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Delicious Films: 5 Movies for Foodies
Sorry folks! We've been a way a while, busy working on our The Tiny Bots kids music video Shake It Like a Cupcake the past few months. Yep-that's right! We're also in a children's music band. But now that that's launched, I hope to bring you some more food news, and break into some healthy foods as well. Antonio is really focused on marketing for Garrison Brothers and his band Oh Antonio and His Imaginary Friends, so he'll be on break for a while longer.
Enough housekeeping. Let's talk food!
Some friends and I recently brought movie night back into our lives. Every few weeks we get together and someone different picks the movie and brings the food. This week is my week and, of course, I wanted to pick a foodie movie. Here's the list of movies I considered. Ultimately I decided on Chocolat, but I'd love to hear from you on your favorite foodie movies for future consideration!
1) The Waitress This quirky movie is not the most uplifting but is real and pulls at your heartstrings. A waitress, played by Keri Russell, who is in a lousy marriage to an overbearing husband finds out she is pregnant. After she meets the local doctor and begins an affair with him, she finds the strength to carry out her pregnancy, but it's not until after she gives birth that she realizes her strength is her own and has nothing to do with the men in her life.
Food: You'll enjoy the pies she makes throughout the movie with names like I Don't Want Earl's Baby pie and I Hate My Husband Pie.
2) Chef Who doesn't love a second chance story? This movie is set when a chef at a respected restaurant quits his job. He begins to flounder, not just in his profession, but also in his relationships. When he decides to quit it all and restore a food truck and go across country selling Cuban sandwiches, he may just find the adventure of a lifetime and the answers he's been looking for for success.
Food: You'll love a look into what it's really like converting a trailer into a food truck and seeing knife skills and cooking up close.
3) The Hundred-Foot Journey An Indian family in France sets out to find a place to start an Indian restaurant. When they break down in a small town, how are they to know one of the country's best restaurant is just across the street? But is competition always bad? It seems to be when the competition has loud music, colorful decorations and a string smell just steps from your classy, expensive well-known traditional restaurant in France.
Food: You'll love the search for perfect mushrooms, the perfect omelette and the difference between French and Indian kitchens (and settings).
4) Babette's Feast Imagine you're a well known chef who ends up in a super pious town that hires you to cook the blandest food for them year after year. And then you decide to gift them with the one thing they do not want using all of your money, so that you'll be stuck there. That's basically the plot and it's amazing.
Food: The preparation for this feast will blow your mind!
5) Chocolat Apparently, there are a lot of food haters. I'm starting to see a trend here. Vianne and her daughter arrive in a small French religious town and opens a chocolate shop. The churchgoers try to resist, but one by one Vianne entices the villagers into her shop to chat and try a chocolate. Things come to a head when the gypsies move onto the river nearby–will the church allow things to continue down this road?
Food: At the end, a lovely dinner for the elderly diabetic woman brings friend and foe together for a wonderful dinner party of the most delectable foods.


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We need a Love Only approach to sex ed, not abstinence-only. If you are not married to a person, then love demands you abstain from any sexual activity with that person, regardless of any urges or feelings you have.
If you have not publicly committed to give your entire life exclusively to the other person in lifelong loving marriage, then what makes you think you have any right whatsoever to derive any intimate physical or emotional pleasure from them/their body? What makes anyone think they have any right to use someone else/someone else's body merely as a sex toy for their own individual pleasure, ego, and/or self-esteem? Even if a person consents to be used in such a way, it is still a harmful and unloving violation of their human dignity and thus wrong. Consent does not change the inherently harmful and unloving nature of sexual use. A person is still a person with dignity and should not have their dignity violated even if that person himself or herself consents to have their dignity violated.
It is the lifelong commitment to the other person in marriage that allows and empowers sexual acts with that person to be acts of self-giving love rather than acts of selfish use. Because of our dignity as human persons, without marriage, there would be no truly legitimate, moral, and loving reason for sexual acts; such acts could be nothing other than selfish, harmful, and thus immoral without marriage. Without marriage, sexual acts always treat the human person as a sex object or sex toy (intended or not), and that is not loving or right. Only within the context of lifelong marriage can sexual acts recognize and reverence the person and his or her full dignity. It is the marital commitment (and fidelity to it) that ensures that the person is not abandoned and thus thrown away like trash when they no longer sexually satisfy (at all or as much as another person) and when love demands sacrifices. Sexual love by its very nature demands and entails lifelong commitment and sacrifice.
Of course, it should be noted that while lifelong marriage is necessary for loving sexual acts, it is not in itself sufficient for love or loving sexual acts. Just because a commitment is lifelong and exclusive does not necessarily make it loving. To be loving, the marriage must be a lifelong and exclusive commitment to the good of the other person in all aspects of their personhood, not merely a lifelong and exclusive commitment to live together and be monogamous.
Critics of abstinence-only education are only partially right. Without this Love Only perspective, abstinence is indeed largely arbitrary repression, which is indeed harmful and in many cases inadequate long-term for remaining abstinent. Arbitrary repression does not quell sexual urges but merely holds them in tension, and if the sexual tension builds up over time, the person will likely succumb to acting out their sexual urges in an unloving way or context (e.g. premarital sex, rape, homosexual behavior, etc.). So strong are sexual urges sometimes that even the fear of potential STDs and pregnancy may be forgotten and unable to prevent a surrender and lapse into unloving sexual behavior. Besides, technology will likely continue to mitigate or remove fears of sexual disease and unwanted pregnancy. But technology will never make unloving sexual acts loving; technology will never mitigate or remove the emotional, psychological, and spiritual damage of unloving sexual acts (least not without inflicting greater damage on the person).
But abstinence grounded in love and chastity is not arbitrary repression but rather fully recognizing the dignity of the other person and choosing to love and respect them and their dignity, choosing not to treat them as a mere sex object or sex toy that satisfies a physical or emotional urge or desire. And when we are truly loving and chaste in our abstinence, we can quell the sexual urges, release or sublimate the sexual tension in a chaste loving non-sexual way, and not be frustrated. If we truly love the person, frustration should give way to joy and peace.
It may not be easy to practice loving and chaste abstinence in our hyper-sexual, hyper-stimulated, selfish, and pornographic culture, but it's a lot easier than arbitrary and brute repression. And the deep joys and peace of love are always worth the demanding difficulty and cost (however, I should add, ideally, we should love for the sake of love and for the sake of the person, not even merely for such profound peace and joy, however transcendent and sublime).

