text:
Scottish photographer John Thomson (1837-1921) was one of the most infl uential photographers of the 19th century and a pioneer of photojournalism.
Born two years before the invention of daguerreotype and the birth of photography, Thomson fi rst travelled to Asia in 1862 where he set up a professional photographic studio. He became fascinated by local culture and the people of Asia and in 1868 he made his second trip, this time settling in Hong Kong. Between 1868 and 1872, Thomson made extensive trips to Guangdong, Fujian, Beijing, China's north-east and down the Yangtze river, covering nearly 5,000 miles. This exhibition catalogue is drawn from his time in these regions.
These were the early days of photography when negatives were made on glass plates that had to be coated with emulsion before the exposure was made. A huge amount of cumbersome equipment had to be carried from place to place and with perseverance, great energy and stamina, Thomson managed to take a wide variety of images and themes, including landscapes, people, architecture, domestic and street scenes. As a foreigner, his ability to gain access to photograph women is also remarkable. In China, Thomson excelled as a photographer in quality, depth and breadth, and in artistic sensibility.
John Thomson's photographs appear courtesy of the Wellcome Library, London.


text:
For those of you who have recently graduated from college, you may already be receiving mail or phone calls from your college's alumni association asking you to donate money to the school. You've already spent a fortune on your education (or are currently doing so via repayment of your student loans), so why does the college already want more money from you?
An Overview
Alumni associations are organizations of former students. These associations provide numerous services to current students and alumni alike. Alumni associations request your donations to support these services. Some associations solicit donations, while others just work closely with the endowment or development offices. At some schools, you are automatically considered a member of the alumni association once you graduate from the school (although you may be asked to make donations). At other schools, you must pay membership fees to be a part of their association. Alumni who make donations or pay association membership fees may also receive small perks, such as car rental/hotel discounts, library privileges, special event invitations, etc.
Where Does the Money Go?
This will vary between alumni associations. The following are examples of possible categories on which the donations may be spent:
At many schools, you can also specify what area you would like your donation(s) to support. Many individuals take comfort in knowing that their contribution is going directly to help the students.
How Much?
Alumni associations welcome whatever amount you can afford to give. Many businesses will also match contributions made to schools. Check with your employer to see if they offer a matching gift program.
It's Not All About Money
If you can't afford to donate money but still want to help out your alma mater, you can offer your time. Alumni associations provide many volunteer opportunities in which alumni can participate, such as promoting the school at college fairs, assisting with information sessions across the country, assisting in fundraising efforts, etc. Check with your school's alumni association to see how you can volunteer your time.
By being involved with your college's alumni association (whether by monetary donations or volunteerism), you are not only helping yourself, but you are also helping current and future students. For more specific information, be sure to contact your college's alumni association.
media center | about eCampusTours | contact eCampusTours | privacy information | site map
© 2022 eCampusTours
Please enter the email address with which you registered. If the information you submit matches what we have recorded for you, a new password will be emailed to you.
Be sure to add "firstname.lastname@example.com" to your trusted senders list.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The 40-plus films on the program of the first Architecture& Design Film Festival, which screens at New York's Tribeca Cinemas, make up an unparalleled portrait of some of the past century's greatest innovators. Full-length documentaries celebrate the work of the futuristic Czech architect Jan Kaplický; the British husband-and-wife design team Lucienne and Robin Day; the famed architectural photographer Julius Shulman; and the 1970s countercultural collective Ant Farm, best known for its land-art project Cadillac Ranch. The features are complemented by a quirky mix of short films, which range from a 5-minute look at trash Dumpsters transformed into swimming pools, to quickie interviews with graphic design superstars Stefan Sagmeister and Paula Scher.
Architecture & Design Film Festival, Tribeca Cinemas, October 14–17; adfilmfestival.com.


text: Despite the perfect healing effects, Polinesian Noni is not a medication – it is a natural supplement, a so called 'dietetic comestible' which effectively supports treatment. That is why most physicians graduating from Medical Academies around the world are not taught about it, not even mentioning the fact that they are not aware of its activity or the possibility of administering Polinesian Noni with other drugs. Yet, we hope that this will change with your help.


text:
Our academic programs focus on the interpersonal skills vital to professional achievement.
Dallas Master of Arts (MA) Degree in Industrial Organizational Psychology
Select a different location
Program InformationThe Argosy University, Dallas Industrial Organizational Psychology degree program is designed to equip you with the knowledge of industrial organizational psychology to apply to issues involving individuals and groups in organizational and work settings.
The curriculum of the Argosy University, Dallas Industrial Organizational Psychology program is competency based, focusing on the outcomes of training and on the knowledge, skills, and behavior necessary to function as a master's level professional in industrial organizational psychology.
Program Learning Outcomes
Program Outcome One: Application of Professional Knowledge
Evaluate and integrate relevant academic and professional literature to make evidence-based decisions related to I/O psychology.
Program Outcome Two: Critical Thinking and Decision Making
Exercise critical thinking to propose, communicate, and implement action plans that address I/O opportunities and issues.
Program Outcome Three: Ethical and Legal Practices
Identify and utilize ethical and legal standards in I/O psychology while taking into account all relevant stakeholders.
Program Outcome Four: Communication and Interpersonal Effectiveness
Demonstrate interpersonal effectiveness with individuals and groups through professional behavior while utilizing appropriate communication.
Program Outcome Five: Diversity
Examine individual and group needs, and utilize relevant and evidence based approaches with diverse populations.
Career Outcomes
The Argosy University, Dallas Industrial Organizational Psychology program is designed to prepare you for a career in areas such as:
• Compensation
• Training
• Data analysis
• Consultation
• Statistical decision making
• Organizational development
• Leadership
• Human resource management
Enhance your career potential by enrolling in this Argosy University, Dallas Industrial Organizational Psychology master's degree program. You can learn more about specific financial aid programs (available to those who qualify) on our Financial Aid & Scholarships pages, or by contacting us to request more information.


text:
New games with their fancy textures, 3D modeling, and immersive environments have their charm, sure, but what if you crave some old-school arcade gaming? Read on to see how you can turn your computer into a virtual arcade cabinet.
Vintage games ran on hardware significantly less powerful than that found in modern desktop computers. With the right software, a joystick or two (if you want to make the experience feel more authentic), and a little digging online to find your favorite games, it's easy to play the arcade hits of your childhood.
What Do I Need?
For this tutorial, you'll need a small number of free items and potentially a few option items if you want to go the extra mile with your arcade emulation.
Required Items:
- One copy of MAMEUI64 (Free)
- Public-Domain Arcade ROMs for testing (Free)
Optional Items:
- Arcade or Game Controller (Variable price)
- XPadder ($10) or Joy2Key (Free)
- USB Drive (Variable price)
The three optional items will come into play if you wish to easily map your joysticks/game controllers to the arcade emulator (see our guide to setting up an Xbox360 controller with Windows using Xpadder) and/or if you wish to make it a portable system. MAMEUI64 and Xpadder/Joy2Key are all portable and can be tucked on a USB drive for gaming fun on the road.
What Exactly Is MAME?
MAME stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulation. Much like there are emulation programs that allow you to play old console games on modern hardware, MAME allows you to play old arcade games on modern hardware. MAME was originally the brain child of Nicola Salmoria and released in 1997 as a way to combat the slow disappearance of vintage arcade games. Salmoria passed the coding torch and a series of directors have maintained the project with the help of thousands of programmers from around the world.
What started as a bid to preserve old hardware and games like Pac-Man and Missile Command has grown into a highly developed project with monthly releases and support for emulation of hundreds of arcade-cabinet hardware configurations and thousands of games. You can read more about the history and current development of MAME here.
MAME is, by default, a command-line tool. While you're free to use MAME in such a fashion to launch your games, various programmers over the years have, thankfully, whipped up a more user-friendly interface or two. For this tutorial, we'll be using MAMEUI64, a Windows front end for MAME that comes prepackaged with MAME, a GUI, and a large game database that contains valuable compatibility information about the games. Let's unpack and run MAMEGUI64 to get started.
Installing and Configuring MAMEGUI64
Installing MAMEGUI64 is a snap. The application is fully portable (although it is dependent on .NET 4.0 and, for some of the more advanced arcade games, DirectX) so you can simply extract the MAMEUI64 folder to a location of your choosing.
Inside that folder, you will find nearly two dozen folders and a handful of files but there are only two we need to concern ourselves with:
The executable launches the GUI/MAME module and the /roms/ folder is the default location for storing your ROM files (You can change the default director and/or add additional directories from within the user interface but we opted to keep everything tidy and within the emulator's existing directory structure).
When you first launch MAMEUI64, you might be shocked to see how many games it comes with:
Before your heart bursts with the joy over the thousands of hours you're about to sink into playing every vintage arcade game imaginable, we'll have to rain on your parade. The initial view in MAMEUI64 is the All Games view which is essentially a giant database of all known arcade game ROMs. It doesn't come with all those ROMs, it just comes with a very handy database that tells you valuable information about the ROMs that are out there like whether or not they work with MAME (and to what degree they do work, e.g. they have video output but no sound output).
To see the actual games you can play (games you have the actual ROM for and are located in your /roms/ folder), click on the Available entry in the sidebar. If this is your first launch and you haven't populated your /roms/ folder, the Game column will be empty.
Let's grab some free game ROMs now. The developers of MAME have a selection of games on their website that game designers from the 1970s and 1980s have specifically released to the public.
Hit up this page to browse the selection of free arcade ROMS; the selection is fairly sparse but there are more than enough ROMs for you to conduct tests on your emulation setup before beginning the process of scouring the internet for additional ROM sets.
Once you've downloaded a few, we downloaded Side Trak and Alien Arena, copy them to the previously mentioned /roms/ folder. The games won't automatically appear in the Available games tab, you'll have to either restart the application or go to View — Refresh:
Once the MAMEUI64 checks the directory and then checks the ROMs in it, they'll appear in the list of available games.
It's worth noting here that unlike many other kinds of emulators MAME can be rather particular. The project is still under active development and getting better with each release. In order to keep up with improvements, ROMs are also updated and released. It's quite possible to have a ROM that worked well with version 0.02 of MAME but doesn't work properly with version 0.12—to that end, if you really get into arcade game emulation it's worth keeping your old copy of MAME as you upgrade overtime just to ensure backward compatibility with your collection.
Playing Games with MAMEUI64
To load your first game after refreshing the interface to properly display your new ROMs, simply right-click on it and select Play. The game will load and display a series of screens prior to showing the game as it would appear to an arcade goer—these screens include MAME diagnostics and can include the boot screen for the arcade machine itself.
Once you've clicked through these screens (either by typing OK or hitting enter, depending on the screen) your game will load:
The default controller buttons for a keyboard and mouse setup are as follows:
- 5 – Insert Coin
- 1 – Start
- Arrows – Move
- Ctrl – Action Button 1
- Alt – Action Button 2
- Space – Action Button 3
- Mouse – Analog Control (needed for some games)
- P – Pause
- ESC – Quit MAME
- F2 – Service Mode
- Tab – MAME Options Menu
There are several things to keep in mind while playing with MAME. First, unlike console emulators, you'll need to use the 5 buttons to feed in a bunch of virtual coins in order to play. Second, be wary of the ESC key, pressing it is just like pulling the plug on the machine and will dump you out of MAME and into the MAMEGUI64 interface. TAB is one of the handiest buttons in the emulator as it allows you to quickly pull up a variety of useful submenus like the key bindings (both for the general interface and for the specific game you're playing if it has special key bindings).
If you want to mess around with the key bindings within MAME (whether to change them or to record them so you can map them with XPadder or another helper application) you just need to press Tab –> Input (general or this Game depending on which you want to alter) –> Player 1.
There you'll find a veritable laundry list of key bindings you can change although, once you get past the first two dozen or so, you start getting into game/hardware specific bindings often used for obscure and specialty games.
Once you've familiarized yourself with the key bindings and/or configured your controller, all that's left to do is sit back and enjoy some retro gaming!
Further Reading and Additional Adventures in Retro Gaming
If you're interested in trying out retro gaming on a variety of platforms, check out some of our prior articles about game emulation including:
- Play SNES Games on Your iPad with Wiimote Support
- N64oid Brings N64 Emulation to Android Devices
- Play Your Favorite DOS Games in XP, Vista, and Windows 7
- How to Hack Your Wii for Homebrew Games and DVD Playback
- Play Retro Nintendo Games Right Inside Your Browser
- How To Play Your Favorite Retro Video Games on Your Windows PC
For further reading on MAME and ROMs, Google is definitely your friend. That said, here are some handy links to get you started:
Between these resources and a little poking and prodding to find ROM files for your favorite retro games, there's no end to the fun you can have with a MAME setup.
Have a tip, trick, or sweet custom MAME cabinet to share? Sound off in the comments!
- › The Best Websites for Downloading and Playing Classic Games
- › The Best How-To Geek Articles for July 2012
- › How to Play Retro Point-and-Click Adventures on Your Wii
- › How to Build a Fast Online Store With Nexcess Managed WooCommerce
- › Get the M2 Apple Mac Mini With 512 GB Storage for $100 Off
- › How to Install or Remove Optional Features in Windows 11
- › Plex Is Leaving the PlayStation 3
- › Today Only: Save 57% On a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra


