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Food for Thought: Grill it healthy
Nearly half of all homeowners grill one to two times per week in the summer months, according to the Hearth, Patio and Barbeque Association.
To ensure grilling season is as easy as it is healthy and delicious, Registered Dietitian David Grotto provides a few insights to keep in mind this summer:
- For a delicious and uniquely healthy take on fish or lean meats, crush a combination of peanuts and pistachios into fine pieces using a food processor. Stir in just enough oil into the nut mixture to coat the pieces, and spread the mixture over a lean protein of your choice. Then grill away.
- Spice up something sweet. Give sweet foods, like fruit, a kick by pairing them with a marinade or seasoning. Lycopene, an antioxidant found in watermelon, better absorbs in the body with the assistance of an oil-based marinade.
- Pre-season your grill with oil. By pre-seasoning the grill before its first use, cooking will be easier, cleanup will be a breeze and rusting can be avoided.
-- Family Features
Tip of the Week: Horseradish sauce
The horseradish plant has been used for hundreds of years as a medicine, with both the leaves and the root having curative properties. In the Middle Ages, it was used as a condiment in some European countries. As with any sauce, there is no single recipe for making horseradish sauce. However, the basic ingredients are horseradish, mayonnaise, cream or sour cream and lemon juice or vinegar.
-- Funtrivia.com
Easy recipe:Spicy Grilled Watermelon
1 packet Weber Chipotle Marinade
1/4 cup Mazola Corn Oil
1 2-inch wide slice of watermelon
Mix a packet of Weber Chipotle Marinade with Mazola Corn Oil (according to directions on packet). Slice a 2-inch wide piece of watermelon into 4 triangle pieces. Coat each side with the marinade. Preheat and coat grill surface with oil. Turn the heat on high, and grill the watermelon, each side about 5 minutes or until there is a slightly brown color with noticeable grill marks.
-- Mazola
Did You Know?
For information on recalls of meat, poultry and egg products, consumers may contact the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-800-256-7072 or visit www.FSIS.USDA.gov.
Food Quiz
Although it sounds quite up-market, which alcohol-based sauce's name simply means "juice"?
A. Madeira Mousseline
B. Brandy vinaigrette
C. Red wine jus
D. Sauce sur le cote
-- funtrivia.com
Answer is at bottom of column
Wise to the Word:sangría
[san-GREE-uh] The blood-red color of this beverage inspired its name, which is derived from the Spanish word for "blood." Sangría is made with red wine, fruit juices, soda water, fruit and sometimes liqueurs and brandy or cognac. Sangría blanco (white sangría) is made with white wine. Both are served cold over ice and make a refreshing cooler on a hot summer day.
-- epicurious.com
Number to Know
530: A large order of french fries at Wendy's is 530 calories.
-- calorieking.com
The Dish On …
"Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones: 90 Recipes for Making Your Own Ice Cream and Frozen Treats from Bi-Rite Creamery" by Kris Hoogerhyde, Anne Walker and Dabney Gough
San Francisco's Bi-Rite Creamery is as well known for its small-batch, handcrafted, show-stoppingly inventive ice cream as it is for the long line that snakes around the block. Their irresistible goods are all made using top quality, farm-fresh, seasonal ingredient, and now you can bring their legendary creations into your home. This essential guide to making your own delicious ice cream and treats covers all the classic flavors and delectable variations, plus creative combinations.
-- Ten Speed Press
Food Quiz Answer
C. Red wine jus
GateHouse News Service


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Ralph Reed reached out to Rush Limbaugh via Twitter yesterday and accepted his apology. "Apology accepted. Let's move on," he said -- a magnanimous gesture had Rush Limbaugh actually apologized to Ralph Reed. Too bad that, despite the too-quick headlines, Limbaugh not only hadn't apologized to Reed -- he hadn't really apologized to anyone at all.
Instead, Reed and Limbaugh, with the backing of Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, started up the ole vast right-wing fake apology machine -- designed to temporarily quell a too-hot controversy while at the same time not giving an inch.
Unfortunately for them, after too much use of the fake apology, people are catching on.
Although considered by some in the GOP to be a little too rough around the edges, Rush Limbaugh has always been considered a net asset to Republicans. Like fellow right-wing shock-jocks Glenn Beck and Bryan Fischer, he reaches a wide audience with toxic sludge that is ultimately helpful to the Republican Party, saying all the things that fire up the right-wing base, but that the politicians wouldn't want to be caught saying themselves. But Limbaugh has a peculiar kind of power -- no matter how outrageous his comments, members of the establishment Right tiptoe around him, afraid that his toxic words might one day be directed at them. George Will said it best: "They want to bomb Iran, but they're afraid of Rush Limbaugh."
The latest boot-up of the right-wing apology machine began when Limbaugh called Georgetown University law student and contraception coverage advocate Sandra Fluke a "slut," saying "She wants to be paid to have sex." And, as if contraception was sold by the gallon or the pound, he added, "She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception."
President Obama immediately stepped up, calling Fluke to check in and encourage her after she had been smeared on national radio.
Rick Santorum, in contrast, called Limbaugh's comments "absurd," but then reasoned that "an entertainer can be absurd... He's in a very different business than I am."
Mitt Romney's response was flimsier and even more timid. Asked about it while shaking hands at a rally, he said that it was "not the language I would have used." Apparently, he had no problem with Limbaugh saying that birth control advocates want the government to pay for them to have sex. He would just use different words.
Finally, Limbaugh himself fake-apologized. "I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation. I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke," he said -- before blaming the left and going on to repeat his accusation that she was "discussing personal sexual recreational activities before members of Congress."
"I wouldn't have use those words" is the new "I apologize if anyone was offended."
Ms. Fluke did not accept Limbaugh's fake-apology. Ralph Reed, however, accepted it on her behalf.
Republican leaders can't be responsible for everything that comes out of the mouths of every right-wing blowhard. But if they want to be president they can be expected to provide clear responses when comments like Limbaugh's are this outrageous, instead of hiding their heads in the sand hoping that the public exposure of these outrages will go away. How hard is it to say that women who advocate for insurance coverage for contraceptives should be heard and shouldn't be called prostitutes for stating their position on the topic? Is it really worth compromising basic decency to stay in the good graces of Rush Limbaugh?
The Republican Party is increasingly buoyed by a small base whose values are antithetical to those of most other Americans. If they want to survive politically, they are going to have to stand up and no longer be fake apologists for the likes of Rush Limbaugh.
Ralph Reed reached out to Rush Limbaugh via Twitter yesterday and accepted his apology. "Apology accepted. Let's move on," he said -- a magnanimous gesture had Rush Limbaugh actually apologized to Ralph Reed. Too bad that, despite the too-quick headlines, Limbaugh not only hadn't apologized to Reed -- he hadn't really apologized to anyone at all.

subset: commoncrawl


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recently on ….
what we've been looking at …
Twittering rose …
- @xavierfont I got a distinction in my first module for the MSc at UHI. Will be a slow process part time but I am on my way! 9 years ago
- @airmauritius please don't deport Yashika. Let her finish her A levels. BA refused to fly her. So can you. 9 years ago
- 5 Easy Ways to Work Smarter, Not Longer | Inc.com inc.com/erik-sherman/5… 9 years ago
- View from Lews Castle Grounds, great dog walking with a view of SY harbour. http://t.co/hWhdXkuEL4 9 years ago
- @xavierfont would be keen to be back with you guys in the future when the "stars align" I'll be there! 9 years ago
Monthly Archives: November 2011
Surface pressure forecast from the met office
mmm well it looks complicated – perhaps it'll make more sense when I have revised my meteorology …?
Posted in Uncategorized Leave a comment


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Mount Vernon Place and the Washington Monument: Monumental City Tour
May 19, 2019 @ 9:30 am - 10:30 am$15 | Register
Mount Vernon began as a country estate for Revolutionary War hero John Eager Howard and grew to be the place to live for Baltimore's rich and famous in the mid-nineteenth century. The Garrett family, owners of the B&O Railroad, the Walters, founders of the Walters Art Museum, and the Thomases, owners of Mercantile Bank, are among the families that built handsome mansions along the four parks that surround the Washington Monument. The recent renovations to the two-hundred-year-old Washington Monument are the latest news from the revival of this historic neighborhood over the last decade.
Join us on a tour to hear the stories behind the Washington Monument and see the landmarks of Baltimore's grandest historic neighborhood. If you are able, you can climb the Monument's stairs for a birds-eye view of central Baltimore! Space inside the monument is limited. Each tour is capped at fifteen people and we'll meet at the south entrance of the monument.
Our Monumental City tours are guided walks exploring iconic Baltimore landmarks in Downtown, Jonestown, Federal Hill and Mount Vernon the first four Sundays of the month from April through November, except holiday weekends. Our Washington Monument tour is organized in partnership with the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy.
- Date:
- May 19, 2019
- Time:
9:30 am - 10:30 am
- Cost:
- $15
- Event Categories:
- Monumental City, Tours
- Event Tags:
- Mount Vernon, Washington Monument
- Baltimore Heritage
- Phone:
- 410-332-9992
- Email:
- email@example.com
- View Organizer Website
- Registration
- https://baltimoreheritage.org/civicrm/?page=CiviCRM&q=civicrm%2Fevent%2Fregister&reset=1&id=481
- Parking
- Limited free on-street parking is available around Mount Vernon. Off-street parking is available at the Baltimore Sun Garage (601 N. Calvert Street - enter from East Monument Street), Central Parking (600 Cathedral Street), and the Franklin Street Garage (15 West Franklin Street).
- Washington Monument (South Entrance)
699 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21201 United States + Google Map
- View Venue Website
Related Events
Out of the Ashes: The Great Baltimore Fire of 1904April 2 @ 9:30 am - 10:30 am
Jonestown & the Shot Tower: A Walking TourApril 8 @ 10:00 am - 11:00 am
Historic Green Mount CemeteryApril 15 @ 9:30 am - 11:30 am