subset: commoncrawl


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"I'm almost starting to think a bad economy makes for better artists," John Cooper noted as he unveiled the lineup of the 28th annual Sundance Film Festival, marking his third year as director of America's premier independent-cinema event. "When things start to get crazy, it's actually good for them. They start making the films they want to make."
Certainly the economic slump has had little impact on the numbers. Set to unspool Jan. 19-29 in Park City, Utah, Sundance will present 111 features (88 of them world premieres) culled from a pool of 4,042 submissions; given that last year the fest received fewer submissions (3,812) yet accommodated more titles (115), the selection process can be termed the most competitive in recent memory. Packages and passes have sold out as quickly as ever, and sponsorship has held steady, director of programming Trevor Groth said.
"The filmmaking community out there is alive and well, pushing each other to make better and more challenging films, and we're seeing that," Groth said.
Cooper and Groth noted that, artistically, filmmakers have responded to the economic slump in subtly but decidedly positive ways, revealing not only a greater urgency and sense of purpose in their storytelling, but also heightened resourcefulness and a greater commitment to long-term viability. Forced to work with tighter budgets than ever, directors and producers have had to take the notion of career sustainability more seriously.
"They're not just looking for that big-ticket film, but for a career where they get to make movies," Cooper said, alluding to the old days when titles like "Son of Rambow" and "Hamlet 2" set off frenzied bidding wars and pricey pickup deals, only to have a tough time fulfilling high hopes at the box office. Now that the bubble has burst, Cooper said, expectations are more reasonable and the system is correcting itself: Sales have remained healthy, and distribs have seen a decent return on their investment.
And with several dramatic offerings from Sundance 2011 — namely "Like Crazy," "Margin Call," "Martha Marcy May Marlene" and "Take Shelter" — having opened to solid specialty returns, critical acclaim and some awards buzz, distribs will certainly be on the lookout for fresh, commercially accessible talent, especially among the 58 competition titles unveiled today.
For Cooper, the high number of Park City alums in the 2012 selection is an encouraging sign. Returning talents on the U.S. dramatic front include Todd Louiso ("Love Liza"), back with Melanie Lynskey starrer "Hello I Must Be Going"; Ira Sachs (2005 grand jury prizewinner "Forty Shades of Blue"), returning with Gotham gay relationship study "Keep the Lights On"; So Yong Kim ("In Between Days"), bringing her Paul Dano-starring drama "For Ellen"; and James Ponsoldt ("Off the Black"), cracking the competition with the boozy marital drama "Smashed."
Groth noted the unusual number of comedies in the dramatic competition, with notable elements of light humor in Ry Russo-Young's "Nobody Walks," Colin Trevorrow's "Safety Not Guaranteed" and "Hello I Must Be Going"; oddly enough, the one film that's titled "The Comedy," from helmer Rick Alverson, is one of the section's darker entries.
On the American documentary side, Cooper's "repeat offenders" include Eugene Jarecki (2005 grand jury prizewinner "Why We Fight" and last year's "Reagan"), who will unspool "The House I Live In," a critique of America's war on drugs; Kirby Dick ("This Film Is Not Yet Rated"), tackling the subject of rape in the U.S. military with "The Invisible War"; and Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady ("12th & Delaware"), returning with their urban elegy "Detropia."
While at least one docu competition entry, Karin Hayes and Victoria Bruce's corporate-malfeasance expose "We're Not Broke," chimes with the increasingly embattled Occupy protest movements, Cooper said the financial crisis was not a dominant theme. Instead, he observed that in contrast with the more personal, character-driven documentaries of Sundance 2011, the latest batch of nonfiction filmmakers tended to offer "a more comprehensive study of big problems," running the gamut from the health-care crisis to hunger in America to the environmental movement.
The World Cinema dramatic competition is dominated by an unusually rich strain of Latin American filmmaking, encompassing pictures from Brazil, Argentina and Chile such as Luciano Moura's "Father's Chair," Armando Bo's "The Last Elvis," Andres Wood's "Violeta Went to Heaven" and Marialy Rivas' "Young & Wild." The rising interest in Greek cinema has also made itself felt with the programming of Babis Makridis' absurdist-sounding "L," co-written by Makridis and "Dogtooth" scribe Efthymis Filippou.
During the two years since he replaced longtime Sundance topper Geoffrey Gilmore, Cooper made numerous refinements to the structure of the program, including the launches of Documentary Premieres and the best-of-fests Spotlight slate. Few such changes are in evidence for the 2012 edition, and Cooper said he and his staff plan to work within the present model for a few years, or "until the independent world tells us to change it again, which could happen next year."
Once again, the fest will forego a traditional opening-night film and instead kick off with screenings of four competition titles and a shorts program. The first-day features are "Hello I Must Be Going" (dramatic), Lauren Greenfield's "The Queen of Versailles" (docu), Kieran Darcy-Smith's "Wish You Were Here" (World Cinema dramatic) and Malik Bendjelloul's "Searching for Sugar Man" (World Cinema docu).
The festival will announce its Spotlight, Park City at Midnight, Next and New Frontier titles Thursday, while Premieres and Documentary Premieres lineups will be unveiled Monday.
The 16 films in this section are world premieres and, unless otherwise noted, are from the U.S.
"Beasts of the Southern Wild" – Directed by Benh Zeitlin, written by Zeitlin and Lucy Alibar. The tale of a 6-year-old named Hushpuppy, who lives with her father on the edge of the Louisiana Delta. With Quvenzhane Wallis and Dwight Henry.
"The Comedy" – Directed by Rick Alverson, written by Alverson, Robert Donne and Colm O'Leary. An aging hipster searches for meaning in a world that values status, popularity and good looks above all else. Stars Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim, Kate Lyn Sheil, Alexia Rasmussen, Gregg Turkington.
"The End of Love" – Directed and written by Mark Webber. A young man unravels after losing the mother of his child. Stars Webber, Shannyn Sossamon, Michael Cera, Jason Ritter, Amanda Seyfried and Frankie Shaw.
"Filly Brown" – Directed by Youssef Delara and Michael D. Olmos, written by Delara. A Mexican girl achieves musical fame while coping with her mother's incarceration in this hip-hop-driven drama. Features Lou Diamond Phillips, Gina Rodriguez, Jenni Rivera and Edward James Olmos.
"The First Time" – Directed and written by Jonathan Kasdan. A story of two high schoolers who meet at a party and fall in love for the first time over the course of a weekend. Stars Brittany Robertson, Dylan O'Brien, Craig Roberts, James Frecheville and Victoria Justice.
"For Ellen" – Directed and written by So Yong Kim. A struggling musician fights his estranged wife for custody of their young daughter. With Paul Dano, Jon Heder, Jena Malone, Margarita Levieva, Shay Mandigo.
"Hello I Must Be Going" – Directed by Todd Louiso, written by Sarah Koskoff. A childless, 35-year-old divorcee moves back in with her parents, only to experience the unexpected attention of a teenage boy. Stars Melanie Lynskey, Blythe Danner, Christopher Abbott, John Rubinstein, Julie White.
"Keep the Lights On" – Directed by Ira Sachs, written by Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias. Two men share a passionate long-term relationship in this fact-inspired drama. With Thure Lindhart, Zachary Booth, Julianne Nicholson, Souleymane Sy Savane, Paprika Steen.
"Luv" – Directed by Sheldon Candis, written by Candis and Justin Wilson. An 11-year-old orphan must face unpleasant truths over the course of a day in Baltimore. Stars Common, Michael Rainey Jr., Dennis Haysbert, Danny Glover, Charles S. Dutton.
"Middle of Nowhere" – Directed and written by Ava DuVernay. A woman struggles to hold onto her marriage and identity when her husband is incarcerated. Features Emayatzy Corinealdi, David Oyelowo, Omari Hardwick, Lorraine Touissant, Edwina Findley.
"Nobody Walks" – Directed by Ry Russo-Young, written by Lena Dunham and Russo-Young. A young artist visiting from New York disrupts the home of a hip Los Angeles family. With John Krasinski, Olivia Thirlby, Rosemarie DeWitt, India Ennenga, Justin Kirk.
"Safety Not Guaranteed" – Directed by Colin Trevorrow, written by Derek Connolly. Three magazine employees investigate a classified ad from a paranoid loner seeking a time-travel partner. Stars Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson and Karan Soni.
"Save the Date" – Directed by Michael Mohan, written by Jeffrey Brown, Egan Reich and Michael Mohan. A woman experiences an intense post-breakup rebound in this look at modern-day relationships. Stars Lizzy Caplan, Alison Brie, Martin Starr, Geoffrey Arend and Mark Webber.
"Simon Killer" (France-U.S.) – Directed and written by Antonio Campos. A recent college grad heads to Paris and falls in love with a young prostitute. With Brady Corbet, Mati Diop, Constance Rousseau, Michael Abiteboul and Solo.
"Smashed" – Directed by James Ponsoldt, written by Susan Burke and Ponsoldt. Young marrieds Kate and Charlie share a love of music, laughter and alcohol, until Kate decides to get sober. Stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Aaron Paul, Octavia Spencer, Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally.
"The Surrogate" – Directed and written by Ben Lewin. A 36-year-old poet and journalist in an iron lung decides to shed his virginity. Features John Hawkes, Helen Hunt and William H. Macy.
The 16 American films in this section are world premieres.
"Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry" – Directed by Alison Klayman. A portrait of provocative, internationally recognized Chinese artist-activist Ai Weiwei.
"The Atomic States of America" – Directed by Don Argott and Sheena M. Joyce. Examines the fierce debate over the safety and viability of nuclear power in the wake of the recent Japanese earthquake and Fukushima power-plant disaster.
"Chasing Ice" – Directed by Jeff Orlowski. Uses time-lapse photography of glaciers over several years to provide evidence of climate change.
"Detropia" – Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. Recounts the woes of Detroit and its people and the collapse of the U.S. manufacturing base.
"Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare" – Directed by Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke. Charts the rising movement to save the broken medical system in the U.S.
"Finding North" – Directed by Lori Silverbush and Kristi Jacobson. A look at the looming American hunger crisis.
"The House I Live In" – Directed by Eugene Jarecki. An inquiry into the failure of the war on drugs.
"How to Survive a Plague" – Directed by David France. The story of the efforts that turned AIDS into a manageable condition in the wake of mass death and political indifference.
"The Invisible War" – Directed by Kirby Dick. Investigates the rape of soldiers within the U.S. military and the institutions that have tried to cover it up.
"Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present" – Directed by Matthew Akers. Follows the artist as she prepares for a major retrospective of her work at New York's Museum of Modern Art.
"Me at the Zoo" – Directed by Chris Moukarbel and Valerie Veatch. A portrait of controversial Tennessee video blogger Chris Crocker.
"The Other Dream Team" – Directed by Marius Markevicius. An account of how the 1992 Lithuanian national basketball team emerged from communist rule to participate in the Summer Olympics in Barcelona.
"The Queen of Versailles" – Directed by Lauren Greenfield. The rags-to-riches story of two people trying to construct the biggest house in America.
"Slavery by Another Name" – Directed by Sam Pollard. Examines the system of involuntary servitude that took the place of slavery after President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.
"The Truth Will Set You Free" – Directed by Macky Alston. Chronicles the battle of an openly gay bishop who refuses to leave the church or the man he loves.
"We're Not Broke" – Directed by Karin Hayes and Victoria Bruce. A critique of multibillion-dollar corporations concealing profits overseas to avoid paying U.S. income tax.
The 14 films in this section are world premieres unless otherwise noted.
"4 Suns" (Czech Republic) – Directed and written by Bohdan Slama. A young man is unable to overcome his immaturity in the wake of new responsibilities as a husband and father. With Jaroslav Plesl, Ana Geislerova, Karel Roden, Jiri Madl, Klara Meliskova.
"About the Pink Sky" (Japan) – Directed by Keiichi Kobayashi. Unexpected consequences ensue when a girl finds a wallet full of money and tracks down its owner. Stars Ai Ikeda, Ena Koshino, Reiko Fujiwara, Tsubasa Takayama and Hakusyu Togetsuan. International premiere.
"Can" (Turkey) – Directed and written by Rasit Celikezer. A young married couple in Istanbul decide to illegally procure a child, threatening their future. Features Selen Ucer, Serdar Orcin, Berkan Demirbag, Erkan Avci.
"Father's Chair" (Brazil) – Directed by Luciano Moura, written by Elena Soarez and Moura. A man tries to find his runaway teen son and confronts his own identity as a son and father. With Wagner Moura, Lima Duarte, Mariana Lima.
"L" (Greece) – Directed by Babis Makridis, written by Makridis and Efthymis Filippou. A man who lives in his car gets caught in the war between car drivers and motorcycle riders. With Aris Servetalis, Makis Papadimitriou, Lefteris Mathaios, Nota Tserniafski and Stavros Raptis.
"The Last Elvis" (Argentina) – Directed by Armando Bo, written by Nicolas Giacobone and Bo. An Elvis impersonator in Buenos Aires believes he is the reincarnation of teh King. Stars John McInerny, Griselda Siciliani and Margarita Lopez.
"Madrid, 1987" (Spain) – Directed and written by David Trueba. The balance of power and desire continually shifts when an older journalist meets with a young student. With Jose Sacristan, Maria Valverde and Ramon Fontsere. International premiere.
"My Brother the Devil" (U.K.) – Directed and written by Sally El Hosaini. Two British Arab brothers try to get by in London gang territory. Features James Floyd, Said Taghmaoui, Fady Elsayed.
"Teddy Bear" (Denmark) – Directed by Mads Matthiesen. A painfully shy 38-year-old bodybuilder looks for love in Thailand. With Kim Kold, Elsebeth Steentoft, Lamajporn Sangmanee Hougaard, David Winters and Allan Mogensen.
"Valley of Saints" (India-U.S.) – Directed and written by Musa Syeed. A man plans to flee war and poverty in his Kashmir village until a beautiful young woman changes his mind. With Gulzar Ahmad Bhat, Mohammed Afzal Sofi, Neelofar Hamid.
"Violeta Went to Heaven" (Chile-Argentina-Brazil-Spain) – Directed by Andres Wood, written by Eliseo Altunaga, Rodrigo Bazaes, Guillermo Calderon and Wood. A biographical portrait of famed Chilean singer and folklorist Violeta Parra. With Francisca Gavilan, Thomas Durand, Luis Machin, Gabriela Aguilera and Roberto Farias. International premiere.
"Wish You Were Here" (Australia) – Directed by Kieran Darcy-Smith, written by Felicity Price and Darcy-Smith. Four friends go on holiday, but only three return home. With Joel Edgerton, Teresa Palmer, Felicity Price, Antony Starr.
"Wrong" (France) – Directed and written by Quentin Dupieux. A guy has a series of mysterious encounters while searching for his lost dog. Features Jack Plotnick, Eric Judor, Alexis Dziena, Steve Little and William Fichtner.
"Young & Wild" (Chile) – Directed by Marialy Rivas, written by Rivas, Camila Gutierrez and Pedro Peirano. A teenager raised by a strict evangelical family struggles to find her own spiritual path. With Alicia Rodriguez, Aline Kuppenheim, Maria Gracia Omegna and Felipe Pinto.
The 12 films in this section are world premieres unless otherwise noted.
"1/2 Revolution" (Denmark-Egypt) – Directed by Omar Shargawi and Karim El Hakim. A look at the Egyptian revolution beyond the view of the world's media. North American premiere.
"5 Broken Cameras" (Palestinian Territories-Israel-France) – Directed and written by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi. A Palestinian journalist chronicles his village's resistance to the building of a separation barrier. International premiere.
"The Ambassador" (Denmark) – Directed by Mads Brugger. In which Brugger pretends to be a diplomat and infiltrates Africa's blood diamond trade. North American premiere.
"Big Boys Gone Bananas!*" (Sweden) – Directed by Fredrik Gertten. The behind-the-scenes story of Dole's attempt to suppress "Bananas!*," Gertten's 2009 docu about Nicaraguan plantation workers. North American premiere.
"China Heavyweight" (Canada-China) – Directed by Yung Chang. A look at the New China through the eyes of poor rural teenagers training to be Western-style boxing champions.
"Gypsy Davy" (Israel-U.S.-Spain) – Directed by Rachel Leah Jones. The story of a white boy from Alabama who transforms himself into an Andalusian flamenco guitarist. International premiere.
"The Imposter" (U.K.) – Directed by Bart Layton. Chronicles the disappearance and finding of a teenage boy from San Antonio, Texas.
"Indie Game: The Movie" (Canada) – Directed by Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky. Charts the efforts of indie game developers.
"The Law in These Parts" (Israel) – Directed by Ra'anan Alexandrowicz. A dissection of Israel's 43-year military legal system in the Palestinian Territories. International premiere.
"Payback" (Canada) – Directed by Jennifer Baichwal. Examines debt as a central organizing principle in our lives.
"Putin's Kiss" (Denmark) – Directed by Lise Birk Pedersen. Tracks the journey of a 19-year-old spokesperson for a strongly nationalistic Russian youth movement. North American premiere.
"Searching for Sugar Man" (Denmark-U.K.) – Directed by Malik Bendjelloul. Recounts the up-and-down career of '70s musician Rodriguez.