text:
If you are planning for a fresh look in some places of your property, you could find that you desire help. Obviously, straightforward redecorating is normally easy to do all on your own, but if you want to completely upgrade particular areas, you may need some help from the pros. Learn what a bathroom renovation service are capable of doing for yourself.
A single frequent desire is to fresh paint the walls a certain color, but restrooms can be challenging to color. Most wall surfaces have either a match, entrance, or cloth carrier connected, making this career time-ingesting since prep, such as taping, can require some time. Should you not get the time to do this project on your own, look at hiring a local bathroom renovation services to complete the job. This may seem like an easy project, but employing a organization to accomplish it will save you efforts and problems, and you will probably get yourself a skilled painting job finished.
Should your want is always to widen the location, you could be contemplating knocking down a minimum of one wall structure. A bathroom renovation assistance is the ideal spot to require this kind of career since it typically takes an experienced to accomplish it proper. Ensure that you describe exactly what you wish, then remain aside and let the experts supply you with the final results you are looking for.
A lot of people will not be happy with the bath tub or bath, and would like to change it with a new a single. You may think it can be as elementary as taking out 1 and investing in another, but the fact that plumbing is concerned can make it to ensure even those experienced with development may have troubles carrying this out appropriate. Complete the work appropriate the first time by hiring pros for that task. This can make certain that every thing seems good, and also is effective without posing a risk to any individual down the road.
When you know of your bathroom renovation service in your town which includes very good testimonials, you ought to utilize this and utilize them to obtain the restroom you possess always wished for. This sort of specialist can make certain that the location appearance very good and operations well. Trying to replace facilities and knocking down wall surfaces all on your own could be hazardous, and although you may know of methods to accomplish it, it could be time-taking in to attempt it. Using the services of a professional may offer both effects and assurance.
Inspired by: ezinearticles


text:
When Pete Jordan arrives in Amsterdam to study how to make American cities more bicycle-friendly, he immediately falls in love with the city that already lives life on two wheels.
In the City of Bikes follows Pete and his new bride, Amy Joy. Despite their financial hardships and instability, Amy Joy eventually finds her own new calling as a bicycle mechanic as Pete discovers the untold history of cycling in Amsterdam. From its beginnings as an elitist pastime in the 1890s to the street-consuming craze of the 1920s, from the bicycles role in a citywide resistance to the Nazi occupation to the White Bikes of the 1960s and the bike fishermen of today, Jordan chronicles the evolution of Amsterdam's cycling.
Part personal memoir, part history of cycling, part fascinating street-level tour of Amsterdam, In the City of Bikes is the story of a man who loves bikes – in a city that loves bikes (description from publisher)


text:
Gladwyne's Todd Carmichael is on his way to find a good cup of coffee.
His destination: Cambodia. He has already traveled to Ethiopia, Madagascar and Malaysia for java, and Haiti, too, where he encountered a group of thugs. In Bolivia he traversed the 'world's deadliest road' to get his cup of Joe.
Carmichael will apparently go to extremes to find the best coffee bean on the planet. And that's the premise for his new show on the Travel Channel called 'Dangerous Grounds,' which premieres Nov. 5, at 10 p.m.
Carmichael, a tattooed, buff 49-year-old entrepreneur (he is CEO and co-founder of the La Colombe Torrefaction coffee brand and cafes), humanitarian (a major fundraiser for Orangutan Foundation International and the Clinton Global Initiative) and adventurer (he holds the world record for the fastest unsupported trek across Antarctica to the South Pole), did not come up with the idea for the show himself. It was his wife, singer Lauren Hart. He had documented his 700-mile solo trek to the South Pole in 2008 for a film, 'Race to the Bottom of the Earth,' that aired on the National Geographic Channel, so his wife thought a series based on his untiring search for the best strains of coffee, a commodity savored by nearly a billion people worldwide each day, should be produced as well.
'She said, 'You should do the same with coffee, honey," he recalls during a recent interview.
The result is eight one-hour episodes focusing on a different region of the world produced by Main Line-based Nancy Glass Productions. The show is much like a travelogue, in that he talks about the culture of the country he is visiting.
'I try to share everything I can about the country,' he comments.
Carmichael does not want to compare himself to the television-friendly hosts of other Travel Channel shows such as Anthony Bourdain, whose popular 'No Reservations' airs in the 9 p.m. slot before his new show, or the bug- and brain-munching Andrew Zimmern of 'Bizarre Foods.'
'I'm just a coffee guy,' he humbly remarks.
Carmichael admits that he does not meticulously plan his travel routes. The coffee entrepreneur's show is a jolt of unscripted reality, a stranger in a strange land constantly on the move, with peril lurking around each bend in the dirt road, to reach the ultimate reward – that magic bean high on a hill.
He mentions that for some excursions, such as to Brazil or Costa Rica, he took his family members, but for the more rugged, potentially dangerous trips, it was just him and his cameraman.
Many of the locales he visits for the show, originally titled 'Coffee Hunter,' are in remote mountainous areas; he points out that the best coffee beans are grown in dry, high altitudes. 'The higher it is, the better it is,' he explains. He reached Bolivia, for instance, by flying in at 1,300 feet.
Among the most dangerous countries so far has been Haiti. In fact he remembers that 'literally the first 15 minutes of shooting the first episode,' while in a market in Port-au-Prince, a group of about 15 men tried to steal his cash and his camera guy's equipment. They got away by seeking refuge at a nearby police station. He blames the hostilities on the earthquake-ravaged nation's dire economic situation.
It didn't get much easier for Carmichael on his journey to the Haitian mountains as he had to navigate treacherous roads and avoid armed middlemen.
The most welcoming country so far has been Ethiopia, he says, a country of 88 tribes. No stranger to this African land, he remarks that it takes a lifetime to understand its diverse culture.
He particularly relishes interacting with the coffee farmers and other locals. His business practice in general is partnering directly with the farmer, providing the agrarian with a fair-market price and avoiding the middleman.
Despite his close calls with 'machine-gun-toting adversaries' and zip-lining high over jungles, Carmichael has not been injured during production or fallen ill during traveling. 'I'm just immune to everything,' he says his wife tells him. He does say he lost quite a bit of weight while traveling 12 days through the jungles of Borneo.
His search for the rarest coffee beans included an excursion to Malaysia. There he came upon a tall tree-like shrub bearing a large Liberica bean. Only about 2 percent of all coffee is brewed from the Liberica species of coffee bean (Arabica and Robusta being the more common species worldwide).
'It was 25 feet above my head and not really harvestable,' he recalls about the experience.
He did manage to take a bundle of the beans home and sampled the coffee with some of his Philly gourmets like restaurateur Marc Vetri. He says they all enjoyed the bean's flavor profile, which is similar to sour green apple. He admits its peculiar taste may be reserved for coffee geeks rather than for the mass market, but nevertheless 'I think there may be room for it.'
Music for 'Dangerous Grounds' is being composed by his wife, who sings the national anthem at Flyers home games and earlier this year had the honor of performing before a sold-out crowd at the nationally televised Winter Classic hockey match at Citizens Bank Park.
Carmichael explains during his phone interview from Manhattan, where he plans to embark to Cambodia, that it is the monsoon season in the tropical Asian nation, and mudslides may seriously hamper his access to the coffee fields.
But he is undaunted and assures he will proceed with his travel plans.
Carmichael, who makes the Dos Equis beer pitchman – 'the Most Interesting Man in the World' – seem like a couch potato, looks forward to exploring the bean-growing regions of many other exotic countries for the show.
There are many perks to his caffeine-induced swashbuckling lifestyle: he travels the ends of the earth, breaks world records and meets extraordinary people, such as Leonardo DiCaprio, with whom he recently co-developed a coffee blend with all profits to benefit the actor's foundation to fund wildlife protection and climate-change research, among other environmental causes. And now, perhaps the whipped cream on his latte, he is globe-hopping Indiana Jones-style before a national audience.
'It's kind of a dream job with frosting,' he explains.