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About the Ubuntu Installer for Windows January 17, 2007Posted by Carthik in microsoft, Other sites, ubuntu.
Lifehacker featured a post about the Ubuntu Installer for Windows, with the headline:
Install and run Ubuntu without disturbing Windows
This is disturbing, since the installer is not yet finished and tested. Lifehacker's readers belong to a variety of "categories" but I worry about the users who expect everything to work ship-shape and start bad mouthing if it does not at first try. It is not clear where one would file bugs with this installer, for one. I hope this does not end up creating a "Ubuntu does not work properly" image in the minds of these readers. The installer prototype features ntfs-3g, which itself is experimental, and since Ubuntu will "reside" within windows, auto-detection and automatic configuration of hardware might not work the same as it does with native Ubuntu installs.
There is a prototype of the Install.exe installer for Windows. In layman's terms, this installer is just like any other software application installer for Windows. It works by copying an image of Ubuntu to your Windows partition and using that to "drive" Ubuntu. So it does not repartition your hard drive, or install Ubuntu independent of Windows. In C:\Ubuntu an image will reside and be complemented by the auto-detected settings for Ubuntu, the home directory for the users etc. So Ubuntu will end up borrowing space from Windows, without repartitioning. For more details, read the specification. Don't be scared by the word specification – Ubuntu specs are a pleasure to read, with the rationale,use cases, to-do items etc written in simple English.
I love the idea of the Ubuntu installer, and it sure makes it easy for folks to try Ubuntu out. I expect problems when these users finally want to switch completely to Ubuntu while preserving their Ubuntu installation, settings, files and permissions. Now that would be difficult since uninstalling windows will wipe out Ubuntu(which lives "within" Windows).
So, the approach will solve a problem but might end up inventing some more problems for its users.
All you need to try out Ubuntu without risking data loss is the Live CD – that really can't be beat for simplicity and ease-of-use!
- 1. Step - January 17, 2007
unfortunately, on low-RAM PCs (a prime target for users' first test of Ubuntu waters), the Live CD can be really slow. At least that was my experience.
'Course, could be related to problems that the system seems to be having anyways. And Windows won't boot usually on that system anymore. So maybe my experience isn't very typical.
Either way, I followed that story via the same link, and had the same concerns as you. Glad you voiced this by putting this out there.
- 2. Robert Devi - January 18, 2007
One thing that can be done is to add a warning, in bright read letters that this installer is early beta software and it has the issues you've outlined and that the user should consider the live CD.
- 4. jldugger - January 18, 2007
"Release early, release often." Wise words by a skilled hacker. If you're worried about beta quality injuring the Ubuntu image, all you need to do is make it clear that it is a beta. Please don't consider a closed beta — you'll find yourself in a doubly selected user base. They select themselves, and you've selected them, which goes against the principle of a diverse testing base.
As far as bug reports go, is there a good place to report bugs? Surely you could at least start a seperate launchpad project at the worst.
- 5. Tim - January 18, 2007
What's so hard about installing it from the CD? I didn't know it needed to be even easier than it already is.
- 6. Ubuntu-blogi » Arkisto » Uutiskatsaus, viikko 3/07 - January 22, 2007
[…] Asennusohjelmasta on tällä hetkellä julkaistu esiversio, jonka voi ladata Ubuntu-wikistä. hubuntu.wordpress.com Jyrki Kasvista parlamentaarikoiden tietoyhteiskuntajärjestön puheenjohtaja […]
- 7. Do we need an Ubuntu installer for Windows? « vamapaull's Blog - January 28, 2007
[…] official Ubuntu Blog brings up a good point; why not just use a Live CD if you want to test an alternate operating system? It's a mature, […]
- 8. Jon Peck - January 29, 2007
Actually, I wrote the blog entry that vamapaull's is presenting as its own. I had a factual mistake (referring to this blog as official), which I've updated. Nice entry, thank you.
- 9. Ambuj - February 19, 2007
The Installer is a a nice idea since i have seen many of my friends who are windows users not migrating to linux because they were afraid of losing data as it involved partitioning of harddrive . waiting for the installer to become public comming out of experimental stage.
- 10. Jason - May 14, 2007
The installation of ubuntu is a major barrier to its spread and use. This project aims to solve this problem by allowing installation from within Windows using an install.exe file, and eliminating the need to partition the hard drive or burn a CD to install. It will allow a faster and more user-friendly installation for Windows users, the ability to install without the risk of data loss through repartitioning, and the ability to install on ultra-portable laptops without CD drives.
- 12. travesti - August 26, 2010
glander the you olde rpost
- 13. travesti - August 26, 2010
glander the yolde rpost yok then
- 14. travesti - August 26, 2010
if that's all there was, you wouldn't be reading about it here.
- 15. travesti - August 26, 2010
if that's all there was, you wouldn't be reading about
- 16. sexy - September 13, 2010
so hard to pass from windows to linux
- 17. sikiş izle - September 26, 2010
One thing that can be done is to add a warning, in bright read letters that this installer is early beta software and it has the issues you've outlined and that the user should consider the live CD.
- 18. antalya ilaçlama - September 27, 2010
Yes I would second that. Go for the live CD until this software has been developed further.
- 19. sex sikiş - September 28, 2010
"Release early, release often." Wise words by a skilled hacker. If you're worried about beta quality injuring the Ubuntu image, all you need to do is make it clear that it is a beta. Please don't consider a closed beta — you'll find yourself in a doubly selected user base. They select themselves, and you've selected them, which goes against the principle of a diverse testing base.
- 20. bilt - November 6, 2010
Well, it works fine for me.
- 21. sikiş - March 28, 2011
thanks for sharing i love this idea and i will check everytime your post:)) see ya again in new post
- 22. Eustolia Castaneda - September 9, 2011
I Also Such as the Weblog right here. Preserve up each of the perform. I as well like to weblog. That is great everyone sharing opinions
- 23. 유흥알바 - October 8, 2019
very good written article it will be a good support to anyone who utilizes it including me keep doing what you're doing can't wait to read more post very nice article


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As a parent with an energetic toddler, I sometimes struggle to find restaurants that have the right balance of good food and entertainment when dining with a two-and-a-half year old. For the most part, we've relied on word-of-mouth, getting recommendations from other parents of the best spots. (We love Fremont Brewing Co. and The Ridge Pizza).
But now a new online service is emerging in Seattle from the folks behind Judy's Book called KidScore that ranks restaurants based on their kid-friendliness, taking into consideration things like play rooms, changing tables and special menus.
The system is similar to Walk Score, the popular Seattle service that ranks homes on a scale of 0 to 100 based upon how close people live to schools, restaurants, transit, movie theaters and more. The similarities don't end there, since Seattle angel Geoff Entress is a backer of both Walk Score and Judy's Book.
KidScore's scoresheet works much the same way as Walk Score: 90-100 gets a "kid heaven" ranking while 0-24 means kids aren't allowed.
While Yelp and Urbanspoon sometimes list restaurants as being kid friendly, it's sometimes tough to determine what that actually means. Just high chairs provided? Games? Kid's menu?
The KidScore system aims to solve that, a problem that I am surprised no one has bitten off yet. "We think the world can use another rating and review site," said Judy's Book general manager Ali Alami.
At this point, the service is being tested in Seattle with a full launch slated for later this month. Now available on Judy's Book, the future plan is to syndicate the scores to other sites, said Alami.
He declined to disclose specifics around how the algorithm works, though he said it does utilize reviews and feedback from users. The company also is employing researchers to make sure it has the most up-to-date information about kid-friendly restaurants.
"Although we won't give away our all our secrets, we will say that user reviews, feedback, and information from owners all play a role in determining a KidScore rating," they write on their Web site explaining the new service.
Here's a look at some of the KidScore ratings for Seattle area restaurants, three of which I've already checked out.


