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EIJ 11: Wish you were there!
Excellence in Journalism 2011 is now history! Thank you to everyone who attended, spoke, exhibited, performed and volunteered their time. Because of you, the event a joint effort by the Society of Professional Journalists and the Radio Television Digital News Association was an incredible success.
If you couldn't join us, this collection of streaming media (free to all SPJ members) and Working Press coverage is the next best thing.
Members without an online ID, get one here | Non-members, join in!
Complete Coverage
• Top Stories
• Breakout Session Coverage
• Videos, Tweets and more
The Working Press
SPJ President John Ensslins installation speech
Read the complete text of the speech new SPJ President John Ensslin delivered at SPJ's 2011 President's Installation Banquet.
Soledad OBrien, CNN anchor, special correspondent and author, served as the opening Super Session speaker for the Excellence in Journalism 2011 Conference in New Orleans.
The host of In America, Soledad sat down with retired ABC News senior Washington correspondent John Cochran to discuss and share her first-hand experience on telling stories of underreported communities and the challenges that go along with it.
OBrien is a multiple award-winning journalist who has covered major events, from Hurricane Katrina and the South Asian tsunami, to the war in Iraq. In her critically-acclaimed documentaries, Black in America and Latin in America, she covers topics that affect millions of Americans.
Listen to or download audio (17.7 MB, 47:54)
Additional coverage [The Working Press]
Super Session with Andy Carvin
Andy Carvin covered events such as earthquakes, assassination attempts and the Arab Spring uprisings.
The kicker? For all of those events, he was in the U.S. and provided coverage through Twitter.
Posting on the social media site began as a hobby for Carvin. More than 97,000 tweets later, the hobby has evolved into a profession: senior strategist for National Public Radio.
Carvin, who has held the position since 2006, spoke to a crowd Tuesday in the Rhythms Ballroom about his social media coverage of the uprisings in the Middle East and Africa.
Listen to or download audio (23.5 MB, 1:03:13)
Additional coverage [The Working Press]
Keynote with CBS News Chairman and 60 Minutes Executive Producer Jeff Fager
CBS News Chairman and 60 Minutes Executive Producer Jeff Fager delivered the keynote address at Excellence in Journalism 2011.
Fager became the first chairman of CBS News in February 2011, after re-shaping its flagship broadcast, 60 Minutes, into an editorially more vibrant and news-conscious program that regularly makes Nielsens Top 10 and wins unprecedented amounts of awards. His efforts to improve the hit program online have also made the 60 Minutes brand a hit on the Internet and the model of successful electronic journalism in the digital age.
In his new role, he continues to oversee 60 Minutes, while executing his plan to transfer that success to all of the news divisions platforms, on television, radio and the Internet.
Listen to or download audio (22.4 MB, 59:53)
Additional coverage [The Working Press]
Ten Tips Every News Entrepreneur Needs to Know
Description: Professional journalists are increasingly launching news websites in communities across the country. To be successful, they need a new skill set that encompasses more than just journalism. Are you ready to launch a local news startup? Or do you want to grow an existing site? Explore what it takes to run a site of your own and get additional resources to help you before, during and after launch.
Speaking: Jan Schaffer, executive director, J-Lab
Listen to or download audio (22.3 MB, 1:01:41)
Additional coverage [RTDNA.org]
Just Who Do You Think You Are? Launch Your Personal Brand
Description: Who are you, really? Youre a journalist?! But nowadays there are so many types of journalists. Are you a writer? Reporter? Producer? Editor? Blogger? Photographer? All of the above? In a time when theres no shortage of journalists, its more important than ever to create your personal brand. Youll be subject to Google searches, Facebook frisks, LinkedIn screenings and Twitter inspections. Branding will help set you apart from your competition. Youve heard employers ask you to describe yourself. We'll show you how to pull your brand together by building a portfolio site that sells YOURNAME.com.
Speaking: Lara Salahi, associate producer/reporter, ABC News; Deb Wenger, trainer, SPJ Newsroom Training Program
Listen to or download audio (21.9 MB, 59:24)
Additional coverage [RTDNA.org]
Social Media: Building Page Views, Viewers and Revenue
Description: Make social media work for your newsroom, business or organization. This is a can't-miss for those looking to develop or refine their social media strategy with particular attention to how social media can increase page views, viewers and revenue. Plus, get the scoop on the latest social media technologies and how you can put them to work right away.
Speaking: Kim Wilson, founder, SocialNewsDesk; Josh Rickel, Mass Relevance
Listen to or download audio (22.4 MB, 1:00:36)
Additional coverage [RTDNA.org]
(Photo courtesy RTDNA)
How to Turn Your Website into a Mobile App
Description: As Web technology moves into the mobile realm, journalists need the skills to seamlessly integrate into this new technology. See how to build your own iPhone app and find out how easy it can be to create a mobile version of your website/news feed/podcast. NO technical expertise required!
Speaking: Jeff Cutler, social media journalist
Listen to or download audio (21.7 MB, 59:11)
Additional coverage [RTDNA.org]
Creating Multiplatform Stories
Description: Learn to take advantage of the strengths of each platform to create your own multiplatform stories. Become your own "team coverage." Find out how to get viewers, readers and surfers to watch, read and surf your content. Whether you're a Jack (or Jill) of all media, or work with a team of journalists from other platforms, bring your story ideas and let's explore how you can turn them into multiplatform stories when you head back to your newsroom.
Speaking: Victoria Lim, reporter/anchor, Bright House Sports Network
Listen to or download audio (25.1 MB, 1:09:03)
Additional coverage [RTDNA.org]
Transformational Newspaper: Newspapers in 2011
Description: During the period June 15, 2010 to July 15, 2011, Valid Sources, a non-profit organization formed to identify and promote excellent, ethically-balanced journalism, visited 50 U.S. newspapers one in each state. Their goal was to assess the status of newspapers and learn how newspaper companies are re-positioning themselves to survive and compete in the digital age. What were the key findings from this yearlong reporting venture? Hear how newspapers are rethinking their operating methods; reorganizing their newsrooms; refocusing their coverage; and revising job descriptions for current and future employees.
Speaking: Paul Steinle, president, Valid Sources; Sara Brown, Ph.D., secretary/treasurer, Valid Sources
Listen to or download audio (23.3 MB, 1:03:55)
Additional coverage [RTDNA.org]
Get Active! New Ways to Listen, Learn and Engage Your Audience
Description: Join this fast-paced social-media session. Learn how to employ a variety of "active listening" techniques to research and develop better pieces. Then see the best tools for collecting content. Finally, hear how easy it is to leverage social tools to connect with and engage viewers and readers. Bring your notebook and prepare to get active!
Speaking: Jeff Cutler, social media journalist
Listen to or download audio (22.2 MB, 1:00:28)
Additional coverage [RTDNA.org]
Records of Disaster
Description: Find out more about government documents for covering hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, fires, oil spills and other mayhem. Learn what public records are available to help you better cover disasters in your community, whether it's deadline reporting or following the aftermath.
Speaking: Mark Schleifstein, environment reporter, The Times-Picayune; Michael Morisy, co-founder, MuckRock.com; Sheri Fink, doctor and 2010 Pulitzer winner
Listen to or download audio (21.9 MB, 1:00:23)
Additional coverage [RTDNA.org]
(Photo courtesy RTDNA)
More Than 140 Characters
Description: Using Twitter, Facebook and any other sort of social media is more than updating your status. It's engaging your audience and creating a relationship. Learn from very experienced and respected social media leaders how you can not only embrace new media, but also how you can use it to create new experiences.
Speaking: Ryan Osborn, director of social media, NBCU; Amy Wood, news anchor, WSPA-TV; Kara Matuszewski Sassone, web producer, WBZ-TV
Listen to or download audio (22.2 MB, 1:00:33)
Additional coverage [RTDNA.org]
Ethics for Entrepreneurs
Description: Many journalism brain trusts believe the way to save journalism is to turn more and more of the profession over to entrepreneurs who will create new business models for sustainability. However, how can one successfully manage the roles of business owner and ethical journalist? Should CEO mean chief executive officer or chief ethical officer? Explore the inherent conflicts to owning and operating a business from both the business and journalistic perspectives.
Speaking: Kevin Smith, chairman, SPJ National Ethics Committee; Ariella Cohen, co-founder and staff writer, The Lens, New Orleans; Mark Briggs, author, Journalism Next, Journalism 2.0 and Entrepreneurial Journalism: How to Build Whats Next for News
Listen to or download audio (24.5 MB, 1:07:21)
Additional coverage [RTDNA.org]
How to Build Whats Next for News
Description: See what the future of journalism will look like based on some of the more promising ventures currently finding success. Its an explosion of journalism, just in different forms. People are using social media, data and mobile more and more for journalism, which is finding new success fueled by entrepreneurial passion.
Speaking: Mark Briggs, author, Journalism Next, Journalism 2.0 and Entrepreneurial Journalism: How to Build Whats Next for News
Listen to or download audio (18.5 MB, 50:41)
Additional coverage [RTDNA.org]
I See Opportunities: Journalism Skills Needed Virtually Everywhere
Description: So many digital tools, so many ways to use them. What are the future trends online and how can newsroom leaders, journalists and educators capitalize on them? Be present for an engaging, entertaining and interactive look at ways you can tell better stories, create positions and leverage the foundations of journalism in the virtual arena. Many argue "we can't afford it." In today's world, "we can't afford" not to embrace change. Come get your money's worth and leave with options and optimism.
Speaking: Dr. Sybril Bennett, associate professor, Belmont University
Listen to or download audio (24.1 MB, 1:06:18)
Additional coverage [RTDNA.org]
20 Tips Your Editor Won't Tell You
Description: Newspaper writers are like paramedics: Always on call, never knowing what you might find around the next corner. Learn how to capture the extraordinary experiences of ordinary people and find stories everywhere you go. Come away with at least three story ideas.
Speaking: Lane DeGregory, features writer, St. Petersburg Times
Listen to or download audio (27.8 MB, 1:16:31)
Copyright © 1996-2019 Society of Professional Journalists. All rights reserved.Legal | Policies