text:
As a java developer, I write unit tests all the time. There are a lot of ways to do this, but sometimes unit testing becomes difficult. This could be because you need to test a Struts action or you do not want your unit tests to hit your database. So, the question is what tools can you use for testing java web applications? This is not meant as a complete and thorough overview, just some of the tools I know of or have looked into at some time. In many cases, you will find that your testing code is very repetitive, so you may end up building frameworks on top of these frameworks. I am sure I missed something or maybe even your favorite, so just leave me a comment.
Basic Java Testing – JUnit and TestNG are the most popular tools for basic java unit testing. JUnit typically has a small advantage as it has been around longer and is included with most packages of Eclipse. However, I do not think one is really better than the other, they are just different.
Mock Objects – EasyMock and jMock are popular mock objects frameworks. Sometimes you have to simulate the way another system works, and mock objects are perfect for this. You can even create your own mock object, but the frameworks make it easy to avoid extra code.
Database Interaction – DBUnit is really the only decent framework I have seen. It allows you to insert data before the test is run and cleans up after the test is complete. However, capturing the appropriate data for a test is not simple for anything but the most trivial applications.
User Interface Testing – UI testing is notoriously difficult and many applications skip it entirely. If you are testing your generated html, you will want to look at the following tools and determine which best suits your needs. This is a special case, as there is no "one true way" to test the user interface. These are all free tools as I am a fan of keeping things as cheap as possible if the tools are good enough.
- Selenium – Maybe the most complete package of the bunch and supports testing in IE, FireFox and Safari. Your unit tests are written in java, so you just need to learn the API. They also have interesting server options where you can run your tests across servers. You can even record tests using a FireFox add-on.
- Canoo WebTest – This is another framework that can record tests with a FireFox add-on. The tests for WebTest are typically written in xml files. This gives you the option to build a library of fragments of functionality to include in various tests. You can also write your tests in Groovy or use the Java API directly. These can also be run directly from within Ant.
- Watij – This is a port of the popular Ruby testing framework, Watir. The tests are written in Java using their API. They also include BeanShell so that you can interactively test your code. This is a really interesting option if you are not sure what a unit test should look like initially.
- JWebUnit – This is more of a meta-framework, where it can build upon HtmlUnit or Selenium. HtmlUnit is fairly good by itself, but sometimes a framework is just too low-level for some people or people find that they keep doing the same things and decide to build upon the framework. There is one problem with JWebUnit, the documentation is very sparse, so the learning curve ciould be problematic.
- Cactus – This is another meta-framework, but this is from Apache. It is meant as a wrapper for testing an entire application from basic java testing, servlet testing and down to the user interface testing. Due to this meta concept, the documentation can be a bit vague. However, I have heard good things from those people that spent the time to learn more. Disappointingly, I have not had the time to dive into it much.
There are a lot of other tools out there as well. FitNesse is very popular, but it takes a very distinct approach to how unit tests are built. For Struts applications, there is a framework called StrutsTestCase that is immensely helpful as well. For a big list of testing and related software, take a look at XProgramming.com. They list testing frameworks for almost every language. Lastly, it is always a good idea to know how well your software is tested. This is not a question of whether all of your tests pass, but how much of the code is actually tested. My favorite test code coverage tool is Cobertura. It is fairly simple to use and the reports are generated in a similar manner to how JUnit generates reports.
So, if you know of a good free java testing tool, drop me a note in the comments. Sometimes a good tool may not be getting enough publicity or I may not have had time to look at it. In any case, keep testing until you have good test coverage. And remember the testing mantra, "Red, Green, Refactor" 🙂


text:
Chunky Knit Throw in Gray
(12% off)
Why You Need This
This is it. This is that fabulous oversize throw blanket you saw on Pinterest. Oversize yarn is woven to create a stunning texture that is super soft and comfortable. Just imagine getting cozy with this blanket for a night of studying or socializing with friends. And it's a full 50 by 60 inches, so you can stretch out on your dorm bed with it. Arrives folded and wrapped with a ribbon - it's just that special! Measures 50x60. 100% Acrylic. Dry clean or spot clean recommended. Imported.


text:
Alert Notice 717: Flaring of blazar S5 1803+78 continues
August 17, 2020
AAVSO Forum threads (scroll to the bottom of a thread for latest posts):
- High Energy Network (HEN): https://www.aavso.org/observations-blazar-s5-180378-critically-needed
August 17, 2020
AAVSO Forum threads (scroll to the bottom of a thread for latest posts):
- High Energy Network (HEN): https://www.aavso.org/observations-blazar-s5-180378-critically-needed
January 26, 2018: AAVSO member/observer Adolfo Darriba (Madrid, Spain) informs us that Dr. Dave Thompson, Multiwavelength Coordinator for the Large Area Telescope (LAT) of NASA's Fermi Gamma-Ray Telescope, on behalf of the Fermi LAT Collaboration has called for observations of the blazar 3C 279, which is undergoing a major gamma-ray flare.
August 24, 2007: The campaign to monitor blazars as described in AAVSO Alert Notice 353 continues, and observations of any and all of the ten targets are welcomed. The VERITAS telescope is currently in standby while the Arizona monsoon season progresses, but the rainy season typically ends in late August or early September. Please observe these objects now to familiarize yourself with the fields and to establish a recent baseline of behavior for future analysis.
October 30, 2007: The campaign to monitor blazars as described in Alert Notice 353 is ongoing, and the triggering thresholds for VERITAS observations have recently been updated by the PI, Dr. Markus Boettcher.
The blazar 1ES 0120+340 (1ES0120+34, AAVSO Designation 0117+33) has recently been seen just above the new triggering threshold of Rc = 17.0, and observations of this source are requested over the next several weeks. 1ES 0120+340 is located at coordinates
RA: 01:23:08.6 , Dec: +34:20:48 (J2000)
December 1, 2016: The blazar CTA 102 (4C 11.69) has been in an active state in gamma-ray and optical wavelengths since 2015. During 2016, it has had numerous flaring episodes, particularly since late October. It is presently in an unprecedentedly bright optical state, and showing substantially increased emission in gamma-ray and near-infrared wavelengths.
September 2, 2015: AAVSO observer Adolfo Darriba Martinez y Oscar Ortuño (DAM, Observatorio Las Casqueras, Madrid, Spain) reports that the blazar S5 1803+78 has brightened significantly.
S5 1803+78, which is magnitude 16-17 V at minimum, is currently magnitude 14.237 V (LPAB, P. Lampens-Vancauteren (Ukkel, Belgium).
Previous outbursts are recorded in the AAVSO International Database in November 2007, February 2012, and September 2014.
January 19, 2015: The blazar PKS 0716+71 == S5 0716+71 is currently in a very bright active state, at a visual magnitude of 12.1 as observed by G. Poyner on 2015 January 19.212 (JD 2457041.712). The object was first noted in outburst by Arkharov et al.
February 9, 2010: The blazar 3C 66A has been steadily brightening in the optical for the past few hundred days, and is now at or near the bright limits of the AAVSO records for this object. The most recent observations put 3C 66A near V=13.9: m(vis)=13.8, JD 2455234.361 (2010 Feb 06.861; G. Poyner, Birmingham, England); m(V)=13.88, JD 2455235.566 (Feb 08.066; R. Campbell, Largo, Florida, USA); m(V)=13.90, JD 2455235.740 (Feb 08.240; R. Campbell).
25 Birch Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
INTERNET: email@example.com
Tel. 617-354-0484 FAX 617-354-0665
AAVSO ALERT NOTICE 237 (February 19, 1997)
Campaign was updated in Special Notice #62 and Special Notice #77.