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Nixon is back. Back from the dead to haunt us once again with his lies. With his one Big Lie. The one he got away with. The one all too many historians and journalists still complacently accept.
When I say Nixon's back, I'm not just speaking about the publication of four new Watergate-related books, two of them novels (Thomas Mallon's Watergate and Ann Beattie's Mrs. Nixon), plus two nonfiction books (Leak by Max Holland—about "Deep Throat"—and Nixon's Darkest Secrets by Don Fulsom). Nor about the front-page attention that the death of Chuck Colson, Nixon's Nixon, received last week.
This burst of interest is not really a surprise since—like him or not—Richard Nixon remains one of the great American characters, a Rorschach blot upon which we project our conceptions of American politics and history. But the most salient evidence of the Trickster's return was Robert Redford's announcement earlier this month that he is making a documentary about Watergate. He made the announcement in the presence of Watergate sleuth Bob Woodward (whom Redford played in the film All the President's Men) and Woodward's co-writer Carl Bernstein. The documentary will be made with their cooperation, which left me wondering: Will the documentary interrogate the Woodward and Bernstein narrative of the break-in? Will Woodward and Bernstein, gods and guardians of the myth of journalism's mighty mission, finally do what they have never done—at least in print—for the past 40 years: Offer proof about who ordered the Watergate break-in and why? Was it Nixon campaign officials and their hirelings—or Nixon himself?
Will they give us a definitive answer to the famous question they failed to answer in their original admirable but incomplete Washington Post investigations and subsequent best-sellers): What did Nixon know and when did he know it?
The scandalous truth is that two key mysteries of Watergate, the episode in American history that has become an iconic bedtime story about heroic journalists uncovering the sinister cover-up, about how the truth shall set us free etc., have never fully been revealed. Just this past week, the Times obituary for Colson put it plainly: "To this day, no one knows whether Nixon authorized the break-in or precisely what the burglars wanted."
Woodward and Bernstein never proved who ordered the original break-in. They only showed us who sought to cover it up, allowing the media and journalists and even historians thereafter to complacently celebrate a hollow victory.
It remains a puzzle to me why Nixon historians for the most part have been strangely reluctant to challenge—or even probe—Nixon's claim that he was shocked—shocked!—by the news of the June 17, 1972 break-in to Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex, and that he sacrificed his presidency out of loyalty to over-zealous aides who were certainly not acting on his orders in committing that original crime.
Yes, that's the consensus wisdom; Nixon knew about the cover-up but had no part in ordering the original crime itself. Which has allowed Richard Nixon to get away with enshrining what may well be his final defining lie in the history books as truth.
The president of the Discovery Channel, which is financing Redford's documentary, made a statement at the press conference that was symptomatic of the confusion that still clouds Watergate: "To be able to pull the fabricated and the real together, for the first time, is a kind of juicy opportunity for us."
Does anyone know what this means? Why do we need the fabricated "pulled together" with the "real"? The problem is that we haven't determined the real, that we need to separate out the fabricated.
I hereby issue a challenge to Redford, Discovery, and Woodstein: Solve the original crime this time. Tell us what was not established in any of the dynamic duo's published work: Who ordered the Watergate break-in. Not who ordered it covered up. Who ordered it in the first place. I don't mean, by issuing this challenge, to diminish Woodward and Bernstein's courageous and groundbreaking reporting on the case, without which the cover-up might well have succeeded. But they never dismantled Nixon's final line of defense.
Woodward and Bernstein were not alone: Neither the Senate Watergate Committee's nor the House Impeachment Committee's final reports determined who ordered the break-in, or—just as importantly—why, what it was for.
For those not up on the details, the Watergate scandal began in the early hours of June 17, 1972, just as the forthcoming presidential election campaign was beginning to heat up. The police caught five burglars inside Democratic National Headquarters in the business annex of Washington's Watergate hotel. Who sent them and why?
Before long Woodward and Bernstein were uncovering layer after layer of their connection to Richard Nixon's re-election campaign, including one of the burglars' immediate bosses, Howard Hunt, who had an office in the White House itself.
The burglars and their immediate superiors were indicted before the election, but not enough damning details emerged connecting them to Nixon to dampen his landslide re-election that November. But in the months that followed, Woodward, Bernstein, Sy Hersh and other reporters—along with Congressional investigations—ultimately uncovered an elaborate scheme to pay hush money to Hunt and the burglars, to bribe them into silence about their Nixon connections.
Beginning in the spring of 1973, however, links between the burglars and higher-ups in the Nixon campaign committee, including former Attorney General John Mitchell, began to be made. The Senate appointed a special Watergate Committee to hold hearings during which John Dean, one of the cover-up chiefs, confessed, and implicated a whole raft of White House officials too.
The Senate committee also uncovered the sensational fact that Nixon had installed a secret taping system in the White House; the tapes ultimately revealed Nixon to be the chief operating officer of the cover-up, authorizing the hush-money payments to Hunt and the other burglars.
Transcripts of the tapes, when parts were revealed, triggered impeachment hearings by the House Judiciary Committee, beginning in early 1974. When the Supreme Court finally ordered Nixon to turn over the all the tapes requested, one of them, the so-called "smoking gun" tape, revealed Nixon, back at the very beginning, in June 1972, ordering one of his aides to tell the CIA to warn the FBI to curtail its investigation of the original burglary in order to prevent the Bureau from tracing the cover-up hush money. (Such efforts were one reason why FBI big-shot Mark Felt became "Deep Throat," Woodward's deep source.)
The smoking gun revelation—and revelation of the existence of a clandestine White House illegal ops team, the so called "Plumbers Squad," overseen by the late Chuck Colson—led the House Judiciary Committee to vote to impeach Nixon. Nixon, seeing that he'd been abandoned by former defenders and couldn't survive an impeachment trial, resigned and left the White House on Aug. 8, 1974.
At that point, after what new President Gerald Ford called "our long national nightmare' ended, most investigations, official and unofficial, of the crime and the cover-up petered out. The consensus wisdom, which has held steady for nearly four decades, is that Nixon was guilty of the cover-up, but not the original crime: ordering the break-in. But if Nixon didn't order it, who did? That's the first of the two central unsolved mysteries of the greatest political scandal of our time. Candidates have ranged from John Mitchell to Chuck Colson to G. Gordon Liddy. But there is no consensus. Except that, in most accounts, it wasn't Richard Nixon, who was supposedly profoundly shocked when he found out about it.
Nor is there consensus on the second mystery: Why? What were the burglars looking for in what appeared to be their main target: the office of then-Democratic National Committee chairman, Lawrence O'Brien. Again, many theories, little consensus, although I will contend that the answers have been there, hiding in plain sight, but have mysteriously been ignored by most journalists and historians. You could call that the third great Watergate mystery: Why has Nixon been given a pass? My theory is that journalists felt some guilt for hounding Nixon out of office (over the cover-up) and once that was done, didn't want to seem to pile on by pinning the original crime on him. But splitting the difference is not good history.
I think he did the original crime and—as I'll show—that there's already sufficient proof.
Before I get to that, though, let me explain my emotional attachment to solving the crime. For one thing, it's a question I've been reporting on sporadically since the month of the second break-in. (You didn't know there were two? Evidence suggests the burglars broke in to plant bugs on O'Brien's phone in late May 1972, but when they found the bugs were malfunctioning that's when they broke in again and got caught.) I moved to Washington to cover the impeachment hearings in 1974 as White House correspondent for The Village Voice and wrote about all the questions that the rush to kick Dick out of office had left behind. Early on I interviewed three of the five original burglars).
Through a Senate Watergate Committee source I was one of the first to obtain and report on the never officially released transcripts of the Committee investigation on what seemed at first to be a sidelight to the affair: the Howard Hughes connection. Democratic Party chairman O'Brien, it turned out, was also on the payroll of reclusive billionaire Hughes as his D.C. lobbyist. And Nixon, who had been damaged by sketchy Hughes transactions in past campaigns, had an interest in knowing what O'Brien knew about a certain $100,000 payment Hughes made to Nixon (through his pal Bebe Rebozo) while Nixon was president. It was a clue to a motive for the break-in that would lie dormant for 15 years.
Plus I was there in the East Room of the White House on Aug. 8, 1974, standing not 30 feet from Richard Nixon as he made his sweaty, weepy farewell speech and hustled out to a copter on the first leg of his flight into exile. I had the feeling that he was not just making a getaway, that he had gotten away with something.
Ten years later, I did a review of Watergate issues for the New Republic in which I argued —using the newly released White House tapes (there are still more the Nixon Library has been hoarding), newly published memoirs, and other evidence—that in fact Nixon had ordered the break-in, not just the cover up, as most were content to believe.
The best summary of my case appears in this column from 1999: in which I pull together the fragments of the evidence that Nixon was the one who gave the order. Here are the bones of my argument: Nixon is heard on a recording made two days after the news broke of the break-in proclaiming that he was shocked by it and—knowing the tape is rolling—saying it was silly for anyone to break into the Democratic National Committee party headquarters because any savvy pol would know that all the valuable dirt would be found in the (yet to be named) presidential candidate's headquarters.
And then he delivers one of his most inculpatory statements on tape: "That's my public line." In other words, that was how he was going to lie his way out of any connection: By arguing that if he were planning a break-in, he wouldn't have targeted Watergate, because nothing of value could be found there. When, in fact, as later tapes and witnesses would show, he thought something very, very important to his future might be there.
That we learn definitively mainly from the relentless and diligent work of a reporter who deserves far more credit than he has gotten, perhaps as much credit as Woodward and Bernstein, for getting to the bottom of things: J. Anthony Lukas.
Lukas was the former Timesman and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who had written a comprehensive history of Watergate called Nightmare, but who wasn't satisfied he had all the answers. He kept on the case and made an under-appreciated breakthrough in 1987 at a Nixon conference when he got a key Nixon campaign aide, Jeb Magruder, to spell out the motive for the break-in. In describing the moment, Lukas, who has prizes for nonfiction books given in his honor by Columbia Journalism School, wrote about the mystery to him of the press and historians' indifference to the big question in a Times Op-Ed that ought to be mandatory reading for Redford's documentary crew.
[T]he strangest aspect of the most devastating political scandal in American history is that despite massive Congressional investigations, lengthy trials, aggressive journalistic inquiries, and scholarly exegesis, nobody has been able to say for sure why the re-election committee's burglary team entered the Democratic offices twice in May and June 1972. For a decade and a half, it has been a gaping hole in our contemporary chronicle.
Then he describes Magruder—a true Watergate insider, who'd done jail time for his role in the cover-up, after which he became a Presbyterian minister—finally opening up:
"When I had posed my question [at the conference]" Lukas wrote, "Magruder took the pulpit and launched into some cosmic reflections on God and the universe. Just when I began to dismay of getting an answer, he paused. 'I want to be honest about what happened here,' he said. 'It was a planned burglary. … As far as I know the primary purpose of the break-in was to deal with the information that has been referred to about Howard Hughes and Larry O'Brien and what that meant as far as the cash that had supposedly been given to [Nixon buddy] Bebe Rebozo and spent later by the president possibly.'"
Magruder is referring here to evidence that ace Senate Watergate Committee investigator Terry Lenzner had turned up, evidence that there had been a $100,000 illegal "campaign contribution" (read: bribe) paid to Nixon by Howard Hughes through Rebozo, purportedly to influence government decisions about his business interests. In other words, Nixon feared that O'Brien, as Hughes' minion, might have learned about a Hughes' payofff to Nixon and have evidence of it in his files at his office at the Watergate. In which case, the potential revelation could sink Nixon's re-election campaign.
As Lukas put it, Magruder went on to confirm that "the burglars were also looking for information the president's men could use against O'Brien to keep the Hughes-Rebozo transaction "under wraps" during the election campaign.
So a decade later, in my 1999 summary of the case for a Nixon order, I linked Magruder's explanation of what Lukas called the "gaping hole" in Watergate histories (the motivation) to the question of who actually gave the go-order for the break-in to Nixon's lie—in that subsequently released tape—that he was baffled why anyone would want to burglarize O'Brien's Watergate office. His "public line" was a public lie. He had an explicit reason to believe there was damaging information about him in Larry O'Brien's office and his pooh-poohing of Watergate as a target shows him lying about that to exculpate himself.
This interpretation is supported by Nixon's exchange with his No. 2, H. R. Haldeman. Who says, on that tape, after Nixon says there would be no reason to go into the Watergate: "Except for the financial thing." The financial thing! The Hughes-Rebozo $100,000 bribe and the question of whether O'Brien learned of it and planned to go public with it which could have ended Nixon's presidency right there. (O'Brien later said he didn't know about the Hughes-Nixon payoff, but Nixon didn't know he didn't know and was obsessed with finding out if he did.)
"Yes I suppose," says Nixon, in reply to Haldeman's suggesting "the financial thing" was a motive.
And then in 2003 Magruder dropped another bombshell.
In 2003, in a PBS documentary that has not been given the attention it deserves, Magruder said that he heard Richard Nixon order the break-in. That he was standing next to Nixon's campaign chairman, former Attorney General John Mitchell, when Mitchell took a call from Nixon and that he could hear Nixon's distinctive voice telling Mitchell in regard to the break-in at Larry O'Brien's office that had been bruited about… Well, here's how the Washington Post describes it:
Jeb Stuart Magruder—then a "callow" campaign aide, now a retired Presbyterian minister in Ohio—says in a new documentary for PBS that he heard Nixon's voice on a telephone as the president instructed then-Attorney General John Mitchell to go ahead with the break-in.
"John we need to get the information on Larry O'Brien, and the only way we can do it is through Liddy's plan. And you need to do that," Magruder said he heard Nixon say at the end of a phone call in which Mitchell discussed the matter with his boss.
If true, the allegation could significantly sharpen history's answer to one of the most famous questions of modern America: What did the president know, and when did he know it?
There are skeptics of Magruder's account. They argue that there should be a tape of this call with Mitchell among the White House tapes. But according to what I've read, there is evidence that not all White House calls were recorded. And other skeptics wonder why Magruder waited so long to come forward. He told the PBS documentary he had hoped for a pardon from Nixon back then, and so he kept his mouth shut. He said that he made the 2003 disclosure, the last link in the chain of evidence for a Nixon break-in order, after he'd had a serious heart attack shortly before the documentary makers approached him. Perhaps his Presbyterian conscience told him to tell the whole truth before he died.
Corroboration came from John Dean, the day-to-day supervisor—and eventual exposer—of the cover-up whose knowledge of the case allowed him to pinpoint a moment where Nixon himself is confronted with Magruder's potential testimony while still in the White House:
"I found that in March of 1973," Dean said, "that Bob Haldeman, the White House chief of staff, was told by one of the lawyers over at the re-election committee that Jeb [Magruder] was saying to them that the plan to break in the Watergate had been approved by the president. And it's very interesting, Nixon has no reaction on the tape that I saw."
So there is both circumstantial evidence and ear-witness testimony suggesting Nixon's involvement. And when deciding how to balance Nixon's denials against Magruder's account, one can't ignore Richard Nixon's lifelong history of lying.
Nonetheless, on the fundamental question—what did the president know and when did he know it?—the vast majority of accounts take Richard Nixon at his unsupported word.
It's amazing to me that historians of Nixon and Watergate have been so timid on this issue.
It's not a trivial matter, it goes to the question of the true character of one of the great characters in American history. It goes to the question of whether discovering the whole truth matters, or whether implicit fabrications (Nixon's innocence of the order) should just be shrugged off. So, Robert Redford, so Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, I reiterate my challenge: Give us your answer to the question in this documentary, prove my theory about Nixon's guilt wrong, or prove someone else gave the order, or admit you don't care whether Nixon has, in the end, gotten away with his crime.