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This takes extreme hot-tubbing to new levels. A group in Switzerland suspended a makeshift Jacuzzi from the Gueuroz Bridge, 613 feet in the air. And they got in it! And hot-tubbed!
There's no explanation as to why, but the how is pretty damn well documented and amazing. As impressive as this is, though, I'm still a little nonplussed to see that nobody's naked. For real crazy Swiss people hanging from a hot tub suspended to a bridge? You're going to all that trouble and risk death, but you're not going to take off your pants? You should have taken off your pants. [Jacuzzi.ch]
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Ocean lovers rejoice at our selection of sea life and fish ornaments! We have an octopus, sea turtles, dolphins, pet fish ornaments, tropical fish ornaments, whales, sharks, sting rays, sea lions, lobsters, crabs and even a magical mermaid. Commemorate a favorite vacation or ocean liner voyage or decorate a sea life themed tree with a variety of water creatures who dwell under the waves.
|Showing 1-2 of 2
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Note: some white or light colored ornament images may show a shadow that is not part of the actual ornament


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21 Projects Guaranteed to Keep Your Kids Occupied This Weekend
We know you cherish your time with your kids, but sometimes you just need flashy doohickeys and throw-able doodads to capture their attention. Instructables.com has your back. Buy yourself precious quiet time this weekend with over 20 projects guaranteed to engage and amuse even the most active of children.
Instructables is the most popular project-sharing community on the Internet. We provide easy publishing tools to enable passionate, creative people like you to share their most innovative projects, recipes, skills, and ideas. Instructables has over 40,000 projects covering all subjects, including crafts, art, electronics, kids, home improvement, pets, outdoors, reuse, bikes, cars, robotics, food, decorating, woodworking, costuming, games, and more. Check it out today!
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The eye doctor who could not see the stars
- Published
For many years, Dr Andrew Bastawrous could not see clearly enough to spot the leaves on trees or the stars in the sky.
Teachers kept telling him he was lazy and he kept missing the football during games.
Then, aged 12, his mother took him to have his eyes tested and that changed everything.
Now he is a prize-winning eye doctor with a plan to use a smartphone app to bring better vision to millions of children around the world.
Dr Bastawrous told the BBC: "I'll never forget that moment at the optometrist. I had trial lenses on and looked across the car park and saw the gravel on the road had so much detail I had had no idea about.
"A couple of weeks later I got my first pair of glasses and that's when I saw stars for first time, started doing well at school and it completely transformed my life."
Around the world 12 million children, like Dr Bastawrous, have sight problems that could be corrected by a pair of glasses.
But in many areas, access to eye specialists is difficult - leaving children with visual impairments that can harm school work and, ultimately, their opportunities in later life.
Pocket eye tests
In rural Kenya, for example, there is one eye doctor for one million people. Meanwhile in the US, there is on average one ophthalmologist for every 15,800 people.
In 2011 Dr Bastawrous - by now an eye doctor in England - decided to study the eye health of the population of Kitale, Kenya, as part of his PhD.
He took about £100,000 of eye equipment in an attempt to set up 100 temporary eye clinics but found this didn't work, as reliable roads and electricity were scarce.
It was realising that these same areas had great mobile phone coverage - with about 80% of the population owning a cell phone - that sparked the idea for Peek.
Peek is a smartphone-based system that can bring eye care to people wherever they are.
One part of the Peek system works in a similar way to an optician's eye chart, checking how well a person can see.
'Teachers as opticians'
Dr Bastawrous wanted to see if Peek could be used by non-specialists in areas where eye specialists are scarce. His team came up with the idea of training teachers - turning the teacher into an optician.
Now a trial published in the Lancet Global Health shows Peek can be used successfully to bring pocket eye tests to schools, helping more children to get the glasses they need.
How it works:
- Children are shown a series of "E" shapes in different orientations and sizes.
- The child points in the direction the symbol is facing
- The teacher (who cannot see the screen) then swipes the phone in the same direction
- The app determines how good the child's eyesight is
'Tried and tested'
Dr Bastawrous - together with a team of researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine - spent a week training 25 teachers in 50 schools in rural Kenya to use their Peek system or standard eye tests normally done by specialist nurses.
Half of the primary school children were then tested using the Peek system and half with standard eye tests using a series of paper testing cards.
After their tests, children who were examined by the Peek system were shown a split-screen simulation of how blurred their sight was compared with someone who could see clearly.
Crucially, they were then given a printout of this to pass on to their parents, showing them just how poor their child's sight was.
The Peek system also sent out details of the nearest eye clinic along with text-message reminders to encourage parents to take their children to hospital.
Meanwhile, the children who took the paper-based vision test had their scores recorded manually and, if the teachers detected any eye problems, were given a paper letter to pass on to their parents.
Researchers found twice as many children attended hospital for free eye checks with Peek than went for standard eye tests.
'Promise of sight'
Dr Hillary Rono, an eye doctor based in Kenya and lead researcher on the study, said: "This could be a world changer. To put it in perspective, I am one of the 100 ophthalmologists in Kenya.
"I am in charge of a region that has two million people. I cannot reach everybody in that area.
"Therefore, this technology will allow people without medical skills to identify the children with problems and link them with doctors like me so they can treat them."
The study also found the app picked up on more children with eye problems than the standard tests - although, some were allergic conditions that temporarily blurred vision rather than sight problems that needed glasses.
Researchers realised these children benefited from treatment too so Peek has now been refined to spot the difference between eyesight issues and other eye problems, and send children to the right place for help.
Commenting on the study, Peter Holland, of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, said: "Innovations like Peek bring the costs of screening and referrals down and put services within reach of millions who are currently being left behind.
"They have the potential to offer the promise of sight to many who need it."
Peek is being rolled out across more schools in Kenya, serving 300,000 children, with subsidised glasses for those who need them.
The government of Botswana is planning on using it nationwide and it is also being used in India.
Follow Smitha on Twitter.


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Just because your sport takes place in the water rather than on land, doesn't mean you have to forfeit the benefits of listening to music while working out.
And the benefits are real. Besides perhaps distracting you or putting you in a good mood, music can "reduce the sense of exertion as well as boost motivation," according to research reported by the Wall Street Journal.
In a Speedo-sponsored study published in the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise, researchers examined the effects of music on swimmers. After a three-week period getting comfortable swimming with headphones, athletes swam three 200-meter freestyle races while listening to either motivational music, neutral music, or a no-music control. Swimmers listening to music beat their non-music-listening times by three seconds. This may seem like only a slight improvement, but it's easily the difference between first place and fourth place in a competitive race.
While water and your electronics don't normally make nice, we found six pairs of headphones that will happily keep your tunes pumping in the pool. A few pairs here are fully submersible up to depths of 12 feet. Others aren't quite as robust, although they will survive a thorough washing after a sweaty run. One wireless Sony set even comes equipped with a drag-and-drop MP3 player capable of rapid charging, meaning you're good to go with 60 minutes of continuous playback in the time it takes to swimsuit up.
So don't let your landlubber running and cycling friends reap all the benefits of exercising to a beat. After all, everyone deserves music.
If being waterproof isn't a requirement, check out these other great headphones for working out. Looking for new ways to shake up your fitness routine? Try a top-rated activity tracker or a motivating fitness app.
X-1 Surge Sportwrap Waterproof Headphones
X-1 Surge Waterproof Sport Headphones
Sennheiser CX 680 Sports
Sony Walkman Sports MP3 Player
Monster iSport Immersion In-Ear Heaphones
Aquapac 100% Waterproof Headphones


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Hug an Aircraft Mechanic Today
And remember Charlie Taylor, the Wright Brothers' mechanic, born on this day in 1868.
Modern aircraft are so complex that using the word "mechanics" to describe the people who service them no longer seems to fit; they work surrounded by computers, electronics, and tools that bear no resemblance to the ball-peen hammers of yore. Still, the Aircraft Maintenance Technicians (AMT) Association has established May 24 as a day for national recognition of their profession, and in so doing, pay honor to the man who is considered the very first American AMT.
When the Wright brothers needed help around their bicycle shop, they hired one Charles E. Taylor, a mechanic and machinist. Charlie, as they called him, was the kind of man who might have been described in those days as "good with his hands." Born in 1868, shortly after the end of the U.S. Civil War, he became a trusted employee around the Wrights' bike shop in the first years of the 20th century, where he repaired bicycles and even ran the place when the brothers were gone.
Although Orville and Wilbur began flying in gliders, their goal was always to fly a powered aircraft that could stay aloft as long as its fuel lasted. To do that, they needed an engine–but not just any engine. When they sought bids from established manufacturers, they stipulated that the engine had to be light but powerful. It also had to run smoothly enough that the vibration didn't tear their airplanes apart. It was hardly surprising that no one in industry was interested in such a tall order–especially when they were buying just two units. They got no replies.
The Wrights may not have known a lot about engines, but they knew Charlie. Could he produce a 200-cubic-inch engine that delivered eight horsepower, the minimum requirement they'd calculated they would need for their Flyer? According to a remark by Taylor quoted in the Smithsonian monograph series Annals of Flight, "We didn't make any drawings. One of us would sketch out the part we were talking about on a piece of scrap paper." Taylor's capable hands began to turn out the parts: He made the complicated crankshaft entirely by hand from a single "solid block of steel about 32 inches long, six inches wide and one and five-eighths inches thick," as he recalled in a short documentary made by United Aircraft Corporation on the 50th anniversary of the Wrights' first flight. First he drilled holes through the steel billet to remove metal, then, when he had the part shaped in rough form, he used a metal cutting lathe to create the circular bearing surfaces on each crank throw. The aluminum crankcase was custom cast by a local Ohio foundry.
It took Taylor just six weeks to finish it, and instead of eight horsepower, it produced about 12. Instead of a heavy, complex carburetor, it had a flat induction chamber on top of the engine with a kind of collar mounted on it that dribbled the fuel into the chamber to vaporize. The basic outlines of that original engine survived evolutionary changes that produced more horsepower and greater reliability, but the engine from the first successful powered flight in 1903 no longer exists. It was damaged, put in storage, then lost.
Charlie lost his life savings during the Great Depression, and after moving to California, fell on hard times. Correspondence between him and Orville Wright (in the collected papers of the brothers) shows an enduring affection and respect between them.
In 2001, the FAA unveiled the Charles E. Taylor Master Mechanic Award for AMTs with 50 years in maintenance who also had at least 30 of those years as licensed airframe and powerplant mechanics. In 2002, California became the first state to celebrate AMT Day and link it to the memory of Taylor. Currently, 52 U.S. states and territories have embraced May 24 as AMT Day, and the U.S. House of Representatives has passed a similar resolution; a Senate measure is said to be underway.
So mark your calendar and try to find some AMTs to thank. It won't be easy, due to airport security that Charlie and the Wrights could never have imagined. You can always ask a pilot to thank an AMT for you.