text:
Jan. 22, 2008 — -- "All things in moderation" is a wise motto for all of us, but especially for those who suffer from painful migraines.
These skull-crushing headaches can be debilitating and last for days, confining a person to a soft bed in a darkened room.
"It's a pretty disabling headache," said Dr. Lawrence Newman, director of the Headache Institute at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York. "It has an effect on your kids, co-workers, family and friends. They all suffer."
Many doctors believe migraines are the products of a genetic disorder that makes one person's brain more sensitive to certain stressors that other people would barely notice — like missing a meal or a rainy day. More than 26 million Americans suffer from the neurologic disorder, according to the American Medical Association
But recognizing migraine triggers can help ward off a painful migraine headache, and doctors recommend keeping a detailed diary of what foods, events or activities trigger a migraine. These triggers are different for everyone, Newman said, but there are also some classic ones to look out for, including diet, weather or sleeping patterns. All of these triggers can disrupt normal serotonin levels in the brain, which serve the purpose of stopping a migraine before it starts.
Migraines can be treated, and some of the newer drugs, like triptan, which stabilize serotonin levels in the brain, have been shown to decrease the pain and sensitivity associated with migraines.
Overall, any change to the body's status quo is the largest factor in triggering migraines. The best way to combat these changes is to stick to a routine that includes plenty of sleep, moderate exercise, a healthy diet and time to relax.
"Migraine people don't like change, they like sameness," said Dr. Joel Saper, founder and director of the Michigan Headache and Neurological Institute. "Any change of the norm, any stress to your system, and your body will produce a headache."
On the following pages, you will find some of the more common aspects of your life that contribute to migraines — and how you might be able to lessen the frequency of these crushing headaches.
The biological events that precede orgasm can bring on migrainelike headaches, Saper said. Increase blood flow through dilated vessels, tensed neck and body muscles, heavy breathing and changes in serotonin levels in the brain can all trigger a migraine.
Such headaches may even occur after running, lifting weights or other kinds of physical exertion and exercise.
"If people got active, jumping around and all that other stuff," the result could be a migraine, Saper said.
This problem is actually more severe for men than for women, according to Dr. Steven Silberstein, director of the Jefferson Headache Center in Philadelphia, and past president of the American Headache Society. An orgasm may ease a painful headache for some women, while it may bring on a migraine in a man.
"One of the best-known triggers [for migraines] is menstruation," Silberstein said.
This is because hormone levels in women's bodies fluctuate dramatically during this time. Changes in the levels of two hormones in particular — estrogen and progesterone — can bring on migraines.
These hormones also change during pregnancy, and postpartum women can be especially prone to having migraines due to rapidly falling levels of estrogen.
"Estrogen stabilizes the brain from pain," Silberstein said. During pregnancy a woman may not experience headaches. "Postpartum the levels fall, and you get headaches again," he said.
Perhaps the phrase "'tis an ill wind that blows no good" originated because storms can literally make some people sick.
No one knows why some people react more strongly to weather changes than others, but changes in air pressure, such as before a heavy rain or snow, can trigger migraines.
Seventy percent of migraine sufferers experience migraines during changes in air pressure systems, according to Newman. This includes changes in altitude and traveling between humid and dry climates.
It may not be that "early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." Rather, it may be that sticking to a consistent sleeping schedule is what is worth striving for.
Getting too little or too much sleep disrupts normal bodily rhythms and can trigger a migraine. Sleeping irregular hours can also interfere with normal eating patterns, causing blood sugar levels to rise and dip when they should not.
Going to bed and waking up at the same time every day, even weekends, is critical. After a late night out, doctors recommend waking up at your normal hour, eating breakfast and taking a nap later in the day.
What you eat — or don't eat — can have a profound effect on how you feel. Additionally, there are a host of chemicals in food, both natural and added, that can trigger migraines. Sensitivity to these ingredients can vary widely from person to person.
Saper recalled one patient who reported terrible headaches each morning and was totally baffled by the cause. Eventually, the patient figured out that the glass of milk he drank each night before bed was the reason behind the migraines.
Other, more common dietary triggers include monosodium glutamates (MSGs), chemicals used to add flavor to food; nitrates, used to preserve and add color to meats like bacon and hot dogs; and tyramines found in aged cheeses and red wine. Even chocolate and oranges, foods otherwise known for their antioxidant properties, contain chemicals that can trigger a migraine.
Red wine is a particularly well-documented trigger, as they are known to bring about migraines in many people.
People who suffer from migraines are known to be very sensitive to sensory stimuli, particularly bright lights and loud noises. Bright, fluorescent or flickering lights can be very painful to someone with a migraine.
Some times, in these cases, staying in bed is the only thing that feels comfortable.
In fact, this has been a contentious issue among migraine sufferers who prefer gentler, incandescent light bulbs, due to the recent push to use environmentally friendly fluorescent lighting.
Stress seems like the cause for many diseases, but it can be particularly injurious to migraine sufferers.
"Migraineurs don't have any more stress than anybody else. They just can't handle it as well," Silberstein said.
In addition to tension, the letdown period after a period of stress can bring on a migraine because of the quick shift to a new, less intense physical and mental gear.
For example, Newman said that when someone prone to migraines finishes a large project at work and submits it, "wham, they get a headache."
Silberstein advised taking some quiet time out of each day for yourself.
"Meditate, pray, whatever, but give yourself some time every day to just relax."


text:
Industrial parks in Bangkok are being threatened after residents in Bangkok's northeast demolish government-built levies to release the stagnant, garbage-ridden water that was building up in their neighbourhoods, writes the Wall Street Journal.
Flooded roads are preventing garbage collectors getting to many areas—raising fears over the risk of disease and over the blockage of drains, which is impeding the flow of water into the sea. Bangkok produces about 8,700 tons of rubbish a day—roughly a quarter of Thailand's total. Added to that figure is the additional trash flowing into the city from northern provinces.
Now trash-strewn water is encircling the Bang Chan and Lat Krabang industrial estates where multinationals like Unilever, Nestle and Honda are operating. Several key industrial parks are already flooded, severely disrupting the supply of auto parts and computer components.
City governor, Sukhumbhand Paribatra, has ordered the municipal refuse collectors to work around the clock in their trucks and boats in an attempt to to prevent a bigger disaster, while teams of street sweepers scour the city to keep debris from clogging vital drains.
Concerns about disease spreading are also growing, CNN reports.
The country's Ministry of Public Heath has distributed 20,700 test kits for leptospirosis, a severe bacterial infection that can affect areas where water has been stagnant for more than three weeks.
MOPH reported that up until November 7, more than 1.3 million people had become sick in provinces affected by the floods, of which athlete's foot accounted for almost 70% of cases.
A group of young Thai animators has created a cartoon series called RooSuFlood to simplify flood information and help people prepare.
Episode four of the RooSuFlood series includes some water and sanitation-related health messages.
Source: James Hookway, Wall Street Journal, 08 Nov 2011 ; CNN,
09 Nov 2011 ; Daniel Schearf, VOA, 08 Nov 2011


text:
So many home cooks are obsessed with making dishes just like the professionals do. They buy hand-forged Japanese chefs knives, seek out $50 bottles of olive oil and spend hours preparing elaborately composed dishes from "The French Laundry Cookbook" or "Eleven Madison Park."
But a lot of them have never even heard of one of the most basic techniques of cooking, one that requires no special equipment or expensive ingredients. In fact, you can probably do it in just a few minutes with what you have in your kitchen right now.
It"s called glazing vegetables, and it"s as fundamental to a cook"s repertoire as roasting a chicken.
In fact, it may be more so. Learn to roast a chicken and you can probably extrapolate that knowledge to, well, roasting a turkey. But glazing works for all sorts of vegetables, and particularly now, when we"re enjoying the full flush of the spring harvest, it"s something you ought to master.
Here"s how you do it:
Cut the vegetables into equal-sized pieces, so they cook at the same pace. Place them in a skillet just big enough to hold them, one that has a securely fitting lid.
Add just enough water to cover the bottom of the pan (roughly ½ cup — very dense vegetables will take a little more; soft vegetables will take a little less). Add a little bit of fat: a thumb-sized knob of butter or a couple of glugs of olive oil. If you have seasonings that need to be cooked — minced onions, shallots or garlic — add them too.
Place the pan over medium heat, cover tightly and cook. Stir every couple of minutes, checking to see when the vegetables are becoming tender. If the water gets low too quickly, add a splash — just 2 or 3 tablespoons.
Just when a paring knife penetrates easily, remove the lid and turn the heat up to high. Cook, tossing and stirring fairly constantly, until the liquid is gone and the vegetables are shiny and just beginning to brown; it"ll take only a couple of minutes.
Add the final seasonings — a sprinkle of salt, chopped herbs or spices, and a splash of acidity from a squeeze of citrus or a spoonful of vinegar — and serve.
Seriously, that"s all there is to it.
Here"s why it"s so great: As the vegetables cook under cover, they release moisture of their own (most vegetables are more than 90 percent water). When you uncover the pan and turn up the heat, the water evaporates and the flavor essences left behind mix with the fat to coat the vegetables with a delicious glaze.
At one time, I insisted on calling this "braising" because it is very similar to what happens when you stew a piece of meat. That little bit of added liquid serves to soften the cellulose structure of the vegetable, releasing the juices inside, which are then reduced to a sauce. In the case of vegetables, it"s just done backward; you soften with liquid first, then brown at the end.
But at this point I"m willing to reconsider. Partly it"s a bow to the wisdom of my betters. If Thomas Keller says it"s "glazing," not "braising," who am I to argue? Mainly, though, "glazing" just sounds prettier. No doubt that"s at least partly the result of decades of drably colored and dully flavored overcooked stewed vegetables. That association is not at all appropriate for these sparkling gems.
Glazing doesn"t work with all vegetables. They need to be firm enough so they won"t fall apart during cooking. But for the ones it does work for, it"s almost infinitely flexible. Master this one technique and you have learned dozens of "recipes."
The only thing it requires is a certain amount of minding — getting the vegetables perfectly done (cooked through but not mushy) requires paying attention. But that"s one professional skill that every home cook needs to acquire.
Glazed veggie ideas
Glazing vegetables is so simple it doesn"t really require a recipe. But here are some ideas for flavor combinations that you can explore. Remember, this technique is incredibly flexible, so these are just a few of the many possibilities.
· Artichokes: Glaze with olive oil and garlic; finish with lemon juice, parsley and pine nuts.
· Carrots: Glaze with butter, serrano chile and shallots; finish with orange juice and mint.
· Celery root: Glaze with butter and shallots; finish with lemon juice and celery leaves.
· Fennel: Glaze with butter and garlic; finish with Parmigiano-Reggiano, lemon juice and fronds.
· Parsnips: Glaze with butter, honey and shallots; finish with white wine vinegar and cinnamon.
· Pearl onions: Glaze with rendered bacon fat and shallots; finish with crumbled bacon, red wine or balsamic vinegar, and rosemary.
· Turnips and rutabagas: Glaze with butter and shallots; finish with sherry vinegar and chopped walnuts.
· Zucchini: Glaze with olive oil and garlic; finish with lemon juice and basil.