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The market for Service Provider Routers and Switches continues to grow as Ethernet demand expands.
According to the third quarter 2011 (3Q11) Service Provider Routers and Switches vendor market share report from Infonetics Research, revenues hit $3.5 billion for carrier routers and switches during the quarter for a 4.5 percent year-over-year gain.
According to Infonetics, the big winner in terms of growth is Cisco.
"Of the top five vendors, only Cisco increased its overall carrier router and switch revenue in the third quarter of 2011, up 3 percent from the previous quarter to $1.43 billion," Michael Howard, principal analyst for carrier networks at Infonetics Research, said in a statement. "Since Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, Juniper and ZTE all saw double-digit percent declines in their carrier router and switch revenue in the same period, Cisco rises back up to over 40 percent market share for the first time this year."
Howard added that Cisco is showing particular strength in the IP Edge segment that makes up nearly 80 percent of the total carrier router and switch market. Cisco's ASR 9000 which first debuted in 2008 is a key component of the Cisco IP Edge portfolio. The ASR 9000 was updated in June of this year providing new network virtualization capabilities and up to 92 TB of capacity.
Cisco's IP Edge growth is coming at the expense of Chinese networking vendor Huawei. Huawei's share in the third quarter dropped to 12.3 percent down from 17.2 percent in the second quarter of 2011.
Looking at the Carrier Ethernet market as a whole, Infonetics is seeing continued strength in the sector. For 2011, Infonetics is now forecasting that the global carrier Ethernet equipment market will grow by 15.7 percent to $32.0 billion in revenues for the year.
The growth in 2011 is helping to fuel an even more optimistic medium term outlook for the sector.
"The carrier Ethernet equipment market continues to grow strongly, so much so that we've increased our long-term forecast from $37.5 billion to $40.2 billion by 2015," Howard said.
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.