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Is there any way I could trigger a bash script when ssh times out?
I have an alias to set the tmux title when starting ssh. The alias also includes a title change after the ssh session, which works if I do a clean exit, but if the session times out, the rest of the alias doesn't run.

subset: commoncrawl


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Cheese from Murcia in Wine
Cheese from Murcia in Wine
The Cheese from Murcia in Wine is an aged cheese, soft to semi-cured, which is made from the pasteurised milk of the 'Murciana' breed of goat.
Its most notable characteristic is that the exterior is receives wine baths. It is cylindrical, with smooth surfaces and straight edges. Each cheese weighs between 1 and 2 kg. Its external appearance is red in colour with dashes of green from the mould. These colours are due to the baths in red wine, normally from the Yecla or Jumilla regions. The inside is compact, smooth and well closed with an intense white colour and somewhat elastic. This cheese has a very light taste, not very salty, and slightly acid; very creamy and buttery, with a slight wine aroma. It is consumed as an appetiser, 'tapa' or dessert.
More information
Product information
- Type of product: Others
- Season: Year-round.
- Origin: The production area comprises the whole of the Autonomous Region of Murcia.
- To drink with it: Young and crianza red wines, preferably from Yecla or Jumilla.
Nutritional information
- Energy: Average
- Cholesterol: Average
- Comments: Rich in calcium.


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View All Random Groups
South East Bears
Any bears in the London/home counties areaLast Activity: 15th April 2009 22:24
1 member(s)Latest Discussion:
South East Bears
Southside Bears
Join here if you live in and around the south side. Mount Florida, Clarkston, Hampden, Gorbals, Busby, Giffnock, Pollok etc etcLast Activity: 15th January 2011 21:51
4 member(s)This group doesn't have any discussions yet.
Lanarkshire Loyal
Join if you live anywhere in lanarkshire.Last Activity: 22nd March 2012 21:25
25 member(s)Latest Discussion:
spare seat on a bus ?
Midget D*cks Loyal
Size doesn't matter.Last Activity: 2nd August 2010 16:10
4 member(s)Latest Discussion:
Shrinkage as an excuse..
North American Bears
Group for bears on this side of the pond!! I knew we have at least a couple on here!Last Activity: 16th October 2010 22:08
5 member(s)Latest Discussion:
Hello fellow north american bears
We hate Rio Ferdinand
Anyone else sick of Rio? The guy who goes by the name of Gaydog? Please join and show your hate for him.Last Activity: 12th August 2009 21:29
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Peep Show
Fans of mushrooming, drugs, new wellness centre, crack, drugs, punctual dub outfit The Executioners Bong, drugs, banging your mates girlfriend/neighbour, trying to get Mark sectioned & general fun timesLast Activity: 7th February 2012 21:59
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Big c0cked bears loyal
As it says on the tin,
big c0ck, you're in,
if you demand proof,
ef off, ya feckin p0of!Last Activity: 28th October 2009 02:29
3 member(s)Latest Discussion:
The "Why is BNB in this group?" thread
Bald is beautiful!
An exclusive group reserved especially for the shiny-pated gentlemen of the Gersforum; and also, of course, for those most tasteful ladies to whom 'less equals more' when it comes to counting follicles.
Comp�red by subversive_bearLast Activity: 28th January 2012 12:13
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Optional or not?
We hate Man U
We doLast Activity: 8th January 2010 12:24
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Shambles on Spotify
Rutbomb offends me
REO Speedwagon , that gay piano guy etc etc etcLast Activity: 17th April 2017 19:29
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Ayrshire Bears
Join if you're from the Shire ;)Last Activity: 1st August 2016 21:32
8 member(s)Latest Discussion:
Ayrshire Bears
Hamster Munchers International
The joint brainchild of our very own Mike and ScottishBeagle, Hamster Munchers International documents pictorial evidence of Hamster Munching around the globe.
Did you devour someone's hamster? If so, please add your submissions here!
*Please note - no hamsters were actually harmed during the production of of H.M.I.Last Activity: 26th May 2016 19:21
34 member(s)Latest Discussion:
blackppol illuminations
The Establishment
Mysterious architects of oppression and injustice towards Celtic FC and its supporters since 1888.
The very existence of The Establishment validates every paranoid conspiracy theory ever proffered by foaming-at-the-mouth Yahoos. It's true.. we are all covertly operating against you; referees, the Scottish Football Association, newspaper journalists, the police service, our armed forces, the broadcast media, the world banking system in its entirety (excepting those finks at LloydsTSB) the Illuminati, David Ike, Andy Cameron, Glen Michael, Paladin, the wee minging black chip you get in a poke but eat anyway, The Employment Service, traffic wardens and speed cameras.. well maybe not those actually - but you get the picture.
No overtly bigoted content, please. We, The Establishment, take pride in our dignity as we smile down benevolently on the uncomprehending proles.
Only fit and proper persons may become part of the fabric of The Establishment.Last Activity: 2nd February 2014 02:56
19 member(s)Latest Discussion:
Sterling work, Brother McDonald
We hate cats!
Join here if you hate cats. This is your place to share tales of loathing and disgust of all feline creatures who creep around, hissing and changing the shape of their eyes whilst simultaneously arching their backs.
Please note - while we hate cats, this group does not condone hurting them!Last Activity: 8th March 2013 21:12
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You are all c**ts
PlayStation 3 Gamers
Anyone With A PlayStation 3 Join :)Last Activity: 23rd June 2012 23:57
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Peep Show
Fans of mushrooming, drugs, new wellness centre, crack, drugs, punctual dub outfit The Executioners Bong, drugs, banging your mates girlfriend/neighbour, trying to get Mark sectioned & general fun timesLast Activity: 7th February 2012 21:59
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Bears in Fife
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Send us an email // Get on the air: 847.475.1590
Saturday Mornings, 7:00 to 10:00 a.m. 1590AM Get on the air: 847.475.1590 listen live
Funny, friendly experts with serious answers and great ideas to help with all of your home improvement projects.
Join Ron Cowgill, along with Rich Cowgill, Robbie Erhardt and the Mighty House® team each Saturday morning and get help with all of your home improvement and repair issues.
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Transform your photos into one-of-a-kind, hand painted masterpieces!
The watermark in the lower right corner of the image will not appear on the final print.
Kancamagus Scenic Byway - Sugar Hill Scenic Vista New Hampshire Usa by Erin Paul Donovan - 10" x 8"
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Kancamagus Scenic Byway - Sugar Hill Scenic Vista New Hampshire Usa poster by Erin Paul Donovan. Our posters are produced on acid-free papers using archival inks to guarantee that they last a lifetime without fading or loss of color. All posters include a 1" white border around the image to allow for future framing and matting, if desired.
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All prints ship in durable cardboard tubes.
Fine Art America is one of the largest, most-respected giclee printing companies in the world with over 40 years of experience producing museum-quality posters and prints. All of our posters are produced on state-of-the-art, professional-grade Epson printers.
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Posters ship within 3 - 4 business days in durable cardboard tubes.
Average Rating (4.93 Stars):
Stephen Foster
June 14th, 2019
Brendan Dell
June 13th, 2019
Absolutely terrible quality. This person took a picture of someone else's art and made a print out of it. This is obvious because you can see the reflections of the lighting in the print. The crop is also bad. I'm trying to think of one single thing that was good about this purchase but i can't. I never write reviews, but this was one of the worst purchases i've made in probably a decade
Sugar Hill Scenic Vista along the Kancamagus Scenic Byway in the White Mountain National Forest of New Hampshire USA during the winter months
I am a professional photographer based in the White Mountains of New Hampshire USA and am the owner of ScenicNH Photography LLC, a rights-managed environmental stock photography library. I specialize in New England adventure, conservation, documentary, landscape, and nature photography primarily focusing on environmental photojournalism and historic preservation in the New Hampshire White Mountains. Since 1998, I have been creating images that showcase the landscape of New Hampshire. My images are published worldwide in advertising, editorial, and commercial products and are are sold as fine art prints. I am also represented by a number of stock agencies. When not operating ScenicNH Photography I explore the White Mountains. To...
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If you're not happy with a purchase that you made on FineArtAmerica.com, for any reason, you can return it to us within 30 days of the order date. As soon as it arrives, we'll issue a full refund for the entire purchase price. Please note - Fine Art America does not reimburse the outgoing or return shipping charges unless the return is due to a defect in quality.
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I more or less knew what to expect when I decided to see The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies at the cinema over the weekend. Not much plot and loads and loads of battle action. Both predictions turned out to be accurate, though I must admit there was a little bit more plot than I anticipated and, amazingly, probably even more battle action than I was prepared for.
The whole film is essentially a massive, extended climax. At a relatively short 144 minutes, and with much of the running time dedicated to battle, it feels much swifter than An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug. As such, it might be better to regard the film as pure popcorn entertainment and fantasy nerd eye candy as opposed to the resounding final piece of the Middle Earth puzzle. As a standalone movie, Five Armies comes across as fairly soulless in comparison to the other entries. But as a 144-minute climax to a 447-minute film — or if you include LOTR, a middle-climax to a 1005-minute film (a couple of hours longer than that if you add director's cut versions) — it actually kinda makes sense. I suppose it all depends on your perspective.
By now you should be well aware that Five Armies deviates substantially from its source material. Of course it had to, considering there weren't many pages left in The Hobbit by the time The Desolation of Smaug finished. This might irk Tolkien loyalists, but for me it didn't matter. It helps that I don't remember much of the book, which I was never that fond of since I first read it as a pre-teen, and then again at university.
To be honest, it doesn't really matter if you don't remember much from the first two films either, because Five Armies is all about the spectacle. Say what you want about the rest of the movie, but there's no denying that Five Armies is one of the most impressive visual feasts you will ever see. While it is dominated by special effects, I never got the sense that the film was overwhelmed by CGI. The war sequences were also spectacular and rarely felt repetitive, with long group battles involving all types of creatures and lengthy one-on-one duels. That said, the "wow" factor is no longer there. It's undeniably good, but my mind was not blown like it was when I first watched the Battle of Helm's Deep in The Two Towers.
The drama offered by the film obviously pales in comparison to the action, but you can still tell that Peter Jackson really tried. The humans (led by Bard the Bowman — Luke Evans) head to the Mountain for refuge after their Laketown village is ravaged by Smaug the dragon (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch), while the dwarves (led by Thorin Oakenshield — Richard Armitage) are holed up in Mountain with their gold, refusing to share. The elves (led by Thranduil — Lee Pace) want their share of the treasure in the Mountain, and the Orcs (CGI) are looking to kill everyone and claim the Mountain for themselves (I think that's about five armies, no?). Throw in the love triangle between Legolas (Orlando Bloom), Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) and Kili (Aidan Turner) for some romance, a bit of comedic relief in the form of a cowardly, greedy politician's aide (Alfrid — Ryan Gage), old regulars like Gandalf (Ian McKellen), Elrond (Hugo Weaving), Saruman (Christopher Lee) and Galadriel (Cate Blanchett), and don't forget the the stoic protagonist, Biblo Baggins (Martin Freeman), and you can see how there's more than enough characters and subplots to go around. The emotional resonance may be lacking if you compare it to LOTR, but at least Jackson gave it a shot.
Martin Freeman, whom I will never see in the same light again after watching him in the Fargo TV series, feels more like a supporting character here. He does what he can in his allocated slot of screen time, though I never got the feeling that the story was truly about him. But then again, the hobbits have always felt more like observers of the action than participants. Also, Richard Armitage might be no Viggo Mortensen and Thorin Oakenshield might be no Aragon, but Armitage still makes Thorin an awesome, memorable character who offers something different to what Aragon did for LOTR.
There will be a lot of people who hate this movie, or at least deeply disappointed by it. Lovers of the book might not like the liberties Jackson took with Tolkien's story, or how he expanded just a few pages of text into a 2.5 hour movie. But if you accept all that and watch the movie for what it set out to be — and that's an exciting fantasy epic filled with extensive and well-executed battle sequences — then it might turn out to be pretty thrilling. There's dragons (well, dragon), elves, dwarves, orcs, trolls, goblins, hobbits and giant eagles and bats, and they're all killing each other. If fantasy adventure is what you want, then what more can you ask for?
I remember a time when each new installment of LOTR felt like Christmas (though that might have been because it was always released at Christmas). Hands down, it would always be my most anticipated movie of the year. With The Hobbit, on the other hand, watching each new entry felt more like an obligation. You've seen all of them, so you might as well keep going.
That said, it's still hard to believe that it's finally over. After 14 years — nearly half a lifetime for me — JRR Tolkien/Peter Jackson's Middle Earth franchise has drawn to a close. If you consider the film part as of a six-entry series, then fair enough, it's probably a disappointment. On the other hand, if you think of LOTR and The Hobbit as two separate trilogies, then you might find it as enjoyable as I did, for Five Armies is clearly the best of the three films (though not on the same level as any of the LOTR flicks). Either way, it's both sad and a relief to see this magnificent world come to an end. Unlike Star Wars, there's no more cash to milk from this cow, and that's a good thing.
4 stars out of 5