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Wolf Blitzer delivers the most important breaking news and political, international, and national security stories of the day. Tune to The Situation Room weekdays 5-7pm ET on CNN.
James Holmes, the suspect in the Colorado theater shootings, had a bizarre look and a dazed expression in court.
I see a guy who has not been able to sleep sense the shoot, his concerns for what he did must be hunting very bad, his 24 will never see life outside prison or the death penalty either way he is toast
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Category: Dailies
Old Busch, new Busch
All season long, the Cardinals have celebrated the last year of the current Busch Stadium. The new Busch Stadium has a significant overlap with the existing stadium, so the current ballpark has to be demolished in order to complete construction on the new park.
One indication of just how much the two stadiums overlap can be seen by the mini foul pole found in section 129. This smaller version of a foul pole represents where the left-field foul pole will be in the new stadium. The pole also comes complete with the distance (335) and the white foul line, painted on the concrete of the current Busch Stadium until it comes to the end of the sidewalk overlooking the new park.
For now, though, this current Busch Stadium gets at least one more game. The demolition is set to take place about three weeks after the final game of the Cardinals' season. And somehow, I don't think the Cardinals would mind delaying that for another week if they pull off two more wins and make it to the World Series. — Allison Creekmore / MLB.com
You know you're old when …
… the young gun you covered back in the day is now long since retired, and his son you used to see as a toddler playing around the pool at Spring Training is almost as big as Albert Pujols.
That would be Andy Benes and Drew Benes, respectively.
Dad, who finished his baseball career with the Cardinals after starting it with the Padres, has been down on the field during the playoffs, doing analysis for the local FSN channel. The 6-foot-6 right-hander used to borrow the Walter Johnson nickname "Big Train" for his size, and when he stands next to Pujols, he makes the Cardinals superstar slugger look a little more human than he did on that monster shot the other night.
This time, Andy brought Drew, who's 17 now and can stand next to Pujols and not get lost in the shadow. Guess that how it works — kids grow up, and if Dad is a big dude, son is going to be a big dude, too. — John Schlegel / MLB.com
Birth of the B's
I get asked all the time where the Astros picked up the nickname "Killer B's." The question has come up repeatedly in the playoffs as fans around the country want to know why Houston fans are dressed up in bee attire and the public-address system at Minute Maid Park blares a buzzing sound every time an Astro with the requisite consonant comes to the plate, like Craig Biggio, Lance Berkman, Chris Burke or Brad Ausmus.
The truth is former Houston general manager Gerry Hunsicker coined the phrase Killer B's in December 1994 when he acquired Derek Bell, Doug Brocail, Ricky Gutierrez, Phil Plantier and Craig Shipley from San Diego for Ken Caminiti, Andujar Cedeno, Steve Finley, Roberto Petagine, Sean Fesh and Brian Williams.
Bell was key to the deal for the Astros. The outfielder would hit second behind leadoff man Biggio and ahead of Jeff Bagwell.
The killer bee scare was in the news in those days. Hunsicker, at the press conference to announce the deal, said Bell would "give the Astros a Killer B lineup," and he was proven right.
The Astros added third baseman Sean Berry in 1995 and shortstop Tim Bogar was a starter during the years the Astros won consecutive division crowns from 1997-99. Berkman joined the team in '99 and, with Biggio and Bagwell, continues to form the nucleus of Houston's Killer B hive. — Jim Molony / MLB.com
Getting ready
The stadium usher, or working any other job that involves managing the fans, has one of those jobs that everyone thinks is totally cushy. "You get paid to stand here, and you see all the games." Of course, there's always more to it than that. Before each playoff game at Busch Stadium, instructions are given over the loudspeaker during the Cardinals' batting-practice session. Wednesday could be a special night, with special concerns. Here's what they're watching:
- Fans have called all day wondering if they can get in after the seventh inning. There is a St. Louis Blues hockey game, so they're thinking baseball-hockey doubleheader. But with the stands expected to be packed, the gates will not be opened.
- Some fans could have the compulsion to get that special memory by running onto the field. Not only will it get them arrested, but ushers and security are keeping a special watch.
- If the Cardinals lose — the lead usher said it won't happen — all employees have to remain in place while a video tribute to Busch Stadium is shown on the video screen.
The goodbye to Busch Stadium is inevitable. No one wants it to be tonight. But if it is, they're prepared. — Thomas Harding / MLB.com
A Flores arrangement
Every media outlet is trying for any possible angle, any possible interview, at this time of year. That, of course, includes the Spanish-language reporters, who have a slightly more limited pool of athletes than those of us who write and report in English.
So here's to Cardinals reliever Randy Flores, who obliged a request from ESPN Deportes Radio, even though he doesn't speak Spanish. A Southern California native, Flores does understand Spanish. So he stood in the dugout, listening to the questions asked in Spanish, and replied in English. The interview lasted a few minutes, and apparently it was a success — though your intrepid correspondent understood only Flores' half of the conversation. — Matthew Leach / MLB.com
Draw the curtains
Let's face it, baseball is based on superstitions. Players will do anything to keep the good times rolling, from wearing their underwear backward on game days to eating the same pregame meal to not changing their socks during a hitting streak.
Some players think that the day they show up a pitcher by standing at home plate watching a home run is the day they'll break their leg sliding into second. Don't mess with the baseball gods, one veteran player told me long ago.
Remember Jose Lima's antics on the mound during his 21-win season in 1999? He sang, he danced, he celebrated a strikeout with the electric slide. The next year, he couldn't get anyone out. At all. In 2001, he was traded to Detroit, home of the furthest fences in the bigs. Couldn't get anyone out there, either.
Why? As the veteran said, maybe it was the baseball gods. Show up the other team, lose the strikezone. Forever.
So why in the world are players taking curtain calls?
Reggie Sanders hit a two-run homer in Game 1 of the NLCS and popped out of the dugout for a curtain call. IT WAS THE FIRST INNING! Yeah, yeah, I know, it's become somewhat of a harmless Cardinals tradition, and I can appreciate that. But in a 2-0 game, with eight innings to play? Come on.
Lance Berkman pops a three-run homer in the seventh inning of Game 5, and soon he pops out of the dugout for a curtain call. An hour later, Albert Pujols jacked a three-run shot of his own to win the game. Yikes.
And how about Sanders? In Game 2, he nearly broke his neck trying to make a heroic catch in left field. He had to leave the game, couldn't play the next day, and since then, he's had one hit.
Baseball gods? Maybe it's a stretch. But players need to play it safe. Save the curtain calls for after the game, if your team wins. — Alyson Footer / MLB.com
Eck of a player
Look at Albert Pujols, and you think superhero. Look at David Eckstein, and you think supermarket, as in this guy could be stocking the shelves or shopping in the produce department next to you.
But Eckstein's some kind of athlete and some kind of baseball player, don't let the appearances fool you. He has tremendous field savvy, and as we saw with that single in Houston the other night, a real knack for being calm in the clutch. Remember, that Pujols blast doesn't happen without Eck's two-strike dribbler.
Besides, he really has the right attitude, and handles himself with extreme focus on the field and total professionalism with the media and with fans.
The guy has fun playing ball, and you can see that from the time he steps on the field. Nobody has more fun playing catch than this guy, whether it's with double-play partner Mark Grudzielanek or, like during Tuesday's workout, with his brother, Rick, who's a coach in the Nationals organization but along for this postseason ride with David.
There's the standard toss from 60 feet or so like everyone else does, but then Eck breaks it out all the way down the line. The other day in Houston, he went all the way to the left-field corner, and with the fan-packed stands jutting out, media all over the place on the field and a boom microphone as a target for Grudzielanek, the two played catch like kids in a park. High arching throws, perfect strikes every time. Fun stuff.
Sure, he's little. But he's tough, and he's absolutely huge for the Cardinals. — John Schlegel / MLB.com
Repeat NL Champions
It's been 13 years since the same two National League teams played each other in back-to-back postseasons, and the current St. Louis-Houston rivalry is beginning to have an eerie tone to it.
Remember those great seven-game Atlanta-Pittsburgh tussles of 1991 and 1992? Barry Bonds didn't hit much in either of them for the Bucs. But the Pirates had a 3-2 lead in the 1991 series heading back home into old Three Rivers Stadium and never scored another run. Steve Avery threw eight innings of three-hit ball to win Game 6, 1-0, and John Smoltz tossed a complete-game six-hitter to win Game 7, 4-0, and the series.
In 1992, the Braves actually led, 3-1, but the Pirates came back to tie with a blowout in Game 6 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. In Game 7, the Pirates had a 2-0 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth when the Braves struck back with three runs. The series was decided with two out against reliever Stan Belinda when Francisco Cabrera singled home David Justice and Sid Bream, who came barreling around from second base and just beat the throw from Bonds, the left fielder.
Cabrera only played parts of five big-league seasons and had 351 regular season at-bats. But his moment is one of the great ones in postseason history. And these are the memories that great playoff games make.
The fact is that only three times have the same NL teams played against each other in back-to-back postseasons since the advent of the League Championship Series in 1969.
The Dodgers and Phillies battled in 1977 and 1978 and the Dodgers won both times. The Braves and Pirates we've already documented. Now the Cardinals have a chance to repeat history by winning the final two games at home against the Astros in the second consecutive NLCS.
Eerie, wouldn't you say? — Barry M. Bloom / MLB.com
Turning two
This time of year, you make adjustments. That even goes for singers. So Carol Woods, who made an outstanding recovery after losing her place during "The Star-Spangled Banner," turned a rousing double play when she returned for "God Bless America" during the seventh-inning stretch. More fervor, more range, even a little extra plea ("God, please, bless America"). And this time she did it all facing the scoreboard. If the Astros clinch and go to the World Series tonight, they've got to sip some champagne for her — and bring her back. — Thomas Harding / MLB.com
Oh, say can you see …
Yes, the Houston Astros have a chance to make their first World Series appearance, but I've already witnessed history. Actor/singer Carol Woods was rolling through a rousing, gospel-fired rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" when she lost her place. And who can blame her? Yes, she's been on Broadway, stage, film and TV. But none of that is at Minute Maid Park, with thousands of folks on edge already. You try hitting all those notes and keeping the ramparts, bombs and rockets straight.
Well, there's no need for a scoreboard bigger than your average apartment building if you're not going to use it. Somehow, she recognized the groans of the crowd, twisted around, caught the words and soldiered on. And it was beautiful. — Thomas Harding / MLB.com


