to share my results in the hope that my results and my work on this is helpful or at least interesting.
First of all. Why? ImageMagicks -auto-gamma did not satisfy me. My photos range from bright landscapes over buildings on a sunny day with lots of detail hidden in the shadows up to dark/dimmed images of the sea. I also do have pictures with little detail - like a bird in the upper-right of the photo. It's easy to guess that -auto-gamma does have trouble with some of these. Hence I was looking for something.. adaptive.
I am going to use the following (non official) abbreviations to allow to distinguishing between the three methods: agcwd / iagcwd / agcie.
A hopefully correct (and most likely not full) description of the three methods: AGCWD is an adaptive gamma correction with weighting distribution - probably known by most people because it is around for quite some years now. iagcwd is an improved version of that which (basically) tries to enhance brightness-distorted photos and tries to get around the problems that arise using agcwd. agcie is a completely different implementation which tries to minimize the negative effects of prior adaptive gamma correction methods.
Pictures are always in this order: original / agcwd / iagcwd / agcie.
I wouldn't say that any of these methods is best or worse - they do all play very good for specific photos and not so good for other photos. AGCWD looks the most pleasant to me - it does however loose detail/contrast in bright areas. You can push such a photo a lot by 1. agcwd, 2. levels, 3. unsharp mask. The third method can be improved by feeding it with a denoised-image for the transformation and by using a trim-to-detail image for classification & transformation. I also played around with averaging AGCWD & IAGCWD which lead to good results.
My implementation is available at Github: https://github.com/chani/AdaptiveGammaCorrection
More pictures / results with the full-size photos can be seen at my blog: https://jeanbruenn.info/2018/11/06/anot ... mentation/
The papers:
- AGCWD: S. Huang, F. Cheng and Y. Chiu, "Efficient Contrast Enhancement Using Adaptive Gamma Correction With Weighting Distribution," in IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 1032-1041, March 2013. doi: 10.1109/TIP.2012.2226047
- IAGCWD: Cao, Gang & Huang, Lihui & Tian, Huawei & Huang, Xianglin & Wang, Yongbin & Zhi, Ruicong. (2017). Contrast Enhancement of Brightness-Distorted Images by Improved Adaptive Gamma Correction. CAEE. 10.1016/j.compeleceng.2017.09.012.
- AGCIE: Rahman, Shanto & Rahman, Md. Mostafijur & Abdullah-Al-Wadud, M & Al-Quaderi, Golam Dastegir & Shoyaib, Mohammad. (2016). An adaptive gamma correction for image enhancement. EURASIP Journal on Image and Video Processing. 35. 10.1186/s13640-016-0138-1.
P.S: I'm just a hobbyist :^)


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French Montana -- I'm Sleeping With Julius Caesar
French Montana I'm Sleeping With Julius Caesar
French Montana has added to his menagerie of exotic animals, with a gift that has a tendency to throw feces at you.
We got video of French and his new little friend ... an adorable baby monkey named Julius Caesar.
The monkey was a surprise gift from producer Mally Mall ... who presented the banana enthusiast to Montana on board his private jet.
We're told French has been bottle feeding JC ... and even slept with him last night.
FM is no stranger to wildlife. Earlier this year, he posted a picture of him holding two tiger cubs, with this caption: "Got so high last night bought 2 baby tigers."


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So, first content patch of the game has brought new flashpoint, operation (raid) stuff, class tweaks, and PvP tweaks and boy has the latter turned out to be a doozy.
There were tweaks made to the open world high level PvP zone on Ilum to encourage players to earn valor via killing other characters rather than just capturing objectives. However, the faction bases had not been given sufficient safe zones, add to that a population imbalance and what you end up with is one faction farming the other at the respawn point for eternity. And the respawning guys couldn't get to their taxi/ escape point. MMOCrunch describes in more detail what's been going down.
Bioware have apologised and are planning to patch it urgently. So basically PvP was messed up on Ilum for an evening, and there will be fixes. They also commented about noticing individuals who took 'extreme advantage' of the situation, but we've no idea what's happening with that.
I find it hard to be up in arms about this since I've never even been to Ilum and although the game contains PvP, I don't really consider SWTOR to be a PvP game. If they'd broken PvE I'd be mildly irritated though. However, PvP tweaks in a game really do need to be more carefully tested that this. It leaves the feeling that Ilum had been a problem when players were deliberately zone flipping so they put in a quick patch which has led to worse problems. I suspect they will eventually iterate on a fun/ workable solution, because open PvP zones can be fun and aren't a bad idea.
As for players leaving en masse, it comes down to how much patience you want to have with a new MMO and team. I think the general lack of patience in the player base has been the doom of MMOs in general, but at the same time, a dev team needs to build the level of trust that means players will roll with a bad patch in the knowledge that it gets fixed. Bioware have not got off to the best of starts.
The important thing for me is a) how quickly they hotfix the problem and b) whether they can learn from the experience and avoid doing it again. The faction imbalance, however, is a whole other issue …