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Tegucigalpa (AFP) - Honduras on Monday launched a probe into allegations a drug cartel took on public contracts to launder money, made by one of the gang's ex-leaders in testimony to a New York court.
The country's public ministry said it has tasked four anti-corruption prosecution teams to examine documents relating to government tenders awarded between 2010 and 2014, to see what ties there were to the Cachiros cartel.
The investigation was prompted by Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga, one of the Cachiros bosses along with his brother, who is in detention in the United States pending sentencing for drug trafficking.
In testimony early this month, he said Honduras's former president Porfirio Lobo had colluded with the cartel on the public contracts.
He also gave evidence against Lobo's son, Fabio Lobo, who was arrested in Haiti in 2015 and last year was convicted in New York of conspiring with the Cachiros to send cocaine to the United States.
Rivera, who confessed to 78 murders, also implicated Honduras' current security minister, several lawmakers -- including the brother of current President Juan Orlando Hernandez -- and military officers in bribes and dealings with his cartel.
Hernandez has stressed his public fight against organized crime, drug smuggling and corruption, and implied he would not defend his brother if the accusations were verified.
The president said he was leaving Monday for the United States for talks with the administration of his American counterpart, Donald Trump.


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Fire Near Yankton Leaves 4 Homeless, Kills 6 Pets
YANKTON - A fire that gutted a mobile home west of Yankton left four people homeless and killed at least six pets.
Investigators believe the mid-day Monday blaze was sparked by combustible materials near a wood-burner.
The Daily Press & Dakotan newspaper reports (http://bit.ly/12pu8HX ) that the Red Cross is helping the people who lived in the home.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Obama shadowboxes with Putin at summit
President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin exchanged a handshake, some pleasantries and seemingly little else Thursday as they met before an economic summit overshadowed by Obama's call for a military strike against Putin's ally, Syria.
The 15-second encounter came as Obama arrived at the G20 meeting of the world's top 20 economic powers, hoping to sway world leaders to embrace his call for a targeted military strike against the regime his administration says unleashed lethal chemical weapons on its own citizens.
"The use of chemical weapons in Syria is not only a tragedy but also a violation of international law that must be addressed," Obama said during one meeting, with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Obama's most vocal obstacle on the world stage is Putin, who has ridiculed U.S. claims of certainty that Syrian President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons against his own people. Putin's government on the eve of the summit released a detailed report on a chemical weapons attack in Syria this spring, saying it was unleashed not by the government but by rebel forces. The U.S. charges have focused on an August attack.
Even as Obama sought world support at the summit, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations lashed out at Russia for saying it would consider an international response while effectively blocking any chance of a resolution by the U.N. Security Council backing force against the Syrian government.
"We have seen nothing in President Putin's comments that suggests that there's an available path forward at the Security Council," U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said. "Russia continues to hold the council hostage and shirks its international responsibilities."
Russia is one of five nations on the Security Council with the power to veto a resolution, along with Britain, China, France and the United States.
If Putin was openly hostile to the U.S. bid, a U.S. ally signaled skepticism about the need for military action.
The head of the European Union told reporters at the summit that he preferred a diplomatic answer.
"While respecting the recent calls for action, we underscore at the same time the need to move forward with addressing the Syrian crisis through the U.N. process," said EU President Herman Van Rompuy.
White House officials acknowledged before the two-day summit in Putin's hometown began that there was little chance of changing Putin's mind. The Russian leader has warned the U.S. against a strike and routinely rejected calls at the United Nations to censure Assad.
And Obama and Putin have little personal rapport to build on. Obama canceled a pre-summit meeting with Putin, citing the Kremlin's decision to offer intelligence leaker Edward Snowden asylum and saying Russia hadn't offered any progress on a host of issues the White House had hoped to address. Following that, Obama likened Putin to a disinterested schoolboy, slumping in class.
But on Thursday, Putin stood as host as of a global economic summit, shaking hands with leaders as they stepped out of a stream of jet black Mercedes and BMW sedans at the imperial Constantine Palace near the Baltic Sea. He welcomed several leaders warmly, briefly chatting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The two shared a joke, Putin's laughter loud enough to hear over the din of cameras capturing the moment.
After he and Obama greeted each other soberly and shook hands for the cameras, Obama flashed a smile as the two turned to the cameras. They chatted briefly and Obama bounded into the meeting.
Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said Obama planned to make his case on the margins of the meeting to gauge the level of "political and diplomatic support" the U.S. could expect from its allies and key partners.
To that end, Obama will hold a bilateral meeting with French President Francois Hollande on the second and final day of the summit. He'll also meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Rhodes said France has indicated "potential interest in participating in an effort to hold the Syrian regime accountable."
Obama got a friendly take from Abe, who said before a meeting with the president that he looked forward "to continuously and closely working with you to improve the situation on the ground."
The White House said Obama plans to "work the Hill" during the trip and Wednesday placed phone calls to a bipartisan group of senators. The White House said Obama was canceling a planned fundraising trip to California next week so he could be in Washington during the coming congressional debate.
On Thursday, Obama seemingly had his hands full dancing around Putin.
Dinner for the leaders got off to a late start – and even then a division between Obama and Putin emerged.
Putin arrived at Peterhof, the grand castle, shortly after 9 p.m., strolling down the carpet and chatting animatedly via interpreters with Argentine President Cristina Kirchner – the two of them heading up a delegation that included Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Obama arrived nearly 30 minutes later, walking down the long path by himself before briskly stepping in to join his fellow leaders.
The White House said later that Obama met first with Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff, who reportedly postponed an advance trip to the U.S. by aides to make arrangements for a planned presidential trip to the U.S., amid anger that the National Security Agency picked up her phone calls and emails.