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An unexplained and unprecedented rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere two years running has raised fears that the world may be on the brink of runaway global warming.
Scientists are baffled why the quantity of the main greenhouse gas has leapt in a two-year period and are concerned that the Earth's natural systems are no longer able to absorb as much as in the past.
The findings will be discussed tomorrow by the government's chief scientist, Dr David King, at the annual Greenpeace business lecture.
Measurements of CO2 in the atmosphere have been continuous for almost 50 years at Mauna Loa Observatory, 12,000ft up a mountain in Hawaii, regarded as far enough away from any carbon dioxide source to be a reliable measuring point.
In recent decades CO2 increased on average by 1.5 parts per million (ppm) a year because of the amount of oil, coal and gas burnt, but has now jumped to more than 2 ppm in 2002 and 2003.
Above or below average rises in CO2 levels in the atmosphere have been explained in the past by natural events.
When the Pacific warms up during El Ni�o - a disruptive weather pattern caused by weakening trade winds - the amount of carbon dioxide rises dramatically because warm oceans emit CO2 rather than absorb it.
But scientists are puzzled because over the past two years, when the increases have been 2.08 ppm and 2.54 ppm respectively, there has been no El Ni�o.
Charles Keeling, the man who began the observations in 1958 as a young climate scientist, is now 74 and still working in the field.
He said yesterday: "The rise in the annual rate to above two parts per million for two consecutive years is a real phenomenon.
"It is possible that this is merely a reflection of natural events like previous peaks in the rate, but it is also possible that it is the beginning of a natural process unprecedented in the record."
Analysts stress that it is too early to draw any long-term conclusions.
Runaway greenhouse effect
But the fear held by some scientists is that the greater than normal rises in C02 emissions mean that instead of decades to bring global warming under control we may have only a few years. At worst, the figures could be the first sign of the breakdown in the Earth's natural systems for absorbing the gas.
That would herald the so-called "runaway greenhouse effect", where the planet's soaring temperature becomes impossible to contain. As the icecaps melt, less sunlight is refected back into space from ice and snow, and bare rocks begin to absorb more heat. This is already happening.
One of the predictions made by climate scientists in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is that as the Earth warms, the absorption of carbon dioxide by vegetation - known as "carbon sink" - is reduced.
Time bomb
Dr Keeling said since there was no sign of a dramatic increase in the amount of fossil fuels being burnt in 2002 and 2003, the rise "could be a weakening of the Earth's carbon sinks, associated with the world warming, as part of a climate change feedback mechanism. It is a cause for concern'.'
Tom Burke, visiting professor at Imperial College London, and a former special adviser to the former Tory environment minister John Gummer, warned: "We're watching the clock and the clock is beginning to tick faster, like it seems to before a bomb goes off."
Peter Cox, head of the Carbon Cycle Group at the Met Office's Hadley Centre for Climate Change, said the increase in carbon dioxide was not uniform across the globe.
Measurements of CO2 levels in Australia and at the south pole were slightly lower, he said, so it looked as though something unusual had occurred in the northern hemisphere.
"My guess is that there were extra forest fires in the northern hemisphere, and particularly a very hot summer in Europe," Dr Cox said. "This led to a die-back in vegetation and an increase in release of carbon from the soil, rather than more growing plants taking carbon out of the atmosphere, which is usually the case in summer."
Scientists have dubbed the - two-year CO2 rise the Mauna Loa - anomaly. Dr Cox said one of its most interesting aspects was that the CO2 rises did not take place in El Ni�o years. Previously the only figures that climbed higher than 2 ppm were El Ni�o years - 1973, 1988, 1994 and 1998.
The heatwave of last year that is now believed to have claimed at least 30,000 lives across the world was so out of the ordinary that many scientists believe it could only have been caused by global warming.
Scientists cautious
But Dr Cox, like other scientists, is concerned that too much might be read into two years' figures. "Five or six years on the trot would be very difficult to explain," he said.
Dr Piers Forster, senior research fellow of the University of Reading's Department of Meteorology, said: "If this is a rate change, of course it will be very significant. It will be of enormous concern, because it will imply that all our global warming predictions for the next hundred years or so will have to be redone."
David J Hofmann of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration centre, which also studies CO2, was more cautious.
"I don't think an increase of 2 ppm for two years in a row is highly significant - there are climatic perturbations that can make this occur," he said. "But the absence of a known climatic event does make these years unusual.
"Based on those two years alone I would say it was too soon to say that a new trend has been established, but it warrants close scrutiny."
Paul Brown is environment correspondent with The Guardian.
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 . This article was first published by The Guardian, (Monday, 11th October 2004). All rights reserved. Reproduced with kind permission.
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What is destined to become the biggest and best Live Music Festival in all of Florida, Big Guava brings a great line-up of musical stars to the Florida State Fairgrounds and MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre in Tampa, Friday, May 2 through Sunday, May 4. There will be four stages of the best top live music acts, a Monster Midway of unlimited free thrilling and fast paced rides and craft beer gardens along with taste-tempting delights from critically acclaimed food trucks. There is just no reason not to have the best time of your life!
Already scheduled to perform at Big Guava are: Outkast, their reunion tour with Andre 3000 and Big Boi; Vampire Weekend, considered one of the most creative and critically acclaimed bands in the American music scene today; Foster The People, the popular indie rock trio making atmospheric, psychedelic, and dance-oriented pop; Slightly Stoopid, built on a bedrock of slabs of dubby bass, meditative vocal harmonies, rock-steady guitar licks and tightly syncopated percussive rhythms; Cake, defying all musical genres to create their own individual sound; Tegan And Sara, with a unique ability to bridge the pop and indie worlds; Violent Femmes, the textbook American cult band of the 1980s who captured the essence of teen angst with remarkable precision and emerged as the soundtrack for the lives of troubled adolescents the world over; Girl Talk, his songs
are built on recognizable samples of recent hit singles, recontextualized into an entirely new piece; Earl Sweatshirt, his languid style is a blend of highly personal alt-rap and morbid horrorcore; Grouplove, a merging of richly narrated, intricate songs with anthemic classic pop production; and HAIM, who are able to switch from instrument to instrument, all while singing in three part harmony.
Additional performers include: Twenty One Pilots, Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience, Chance the Rapper, Walk The Moon, Blue October, Band Of Skulls, ZZ Ward, MS MR, Timeflies, Hoodie Allen, American Authors, Deap Vally, St. Lucia, Smallpools, Bear Hands, Morning Parade, Kitten, Magic Man, Jacuzzi Boys, Gringo Star, Unlikely Candidates, Vic Mensa, Terraplane Sun, Jessica Hernandez And The Deltas, Fly Union and more to be announced soon.
Four stages, tons of bands and that is only a part of the fun and excitement Big Guava offers. There is also a Monster Midway of fast paced free unlimited thrill rides. And then there are the epicurean delights of the finest and most unique food trucks that Tampa Bay has to offer as well as a variety of Craft Beer Gardens that provide refreshing libations for even the most discerning aficionados.
Big Guava was created as a joint partnership between Live Nation FL and the Florida State Fair Authority to bring the biggest and best Live Music Festival to Florida and the Tampa Bay area. Hours for Big Guava are Friday, May 2: 4PM to 11PM; Saturday, May 3: 11:30AM to 11PM; and Sunday, May 4: 11:30AM to 10PM.
3-Day Early Bird General Admission Pass: $99 (Limited Quantity Available – on-sale January 15 at 5pm EST); 3-Day General Admission Pass – $165 (on-sale January 18 at 10:00 AM). Tickets include Free Unlimited Rides and General Admission to All Stages including the MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre (seats available on first come, first served basis).
There is also the one and only 3-Day Super Guava Pass – $499 (on-sale January 18 at 10:00 AM). This is the ultimate ticket to Big Guava and includes Free Unlimited Rides; Premium Reserved Seat in Amphitheatre; Preferred viewing areas for all other stages; Access to Two Super Guava Lounges with Specialty Food and Complementary Non-Alcoholic Beverages and Limited Samplings of Signature Beer and Wine; Commemorative Super Guava Laminate
To purchase tickets go to www.livenation.com, all TicketMaster outlets or charge
by-phone at (800) 745-3000.
All dates, acts and ticket prices are subject to change without notice. All tickets are subject to applicable taxes, parking and service and handling charges.