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WASHINGTON – The candidate who on Tuesday won the special election in a Pennsylvania congressional district is right-to-life and pro-gun. He accused his opponent of wanting heavier taxes. He said he would have voted against Barack Obama's health care plan and promised to vote against cap-and-trade legislation, which is a tax increase supposedly somehow related to turning down the planet's thermostat. This candidate, Mark Critz, is a Democrat.
And that just about exhausts the good news for Democrats on a surreal Tuesday when their presumptive candidate for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut – the state's attorney general, Richard Blumenthal – chose to hold a news conference at a Veterans of Foreign Wars hall to discuss why he had falsely said he fought in a foreign war. National Democrats may try to find a less damaged candidate for Connecticut, but first they may have to do that in Illinois.
Their candidate to hold the Senate seat Obama held, Alexi Giannoulias, has a problem: The failure of the bank owned by his family – it made loans to Tony Rezko, the convicted developer who helped Obama with a 2006 property transaction – may cost taxpayers many millions. Proving his credentials as a disciple of the president, Giannoulias blamed the bank's failure on George W. Bush.
Illinois Democrats have already had to replace the colorful fellow they nominated for lieutenant governor. Five days after the primary, in a bar, during the Super Bowl, South Side pawnbroker Scott Lee Cohen wept as he bowed out beneath a cloud of controversies about a 2005 arrest for domestic battery against a former girlfriend – he was accused of holding a knife to her throat – and complaints of spousal abuse and revelations of steroid use.
If Democrats lose Obama's former seat, as they are almost certain to lose Joe Biden's in Delaware, and as they may lose the Nevada seat currently held by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, they will achieve a negative hat trick in November, losing all three of the so-called "trophy contests." Democrats and, not amazingly, many commentators say Republicans are the ones with the worries because they are nominating strange and extreme candidates. Their Exhibit A is Rand Paul, winner of Kentucky's Republican primary for the U.S. Senate.
Well. It may seem strange for a Republican to have opposed, as Paul did, the invasion of Iraq. But in the eighth year of that war, many Kentuckians may think he was strangely prescient. To some it may seem extreme to say, as Paul does, that although the invasion of Afghanistan was proper, our current mission there is "murky." But many Kentuckians may think this is an extreme understatement.
Recently Utah's conservative three-term Sen. Robert Bennett was eliminated from contention for this year's Senate nomination by two even more conservative candidates. Many Democrats and commentators who had not hitherto been histrionic about their high regard for Bennett mourned his loss as evidence that the Republican Party, the health of which they say concerns them greatly, is becoming unhealthy.
One of the two Utah candidates, Mike Lee, a former law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito, has been in Washington espousing such strange aspirations as repeal of Obamacare and No Child Left Behind. He is extremely eager for the Supreme Court to stop construing the Constitution's Commerce Clause as a license for Congress to do whatever it wants as long as it asserts that what it wants involves regulating interstate commerce. Lee and Rand Paul will get along.
Paul is, of course, the son of Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, and shares some, but not all, of the views of his father. Concerning whom:
Ron Paul's book "End the Fed," which explains his animus against the central bank, has on its dust jacket just one blurb. It is a famous name but given a million guesses you would not hit upon it: Arlo Guthrie.
He, too, is the son of a famous father – Woody Guthrie, the Depression-era composer and singer of leftist songs. Arlo's libertarian leanings were already strong on Thanksgiving Day 1965 when he had a famous run-in with government in the form of Officer Obie in Stockbridge, Mass. The story – it had something to do with illegally dumping trash – is told in the song "Alice's Restaurant."
More than four decades later, Arlo evidently decided he shares Ron Paul's hot dislike for the subject of Paul's book, the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Has American politics ever been this entertaining?
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Refugees from the Storm
by Daniel P. Aldrich
Picking up the pieces in Katrina's aftermath.
My wife and children are safe; they sleep quietly in our small rented room.
I know from historical experience that we Jews need to talk about our family and children first. As the Jewish people began to enter the land of Israel, two tribes, Reuven and Gad, sought land on the other side of the Jordan River. These groups phrased their request for Transjordan land in an interesting way; they asked for real estate for their cattle first and then sought land for their little ones.
In response, Moses rebuked them for three days. The sages explain this criticism based on the fact that we should always put our family first in conversation and in action, as the things that matter the most should be foremost on our mind.
My wife and children are safe, yes, but our car, our home, our sifrei kodesh (holy books), our toys, our clothes, our furniture, and our pots and pans are all gone, submerged under 10 feet of water. We have only the few items that my forward-looking wife managed to assemble before we joined the close to million other refugees fleeing the path of Hurricane Katrina. Our family of four can travel in a single suitcase, I've learned.
We Jews do not ask: Why me? Why did this tragedy happen to me? We don't ask these questions for several reasons. We don't ask these questions precisely because we can ask these questions; hundreds, if not thousands, of people were killed by rising floodwaters and wretched living conditions, yet God enabled us to survive. Families with children were trapped on the roofs of their houses; elderly and infirm passed away when they couldn't receive dialysis, necessary medicines, and medical treatment.
Even though we are homeless and possession-less, we are quite lucky: we are alive and healthy.
We also don't ask "How could God do this to me" because we know that everything has a purpose, even if we don't understand it. Our sages teach us that eventually, we'll be able to make a blessing on "good" things just like the "bad" things — so that, as hard as it is to believe, we'll praise God the same way that we do for getting a raise as when we are fired from our job. In this case, we made the blessing Baruch Dayan HaEmet — God is the true Judge. We don't understand why the Creator would destroy a city of 1.2 million people through flooding in the same way that we don't understand why people are starving in Africa or dying in genocide in Central Europe. As believing Jews we trust that God has logic and reasoning far beyond ours.
The night after we fled from New Orleans, spending 14 hours in the car to go less than 350 miles, we arrived at a small hotel packed with others fleeing the storm. Everyone was panicky, edgy, and desperate for news. I saw in our experiences in this cramped hotel some small portion of what our ancestors felt about their real home, the Land of Israel, after they were exiled to Babylonia, Africa, and the other countries of the Diaspora. I imagine that Jewish families would press visitors from Israel for details: How is my family? How is my household? Do I still have a store there? What are the occupiers doing to our people?
So too, we refugees from the Crescent City sought comfort from over-hyped news reports, from aborted cell phone calls, from the newcomers who could tell us what happened. "How about Canal Boulevard?" we asked. "Do you know anything about my home?" "Is the looting as bad as we have heard?" We clung to every tidbit, longing to feel some measure of security. The definition of being in Exile means that such security will always be hard, if not impossible, to feel fully.
Exile forces us to recognize that even with a great job, large home, and two-car garage, God can, at any time, reduce us to homelessness and force us to rely on the assistance of others. God does not want us falsely believing that our strength, our hard work, our efforts alone determine our course in life.
We have seen from this tragedy more proof of the statement: Who is like your people, O Israel. Our lives were saved by a community member who stopped by our house to tell us: You need to leave the city. If this lady hadn't warned us, we would be trapped like those unfortunate others who had to be rescued by helicopter or boat.
When we arrived in Houston and found a local kosher restaurant where we could break out of our refugee diet of crackers and peanut butter, someone nearby overheard my family talking about our "adventure" (as we described it to our children). After finishing our meal, we went to the front counter of the restaurant to pay. The Indian manager gestured at an empty table and told us, smiling, "That family paid for you."
"What family?" we asked.
"That Orthodox family sitting in the corner," he said, who had picked up on our plight; what a kiddush Hashem, a sanctification of God's name. We have received phone calls from a scribe in Monsey, NY who offered to work with us to replace the mezuzahs that were destroyed by the rising floodwaters. Members of the Yeshiva Kol Yaakov in the same town assured us they'd do their best to help replace our sifrei kodesh. Rabbis and Jews from Israel, from Boston, from Houston have contacted us with offers of aid. Friends and family from around the country tried to contact us, to offer us a place to stay, to tell us that they want to help, to pray for us, to replace the physical things that we lost.
Judaism teaches us that wealth and possessions should be seen as instruments, as tools, and never as an end in and of themselves. We should never imagine ourselves solely as producers or consumers of material goods, as Madison Avenue, Hollywood, and the marketing people would like us to be. Our books, our tables, our chairs, and even are cars are only tools to be used in the performance of God's will.
Now that we have nothing but three changes of clothes, a crock-pot, and a bag of railroad toys for my children, we see how little we really need to live on. The way that my wife and I respond to this event — the words that we use in front of our children, the way we interact with each other — is far more important to our children's development than the bookcases of books and boxes of toys rotting under the hot sun in New Orleans.
I called my rabbi and asked him what we should do. After listening to me rant and rave, Rabbi Friedman said: Imagine that you've been given this time as a gift. Forget about the material things that you lost; those can be replaced. What would you do with this newly acquired free time, when schools are not in session and you have no work responsibilities?
I tried to imagine this disaster as a gift from God, and realized that my family and I now have the chance to learn more Torah, to visit with friends and family, to reconnect to what truly matters.
Many of my teachers argue that when disaster strikes elsewhere — be it Indonesia or Indiana — we must look to improve ourselves and wake ourselves up from our spiritual slumber. The Chafetz Chaim, the saintly rabbi who emphasized the importance of speaking only good about others, is said to have fasted when he heard of a disaster on the other side of the globe. Don't think that God is sending these messages to those people who don't want to believe in him, one of my teachers told me; he is speaking directly to you, to us, to those of us who recognize the Creator in all that happens.
God has spoken to us with another tragedy that struck literally on our home, and the homes our of community in New Orleans: the only question for me, and my family, is how we will improve ourselves and rise to the occasion.