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The pack contains 24 of the New Workbooks and certificates along with the necessary sign-in sheet, information leaflets including necessary health warnings etc. and 3 Physical Contact Books to help with updating policies and spreading good practice.
In order to be fully supported by Team-Teach all course members should be issued with their own copy of the current workbook which is linked to their certificate.
Copyright © 2019 STEAMING.CO


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Buhbo 15 ft CAT 5E UTP Ethernet Network Non Booted Patch Cable (10-Pack), Blue
$35.49Buy on Amazon.com
Buhbo Cables are made of 100% pure copper wire and 50 micron gold plated RJ45 plugs. * Designed For: Network Adapters, Hubs, Switches, Routers, DSL/Cable Modems, Patch Panels and other Computer Networking applications. * Certification: TIA/EIA * T-568B standard wiring * UTP (Unshielded Twist Pair) * CM type PVC Jacket * 24AWG 4pair stranded pure copper wire * 50 micron gold plated short body RJ45 plug * RoHS compliant *UTP and STP is Unshielded Twisted Pair and STP is Shielded Twisted Pair. UTP is accepted for residential and general commercial installation. *24AWG and Stranded is AWG (American Wire Gauge) indicates wire thickness. Higher the number, thinner the wire. 24AWG or 26AWG is commonly used for ethernet cables. *RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive) This directive restricts the use of hazardous materials such as lead or mercury in the manufacture of electronic and electrical equipments.


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I hope you had the opportunity to attend The Gaston Gazette 4 th Annual Women�s Expo held Oct. 20 at Union Road Church. Sponsors included CaroMont Health and it seemed like there was an endless number of booths providing information and handout gifts that enhance the health of the women in attendance.
And it was great to see the colorful CaroMont Health Mobile Screening Coach on the premises for mammogram appointments. There were also booths to enhance beauty, with endless give-ways to fill the wonderful bag they handed you as you entered the expo. Everyone there was working hard for your attention to the products and information they had available.
For your entertainment there was a stage full of every variety of fitness demonstrations, a fashion show, makeup and hair styling along with dance performances and demonstrations of self-protection and self-awareness, with great music in between.
Screenings were available including blood sugar levels, blood pressure, body mass index, cholesterol screenings, and bone density testing, all for free. The new location was awesome, spacious and easy to navigate, especially for those with canes, walkers and wheel chairs. The Union Road Church Women�s Ministry served a continental breakfast and lunch that was delicious. My goodness, what a party! The Gazette did a marvelous job of promoting this annual event and I met so many friends there.
A busy booth was the bone density testing. As the population ages, if you are not active, bone density and balance should be ar concern. Falls lead to broken bones. The bone density test gives you a benchmark as to your bone health and risk of fractures.
The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force recommends a bone density test at least once for all women age 65 and older.
The results of a bone density measurement (DEXA scan) are reported in two ways: as T-scores and as Z-scores. A T-score compares your bone density to the optimal peak bond density for your gender. A Z-score is used to compare your results to others of your same age, weight, ethnicity, and gender. These scores, reviewed by your health care provider determine your risk for osteopenia or osteoporosis.
Bone-density loss can begin as early as your 20�s. Even the frailest person, regardless of age, can benefit from a personal weight training and weight bearing routine. All levels of weight bearing aerobic training are available in this area, including walking, aerobic dance, yoga, and Pilates. Now research has added weight training to the mix, even if you just use two soup cans, it is important to include resistant weights and/or bands at least two or three times per week.
To make it an easy decision for you, my suggestion is to keep the body moving every day, and at a level more that your normal activity. It works! Give it a try.
Happy Halloween!
You can e-mail Gazette fitness columnist Mary E. Neil at email@example.com


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For content prior to 9/19/2008, use ourold search engine or browse older editions.
Live, Toll Free Call-in on Relevant Radio, 1240 AM WHFA
Though Father Richard Simon jokingly refers to himself as "Father Know-It-All", after listening to just one episode of Father Simon Says, you just might be convinced he truly does know it all. Join Father as he opens each show with a thorough examination of the daily Scripture readings - helping us make connections between Old and New Testament and develop a better appreciation of God's Word as we journey together through the liturgical year. Consider it your daily bible study on the radio. Encore at 6 p.m.
Diocese of Madison, Catholic Herald 702 S. High Point Rd., Suite 121, Madison, WI 53719Phone: 608-821-3070 Fax: 608-709-7612 E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Web site created by Leemark Communications and Catholic Herald staff.


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We have data, lots of it. We want access to that data anytime, from any device. We want to access that data now, not 20 minutes from now. This always-on, high-data volume demand has significantly increased the strain on network bandwidth.
A recent study conducted by Emulex Corporation, a leader in network connectivity, monitoring and management, found that hyperscale and multi-tenant requirements are driving demand for higher network bandwidth to manage vast volumes of data, lower latency to accelerate application delivery and performance, and increased security to meet service-level agreements (SLAs) and regulatory and compliance requirements. Organizations have responded by increasing their network bandwidth, and more than 77 percent of respondents running hyperscale environments say the move to the cloud has already necessitated the upgrade of their networks to at least 40Gb Ethernet (40GbE).
"The move to hyperscale is entering a second phase from the cloud providers to managed service providers (MSPs) and enterprises. This survey highlights that like every major transition in IT infrastructure, changes are required and IT professionals have to re-think almost everything they have done in the past," said Shaun Walsh, senior vice president of marketing, Emulex. "Beyond the concept of hyperscale models, we see very specific technologies being implemented such as OpenStack, SDN and NFV. Each of these changes has performance, operational expenditure (OPEX) and team skill implications for application, networking and storage infrastructure. We are working with leading end users, ecosystem partners and OEMs to bring the right connectivity, monitoring and management tools to make these solutions viable and operational."
Related Topics : In Their Own Words: The Four Dark Horses for the Third Major Mobile OS Speak, HTC, Mobile Search, 3G, Location-Based Services
Wearables are revolutionizing the workplace, with innovations that create a safer work environment or enhance the way professionals are able to go about their job. ... More >>
Here are the top 10 strategic technology trends that will impact most organizations in 2017. Strategic technology trends are defined as those with substantial disruptive potential or those reaching the tipping point over the next five years. ... More >>
Digital innovation is by far the biggest influencer, changing the way we do just about everything, from shopping to communication to running a business. ... More >>


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Underwater Photography magazine issue #102 has just been released. This issue includes my third cover shot for the magazine and my reviews of the Sony A7R III with Acquapazza housing and the RGBlue LCD Screen Magnifier. uwpmag.com is a free PDF download.
Edited by Phil Rudin, 03 May 2018 - 07:11 AM.


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By David Lawder
WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) - Cost estimates of up to $50 billion a year for a veterans emergency medical care bill drew sharp criticism on Tuesday from lawmakers who said they were grossly inflated and would complicate negotiations over final details of the legislation.
The measure, with slightly differing versions passed by both the Senate and House of Representatives, would allow veterans a two-year period to seek private care at the Department of Veteran Affairs' expense if forced to endure long waits at the agency's facilities or if they live more than 40 miles away.
House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller said Republicans on a negotiating panel want to find savings to offset the costs of the measure, but they believe the Congressional Budget Office estimates are unrealistic.
The non-partisan CBO issued a preliminary estimate that these provisions would cost the Department of Veterans Affairs $35 billion through 2016, and if left in place therafter would about $50 billion a year.
A CBO spokeswoman was not immediately available to comment on the estimate. The agency had previously said the bill's budgetary effects were "highly uncertain" because of difficulty in predicting behavioral changes among veterans due to increased access to private care.
With fresh government reports detailing deeper problems with VA mismanagement this week, lawmakers want to pass a final version of the VA legislation as quickly as possible. But disputes over money could slow things down.
Several lawmakers at an initial meeting of House and Senate negotiators said the estimate improperly assumed that about 8 million eligible veterans not yet enrolled in the system would seek VA care, nearly doubling its patient population.
"Is the CBO product that they've produced reflective of anything sane?" asked Senator Richard Burr, the top Republican on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.
"This is ludicrous. This is impossible for us even to start an intelligent discussion on what we put in legislation when we've got numbers that are just so grossly out of line," he said.
Miller said he would press CBO for a "realistic" cost estimate and anticipates a new one that is significantly lower.
"We want to try to find the offsets necessary to pay for the legislation. That's not going to be an easy task, but it's one we're committed to looking fully at over the next several days," Miller told reporters.
Finding more than $35 billion in budget savings would be a difficult task at any time, but could especially be problematic this summer, as lawmakers are already scrounging for savings to fund highway projects.
Miller declined to estimate a timeframe for a funding deal, but said he hoped to reach consensus on broad parameters of the measure before Congress leaves for a July 4 break on Friday. The measure also provides the VA with greater authority to fire poor performing employees. (Reporting By David Lawder; Editing by Diane Craft)


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February is not even over, and we've had all kinds of excitement in addition to the usual snow, freeze, thaw, snow, etc.
Yoshio and I attended the national inn keeping conference in Las Vegas. It was our first, and was a lot of fun. To preserve our dignity, we can only show you one photo from this trip.
From Las Vegas, we went to San Francisco for the biggest event of our year: the birth of our first grandson. Owen Kai Endo was born on Feb 5. He is amazing, and his parents are amazing, too.
We returned in time for Valentine's/President's weekend, and had a wonderful time helping people with their plans for extreme romance. I'm happy to report smiles, good cheer, and an abundance of flowers.
Although not really a February event, planning is well underway for our first, and only IOH pop-up picnic, being held Saturday, March 9 from 6-8 pm. We will serve some of our favorite Japanese foods in a casual buffet style. Please call us if you'd like to reserve a spot. The cost is $40 for two people.
We did not receive snow from the latest New England storm, although the mountains had better luck. February will continue on it's fickle path, and we can only guess what March what March will do.