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Trump: I was going to fire Comey regardless of recommendation
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Thursday he would have fired FBI Director James Comey even without the recommendation from his top political appointees at the Justice Department, contradicting earlier White House accounts.
He insisted anew that Comey had told him directly three separate times that he personally was not under investigation.
"I was going to fire Comey," Trump said in an interview with NBC. The White House and Vice President Mike Pence have said the president acted on the recommendation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
"Regardless of recommendation I was going to fire Comey," Trump said.
Trump's comments came amid increased criticism of the White House's evolving explanation of the firing.
In public testimony Thursday, the acting FBI director, Andrew McCabe, contradicted White House statements about why Comey was dismissed, particularly the assertion that Comey had lost the confidence of the rank and file of the FBI.
"That is not accurate," McCabe said in response to a senator's question. "I can tell you also that Director Comey enjoyed broad support within the FBI and still does to this day."
In the NBC interview, Trump repeated his assertion that Comey three times assured him he was not under investigation.
"He said it once at dinner, and then he said it twice during phone calls," Trump said.
McCabe told senators it is not standard FBI practice to tell someone he or she is or isn't under investigation. He would not comment on conversations between Trump and the FBI director.
The White House refused Wednesday to provide any evidence or greater detail. Former FBI agents said such a statement by the director would be all but unthinkable.
The dramatic firing of Comey has left the fate of the FBI's probe into Russia's election meddling and possible ties to the Trump campaign deeply uncertain. The investigation has shadowed Trump from the outset of his presidency, though he's denied any ties to Russia or knowledge of any campaign coordination with Moscow.
McCabe called the Russia investigation "highly significant" — another contradiction of the White House portrayal — and assured senators Comey's firing will not hinder it. He promised he would tolerate no interference from the White House and would not provide the administration with updates on its progress.
"You cannot stop the men and women of the FBI from doing the right thing," he declared. He said there has been no interference so far.
Days before he was fired, Comey requested more resources to pursue his investigation, U.S. officials have said, fueling concerns that Trump was trying to undermine a probe that could threaten his presidency. McCabe said he was not aware of any such request and said the Russia investigation is adequately resourced.
It was unclear whether word of the Comey request, said to have been put to Rosenstein, ever made its way to Trump. But the revelation intensified the pressure on the White House from both political parties to explain the motives behind Comey's stunning ouster.
The chairman and top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee abruptly left the hearing Thursday to meet with Rosenstein, who is McCabe's boss. The senators said later that the Russia investigations were discussed but Comey's firing was not.


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This week, the government launched a campaign promoting London as a centre for Islamic finance.
The aim is to counter growing competition in this industry from rising centres such as Dubai and Kuala Lumpur.
Hamid Yunis - head of the Global Islamic Finance Group at international law firm Taylor Wessing - told the Today programme: "Islamic finance is generally business dealings in accordance with Islamic principles.
"I think a good comparison is to those in the market who are playing in the ethical banking field."
"There are a number of principles, the most commonly known being no interest on business dealings - so money is invested, and interest is not charged."
"Also, the investments are designed not against speculation, against gambling - in line with the prohibition against gambling.
"And essentially, you know the asset you're going to be investing into, and the transaction you're going to be investing into."
(BBC News Business / 14 March 2013)
Alfalah Consulting - Kuala Lumpur: www.alfalahconsulting.com
Consultant-Speaker-Motivator: www.ahmad-sanusi-husain.com
Islamic Investment Malaysia: www.islamic-invest-malaysia.com


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Review: Tyler Perry's 'Alex Cross' is a bust
James Patterson titled his 12th Alex Cross crime novel simply "Cross." The filmmakers who adapted it expanded the title to "Alex Cross."
They might as well have gone for broke and called it "Tyler Perry's Madea's Stab at Expanding Her-His Hollywood Marketability as James Patterson's Alex Cross."
Perry's name will draw his fans in. Patterson's name will draw his fans in. There's no trace of Madea in director Rob Cohen's adaptation, yet the spirit of the sassy grandma inevitably hangs over the project for viewers curious to see Perry playing it straight and dramatic.
Alex Cross the man and "Alex Cross" the movie wind up suffering for it. It's perfectly reasonable for Perry to try to broaden his enormous popularity beyond the Madea lineage in his own raucous portraits of family life. It's also perfectly reasonable to say that casting Perry as Cross was a bad idea, though it's not necessarily the worst in a movie built on bad ideas.
Perry has little allure as supposedly brilliant criminal profiler Cross. He looks the part of Patterson's big, athletic hero. And no one expects a Morgan Freeman, who played Cross in "Kiss the Girls" and "Along Came a Spider." But Perry is low-key bordering on sleepwalker dull, and the standard-issue cop-vs.-serial-killer story presents Cross as more of a dopey psycho-babbler than a guy whose incisive mind cuts right to the heart of the case.
In this scenario, Cross is early on in his career, a star on the Detroit police department along with partner and best pal Thomas Kane (Edward Burns). They're tracking a killer code-named Picasso (Matthew Fox) who's working his way up the food chain with murders and attempted murders of execs at an international conglomerate, with the big boss, Giles Mercier (Jean Reno), clearly the ultimate target.
It's unclear just how the showy crimes against underlings are going to get Picasso closer to his goal, rather than simply alerting authorities to put extra security on Mercier. But such is the hazy thinking of the twisted mind, and such is the hazier thinking of Hollywood hacks who don't care about making sense.
It made enough sense to Patterson, though, a producer on the movie.
Director Cohen ("The Fast and the Furious") and screenwriters Marc Moss and Kerry Williamson weave in as bland a home-life as imaginable for Cross, with his perfect wife (Carmen Ejogo), their perfect kids and his perfect live-in mom (Cicely Tyson). The filmmakers offer a miserly personal life for Kane, who's feeling his way through a new romance with a fellow detective (Monica Ashe).
As the irascible police chief, John C. McGinley looks permanently constipated and wishing he could be anywhere but here.
Unlike Freeman's R-rated Alex Cross movies, the grisly crimes are only talking points, the images sanitized to a Perry-friendly PG-13 level. Cohen's strong suit usually is action, but fights, chases and gunplay are mostly a jumble of quick cuts. An opening scene in which Cross literally dodges a bullet a second or more after it's fired kind of sums up the action trajectory, which eventually devolves from bad police procedural into a bad "Dirty Harry" copycat.
Fox plays Picasso like a drop-out from the Heath Ledger's Joker school of cackling villainy, repeatedly calling Cross on the phone to toss around dreary taunts.
Cross' profile technique amounts to "I don't have any concrete information about this perp so I'm going to spout vague generalities while furrowing my brow." He blathers on about Picasso as a rogue sociopath, a narcissist out to make someone suffer, maybe his mom or his dad or himself or the whole world.
"Who the hell knows?" Cross says.
Tyler Perry's Alex Cross certainly doesn't. Neither does Tyler Perry.