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In the last blog I talked about what Vo2Max is and why it's important to train it. In this blog I will talk about how to improve it.
Remember that having a higher VO2 Max is an advantage: it means that your body can take in more oxygen and deliver it to your muscles, enabling you to run faster for a given effort.So any person who runs races should try to improve it. In addition, people with a low VO2Max increase the risk of death from all causes (1) !!There are various ways to improve VO2Max but I will give the two most known and those are:
1.High Intensity Interval training– Here you would do series of at least 50-60 seconds of high intensity. The work- rest ratio would be = to 1:1, 1:2, or 1:3. The work- rest ratio 1:1 means that if you work, for example, 60 seconds you would also rest 60 seconds. The work rest ratio 1:2 means that you rest twice the time of work, so, if I worked 60 seconds I would rest 120 seconds and so on. For athletes who are not highly trained, a work- rest ratio of 1:3, or 1:2 may be preferable. As a general rule for young athletes, the heart rate should drop to approximately 120-130 beats (2). The exercise should be done at 80-100% of VO2Max to improve aerobic power.
2. Long Slow Distance Exercise– Low intensity exercise where you should be working at around 50-65% of VO2Max. The duration is generally greater in length than the competition you would be doing.
- It is believed that high intensity intervals are more effective in improving VO2Max than low intensity intervals (3,4). Meaning that even running intervals of 30 seconds or less at full intensity could improve VO2Max.
Now, you are probably thinking that this is nice but how in the world do I calculate my VO2Max to know what percentage I am working at. This is quite easy…..but I will talk about that in my next blog. See you then.
- Kodama S, Saito K, Tanaka S, Mai M, Yachi Ym Asumi M, et al. Cardiorespiratory fitness as a quantitative predictor of all cause mortality and cardiovascular events in healthy men and women. Journal of the American Medical Association 301:2024-2035, 2009.
- Astrqnd P, and Rodahl K, Text bookd of Work Physiology. New York: McGraw-Hill,1986.
- Hicson RC, Bomze HA, and Holloszy JO. Linear increase in aerobic power induced by a strenous program of endurance exercise. J Appl Physiol 42: 372-376, 1977.
- Hickson RC, Hagberg JM, Ehsani AA. Time course of the adaptive responses of aerobic power and heart rate to training. Med Sci Sports Exerc 13:17-20


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Editor's Note: A previous version of this story erroneously referred to Joshua Miller in the 13th paragraph as an attorney and erroneously Greene Consulting Group, his company, as a legal firm.
PHOENIX – Mike Ulinger, who retired after 30 years as a Phoenix firefighter, said he couldn't go anywhere or do anything and became an alcoholic to self-treat post-traumatic stress disorder he attributes to his job.
"You don't have to have a bullet coming at you to get PTSD," he said.
On Tuesday, Ulinger and others, including several doctors, urged the Arizona Department of Health Services to add PTSD to the list of debilitating conditions qualifying patients for medical marijuana.
Ulinger said at a public hearing, which also addressed whether to add migraines and depression as qualifying conditions, that using marijuana had eased his PTSD symptoms.
"I don't drink anymore," he said. "I use marijuana."
In 2010, Arizonans approved Proposition 203, calling for the medical use of marijuana, by fewer than 5,000 votes out of 1.6 million cast.
At present, eight distinct medical conditions qualify for medical marijuana treatment: cancer, Crohn's disease, glaucoma, human immunodeficiency virus, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, hepatitis C, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease-associated agitation.
Other chronic diseases, conditions or treatments, such as muscle spasms caused by multiple sclerosis nausea, may also qualify.
The University of Arizona's College of Public Health will create a final report for the Arizona Department of Health Services that incorporates public testimony, online comment and a review of medical literature. Will Humble, the agency's director, will make a final decision by early January.
One doctor testified that he was concerned about marijuana smoke raising cancer risks, but others urged state health officials to consider new peer-reviewed studies supporting medical marijuana's effectiveness treating PTSD symptoms, along with evidence from Israeli and Canadian studies.
Dr. Richard Strand, a retired Valley radiologist, said that although there is new research available showing that marijuana improves PTSD symptoms, federal agencies make it difficult to do prospective, double-blind studies considered the gold-standard in medicine.
"I am not a user, prescriber or a dispenser, but it's hard to ignore how much the current evidence shows marijuana can help control PTSD symptoms, and maybe some Prop. 203 funds can be used to do more studies here in Arizona," Strand said.
Joshua Miller with Greene Consulting Group, which at the request of medical marijuana advocates wrote the petition to add PTSD to Arizona's program, said that it is important that veterans have marijuana as a treatment choice for PTSD since "they develop this condition as they fight abroad for our freedoms."
"When they come home, they do not yet have the freedom to choose a safe and effective treatment for their condition," Miller said. "We are here today to ask you to grant that freedom."
Jim Dyer, a Tucson medical malpractice attorney who uses medical marijuana as treatment for multiple sclerosis, a condition that now prevents him from practicing law, said he wants to make sure that decision-makers consider peer-reviewed evidence on both sides of the question.
"But, you don't have any peer-reviewed articles that say it doesn't help," Dyer said.


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Sixteen days ago, I went out to dinner with some friends. One of them told me about a TED talk she'd seen about how long it takes to learn a skill. We were talking about the 10,000 hours to achieve mastery statistic, I think, and my friend disagreed.
"Twenty hours to proficiency," she said.
Yeah, right, I thought.
She went on to tell us about the TED talk, where the presenter discussed how he learned to play a song on a guitar in twenty hours. She seemed very impressed and it piqued my interest.
The next day, I took my son to the craft store in search of yarn he wanted for a project. As I stood in the yarn aisle, waiting for him to pick his colors, I saw a stock of crochet hooks. And it got me thinking.
Twenty hours. Hmmm.
My grandma tried to teach me how to crochet when I was a kid, but that was a long time ago. My skill set fifteen days ago involved only knowing what the hooks looked like. I figured, what the hell? Give it a shot and see what happens.
Upon returning home with my newly-acquired crochet hooks and the yarn my son picked out, I hit YouTube and searched "Crochet for beginners."
I'm not kidding. I didn't even know how to make the slip knot required to start a chain.
I paused and replayed the video, "mastering" each new step as I went along. Eventually, I reached a place where I practiced rows of single crochet stitches. About five hours after I'd searched on YouTube, I'd made a coaster-sized swatch.
Which my husband decided could be a legit coaster.
I may or may not have laughed at that for five minutes.
The next day (thirteen days before writing this post), I set to work on another practice swatch. It was solely comprised of single crochet stitches. I didn't follow a pattern. It was all about achieving muscle memory – I even stopped doing single rows and worked around and around (which I'm not sure is supposed to happen).
I'm too pragmatic for a lot of purposeless practice, though, so I turned it into a basket that's useless for pretty much anything besides holding more yarn.
By this point, I figured I was about eleven hours into my practice. I decided my next step was to practice on something that would be a real thing, like a blanket. So, twelve days ago, I consulted the interwebs and found a pattern for a "beginner's crochet blanket." Perfect. I headed back to the craft store and procured the right type of yarn in my preferred colors.
Then, I went home and hit YouTube to learn what a "half-double crochet" is (this blanket would require a lot of them) and set to work.
The next day, I'd nearly finished the first of four panels. Sometime after this point I timed how long it took to finish one colored rectangle, and it was about an hour. So by this pic I had practiced about sixteen hours, I figure (it took a few tries to get the first rectangle started).
I was definitely "fine-tuning" as I went along. The first rectangle (closest to my feet) was more tightly stitched than later ones. I haven't figured out why. Maybe I was anxious.
Eight days ago, I'd finished two panels and sewed them together. The cat wanted to help.
By the time I finished that, I was about twenty-four hours past YouTube searching "crochet for beginners," meaning I'd passed the twenty-hour mark. Did that mean I was proficient?
Going back to work after Thanksgiving weekend meant fewer big blocks of time to work, but I'd made so much progress I wanted to see how quickly I could finish. I'm competitive with myself like that.
I was crocheting like a boss.
And last night, exactly two weeks after the coaster incident, I finished my blanket.
Which my kid promptly stole.
As of this morning, he still hasn't given it back.
So, at least when it comes to crocheting, it seems there is something to the 20-hour to proficiency idea. I'm certainly not claiming to be an expert, but I wanted to see if I could learn "just enough" to achieve a specific, blanket-oriented goal. And I could.
I've posted the TED talk my friend referenced below (which I finally watched a few days ago). One point that I think is key to his claim is this: Learn just enough to self correct. I learned how to chain and two crochet stitches. That's it. When I need to learn other stitches for other projects, I'll head back to the University of YouTube and learn what I need. Over time, maybe I'll get closer to "mastery."
Until then, I'm fine with proficient.