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FROM THE DESK OF MR ABUBA ALI. AUDITING AND ACCOUNTING MANAGER, BANK OF AFRICA (B.O.A) OUAGADOUGOU-BURKINA FASO. BANK WEBSITE:www.bkofafrica.net Dear Friend, COMPLIMENT OF THE SEASONI am the manager of auditing and accounting department of BANK OF AFRICA (B.O.A) here in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of US$10m dollars TEN Million US dollars) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer (MR. RICHARD BURSON from Florida, U.S.A) who died along with his entire family on November 1999 in a plane crash.For more informations about the crash you can visit this site: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/502503.stm
Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we can not release it unless some body applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidlings and laws but unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next of kin or relation died alongside with him at the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim. It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this business proposal to you,so that the money can be release to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody will come for it and we don't want this money to go into the bank treasury as unclaimed dormant fund. The banking law and guidline here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed after eight years the money will be transfered into the bank treasury as unclaimed dormant fund. The request of foreigner as next of kin in this business is occassioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a Burkinabe like me can not stand as next of kin to a foreigner, I agreed that 30% of this money will be for you as a respect to the provision of a foriegn account ,10% will be set aside for expenses incurred during the business and 60% would be for me.Thereafter, I will visit your country for disbursement according to the percentage indicated Therefore, to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you arranged,you must apply first to the bank as relation or next of kin to the deceased customer with a text of application that i will send to you,but before i send to you the text of application form,I will like you to send me the following informatios
1.NAME IN FULL:................................ 2.ADDRESS:....................................... 3.NATIONALITY:................................... 4.AGE:............................................. 5.Sex.............................................. 6.OCCUPATION:...................................... 7.MARITAL STATUS:.................................. 8.PRIAVTE PHONE NO............................................ 9.PRIVATE FAX NO:.............................................So i will like you to send to me those informations for easy and effective communication. Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email the text of the application form.I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch-free and that you should not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made for the transfer. You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive this letter,if only you are intrested and ready to help.
Trusting to hear from you. Yours Faithfully, MR ABUBA ALI. _________________________________________________________________Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today it's FREE! http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/
What Is This?This Email with the Subject "COMPLIMENT OF THE SEASON" was received in one of Scamdex's honeypot email accounts on Tue, 03 Apr 2007 15:23:37 -0700 and has been classified as a Advance Fee Fraud/419 Scam Email. The sender shows as "abuba ali" <email@example.com>, although that address was probably spoofed. We recommend that you do not attempt to contact any persons or organizations referenced in this email, as you may expose yourself to scammers and, at the very least, you will be added to their email address lists for spam purposes.


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The warden of North Carolina's Central Prison has been promoted and given a 15 percent raise, less than two weeks after reports about a lawsuit alleging he failed to stop systematic beatings of handcuffed and shackled inmates held in solitary confinement at the Raleigh facility.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) � The warden of North Carolina's Central Prison has been promoted and given a 15 percent raise, less than two weeks after reports about a lawsuit alleging he failed to stop systematic beatings of handcuffed and shackled inmates held in solitary confinement at the Raleigh facility.
The N.C. Department of Public Safety confirmed Thursday that Central Prison administrator Kenneth Lassiter was named May 23 as director of 12 prisons in the state's central region, according to an internal memorandum. The promotion takes effect Saturday.
The Associated Press reported May 10 that a federal complaint filed by N.C. Prisoner Legal Services on behalf of eight inmates alleges they were beaten while prisoners in Unit One, a cell block known as �The Hole� where inmates are kept in solitary confinement for disciplinary reasons. The lawsuit says correction officers carried out the beatings in a secluded area of holding cells inmates call �The Desert� because the area is not covered by video cameras.
Lassiter is one of 23 current or former prison employees named as defendants in the lawsuit.
After the AP reported Lassiter's promotion Friday, the department issued a media release praising his qualifications and 24 years of experience working in the state's prisons.
�Kenneth Lassiter has done an exceptional job throughout his career working in custody for the state prison system, including the management of Central Prison,� said Division of Adult Correction Commissioner W. David Guice, according to the release.
The inmate's abuse claims are supported by medical records documenting blunt-force injuries that occurred while the prisoners were segregated from other inmates. They include broken bones, concussions and a shattered hip that has left one prisoner still unable to walk months later.
Public Safety spokeswoman Pam Walker has declined to comment on the pending litigation. Walker also refused to comment on whether new surveillance cameras and video recording equipment had been installed in Unit One following the lawsuit. She cited an exemption in the state's public records law that allows the agency to withhold information, the release of which could imperil security.
The lawsuit also names as a defendant former Central Prison administrator Gerald J. Branker. The Public Safety department announced Branker's retirement in 2011 after the AP obtained a copy of a scathing internal review that found inmates with serious mental disorders were often kept in isolation for weeks, sometimes nude, in roach-infested cells smeared with human waste.
The new complaint, which claims that the problems at Central have grown even worse under Lassiter, details multiple cases of correctional officers allegedly using �unnecessary, excessive, malicious and sadistic force� that the inmates� lawyers believe violates constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment.
As part of his promotion, Lassiter's annual salary will increase from $70,390 to $80,948.
Follow Associated Press Writer Michael Biesecker at twitter.com/mbieseck


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Iron Mountain Trail Runs
Iron Mountain Trail Runs
Sept. 3, 2016 7AM-7PM
Damascus Town Park Gazebo
South Beaver Dam Avenue
Damascus, VA 24236
Sign up at Ultra Signup: IMTR registration
Iron Mountain Trail Run Official Website: https://sites.google.com/site/ironmountaintrailrun/Home
The IMTR is a USATF sanctioned ultramarathon starting and finishing in Damascus, VA. Three distance options are available- 16, 30, & 50 miles. The footing varies from open easy running along the VA creeper trail (and forest service roads) to technical single track. The majority of the run follows the Iron Mountain ridgeline through the Jefferson National Forest along what used to be the Appalachian Trail. The total climb for the 50 mile course is around 8000 feet. The time limit for official completion for the 50 mile distance is 12 hours (8 hours for the 16 mile distance & 10 hours for the 30 mile distance).
2016 Fees
Registration fees are $25 for all race distances if registering before July 1. On July 1, registration fees will increase to $50 for all distances. Registration fees only include aid during the race and a post race meal. Race shirts are an additional $20. Runners registering on or after August 15 can not pre-order a shirt. They can buy a shirt on race day as supplies last.
The race starts at the Damascus Town Park gazebo. The course sets out east along the VA Creeper Trail to Straight Branch (mile 5), where it turns to climb Iron Mountain via the Beech Grove Trail. The course turns NE onto the Iron Mountain Trail. The course crosses FS 90 (mile 10; turn around for the 16 mile option) and Rt 600 (mile 16; turn around for the 30 mile option). The course veers off onto FSR 84, then Old 84, then back to 84 (mile 22) toward Dickey Gap. Runners cut across to Barton Gap (mile 25) and then head back West on FS 643. The course turns back up the mountain on the Rowland Creek Falls Trail (mile 29). Back on FS 84 at Hurricane Gap (mile 32), the course proceeds east, merging with the Iron Mountain Trail. Runners follow the Iron Mountain trail all the way back to Damascus, ending at the Town Park gazebo. It crosses 600 at mile 37 and FS 90 at mile 43. A course map can be seen on the race website.
Runners, before you register, please be aware that this is a challenging race that takes place on technical single track trails. Some trail sections can be very challenging and potentially dangerous. Some runners may feel that the course, especially the steep technical downhill near the end, is too dangerous. Please understand that the course is what it is. You will need to adjust your pace to stay safe. You alone are responsible for your safety on the trail. If you enjoy a challenge, sign up. If you feel that steep, rocky, muddy, and potentially dangerous trails do not make for a good race course, good luck at a different race with terrain that suits your preferences.