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90th birthday celebration
Elizabeth "Bette" Lillian Westcott Old celebrated her 90th birthday May 30 joined by family members.
A native of Roscoe, N.Y., she married Frederick Redd in 1941 and they had one son, William "Bill" Reed, now residing in Van Nyus, Calif.
Frederick died in World War II in 1945, and on June 20, 1946, Bette married Robert "Bob" H. Old, and they had four children: Susan Jackson, Libby, Mont.; R. Scott Old. who with his wife, Patsy, resides in Courtland, Va.; Christopher Old and his wife, St. Augustine; and Kathleen Old, St. Augustine.
Bob and Bette moved to St. Augustine in September 1975. Bette retired from St. Augustine General Hospital, and Bob retired in as a meat sales rep for the area. He died in 1998.
Bette's family includes four grandchildren: Sarah Lewis, Robin Old, Kokomo, Ind.; Joshua Old, Courtland, Va.; and Adam Jackson, Glen Burnie, Md.; five great-grandchildren, Emily, Lily and Dana Lewis; Rose and Kailynn Old, all of Kokomo; and a nephew, Rob T. Old, Gordonsville, Va.


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TORONTO – Holiday cheer will be swapped with a dose of fear after traders return from a holiday break this week as developments over the "fiscal cliff" negotiations keep the attention of investors, and will likely lead to erratic movements in stock markets.
The shortened trading week, and traditionally low volume levels around the Christmas holiday, will likely accentuate any market shifts related to developments in the stalled U.S. federal budget talks. Congress will reconvene on Thursday.
But before then, trading will likely remain calm in the shortened session leading up to Christmas Eve.
The Toronto Stock Exchange closes early on Monday at 1:30 p.m. ET, while New York markets end the session at 1 p.m. ET.
North American markets will remain closed for the Christmas Day holiday, and the TSX will also be closed on Wednesday for Boxing Day.
On Thursday, traders will return their attention to the ticking clock leading up to the year-end deadline.
Last Friday, stocks fell sharply after House Republicans called off a vote on tax rates and left federal budget talks in disarray 10 days before sweeping tax increases and government spending cuts are scheduled to take effect.
President Barack Obama said later Friday that he is "ready and willing" to get a big package done to deal with the fiscal cliff, adding there's no reason not to protect middle-class Americans from tax increases.
Obama says he spoke Friday with House Speaker John Boehner and met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. He says Congress should pass a plan to extend tax breaks for the middle class and extend unemployment benefits.
Obama says no one can get 100 per cent of what they want and there are "real consequences" to how they deal with the across-the-board tax increases and steep spending cuts scheduled to kick in Jan. 1. Economists fear the combination could deliver a blow to the U.S. economy.
A deal must be reached to avoid going over the so-called fiscal cliff,' which would involve the automatic imposition of hundreds of billions of dollars in spending cuts and tax increases that could plunge the world's largest economy back into recession and depress economies around the world.
"Legislators are under increasing pressure to act quickly to prevent the sort of acute market volatility seen before (the) agreement on TARP and a debt ceiling deal 16 months ago," said CIBC World Markets senior economist Peter Buchanan.
Investors will also be squaring away their tax books for the year. Monday marks the last day for tax-loss selling for Canadian taxpayers selling equities through domestic accounts. The deadline for U.S. securities tax loss sales is Wednesday.
"Once you get past those tax-loss selling deadlines, the markets have to look ahead, because there's nothing else you can lock in for 2012," said Gareth Watson, vice-president of investment management and research at Richardson GMP Ltd.
"Once we get to Thursday and Friday people will start focusing way more on 2013. That's probably when the Washington news and noise will have even greater influence and that's probably where the volatility picks up again."
In the U.S., pending home sales figures are due on Thursday with expectations for home prices to show further appreciation.


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Like bikes and beer? Then read on, and start planning your trip to Portland, Oregon...
When Portland's Christian Ettinger pedals 7 miles to work, he's propelled by one thought: "Beer gets me over the hills," says Ettinger, who is the brewmaster and owner of eco-friendly Hopworks Urban Brewery, or HUB (hopworksbeer.com), which opened in March. The bicycle acronym is intentional. HUB's commitment to environmentalism--organic grains and hops, biodiesel-powered delivery trucks, booths constructed from reclaimed ceiling joists--extends to two-wheeled transportation. HUB offers covered bike parking, and inside there's a repair stand, tools and a floor pump. Belly up to the long, copper bar, with 42 rainbow-colorful bicycle frames suspended overhead, and you can order a pint of espresso-tinged Survival Stout, a fresh-baked pretzel, a PowerBar and a replacement tube.
More From Bicycling
"Someone blew a flat outside our brewery, and he came in and got a beer and his bike fixed up," says Ettinger, 34, who heads Hopworks' cyclocross team. "Several employees are trained mechanics, so there's someone here to help. Anybody can come in and wrench on their bike."
To ensure that bikers don't get too tipsy to pedal home, HUB also pours the low-alcohol Totally Radler (German for "bicyclist"): a mix of golden lager and tart, homemade lemonade. "There's a reason," Ettinger says, "why I have two bottle holders on my bike."


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September 19, 2013 (HSLDA.org) – Dirk and Petra Wunderlich's children were returned to them after a court hearing today, three weeks to the day after their four children were seized during a police raid. The Wunderlich children were returned after the parents promised they would send their children back to a state school.
"It's a small victory, but it's still a victory," said Home School Legal Defense Association Chairman Michael Farris. "When the parents told the authorities that they would send their kids back to school during the raid, they were told it was too late. What we've seen today is a reversal in the German courts caused by the mounting international pressure from human rights advocates. This is a promising start to what will hopefully be a reversal on Germany's stance on homeschooling altogether."
The Wunderlich children were taken from their parents on August 29, because the family continued to homeschool their children despite the German government's open persecution of homeschoolers.
In court documents received and translated by HSLDA, the seizure was ordered only because the children were homeschooled despite no evidence of child abuse or neglect.
The German high court is on record for ordering suppression of "parallel societies," mentioning homeschoolers specifically.
Farris noted that there is still a lot of work to be done for the German government to allow parents to homeschool.
"The way the parents were forced into complying with the government's wishes is only part of how Germany mistreats its citizens," he said. "The German government loves compromises as long as they ultimately get their way. They were fine with a Muslim teenager wearing a swimsuit with a head covering as long as she took part in co-ed pool activities despite her objections. And now they're fine that the Wunderlich family gets their children back as long as they attend a state school. The attitude of 'Our way or else' is still very much alive in a supposedly tolerant society."
Farris is also disturbed by the silence from the Obama administration over what he says is a clear violation of international human rights.
"The State Department says it seeks to promote a greater respect for human rights on its website," he said. "It lists specific examples including freedom of expression and the protection of minorities, but what it doesn't mention is religious freedom. It is clear that the administration doesn't mind that religious homeschoolers in Germany are having their rights trampled upon by the way the Justice Department is going after the Romeike family."
After the Wunderlich story broke, thousands of Americans took to the phones and internet to contact the German Embassy and condemn the actions of the authorities. Farris believes that the only way to change Germany's attitude is by embarrassing the authorities, and HSLDA is continually taking steps to increase pressure on the German government for violating human rights.


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VEE 2020 : International Conference on Virtual Execution Environments
Conference Series : Virtual Execution Environments
Call For Papers
Virtualization has a central role in modern systems. It constitutes a key aspect in a wide range of environments, from small mobile computing devices to large-scale data centers and computational clouds. Virtualization techniques encompass the underlying hardware, the operating system, and the runtime system. Although these layers have different design and implementation techniques, the fundamental challenges and insights tend to be similar.
The 16th ACM SIGPLAN/SIGOPS International Conference on Virtual Execution Environments (VEE'20) brings together researchers and practitioners from different computer systems domains to interact and share ideas in order to advance the state of the art of virtualization and broaden its applicability. VEE'19 accepts both full-length and short papers. Both types of submissions are reviewed to the same standards and differ primarily in the scope of the ideas expressed. Short papers are limited to half the space of full-length papers. The program committee will not accept a full paper on the condition that it is cut down to fit in a short paper slot, nor will it invite short papers to be extended to full length. Submissions will be considered only in the category in which they are submitted.
Short papers are relatively new to VEE. An ideal short paper would express an idea that doesn't require 12 pages to describe or evaluate. The ideas should be well formed and complete just like those in a full-length paper. A short paper should not be a HotOS / HotStorage-style workshop paper with an interesting idea that isn't yet fully developed. Short papers will be held to the same standard as full-length papers in terms of clarity of presentation and evaluation, however, the scope of the work as well as the breadth of the evaluation is expected to be smaller.
We invite authors to submit original papers related to virtualization across all layers of the software stack down to the microarchitectural level. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):
architecture support for virtualization; compiler and programming language support for virtualization; managed runtimes and virtual machines; management technologies for virtual environments; memory management; operating system support for virtualization; performance analysis and debugging for virtual environments; runtime system support for virtualization; security and virtual environments; virtual I/O, storage, and networking; virtualization in cloud computing virtualization support for programs and programmers; virtualization technologies applied to specific problem domains such as HPC, realtime, and power management.