text: Aruna Venkidu, Esq. practices exclusively in the area of Immigration and Naturalization Law for the past 18 years. She is an active member of the State Bar of California, American Immigration Lawyer's Association, and Tamil Nadu Bar Association in India. Ms. Venkidu is recognized and is listed as an Honored Professional in the National Register's Who's Who. She has expertise in all aspects of immigration law, including employment based and family based immigration. She has worked with numerous corporate and individual clients. She has represented over 500 companies throughout the US and worked on over 8000 immigration cases. She has assisted individuals to get the permanent residency through extraordinary ability, and outstanding professors and researchers categories. She also assisted permanent residents to obtain US citizenship. She finds pleasure in assisting her clients to go thru the immigration journey without stress.


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Elegant and solid, this chair elevates the style of any room, and because it's a recliner in disguise, it will elevate your legs as well! The Pauley by Best Home Furnishings brings together some of the best opposing elements. With an effortless push on the arms, you can recline all the way back into whatever postion makes you most comfortable. Or, choose power and at the simple tap of the metallic buttons, you can stop and go at ease. This is more than just a stylish recliner. The coil spring seat cushion will add years of comfortable support, and the premium cushioning fibers in the back act like a high end mattress with pillow top. Add or remove some of the premium cushioning fiber to customize the level of support provided by the Pauley high leg recliner. The column feet come with an option of Antique Black, Distressed Pecan, Riverloom or Espresso finishes accenting the fabric or leather style of your choice.
In 1962, two men turned their chair expertise into a yet unknown empire. In a small rented building the two covered all aspects of the business for quite some time. Over 55 years later, Best Chairs has surpassed all expectations becoming Best Home Furnishings, a name adopted to further describe the entire product line. Family owned and operated, our facilities cover over 1,100,000 square feet in five locations with nearly 1,000 employees and is growing to become one of the largest furniture manufacturers in the world.
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Muskegon Farmers Outdoor Market
August 15, 2020 @ 8:00 am - 2:00 pm
The Muskegon Farmers Outdoor Market will be open Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from May 2 through November 30, 2020.
Hours are 8 am to 2 pm
For COVID19 safety measures, the market will have a different look and feel this year:
- Music and entertainment have been eliminated along with picnic tables.
- Face masks will be highly encouraged of all visitors and social distancing will be required.
- Crafters will not be at the market at this time.
- Farmers, bakers, and other food items along with vendors selling plants and flowers will be available along with cloth masks for purchase.
- Aisle-ways will be divided with one-way traffic and limited access points.
- Volunteers will be monitoring each end of the aisles to count the number of people allowed at a time.
- Food trucks will be required to have food completely packaged to-go and will not be providing utensils.
- Shoppers may point to the items they want to purchase and the vendors will bag those items. Vendors will be required to wear masks and gloves.
- To allow as many families to take advantage of the market as possible, we ask shoppers to limit the number of people in their family shopping so we may accommodate more families.
- More directions how the Market will work here.
Most of the popular fruits are not yet in season, but shoppers will find plenty of flowers, meats, cheeses, vegetables like lettuce and potatoes, along with honey, and bakery items this Saturday with approximately 40 vendors on-hand.
Most fundraising activities will be eliminated this year. People and companies in a financial position to be able to sponsor the market are encouraged to become a Friend of the Market. The program offers many different levels and benefits to meet all budgets. To become a friend of the market, visit www.muskegonfarmersmarket/friend.com.


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Mint editor R.Sukumar:
"Cleavage," he said…. Big ones, he said, moving his hands out till they were at least 10 inches in front of his chest….
The person, who worked for a business news channel, was telling me why the channel had hired a certain anchor for its morning stock market show….
I didn't pay much heed to what he said till another person, from another business news channel, told me the same story.
She got three times her current salary, for agreeing to leave the top two buttons of her shirt unbuttoned, he said, referring to an anchor who had recently switched channels….
I have not seen any of NDTV's channels do this, nor Times Now and CNN-IBN. And the business channels are the worst offenders….
I know some women anchors on business channels. Many of them are smart—or are on their way to getting there—and I can't believe they agree to go along with on-the-edge wardrobe suggestions put forth by their producers…."
Read the article: Cult Fiction


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I've had the e-book edition of my novel, Of Fish and Swimming Swords, available for Kindle and Smashwords for two years. Now, I have a print edition.
You can order a print copy from CreateSpace. Use the discount code XMXXKGKU to get 25% off.
The print cover is different from the digital, but I still tried to put together a cover that was somewhat connected to the novel. The digital cover reflects the role of fours and a virtual world tree. In the case of the print edition, the artifacts resemble meshing gears, cycles enmeshed with cycles, and discarded materials half buried in the sand, similar to the layers of conspiracy in the story feeding off of each other and only half emerging from the text.
The next step is to match up the print and digital editions on Amazon so that you can get a copy of the digital edition when you buy a copy of the print through Amazon's Kindle Matchbook program.


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• Rock solid construction, water resistant, operates in harsh environments
• Typical battery playtime under normal operating conditions: 5 – 14 hours
• Small fits in shirt pocket, 4 inches high, 2 5/16 inches wide, 1/2 inch deep
• Raised buttons to easily navigate forward and backward between each book and each chapter of the Bible
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• As you navigate, the Audio Bible will talk back to you and tell you exactly what book and chapter you are on
• Bookmarking button allows you to stop the unit, then return later to the exact place you were listening to before.
• Includes Audio Bible player, built in speaker, earbuds, (electrical wall charger and solar panel) to charge the battery, manual
Voice narrator/Artist:
• Narrated by E.W. "Red" Jeffries
• His voice has a deep resonant sound that makes listening easy.
Translation Information:
• New American Standard Bible - (1977 Edition)
• Both Old Testament and New Testament
• Total Bible reading time Length: 73 Hours and 28 Minutes
• Voice Only Bible reading
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Life in cyberspace can be nasty, brutish, and short. So says a new report (PDF) on international cybersecurity, which argues that the Internet is a Hobbesian "state of nature" where anything goes, where even government attacks maintain "plausible deniability," and where 80 percent of industrial control software is hooked into an IP network.
It's also a world where the US is both a model and a bully. When 600 senior IT security managers were asked which state actor was most likely to engage in cyberattacks, the top response was the US (36 percent), even among traditional US allies. On the other hand, US security practices were some of the world's most admired.
Hack attacks
The report was funded by security vendor McAfee, but it was conducted by a respected DC think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies. It paints a stark picture of the security problems faced by major enterprises and infrastructure groups, and some of the statistics are downright shocking.
- 54 percent of surveyed executives experienced "large-scale denial of service attacks by [a] high level adversary like organized crime, terrorists, or nation-state"
- 57 percent said they had suffered DNS poisoning, in half the cases multiple times per month
- 70 percent had dealt with network vandalism, insider theft, phishing, or loss of sensitive data
- 20 percent had been victims of Internet extortion schemes
If the overall news on Internet security is grim, the news from specific sectors and countries can be downright horrific. For instance, take that last stat on extortion schemes. Hackers infiltrate a network, then threaten a company with chaos, a data leak, or the disruption of operations unless they are paid. It happens more than you might think, despite corporate unwillingness to publicize such attempts.
According to a separate CSIS document (PDF) that outlines major hack attacks over the last few years, "a CIA official said the agency knew of four incidents overseas where hackers were able to disrupt, or threaten to disrupt, the power supply for four foreign cities" back in 2008. CSIS notes that there are unconfirmed reports that Brazilian power outages in 2005 and 2007 were actually caused by hackers, likely acting on an extortion attempt.
But such events are rare in the US; only 12 percent of US executives said that extortion had been a problem. Move to India, however, and the number skyrockets to 40 percent. When it comes to the type of business affected, power, oil, and gas companies had much higher rates of extortion attempts.
Part of the problem comes from the fact that so much industrial machinery and control software (such as SCADA systems) is hooked into IP networks now. The survey found that 76 percent of SCADA devices were hooked into some kind of IP network, often accessible in some way from the outside Internet. This was despite the fact that half of the security managers recognized this as a risk.
The government-funded Idaho National Laboratory focuses on SCADA security and runs the "National SCADA Test Bed," which recreates industrial control systems to test them for security problems. In 2007, the lab produced a video that leaked to the press and showed a large turbine shaking apart and belching smoke after it was issued dangerous commands through a SCADA system. The video provided a graphic demonstration of how an Internet hacker can act on real-world infrastructure from afar.
Despite all the glum news, though, and much talk about a Hobbesian state of nature of a "Wild West," the report notes that there's not much panic among security pros. Two-thirds of all respondents said that their security resources were "completely" or "mostly" adequate, though recession-driven cuts are trimming security budgets.
Given the resources involved on the "black hat" side, though, there's no room for complacency. CSIS reminds us that in 2006, "Chinese hackers were thought to be responsible for shutting down the House of Commons computer system." In 2007, "The British Security Service, the French Prime Minister's Office and the Office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel all complained to China about intrusion on their government networks. Merkel raised the matter with China's President." In 2008, "hackers breached networks at Royal Bank of Scotland's WorldPay, allowing them to clone 100 ATM cards and withdraw $9 million dollars from machines in 49 cities."
CSIS was itself hacked by foreign hackers in 2008. "Even tiny CSIS was hacked in December by unknown foreign intruders," said the group. "They probably assumed that some CSIS staff would work for the new administration and may have though it might be interesting to read their emails beforehand."
Perhaps the strangest major cyberattack came in early 2009, when "Indian Home Ministry officials warned that Pakistani hackers had placed malware on popular music download sites used by Indians in preparation for cyber attacks."
And given the difficulty in tracing any of these attacks, few are every prosecuted. "If cyberspace is the Wild West," the report concludes, "the sheriff needs to get to Dodge City."
But not even famed lawman Wyatt Earp would seem to be up for the task of cleaning up Dodge this time; the problems are global, governments are involved, and there's no obvious target to blast away at with your Peacemaker.