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Today's bus bombing in central Tel Aviv–the first in more than six years–injured twenty-three people and will likely rule out any cease fire in the Gaza conflict in the coming days. The location of the blast is significant: it occurred a short distance away from the Kirya, the nerve center of Israel's military. The attack was also timed to coincide with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to Israel, and sends a message of contempt to the U.S.
The likely result is that Israel will continue with plans for a ground invasion of Gaza, just as it used a successful ground assault on terrorists in the West Bank during Operation Defensive Shield following a series of terror attacks in the spring of 2002. It is not clear that the bombing originated from Gaza; it could have come from the West Bank or a terror cell inside Israel. Regardless, it is an escalation Israel cannot ignore.
Hamas claimed credit for the attack, and Gaza residents reportedly celebrated. It is possible that provoking a ground attack is precisely what Hamas–and its sponsor, Iran–wants, either to drag Israel into clashes that will harden international opinion against it, or to distract Israel while a new front is opened by Hezbollah on Israel's northern border. The Jerusalem Post reported yesterday by that two rockets aimed at Israel, of unknown origin, had been dismantled by the Lebanese Army in southern Lebanon.
The bombing occurred after noon local time, and Israeli security services initially said it was not a suicide bombing, but caused by an explosive left under a seat on a crowded bus. Ha'aretz reports that there have been many terror threats since Operation Pillar of Defense began last week. Breitbart News has also reported on ongoing cyberattacks against Israel, including the hacking of the deputy prime minister's Twitter account.
Defense analysts had predicted in February that the Kirya would be a prime target in the next conflict between Israel and its enemies, though the predictions suggested that the Kirya would be targeted by guided missiles, not by bus bombings. The Kirya is in central Tel Aviv but is protected from the streets by high walls and other security measures. Tel Aviv itself, Israel's largest city and economic center, remains a prime terrorist target.
The goal of a ground operation in Gaza would be to wipe out the military and command infrastructure of Hamas. Israeli soldiers reported little resistance when they entered the Gaza Strip during Operation Cast Lead in 2008 and 2009; the Hamas fighters, brave when launching rockets at civilians from a distance, disappeared and melted away into the civilian population. Nevertheless, a ground attack could last several weeks or longer.


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Prepare yourself for a rockin' adventure vacation package with Austin Lehman guides as you take a hiking trip to reach Havasupai Falls.
Blessed with numerous exquisite pools and waterfalls, this place is an ideal location for camping. Plenty of lodges are available for people who don't want to stay out at night; however, the experience of camping is generally described as a commune with nature. Havasupai Falls are a must see destination when holidaying in Havasupai Village. The waterfall plunges almost 100 feet falling into a pool of green blue waters. You can jump into the falls from behind this grand structure, and it will push you to safety by the sheer natural power generated in the pool.
After a day of hiking to the cascading waterfall, the joy of relaxing and playing in the water below is a perfect way to end the day. The next day brings even more excitement and adventure as you take the hike to the farthest fall of Havasupai – Beaver Falls. It is a series of falls all the way to the canyon and makes a perfect destination to play around all day and then spend a night in the Grand Canyon. It is the kind of Grand Canyon vacation that will force you to make it a yearly ritual forever.