text:
Skip to main content
Main navigation
What We Do
Policy & Research
Our Issues
Economic Justice
Sort by
Relevance Asc
Sort Date Asc
Sort Date Desc
Search Demos.org
Sort by
Relevance Asc
Sort Date Asc
Sort Date Desc
Filter by Type
In the media
Policy Briefs
Press release
Testimony and Public Comment
Filter by Issue Area
Climate Equity
Debt-Free College
Economic Justice
Good Jobs and Worker Power
Money in Politics
Racial Wealth Gap
Regulation & Financial Reform
Revenue, Taxes and Budget
Voting Rights & Access
1 - 20
Sort by
Most Recent
The Debt-Free College Act of 2018
The Debt-Free College Act of 2018 would create a new federal-state partnership that re-funds our neglected system of public colleges and job training.
Policy Briefs
March 22, 2018
Mark Huelsman
Vijay Das
Addressing the Top Misconceptions about Debt-Free College
As with any big reform, the push for debt-free college has been met with pushback among a skeptical elite. We have answers for their major concerns.
Policy Briefs
September 28, 2016
Mark Huelsman
Don't Let Government Contractors Cheat Working Americans
Why President Obama's Fair Pay and Safe Workplace Executive Order must be implemented under the new administration.
Policy Briefs
December 5, 2016
Amy Traub
10 Ways Citizens United Endangers Democracy
The Supreme Court got it supremely wrong when it held that corporations had the same rights as people to spend money in elections.
Policy Briefs
January 19, 2012
Liz Kennedy
Millions to the Middle
14 Big Ideas to Build a Strong & Diverse Middle Class
Policy Briefs
August 10, 2012
David Callahan
Tamara Draut
Federal Reserve Mandate For Full Employment
Support for Growth, Job Creation, and Career Development
Policy Briefs
September 4, 2012
Amy Traub
Tamara Draut
David Callahan
Why We Need To Restore The American Dream For The 99%
On Tuesday, December 13th, the Congressional Progressive Caucus unveiled the RESTORE the American Dream for the 99% Act. The bill, if passed, would create more than 5 million jobs and save more than $2 trillion. This is a comprehensive plan to put America back to work by reversing the failed policies of the past, which the "Super Committee" could not achieve.
Policy Briefs
December 13, 2011
The American Family Trust
Provide 12 weeks of paid benefits to employees who need time off work to care for a new child, a sick family member, or their own illness. The self-financing trust is funded by premiums paid equally by employers and employees.
Policy Briefs
September 4, 2012
Amy Traub
Tamara Draut
David Callahan
Strengthen The Right Of Working People To Organize
Unions were instrumental in creating the American middle class, and today they continue to empower millions of Americans to bargain for wages and benefits that are capable of sustaining a middle-class standard of living.
Policy Briefs
September 4, 2012
Amy Traub
Tamara Draut
David Callahan
Beyond the Debt-For-Diploma System
10 Ways Student Debt Is Blocking the Economic Mobility of Young Americans
Policy Briefs
April 25, 2012
Jack Temple
Heather C. McGhee
Tamara Draut
Designing Public Financing Systems to Advance Equity and Independent Political Power
Public financing of elections, as a state and local democracy reform, can help enhance the political voice and power of working-class people and people of color. It is an effective antidote to the outsized influence corporations and major donors currently have on both politics and policy.
Policy Briefs
February 5, 2016
The Racial Equity Impact of Secret Political Spending by Government Contractors
Why we need an executive order requiring government contractors to disclose their political spending.
Policy Briefs
September 2, 2015
Naila Awan
Liz Kennedy
Election Spending 2012: Post-Election Analysis of Federal Election Commission Data
In 2012, just 61 large donors to Super PACs giving an average of $4.7 million each matched the $285.2 million in grassroots contributions from more than 1,425,500 small donors to the major party presidential candidates.
Policy Briefs
November 9, 2012
Adam Lioz
Blair Bowie
Election Spending 2012: A Pre-Election Analysis of Federal Election Commission Data
Outside spending organizations reported $1.11 billion in spending to the FEC through the final reporting deadline in the 2012 cycle. That's already a 200% increase over total 2008 outside spending.
Policy Briefs
November 2, 2012
Adam Lioz
Blair Bowie
Citizens Actually United: The Bi-Partisan Opposition to Corporate Political Spending And Support for Common Sense Reform
Americans of all political backgrounds agree: there is way too much corporate money in politics.
Policy Briefs
October 25, 2012
Liz Kennedy
Analysis of Supreme Court Decision in Randall v. Sorrell
This memo outlines how the Justices lined up on the issues in
Randall v. Sorrell
, provides some analysis of the opinions, and touches on the implications for future reform efforts.
Policy Briefs
July 5, 2006
Brenda Wright
Frequently Asked Questions About Credit Reporting in the U.S.
Answers to 8 frequently asked questions.
Policy Briefs
June 21, 2011
Amy Traub
Worth Working For
Strategies For Turning Bad Jobs Into Quality Employment
Policy Briefs
October 11, 2011
Ben Peck
Amy Traub
The Contract for College
The Contract for College would unify the existing three strands of federal financial aid — grants, loans and work-study — into a coherent, guaranteed financial aid package for students.
Policy Briefs
February 24, 2009
Caleb Gibson
Viany Orozco
Subpriming Our Students: Why We Need a Strong Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
America's students are facing a serious threat from subprime private loans, and the situation could worsen unless Congress votes to close a potential loophole in the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency.
Policy Briefs
December 2, 2009
Current page
Next page
Last page
Footer nav
Board of Trustees
Privacy Policy
Reprint Permissions
Support Us
Financial Information
Join Our Email List
Contact Us
General Inquiries
Media Inquiries
Request a Demos Speaker
Footer social links
© 2023 Demos


text:
One confidant of Steve Nash doubts the star point guard will truly give the Knicks any consideration even if they have their $5 millon mid-level exception, despite his remarks at a promotional appearance with Walt Frazier yesterday.
Frazier joked at the Samsung event, "We need you to come to New York.''
When asked later, Nash told ESPN, "The Knicks are a great franchise and I live in New York City [in the summer], so I'd definitely consider them if they were interested."
The confidant said Nash doesn't really believe the Knicks are close enough to a title to take less money and didn't like how former coach Mike D'Antoni, his buddy from Phoenix, was treated. Nash will get offers for more than $5 million, especially from Phoenix.
The Knicks won't even be in the game for Nash if the union loses Jeremy Lin's Bird Rights arbitration case.
If the union wins, the Knicks can sign Lin with the Bird exception, then wield the $5 million exception for a veteran point guard to join Lin.
If they sign Lin for the mid-level in a union loss, the Knicks would only be able to offer Nash the lower exception of $1.9 million.


text:
Saïd Sayrafiezadeh in Conversation with Sam Lipsyte
PEN Member Saïd Sayrafiezadeh reads from his new collection of short stories, Brief Encounters with the Enemy, followed by a Q&A with fellow PEN Member Sam Lipsyte. More
Join PEN America Today
Defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture.
Get updates on events, literary awards, free expression issues, and global news.
Alert Us
PEN America On
Outstanding piece by @andreacgore, Vacek Chair in pharmacology/professor of psychology at UT-Austin, defending faculty tenure against SB 18. She argues that immunotherapy would not exist if UT-Austin had not given tenure to its discoverer. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/university-texas-andrea-gore-professor-tenure-17816783.php
What does academic freedom mean now, and how might it change?
Here's our whole Future Trends Forum conversation with @ACEducation and @PENamerica researchers:
HT @roxannriskin
#RIP John Woods, Masterly Translator of Thomas Mann, Dies at 80
Woods was the recipient of two PEN America Translation awards, in 1981 and 1987


text:
A huge thank you to Amanda's Nose in a Book and AlenasLife for nominating me for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award! This is my second award and I'm really excited to receive it. I mean, really, look how awesome that award image is!
I'm touched and I'll be adding this to my blog awards list very soon. If you haven't seen Amanda's blog yet, please go check it out. She's a fellow reader/writer who's ventured into booktube! I'm very intimidated by cameras and have the utmost respect for her because of this. Alena and I have connected more recently through the WWW meme due to our similar interests. She blogs about books, love, and life!
The rules for the award are quite simple:
- Thank and link the amazing person who nominated you.
- List the rules and display the award.
- Share seven facts about yourself.
- Nominate 15 other amazing blogs and comment on their posts to let them know they have been nominated.
- Optional: Proudly display the award logo on your blog and follow the blogger who nominated you.
# 1 and #2= Done!
Seven facts about me!
- I completed a triathlon in May. It was the first one I've done since I was 15 (9 years ago) and even though my knees started killing me, I finished in under 2 hours. I'm going to do another one in September and my goal is to drop time.
- I will be moving soon! Not far, but to a nicer apartment and a bit closer to work. My husband got a job (HUGE CELEBRATION) so we can afford a bigger place. We're looking and it's wonderful to dream when I know it will soon be a reality.
- I had hip surgery when I was 20. I tore the cartilage inside the hip-joint because of a bone spur and had it sewn up. I'm considered 100% recovered.
- I've finished two manuscripts and am working on a third. My first one is my baby and I'm determined to see that one traditionally published, even if the others never are. It's very dear to me.
- My mom got me my current job. Call it nepotism or networking, but it's true. I've kept it from my skill, but she got me the interview and I took it from there. Now I go to the company functions as an employee instead of family.
- I'm at the library as I write this. Are you jealous?
- I'm lactose intolerant but love cheese. It's terrible.
Fifteen nominations are a lot! Here's the ones I can provide:
- Jen's Pen Den: I started following Jen recently and I love her GIFs for humor and the messages she sends out.
- Living on Borrowed Days: Claudia and I connected through my Read-Along and it's been great to follow her blog and get to know her.
- Lovely Literature: Anne and Ashley have two different styles and always contribute equally to their Top Ten Tuesday meme and I love seeing the different opinions.
- Wrote Some Things: Yet again, I'll nominate my friends. Katherine is a very talented writer and will soon be pursuing her MFA so I'm curious to see where this blog will go!
- Bitches With Books: Another tag-team blog where I enjoy the voices of both writers. Claire is studying at Oxford and shares her experiences.
- Heart of Sultana: Another friend of mine! Sultana blogs about books, fashion, and her battle with Thyroid Cancer.
- Cooking with the book club: Do I need to elaborate why food and books are a great combination?
- Blogs-Of-A-Bookaholic.: A fellow book-blogger with similar tastes and a love for good quotes.
- Jodie Llewellyn: Jodie is a fellow aspiring YA writer who share her troubles and motivations. It's good to know there are more of us out there struggling!
- Scribbles & Wanderlust: It's good to find a book blogger with similar tastes who can point me in the direction of some good books!
- Life {Faith} Tea: Ashlee and I met during NaNoWriMo and connected again through my Read-Along. I adore her blogging about books, life, and God.
- Book Rhapsody: Someone who loves his book club as much as I love mine!
- Shannon A Thompson: Shannon is a YA author who connects with readers through a ton of interaction on her blog. I love hearing about her story.
- Out Where the Buses Don't Run: Gus is one of the first blogs I followed and I've been rewarded by winning a giveaway and getting to read his posts as he works through his first novel.
Yes, I know that's fourteen. I can't pick someone to fill the final spot, so I'll stop while I'm ahead. Thank you again to Amanda and Alena for the nominations, I'm very honored.
Until next time, write on.
You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I'm available via email at email@example.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!