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When you're an elite United States Air Force pilot at the controls of an $134 million F-22A Raptor, what do you do if you get stuck inside the high-tech flyin'/fightin' machine? What? The door won't open?! That's just what happened last month to a pilot with the 27th Fighter Squadron out of Langley Air Force Base in Virginia.
The canopy "became stuck in the down and locked position and could not be opened manually after the pilot cycled the mechanism several times, following a pre-flight warning that the canopy was unlocked."
What did they do? Why, of course, they broke out a chain saw and sawed open the cockpit, causing $180,000 worth of damage. Oops.
F-22 Raptor swallows pilot [The Register]


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Kaalan is one of the traditional kerala recipe..Sadya is incomplete without kalan .The recipe is similar to Erupuli ..In erupuli we are using ripe banana ..So the taste is slight sweet .But kaalan is thick and bit sour in taste . We use raw plantain in kaalan.So here comes the simple recipe of Kaalan …
Raw plantian(nendra kaya) -1
Yam(chena) -1 cup(chopped)
Curd -2 cup
Grated coconut -1/2 of 1
Green chilly-1
Red chill-1/2tsp
Turmeric powder-1/2tsp
Cumin seeds-1/4tsp
Salt-to taste
Curry leaves-1 string
For Seasoning
Mustard seeds-1/4tsp
Fenugreek seeds(uluva)-10
Dry red chilly-2 (chopped)
Curry leaves-1 string
Peel and cube the plantian and yam ..In a kadai add plantain and yam pieces along with turmeric powder,chilly powder ,salt ,curry leaves and 1 cup of water .
Cook till the vegetables are done.
Side by side grind coconut ,pepper,cumin seeds and green chilly to a fine paste ..
Add this paste to the cooked vegetables..
Boil them well..Stirring continuously.Add salt
Finally add curd to this and simmer for2-3 minutes..Don`t boil..
Season with mustard seeds,red chilly ,fenugreek seeds and curry leaves ..
Add this to the gravy ..
The simple and tasty Kaalan is ready to serve ..
Note : Its good to use bit sour type curd for preparing this dish
Click the link below to take the print out


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Man to face charges in Agawam educator's 1992 rape, murder
A Massachusetts man was taken into custody in Connecticut on Monday in connection with a decades-old slaying of a middle school educator.
Lisa Ziegert, 24, was abducted on April 15, 1992, while working her second job at a card shop in Agawam. She was reported missing the next day, when the day clerk arrived to find the store open and the lights still on.
Her purse, her other personal belongings and the store's cash register appeared undisturbed.
Four days after her disappearance, investigators found Ziegert's body in a wooded area about four miles from where she disappeared. The death was ruled a homicide and the investigation has been active ever since.
Gary Edward Schara, 48, of West Springfield, was taken into custody Monday in Stafford at Johnson Memorial Hospital. Schara was a patient at the hospital after trying to commit suicide.
He is charged with murder, aggravated rape and kidnapping.
"The search for Lisa's assailant is over. DNA testing and analysis has confirmed the identity of Lisa's murderer," Hampden District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni said.
A person close to Schara provided investigators with hand-written documents in which he admitted to the Ziegart's murder and rape, officials said.
"The 25-year long search for answers is over," Gulluni said.
Nearly one year ago, officials released composite images of a suspect based on technology that uses genetics to predict someone's appearance. It was the first time that DNA phenotyping was used in an investigation in Massachusetts, Gulluni said.
"My thoughts remain with Lisa's family as they remember their daughter and sister," he said.
"We are so grateful, and happy is the wrong word. We are so grateful for the hard work, determination and faith that all of these investigators had, and faith that they never gave up on Lisa. We are ecstatic about that – that she is going to get her justice," Ziegart's mother, Dee Ziegart, said.


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Saints Five Things to Watch
When Rob Ryan was fired by Dallas, Saints coach Sean Payton quickly took him off the market, hoping he could restore credibility to a New Orleans defense that yielded an NFL record 7,042 yards in 2012. This season, the Saints ranked ninth in yards allowed through last weekend, on pace to give up about 107 fewer yards per game. Saints defensive players say Ryan hasn't said much about his desire to deal his old employer a loss, not that they would blame him if he did.
Both the Cowboys and Saints have struggled running the ball lately. New Orleans gained 41 yards on the ground last weekend and ranks 26th in rushing. The Cowboys ran the ball a franchise-low nine times for 36 yards in last week's win over Minnesota, even though DeMarco Murray returned after missing two games with a left knee injury. Dallas coach Jason Garrett and New Orleans coach Sean Payton both said this week that their teams need to run the ball more often.
The Saints have won 13 straight in the Superdome with Sean Payton in the building. They went 9-0 in the 2011 season, including playoffs. Payton was suspended in connection with the NFL's bounty probe for 2012, when the Saints went 4-4 at home. New Orleans has yet to lose in four home games this season. In addition, the Saints have won 11 straight in the Dome at night, including playoffs. The last time New Orleans lost a night game in the Dome was Dec. 19, 2009. The team that beat them was none other than Dallas.
Dallas is already the first team in NFL history to allow four opposing QBs to pass for 400-plus yards in the same season. Brees is a good candidate to become the fifth. He has 10 career 400-yard games, all since joining the Saints in 2006.
Cowboys defensive end DeMarcus Ware returned to practice this week after missing three games with a right thigh injury. Now starting defensive tackle Jason Hatcher has a neck injury hindering him. Fellow tackle Nick Hayden has a rib injury. The Cowboys have made 20 moves involving defensive linemen since final roster cuts in August.


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Texas Rep. Kay Granger today shut down a move by the administration to send $450 million to help the new Egyptian government rebuild its economy.
The chairwoman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations said she wasn't confident that Egypt needed the money and placed a hold on the funds, she said in a statement.
"This proposal comes to Congress at a point when the U.S. – Egypt relationship has never been under more scrutiny, and rightly so," said Granger, a Fort Worth Republican. "I am not convinced of the urgent need for this assistance and I cannot support it at this time."
Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, is on board with Granger.
"We don't need to pay them to betray us," Poe said. "They'll do it for free."
The hold on funds for Egypt comes at a time in the election when President Barack Obama's foreign policies are under fire. Mitt Romney and Gov. Rick Perry both criticized the administration after four American diplomats were killed, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, in Benghazi, Libya on Sept. 11. That same day protests erupted outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt.
Granger and Poe aren't the only members of Congress uncertain about the Egyptian government under the Muslim Brotherhood's watch. In July, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler and other Republican congressmen wrote a letter accusing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's office with having ties to the Brotherhood, The Hill reports.
In the letter, Gohmert said Clinton's congressional waiver to send a lump sum of $1.5 billion to aid Egypt was "deeply problematic" and "may even pose security risks for this nation, its people and interests." The letter also accused Clinton's deputy chief of staff, Huma Abedin, of having family members connected to the Muslim Brotherhood.


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Microsoft has set a goal for reducing its carbon emissions and has plans to support the development of software that can help address climate change issues, the company's chief environmental strategist said.
Microsoft hopes to reduce carbon emissions per unit of revenue by 30 percent of 2007 levels by 2012, Rob Bernard said in a blog post on Wednesday.
Improving energy use in buildings and operations, reducing air travel and increasing use of renewable energy will help the company meet that goal, he said. Last year, Microsoft saved US$90 million on travel costs by using its Unified Communications software, he said.
Features in new buildings at the company's headquarters may already be helping. Microsoft is still working on a $1 billion campus expansion. Some of the new buildings include environmentally friendly features. For example, they feature under-floor cooling systems, which save energy because they blow cool air from the ground up, rather than forcing cool air from the ceiling through warmer air that naturally rises. They also include lights in offices that turn on automatically when someone walks into the room and off when the room is empty.
The company has also been vocal about its attempts to build and run its massive data centers efficiently. In one new data center in Washington, construction vehicles burned locally grown and processed biodiesel. Other new data centers comprise shipping containers full of servers, which can reduce the amount of energy required to cool the machines.
Bernard said that CEO Steve Ballmer has also charged employees around the world with helping to accelerate the development of software and advance research in the areas of energy and climate change.
Microsoft has already begun offering products for companies to use to help them control their carbon footprint. An application for Microsoft's Dynamics AX enterprise resource management software, introduced in February, lets businesses find out the carbon footprint of various aspects of their operations.
Microsoft is not alone among technology companies that boast about their environmental efforts. In mid-2007, Google turned on solar panels covering nearly all the roof space on its corporate campus, a platform that was expected to supply about one third of Google's energy use on campus. It also planned to build up a 100 car fleet of plug in electric cars that employees who use public transportation could use to run errands during the work day.
Companies typically don't implement such measures for purely altruistic reasons. Cutting energy costs saves money and announcements about environmental policies can create a positive image for a company.