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Successful authors may use just a few words to evoke an image, or they may use a whole page. Poets may use only a few words to describe a person, or a scene. Novelists may use a whole page to describe the same person, or scene. In either case, the reader will be able to feel, smell, see, or taste what the author is describing.
What are Visual Triggers?
Visual triggers are words, people, or places that paint pictures in our minds. For instance, if I write the words "She moved as slowly as a sloth", the reader is likely to envision the slowest-moving mammal on Earth that sleeps in trees as a defensive measure.
Why is it Important to Trigger Visual Cues with Words?
Visual cues are important in order to give the reader a wider vision. We want to more clearly visualize what is being written. It's the difference between viewing a tweet and clicking on the tweet in order to get taken to the related website. For example: recently, I saw a tweet that advertised a beautiful diamond ring. That tweet prompted me to go to the website to get the wider vision of that company's products and services.
The reader needs to be helped to look through a wide-angle lens, not a telephoto lens. For example, a reader will appreciate Shakespeare's character, Hamlet's, famous "To be or not to be…" soliloquy more if he understands the context of the soliloquy: Hamlet has recently been visited by his father's ghost who informed Hamlet that he was killed by Hamlet's uncle. According to most sources, the despondent Hamlet is considering suicide during that soliloquy.
What are some types of visual triggers that authors use?
There are three ways to trigger pictures in a reader's mind:
- Suzanne Arruda is an example of a modern novelist that uses detailed descriptions of settings and characters. Literally, she paints pictures in the reader's mind. The reader is transported to 1920's Kenya and Europe. When I read her novels, I feel the heat, I smell the smells, and I can visualize the people and places about which she writes. I am on safari. I am solving mysteries and murders.
- William Wordsworth was one of the most famous English poets of the early 19th He knew how to paint pictures with a minimum of words. Any reader of Wordsworth's poetry will find himself instantly transported to Wordsworth's beloved corner of England, the Lakes district, with only a few words. Wordsworth's brief descriptions of local streams and hills transport me to those streams and hills. I am lying on the cool grass, relaxing in a much less hectic time and place.
- Bloggers fall somewhere in the middle of poets and novelists. Bloggers will normally use more words than a poet, and fewer words than a novelist, to get their point across.
How to Use Words as Visual Triggers
Some forms of writing don't lend themselves to detailed descriptions of characters and settings. However, examples, analogies, and metaphors are useful for most writing—fiction, or non-fiction. Some examples and metaphors in my book include:
- Diamonds start out as soft carbon. Over millions of years, heat and pressure compact the carbon, pushing it deeper and deeper under the Earth's surface. The fully-formed diamonds are the strongest mineral on the planet.
- A fine china teacup begins as a shapeless lump of clay on a potter's wheel. The teacup is formed on the potter's wheel. Then, the teacup is fired in a kiln, painted, and glazed. The final product is a rare luxury item, inaccessible to the general public.
- Michelangelo, the famous Italian Renaissance sculptor and artist, formed some of the most breathtaking sculptures of all time from huge slabs of marble.
- Meat can be tenderized in a solution of citric acid, such as that in pineapple juice. Meat that has soaked in a pineapple-juice marinade for at least two hours will be tender because the citric acid has broken down the tendons in the meat.
In my book, I used the examples and analogies above to illustrate the benefits of challenges. I wanted to illustrate how hard work, "pressure", and "heat" can improve the lives of people in the end. I wanted people to visualize themselves as a flawless diamond, a teacup so precious that I have never seen one, a celebrated sculptor/artist, and meat so tender that it can be cut with a fork.
Traci Lawrence writes about her passion: communication, relationships, the value of individuals and rising above verbal bullying, or trash talk. She lives in the Northern Virginia area of the United States and teaches English, among other subjects. Please find more on her blog, and read her book: Accept No Trash Talk
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Baking from Leader's new Local Breads
Well, I decided to just dive right in and try a recipe from Daniel Leader's new book, Local Breads. I haven't had a chance to read much of anything in it - I'm reading Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads, and he tends to be absorbingly chatty. My freezer is full of breads to last another week or two, but I had to bake something.
As I mentioned in another thread, the photo of the Buckwheat Batard drew me to that recipe, and that's the one I decided to try. Having my own grain mill and a selection of grains makes me want to try the variety breads. I'm not following the recipe precisely. For one thing, my starter is 100% hydration, and his seems to be 130%. That may explain why my dough did clear the sides of the mixer bowl when his directions say it shouldn't. So I'll probably have a denser bread than he intends. Another difference is my use of whole (hard red winter) wheat instead of refined flour. My grain mill has got me eating a lot more whole grains, and I must say that I'm feeling much healthier (and even losing weight) excluding refined flours from my diet. So we have two major deviations from his recipe.
But I have the opportunity to explore his methods and explanations. And I get to notice errors of conversion, of which I've found two so far. (Does anyone know how to report these errors?)
The dough is down for its nap right now, and in a few hours I get to shape. I don't have a "room temperature" space by his definition of 70-75 degrees. My room temperature is 65 degrees, and outside is cooler than that. The oven with the light would be 80 to 90 degrees.
I'll report back later. I don't have a camera yet, and I suspect it wouldn't be anything terribly photogenic anyway.


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A single-malt scotch is one of the most natural of alcoholic spirits, tempered by their environment more so than any other liquor. By definition, they are a type of single malt whisky, distilled by a single distillery in a pot still, using malted barley as the only grain ingredient, in Scotland. As with any Scotch whisky, a Single-Malt Scotch must be distilled in Scotland and matured in oak casks in Scotland for at least three years (most single malts are matured for longer).
But this definition does not describe the diverse character of the drink, the startling purity of the ingredients and process, and speaks nothing of the history of the spirit. Those who know single-malts know of the distinctive smokiness, earthiness and medicinal malt of the Islay scotches; or the honeyed sweeter, flowery, fuller taste of the Speyside malts. Understand that these diverse qualities are all born out of the same three ingredients: water, barley, and yeast.
It is the environment and the distilling process that gives each malt it's character. The basic process is this: snow melt in the mountains filters through the rock and bubbles out of a spring; it is used to irrigate the barley, germinate the grain, and provide the base liquid of the whisky. The barley, grown on the warm plains, is grown, then harvested and only the grain is used. The grain is partiallly germinated, called malting. It is then dried and added to the water in the mash tun. The third ingredient, yeast, is added and allowed to ferment. The liquid is then heated in a pot still and vaporized, the condensate is captured, placed in casks, and allowed to mature. This is whisky at it's most basic level.
The individuality of the whisky comes from the many variables in the process along the way. The malted barley flavor is always present to a degree. The source of the water may influence the character of the whisky, along with the vegetation it flows over or through. During the malting process, a smokiness may be imparted to the grain as it is dried over a peat fire. The yeasts used in fermentation can create spicy, fruity flavors. Characteristics such as richness and weight of the whisky can be influenced by the shape and size of the pot stills. And finally, aromas and flavors come from the cask itself, from the wood, the previous contents, and the air that it breathes. Controlling all of the variables in the process is a true combination of art and science, and the malt-masters of the distilleries are true craftsmen to be able to reproduce the flavor and aroma of the brand continuously.
With over 700 single-malt whiskies in the world, and new ones born every day, there is an incredible journey waiting for you to embark upon. Whether you are a casual explorer, a connoisseur, a collector, or an investor, we hope that you will find the information and resources in this website to be an asset, and a constant companion, in your quest for the single-malts of the world.
In the SIP menu, you will find a listing of single-malts by flavor and region, with individual tasting notes. In WHISKY FEATURED ARTICLES we provide tips on nosing and tasting. If you plan to travel, check our listing of whisky bars before you leave town. Whether you follow our featured pairings or choose your own "Welcome to our world and enjoy"!


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Learn about the Traditional Trades Advancement Program (TTAP) and the work the current cohort is doing with HPTC this summer.
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You can't judge a game by its cover. You can, however, judge a game cover by its cover.
With the growing importance of digital sales and preorders, what's actually on the front of a game box is in many ways becoming less important than it once was, since it's not the main thing driving sales, even for casual buyers.
They're still useful, though, and for some still an important part of the experience of owning a game. Some collectors even go so far as to make their own box art, so intent are they on making sure everything about their favourite game is just right.
With the current generation of consoles drawing to a close, then, now's as good a time as any to look back on what were some of the best examples of box art to grace the 360, PS3 and Wii.
The list I've made below is just to get us started. If you see something I've missed, drop it in the comments below and I'll see about including it!
Oh, and before we get started, a note: you'll notice some of these are from regional variants of games, like the Japanese versions of Uncharted 2 and Crackdown (known as Riot Act there). You'll also notice that Japanese publishers are generally way better at box art.