text:
Freedom New Mexico
ABILENE, Texas — Eastern New Mexico University's second trip to the Lone Star Conference postseason women's soccer tournament was as short as the first.
West Texas A&M's Leslie Briggs aimed a corner kick at the goalpost and the ball slipped off the hands of ENMU senior goalkeeper Sierra Cardenas and into the net in the 78th minute, enough to give the sixth-seeded Lady Buffs a 1-0 victory over the third-seeded Zias in a quarterfinal matchup.
WT (9-9-1) plays an 11 a.m. (MDT) semifinal today against second-seeded Midwestern State (11-5-1), which had a first-round bye.
In its only previous trip to the tournament, ENMU lost to Texas A&M-Commerce 4-1 in 2006 at Edmond, Okla.
Statistically, the contest was relatively even. WT had a 20-14 edge in shots, including 10-9 on goal, while the Zias (8-8-3) notched a 6-4 advantage in corner kicks.
In Thursday's other matchup, fourth-seeded Texas A&M-Commerce advanced to a 1:30 p.m. (MDT) semifinal today against top-seeded Abilene Christian, winning a shootout from No. 5 Angelo State 4-3 after the teams played to a 1-1 tie through two overtimes.
The championship match is set for 11 a.m. (MST) on Sunday.
In all-conference awards announced at a pretournament banquet on Wednesday, ENMU landed junior defender Emily Simon on the first team, junior midfielder Andrea Elizondo on the second team and Cardenas on honorable mention.


text:
Monday, June 27, 2022
2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Let's Talk- mental health consultations with a CAPS clinician are virtual (by audio or video). Any member of the UH community can access Let's Talk by entering the zoom waiting room during the hours listed. Zoom meeting room: 91244361097
The last person will be seen 15 minutes before the end of the hour. If we are busy, you may not be seen during this time. Know that you can call CAPS if you need immediate assistance at 713-743-5454.
- Location
- Virtual
- Contact
- https://uh.edu/caps/outreach/lets-talk/


text:
The federal government is better at creating low-paying jobs than Wal-Mart and McDonald's combined, according to a new report.
A study released earlier this month from the public policy group Demos states that through various forms of government funding in the private sector, nearly two million people are making $12 an hour or less. The number of workers at Wal-Mart and McDonald's together at $12 an hour or less is currently around 1.5 million, according to the report.
"The sheer number of those workers making so little is surprising," said Amy Traub, a senior policy analyst at Demos and co-author of the study.
"We assume people working on behalf of America would be making more, but that's not the case," Traub said. "And many of these people are making less than $12 an hour."
The report says that when tax dollars underwrite bad jobs, the economy as a whole is weakened.
"People at these levels of income have to go on food stamps or other forms of government assistance and this just compounds the problem," Traub argued. "They're not making a living wage and the economy suffers."


text:
FORT COLLINS, Colo.—Larimer County sheriff's officials say a Livermore man has been cited with 20 counts of animal cruelty over accusations that his horses didn't have water.
Officials seized 20 horses Thursday and cited 57-year-old Carl Preyss with the misdemeanor counts. He declined to comment on the record Friday.
Sheriff's officials contend several of the seized horses appeared underfed and there allegedly was no water available for the herd.


text:
American Mistakes in Afghanistan and IraqNews Abroad
A little more than a year after Barack Obama succeeded George W Bush as president, United States military hardware and troops are transferring to the Afghan theater in yet another attempt to control the insurgency. Despite the 'surge' that General Stanley McChrystal asked for and President Obama approved after weeks of reflection, militants on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border continue to defy American power. High-profile military operations against the Taliban in Helmand, and more recently in Kandahar, illustrate both abilities and limitations of a superpower. This is not new. The Soviet occupation forces went through a similar experience during their occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. Like the Soviets, the Americans are increasingly finding that it is possible to wrest control of specific areas, but only as long as their troops are in occupation of those areas. As they move on for other operations, the insurgents make a comeback.
There are similarities between the recent American surge approved by President Obama and the increase in the Soviet occupation forces in Afghanistan after Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the USSR in 1985. Early on, Gorbachev had decided to bring his troops home following a costly war in Afghanistan. But he also ordered reinforcements similar in size to the American surge now. Ostensibly, it was to give the Soviet armed forces one last chance to win the Afghan war, but more realistically because the Soviet Union needed to reinforce before a planned withdrawal. Troops being withdrawn have to partially disarm. The heavy equipment to be transported cannot be operational at the same time. Soldiers moving out carry light arms for self-defense, not heavy lethal weapons for attack. At the same time, the surge of more mobile units is intended to warn the enemy of more trouble coming.
President Obama has already announced that American troops will begin to leave Afghanistan by the middle of 2011. My recent visit to South Asia reinforced this impression. Obama is smart enough to know history and its lessons. He has disappointed many of his liberal supporters who had expected much more from him. But there is not much doubt that he would like to withdraw from Afghanistan. Re-election in 2012 would depend on it to a considerable degree, along with the economy. The wreckage of military ventures abroad and economic collapse at home left by the preceding administration must be prominent on Obama's mind. What Obama will achieve is by no means certain. But there are lessons to be learned from the past.
The presidency of George W. Bush was rooted in a manifesto we know as the Project for the New American Century. The project was born in reaction to the Clinton presidency in the post-Cold War decade of the 1990s. The alliance of neoconservatives and the Christian Right provided George W Bush with core support. Above all, the Bush presidency will be remembered for America's foreign military ventures in the shape of three wars: the Afghan war, the Iraq war, and a third war, borderless and timeless – the "global war on terror."
The events of 9/11 posed an unprecedented security challenge. The most important questions in Washington at the time should have been: Where to start and where to stop? What should be the scale and proportion of America's response? However, such considerations were absent as the talk of a "long war" or "generational war" illustrated, certainly in the first term of President Bush.
The record of great powers fighting long or generational wars against insurgents is not good. The United States learned this in Vietnam. The Soviet Union did so in Afghanistan. A long war suits insurgent forces deeply embedded in the locale and culture of the theater. They enjoy considerable support in the battleground. Denial of this reality is often fatal. A United States president has numerous issues to deal with. But the overwhelming weight of events of the last decade leads to the conclusion that the Bush presidency was all about war. The foreign ventures he embarked on within months of inauguration eclipsed everything else during his presidency. It is therefore appropriate to evaluate the Bush presidency's legacy in terms of the "war on terrorism."
The objective of the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 was regime change. There has been a long debate about the true objective of the March 2003 invasion of Iraq: weapons of mass destruction or regime change. Time and events seem to have settled that debate. It was claimed that Saddam Hussein had chemical and biological weapons that could be activated within 45 minutes. Such weapons were not found. A lot more about the considerations and deliberations between Washington and London, and in each capital, has come to light. We know more about the private communication between President Bush and the British Prime Minister Tony Blair in the run up to the Iraq invasion – communication that other significant figures who should have been made aware of did not know. And we have learned from Tony Blair that even with knowledge of there being no weapons of mass destruction, he would have employed other arguments to remove Saddam Hussein.
Much has been said about mistakes being made in Afghanistan and, more specifically, Iraq. The biggest error of judgment was that two very different countries were given the same treatment of military power. In doing so, the interveners appeared to act with vengeance more than a planned strategy. Otherwise, why would Afghanistan – an utterly failed state – be subjected to sustained destructive air power and left without a serious attempt at rebuilding for so long? And the primary intervener moved on to Iraq to dismantle a well-organized state structure, after the dictator had been overthrown. By treating Afghanistan and Iraq in the same way, the interveners did the opposite of what was needed in each country.
To view al Qaeda and the various nationalist movements in the Arab world as one "enemy" in the "war on terror" was an historic miscalculation. The determination under the Bush presidency to crush nationalism in the Muslim world exacted a high price from the West. But countries in the region paid, and continue to pay, a price even greater. Al Qaeda's terrorist violence has been answered by the terror of American military power. Differing agendas of regional powers became fused with America's aims in the "war on terror." The impact was huge across the region, producing anger, resentment and outright rebellion in the wider populace.
In a country without national infrastructure, or where infrastructure is destroyed, there will be certain consequences. The essence of the state's role is maintaining order. It does so by means of coercion, taxation and distribution. In a country such as Afghanistan, self, family, clan, tribe and ethnic group acquire much greater significance. In a failed or weak state, other agencies – a village elder, tribal chief or warlord – replace the state. They command popular following, because they make things happen.
In Iraq, two early decisions by the American administrator Paul Bremer after the 2003 invasion triggered a multi-layered conflict. By Order Number 1 of May 16, Bremer dissolved the Ba'ath Party. In an article in Le Monde diplomatique, the British academic Toby Dodge described the Iraqi population a month after the arrival of the U.S. forces as dominated by a Hobbesian nightmare. Dodge estimated that between 20,000 and 120,000 senior and middle-ranking Iraqi officials lost their jobs in the civil service purge alone. They would have constituted the very force capable of restoring order amid chaos and violence. Dodge wrote that seventeen of Baghdad's twenty-three ministries were completely gutted, stripped of all portable items like computers, furniture and fittings – all within three weeks. There were not enough American troops to stop it.
Bremer's Order Number 2 dismantled the most important state institutions and subordinates such as government ministries, Iraqi military and paramilitary organizations, the National Assembly, courts and emergency forces. It was essential to be prepared with alternatives to take over the functions of these organizations in a country of 30 million people. Bremer's two edicts left a vacuum that was rapidly filled by new violent players.
I want to offer a brief explanation of the nature of the other conflict – the Afghan war – since the 1970s. It also applies, to an extent, to Iraq. Afghanistan has striking parallels with other conflicts in Palestine, Yemen and elsewhere. These conflicts can be seen in four separate yet overlapping, often simultaneous stages. This is how:
Stage 1: internal conflict. In Afghanistan, internal conflict is a fact of history. For simplicity, let's begin from the "decade of liberalism and modernization" in the 1960s. The conflict escalated after the overthrow of the monarchy in 1973 – and again after the 1978 coup by young Soviet-oriented military officers, who feared that President Daud was taking the country too close to the United States.
Stage 2: increase in great power involvement. External intervention fuels the unrest, and upsets the balance of forces locally. This, in turn, attracts more external forces, until they begin to dictate the scale and course of events. But their unacceptability among local players, and active resistance by local groups, hinder the creation and functioning of institutions.
Stage 3: state disintegration. In Afghanistan, the death of the state was slow, taking more than two decades. In Iraq, too, considering the effects of sanctions and isolation, we are talking about more than a decade. After Saddam Hussein's overthrow, the final blow came relatively quickly.
Stage 4: foreign indifference and rise of extremism. I have in mind the decade of the 1990s and the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Soviet state had been defeated and had disintegrated. For the United States, exhausted and occupied with the urgency to manage the wreckage of the Soviet Union, most importantly its nuclear arsenal, Afghanistan was simply not a priority.
There is a general lesson to be learned. A prolonged war leads to fatigue and indifference among external interveners. A culture of violence matures. Expectations on all sides are altered and violence becomes a way of life. Actors left behind acquire a habit of using coercion. And citizens come to expect solutions to be found through violence. That few intervening powers grasp this lesson is a tragedy.
We have at present a mix of the McChrystal plan of military surge and counterinsurgency and President Obama's wish to start drawing down the combat forces in mid-2011. His wish is driven by the 2012 presidential election in America. And it is dependent upon recruitment, training and ultimately guaranteed discipline of a 300,000-strong Afghan national force.
However, history shows that integrity in the Afghan armed forces is difficult to achieve. Tribal realities among Pashtun officers and rank-and-file soldiers – and distrust for Pashtuns among non-Pashtuns – cannot be wished away. It would require a generation to transform the culture of the armed forces and the country even if the United States and the allies had the will. In the absence of that will, I have some fears. They are:
- As soon as President Obama begins to draw down the combat forces in mid-2011 (or soon before), altering the balance of power, dramatic shifts of loyalties will occur in the Afghan armed forces. This has happened before and could happen again.
- The Karzai government cannot survive if the military disintegrates along tribal and ethnic lines. The Afghan armed forces and police lack cohesion already.
- Afghanistan has weapons in abundance. Guns poured into the country, with the best possible intention of equipping the military, would fall into the wrong hands. And I am not even talking about increased activity by Pakistan's ISI and other regional players.
All of these are ingredients of a state of nature again.
The answer is a long-term regional project, led but not dictated by the United States, involving Iran, Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, China and India; and a deliberate policy of demilitarization, however difficult and painful. Internally, a type of tribal democracy, certainly outside Kabul and the other main cities, is what is realistic to hope for.
But the current state of America's relations with China, Iran and Russia do not favor such a prospect. Tensions have grown with Pakistan and Turkey. And I know there is uncertainty, if not outright unhappiness, over the Obama administration's policies elsewhere in the region. This makes cooperation much more difficult. The current strategy in Afghanistan lays too much emphasis on military tactics. And it does not appreciate nearly enough how objectionable, how provocative, foreign military presence is to Afghans. The sentiment goes beyond the Taliban.
Related Links
comments powered by Disqus
- A Secret Joke Clouds Harvard's Affirmative Action Case
- An Amateur Historian Helped Find Richard III's Remains Under a Parking Garage. Her Story Hits the Screen
- Why LAUSD Teachers Walked Out
- The Role of US Evangelicals in Radicalizing Ugandans Against LGBTQ Rights
- Culture Warrior Chris Rufo is DeSantis's Most Important Ally
- The PR War for Cancer Awareness has Reduced the Stigma, but not the Cost, of Illness
- The Jim Crow Reign of Terror
- Francesca Morgan Dissects the American Obsession with Genealogy
- Florida Legislation Recalls the Tragic History behind Fights for Sex Education
- Kate Strasdin Breaks Down Authenticity on Bridgerton and other Costume Dramas