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What Would William Appleman Williams Say Now?News Abroad
The work of the late William Appleman Williams constitutes the most comprehensive and sophisticated critique of American foreign policy offered during the last half century. It continues to influence a host of present-day scholars and even to engage more orthodox academics who might have preferred to ignore it. His influence in the 1960s and 1970s, however, extended far beyond the academy. His classic, The Tragedy of American Diplomacy, was virtually required reading for the New Left antiwar movement.
Williams's unique contribution was to give dissenters the opportunity to understand the Vietnam War not simply as a quagmire born of policy mistakes or of a moral blot on the nation's ledger, but as the logical consequence of empire. Indeed, he gave them a theory of American imperialism which argued that American elites, from George Washington to George Bush, could only envision a nation that was both prosperous and democratic if it had perpetual recourse to a growing empire. In the nineteenth century, that empire took the form of a frontier for settlers and capital (at the expense of Indian nations and the Mexican Republic). Following the closing of that continental frontier in the 1890s, America's expansion thereafter emphasized the overseas drive for an Open Door to the markets, raw materials and investment opportunities of the global economy. Informal economic dominance, less costly, was the preferred mode of that expansion, but colonies, protectorates, military bases or covert coups were acceptable when Third World resistance or Great Power rivalry seemed to require them.
In the giddy triumphalism that followed the end of the Cold War, the power of Williams's ideas seemed to wane. Bush I and Clinton centrists embraced and successfully promoted the New Economy of high technology, a lean-and-mean free enterprise system, and a free-trade world of balanced budgets, stable exchange rates and unfettered movement of capital. Empire now masqueraded as a benign "globalization" that would close the gap between rich and poor and lay the groundwork for the spread of democratic values and institutions. The utopian goal of remaking the world in America's image appeared within reach; the "end of history" seemed at hand. "Ultra-liberalism," as Jacques Chirac was to lament, had become "the new communism."
That zealous crusade ran aground long before the events of 9/11/01. It crashed on the shoals of the widespread backlash against globalization in the United States, the Third World's dissatisfaction with WTO trading arrangements, Japan's deflation after 1997, the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998, the collapse of the American technology bubble in 1999 and the return of the United States and Europe to the flat economic growth patterns of the 1970s and 1980s. The "invisible hand" of the free market could no longer be counted on to create universal acceptance of American hegemony and its rules of the international game. What was required was a more "visible hand"—a more muscular, more military foreign policy that would impose the economic openness and political stability required by American economic and security interests. "Hard power" would replace "soft power" as America's modus operandi. Clinton signaled this change in 1998, when he bombed Iraq and made regime change there his stated policy. And George W. Bush cemented the change with a vengeance, giving it a more unilateral twist by bypassing NATO, rather than working through it as Clinton had attempted.
With American empire no longer hiding behind the verbal veil of globalization, Williams's work has suddenly reacquired relevance not always evident in the decade since his death. Recognizing this, a number of his former students—and, in turn, their students—found themselves discussing and speculating what William Appleman Williams would say now about the current state of affairs. That dialogue, and my effort to synthesize it, resulted in a paper given to the University of Wisconsin History Department and I am pleased to share it with SHAFR members.
Williams thought and wrote with the rigorous logic of a philosopher. A practitioner of the examined life, he sought to unearth and critique his own underlying assumptions and premises and, in turn, to offer them openly and explicitly to his students and readers to examine and to challenge. In that spirit, let me offer eight such propositions that I think Bill Williams might have advanced for our consideration today. Many suggest, as Yogi Berra put it, "it's déjà vu all over again."
First, Williams would posit that the current public debate over U.S. foreign policy is just another example of the historic tension and conflict between two variants of American exceptionalism—that is, the conviction of American uniqueness and superiority. Often at odds with each other, these two variants clashed most sharply in times of war—as they did in the so-called Mexican War, the Spanish-American War, the Vietnam War, and now the War on Terror.
One version of exceptionalism was the notion of using a pro-active, aggressive foreign policy, including force if need be, to promote the American way of life—first in the Western Hemisphere, later the globe. The second was the notion that America should make itself an even better role model that others would be energized and encouraged to emulate. The flip side of that exemplar republicanism was John Quincy Adams's admonition that America should not "go off in search of Monsters to destroy, even in the name of freedom. She might become dictatress of the world, but she would no longer be mistress of her own spirit." America's version of the old Roman conundrum: can one be both an empire and a republic?
Second, Williams would contend that in the conflict between those two versions of exceptionalism, the pro-active, aggressive variant has almost always won out. Over time, as he famously put it in the title of one of his books, empire became a "way of life" for American society. For starters, it provided the economic surplus necessary to maintain a high standard of living, even if that surplus was more unevenly distributed than in any other industrial society. Moreover, it provided a kind of psychic substitute for the lack of real community in a society whose only common identity was consumption. Empire offered the public the double thrill of physically dominating others while purporting to uplift and civilize them. And war, that frequent companion of empire, gave American society a chance to express and vent its own internal angst and anger against external, distant enemies. Bread and circuses!
Third, Williams would suggest that what Iraq has experienced and will experience at American hands is, in part, a replay of an old story a century ago. The Caribbean was then the prime focus of American economic and strategic interests—to protect American-owned oil fields around Tampico, Mexico, and safeguard the imminent Panama Canal shortcut to Asian markets. The solution was the transformation of the Caribbean islands and Central America into a series of American colonies like Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands and protectorates like Cuba, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua.
The model for the Caribbean Basin was the Platt Amendment. It remains today, in its essentials, the historical model for Iraq. Like the Iraq War, the Spanish-American War proclaimed itself a war of liberation against tyranny and ended with an American protectorate. The American army of occupation did leave after a number of years, but only after Cuba had codified its "special relationship" with the United States into its constitution and a ninety-nine-year treaty. While circumstances are dissimilar in some respects, Williams would have predicted an eventual Iraqi settlement along similar lines-- permanent U.S. military bases (just like Guantanamo), an Open Door for U.S. participation in Iraq's banking system and oil enterprises, privatization of heretofore state-owned infrastructure, and creation of an essentially free trade tariff schedule and a low-tax system that allows the cheap and easy repatriation of profits from doing business in Iraq. As a corollary, I think Williams would have reminded us that the oft-touted rule of law—be it in Cuba, the Philippines, Nicaragua, Honduras, Mexico, or Iraq—historically has had little to do with democratic rights. Instead, it has always had far more to do with contract law, the sanctity of property rights and the protection of foreign investment.
Fourth, Williams would have stressed the centrality of oil in current foreign policy. He would not do so in a single-cause way; contrary to his critics, Williams was never a narrow economic determinist. But he still would have seen the oil issue as crucial—partly because of the economic value of the oil itself, but more largely because of the geopolitical clout over others made possible by control of oil. The struggle for oil is, of course, one that is a century old. But that struggle has, for several reasons, reached a new and critical phase.
Few new major fields have been discovered since the early 1970s, and predictions are that oil production will peak in the next five to ten years and decline sharply thereafter. More to the point, oil companies believe those dire predictions and have commenced a renewed search for new reserves. But Big Oil, however, has not been a prime mover pressuring the American State to aggressively act in its behalf. The giant multinationals, by and large, are fairly content with their relationship to the Saudis and to OPEC and anxious that war not upset the stability of their arrangements. The push really comes from the independent oil companies like Occidental, Unocal, Murphy and Kerr-McGee and from the Texas-based oil service companies tied to them, like Halliburton, Baker Hughes and Bechtel. As their U.S. holdings decline, they have looked elsewhere and sought to influence U.S. foreign policy in ways not seen since the Eisenhower days and the oil depletion allowance. And they have found ready ears in this administration and its aggressive policies in Iraq, Iran and Central Asia.
There is also an abiding fear that without its U.S. control of the oil market, OPEC may in the medium-term start pricing its oil in euros. Iraq had already done so—which was one of its great sins—but there is strong talk that OPEC will eventually follow. If that happens, Japan and China will have to start cashing in their massive dollar reserves for euros in order to meet their immense energy needs; that in turn would send the value of the dollar plummeting and bring the U.S. economy—highly vulnerable because of its fiscal and trade deficits—to its knees. Finally, control over oil provides the likeliest leverage for the United States to reassert its hegemony and geo-strategic dominance. This is not a new variable, but it is one that has never been as decisive as now. Western Europe, Japan, China and India are highly dependent on the Middle East for their energy needs. With the United States as uncontested power in the region, those nations would have a far greater incentive to defer to American rules of the game on other matters of global concern. They would be far more inclined to accept American dominance rather than continuing to find ways to limit it.
Fifth, Williams would have characterized the current period not as the triumph of conservatism, but as the degradation of conservatism. To the annoyance of many liberals, many of Williams's heroes in American history were conservatives: for example, John Quincy Adams, Mark Hanna and Herbert Hoover. In his view, however, they were conservatives who morally and intellectually tried to reconcile a privatized; market economy with the general welfare of the whole society, for none of them accepted the proposition that a laissez-faire marketplace automatically, naturally, almost mystically achieved the general welfare.
To that end, many of Williams's conservative heroes helped to produce an American version of corporatism—more informal and less institutionalized than Europe's, but corporatism nonetheless. And by the post–World War II era, they had put together a loose, collaborative structure of cooperation between the state, large business associations and the AFL-CIO that linked productivity, profits and wages in a lock-step relationship so that all proceeded together in tandem. Some refer to it as the Fordist bargain. That system never worked perfectly and even at its best never became a substitute for empire and expansionism. Ultimately it broke down altogether in the stagflation of the 1970s. But it nonetheless had represented an earnest effort to address the contradictions between the marketplace and the general welfare.
But neo-conservatism, as Williams had already pointed out in the Reagan years, had abandoned that admirable effort to square the circle.. As a consequence, America's version of capitalism—with its so-called reforms of the labor market, the tax system and Social Security—has (in contrast to Europe's more Social Democratic version of capitalism) become truly "red in tooth and claw." As a consequence, too, the pell-mell drive to privatization has been in part responsible for the unprofessional, amateur-hour quality of much of postwar policy in Iraq: the subcontracting of many military functions to private security firms, the feast of blatantly corrupt contracts given out to favored business interests and the powerful civilian positions in Iraq given to well-connected ideologues, many barely out of college, who inhabit the Green Zone in their shades, flak jackets and holstered pearl handles, wielding more power than any one that age should command. "Capitalism with the brakes off," as the writer Budd Shulberg put it.
It goes without saying that all this would have been a source of great dismay to Williams. In the long term, he always envisioned and worked for an American socialism both democratic and decentralized, for he believed America's size and its democratic tradition made it plausible. In the near term, however, he would have mourned the demise in America of anything resembling European-style social capitalism—capitalism with a more human face that would set some limits on the flexibility of capital to exploit its workers, exploit its consumers, and exploit its environment and might lessen the structural dependence of American free enterprise on an economic frontier abroad.
Sixth, Williams would have seen the current stress on preemptive empire and military solutions as a manifestation not of American omnipotence, but of American decline. In his view, empires at their zenith tend to prefer imperialism on the cheap—informal empires that eschew formal colonies and protectorates and use their economic and ideological hegemony to exert their will. In the quarter-century after World War II such was largely the case with the United States. It exercised its hegemony primarily through multinational institutions like NATO and husbanded its massive military force chiefly as a weapon of last resort to defend that status quo, as it did in Korea and Vietnam.
Empires on the make and empires in decline, however, are not satisfied with the status quo and are more inclined to alter that status quo aggressively through force and formal protectorates (nation-building is the current euphemism). Such was the case with America's rise to world power in the early twentieth century when the nation put somewhat greater stress on the use of force and the creation of formal or semiformal empire as an adjunct to informal empire, conquering colonies in the Philippines and Puerto Rico and using Gunboat and Dollar Diplomacy to establish protectorates in the Caribbean basin. America was, after all, seeking to replace Great Britain as the dominant global power, while simultaneously fending off a parallel challenge from Germany. In Joseph Schumpeter's terms, the United States was engaged in a bit of creative destruction to alter the status quo to its advantage.
Similarly empires in decline are not satisfied with the status quo either and are inclined to change it by force and more formal means of control. Ironically, such was the case after America's apparent victory in the Cold War when it confronted a wave of centrifugal forces previously held in check by the Cold War—the forces of regionalism, nationalism, ethnocentrism, cultural traditionalism, religious militancy and anti-globalization. Moreover, the end of the Cold War also facilitated the emergence of two new power poles that were potential challengers to American dominance—a more integrated and more independent European Union and a more global and dynamic China. Hostile to this new global shape of things, the United States seeks to impose a new status quo more to its liking through preemptive wars and protectorate-building. Once more, a bit of creative destruction—the first time round to become the dominant power, the second time round to hang on to that status by any and all means possible.
Finally, Williams, if he was so inclined, might say "I told you so." The Cold War might end, but the American empire would not. After all, he always argued that the Cold War was, in part, just another chapter in that expansionist saga, and neither the first chapter nor the last. In all of them, the dynamics were the same—the same heady combination of economic lust and messianic exceptionalism. And in each of them, an external enemy was the essential prerequisite for making expansionism palatable and persuasive to American citizens and American allies—be that enemy an Indian nation or the Mexican Republic in North America or British hegemony in Latin America or the German threat in Europe or the global Soviet challenge. Williams would logically have concluded that the end of the Cold War would not change those dynamics of empire. The United States would still have the same drive for economic globalization and the same willingness to maintain a huge military budget (bigger than the rest of the G-8 countries combined). All that would be required was a new enemy. And the War on Terror provided it.
That is not to say that the war is a phony war, for that would clearly not be true. But it was nonetheless a convenient opportunity to push an agenda at home and abroad that would have been difficult if not impossible without it. Dean Acheson once said that the Korean War "came along and saved us"— that is, it permitted Harry Truman to sell an NSC-68 foreign policy that otherwise would have been unacceptable to the American people and American allies. The War on Terror did something similar, though it worked better with the American people than with American allies.
One final observation. Ironically, much of what Williams said about empire and expansion is now accepted in intellectual and even political circles. When he first expounded his ideas in the 1960s, they were viewed as nothing short of criminal and subversive. He attracted the attention of the FBI, the House Un-American Activities Committee and its Wisconsin assembly counterpart. Moreover, fellow members of the historical profession ridiculed, reviled and denounced him.
Now conservative political pundits and academics openly embrace the idea and the vocabulary of American Empire, as do some on the left who still find virtue in neo-Wilsonian interventionism. But Williams, I think, would have found no validation in that embrace. He would have had little use for these Niall Ferguson or Peter Beinart look-alikes and wannabes, these apologists for "good" empire—be it a rationalized version of British Empire past or a fantasized version of American Empire present and future. Indeed, he might well have observed that of all the so-called good empires, perhaps none was quite so good as the British Empire in North America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and yet the American Revolution dramatically demonstrated what Americans, at that point in time, thought of good empires.
This article was first published in Passport, the Newsletter of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) and is reprinted with permission.
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Jason Blake Keuter - 9/26/2007
Ferguson argues that America's liberal-democratic heritage makes it ineffective at playing the Imperial role always alloted to the most powerful regional powers throughout all of world history. He rightly poiints out that anti-Imperialism is a deep-seated American characteristic. The idea of a never ending series of American "elites" and Presidents all agreeing upon the virtues of Imperial Expansion testifies to a gross ignorance of American History on the part of the author of this post. There has not been a single expansion in American history that was not the object of major political controversy.
The simplistic, Imperialist thesis of American history simply doesn't hold weight for the duration of American history: it is glaringly and flagrantly wrong in the post World War II period - a period characterized primarily by Soviet and communist imperialism - a thing the new left never saw fit to oppose when they were contemplating Williams.
James Livingston - 9/24/2007
I read China Market, Thomas McCormick's first book, back in 1972, when Martin Sklar assigned it in the first American history class I ever took in college, in my senior year. It was a revelation—-it had a bigger impact on me than The Tragedy of American Diplomacy, a book that Carl Parrini recommended later that year, when I was a graduate student trying to figure out how to exit the field of Russian history.
And that's saying a lot. William Appleman Williams was a fetish object at Northern Illinois University, where I earned—-is that the right word?—-three degrees and got the best education available in the 1970s. Most of the courses I took as a graduate student there were unruly arguments about what to do with Williams.
He actually showed up to give a lecture in 1976, a huge event in DeKalb, Illinois. We all went back to Carl's house afterward, and Bill drank us under the table—-literally. One of us slept there under the coffee table. We were all writing or working for In These Times at that point in our lives, and we pressed him about the Civil War, Lincoln, the meaning of revolution (we all objected to his treatment of the South). You know the scene. He kept sipping bourbon, neat, while answering our increasingly incoherent questions and addressing our increasingly idiotic declamations.
Eight years later, Williams was a reader on my first (dissertation) book manuscript. His report was positive, but was deemed too short and too eccentric (Translation: "Livingston is starting important arguments, full speed ahead!"). The book was published, anyway, in 1986 (it is still, inexplicably, in print). And then in 1988, I somehow got a job at Rutgers, where Lloyd Gardner would be my colleague.
By that time, I felt that I had always been animated and accompanied by ideas Williams had posited but never bothered to flesh out (bless his heart, he was an essayist, like his nemesis, Richard Hofstadter). Now here I was in the company of a man who was present at the creation. It was surreal.
So Professor McCormick's impersonation of Williams is a real pleasure—another surreal moment in my ongoing, always productive but not altogether pleasant, encounter with a mind that tolerated no boundaries. Even so, I would like to offer three questions about this impersonation, which I will ask, analogously, as a ventriloquist who is channeling his own teachers, Parrini and Sklar.
First, is Empire such a uniform historical phenomenon as the later Williams, and as the retired McCormick, believe? Didn't the Open Door Policy enunciate an anti-colonial imperialism that made a huge difference in the conduct of international relations, and in the definition and defense of national sovereignty? Didn't Williams himself acknowledge this difference? If so, shouldn't we, as working historians, stop juxtaposing the Roman Empire and Cuba under the Platt Amendment and the Bush Doctrine as if they were equivalent political moments that need no interrogation and periodization?
That is, shouldn't we try on a hypothesis that acknowledges the discontinuities as well as the similarities in the articulation and the enactment of imperialism? It goes like this: the Bush Doctrine is a radical departure from the principles of 20th-century American US policy, which explicitly repudiated the notion of American exceptionalism and accordingly placed us on a historical continuum that linked us to all peoples and all countries.
Second, how did the post-imperialist imperative of the Open Door Policy get lost in translation? Professor McCormick writes as if foreign policy makers in the US have always wanted to preserve North America as the seat of empire, and as if Bush and Cheney are merely acting on an inherited tradition in thwarting China's rise to world power. But didn't the makers of 20th-century US foreign policy understand that their task was to design peaceful, multilateral modes of this inevitable transition? Didn't they know that the military restitution of imperial power was doomed—-that the seat of empire would eventually move? Isn't the Bush Doctrine a brutish denial of their insights?
Third, how does the concept of corporatism help the argument one way or another? Is it just another way of assigning causative significance to a ruling class? And is it even helpful in view of the powerful liberal tradition in American politics, which presupposes both the supremacy of society over the state and the priority of the individual as against the state--as against the statism of European corporatism, both left and right, which demoted individualism?
Again, what a pleasure to read McCormick impersonating Williams. Made me feel at home in a world pretty much gone mad.
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U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission
Delivery Giant Unlawfully Assigned Drivers to Assignments and Neighborhoods Based on Race, Federal Agency Charged
CHICAGO - The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today filed a race discrimination lawsuit against DHL Express, Inc. on behalf of a class of African-American employees who were given different job assignments because of their race. The EEOC received more than 20 charges of discrimination against DHL alleging that the shipping and delivery giant discriminated against black workers.
The EEOC's administrative investigation was conducted under the supervision of Chicago District Director John Rowe, who said that the EEOC's investigation found that DHL assigned black drivers to predominately black neighborhoods and white drivers to predominately white neighborhoods. "While this may not have been obvious to employees at first, over time, a pattern of segregation emerged," said Rowe.
The EEOC's administrative investigation also found that DHL assigned more difficult and dangerous work to black employees than white employees. Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC filed suit after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.
John Hendrickson, the EEOC's regional attorney in Chicago, added, "Any employer who gives different work assignments to employees simply because of the color of their skin, sends a message to all of its employees that it is by no means colorblind. The concept of 'separate but equal' has long since been rejected. It has absolutely no place on the job. Everyone should understand that federal law -- Title VII -- expressly forbids the segregation of employees. In this case, as with all of our other cases, the EEOC is looking to ensure that all employees can work in an environment free of discrimination."
The case, captioned EEOC v. DHL Express (USA), Inc., was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, on September 24, 2010 and has been designated Civil Action No. 10 C 6139. The government's litigation effort will be led by EEOC Trial Attorney Aaron DeCamp and Supervisory Trial Attorney Diane Smason.
DHL is part of Bonn, Germany-based Deutsche Post DHL, which, according to company information, generated revenue of more than $62 billion (currently about 46 billion Euros) in 2009, and calls itself "the global market leader in the logistics industry."
The EEOC's Chicago District Office is responsible for processing charges of discrimination, administrative enforcement, and the conduct of agency litigation in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and North and South Dakota, with area offices in Milwaukee and Minneapolis.
The EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about the EEOC is available on the agency's web site at www.eeoc.gov.


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Facts about Solyndra Bankruptcy Case
Solyndra Inc. is back in the news and is now a hot political issue in the presidential election, sharply dividing Democrats and Republicans on the issue of wasteful spending, energy policy and the direction of economic policy. To understand this political debate and its implications for US energy policy, it is important to know the basic facts about Solyndra's case.
Brief history of Solyndra Inc.
Solyndra Inc. was founded in Silicon Valley in 2004, producing specialized cylindrical solar panels for commercial rooftops. The company came up with an innovative technology of building solar panels without polysilicon. The idea behind this innovation was that due to exorbitant polysilicon prices, solar panels that were built without it would have a major advantage in the market. The other projected benefit of these solar panels was that they were supposed to be cheaper to install than their competitors.
Since the company seemed to have a promising future, in 2005 it was invited to apply for a government-guaranteed loan under the Energy Policy Act that was enacted that same year. This law was backed by bipartisan support under the the Bush administration and was designed to support innovative renewable energy technologies. In 2008, the Department of Energy started reviewing Solyndra's application and in March 2009, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced a $535 million conditional loan guarantee to Solyndra Inc. The loan was formally announced in September 2009, and was funded with stimulus money; the problem was that by that point Solyndra was already in deep financial trouble that eventually lead down the road to Solyndra's bankruptcy.
Why Solyndra went bankrupt
There were a number of factors that converged together causing Solyndra's collapse. The reality is that none of these factors could have been foreseen or prevented, given the nature of the company's product. The first factor was that in February of 2008 the price of polysilicon began to fall sharply, taking away Solyndra's solar panels' advantage in the market place.
The second factor was a dramatic collapse in the price of solar panels that took place in 2011 and can in large part be attributed to the fact the Chinese solar panel manufacturers started to squeeze out American solar panel manufacturers, like Solyndra, out of the market. The company's solar panels were relatively expensive from the start, but cheap solar panels from China made Solyndra's prices super uncompetitive, and the company did not have enough large commercial clients to create the necessary economies of scale.
Another contributing factor was that natural gas prices also fell during the same time period, which made investments into a comparatively more risky and expensive solar industry a lot less attractive. This in turn contributed to the fact that the firms' executives failed to raise required additional capital that would have kept the company afloat. Solyndra filed for bankruptcy in September of 2011, was forced to shut down its Fremont factory and fired around 1,100 workers.
Grounds for a Congressional investigation and subsequent scandal
A Republican Congressional committee has been investigating the loan allocated to Solyndra Inc. since 2010. Internal administration emails that have been released show the the White House was warned on numerous occasions and from numerous trusted sources in the venture capital world the Solyndra was in trouble and will likely go under. Despite these warnings, the administration pressed on with the loan and internal administration emails reveal that the Energy Department asked Solyndra to delay layoffs until after 2010 midterm elections.
In December 2010, the firm failed to make a payment on its federal loan, thereby violating its terms. Despite this, the administration continued to financially support the struggling company, keeping it afloat. In February 2011, the Department of Energy restructured Solyndra's loan, and found new investors, who gave the company an additional $75 million in financing. One of Solyndra's largest investors was a major Obama supporter and financial bundler, George Kaiser. To be sure, the company had a number of key Republican investors as well. These actions by the White House came to be considered as misguided management of funds, and Mitt Romney went as far as accusing President Obama of cronyism and handing out money to his friend's businesses.
Related Article: Solar metal roofing – roof-integrated thin-film PV panels


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Tuesday, April 17, 2012
A Brief History of Vampire Fiction
"The Vampyre," first published anonymously in 1819, was taken to be the work of the famous poet (and early 19th-century equivalent of a tabloid celebrity) Lord Byron, but turned out to be by Byron's personal physician (and devoted hanger-on), Dr. John Polidori.
Its plot nugget was by Byron, in an uncompleted story dashed off for that ghost-story competition Mary Shelley (then Mary Godwin) won with Frankenstein, but Polidori worked it up into something publishable which, nearly two centuries on, remains smart, tart and readable
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True Blood in Dallas: A Brief History of Vampire FictionTweet this! Posted by " Dallas " at 6:29 PM
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