text:
Rich hand-mixed matte white porcelain to ensure perfection. The inside is coated in real brass for a unique and modern look. The texture of the clay is a beautifully unassuming exploration of material contrast against the smooth cool metal. The handmade nature makes each piece absolutely one-of-a-kind.
Light from porcelain pendants cast cleanly and wide, just like any other light due to the placement of the socket.
4" H x 5" D shade handmade in the USA.
This piece requires 56 steps to create


text:
This beautiful vintage shrine print is of the well known Hindu God, Vishnu. Vishnu is the second god in the Hindu triumvirate (or Trimurti). The triumvirate consists of three gods who are responsible for the creation, upkeep and destruction of the world. The other two gods are Brahma and Shiva. His role is to return to the earth in troubled times and restore the balance of good and evil. So far, he has been incarnated nine times, but Hindus believe that he will be reincarnated one last time close to the end of this world. Vishnu's worshippers, usually called Vaishnava, consider him the greatest god. They regard the other gods as lesser or demi gods.
Vishnu is represented with a human body, often with blue coloured skin and with four arms. His hands always carry four objects in them, representing the things he is responsible for. The objects symbolise many more meanings than are presented here:
The conch: the sound this produces 'Om', represents the primeval sound of creation
The chakra, or discus: symbolises the mind
The lotus flower: an example of glorious existence and liberation
The mace: represents mental and physical strength
Vishnu has appeared in various incarnations nine times on this earth, with the tenth predicted. This print depicts this.
1) Matsya (fish)
2) Kurma (turtle)
3) Varaha (pig/boar)
4) Narasimha (half lion, half man)
5) Vamana (dwarf sage with the ability to grow)
6) Parasurama (fierce man/hunter)
7) Rama (greatest warrior/ideal man)
8) Krishna (mentally advanced man)
9) Buddha (the all knowing one)
10) Kalki (Expected towards the end of this present age of decline, as a person on earth, seated on a white horse.)
Size: 10" x 7"
It is important to understand that these are not just images of Gods; they are Gods - Gods incarnate in their printed image. During puja (worship) the Gods are invited to descend into their images and are treated as guests. Offerings of fruit, flowers, and sweets are placed before these prints, prayers chanted to them, incense burned before them, and garlands of marigolds are hung around their frames.
This print has gone through many monsoons (with months of humidity), so it may have some staining and discoloration and tears that come with daily use and age.
In the period following independence in 1947 in India, the religious print business in India grew dramatically in its scale and diversity. All the prints I import from India are from this era and are a lot more colorful and bold in comparison to the very early prints in the late 1800's.
*Price includes free postage to anywhere in the UK.*


text:
Home Style: A fresh take on fall decorating
One of the things I like best about living in the Midwest is enjoying the changing of the seasons. While I truly love each season, I confess that fall is my absolute favorite because of the rich color palette Mother Nature gives us to decorate with this time of year: amber, ruby, chestnut, sage, persimmon, burgundy, eggplant, chocolate and so many more luxurious hues.
At Nell Hill's, we're all about making the most of these brilliant fall colors in our seasonal decorating. But this year, we're giving our fall tables a surprising twist by introducing some cleaner, brighter shades.
A few weeks ago, I was decorating my dining-room table for a birthday party when I stumbled onto a new look for autumn that made me swoon. There was almost nothing that reminded me of autumn when I picked the place settings and centerpiece for the table. But when the bright apple-green, deep royal blue and soft orange elements came together, they gave off a subtle nod to fall. That's when I decided that this year, I was going for "fall, light" on my table.
To create this table, I started each place setting on whimsical placemats that look like they were made from just-picked leaves. Then I created a simple layer of plates, mixing my blue-and-white transferware dinner plates with crisp white salad and bread plates. To tie in the apple green, I topped each place setting with a little take-home gift wrapped with green tissue paper, tied up with a bow.
For a centerpiece, I placed three blue-and-white ginger jars down the center of the table and filled them with hosta leaves from my garden and three inexpensive bouquets of orange roses, the flowers snipped short so they formed a little mound right over the mouth of the container. I cannot arrange flowers to save my life, so instead of laboring over bouquets that always end up looking lopsided or lumpy, I've come up with this goof-proof formula that works every time.
Don't you love the energy in this fun autumn table? To create this light yet vibrant look, we relied on awesome seasonal linens and our versatile white dishes. (If you don't have a set of plain white dishes yet, you've got to get one. Not only are white dishes a great value, you can use them millions of different ways to transform your table for every season.) If you'd like to, you could also add orange, green or seasonal salad plates to this display, layering them atop the white dinner plates. The great thing about these colors is that they also work well in other seasons: the green is ideal for spring decorating and the orange would be a perfect addition to a sunny summer table.
This place setting would look wonderful just featuring these bright dishes and linens. But consider adding some iconic fall accents -- say, an acorn pick fashioned into a wreath and a small white gourd.
I used to do lavish centerpieces on my fall tables, but this year, I'm keeping it clean. Other possibilities: Filling some green-tinted glass jars with faux pears, then topping them with a few fake fall leaves. Simple and sensational! Another great centerpiece look would be to create a line of candlesticks or glass hurricanes down the center of the table, them outfit them with apple-green candles.
Servers make great foundations for centerpieces because they add much-needed height to a table, which means a more dramatic presentation. Some servers can be outfitted with plates, giving you a chance to showcase pieces from your collection or some new seasonal plates. Once you pick the plates, dress them up with fresh fruit, veggies and cheese, or with seasonal accents like nuts or gourds.
The column has been adapted from Mary Carol Garrity's blog at www.nellhills.com. She can be reached at email@example.com.


text:
New Webinar "Rapid and Reliable Pipeline Leak Detection"
- Free webinar on pipeline leak detection on April 20, 2016, 10:00 AM EDT
- Differences between basic and advanced leak detection systems in the focus, addressing common presumptions e.g. about sensitivity and reliability
KROHNE presents the webinar "Rapid and Reliable Pipeline Leak Detection" on April 20, 2016, 10:00 AM EDT (15:00 CET). It focuses on the differences between commonly used leak detection systems and those combining several leak detection methods. Target groups for the free webinar are all industries that operate liquid and gas pipelines such as chemical, petrochemical, and oil & gas.
Pipelines are among the safest and most efficient means of transport available, and leak monitoring systems are a necessary part of their safety concept. While demand for pipeline leak detection and location systems is increasing, general knowledge about these systems is limited, as presenter Daniel Vogt explains: "Negative statements about sensitivity and reliability such as 'only catastrophic leaks are detected' or 'permanent false alarms' can still be heard regularly. They may result from bad experience in the past, unrealistic expectations, or a combination of the two. Attendees of the webinar will learn that modern leak detection systems do allow leak detection without false alarms, even when operated under dynamic (transient) conditions."
In particular, KROHNE's PipePatrol E-RTTM method for rapid and reliable leak detection is presented: the capabilities of this model-supported, statistical classification method in an operational environment will be demonstrated, using field data and a sample case taken from the chemical industry. Also, key factors for successful implementation and operation are shown.
Free registration for the webinar is possible here:
About the presenter: Daniel Vogt is Product Manager of PipePatrol leak detection and localization system at KROHNE, and has been working in the field of leak detection and localization for 10 years. His current responsibilities include strategic product development of PipePatrol, as well as conceptual design and planning of leak detection solutions, taking into account both client and regulatory requirements.
About KROHNE
KROHNE is a global manufacturer and provider of process instrumentation, measurement solutions and services in many industries. Founded in 1921 and headquartered in Duisburg, Germany, KROHNE has over 4,000 employees and offers extensive application knowledge and local contacts for instrumentation projects in over 100 countries. KROHNE stands for innovation and highest product quality and is one of the market leaders in process industry.
Issued by:
KROHNE Messtechnik GmbH
Ludwig-Krohne-Str. 5
47058 Duisburg
Contact for editors:
Jörg Holtmann, PR Manager
Tel: +49 203 301 4511
Fax: +49 203 301 105 11
eMail: email@example.com


text:
Over the last few days, i've been seeing some similar projects popping up on the landscape — or, rather, fairly different projects tied together by a common thread. The thread is one of particular interest to me – how will things like peer review and traditional media publishing integrate with new ways of communicating and working with information made possible by emerging technologies? Or will they?
So for now, I'm just going to mention some of these things – and undoubtedly follow up with a bunch of tl; dr posts later on the topic.
First from if:book – they've adaptated CommentPress to serve as a peer-reviewing tool for a new book project from MIT press. The book is Expressive Processing: Digital Fictions, Computer Games, and Software Studies, by Noah Wardrip-Fruin.
CommentPress has been around for a while – it lets a blog owner allow their readers to comment not only on blog posts, but on particular pieces of blog posts. The reader can pinpoint the argument or the example they want to address, allowing for a different kind of intellectual dialogue about a blog's content. This is an all-or-nothing decision, you either make your whole blog comment-able in this way, or you don't.
So you could use CommentPress for peer review before, fairly easily. You just need to set up a WordPress blog that holds the content of your book, article, or set of articles, and let the readers go with it. CommentPress allows them to comment on individual sections, or to make meta-comments on entire posts or pages. Your initial text isn't revised by the process, making this more like peer review than like the collaborative authoring that would happen if you used a wiki for the same purpose.
One thing that makes the Expressive Processing example different is that the CommentPress level of commentary is only available on some of the posts in the blog. The book is being released, in parts, on an established blog – Grand Text Auto. GTA is a group blog focused on discussion of new media expressions — digital fictions, narratives, poetry, games, and more — with archives going back to 2003. Reviewers will be able to parse the posts where the book is made available down using CommentPress, while the normal discourse generated by the blog continues on the other posts.
I find this interesting because of the way it recognizes the importance of the existing community on this blog. If they'd gone the "special site for the book" route, I've no doubt that a community would have formed there (and would have included many members of this one). But the community would have been different, and the resulting discourse would have been different. This definitely bears thinking more about — I've been thinking for a while that these knowledge communities that grow up around certain blogs are a powerful thing and I think this project could potentially get at that.
More comments on this experiment at:
Planned Obsolescence and The Chronicle (free for now)
This morning's experiment comes on the heels of this essay by Alex Reid in Digital Digs, one of my favorite sources for thoughtful commentary on new forms of scholarship. Reid is going to be co-editing the Praxis section of the online journal Kairos, and he muses here about one of the dilemmas inherent in any discussion of new scholarship — how can participating in open, social, collaborative scholarly projects give the kind of professional currency academics need to justify the time and effort their participation requires?
We all know this is an issue – Rachel and I have struggled with it for a few years now with the Library Instruction Wiki, and that's a fairly simple and straightforward project. While it's possible that someone might decide to edit or change an entry in our wiki so that the "authorship" of a particular instruction tool wouldn't be as clear, it's not very likely that that would happen.
Reid is specifically talking about another wiki Kairos' PraxisWiki, which was also created as a way for people to share thoughts and commentary about the use of classroom technologies. Still, they're struggling with how to make contributions "count" enough for academics to use it as a way to communicate ideas. I think he's spot-on with his diagnosis of the problem — how can we ask academics, whose professional futures depend on their ability to demonstrate the impact of their work to spend their time and effort on us if we don't give them a way to demonstrate the impact of that work?
Reid doesn't have any great answers yet either, but I like his idea of thinking of this participation like conference participation. I've long wondered if participation in online communities, contributing to the Library Instruction Wiki and blogging isn't more a type of professional service than scholarship — maybe that's a useful line of inquiry.
Shaun talked about something similar the other day – on how we value "popular writing" in academia.
Finally, there's this fascinating discussion thread at Scientific American — asking readers to weigh in on "Science 2.0." Not surprisingly, reactions fall all over the place. I wasn't expecting anyone to make the argument that openness in scientific communication would lead to physical injury, but they do. Anyway, lots of food for thought there.
Undoubtedly, much more to come…


text:
Apollo King Men's 3pc 100% Wool Fashion Suit - Stylish Peak Lapel
Apollo King fashion suits are back! These elegant 100% wool suits are a must-have for your fashion warddrobe. The single breasted vest with notch lapel is a professional touch, and this suit also comes with wide leg pants (20") in a classic style. If you're a fan of classic men's fashion, you've got to have this suit.
Apollo King Men's 3pc 100% Wool Suit - Fashion Peak Lapel
Fashion Length Jacket
Single Breasted
Peak Lapel
Ticket Pocket
2 Button Jacket
Besom Hanky Pocket
Flap Side Pockets
Side Vents
Single Breasted Vest
Notch Lapel on Vest
Wide Leg Pants (20")
Pleated Pants
Pants Lined to the Knee
Super 150's Wool
100% Wool
Dry Clean Only
All sizes displayed are jacket sizes. All suits come with pants lined to the knee. Pant sizes for 36-46 will be 6 inches smaller then the jacket size. For example a 42 jacket will come with a 36 waist pant. Sizes 48+ will ship with a 5 inch drop. For example a 48 jacket will have a 43W pant. This suit will ship exactly as pictured in Burgundy, however the item is tagged as color Fuchsia. All pants will be unhemmed at the bottom.
|Shop by Brand
|Apollo King
Apollo King is the newest label by Loriano Suits. This collection offers the same fashion forward designs expected of Loriano in premium fabrics. Apollo King Suits are offered in 100% Wool, Soft Wool Blends and Wool Feel. What sets Apollo King apart is their 100% Wool and Wool Blend Fashion Collection. If you are a fan of Tayion or Steve Harvey Suits give the Apollo King Suits a try for a 3rd of the price.
|Shipping Information
This item will ship same day if ordered by 1pm EST otherwise it will ship on the next business day. Your selection will ship exactly as pictured. Check out the advantages for shopping with an A rated BBB Gold Star Recipient. Low Prices & Great Customer Service.


text:
NFL.com's Ian Rapoport reported Friday that the Cowboys and Romo agreed to a six-year, $108 million contract extension with $55 million in guarantees and a $25 million signing bonus, according to the quarterback's agent, RJ Gonser.
The extension goes into effect after the 2013 season, when Romo earns $11.5 million, essentially giving him a seven-year, $119.5 million contract through 2019.
The deal makes Romo the highest-paid player in Cowboys history and tops the $52 million in guarantees that Joe Flacco received from the Baltimore Ravens as part of his six-year, $120.6 million pact.
The Cowboys officially announced Romo's signing Friday night, with team owner Jerry Jones saying in a statement: "We are very confident in this investment and commitment." Added Romo: "Our goal is the Super Bowl, and I am determined and honored to be the guy in this position to help our team do that."
Romo's new contract also gives the Cowboys more salary-cap room, which was an issue earlier this week when the team tried to sign free agents. According to NFL.com's Albert Breer, Romo's previous cap number was $16,818,835. With a $1.5 million base salary for 2013, $5 million prorated off his $25 million signing bonus and $5,818,835 due in dead money prorated off the old deal, Romo's new 2013 cap number is $11,818,835. So Dallas saves exactly $5 million on the cap.
The Cowboys had been talking with Romo's camp on and off after hoping to sign the 32-year-old quarterback to an extension last summer.
As Rapoport reported Thursday, a clause in Romo's contract stipulated that the Cowboys could not franchise-tag him if no deal was reached by the end of the 2013 league year, effectively making him a free agent. That handed significant leverage to Romo, but instead of parting ways, he'll remain with the Cowboys deep into the future.
Romo was set to count $16.8 million against the salary cap in 2013, but a reworked extension will allow the Cowboys to lower that figure and add additional pieces to the puzzle.
For a quarterback with just one playoff win in nine seasons, every little piece will help.
UPDATE:NFL.com's Albert Breer reported that $40 million of the contract is fully guaranteed. Half of that amount becomes fully guaranteed on the third day of the 2014 league year with the other half guaranteed on the third day of the 2015 league year.